The trial before a state security court of a Saudi Arabian school teacher arrested nearly a year ago after he arrived to demonstrate on the “Day of Rage” in Riyadh is an affront to his basic rights. Khaled al-Johani stood trial today before the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, a tribunal set up in 2008 to try detainees held on terrorism-related charges. The court adjourned his case until early April. Amnesty International considers al-Johani to be a prisoner of conscience, held for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly.

The Dominican Republic must break with its shameful practise of police abuse now it has ratified the UN Convention against Torture, Amnesty International said.The international treaty, which prohibits torture and other ill-treatment of police detainees, comes into force in the Caribbean nation on Thursday, 23 February. Amnesty International has previously documented shocking levels of abuse, including torture and unlawful killings, carried out by police in the country.

A year after the uprising, Egypt's security forces continue to kill protestors with the same brutal tactics used in Hosni Mubarak’s last days in power, Amnesty International said after concluding riot police yet again used excessive force in policing protests in Cairo and Suez. The protests earlier this month followed the Port Said tragedy in which more than 70 football fans from Al-Ahly club were killed after a football match on 1 February. The organization found that, between 2 and 6 February, the Ministry of Interior’s Central Security Forces (riot police) used excessive force, including firearms, to disperse angry protests, killing at least 16 people and injuring hundreds of others. The newly elected parliamentary assembly must urgently tackle the long overdue reforms to the way security forces have been policing demonstrations. Unless the Egyptian security apparatus is reformed with the aim of providing security and upholding the right to peaceful protest, there is a fear that more bloodshed will follow.

The Israeli authorities’ decision to release a Palestinian detainee by mid-April is insufficient, Amnesty International said amid reports that he has agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike. The organization has urged Israel to release Khader Adnan immediately to allow him to receive urgent medical treatment. The 33-year-old baker – allegedly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement – is at immediate risk of death after more than 10 weeks on hunger strike. Amnesty International has called on Israel to end the practice of administrative detention because it violates the internationally recognized right to a fair trial which must be upheld for all detainees, even during states of emergency.

Thousands of activists are set to inundate Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos with faxes urging him to boost protection for a community in the country’s north-west seven years on from a massacre there that left several dead including four children. The “faxjam”, organized by Amnesty International, marks the anniversary of the massacre of eight members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in 2005 and highlights the ongoing threats and attacks the community faces. On 21 February 2005, paramilitaries operating with Colombia’s armed forces brutally killed the community’s spokesperson Luis Eduardo Guerra and seven others, including four children.

Leaders currently seeking a veto over an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) must stop playing chess with millions of innocent lives, Amnesty International said today. The call came in the wake of a week-long meeting at the United Nations, hammering out details for the final ATT negotiation in July. Several governments including Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Syria have in effect sought to secure a veto over any agreement. Others are attempting to water down safeguards in the treaty that could protect human rights.

Canada’s record will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva on 22 and 23 February in Geneva. In advance of the session Amnesty International has submitted a 45 page briefing on matters that must be addressed. The briefing covers the critical issues of protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, refugees and migrants, and racism in connection with national security issues. Discrimination against Indigenous peoples has to stop, refugees and migrants must have their rights respected, and violations under the shadow of national security have to cease if Canada is to meet its international obligations.

The Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act takes a large and very disappointing step back from a previous 'balanced' approach to refugee reform agreed by Parliament in 2010. Amnesty International is deeply concerned that Bill C-31, introduced by the government on February 16, 2012, falls fall short of international legal requirements with respect to human rights and refugee protection. It is also a missed opportunity to correct serious problems with other pending reforms. Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, violates Canada’s obligations under international law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Bill incorporates the provisions of the former deeply-flawed Bill C-4, proposed legislation to crack down on human smuggling, which makes the detention of “designated foreign nationals” mandatory without access to a review of the grounds of their detention. The Minister can “designate foreign nationals” if the Minister believes they have used a human smuggler to arrive in Canada.

Fighting between Mali’s military and a Tuareg armed group in the north has escalated and is causing a human rights crisis. Dozens have been killed since the violence erupted last month, and thousands of people have fled across the border into neighbouring Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. This is the worst human rights crisis in northern Mali for 20 year and the region could be plunged into chaos if the fighting continues.

The Syrian authorities must release or charge a group of at least 14 people arrested on Thursday in a raid on the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus. A lawyer based in Syria told Amnesty International that the centre’s director Mazen Darwish and Syrian-American blogger Razan Ghazzawi were among those detained. Security forces removed the group from the office at around 1pm on Thursday and it is believed they are being held at Air Force Intelligence.