top hat

Tonight is Stand Up For Freedom night, our biggest comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival, the largest arts festival in the world, in a fairly huge venue– and we’re nearly there, we’re sort of crouching for freedom at the moment. It...

So, Iran has urged restraint in the policing of the London riots. The jokers. I am surprised they haven't sent an envoy to Amnesty’s Stand up for Freedom gig at The Edinbburgh Festival. And in reply , the UK gov has said to them we...

Another stifling midsummer day and another story about Brits abroad. Getting caned. Though this time, this is not a classic binge-drinking Britain story, but a caning of another sort. British businessman Austin Cowburn from Manchester...

Watch all about it! Tis the eve of Amnesty TV Episode One- the one where it all began- and the hysterical tension is mounting across the UK. Amnesty TV will be a fortnightly, 15-minute, online, magazine-style show that will blend...

It is one of those Catch 22 paradoxes that human rights observers face; the worse a country is, the less you are likely to know about it. The drip feed of information from within North Korea, gives just a terrifying glimpse into the...

It is not often that people feel sorry for lawyers. But a new Amnesty report , made public today, details the concerted campaign in China to break the law; to suppress, intimidate and persecute lawyers who take up human rights cases...

So hes out. With uncharacteristically few words, Ai Weiwei addressed the waiting hordes of journalists, saying simply Im out, Im happy. And then Im on bail, please understand. Thinly-veiled code for the conditions of his release that...

This Sunday, is Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday. She will be 66. I wonder how she will choose to spend it. Having spent 15 of her last 20 years under house arrest in Rangoon, one might imagine this would be a time for celebration. This...

There has been a lot of debate recently about what is appropriate, what is gratuitous, what is deliberately alarming and what is necessary for broadcast. From films which were deemed too graphic and disturbing to screen, to the...

COMPETITIVE SALARY, MUST BE AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE START, EXPERIENCE NECESSARY It’s rare that the executioner is the one on the wanted list , but in India this week there is a hunt on. The perversity of advertising such a post, really...

Amnesty International, the world’s largest human rights organisation, is celebrating 50 years of work tomorrow- the 28 May 2011 . As if you didn’t know. Surely you must have clocked this wonderful, harrowing piece on the BBC about...

A new Amnesty report is out today “J amaica: A long road to justice? – Human Rights violations under the state of emergency to mark the one year anniversary of the sensational stand off between armed residents of Tivoli Gardens in...

I have spent most of the day loitering outside the Iranian embassy. It is not illegal but it is frowned upon. From a great height, through an open window, by burly looking security officials. I was there with 20 school children from...

Good, better, best never let them rest, until the good is better, and the better is best.This chant was always a favourite for me and my sisters when we were little- not just because it is delightfully, if simplistically, phonetically...

Channel 4 might have jumped ship on that format, but here at Amnesty, we are still very into it. Today we released a new round of satellite images , which reveal the alarming rate at which secret prison camps in North Korea are...

Today was a day of publishing the previously unpublished. Andrew Marr elected to come out and reveal his identity as one of the unproud owners of a super injunction, and declared his intention to abandon any further attempts at gagging...

I saw a film this week. It was a tragedy (you’re not the only one who can spoil the endings Niluccio ) and has haunted me since. It was a film about a father. A father who used to play his son at tennis. A father who has got a mantle...

Today China hit back at the tidal wave of international criticism it received following the arrest just over a week ago, of artist Ai Weiwei. The Guardian reports today that the Chinese authorities have produced their own human rights...

I once made the mistake of asking my dad if the garden was “finished”, yet. It turns out a garden is never finished. It’s a constant process of staying vigilant, planning your moves and slogging away. Similarly, fifty years on, it...

Is sport imitating life, or life imitating sport? How much did you pay for your ticket? And, perhaps the most important question of all, who’s going to win? As Asia’s goliaths of cricket square up on the pitch, the recent animosity and...