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Category: NGOs

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: South Sudan: MSF strongly condemns the deliberate bombing of its hospital in Old Fangak, Jonglei State

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    Jonglei State, SOUTH SUDAN – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemns the deliberate bombing of its hospital in Old Fangak, South Sudan. The attack began at around 4:30am when two helicopter gunships first dropped a bomb on the MSF pharmacy, burning it to the ground, then went on to fire on the town of Old Fangak for around 30 minutes. At around 7am, a drone bombed the Old Fangak market. There have been at least seven deaths and 20 injured.

    Mamman Mustapha, MSF Head of Mission in South Sudan, said “At 8am, we received around 20 wounded people at our hospital in Old Fangak, including four in a critical condition. There are reports of more fatalities and wounded in the community. One patient and two care givers, including one of our staff, who were already inside the hospital were injured in the bombing – patients who were not in a critical condition, ran from the facility. The bombing of our hospital in Old Fangak has resulted in significant damage, including the complete destruction of the pharmacy, which was burned to the ground. This is where all our medical supplies for the hospital and our outreach activities were stored, severely compromising our ability to provide care. We strongly condemn this attack, which took place despite the geolocations of all MSF structures, including Old Fangak Hospital, being shared with all parties to the conflict.

    “Old Fangak Hospital is the only hospital in Fangak county, serving a population of over 110,000 people who already had extremely limited access to healthcare. We are still assessing the full extent of the damage and the impact on our ability to provide care, but this attack clearly means people will now be even further cut-off from receiving life-saving treatment. We call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure – this includes health workers, patients and health facilities. Hospitals must never be targeted and the lives of civilians must be protected.”

    This is the second time an MSF hospital has been impacted since in the past month, following the armed looting of our hospital and premises in Ulang, Upper Nile state on April 14, which led to the entire population of Ulang county being cut off from accessing secondary health care. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Australians choose climate and nature protection over Trumpist agenda of destruction

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    SYDNEY, Saturday 3 May 2025 — In response to the Labor party’s victory in the 2025 Federal Election, David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: 

    “Today’s election result shows that Australians have comprehensively rejected the Coalition’s Trumpist agenda of climate and nature destruction, and its plan to force dangerous nuclear on communities. 

    “The Albanese government now has a big responsibility, as well as a major opportunity to listen to Australians, and show true leadership for people and planet. It must work constructively with the crossbench to strengthen nature protection, stop climate pollution, and build a strong, green economy that supports jobs and growth.

    “Labor’s first order of business must be to end the track record that saw it deliver 30 fossil fuel approvals in its previous term of government, and fix its unrealised promise to strengthen our nature laws. 

    “An immediate opportunity for Labor to distance itself from the Coalition’s Trumpist ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda is to reject Woodside’s proposal to extend the life of its North West Shelf gas processing facility, and carry out gas drilling and carbon dumping near the irreplaceable Scott Reef.

    “Greenpeace is also calling on Labor to ratify the Global Oceans Treaty within its first 100 days of government. Our oceans are under threat from destructive industrial fishing, the climate crisis, and the emerging threat of deep sea mining, fuelled by profit-hungry corporations. 

    “Taking urgent action to quickly transition away from fossil fuels and to protect nature is essential for Australia’s future health and prosperity. Winning this election presents Labor with an opportunity to build our renewable energy future, while placing Australian communities and nature over the profits of polluting corporations.

    “Greenpeace and our hundreds of thousands of supporters across Australia will be holding Labor accountable to deliver for climate and nature.”

    Greenpeace’s policy asks of Labor, in its first 100 days of government, are: 

    • To heed the evidence and reject Woodside’s proposal to extend the North West Shelf extension, and develop the new Browse gas field on top of Scott Reef. 
    • To ratify the Global Ocean Treaty and champion large marine protected area (MPA) sites in our region, prioritising the Tasman Sea. 
    • To support a moratorium on Deep Sea Mining
    • To lay out a plan and timeline for delivering strong nature law reforms, including a national Environment Protection Agency. 
    • To fulfill Australia’s international commitments by delivering a timeline and plan to transition away from fossil fuels, and demonstrate clear commitment to a genuine Pacific partnership in a co-hosted COP31.

    —ENDS—

    For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Vai Shah on 0452 290 082 / [email protected] or Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 / [email protected]

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: What is the state of global press freedom in 2025?

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Around the world, journalists are being silenced, jailed, and disappeared – simply for doing their jobs. From Guatemala to the USA, Russia to Pakistan, governments are increasingly resorting to authoritarian practices, weaponizing vague laws, judicial systems, and brute force to suppress press freedom.

    These attacks on the press are not isolated incidents; they are often at the core of deliberate strategies to dismantle the very foundations of human rights. The erosion of press freedom is a warning sign – one that signals a broader slide toward authoritarianism.

    On World Press Freedom Day, we shed light on the state of press freedom around the world, spotlight some worrying trends and explain some of the recent developments that are putting journalists in jeopardy.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Benin: Wave of attacks on press freedom highlights urgent need to reform Digital Code

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The Benin authorities’ recent wave of sanctions against independent media outlets highlights the urgent need to protect press freedom in the country, said Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Internet Without Borders. The call comes as Benin’s parliament debates revisions to the Digital Code – legislation critical to the protection of a free press and freedom of expression.

    Since the beginning of the year, the High Authority for Audiovisual and Communications (Haute Autorité de l’Audiovisuel et de la Communication – HAAC) has suspended two newspapers, three news websites and a TikTok news account “until further notice.” These suspensions are still in force.

    The Digital Code contains provisions that allow attacks on freedom of expression. 

    Dieudonné Dagbéto, Executive Director of Amnesty International Benin

    “In recent months, Benin’s authorities have been silencing media outlets, often after they carried coverage critical of the government or the HAAC. The Digital Code contains provisions that allow the attacks on freedom of expression seen in recent months. Its revision is an opportunity to reverse this worrying trend and further protect press freedom,” said Dieudonné Dagbéto, Executive Director of Amnesty International Benin.

    On 12 March, the news website Bénin Web TV was suspended and the press card of its managing director withdrawn. The HAAC accused the media outlet of publishing two articles containing inaccurate information, one concerning alleged errors in the budget request submitted by the HAAC to Parliament, the other concerning the request for a company car by the institution’s president.

    On 21 January, the newspaper Le Patriote and its website were similarly sanctioned after the publication of an editorial pointing out ‘the government’s ineffective strategy’ during an attack on a military position in the border zone between Burkina Faso and Niger.

    Le Patriote’s editor told Amnesty International: “My newspaper was one of the few that gave a voice to all sides. I’m sure that, given the current context, the media will no longer take the risk of dealing with information on the security situation other than that which comes from the government or the authorities in charge of security.”

    HAAC’s sanctions threaten the economic survival of the media and their employees.

    Sadibou Marong, Director of Reporters Without Borders’ Sub Saharan Africa bureau

    “None of the legitimate grounds for restriction of the freedom of expression set out in international law are invoked in these cases of censorship. HAAC’s sanctions also threaten the economic survival of the media and their employees. This is an intolerable interference with press freedom,” said Sadibou Marong, Director of Reporters Without Borders’ Sub Saharan Africa bureau.

    A dozen journalists who have worked for Le Patriote are now unemployed, according to its managing editor. Bénin Web TV is already suffering a loss of income following the withdrawal of certain advertisers, according to a letter seen by Amnesty International.

    The recent wave of sanctions follows a series of similar curbs in 2023 and 2024.

    In February 2024, the press group La Gazette du Golfe laid off all its employees following the HAAC’s suspension of the group’s activities in 2023.

    In January 2024, news websites Crystal News, Reporter Médias Monde, Les Pharaons and the TikTok news account Madame Actu were also suspended. The HAAC justified the decision by saying that these were “unauthorized websites” that had been “the subject of numerous complaints” and were responsible for making “unfounded allegations” and disseminating “media content without prior HAAC authorization”. The communique did not specify which content was problematic.

    These suspensions contravene the standards established by the UN Human Rights Committee, which clearly state that blanket bans on the operation of certain sites and systems are not compatible with the right to freedom of expression, nor is the granting of licences by the state to authorize the work of journalists as provided by Beninese law.

    Qemal Affagnon, Regional Coordinator for West Africa at Internet Without Borders, said: “The HAAC relies on the current Digital Code to punish all those who commit ‘criminal acts’. The examination of a bill amending this Code is an opportunity to implement the recommendations accepted by the government in 2023 during the 4th cycle of the Universal Periodic Review in line with the consultative modification work carried out with Beninese MPs by Internet Sans Frontières. It is essential to guaranteeing freedom of expression and HAAC’s independence.”

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: India: Authorities fail to provide humane support to thousands of people displaced by ethnic violence

    Source: Amnesty International –

    More than 50,000 displaced by attacks in Manipur two years ago

    The authorities have failed to bring suspected perpetrators to account

    ‘This inaction has left tens of thousands of people in limbo and forced them to endure life in inhumane conditions with no end in sight’ – Aakar Patel

    The Government of India must prioritise humanitarian aid and immediately implement a clear, inclusive and time-bound plan for the safe and voluntary return of communities displaced by ethnic violence in Manipur, said Amnesty International, ahead of the second anniversary of the outbreak of violence.

    Since violence erupted on 3 May 2023 between the Meitei community and Kuki and other tribal hill communities, more than 50,000 internally displaced people from both communities  remain in relief camps across the state, living in inhumane conditions with limited access to healthcare, sanitation, and adequate nutrition.

    Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India’s Chair, said:

    “It is unacceptable that the Indian government has failed to address the humanitarian needs and implement a comprehensive rehabilitation policy for displaced communities who remain in relief camps two years since the start of the ethnic violence in Manipur.

    “This inaction has left tens of thousands of people in limbo and forced them to endure life in inhumane conditions with no end in sight.

    “Despite the devastating impact of the violence, including the loss of 260 lives, there has been no meaningful progress towards justice and accountability – the rehabilitation policy must prioritise accountability for the grave human rights violations and abuses committed since May 2023.”

    Fear and insecurity preventing people’s return

    According to the latest Government data, more than 58,000 people are living in 281 relief camps across the state with many others fleeing to other states including Mizoram and Meghalaya. Despite the imposition of President’s rule in Manipur in February this year, which suspended the state government and extended central government’s rule, conditions have not improved.

    Key stakeholders in Manipur told Amnesty that while many internally displaced people are desperate to return home due to the terrible living conditions, fear and insecurity persist. Numerous homes have been destroyed while others remain occupied by vigilante groups, making return impossible without proper state intervention and guarantees of safety.

    Babloo Loitongbam, a human rights defender and lawyer from Imphal, said:

    “Thousands are still unable to return home – not by choice, but due to ongoing fear and insecurity.  As delays persist, frustration and resentment continue to grow among those affected… potentially creating a far more volatile and dangerous situation.”

     A community worker told Amnesty:

    “If they go back to their homes, how can they sleep peacefully in a house where the roof and the walls are riddled with bullet holes? They need security and protection. And not many can afford to reconstruct their homes without assistance from the authorities.”

    Inhuman conditions in relief camps

    While the Union Home Ministry announced that it has provided 21,700,000 Rupees (£193,282) for relief and rehabilitation during the 2024-25 fiscal year, Home Minister Amit Shah on 3 April said that ‘discussions are ongoing’ regarding a rehabilitation package for the internally displaced people.

    A community worker from a relief camp speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Amnesty:

    “The health facilities in these camps are very bad. We regularly see outbreaks of measles, dysentery and fever…There are also people with illnesses like cancer and tuberculosis and many who need dialysis treatment.

    “The only government hospital nearby doesn’t have the capacity to treat these patients and there aren’t many specialist doctors, which is worrying. We are getting some assistance from civil society and philanthropic organisations but nothing much from the state.”

    Another community worker told Amnesty:

    “Sanitation is a big problem in these camps. More than 100 families are using two to three makeshift toilets right now. The living conditions are pathetic, cramped and very suffocating. My concern is also that they are provided with two meals a day and the quality of the food is not good.”

    Under international law, internally displaced people have the right to access adequate housing, water, sanitation, health and other essential services, without discrimination. The denial of these essential rights is a violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which India ratified in 1979 and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

    Failure to ensure accountability

    Since May 2023, homes, businesses, villages, and places of worship have been burned, attacked, looted, and vandalised in the ongoing ethnic violence. Two years on, the authorities have failed to bring the suspected perpetrators of the human rights violations to account, and to provide access to justice and effective remedies for victims, thereby contributing to impunity.

     

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Israel/OPT: Two months of humanitarian aid ban in Gaza is ‘genocide in action’ – harrowing testimonies from residents

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Israel’s ban on aid and goods into Gaza has now entered its second month

    Starvation and denial of life-saving essentials are being used as weapons of war

    ‘You may send your child to bring water only for him to return in a body bag. Every day is like this here’ – Gaza resident

    ‘Israel has relentlessly and mercilessly turned Gaza into an inferno of death and destruction’ – Erika Guevara Rosas

    Israel must immediately end its devastating siege on the occupied Gaza Strip which constitutes a genocidal act, a blatant form of unlawful collective punishment, and the war crime of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, said Amnesty International.

