Amnesty International
Amnesty International said Tuesday it is halting work in India due to a "continuing crackdown" and "harassment" by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The human rights watchdog said the bank account of its India branch has been frozen by the right-wing government.
In a statement, Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of the organization, said: "The continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts is not accidental."
Amnesty International's director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Marie Struthers has stated that "former detainees told us that detention centres have become torture chambers, where protesters are forced to lie in the dirt while police kick and beat them with truncheons".
Multiple people including a Polish journalist have come forward to support the claims of torture. Witold Dobrowolski has stated on Twitter that he has been "kidnapped, tortured and sent to gulag" but is "now free and safe with members of polish diplomacy".
According to a press release by Amnesty International, US law enforcement committed at least 125 incidents of police violence against "protestors, medics, journalists and legal observers in 40 states and D.C." during the Black Lives Matter protests in May and June.
The NGO further stated that US law enforcement "repeatedly used physical force, chemical irritants such as tear gas and pepper spray, and kinetic impact projectiles as a first resort tactic against peaceful protestors rather than as a response to any sort of actual threat or violence." Amnesty recorded 89 cases of use of tear gas, six incidents of the use of batons, 13 instances of the use of rubber bullets and 31 cases of unlawful pepper spray.
Gruesome reports and photographs have surfaced of migrant and asylum-seekers abuse by Croatian special police. Massimo Moratti, Amnesty International’s Deputy Europe Director, calls for the European Commission to investigate.
There have been reports of abuse at the Croatian border since late 2017.