Press releases
World's Biggest Arms Traders Promise Global Arms Treaty - 30 October 2009
Today at the United Nation years of discussions and debates, the vast majority of governments – 153 in total - agreed a timetable to establish a "strong and robust" Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) with the "highest common standards" to control international transfers of conventional arms. There is currently no global Treaty on the conventional arms trade.Tunisia: Assaults on journalists must be punished - 30 October 2009
The assault of two independent journalists in Tunisia and the arrest of a third in the wake of last week’s elections must be punished, Amnesty International said today. “It appears that these three journalists were targeted because they have criticized the government and opposed the re-election, for a fifth term, of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme. “This is an extremely worrying development, indicating that there is likely to be no let-up in the Tunisian government’s repression of dissent.” Slim Boukhdhir, an independent journalist who has previously been jailed for writing articles critical of the government, was stopped in the street and forced into a car last Wednesday evening by five men in plain clothes, all believed to be police or security officials.Obama should follow UN lead on Cuba embargo - 29 October 2009
Barack Obama should follow the lead of the UN General Assembly and take all necessary steps to end its economic embargo against Cuba, said Amnesty International today after the UN body condemned US sanctions against the island.Iran: Criminalising freedom of expression - 29 October 2009
Amnesty International is calling on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to immediately retract his statement on Wednesday that criticising the outcome of June’s presidential election is a crimeAfghanistan: German government must investigate deadly Kunduz airstrikes - 29 October 2009
The German government should immediately launch a credible, transparent investigation into a 4 September airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that killed scores of people, many of them civilians, Amnesty International said today.
The German military said on Thursday that NATO’s investigation suggested the airstrike, which targeted two fuel tanker trucks that had been hijacked by Taleban fighters five hours earlier, was appropriate even though it led to civilian casualties.
Amnesty international’s investigation into the Kunduz incident suggests that the laws of war may have been violated during the airstrike.
