I figure before I do any “proper” blog posts I should say a little about the campaign I manage here - Crisis & Transition in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA). It’s fair to say it is an ambitious, labyrinthine and long term...

Guest post by Kristine Garina , Chairperson of Latvian LGBT rights organisation Mozaika and founder of Baltic Pride In six years of LGBT activism in Riga, Latvia, I’ve never felt stronger about the importance of Baltic Pride than now...

Uniting for an Arms Trade Treaty - because of your emails and letters MPs around the UK are writing to David Cameron urging him to publically support for a robust arms trade treaty that protects human rights and saves lives. In May we...

“I could no longer live there because our income was destroyed” – Pastor Christian Imagine an oil spill and what comes to mind? Photos of seabirds washed up on tarred shores? Newsreels of people in biohazard suits on emergency clean-up...

As I write this the dedicated human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is lying, close to unconscious, in Bahrain’s Military Hospital. Unless the Bahrain authorities act quickly it is highly likely that he will die there. His journey...

“Left home at the age of seven / one year later I’m carryin’ an AK-47.” Add your name to our petition for arms regulation I was lucky enough to first meet Emmanuel Jal about 7 years ago when I was working with Amnesty’s student groups...

In a week that marked a year of protests in Syria we issued a report highlighting the use of torture in detention in the country. We also continue to call on the Russian authorities to help stop the bloodshed . In posting both on...

All week we’ve been at a meeting of governments preparing to draw up the first ever international treaty to control the trade in arms. In July they meet for the last time to finally determine the content of the Treaty. Interested in...

Breaking news 5.45pm 16 February The UK has firmly committed to robust and effective Arms Trade Treaty covering all convention weapons, including small arms and ammunition. They also said that the Treaty must reflect values such as...

This week we're at the UN in New York with government representatives from around the world as they meet for the last time before returning in July to thrash out the details of the first ever treaty aimed at controlling the deadly arms...

Update, 15 Feb Great work … Following your tweets and Facebook messages we have seen four positive interventions from the UK government at the Arms Trade Treaty Prep Comm so far. So the pressure from all of you on the UK government to...

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill , which is currently passing through Parliament, could deny justice to vulnerable people affected by human rights abuses committed by UK companies overseas. For instance, those...

Here’s a guest post from our Education and Student team, who’ve been following the Eastlea School youth group for our new film encouraging more young people to get involved with our work. They went to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office...

So last week was a good week to start working at Amnesty, and witness the power of cumulative direct action to invoke a change that will have positive and far-reaching international repercussions. On 1 September, Amnesty welcomed the...

Verity Coyle, our lead campaigner for cluster munitions, and Thomas Nash from Article 36 held a live Q&A with our Facebook fans on 24th August. Here’s a full transcript of the questions and answers. You can join our cluster bombs...

WEEK TWO UPDATE: Some of you may have received an email from RBS in response to our campaign to call on UK banks to cease all investment in any company involved in the production of cluster bombs. We are just checking the details and...

Since yesterday more than 7,000 of you have emailed the Chief Executive of RBS, Stephen Hester and they are having a very hard time ignoring our calls. That is why they have sent some of you responses to your emails. If you have had a...

UPDATE: Thank you for such a quick response to our action – you sent over 120 messages, most of them within an hour of our action launching! It might not sound a lot, but imagine all of those arriving in your ‘mention’ list… The...

Help stop the bloodshed: sign our petition now When army tanks recently rolled into the city of Dera’a in southern Syria and began shelling residential areas , the human rights crisis in the country reached a new low. More than 511...

As protests, uprisings, crackdowns and armed attacks continue across the Middle East and North Africa, we bring you up to date on events from a human rights perspective. Libya As the conflict in Libya rages on between Colonel al...