Kategorie: Humans

Following repeated rounds of fighting between the Syrian authorities and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the military wing of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), in north-east Syria, and responding to the transfer of control to the Syrian authorities over some detention facilities and camps holding people suspected of affiliation to the Islamic State (IS), Amnesty International’s, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Kristine Beckerle, said:

“The Syrian authorities, in coordination with AANES, must carry out a human-rights-compliant screening process in detention facilities and camps they now control. They should identify those who should be investigated and prosecuted for crimes under international law or serious crimes under domestic law, those who should be repatriated, if appropriate, and prosecuted in their countries of origin, and those who should be released. National proceedings should meet international fair trial standards and be without recourse to the death penalty.”

“The Syrian authorities and the AANES must also urgently secure and preserve evidence of crimes under international law committed by IS, including sites of atrocities and mass graves and documentary evidence in detention facilities. Evidence of crimes left behind will be essential to establish the fate and whereabouts of the Syrians who have been disappeared by IS, as well as investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of crimes under international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.” 

“Repeated rounds of fighting in Syria have had devastating impacts on civilians. Amnesty International reiterates its calls for all parties to the recent fighting to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and ensure that civilians do not pay the price of another political breakdown in Syria.” 

Background

After the fall of the former government of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the SDF continued to control large swathes of Syria’s north-east. In December 2025 and January 2026, hostilities broke out between the Syrian authorities and the SDF in Aleppo city, killing and injuring at least 20 civilians. 

In mid-January, President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued Decree No. 13 of 2026 regarding the rights of Kurds in Syria and on 18 January announced a deal with SDF commander Mazloum Abdi covering civilian governance, border crossings, security integration, and state control of IS-related detention sites. 

The deal collapsed on 19 January leading to a resumption of hostilities. Civilian objects, including infrastructure, were reportedly damaged and destroyed and, according to the UN, around 11,000 people were displaced to Qamishli in al-Hassake governorate due to fighting or out of fear of further escalation. On 20 January, a four-day ceasefire agreement was announced, although reports of some fighting continued.  

On 20 January, the Syrian authorities took control of some of the detention facilities where people are being held due to their perceived affiliation with IS, as well as al-Hol camp. The AANES continued to control other camps and detention facilities in north-east Syria. 

In 2024, Amnesty International reported on the tens of thousands of men, women and children being held in detention camps and facilities in north-east Syria, including Syrians, Iraqis and other foreign nationals. Those detained include both perpetrators and victims of crimes committed by IS, including survivors of trafficking by IS, as well as people without any affiliation to the armed group. The victims also include possibly hundreds of Yezidi survivors as well as people from other minority communities who were abducted by IS. In 2025, Amnesty International called on the Syrian government, autonomous authorities, US-led coalition, and the UN to urgently identify long-overdue solutions to the crisis. 

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Responding to the death of a 20-year-old Kuki-Zo woman, a victim of sexual violence during Manipur’s May 2023 ethnic violence, Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board at Amnesty International India, said:  

“This woman’s death is a devastating indictment of the Indian state’s continuing failure to deliver timely justice to survivors of sexual violence during the ethnic conflict in Manipur. Abducted and gang-raped at the age of 18, she lived her final years carrying physical injuries and psychological trauma that the system neither acknowledged nor addressed.  

“Despite a First Information Report (FIR) being filed more than two-and-a-half years ago, not a single perpetrator has been identified, let alone arrested or prosecuted. This is unacceptable. We demand immediate, thorough, independent, and impartial investigations into all allegations of sexual violence during the Manipur conflict. Those responsible, including any officials found complicit through negligence or collusion, must be held accountable. Survivors and their families must receive reparations, medical care, and psychosocial support. 

This young woman should have lived to see justice

Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board at Amnesty International India

“This young woman should have lived to see justice. Instead, she has become another silent casualty of state inaction. Her death must not be allowed to become a mere statistic. Justice for her is a step towards justice for all victims of the violence in Manipur, and that justice is long overdue.” 

