Tag: Amnesty International

Amnesty International withdraws human rights award from Aung San Suu Kyi

Stuart Mitchell

Amnesty International has announced that it has withdrawn its highest honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, from Aung San Suu Kyi, in light of the Myanmar leader’s shameful betrayal of the values she once stood for. On 11 November, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi to inform her the organization is revoking the 2009 award. Half way through her term in office, and eight years after her release from house arrest, Naidoo expressed the organization’s disappointment that she had not used her political and moral authority to safeguard human rights, justice or equality in Myanmar, citing her apparent indifference to atrocities committed by the Myanmar military and…

Read More

Amnesty International Media Awards 2019 open for entries

Stuart Mitchell

Amnesty International UK is inviting entries for its 27th annual Media Awards, a prestigious set of awards that recognise the vital role journalists play and the serious risks they face in highlighting human rights abuses around the world. The award ceremony will be held on Wednesday 3 April 2019 at BAFTA Piccadilly in central London. Previous award winners include Marie Colvin, Christina Lamb, Sue Lloyd-Roberts, Robert Fisk, Gary Younge, Nawal Al-Maghafi and Alex Crawford among many others. Entries can now be submitted at: https://amnesty-media-awards.org.uk/ The closing date for entries is Friday…

Read More

Amnesty International staff targeted with malicious spyware

Stuart Mitchell

An Amnesty International staff member has been targeted by a sophisticated surveillance campaign, in what the organization suspects was a deliberate attempt to spy on its staff by a government hostile to its work. In early June 2018, an Amnesty International staff member received a suspicious WhatsApp message in Arabic. The text contained details about an alleged protest outside the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., followed by a link to a website. Investigations by Amnesty International’s technology team revealed that clicking the link would have, according to prior knowledge, installed…

Read More

Glastonbury ‘One Love’ reggae festival will support Amnesty’s human rights work

Stuart Mitchell

Amnesty International is supporting this year’s One Love reggae festival near Glastonbury at the end of August. The festival, which has grown into a major three-day reggae event, will see well-known Jamaican acts – including Cutty Ranks, Johnny Clarke, Johnny Osbourne, Mighty Diamonds and Mad Professor – playing alongside significant performers from the UK ska, reggae and dub scenes, including Jerry Dammers, Don Letts, Zion Train and Saxon Sound System.  The event, at a site on Gilcombe Farm adjacent to the picturesque Somerset town of Bruton near Glastonbury, takes place…

Read More

Amnesty Claim Gossip tax on Whatsapp ‘clear attempt to silence dissent’

Stuart Mitchell

A tax on social media use in Uganda, which came into effect yesterday, is a clear attempt to undermine the right to freedom of expression and must be scrapped, Amnesty International said today. President Yoweri Museveni announcing the tax in March said it was aimed at platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Skype and Viber, to curtail “gossip”, a clear infringement on the right to freedom of expression. Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said: “It is not the place of the…

Read More