    By blocking the entry of supplies critical for the survival of the population, Israel continues its policy of deliberately imposing conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza calculated to bring about their physical destruction; this constitutes an act of genocide.  

    Harrowing new testimonies, gathered by Amnesty throughout April, reveal the catastrophic human cost of Israel’s two-month long total siege, where starvation and denial of life-saving essentials are being used as weapons of war in flagrant violation of international law. 

    Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns, said:

    “The extent of human suffering in Gaza for the past 19 months has been unimaginable, and it is a direct consequence of Israel’s ongoing genocide. Apart from a brief respite during the temporary truce, Israel has relentlessly and mercilessly turned Gaza into an inferno of death and destruction.

    “For the past two months, Israel has completely cut off the supply of humanitarian aid and other items indispensable to the survival of civilians in a clear and calculated effort to collectively punish over two million civilians and to make Gaza unliveable. This is genocide in action.  

    “The international community must not continue to stand by as Israel perpetrates these atrocities with impunity. Governments, especially Israel’s allies, must act now and take concrete measures to pressure Israel into immediately lifting its total siege and allowing the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid and its safe distribution across all of Gaza. A sustained ceasefire is essential to ensure that can happen.” 

    Testimonies from residents and internally displaced people

    Amnesty conducted interviews with 35 internally displaced people seeking shelter in Gaza City and six residents of Beit Lahia, which paint a grim picture of a population teetering on the brink of survival.  

    In addition to blocking entry of all aid, Israel’s decision to cut power to Gaza’s main desalination plant on 9 March has further crippled access to clean water. The plant was the only facility in Gaza reconnected to Israel’s electricity grid in November 2024, after a full electricity blackout had been imposed since 11 October 2023.  

    The collapse of the truce with Israel’s resumption of attacks on 18 March, which have killed at least 2,325 people, including 820 children, shattered any semblance of hope for Palestinians in Gaza.  

    A resident told Amnesty:

    “We thought we would finally have a chance to mourn our dead in peace, to bury those we couldn’t bury and to start life. Conditions were very tough, but at least we could start planning for something other than death.” 

    Expansive “evacuation” orders and no-go zones now engulf nearly 70% of the Gaza Strip, forcing people to abandon what is left of the scarce sources of sustenance and access to livelihoods for farmers and fishermen.  

    The consequences are irreversible damage to the Palestinian population. Basic food items -including fish and meat- have become prohibitively expensive, pushing countless families into hunger. 

    One fisherman described the deadly gamble he is forced to take due to the risk of being shot at by the Israeli military while at sea: 

    “When I go fishing, I know that the danger of not returning home to my family is great… but we have no other option. My family’s survival depends on the money we can get out of selling the fish in the market – and it may cost you your life.”  

    The severe food scarcity is being exploited and exacerbated by individuals hoarding or looting supplies, selling them at extortionate prices. Amidst a severe cash liquidity crisis, commissions to withdraw money may reach 30%. Most Palestinians in Gaza now can only rely on overcrowded community kitchens, where displaced people endure hours-long waits for minimal sustenance, often just a single meal per day.  

    A displaced parent said:

    “We don’t ask if food is nutritious or not, if it’s fresh or good; that’s a luxury, we just want to fill the stomachs of our children. I don’t want my child to die hungry.”

    Throughout the conflict, including during the truce, local authorities in Gaza have failed to take any meaningful steps to stop such exploitation and profiteering. Their apparent disregard for civilians has prompted hundreds of protesters in Gaza, particularly in Beit Lahia, to take to the streets demanding the downfall of Hamas in recent weeks.   

    The crisis has had a particularly devastating impact on infants and breastfeeding and pregnant mothers. According to OCHA, 92% of infants aged 6-23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are not meeting their nutrient requirements.   

    Water scarcity, an endemic problem in Gaza due to Israel’s 17 year-long blockade, has now become critical, with some resorting to drinking seawater. Damaged infrastructure and fuel shortages have severely limited access to clean water. Residents in Beit Lahia said they had no water for domestic use for five consecutive days.  

    Another resident said:

    “I woke up thirsty, not even able to speak. If we wanted to get just a few bottles of drinking water, I had to send my son to queue for water for hours and he had to walk long distances. With the relentless bombardment and danger lurking everywhere, you don’t know. You may send your child to bring water only for him to return in a body bag. Every day is like this here.” 

    The lack of cooking gas and the scarcity and unaffordability of wood are forcing people to burn hazardous materials like waste and nylon for cooking and heating, leading to widespread respiratory illnesses, particularly among women, who often are the ones making fire for cooking.   

    Gaza’s healthcare system has largely collapsed under Israel’s military attacks and denial of humanitarian aid access. Doctors at the Al-Rantissi pediatric hospital in Gaza City, which only managed to reopen during the truce, report critical shortages of essential medical supplies and equipment.  

    A doctor said:

    “We are the only hospital in Gaza dedicated to providing dialysis for children… following the siege, we’ve been having shortages, including in AV fistulas which doctors need to prepare patients for dialysis treatment. We also notice the impact of the hunger on the children who come here to receive treatment: they are fading… you recommend that the parent give the child specific attention, specific food, and you know that what you are recommending is an impossibility.” 

    Another doctor highlighted the growing number of severely malnourished children, including infants lacking baby formula, and a critical shortage of life-saving medications like insulin. 

    Amnesty opposes any attempts to weaponise aid, use it for forced displacement, or create discriminatory aid distribution zones, all of which would violate international law. 

    ICJ hearings this week

    This week in the Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is holding public hearings to examine Israel’s obligations in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations and other international organisations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the provision of humanitarian assistance. Amnesty reiterates the critical urgency of allowing UNRWA, other UN agencies and humanitarian organisations, to carry out their life-saving work across the OPT without obstructions.  

    Israel’s refusal to allow aid into Gaza also flouts repeated ICJ orders to ensure Palestinians have access to sufficient humanitarian assistance and basic services. 

    System of apartheid

    Since June 2007, Israeli authorities have imposed an illegal land, sea and air blockade on Gaza, effectively controlling the entire strip and depriving residents of their most basic rights. This blockade has isolated Palestinians in Gaza from the rest of the OPT, and helped maintain Israel’s system of apartheid. Immediately following the Hamas-led 7 October attacks, Israel imposed a full siege on Gaza for almost two weeks, but even after Israel was pressured into lifting the total siege, it has maintained suffocating restrictions on the delivery of aid into and inside Gaza.  

    Erika Guevara Rosas at Amnesty added:

    “Governments contemptible failure to live up to their legal responsibilities to prevent and bring an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as their obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law throughout the OPT, is deplorable. Decades of inaction helped establish pervasive impunity for Israel’s persistent violations and it is now exacting an unprecedent toll of death, destruction and suffering on Palestinians.

    “Governments must take action to render Israel’s violations against Palestinians politically, diplomatically and economically unsustainable – the siege on Gaza must end now. They must impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and fully support and cooperate with the International Criminal Court.” 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: One month since devastating earthquake in Myanmar

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    On 28 March, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, killing and injuring thousands of people. Since then, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been working in Mandalay region, located 20 kilometres away from the earthquake’s epicentre, to provide people with medical care, psychological aid, and essential items.

    So far, we have restored 140 water sources for 475 families, distributed kits with soap, toothbrushes, menstrual products, and mosquito nets to over 2,000 families, and trained over 200 volunteers on psychological first aid. Through our mobile clinic in 8 locations across Mandalay region, our team has met and cared for people who have been directly affected, including Ma Win Win, Thein Zaw, and Khin Myo Khaing who shared their testimony about that day with us.

    Ma Win Win

    My husband and I were having dinner when it [the earthquake] started. He ran to find our son and fell between the kitchen and the main house. As he fell, bricks fell onto him one by one. When it all crumbled, I didn’t know what to do. 

    My head felt like it was burning. A big stone hit my head. When the shaking was over, another big stone from the house fell and hit my head. 

    When the earthquake hit, two of my children, my sister and her husband, my little brother, and an employee were trapped inside the house. I was the first to escape. Then my brother-in-law escaped. After he got out and my father reached the house, they rescued my son – it took five hours to dig him out of the rubble. They found my son wrapped in my sister’s arms. She did not survive. And I lost my husband too. Because he was the first to start running, I thought he had escaped. My child is too young to lose his father.

    We who survived were injured. I had severed the arteries in my wrist. I went to a hospital in Mandalay right away. I still can’t bend or stretch my hand. I came to the clinic today to see how my hand is.

    My child has been very scared since. I’m afraid it will happen again. I just want my husband back. 

    Thein Zaw

    On 28 March 28, my wife, daughter, and I were all at the tea shop where I work, on the fourth floor, making cakes and samosas for the next day. I was about to open the shop, so I was putting away the ingredients and at that moment, I heard a loud bang. 

    To be honest, we first thought it was a mine or a bomb. We came here from the conflict zone; it sounded so familiar. 

    Then the Buddha statue fell, and when it fell, my wife said: “Earthquake, earthquake, earthquake, sit down.” I have only one leg – we had a motorcycle accident two and a half years ago – and I thought we can’t run because we were on the fourth floor. I protected my daughter and my wife protected me. The house was shaking. We had to move things to get out of the house. 

    When the aftershock hit, we were on the road in a rickshaw – we wanted to go home. The house was still there, so we all went home.  

    Many buildings in our neighborhood have collapsed. There were not enough ambulances. We were able to help carry the sick and the dead with our tricycle. We did what we could. When we saw those collapsed buildings, we felt very bad. In my heart, it’s not good. 

    My daughter’s hand was slightly injured. It wasn’t too bad. But when she hears a loud sound now, she wants to run. Her heart is beating fast in her chest, and she’s very scared. She used to want to live in a big building with 3 or 4 floors, but now she feels very scared after this earthquake. 

    Khin Myo Khaing

    My youngest daughter has a cough, so I came to the clinic to get her looked at. My sister and I came to the clinic together, she is pregnant. After the earthquake she was not sure that everything was ok, so she came for a check-up. 

    On 28 March, we had visitors at our house. We were in the kitchen making rice and frying cakes for them. When the earthquake started, I first thought it was raining. From the kitchen I called out to my mother: “Mom, the rain is coming, it’s raining, it’s raining, it’s raining, it’s raining.” Then I realised that it wasn’t rain, it was an earthquake. 

    I was so worried for my four-month-old baby in the other room. My mother said: “Don’t run, I’ll take care of the baby.” Then my sister-in-law called out: “Don’t run, sit down.”

    I sat down in the kitchen with my 6-year-old daughter, we almost fell to the ground. The wooden chair we had just been sitting on tumbled and hit my head, but I was lucky. 

    I have never experienced such a violent earthquake.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: India: Authorities should urgently rehabilitate thousands displaced in two years of ethnic violence in Manipur

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The Government of India must prioritize humanitarian aid and immediately implement a clear, inclusive and time-bound plan for the safe and voluntary return of communities displaced by ethnic violence in Manipur, said Amnesty International, ahead of the second anniversary of the outbreak of violence.

    Since violence erupted on 3 May 2023 between the Meitei community and Kuki and other tribal hill communities, more than 50,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from both communities continue to remain in relief camps across the state, living in inhumane conditions with limited access to healthcare, sanitation, and adequate nutrition.

    “It is unacceptable that the Indian government has failed to address the humanitarian needs and implement a comprehensive rehabilitation policy for displaced communities who remain in relief camps two years since the start of the ethnic violence in Manipur. This inaction has left tens of thousands in limbo, forced to endure life in inhumane conditions with no end in sight,” said Aakar Patel, chair of board, Amnesty International India.

    “Despite the devastating impact of the violence, including the loss of 260 lives, there has been no meaningful progress toward justice and accountability. The rehabilitation policy must also prioritize accountability for the grave human rights violations and abuses committed since May 2023.”

    According to the latest government data as per sources, more than 58,000 people are living in 281 relief camps across the state. Many others have fled to states like Mizoram and Meghalaya. Despite the imposition of President’s rule in Manipur in February 2025 which suspended the state government and extended central government’s rule in the state, the conditions have not improved.

    Fear and insecurity preventing return

    Key stakeholders in Manipur told Amnesty International that while many IDPs are desperate to return home because of the terrible living conditions, fear and insecurity persist. Numerous homes have been destroyed, while others remain occupied by vigilante groups, making return impossible without proper state intervention and guarantees of safety.

    Babloo Loitongbam, a human rights defender and lawyer from Imphal, said: “Thousands are still unable to return home – not by choice, but due to ongoing fear and insecurity.  As delays persist, frustration and resentment continue to grow among those affected… potentially creating a far more volatile and dangerous situation.”

    A community worker told Amnesty International: “If they go back to their homes, how can they sleep peacefully in a house where the roof and the walls are riddled with bullet holes? They need security and protection. And not many can afford to reconstruct their homes without assistance from the authorities.”

