Amnesty International USA

Take action to ensure humanitarian aid is distributed to the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The human rights situation in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) has grown significantly worse since a rebel attack on Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, in late January 2008. But widespread human rights violations in Chad and CAR, including the targeting of opposition leaders, journalists and human rights defenders in Chad, and kidnappings of civilians—including children—in CAR, are long-standing and pervasive.

This April the House and Senate appropriations committees are considering supplemental appropriations bills that should include funding for humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations in Darfur. We need you to ensure that your elected officials support this critical funding for Darfur. Contact your Senators and Representative today to request their active support for funding for UNAMID peacekeepers and humanitarian assistance for the people of Darfur.

Ask your Representative to support H.R. 275, the Global Online Freedom Act of 2007, which would prevent U.S. companies from carrying out or facilitating the suppression of online speech in repressive countries.

Bárbara Italia Méndez was one of 26 women arrested without explanation at a protest in May 2006, beaten and raped by members of the Mexican Federal police. Now Bárbara has come to the United States for the first time to tell Amnesty International activists at our Annual General Meeting and the US Congress what she lived through during those dreadful days in Mexico.

Jamie Leigh Jones was reportedly drugged, gang-raped and imprisoned in a container by fellow KBR co-workers in 2005 while working in Iraq on a U.S. Defense Department contract. Like the Abu Ghraib torture victims who still have not seen justice after more than four years, the abuse Jones says she suffered at the hands of private contractors over two years ago has not seen the light of a criminal trial.

Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s former Minister of the Interior and current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Janjawid leader Ali Kushayb, are charged with multiple counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur.

For over four decades, Indigenous communities have witnessed multinational oil companies cut through their ancestral lands in search of the country's vast petroleum resources. According to the report "Amazon Crude", Texaco alone was responsible for dumping 19 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the region contaminating the drinking water of Ecuador's Amazon communities.

Leading up to the Beijing Olympics, a major question for China will be how it chooses to define its Olympic legacy. Will it be one where freedom of expression is respected and protected? Not if journalists like Shi Tao continue to be unjustly oppressed, sentenced and imprisoned.

Early in 2006 Google launched a self-censoring Chinese search engine, google.cn, that blocks search results for topics such as human rights, political reform, Tiananmen Square and Falun Gong, among others. Amnesty International is concerned about the ways Google is aiding the repression of freedom to information and expression in China, and the implications this may have for the way the company operates everywhere in the world.

Amnesty International is concerned about the ways Microsoft may be aiding the repression of freedom to information and expression in China. According to recent reports, Microsoft's search engine blocks searches under key words such as "freedom", "democracy", "human rights", "Falun Gong", and "demonstration", among others. Users of Microsoft Spaces are also prohibited from using these and other words on the weblogs they create.

Montenegro is a source, transit, and destination country for women and girls trafficked internally and internationally for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Urge Montenegro to oppose human trafficking by supporting shelters for women and girls, providing financial resources for non-governmental organizations, and prohibiting the forcible return and detention of trafficked persons.

Greece has been a transit and destination country for trafficked persons since the early 1990s and has seen a continuous increase in the number of women and girls trafficked and forced into prostitution. The women mainly come from Eastern Europe and Africa. They often believe they are being brought to Greece to make a living but rarely know that they will be forced to work in the sex industry.

Amnesty International is extremely concerned with the frequent use of Article 301, on the denigration of Turkishness, of the Turkish Penal Code. Amnesty International is concerned that the wide and vague terms of Article 301 mean that it can be applied arbitrarily to criminalize a huge range of critical opinions.

To ensure the speedy and full deployment of a hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) in Darfur, Khartoum must hear from key economic interests, including the oil companies that they depend on for revenue. Urge 10 of the top investors in Sudan’s oil industry to take a stand for the people of Darfur.

On September 16, at least 17 Iraqis were killed after personnel of Blackwater Worldwide, a contractor of the U.S. State Department, reportedly shot several rounds from their armored vehicles in Baghdad. This is neither the first time nor an isolated incident of Blackwater personnel using lethal force against Iraqi civilians. Call on Blackwater to take their human rights responsibilities seriously.

Amnesty International recently published a report expressing concern regarding the Burundian authorities' failure to adequately address the problem of sexual violence against women. Take action now and urge Burundian authorities to prevent and investigate rape, and provide justice to the victims.

Please write a brief note to Governor Jon Corzine, Senate President Richard J. Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts to thank them for their leadership on this important issue.

