November 2001

Amnesty International is dismayed at the rejection by the United Kingdom of calls to establish an inquiry into the deaths of prisoners and others in Qala-i-Jhangi fort near Mazar-i-Sharif earlier this week. Posted: 30 Nov 2001

President Fox's first year in office has produced many fine statements on human rights, but almost nothing else, Amnesty International said today on the eve of the anniversary of his inauguration. Posted: 30 Nov 2001

The recent overturning of a court ruling awarding compensation to a victim of police brutality in Jamaica may mean that no victim of torture, extra-judicial execution or other abuses by police or soldiers receives compensation from the state, Amnesty International said. Posted: 29 Nov 2001

One more reason for the USA to abolish the death penalty is that its increasingly isolated resort to this punishment is undermining international cooperation on law enforcement, concludes an Amnesty International report issued today. Posted: 29 Nov 2001

Amnesty International today welcomed the unanimous verdict returned on 27 November 2001 by an inquest jury that the Guyana police should be held criminally responsible for the death of Mohammed Shafeek, a 47-year old fish-seller, in Brickdam police lock-up between 2 and 3 September 2000. Posted: 29 Nov 2001

Following reports that Amnesty International has been invited, by the United Front, to investigate the killings of hundreds of prisoners and others within Qala-i-Jhangi, a fort on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, the organization has said that it is ready to consider sending an observer to monitor an inquiry and to suggest forensic and other experts for it. Posted: 29 Nov 2001

Following news reports of hundreds of killings during clashes within the Qala-i-Jhangi, a fort on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, Amnesty International is calling on the United Front, the United States and the United Kingdom to investigate these events. Posted: 28 Nov 2001

The release last week of dozens of long term political prisoners belonging to the unauthorised Muslim Brotherhood is a welcome step towards greater respect for human rights in Syria, Amnesty International said today. Posted: 28 Nov 2001

Amazing images of both fear and hope have been coming out of Afghanistan since the taking of Kabul by the United Front. The beaten and bloody executed bodies of Pakistanis and Arabs, a female newsreader happy to be back at work, and perhaps the most poignant - a nine-year-old Hazara child soldier intent on defeating the Taliban. Posted: 27 Nov 2001

Human rights must be at the core of any discussion on the future of Afghanistan, Amnesty International said ahead of the Bonn meeting. Posted: 26 Nov 2001

Amnesty International today expressed the hope that the discovery of the bodies of Father Tomislav Matanovic and his parents - who "disappeared" in Prijedor in 1995 - and their burial in a religious ceremony will return some dignity to the victims and their family. Posted: 26 Nov 2001

Amnesty International welcomed the landmark conclusion by the Committee against Torture stating that Israel's policy of closures and its demolitions of Palestinian homes "may, in certain instances, amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" in breach of Article 16 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which Israel ratified in 1991. Posted: 26 Nov 2001

Amnesty International is extremely concerned at the current situation in Kunduz, Afghanistan, and the potential for grave violations of international humanitarian law - the laws of war. Posted: 23 Nov 2001

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch welcomed the acquittal on 21 November of 36 human rights activists by a Rabat appeal court. Posted: 23 Nov 2001

"The establishment of a Human Rights Commission has scope to be a great step forward for human rights protection and promotion in South Korea," Amnesty International said today ahead of Sunday's inauguration. The Commission was promised by President Kim Dae-Jung in 1998, the 50th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Posted: 23 Nov 2001

The Colombian Government must take urgent action to secure the safe release of the six mayors and their human rights adviser abducted by army-backed paramilitaries, Amnesty International said. Posted: 21 Nov 2001

Amnesty International urged President Hosni Mubarak to end the referral of civilians to military courts as they deny defendants their rights to a free and fair trial. Posted: 20 Nov 2001

Amnesty International has today welcomed news reports that the Syrian authorities ordered the release of nine prisoners of conscience. Posted: 20 Nov 2001

Amnesty International today welcomed the recent agreement, between the Tanzanian government and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations which occurred during the demonstrations in Zanzibar in January 2001. Posted: 20 Nov 2001

The new government of Kosovo must commit itself to ending the climate of impunity for abuses of the human rights of minority communities, Amnesty International urged Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the ethnic Albanian LDK (Democratic League of Kosovo) and the new government, following the announcement of a majority for the LDK party in the Kosovo elections. Posted: 20 Nov 2001