    Inhuman conditions in relief camps

    While the Union Home Ministry announced that it has provided INR 21,700,000 (256470 USD) for relief and rehabilitation during the 2024-25 fiscal year, the Home Minister Amit Shah on 3 April said that ‘discussions are ongoing’ regarding a rehabilitation package for the internally displaced people.

    A community worker from a relief camp, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Amnesty International: “The health facilities in these camps are very bad. We regularly see outbreaks of measles, dysentery and fever…There are also people with illnesses like cancer and tuberculosis and many who need dialysis treatment. The only government hospital nearby doesn’t have the capacity to treat these patients and there aren’t many specialist doctors, which is worrying. We are getting some assistance from civil society and philanthropic organizations but nothing much from the state.”

    Another community worker told Amnesty International: “Sanitation is a big problem in these camps. More than 100 families are using two to three makeshift toilets right now. The living conditions are pathetic, cramped and very suffocating. My concern is also that they are provided with two meals a day and the quality of the food is not good.”

    Under international law, IDPs have the right to access to adequate housing, water, sanitation, health and other essential services, without discrimination, as anyone else living in India. The denial of access to these essential rights is a violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which India ratified in 1979 and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

    Failure to ensure accountability

    Since May 2023, homes, businesses, villages, and places of worship have been burned, attacked, looted, and vandalized in the ongoing ethnic violence. Two years on, the authorities have failed to bring the suspected perpetrators of the human rights violations to account, and to provide access to justice and effective remedies for victims, thereby contributing to impunity.

    Benjamin Mate, Chairman of the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust, said: “To ensure true progress in Manipur, the Government of India must appoint an independent commission to thoroughly investigate the role of senior officials, state bureaucrats, police officials, and armed groups during the ethnic violence over the past two years. Accountability is essential, and only through such a transparent and impartial inquiry can justice be delivered to the victims.”

    “The BJP-led administrations at both the state and central levels have not succeeded in bringing an end to the ongoing violence in Manipur. By consistently failing to hold those suspected of serious human rights violations accountable, the government risks signaling that such impunity will persist – ultimately paving the way for further abuses which unfortunately will impede any proposed rehabilitation policy in the coming days,” said Aakar Patel.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Israel/OPT: Two months of cruel and inhumane siege are further evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza  

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Israel must immediately end its devastating siege on the occupied Gaza Strip which constitutes a genocidal act, a blatant form of unlawful collective punishment, and the war crime of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, said Amnesty International, marking two months since Israel reimposed a ban on the entry of aid and commercial goods into the Strip on 2 March 2025.  

    By blocking the entry of supplies critical for the survival of the population, Israel continues its policy of deliberately imposing conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza calculated to bring about their physical destruction; this constitutes an act of genocide.  

    Harrowing new testimonies gathered by Amnesty International throughout April reveal the catastrophic human cost of Israel’s two-month long total siege, where starvation and denial of life-saving essentials are being used as weapons of war in flagrant violation of international law. 

    Israel has relentlessly and mercilessly turned Gaza into an inferno of death and destruction.

    Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International. 

    “The extent of human suffering in Gaza for the past 19 months has been unimaginable, and it is a direct consequence of Israel’s ongoing genocide. Apart from a brief respite during the temporary truce, Israel has relentlessly and mercilessly turned Gaza into an inferno of death and destruction,” Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International. 

    “For the past two months, Israel has completely cut off the supply of humanitarian aid and other items indispensable to the survival of civilians in a clear and calculated effort to collectively punish over two million civilians and to make Gaza unlivable. This is genocide in action.  

    “The international community must not continue to stand by as Israel perpetrates these atrocities with impunity. States, especially Israel’s allies, must act now and take concrete measures to pressure Israel into immediately lifting its total siege and allowing the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid and its safe distribution across all of Gaza. A sustained ceasefire is essential to ensure that can happen.” 

    This week in the Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is holding public hearings to examine Israel’s obligations in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the provision of humanitarian assistance. Amnesty International reiterates the critical urgency of allowing UNRWA, other UN agencies and humanitarian organizations, to carry out their life-saving work across the OPT without obstructions.   

    Israel’s refusal to allow aid into Gaza also flouts repeated ICJ orders to ensure Palestinians have access to sufficient humanitarian assistance and basic services. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: The power of photography: an interview with Khaula Jamil

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Khaula Jamil is an independent freelance documentary photographer, photojournalist and filmmaker who was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan. An avid traveller who works for local and international development organizations, foundations and businesses, she covers diverse subjects ranging from climate change and health to agriculture and human rights all over Pakistan.

    Khaula collaborated with Amnesty International on a photo project, for the organization’s Age Loud! campaign, documenting the resilience of older people in Karachi as they navigate everyday challenges in one of the world’s megacities. She shared her reflections on the project and her work with Amnesty campaigner, Elena Sergi.

    skip to photo gallery

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Greenpeace Africa concludes a landmark community experience-sharing workshop in Mbandaka, DRC, with strong calls for forest protection and food sovereignty

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Mbandaka, 1 May 2025 – Greenpeace Africa has successfully concluded a two-day community experience-sharing workshop in Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), bringing together 20 Indigenous and local community leaders from across the region. Held from 28th to 29th April 2025, the workshop focused on amplifying local solutions for forest protection and food sovereignty, grounded in Indigenous People’s  rights and agroecology.

    Over the course of the workshop, participants exchanged practical strategies, discussed challenges, and co-created recommendations to strengthen grassroots forest solutions  and food sovereignty efforts. The gathering also laid the foundation for deeper collaboration among communities and with national actors to advance just and sustainable solutions.

    “We are pleased to have provided a meaningful space for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to express themselves, share their local forest solutions, and learn from one another’s experiences, successes, and challenges. Throughout these rich exchanges, we identified a range of community-based solutions that hold strong potential for protecting forests, empowering local communities, and improving their living conditions. As we conclude this two-day workshop, we do so with a clear and actionable roadmap that reflects the priorities and needs of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in forest protection. We are fully committed to ensuring that their voices are heard, their rights are protected, and their leadership is supported in all efforts moving forward.” said Bonaventure Bondo, Greenpeace Africa Forest Campaigner for the Congo Basin.

    At the heart of the workshop was a participatory community-led assessment aimed at capturing the lived realities, ongoing initiatives, and pressing needs of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This assessment is a crucial step in shaping Greenpeace Africa’s future strategy, workplan, and activities across forest and food system campaigns in the Congo Basin.

    Elizabeth Atieno, Greenpeace Africa Food Campaigner, noted, “We are not just here to collect stories,  we are grounding our next steps in real experiences. This wasn’t just a workshop. It was a space to listen, to understand, and to build from the ground up. The assessment from this workshop will inform how we design our campaigns, engage with policy, and support the communities already doing the work. From this workshop, we are not just leaving with ideas  we are leaving with alliances, recommendations, and a clear direction for policy advocacy.”

    Community leaders also emphasized the urgency of recognition, protection, and support for their locally led forest solutions.

    “We are doing the work with or without support, protecting forests, growing food, preserving traditional knowledge. But we need policies that see us, strategies that include us, and resources that reach us,” said Valentin Engobo , a community leader from Lokolama. 

    The workshop ended with renewed energy and a clear direction: to continue amplifying community-led initiatives, pushing for policy change, and mobilizing solidarity across borders.

    END

    Contact:Raphael Mavambu, Communication and Media, [email protected], Greenpeace Africa

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Türkiye: Ban on May Day celebrations in Istanbul’s Taksim Square must be lifted  

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The Turkish authorities must lift all restrictions on a planned May Day solidarity demonstration in Istanbul’s Taksim Square and allow people to gather peacefully in accordance with a ruling by Türkiye’s Constitutional Court, Amnesty International said. 

    The organization is also calling on law enforcement officials to respect, protect and facilitate people’s right to peaceful assembly and not use force against peaceful protesters. Some trade unions and other civil society organizations have pledged to gather in Taksim Square despite preparations to restrict the square with metal barriers and several social media posts by the Istanbul governor Davut Gül in recent days declaring that the area remains off-limits. On 29 and 30 April, dozens of individuals were detained from their homes in advance of May Day, in what was reported as a pre-emptive action in relation to their plans to assemble in Taksim Square. 

    The restrictions on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square are based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds

     
    “The restrictions on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square are based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds and fly in the face of the 2023 Constitutional Court ruling. The restrictions must be urgently lifted,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake. 
     
    “Taksim Square is a place of huge symbolic significance for the Turkish trade union and workers movements and others who have gathered in protest and in celebration. For more than a decade, the Turkish authorities have unlawfully restricted people’s right to peaceful assembly and criminalized peaceful protests that take place in the square. It is vital that this year, May Day celebrations are able to proceed.” 
     
    The ban on May Day rallies in Taksim Square dates back to 2013, when, on multiple occasions, the police violently prevented trade unions, their supporters and other organizations from gathering. 
     
    In December 2023, Türkiye’s Constitutional Court ruled that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly of DİSK (the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Trade Unions), during the May Day celebrations in Taksim Square in 2014 and 2015 had been violated by the bans and forceful dispersals of protesters by law enforcement officials. In 2013, a European Court of Human Rights ruling had also found violation of the right to peaceful assembly by the state for the restrictions on the May Day rally in Taksim Square in 2008.  

    It is vital that May Day celebrations are able to proceed

     
    “The binding decisions of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights must be respected by the authorities,” said Dinushika Dissanayake. 
     
    “The Turkish authorities, including law enforcement officials, must ensure that they fulfil their duty to enable peaceful assemblies to take place. They must also take all necessary steps to protect participants’ enjoyment of their rights.” 
      
    Background 
     
    On 20 April 2025, the Governor of Istanbul Davut Gül stated on social media platform X: “for the foreseeable future, no collective actions have been permitted in Taksim Square and Istiklal Avenue on security grounds”.

    In 2024 the authorities attempted to justify the ban by claiming that Taksim’s location and the heavy traffic would make it difficult to ensure the protection of rights and freedoms and also referred to risks of “terror attacks”. 
     
    In 2009, the government declared 1 May an official public holiday and, for the first time in 32 years, some workers and their organizations were allowed to gather peacefully in Taksim Square. The area was closed to demonstrations again in 2013 for supposed security concerns. 
     
    The Constitutional Court ruled in 2023 that preventing May Day celebrations at Taksim Square constituted a violation of the constitutional right to organize public meetings and demonstrations, as safeguarded by Article 34 of the Constitution. 

    On 14 May, Amnesty International will publish tits findings into unnecessary and excessive use of force against peaceful protesters during demonstrations that followed the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul in March 2025. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Enforced disappearances as a means of repression by military authorities in West Africa

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The military regimes in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger are working to silence any criticism of the authorities in power. To suppress dissenting voices, the defence and security forces regularly resort to enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, as confirmed by Amnesty International’s latest Annual Report.

    Since 9 July 2024, two Guinean activists from the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (Front national pour la défense de la Constitution, FNDC), a movement calling for a return to constitutional order, have been victims of enforced disappearances. Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla, also known as ‘Foniké Menguè,’ were abducted from the latter’s home on the eve of a day of protests against the high cost of living and advocating for a return to civilian rule. According to the testimony of Mohamed Cissé, another activist arrested with them and released two days later with serious injuries, they were taken into detention to a location somewhere on the archipelago of the Îles de Los, off the coast of Conakry by elements of the defence and security forces. The authorities deny detaining Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla, and their fate remains unknown to this day.

    The worst can happen to victims during this out-of-control journey.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: USA: Trump’s first 100 days have ‘led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency’

    Source: Amnesty International –

    From targeting immigrants to undermining press freedom to marginalising vulnerable minorities, Trump’s government has devastated the lives of people in the US and beyond

    ‘The Trump administration has fully embraced authoritarian tactics more commonly associated with repressive [regimes] to silence and punish those who disagree with him’ – Paul O’Brien

    As President Donald Trump marks his first 100 days in office, Amnesty International highlights the human rights crisis fuelled by President Trump’s administration’s authoritarian practices, discriminatory and racist policies, and dangerous rhetoric.  

    In Chaos & Cruelty: 10 Compounding Assaults on Human Rights, Amnesty reviews President Trump’s attacks on domestic and international human rights in his first 100 days in office. From suppressing dissent to demonising and targeting immigrants, to retreating from multilateral bodies that protect human rights around the world, the Trump administration has systematically eroded human rights protections, fostering a climate of fear and division, and undermining the rule of law. 

    Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said:

    “One hundred days into his second term, President Trump has led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency that has affected millions of people by suppressing dissent, undermining the rule of law, and eroding norms and institutions essential to the protection of human rights.

    “The Trump administration has fully embraced authoritarian tactics more commonly associated with repressive leaders to silence and punish those who disagree with him, while weaponising the government against people and institutions in the US and beyond to entrench his own power and further an anti-rights agenda.”  

