GARDENA, CA — (March 25, 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 track record of voting against critical climate, economic justice, and other progressive priorities.
This week, the spotlight is on Assemblymember Mike Gipson, who represents the 65th District of Los Angeles’ South Bay, including Gardena, Compton, and Wilmington. Serving in the California State Legislature since 2014, Gipson has amassed an alarming $260,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, the most of any of the Dirty Dems. This overwhelming influence is juxtaposed to his voting record and his failure to take decisive action to protect the health of his constituents.
Amy Moas, Ph.D., Greenpeace USA Senior Climate Campaigner, said: “Mike Gipson is a prime example of a ‘Dirty Dem’ who has chosen corporate donors over the people he is supposed to represent. His repeated failures to vote on critical environmental, economic, and social justice issues are an affront to his constituents and a betrayal of the values we need in our leaders.”
Assemblymember Gipson has a disturbing pattern of abstaining from votes on key progressive legislation, earning a series of failing grades from environmental groups like the Sierra Club and California Environmental Voters. In both 2023 and 2024, he received these failing grades, mostly due to his repeated absences on critical bills aimed at fighting climate change and protecting the health and safety of his community.
Mike Gipson represents a district that is over 80% people of color, many of whom live in close proximity to oil refineries and one of the largest ports in the United States. The devastating impact of these industries, such as high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, is felt daily by his constituents. Yet, Gipson has failed to take action on key legislation designed to protect his community from harmful pollutants and hold the oil industry accountable. In 2024, he scored an F from the California Environmental Justice Alliance for his lack of action on environmental and climate justice.
The “Dirty Dems” campaign will continue to expose the harmful practices of legislators who prioritize corporate donations over their duty to their constituents.
Contact: Gigi Singh, Communications Manager at Greenpeace USA (+1) 631-404-9977, [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.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 25, 2025) — In an op-ed published in The Guardian, Greenpeace Inc. and Greenpeace Fund Interim Executive Director Sushma Raman alongside ACLU executive director Anthony Romero discuss how the recent $660m judgment against Greenpeace USA poses a serious threat to free speech and protest rights.
Excerpts from the piece follows:
The verdict that threatens free speech
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It will have little meaning if multi-billion dollar corporations can sue peaceful protestors out of existence for their speech. Yet, that’s exactly what was decided in a small courtroom in Morton County, North Dakota.
Energy Transfer – a Dallas-based fossil fuel company that is responsible for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) – sued two Greenpeace entities in the U.S. (Greenpeace Inc. and Greenpeace Fund), and Greenpeace International. Energy Transfer was awarded more than US$660 million in a highly watched, month-long case. Greenpeace will appeal the verdict.
…
The ruling in the Energy Transfer case could have wide ranging consequences on First Amendment rights in the U.S. By attempting to hold Greenpeace liable for everything that happened at Standing Rock, the case attempts to establish the idea that, for any participation in a protest, you can be held liable for the actions of other people, even if you’re not associated with them or if they’re never identified. It’s easy to see how this win for Energy Transfer could chill speech and silence future protests before they even begin.
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Perhaps equally worrisome, this case is an attack on the type of ordinary advocacy that organizations like Greenpeace and the ACLU – alongside many others – rely on to do their work. Everyday actions like attending a protest, signing a letter of support, or supporting communities at risk should never be considered “unlawful.” Otherwise, the future of everyone’s First Amendment rights could be at risk.
If corporations can weaponize the court system to attack protesters and advocates for their speech, then any political speech or cause could become a target. And in an environment where the Trump administration is regularly leading dangerous attacks against our basic rights and liberties, including against the press and activists, this threat is all the more serious.
The right to protest and speak out must be embraced as a core pillar in a functioning democracy – even when that speech threatens the rich and powerful, and even when it’s speech we don’t agree with.
Sushma Raman is the Interim Executive Director of Greenpeace USA. Anthony Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
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.
This Executive Order is similar to one issued by President Trump towards the end of his first term in 2020, which was later lifted by President Biden. Trump’s new executive action is a direct response to the ICC’s efforts to hold Israeli nationals accountable for alleged crimes under international law in Palestine. In November 2024, the court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as al-Qassam brigades commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
By imposing sanctions on the ICC, the Trump administration is undermining efforts to deliver justice, not only to Palestinians, but to victims of the most serious crimes everywhere. This includes people in Afghanistan, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Darfur (Sudan), DRC, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Ukraine and Venezuela, where the ICC is currently conducting investigations or has issued arrest warrants.
New Report Details Afghan Women Footballers’ Fight for Right to Play
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should act to stop the ongoing discrimination against Afghan women footballers living in exile and facilitate their return to international competition, the Sport & Rights Alliance said in a report released today.
In two days, the Afghanistan Women’s National Football Team (AWNT) will be absent from the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers draw, which feeds into qualification for the 2027 Women’s World Cup – marking the second World Cup-qualifying cycle from which the team has been excluded since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
“Though the Afghanistan Women’s National Team escaped the Taliban in 2021, the shadow of systematic gender discrimination continues to follow them across borders, denying them their rightful place on the international stage,” said Samira Hamidi, South Asia campaigner at Amnesty International. “Amnesty, the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and other civil society organizations, has called for the Taliban’s gender persecution to be investigated as crimes against humanity.”
The new Sport & Rights Alliance report, titled “‘It’s not just a game. It’s part of who I am’: Afghan Women Footballers’ Fight for the Right to Play,” details how the Afghan women’s team, a symbol of women’s empowerment in post-Taliban Afghanistan, was specifically targeted for reprisals when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The report documents that dozens of Afghan women footballers who were evacuated to countries including Australia, Portugal, Albania, the United Kingdom and the United States remain eager and ready to represent Afghanistan in international competition.
FIFA regulations currently require the team to receive recognition from the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Football Federation, which will not recognize a women’s football team due to the Taliban’s ban on women’s sports. For more than three years, the Afghan women’s team players and their supporters have campaigned for FIFA to intervene and provide them with the official recognition and financial support denied to them by Afghanistan.
In response to a letter from the Sport & Rights Alliance requesting comment on the report, FIFA shared on 21 March that a plan has been developed to provide football opportunities for Afghan women both within and outside the country, but did not say whether they intend to officially recognize the AWNT or how specific funding would be allocated.
“The Afghanistan Women’s National Team has shown remarkable resilience since its establishment – even in the face of harassment, abuse and death threats, and being forced to leave their homes and build new lives in cities all over the world,” said Joanna Maranhão, network coordinator for the Sport & Rights Alliance’s Athletes Network for Safer Sports. “Restoring the AWNT’s ability to access training facilities and resources to play and represent their country would be an important form of remedy, as required under international human rights law.”
The FIFA Statutes and Human Rights Policy prohibit discrimination of any kind, including gender discrimination, and commits the global sport governing body to promoting women’s football. The FIFA Statutes mandate that all member associations comply with the organization’s regulations, including the obligation to prevent and oppose discrimination and to promote women’s football. Member associations may face sanctions for any violations of these obligations.
“Afghan women footballers’ ability to play internationally depends entirely on intervention from FIFA,” said Andrea Florence, executive director of the Sport & Rights Alliance. “FIFA’s letter in response to our report laid out their strategy to support Afghan women. It is great to hear that FIFA is working to promote playing opportunities for the players, but we remain hopeful that they will decide to officially recognize the team and allocate financial support as it does to other member associations.”
The Sport & Rights Alliance also said that FIFA should provide financial support for the women’s team to train and participate in international competitions, as it does with other member associations. Through the FIFA Forward Development Programme for instance, each of FIFA’s 211 member associations are currently entitled to up to $9.2 million over a four-year period.
The Afghan team’s campaign has garnered global attention and support over the last three years, including from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai and nearly 200,000 people who have signed a Change.org petition urging FIFA to recognize the team in exile.
“For these athletes, football is not only their passion but a fundamental act of resistance against the Taliban – an act of solidarity with their sisters still living in Afghanistan,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “FIFA’s recognition of and support for the team would be a powerful statement that Afghan women’s rights cannot be erased.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) did recognize an Afghan Olympic Committee in exile for the 2024 Paris Olympics, enabling Afghan women athletes to compete despite Taliban restrictions. Several UN experts called this move from the IOC a “welcome start,” but called on international and national sports bodies to do more to push back against the Taliban’s oppressive policies and “support female Afghan athletes wherever they are.”
In response to the recent unlawful expulsion of 238 Venezuelan nationals from the United States to El Salvador under the allegation that they belong to the criminal group Tren de Aragua, despite a court order barring their removal, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said the following:
“The expulsion of 238 individuals from the United States to El Salvador, despite a court order explicitly barring their removal, represents not only a flagrant disregard of the United States’ human rights obligations, but also a dangerous step toward authoritarian practices as the Trump administration ignored and is now calling for the firing of a federal judge of the United States Judiciary. This is also a dangerous endorsement of President Bukele’s punitive security agenda.
The expulsion of 238 individuals from the United States to El Salvador, despite a court order explicitly barring their removal represents not only a flagrant disregard of the United States’ human rights obligations, but also a dangerous step toward authoritarian practices as the Trump administration ignored and is now calling for the firing of a federal judge of the United States Judiciary. This is also a dangerous endorsement of President Bukele’s punitive security agenda
-Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
“According to available public information, the people expelled include individuals who were in the midst of ongoing court processes, were arrested while complying with their immigration obligations, were already granted protections in the United States including under the Convention Against Torture, and were labeled as gang members for their tattoos or connection to the Venezuelan state of Aragua with no other evidence. In fact, even U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have since admitted “many” had no criminal record at all and some were removed because of a perception they may commit crimes in the future. Importantly, these expulsions are not deportations, a legal process defined in U.S. law. They were expelled without removal orders, seemingly to serve an indefinite prison sentence under a system where fundamental human rights are routinely ignored.
