Schlagwort: Amnesty International

One year on from the deadly US air strike on a Huthi-run migrant detention centre in Sa’ada, north-western Yemen, there has been no discernible progress towards justice and reparation, and survivors are still struggling with severe physical and psychological trauma, Amnesty International said today. The organization had called for the 28 April 2025 strike by US forces, which killed and injured dozens of African migrants to be investigated as a war crime, and this month spoke once again to six survivors of the attack who detailed the human costs they had experienced.  

Rather than taking credible steps towards ensuring accountability, including through effective and prompt investigations, or providing reparations to harmed civilians, the US administration under President Donald Trump has gutted measures and mechanisms intended to prevent, mitigate and respond to civilian harm caused by US military operations abroad and has threatened attacks certain to cause devastating harm to civilians. Eleven months after the air strike on the Yemeni migrant detention centre, an unlawful US air strike killed 156 people including 120 children at the Minab school in Iran.   

The Trump administration’s approach to its air strikes in Yemen from March to May 2025 should have set off alarm bells in the USA and around the world, clearly signalling an urgent need to strengthen measures to protect civilians.

Nadia Daar, Director of Amnesty International USA.  

“The Trump administration’s approach to its air strikes in Yemen from March to May 2025 should have set off alarm bells in the USA and around the world, clearly signalling an urgent need to strengthen measures to protect civilians. Instead the US administration has systematically weakened safeguards, shrinking offices aimed at reducing civilian harm, while simultaneously displaying a dangerous disregard for the lives of civilians endangered by armed conflicts. Against that backdrop, attacks such as the US attack on a school in Minab in Iran, which killed 156 people including 120 children, were a tragically foreseeable consequence of a failure to implement robust civilian-harm mitigation efforts,” said Nadia Daar, Director of Amnesty International USA.  

One year on, US officials have failed to hold anyone accountable or even to clarify the status or outcome of the investigations they had announced a year earlier.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat. 

“One year on, US officials have failed to hold anyone accountable or even to clarify the status or outcome of the investigations they had announced a year earlier. Families of those killed in the attack on the detention centre in Yemen are still being denied basic information about what happened, remain without justice for their loved ones. Survivors continue to struggle, lacking the means to secure a decent living or even receive adequate medical treatment,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat. 

“They must receive full, effective, and prompt reparation, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, through an effective and accessible mechanism.” 

The organization based these findings on an its initial investigation published on 19 May 2025, and follow up research published in October 2025, where Amnesty spoke with 15 survivors and requested information from the USA. The organization re-interviewed six of those survivors in April 2026. 

The 28 April 2025 strike had been one of the worst civilian tolls from a US strike that Amnesty International had documented in years. Less than a year later on 16 March 2026, Amnesty International documented another egregious attack in terms of civilian harm, the US attack on a school in Minab, Iran that killed 156 people, including over 120 children. The organization’s investigation found that the USA violated international humanitarian law by failing to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm in carrying out the attack.  

Despite this, President Trump and high-level US officials, including Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, have expressed contempt for international law and rules and restraints intended to mitigate civilian harm. 

Following the air strike in April 2025, a US defense official said they were assessing “claims” of civilian casualties. But, nearly a year later, US Central Command has not released its assessments, nor announced the results of any investigations so far conducted. On 4 March 2026, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegeseth said that an investigation into Minab was ongoing. 

On 1 May, the Department of Defense is required to issue its Annual Report on Civilian Casualties in connection with any United States military operations in 2025, pursuant to Section 1057 of the National Defense Authorization Act.  

“In order to stop this deadly spiral, the USA must ensure prompt, transparent, impartial, independent and effective investigations into attacks that have resulted in civilian casualties, including those in Yemen and Iran. The US Congress must also urgently step up its oversight role and demand answers, including a public accounting of these strikes and the adequate and prompt provision of reparation to the civilians that have been harmed and ensure it is not appropriating funds that may contribute to breaches of international law,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.  

‘I have nothing left that keeps me going’ 

In April 2026, Amnesty International did follow up interviews with six men who survived the US air strike on Sa’ada detention centre, all of whom are Ethiopian. All six men described the devastating and long-lasting consequences that the strike continues to have on their lives.  

