Belfast and Beyond

Human rights can be a serious business. Dealing with torture, wrongful imprisonment, war, extreme poverty and the rest mean that we at Amnesty are pretty serious people much of the time. That's as it should be. But we also love nothing...

Brilliant Belfast writer Glenn Patterson (long-time host of the irregular literary fundraisers organised by the Belfast AI Group) will be taking part in the Amnesty International event 'Human Rights, Poetic Redress ' at the Belfast...

Some detailed leaks in the News Letter this morning about the supposed likely recommendations of the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland. As I have blogged before , their report isn't now due for...

Hunger , the film about the 1981 Irish republican hunger strike in Northern Ireland's Maze prison, has just had its official European premiere in Belfast, to a predictably controversial reception . Playwright Gary Mitchell ( about whom...

Mary Robinson delivers the tenth Amnesty International Annual Lecture in Belfast at the start of the Belfast Festival at Queen's. Short filmed report courtesy of Irish News TV (click to view).

The idea today had been for me to do a live blogging of Mary Robinson's presentation at this year's Queen's Annual Amnesty International Lecture. Alas due to low wireless reception this was not to be. So what I did instead was log...

Award-winning Limerick-born writer Kevin Barry will be taking part in the Amnesty International event 'Human Rights, Poetic Redress ' at the Belfast Festival at Queen's next Thursday (23rd October) at 6:30pm in The Baby Grand. He will...

I have now had a chance to consult Hansard for yesterday's Lords' vote on the '42 days' counter-terrorism proposals and am happy to report that our noble peers from Northern Ireland voted an overwhelming 8 – 2 against the government...

Disgraceful speech from the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith this evening, as she dropped proposals for 42 days detention without charge, yet announced a new piece of counter-terrorism legislation to contain similar proposals in response to...

Well done to the 309 peers who stood up and were counted this evening in defence of UK civil liberties by soundly defeating the government 's plans to extend the limit on pre-charge detention of terror suspects to 42 days. Amnesty was...

The United Nations General Assembly had designated the year 1968 as the International Year of Human Rights . To many on the streets of Derry/Londonderry in 1968, the designation seemed ironic. Derry Housing Action Committee took care...

I've spent the last few hours reading about torture and genocide and it's time to elevate the mind to finer things before bed. It's National Poetry Day , so I have chosen my favourite human rights poem and reproduced it below for our...

US Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama has backed calls for a Northern Ireland truth process and for an independent public inquiry into the murder of lawyer Pat Finucane , according to lobby group the Irish-American Unity...

Good to see that our colleagues south of the border have launched a letter-writing campaign targeting Barack Obama and John McCain – one of whom will be the new US President in January 2009 – on the issue of extraordinary rendition...

The number of rapes being reported in Northern Ireland has increased by 50% in the past six years, according to official figures. More than 450 rapes or attempted rapes were reported last year – more than one every day. Only 3% of...

The appointment of Phil Woolas as the new Minister for Immigration is not good news for anyone dreaming of, or trying to hold on to, an anti-racist society that welcomes newcomers. One blog noted earlier this year, when Woolas was...

Belfast playwright Gary Mitchell is the latest writer to contribute to the Irish Times / Amnesty International series marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His hard-hitting piece of original fiction...

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has recognised the realities of migrants' lives in his call for migration not to be criminalised. Thomas Hammerberg says : “…many migrants cannot claim refugee status, even if their...

Or more precisely, who's responsible for the surprisingly athletic appearance of McGarry, host of the BBC's The Blame Game, in this pose take to publicise the Belfast live screening of the Secret Policeman's Ball ( 'when?', 'where?'...

Amnesty's survey of student attitudes on violence against women in Northern Ireland has set off a welcome media and blog debate about the Neanderthal views held by so many here towards women. The interest has been so great and I have...