AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ADVISORY

This loss of life is appalling, and the Spanish authorities must come clean on what happened – particularly as the Minister’s version of events contradicts earlier official statements. They must determine what went wrong and bring those responsible to account as a matter of urgency. 

Burning/looting of Muslim property and a mosque in PK 26 area, north of the capital Bangui in late January.© Amnesty International

12/02/2014 – “Ethnic cleansing” of Muslims has been carried out in the western part of the Central African Republic, the most populous part of the country, since early January 2014. 1 Entire Muslim communities have been forced to flee, and hundreds of Muslim civilians who have not managed to escape have been killed by the loosely organised militias known as anti-balaka.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics.© ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images

11/02/2014 – In light of Italy’s obligations under international human rights and refugee law, and following up on the previous submission in August 2012, Amnesty International draws the Committee’s attention to the following areas which remain of concern to the organisation: the continuing risk of foreign nationals in an ‘irregular situation’ in Libya of being subjected to ill-treatment, indefinite detention under inhuman conditions and arbitrary repatriation, the continuing cooperation between Italy and Libya on ‘migration control’, the lack of access to a fair and satisfactory asylum procedure of those intercepted at sea in the context of the Italian operation “Mare Nostrum”, and the risk of refoulementin the context of search and rescue operations performed by private and commercial vessels. Therefore, Amnesty International calls on the Committee of Ministers to continue to supervise the execution of the Hirsijudgment by Italy.

31/01/2014 – Amnesty International is concerned about recent forced evictions targeting Romani communities in Rome. The organisation has received reports of two forced evictions involving Romani families in the past week.

© Amnesty International

Syrian refugees at the Arbat Temporary Refugee Camp in Iraqi Kurdistan, having fled the fighting inside Syria © Amnesty International

There is a huge risk of a major human tragedy because of the complete absence of any peacekeeping force.  The situation in this part of the Central African Republic is very volatile and the international peacekeeping effort is vital to protect the thousands of civilians from both communities

The message to President Putin, from rank and file Amnesty International supporters to world leaders staying away from the Games, is the same – repeal series of laws that restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.

EU leaders must shine the spotlight on the grave human rights violations in Russia at every opportunity. The EU-Russia summit must be used to politically and publicly remind Russia of its human rights obligation, and show them that the world is watching.