El Salvador under President Bukele has become emblematic of an alarming trend in the Americas—where mass incarceration, unchecked executive power, and the criminalization of marginalized communities are being touted as solutions to crime. Amnesty International has extensively documented the inhumane conditions within detentions centers in El Salvador, including the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), where those removed are now being held. Reports indicate extreme overcrowding, lack of access to adequate medical care, and widespread ill-treatment amounting to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Additionally, Salvadoran organizations have reported more than 300 deaths of individuals while in state custody, some of them showing clear signs of violence. No individual should be subjected to such conditions.
There is a clear and troubling connection between President Bukele’s so-called “security” model in El Salvador and recent actions taken by the United States regarding migrants and people seeking safety. Both rely on a lack of due process and the criminalization of individuals based on discriminatory criteria (…) These policies are deeply unjust and violate international human rights standards
-Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
There is a clear and troubling connection between President Bukele’s so-called “security” model in El Salvador and recent actions taken by the United States regarding migrants and people seeking safety. Both rely on a lack of due process and the criminalization of individuals based on discriminatory criteria. In El Salvador, this discrimination targets people living in impoverished communities, those with precarious jobs, limited education, or visible tattoos. Similarly, in the United States, Venezuelans fleeing hardship and seeking safety are branded as criminals based upon tattoos, their connection to the State of Aragua in Venezuela, and racist lies about associations with transnational criminal groups originating in their home country. These policies are deeply unjust and violate international human rights standards.
The principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international human rights law, unequivocally prohibits states from returning, removing, or transferring individuals to any country where they would face a real risk of serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, or ill-treatment. By removing individuals to El Salvador under these circumstances, the United States has placed them in grave danger and failed to uphold its obligations its legal obligations. Meanwhile, El Salvador must be held accountable for facilitating policies that violate the rights of migrants and people seeking safety. Any subsequent removal of the individuals from El Salvador to Venezuela would also violate the principle of non-refoulement. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called on States to ensure that Venezuelans are not deported, expelled or forced to return to Venezuela. Amnesty International has called for an absolute ban on all deportations of individuals to Venezuela given that the country is experiencing a situation of massive human rights violations.
On 27 March 2025, El Salvador will reach its third consecutive year under a state of emergency, a regime that has institutionalized patterns of abuse that are now being echoed beyond its borders, further eroding the international human rights framework (…) Rather than condemning these practices, other governments, such as the United States, appear to be emulating them
-Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
What is particularly concerning is that the erosion of due process in El Salvador is now being normalized—both domestically and internationally. Rather than condemning these practices, other governments, such as the United States, appear to be emulating them. This is the dangerous consequence of authoritarian practices becoming systematic and recurring: they evolve from isolated abuses into official state policy. On 27 March 2025, El Salvador will reach its third consecutive year under a state of emergency, a regime that has institutionalized patterns of abuse that are now being echoed beyond its borders, further eroding the international human rights framework.
Amnesty International urges the government of El Salvador, and all countries throughout the Americas, to resist participation in unjust deportation and removal schemes.
Amnesty International urges the government of El Salvador, and all countries throughout the Americas, to resist participation in unjust deportation and removal schemes
-Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
Salvadoran authorities must urgently restore due process throughout the country and guarantee the human rights, safety, and dignity of all individuals currently detained, including the more than 84,000 people arrested under the ongoing state of emergency. The Salvadoran government must ensure its policies and practices do not facilitate further human rights abuses or place vulnerable individuals at risk.
We also call on the US government to immediately return those that were illegally removed to El Salvador and halt any subsequent expulsions under this executive order, comply with the decisions of the US Judiciary, and immediately halt all plans for mass detentions and deportations, and reestablish the right to asylum at the United States’ southern border.
Amnesty International stands in solidarity with those impacted by this unjust policy and will continue to advocate for the protection of human rights in the Americas and beyond.”
NAIROBI, KENYA – Greenpeace Africa, Kenya Peasants League, and BIBA Kenya have praised the recent landmark decision by the Court of Appeal temporarily halting the importation of genetically modified (GM) crops into Kenya. Speaking at a joint press conference held at Chester House. The ruling sets an important precedent as we approach a potentially game-changing seed litigation case that will define the future of farmer-managed seed systems across Kenya and potentially Africa.
Elizabeth Atieno, Greenpeace Africa’s Food Sovereignty Campaign Lead, said;
“This court ruling is a triumph for Kenyan farmers and consumers alike. The temporary halt on GMO imports provides us with a critical opportunity to reassess our agricultural policies and promote solutions that truly serve our farmers and protect our biodiversity. Agroecological practices have proven their effectiveness in ensuring food security while preserving our environmental heritage. We must now focus our collective efforts to ensure the upcoming seed litigation in May cements strong legal protections for farmer-managed seed systems..”
Ann Maina of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association (BIBA Kenya)emphasised the risk corporate seed monopolies pose.
“The struggle for seed sovereignty is a battle against corporate control over our livelihoods and food systems. We celebrate the decision not only as a victory for farmers but also as a reaffirmation of our rights to save and exchange seeds without interference. Farmers must control their seeds – the essential foundation of our food supply. Our farmer-managed seed systems have sustained communities for generations. We cannot allow corporate interests to monopolise our seed heritage and compromise our food sovereignty.”
Cidi Otieno from the Kenya Peasants League, added;
“The upcoming seed litigation case in May will be crucial in determining the future of Kenya’s food systems. We’re fighting not just against GMOs, but for the protection of our indigenous seed varieties, farmers’ rights to save and exchange seeds, and the preservation of our agricultural biodiversity. This is about securing food sovereignty for generations to come.”
Asker Akinyi, a Farmer, said:
“We are the custodians of seeds and food systems. If these laws criminalise our right to save and exchange seeds, we will be forced into permanent dependency on multinational corporations. Farmer-managed seed systems are climate-resilient, cost-effective, and culturally significant. These laws must recognise and protect them.”
The conference underscored agroecology as a practical and farmer-centered alternative to GMOs. Advocates highlighted agroecology’s role in promoting biodiversity, restoring soil health, and enhancing climate resilience while upholding farmers’ rights to seed sovereignty.
Stakeholders called for unified action from farmers, civil society, and policymakers through active engagement ahead of the May litigation, underscoring the potential for the court to set a regional precedent, positively affecting food sovereignty policies across Africa.
About Greenpeace Africa: Greenpeace Africa campaigns for a sustainable environment and food security, working with communities across Africa to implement ecological farming practices that guarantee a sustainable and safe food future.
About Kenya Peasants League: KPL is an advocacy group focused on mobilising peasants and small-scale farmers to protect peasant rights and boost food sovereignty through farmer-managed seed systems.
About BIBA Kenya: Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya (BIBA Kenya) works to protect Kenya’s biodiversity and promote biosafety by advocating for policies that foster biological diversity and food security free from genetic modification.
People in Ituri province, northeastern DRC, are living amidst horrific violence, widespread displacement and a lack of aid.
Amid the violence, people in Ituri experience difficulties in accessing healthcare, but also our teams in providing it.
MSF calls on all state and non-state armed groups in Ituri to spare civilians, as well as healthcare facilities.
KINSHASA – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has witnessed a renewed spike in atrocities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Ituri province, where our medical teams are providing care for civilians with horrific injuries. In a new report released today, Risking Their Lives to Survive, MSF underscores the extreme needs of many communities endangered by recent attacks, increased displacement, and reduced humanitarian aid.
Risking their lives to survivepdf — 12.31 MBDownload
For decades, people in Ituri – in the northeast of DRC – have been both direct targets and treated as collateral damage in a complex conflict characterised by violence, ethnic divisions, and the participation of various armed groups. This conflict has also greatly hampered access to healthcare and the means for families to feed themselves, while the restricted provision of humanitarian aid has caused further suffering among a community that already gets little international attention.
MSF calls on all state and non-state armed groups in Ituri to spare civilians, as well as healthcare facilities, which are sanctuaries essential to the survival of local communities.
Violence in Ituri has displaced around 100,000 people since the beginning of the year, according to the UN. In January and February alone, it also reported an intensification of violence against civilians, with attacks leaving more than 200 people dead and dozens injured. In February, MSF’s medical teams treated children as young as four and pregnant women for machete and gunshot wounds, following militia attacks in Djugu territory.
“These most recent attacks follow decades of violence and its devastating consequences for civilians, including women and children in Ituri,” said Alira Halidou, MSF head of mission in DRC. “The crisis here is characterised by repeated displacement, in which violence forces civilians to pick up and start their lives over, again and again. What is worse, is that the stories patients and communities tell us represent only the tip of the iceberg.”
Hindering access to healthcare
Only a small proportion of people can access healthcare in Ituri, where health facilities also fall prey to attacks. In Djugu territory, the Fataki general hospital was obliged to suspend its activities and evacuate patients in mid-March following armed group threats. This closure affects thousands of people, left without access to medical care.
Not only do these attacks make patients reluctant to go to medical facilities, but they also put medical staff at risk. One doctor interviewed for the report recounted how, when a health centre was forced to shut down for two months, he still went in to perform caesarean sections.
“It was dangerous, and I was risking my life, but we didn’t have a choice,” said the doctor. “We had to sneak there with the women, otherwise they would have died.”
Targeting the most vulnerable
More than half of the 39 victims of violence MSF treated at Salama clinic, Bunia, up until mid-March 2025 were women and children. One mother, whose four-year-old child was injured, lost her 6-month-old baby and her husband during an attack wielded by machete. Two sisters aged four and 16 took machete blows to the head and arms, and their mother (eight months’ pregnant) was also severely injured by multiple machete wounds. We treated a nine-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, who had witnessed assailants attack and kill his mother and two siblings by machete.