    The Trump administration’s policies in the first 100 days have already had devastating consequences on the lives of people in the US and in other parts of the world: 

    • Ending asylum and targeting immigrants: Mass deportations, enforced disappearances under the Alien Enemies Act, family separations, and harsh restrictions on the right to asylum have violated international law. These actions have torn communities apart and created a reality in which immigrants, including those who have come to the US seeking safety, are pushed into the shadows, living in fear. 
    • Attacking freedom of expression and the right to protest: Crackdowns on student protestors, especially those in support of Palestinian rights, have threatened the rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. Especially targeted are students who are not US citizens as they are threatened with detention and deportation for exercising their right to free speech.  
    • Undermining the rule of law: Disregarding court orders, threatening impeachment of judges, attacking law firms and lawyers, abusing executive power and eroding checks and balances are authoritarian practices the Trump administration has used to push forward his anti-rights agenda.   
    • Undermining press freedom: Targeting journalists, suing media outlets, pulling funding that supports free press globally, and abusing regulatory power through the Federal Communications Commission undermine the critical role of independent media in fostering debate, discussion, and dissent, which are essential to the defence of human rights. 
    • Attacking the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ communities: Anti-trans policies and executive orders have contributed to a dangerous climate of discrimination and indicate an attempt to erase transgender people’s existence under the law. Measures have also been taken to weaken sexual and reproductive rights guarantees for all people, particularly the right to abortion for women and people who can get pregnant. 
    • Marginalising Black and other racialised communities: Forced closures of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and threats to defund universities that embrace racial equity are a blatant attack on racial justice. 

    President Trump’s attacks on human rights are overlapping and compounding. Hundreds of university students have been targeted for deportation. One emblematic example of the Trump administration’s racist actions, repression, and disregard for human rights is the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and lawful permanent resident, detained and placed in deportation proceedings for participating in peaceful protests at Columbia University. 

    O’Brien added:

    “Mahmoud Khalil’s case sends a chilling message: if you speak out for human rights, you will be targeted, you will be punished, and you will not have due process. That is a terrifying prospect, not just for students, not just for immigrants, but for everyone.  When we look at the cumulative effect of the Trump administration’s actions, it amounts to a sweeping attack on human rights and the systems that uphold them. From this perspective, the damage and devastation of the first 100 days are undeniably clear.”  

    President Trump’s chaotic and cruel agenda is also undermining the rights of people around the world, creating instability and uncertainty that harms safety and security not just of people globally but also those in the US, and undermines their prosperity.  

    • Abruptly dismantling US foreign assistance: Sweeping and abrupt cuts to foreign aid have had a catastrophic impact on global humanitarian, development and human rights efforts. These cuts are not just financial—they represent an abandonment of the U.S. stated commitments to human rights, public health, and global peace and security. 
    • Retreating from multilateral bodies that protect human rights around the world: By retreating from global leadership, withdrawing from the Human Rights Council (HRC), the World Health Organisation and the Paris Climate Agreement, reviewing membership in UNESCO and imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Trump Administration has intensified efforts to undermine global mechanisms for justice and accountability. 
    • Retreating from civilian harm mitigation efforts: From shrinking offices aimed at reducing civilian harm caused by US military operations to reversing executive orders aimed at ensuring the US’ arms transfers do not contribute to violations of international law, the Trump Administration has demonstrated a dangerous disregard for the lives of civilians endangered by armed conflicts.   
    • Demolishing checks on corporate accountability: President Trump and his administration have taken down existing checks on corporate accountability and slashed efforts to fight corruption, including pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Tech firms have long facilitated discriminatory and authoritarian practices, but President Trump’s actions have exacerbated this trend. Meanwhile, President Trump has seemingly given carte blanche to the wealthiest man on Earth, Elon Musk, to run rampant with DOGE, directing actions that appear to violate federal law, including accessing sensitive, personal data of millions of Americans. 

    The perilous state of human rights in the US comes at a time when authoritarian practices have been increasing globally. In fact, the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on human rights are turbocharging harmful trends already present, gutting international human rights protections and endangering billions across the planet. 

    Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns, said:

    “We are witnessing an alarming escalation of state-sponsored repression and abandonment of the rule of law and human rights norms around the world.

    “As the largest grassroots human rights organisation in the world, we are mobilising to protect civic space, push back against authoritarian practices, and build long-term people power. Human rights should not be a political pawn.

    “Governments must actively oppose and denounce authoritarian practices that violate human rights and take steps to address their impact wherever they occur, including in the US. People around the world, including those in human rights and justice movements, are resisting and standing firmly against trends that threaten to lead present and future generations into an abyss. Political leaders must seize this pivotal moment to uphold and defend the rights and dignity of all.” 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: President Trump’s First 100 Days: Attacks on Human Rights, Cruelty and Chaos

    Source: Amnesty International –

    As President Donald Trump marks his first 100 days in office, Amnesty International highlights the human rights crisis fueled by President Trump’s administration’s authoritarian practices, discriminatory and racist policies, and dangerous rhetoric.  

    In Chaos & Cruelty: 10 Compounding Assaults on Human Rights, Amnesty International reviews President Trump’s attacks on domestic and international human rights in his first 100 days in office. From suppressing dissent to demonizing and targeting immigrants, to retreating from multilateral bodies that protect human rights around the world, the Trump administration has been systematically eroding human rights protections, fostering a climate of fear and division, and undermining the rule of law. 

    “One hundred days into his second term, President Trump has led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency that has affected millions of people by suppressing dissent, undermining the rule of law, and eroding norms and institutions essential to the protection of human rights,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “The Trump administration has fully embraced authoritarian tactics more commonly associated with repressive leaders to silence and punish those who disagree with him, while weaponizing the government against people and institutions in the United States and beyond to entrench his own power and further an anti-rights agenda.”  

    One hundred days into his second term, President Trump has led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency that has affected millions of people by suppressing dissent, undermining the rule of law, and eroding norms and institutions essential to the protection of human rights

    Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA

    The Trump administration’s policies in the first 100 days have already had devastating consequences on the lives of people in the U.S. and in other parts of the world: 

    • Ending asylum and targeting immigrants: Mass deportations, enforced disappearances under the Alien Enemies Act, family separations, and harsh restrictions on the right to asylum have violated international law. These actions have torn communities apart and created a reality in which immigrants, including those who have come to the U.S. seeking safety, are pushed into the shadows, living in fear. 
    • Attacking freedom of expression and the right to protest: Crackdowns on student protestors, especially those in support of Palestinian rights, have threatened the rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. Especially targeted are students who are not U.S. citizens as they are threatened with detention and deportation for exercising their right to free speech.  
    • Undermining the rule of law: Disregarding court orders, threatening impeachment of judges, attacking law firms and lawyers, abusing executive power and eroding checks and balances are authoritarian practices the Trump administration has used to push forward his anti-rights agenda.   
    • Undermining press freedom: Targeting journalists, suing media outlets, pulling funding that supports free press globally, and abusing regulatory power through the Federal Communications Commission undermine the critical role of independent media in fostering debate, discussion, and dissent, which are essential to the defense of human rights. 
    • Attacking the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ communities: Anti-trans policies and executive orders have contributed to a dangerous climate of discrimination and indicate an attempt to erase transgender people’s existence under the law. Measures have also been taken to weaken sexual and reproductive rights guarantees for all people, particularly the right to abortion for women and people who can get pregnant. 
    • Marginalizing Black and other racialized communities: Forced closures of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and threats to defund universities that embrace racial equity are a blatant attack on racial justice. 

    President Trump’s attacks on human rights are overlapping and compounding. Hundreds of university students have been targeted for deportation. One emblematic example of the Trump administration’s racist actions, repression, and disregard for human rights is the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and lawful permanent resident, detained and placed in deportation proceedings for participating in peaceful protests at Columbia University. 

    “Mahmoud Khalil’s case sends a chilling message: if you speak out for human rights, you will be targeted, you will be punished, and you will not have due process,” said O’Brien. “That is a terrifying prospect, not just for students, not just for immigrants, but for everyone.  When we look at the cumulative effect of the Trump administration’s actions, it amounts to a sweeping attack on human rights and the systems that uphold them. From this perspective, the damage and devastation of the first 100 days are undeniably clear.”  

    When we look at the cumulative effect of the Trump administration’s actions, it amounts to a sweeping attack on human rights and the systems that uphold them. From this perspective, the damage and devastation of the first 100 days are undeniably clear

    Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA

    President Trump’s chaotic and cruel agenda is also undermining the rights of people around the world, creating instability and uncertainty that harms safety and security not just of people globally but also those in the U.S., and undermines their prosperity.  

    • Abruptly dismantling U.S. foreign assistance: Sweeping and abrupt cuts to foreign aid have had a catastrophic impact on global humanitarian, development and human rights efforts. These cuts are not just financial—they represent an abandonment of the U.S. stated commitments to human rights, public health, and global peace and security. 
    • Retreating from multilateral bodies that protect human rights around the world: By retreating from global leadership, withdrawing from the Human Rights Council (HRC), the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, reviewing membership in UNESCO and imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Trump Administration has intensified efforts to undermine global mechanisms for justice and accountability. 
    • Retreating from civilian harm mitigation efforts: From shrinking offices aimed at reducing civilian harm caused by U.S. military operations to reversing executive orders aimed at ensuring the U.S.’s arms transfers do not contribute to violations of international law, the Trump Administration has demonstrated a dangerous disregard for the lives of civilians endangered by armed conflicts.   
    • Demolishing checks on corporate accountability: President Trump and his administration have taken down existing checks on corporate accountability and slashed efforts to fight corruption, including pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Tech firms have long facilitated discriminatory and authoritarian practices, but President Trump’s actions have exacerbated this trend. Meanwhile, President Trump has seemingly given carte blanche to the wealthiest man on Earth, Elon Musk, to run rampant with DOGE, directing actions that appear to violate federal law, including accessing sensitive, personal data of millions of Americans. 

    The perilous state of human rights in the United States comes at a time when authoritarian practices have been increasing globally. In fact, the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on human rights are turbocharging harmful trends already present, gutting international human rights protections and endangering billions across the planet. 

    “We are witnessing an alarming escalation of state-sponsored repression and abandonment of the rule of law and human rights norms around the world. As the largest grassroots human rights organization in the world, we are mobilizing to protect civic space, push back against authoritarian practices, and build long-term people power,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns. “Human rights should not be a political pawn. Governments must actively oppose and denounce authoritarian practices that violate human rights and take steps to address their impact wherever they occur, including in the United States. People around the world, including those in human rights and justice movements, are resisting and standing firmly against trends that threaten to lead present and future generations into an abyss. Political leaders must seize this pivotal moment to uphold and defend the rights and dignity of all.” 

    We are witnessing an alarming escalation of state-sponsored repression and abandonment of the rule of law and human rights norms around the world. As the largest grassroots human rights organization in the world, we are mobilizing to protect civic space, push back against authoritarian practices, and build long-term people power

    Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Policy, Advocacy, and Campaigns

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: It’s time for justice for San José de Apartadó

    Source: Amnesty International –

    By Ana Piquer Romo, Americas director at Amnesty International

    On Colombia’s Victims’ Day, Amnesty International calls for the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó to be respected, once and for all.

    On April 9, Colombia commemorates the National Day of Memory and Solidarity with the Victims of the Colombian Armed Conflict. It is alarming that official government counts speak of 9.8 million victims, almost a fifth of the country’s population. What’s worse is that these figures are still on the rise.

    A week earlier, on April 1, the Justice Evaluation Commission for the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó was installed in Apartadó, Antioquia. This is part of Colombia’s commitments to the Inter-American Human Rights System, which has observed the case of the Community for 28 years and on which Colombia has been stuck at a standstill for all this time. This Commission should help to unblock hundreds of investigations into acts of violence against the Community that the State has overlooked, and that today remain unpunished.

    The Peace Community was founded in 1997 in the Urabá region, when the Colombian armed conflict was approaching its worst peaks of violence: figures for all indicators of violent events in the country reached their worst between the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Despite declaring themselves neutral, and almost precisely for this reason, the members of the Peace Community have suffered violence from the FARC guerrilla, paramilitaries, the armed groups that succeeded them, and state agents who, instead of protecting them, attacked them.

    February 21 marked 20 years since the gruesome 2005 massacre. Although it was the sixth the Community had suffered, it was so horrifying that it is remembered as The Massacre of San José de Apartadó. This atrocity was committed by paramilitaries in the presence of members of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian Army who murdered eight people with machetes, including Luis Eduardo Guerra, one of the main Community leaders, and three children under the age of 10. A score of paramilitaries and seven soldiers, including an Army colonel, have been convicted in connection with these events, despite the fact that, at the time, the government blamed the FARC guerrilla and denied the claims of the Community who witnessed the massacre.

