The government's increased surveillance, harassment and imprisonment of activists is to prevent them from raising human rights concerns that challenge the authorities' image of social harmony.
A detainee was seriously injured and had to be hospitalized as a clash
broke out between the Sri Lankan Army and detainees being held at
a school in Vavuniya in north-eastern Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Amnesty International's new report shows how Spain has one of the strictest
detention regimes in Europe, which is in breach of the country's
obligations under international human rights law.
Only a fraction of nearly 300,000 people who were displaced by recent
fighting in the north east of Sri Lanka have been allowed to leave
government camps since the war ended in May.
Chilean Judge Victor Montiglio issued the arrest warrants against the
agents in relation to a number of security operations that targeted
opponents of Augusto Pinochet during the 1970s.
Prominent human rights organizations request that the latest
draft Disappearances bill in Nepal be amended to make it comply with
international law and standards.
US Attorney General Eric Holder has
ordered a "preliminary review" into the secret detention programme operated by the CIA after
the attacks of 11 September 2001. It's a welcome first step but it's not enough, says Amnesty International.
Human rights organizations in the Indian state of Manipur, have alleged that the police abducted Bidyarani Devi Salam to make her parents - who were suspected of helping local
armed opposition groups – give themselves up.
Governments use enforced disappearance as a tool of repression to
silence dissent and eliminate political opposition, as well as to
persecute ethnic, religious and political groups. Seven more countries need to commit to the UN's Convention on Enforced Disappearance for it to come into force.
All around the world, families wait to find out what happened to those loved ones who have been taken away from them by agents of the state or by people acting with its support or acquiescence.
