GuestBloggers

Asking someone to make a choice between rights is abhorrent. Yet, the harsh reality is that certain transgender people are forced to make such decisions if they wish to achieve legal recognition of their own sense of gender identity...

The human rights concerns I explore in ‘ Red Leaves ’ are ones that have always troubled me, but it seemed that NOW more than ever it was the time to tell a story for young people about the universal human right to have a home; a safe...

Once told to 'go back to where she came from' (she was born in Clapham), children's laureate Malorie Blackman is now famous for her books on race and identity. Here Malorie reveals the books that shaped her and why YA fiction has a lot...

Nearly three months have passed since the latest conflict came to an end, but the piles of rubble and empty shells of family homes in Gaza serve as painful reminders of the death and destruction that resulted from Israel’s latest...

Since the first cases of Ebola were reported in March, life in Sierra Leone has changed beyond recognition. So far, the World Health Organization has confirmed more than 5,200 Ebola cases in Sierra Leone alone and more than 13,700...

Unlike nearby villages recently captured by the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government from the armed group calling itself Islamic State, not a single villager has returned to Barzanke. As I go from house to house, it...

'It’s not Europe. It’s a bit different… it’s a war here'. This is what a commander of the Aidar volunteer battalion told Amnesty earlier this year . War, or any full blown armed conflict as Ukraine is experiencing despite the recent...

When I was growing up, I was told that abortion was illegal. In school, you were taught about abortion from a religious perspective – that abortion is wrong. At first, I believed this. But I’ve had friends who got pregnant after they...

The Department of Justice in Northern Ireland has opened the public consultation on three specific changes to Northern Ireland’s abortion. Northern Ireland’s legislation in this area is very restricted with compared with the rest of...

War photographers must be wired differently to the rest of us. They feel fear, yet they seem to suppress the instinct to do anything about it. They are calm in the middle of a disrupted and dangerous reality. Paul Conroy opened the...

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...

Barely three months ago I was interviewed by The Independent on the relevance of pride marches, and in particular, London pride . My answer then was that "we march for those who can't. Our platform helps people see the other side...

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...

In January 2013, filmmaker Laura Poitras was several years into the making of a film about abuses of national security in post-9/11 America. She started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as ‘citizen four’...

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...

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...

In May horrific floods plagued Serbia. At least 57 people died and more than 30,000 people were evacuated from their homes. At the same time, Belgrade Pride was due to take place and the organisers’ decision to postpone the celebration...

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...