Around the world, the right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression is under attack.

🧵 Here's what we found. In East and Southern Africa, jouanlists are being targeted amid an ongoing crackdown on media.

We documented widespread intimidation, harassment and detention of jounalists in countries throughout the region.

Read more 👇

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🧵 Today’s decision by the @CIJ_ICJ to order additional provisional measures in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel highlights the continuing catastrophic deterioration of conditions & the growing threat to Palestinians in occupied #Gaza since the ICJ’s last ruling. The Court’s decision to issue additional measures is a clear indication of the State of Israel’s failure thus far to comply with the previous legally binding measures issued by the Court, as already reiterated by @Amnesty and others.

https://twitter.com/CIJ_ICJ/status/1773376361362489490?s=20

🚨 The statement published by the office of PM Netanyahu, which instructs the Israeli military to produce a plan for the “evacuation of the civilian population” of #Rafah has spread panic in the southern governorate raising fears that a massive ground operation is imminent. Such an operation will have catastrophic consequences for more than a million people – the vast majority of them displaced - who are living in desperate conditions in Rafah, squeezed into overcrowded areas, makeshift tents and schools or sleeping on the streets, who have nowhere to go.

🔎 @Amnesty has verified 6 videos of an attack on 13 October 2023, resulting in civilian casualties along Salah-Al Deen street, a route the Israeli army had designated as safe for civilians to flee after an Israeli ‘order’ told them to leave northern #Gaza. Israeli military have been urging hospitals & Int’l orgs in northern Gaza to rapidly relocate people to the south & airdropping leaflets. This is virtually impossible: w/no transport children, sick & older people, pregnant women, persons with disabilities can’t make this journey.

Love is love. Unless you fall for a Palestinian 🧵 The first draft of new rules required foreigners married to Palestinians to leave the West Bank for 6 months. This has since faced backlash and has been removed.

In New York, facial recognition technology has been used to target people of color in protests, threatening their right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest.

So we sued the NYPD, and won 🧵 Last year, when we asked the NYPD to publish their data on facial recognition, they refused. So we mapped their surveillance cameras.

Disinformation and a lack of access to the Drama Theatre in Mariupol, Ukraine has led to a battle for the facts. We spoke to 53 witnesses as well as experts in physics, weapons, and satellite imagery.

Here's what we found 🧵 At the time of the attack, hundreds of civilians were sheltering inside.

The theatre was a haven for people fleeing violence in other parts of the city. Volunteers organised medical care, distributed water, and cooked in a field kitchen.

⚡ We at Amnesty have just published heartbreaking new testimony from relatives of 48 ethnic Uyghur and Kazakh people detained in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
amn.st/6011zWQ0Z This new testimony is part of our Free Xinjiang Detainees campaign, which now tells the stories of 120 individuals who have been swept up in China’s vast system of prisons and internment camps in Xinjiang.

⚡️ 1.7 million internally displaced people live in camps in absolute destitution in north-west Syria. They are entirely dependent on aid for survival. The non-renewal of the cross-border mechanism by the UN Security Council risks shutting down their last lifeline.

THREAD 👇 More than half of the internally displaced population in north-west Syria lives in 1,414 camps, usually in one-room tents that do not have solid doors or locks and do not offer insulation from the extreme cold or heat. Many have no access to potable water or functioning latrines.

Our Secretary General @AgnesCallamard who is in Ukraine right now: Russia’s aggression challenges us all: what kind of a world do we want to live in – one that is built on bullying, authoritarianism, the brutality of weapons deployed above and beyond the weight of the law? It has unleashed an international crisis that deserves global solidarity for the people directly affected but which demands solutions that require global thinking and universal commitment.

Last night a draft opinion of the USA Supreme Court was leaked and would pave the way for abortion rights to be overturned in the US. This major attack on fundamental rights can have global implications for women, girls, and people who can get pregnant. The year is 2022 and we are STILL fighting against decisions that retrogress governments’ obligation to protect the rights of girls, women, and people who can get pregnant. Our right to decide is under attack. #RoeVWade #legalabortion #BansOffOurBodies

Today marks International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observing the 1960 killing of dozens in South Africa who protested against apartheid laws.

However, apartheid isn't a relic of the past, it's a reality for millions of Palestinians. #EndIsraeliApartheid Palestinians facing the brutality of Israel’s cruel system of discrimination have been calling on the international community to recognize and take action against Israel’s apartheid.

Palestinians need us to take action against decades of injustice. amnesty.org/en/petition/de…

New thread – @amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab documented 3 attacks, possible war crimes, killing at least 9 civilians, including children, in #Kharkiv, on 28 February, around the same time that peace talks began at the border with Belarus. At approximately 12:30 local time, an apparent indiscriminate attack in North #Kharkiv killed at least 4 civilians, including a child and 3 people collecting drinking water. At least 16 more people were injured. Our 3D model is based on verified videos and witness testimonies.

Our worst fears have been realized. After weeks of escalation, a Russian invasion that is likely to lead to the most horrific consequences for human lives & human rights has begun. Amnesty International calls for unerring respect for international human rights & humanitarian law. As bombs and rockets are falling on Ukrainian military bases, & the first reports are coming in of the use of indiscriminate weapons by the Russian army, we re-iterates our call on all parties to adhere strictly to international humanitarian law & international human rights law.

What does climate change have to do with human rights?

A thread 👇 States that are not doing all that they can on climate action are violating our human rights.

After analyzing over 500 videos and photos of incidents, Amnesty International has documented 125 separate examples of police violence against protesters in nearly 40 states and DC in the US between May 26 and June 6. Police across the U.S. are committing egregious violations of human rights by using excessive force on peaceful crowds exercising their right to protest.

Today is #InternationalSexWorkersDay - sex workers must not be forgotten in the #COVID19 pandemic and its aftermath. We’ve teamed up with @sexworkeurope and @SWAIIreland to explain why. Sex workers are already marginalised and the pandemic is making things worse. With lockdowns & social distancing measures many sex workers can’t work; but unlike others they are largely excluded from social protection due to stigma and barriers to accessing help.

As the whole world waits in uncertainty amidst a worldwide #coronavirus pandemic, it's important to remember those for who uncertainty has become a way of life 🌍 Movement restrictions: Free movement of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian territories has been controlled by the Israeli army for over 50 years.

Today is the International Sex Workers' Rights Day!⚡Here's a thread about how they work courageously for the defense of their human rights and why they should be listened and taken into account. Sex work is high-risk. Women who engage in it often endure human rights violations such as gender-based torture, barriers to access justice⚖️and health🩺and education📝of quality. They also face barriers in defending their rights.

Reports that five Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli airstrikes today are deeply worrying. The ensuing escalation in violence between Israel and Palestinian armed groups raises fears of a rise in civilian bloodshed. We are closely monitoring the situation. Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces must also refrain from carrying out indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects. These are serious violations of international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.