Young climate change activists from across the globe have received Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2019, for their work in the Fridays for Future movement spearheaded by Greta Thunberg of Sweden. “We are humbled and inspired by the determination with which youth activists across the world are challenging…
Zimbabwe is cracking down on its human rights activists, with two new arrests reported on Monday, according to Amnesty International. Stabile Dewah, 35, and 61-year-old Rita Nyamupinga were arrested at Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare as they returned from the Maldives, where they attended a training workshop on holding…
The conditions in Democratic Republic of Congo’s artisanal mines were front and center on Thursday, as Nordic Electric Vehicle (EV) Summit in Oslo focused on the future of clean-energy vehicles that rely on lithium-ion batteries. That’s because Amnesty International highlighted concern over the ever-increasing demand for cobalt and other minerals…
Senegal’s electoral commission has until Friday to release the former results of Sunday’s election, but the early results suggest that President Macky Sall is headed toward a second term. That said, the Commission Electorale Nationale Autonome (CENA) is asking candidates and their supporters to refrain from announcing victory or prematurely…
Voters in Senegal head to the polls on Sunday in a closely watched contest that’s raised concerns over electoral violence and a democratic process. Five candidates, including incumbent President Macky Sall, are competing for the presidency. The others include Issa Sall and the Unity and Assembly Party (PUR); Ousmane Sonko of…
Amnesty International issued an appeal Thursday on behalf of Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who is expected in military court today on charges which carry the death penalty. Kamto, head of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), is in the first group of 131 people who were arrested in January and…
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera media outlet confirmed Tuesday that the Sudanese government had pulled the credentials of three of its journalists covering weeks of economic and political unrest. Correspondents Osama Ahmed and Ahmed Alrehaid, along with photojournalist Badawi Bashir, have been barred despite earlier approval from the Sudanese Press and…
Congolese election officials face pressure from within and outside the country to release legitimate polling results, even as the CENI electoral commission warns of delays in publishing provisional results expected on Sunday. The Roman Catholic bishops of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), influential for more than two years…
Activists in Sudan say that more than 200 government websites have been shut down by the Anonymous group, in retaliation for Khartoum’s violent actions against Sudanese protesters. The main Sudanese government site, along with local and regional governments and various official agencies, remained inaccessible early Wednesday and had been for…
Have you been targeted by hostile trolls on Twitter? You’re not alone, and if you’re a female politician or journalist the odds are you’ve already encountered the experience plenty of times. A study of 288,000 tweets sent to 778 such women in 2017 demonstrated a pattern of abuse that’s especially…
After weeks of investigation into the October 2 death of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, the United States said Tuesday that it stands by its relationship with Riyadh – a move that critics say gives a green light to repressive, authoritarian governments in Africa and across the globe….
International human rights organization Amnesty International has issued another warning over the political violence in the West African nation of Guinea, which claimed another life on Tuesday. Opposition groups reported the shooting death of a 30 year-old man believed to be the victim of security forces in the capital of…
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir promised more than once to release political detainees, most recently in June when signing a peace agreement in Khartoum. Yet South Sudanese are still arbitrarily arrested, detained and tortured, according to an Amnesty International report released Tuesday. Most recently, Dr. Peter Biar Ajak, a prominent…
Funeral services were held Monday in Paris for Gaëtan Mootoo, a well-respected French Mauritanian researcher for Amnesty International in West Africa who died on May 25. So many people attended the memorial at the Père Lachaise cemetery that some stood in the rain, crowded around the entrance, according to France’s Liberation….
The global human rights community was in mourning Sunday after hearing the news that Gaëtan Mootoo, a well-respected French Mauritanian researcher for Amnesty International in West Africa, has died. The 65-year-old Mootoo died at the weekend in Paris, according to Amnesty International Benin. His cause of death was not immediately…