SHOCKING: Surge of Honor Killings in Pakistan

July 2, 2014 at 2:15 PM

Supporters of Tehrik-e-Minhaj ul Quran, an Islamic organisation, protest against ‘honor’ killings of women in Lahore (Photo Credit: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images).

By Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International’s Pakistan Researcher

For anyone following the news from Pakistan, the past few weeks have made for grim reading when it comes to violence against women.

Recently, a 21-year old woman in Punjab was found raped and strangled to death by the man she had trusted to save her from an “honor” killing by her family.

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Missing Guests – The U.S. Africa Summit

By Adotei Akwei

June 30, 2014 at 9:01 PM

Swaziland’s King Mswati III is one of nearly 40 heads of state on the guest list for President Obama’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit (Photo Credit: Stephane de Sakutkin/AFP/Getty Images).

Johanna Lee contributed to this post.

Starting August 4, the Obama Administration will host a mini replica of an African Union (AU) summit. As many as 40 heads of state from the continent will be on hand for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, a conference that will look at ways to boost trade and investment in the continent, tap into Africa’s burgeoning youth population, and promote good governance.

The idea for such a summit is laudable, considering the critical issues that will be discussed – issues that will continue to be key challenges for both Africa and U.S. policy towards the continent and as part of addressing the chronic need to raise educate the public about the realities of the different countries that make up Africa, unknown success stories and it’s untapped economic potential.

Unfortunately, unless a major change is made, the summit risks simply becoming an AU heads of state road trip with a photo-op at the end to confirm that they visited Washington before returning home.

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How We Can Stop Gun Violence and Save Lives

By Steven Hawkins

June 26, 2014 at 6:17 PM

Even though we live in a country whose firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries with comparable wealth and population size, we haven’t conducted extensive research as to why this is the case (Photo Credit: David McNew/Getty Images).

This past week, Amnesty International USA observed the Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence, along with our fellow NGOs in the International Action Network on Small Arms.

The majority of human rights abuses documented by Amnesty International are linked to guns. We’ve long recognized that their widespread availability creates a climate of fear and intensifies violence – involving countless numbers of people who have been tortured, killed, injured, raped and forced to flee from their homes.

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IVAWA Takes Center Stage in the Senate Tomorrow!

By Julia Drost

June 23, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Indian women take part in a protest demanding up to 33 percent representation for the upliftment of women’s rights (Photo Credit: Manan Vasyayana/AFP/Getty Images).

Human rights activists have long known what much of the world is starting to recognize and acknowledge: violence against women and girls is a human rights violation of epidemic proportions that touches every corner of the globe, impacting the ability of women and girls to access the full spectrum of their human rights.

Amnesty activists and our many coalition partners have worked for years to build momentum behind the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), a critical piece of legislation aimed at ensuring the United States does its part to end gender-based violence globally through its diplomatic and foreign assistance work. And thanks to our efforts, Members of Congress are taking notice.

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Boko Haram: Now What?

By Adotei Akwei

June 12, 2014 at 9:35 AM

Women hold banners during a march of Nigeria women and mothers of the kidnapped girls of Chibok, calling for their freedom (Photo Credit: Philip Ojisua/AFP/Getty Images).

Johanna Lee contributed to this post.

In mid-April, Islamist armed group Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls aged 15-18 from the village of Chibok in northeast Nigeria. The abductions triggered outrage, protests and a social media campaign criticizing the response of the Nigerian authorities and demanding a major effort to secure the freedom of the girls.

Yet, almost two months later, little, if any, progress has been made in freeing the kidnapped girls and the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and his security forces have failed to communicate a plan or even convince the families of the girls that they are doing all that they can to get the girls released.

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Can Angelina Jolie and the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Help Stop This Crisis?

By Cristina Finch

June 9, 2014 at 12:27 PM

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie arriving at the airport in Sarajevo to visit Bosnia ahead of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 27, 2014 (Photo Credit: Samir Yordamovic/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images).

When a violent conflict emerges, it is women and girls who bear the brunt of the conflict in some of the most horrific ways imaginable.

For example, from 2006 to 2007, faced with a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 400,000 girls and women between the ages of 15 and 49 were raped. In other words, every five minutes in the DRC, four women and girls were raped. These are human rights abuses perpetrated at an astounding rate.

These abuses have touched conflict zones across the world: from Bosnia to Syria to Colombia, and have become a prominent feature of modern armed conflict.

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The State of LGBT Rights Around The World

By Ian Lekus

May 17, 2014 at 9:00 AM

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is an opportunity to draw the attention of political and cultural leaders, the media, and the broader public to the human rights of LGBT people.

This IDAHOT, Amnesty International reaffirms our core belief that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to exercise their full human rights, and we stand in full solidarity with LGBT people whose fundamental rights are endangered.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people face disproportionately high levels of discrimination when accessing health care, education, housing, and employment. In almost 80 countries, consensual same-sex conduct remains criminalized; even where homosexuality has been decriminalized, LGBT people are frequently subject to arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, imprisonment, torture, and other violence.

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The Chibok Abductions: This is Not an Episode of the A-Team

By Adotei Akwei

May 16, 2014 at 4:51 PM

All lawful efforts must be made to locate the kidnapped girls and secure their safe release and the perpetrators of the attack must be brought to justice in an impartial court of law.

Sounds simple enough. But unlike the plot of an episode of an action drama, the reality on the ground is much more complex.

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SHOCKING: Gang-Raped Woman in Indonesia Faces Caning for Adultery

By Guest Writer

May 15, 2014 at 8:25 AM

A crowd watches as a woman is caned by a sharia police officer dressed in black robes at a public square in Aceh, Indonesia’s only province that practices partial sharia law (Photo Credit: Riza Lazuardi/AFP/Getty Images).

By Claudia Vandermade, Amnesty USA Southeast Asia Co-Group Chair and Action Network Coordinator

Yes – you read this blog title correctly. Maybe you shook your head, gasped, blinked your eyes and re-read it. The answer to your sputtered question is: Shari’a laws in Aceh, Indonesia.

On May 1, a group of eight men stormed into the woman’s house in Langsa district, accused her of having an affair with a married man, gang-raped her and beat her male companion. Now, she may face being caned a maximum of nine times for the crime of adultery.

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Nigeria: Bring Back Our Girls!

By Adotei Akwei

May 2, 2014 at 11:06 AM

Nigerians attend a demonstration to demand government to rescue schoolgirls abducted by suspected Boko Haram militants two weeks ago (Photo Credit: Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images).

On April 14, 234 school girls between the ages of 16 and 18 were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in Northern Nigeria by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram, which is opposed to any form of western education, has waged a brutal insurgency destabilizing different states in the northern part of the country at various points since 2009 with bombs, attacks on schools and the killings of thousands of individuals. Amnesty estimates that 2,300 people have died as a result of the armed conflict since 2010, with 1,500 being killed between January and March of 2014 alone.

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Human Rights Now Blog

Tag Archives: Violence against Women

Boko Haram: Now What?

Can Angelina Jolie and the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Help Stop This Crisis?

The State of LGBT Rights Around The World

SHOCKING: Gang-Raped Woman in Indonesia Faces Caning for Adultery