February 2007

Equipment used for torture - including wall handcuffs and spiked batons known as 'sting sticks' - could still be traded out of the EU, said Amnesty International today as a new report condemned new EU regulations as weak and full of loopholes. Posted: 27 Feb 2007

Amnesty International said that today's application by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue summonses to two people suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur was a small but significant step towards securing justice for the millions of victims of these crimes in Darfur. Posted: 27 Feb 2007

Amnesty International UK responds to today's (26 February 2007) Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruling regarding Abu Qatada. Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock said: 'Deporting Abu Qatada to Jordan will put him at real risk of torture.' Posted: 26 Feb 2007

On 27 February Amnesty International will be celebrating ten years since the publication of the ground-breaking book 'Breaking the Silence', which was the first to research and expose the abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people's rights all over the world, and the tenth birthday of Amnesty's LGBT Network, set up to campaign for gay people's human rights. Posted: 23 Feb 2007

In an article in this week's 'New Statesman', the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams adds his voice to an Amnesty International appeal for Reverend Bienvenido Samba Momessori, a clergyman imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for his peaceful political views. Posted: 22 Feb 2007

Amnesty International is extremely concerned at an alarming upsurge in executions in Saudi Arabia, with at least 17 people already executed in 2007. Posted: 22 Feb 2007

Amnesty International today (22 February) condemned the four-year sentence handed down by an Egyptian court against blogger Karim Amer, and called for his immediate and unconditional release. Posted: 22 Feb 2007

Amnesty International is extremely concerned that two border guards in North Korea are at immediate risk of execution for helping North Koreans enter China. Posted: 19 Feb 2007

The UK is failing to take its share of responsibility for the refugee crisis facing Iraq said Amnesty International on 19 February, ahead of the government's quarterly asylum statistics. Up to 38 Iraqis were forcibly returned from the UK to northern Iraq on Monday 12 February. Posted: 19 Feb 2007

As a powerful new photographic exhibition revealing the reality of trafficking in the UK opens in St Paul's Cathedral (21 February), four leading British charities ─ Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Eaves and Unicef UK— are calling on the UK Government to take action now to guarantee protection for all trafficked people. Posted: 16 Feb 2007

Eritrea is a country closed to human rights investigators and while Amnesty International is therefore unable to confirm by direct evidence the reports of his death last month, it has assessed the reports as highly credible. Posted: 16 Feb 2007

The Liberian government has done little or nothing to bring to justice thousands of people accused of serious human rights violations during the country's protracted armed conflict, in which hundreds of thousands were killed, raped or tortured, according to a new report released by Amnesty International. Posted: 15 Feb 2007

Responding to a vote today by the European Parliament to adopt a report by an MEPs' renditions committee, Amnesty International welcomed the report and called for action from the UK government. Posted: 14 Feb 2007

Responding to a vote today (14 February) by the European Parliament to adopt a report by an MEPs' renditions committee, Amnesty International welcomed the report and called for action from the UK and Scottish government. Posted: 14 Feb 2007

Domestic workers in Indonesia face withheld wages, working days of up to 22 hours, beatings, sexual violence and forced confinement, according to a new report released by Amnesty International. Posted: 14 Feb 2007

Commenting today on the BBC television 'rape trial' programme 'The Verdict', the End Violence Against Women campaign criticised the 'reality' TV show for its lack of reality and for trivialising rape. Posted: 12 Feb 2007

Amnesty International today condemned the death sentence imposed on former Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadhan as a denial of true justice to the victims of Saddam Hussain's rule. Posted: 12 Feb 2007

The Internet industry must do more to fight governments' attempts to repress internet users around the world, Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock will say in a speech on 15 February. Posted: 12 Feb 2007

Amnesty International today (10 February 07) called on the international community to provide effective protection and assistance to nearly two million people fleeing Iraq, in what the UN's top refugee official Antonio Guterres recently called a "humanitarian disaster". Posted: 10 Feb 2007

Ahead of elections on 11 February, Amnesty International today (8 February) called for the next president of Turkmenistan to end torture and repression as the organisation published a list of human rights recommendations to the president. Posted: 8 Feb 2007