When civilians seek refuge in displacement camps, they are still not safe. In one instance in September 2024, our teams treated five civilians with bullet wounds following an attack on Plaine Savo camp, in Fataki health zone.
When there is an upsurge in attacks against civilians, the number of victims of sexual violence coming to MSF facilities also increases. Women in particular face attack, as they go out in search of means to feed themselves and their families. In Drodro, in 2023 and 2024, around 84 per cent of the victims of sexual violence treated by MSF were attacked while working in fields, collecting firewood, or on the road.
Exacerbating unmet needs
Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Health, MSF, and other humanitarian organisations, people’s needs very much exceed the resources available. Food insecurity worsened sharply in Ituri in 2024 and is now chronic for 43 per cent of people. Poor hygiene conditions and dilapidated shelters in displacement camps mean that diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases spread easily, affecting children under five the most.
People in Ituri must be guaranteed safe access to healthcare and must not be forced to risk their lives in search of food and other needs.
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Restoring ceasefire deal vital as death toll hits 50,000 and continues to rise amid Israeli airstrikes, aid and power blockades and renewed mass forced displacements
Oxfam and partners’ operations have been severely hamperedas Israel’s renewed military assault and ground offensive on Gaza continues into its 7th day.
Oxfam is calling for a renewed ceasefire and for Israel to lift its 23-day siege which is again blocking aid supplies and increasing famine risks for desperate civilians. Israel imposed a complete blockade 23 days ago and cut off electricity to Gaza a few days later.
Israeli authorities are denying entry to trucks loaded with 63,000 metric tons of food for 1.1 million people. Operations have been forced to stop in vital areas such as food security and livelihood, as well as hygiene promotion, and essential repair work to damaged water infrastructure.
“For the past 535 days, Israel has been systematically weaponizing life-saving aid, inflicting collective punishment upon the population of Gaza. The denial of food, water, fuel and electricity is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Many within the international community are enabling this by their silence, inaction and complicity.”
Bushra Khalidi, Policy Lead
Oxfam Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s OPT Policy Lead, said:
“During the 42-day ceasefire families in Gaza could finally fall asleep knowing their loved ones would still be beside them when they woke up. Even though aid that entered was not enough—far from enough—it was something. The price of food stabilized. Supermarkets reopened. Bakeries began running again. Many people even went to their homes or what was left of it, and tried to repair and rebuild, however little they could.”
Humanitarian agencies were able to mount operations that saw an average of more than 4,000 trucks per week entering Gaza despite Israeli authorities initially only partially opening the crossings and denying much of the urgently needed reconstruction materials. Oxfam reached almost 200,000 people with essential relief.
Israel’s renewed bombardment of residential areas, including Jabalia and Khan Younis, has killed almost 700 people, including at least 200 children since March 18. Israeli authorities have issued new mass forced displacement orders, forcing around 120,000 Palestinians to flee across at least 37% of Gaza. These orders are causing panic and chaos in the absence of anywhere safe in Gaza.
Oxfam says humanitarian operations have been gravely hindered by the absence of guarantees of safety for aid workers moving around Gaza.
Oxfam and its partners say their storage facilities containing food parcels are severely depleted. Israeli authorities have denied access to Oxfam shipments of six desalination units and seven trucks of water and sanitation infrastructure, up to 85% of which has been destroyed by Israel’s bombing campaign.
“Oxfam, through its partners has been able to initiate emergency water trucking across the Gaza Strip, and are maintaining some other aid programs, such as multi-purpose cash transfers, despite the severe challenges that all humanitarian workers now face around lack of protection,” said Khalidi.
“For the past 535 days, Israel has been systematically weaponizing life-saving aid, inflicting collective punishment upon the population of Gaza. The denial of food, water, fuel and electricity is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Many within the international community are enabling this by their silence, inaction and complicity.”
Oxfam’s health partner in Gaza, Juzoor for Health and Social Development, had its center in Jabalia destroyed in an airstrike on March 18. It had been serving over 1,000 patients daily. Dr Umaiyeh Khammash, Director of Juzoor, said: “Every airstrike that hits, threatens the lives and safety of our dedicated staff and the patients they serve. This center is not just a building; it’s the heartbeat of healthcare for countless families here. Without it, many will lose access to crucial medical care.”
In another attack yesterday (March 23), three sewage operators from the Abasan Al Kabira municipality working with Oxfam’s partner Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) were killed while performing their duties when their clearly- marked truck was destroyed in an attack by Israeli military.
A renewed ceasefire must be permanent and accompanied by the safe return of Israeli hostages and illegally detained Palestinian prisoners.Israel must provide unfettered aid at scale. Oxfam said governments must stop transferring arms, while the international community must enforce international law. We reiterate our call for justice and accountability for all those affected.
CANBERRA, 25 MARCH 2025—As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese introduces an ill-conceived bill to give Tasmania’s salmon industry a free pass from environmental oversight, Greenpeace Australia Pacific has urged parliament to vote down the legislation, calling it a death warrant for the endangered Maugean Skate.
“With this bill, the Prime Minister has chosen the profits of overseas corporations with unsustainable business models over the survival of the endangered Maugean Skate, of which there are only a few thousand left in the wild,” said Glenn Walker, Head of Nature, Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
“Greenpeace Australia Pacific calls on MPs to vote down this pro-extinction bill, which provides a loophole for the polluting salmon farming industry and also sets a dangerous precedent for giving special treatment to other multinational corporations, such as fossil fuels.
“This pro-extinction bill undermines and contradicts the government’s overnight recommitment to a national environmental protection authority and an overhaul of our nature laws. It risks rendering Labor’s ‘no new extinctions’ pledge worthless.
“It should be a source of deep concern that the Maugean Skate has survived in Tasmanian waters since the age of dinosaurs, but may not survive Anthony Albanese and everyone who votes for this ill-considered legislation. We urge all MPs not to be complicit in this death warrant and vote down the bill.
“It is still not too late for the PM to course-correct, and for Labor to get on with the job fixing our broken nature laws, establishing an independent Environmental Protection Authority, and ending species extinctions in Australia.
“That must start with dropping this terrible bill immediately and focusing instead on solutions to support and transition workers while still allowing industrial activity to be subject to appropriate scrutiny by the Federal Environment Minister, under the EPBC Act.
Turkish authorities must end the use of unnecessary and indiscriminate force against peaceful protesters
Amnesty has reviewed footage of police beating protesters with batons and kicking them when they are on the ground
Social media companies must take immediate steps to ensure that the accounts of people critical of the Turkish government are restored
‘The indiscriminate use of pepper spray, tear gas and water cannon against peaceful protesters is deeply shocking’ – Agnès Callamard
Amnesty International have called for Turkish authorities to end the use ofunnecessary and indiscriminate force by security forces against peaceful demonstrators and toinvestigateunlawful acts of violence committed by police against protesters.
The call comes following the extension of a blanket protest ban in three cities and as authorities confirm that 1,133 protesters have been detained since the overwhelmingly peaceful protests began on 19 March, following thedetention of Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu. It also comes amid reports of injuries, the throttling of social media and the detention of journalists covering the overwhelmingly peaceful protests in dawn raids.
Commenting on the protests, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:
“The use of unnecessary and indiscriminate force by police against peaceful protesters inTürkiyemust immediately stop.
“Amnesty reviewed footage showing completely unwarranted police use of force against peaceful demonstrators with people beaten with batons and kicked when they were on the ground.“The indiscriminate use of pepper spray, tear gas and water cannon, against peaceful protesters is deeply shocking as is the police use of plastic bullets – sometimes fired at close range at the face and upper body – which have caused numerous injuries and even hospitalisations. These unlawful acts of violence must be investigated promptly and the perpetrators brought to justice.
“The throttling of the Internet is a blatant assault on the right to freedom of expression. Authorities should refrain from resorting to such measures. Social media companies, namely X, must take immediate steps to ensure that the accounts of people critical of the Turkish government are restored.
“It is crucial that Turkish authorities respect and protect the right to peaceful assembly,immediately lift the blanket protest bans and release all those unjustifiably and arbitrarilydetained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful protest.”
Dawn raids
In a series of dawn raids on 24 March, at least eight journalists who had been reporting on the protests were detained from their homes. Internet users experienced bandwidth restrictions that lasted for 42 hours, restricting access to social media and news sites and more than 700 accounts of journalists, activists and opposition figures on Twitter/X have been blocked.
Turkish authorities must end the use of unnecessary and indiscriminate force by security forces against peaceful demonstrators and investigate unlawful acts of violence committed by police against protesters, said Amnesty International, as protests against the detention of Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, intensify.
The call comes following the extension of a blanket protest ban in three cities and as authorities confirm that 1,133 protesters have been detained since protests began on 19 March. It also comes amid reports of injuries, the throttling of social media and the detention of journalists covering the overwhelmingly peaceful protests in dawn raids.
“The use of unnecessary and indiscriminate force by police against peaceful protesters in Türkiye must immediately stop. Amnesty International has reviewed footage of numerous incidents and is urgently reminding Turkish authorities that they must adhere to international human rights law and standards when policing protests,” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:
“Amnesty International reviewed footage showing completely unwarranted police use of force against peaceful demonstrators with people beaten with batons and kicked when they were on the ground. The indiscriminate use of pepper spray, tear gas and water cannon, against peaceful protesters is deeply shocking as is the police use of plastic bullets – sometimes fired at close range at the face and upper body – which have caused numerous injuries and even hospitalizations. These unlawful acts of violence must be investigated promptly and the perpetrators brought to justice.”
The overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations began in Istanbul following the imprisonment of Ekrem İmamoğlu, a key rival and vocal critic of Türkiye’s President Erdoğan. They have spread across much of the country, and have been met with unrelenting force.
