Moving On From the Mountain: The Continuing Crisis in Northern Iraq

August 15, 2014 at 1:41 PM

Over 5,500 vehicles were observed immediately around Sinjar Mountain on August 7, with vehicles chaotically dispersed along dried riverbeds, roads, and the sides of the mountain (Photo Credit: DigitalGlobe 2014).

While extensive media attention has been paid to the plight of those who were under siege on Sinjar Mountain, the broader crisis in north-western Iraq continues.

Amnesty’s Senior Crisis Advisor is currently on the ground, collecting and sharing eyewitness accounts of the crisis. In many ways, the plight of those who were stranded on Sinjar helped focus international attention to the broader crisis.

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‘Nowhere in Gaza is Safe’: Fieldworker Tells of Life Under Bombs

By The Editors

July 28, 2014 at 4:20 PM

An Israeli army Merkava tank is positioned along the border in front of buildings in the Gaza Strip on July 28, 2014 (Photo credit: David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images).

Interview with a human rights fieldworker in Gaza

This morning as I brushed my teeth I could hear the familiar buzzing of a drone circling above our building. I ignored the sound. Drones circle overhead all the time – you never know whether it’s just for surveillance or an impending missile launch.

The uncertainty makes you feel helpless. What can anyone do?

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War Crimes Committed in the Battle for Mosul

By Guest Writer

July 1, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Iraqis forced to flee fighting in Mosul seek shelter in camps for internally displaced people (Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

By Donatella Rovera, Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International from Mosul, Iraq

Long lines of cars full of terrified families jammed the road as I left Mosul on June 25. The mass exodus is testament to the affect on civilians since fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) took control of the city.

As we headed east towards Erbil, militants from ISIS were indiscriminately shelling Hamdanyah, home to some of Iraq’s religious and ethnic minorities.

All sides are committing war crimes in the raging battle for control of Iraqi territory and resources.

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7 Things Afghanistan’s New President Must Do

By Cristina Finch

April 21, 2014 at 3:18 PM

An Afghan voter shows her inked finger after she cast her ballot at a local polling station (Photo Credit: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images).

Earlier this month, voters in Afghanistan cast their ballots in what is arguably the most crucial election in the history of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.The elections represent much more than the appointment of a president. For Afghanistan, which is nearing the end of a critical security transition, it signals the beginning of a new era.

The protection and promotion of human rights, especially those of women and girls, are critical to bringing security and stability to Afghanistan. Despite the challenging situation for women’s human rights in Afghanistan, women have worked hard to regain and advance their rights since the Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001.

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HAPPENING NOW: Horrific Violence and U.N. Peacekeepers Are Nowhere to Be Found

By Guest Writer

March 8, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Want to learn more about the crisis in the Central African Republic? Check out this story map created by Angela Chang, Amnesty USA’s Crisis Prevention & Response Advocate.

By Natalia Taylor Bowdoin, Amnesty USA’s Central African Republic Country Specialist

It’s a miracle she survived.

Amnesty’s crisis team met an 11-year-old Muslim girl in the Central African Republic this month. She was the lone survivor of a horrific assault on the village of Bouguere – in a country where sectarian violence has spiraled out of control.

Amnesty came to this region to investigate reports of mass killings and forced evictions of Muslims. Throughout our travels, we found case after case of mayhem and death.

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Ethnic Cleansing: What We Learned in the Central African Republic

By Guest Writer

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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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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The Forgotten Victims of Haiti’s Earthquake

By Guest Writer

January 13, 2014 at 9:16 AM

A Brazilian soldier of the MINUSTAH force hugs an Haitian child orphaned by the 2010 earthquake (Photo Credit: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images).

By Chiara Liguori, Amnesty International Caribbean Researcher. This piece originally appeared on CNN World’s Global Public Square.

Four years ago, a devastating earthquake struck the Caribbean island of Haiti, leaving an estimated 200,000 people dead and more than 2 million homeless. It was a disaster on an almost unprecedented scale. And, for a country already wracked by poverty with so many institutional weaknesses, it was a complete catastrophe.

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Avoid Mass Slaughter: U.N. Peacekeepers Needed To Protect Civilians During #CARCrisis @AmbassadorPower @StateDept

By Christoph Koettl

December 3, 2013 at 8:00 AM

This week could be the tipping point for the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic, which continues to spin out of control. With the situation worsening on a daily basis, including extrajudicial killings and rape, the U.N. Security Council will meet Thursday to vote on a resolution related to the deployment of peacekeeping forces to the country.

This vote presents a unique opportunity to start pulling the country back from the brink. However, public pressure is needed over the following days to demand a robust peacekeeping force with a strong human rights mandate to protect civilians, including many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees. We are thus calling on the decision makers in France, the UK and the U.S. to support our demands. You can participate in this campaigning push through our global Twitter action that accompanies our media, lobby and field work.

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The Dirty Secret Behind Cairo’s Development Dreams

By The Editors

November 14, 2013 at 1:29 PM

12 million Egyptians live in informal settlements. Thousands inhabit the tombs of bygone nobels in Cairo’s City of the Dead pictured here (Photo Credit: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images).

Egyptian lawyer Abdel Nasser Ahmed Mohamed Alsayed still struggles to live with the memories of the day he was forced out of his house in Old Cairo.

It was March 2009. Riot police showed up, beat him and threw his belongings out the window. Lorries then took his furniture, books and everything he worked hard for to ‘October 6 City’ and dumped them on the street.

The Egyptian authorities gave Abdel Nasser a small flat, 45 kilometres outside Old Cairo, but he never got a contract, so he now faces being evicted again.

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Human Rights Now Blog

Tag Archives: internally displaced persons

Moving On From the Mountain: The Continuing Crisis in Northern Iraq

‘Nowhere in Gaza is Safe’: Fieldworker Tells of Life Under Bombs

War Crimes Committed in the Battle for Mosul

HAPPENING NOW: Horrific Violence and U.N. Peacekeepers Are Nowhere to Be Found