Country specialists blog

Written by Jerry Allen, Country Coordinator for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Leaked documents reveal Thai police cyber units targeted Amnesty International and activists, underscoring Thailand’s obligation to investigate surveillance and smear campaigns.

Activist-led campaign to highlight the human rights abuses related to gender and labour rights that impact individuals and communities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India. This blog post concentrates on 8 UK brands highlighted in the Abandoned by Fashion report are planning campaign actions and are encouraging our activists to suggest stunt ideas based on the asks described below.

Bangladesh’s authorities must uphold the rights of Dalit sanitation workers, who face economic marginalization and entrenched gender- and caste-based discrimination.

Once again young people have taken to the streets to voice long festering frustrations. Corruption, inequality, privilege for the few, lack of jobs, spiralling prices – a familiar scenario.

In Thailand's southernmost provinces, 43% of people who finally made it to trial after detention under emergency laws were acquitted and found not guilty due to lack of evidence.

The Indian government is pouring money into Indian administered Kashmir, building major roads, state of the art bridges and rail links, which sounds benevolent, but who will benefit?

Pakistan is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Its population of over 250 million suffers disproportionately from shifting weather patterns.

Pakistan is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Its population of over 250 million suffers disproportionately from shifting weather patterns.

Since last August there has been a wave of prosecutions targeting individuals linked, or perceived to be linked, to the previous Awami League government.

Because freedom of expression is not a concession: it is a right. And defending it is everyone's responsibility, though primarily the responsibility of those who swore to protect it.

A country that ignores its founding leader’s words, rewrites its constitution to limit rights, and targets loyal citizens has forgotten its own purpose.

Until every Afghan woman and girl can spread her wings and fly, our country will never truly know peace.

On April 2024, 126 Indigenous Bawm people, including 27 women and children, were arbitrary arrested as part of an ongoing military operation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh.  They have been in prison for more than a year on the…

Daulatdia in Bangladesh is officially a brothel village, but it's more like a prison where women are forced into sexual exploitation, most of whom were trafficked here. They are made to stay against their will and have nowhere else to go.

The situation for women and minorities in Bangladesh has deteriorated recently.  There have been more attacks on indigenous people over the last year.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/country-specialists/shattering-silence-urgent-call-recognise-gender-apartheid-and-empower

Forced disappearances have become a grim reality in Pakistan, particularly in regions like Balochistan. The systematic targeting of activists, political dissenters, and students has left thousands missing.

The question before us now is: What can we do? Can we stand by and watch as Afghan women are silenced and subjugated, or will we, as a nation, step up and take meaningful action?