Amnesty reminds the Turkish authorities that the use of force by police must be strictly controlled. Tear gas and water cannon, for example, should never be used unless there is widespread and generalized violence against persons that cannot be contained by less harmful measures. Even where some participants engage in isolated acts of violence (i.e. using force that is likely to result in injury or death, or serious damage to property), this does not make the entire protest non-peaceful and can never justify the indiscriminate use of force by the police against all participants.
In a series of dawn raids on 24 March, at least eight journalists who had been reporting on the protests were detained from their homes. Internet users experienced bandwidth reduction that lasted for 42 hours, restricting access to social media and news sites and more than 700 accounts of journalists, activists and opposition figures on Twitter/X have been blocked.
“The throttling of the Internet is a blatant assault on the right to freedom of expression. Authorities should refrain from resorting to such measures. Social media companies, namely X, must take immediate steps to ensure that the accounts of people critical of the Turkish government are restored,” said Agnès Callamard.
“It is crucial that Turkish authorities respect and protect the right to peaceful assembly, immediately lift the blanket protest bans and release all those unjustifiably and arbitrarily detained detained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful protest.”
Background
Journalists detained this morning include Ali Onur Tosun, Bülent Kılıç, Zeynep Kuray, Yasin Akgül, Hayri Tunç, Kurtuluş Arı, Zişan Gür, Murat Kocabaş and Barış İnce.
Following the detention order of Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor to detain more than 100 people, including Ekrem İmamoğlu, two prominent district mayors in Istanbul, on 23 March, 48 people were remanded in pretrial detention. 44 people were released with judicial control measures.
Ekrem İmamoğlu was remanded in pretrial detention under the law on combating criminal organizations for profit as well as on accusations of “bribery, embezzlement, unlawful acquisition of personal data and bid rigging.”
JERUSALEM – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemns Israel’s strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza—the largest remaining functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip, where MSF teams work.
On 23 March, Israeli forces targeted the hospital’s inpatient surgical department, killing two people, according to the Ministry of Health. MSF teams confirmed there were several people injured, one of which was admitted to our trauma unit, and that severe damage was done to the building. This attack, shows a total disregard for the protection of medical facilities, endangered patients and medical staff and the very provision of healthcare. As Israeli forces escalate their operations in Gaza once again, MSF calls for the respect and protection of healthcare facilities, patients and medical staff in Gaza, where the health system has been all but destroyed.
“Strikes such as these are horrific for staff and patients” says Claire Nicolet, MSF head of emergencies in Gaza. “We cannot go back to repeated attacks on health care facilities when the health system in Gaza is already hanging by a thread, and no supplies have entered in weeks.” While Gaza’s healthcare system has collapsed, and the medical needs of people continue to skyrocket, medical workers are yet again forced to fear for their lives while providing care. At Nasser hospital, two MSF colleagues, who were working in different hospital departments, described panic among patients at the time of the attack.
” The distance between us and the explosion was so close that we could’ve been hit too,” explains an MSF nurse who works in another ward in Nasser hospital and was close by when the strike happened. “Our colleagues, medical staff, patients and their caretakers were all terrified.” During Israel’s war on Gaza, MSF has witnessed relentless attacks on health facilities, a complete disregard for patients, medical workers and International Humanitarian Law (IHL), resulting in the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system. Not a single hospital in the Gaza Strip is currently fully functional, and only 21 out of the enclave’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
As one of the last main hospitals in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital is providing care for people with severe burns and trauma injuries, newborns, and pregnant women. Since returning in mid-May 2024, MSF teams have been supporting the emergency, pediatric, and maternity departments at Nasser hospital, as well as running a burn and trauma unit. In February 2024, MSF teams were forced to flee after the hospital was shelled by Israeli forces. Furthermore, Nasser Hospital as other health facilities in Gaza is facing several challenges of supplies, including hygiene items, medication and surgical items, while Israeli authorities continue their siege on the Strip for over 20 days. Due to the numerous influxes of patients from recent bombings, MSF stocks are decreasing faster than expected, and the blockade is making it impossible for our teams to restock vital items such as antibiotics, painkillers and anesthetics. In a separate incident on May 24, MSF teams in Al-Mawasi primary health care clinic were forced to close the emergency room, evacuate the facility and suspend activities for the day due to close-by shootings and shelling. Healthcare facilities, patients and medical staff must be protected.
MSF calls once again for the immediate restoration of the ceasefire and for the resumption of the entry of essential aid and basic supplies, which people in Gaza desperately need.
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This report has been produced in partnership between Oxfam and Egala, a grassroots organization providing humanitarian aid, medical support and legal assistance to people on the move at the Poland–Belarus border. It collects extensive existing evidence, testimonies from Egala volunteers and workers on the ground, and the voices of people seeking protection, in order to document the human consequences of restrictive, illegal and inhumane policies at this border.
Please note that this report includes descriptions and images that may cause distress, including images of open wounds and references to physical and sexual violence. While it is necessary to share these experiences to raise awareness of the situation for people crossing the Poland–Belarus border, please take your own wellbeing into consideration when reading this report.
Unrestricted donations enable MSF to carry out our programs around the world. If we cannot honor a specific request, we will reallocate your donation to where the needs are greatest.
PSNI recorded 1,777 racist incidents and 1,150 racist attacks last year
Strong solidarity against racism at‘Our Belfast: Free from Racism!’ community gathering at Belfast City Hall
‘To anyone living in fear, because of their skin colour, their religion, their immigration status – we say to you: we have your back’– Patrick Corrigan
A strong turnout at the ‘Our Belfast, Free from Racism!’ rally this Sunday, demonstrated the passion and commitment of communities to stay united against hatred and ensure Belfast is a city for all.
Giving a speech at the rally, Director of Amnesty Northern Ireland, Patrick Corrigan, said:
“Belfast is a city for all. It’s big and it’s beautiful enough for everyone. Our diversity is our strength. Our unity is our superpower. Belfast knows only too well – because we have experienced too much of it – that united we stand, but divided we fall.
“Today we stand here united against those who seek to stoke hatred. We will not accept hatred against our friends.We will not accept violence against our neighbours.
“To every citizen of this great city, whether you arrived here last week, last year or have lived here all your life, this is your home. To those who have travelled over continents and seas to make Belfast your home, we thank you. You enrich us with your experiences and your culture. You make us better.To anyone living in fear, because of their skin colour, their religion, their immigration status – we say to you: we have your back.We will not let the racists divide us. They will not win.”
The PSNI recorded 1,777 racist incidents and 1,150 racist attacks in 2024,reaching the highest ever recorded levels during the summer period.
Last year saw racist hate crimes hit new all-time highs in Northern Ireland. Amnesty’s response will always be solidarity to those being marginalised and attacked within our communities and to demand better political leadership at Stormont to address the root causes of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia that plagues our society.
Amnesty International was one of the organisers of the ‘Our Belfast: Free from Racism!’ community gathering at Belfast City Hall which took place Sunday at 1pm in response to a planned anti-immigration protest being promoted on far-right social media channels. Other organisers include campaign group United Against Racism, trade union NIPSA, the Anaka Women’s Collective, Belfast Islamic Centre and Horn of Africa People’s Aid NI.
On the eve of the last presidential debate scheduled for March 23 and ahead of the April 13 presidential elections, Amnesty International published today an open letter addressed to the presidential candidates Luisa González and Daniel Noboa (available only in Spanish).
“Faced with the possibility of change offered by the start of a new presidential term, we invite you to put human rights at the center of your public policies, particularly on issues that we consider pressing for the country: public safety, the prison situation, the risks faced by human rights defenders, and the protection of the environment in the face of climate change,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Faced with the possibility of change offered by the start of a new presidential term, we invite you to put human rights at the center of your public policies, particularly on issues that we consider pressing for the country: public safety, the prison situation, the risks faced by human rights defenders, and the protection of the environment in the face of climate change
-Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
“This weekend, thousands of people in Ecuador will pay attention to your public policy proposals and priorities during the presidential debate. From our organization, we hope to hear answers to the following questions: In the face of allegations of forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions in military operations, what will you do to guarantee that your security policies respect human rights? In the face of reports of possible acts of torture committed in prisons, what will you do to address the prison crisis? Given the stigmatization, criminalization, and attacks faced by human rights defenders, will you prioritize the development and implementation of a protection policy? In the context of the hydroelectric crisis and the continued gas flaring, will you change your approach to protecting the environment and mitigating climate change?”
“Amnesty International will be attentive to your proposals and will continue to ensure respect for the human rights of all people in Ecuador, regardless of the outcome of the electoral contest.”
This weekend, thousands of people in Ecuador will pay attention to your public policy proposals and priorities during the presidential debate. Amnesty International will be attentive to your proposals and will continue to ensure respect for the human rights of all people in Ecuador, regardless of the outcome of the electoral contest
-Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
Thousands of people are without proper shelter, essential services and access to healthcare in northern parts of the West Bank, Palestine.
This follow Israel’s launch of the “Iron Wall” military operation, which is forcibly displacing thousands of Palestinians.
Israel must halt the forcible displacement of people in the West Bank, and the humanitarian response must be scaled up.
JERUSALEM – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns that tens of thousands of displaced people in northern parts of the West Bank, Palestine, are without proper shelter, essential services, and access to healthcare. Following the January 2025 ceasefire in Gaza, Israel launched the “Iron Wall” military operation in the occupied West Bank, forcibly displacing thousands of people, and leaving them in an extremely precarious situation. Israel must immediately halt the forcible displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the humanitarian response must be scaled up and reach those in need.
“This scale of forced displacement and destruction of the camps has not been seen for decades,” says Brice de la Vingne, MSF director of operations. “People are unable to return to their homes as Israeli forces have blocked access to the camps, destroying homes and infrastructure.”
“Camps have become ruins and dust,” says de la Vingne. “Israel must stop this, and the humanitarian response needs to be scaled up.”
