Schlagwort: Amnesty International

This year RightsCon, the flagship summit on human rights in the digital age, takes place from 6 June to 10 June.

RightsCon brings together human rights experts, tech companies, government representatives and activists to discuss how we can build a rights-respecting digital future.

Amnesty International colleagues are taking part throughout the week (all times CEST):

Monday 6 June  8:30pm – 9:30pm

The digitisation of the welfare state: a systemic threat of human rights

This talk looks at the risks inherent in algorithmic decision-making era of the digital welfare state and the grave consequences this could have for a range of economic and social rights

With Damini Satija Head of Algorithmic Accountability Lab, Deputy Director Amnesty Tech

Tuesday 7 June 2:15pm- 3:15pm

Health Check: Current Trends in Digital Healthcare        

What are the potential benefits and risks related to advances in digital healthcare and how people’s human rights can be protected while harnessing the potential benefits of digitisation?

With Damini Satija Head of Algorithmic Accountability Lab, Deputy Director at Amnesty Tech

Tuesday 7 June 4:45pm – 5:45pm

Cyber mercenaries on the loose! What can we do to stop them?   

What can be done to address the growing industry of companies that develop and sell tools, techniques and services that enable their clients, often governments, to break into networks, computers, phones and internet-connected devices? Cyber mercenaries are motivated by financial gain and too often many of their clients care little about human rights.

With Danna Ingleton, Deputy Program Director at Amnesty Tech

Wednesday 8 June 2:45pm – 3:45pm

Using tech tools to document environmental crimes: activists’ and lawyers’ perspectives   

This session looks at how tech tools can best be used to document evidence of environmental crimes to pave the way for successful civil and criminal liability claims.

With Montse Ferrer, Legal Advisor, Amnesty International

Wednesday 8 June 2:45pm  – 3:45pm

The double face of digital health: Research in Ghana, Kenya and Vietnam

This session focuses on the urgent need to strengthen rights-based governance of digital spaces for health, with youth voices at the centre of design and governance.

With Rajat Khosla, Senior Director Research, Advocacy and Policy at Amnesty International

Wednesday 8 June 9:15pm – 10:15pm

Surveillance and the city: mapping cameras with facial recognition capabilities in New York City     

S.T.O.P. and Amnesty International will discuss New York City’s sprawling network of surveillance cameras with facial recognition technology, using publicly available data from Amnesty’s Decode NYC Surveillance project and S.T.O.P.’s 2021 Surveillance Census.

With Sophie Dyer, Tactical Research Advisor Crisis Evidence Lab and Matt Mahmoudi, AI and Big Data Researcher

Wednesday 8 June 9:15pm – 10:15pm

Just decentralization: fighting for a future of many internets

A discussion with activists & technologists who are engaging around emerging technologies including blockchain, next gen peer-to-peer projects, and beyond. 

With Michael Kleinman, Director Silicon Valley Initiative

Friday 10 June 8:15am – 9:15am

The role of grassroots movements in shaping digital policies

This session will explore the generational potential that grassroots movements, small civic society organizations, and individual activists/human rights defenders have towards strengthening inclusive, democratic, and better digital rights policies that would ensure the internet works for Africa and not against Africa.

With Victor Ndede, Digital Rights and Policy, Amnesty International Kenya

Friday 10 June 11:00am – 12:00pm

Looking for traces of Pegasus on an iPhone with the Mobile Verification Toolkit

During the Pegasus Project, Amnesty International developed a novel forensic research methodology and an accompanying tool (the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT)) to look for traces of Pegasus infection or attack on smartphones.  This demo will focus on showing the methodology used by MVT to confirm Pegasus targeting and infection. It will also explain how Amnesty Tech can support civil society partners with such investigations and help connect with MVT users.

With Etienne Maynier, Technologist, Amnesty International’s Security Lab

Friday 10 June 2:00pm-3:00pm

The Pegasus Project: A Global Scandal One Year On

In July 2021, Forbidden Stories along with 17 media outlets around the world and the technical support of Amnesty International exposed a global scandal involving spyware vendor NSO Group and at least 11 client states.  One year on however, what has happened? This panel will journey from the investigation that led to the Project; to the first-hand experience of an activist seeking justice; to how and why we have failed to get state accountability; to the path forward for radical change and an end to these human rights abuses.

With Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International

The post Amnesty Tech events at RightsCon 2022 appeared first on Amnesty International.

Responding to the killing of more than 20 worshippers, including women and children, at the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo on Sunday, Osai Ojigho, Amnesty International’s Nigeria Director, said:

“What happened in Owo reveals the impunity enjoyed by gunmen on the rampage across Nigeria. This tragic event should offer a wake-up call for the authorities, who must now do everything they can to ensure the perpetrators of this appalling crime face justice.

“This brutal attack shows a complete disregard for the right to life. Under international human rights law, Nigeria has a duty to protect the right to life of its people — in all circumstances.

“Victims and their families have a right to know the truth about this shooting and to be provided with justice and reparations. Amnesty International is calling on the Nigerian judicial authorities to immediately launch a thorough and impartial investigation to identify the perpetrators of this crime, and to prosecute and judge them in fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty.”

Background

On 5 June 2022, gunmen entered the St. Francis Church in southwest Nigeria at around noon as Sunday mass was ending. They shot at worshippers and detonated dynamite, killing at least 20 and critically injuring many others.

