Schlagwort: Amnesty International

In response to the ruling by Jordan’s State Security Court to uphold its conviction and five-year prison sentence against political activist Ayman Sanduka on 15 September for a Facebook post addressed to the King in which he criticized Jordan’s policies, Kristine Beckerle, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa said:

Equating criticism of government policy with incitement against the regime is a dangerous distortion of justice and sends a chilling message that peaceful dissent, including that related to Israel, is not tolerated in Jordan. 

Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International.

“The decision to uphold Ayman Sanduka’s conviction is a deeply alarming sign of Jordan’s accelerating rollback of the fundamental right to freedom of expression. Ayman Sanduka should never have been detained in the first place; he was imprisoned solely for expressing his views online. Equating criticism of government policy with incitement against the regime is a dangerous distortion of justice and sends a chilling message that peaceful dissent, including that related to Israel, is not tolerated in Jordan. 

“The Jordanian authorities must drop all charges and immediately and unconditionally release Ayman Sanduka. Arrest or detention as punishment for the legitimate exercise of human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, is arbitrary and violates Jordan’s obligations under international law.” 

 Background 

On 21 December 2023, the State Security Court prosecutor summoned and detained Ayman Sanduka, a political activist and mathematics teacher, over a Facebook post he wrote in October 2023 addressed to the King of Jordan, in which he criticized Jordan’s diplomatic relations with Israel. On 7 January 2025, the State Security Court convicted Sanduka of “incitement to oppose the political regime” and sentenced him to five years in prison. 

In July 2025, the Court of Cassation ruled that Sanduka’s post did not amount to incitement but instead “fell under the lesser offense of ‘insulting the King,’” and ordered the case to be retried. However, on 15 September 2025, the State Security Court upheld its original ruling. The State Security Court is a military court that fails to meet international standards of impartiality and independence and is often used to prosecute civilians in violation of international law. Since the October 2023 Israeli offensive in Gaza, Jordanian authorities have used broad laws, including the Penal Code and the Cybercrimes Law, to target journalists, activists, and others who express opinions critical of government policies toward Israel. 

The post Jordan: Activist’s five-year prison sentence for peaceful criticism upheld amid escalating repression  appeared first on Amnesty International.

States, public institutions and companies the world over are enabling or profiting from Israel’s prolonged violations of international law, including its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, its unlawful occupation of the whole Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and its cruel system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls, through their complicity, support or self-imposed paralysis, said Amnesty International in a briefing published today outlining urgent calls to states and companies.

“It is beyond time for states, public institutions, companies, universities and other private actors to end their lethal addiction to economic gains and profits at all costs. Israel’s prolonged unlawful occupation and decades of apartheid have required in-depth and sustained support to Israel through economic relations and trade. Twenty-three months of relentless bombardment and an ongoing genocide have demanded endless supply of weapons, and surveillance equipment, backed by privileged trading relations and states and companies prepared to ignore the indefensible,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“This must stop. Human dignity is not a commodity. While Palestinian mothers in Gaza are left to watch their children waste away from starvation under Israel’s genocide, arms companies and others continue to reap substantial profits. Amnesty International calls on its members and supporters the world over to demand an immediate end to the political economy underpinning Israel’s international crimes.

“Today’s briefing identifies actions that states must take to fulfil their obligations, from banning and barring companies contributing or directly linked to Israel’s crimes, to effective legislation and regulation, and including divesting and ceasing purchases or contracts. It also lists actions companies should take, such as suspending sales or contracts and making divestments.  

“The briefing also names 15 companies that Amnesty International has identified as contributing to Israel’s unlawful occupation, genocide or other crimes under international law. They include US multinationals Boeing and Lockheed Martin,the Israeli arms companies Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the Chinese company Hikvision, the Spanish manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), the South Korean conglomerate HD Hyundai, the US software company Palantir Technologies, the Israeli technology firm Corsight, and the Israeli state-owned water company Mekorot.

“But let’s make no mistake: these 15 companies are just a small sample of all those responsible for sustaining a government that has engineered famine and mass killing of civilians and denied Palestinians fundamental rights for decades. Every economic sector, the vast majority of states, and many private entities have knowingly contributed to or benefited from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and its brutal occupation and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Amnesty International is publishing this set of urgent calls for states and companies on the anniversary of the 18 September 2024 UN General Assembly resolution, which demanded that Israel end its unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory within 12 months of its adoption. The resolution was adopted to implement the July 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion, which declared that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory is unlawful, that its discriminatory laws and policies against Palestinians in the OPT violate the prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid, and that Israel’s presence in the OPT must rapidly terminated.

