amnesty international

Oct. 29 (UPI) — Human rights organization Amnesty International said Wednesday that a U.S. airstrike that hit a Houthi detention center in Yemen in April should be investigated as a war crime.

The April attack on Saada, in the northwestern part of Yemen, was part of Operation Rough Rider and killed civilian migrants held in a Houthi detention center because of their immigration status, Amnesty said.

The migrants often come through Yemen from the horn of Africa to get to Saudi Arabia for work.

At the time of the attack, the Houthis reported that at least 68 African migrants were killed and 47 were injured.

On Wednesday, Amnesty also released a report, It is a miracle we survived: U.S. Air Strike on Civilians Held in Sa’ada Detention Centre, in which it interviewed 15 survivors and did analysis on satellite imagery and footage.

“The harrowing testimonies from survivors paint a clear picture of a civilian building, packed with detainees, being bombed without distinction,” said Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement.

“This was a lethal failure by the U.S. to comply with one of its core obligations under international humanitarian law: to do everything feasible to verify whether the object attacked was a military objective.”

She called on the United States to give reparations to the migrants and their families, “including financial compensation. Given the air strike killed and injured civilians, the U.S. authorities should investigate this attack as a war crime,’ she said.

“Where sufficient evidence exists, competent authorities should prosecute any person suspected of criminal responsibility, including under the doctrine of command responsibility.”

The U.S. air strikes were conducted to protect the Red Sea from Houthi attacks, which had begun in response to the war between Israel and Hamas. The Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, support Hamas.

“The U.S. must conduct a prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into the air strike on the Saada migrant detention center and make the results public,” Beckerle said.

“Survivors of this attack deserve nothing less than full justice. They must receive full, effective, and prompt reparations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, through an effective and accessible mechanism.”

On April 27, CENTCOM released a statement saying, “These operations have been executed using detailed and comprehensive intelligence ensuring lethal effects against the Houthis while minimizing risk to civilians.

“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations. We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”

Oct. 14 (UPI) — Britain and the United States announced Tuesday that they have together sanctioned a transnational scam organization operating out of Cambodia.

The U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control announced it has imposed sweeping sanctions on 146 targets within the Prince Group transnational criminal organization, a Cambodia-based network led by Cambodian national Chen Zhi that operates a global criminal empire through online investment scams.

It also announced that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has finalized a rule under the USA Patriot Act to sever the Cambodia-based financial services conglomerate Huione Group from the U.S. financial system. “For years, Huione Group has laundered proceeds of virtual currency scams and heists on behalf of malicious cyber actors,” the press release said.

Covered financial institutions are now banned from opening or maintaining accounts for Huione Group, the Treasury Department said.

“The rapid rise of transnational fraud has cost American citizens billions of dollars, with life savings wiped out in minutes,” said Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent in a statement. “Treasury is taking action to protect Americans by cracking down on foreign scammers. Working in close coordination with federal law enforcement and international partners like the United Kingdom, Treasury will continue to lead efforts to safeguard Americans from predatory criminals.”

In the U.K., a $16 million mansion owned by the Prince Group has been frozen by the government. Chen Zhi and his network have invested in the London property market, including the mansion, a $133 million office building and 17 apartments in the city. The freeze blocks them from profiting from these buildings.

The organization’s scam centers in Cambodia, Myanmar and other parts of Southeast Asia use fake job ads to lure foreign nationals to compounds or abandoned casinos where they are forced to carry out online fraud or face torture, the British press release said.

The scams often involve building online relationships to convince targets to invest increasingly large sums of money into fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes.

“These sanctions prove our determination to stop those who profit from this activity, hold offenders accountable, and keep dirty money out of the U.K.,” said Fraud Minister David Hanson in a statement. “Through our new, expanded fraud strategy and the upcoming Global Fraud Summit, we will go even further to disrupt corrupt networks and protect the public from shameless criminals.”

South Korea has faced a surge of kidnappings of its citizens in Cambodia. As of August, at least 330 cases were reported, according to data submitted to the National Assembly.

In June, Amnesty International said the Cambodian government has been “deliberately ignoring” human rights abuses including slavery, human trafficking, child labor and torture by gangs. It estimated that there were at least 53 scamming compounds in Cambodia.