MSF mobile clinic teams provide basic healthcare consultations to forcibly displaced Palestinian refugees in Jenin. They also provide mental health support to children in the form of recreational activities. Northern West Bank, Palestine, March 2025.Oday Alshobaki/MSF
Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, Israeli forces have increased the use of extreme physical violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, as MSF highlighted in our report “Inflicting harm and denying care”. In total, 930 Palestinians have been killed, including 187 children, since the war in Gaza began, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Access to healthcare has been severely hindered, as confirmed by MSF teams on the ground who have witnessed the systematic pattern of oppression by Israel on health workers and patients. The situation further deteriorated since the ceasefire in Gaza, and Israel’s “Iron Wall” operation which has effectively emptied the three main refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams in the northern West Bank, forcibly displacing over 40,000 Palestinians, according to OCHA.
“The [Israeli] army raided our house and ordered us to evacuate,” says Issam, an MSF patient who was displaced from Nur Shams camp. “We weren’t allowed to take anything with us – not even our documents.”
“All we received was the warning: ‘Get out’,” says Issam. “Displacement is suffering, a silent anguish, a deep pain in the heart for everyone. You see the tears in people’s eyes, but we hold them back.”
The mental health situation is alarming, with many patients suffering from stress, anxiety, and depression due to the violent and unpredictable nature of incursions and displacement.
“People don’t know what has happened to their homes and have suffered immense losses, including their sense of purpose,” says Mohammad, an MSF community health educator.
“Drones were flying over the houses, ordering the residents to get out,” says Abdel, a resident of Jenin camp. “They always destroy things, but nothing like this has ever happened before.”
MSF previously offered support in the three camps but had to adapt activities given the security risks and people’s displacement. Our teams now operate daily mobile clinics in Tulkarem and Jenin to provide medical care to displaced people. Our teams are treating chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension which have worsened due to lack of access to medication; respiratory infections, and osteo-muscular disorders among others.
An MSF doctor provides a consultation to a patient at the Jenin MSF clinic in the northern West Bank. Palestine, March 2025.Oday Alshobaki/MSF
Our teams also distribute hygiene kits and food parcels to support those who were forced to leave their homes without resources or belongings. MSF is providing water to the Khalil Suleiman hospital, the main hospital in Jenin, to mitigate frequent supply shortages due to damage from the military operations.
MSF continues to respond to the urgent needs, but the scale of displacement and the escalating humanitarian crisis, amid the inadequate international response, present an immense challenge and needs in the West Bank are only getting worse.
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Experts from Africa and its global diasporas gathered inBerlinlate last year to call on European governments to address their colonial past and ongoing impact.
Here, human rights lawyer Melissa Hendrickse, journalist Gary Younge and academic Pumla Dineo Gqola talk about the long-lasting legacy of colonialism, how it’s affected them and the importance of reparations…
Melissa Hendrickse
Melissa is Amnesty International’s researcher and advisor on racial justice and international criminal law.
Amnesty International’s Racial Justice team (from left to right) – Melissa Hendrickse, Rym Khadhraoui and Hashas Rage – recently attended the Dekoloniale Berlin Africa Conference, a decolonial counter-version of the 1884/5 Berlin Africa Conference 140 years ago.
I was born in Cape Town in the early Nineties – in the midst of the negotiations to end apartheid. It was a turbulent time in South Africa’s history. After Chris Hani, an important figure in South Africa’s freedom struggle, was assassinated, it seemed that the political transition teetered on the brink of collapse. But the negotiations continued and, when I was two years old, South Africa held its first democratic elections.
It was a better time to be growing up as a person of colour in South Africa, compared to my parents’ experience. There was a sense of hope and optimism. However, the legacy of apartheid didn’t just vanish – the country remained segregated and the inequality caused by centuries of colonialism, dispossession and exploitation has endured. I grew up in a predominantly white area. Most of my classmates were white and it was difficult navigating my own identity within spaces that were disconnected with the history of the country and the experience of the majority of South Africans.
I went on to study law, inspired by the role that law can play in supporting struggles against racial injustice. After my Masters, I applied for a job at Amnesty, where I am now a researcher and advisor on racial justice and international criminal law. Rather than being an activist in the traditional sense, I see my contribution mostly through law and the legal analysis. Working on Amnesty’s groundbreaking report, which concluded that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians was an honour. The parallels between apartheid South Africa and the racial oppression of Palestinians profoundly resonate with me. As Nelson Mandela, once said: “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Within the racial justice team, I work on reparations for slavery and colonialism, having recently drafted Amnesty’s policy. European colonialism and slavery built the world that we inhabit today. It is palpable all around us – from the borders that divide us to the languages we speak and the knowledge systems we are taught. The incredible wealth that was made by European states through slavery and colonialism has led to gross inequality that continues to mark the world order.
There cannot be meaningful racial justice today without reckoning with this legacy and re-making the oppressive systems built by colonialism. While European states are starting to issue apologies, there’s still a resistance to take concrete measures and offer reparations. This is why Amnesty’s work on reparations is coming at an important historical moment. Our hope is that, by joining the global reparations movement, Amnesty can contribute to creating pressure on European states to respond with more than just platitudes to the growing calls for reparatory justice.
For journalist Gary Younge, the history of colonialism and slavery has always been of interest.
I grew up in a town called Stevenage (in the UK), during the Seventies, after my family moved from Barbados. There were very few black people.
In the Seventies you got a lot of casual racism from all kinds, teachers as well as people you lived near to. The same people who would be racist could be neighbourly. It wasn’t consistent. I grew up thinking I wasn’t British – and I didn’t want to be. In winter people would say, “I bet it’s not like this where you come from.” There was an assumption that if you were Black, you weren’t British.
It was partly these contradictions that inspired my activism. For me, activism was about being a free person – if you wanted your freedom you had to fight for it and for the freedom of others. For me, there wasn’t any other way to be in the world. My family were very political – my mum, my brothers – and I became obsessed with the notion of freedom and what it means to be free at a very young age.
The history of colonialism and slavery has always interested me. We have grown up in countries in Europe that have decapitated their history in a peculiar way. There’s an aphorism explaining post-colonial immigration that says, “We are here because you were there. If you didn’t know you were there, how do you know why I am here?”
It’s not possible to understand where we are as a country or where I am as a person or why our racial politics are what they are unless there is an engagement with colonialism. None of it makes sense. And it’s far from over yet. We’re still dealing with it.
Britain has only known itself as a non-racial democracy recently. There’s a level of implausible deniability that these European countries can have about where they have been and what they have done – they pose as enlightened liberal democracies and everyone buys into that. However, if you look behind the curtain, you’ll find all the blood sloshing around, along with the occasional kick back such as when Britain gives back the Chagos islands.
Reparations remain important because the impact of slavery and colonialism is still evident. We can see it in trade links, migration patterns, poverty and other inequalities, both globally and nationally. The principal of reparations has already been established. We saw it after the First World War, after the Second World War, after the Holocaust and beyond. So, the question is then why should people of African descent, who were enslaved, and the descendants of the colonised be omitted from that narrative?
Pumla Dineo Gqola is an academic who grew up in South Africa.
I grew up in South Africa, during the Seventies and Eighties, as apartheid was tightening its reign. It was complicated and difficult.
Yet it was a time of diversifying activism. I grew up surrounded by Black academics and I knew I wanted to be an academic myself. My family’s politics were left leaning and my father taught at a historic Black university. It was foundational to who I would become.
I’m now a professor, a feminist writer and I am a post-colonialist by training. We often think about colonialism as something that’s finished, but we are still living in its long aftermath. We live in a world shaped by colonial logic and the systems that organize our world have come from its very powers. For example, where people migrate from and to neatly maps on to histories created under colonial power, while low-income countries are most likely to be former colonies. So, while formal colonialism is over, many of the ideas of how the globe is organized and who can move where, how, why and when map comfortably with those divisions – and that’s why they are so difficult to undo.
I recently attend the event Dekoloniale Berlin alongside a number of racial justice experts. These festivals are important for a variety of reasons. They provide an opportunity to go beyond diplomatic performance, while the conversations around debt, human rights and reparations, even at the level of art and culture, the conversation of coloniality, is one that shows every aspect of how the EU is a power block.
Going forward, I want to see a significant shift in the negotiation of states inside and outside of the EU – and whatever that looks like needs to move beyond diplomacy, while conversations about reparations need to be serious and must move out of the realm of superficiality.
Paris – Ahead of World TB Day, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on all countries and international donors to prioritise and ensure sustained investments for diagnosing, treating, and preventing tuberculosis (TB) for all – especially children, who remain the most vulnerable.
Every three minutes, a child dies of TB. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.25 million children and young adolescents (0-14 years) fall ill with TB each year, but that only half of these children are diagnosed and treated. In 2022, WHO revised its guidance for the management of children and adolescents with TB, which if adopted and implemented, could drastically improve care and save lives. The MSF project TACTiC – Test, Avoid, Cure TB in Children, is implementing the new WHO recommendations in our programmes in over a dozen countries in Africa and Asia, and has already documented an increase in children diagnosed with TB and put on appropriate treatment.
However, we are gravely concerned about the recent United States funding cuts. The US is the largest financial contributor for TB programmes, accounting for half of all international and bilateral donor funding, according to WHO.
“For years, we have witnessed the deadly gaps that children face to access diagnosis and treatment for TB in countries where we work,” says Dr Cathy Hewison, Head of MSF’s TB working group. “Children at risk of having TB are often overlooked, either going undiagnosed or facing delays in diagnosis.”
“Now, with the recent US funding cuts, these gaps in identifying and treating children with TB will only widen further, which threatens to roll back years of progress in TB care,” says Dr Hewison. “We urgently call on all countries and international donors to step up and ensure sustained funding for TB care for all, especially young children. No one should die or suffer from this preventable and treatable disease.”
