Patrick Corrigan

The rest of the world's leaders may have been (conveniently) scared off by the presence of controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but it takes more than a fiery speech to keep a Belfast teacher at bay. Especially when...

A Problem from Hell – America and the Age of Genocide , Samantha Power (Paperback, 656 pages, Flamingo, rrp £10.99, available £7.69) Genocide is back in the news. Who would have thought ? There are allegations of genocide on Tamils...

Our friends over at Human Rights Now , the Amnesty USA blog, are reporting a worrying resort by President Obama to the unaccountable, limitless Executive power so beloved by his predecessor in the White House. "Last Friday, the Obama...

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about an approaching SDLP seminar on the oversight of policing in times of threat. With the events in London of recent days – rough-house public policing , followed by attempts to obfuscate ; blundered...

1. Student accommodation has not improved one iota since I were a lad. 2. AIUK Chairperson Tom Hedley's official Amnesty age is twenty-nine-and-a-half. He must have started young. 3. I too am getting older. Last night, as I was bed...

David Petrasek is the special advisor to AI Secretary General Irene Khan and co-author, with Irene, of the book Unheard Truths – human rights and poverty (to be published later in 2009). 11:35am Petrasek delivers a thoughtful speech...

8:46am It may be Sunday morning after the Saturday night before, but there's a big crowd in the auditorium for the continuation of the great democratic process. AIUK's national conference isn't like a party political affair when the...

This session is chaired by James Savage, manager of AIUK's programme for individuals at risk , and presents an opportunity to hear directly from and to speak to some of those overseas human rights defenders on whose behalf and with...

5:30pm We are about to get serious – serious topics, serious votes. I'm already feeling seriously grumpy. I picked a 200/1 outsider for the Grand National in the Amnesty sweepstake. Then I missed the race (too busy protesting against...

5:00pm After the preparatory debates in the working parties of earlier today, the conference now moves on to take resolutions in plenary session and to either endorse or discard the proposals. First up for debate are two fairly non...

2:20pm Given the enormity of my cooked breakfast this morning, I really didn't need the pasta, chips, salad, carrot cake and two cups of coffee that constituted my lunch. But hey, a campaigner has to eat and at least it helped fuel my...

11:15am The four working parties are the fora where much of the substantive debate and discussion about each of the proposed resolutions takes place. It's where the key arguments for and against are put, where amendments (friendly or...

10:03am Glyn Isherwood, AIUK's treasurer, comes to the podium to lead us through our annual examination of the numbers. With economics dominating the world's headlines, backs are a little straighter and eyes a little less glazed-over...

9:10am Kate Allen, AIUK director takes the stage. She casts her mind back to 1999, one of the last times we gathered in Swansea. Amnesty's campaign for former-General Pinochet of Chile to be brought to justice; the refugee flows out of...

8:40am A powerful Amnesty video opposing torture is screened. A shocked set of delegates eventually remembers to applaud. Hell of a start to Saturday morning. AIUK Chair Tom Hedley welcomes delegates to the Taliesin theatre for the...

Amnesty's annual exercise in democracy is about to get underway. Yes, it's Grand National weekend and I find myself on a far-flung, redbrick university campus. It must be time for AIUK's National Conference and AGM. This year, 450...

BREAKING NEWS: Prof William Schabas, head of the Irish Human Rights Centre at NUI Galway and an authority on international justice, is reporting that, through a confidential source in the Registry of the International Criminal Court...

Gathering intelligence – the story so far Final session of the SDLP seminar on 'Policing and its oversight at times of threat', held Belfast, March 28 2009. Report continued from: 'Is this the start of our troubles?' Brian Rowan is a...

(continued from 'How do we respond to a time of threat? Lawfully.' ) Dame Nuala O'Loan is a solicitor and former law lecturer and was Northern Ireland's first Police Ombudsman from 1999 to 2007. She is the Irish government's special...

Policing and oversight at times of threat – how to respond (report continued from: Omagh: 'You can kill 31 people and get away with it' ) Chaired by Margaret Ritchie MLA, this was the second of three sessions presented at the SDLP...