These corporations must fulfil their human rights responsibilities or face consequences for their actions.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

The UN General Assembly then called on member states to take concrete steps to action the Court’s declaration to bring Israel’s occupation in the OPT to an end, including by taking “measures to prevent their nationals, companies, and entities under their jurisdiction from engaging in activities that support or sustain Israel’s occupation… to cease importing products originating from Israeli settlements and to halt the transfer of arms, munitions, and related equipment to Israel in cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may be used in Occupied Palestinian Territory”, and to “implement sanctions, such as travel bans and asset freezes, against individuals and entities involved in maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the Territory.”

“The 12-month deadline that the UN General Assembly resolution set for Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territory expires today, yet Israel continues to starve and slaughter Palestinians on a daily basis. Most member states have done next to nothing to press the Israeli government into complying with the resolution. They must end their indefensible, self-imposed inertia and immediately suspend all activities that contribute to Israel’s violations of international law – or risk complicity in the crime against humanity of apartheid, genocide, and other crimes under international law,” said Agnès Callamard.

Amnesty International is calling on states to ban, with immediate effect, the supply to Israel of all arms, military and security equipment and services, and all surveillance equipment, artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure used to support surveillance, security and military activity. This includes prohibiting the transit and transshipment of arms, military and security equipment and related parts and components bound for Israel through their jurisdictions, via their ports, airports, airspace or territory.  

The organization is also calling for a halt to trade with and investment in companies based anywhere around the world that are contributing to Israel’s genocide, apartheid or unlawful occupation. These include at the very minimum the companies listed in the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’s report and in the UN Database of companies contributing to illegal settlements. States must ensure that companies operating within their jurisdictions comply with these bans.  

Companies contributing to Israel’s unlawful occupation and/or crimes under international law

Amnesty International has documented the abuses by several of these companies for years and wrote to all the companies named in this briefing, asking questions about their activities in Israel and the OPT, and expressing concerns over the human rights violations described in this document. In 2025, only five companies sent replies, which are reflected in the briefing.

Amnesty International has documented the use of Boeing bombs and guidance kits in unlawful air strikes carried out in the occupied Gaza Strip. In particular, the Israeli military likely used Boeing-manufactured weapons, including Joint Direct Attack Munitions and GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs, in a series of deadly air strikes that killed scores of Palestinian civilians across Gaza, including many children. 

Lockheed Martin supplies and services F-16s and Israel’s growing fleet of F-35 combat aircraft – the backbone of the Israeli Air Force which have been used extensively during the bombardment of Gaza.

The three largest Israeli arms companies – Elbit Systems and the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and IAI – supply military and security goods and services worth billions of dollars to the Israeli military annually. These include surveillance and armed drones, loitering munitions, and border security systems that Israel has continuously used in its military offensive in Gaza and across the rest of the OPT. Elbit Systems – the only arms company to reply to Amnesty International’s request for further information – rejected Amnesty International’s concerns and argued that the company was operating lawfully, supplying “a sovereign, unsanctioned government, recognized by the international community”.

Israel is also currently using Hikvision’s surveillance products and services in its system of apartheid against Palestinians, while Corsight specializes in the development and sale of facial recognition software that the Israeli military has used in its offensive in Gaza.

We cannot allow the immense, unfathomable suffering of the Palestinian people to be ignored for a minute longer.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

Palantir Technologies, a US artificial intelligence company, has been supplying AI products and services to the Israeli military and intelligence services, which are linked to Israel’s military activities in Gaza.

Mekorot contributes to Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian Territory by managing the water infrastructure and network in the West Bank in ways that discriminate against Palestinians and favor unlawful Israeli settlements. CAF supports the Jerusalem Light Rail project, which facilitates the expansion of Israeli settlements, while HD Hyundai produces, maintains and services heavy machinery used in unlawful demolitions in the OPT.