MSF teams in Sindh province, Pakistan, are witnessing the US funding cuts leading to the disruption of community-based services. These services play a key role in a country that has a high burden of TB, especially in active screening of people in the community – which increases the diagnosis – the screening of families at high risk, and the provision of preventive treatment for children.
“Children are already highly vulnerable to TB, and we are worried that the US funding cuts that have impacted the community-based services will have a disproportionate effect on children, leading to more children with TB and more avoidable deaths,” says Dr Ei Hnin Hnin Phyu, Medical Coordinator with MSF in Pakistan. “We cannot afford to let funding decisions cost children’s lives.”
Children with weakened immune systems, for instance due to HIV infection or malnutrition, are the most vulnerable, hence will be disproportionately affected by disruption of TB, HIV and nutrition services.
Children with TB are often excluded from research and development trials being carried out on new tools for TB. The recent US funding cuts have halted numerous clinical trials, setting back TB research and innovation, with many of them being critical for children with TB. This is a major step back in the fight against TB, as it delays the development of much-needed diagnostics and treatments for children. MSF calls on the pharmaceutical industry and international donors to ensure sustained investments in the development and evaluation of medical tools that can improve TB care for children.
MSF is the largest non-governmental provider of TB treatment worldwide and has been involved in TB care for 30 years, often working alongside national health authorities to treat people in a wide variety of settings, including conflict zones, urban slums, prisons, refugee camps and rural areas. MSF has also been involved in efforts to find shorter and safer drug-resistant TB treatment regimens through 3 clinical trials: TB-PRACTECAL, endTB and endTB-Q. The WHO recommendations for four 6 and 9-month regimens (including BPaLM and BPaL) to treat DR-TB was prompted by evidence mainly from the TB-PRACTECAL and endTB trials.
MSF is conducting an integrated project TACTiC – Test, Avoid, Cure TB in Children – that aims to implement the new WHO recommendations to improve the management of TB in children in MSF programmes in over a dozen countries in Africa and Asia. Additionally, this project strives to demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the recommendations in different country contexts through operational research and advocate for their widespread implementation across national health systems.
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Nearly 116 million people in eight African countries, hardest hit by severe water crises, lack access to drinking water.
Globally, flash floods have become 20 times more frequent between 2000 and 2022
The climate crisis has dramatically worsened water scarcity in Eastern and Southern Africa over the past few decades, leaving nearly 116 million people –or 40 percent of the population – without safe drinking water, according to a new Oxfam report.
Climate change is supercharging extreme weather events like droughts, cyclones and flash floods, and has led to the disappearance of more than 90 percent of Africa’s tropical glaciers and the depletion of groundwater. This has had knock-on effects on Africa’s small-scale farmers, pastoralists and fisherpersons leaving millions without basic food, drinking water or income.
Oxfam’s report –Water-Driven Hunger: How the Climate Crisis Fuels Africa’s Food Emergency–published ahead of World Water Day, looked at the links between water scarcity and hunger in eight of the world’s worst water crises: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It found that the number of people experiencing extreme hunger in those countries has surged by nearly 80 percent over the past five years – reaching over 55 million in 2024, up from nearly 31 million in 2019. That is two in every ten persons.
The report warns that La Niña weather pattern, which will last through this month, will worsen floods in swaths of Southern Africa and South Sudan while causing severe drought in East Africa further threatening people’s food availability and income.
Globally, flash floods have become 20 times more frequent between 2000 and 2022 and the duration of droughts has risen by 29% since 2000, impacting the most vulnerable communities.
Existing poverty, deep inequality and chronic under-investment along with poor governance in water systems have compounded this climate-fuelled water crisis. African governments are currently meeting less than half the US$50 billion annual investment target required to achieve water security in Africa by 2030.
“The climate crisis is not a mere statistic—it has a human face. It affects real people whose livelihoods are being destroyed, while the main contributors to this crisis—big polluters and super-rich—continue to profit. Meanwhile, national governments neglect to support the very communities they should protect.”
Fati N’Zi Hassane,
Director, Oxfam in Africa
Fati N’Zi-Hassane, Oxfam in Africa Director said:
“The climate crisis is not a mere statistic—it has a human face. It affects real people whose livelihoods are being destroyed, while the main contributors to this crisis—big polluters and super-rich—continue to profit. Meanwhile, national governments neglect to support the very communities they should protect.”
The Oxfam report also found that:
In the eight countries studied, 91 percent of small-scale farmers depend almost entirely on rainwater for drinking and farming.
In Ethiopia, food insecurity has soared by 175 percent over the past five years, with 22 million people struggling to find their next meal.
In Kenya, over 136,000 square kilometers of land have become drier between 1980 and 2020, which has decimated crops and livestock.
In Somalia, one failed rainy season is pushing one million more people into crisis-level hunger, raising the total to 4.4 million—24% of the population.
A farmer from Baidoa, Somalia explains: “In the past, we knew when to farm and when to harvest but that has all changed. The rains now come late or not at all. Last year, I lost all my crops and animals. I have now planted, but the rains have still not come. If this continues, I will not be able to feed my family.”
Deep inequalities mean that disadvantaged people like women and girls are too often the first and most severely punished by this water crisis. In Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, women and girls walk up to 10 kilometers in search of water, facing violence and extreme exhaustion. Many women and girls in rural households spend hours each day collecting water—time that could otherwise be spent on education or income generation.
“At the heart of this climate crisis lies a justice crisis. Sub-Saharan Africa receives only 3-4 percent of global climate finance, despite being heavily affected by climate change. Rich polluting nations must pay their fair share. It’s not about charity, it’s about justice.
“African governments must also double down on their investment in water infrastructures and social protection to effectively manage natural resources, and help the most vulnerable communities cope with climatic shocks,” added N’Zi-Hassane.
Free speech and right to protest on the line in the United States
Mandan, North Dakota — A Morton County jury of nine reached a verdict in Energy Transfer’s meritless lawsuit against Greenpeace entities in the US (Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund), and Greenpeace International, finding the entities liable for more than US$660 million, today. Big Oil Bullies around the world will continue to try to silence free speech and peaceful protest, but the fight against Energy Transfer’s meritless SLAPP lawsuit is not over.
“We are witnessing a disastrous return to the reckless behaviour that fuelled the climate crisis, deepened environmental racism, and put fossil fuel profits over public health and a liveable planet. The previous Trump administration spent four years dismantling protections for clean air, water, and Indigenous sovereignty, and now along with its allies wants to finish the job by silencing protest. We will not back down. We will not be silenced,” said Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director.
“This case should alarm everyone, no matter their political inclinations,” saidSushma Raman, Interim Executive Director Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund. “It’s part of a renewed push by corporations to weaponise our courts to silence dissent. We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment, and lawsuits like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and free speech. These rights are critical for any work toward ensuring justice – and that’s why we will continue fighting back together, in solidarity. While Big Oil bullies can try to stop a single group, they can’t stop a movement.”
Energy Transfer’s lawsuits are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[1] Big Oil companies Shell, Total, and ENI have also filed SLAPPs against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[2] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
“Energy Transfer hasn’t heard the last of us in this fight. We’re just getting started with our anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Energy Transfer’s attacks on free speech and peaceful protest. We will see Energy Transfer in court this July in the Netherlands. We will not back down. We will not be silenced,”said Greenpeace International General Counsel Kristin Casper.
In February 2024, GPI initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against ET.[3] GPI seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of ET’s back-to-back, meritless lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars against GPI and the Greenpeace organisations in the US.
ET’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on the state law so ET promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
PERTH, 20 MARCH 2025 – Greenpeace Australia Pacific has asked Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to reconsider the criteria used to assess Woodside’s North West Shelf Extension because significant new impacts have emerged since the original 2019 decision.
“We’re calling on the Environment Minister to assess Woodside’s North West Shelf Extension with all of the facts in front of her—including new evidence showing this project could devastate our environment, particularly Scott Reef,” said Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy, Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
“Like thousands of other individuals and community groups, Greenpeace has been participating in this assessment since at least 2022.
“While the 2019 decision to assess the North West Shelf Extension only focused on the project’s potential impact on national heritage values, new evidence has since emerged about the consequences of Woodside’s plans to drill for gas beside, and dump carbon near, the irreplaceable Scott Reef.
“Australians expect their elected representatives to make decisions following due process, independent of pressure from vested interests, and based on the best evidence.
“To properly assess the serious risk of extending the life of Woodside’s gas processing facility, it is essential that the Environment Minister gives due regard to all available evidence.
“Woodside plans to fuel its North West Shelf gas facility out to 2070 by drilling up to 50 gas wells near Scott Reef as part of its proposed Browse project. Recent statements from Woodside confirm that Browse and the North West Shelf Extension are directly linked—making Browse dependent on the North West Shelf Extension approval to be viable.
“Woodside also plans to take the carbon pollution from drilling for gas and inject it deep under the ocean into massive underground aquifers. The carbon is supposed to stay there for over 1000 years. However, carbon capture storage is an unproven technology at scale, with a track record of overpromising and underdelivering.
“Woodside’s reckless plans risk threatened species like Green Sea Turtles and Pygmy Blue Whales, while also jeopardising fragile coral reef habitats with noise, light pollution, and the potential for oil spills.”
“Given the clear possibility of adverse impacts on threatened species, migratory species and the Commonwealth marine environment, we are requesting the Minister to expand the assessment criteria to accurately consider the full picture of real-world impacts that approving the North West Shelf Extension will have.
“The assessment criteria originally set in 2019 are too narrow for an informed assessment of the project’s impacts.
—ENDS—
Note to editors:
Greenpeace’s full reconsideration request can be found here.