In September, the Treasury Department sanctioned scam centers across Southeast Asia that the agency said stole $10 billion in 2024 from Americans via forced labor and violence.

Oct. 6 (UPI) — The International Criminal Court convicted Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman for committing human rights atrocities as the infamous leader of the Sudanese militia known as the Janjaweed.

Prosecutors hailed the conviction of Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by his nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, as the first verdict against a militia leader for waging a brutal campaign of ethnically motivated violence two decades ago against the civilian population in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The conflict in Darfur is considered the first genocide of the 21st century and unfolded between 2003 and 2020, when ethnic-based rebel groups took up arms against Sudan’s autocratic government. In response, the Sudanese government unleashed its own militias including the Janjaweed, whose name means “devils on horseback.”

The United Nations estimates that roughly 300,000 people died and another 400,000 were forced to flee to neighboring Chad.

The panel of judges overseeing the case in The Hague found that Al-Rahman was responsible for overseeing thousands of government-allied forces that carried out mass executions, torture and the burning and pillaging of entire villages.

“The conviction of Mr Abd-Al-Rahman is a crucial step towards closing the impunity gap in Darfur,” Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said in a statement. “It sends a resounding message to perpetrators of atrocities in Sudan, both past and present, that justice will prevail, and that they will be held accountable for inflicting unspeakable suffering on Darfuri civilians, men, women and children.”

First charged in 2007, Al-Rahman was on the run for 13 years before surrendering to authorities in the Central African Republic. He has denied the charges and his defense argued during the trial that he had been misidentified.

The court’s prosecutors are still pursuing warrants against Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir, former Interior Minister Ahmad Harun and ex-Defense Minister Abdel Raheem Hussein.

Tigere Chagutah, a regional director for Amnesty International, said in a statement following the verdict that the conviction should serve as a warning to those involved in the current conflict in Sudan, where the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces is accused of committing genocide.

“This long overdue verdict goes some way in providing justice for the victims of Ali Kushayb and should serve as a significant milestone in the pursuit of justice for crimes committed in Darfur more than two-decades ago,” Chagutah said.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — Two men were publicly caned in Indonesia Tuesday for kissing in a park.

In the city of Banda Aceh, the two men, ages 20 and 21, were convicted of “having consensual same-sex relations,” because they kissed and hugged in a Taman Sari Park bathroom on June 16. A panel of judges at the Banda Aceh Sharia Court had found them guilty of violating the Islamic Criminal Code, according to Amnesty International.

The men were held in custody during the trial, which took place behind closed doors.

While these men were sentenced to 76 strikes with canes, sometimes the courts can sentence people to up to 200 lashes. Those crimes include having consensual intimacy or sexual activity for unmarried couples, consensual sex outside marriage, same-sex sexual relations, consumption or sale of alcohol, and gambling.

Aceh, in Sumatra, is the only province in Indonesia that criminalizes consensual same-sex acts because it has special autonomy status that allows it to follow the Islamic Criminal Code since 2015. Sharia law has been in place since 2001.

There are also regular citizen’s arrests in the district. The Sharia law allows people to turn suspects over to the Sharia police.

“This public flogging of two young men under Aceh’s Islamic Criminal Code for consensual sex is a disturbing act of state-sanctioned discrimination and cruelty,” Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director Montse Ferrer said in a statement. “This punishment is a horrifying reminder of the institutionalized stigma and abuse faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Aceh.

“Intimate relationships between consenting adults should never be criminalized. Punishments such as flogging are cruel, inhuman and degrading and may amount to torture under international law,” Ferrer said.

Ferrer called for the Indonesian government and Aceh people to immediately halt the caning practice.

“Indonesia, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council and a state party to the Convention Against Torture, must align its laws — including in Aceh — with its constitutional commitments to equality and non-discrimination. The criminalization of same-sex conduct and corporal punishment has no place in a just and humane society,” she added

Aug. 1 (UPI) — Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has introduced a bill in the National Assembly to regulate the funding and activities of non-governmental organizations, particularly those that receive money from abroad.

The proposal would create a mandatory registry for nonprofit entities, require regular financial reporting and allow the government to suspend or revoke operating permits if NGOs engage in “activities incompatible with the national interest.”

