The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights must address crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations when her team visits China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region this week, Amnesty International said today as the UN’s long-awaited trip got under way. A team led by High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet will spend six days in China including Xinjiang, …
Tag Archives: United Nations
Amnesty calls on Australia to work to ensure the UN Committee Against Torture is independent and diverse
In October 2021, the states parties to the UN Committee against Torture will elect five new members. Amnesty International Australia has written to the Australian Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, calling on the government to nominate and vote in the elections to to take into consideration the following ‘checklist’ for key criteria for membership of the …
Australia must push for a full-blown investigation into potential war crimes in Tigray region
The human rights violations perpetrated by Eritrean armed forces in the city of Axum, Ethiopia, against its civilian population must be scrutinised by the international community. Amnesty International has released a report into widespread looting, deadly indiscriminate shelling of the city, and wanton killing of its civilian population by Eritrean and Ethiopian forces. The UN …
Forty-seven international organisations call for UN-action on Saudi Arabia
Forty-seven international organisations, including Amnesty International, has written to the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Iceland and Denmark, asking them to lead on a resolution to address the human rights crisis in Saudi Arabia at the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The letter outlines that the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia has …
Continue reading “Forty-seven international organisations call for UN-action on Saudi Arabia”
UN: Nuclear powers must sign historic treaty making nuclear weapons illegal
Today is an historic milestone in the campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons, Amnesty International said, as the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) enters into force. The treaty makes it illegal under international law to develop, test, possess, host, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons, and has been adopted by two-thirds of UN member states. None of the …
Continue reading “UN: Nuclear powers must sign historic treaty making nuclear weapons illegal”
Global community critical of Australia’s treatment of First Nations peoples, refugees
Feedback from member states during the United Nation’s third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Australia’s human rights track record found it seriously lacking in its commitments to international human rights law. Among the criticisms leveled at Australia by the international community is its treatment of First Nations peoples and the mandatory and indefinite detention of …
Submission: UN Universal Periodic Review of Australia 2021
This submission was prepared for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Australia in January-February 2021. In it, Amnesty International evaluates the implementation of recommendations made to Australia in its previous UPR, including in relation to the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the rights of asylum seekers, ensuring religious freedom is upheld and maintaining protection from all …
Continue reading “Submission: UN Universal Periodic Review of Australia 2021”
Belarus: UN Human Rights Council must take strong action on escalating human rights crisis in the country
In response to the escalating human rights crisis in Belarus, Amnesty International will address the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on 18 September and demand that it take strong and decisive action to investigate the ongoing repression of post-election protests in the country and hold perpetrators of mass violations to account. Amnesty International will also …
It’s time to act on United Nations’, experts and community calls to raise the age
Australia has been urged by a committee of international experts to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age.
United Nations: Torture is big business, although outlawed internationally
Amnesty calls on ministers at the UN to clamp down on the torture trade New briefing released: Combating Torture: The Need for Comprehensive Regulation of Law Enforcement Equipment Companies all over the world are still profiting from the sale of gruesome torture equipment such as spiked batons, stun belts and leg irons, Amnesty International said …
Continue reading “United Nations: Torture is big business, although outlawed internationally”