    After such an event, the State should have brought the Community the protection, justice and reparation they had been seeking for years. Instead, at the end of that year, and during 2006, state agents continued to attack the Peace Community in various ways, even committing what are inappropriately labelled “false positives” (the unlawful killing of civilians falsely presented as “guerrillas killed in combat”) against members of the Community, who are still awaiting justice. It is shameful that, instead of protecting them, agents of the Colombian State are among those who decided to attack them.

    It is devastating to think that all this occurred despite the fact that the Community has been the beneficiary of precautionary measures by the IACHR since 1997, provisional measures by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights since 2000, and that the Colombian Constitutional Court ordered the State to comply with those international decisions in 2004. Even the Ombudsperson’s Office had detected the risk in November 2004, but the government at the time decided not to issue an early warning regarding the Community.

    That all these national and international institutional safeguards had been unable to prevent a massacre committed with the support of agents of that same State is disheartening.

    Even sadder is the fact that violence remains the present reality of the Peace Community. A year ago, on the eve of the Community’s anniversary on March 23, Amnesty International and numerous other international organizations visited the Colombian government to learn about the measures that are finally being planned to repair the Community and ensure that it does not suffer any more violence. During the same meeting we heard the news of the murder of Nalleli Sepúlveda and Edinson David, the latter just 14 years old, which occurred on March 19. The Peace Community still lives under the simmering threat of violence.

    For decades, our solidarity movement has rallied on behalf of the Community from many parts of the world; we have joined the efforts of people who courageously defend human rights in Colombia, the right to land, territory, the environment, the right not to be forcibly disappeared and to conduct a dignified search for those who were, the right to assemble and speak out in public without suffering repression and abuse with the use of force; the right not to be treated differently because of territory, race, sex or sexual orientation.

    On the day of Memory and Solidarity with the Victims, Amnesty International reaffirms its commitment to the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó to ensure that, at last, the Colombian State is able to protect them, along with all the people giving their lives in defense of their rights.

    The Peace Community, as well as many other Colombian organizations and communities, teach the world to never give up on defending something that is inherent to all: human rights.

    This article was originally published in Confidencial Noticias.

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  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Mali: Authorities must abandon alarming proposal to dissolve political parties

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Reacting to the proposal to dissolve all political parties in Mali following consultations on the review of the Political Parties Charter, Ousmane Diallo, Sahel Researcher at Amnesty International’s regional office for West and Central Africa, said:

    “We are alarmed by the proposition to dissolve political parties in Mali and warn against what would be a flagrant attack on the rights to freedom of expression and association. The authorities must end the escalating crackdown on civic space and uphold the human rights of everyone in the country including critics, human rights defenders and opposition politicians.  

    “The dissolution of political parties would be at odds with the constitution enacted in 2023 by the transitional authorities, which guarantees the existence of political parties and asserts their right to ‘form and operate freely under the conditions determined by law’.

    “It would also be inconsistent and incompatible with Mali’s international human rights obligations including under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is a state party.” 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: 100 days in, let’s continue to resist and protect.

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Usually marking 100 days of a new administration means taking stock and evaluating how it’ll set the tone for the next couple years of the president’s tenure. 

    But this time is different. 

    Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second round in office has launched the beginning of a “new” MAGA regime with terrifying assaults on our families, our freedoms, and our future. I say “new” in quotation marks as it draws upon historical movements to roll back progress. 

    From attempts to claw back Congress-mandated funds for clean energy projects to the EPA boasting the “biggest deregulation action in U.S. history” with plans to roll back 31 environmental safeguards. 

    Translation: it’s their meager attempt to prop up the diminishing coal industry and give kickbacks to their cronies in oil and gas, removing rules meant for cleaner air, safer water and healthier families. 

    Of course this is just in the environmental space, not to mention the abducting of immigrants and attacks on international students, revoking of free speech rights, rolling back hard-won progress on racial equity, or playing billionaire’s games with the global economy.  

    I want to thank the media for covering the array of assaults on our communities. I want to honor the people power pushing back.

    We will not comply in advance to growing authoritarianism in the highest offices. Civil society has correctly demanded that our judicial system check their egregious and hostile government takeover. I take inspiration from our coalition of environmental groups blocking their illegal attempts to expand destructive offshore drilling, to ACLU’s standing up for the rights of trans Americans and immigrants, to my alma mater and former employer Harvard banding together with other universities to protect academic freedom and our freedom to learn. 

    This is a chaotic, precarious and uncertain time. But this is our mission:

    Resist and Protect.

    We continue to protect the oceans against potential deep sea mining, plastic pollution, and extractive practices. We continue to protect our climate in honor of our planet and for future generations. We continue to speak up for rights and freedoms that are essential to a vibrant and healthy democracy. 

    In solidarity with others believing in a better tomorrow, we must keep it up – for the love of our neighbors, our families and a greener and just future. 

    We’ve made it through 100 days. Let’s keep it up. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Greenpeace USA marks Trump’s first 100 days with launch of global #TimetoResist campaign

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    © Tim Aubry / Greenpeace

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 30, 2025) – This morning, Greenpeace USA campaigners marked the first 100 days of this administration’s second term by unfurling a powerful banner reading “We the People: Preserve, Protect, Defend” in front of the U.S. Constitution display at the National Archives, launching the organization’s new #TimeToResist global campaign.

    Photos from the DC bannering can be found here. 

    This comes after 100 days of chaos and lawlessness, escalating threats to democracy, climate action, and civil rights – led by billionaire oligarchs and corporate bullies who are using money and insider relationships in Washington to try to silence dissent. Greenpeace USA’s campaign is a bold defense, not just of the planet, but the foundational freedoms that protect it.

    Dr. Folabi Olagbaju, Democracy Campaign Director, Greenpeace USA, said:  “Greenpeace’s mission has always been to preserve, protect, and defend our just green world and today, that means defending the very document that makes this critical advocacy work possible. We the People is a phrase that belongs to all of us… it is not owned by corporations, or billionaires, or politicians. As the constitutional rights to free speech and due process come under attack on university campuses, in major law firms, and even inside legacy journalism institutions, Greenpeace USA is making clear that our fight is not just about defending the environment and safeguarding climate: it’s about defending democracy itself.

    “We are here to remind this administration, and the nation, that constitutional rights belong to the people. Free speech, protest, and dissent are not negotiable. They are the foundation of any livable future, and we will resist any effort to erase them.”

    Greenpeace USA marked the first 100 days of this administration’s second term by unfurling a powerful banner reading “We the People: Preserve, Protect, Defend” © Tim Aubry / Greenpeace

    With today’s action, Greenpeace USA declares: the next 100 days are ours — a time for the people to restore hope, to organize, to rise up, and to defy the suppression of dissent and justice.

    The Time to Resist campaign will mobilize people across the United States and around the world to stand together, protect the right to dissent, and safeguard the future before it’s too late.Read more and see the global petition here.

    Contact: Madison Carter, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected]

    Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Week 6 of “Dirty Dems” campaign highlights failures of Bakersfield legislators

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    BAKERSFIELD, CA (April 29, 2025)—As part of the ongoing “Dirty Dems” campaign, Greenpeace USA, in collaboration with the California Working Families Party and Courage California, continues to hold California State legislators accountable for their damaging connections to the oil and gas industry and their failure to support critical climate, economic justice, and progressive priorities.

    This week, the spotlight falls on Bakersfield – and two legislators who have continuously received failing grades from every major environmental and progressive scorecard across the state. Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, who has accepted $54,000 from the oil and gas industry in just the last session alone, and Senator Melissa Hurtado, who has accepted $79,500 herself since 2018, have made a name for themselves through supporting corporate polluters instead of fighting for their communities. 

    Amy Moas, Ph.D., Greenpeace USA Senior Climate Campaigner, said: “Assemblymember Bains’s and Senator Hurtado’s behavior accepting dirty money, and then voting against policies that would have made their communities healthier and more resilient, is inexcusable. Bakersfield and its surrounding communities deserve elected leaders who are fighting for everyday, working families – not delaying protections that would keep people safe.”

    Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains – “Big Oil Bains” 

    Though Assemblymember Bains has only been in office for two full legislative sessions – and though she represents communities bearing the brunt of the toxic oil industry – she has repeatedly chosen not to protect the very people she was elected to represent. Assembly Member Bains was the only Democrat to choose corporate profits over protecting her constituents when she voted against a bill aimed at ensuring oil companies are not ripping off Californians in order to rake in historic profits (SBX1-2). During the same session, she also did the oil industry’s bidding by introducing a bill requiring an increase in toxic oil production in the state. 

    Some additional low points of Assembly Member Bains’ time in office include voting no on programs to lower air pollution and smog (AB 126) and skipping voting on a bill to monitor noxious pollutants in neighborhoods that have been linked to asthma and cancer (SB 674).  She also skipped a vote to mandate California speed up the plugging of the thousands of leaking idle wells throughout the state (AB 1866), as well as on a bill to incentivize the clean up of the low producing oil wells polluting the largest urban oil field in the country (AB 2716). Assembly Member Bains does not just vote down and skip votes on public health and environmental issues, however; she also skipped voting on a bill to improve the working conditions for janitorial labor in California (AB 2364). 

    Senator Melissa Hurtado

    Senator Hurtado’s contributions from Chevron, the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), and one of California’s largest oil refiners, PBF Energy, show in her voting record. While it is common in the California Legislature for legislators to skip votes in order to avoid taking a stand on difficult bills, Senator Hurtado has one of the most up front and brazen records with her actual voting down numerous environmental justice and public health bills for the purpose of protecting the profits of her corporate donors. 

    Senator Hurtado’s time in office includes a series of low points. First, she voted no on one of the largest environmental justice priorities for more than a decade aimed at reducing pollution from oil drilling in neighborhoods (SB 1137), and voted no on multiple bills aimed at cleaning up toxic idle oil wells and ensuring taxpayers are not stuck with the bill (AB 1866 and AB 1167) – despite her district having more than 11,000 idle wells. Additionally, she voted against a bill to incentivize the cleanup of low producing wells in the largest urban oil field (AB 2716), and another to strengthen the enforcement measures for oil and gas regulations (AB 631). 

    Senator Hurtado has also pushed back against workers’ rights. She skipped voting on a number of other progressive priorities including a major labor priority bill in 2022 aimed at establishing a council to shape minimum wage and working conditions for fast food workers (AB 257), as well as a bill to end employment discrimination by outlawing forced arbitration agreements (AB 51). 

    Holding the Bakersfield Legislators Accountable

    Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains and Senator Melissa Hurtado are the eighth and ninth Dirty Dems to be named. They join a growing list of California’s elected officials who have repeatedly chosen to prioritize corporate donations over the well-being of their constituents. 

    Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Major parties must reject Trump’s dangerous plans to mine the Pacific deep sea

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    SYDNEY, Wednesday 30 April 2025 — Ahead of the Federal Election, Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling on all parties to support a moratorium on deep sea mining, with news today that The Metals Company is forging ahead with plans to commercially mine the Pacific seabed following President Trump’s executive order greenlighting the harmful practice. 

    Controversial deep sea mining company The Metals Company (TMC) – headed by Australian CEO Gerard Barron – has overnight submitted the first-ever application to mine the Pacific Ocean seabed. Lauded on its website as a “world-first”, the company says minerals extracted from the deep, environmentally sensitive ocean floor would be used to support the green transition, but Trump’s executive order states they would also be used by the US for weapons manufacturing and infrastructure.

    Last year, an investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald exposed TMC’s links to former PM Scott Morrison and the AUKUS deal. Greenpeace says the move threatens Pacific sovereignty and is a power play in the United States’ national interest. 

    Glenn Walker, Head of Nature at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “The ocean is under attack from every angle, suffering from climate change, destructive industrial fishing, plastic pollution, and now the new threat of deep sea mining, driven by the Trump administration and billionaire elites seeking to profit from ocean destruction. 

    “Australians love the ocean and want to protect it. Now is the time for all Australian political parties, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, to set themselves apart from Trump and publicly and strongly support a moratorium on deep sea mining, and be a good neighbour to Pacific nations. Our leaders now have a choice: protect our blue planet, or sit idly by and allow Trump to undermine international law and plunder the ocean.” 

    The move by the US undermines international law and breaks the longstanding tradition of it being a good-faith actor on UNCLOS (The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). 

    Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Juressa Lee said: “The Metals Company and Donald Trump are wilfully ignoring the rules-based international order and the science that deep sea mining will wreak havoc on the oceans. 

    “Pacific Peoples have deep cultural ties to the ocean, and it is the source of livelihoods for many. Our home is more ocean than land, and our ancestors were wayfarers who traversed the Pacific Ocean for centuries. Deep sea mining is not the answer to the green transition away from carbon-based fossil fuels.” 

    Currently, 32 countries have backed a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep sea mining, including Tuvalu, Palau, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu and Samoa. Australia has not.

    Australia will have a crucial chance to support a moratorium on deep sea mining at the UN Ocean Conference in June.

