Tag: amnesty international

Amnesty Urges US Bombing of Yemen Migrant Detention Facility To Be Investigated as a War Crime

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that the US bombing of a migrant detention facility in Yemen earlier this year amounted to an indiscriminate attack and should be investigated as a war crime.

The US strike was launched on April 28 and killed 68 African migrants who were detained at the facility in Yemen’s northern Saada province. The attack was part of the US military’s bombing campaign in Yemen that was conducted from March 15 to May 15, which was dubbed “Operation Rough Rider,” and killed more than 250 civilians.

Amnesty said in a report on the strike that it “did not find any evidence that the migrant detention centre was a military objective or that it contained any military objectives.”

The report, which involved interviews with 15 Ethiopian migrants who survived the attack, also pointed out that the US should have been aware that the strike would result in heavy civilian casualties since the Saudi military, with support from the US, bombed the same facility in 2022 and killed more than 90 civilians.

“Given the air strike killed and injured civilians, the US authorities should investigate this attack as a war crime. The result of the investigation, including any conclusions related to civilian casualties and efforts to respond to them, should promptly be made public,” Amnesty said.

Operation Rough Rider involved another mass civilian casualty event, the US bombing of the Ras Issa fuel port in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which occurred on April 17. The strikes killed 84 civilians, mainly workers at the port, according to Airwars.

When the US announced the attack on the port, it did not allege that it was hitting a military target. US Central Command justified the bombing of vital civilian infrastructure by saying the Houthis, who govern an area where about 70% to 80% of Yemenis live, “profit” off fuel that enters the port.

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Russia outlaws Amnesty International in latest crackdown on dissent and activists

The Russian authorities on Monday outlawed Amnesty International as an “undesirable organization,” a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.

The decision by the Russian Prosecutor General’s office, announced in an online statement, is the latest in the unrelenting crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists that intensified to unprecedented levels after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The designation means the international human rights group must stop any work in Russia, and it subjects those who cooperate with it or support it to prosecution, including if anyone shares Amnesty International’s reports on social media.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said the move was part of the Russian government’s efforts to silence dissent and isolate civil society. “The authorities are deeply mistaken if they believe that by labeling our organization ‘undesirable,’ we will stop our work documenting and exposing human rights violations – quite the opposite,” she said in a statement. “We will not give in to the threats and will continue undeterred to work to ensure that people in Russia are able to enjoy their human rights without discrimination.”

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Amnesty International Accused of Unwokeness

You might think nothing could be woker than Amnesty International, an organization that draws virtual signaling donations from liberal elitists by advancing leftist politics in the name of “human rights.” Yet we read this from the Guardian, flagship publication of Britain’s liberal establishment:

Amnesty International has a culture of white privilege with incidents of overt racism including senior staff using the N-word and micro-aggressive behaviour such as the touching of black colleagues’ hair, according to an internal review into its secretariat.

By now we know enough to treat assertions that the forbidden N-word has been uttered with skepticism. But who can deny microaggressions, which include all behavior that sacred BIPOCs choose to be offended by?

It came as eight current and former employees of Amnesty International UK (AIUK) described their own experiences of racial discrimination and issued a statement calling on senior figures to stand down.

One of the whistleblowers, Katherine Odukoya, said: “We joined Amnesty hoping to campaign against human rights abuses but were instead let down through realising that the organisation actually helped perpetuate them.”

Yes, touching the hair of a Person of Color qualifies as a human rights abuse. Senior figures’ heads must roll.

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