One year after the attack, all still require some form of medical treatment that they cannot afford. While all six men originally left their home countries in search of work, as a result of the US attack, almost all now rely on support from their families. Five of them cannot work because of the injuries they sustained during the US strike. Four have remained in Yemen and two have returned to Ethiopia.  

Jirata*, a 30-year-old Ethiopian man, lost one leg in the US attack and now has a metal rod in the other. He lives in continuous pain:    

“I have lost hope and I have nothing left that keeps me going. I came here [to Yemen] to work like everyone else to help my family and change mine and their life for the better […]. Now people carry me to the toilet.”  

“The US government caused all this and as a result [of the air strike] I can no longer work and support myself. I want them to provide any type of reparation that will help with our life in any way possible. Something that will revive my hope.” 

After the US attack, Abay*, a 32-year-old Ethiopian man, took the dangerous migration route by sea back to Ethiopia to live with his family. He cannot work due to severe injuries to his legs and hand which still require treatment he cannot afford.  

He told Amnesty International: “I went to Yemen to change my family’s life, but now I made my family’s life even harder than it was before. I feel broken whenever I see their faces. You can see the sadness on their faces. I hoped for a better life, to work and change our lives but everything turned upside down.” 

Araya*, a 22-year-old Ethiopian man, who sustained a serious arm injury in the attack, described how the constant pain from his injury impacts his mental health: “If I don’t take a painkiller, I feel hopeless and wish to die. I think about how at such a young age I can’t even support myself and still rely on help from others. The metal rod inside me is very painful and uncomfortable. It drives you insane.” 

“The story of these migrants is grim and heartbreaking. Travelling to Yemen in search of better opportunities, they were detained by the Huthis, denied their freedom, then attacked in a US air strike. Those who survived have been left in limbo, with no justice or reparation in sight, nor an explanation for why this happened to them, an acknowledgment of the wrong done to them, or any support offered to help them carry on with their lives,” said Erika Guevara Rosas. 

Lack of transparency, information and amends  

A year since the attack, US authorities have failed to disclose any details of civilian harm assessments or the results of any investigation into the killing of the dozens of migrants at the detention centre. 

On 27 August 2025, four months after the attack, Amnesty International formally requested information from US Central Command (CENTCOM), detailing its findings and seeking clarification on the military objective attacked and the precautions taken. CENTCOM provided only a brief response on the same day the request was sent, stating that it was still “assessing all reports of civilian harm”, that it was taking all of them “seriously” and reviewing them “thoroughly”.  

Yet one year later, and despite mass civilian casualties caused, the US authorities have not made public any assessments related to civilian harm related to the attack on the migrant detention centre or any other air strike on Yemen during its 2025 military operation dubbed “Rough Rider”.  

Under international law, if civilian harm is found to have occurred in an attack that violates international humanitarian law, victims and their families should receive full reparation.  

In addition to its obligations under international humanitarian law, the US Department of Defense (DoD) Instruction on Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response notes that mitigating civilian harm is not limited to compliance with international humanitarian law and encourages commanders to “take additional protective measures not required by the law of war as they deem appropriate.”  

Furthermore, if investigations find that there were direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks striking military targets and civilians without distinction and which killed or injured civilians, they should be investigated and treated as violations of international law and potential war crimes. Amnesty International’s investigation into the air strike found that it was indiscriminate and therefore should be investigated as a war crime.  

The USA should promptly and transparently make public its assessment into the Yemen migrant detention centre strike, as well as other attacks in Yemen and Iran, including clear findings on civilian harm and the measures to address it.

Erika Guevara Rosas.

“The USA should promptly and transparently make public its assessment into the Yemen migrant detention centre strike, as well as other attacks in Yemen and Iran, including clear findings on civilian harm and the measures to address it. Where sufficient evidence exists, competent authorities should ensure those responsible are brought to justice, by prosecuting any person suspected of criminal responsibility for war crimes, including under the doctrine of command responsibility,” said Erika Guevara Rosas. 

 
*The migrants interviewed by Amnesty International are identified using pseudonyms for security reasons. 

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A decision by a court in Russia’s second biggest city to designate the Russian LGBT Network an “extremist organization” and impose a nationwide ban on its activities will only increase the marginalization of LGBTI people and their human rights, Amnesty International said today.

