• Dec 14 2012
  • 6:13pm
Britain's ‘big tent/secret justice’ politics
“I went through a secret trial once before, in Gaddafi’s Libya. In many ways, it was as bad as the torture. It is not an experience I care to repeat.”
  • Dec 11 2012
  • 5:24pm
Afghanistan: where violence against women is not inevitable
The endless cycle of apparently targeted killings in Afghanistan is …. utterly depressing. There’s no other way of putting it.
  • Dec 4 2012
  • 2:11pm
Look away now – Yemen’s Ansar al-Shari’a are in town
Video It could be I’m getting squeamish in my old age. I don't know.
  • Nov 28 2012
  • 12:59pm
The Emir of Kuwait chews the fat with the Queen and David Cameron
When I started writing this blog post (yesterday) it wasn’t clear whether David Cameron would be meeting the Emir of Kuwait on the Gulf leader’s current visit to Britai...
  • Nov 13 2012
  • 1:21pm
Italy’s clandestini: Lord McAlpine, Libyan migrants and me
One of the incidental details in the BBC/Lord McAlpine furore is the fact that McAlpine lives in Puglia, in southern Italy.
  • Nov 7 2012
  • 5:17pm
Four more years: of Guantánamo, drones and the death penalty …
Video … was not the campaign slogan that Barack Obama’s campaign team used during their man’s successful run for a second term. But, maybe it should have been.
  • Oct 15 2012
  • 6:26pm
When did Ken Clarke become a fan of Franz Kafka?
Video As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
  • Oct 8 2012
  • 1:52pm
Rwanda: where no torture exists - official
“There are other rooms where they put you and you lose your memory. They ask you a question and when you find yourself again they ask you a question.
  • Oct 5 2012
  • 3:39pm
Forget the Bond tune, listen to Ergo Phizmiz!
Video Blimey, bring back Gangnam Style. No, sorry, I don’t much like that Adele Bond tune. Too “polished”, too “polite”, too predictable for me.
  • Oct 3 2012
  • 12:55pm
Is South Sudan's President Mayardit wearing a black hat or a white hat?
Video The president of the world’s newest country, South Sudan’s Salva Kiir Mayardit, famously wears a distinctly old-style hat. It’s a black Stetson.
Neil Durkin

About me

Likes: la vita italiana; reggae; Claire Denis; suits; jazz; espresso; Iain Sinclair; London; punk; not eating meat; Mark Steel; haloumi; New York; Stanley Brinks; home recording; charity shops; animals; cheap red wine.

You'll also find me on twitter as @niluccio or if you're a journalist you can call the Amnesty UK media team on +44 (0)20 7033 1547.