Your local voice for Amnesty International
Authorities in Egypt are actively targeting human rights defenders, opposition politicians and other activists through unlawful arrests and prosecutions. Thousands of people have been arbitrarily detained and enforced disappearances and torture continue. Alaa Abdel Fattah, an icon of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, is now a British citizen (via his mother’s nationality) and has spent most of…
Continue reading Human Rights in Egypt
In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment because it was used in a discriminatory manner against the poor and minorities. However, in 1976, it ruled that the death penalty per se was not unconstitutional because it could serve the social purposes of…
Continue reading The US Supreme Court and the Death Penalty
Between November 2021 and May 2022, AI conducted dozens of interviews with refugees and migrants in Lithuania who had attempted to enter from Belarus. In March 2022, a delegation from AI also travelled to Lithuania. They visited two detention centres, conducted interviews with detainees, spoke with relevant authorities and representatives of humanitarian and civil society…
Continue reading Lithuania: Forced Out or Locked Up – Refugees and Migrants Abused and Abandoned
This report, an Inspection of the Initial Processing of Migrants Arriving via Small Boats between December 2021 and January 2022, published recently after a three-month delay, focused on protecting the border through security checks and the identification and safeguarding of vulnerable people. It said that ‘these migrants crossed the Channel in dire circumstances. Many were…
Continue reading Report by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
This report makes for upsetting, if entirely predictable, reading as the executive summary states: In less than a year, the Taliban have decimated the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. Soon after they took control of the country’s government, the Taliban said they were committed to upholding the rights of women and girls. Yet…
Continue reading Amnesty’s report Afghanistan: Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls under Taliban Rule
A small group of British women and children, some 20 families, are detained in desert camps in North-East Syria, held in inhumane conditions with inadequate access to water, food, and healthcare. Investigations by Reprieve show that almost two-thirds of the women are victims of trafficking, often after online grooming by ISIS. A six-month inquiry by…
Continue reading British Nationals Deprived of Nationality
A report by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Democracy and the Constitution called An Independent Judiciary – Challenges since 2016 suggests improper attacks on judges threaten the constitution. The APPG argued that government politicians are misrepresenting legal rulings to their own advantage, attacking judges over their decisions and making threats about legal reform.…
Continue reading Judges under Attack by Executive
Some readers of the July Newsletter were surprised that abortions are not legal in England and Wales and are controlled by the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. Women experiencing stillbirths or miscarriages can still be investigated by the police on suspicion of having had an illegal abortion, e.g. by taking pills bought online or…
Continue reading Police Investigations in England and Wales of Stillbirths and Miscarriages