Following reports that Wanchalearm Satsaksit, a 37-year old activist, was abducted by unknown persons from outside an apartment building in Phnom Penh, David Griffiths, Director in the Office of the Secretary-General at Amnesty International, said:
Responding to remarks by President Donald Trump today in the Rose Garden, Ernest Coverson, the End Gun Violence campaign manager at Amnesty International USA said:
Rachel Ward, National Director of Research at Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), issued the following statement about the police response in cities nationwide to this weekend’s protests:
10 of the worst government responses
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 8 million people who stand together for human rights, and creating a society of equality and justice. Amnesty was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for our campaigning against torture by governments.
On 26 May 2020, the Thai government approved the extension of emergency powers under the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situation (2005). Amnesty International further urges the authorities to lift charges it has imposed on individuals who are being penalized for exercising their right to freedom of expression; stop the arbitrary detention of refugees and migrants; and refrain from using restrictions to target critics with disproportionate punishments based on politically-motivated grounds. While the right to freedom of peaceful assembly can be restricted where doing so is necessary and proportionate to protect public health, those facing charges for assembling in breach of physical distancing measures must never face prison sentences.
Responding to the Chinese government’s proposal to enact new national security legislation for Hong Kong, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and South East Asia, Joshua Rosenzweig, said:
There are weeks where decades happen. These are those weeks.
A rare interview with Kim Bok-dong, a 90-year-old South Korean woman who was taken from her home village and abused as a ‘comfort woman’ by the Japanese Army during World War II. ‘
Ten years ago today, Thailand witnessed one of the deadliest government crackdowns in the country’s history. While protest leaders and demonstrators have faced criminal prosecutions, no justice, truth or reparation has been served to families of those killed during the violence. The Thai government must now bring to justice those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes committed during the May 2010 unrest.
The Cambodian government’s three-year long “war on drugs” campaign has fuelled a rising tide of human rights abuses, dangerously overfilled detention facilities and led to an alarming public health situation – even more so as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds – while failing in its stated objective of curbing drug use, a new investigative report by Amnesty International published today reveals. The new 78-page report, Substance abuses: The human cost of Cambodia’s anti-drug campaign, documents how the authorities prey on poor and marginalized people, arbitrarily carry out arrests, routinely subject suspects to torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and dispatch those who can’t buy their freedom to severely overcrowded prisons and pseudo “rehabilitation centres” in which detainees are denied healthcare and are subjected to severe abuse.
The COVID-19 pandemic is stretching healthcare systems around the world to breaking point. As a result, many people are finding it harder than ever to access abortion and contraception.