The verdict by the St Petersburg City Court followed closed hearings as requested by the Ministry of Justice and was issued within two months of similar rulings designating five other LGBTI groups: Coming Out in St Petersburg, the LGBT Resource Centre in Yekaterinburg, Moscow Community Centre for LGBT+ Initiatives, LGBTI group Irida in Samara, and LGBTI-themed media project Parni+ as “extremist organizations.”

“When in November 2023 the Supreme Court banned the non-existent ‘international LGBT movement’ as ‘extremist,’ it was clear that the authorities would not stop there. The designation of the Russian LGBT Network and other organizations as ‘extremist’ are links in the same chain of persecution and injustice by the Russian authorities against LGBTI people,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director.

The designation of the Russian LGBT Network and other organizations as ‘extremist’ are links in the same chain of persecution and injustice by the Russian authorities against LGBTI people

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director

“For nearly two decades, the Russian LGBT Network has united activists from across the country, provided emergency assistance and produced vital research on discrimination and violence against LGBTI people. Banning it is a major premeditated blow to LGBTI people and their allies.”

LGBTI human rights defenders, activists and volunteers play a vital role in providing legal, psychological and social support, documenting abuses and evacuating those at risk. Despite their legitimate human rights work, a growing number of organizations have been arbitrarily designated as “extremist”.

“The Russian authorities must immediately stop misusing anti-extremism legislation to repress the LBGTI community, reverse homophobic policies and guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association and non-discrimination to LGBTI people in line with international human rights law. Discriminatory legislation targeting and criminalizing LGBTI people must be fully abolished, and court decisions designating the ‘international LGBT movement’ and individual organizations as ‘extremist’ overturned,” Marie Struthers said.

Further reprisals and silencing of LGBTI people

Since the end of 2025, authorities have expanded their crackdown on LGBTI rights through criminal prosecutions, arrests and fines targeting individuals, private gatherings and media platforms.

On 8 December 2025, a court in Cherkessk sentenced a resident of the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia to two-and-a-half-years’ imprisonment for joining a group chat and posting comments that authorities characterized as promoting “non-traditional sexual relations.” On 4 December 2025, a court in Ulyanovsk placed under house arrest three residents charged with “organizing and participating in the activities of an extremist organization” for holding closed LGBTI-themed parties and drag shows between January 2024 and December 2025.

In January 2026, drag performer Aleksandr Knyagin fled Russia after being placed on a federal wanted list following an earlier police raid on a venue hosting an LGBTI event in Kirov on 1 November 2025.

On 18 December 2025, sex educator and LGBTI activist Sasha (Aleksandra) Kazantseva was sentenced in absentia to nine years’ imprisonment on charges including spreading “false information” about the Russian Armed Forces and alleged participation in an “extremist LGBT movement.” By the end of 2025, at least 23 criminal cases had been opened on “extremism” charges related to LGBTI activities.

On 23 March, a court of Chita, Eastern Siberia, sentenced 23-year-old entrepreneur Tatiana Zorina to four years in a penal colony for “organizing the activities of an extremist organization” in a nightclub she co-owned.

Authorities have also relied on heavy fines to suppress support for LGBT rights. On 2 February, three cases for alleged “LGBT propaganda” were filed against Yevgeny Pisemsky, founder of the banned Parni+ media project and Phoenix Plus,anNGO that earlier was labelled a “foreign agent” and subsequently chose to disband. In the same month, journalist Vadim Vaganov was fined 100,000 rubles (US$1,300) also for “LGBT propaganda” – his third such fine – and soon faced a fourth administrative case. On 18 and 25 February, journalist Yaroslav Rasputin received two separate fines of 200,000 rubles (US$2,600) for social media posts.

On 16 April, a court in Saratov fined the news agency SaratovBusinessConsulting 500,000 rubles (US$6,700) for publishing a review of the TV-series Heated Rivalry, which authorities deemed to constitute “LGBT propaganda.”

“Besides criminal prosecutions and administrative fines, we are also witnessing the systematic erasure of LGBTI people from public life, including through censorship and measures targeting cultural institutions, publishers, bookstores, streaming platforms and online spaces,” said Marie Struthers.

