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Mar 13 2009 12:40PM
Binyam on the BBC: publicity and betrayal

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...

Mar 12 2009 5:07PM
Trial and error: the case of Perwiz Kambakhsh

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...

Mar 11 2009 3:28PM
Marnie Pearce - a mother's pain laid bare

It’s not often that we get to link to the Sun but today they carry a harrowing video of Marnie Pearce, a British woman jailed in Dubai for adultery, handing over her children to her estranged husband, perhaps for ever. She denies the...

Mar 10 2009 4:49PM
Tibet 50 years on: will China face more uprisings?

It’s fifty years today since a failed uprising in Tibet led to widespread repression and the Dalai Lama fleeing the country to India. Protests have continued throughout the year, with the Chinese authorities on high alert for a repeat...

Mar 9 2009 4:26PM
Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Great news coming out from the Government this morning. For years we’ve been calling for a new integrated strategy to tackle violence against women – and now it appears it could well happen. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has...

Mar 6 2009 11:58AM
Hidden fact. One in 10 women face violence every year

This Sunday marks International Women’s Day. I know 8 March isn’t a date which many mark off on their calendar, and I doubt Clinton Cards will be selling cards celebrating Women’s Day. But this anniversary definitely deserves greater...

Mar 5 2009 4:16PM
When unhelpful is the strongest word

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...

Mar 4 2009 3:15PM
No-ones above the law.  Not even you, Mr President.

Momentous news from The International Criminal Court today. For the first time a sitting head of state has been issued with an international arrest warrant . But how long it will take before the President of Sudan is arrested is quite...

Mar 3 2009 2:25PM
12 women burned to death every hour in India

Yule E’s blog yesterday flagged up the shocking story of the Afghani equivalent of Angelina Jolie being forced into hiding because of the Taleban’s increasing dominance in the region, and the shocking story of girls in Mauritania being...

Mar 2 2009 5:10PM
It's not really about heavy luggage, Rev.

I was reminded this morning by Rev. Joel Edwards on the Today programme’s Thought for the Day that this week marks the run up to International Women's Day which is on Sunday 8 March. It was interesting listening to Rev. Edward’s...

Feb 27 2009 3:04PM
Marnie Pearce,'Dubai Brit' adultery case: rights of the children must be protected

You may have read some of the press reports about Marnie Pearce , a British woman living in Dubai who has been convicted – falsely, she claims – of adultery. She has just started serving a three-month jail sentence . Her conviction...

Feb 26 2009 3:16PM
Kenya police's 'death squads' exposed

There are particularly concerning reports emerging today of the Kenyan army being accused of torture and murder of civilians. The UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions’s report also revealed that Kenyan police chief has...

Feb 25 2009 6:22PM
score one for international justice

I had started off the day intending to flag up the humanitarian appeal launched by Archbishops of Canterbury and York for Zimbabwe. But news coming through this afternoon about three Sierra Leone rebel commanders who were found guilty...

Feb 24 2009 12:03PM
The return of Binyam. This is going to hurt. A lot

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”...

Feb 23 2009 2:27PM
Killed in their cages: Palestinian civilians and Israeli weapons

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...

Feb 20 2009 6:30PM
The Politkovskaya case: not Russian to conclusions

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...

Feb 19 2009 9:25PM
Hate is all the rage

Here’s one for you – what do a high-minded international literary festival and the shrieking members of a tiny religious cult have in common? Answer – homophobia! While the people, language and general manner of each could not be more...

Feb 18 2009 2:55PM
The Man From Amnesty, He Says No

The reaction of our campaigns director, when I told him that the Abu Qatada deportation case was back in the news today, was priceless: “Oh God”. He was no doubt recalling one of his first live TV interviews, a head-to-head with...

Feb 17 2009 1:04PM
The times they arent a changin

Dame Stella Rimington, former head of MI5, has spoken out in a Spanish newspaper ( syndicated to the Telegraph ) about her worries that the government is exploiting fears of terrorism to expand its powers and undermine civil liberties...

Feb 16 2009 6:03PM
Lets dispense justice like its 1999

News that the Pakistani government is likely to allow the authorities in the Swat valley area of Pakistan to set up shari’a courts ought to give us pause. It’s not that the imposition of shari’a law will automatically mean that human...

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