Late last night I was at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to attend a crucial gathering of Ambassadors and embassy officials from dozens of different nations.

A few short weeks ago, the United Nations agreed to adopt the world's first international arms trade treaty.

This treaty has the potential to...

Greece: idyllic country of picturesque islands and sparkling seas that welcomes strangers, or land of serious human rights abuses and growing violence and xenophobia? While there is no doubt about the loveliness of Greece's landscapes, something brutal is going on behind the beauty.

Last week Greece's international image took a...

At 8.12pm on Thursday night in New York, one by one they lined up to try and destroy 20 years of hard work. First Iran, then North Korea and then Syria.

This was supposed to be the moment the United Nations took a truly historic step and adopted an Arms...

"The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust could be united into common action, something effective could be done."

So said Peter Benenson, a barrister working in London in the 1960s and the founder of Amnesty International. He was right of course. Right,...

As 2012 begins to draw to a close I will once again reflect on the people I have been privileged to meet. This year, two courageous individuals stand out, both indomitable figures in Burma's struggle for human rights.

Both Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Zarganar -...

International attention on Rwanda tends to focus on strides made since the 1994 genocide - stability, economic development, women's rights. But in recent months, Rwanda has been thrust from the limelight to the spotlight.

The Rwandan military's support to the M23 armed group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has...

With Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France this weekend - the first time ever for a Brit, and Andy Murray reaching the Wimbledon Final earlier this month - another first for a Brit since 1938, one thing is certain: UK athletes are making 2012 a year to remember. And...

Someone, somewhere, is keeping a tally of the number of international meetings on the future of Afghanistan held since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. It won't be a small number.

The Nato summit in Chicago has, once again, been discussing Afghanistan's prospects, specifically security after international troop...

It barely got a mention in international news reports, but on Sunday, four civilians were killed in the Shah Wali Kot district in southern Kandahar province in Afghanistan. They died after their vehicle triggered an explosion from a roadside bomb. One of those killed was a child. At...

Syria is a sharp reminder of precisely why we need a strong arms trade treaty

The distressing scenes of ferocious and unrelenting military assaults on the Syrian city of Homs, are a sharp reminder that the world needs to have tougher controls on the arms trade, and urgently. Since protests...

The prime minister said in a speech last Thursday, that the Conservatives have always believed in social responsibility. He spoke of ushering in a new age, in which morals would govern markets, and transparency and accountability would permeate every aspect of trade, business and commerce.

In this utopian new age,...

When I was in Tahrir Square in April there were still banners in the square declaring "The army and the people are one". Those days are now long gone.

The severity of the security forces' response to demonstrators in Tahrir Square these past days has laid bare the huge...

When they spoke to Amnesty, many of the residents recounted the uncertainty that ruled their lives before they moved to Dale Farm - being moved from car parks to common grounds and fields, for a few months at a time. It was only after they moved to Dale Farm that...

In contrast to a response to the riots that says 'we must empower teachers to be more disciplinarian, this country is losing its moral fibre' we should use human rights to illustrate the power of liberation and order, rather than simply applying order until liberated from the school gates

In...

The system of forced removals from the UK - which was brought sharply into focus in October last year when Jimmy Mubenga died in tragic circumstances on a flight to Angola from Heathrow - is in need of radical reform.

Private security contractors carrying out forced removals...