Global Voices

I wouldn’t say I am an organiser of the demonstrations – there is no one organiser here. But young people and students have definitely been the primary initiators. I fell into this role quite unexpectedly. I first ran for the post of...

Syrian doctor Hasan Wahid survived a shipwreck in the Mediterranean on 11 October 2013 - the second of two shipwrecks near Lampedusa where over 500 people drowned. He told us his family's story of the impossible choices – and terrible...

The streets of Hong Kong are hard to recognize these days. The exhilarating energy filling the city’s main roads, crowded with hopeful protesters, is something I have not seen since I was a young student back in 1989, when we took to...

With momentum building over the US and its international partners carrying out airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria as well Iraq, almost nothing has been said about what this might mean in terms of population flows and new...

The next few months will determine whether Chinwe’s life is changed forever. Accused of murder by a corrupt and brutal police force, he faces spending his remaining years behind bars. He is at risk of being convicted by a Nigerian...

As the UN General Assembly begins its meeting today in New York City, Amnesty International is delivering 187,563 signatures to the White House in a global call to cut off weapons fuelling abuses in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian...

My name is Claudia Medina. Two years ago, in the middle of the night, marines entered my home in Veracruz, Mexico. They didn’t show me a court order, but blindfolded me and took me away. For 36 long hours they kept me in solitary at a...

To the mother of James Foley, I want to express my sincerest condolences for the loss of your son, James Foley. It was with shock and sorrow to know what had happened to him by those vicious killers. My thoughts are with you and your...

After a harrowing escape, first from their hometown of Qahtanya and then from Sinjar Mountain – where they were stuck for eight days with very little food or water – Suleiman Shaibo Sido, his wife and their eight children, all members...

On Saturday I listened while survivors of the Gatumba massacre recounted the horrors they witnessed on the night of August 13th 2004, when more than 160 Congolese Banyamulenge Tutsis were hunted down and killed at a refugee camp in...

My brother and I are experiencing the current Israel-Gaza conflict quite differently. He is 20, serving out his military service and has been fighting in Gaza. I, on the other hand, am the Executive Director of Amnesty International...

Last Monday and Tuesday were the scariest days and nights since the current conflict began. The violence finally reached the area where I live. The area where I, my children and neighbours, had thought it was safe. After I finished my...

Across the city of Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) hang billboards and banners showing images of bloodshed and destruction alongside the words: “Here now, we are all Gaza”. Many of these posters, which I also saw...

This morning as I brushed my teeth I could hear the familiar buzzing of a drone circling above our building. I ignored the sound. Drones circle overhead all the time; you never know whether it’s just for surveillance or an impending...

14 years ago I took a call I never expected to get. I was at work, in a graduate IT job I’d drifted into after university. It was half past five. I was getting ready to go home when my phone rang. It was my Mum. She told me that my...

I’ve just spoken to a human rights activist working in Gambia. Just publishing his name would be enough to get him arrested. His powerful testimony shows why we urgently need to act to stop the intimidation of people working to uphold...

Have you got a minute? Or 67 minutes to be precise? Put them to good use because today is a special day. It is Nelson Mandela International Day, now in the official UN calendar. It marks his birthday – and makes a call to action to...

As South Sudan marks its third birthday as an independent state, Amnesty is here on 'mission', documenting human rights abuses committed by government and opposition forces in a growing conflict. I want to share an uplifting "Amnesty...

'I’ve got a trained eye… he is not just a photographer' Paranoia, fear of free speech and the ‘trained eye’ of the authorities are ensuring that public space in Russia is shrinking. This is how public protest works in Russia now. This...

‘We’re sending a message of hope’ Junior Mayema was explaining to me why he’d taken the bold step of appearing in From the Same Soil , a new film that beautifully documents the experiences of three refugees in Cape Town. All three fled...