If approved, Ecuador would join a regional push that has taken shape over the past year in countries such as Peru, El Salvador and Paraguay.

According to the Ecuadorian government, the bill aims to bring greater transparency to the operations of NGOs, many of which it says operate without clearly disclosing their funding sources, international ties or true objectives.

“I’m not attacking NGOs. Some of them do honorable work and help people in Ecuador. Those organizations won’t have problems because they’ll be able to explain where their money comes from,” Noboa said.

Although the bill does not yet specify penalties, it would require organizations to disclose their donors, provide documentation for expenses and avoid political activities not explicitly authorized in their charters.

Civil society groups in Ecuador have voiced concern, warning the measure could open the door to arbitrary restrictions and potential censorship.

In March, Peru’s Congress passed a law expanding the powers of the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation to audit foreign-funded projects. The law allows fines of up to $500,000 and authorizes the suspension of organizations that use those funds to bring legal action against the state — a common practice in human rights and Indigenous advocacy.

Despite opposition from more than 70 domestic NGOs and international groups, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Watch, President Dina Boluarte’s government defended the law as a way to “organize” international cooperation.

In El Salvador, the ruling-party-controlled legislature approved the Foreign Agents Law in May. The law imposes a 30% tax on foreign donations, requires registration in a special government registry and gives the executive branch authority to sanction or shut down organizations it accuses of meddling in domestic affairs.

Human rights groups have condemned the Salvadoran law, saying it restricts the work of humanitarian organizations and independent media.

In Paraguay, a regulation enacted in November 2024 requires all nonprofit organizations to register with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, file biannual reports on income and expenses and disclose any ties to international agencies.

The measure prohibits unregistered NGOs from signing agreements with the state and includes penalties ranging from suspension of activities to the permanent revocation of legal status.

Paraguayan and regional organizations have warned that the law criminalizes international cooperation and could seriously undermine human rights advocacy.

Critics say these measures echo laws previously adopted in Venezuela and Nicaragua, where “foreign agent” and “sovereignty defense” legislation has been used to shut down organizations that report human rights violations or criticize the government, under the pretext of foreign interference.

Governments backing these laws argue they aim to strengthen transparency, prevent illicit financing and block foreign influence.

But organizations including Amnesty International, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the IACHR warn the measures are part of a broader pattern of shrinking democratic space in the region, where state control is prioritized over civic participation.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — El Salvadoran lawmakers voted to abolish presidential term limits as part of constitutional reforms that could allow the country’s populist president, Nayib Bukele, to remain in power indefinitely.

Under the reformed electoral system, the previous five-year term is increased to six years and a restriction limiting presidents to a single term is removed, allowing El Salvador’s executive to run for office an unlimited number of times.

Members of Bukele’s New Ideas Party in the Legislative Assembly voted through the reform on Thursday, 18 months after Bukele won a second term in a landslide victory, despite a constitutional prohibition on consecutive terms. The Supreme Court, packed with pro-Bukele justices, waived the ban on grounds that it infringed Bukele’s human rights.

Opposition politicians and human rights organizations condemned the move, saying it removed one of the last remaining checks on power and brought the country a step closer to becoming a one-party state.

“Today, democracy has died in El Salvador,” said opposition Republican National Alliance MP Marcela Villatoro.

Human Rights Watch said it was a power grab by Bukele aimed at ushering in a dictatorship.

“He’s very clearly following the path of leaders who use their popularity to concentrate power to undermine the rule of law and eventually to establish a dictatorship,” said HRW Americas deputy director Juan Pappier.

Cristosal, El Salvador’s leading human rights organization, which fled the country for Guatemala two weeks ago citing threats and intimidation against its staff, criticized the lack of process and the way the change was rushed through.

“The day before vacation, without debate, without informing the public, in a single legislative vote, they changed the political system to allow the president to perpetuate himself in power indefinitely and we continue to follow the well-travelled path of autocrats,” said Cristosal executive Noah Bullock.

Bukele’s popularity mainly stems from a crime crackdown, targeting gangs in particular, that has seen El Salvador transformed from one of the most violent nations in the world to one of the safest in the region.

However, he is a divisive figure among Salvadorans.