Background

Although the 20-year-old survivor died on 10 January, her death was made public only on 17 January by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF).  

While the immediate cause of death remains unknown, the woman’s mother told local media that her daughter’s health had deteriorated since the attack in May 2023. 

According to the FIR, the woman was abducted in broad daylight from near an ATM booth in New Checkon, Imphal, and allegedly handed over to armed men. She was taken to a hilltop, sexually brutalized, and dumped in a creek.  

Despite months of medical treatment, she continued to suffer from severe uterine complications and psychological trauma.  

Since May 2023, at least 260 people have been killed and thousands displaced in the ethnic conflict between the dominant Meitei community and the minority Kuki-Zo communities. Sexual violence has been systematically used as a weapon to degrade, dehumanize, and terrorize indigenous women and girls. 

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Marking one year since President Trump returned to office, Amnesty International today rang the alarm bells on increasing authoritarian practices in the United States and a devastating erosion of human rights. 

In a new report released today, Ringing the Alarm Bells: Rising Authoritarian Practices and Erosion of Human Rights in the United States, Amnesty International documented how the Trump administration’s escalation of authoritarian practices, including closing civic space and undermining the rule of law, is eroding human rights in the U.S. and beyond.  

“We are all witness to a dangerous trajectory under President Trump that has already led to a human rights emergency,” said Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. “By shredding norms and concentrating power, the administration is trying to make it impossible for anyone to hold them accountable. There is no doubt that these authoritarian practices by the Trump administration are eroding human rights and increasing the risk for journalists and people who speak out or dissent, including protestors, lawyers, students, and human rights defenders.”  

We are all witness to a dangerous trajectory under President Trump that has already led to a human rights emergency.”

Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. 

The report includes twelve interconnected areas in which the Trump administration is cracking the pillars of a free society, including attacks on freedom of the press and access to information, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, civil society organizations and universities, political opponents and critics, judges, lawyers, and the legal system, and due process. The report also documents attacks on refugee and migrant rights, the scapegoating of communities and the rollback of non-discrimination protections, the use of the military for domestic purposes, the dismantling of corporate accountability and anti-corruption measures, the expansion of surveillance without meaningful oversight, and efforts to undermine international systems designed to protect human rights. 

As detailed in the report, these authoritarian tactics are mutually reinforcing: Students are arrested and detained for protesting on college campuses, entire communities are being flooded and terrorized with masked ICE agents, and the militarization of cities across the U.S. is becoming normalized. At the same time, press intimidation makes human rights violations and abuses harder to expose; retaliation against protest makes people afraid to speak; expanding surveillance and militarization increases the costs of dissent; and attacks on courts, lawyers, and oversight bodies make accountability harder to enforce. These tactics are clearly eroding human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, freedom of the press, access to information, equality and non-discrimination, due process, academic freedom, freedom from arbitrary detention, the right to seek asylum, the right to a fair trial, and even the right to life. 

Amnesty International has long documented similar patterns in countries around the world. While contexts differ, governments consolidate power, control information, discredit critics, punish dissent, narrow civic space, and weaken mechanisms meant to ensure accountability. 

“The attack on civic space and the rule of law and the erosion of human rights in the United States mirrors the global pattern Amnesty has seen and warned about for decades,” said O’Brien. “Importantly, our experience shows that by the time authoritarian practices are fully entrenched, the institutions meant to restrain abuses of power are already severely compromised.” 

The attack on civic space and the rule of law and the erosion of human rights in the United States mirrors the global pattern Amnesty has seen and warned about for decades.”

Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. 

In the report, Amnesty International sets forth a comprehensive set of recommendations – to the United States Executive Branch, Congress, state and local governments and law enforcement agencies, international actors and other governments, corporate actors such as technology companies, and the public – aimed at reversing this embrace of authoritarian practices and preventing the normalization of increased repression and human rights violations. It calls for urgent action to protect civic space, restore rule of law safeguards, strengthen accountability, and ensure that human rights violations are neither ignored nor accepted as inevitable. 