In response to the verdict in Energy Transfer’s suit against Greenpeace International and Greenpeace US entities, the following lines can be attributed to Greenpeace Australia Pacific General Counsel Katrina Bullock:
“The $660 million North Dakota case against Greenpeace International and Greenpeace US entities is a blatant Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) brought by a fossil fuel giant. SLAPPs are a corporate weapon designed to strangle public debate. They’re not about justice — they’re about silencing dissent, draining environmental defenders of time, money, and energy until they have no choice but to stop fighting. It’s an abuse of the legal system to shield powerful polluters from accountability.
“It’s no wonder eminent US lawyer Marty Garbus has labelled it the most unfair trial he has witnessed in his six decades of legal practice. Distinguished legal experts who acted as Independent Trial Monitors collectively noted that ‘the jury verdict against Greenpeace in North Dakota reflects a deeply flawed trial with multiple due process violations that denied Greenpeace the ability to present anything close to a full defence’.
“A jury with close ties to the fossil fuel industry, a judge permitting defamatory and prejudicial attacks on Greenpeace, and a blatant refusal for court transparency — this trial was a blatant injustice.”
In a domestic context, Ms Bullock added:
“In Australia, opposition leader Peter Dutton has announced that a coalition government would introduce legislation based on these same racketeering laws that have been used against peaceful environmental groups in the US. Dutton’s proposal to introduce US-style RICO laws raises serious concerns. While his office claims it’s aimed at tackling organised crime in the construction sector, we’ve seen in the US how these laws have been weaponised to target charities and grassroots groups who engage in peaceful protest activities. We must be extremely wary of laws that could criminalise our ability to protect our environment and our communities.”
Greenpeace unequivocally disagrees with the verdict and refuses to be silenced. Greenpeace US entities will appeal.
“Greenpeace is not scared of SLAPPs, and where big oil companies might think we will back down, we won’t. Greenpeace rises in the face of injustice.
“Greenpeace Australia Pacific is an autonomous legal entity and is not a party to the lawsuit. While this verdict won’t have any programmatic or financial impacts for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, it is united in solidarity with Greenpeace US and Greenpeace International against this intimidation lawsuit and in the need for anti-SLAPP legislation.”
— ENDS —
Greenpeace International’s press release can be found here.
Photos and Videos can be accessed from the Greenpeace Media Library and photos of Katrina and from the Australia-Pacific region can be found here.
Contacts:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Communications: Kimberley Bernard on +61 407 581 404 or [email protected]
SYDNEY, 20 MARCH 2025 — Greenpeace Australia Pacific has slammed the Albanese Government for seeking to weaken Australia’s national nature laws in order to prop up polluting and environmentally harmful industries, and urged the Albanese government to dump a proposed bill scheduled for debate next week.
The EPBC Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill is scheduled for debate in the House of Representatives next Tuesday and in the Senate on Wednesday. Media reports indicate the proposed legislation aims to curtail the ability of third parties to request lawful reconsideration of the scope of environmental impacts of major projects.
“The move has been designed to shield the Tasmanian salmon industry from environmental scrutiny over its impact on the critically endangered Maugean skate but could have far-reaching consequences beyond this,” said Glenn Walker, Head of Nature at Greenpeace Australia Pacific
“With this Bill, the Albanese Government appears to have turned its back on its promise to end species extinctions.
“Australia has one of the worst rates of wildlife extinction in the world. Animals like the Maugean skate are hurtling towards extinction due to government inaction and free passes for polluting and harmful industries. Even the koala is listed as endangered in Queensland and New South Wales; that’s how severe the problem is.”
“The Albanese Government promised to end extinctions and protect Australia’s wildlife through law reform. Instead, they are signing the extinction warrant for the Maugean skate.
“Australia urgently needs strong, new nature laws that will end the extinction crisis and an independent watchdog to enforce them. We urge the Albanese Government to dump the Bill, not the skate, and get on with delivering this. It’s critical that the government give an ironclad guarantee that this will be delivered within the first 12 months of government if reelected this year.”
—ENDS—
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Vai Shah at 0452 290 082 / [email protected]
The jury has officially reached a verdict in our trial against Big Oil company Energy Transfer’s meritless lawsuit.
This verdict is not the end of this case. Although a jury of nine people in North Dakota has decided that Greenpeace entities are liable for over $660 million in damages, this isn’t over.
We’re going to appeal. And we’re prepared to fight this all the way to victory.
We absolutely believe in our legal defense. We believe the law is fully on our side. We believe in what we did at Standing Rock, and that ultimately we will prevail against this meritless lawsuit.
Before we discuss next steps, let’s acknowledge that this is a dark moment in United States history. And let’s talk about what “victory” actually means.
We’ve fought Energy Transfer’s lawsuits for more than seven years. Every step of the way, we’ve emphasized that these types of lawsuits — intended to silence and shut down critics — are part of a growing national attack on our First Amendment rights.
The truth is, “victory” doesn’t just mean defeating this specific lawsuit. It means that no other organization or individual has to defend themselves against this type of attack.
This lawsuit was designed to scare and divide our movement. Instead, the opposite has happened — in the last year alone, more than 350,000 individuals around the world and more than 430 organizations representing millions of people have spoken out against it.
Thankfully, we’ve never been lonely in this fight. It’s entirely thanks to Greenpeace supporters that we’ve had the resources to fight back for more than seven years without ever slowing down our work campaigning for a green and peaceful future.
Greenpeace USA was founded on nonviolent direct action and peaceful protest over 50 years ago, and we’ve exercised our right to peacefully expose environmental harm ever since. Energy Transfer chose to target three Greenpeace entities because of what our history represents.
We are simply a community of people who share a set of values, and our community is part of a larger global movement. No courtroom or judgement can stop that movement.
As we’ve long said: we will not be silenced, and our movement will endure.
On Thursday, March 20th, you can join us on Zoom where we’ll be discussing this verdict and sharing more about the next steps — RSVP here.
For now, we’ll leave you with this quote from Standing Rock Grassroots member Waniya Locke, published last month in The New York Times:
“When you look back at history, they always try to wipe us out.”
Beyond just attempting to diminish every American’s free speech rights, this lawsuit attempts to erase Indigenous leadership. It’s an attack on Indigenous sovereignty, and a racist attempt to rewrite the actual history of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
More than seven years later, we remain deeply proud of what we did to support that Indigenous-led resistance. We own everything we did, because what we did was simply living our values.
With your support, we will continue living those values for many years to come.
Free speech and right to protest on the line in the United States
Mandan, North Dakota — A Morton County jury of nine reached a verdict in Energy Transfer’s meritless lawsuit against Greenpeace entities in the US (Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund), and Greenpeace International, finding the entities liable for more than US$660 million, today. Big Oil Bullies around the world will continue to try to silence free speech and peaceful protest, but the fight against Energy Transfer’s meritless SLAPP lawsuit is not over.
“This case should alarm everyone, no matter their political inclinations,” said Sushma Raman, Interim Executive Director Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund. “It’s part of a renewed push by corporations to weaponize our courts to silence dissent. We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment, and lawsuits like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and free speech. These rights are critical for any work toward ensuring justice – and that’s why we will continue fighting back together, in solidarity. While Big Oil bullies can try to stop a single group, they can’t stop a movement.”
“We are witnessing a disastrous return to the reckless behaviour that fuelled the climate crisis, deepened environmental racism, and put fossil fuel profits over public health and a liveable planet. The previous Trump administration spent four years dismantling protections for clean air, water, and Indigenous sovereignty, and now along with its allies wants to finish the job by silencing protest. We will not back down. We will not be silenced,” said Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director.
In this case, Energy Transfer has maintained their entirely false claims that Greenpeace organized the #NoDAPL resistance at Standing Rock, an allegation rooted in racism in its erasure of the Indigenous leadership in North Dakota.
“What we saw over these three weeks was Energy Transfer’s blatant disregard for the voices of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,” said Deepa Padmanabha, Senior Legal Advisor, Greenpeace USA. “And while they also tried to distort the truth about Greenpeace’s role in the protests, we instead reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to non-violence in every action we take. To be clear, Greenpeace’s story is not the story of Standing Rock. Our story is how an organization like Greenpeace USA can support critical fights to protect communities most impacted by the climate crisis, as well as continued attacks on Indigenous sovereignty.”
This lawsuit is one of the largest Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) cases ever filed. These are meritless lawsuits meant to silence or bankrupt opponents – which is why most U.S. states and several countries have put legal protections in place to protect advocates. But in North Dakota – and 15 other states – no anti-SLAPP statutes exist.
Greenpeace entities will continue fighting back against this case, including by appealing to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
In February 2024, Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against ET. GPI seeks to recover damages and costs it has suffered as a result of ET’s back-to-back, meritless lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars against GPI and the Greenpeace organisations in the US.“Energy Transfer hasn’t heard the last of us in this fight. We’re just getting started with our anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Energy Transfer’s attacks on free speech and peaceful protest,” said Kristin Casper, Greenpeace International General Counsel. “We will see Energy Transfer in court this July in the Netherlands.”
CONTACT: Madison Carter, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected]
Over the past decade, Yemen has endured one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian crises. This has been deepened by the country’s economic collapse, which has pushed 83 per cent of the people into multidimensional poverty. Since 2015, years of violent conflict have destroyed essential infrastructure and left the healthcare system depleted, underfunded, and struggling to function. Of Yemen’s population of 39 million people, an estimated 17.1 million are projected to face food insecurity in 2025. According to multi-sectoral surveys, some 2.2 million children are already acutely malnourished, with 48 per cent of children under five stunted and chronically malnourished.
The destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, including the latest strikes on the shipping port of Al-Hudaydah and on Sana’a International Airport, and the volatile political climate and ongoing regional tensions have derailed Yemen’s roadmap to peace, and continue to fuel instability. Tensions in the Red Sea remain connected to the very fragile situation in Gaza.
