The UN Security Council, so often criticised for putting politics before principles and failing to take decisive action, has done the right thing by imposing a strong arms embargo on Libya. Sales and transfers of a wide range of...

Discontent is catching, that’s the fear. It seems to be a valid one. As one populace after another looks over at their neighbour, newly freed from the shackles of repressive government, and thinks I want that- it could be me...

We’re watching you, that was the implicit message from the Amnesty team when an Amnesty researcher recently returned from the latest trip to investigate the human rights situation in the Ivory Coast, said : “The eyes of the world may...

In several speeches last year, the recently-elected coalition government announced a new “direction” to foreign policy, interpreted by many as one with a greater emphasis on trade. But William Hague was keen to stress that there would...

Back in my student days I used to read quite a bit of hack journalism. Yes, that’s right, I was poring over 17th-century newspapers with titles like “The Monethly intelligencer” (correct spelling), “Mercurius Melancholicus” and...

Mikhael Gorbachev this afternoon compared the events in the Middle East and North Africa to the collapse of eastern Europe’s Communist bloc – and as protests have spread across the region it’s easy to see why. I like his quote: "They...

It’s not often you see doctors and other medical staff shouting and screaming with anger, but that’s exactly what’s been happening in Bahrain. Staff at the Salminiya hospital in Manama have been expressing absolute outrage at the...

For all I know the Trinidadian prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar may have a long-held personal belief in the value of capital punishment. She may even be a member of what we (rather over-quaintly) used to call the “hang ‘em and...

This tweet from The Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg ( @carolrosenberg ) caught my eye recently: Deputy prison camps commander on #Guantanamo captives' reaction when Hosni Mubarak stepped down in Egypt: "It was the talk of the town." Yes...

Recent events in North Africa and the Middle East, where reporters have been harassed, arrested and attacked while trying to report on pro-democracy protests, have reminded me again of the importance (and difficulty) of good human...

The apparent success of the Tahrir Square protest seems to have triggered a wave of demonstrations around the world over the weekend. Algeria was hard on Egypts heels on Friday with its pro-democracy rally, while the people of Yemen...

Where in the world is the worst place to be gay? This is the hefty question a Radio One DJ will tackle on BBC3 this coming Monday. Uganda has got to be up there in the running. Presenter Scott Mills had a personal taste of the violent...

I found myself yesterday secreted in an airless passage at the UK Parliament’s Portcullis House with the Dominic Casciani from the BBC and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez, talking accountability. It was one of those...

The protests are nothing if not unpredictable, and after a media story had set in earlier this week about the Egyptian protests “running out of steam”, we’ve now had, according to most estimates, the biggest so far. With newly-released...

Tomorrow marks a key moment for Dr Binayak Sen – his trial re-starts. Now those of you who don’t know much about him, here’s a brief overview. Doctor – human rights defender – works in conflict zone in India – accused by government of...

By degrees it’s slipping out of the headlines, but the Egypt story is still hugely important for anyone who cares about human rights in Egypt and the wider region. With “normality” breaking out in terms of some people going back to...

Protests continue in Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt (not to mention elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East) with ‘hundreds of thousands’ of people in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The Guardian’s live update i s saying that there have...

At the time of posting the situation in Egypt is on a knife-edge. After the peacefulness of the “million-person” protest on Tuesday, yesterday’s violence was a horrible, jolting sight. There are, of course, lots of claims that armed...

Maja Abramchik is a 21-year-old student from Belarus. On 19 December last year, when she heard that there were protests about the disputed election, Maja and her friends went down to Minsk’s main square to see what was happening...

So as the Tunisian scent of jasmine wafts its way across Egypt and Yemen, speculation is growing as to whether this pungent aroma could be heading south. Many – including Amnesty – have speculated that the recent uprisings across...