Rights and Realities

Update: Shortly after this blog was written, Hungary did announce its intention to seal off its border with Croatia at midnight on Friday 16 October. Our researchers will be following developments closely to see if that is indeed what...

Crack open the champagne and hang up the bunting – the Human Rights Act is 15 years old today. Okay, maybe not the bunting, but it really is a moment to celebrate. The Human Rights Act has made it easier for every one of us to protect...

I’ve worked professionally in the field of arms trade regulation for the past 20 years and yesterday was a first for me. I was refused entry to this year’s DSEi Arms Fair in London's ExCel Centre , an event I've been to before to...

On Sunday, Justice Secretary Michael Gove said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “We cannot shut ourselves off from what happens globally.” But this is precisely what the government has been doing over the global refugee crisis. At...

Europe’s refugee ‘crisis’ continues to dominate headlines. This week, EU external border agency Frontex reported a record number of 107,500 people had arrived at Europe's borders irregularly – that is without permission and via...

Philip Hammond's recent remarks on the situation at Calais are reckless and they are shameful, but sadly they're also all too familiar. Once again, a senior minister is cranking up the rhetoric and stoking up anxiety, careless - or...

The situation at Calais is far from new. Calais has long been a place to which refugees and other migrants have come in the hope of getting to the UK. In 2002, it was mostly Iraqis and Afghans. Now there appears to be a wider range of...

Prosecutors, the police and the Environment Agency have essentially told us that they can’t be bothered to investigate a UK company’s role in the dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast which left up to 100,000 people with skin...

This week, Amnesty supporters and thousands of people across the UK are celebrating Refugee Week , recognising the contribution to our country made by refugees – not only the more well-known faces – but also the many friends...

On 20 May, the European Parliament took us all by surprise by voting in favour of a strong and binding law to tackle the deadly trade in conflict minerals. The trade in resources – such as gold, diamonds, tantalum, tin and coal...

Last year, Italy ended Operation Mare Nostrum – its search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean. This was a proactive and effective mission in international waters seeking out boats in distress and rescuing tens of thousands of...

When The Economist features an article titled Modern Slavery: Everywhere in supply chains , we can be sure that the issue of slavery is on the radar of many corporations, not merely for ethical reasons but as a potential reputational...

After decades of blaming anyone else for the ecological disaster in the Niger Delta, Shell has been forced to point the finger at itself. Why else would the company make an out-of-court settlement of £55m and admit to telling lies...

Today marks 30 years since the worst case of corporate negligence in living memory. It’s a day to commemorate, but more fundamentally to draw attention to the need for justice in what is a continuing present day human rights travesty...

Just how long will the UK Government take to decide on whether or not the UK should be arming Israel? We know that Ministers have been reviewing arms licences for many days, and still they ponder. With 1,814 Palestinians killed and...

It is three years since the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) published the findings of a ground-breaking scientific study into the appalling impacts of oil pollution in the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta. It found...

Are there any principles that the UK government is willing to stand up for in the face of business lobbying? Apparently not, if documents released through a Freedom of Information request are anything to go by. These show, in detail...

It doesn’t seem like a year ago that I was sitting quietly in the balcony overlooking the main UN General Assembly chamber in New York, nervously awaiting the landmark vote to adopt the arms trade treaty. I say quietly because we’d...

When two Secretaries of State – Hague and Cable - combine to launch a government plan for UK businesses to respect human rights , it’s safe to assume they consider it a Big Thing. But how much does the government really care what UK...

Indigenous people in Orissa, India, have blocked plans by UK-based Vedanta resources to open a mine in their sacred Nyamgiri Hills. Peter Frankental, our Business and Human Rights campaigner, reflects When in 2008 we began drawing...