Archives

Category: Blog

  • NSW Ombudsman calls for review the use of Taser weapons

    In his report handed to Parliament yesterday, NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour calls for a 2 year review of the use of electroshock weapons such as Tasers by NSW police forces.

  • Reform needed to anti-terror legislation

    David Hicks leaves prison
    David Hicks © AAP

    The Rudd Government to bring Australia’s anti-terror laws into line with international human rights standards. This includes the control order regime under which former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks is attempting to live his life.

  • Obama vows to shut Guantanamo

    replace this text

    President-elect Obama has confirmed to shut down Guantanamo as reported yesterday on CBS's 60 Minutes programme.

  • Ominous signs on Obama torture policy

    Will Obama repudiate torture? Ask his advisors...

  • Guantanamo Bay: Unlawful imprisonment of 17 Uighurs continues

    replace this text

    Seventeen Uighurs remain in indefinite military detention in the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

  • Obama plans closure of Guantanamo Bay

    The US flag flying over Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, as seen through razor-wire
    US Department of Defence

    We welcome news that the President-elect's advisors are working to close Guantanamo Bay.

  • New US President must commit to human rights

    Portrait photo of Barack Obama

    US President-elect Barack Obama must commit to human rights in his first 100 days in office.

  • Charges dismissed against five Guantanamo detainees

    Sign at entrance to Guantanamo Bay reads 'CAMP DELTA JTF GUANTANAMO - HONOUR BOUND TO DEFEND FREEDOM'
    © US Department of Defense

    The judge in charge US military commissions has dismissed war crimes charges against five Guantanamo Bay detainees, reports the New York Times. Though none of the men are to be released.

  • Guantanamo prosecutor resigns citing ethical doubts

    Faulty US military commissions should be abandoned and the Guantanamo detention facility should be shut down
    © US Department of Defense

    A US army prosecutor has asked for permission to resign from the Guantanamo military commissions, because of "ethical qualms" and his concern over treatment of young detainee Mohammed Jawad.

  • Fighting for Pakistan’s missing citizens

    Pakistani human rights defender Amina Masood had been on her way to the US, to raise awareness about the hundreds of Pakistani citizens who have simply disappeared in the "war on terror" – that was until her visa was revoked at the last minute.

  • Control Arms 2008: Support an Arms Trade Treaty

    Amnesty International has released an inspiring short video to coincide with the release of our report "Blood at the Crossroads: Making the case for a Global Arms Trade Treaty".

    Watch it now!

  • UN counter terrorism review should make human rights a priority

    image
    © Amnesty International Australia

    As the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) conducts the first major review of its Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, an Amnesty International report shows how governments have so far failed to uphold the Strategy's human rights standards.

  • School attendance and welfare: another blow to human rights

    Under new legislation passed by the Australian Government, the principal carers of children who miss school regularly could have their welfare payments stopped for up to three months. This policy targets Indigenous people without seeking to address the underlying causes of Indigenous disadvantage.

  • Australians to have a say on human rights

    We're one of more than 50 Australian organisations to sign an open letter welcoming the Government's commitment to a public consultation on human rights protection.

  • Martin Luther King Jr’s dream

    Forty five years ago this week civil right leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous and celebrated 'I Have a Dream' speech to a crowd of 250,000.

  • Amnesty Candle: Don’t waste your breath

    Check out this Amnesty International video which has been posted on to YouTube. It features some of the world's most infamous leaders, the likes of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Chile's Augusto Pinochet and Cuba's Fidel Castro.

  • The UK Denies another Appeal against Extradition

    On Monday, the UK denied the appeal of three detainees against their extradition to Italy. This comes on the heels of another UK decision that denied Abu Hamza’s extradition appeal to face charges in the United States. All four men have serious fears of torture if they are extradited.

  • Hamdan Defense Frustrated with Military Commission

    The first Military Commission since World War II wrapped up its opening week, leaving the defense for Salim Hamdan feeling ill equipped and frustrated under the constraints of specialized rules favoring the prosecution.

    "The bottom line is we are not equipped, under the rules we have to operate under, to present an adequate defense,'' said Michael Berrigan, who is the deputy head of the military commissions defense team. "We're simply not.''

  • Judge excludes coerced testimony

    The navy judge presiding over the military commission for Osama bin Laden’s former chauffeur, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, threw out testimony that was obtained in Afghanistan because he said it was “highly coercive”. However, the judge did allow the prosecution to use testimony gathered while Hamdan had been detained in Guantanamo Bay. He also denied Hamdan the protection from self-incrimination under the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution.

  • Military Commissions: a skewed sense of justice

    A look at the US military commission system and how it operates. It was set up by the Bush administration to function as a judicial review of detainees labeled as 'enemy combatants' against the US. Perhaps the principal argument human rights groups raise against this system is its lack of judicial impartiality.

  • Page 1 of 4 pages  1 2 3 >  Last »

Main archive

Go back to the main archive.