In China, people
are being evicted from their homes at an alarming rate, according to a
recent report by Amnesty International. Eager to spur economic development, local Communist Party officials have used violence and intimidation to force people out of their homes and farmland, including employing private gangs to attack residents who won't comply with eviction orders. In Hebei Province, however, one father-and-son duo, both devotees of Bruce Lee and facing a gang of over 30 men outside their house,
decided to fight back--and won.
[more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead
on Dec 3, 2012 -
31 comments
Amnesty International’s 'Security with Human Rights' campaign has just released a short film called
Hooded. It is a powerful reminder that torture is barbaric and never justifiable. Just two minutes long, this film uses a unique approach by marrying abstract images with intense sound design to convey the auditory and visual experiences associated with torture. It's a disturbing but gripping film that demonstrates the shocking effects of torture techniques such as water boarding and "hooding".
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jul 2, 2012 -
4 comments
Deadly detention: Deaths in custody amid popular protest in Syria “These deaths behind bars are reaching massive proportions, and appear to be an extension of the same brutal disdain for life that we are seeing daily on the streets of Syria,” said Neil Sammonds, Amnesty International’s researcher on Syria.
“The accounts of torture we have received are horrific. We believe the Syrian government to be systematically persecuting its own people on a vast scale.”
posted by joannemullen
on Aug 31, 2011 -
67 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
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
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
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
'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
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
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
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
