Responding to the withdrawal of the United States of America from the Paris Climate Agreement, Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Programme Director for Climate, ESJ and Corporate Accountability, said:
“The US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement sets a disturbing precedent that seeks to instigate a race to the bottom, and, along with its withdrawal from other major global climate pacts, aims to dismantle the global system of cooperation on climate action. The US is one of several powerful anti-climate actors but as an influential superpower, this decision, along with acts of coercion and bullying of other countries and powerful actors to double down on fossil fuels, causes particular harm and threatens to reverse more than a decade of global climate progress under the agreement.
“US-based climate advocates and activists now find themselves on the frontlines of a fight with implications for current and future generations everywhere. Global solidarity and support to ensure accelerating momentum to address climate change has never been more urgent. Those who witness the harms caused by climate change and who can speak safely – must speak up. Other governments too must push back against all coercive efforts by the US. Ceding ground now risks losing it for years. Neither the planet nor the people living on the frontlines of proliferating unnatural disasters have that much time.”
While the US may no longer be a party to the Paris Agreement, it still has legal obligations to protect humanity from the worsening impacts of climate change as confirmed by the ICJ in its landmark 2025 advisory opinion.
Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Programme Director for Climate, ESJ and Corporate Accountability
Background
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty adopted more than a decade ago by 196 parties aimed at combating climate change by pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C – a threshold that the world is rapidly surpassing.
President Trump has also called for US withdrawal from over 60 other international organizations, including many others related to climate change, biodiversity and clean energy, calling them ‘wasteful, ineffective, or harmful’.
Reacting to media reports that states such as Russia, Türkiye and Tajikistan are extensively misusing Interpol red notices to target political dissidents and to repress human rights defenders, Erika Guevara Rosas Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns of Amnesty International said:
“Media reports that Interpol red notices are being extensively misused, without internal scrutiny, to target dissidents, critics and activists are deeply concerning. Amnesty International, UN experts and other organizations have raised concerns about states’ misuse of international policing mechanisms for political purposes, and has documented instances of governments engaging in transnational repression of human rights defenders.
“Red notices should never be used for political purposes and Interpol must be willing to suspend states who misuse their processes. These reports must be urgently and independently investigated.
“Interpol’s failure to sanction or even challenge the states repeatedly involved in these practices casts doubt over its credibility as an institution. Interpol must strive for far greater transparency. The fact that these failures only came to light through a whistleblower is a damning indictment of its organizational culture. It is time for Interpol to clean up its act and to stop serving states’ political interests.”
Background
On 26 January 2026 BBC World Service and Disclose revealed the extent of states’ apparent abuse of Interpol’s wanted lists to target dissidents, critics and activists abroad. According to the media outlets’ analysis of thousands of files provided by a whistleblower, Interpol’s own independent complaints unit received more complaints about Russia than any other state. These complaints, generally coming from people who were targeted, led to more Russian cases being overturned than for any other country.
Interpol red notices are requests to worldwide law enforcement bodies to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Interpol’s constitution expressly states that the organization cannot be used ‘to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character’.
Amnesty has documented the misuse of these notices for political purposes and called on states and Interpol to apply greater scrutiny to politically motivated requests. Amnesty International will continue to campaign against the misuse of international policing mechanisms and for the protection of people at risk of human rights violations.
Myanmar military relies on ghost fleet to import jet fuel, evidence points to Iran links
2025 is deadliest year on record for aerial attacks by military
More aviation fuel imported in 2025 than in any year since military coup
Aviation fuel used by the Myanmar military to launch deadly air strikes on civilians continues to enter the country via a murky supply chain that has “gone rogue” five years after the junta seized power, a new investigation by Amnesty International has found.
Amnesty’s analysis of trade, shipping, satellite and port authority data indicates that the Myanmar military is adopting the reported sanction-evasion tactics of countries such as Russia, Iran and North Korea by importing jet fuel on “ghost ships” which turn off their location-tracking Automatic Identification System (AIS) radar to avoid detection.
Such methods make it virtually impossible to identify the supplier. However, Amnesty International has tracked multiple shipments of aviation fuel to Myanmar since July 2024 – including on two US-sanctioned vessels with a history of exporting fuel from Iran. According to Kpler, a commodity intelligence platform that tracks global flows of fuels and other commodities, all shipments on these two vessels are assumed to be from Iran, while satellite imagery reviewed by Amnesty International points to a likely Iran connection.
Significantly, Myanmar Port Authority data shows that at least 109,604 metric tonnes of aviation fuel were imported into Myanmar in 2025, a 69 percent increase from 2024 and the highest amount in any year since the coup – despite sanctions imposed to stop fuel reaching the country.
“Five years after the coup, our analysis shows that the Myanmar junta continues to evade sanctions and find new ways to import the jet fuel it uses to bomb its own civilians – with 2025 being the deadliest year on record for aerial attacks since the junta takeover in 2021,” said Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director.
