Tag: Amnesty

Activists silenced by governments during COVID-19 pandemic – new report

Stuart Mitchell

Amnesty International has revealed human rights defenders around the world are facing ongoing attacks from governments for their brave work during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new report published today (10 February), ‘On the human rights frontline – How the UK Government can defend the defenders’ is based on interviews with 82 Human Rights Defenders from Colombia, Egypt, the Philippines, Russia, Libya, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. The report calls for the UK Government to increase efforts to protect HRDs during the pandemic and beyond. In total, 94% of activists interviewed – including journalists,…

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Amnesty launches first global emergency appeal to counter growing anti-human rights agenda worldwide

Stuart Mitchell

Amnesty International has launched its first ever global emergency fundraising appeal, calling on supporters to help fight a growing backlash against journalists, lawyers, activists and human rights organizations around the world working to defend and promote human rights. The organization highlighted recent state and state-sponsored attacks on its own staff and offices as illustrative of the increasing audacity of governments who are hostile to human rights. In 2020 for example, Amnesty International’s India office was forced to halt its work when the authorities froze its bank accounts following a series…

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Amnesty calls for Human Rights Act to be celebrated across UK to mark 20th anniversary

Stuart Mitchell

Amnesty International UK has called for the Human Rights Act to be celebrated all over the country to mark the 20th anniversary of the Act coming into force. The Act has been essential to the big justice fights of the last 20 years in the UK. It is the principal law protecting human rights in the UK and incorporates into UK law 16 rights from the European Convention of Human Rights – the treaty drafted after the Second World War as part of the promise of ‘never again’. From then…

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Amnesty proposes new human rights Owners’ and Directors’ test for Premier League football

Stuart Mitchell

Amnesty International has called on the English Premier League to update its Owners’ and Directors’ test, and has sent a proposed updated test to the Premier League’s Chief Executive, Richard Masters. Criticising the current test as “hopelessly unsuited” to the task of ensuring proper scrutiny of the human rights records of those trying to buy into English football clubs, Amnesty has commissioned a new human rights-compliant test from corporate lawyers David Chivers QC and Seamus Woods of Erskine Chambers, together with a detailed legal analysis. The Premier League has recently…

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Adwoa Aboah, Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Dua Lipa, Gemma Chan and Olivia Colman join thousands in urging the Government to ensure equal protection for all domestic abuse survivors

Stuart Mitchell

More than 40 high profile celebrities, actors, singers, comedians and artists are backing a Step Up Migrant Women campaign to change domestic abuse laws so that they offer safety to all victims, no matter what their immigration status is or where they are from. The celebrities – including  Adwoa Aboah, Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Dua Lipa, Gemma Chan, Olivia Colman, Thandie Newton, Keira Knightley, Gillian Anderson, Noma Dumezweni, Jodie Whittaker, Emilia Fox and Emeli Sandé – join tens of thousands of people urging the Home Secretary Priti Patel to…

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