While queuing to buy a paper at my local newsagents this morning I noticed Michael Jackson’s greatest hits were being played in the background. It took me a little while to clock that as well as the shop owners being Jacko fans, they...

I admit it. I know absolutely nothing about football. I don’t know my penalty-kicks from my corners. But that said, I always enjoy the World Cup. It’s the buzz, the spirit of national camaraderie and the general jubilant atmosphere...

It’s been nearly a week since the violence in the beautifully-named Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica escalated, and still the situation is not under control . The Voice of America reports that the death toll has now reached 73 and hundreds of...

On 2 November 2000, ten people waiting for a bus in a village in the Indian province of Manipur were shot dead by a group of paramilitaries. The next day, deeply upset by the bus stop killings, Sharmila Irom began her hunger strike...

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...

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...

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...

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...

“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...

The sight alone of the Taser XREP – or ‘super Taser’ – is enough to send chills down the spine of even the bravest person. Described by my colleague Oliver Sprague as a ‘ shotgun that fires electric-shock bullets ’, the XREP is a...

Reports that the Lord’s Resistance Army carried out a brutal massacre against men, women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s north-eastern Orientale province last December have been today refuted by the rebel group...

Spiked batons, thumb cuffs and stun belts are not exactly commodities you’ll see on a shopping channel or your average retail catalogue here in the UK. But these tools of torture – which really are the stuff of nightmares – are...

Figures out today show that the situation for thousands of women in developing countries today is as bad as it was for women in the UK in 1910. In 1910 in the UK, figures available show that 355 women per 100,000 live births died as a...

Speaking on 5 Live this morning – one BBC radio station that’s safe from the axe at the moment – Mike Wooldridge discussed President Jacob Zuma’s “action-packed” state visit to the UK – his first since assuming presidency in South...

Guinea is one African country which is rarely reported on. So last September’s bloody protests took much of the international media by surprise as they witnessed how scores of people were killed and hundreds were attacked by security...

It seems as though the government of Burkina Faso has been the bearer of good news twice in the last 10 days or so. It’s not often we say that about any country’s government. But their decision to ratify the international cluster...

The arrest of 21-year-old gay rights campaigner in Malawi described by the BBC as ‘gay-poster man’ is just one more step in the targeting of the LGBT community in that southern African country. The reason for Peter Sawali’s arrest...

As the glare of the media spotlight fades from Haiti, the reconstruction and relief effort is only just beginning – and there’s where we need to ensure that women and girls’ rights is not forgotten. In 2008 Amnesty produced a report...

Ouagadougou – now there’s a capital city you don’t hear much about. It’s a name which you’d be expected to know in a pub quiz – “name the capital of Burkina Faso…!” Well, now you’ve read this, you’ll have the answer. But if you really...

Today’s report published by ten aid agencies about the volatile situation in Sudan has kick-started the debate about the need for greater international attention to be paid to that country this year. Simon Tisdall’s briefing in today’s...