Ethnic Cleansing: What We Learned in the Central African Republic

February 27, 2014 at 2:40 PM

The Central African Republic has been torn by bloody sectarian clashes since Muslim rebels ousted president Francois Bozize in March 2013 and replaced him with their leader Michel Djotodia, who was himself forced out last month (Photo Credit: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images).

The Central African Republic has been torn apart by bloody sectarian clashes since Muslim rebels ousted president Francois Bozize in March 2013 and replaced him with their leader Michel Djotodia, who was himself forced out last month (Photo Credit: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images).

By Natalia Taylor Bowdoin, Central African Republic Country Specialist

Last week, Amnesty met with the President of the Central African Republic – a country where clashes between the Christian majority and Muslim minority have resulted in war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

Christian militias are carrying out violent attacks in an effort to drive Muslims from the country. In response, Amnesty is demanding that international peacekeeping forces stop the violence and station troops in towns where Muslims are threatened.

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SHOCKING: Teenage Gang-Rape Survivor in Sudan Convicted of ‘Indecent Acts’

By Guest Writer

February 25, 2014 at 8:00 AM

An 18-year-old Ethiopian migrant woman in Sudan was gang-raped – and now faces prison and a hefty fine for coming forward (Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images).

By Alice Dahle, Amnesty USA’s Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group

An 18-year-old Ethiopian migrant woman in Khartoum, Sudan was out looking for housing, when she was lured into an empty property and gang-raped by seven men. A police officer found her after the attack and took her to the police station. However, since it was a public holiday, a formal complaint was not filed.

The perpetrators of the rapes filmed the attack and distributed the video through social media six months later. As a result, everyone involved was arrested.

Of the seven men put on trial, three were convicted of adultery and sentenced to 100 lashes. Two more were convicted of indecent acts and sentenced to 40 lashes and fines. Another man was convicted of distributing indecent material and sentenced to 40 lashes and a heavy fine. The seventh individual was released on grounds of insufficient evidence against him. Those sentenced to lashing had their sentences carried out immediately after the trial in a closed court.

But that’s not where the story ends.

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Most Dangerous Journey: What Central American Migrants Face When They Try to Cross the Border

By Guest Writer

February 20, 2014 at 12:58 PM

A group of 33 Central American womeA group of 33 Central American women traveling in a caravan across Mexico in search of migrant relatives (Photo Credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images)

A group of 33 Central American women traveling in a caravan across Mexico in search of migrant relatives (Photo Credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images).

By Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

The scrub-lands and desert in Mexico’s northern state of Coahuila are the last stop for Central American migrants before attempting to cross the border into the USA.

By the time they reach Saltillo, Coahuila’s capital, they have made a perilous journey of nearly 2,000 kilometers. Along the way, many of these men, women and children suffer assaults, robbery and abduction by criminal gangs. There are also reports of extortion and ill-treatment by police and immigration officials. Tragically, some migrants are killed before they even get this far.

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Counting Bodies in the Central African Republic

By Guest Writer

February 14, 2014 at 11:15 AM

Eleven-year-old Fati suffered deep machete wounds to her head and arm in an attack by anti-balaka militia in Boali. Six people were killed and 20 others were injured in the same attack (Photo Credit: Amnesty International).

By Donatella Rovera, Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International

The body of a 10-year-old boy, shot dead, whose hand had been cut off with a machete.

The remains of the sons of a 76-year-old man who narrowly escaped death after anti-balaka fighters shot him three times and left him for dead.

The lifeless body of a six-month-old baby, brutally murdered alongside 12 of her relatives in front of her cousin, who was forced to witness her father being decapitated.

“They killed my children heartlessly. They were slaughtered in front of our eyes,” cried a Muslim woman whose four sons were killed by anti-balaka fighters in late January.

Welcome to life in the Central African Republic.

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Months After Riots, Indian Refugees Are Still Suffering

By Guest Writer

January 28, 2014 at 3:00 PM

14-year-old Feroze Khan breaks down after hearing his parents talk about his younger brother who died in Malakpur camp due to cold. More than 50 children and many old age people have died because of cold and lack of medical facilities in the relief camps set up for Muzaffarnagar riots victims (Photo Credit: Raj k Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty Images).

NOTE: This blog has been updated due to changing circumstances on the ground.

By James Mutti, India Country Specialist, Amnesty International USA

The riots that killed over 50 people and engulfed the northern Indian district of Muzaffarnagar in August and September of 2013 have been over for months.