    —ENDS—

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Greenpeace USA’s response to TMC’s push to fast-track deep sea mining in the High Seas under the U.S. Seabed Mining Code

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Greenpeace International activists from around the world have paddled and protested around MV COCO, a specialized offshore drilling vessel currently collecting data for deep sea mining frontrunner, The Metals Company, on its last expedition before it files the world’s first ever application to mine the seabed in the Pacific Ocean. © Martin Katz / Greenpeace

    In response to The Metals Company’s push to fast-track deep-sea mining in the High Seas under the U.S. Seabed Mining Code, Arlo Hemphill, Greenpeace USA’s Deep Sea Mining Campaign Lead, stated: “Greenpeace USA condemns this reckless attempt by The Metals Company (TMC) to bypass international law and commercialize mining in the high seas and US-adjacent waters. It is nothing less than the plunder of the Pacific once again being pursued without the consent of Pacific Peoples. We cannot allow another dangerous extension of corporate greed and neo-colonialism, sacrificing ocean health, Indigenous rights, and future generations for the short-term gain of a few corporations to repeat itself in the deep sea.” 

    TMC’s application comes as Congress meets today, Tuesday, April 29, in a hearing requested by the House Natural Resources Committee, to explore the Potential of Deep-Sea Mining to expand American Mineral production. The application for mining TMC USA-A_2 in the Clarion Clipperton Zone attempts to exploit the U.S. legal system to advance mining operations in areas it was already licensed to explore under Nauru’s sponsorship through the International Seabed Authority processes. It disregards the multilateral process agreed upon by 170 countries and the European Union under UNCLOS. The company has faced opposition in that body from 32 countries and several Indigenous Pacific groups that have called for a ban, pause, or moratorium on deep sea mining. 

    Solomon P. Kaho’ohalahala, chair of the Pacific Island Heritage Coalition, said: “The people of the Pacific have a cultural connection to the deep sea.  It is the birthplace of our ancestors, and of all life. Deep sea mining is an assault on our cultural heritage, and it is being rushed forward without our consultation.  We call on Congress to stop this assault on the ocean we know as home, and to respect the values of Hawaiians and people from across the Pacific who will be on the frontlines should this industry take hold.”

    Hemphill continued: “We urge congressional leaders to defend democratic oversight, reject corporate shortcuts, and protect the deep ocean. Greenpeace USA stands with Pacific communities, Indigenous leaders, scientists, and governments worldwide calling for a moratorium on this dangerous industry. We must defend the oceans, uphold international law, and reject a broken system that gambles our planet’s future for corporate profit.”

    Louisa Casson, Greenpeace International Senior Campaigner, said: “The first application to commercially mine the seabed will be remembered as an act of total disregard for international law and scientific consensus. This unilateral US effort to carve up the Pacific Ocean already faces fierce international opposition. Governments around the world must now step up to defend international rules and cooperation against rogue deep sea mining. Leaders will be meeting at the UN Oceans Conference in Nice in June, where they must speak with one voice in support of a moratorium on this reckless industry.”

    President Trump’s recent executive order promoting U.S. plans to initiate deep-sea mining in both U.S. and international waters has faced widespread criticism from several environmental NGOs, and state actors, including France, China, and the European Commission who have condemned it as a unilateral action that undermines multilateral cooperation and the United Nations. While the U.S. never ratified UNCLOS, bypassing the international system violates global norms that safeguard the deep ocean as the “common heritage of humankind,” setting a dangerous precedent for the management of all global commons.

    Contact: Tanya Brooks, Senior Communications Specialist at Greenpeace USA, [email protected]  

    Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Amnesty International warns of global human rights crisis as ‘Trump effect’ accelerates destructive trends

    Source: Amnesty International –

    • Annual report highlights the creep of authoritarian practices and vicious clampdowns on dissent around the world
    • President Trump’s first 100 days intensify 2024’s global regressions and deep-rooted trends
    • Global failures in addressing inequalities, climate collapse, and tech transformations imperil future generations
    • The rise of authoritarian practices and annihilation of international law are not inevitable: people do and will resist attacks on human rights; governments can deliver international justice and must continue to do so

    The Trump administration’s anti-rights campaign is turbocharging harmful trends already present, gutting international human rights protections and endangering billions across the planet, Amnesty International warned today upon launching its annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights.

    This “Trump effect” has compounded the damage done by other world leaders throughout 2024, eating away at decades of painstaking work to build up and advance universal human rights for all and accelerating humanity’s plunge into a brutal new era characterized by intermingling authoritarian practices and corporate greed, Amnesty International said in its assessment of the situation in 150 countries.

    At this historical juncture, when authoritarian laws and practices are multiplying the world over in the interests of very few, governments and civil society must work with urgency to lead humanity back to safer ground.

    Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

    “Year after year, we have warned of the dangers of human rights backsliding. But events of the past 12 months – not least Israel’s livestreamed but unheeded genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – have laid bare just how hellish the world can be for so many when the most powerful states jettison international law and disregard multilateral institutions. At this historical juncture, when authoritarian laws and practices are multiplying the world over in the interests of very few, governments and civil society must work with urgency to lead humanity back to safer ground,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

    The State of the World’s Human Rights documents vicious, widespread clampdowns on dissent, catastrophic escalations of armed conflict, inadequate efforts to address climate collapse, and a growing backlash globally against the rights of migrants, refugees, women, girls and LGBTI people. Each of these faces further deterioration in a turbulent 2025 unless a global about-turn is achieved.

    “One hundred days into his second term, President Trump has shown only utter contempt for universal human rights. His government has swiftly and deliberately targeted vital US and international institutions and initiatives that were designed to make ours a safer and fairer world. His all-out assault on the very concepts of multilateralism, asylum, racial and gender justice, global health and life-saving climate action is exacerbating the significant damage those principles and institutions have already sustained and is further emboldening other anti-rights leaders and movements to join his onslaught,” Agnès Callamard added.

    “But let us be clear: this sickness runs much deeper than the actions of President Trump. For years now, we’ve witnessed a creeping spread of authoritarian practices among states the world over, fostered by aspiring and elected leaders willingly acting as engines of destruction. As they drag us into a new age of turmoil and cruelty, all who believe in freedom and equality must steel ourselves to counter increasingly extreme attacks on international law and universal human rights.”

    The proliferation of authoritarian laws, policies and practices targeting freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly that Amnesty International documented in 2024 was central to the global backlash against human rights. Governments across the world sought to evade accountability, entrench their power and instil fear by banning media outlets, by disbanding or suspending NGOs and political parties, by imprisoning critics on baseless charges of “terrorism” or “extremism”, and by criminalizing human rights defenders, climate activists, Gaza solidarity protesters and other dissenters.

    Security forces in several countries used mass arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and often excessive – sometimes lethal – force to suppress civil disobedience. Bangladeshi authorities issued “shoot-on-sight” orders against student protests, resulting in almost 1,000 deaths, while security forces in Mozambique unleashed the worst crackdown on protests in years following disputed elections, leaving at least 277 people dead.

    Türkiye imposed blanket bans on protests and continues to use unlawful and indiscriminate force against peaceful demonstrators, but people power prevailed in South Korea when president Yoon Suk Yeol suspended certain human rights and declared martial law, only to be removed from office and see those measures overturned after massive public protests.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Worsening malnutrition crisis in South Darfur

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    The ongoing conflict in Sudan has severely compromised people’s food security, leaving millions in danger of malnutrition. In conflict-affected areas, such as South Darfur, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams see how internally displaced people are struggling to meet their basic necessities, leaving them more susceptible to this malnutrition crisis. Already lacking sufficient humanitarian assistance, South Darfur is now bracing for the upcoming rainy season, when it will become nearly impossible to move supplies in at the scale needed. Action must be taken now, while it is possible to avert the worst of what could come.

    Children under five years old, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, are among the most vulnerable groups affected. In 2024, over 7,200 children under five years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women from Nyala and its surrounding areas were admitted into our outpatient feeding programmes with severe malnutrition. Severe acute malnutrition is a life-threatening condition if left untreated. 

    Limited humanitarian presence, increased needs

    The lack of a humanitarian response commensurate with the needs and limited resources in South Darfur, including by UN agencies, has resulted in continued gaps in life-saving services, especially the treatment of malnutrition. MSF had already initiated emergency nutrition support in some of the most affected areas, but under the current circumstances, our teams are facing considerable pressure to expand and sustain these efforts.

    MSF staff next to a camel loaded with food items, ready to move to the food distribution site on the outskirts of Nyala, South Darfur, Sudan, March 2025.
    Hani Dweik/MSF

    A nutrition response under pressure 

    As part of our outpatient feeding programmes, those enrolled receive therapeutic food to bring home. After seeing instances where families were dividing up therapeutic food to feed all their members, MSF began distributing food parcels for entire families of children and pregnant and breastfeeding women enrolled in our malnutrition treatment programmes in December. 

    The aim was to offer some short-term relief to those facing the harshest consequences of food insecurity, particularly as the economic situation continues to deteriorate. Women are oftentimes having to care for their large families alone after being displaced by violence, while cut off from income-generating activities and their support networks.

    “In order to reduce instances where the child’s therapeutic food is divided amongst the hungry relatives, we provide a family ration for a duration of two months,” says Hunter McGovern, MSF’s food distribution coordinator in South Darfur. “This allows the child to receive the full course of their nutrition therapy while increasing the nutrition situation of the whole family. Even with this activity in progress, the needs remain overwhelming.”  

    MSF’s response provides food rations amounting to 2,000 calories per day per person for families, at an average of five persons per family, to cover a period of two months. This programme helps give the whole family the food they need, which in turn supports the treatment of malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers. 

    “During our distributions, we found that the average family size is much larger than what we had initially planned for—sometimes as many as ten people per household. This underscores just how critical the food shortage is and how much more assistance is required to meet the real needs of people,” says McGovern.

    Underscoring the critical nutrition shortage, we have heard that people travel when they learn that their relative has received food assistance.

    The need for a stronger humanitarian response

    MSF remains committed to addressing the urgent nutrition needs of people affected by the conflict in South Darfur. The scale of the crisis far exceeds the capacities of the limited numbers of organisations currently responding.

    We are fast approaching the rainy season and the hunger gap, the time of the year when it is most difficult for people in South Darfur to access food and when it is most difficult for humanitarian supplies to reach the state. Supplies for the treatment of malnutrition, and for food distribution programmes, must be pre-positioned now before communities are cut off.

    Local responders need funding and support to continue and expand food distribution programmes for their communities. Running food distributions and expanding inpatient and outpatient therapeutic feeding programmes in South Darfur is challenging but possible – and can help prevent needless suffering and mortality.

    With food security deteriorating and malnutrition rates rising, urgent action is needed to scale up humanitarian assistance and ensure that children and families receive the support they desperately need. Without a concerted effort, the crisis will only deepen, putting countless lives at risk. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Greenpeace Africa launches community experience-sharing workshop on local forest initiatives in Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Mbandaka, 28 April 2025 – Greenpeace Africa is excited to announce the launch of a pivotal community experience-sharing workshop dedicated to local forest initiatives focused on sustainable forest and food solutions. This significant event will take place from the 28th to the 30th of April 2025 in Mbandaka, bringing together Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to share their experiences, challenges, and innovative practices in forest conservation and sustainable food systems. This includes 20 community leaders from diverse regions across the DRC.

    The primary objective of this workshop is to create a collaborative space where participants can exchange knowledge and amplify their local forest solutions. By addressing the challenges faced by these communities in implementing their sustainable initiatives, the workshop aims to enhance their voices both nationally and internationally.

    “Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities play a crucial role in protecting forests and restoring biodiversity through their traditional knowledge. This workshop is an opportunity for us to understand the local initiatives they are implementing, to learn from their successes and challenges, and to identify their needs in promoting local forest solutions,” said Bonaventure Bondo, Greenpeace Africa Forest Campaigner for the Congo Basin.

    In the face of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are leading the way. 

    Elizabeth Atieno, Greenpeace Africa Food Campaigner, stated, “We are no longer waiting for solutions from systems that have already failed us. Our forefathers and mothers lived in harmony with forests, they protected them while producing food. Today, indigenous knowledge and agroecology show us that it is possible to feed our communities and protect our forests at the same time. By securing land rights and investing in community-led solutions, we can build a future where people and nature thrive together.”

    END

    Contact:

    Raphael Mavambu, Communication and Media, Greenpeace Africa, [email protected]

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: UK: ‘Consciously cruel’ – UK social security system is pushing people beyond the brink – new report

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Human rights in the UK in crisis as new report exposes crushing evidence of a social security system ruining lives 

    Discrimination and dehumanisation reported as rife as punitive system drives poverty by policy 

    ‘They told me to go in for an assessment, and my baby had passed away… not even two days before…. And they were like, well if you need the money, you will come in.  It’s not my fault your baby is dead’ – Claimant  

    ‘I would often be asked the same question three times to see if I’d change my answer. The process feels like you are on trial for murder, they act like they are trying to catch you out and that you are begging’ – Peter 

    ‘Lives are being ruined by a system that is consciously cruel – it erodes dignity by design. We are in a state of severe human rights violations’– Jen Clark, Amnesty 

    Amnesty International UK’s new report takes a deep dive into the murky and divisive world of the UK social security system. The unique research is an extensive look through the lens of human rights violations across our basic rights to housing, food, education, healthcare and social security.  

