"Lawless Lands": Michael Riley, writing in the Denver Post, investigates the dysfunctional state of law enforcement on Native American reservations, and the shocking consequences for crime victims. Bill Moyer's Journal has followed up with an excellent documentary expose entitled "Broken Justice." [more inside]
posted by fourcheesemac on Nov 15, 2008 - 22 comments

Amnesty International recently staged a real waterboarding session to reinforce its campaign to get this type of torture stopped.

Amnesty claims its commercial is the "video the CIA doesn’t want you to see”.

Starting this month the commercial will show in Britain in movie theaters during the previews. Possibly NSFW.
posted by misanthropicsarah on May 1, 2008 - 82 comments

Two new reports on our progress in Iraq were released today:
"Five years after the war started, the humanitarian situation in Iraq is among the most critical in the world..." - International Committee of the Red Cross.
"Five years of carnage and despair in Iraq" - Amnesty International. [more inside]
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Mar 17, 2008 - 37 comments

unsubscribe-me.org is not what you might first think it is from the name. (SL-non-YTP)
posted by allkindsoftime on Nov 23, 2007 - 51 comments

AirTorture - Your Premiere "Whisked Away" Airline
Book your flight from **Undisclosed location** to sunny **Undisclosed location** today! Or you may just have a flight booked for you. Enjoy the waterboarding sports!

It's a no brainer (NSFW background)!
posted by fenriq on Nov 4, 2006 - 13 comments

Cayetano Ferrer is a Chicago based artist whose work involves (among other styles) painting street signs with the images of the items immediately behind them, to give the illusion of transparency (depending on what angle you're viewing from). The latest campaign by Amnesty International seems inspired by his work.
posted by jonson on Jun 8, 2006 - 14 comments

Irrepressible.info is a new campaign by Amnesty International and The Observer to fight internet censorship. One way to help is by publishing censored material from other websites onto your own.
posted by homunculus on May 28, 2006 - 15 comments

Abu Ghraib, continued. A new cache of disturbing images and videos from the original interrogations, with commentary from Salon. [Definitely NSFW, or for Earth, for that matter.]
posted by digaman on Mar 14, 2006 - 48 comments

The US has admitted for the first time that it has not given the Red Cross access to all detainees in its custody. Meanwhile, the German citizen picked up by the CIA and tortured in one of the secret prisons, based solely on having the same name as a suspected terrorist, would really, really like an apology from someone. If you think things are getting out of hand, why not join the Amnesty International Write-a-thon? You can get the message across to the people in charge and let them know that you don't support prisoner abuse or rendition to secret prisons.
posted by Dag Maggot on Dec 9, 2005 - 80 comments

The Political Terror Scale (link opens an Excel sheet). There have been several posts about human rights recently and the Political Terror Scale ties them all together. The PTS is an ongoing project which assigns a number from 1-5 (5 is bad) to a country based on its level of political terror (usually human rights abuses committed by the government) based on the yearly Amnesty and U.S. State Department reports according to these criteria (link opens a Word document). Because the PTS was started in 1980, one of its most useful aspects is that it allows changes in political terror to be tracked over time. For example, a nearly worldwide spike in human rights abuses in the years following the 9/11 attacks can be clearly visualized using the information provided by the PTS.
posted by Crushinator on Jun 8, 2005 - 7 comments

The Amnesty International Report 2005 was released recently, detailing both the abuses and positive changes for 149 countries, including the Americas. Meanwhile...
posted by exlotuseater on May 31, 2005 - 11 comments

DETAINEES 3878-3881 Summary of FBI interview of detainee at Guantanamo Bay 08/01/02 Notes that '[p]rior to his capture, REDACTED had no information against the United States. Personally, he has nothing against the United States. The guards in the detention facility do not treat him well. Their behavior is bad. About five months ago, the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Koran in the toilet. The guards dance around when the detainees are trying to pray. The guards still do these things.' American Civil Liberties Union: Guantánamo Prisoners Told FBI of Koran Desecration in 2002, New Documents Reveal. See also Amnesty International Report 2005: United States of America, Iraq, Afghanistan.... U.S. 'Thumbs Its Nose' at Rights, Amnesty Says
posted by y2karl on May 25, 2005 - 58 comments

Peter Benenson founder of Amnesty International has passed away. It all started with a letter and grew into one of the most influential human rights organization in the world. Here is a video tribute from Amnesty International (real player only, I'm afraid, though there is a transcript)
posted by Kattullus on Feb 26, 2005 - 13 comments

Amnesty International Condemns U.S. for War on Terror Torture
Amnesty's report accused Washington of stepping onto a "well-trodden path of violating basic rights in the name of national security or 'military necessity'."
posted by quonsar on Oct 27, 2004 - 8 comments

Rape as a weapon of war: sexual violence and its consequences Amnesty International offers a stirring and comprehensive account of what's going on in Darfur: "When we tried to escape they shot more children. They raped women; I saw many cases of Janjawid raping women and girls. They are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish." [more inside]
posted by The God Complex on Jul 28, 2004 - 39 comments