Besides criminal prosecutions and administrative fines, we are also witnessing the systematic erasure of LGBTI people from public life, including through censorship and measures targeting cultural institutions, publishers, bookstores, streaming platforms and online spaces

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director

On 2 February 2026, a Moscow court fined a senior manager of the streaming service Wink 200,000 rubles (US$2,600) for providing access to LGBTI-themed movies. On 11 February, major platforms – Kinopoisk, Ivi and Wink – were fined between 3 and 3.5 million rubles (US$38,700–45,250) for the same “offence.” On 20 April, a court similarly fined the gaming platform Roblox 8 million rubles (US$106,900).

On 30 January 2026, the feminist publishing house No Kidding Press – which had ceased operations – was fined 800,000 rubles (US$10,300) for the publication and distribution of the graphic novel The Fruit of Knowledge by Swedish author Liv Strömquist. In the same month, cases were opened against the bookstore chain Chitai-gorod – Bukvoed for selling several titles, including Ursula Le Guin’s sci-fi novel The Left Hand of Darkness. Earlier, on 26 November 2025, Stephen King’s novel It was withdrawn from sale following complaints alleging “LGBT propaganda.”

On 21 April 2026, law enforcement officers detained the head of the publishing house Eksmo, Yevgeny Kapyev, and several employees in connection with an “extremism” case against the Popcorn Books, a publisher associated with LGBTI-themed literature. They were subsequently released after questioning as witnesses in the criminal case.

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Responding to news that the Commission of Inquiry’s report into the killings perpetrated during and after the 29 October 2025 general elections has been handed to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Flavia Mwangovya, said:

“Victims’ families and members of the public must have an opportunity to interrogate the investigation report to know the scope of the investigations, procedures followed, its findings, and the factual and legal basis of the findings. To withhold the Commission of Inquiry report from the public is a blow to transparency, which is key in the process of achieving accountability, and heaps a further injustice on the families of those unlawfully killed.

“The report’s findings that at least 518 people died of unnatural causes, including from gunshot injuries, should not be taken lightly. These are lives lost at the hands of security forces. The Tanzanian authorities must immediately launch independent, transparent and effective investigations into these deaths and bring those responsible to account.

To withhold the Commission of Inquiry report from the public is a blow to transparency, which is key in the process of achieving accountability, and heaps a further injustice on the families of those unlawfully killed.

Flavia Mwangovya, Deputy Regional Director, Amnesty ESARO

“Authorities must reveal under what circumstances these people were killed or injured and who were responsible for ordering, enabling, or committing these violations. They must also immediately make the whole report public. Any limitations on transparency must be strictly necessary for a legitimate purpose, such as protecting the privacy and safety of affected individuals through appropriate redactions. In no circumstances may the authorities restrict transparency in a way that would result in impunity for those responsible.

Authorities must reveal under what circumstances these people were killed or injured and who were responsible for ordering, enabling, or committing these violations. They must also immediately make the whole report public.

Flavia Mwangovya

“The president’s open refusal to make the Commission of Inquiry report public is a disappointing continuation of a pattern in which officially commissioned reports are never made public, perpetuating a state of impunity in Tanzania.”

Background

Following the 29 October 2025 general elections, Tanzanian security forces used unnecessary or disproportionate force, including lethal force, to suppress election protests. Security forces fired live ammunition and teargas directly at protesters and other individuals who posed no imminent threat of death or serious injury. Amid a nationwide Internet shutdown, security officials subjected individuals to beatings and other forms of ill-treatment, denied the wounded access to healthcare, arrested some still in need of care, and collected bodies of victims of their brutality from mortuaries. On 14 November 2025, President Samia Suluhu announced the formation of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killings that occurred during and after the elections.

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Responding to the International Criminal Court confirming all crimes against humanity charges against former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, paving the way for full trial proceedings, the Director of Amnesty International Philippines Ritz Lee Santos said:

“Families of victims and survivors of the ‘war on drugs’ have waited far too long for justice. The ICC’s confirmation of all charges against former President Duterte is a historic moment for victims and international justice. It sends a clear message that those who are alleged to have committed widespread and systematic murder as a crime against humanity will one day find themselves in the dock, facing trial. Justice may be slow in coming, but it cannot be delayed forever.

“This trial is not about politics. It is about a campaign in which thousands of people were killed in cold blood, and a justice system in the Philippines that has consistently failed them. The ICC is acting because the authorities would not. For years, those responsible for unlawful killings have operated with impunity, but that era is ending.