    The evidence delivers damning conclusions on how the system processes, punishes, harms and dehumanises people and fails to meet international legal obligations. Successive UK governments have ignored the UN’s pleas to take urgent action to fix this. 

    Poverty is a visible sign of a failing social security system. When the government knowingly makes choices to make poverty worse, it is deliberately violating basic human rights. We have moved from a society that supports people to a punitive system that drives poverty by policy. 

    The rate of poverty in the UK is now higher than at any point in the 21st century. Sixteen million people in the UK are living in families in poverty – almost a quarter of the UK*. Of these, 5.2 million are children, 9.2 million are working-age adults, and 1.5 million are pension-age adults.  

    For its report ‘Social Insecurity’ Amnesty’s collaborated with over 700 benefit claimants and advisors to provide a platform for the people most gravely affected and show how politicians are playing with people’s lives and ignoring our most basic rights. In 2024 86% of low-income families on Universal Credit went without essentials such as heating, food and clothing. 

    With the backdrop of the Spring Statement and devastating disability social security cuts, Amnesty’s report delivers a crushing blow of evidence on the UK’s social security system and political choices that have pushed people into poverty and centres real-life experiences throughout, demonstrating the depth of dehumanisation. 

    Recommendations from the report

    • System overhaul: A landmark, independent Social Security Commission with statutory powers to overhaul the UK’s broken benefits system—rooted in dignity and human rights. 
    • Urgent protection from harm: The UK Government to urgently reverse harmful social security cuts, sanctions and caps including the two-child limit and ensure upcoming reforms of PIP, ESA and Universal Credit, meet international human rights standards and are shaped by those most affected. 
    • Legal protections: The UK Government to put in place legal frameworks protecting economic, social and cultural rights to ensure everyone’s basic human rights to food, housing, and dignity are protected in law and prevent failures in social security policy from causing wider harms. 

    Sections of the report expose

    Systemic failures and lack of dignity and respect: Reports of hostile attitudes and judgmental behaviour within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) illustrate systemic shortcomings. The current system fails to meet its obligations to treat claimants with humanity and compassion, contributing to distrust and trauma of vulnerable individuals.

    “Client had a Personal Independent Payment claim terminated as they would only offer a telephone appointment, despite them being profoundly deaf”. (Social Security Advisor) 

    “They told me to go in for an assessment, and my baby had passed away.  Like not even two days before…. And they were like, well if you need the money, you will come in.  It’s not my fault your baby is dead”. (Claimant) 

    Restricted access to Social Security and discriminatory practices

    There are discriminatory conditions that restrict access for marginalised groups, inadequate transparency in eligibility criteria, and insufficient efforts to ensure effective, fair and transparent appeal processes. 

    “Every time someone is assessed inappropriately for benefits, it takes extra time and money for the mistake to be corrected. Most often the claimants suffer, but the taxpayers also suffer owing to the additional administration and resolution costs which need to be met”. (Advisor) 

    Social Security advisors across the country described how difficult access to information about entitlements and processes are. 64% of advisors rated it very difficult or difficult to get access to information on Universal Credit, and 68% of advisors said the same for PIP and 58% for ESA.  

    Of 416 claimants who responded to the question, 52% rated access to Social Security schemes as difficult or very difficult.

    Unjust and ill-informed decisions on sanctions and deductions

    23% of the claimants who completed Amnesty research had experienced being sanctioned or having a deduction. Within this, 78% of people said it worsened their mental health.  55% told us they reduced the food they ate and 35% went without food. 47% of people stated that it worsened their physical health.  44% of people told us they were forced to borrow money to make ends meet.  

    “Client lost benefits and home after being turned down for not attending the assessment as he soiled himself on the train to assessment centre and had to go home”. (Advisor) 

    “I’ve been sanctioned loads of time because I’m working.  Borrowed off my sister and mother.  Without them, I would probably be dead in the gutter because I couldn’t afford to live” (Claimant) 

    “They look down on you when you walk into the job centre.  I had a panic attack in the job centre.  I couldn’t breathe, and she went “you better get upstairs now and see your work coach, or we are going to sanction you” (Claimant) 

    “The actual interview is on the phone when they talk to you.  They only give you one call…. If you missed that one call, they sanction that.  They should give at least 3 rings at least give you a chance.” (Claimant) 

    Jen Clark, Economic and Social Rights Lead at Amnesty International UK, said: 

    “Lives are being ruined by a system that is consciously cruel – it erodes dignity by design. We are in a state of severe human rights violations.  

    “The social security system is impenetrable, inadequate, and for some completely inaccessible. 

    “There can be no tinkering of the system – it has gone too far, and it is too late. There must be full reform. It is broken from start to finish and intentionally sets people up to fail. No-one would want political choices in this country to deliberately diminish dignity and perpetuate poverty.  

    “I’ve worked to highlight human rights violations for more than two decades and witnessed many awful situations. But never have I encountered such raw and widespread distress from people sharing their experiences in the UK. 

    “We need a landmark, independent Social Security Commission with statutory powers to overhaul the UK’s broken benefits system. It must be rooted in dignity and human rights and designed by and for the people. This must protect us all – be that today or in the future where we all may need it.” 

    Voices of the campaign

    John, 60’s, from Hampshire was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) quite late on in life – in his 60s. It progressed much faster than he could have ever expected. “In August 2021, before I even knew what was happening to me, I was still working at the Ministry of Defence as a Policy Advisor. I was deployed to Afghanistan to help with the evacuation. Before my diagnosis, I had spent years working and contributing, and I never once thought I would be in a position where I needed to rely on benefits.” 

    In speaking about the experience of applying for Personal Independence Payment (PiP), John said:  

    “Applying was a nightmare. The process was so difficult and one-sided. When I finally received my assessment, DWP had scored me zero for the impact MS had on my daily life. Zero. If they had at least acknowledged some of the difficulties, if they had scored me a five or six or even a seven instead of the eight, I needed, I might have accepted it. But to say that MS had no impact on my life at all? That was infuriating.   

    “There is a bus stop 100 meters from my house. Usain Bolt could get there in less than 10 seconds whereas it takes me 10 minutes, but we would both score a zero for impact of MS on our lives. It’s ridiculous.”  

    Carly, 39, London is a single mother to a young son. She was recently receiving Universal credit, with contributions towards housing and her son’s childcare costs. Despite having good knowledge of the process from a prior job, she found navigating the social security system difficult. 

    In speaking about Universal Credit and the challenges that occur when benefits are wrongly cancelled, Carly said: 

    “As a single parent, working in a temporary role, I was not earning enough to cover private rental fees. My son had just started nursery, and I had a lot of expenses that my salary couldn’t cover. I applied for benefits with a five week wait – which was a very difficult time.   

    “When my role was made permanent, I got a lump sum of holiday pay in my paycheck – meaning I was paid more that month than usual. Unexpectedly, this led to my benefits claim being incorrectly cancelled. I wasn’t contacted about this and had no idea until the money didn’t appear in my bank account. I was crying on the phone telling my landlord I couldn’t pay my rent. I had a terrible ten-week wait until my social security payments started again and had to borrowed money from friends and family. I was offered an advance before the claim came through – but I’d already had one to pay for nursery fees and didn’t want to get into further debt. 

    “I did lodge a complaint about the cancellation of my benefits, but the claim wasn’t upheld, and I felt I didn’t have the time or energy to fight it.   

    “The hardest thing about the social security system is the uncertainty and insecurity around it all. It was very mentally challenging to not know when or how much my payments would be. I lived in fear of uploading the wrong information and having my benefits cancelled again. The worst part is the feeling like you have no control over anything. You always feel insecure. I was always relieved when universal credit went in, and it was the amount you were expecting.  

    “The stigma is real, navigating the system only amplifies it, making an already difficult situation even harder. You have no autonomy, no choice, there’s nothing you can do. It creates a feeling that you aren’t deserving or worthy – that you should be grateful and not challenge anything.” 

    Philip from Leeds   

    “I lost my job suddenly in September 2023. I did my applications early to get ahead, but I didn’t realise the claim automatically starts from the day you fill the form in, and you can’t change the date. It made my claim invalid which meant I missed my initial payment. I also never received the support I was due towards my home costs, despite chasing and asking many times. When I contacted the Job Centre to request a face-to-face appointment with a work coach, but it took me over a month to be able to get the appointment and sadly, it wasn’t helpful at all.  

    “Around this time, my father was ill with dementia. I live far from my parents and don’t drive, and being on such a low income meant I didn’t have the funds to travel there by public transport. I couldn’t afford to visit my father in his final days, and he passed away in November 2023. Not being able to see him before he died was extremely difficult and after going to my GP, I was put on anti-depressants.

    “Having to chase my social security claim and not getting responses or offers to the jobs I was applying for, alongside with the grief I was experiencing, had a huge effect on my mental health and made things very difficult. I was struggling to cope.” 

    Additional case studies

    Valerie*

    “Being on benefits in the UK can feel almost taboo- something to keep private and feel embarrassed about. This is sad, because the vast majority of us are just normal people trying to live life the best way we can, raise our families and find whatever happiness there is in life despite the hardships we face.”   

    Peter

    “I started receiving social security in 2021, just after I finished university. I applied for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) due to a long-term health condition. The PIP application process was atrocious and ultimately took over a year.   

    “I had to deal with a lack of understanding about my condition. One of the interviewers mislabelled and misunderstood the medical equipment I use and even went as far as to lecture me about my own illness. I had to get my doctor to write a letter just to confirm what I’d said.    

    “I would often be asked the same question three times to see if I’d change my answer. The process feels like you are on trial for murder, they act like they are trying to catch you out and that you are begging.  

    “The PIP application needs to be renewed every couple of years or so – despite my disability being due to a long-term health condition that won’t improve over time. Itt’s like I am starting over again each time.   

    “Watching my friends from Uni live their lives makes me feel like I am missing out on a lot.  I would like to be able to do more things, to get out and about a bit more – perhaps take a day trip to a local area. Even to travel locally is hard as the buses are too expensive and I can’t afford a car. I don’t want to be on benefits, I’d love to be able to work but I simply can’t.”    

    Steve

    “I had to stop working 15 years ago. I’d been struggling with severe pain in my right knee for about two years before finally having surgery. That’s when I was diagnosed with Osteoarthritis. I somehow managed to keep working through the pain, but eventually, it just became too much. I’ve now developed Osteoarthritis throughout my whole body.  

    “I use a crutch indoors and both crutches whenever I go outside. Getting around is incredibly difficult, but I push myself because if I didn’t get out at all, I’d feel down and alone.  

    “Appling for Universal Credit and PIP was tough. Being on benefits doesn’t feel great. I’m in a small studio flat and most days I’m by myself. Going out for shopping is the only time I see anyone. Prices have gone up too, which makes things harder.  

    “Losing my mum in 2020, just before lockdown, hit me hard.  I still miss her so much. And visiting and being with my dad brings me comfort. It makes things much better for me. Visiting my dad is really hard with my condition. He’s 92 now and lives over three and a half hours away. My sister moved closer to him to help out. I try to go see them when I can, but the journey is a lot. I have to get a train into London, struggle through the underground to catch another train, then a bus, and finally a taxi to his place. Before COVID, I used to take the National Express coach straight to his, then just a taxi. But that route’s been cancelled and it’s now so much longer and more exhausting.” 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Executive Racial Equality Strategy ‘has failed’ – Amnesty tells Belfast anti-racism rally

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Belfast Stands Against Racism rally at Belfast City Hall, 12:30pm today

    PSNI recorded 1,777 racist incidents and 1,150 racist attacks last year  

    ‘We demand more than token gestures and empty strategies. When the Racial Equality Strategy expires at the end of this year, we demand better to follow.’ – Patrick Corrigan 

    Speaking at the Belfast Stands Against Racism rally today (Sunday 27 April), Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Director, said:

    “We stand here today because words without action are not enough.

    “The Northern Ireland Executive’s racial equality strategy has failed. That’s not me saying it. That’s what the recent independent review – commissioned by the Executive – found.

    “The strategy has lacked resources, targets, and effective action plans. Promises made years ago remain broken. Meanwhile racism has grown. Last year race hate crime here hit an all-time high.

    “Years of complacency left bigoted thugs, including the masked men who wrap themselves in a false flag of patriotism, emboldened to carry out an ever-greater number of attacks.

    “We demand more than token gestures and empty strategies. When the Racial Equality Strategy expires at the end of this year, we demand better to follow.

    “Belfast deserves better. Northern Ireland deserves better. Every person living here, regardless of race or background, has a right to feel safe, respected, and heard.”

    Last year saw racist hate crimes hit new all-time highs in Northern Ireland

    The PSNI recorded 1,777 racist incidents and 1,150 racist attacks in 2024, reaching the highest ever recorded levels during the summer period.  