“As aviation fuel shipments into the country increase despite sanctions and the well-documented surge in aerial attacks against civilians, the international community must do more to stop companies and governments facilitating a supply chain that has increasingly gone rogue. Every day of inaction will cost more lives.”
Ghost vessels bring deadly cargo to Myanmar
Amnesty International’s investigation confirmed the delivery of at least nine separate shipments of aviation fuel to Myanmar by four vessels between mid-2024 and the end of 2025, while also uncovering significant changes to how aviation fuel has entered Myanmar during this period.
One notable development was the import of fuel using ‘ghost ships’, which turn off their AIS during onloading and/or offloading – also known as “going dark” – and in some cases intentionally broadcast false or manipulated vessel positions to conceal the ship’s real location (known as ‘spoofing’).
Such vessels may also repeatedly change their name, flag or ownership, and often load fuel through open-water ship-to-ship (STS) transfers, instead of in ports and terminals.
Such methods make tracking of the shipments and the suppliers extremely complicated. However, Amnesty has confirmed the import of aviation fuel to Myanmar on the following four vessels since mid-2024:
HUITONG 78 (IMO 9646479, now called BARAAWE 1) – Chinese-flagged vessel delivered one shipment in July 2024, following at least nine other shipments in 2023/2024. The 12 July shipment to the Myan Oil terminal in Yangon happened while the vessel appeared to have its AIS radar off. According to AIS data analysis and satellite imagery, it likely loaded in Fujairah’s offshore anchorage area (FOAA) in the United Arab Emirates, an offshore area designated for bunkering, STS oil-product transfers and other maritime services, where it was sighted between 13-26 June.
YONG SHENG 56 (IMO 9657507, now called LS MERCURY) – Chinese-flagged vessel transported one shipment on 30-31 July 2024. Like the HUITONG 78, AIS data indicates that the YONG SHENG 56 was at FOAA, UAE, between 15-29 June and then travelled to Myanmar to offload.
REEF (IMO 9263382, formerly BALTIC HORIZON) – Guinea-flagged vessel delivered shipments in Oct 2024, July 2025 and October 2025. Although its AIS data places the vessel near Kuwait and again near the UAE at the time of presumed onloading, this contradicts other verified information including satellite imagery, analyzed by Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab, which places this vessel at Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan province, Iran, with high confidence, in September 2025. During the same timeframe, the AIS data of the vessel also displays unnaturally geometric “box‑shaped” loitering patterns over 750 km from Bandar Abbas port, where no ships of similar size to REEF are present. This is inconsistent with normal navigation, indicating AIS manipulation or spoofing.
NOBLE (IMO 9162928, formerly ASTRA) – Guinea-flagged vessel delivered four shipments between January and June 2025. AIS data and satellite imagery indicate it loitered at FOAA, UAE, before traveling to Myanmar where it turned off its AIS radar. In at least one of the shipments, however, satellite imagery places NOBLE at Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan province, Iran, after FOAA and before arriving in Myanmar (June 2025 delivery).
The image above shows the mapped AIS data of REEF (IMO 9263382) while loitering inside the Iranian EEZ (29.3996°, 48.9778°) in September 2025. The data forms a box-like pattern which is atypical for ships loitering and is likely an indication of spoofed data. Further, satellite imagery did not show a ship of similar dimensions to REEF in September.
While Amnesty International was unable to confirm the suppliers or origin of the aviation fuel, several indicators point to an Iran connection.
NOBLE and REEF both have a documented history of transporting sanctioned fuel from Iran, according to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and both REEF and NOBLE have been sighted at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port in the last 13 months. In addition, Kpler assumed – drawing on AIS data, satellite imagery, customs information and other sources – that all of NOBLE and REEF’s shipments were from Iran.
Finally, the vessels involved display behavioural patterns characteristic of “ghost fleet” tankers, including AIS gaps, anomalous tracks or spoofing, and opaque STS transfers, which mirror methods commonly used by tankers that move sanctioned fuel from Iran.
High resolution satellite imagery from 14 September 2025 (left) shows a ship with the same measurements and layout as REEF (IMO 9263382) loitering approximately 7 km offshore of Bandar Abbas and over 750 km from the AIS signal location. The ship is present in imagery on 12, 13, 14 September and is no longer visible on 15 September. On 15 September, lower resolution imagery (right) shows a ship of the same size and layout newly at a pier in Bandar Abbas. The ship is in that location up to 17 September 2025.
Background
Since the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, Amnesty International has documented a persistent and evolving supply chain enabling Myanmar’s military to obtain aviation fuel used in unlawful air strikes against civilians. Amnesty has called for a ban on aviation fuel and withdrawal of all companies involved in the supply chain to prevent further civilian harm.
