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April 2010 (20)
Apr 30 2010 4:43PM
Crude accusations

If on the evening of 6 May you've cast your vote (or not) and are in need of respite from election fever, and you’re near Shoreditch then head along to Amnesty’s Human Rights Action Centre for a free screening of Crude. The film...

Apr 29 2010 4:36PM
The leaders debate: its a racing certainty they wont mention violence against women

I’m not, as the old cliché has it, a betting man (no, no, I’m really not a betting man, hate it …) but …isn’t that Paddy Power bet where you can try to guess which is the first country mentioned in the leaders’ debate wide open to...

Apr 28 2010 6:29PM
Lives (not leaves) on the line

Amnesty released a report today detailing the horrific dangers faced by migrants attempting to reach the US by crossing Mexico. Some powerful accompanying images feature in the Guardian’s gallery . To many of us reading it, this is...

Apr 27 2010 1:18PM
Iraq is getting back to normal, and other flights of fantasy

Wow. We’ve gone from Britain being an ash-infested no-fly-zone, to British airspace opening up again, even for planes from that former no-fly-zone – Iraq. The fact that a passenger flight flew from Bahgdad to Britain for the first time...

Apr 26 2010 6:23PM
Azerbaijan defies European Court over jailed journalist

Azerbaijan looks set to defy the European Court of Human Rights and refuse to free Eynulla Fatullayev, a jailed journalist from Azerbaijan for whom we’ve been campaigning for some time. The Court ruled last week that Eynulla’s trial...

Apr 23 2010 5:08PM
The leaders debates: a human rights-free zone

What happened to human rights last night? Or indeed, last week? The leaders’ debates have been a virtual human rights-free zone. Last night Nick Clegg’s preamble referred to allegations of UK torture complicity but neither he nor...

Apr 22 2010 3:51PM
Burqa ban: cest une idée terrible

Having just braved the ash chaos and been to Paris for a few days I was struck by (1) how quiet Paris was at night (no jets overhead, just pigeons cooing in Arr16 where I was) and (2) how multicultural ( multiculturel ) it is. Even...

Apr 21 2010 5:12PM
the godmother of the civil rights movement an indomitable pioneer

It isn't often that the news cycle has an opportunity to reflect on the USA’s civil rights movement. So it’s refreshing to be able to pay tribute to the strength and courage of some of the defenders of that time now and again. And...

Apr 20 2010 4:32PM
Thailand: time to end abuses on all sides

Yesterday, Amnesty called for all sides in Thailand’s widening political conflict to immediately commit to ending human rights abuses, yet today the BBC reports that the Thai army has made explicit its determination to use live...

Apr 19 2010 5:08PM
Ash and Cobra: A lesson for Burma

Loads of ash piles out of an Icelandic volcano, northern Europe’s airports grind to a halt, thousands of Brits are left stranded as the Daily Mail among others has reported. There’s only one option. Step forward the Cobra Committee...

Apr 16 2010 4:02PM
Zimbabwe's next 30 years must herald a new dawn for human rights

You may have already spotted a few stories marking 30 years of independence in Zimbabwe which falls this Sunday. Petina Gappah provided a thoughtful account of Zimbabwe over the last 30 years in the Guardian , where she highlighted...

Apr 15 2010 7:35PM
Raúl life drama

It is all too easy to forget that you are not watching actors. The leaked footage of members of a Mexican drug cartel, meeting in a lay-by, guns casually slung over their shoulders, sauntering around, apparently taking a drug doled out...

Apr 14 2010 2:13PM
Not Keane on the Tories? Never mind, turn up the music .

Oh dear. Using some of Keane’s music at the Conservative manifesto launch was maybe not the best move. Amnesty-supporting drummer Richard Hughes took an immediate swipe with one of his drumsticks – “Told the Tories played Keane at...

Apr 13 2010 2:49PM
Wheres the real danger zone for giving birth?

The Telegraph today carries a story revealing that pregnant women living in the UK are more likely to die in childbirth or for pregnancy related factors than women in Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic. This is certainly surprising...

Apr 12 2010 2:13PM
Only fools and horses would ignore human rights during this election

The other day I watched six episodes of TheThick Of It straight off the reel. Now after a l-o-o-o-o-o-ng week of the election campaign. I’m starting to … feel the burn. Probably what’s preventing my head exploding in a Malcolm Tucker...

Apr 9 2010 12:52PM
Malcolm McLaren: never mind the music, heres the sexed-up publicists

I reckon the tributes to punk impresario Malcolm McLaren have been selling the old rascal short. Too much focus on the music, too little attention being paid to the spectacle, the protest and the deliberate stage management of outrage...

Apr 8 2010 5:51PM
The Yemen job: a licence to commit extra-judicial executions

OK, it’s not a surprise that countries have “hit lists” (not music charts) and that their intelligence services bump people off, as the deceptively cosy phrase has it. But what to make of the US giving a special media briefing to...

Apr 7 2010 5:43PM
Men are superior to the woman

“Men are superior to the woman because they have paid ‘bride price’ to bring the woman into the man’s household. He can therefore do with her as he pleases.” That was the view of one man in Uganda who took part in an Amnesty-run group...

Apr 6 2010 5:38PM
It's all about elections

So at last here it is the countdown to the election has finally begun. And the big question is which of the two main parties can really make a difference. Enough of the small talk, who’s going to win? Will it be the ruling United...

Apr 1 2010 4:43PM
Execution for sorcery? This is no April Fool's joke

Best April Fool of the day? The Guardian’s page three on Labour’s “ Gordon gets violent” election campaign ? Not bad. The Times’ page 19 ad for anti-sweat “Miracle Shirts” (a “real” spoof from Gillette”)? Yes, quite good (like the eye...