    View latest press releases

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Dominican Republic: Health protocol reinforces racism in migration policies

    Source: Amnesty International –

    In light of the measures announced on 6 April by the government of Luis Abinader on migration, and in particular the protocol for the access of migrants to public health services in the Dominican Republic, Amnesty International stated:

    “President Luis Abinader must opt for measures that strengthen the health system. Implementing a system that exposes migrants to deportation after receiving medical care not only violates the right to health, but also dehumanizes undocumented persons and will in all probability deter them from seeking hospital care, thus putting lives at risk,” in the words of Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.

    President Luis Abinader must opt for measures that strengthen the health system. Implementing a system that exposes migrants to deportation after receiving medical care not only violates the right to health, but also dehumanizes undocumented persons and will in all probability deter them from seeking hospital care, thus putting lives at risk

    Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International

    According to the measures announced, the new health protocol requires that migrants provide “identification, a letter of employment and proof of address”. In addition, it sets a fee for services and establishes that people with irregular migration status will be deported after receiving care.

    The measures further reinforce the government’s defiance of the international obligations acquired by the Dominican state and the human rights recommendations issued to the country by international organizations. They also violate the Dominican Republic’s own constitutional principle on free and universal access to health, institutionalizing discrimination against all migrants, and in particular undocumented Haitians, asylum seekers, stateless persons and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Amnesty International has documented how barriers to accessing public services are especially critical for migrant children and pregnant women, who have been severely stigmatized for exercising their right to health and education.

    “Amnesty International urgently calls on the government of Luis Abinader to immediately end the collective expulsions of Haitians and repeal the protocol linking access to health services with deportation. Instead, it must take concrete action against racial discrimination, guarantee access to international protection for people in need and ensure an environment that is free from stigmatization,” said Ana Piquer.

    Amnesty International urgently calls on the government of Luis Abinader to immediately end the collective expulsions of Haitians and repeal the protocol linking access to health services with deportation. Instead, it must take concrete action against racial discrimination, guarantee access to international protection for people in need and ensure an environment that is free from stigmatization

    Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International

    Since October 2024, more than 180,000 people have been deported. This constitutes a practice of collective expulsions that is prohibited by international law. Amnesty International this week issued an urgent action demanding an end to the collective expulsion of Haitian migrants and the repeal of discriminatory migration policies that will disproportionately affect them. We call on the Dominican population to reject these cruel and racist measures.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Tunisia: Crackdown on dissent intensifies with arrest of human rights lawyer following verdict in sham trial

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release lawyer Ahmed Souab and drop all charges against him, as they stem solely from his exercise of his right to freedom of expression and his professional duties as a lawyer, Amnesty International said today.

    Souab, a lawyer and former judge, was arrested on 21 April 2025, by the anti-terrorism brigade following comments he made criticizing the “conspiracy case” trial during a press conference held by lawyers outside the courthouse. On 19 April a Tunisian court sentenced 37 people including prominent opposition figures, lawyers, and human rights defenders, to prison terms ranging from four to 74 years following a sham trial. Amnesty International is calling for the verdict to be quashed and the charges against all 40 defendants in the case to be dropped.

    “Ahmed Souab’s arbitrary detention is a blatant act of reprisal for his condemnation of flaws in the ‘conspiracy case’ trial. It also marks a further chilling escalation in the Tunisian authorities’ assault on justice and makes clear their determination to silence those who dare to speak out against the authorities’ repressive policies,” said Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

    “Like other lawyers, he is being targeted solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and for representing his clients. He should be immediately and unconditionally released.”

    Ahmed Souab’s arbitrary detention is a blatant act of reprisal for his condemnation of flaws in the ‘conspiracy case’ trial

    Sara Hashash, MENA Deputy Regional Director

    Souab, who represents two of the defendants in the conspiracy case, Ghazi Chaouachi and Ridha Belhaj, had denounced the trial as a “farce” and highlighted numerous procedural violations and baseless accusations. His remarks, during which he used a figure of speech about the pressure on the presiding judge, were deliberately taken out of context on pro-government social media accounts, leading to calls for his arrest on false accusations that he had threatened the judge. 

    Within hours of his arrest, the prosecution announced that Souab was being charged under counter-terrorism legislation, including preposterous accusations of “forming a terrorist organization,” “supporting terrorist crimes,” and “threatening to commit terrorist crimes” in addition to “disseminating false news,” according to Decree Law 54. Following his arrest, he was placed in police custody and initially denied access to his family and lawyers for 48 hours.

    On 23 April, the investigative judge at the anti-terrorism judicial division summoned Souab for a hearing but imposed arbitrary restrictions on his legal representation, limiting the presence of his defense team to four lawyers despite dozens being present to represent him. Souab’s legal team boycotted the investigation in protest but the the judge proceeded to order his pre-trial detention for six months and Souab was transferred to the Mornaguia prison in Tunis.  Another hearing session with the judge was scheduled for Monday 28 April.

    The “conspiracy case” trial was marred by egregious fair trial violations. Lawyers highlighted that some defendants were never even formally notified of the indictment against them.

    The first hearing on 4 March, proceeded without the defendants present after the court vaguely cited a “real danger” and insisted on online participation from prison, a decision vehemently opposed by the detainees and their lawyers. In the second hearing, on 18 April, observers from civil society, embassies, international NGOs, and independent media were barred from attending the session, with only one family member per defendant allowed entry.

    The third and final hearing on 18 April lasted less than a minute, with no opportunity for the defendants to be heard, no statements from the defense lawyers or cross-examinations allowed. In an unprecedented move, during the session the judge removed the names of three defendants from the list of defendants in this case and deferred their trials.

    Among those given exorbitant sentences were businessman Kamel Ltaeif (74 years), and opposition figures Noureddine Bhiri (43 years), Khayyam Turki (38 years), Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, Issam Chebbi, Ghazi Chaouachi, and Chaima Issa (all 18 years), Abdelhamid Jelassi, Sahbi Atig, Said Ferjani (all 13 years) in addition to human rights defenders such as Bochra Bel Haj Hmida (43 years) and Ayachi Hammami (eight years).

    “The farcical nature of this trial, evidenced by the lack of respect of the presumption of innocence, the absence of the accused, the exclusion of observers, and the denial of any meaningful opportunity for defense illustrates a blatant disregard of human rights, including the right to a fair trial that Tunisia is obligated to uphold,” said Sara Hashash.

    Amnesty International has documented a worrying trend of targeting lawyers representing members of political opposition groups, activists, and human rights defenders in Tunisia, including those involved in the defense of the conspiracy case detainees. Disturbingly, President Kais Saied himself appeared to interfere with the judicial process, publicly stating in February 2023 that history had proven the detainees guilty before the courts and warning against anyone who might exonerate them. Such statements undermine the independence of the judiciary and have a direct effect on the work of defense lawyers. 

    “Undermining the independence of the legal profession and targeting lawyers who represent victims of human rights violations represents yet another serious setback to the right to legal defense and other fair trial guarantees in Tunisia,” said Sara Hashash.

    “Legal professionals should be able to carry out their duties and express themselves freely without intimidation, harassment, or fear of retaliation.” 

    Tunisian authorities must end the harassment and intimidation of lawyers and ensure they can perform their professional functions without fear of reprisal, in line with international standards, including the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.

    Authorities must also quash the unjust convictions and sentences in the “conspiracy case” and cease the politically motivated prosecutions of critics, political opponents, and human rights defenders. 

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: The plastic-free shift: A viable option for big business

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Photo from: Okada Manila

    Plenty of businesses are starting their own sustainability initiatives, but only a few large companies are taking serious steps to slowly phase out single-use plastics from their operations. Stepping up to the challenge is Okada Manila, a major player in the Philippine hospitality industry.

    The six-time Forbes 5-star integrated resort started its operations in 2016, with the aim of boosting tourism by providing a “comprehensive leisure experience” combining gaming with hotel, dining, shopping and entertainment options. This would evolve into a much bigger cause: embedding environmentally sustainable practices into the services they bring.

    “From the very beginning, sustainability has been top of mind — from planning to construction of the property,” shared Okada Manila Vice President for Hotel Operations Robert Scott.

    “Almost a decade in, we have integrated environmentally responsible practices across all facets of our operations. Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, and we continue to develop programs through the Okada Green Heart movement.”

    The Philippine hotel industry is the largest consumer of single-use plastics in the country, according to data referenced by a 2022 journal article. Packaging alone accounts for up to 40% of a hotel’s waste stream, a harmful byproduct from manufacturers that doesn’t decompose over time.

    Photo by: Greenpeace

    While over 94% of Filipinos are in favor of global caps on plastic production in the country, most are left with limited options as the problematic material continues to be cheaper for businesses.

    From plastic bottles to reuse and refill

    Okada Manila started out using single-use plastic bottles for various hotel amenities just like most businesses. This includes water bottles, shampoos and conditioners provided to guests. But with over 1,001 rooms, this translates to an immense volume of plastic waste daily.

    Acknowledging the problem, the hotel earlier removed disposable bottles carrying hygiene products in all of their guest rooms, effectively replacing it with a similar reuse and refill system. 

    “We started off with single-use plastic bottles for all of our in-room amenities: shampoos, conditioners, but we’ve removed all those,” added Robert. “Initially we moved them across to aluminium foil tubes and have now removed them completely. So we’ve got the big dispenser pumps that are in the room.”

    Photo by: Miguel Louie de Guzman / Greenpeace

    Plastic bottles carrying essential toiletries are usually taken home by hotel guests in the Philippines, many of which are very small in size. These are replaced by staff before the next guests arrive.

    The integrated resort likewise started to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles in their facilities. In order to do this, the Parañaque-based company recently enlisted the services of Swedish firm Nordaq to replace the harmful material with glass bottles.

    These are to be filled with filtered water directly within Okada’s property.

    Photo by: Miguel Louie de Guzman / Greenpeace
    Photo by: Miguel Louie de Guzman / Greenpeace

    “We go through thousands and thousands of plastic water bottles every month. Very soon they’ll be gone. You won’t see these around Okada Manila anymore,” exclaimed Rob while holding a single-use bottle.

    Okada Manila Vice President for Hotel Operations Robert Scott holds a plastic water bottle while explaining how they’re phasing out the problematic material out from their hotel and restaurant operations. Photo by: Rico Ibarra / Greenpeace

    ‘Okada Green Heart’

    All of the above initiatives form part of Okada Manila’s larger campaign, Okada Green Heart. Central to the initiative are its six pillars, namely: waste management, energy efficiency, water conservation, talent and community, safety, security and welfare, and responsible gaming.

    The program is anchored on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a collection of 17 objectives providing for a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” Okada Manila says that it wants to instill the Green Heart program not only in their operations but also for the purposes of community development.

    As part of the program, on-site composting alongside other initiatives such as recycling and upcycling of old uniforms are now taking place within their premises. Rooms are also now equipped with smart systems that optimize lighting, heating and cooling based on occupancy. Okada is currently aiming for 100% LED lighting across all outlets.

    Photo by: Miguel Louie de Guzman / Greenpeace

    The program not only targets the above-mentioned practices but also other hospitality tasks not usually attributed to the “greening” of an establishment.

    “We use different chemicals now that are more environmentally friendly, and they also allow us to wash our laundry at a lower temperature, which saves the energy that’s normally required to heat up that water,” Robert added.

    Photo by: Miguel Louie de Guzman / Greenpeace

    Plastics Treaty as blueprint for business guidelines

    The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop the world’s first international treaty to combat plastic pollution is set to reconvene once again this 2025 after UN member states failed to reach a consensus in the session held in Busan, South Korea last December.

    Environmental organizations have earlier called for an ambitious treaty, calling for a global plastic production reduction of at least 75% to regulate global warming. Over 100 countries have backed a proposal to introduce global reduction targets, only to be frustrated by a handful of oil producing states such as Saudi Arabia.

    “Through our Okada Green Heart program, we can really support a strong Global Plastics Treaty,” continued Robert, emphasizing that they could use it to further their sustainability goals as a business. “We can use it to consistently innovate and make some really impactful changes.”

    Photo by: Miguel Louie de Guzman / Greenpeace

    Okada Manila is just one of the many signatories of Champions of Change, a growing network of progressive businesses advocating for a strong Global Plastics Treaty. The group believes that it’s possible for entrepreneurs to operate without contributing to the worsening plastic crisis — provided that steps are made to make it easier for companies to do the right thing.

    “We’re really proud and excited to be part of Champions of Change. But it’s not just us. We need everybody to be involved in it, and every single business and every single person can be involved in this project and really make a difference,” he said.

    “It’s really important for our kids’ future and for future generations that we leave this world in a better place than it was when we found it.”

    Photo by: Greenpeace / Sungwoo Lee

    Want to show your support for a Strong Global Plastics Treaty? Sign this petition now.

    Support a strong Plastics Treaty!

    Help build a plastic-free future.

    SIGN THE PETITION

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