Residents told Amnesty International that the attack lasted about 15 minutes, during which time there was no immediate response from security forces. This attack comes almost two months after at least eight people were killed on a train from Abuja to Kaduna.

The post Nigeria: Perpetrators of St. Francis Church shooting must face justice appeared first on Amnesty International.

The building of a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future must include human rights, especially those of millions of people whose rights have been violated, and of historically marginalised communities and population groups, Amnesty International said today in an open letter to the heads of state present at the Ninth Summit of the Americas being held in Los Angeles this week.

“Rather than fighting for a fair recovery from the pandemic in the most unequal continent in the world, many states in the Americas have taken the opposite route, repressing peaceful demonstrations, intimidating human rights defenders and journalists, and jeopardising judicial independence, in a crude attempt to silence dissenting voices,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

The Americas remains home to some of the largest cross-border movements of people in the world. With the US government’s initiative to seek a “Migration Pact” for the region during the Summit, Amnesty International wishes to highlight that most of these movements of people are the result of the multiple human rights crises in countries such as Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba, or the situation of widespread violence, compounded by natural disasters associated with climate change, in Central America.

Rather than fighting for a fair recovery from the pandemic in the most unequal continent in the world, many states in the Americas have taken the opposite route

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

The organisation regrets that, in the face of the urgent need for protection, the authorities of several states are responding with restrictive and often inhumane policies, militarising their borders, detaining migrants and refugees in precarious conditions, and carrying out forced returns without due consideration of their asylum applications or the impossibility of return.

“For millions of people in the Americas, seeking international protection is the only way that they can obtain minimum conditions of dignity and access to fundamental rights such as health, food and safety,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

“If the heads of state in the region reach an agreement on a migration pact, it must be a collaborative tool focused on guaranteeing human rights and able to provide effective and long-lasting solutions. States must adopt coordinated measures to protect migrants and refugees in the Americas, taking into account differentiated approaches for specific focus on at-risk groups such as unaccompanied migrant children, women and LGBTI people, among others.”

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Duncan Tucker: duncan.tucker@amnesty.org

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Responding to the arrests of at least two people and around a dozen people being taken away in the last two days for attempting to commemorate the 33^rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director Hana Young said:

“The use of spurious charges of ‘sedition’ and ‘unauthorized assembly’ to arrest people attempting to peacefully commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown in Hong Kong is an attack on the right to freedom of expression and an insult to the memory of those who lost their lives on 4 June 1989.

“The harassment and indiscriminate targeting by the Hong Kong Police of people for peacefully honouring the memory of victims of the Tiananmen crackdown lays bare the dismal state of human rights in the city.

“The creativity and determination of those who came out to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown, despite the threat of arrest and harassment, shows that the truth can never be completely silenced by repressive governments. Hongkongers continue to stand up for their rights and for the rights of those in mainland China.

The creativity and determination of those who came out to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown, despite the threat of arrest and harassment, shows that the truth can never be completely silenced by repressive governments. Hongkongers continue to stand up for their rights and for the rights of those in mainland China.

Hana Young, Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director

“The Hong Kong authorities must end their politically motivated campaign to silence people daring to hold China to account over the horrific events of June Fourth.

“All those arrested merely for exercising their human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly must be immediately and unconditionally released.” 

Background

At least 12 people were taken away in the vicinity of Victoria Park in Hong Kong today for peacefully commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Others were harassed by the police for carrying flowers, handing out pieces of white paper, holding a toy tank or turning on the flashlights on their phones.

One man was arrested for suspected “unauthorized assembly” and on 3 June, an artist was arrested under “sedition” charges after he staged a street performance.

Every year on 4 June since 1990, up to hundreds of thousands of people joined a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed during the Tiananmen crackdown. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and take accountability for the fatalities. The vigil has been banned for the past two years, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds. This year authorities closed parts of Victoria part citing potential “illegal activities” and heavy police force patrolled the area.

The organizer of the vigil, the Hong Kong Alliance, was forced to disband in September 2021 after coming under increasing pressure since the enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law in June 2020. Several of its senior figures are currently in jail.

The Alliance is one of several prominent civil society organizations forced to close since last year after being targeted by the Hong Kong police on national security grounds.

Every year the vigil in Hong Kong featured a recorded message from the Tiananmen Mothers, family members of those killed, who are still seeking a full government account of the deaths, lawful compensation and investigation of criminal responsibility. Frequently harassed and prevented from mourning, this week key members of the group report they are being prevented from receiving international phone calls.

Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 when Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully calling for political and economic reforms as well as an end to corruption. Tens of thousands were arrested across China in the suppression that followed. Many were charged with counter-revolutionary crimes and served very long prison sentences following unfair trials. Regularly since 1989, activists in mainland China have been detained and charged with “subversion” or “picking quarrels” if they commemorated those who were killed, called for the release of prisoners, or criticised government actions during the Tiananmen crackdown.

This year, Amnesty International and other groups have organized a series of global candlelight vigils and other events commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown, in solidarity with the Tiananmen mothers and with Hong Kong amid increased repression in the city.

Events are taking place this week in more than 20 cities including Bangkok, San Francisco, Washington DC, Seoul, Taipei, Ulaanbaatar, Sydney, Oslo, Paris, Amsterdam and London.

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