24/11/2014 – On 24 and 25 November 2009 police in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) sent bulldozers into the village of Kawama and ordered the demolition of hundreds of homes. The people of Kawama were given no notice of the demolitions, and there was no legal basis for them. People were left homeless and many lost their livelihoods as a direct consequence. The demolitions constitute forced evictions, which are illegal under international human rights law.

A request to the European Court must be lodged within the next two weeks. The clock is ticking.

24/11/2014 – Amnesty International is deeply concerned over reports of excessive use of force and misuse of less-lethal weapons against protesters, ill-treatment of bystanders and attacks against photojournalists and journalists by riot police during and after demonstrations in Athens on 13 and 17 November 2014.

The humanitarian assistance offered by the international community has been pitifully low, but Turkey also needs to do more to request and facilitate it.

19/11/2014 – In just over three years, over 3.2 million women, men and children have fled violence, persecution and other intolerable hardships in Syria for the hope of safety and security outside of the country. Neighbouring states have disproportionately shouldered the responsibility to receive Syrian refugees. As of October 2014, Lebanon has 1.13 million registered Syrian refugees, Jordan is hosting 619,000 Syrian persons of concern, while at least 1.6 million refugees from Syria reside in Turkey.

13/11/2014 – Tomorrow marks seven years since the European Court of Human Rights found the Czech Republic to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights with respect to unlawful discrimination of Romani pupils in the Czech education system. Seven years on, these violations of the right to education and discrimination have not been addressed and Roma pupils continue to experience segregated education across the country.

These continuing civilian deaths – a predictable result of such attacks – are inexcusable and those responsible on both sides must be held accountable.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

06/11/2014 – The AIRE Centre (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe), ECRE (European Council on Refugees and Exiles) and Amnesty International welcome the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in the case of Tarakhel v Switzerland, in which the organizations had intervened jointly with the assistance of lawyers from across Europe in February 2014.

03/11/2014 – While Amnesty International welcomes the continued attention given to hate crime by EU member states, we are concerned that relevant discussions and conferences have not been followed-up with any commitments to take action at EU level. We believe that the working party should serve to promote much needed new steps in EU policy-making on hate crime.