His policies, including the use of emergency powers to detain as many as 75,000 people without due process, have drawn fire from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which has said El Salvador was engaged in a “gradual replacement of gang violence with state violence.”

The United States got pulled into questions around El Salvador after Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an undocumented Salvadoran migrant, was detained in one of Bukele’s notorious ‘mega prisons’ after being wrongly deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order that said he could not be deported there.

He was among a group of 261 inmates imprisoned in one of the huge penal facilities after being deported by the Trump administration, who it said were either members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang or the Salvadoran-dominated MS-13.

Abrego Garcia, who was accused of being a member of the MS-13, was returned to the United States in June at the request of the Justice Department to face federal migrant smuggling charges in Tennessee.

July 9 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned an independent investigator of human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, in latest move by the Trump administration targeting critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Francesca Paola Albanese, the 48-year-old Italian-born U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, was sanctioned by the State Department on Wednesday.

The sanctions come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, D.C., and follow the publication of a recent report by Albanese calling for punitive measures to be imposed against Israel over what she describes as its “genocide” of the Palestinian people, while criticizing dozens of businesses for profiting off the conflict.

The State Department issued its secondary sanctions on the grounds of Albanese’s support of the ICC.

The Trump administration sanctioned the ICC last month after the court opened an investigation into the actions of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan and issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in their widespread, systematic assault on Gaza.

Albanese has called on countries to comply with the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said her support of the ICC is “a gross infringement on the sovereignty” of the United States and Israel, as neither party is a member of the international court.

“The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a special rapporteur,” Rubio said in a statement.

He also chastised her recent report for naming dozens of companies that she described as complicit in and profiting from Israel’s war.

“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” the report states, while urging the ICC to investigate and prosecute corporate executives complicit in the conflict.

Rubio said the report makes “extreme and unfounded accusations.”

“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” he said.

“The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”

Without directly mentioning the sanctions, Albanese said on X that “on this day more than ever: I stand firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done.”

“I come from a country with a tradition of illustrious legal scholars, talented lawyers and courageous judges who have defended justice at great cost and often with their own life. I intend to honor that tradition,” she said.

Amnesty International rebuked the United States’ sanctions as “a shameless and transparent attack on the fundamental principles of international justice.”

“Following the recent sanctions against the International Criminal Court, the measures announced today are a continuation of the Trump administration’s assault on international law and its efforts to protect the Israeli government from accountability at all costs,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in a statement.

“They are the latest in a series of Trump administration policies seeking to intimidate and silence those that dare speak out for Palestinians’ human rights.”

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Iran-backed militant group killed 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage during a surprise attack on Israel.

In the 21 months since, Israel has destroyed Gaza and killed more than 57,600 Palestinians and injured more than 137,000 others.

July 5 (UPI) — The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said two of its American aid workers were injured in an attack while distributing desperately needed food to Palestinians.

The foundation, which formed in May, posted on X that two militants threw grenades in Khan Younis. The workers were in stable condition, GHF said.

The incident “occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food,” GHF said. “No local aid workers or civilians were injured.”

The foundation blamed Hamas, which has been fighting Israel on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023.

“GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers and the civilians who rely on our sites for food. Today’s attack tragically affirms those warnings,” the foundation said.

GHF said the attack won’t deter its efforts, which began on May 27 in Rafah.

“Despite this violence, GHF remains fully committed to its mission: feeding the people of Gaza safely, directly, and at scale,” the foundation said. “Attempts to disrupt this life-saving work will only deepen the crisis. We will continue to stand with the people of Gaza and do everything in our power to deliver the aid they so urgently need.”

In June, more than 100 human rights groups and international aid charities, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International, called for the end of aid by the foundation because the locations are in combat zones.

“Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the group said. “The humanitarian system is being deliberately and systematically dismantled by the Government of Israel’s blockade and restrictions, a blockade now being used to justify shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favor of a deadly, military-controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs.

Since the GHF was launched, Israeli forces have killed more than 400 Palestinians trying to collect food aid, the U.N. and local doctors say, according to a BBC report. But Israel said the new distribution system stops aid going to Hamas.

In May, GHF announced Israel will allow the resumption of aid, including 300 million meals for the initial 90 days.

