Human rights defenders across the Americas are facing escalating levels of intimidation, harassment and attacks at the hands of state security forces, paramilitary groups and organized crime, Amnesty International said in a new report today.

Taiwan must not succumb to public pressure and revert to using the death penalty, Amnesty International said as it urged an immediate moratorium on capital punishment as a first step towards its abolition.

President Bouterse must not be allowed to walk away from his responsibility in the torture and death of 15 people in Suriname in December 1982, Amnesty International said today, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the killings.

Members of the armed forces and police suspected of criminal responsibility in serious human rights violations may evade justice because of a planned constitutional reform in Colombia, Amnesty International warned today.

Imprisoned prisoner of conscience Nasrin Sotoudeh, is reported to have ended her 49-day strike after the Iranian authorities lifted a travel ban on her 13-year-old daughter.

A raft of gross and deeply disturbing abuses committed by an al-Qa’ida affiliate and Yemeni government forces during their struggle for the control of the southern region of Abyan in 2011 and 2012 must be the subject of impartial, thorough and independent inquiries, Amnesty International said in a new report out today.

The Israeli government's announcement that it is to expand settlements in the West Bank in response to the UN vote on Palestinian statehood violates human rights and international humanitarian law, Amnesty International said today.

Chen Kegui, nephew of exiled blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, is understood to have received three years and three months imprisonment from a Shangdong court in eastern China.  

13 opposition activists and prisoners of conscience must be released immediately by the Bahrain authorities, Amnesty International said today ahead of a court decision on their case next week.

A draft constitution approved by Egypt’s Constituent Assembly falls well short of protecting human rights and, in particular, ignores the rights of women, restricts freedom of expression in the name of protecting religion, and allows for the military trial of civilians, Amnesty International said.