Rather than speculatively accusing each other of abuses, both sides should concentrate on investigating and eliminating execution-style killings by forces they control.

20/10/2014 – Amnesty International has received a growing number of allegations of execution-style and other deliberate killings of civilians in eastern Ukraine since April 2014, in addition to those that have been reported in Crimea since its annexation by Russia and in Odessa on 2 May 2014.1 Initially these reports primarily focused on de facto separatist authorities in the territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions under their control. It is only in recent months that allegations of extra-judicial killings by Kyiv-controlled forces have come to Amnesty International’s attention.

20/10/2014 – Amnesty International has continued to receive persistent and credible allegations of routine and pervasive torture and other ill-treatment by security forces Security forces refer to all law enforcement forces under the control of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, and the National Security Services (SNB) during arrest, transfer, in police custody and in pre-trial detention and by security forces and prison personnel in post-conviction detention facilities in Uzbekistan.

10/10/2014 – Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) across the world are joining together to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to repeal the “foreign agents” law and to guarantee that NGOs in Russia are able to work without hindrance, harassment, stigmatisation or reprisals.

Any use of force by the security forces must be strictly in line with international human rights standards, in particular the principles of necessity and proportionality.

As the EU builds its walls higher and higher, migrants and refugees are increasingly taking to the Mediterranean waters in a desperate bid to reach safety and sanctuary in Europe.  Tragically they are increasingly paying the highest cost, losing their lives at sea.

09/10/2014 – 07/10/2014 – The prosecution of Moazzam Begg, a UK national formerly held at Guantánamo Bay, collapsed on 1 October 2014, days before his trial on terrorism-related charges was due to begin. Moazzam Begg was formally acquitted of all charges by the trial judge.

01/10/2014 – On 9 and 10 October, Ministers will meet at the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council to discuss, amongst others, the migratory flows in the Central Mediterranean Sea to Europe. This JHA Council falls around the time of the first anniversary of the October shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean that cost the lives of over 500 people.

01/10/2014 – With the European Council of 23 and 24 October approaching, Amnesty International is urging European Union (EU) member state leaders and their governments to give priority to ensuring and implementing effective measures to stop the increasing death toll in the Central Mediterranean Sea.

Regardless of the dangers and of EU measures to keep them out, refugees and migrants will continue to risk their lives and the lives of their children fleeing their war-torn, rights violating or economically struggling countries of origin. EU states cannot channel them into the world’s most dangerous sea route and then abandon them to their fate.

25/09/2014 – Today Amnesty International wrote to the Bulgarian authorities to express concerns over the allegations that law enforcement forces did not intervene to prevent verbal abuse, harassment and threats of violence against Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC), during the 12 September rally organised by a far right political party that ended in front of their main office.

The latest influx of refugees has undoubtedly placed even further strain on Turkey’s already stretched resources, but this cannot be used as an excuse for denying safe sanctuary to anyone who is fleeing the horrors of war.