Amnesty International’s Deadly Cargo report, published in collaboration with Justice for Myanmar in November 2022, revealed that multinational companies based in Singapore and Thailand were part of a supply chain that delivered Jet A‑1 aviation fuel to Myanmar.
Following sanctions introduced in 2023 targeting parts of the jet fuel supply chain, Amnesty International’s January 2024 analysis and July 2024 findings found a major shift in methods. Direct sales diminished; instead, fuel was bought and resold multiple times to obscure its origin. At least nine shipments reached Myanmar in 2023 and early 2024, many routed through a Viet Nam storage unit, revealing deliberate sanctions‑evasion tactics.
In response to the expected announcement by the Trump administration on Friday of an expansion of the Global Gag Rule blocking US international aid to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counselling or information, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy Policy & Campaigns, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said:
“The expansion of the Global Gag Rule is an assault on human rights. By targeting organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and recognize gender diversity, the Trump administration is deliberately deepening inequality and putting the lives of millions around the world at risk.
“The Global Gag Rule is a disastrous and deadly US policy. It strangles healthcare systems, censors information and violates the rights to health, information, and free expression. It forces frontline providers and many struggling organizations that depend on US funding into an impossible choice: limit essential healthcare for the most vulnerable populations or shut their doors.
“The Global Gag Rule is a disastrous and deadly US policy. It forces many struggling organizations that depend on US funding into an impossible choice: limit essential healthcare for the most vulnerable populations or shut their doors.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy Policy & Campaigns
“Doubling down on this policy is cruel, reckless and ideologically driven. Expanding it to international and US-based organizations will impact the poorest and marginalized first and hardest, denying people the chance to live full, healthy, autonomous lives where they are able to access rights and services. It is further proof of this US administration’s blatant disregard for international law, universal rights, and the rules-based international order.”
Background:
Trump administration officials told media outlets on Thursday that the expansion of the Global Gag Rule would be announced on Friday. They said the updated policy, which until now impacted organizations operating outside of the United States, will also include international organizations and US nongovernmental organizations.
First instated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, the Global Gag Rule has been reinstated by several presidents since. Among them, President Trump reinstated and dramatically expanded it during his first term in office and again on 24 January 2025.
Human rights organizations including Amnesty International have documented how the policy has restricted people’s ability to access reproductive healthcare, including safe abortions. Amnesty International has also documented how the Trump administration’s decision on 20 January 2025 to drastically and arbitrarily cut foreign assistance to thousands of life-saving humanitarian, health, and human rights initiatives globally has had a devastating impact on millions of people.
Ahead of India’s 77th Republic Day Parade celebrations on 26 January and the EU-India Summit taking place the following day, Amnesty International urges the European Union and India to work together to counter global attacks on human rights.
“With human rights ever more embattled worldwide, it’s a crucial moment for two key global players both to get their own houses in order on human rights and to jointly re-assert the importance of human rights and the rule of law across all areas of their relations, including trade, security and defence, energy transition and people to people cooperation. In strengthening their efforts to promote and protect human rights both in domestic and foreign policy, India and the EU have the potential to achieve a partnership that can truly serve their people – and send an important signal for rights and rights holders worldwide,” said Eve Geddie, the Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
“India must hold the EU accountable for its delivery on human rights in practice – and equally, the EU must no longer remain silent about India’s human rights record because of geostrategic and economic considerations”, said Aakar Patel, Chair of Amnesty International India.
“The EU must clearly denounce serious human rights violations and demand that India respect its commitments in this area. Where India and the EU fail to speak about human rights, when they are under attack worldwide, both sides will send a disastrous political signal of normalization and impunity. Human rights defenders and civil society in the EU and India must be able to count on their governments to deliver what they promise on human rights.”
Background
In India, Amnesty International has long documented the mounting use of repressive laws to restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and to crack down on peaceful dissent by harassing, surveilling and detaining human rights defenders, activists, journalists and members of civil society.
Abusive and discriminatory laws and policies against Muslims, Christians and other minorities have intensified alongside the punitive demolition of Muslim homes and other properties, despite a 2024 Supreme Court judgement and calls by United Nations independent human rights experts to end such demolitions.
Against this concerning backdrop, human rights receive shockingly short shrift in the New Strategic EU-India Agenda, published in October 2025, which defines the EU’s approach to relations with India for the coming years.
Meanwhile in Europe, EU member states have been rolling back respect for the rule of law and backtracking on their stated commitments, affecting the rights of people across Europe, including refugees and migrants in the EU and at its borders. Human rights defenders, activists and civil society organizations – in particular those working on climate justice, refugee and migrant rights, LGBTIQ+ rights, racism and Palestinians’ human rights – increasingly face threats including from smear campaigns, criminalization and restrictions on their work.
Both EU member states and India continue to transfer military equipment to Israel in violation of international law. Instead, they should impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, including all arms, equipment, technology or parts that allow Israel to carry out the genocide in Gaza, and maintain its unlawful occupation and system of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
