World

GENEVA September 24, 2019 – UN human rights experts* have called upon China to immediately end harassment and surveillance of prominent human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong. Mr. Jiang was initially forcibly disappeared for a period and then sentenced in November 2017 to two years in prison for inciting subversion of State power. He was released […]

September 23, 2019 – People living in the poorest countries receive around $3 per year – less than one cent per day – to protect themselves from the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, Oxfam estimates in a new report today ahead of the Climate Action Summit in New York. The report highlights how people in Mozambique […]

New York, NY, September 23, 2019 – A new report from the International Rescue Committee indicates that the world’s refugee population is absent from the Sustainable Development Goals, despite having increased more than 20% since the SDGs were adopted in 2015. The report also reveals that: Less than one-third of country SDG progress reports mention refugees […]

September 20, 2019 – Costa Rica has received a 2019 Champions of the Earth award, the UN’s highest environmental honour, for its role in the protection of nature and its commitment to ambitious policies to combat climate change. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recognized Costa Rica in the policy leadership category. A world leader […]

Sept. 19, 2019 Responding to the reported killing of numerous farmers in a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan, on the same day that 20 civilians were reportedly killed in a suicide bomb attack on a hospital, Amnesty International USA’s Security with Human Rights Director Daphne Eviatar said: “On yet another deadly day in Afghanistan, once again it […]

São Paulo, September 17, 2019 –  Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by criminal networks that use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, and the government is failing to protect both the defenders and the rainforest itself, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 165-page report, […]

LONDON, September 15, 2019 − By land and sea, some of the planet’s hot spots are already above the temperature agreed by scientists and politicians as the maximum allowable to prevent a disastrous climate crisis. The limit was accepted by 195 governments in the Paris Agreement, reached in 2015: it committed them to preventing the […]

NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2019 – The United Nations Secretary-General’s newly-formed Board of Inquiry (BOI) to investigate attacks on UN-supported facilities in northwest Syria will not provide an adequate degree of desperately needed protection for civilians in that area, according to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which has rigorously researched and documented attacks on Syria’s […]

New York, September 16, 2019 – Indian authorities should immediately release detained Kashmiris who have not been charged with a recognizable offense, Human Rights Watch said today. Several thousand Kashmiris, including politicians and opposition activists, have been held in preventive detention since August 5, 2019, when the Indian Parliament voted to alter the autonomous constitutional […]

Sept. 11, 2019 – Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Kumi Naidoo, has written a personal plea to more than 30,000 schools around the world today urging them to allow children to take part in the unprecedented wave of global climate strikes planned for 20 and 27 September. In a letter sent to school-heads and school-boards by […]

Sept. 11, 2019 – Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 calls for ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. The environmental challenges posed by agriculture are however massive, and many fear that they will only become more pressing as we try to meet the growing need for food worldwide. IIASA researchers […]

OAKLAND, CA, Sept. 10, 2019 – Following dozens of demonstrations across five continents advocating for the protection and preservation of the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous peoples, Amazon Watch today released a video with highlights from the Global Day of Action for the Amazon that took place on September 5th, and launched a challenge to the […]

Taipei, September 9, 2019 – Hong Kong police must cease their unprovoked use of tear gas and pepper spray against journalists covering protests in the city, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 7, police pepper-sprayed a group of journalists who were filming the arrests of protesters in the Mong Kok area, according […]

Sept. 9, 2019 – The on-going uncertainty around Brexit poses serious human rights issues, Amnesty International said today. While Amnesty does not take a position on the Referendum result or whether the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal, the human rights organization has pinpointed serious human rights issues. These include a potential […]

September 9, 2019 – In an open letter published today, Amnesty International called on the government of President Evo Morales to suspend the July decree that authorized “controlled burns” to extend the agricultural frontier, until it is certain that the decree has not contributed to the forest fires that are causing an environmental and human […]

Paris, September 5, 2019 – Unaccompanied children arriving in France’s Alpine region undergo flawed age assessment procedures that deny many access to needed protection, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 80-page report, “Subject to Whim: The Treatment of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in the French Hautes-Alpes,” found that examiners whose job is […]

Washington, DC, Sept. 4, 2019 – Last month, the Board and management of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced it would not approve an investigation of the Bank’s role in financing the construction of the controversial Ituango Hydroelectric Project (Hidroituango) in Colombia. The decision disregards allegations of acute and far-reaching harms caused by the project, […]