Human Rights

Thanks to the innovative and open source Frontline SMS system, pro-democracy e-activists at Kubatana have managed to

Israel admits breaking the ceasefire in November 2008 in an interview on Channel 4 news..

MediaLens has an analysis of bias in the UK media coverage of the Gaza conflict, with suggested actions.

Such great attention was paid this week to one of the many documents posted on Wikileaks that the load caused the site to be unavailable.

The Home Office appeal against Brian’s right to remain in the Square has been successful, so peace activist Brian Haw may have to end his five-year vigil outside Parliament. But all is not lost… there is some negotiation taking place over the conditions the police wish to impose on Brian’s protest. Indymedia report as the situation unfolds.

Tell the Deputy commander of the Israeli Ground Forces what you think of Israeli action in Gaza.

The Court found the Greek state responsible for the inhuman and degrading treatment two Romani man suffered at the hands of police, as well as the subsequent failure to conduct an effective official investigation.

New evidence demonstrated in 2005 that torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch said.

India’s latest attempt to tackle the Hindu caste system is a special course to prepare people in the “lowest” castes in Bangalore for careers in some of the world’s top IT companies.

Join the Zim Human Rights Forum on 26 June – the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

…is the government. Support Burma Campaign’s call to bring human rights and democracy to Burma.

Dismay and sadness around the world as stories about a huge turnout and the greatest challenge to the status quo for years turn to reports of fraud. Iran’s protesters are being beaten in the streets, and communications have been blocked.

Popular comedian Zarganar faces 45 years in jail for organising aid runs to victims of Cyclone Nargis

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights is deeply saddened and extremely concerned about this cancellation and what it implies about the supposed support of the government for women’s empowerment and c

Human rights activists have condemned the arrest of at least 30 peaceful protesters at demonstrations on 26 and 27 April, held in support of pro-reform judges.

In the wake of Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, European countries are set to increase the pressure to close the detention centre, and “be guided by established international legal standards, including international human rights law”.

Human Rights Watch has presented Beatrice Were, national HIV/AIDS coordinator for ActionAID International, and a leading advocate for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, with its highest honor, the Human Rights Watch Defender Award. Listen to her recent BBC radio interview.

More than a hundred lawyers who specialise in handling police complaints resigned from the advisory body of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in protest at the “consistently poor qua

Be part of the 3-mile-long “human chain handshake” and help to peacefully send a message for a Tibet-China dialogue around the world.

After the brutal suppression of popular demonstrations against South Korea’s new US beef import deal, the government is requesting that portals delete dissident blog postings.

is still awaiting a verdict, four months after his trial for ‘incitement to subvert state sovereignty’. This delay is a further violation of Chinese legal codes, says RSF, and it is clear there is insufficient evidence to convict.

Activists and indigenous groups condemn Gordon Brown’s offer of military help for Shell in the Niger Delta.

In the week of remembrance Sunday, peace activist Maya Anne Evans, convicted in 2005 for reading the names of British soldiers killed in the Iraq war opposite Downing Street, faced prison for her remembrance ceremony when she attended Horseferry Road Court on Tuesday to explain why she is refusing to pay the £250 fine. Instead the district judge decided to prolong the agony still further by giving 28 more days to pay, followed by pressure from the bailiffs.

Maya Evans was also arrested in 2007 for daring to express views against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan outside the Labour Party Conference.

Tell SADC leaders to stop weapons shipments from reaching Zimbabwe.

Sign the petition to protest the arrest of nine women campaigning to end discriminatory laws.

The European Commission’s new website on the Roma aims to provide information on the EU’s activities in support of the Roma, Gypsy and Traveller community across Europe.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), leading the fight against forced labour in United States agriculture, is being presented with the 2007 Anti-Slavery A

Anti-apartheid veterans have put their names to an open letter lamenting the parallel injustices in the history of struggle in Israel and South Africa

Amnesty International today published the details of CIA flights that used United Kingdom airfields to refuel just hours after transferring detainees to countries where they risked torture.

Asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants are to be offered a £3,000 bounty to leave Britain voluntarily. The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) feel this offer is misguided and dangerous.

Join the online international outcry at the inhumanity of the Burmese Junta.

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses

Human Rights Watch has a 149pp report on how China keeps control of free thought on the net, including with co-operation from Microsoft, Skype, and search engines. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee also denounced such collaboration as ‘morally unacceptable’, and HRW suggests ways of bringing pressure to bear. The report itself is also likely to be censored – read our mirror of it here.

The High Court has granted permission for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House to bring a full judicial review hearing against the UK Government’s decision to cut short an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into alleged corruption by environmentally friendly BAE Systems in recent arms deals with Saudi Arabia. Lord Justice Moses agreed that the issue “cries out for a public hearing” in everyone’s interests. The hearing is scheduled for Jan or Feb 2008.

to Malawi to imprisonment and onward deportation to Zimbabwe.

Protest Saturday 23rd February 2008, 5-7pm, Opposite No10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London

Join the call for Zimbabwean exiles to be allowed to work and acquire skills in the UK.

In the wake of Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, European countries are set to increase the pressure to close the detention centre, and “be guided by established international legal standards, including international human rights law”.

&#8220, If Turkey can make the necessary changes by the end of this year and then show a full year&#8217, s track record of respect for human rights, there should be no further obstacles to EU membership negotiations in December 2004.&#8221,

The people of Sarajevo call for an end to recent homophobic brutality.

Since October 2007, Parwiz Kambakhsh, a 23 year old Afghan journalist, has been in prison in Northern Afghanistan and sentenced to execution for blasphemy. His ‘crime’ was distributing articles downloaded from the internet that questioned the condition of women under Islam.

In a landmark case a family of gypsies lost their House of Lords appeal that their eviction from a public recreation ground near Leeds breached their human rights.

Join the call for Primark to take responsibility, not cut and run.

Demonstrate to stop the killing of Palestinians and call for a halt to the Israeli bombardment.

The US government is seeking the death penalty against six men currently held at Guantanamo Bay which it calls “high-value” detainees.

Reports of violent xenophobic attacks on migrants in South Africa are fueling calls for South Africans to honour the spirit of tolerance enshrined in their constitution.

Human Rights Watch identifies human rights challenges in need of attention in places like Chad, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia’s Ogaden region, Iraq, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan’s Darfur region, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others.

- For the third time Yahoo has been implicated in the arrest of a cyberdissident in China. In 2003 Jiang Lijun was sentenced to four years in prison for his pro-democracy articles published online. According to Reporters without Borders a copy of the court verdict shows that Yahoo helped the Chinese police to identify him.

The IWPR reports on evidence that proves the Zimbabwean election recount was a ruse