Data from MSF-supported facilities over the past three years reveals increases in hospital admissions of malnourished children under the age of five (0-59-month-olds) in most MSF-supported facilities, with longer seasonal peaks and overwhelming caseloads during peak months. In 2024 the malnutrition peak season pushed MSF-supported inpatient therapeutic feeding centres (ITFC) beyond limits. With the capacity to expand to 120 beds during peak malnutrition season, Abs Hospital ITFC recorded a staggering 200 per cent bed occupancy rate in September 2024, followed by 176 per cent in October – the highest levels in the last six years. Between January 2022 and December 2024, nearly 35,500 malnourished children were admitted and treated in MSF-supported facilities in total. Nearly 14,000 and over 13,500 children were admitted into MSF-supported facilities for treatment in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Due to the high demand for malnutrition care in northern Yemen, MSF expanded its nutritional programmes in 2022 and 2023 to try to respond to this need. With six MSF-supported facilities now offering inpatient nutritional stabilisation since 2023, MSF hospitalised nearly 5,900 more children with complicated malnutrition in 2024 than in 2022.
Health facilities in Yemen are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with the number of children with malnutrition.
Suspensions and reductions in food assistance, gaps in healthcare infrastructure, and gaps in vaccination coverage are exacerbating the crisis.
MSF calls for an urgent response and urges stakeholders to expand community-based vaccination efforts.
Amman – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is raising the alarm about malnutrition in Yemen as people’s needs are far outstripping the existing treatment capacity, underscoring a deep humanitarian crisis. Between January 2022 and December 2024, MSF-supported facilities treated 35,442 malnourished children under the age of five across five governorates: Amran, Saada, Hajjah, Taiz, and Hodeidah. These figures reflect the ongoing struggle for families to buy food and access healthcare after years of conflict and instability, compounded by the country’s deteriorating economy.
A new MSF report, Yemen’s rising tide of malnutrition: seasonal trends 2022-2024, outlines the alarming figures seen in our facilities.
“This is not the time for half-measures,” says Himedan Mohammed, head of operations for MSF Middle East.
“Children are arriving in increasingly critical condition. People can no longer wait for help that simply isn’t coming fast enough” says Mohammed. “If we don’t act now by boosting nutrition programmes, ensuring affordable transport to health facilities, and bringing care closer to people in need, then we risk an even greater surge of malnutrition in the months ahead.”
Ali Amin, a six-month-old boy, receives treatment for moderate acute malnutrition at the MSF-supported inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Abs General Hospital. Yemen, March 2025.Majdi Al Adani/MSF
While MSF has scaled up treatment capacity, we are unable to meet all the needs. Each annual malnutrition season is leaving our facilities overwhelmed with children in need of care, with many also suffering from measles, cholera and acute watery diarrhoea. Last September, during the annual peak malnutrition season, bed occupancy rates in most MSF-supported facilities reached extremely high levels. In Al-Salam hospital in Amran governorate, bed occupancy rate soared to 254 per cent that month. Healthcare staff are often forced to provide care for patients in crowded hallways and makeshift spaces.
Aisha brought her five-month-old daughter Zahra’a to Al-Salam hospital for lifesaving care.
“We travelled over two hours and spent 15,000 Yemeni riyals [about US$61] to get here,” she says. “With only one breadwinner in our family of 12, we can barely meet our daily needs, and the nearest health centres don’t have specialised departments to treat malnutrition.”
“I am afraid to lose her, she is the only girl in the family,” says Aisha. “I hope she recovers soon and I hope more organisations will come here to support people, especially those who do not have enough food or income.”
Suspensions and reductions in food assistance programmes have intensified hardship for people across Yemen. In 2023 and 2024, over 10,000 children received treatment at the MSF-supported facility in Ad-Dahi hospital, Hodeidah governorate. The Abs hospital in Hajjah governorate recorded a staggering 200 per cent bed occupancy rate in September 2024, followed by 176 per cent in October – the highest levels in the last six years.
Malnutrition is aggravated by gaps in healthcare infrastructure and gaps in vaccination coverage, among other factors. According to the World Health Organization, as of April 2024, nearly 46 per cent of health facilities in Yemen were partially functional or completely out of service.
An MSF nurse checks on a malnourished baby girl at the MSF-supported Abs General hospital. Yemen, March 2025.Majdi Al Adani/MSF
In view of the sudden and drastic reductions in humanitarian funding to Yemen, sustained donor engagement and flexible funding from major donors is crucial to address Yemen’s escalating humanitarian crisis. Adequate and consistent funding, along with stronger partnerships between the Ministry of Health, donors, and implementing partners, will help revive healthcare centres and ensure they effectively serve local communities and the most affected locations. MSF urges these stakeholders to expand community-based vaccination efforts in order to curb preventable diseases like measles, cholera and acute watery diarrhoea.
There is a need for urgent improvements in targeted food distribution programmes in Yemen. Efforts like these will ensure pregnant and lactating women, as well as children under five, receive the nutrition they need before their health is threatened. Without swift collective action, Yemen’s most vulnerable people will suffer further under an overburdened health system and rising malnutrition rates.
Just one year after its passage, Hong Kong’s Article 23 law has further squeezed people’s freedoms and enabled authorities to intensify their crackdown on peaceful activism in the city and beyond, Amnesty International said.
“Over the past year, Article 23 has been used to entrench a ‘new normal’ of systematic repression of dissent, criminalizing peaceful acts in increasingly absurd ways,” said Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks.
“People have been targeted and harshly punished for the clothes they wear as well as the things they say and write, or for minor acts of protest, intensifying the climate of fear that already pervaded Hong Kong. Freedom of expression has never been under greater attack.”
Amnesty International expresses deep concern over the discovery of mass graves and cremation ovens in Teuchitlán (Jalisco) and Reynosa (Tamaulipas) on 5 and 11 March, respectively. This discovery, made by search collectives from these states, warrants the immediate opening of an independent and comprehensive investigation by the Mexican state so that the remains found can be identified and returned to the families searching for their disappeared loved ones in a respectful and caring way.
The Mexican state has a duty to provide the searchers who found the two sites with all the necessary protection measures, given the potential risk to their physical integrity. These measures must be maintained over time so that the searchers are kept safe and can continue their work.
Amnesty International calls for the prevention of the spread of rumours that stigmatize disappeared persons, who deserve respect and dignity above all.
“In the face of this tragedy, we urge the Mexican state to establish the facts by providing the necessary resources to do so, and to give appropriate and dignified treatment to those who, after seeing images of the mass graves that have been discovered, have recognized items of clothing worn by disappeared family members,” said Edith Olivares Ferreto, Executive Director at Amnesty International Mexico.
In the face of this tragedy, we urge the Mexican state to establish the facts by providing the necessary resources to do so, and to give appropriate and dignified treatment to those who, after seeing images of the mass graves that have been discovered, have recognized items of clothing worn by disappeared family members
-Edith Olivares Ferreto, Executive Director at Amnesty International Mexico.
“The Mexican state has been the great absentee in the problem of forced disappearances in Mexico. This has given rise to groups of searchers, the vast majority of whom are women, who have helped locate hundreds of bodies of disappeared persons. Their work has generated trust and has led people with disappeared relatives to turn to them for help instead of approaching the authorities. The state cannot ignore its obligation to recognize the searchers as human rights defenders who carry out their work with great dignity, and it must provide them with the guarantees they need to continue their work,” added Edith Olivares Ferreto.
“In the context of this terrible tragedy, Amnesty International urges the Mexican state to engage in dialogue with the searchers, to listen to their needs and to recognize the experience they have gained through many years of work in the field, in addition to adopting the international standards that guarantee their right to search without fear,” concluded Edith Olivares Ferreto.
Amnesty International urges the Mexican state to engage in dialogue with the searchers, to listen to their needs and to recognize the experience they have gained through many years of work in the field, in addition to adopting the international standards that guarantee their right to search without fear
-Edith Olivares Ferreto. Executive Director at Amnesty International Mexico
The events described take place in an environment of almost total impunity, which creates an idea of permissibility and at the same time revictimizes the victims. It is essential that events of this nature be effectively investigated, including through the hypothesis of enforced disappearances, as it is unlikely that the two mass graves could have operated without the support or acquiescence of the authorities.
Disappearances in Mexico, an ongoing scourge
The horrific discovery of the mass graves and crematoriums is further evidence of an ongoing scourge that spares no state in the country.
Mexico continues to face a serious crisis of disappearances linked to the context of violence and insecurity that has increased in the country in recent decades, as evidenced by the fact that, according to government data, 30 people disappear every day in Mexico.
Information from the National Registry of Disappeared and Missing Persons shows that between 1 January 1950 and 10 March 2025, the number of disappeared or missing persons reached 122,821. Jalisco is listed as having 15,013 disappeared persons, followed by the state of Mexico with 13,625 disappeared persons and Tamaulipas with 13,307.
The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances stated in its 2021 report that the number of disappearances in Mexico increased exponentially between 2006 and 2021. It was precisely in 2006 that the administration of President Felipe Calderón took the decision to deploy the armed forces to enforce public security, a process that was institutionalized in September 2024, the last month of the latest six-year presidential term.
Amnesty International has denounced that the decision to militarize and institutionalize public security in Mexico is in breach of judgments issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Amnesty International has pointed out that the problem of enforced disappearances in Mexico affects men, women, children, Indigenous peoples, migrants, journalists, human rights defenders and the LGBTI community. Disappearances are linked to sexual violence, femicide, recruitment by criminal groups, kidnappings and human trafficking, among other crimes.
Amnesty International has documented that women searchers in the Americas, and in Mexico in particular, face a high level of risk when searching. From 2011 to date, 24 family members of disappeared persons (14 of them women) have been killed.