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2011 (27)
Aug 11 2011 6:49PM
The Social Notwork

So, Iran has urged restraint in the policing of the London riots. The jokers. I am surprised they haven't sent an envoy to Amnesty’s Stand up for Freedom gig at The Edinbburgh Festival. And in reply , the UK gov has said to them we...

Aug 3 2011 5:04PM
On the lash in Singapore

Another stifling midsummer day and another story about Brits abroad. Getting caned. Though this time, this is not a classic binge-drinking Britain story, but a caning of another sort. British businessman Austin Cowburn from Manchester...

Jul 14 2011 4:06PM
Coming soon, to a screen near you

Watch all about it! Tis the eve of Amnesty TV Episode One- the one where it all began- and the hysterical tension is mounting across the UK. Amnesty TV will be a fortnightly, 15-minute, online, magazine-style show that will blend...

Jul 13 2011 5:57PM
Tales of woe - from the prison camps of North Korea

It is one of those Catch 22 paradoxes that human rights observers face; the worse a country is, the less you are likely to know about it. The drip feed of information from within North Korea, gives just a terrifying glimpse into the...

Jun 30 2011 4:03PM
Breaking the law

It is not often that people feel sorry for lawyers. But a new Amnesty report , made public today, details the concerted campaign in China to break the law; to suppress, intimidate and persecute lawyers who take up human rights cases...

Jun 23 2011 2:37PM
81 Days later

So hes out. With uncharacteristically few words, Ai Weiwei addressed the waiting hordes of journalists, saying simply Im out, Im happy. And then Im on bail, please understand. Thinly-veiled code for the conditions of his release that...

Jun 17 2011 5:29PM
Happy Birthday Aung San Suu Kyi?

This Sunday, is Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday. She will be 66. I wonder how she will choose to spend it. Having spent 15 of her last 20 years under house arrest in Rangoon, one might imagine this would be a time for celebration. This...

Jun 14 2011 6:14PM
Water shed and blood shed

There has been a lot of debate recently about what is appropriate, what is gratuitous, what is deliberately alarming and what is necessary for broadcast. From films which were deemed too graphic and disturbing to screen, to the...

May 31 2011 6:37PM
WANTED: EXECUTIONER

COMPETITIVE SALARY, MUST BE AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE START, EXPERIENCE NECESSARY It’s rare that the executioner is the one on the wanted list , but in India this week there is a hunt on. The perversity of advertising such a post, really...

May 27 2011 8:46PM
The icing, on the candle, on the birthday cake

Amnesty International, the world’s largest human rights organisation, is celebrating 50 years of work tomorrow- the 28 May 2011 . As if you didn’t know. Surely you must have clocked this wonderful, harrowing piece on the BBC about...

May 23 2011 4:41PM
Jamaica: a year on and no justice

A new Amnesty report is out today “J amaica: A long road to justice? – Human Rights violations under the state of emergency to mark the one year anniversary of the sensational stand off between armed residents of Tivoli Gardens in...

May 18 2011 7:37PM
Nobody wants to get stoned

I have spent most of the day loitering outside the Iranian embassy. It is not illegal but it is frowned upon. From a great height, through an open window, by burly looking security officials. I was there with 20 school children from...

May 11 2011 3:56PM
Best not: Uganda contemplates death penalty for gay people

Good, better, best never let them rest, until the good is better, and the better is best.This chant was always a favourite for me and my sisters when we were little- not just because it is delightfully, if simplistically, phonetically...

May 4 2011 7:38PM
Big Brother is back

Channel 4 might have jumped ship on that format, but here at Amnesty, we are still very into it. Today we released a new round of satellite images , which reveal the alarming rate at which secret prison camps in North Korea are...

Apr 26 2011 5:06PM
Andrew Marr and Ban Ki-moon come clean

Today was a day of publishing the previously unpublished. Andrew Marr elected to come out and reveal his identity as one of the unproud owners of a super injunction, and declared his intention to abandon any further attempts at gagging...

Apr 15 2011 4:54PM
UN-der wraps: secret report on last days of Sri Lanka civil war

I saw a film this week. It was a tragedy (you’re not the only one who can spoil the endings Niluccio ) and has haunted me since. It was a film about a father. A father who used to play his son at tennis. A father who has got a mantle...

Apr 11 2011 7:21PM
Ai Weiwei, one week on

Today China hit back at the tidal wave of international criticism it received following the arrest just over a week ago, of artist Ai Weiwei. The Guardian reports today that the Chinese authorities have produced their own human rights...

Apr 4 2011 5:09PM
50- not out

I once made the mistake of asking my dad if the garden was “finished”, yet. It turns out a garden is never finished. It’s a constant process of staying vigilant, planning your moves and slogging away. Similarly, fifty years on, it...

Mar 30 2011 5:49PM
Boundary dispute

Is sport imitating life, or life imitating sport? How much did you pay for your ticket? And, perhaps the most important question of all, who’s going to win? As Asia’s goliaths of cricket square up on the pitch, the recent animosity and...

Mar 25 2011 6:16PM
The pen and the penalty

Liu Xianbin was jailed this week , for 10 years. Guess what the offence was? Something heinous, something violent, something depraved, I hear you cry. Close, but no cigar. He wrote an essay. He actually wrote a number of articles which...

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