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Jan 12 2011 1:15PM
Two cheers for Illinois

Brief one today - I'm in a big all-day media meeting with press officers from around the world (Alastair Campbell eat your heart out). So, my mini-reflection for the day is … it's not all gloom and doom coming out of the USA. In the...

Jan 11 2011 11:28AM
Guantánamo: nine years and counting

Call me an inveterate numerologist, but with the date on the palindromic 11/1/11 I think it’s only right to take stock of the situation at Guantánamo in numerical fashion. First off, and most obviously, today is – almost unbelievably –...

Jan 10 2011 5:46PM
Thin times: Tunisia's bloody protests

A couple of years ago Amnesty starting warning of the dangers of a global economic downturn leading to a deterioration in human rights around the world. With recent “food and jobs” protests in Tunisia and Algeria, we seem to be getting...

Jan 5 2011 4:44PM
Freebird: the Saudi spy vulture affair

If it had been the first day of April yesterday and not boring old 4 January (1/4 not 4/1) I don’t think many people would have believed that story about the vulture that was "arrested" in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of spying for Israel...

Dec 24 2010 11:55AM
2010: the years top ten human rights stories (part 2)

Yesterday I tore myself away from the Lib Dems tapes story and updates on "weather chaos" and people's last-minute Christmas shopping long enough to post the first five of my top ten human rights stories of 2010. Here are the next five...

Dec 23 2010 12:54PM
2010: the years top ten human rights stories (part 1)

Blimey, what a year. And here’s my take on it. In this two-part post – one today, one tomorrow – I’m giving you my top ten human rights stories from 2010. In no particular order – only rough chronology – here then are the first five...

Dec 21 2010 1:33PM
Do they know its Christmas in Iraq, Egypt, India, the DRC?

After that mightily big Assange interview on the Today programme this morning they rounded off the programme with one of those “light” items at 8.55 where a couple of semi-regular guests chat about something topical. Today it was The...

Dec 20 2010 4:39PM
Belarus: theres no such thing as a dictatorship, just human rights abuse

There’s no such thing as bad weather, the Russians say , just bad clothing. I take the point. Wear leaky leather-soled shoes (like me!) and you’ll slither around in the snow with freezing cold feet. We Brits cling on to our skimpy...

Dec 16 2010 11:35AM
Back in June: football failure, violence in Kyrgyzstan

Back in the days before England were thrashed by Germany and dumped out of the World Cup – and obviously back before Sepp Blatter was making “jokes” about abstinent gay football fans in Qatar in 2022 – I remember being in a pub in east...

Dec 14 2010 6:28PM
The laughing Sudanese policeman

As even the occasional reader of my posts may have noticed, I like to slip in the odd musical reference. It’s a foible of mine. Anyway, here it is. When I was young (long, long ago) I always seemed to be hearing so-called “novelty...

Dec 7 2010 12:23PM
Ramze Shihab Ahmed: lost in Iraqs chaotic justice system

Here’s a question for you. What were you doing on 7 December 2009? Come on, I’ll have to hurry you. (Have a think about it and let me know later). OK, silly question, but I’m asking because exactly one year ago the UK-Iraqi dual...

Dec 2 2010 3:31PM
Mr President, we dont have a warrant for your arrest: the UK goes soft on war crimes

On a busy news day yesterday (snow chaos, more WikiLeaks bombshells, mounting anticipation over the Fifa world cup decision: congrats Russia, by the way) the government slipped out a very important item on the procedures for issuing...

Dec 1 2010 2:29PM
WAGs: not a laughing matter in Iran

I must confess I never got to see the sensational ITV series Footballers’ Wives and therefore I missed out on the story of “ordinary women, struggling to keep their marriages intact while their husbands dazzle the crowds on the pitch”...

Nov 30 2010 4:13PM
From here to eternity: the Gaza blockade

If a week is a long time in politics, then six months must be close to an eternity. It should (one would think) be enough time for Israel’s much-trumpeted “easing” of its blockade on Gaza to have brought some real improvements to the...

Nov 26 2010 11:22AM
Egypt's elections: a time of danger

The other day a volunteer in the Amnesty media office where I work said “there’s always violence” in Egypt when they have elections. She was in the country for the 2005 elections, she said, and “We didn’t go out of the house. It was...

Nov 22 2010 11:52AM
Another strange week in the life of Guantánamo

It’s been a strange few days on Guantánamo (even for seasoned Guantánamo watchers like me, and I’ve been bashing out Amnesty press releases on this miserable place since the first boiler-suited inmates were dumped there in 2002). First...

Nov 16 2010 1:52PM
The war on language: renditions

Ghost prisoners. Enhanced interrogations. Stress and duress techniques. Black sites. Enemy combatants. Spot the connection? Yes, as readers of this blog will certainly know, they’re all new – or rediscovered – phrases associated with...

Nov 9 2010 1:33PM
Damn wrong!: Bush on waterboarding

It’s a blast from the past, and not a very pleasant one at that. George W Bush’s remarks justifying waterboarding in interviews to promote his memoir are … frankly, appalling. Here’s a bit from today’s Times: Asked if he authorised the...

Nov 3 2010 2:01PM
Ashtiani: a death foretold but still preventable

Fears are once again mounting that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran is about to be executed. As readers of this blog will know, this 43-year-old mother has been in grave danger of execution for months. Indeed she has become the world...

Nov 1 2010 12:57PM
The Yemen cargo plot: no laughing matter

There’s a joke I’ve seen on Twitter along the lines of “buying printer cartridges will never be the same again” and you know what the joke-maker means. After the “underpants” bomb attempt on Christmas Day last year, there’s a bizarrely...

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