Schlagwort: Amnesty International

The prosecution of Hong Kong activists for commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown is a further escalation in the authorities’ weaponization of national security laws to silence dissent, Amnesty International said today at the opening of the activists’ trial.

Lawyer Chow Hang-tung and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan have been detained for more than four years awaiting trial and face years’ more imprisonment on national security charges. Chow and Lee were members of the now disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which organized the city’s annual Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil for more three decades until it was banned amid a clampdown on human rights.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were killed when Chinese troops opened fire on protesters in and around Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on 4 June 1989.

“This case is not about national security – it is about rewriting history and punishing those who refuse to forget the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director.

“Chow and Lee’s principal ‘crime’ has been to seek truth and justice for the protesters shot dead by Chinese troops and for the families left grieving. This cynical case against them is a clear illustration of how the Hong Kong government uses vague and overly broad national security laws as tools of repression.”

Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan were among the members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (Hong Kong Alliance) charged with “inciting subversion of state power” under the National Security Law in September 2021.

They have been held in pre-trial detention ever since, having been repeatedly denied bail, and face up to 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted. They have both been designated as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.

Authorities said the annual Tiananmen vigil the Hong Kong Alliance had organized since 1990 was evidence of the group “endangering national security”.

Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns that Hong Kong’s National Security Law, enacted in June 2020, is being used to target civil society groups, journalists, political activists and academics for actions that are fully protected under international human rights law.

The organization calls on the Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against members of the Hong Kong Alliance detained simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, repeal the National Security Law and respect and facilitate the peaceful commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown.

“History cannot be erased. Hong Kong’s courts now face a critical test: whether they will uphold human rights, or continue to lend judicial legitimacy to a sweeping crackdown on dissent,” Sarah Brooks said.

“Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan are prisoners of conscience, jailed simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.  The Hong Kong authorities must immediately and unconditionally release them.”

Background

On 4 June 1989, Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully protesting for political reforms in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed. Tens of thousands more were arrested across China in the suppression that followed.

In the 36 years since the crackdown, all discussion of the incident has been heavily censored in China, as authorities have effectively attempted to erase it from history. Public commemoration or mere mention of the Tiananmen crackdown is banned. 

While commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown was forbidden in mainland China, crowds reaching hundreds of thousands of people would gather annually in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and accept accountability for the atrocity. 

The Hong Kong vigil was banned in 2020 and 2021, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds, and since then repressive new laws such as the 2020 National Security Law have effectively criminalized peaceful protest in the city.

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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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