Strong arms trade treaty needed as UN Security Council increasingly looks unfit for purpose The courage shown by protesters in the past 12 months has been matched by a failure of leadership that makes the UN Security Council seem tired, out of step and increasingly unfit for purpose, Amnesty International said as it launched its 50th global human rights report with a call for a strong global Arms Trade Treaty later this year.

There remain hundreds of prisoners the government denies are political. In Burma this week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged foreign countries to lift sanctions. At the same time, it was wise of him to keep pushing Burma to release its remaining political prisoners. The fate of these wrongfully imprisoned people, too often overlooked as we celebrate those who have been released, can tell us much about the Burmese government's intentions with regard to reform.

To anyone interested in Thailand’s recent history and politics Dr. Thongchai Winichakul needs little introduction. A famed academic and historian, now resident in Singapore and the USA, Dr. Thongchai was a student leader during the terrible Thammasat Massacre of 1976 and spent time in prison following those events.

Thammasat University’s decision to ban from its campus an academic group working on reform of the lèse majesté law constitutes a violation of the human rights principle of academic freedom and should be revoked, Amnesty International said today.

The Cambodian authorities must immediately release 24 women and six children detained yesterday while peacefully protesting their forced eviction.