In 2019, Amnesty International also highlighted how leading online tourism companies Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and TripAdvisor have contributed to the maintenance, consolidation and further expansion of unlawful Israeli settlements in the OPT. While Amnesty called on these companies to responsibly disengage from doing business in Israeli settlements, they continue to have listings there.

“These corporations must fulfil their human rights responsibilities or face consequences for their actions. They must ensure that they are not involved in Israel’s unlawful occupation and crimes under international law in any shape or form. If they fail to do this, companies and their employees and board members risk incurring civil liability and, in some cases, even potential criminal responsibility for aiding and abetting Israel’s crimes,” said Agnès Callamard.

Amnesty is calling on these companies to immediately suspend all sales and deliveries into Israel of weapons and other military, security and surveillance equipment, or other heavy machinery, parts or goods and services contributing or directly linked to human rights violations in the OPT. States, public institutions and other companies must use their leverage through their investments in these companies – up to and including responsibly divesting and ceasing purchases from them – to stop these sales.

States should also bar these companies from trade shows, government meetings, contracts, research grants and activities with public bodies related to the types of products sold into Israel. All these measures must remain in place until such companies can demonstrate that they are not contributing to Israel’s unlawful occupation or crimes under international law.

“Amnesty International calls on people around the world to take peaceful actions. Civil society and the public at large should mobilize and campaign so that all states abide by their obligations and hold accountable corporations contributing or directly linked to Israel’s crimes. It is unacceptable that states and companies are aware that their revenues come from death, destruction and immense suffering of Palestinians, yet they have decided to look away, maintain their business models regardless of the human cost, and indulge in their wealth. We cannot allow the immense, unfathomable suffering of the Palestinian people to be ignored for a minute longer,” said Agnès Callamard.

Background

In January 2024, the ICJ found there was a real and imminent risk of irreparable harm to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Genocide Convention and ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocidal acts. The ICJ also affirmed that all states have an obligation to prevent, suppress and punish genocide. The Court reiterated its requests to Israel in two further orders in March and May 2024. All of them remain disregarded.

In December 2024, Amnesty International found that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and there has since been a growing consensus among experts throughout the international community that genocide is occurring.

In September 2024, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution where it set a 12-month timeline for Israel to withdraw from the OPT. It then passed another resolution in December 2024 that called for the “withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem; the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” and for states “not to render aid or assistance to illegal settlement activities, including not to provide Israel with any assistance to be used specifically in connection with settlements” in the OPT.

The post Global: Confronting the global political economy enabling Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid appeared first on Amnesty International.

By: Graciela Martínez, senior campaigner, and Adeline Neau, researcher for Central America at Amnesty International.

A year ago, in Tocoa, northern Honduras, environmentalist Juan López was shot dead in front of his family, friends and neighbours as he was leaving a religious service. The alleged perpetrator of the shooting and two alleged accomplices have been formally charged and are being held in pretrial detention. However, those who may have ordered his murder have not yet been held to account. Since then, his family and fellow activists have launched a legal battle to seek justice, truth and reparation.

Juan’s murder, like that of Berta Cáceres almost ten years earlier, has left a huge void in the leadership of environmental defence in Honduras. For his community role in promoting ecology and the environment within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis himself at the time mourned Juan’s death.

Juan’s murder, like that of Berta Cáceres almost ten years earlier, has left a huge void in the leadership of environmental defence in Honduras.

Honduras tops the list of per capita killings of environmental defenders worldwide over the last decade, according to reports by Global Witness. In addition to lethal violence, environmental defenders often face threats, harassment, arbitrary detention and even enforced disappearance. All this in a climate of impunity.

At the start of her term in office, the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, promised to protect the environment and those who defend it. However, with just a few months of the term remaining, we note with concern her repeated failure to fulfil those human rights commitments.

Regarding the right to a healthy environment, in 2024 Congress approved a decree to protect the Carlos Escaleras National Park defended by Juan López and his community, a decree that is yet to be implemented. However, Congress also promoted a controversial bill to ease the granting of environmental licences for certain projects. In addition, the president has not yet signed the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the Escazú Agreement, which, among other issues, includes specific provisions for the protection of environmental defenders.

The murder of Juan López shines a harsh light on these contradictions. The crime was committed in Tocoa, in the Aguán Valley, an area rich in biodiversity and among the most conflict-ridden in the country. Although Juan had precautionary measures granted in his favour by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Honduran authorities failed to guarantee his protection. The National Protection System, responsible for his safety, has been strongly criticized by local and international organizations for its inefficiency.

