Confronted with what can sometimes seem like an endless cycle of bad news in the media, it’s easy to feel despondent. But, amid the gloom, there were plenty of good news stories to celebrate this year. 

An unprecedented number of UN member states have supported a key resolution calling for the establishment of a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty in the plenary session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on 15 December. 125 UN member states, close to two-thirds of the UN membership, voted to adopt the ninth resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, while 37 voted against the proposal and 22 abstained at the vote. This resolution was proposed by Australia and Costa Rica on behalf of an Inter-Regional Task Force of member states and co-sponsored by 79 states.

Activists across the globe will mark this year’s Human Rights Day by taking part in the world’s biggest human rights event: Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign. Held annually since 2001, Write for Rights sees people in more than 200 countries and territories take millions of actions in support of people whose human rights are under attack.

Responding to reports of at least one boat carrying Rohingya refugees stranded at sea, Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia Researcher Rachel Chhoa-Howard said: 

Today’s South Korean Supreme Court decision that having children of minor age should not immediately be the reason to refuse to recognize the legal gender of transgender persons is an important step forward for human rights, Amnesty International said.

Responding to the news that child human rights defender Thanakorn “Petch” was convicted of lèse majesté for participating in a peaceful protest when they were 17 years old and sentenced to a maximum of three years of detention in a training centre, Amnesty International Thailand executive director Piyanut Kotsan said:

Reading the news can be really depressing. Sometimes there seems to be so much wrong in the world, the idea of changing it for the better feels impossible. But as Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign shows, you can make a big difference by doing something “little”. 

Thai authorities should drop charges against child protesters after they took part in mass demonstrations between 2020 and 2022, Amnesty International said today, in the lead-up to World Children’s Day on 20 November. 

Responding to use of force by the Thai crowd control police to suppress the protests led by the Ratsadon Stops APEC 2022 on Dinso Road on 18 November, which has led to at least nine injuries among the participants and four reporters and 25 participants were arrested and taken to the Thung Song Hong Police Station, which was not the police station of jurisdiction, and the police stated that at least five crowd control police officers got injured;

Amnesty International Thailand today submitted signatures and calls to Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-O-Cha via his representative, Nalinee Mahakhun, Director of Public Service Center urging the Thai government as the APEC 2022’s host country to take a crucial role in facilitating discussions with its member countries to end bloody crackdown in Myanmar and show solidarity to the people of Myanmar.  

8 November 2022

The international community must urgently prevent shipments of aviation fuel from reaching the Myanmar military, Amnesty International said today, as it published an investigation into the companies involved in the supply chain, as well as shocking new accounts of deadly air strikes on civilians.