Since the cease-fire between Israel and militant-run Hamas ended on March 1, Israel had frozen all supplies of food, water and medicine to the region of an estimated 2.5 million people. The United Nations said Gazans are at a “critical risk of famine” with 1 in 5, or 500,000, facing starvation as the war rages since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The foundation’s executive director, Jake Wood, is a decorated Marine Corps veteran, social entrepreneur and expert in crisis leadership. In 2010, he co-founded and is CEO of Team Rubicon, a nonprofit of 180,000 veteran volunteers in humanitarian roles, including disaster response.

May 19 (UPI) — The Russian government announced Monday that the nonprofit Amnesty International is no longer welcome within its borders.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation put out a statement that it “has made a decision to recognize the activities of the international non-governmental organization Amnesty International Limited, registered in London, as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

The agency then claimed that while “the organization positions itself as an active conductor of human rights protection in the world,” it alleges that “the London headquarters of AIL is the center of preparation of global ‘Russophobic’ projects, paid for by accomplices of the Kyiv regime.”

It then further purported that Amenesty International has not only worked to “intensify the military confrontation in the region,” but has also justified “the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis,” and has sought an increase for funding of Ukraine as it insists “on the political and economic isolation of [Russia].”

“The organization’s members support extremist organizations and finance the activities of foreign agents,” the agency said.

The Amnesty Eastern Europe and Central Asia regional office responded Monday with a warning that the Russian declaration means “any participation in our activities, including donations and reposts, is punishable in the Russian Federation.”

“If you read us from Russia, or are planning to be there, please refrain from sharing our online and offline materials,” it said. “We will continue to protect human rights in Russia and in the world, and we will keep you informed,” before a final wish for readers to take care.

According to AIL, its Moscow office has been shut down since April of 2022 by Russian authorities after the Russian Ministry of Justice delisted it from the register of the representative offices of foreign nongovernmental organizations and international organizations. This allegedly came after Russia’s media regulator blocked access to Amnesty International’s Russian-language website.

Russia has a list of over 200 “undesirable organizations,” which includes the Clooney Foundation for Justice, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Greenpeace. Russian citizens can receive as many as five years in prison for funding or working with any of the groups that have been banned.

May 14 (UPI) — A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced well-known election watchdog Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison after it found him guilty of allegedly working for a so-called “undesirable” organization.

“Don’t worry, I’m not despairing,” Melkonyants was quoted telling supporters after the sentence was handed down by Moscow’s Basmanny District Court in a latest blow to free speech in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

“You shouldn’t despair either!” he reportedly stated.

Melkonyants, who has been in custody since his August 2023 arrest, co-founded Russia’s most respected and prominent election monitoring group which in 2013 was designated as a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities.

The charge stems from alleged ties to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which was declared “undesirable” by the Russian state in 2021.

Melkonyants has denied the allegations.

Three years later, Golos — which means “vote” in Russian — was liquidated as a non-governmental organization but despite court orders, continued to publish reports on Russia’s local and national elections, which international experts contend were not free or fair.

“Grigory Melkonyants has committed no crime,” Marie Struthers, Amnesty International‘s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said Wednesday in a statement in calling for his “unconditional” release.

Struthers says his only “offense” was “defending the right to free and fair elections,” and that Russian authorities “instigated this criminal case in order to silence one of the country’s most respected election observers.”

The election monitoring group was long-accused by Russian officials of multiple violations and for allegedly being tainted by money it received from the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“Golos gave rise to a massive election monitoring movement in Russia in 2011, then the protests began which gave Putin quite a scare,” according to Leonid Volkov, a close associate of late Russian political opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“So many years have passed, and he still seeks revenge,” he wrote on social media.

Melkonyants expressed worry for the group’s 3,000 election monitors during Russia’s 2011 elections as it came under fire while Putin, then prime minister, was ultimately re-elected to succeed then-President Dmitry Medvedev for another term.

Meanwhile, the Britain-headquartered Amnesty International considers him a “prisoner of conscience” who was prosecuted and imprisoned solely for peaceful activism.

“The international community cannot remain silent,” Amnesty’s Struthers added Wednesday.

“Neither on this appalling verdict nor on the outrageous assault on civic space that is taking place in Russia.”