Libyan authorities arrested Fathi el-Jahmi in 2002 after he called for free speech and political reforms during a conference in Tripoli. For that "crime," he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in March 2004 following international pressure but authorities detained him again just weeks later after he repeated his call for democracy during a television interview.

The people of Darfur need the full deployment of UN-AU peacekeepers now. The UN urgently needs two things to make this happen: (1) Ground and air transport equipment (including 24 helicopters), and (2) An end to Khartoum’s obstruction of deployment.

Please take action to help protect the safety of women in Afghanistan.

More than two years into the human rights disaster of Hurricane Katrina, thousands remain displaced because of an absence of affordable housing, with rent increases up more than 40% and the majority of public housing still shuttered.

Amnesty International USA and a coalition of socially responsible shareholders have filed resolutions with Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, requesting that they use their investor power to press for the speedy deployment of UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur.

The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) integrates women's rights into diplomatic and foreign aid efforts. The bill increases economic and educational opportunities for women and girls, while combating negative social norms. Please ask your Senator to co-sponsor I-VAWA.

President Bush recently announced that he would be attending the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. We are urging him to pressure China for human rights improvements before the Games.

Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark MacPhail in Georgia. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even during the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's nine non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.

Over three years ago, the Justice Department (DOJ) required that all cases of detainee abuse by private military and security contractors be handled by one US Attorney’s Office. As of today, that office has declined to prosecute almost all of the cases referred to it, with little explanation. Urge your representatives in Congress to pressure the DOJ to prosecute human rights violations committed by private military and security contractors.

The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) is a historic and unprecedented effort of the U.S. government to take leadership in establishing an overall and integrated approach to respond and address violence against women and girls internationally.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) is the principle and in some areas, sole provider of health services for Native American and Alaska Native people. Despite its prevalence, IHS continues to lack consistent protocols and resources for treating sexual assault survivors. Join the AIUSA Stop Violence Against Women campaign and help break down the barriers for Indigenous women overcoming crisis.

Call on the Sri Lankan government for the release of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who has been arbitrarily detained by the police in Colombo since March 7th.

The conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been escalating, resulting in hundreds of civilians killed and thousands displaced.

Scores of people have been arrested after taking part in protest against the discrimination faced by people from the south when looking for jobs.

On September 16, 2007, private contractors working for the U.S.-based company Blackwater Worldwide shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in the streets near Nisour Square, Baghdad. When the State Department investigated Blackwater, it gave contractors protection from prosecution in exchange for providing information about the occurrence. Call for a suspension of the contract until it is clear that proper vetting mechanisms are in place to prevent further abuses.

Ask the government of Myanmar to free Ma Khin Khin Leh.

Call on the Sri Lankan government for the immediate release of Vadivel Jasikaran, a Sri Lankan writer and publisher, and his wife, Valarmathi Jasikaran, unless they are promptly charged with a crime, to ensure they are not ill-treated while in detention, and to allow them appropriate medical care while in detention.

Husam 'Ali Mulhim, Tareq Ghorani, Maher Ibrahim, Ayham Saqr, 'Alam Fakhour, 'Omar 'Ali al-'Abdullah and Diab Sirieyeh were sentenced to prison terms of five to seven years, after an unfair trial, for developing a youth discussion group and publishing pro-democracy articles on the internet.

The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) was introduced in April 2008 by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman. I-VAWA, among other goals: (1) promotes access to education for women, (2) integrates anti-violence work across U.S. foreign assistance and diplomatic efforts, and (3) supports overseas women’s organizations working to prevent violence

The leaders of the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network, a coaltion of 38 organizations that deployed local observers during the elections, are being harrassed by the authorities in an apparent attempt to prevent them from observing a possible run-off election in the coming weeks.

Amnesty International believes that Father Nguyen Van Ly, Nguyen Phong and Nguyen Binh Thanh are prisoners of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association.

Call on the LTTE to immediately halt any direct or indiscriminate attacks against civilians in violation of international humanitarian law.

Percy Levar Walton, who suffers from serious mental illness, and has been described as "floridly psychotic", is scheduled on June 10th to become the 100th person executed in Virginia. He was sentenced to death in 1997 for the murders of Elizabeth and Jesse Hendrick, and Archie Moore. Urge Virignia Governor Tim Kaine to halt the execution of this severely mentally ill man.

Earl Wesley Berry is scheduled to be executed in Mississippi on Wednesday May 21, 2008 for the 1987 murder of Mary Bounds. His execution may go forward despite evidence that he has mental retardation, which, if the case, would render his execution unconstitutional.