The history of violence in Aguán goes back a long way. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, banana, palm oil and mining companies have disputed its lands, with the endorsement of the authorities, thereby weakening protection of communal property. Unofficial figures suggest that nearly 200 people have disappeared or been murdered in the region since 2009. In February 2022, to address this serious situation, farmer organizations signed an agreement

with the Honduran government that included the creation of a tripartite commission to investigate human rights violations. However, three years later, no significant progress has been made. Furthermore, in 2023, three individuals associated with the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) – led by Juan – were murdered, with no justice having been served in these cases to date. Others have been forced to leave the region due to the violence.

Juan moved as a child to Bajo Aguán with his family, who were looking to work on the land. It was there that he learned of the challenges facing farming communities and began to get involved in defending their rights. Years later, in 2015, he and other colleagues who shared his faith and activism, concerned about community issues, in particular regarding water, founded the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods.

The mobilization of the communities of Tocoa came about in response to a series of decisions taken by the Honduran authorities. In 2012, Congress declared what is today the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park, to protect the area from the effects of heavy industries, including mining. However, a year later, that same Congress decided to extend the Park’s buffer zone, thereby reducing the extent of its most protected area. This opened the door for the government to grant mining permits there. As a result, between 2014 and 2015, the Honduran authorities granted exploration and exploitation concessions to a mining company. Since then, Juan and the Committee organized peacefully to defend the National Park, challenging the legality of the mining concessions and denouncing their impact on the water quality of the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers.

Attacks against Juan and the Committee soon materialized after the mobilizations, with smear campaigns, threats and trials. Several activists, including Juan, were wrongfully imprisoned. Amnesty International declared eight Committee activists prisoners of conscience in 2021; they spent more than two years in prison solely for peacefully defending the environment.

Juan’s murder is not an isolated incident. It is indicative of a systematic pattern of violence and institutional negligence that must stop. In the face of a global climate emergency, protecting the planet cannot come at the cost of human lives.

Juan’s murder is not an isolated event. It is indicative of a systematic pattern of violence and institutional negligence that must stop. In the face of a global climate emergency, protecting the planet cannot come at the cost of human lives.

Honduras will hold presidential elections on 30 November. It is time to demand that protecting the environment and those who defend it becomes a priority on the political agenda. Justice for Juan is a debt owed to his wife and two daughters, to his community and to our planet. Juan López is one of nine cases selected for Amnesty International’s annual global Write for Rights 2025 campaign.

OpEd Originally published in El País Americas: https://elpais.com/america-futura/2025-09-14/justicia-para-juan-es-justicia-para-el-medio-ambiente.html

The post Justice for Juan is justice for the environment appeared first on Amnesty International.

Amnesty International condemns the massacre that took place on 11 and 12 September in Labodri, Haiti, where more than forty people were killed and dozens of homes set on fire by gangs, according to civil society organizations.

“The massacre in Labodri is a painful reminder of how precarious state protection is in Haiti. The international community and national authorities cannot remain indifferent while the country’s people continue to be victims of atrocity crimes. We demand immediate action to ensure effective protection and justice for the victims,” said César Marín, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns in the Americas.

The massacre in Labodri is a painful reminder of how precarious state protection is in Haiti. 

César Marín, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns in the Americas.

Amnesty International reiterates the call to members of the UN Security Council to act urgently in the face of the crisis in Haiti by implementing measures that guarantee the enjoyment of human rights and the humanitarian needs of Haitians.

The OAS, CARICOM, donor countries and Haitian national authorities must increase their commitment to finding long-term solutions to the human rights crisis in Haiti by ensuring the active participation of Haitian civil society.

“The Haitian population has the right to live in dignity and safety, without the constant fear of armed gang attacks.As we have already warned during previous episodes of violence, the ineffective response to this crisis only perpetuates the cycle of impunity and exposes more communities like Labodri to the same fate”, concluded César Marín.

The Haitian population has the right to live in dignity and safety, without the constant fear of armed gang attacks.

César Marín.

Amnesty International urges gangs to end attacks on the Haitian population.

The post Haiti: Labodri massacre exposes state ineffectiveness in protecting the population appeared first on Amnesty International.