Neil Durkin

Writing this only metres from the historical site of the theatre where the first Shakespeare plays were performed ( really! ) I think I can be forgiven for bastardising the Bard. Because today the question in this post is: “to inquire...

Working at Amnesty you’re supposed to be kind of unshockable . But you know what … it ain’t so! For example … I got to my desk this morning and took a call even before I’d sat down properly. It wasn’t good news . In fact it was...

Stealing an idea from the BBC’s Justin Webb , today I’m doing exactly 100 words on Obama’s first 100 days! So here’s my (super-brief!) evaluation. Good things: promising Guantánamo's termination within a year, announcing the closure of...

President Obama has his foot firmly on the brake. In fact, he's already been footling around with the reverse gear. Famously fast out of the traps with his second-day-in-office “executive orders” against torture and Guantánamo Bay...

So there you are – facing Chris Tarrant, you’re one correct answer off the big one (a cool million) and you don’t know the answer to the question. You know what you’re going to do, don’t you? Yes – phone a friend. Instead, try this one...

I've blogged before about “honour killings” in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq – the area seems blighted by them. And, as blog readers will recall, it was a Kurdish family living in London who in 2006 killed Banaz Mahmod, the 20...

So, why are our troops in Afghanistan if they’re helping to defend a government like this one? … was the question in a couple of interviews I’ve done since I last blogged on Friday. Bearing in mind that interviewers were referring to...

It’s an echo of that (even grimmer, horribly grotesque in fact) mobile phone footage of another teenage girl being punished, filmed and then broadcast around the world as a “warning” and an “example”. A couple of years ago a teenager...

A reflection: many years ago, back in my early days at Amnesty (a very long time ago, actually) there was a leaflet which asked people to think about everyday household items and how they can be used for non-conventional means. Well...

…. said reporter Andy Davies on Channel 4 News, last night. Why? Because, he reckons, the Binyam Mohamed investigation will put to the test the intelligence service’s commitment to the rule of law. “This is a very important moment for...

IMHO, there are four funny moments in Monty Python’s “Life Of Brian”. Namely – the famous “What have the Romans ever done for us?” scene (though it’s not as funny as you probably remember!), Brian’s mother (the excellent Terry Jones)...

To me it’s one of those annoying – almost childish – examples of political bluster beloved by political leaders the world over – we’re the best, that’s it. Best army, best legal system, best food, best climate. Best, superior...

Back in 1977 when the punk band The Adverts did their snotty (and excellent) “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” they were obviously going for a bit of (then very vogue-ish) post-Ramones/Sex Pistols shock value. Strangely enough, thinking about what...

It was going to get better when they invaded Iraq – and in one way, for a while, it did. Say what you like about the US-led invasion of Iraq (and it certainly wreaked havoc in many, many ways), but at least the Coalition Provisional...

Well, he hasn’t exactly got Max Clifford working for him, but after his big Mail On Sunday interview at the weekend we’ve now got his first broadcast interview today: Binyam on the BBC. Several other big human rights cases I’ve worked...

It’s almost a blast from the past with the Independent front-paging a powerful human rights story – but this one certainly deserves to be highlighted. Perwiz Kambakhsh, the 23-year-old student journalist from Afghanistan who was...

It’s interesting that saying somebody’s behaviour is “unhelpful” amounts to hard-hitting condemnation in some people’s books. (Stop stabbing me, that’s unhelpful …). But, in the highly charged atmosphere of the Israel-Palestine...

The government should be squirming. Except, somehow it’s not. Strange. We’ve got a man alleging that Britain’s finest Daniel Craig wannabies were there in his Karachi jail back in 2002 issuing not-so-veiled threats about “cooperating”...

There’s a scene in the Emir Kusturica film Underground that has really stayed with me. It pictures Belgrade zoo being bombed during the Second World War, with animals in their cages panicking and howling. A young zoo-keeper with...

I was going to post earlier … but got waylaid doing media work responding to news that Binyam Mohamed is finally getting out of Guantánamo. Good news though. Meanwhile, what to make of the acquittals in Anna Politkovskaya case? It’s...