“For the survivors and victims’ families who have carried their grief in silence, today affirms that their voices have been heard and their persistence is not in vain. As these proceedings move forward, the international community will bear witness not only to the crimes that Duterte is alleged to have committed, but to the courage of those who never stopped demanding justice.

“The ICC must now ensure victims’ rights to participate in the trial and guarantee that witnesses are protected so that the trial can decide on the allegations facing Duterte. Meanwhile, efforts must stop at nothing to ensure that all those individually responsible for crimes under international law and grave human rights violations are held accountable, whether in the Philippines or at the ICC.”

Background

The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court today decided that former President Duterte should stand trial for all three charges against him of murder and attempted murder as crimes against humanity.

In March 2025, former President Duterte was arrested by the Philippine government and surrendered to the ICC to face charges of murder and attempted murder as crimes against humanity linked to his government’s so-called “war on drugs” and previously his time as mayor of Davao City between 2013 and 2016. Duterte’s initial appearance before the Court took place on 14 March 2025.

Since his arrest, he has been awaiting trial in ICC custody in the Netherlands. Lawyers for the former President have challenged the Court’s jurisdiction, his ongoing detention and his fitness to stand trial.

In January 2026, a Pre-Trial Chamber determined, following a review by medical experts, that Duterte is fit to stand trial. On 22 April 2026, the Appeals Chamber confirmed that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged crimes.

During the Duterte administration from 2016 to 2022, thousands of people, mostly from poor and marginalized communities, were unlawfully killed by the police – or by armed individuals suspected to have links to the police – as part of the “war on drugs”.

Amnesty International has published major investigations detailing extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations by police and their superiors. The organization has determined that the acts committed reach the threshold of crimes against humanity.

The ICC continues to investigate further potential crimes against humanity, during the “war on drugs” and by the Davao Death Squad in Davao City while Duterte served as mayor from 2011 to 2016. On 13 February 2026 a “Public Lesser Redacted Version” of the document containing charges listed eight other persons as co-perpetrators of crimes alongside Duterte. No further arrest warrants have been made public yet.

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Reacting to the EU’s failure to call for a vote to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement or to agree on any other concrete measures today at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns said:

“At this point, the EU’s decision to maintain its trade agreement with Israel represents a moral failure and illustrates brazen contempt for civilian lives, particularly in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and in Lebanon.

“One million people in Europe, more than 75 NGOs, almost 400 former diplomats, UN experts as well as Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia and Spain have all called for the immediate suspension of the agreement. Once again, these calls have been disregarded with Germany and Italy playing a key role in blocking the suspension.

This will be remembered as another shameful chapter in one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU’s history.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns

“Almost a year ago, the EU found that Israel’s crimes under international law against Palestinians violate the agreement’s human rights clause. Since then, Israel has continued to cross every single EU red line. 

“Decades of impunity afforded to Israel by the international community, including the EU, have only emboldened it to escalate its violations of international humanitarian law. This is evidenced by Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its ongoing unlawful occupation of the whole OPT, the system of apartheid imposed against all Palestinians whose rights it controls and its new death penalty law, which will in practice apply exclusively to Palestinians.

“Since the so-called ceasefire in Gaza in October 2025, which the EU has used to justify its inaction, over 740 Palestinians have been killed as Israeli air strikes, shelling and cruel blockade persist.  In Lebanon, Israeli forces have killed and wounded thousands of people, including healthcare workers, and have displaced more than a million people since the re-escalation of hostilities with Hezbollah on 2 March.

“The EU must not again use fragile ceasefires as an excuse to give Israel yet another free pass. Each delay only further entrenches impunity and paves the way for further grave human rights violations. EU member states must urgently take matters into their own hands and unilaterally suspend all forms of cooperation with Israel that may contribute to its grave violations of international law.”

Background

At today’s foreign affairs council, EU ministers failed to agree on any concrete measures, once again delaying meaningful action.

The suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement is one of many concrete steps the EU can and must take to bring an end to Israel’s violations and its own risk of complicity in them. The EU should also bring its actions in line with international law by banning trade with Israel’s illegal settlements in the OPT, a call long supported by Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, recently joined by France and Sweden. Until then, member states must adopt national bans on trade with settlements.  

Amnesty International launched a new campaign action calling on Italy and Germany to support the suspension of the EU-Israel Association agreement.

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