“We can, and we must, forge a different path,” O’Brien said. “Authoritarian practices only take root when they are allowed to become normalized. We cannot let that happen in the United States. Together, we all have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to rise to this challenging time in our history and to protect human rights.”

For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org

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After a year of opaque selective releases in Cuba, Amnesty International said:
 
“The Cuban authorities have an obligation to guarantee the full and unconditional freedom of all prisoners of conscience. Sayli Navarro Álvarez, Félix Navarro, Loreto Hernández García, Donaida Pérez Paseiro, Roberto Pérez Fonseca, Maykel Castillo Pérez (Maykel ‘Osorbo’), and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara must not spend another day in prison. The authorities must also put an end, once and for all, to detentions for political reasons,” said Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas.

 Sayli Navarro Álvarez, Félix Navarro, Loreto Hernández García, Donaida Pérez Paseiro, Roberto Pérez Fonseca, Maykel Castillo Pérez (Maykel ‘Osorbo’), and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara must not spend another day in prison.”

Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas.

The release process announced by the Cuban authorities on 14 January 2025 was marked by opacity, lack of public information, absence of clear criteria and the use of arbitrary conditions, as well as a devastating psychological impact on families. Moreover, the process did not include any state recognition of the abuses committed during arrests and convictions, nor did it provide guarantees of non-repetition.

“Some of the people released in 2025 were forced into exile, while others were returned to prison, exposing the persistence of deeply entrenched authoritarian practices and the absence of guarantees to exercise human rights inside the country without fear of reprisals.” 

“Although this process resulted in the release of at least 211 people detained for political reasons, selective or conditional releases do not replace the authorities’ obligation to end the criminalization of freedom of expression or to guarantee the right to a fair trial.”

“Cuba must free, without conditions, those who never should have been imprisoned. President Díaz-Canel must take an unequivocal decision: end the use of the criminal justice system to silence criticism and punish activism. It is time to put an end to the repression of those who peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” Ana Piquer concluded.

Cuba must free, without conditions, those who never should have been imprisoned. President Díaz-Canel must take an unequivocal decision: end the use of the criminal justice system to silence criticism and punish activism.”

Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas.

For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org

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Responding to the cancellation of bail of lawyers and human rights defenders Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha and an order to immediately arrest them in a bogus case relating to “anti-state” tweets, Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said: 

“This baseless trial of Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha is a blatant abuse of the justice system. Pakistani authorities must end the judicial harassment and coercive tactics used to silence dissent and intimidate those who defend human rights. 

“The ‘cyber terrorism’ and other trumped-up charges under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act against Imaan and Hadi are politically motivated and amount to criminalizing the right to freedom of expression. This rushed process has been riddled with glaring violations of the right to fair trial, denying the accused the right to attend proceedings and challenge evidence.  

Pakistani authorities must end the judicial harassment and coercive tactics used to silence dissent and intimidate those who defend human rights.

Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia

“The charges have been brought against Imaan Mazari and Hadi Chattha solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights and carrying out their professional duties. Authorities must immediately drop all charges against them and rescind the orders for their arrest. The authorities must end this miscarriage of justice, uphold the rule of law, and ensure that human rights defenders can freely exercise their human rights and carry out their work without any fear of reprisals.” 

Background 

A case was filed against Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha on 12 August 2025 under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, alleging that Imaan had posted content on her X account from 2021 to 16 April 2025 “targeting important State Institutions of Pakistan” under sections relating to “cyber terrorism”, “hate speech” and “false and fake information”. Hadi faces the same charges merely for sharing and reposting Imaan’s posts. Hadi was briefly arrested on 29 October 2025 in relation to the case. In December, they filed a petition to the Islamabad High Court for transfer of their case to another judge alleging instances of bias and procedural irregularities. The trial, however, continued, and on 15 January 2026, the presiding judge cancelled Imaan and Hadi’s bail and on 16 January ordered their arrest within 24 hours. 

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