Amnest Int'l drops documentary after petition. Two Irish filmmakers were inside the palace during the coup in Venezuela in 2002 (also on MeFi: 1 2). I caught their powerful documentary, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised here in Chicago (review). The film was just recently dropped from Canada Amnesty International's upcoming film festival in Vancouver after opposition parties in Venezuela organized a petition of over 7,000 signatures (mp3). The groups have concerns about it's accuracy, especially in it's characterization of the opposition to the democratically elected President Chavez. A petition supporting the film has been started as well. I found the movie stunning and a chilling account of how media outlets can shape, gauge and control public perception at home and abroad (ergo the Reagan miniseries debacle). Also notable I found was Chavez's passion to teach the poor to understand the constitution of their country - impoverished Venezuelans talking passionately about how they realize that understanding politics and policy is one of the first steps out of their poverty. I picture Jerry Springer trash trying to articulate any understanding of the U. S. constitution. Any Venezuela MeFi'ers wanna give a background on how the country had been faring since the coup and restoration? Was it a CIA action? I'm sure the honeymoon's over - how's it going?
posted by ao4047 on Nov 6, 2003 - 16 comments

Take Action: Iranian woman to be executed for killing a rapist who happened to be the Head of Police Intelligence unit in a southern city of Iran.
Afsaneh Nouroozi was arrested in 1997 after she killed the in Kish, Southern Iran. She allegedly acted in self-defense in order to protect herself from being raped. Afsaneh Nouroozi is now at imminent risk of execution after the death sentence against her was upheld by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei, is the only authority able to grant clemency at this stage. Amnesty International has more detail.
posted by hoder on Oct 1, 2003 - 17 comments

Amnesty International's 2003 Report on US isn't pretty - 2002 was not a good year for the United States. How do we, as a nation, deal with this situation?
posted by FormlessOne on Jun 13, 2003 - 47 comments

'Saddam's men torturted me' A dossier of human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the Iraqi regime, including torture and rape, has been released by the UK Government. The full report here (pdf). Amnesty International is criticizing the UK government for the timing of the report's release. What do you think? Moral outrage at the servile scum that run Iraq's prisons or calculated manipulation of UK/US public opinion prior to an inexorable war to keep our SUVs?
posted by Zombie on Dec 2, 2002 - 48 comments

The Plight of the Pregnant Prisoner. Every culture has to decide what to do with their pregnant prisoners. Here in the USA, are we doing the best we can? And then there is the whole abortion debate.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy on Sep 25, 2002 - 6 comments

Amina Lawal Must Not Face Death by Stoning says UK Amnesty International. Nigerian woman, divorced & single, with 3 kids, to be executed by a Sharia Court for giving birth outside of wedlock. Other pregnant unwed mothers, such as this computer student, are seeking asylum outside of Nigeria to avoid being stoned to death by a Nigerian Sharia Court in accordance with Islamic law principles. Amina's whole convoluted and horrible story is laid out nicely here. Sharia Courts, and their ilk, punish sexual and "moral offenders" through stoning, amputation, crushing the victim with walls, hanging, or even rape.

Meanwhile, in another universe, the Nigerian 419 scam has mutated into Amina Lawal's "barrister" spamming the net with pleas for cash. Instead of that, sign the open letter to the President of Nigeria asking that death by stoning be stopped.
posted by filchyboy on Aug 31, 2002 - 14 comments

Celebrating 40 years of Amnesty International, shine02 is a mixed-media project by various artists, and an "art initiative created to examine the aesthetics and the potential of the internet for international networking". Flash only.
posted by Jongo on May 17, 2002 - 0 comments

E.mail Mugabe. Amnesty International, unsurprisingly, has grave concerns for the welfare of Mugabe's opponents, particularly as few international observers remain. It suggests you send a fax or an e.mail asking that he considers the human rights issue and provides an address and number. Very probably a meaningless gesture but hey, you never know.
posted by Fat Buddha on Mar 16, 2002 - 4 comments

Bombing the Taleban prisoners
"There are hundreds of bodies in there - bodies and bits of bodies, all over the place."

The crush of the Taleban prisoner revolt at the Qala-e-Jhangi fort has Amnesty International asking what happened there... I'd like to know, too. (More here and here and here.)
posted by blackholebrain on Nov 28, 2001 - 69 comments

Keeping with the thinking that it is "National Homophobic Week" here is an Amnestry International Report detailing the attrocities against homosexuals all over the world.
posted by benjh on Jul 11, 2001 - 4 comments

Today is International Women's Day. Amnesty International has a few important stories about the horrors women face abroad. Or, you can send an IWD card to someone you love. Just don't bother visiting iVillage (you know, "the Women's Network"), because they must never have heard of it.
posted by jpoulos on Mar 8, 2001 - 38 comments

Torture Still Widespread In Asia Says Amnesty . On Drudge. Do you think human rights violations of this sort mandate sanctions? I tend to not be a big fan of the U.S.'s ineffective Iraqi or Cuban sanctions but... This is very, very brutal. What do you think the proper U.S./European response should be?
posted by hanseugene on Feb 9, 2001 - 3 comments

Did they miss a country? The Amnesty International yearly report really makes you think about how much abuse, brutality, and persecution is still going on in the world that does't make the daily news.
posted by mkn on Jun 15, 2000 - 1 comment