Tag: Amnesty International

Amnesty slams TV ad ban: ‘Human rights are not political’

Stuart Mitchell

Advertising clearance agency Clearcast says Amnesty International’s work on protecting human rights is ‘political’ Latest advert featuring Olivia Colman and Adrian Lester on perils of mould infested housing will not be broadcast as a result ‘Clearcast are themselves politicising these fundamental issues’ – Sacha Deshmukh Amnesty International UK has sharply criticised the advertising approval agency Clearcast for preventing Amnesty from screening adverts on human rights issues. Amnesty had sought permission to broadcast an advert purporting to be a trailer for a supposed new drama starring award-winning actors Olivia Colman and Adrian Lester. The…

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TWITTER: Anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech surging on platform under Elon Musk

Stuart Mitchell

Social media giant Twitter is failing to protect LGBTQ+ organisations and those advocating for the LGBTQ+ community from online violence and abuse, according to a new survey from Amnesty International USA, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD and the US LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation The Human Rights Campaign. The survey found that harassment of LGBTQ+ activists has intensified since Elon Musk acquired Twitter last October. In the survey, 60% of respondents reported they’d experienced an increase in abusive and hateful speech on Twitter since Musk took over as CEO. The other 40% said they’d…

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Authorities poised to wield new legislation to ban films featuring LGBTI characters

Stuart Mitchell

Reacting to the news that the Russian media regulator is poised to censor online content containing references to LGBTI people or rights, including banning movies and TV series featuring LGBTI characters, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, said: “The Russian authorities are preparing to further scapegoat and stigmatize LGBTI people in the country through new homophobic legislation, including by perversely banning globally acclaimed movies like Brokeback Mountain and Call Me by Your Name. “This unabashed censorship shows that the Russian authorities are wholly out-of-step with human rights, willing to blatantly…

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Amnesty calls for more cuts and loss and damage fund for people whose rights are hit by climate crisis

Stuart Mitchell

Ahead of COP27, as the world hurtles towards global warming levels of at least 2.5°C, Amnesty International is urging all governments party to the UN Framework on Climate Change to update their 2030 emissions targets to ensure they are aligned with keeping the average global temperature increase below 1.5°C, commit to rapidly phasing out the use and production of fossil fuels without relying on harmful and unproven ‘shortcuts’ like carbon removal mechanisms and wealthy countries must establish a loss and damage fund for those whose rights have been violated by…

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World’s biggest letter writing marathon will help 10 victims of human rights abuses get justice

Stuart Mitchell

Millions of letters, emails and texts will be sent to support people who have been jailed and attacked during Amnesty’s annual Write for Rights campaign People across the UK can join to help 10 individuals facing abuses, including: An artist from Russia, arrested for protesting the invasion of Ukraine A hairdresser and single mother from Cameroon, imprisoned for attending her first peaceful protest A human rights lawyer from Hong Kong, jailed for commemorating the Tiananmen Square anniversary on social media Amnesty International has launched its flagship annual letter-writing campaign, Write for Rights…

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