But for tens of thousands of mostly Muslim refugees forced from their homes in the violence, the injustice continues today. Those guilty of murder, rape, arson and other violent crimes continue to walk free, and dozens of young children have frozen to death in squalid, make-shift refugee camps.

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For Syrian Refugees, Life is Only Getting Harder

By Guest Writer

January 3, 2014 at 3:26 PM

Women at Arbat complained that Iraqi Kurdish security officials there forbad them from leaving the camp unless accompanied by a male relative © Amnesty International.

By Neil Sammonds, Syria Researcher at Amnesty International

Sitting on a thin mattress inside a ramshackle structure on a muddy hilltop, elderly Abu Fares told me how he came to live in poverty in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.

For the past 11 months, he and his wife – along with around 200 families – have been eking out a living in makeshift shelters on the outskirts of the overcrowded Domiz refugee camp near the city of Dohuk.

They are among tens of thousands who fled here amid the ongoing armed conflict in Syria.

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Massive Syrian Refugee Crisis Visible From Space

By Christoph Koettl

December 16, 2013 at 12:18 PM

Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, March 2013. Click to explore. Image © DigitalGlobe 2013 © Google Earth

The massive displacement crisis stemming from Syria’s ongoing conflict is increasingly visible from space. Satellite images on Google Earth reveal the growth of what in some cases looks like the emergence of whole new cities over the last two years.

A new project published today by one of our volunteers, Richard Cozzens, presents some of the most compelling images, providing a grim snapshot of the dire humanitarian situation in and around Syria. The satellite images show camps in the countries that are most affected by the influx of refugees, such as Turkey and Jordan. For example, what was an empty spot in the desert in September 2011 is now the huge refugee camp Zaatari in Jordan.

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This 4-Year-Old Girl Was the Victim of a Brutal Machete Attack in CAR – And She’s Not the Only One

By Guest Writer

December 16, 2013 at 11:29 AM

Amnesty International researchers spoke with a mother and her 4-year-old daughter who were the victims of a machete attack (Photo Credit: Susanna Flood/Amnesty International).

By Susanna Flood, Director of Media at Amnesty International

Her voice began to choke and then the tears began to flow down her face as she calmly and steadily recounted the long list of names of all the women and children killed in her village when the anti-balaka struck a week ago.

Sitting in a darkened hospital ward at the Hôpital Communautaire, she gracefully removed her headscarf and revealed the stitches laced across her scalp where the machete had struck. Alongside her was her four-year-old daughter with a matching wound on her head, also the victim of machete attacks.

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Have You Seen What’s Happening in the Central African Republic?

By Guest Writer

December 4, 2013 at 1:16 PM

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence gripping Central African Republic (Photo Credit: Matthew Alexandre/AFP/GettyImages).

By Natalia Taylor Bowdoin, Amnesty USA Country Specialist on the Central African Republic

If we were warned that a disaster, including the mass slaughter of civilians, was brewing, wouldn’t most of us want to do whatever we could to stop it? Or would we rather live with the knowledge that, despite all our promises to never see another human tragedy on a grand scale, the global community let it happen again?

That is the question before world leaders this week as the United Nations Security Council decides on intervention options in the Central African Republic (CAR), a country at the heart of Africa that has been largely ignored by the world for decades, yet a country whose people now are crying out for assistance from unconscionable acts of violence. But will the world respond this time?

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The Quick Way You Can Take Action for Syrian Women Facing Gender Violence

By Geoffrey Mock

December 3, 2013 at 12:52 PM

To get to the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, Syrian women and girls had to face a gauntlet of deadly violence including extortion, trafficking and abuse. Once in the camps, they expected to find safety.

What they found, according to Amnesty International researchers, was more danger and the threat of gender violence.

A majority of the 2.9 million Syrian refugees are women and children. Having fled violence, and often surviving a treacherous journey across the Syrian desert, these refugees sought safety and shelter in the camps. More than 120,000 of them made their way to the Za’atri camp, making it the largest refugee camp in Jordan.

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Human Rights Now Blog

Category Archives: Refugee and Migrant Rights

Most Dangerous Journey: What Central American Migrants Face When They Try to Cross the Border

Counting Bodies in the Central African Republic

Massive Syrian Refugee Crisis Visible From Space

The Quick Way You Can Take Action for Syrian Women Facing Gender Violence