In response to record fires across South America, with several millions of hectares burning across the Amazon basin and the entire continent, Amnesty International today published an Open Letter addressed to the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru calling for governments to ramp up action to extinguish wildfires, strengthen efforts to abandon fossil fuels, protect territories of Indigenous Peoples, and provide guarantees to environmental human rights defenders. Weiterlesen
Colombia: Threats against an amazon defender
On 10 September Jani Silva, a defender of land, territory and the environment and the president of ADISPA, an organization managing a peasant reserve zone in the Colombian Amazon (department of Putumayo), received a phone call threatening to “blow you up, car and all”. Jani and ADISPA have protection measures in place, provided by the government’s National Protection Unit (UNP). Weiterlesen
Honduras: Water defender killed
On Saturday, 14th September, environmental defender and coordinator of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Assets (CMDBCPT) Juan López was murdered as he was leaving his work as a community and religious leader in the parish of San Isidro Labrador in the municipality of Tocoa, department of Colón, northern Honduras. Weiterlesen
We must act globally to safeguard the future of humanity
By Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International Multiple wars, extreme inequality, a looming climate collapse, and new technologies capable of transforming our very existence have brought humanity to a crossroads. We have no time left for complacency or defeatism—only a shared responsibility to salvage the world that we owe to future generations. Weiterlesen
Action guide: Climate strike on 20/09/2024
Together with Fridays For Future, we are joining a broad civil society alliance in Germany and around the world to take to the streets on Friday 20 September for a global climate strike. Weiterlesen
THE 2048 COMMISSION – Rethinking global governance for now and our future
Today’s world – and tomorrow’s – is one of turmoil. This is the result of overlapping and intertwining threats and challenges: an unchecked climate crisis; pandemics; deep and growing inequalities between and within states; and the latest of the industrial revolutions, centred on artificial intelligence, that could turn everything upside down … Weiterlesen
Europe: New Amnesty briefing analyzes landmark climate judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
Amnesty International has today published a briefing that analyzes three landmark climate judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), issued on 9 April 2024, on cases brought by older Swiss women, six young Portuguese people, and a former French mayor and member of the European Parliament. Weiterlesen
Ecuador: Gas flares in the Amazon threatens human rights in the present and future
Countries that are dependent on oil extraction must immediately put an end to harmful activities such as routine flaring and prioritize the urgent phase-out of fossil fuels to ensure a rapid and just energy transition. According to a new report released today by Amnesty International, eliminating flaring is one of the most immediate and critical measures to address the climate crisis, which disproportionately affects historically marginalized communities in sacrifice zones. Weiterlesen
Benin: Prisoners penned into overcrowded, dirty cells denied healthcare amid heatwave
Prisoners in Benin were subjected to filthy, overcrowded cells and denied clean water and medical treatment last year. According to information gathered from health and prison workers, several dozen prisoners died during a seven-month period last year, Amnesty International said today. Weiterlesen
Demand Ecuador to eliminate gas flares in the Amazon
In the Ecuadorian Amazon, the government is not complying with a ruling won by nine young activists together with the organization Unión de Afectados por Texaco—UDAPT requiring ending gas flares, which consume the rights of local communities with flames and toxic gases and contribute enormously to climate change. Demand the president of Ecuador to eliminate Weiterlesen