Reacting to the 13-year prison sentence handed down to prisoner of conscience and human rights defender Anar Mammadli, following the lengthy prison sentences imposed on nine defendants in the Toplum TV case, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:
“Anar Mammadli has been condemned to spend thirteen years behind bars for ‘crimes’ he did not commit. His conviction follows an unfair trial in which his rights were brazenly violated, mirroring the treatment of the nine defendants in the Toplum TV case, who were also handed lengthy prison sentences.”
“These convictions demonstrate that journalists and other critics who expose government abuses and challenge the interests of President Ilham Aliyev’s family are severely punished.
“Since 2009, the Azerbaijani authorities have increasingly tightened restrictions on critical NGOs and independent media outlets. Many have been arbitrarily denied registration. To continue operating amid deteriorating respect for the right to freedom of expression, many have adopted strategies that the authorities have sought to criminalize through impossible tax, currency and other regulatory requirements designed to obstruct their legitimate work.
“Azerbaijan’s international partners must not turn a blind eye to this escalating crackdown. Energy and economic cooperation cannot and should not come at the expense of human rights. The Azerbaijani authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Anar Mammadli and all others imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their human rights. They must end the persecution of independent media, civil society and other dissenting voices.”
Background
On 7 September 2026, the Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced Anar Mammadli to 13 years in prison on charges including “currency smuggling,” “illegal entrepreneurship,” “tax evasion,” “money laundering” and “document forgery.” The court sentenced his co-defendant Anar Abdullayev to 12 years’ imprisonment.
In July, the same court sentenced Akif Gurbanov, Ruslan Izzetli, Alasgar Mammadli, Ali Zeynalov, Ramil Babayev, Mushfig Jabarov, Ilkin Amrahov, Farid Ismayilov and Elmir Abbasov, associated with Toplum TV, the Institute for Democratic Initiatives and the Third Republic Platform, to prison terms ranging from 12 to 15 years on similar charges.
In both cases, the prosecution failed to present credible evidence establishing that the alleged offences had been committed. The courts arbitrarily rejected numerous requests by defence lawyers, including requests to examine all the prosecution’s evidence, question key witnesses in open court and address manifest inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the case materials. The defendants were also arbitrarily denied bail and subjected to lengthy pretrial detention. Anar Mammadli spent 27 months in detention between his arrest and conviction. This is his second unjust imprisonment, following his conviction in 2014 on similarly trumped-up charges. In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found that his detention had violated Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
During the last week of August, MSF teams in Mauritania and Senegal assisted people who had disembarked from boats attempting to cross to the Canary Islands.
Our support included providing medical care, essential items, and emergency mental health care.
West African and European governments must put in place safe and legal pathways for migration.
Dakar, Senegal – A total of 1,046 people who survived attempted boat crossings on the Atlantic migration route disembarked in a vulnerable condition during the last week of August at three West African cities: Nouadhibou in Mauritania, and Rosso and Dakar in Senegal.
The survivors were onboard seven boats in distress that had departed from The Gambia and were heading for the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean — one of the longest migration routes in the world — before becoming stranded at sea. They were rescued and brought to shore, where Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams provided them with emergency medical support in collaboration with the Mauritanian Red Crescent in Nouadhibou and with the International Organization for Migration in Rosso and Dakar.
They were suffering from medical conditions that included extreme dehydration, unconsciousness, bone fractures, extreme fatigue, and skin, gastric and respiratory infections from being stranded for an extended period of time at sea. The survivors included 134 women, including one who is pregnant, and 88 minors in need of protection.
Most survivors came from Senegal and The Gambia; others came from Mali, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire. Many told our team that they had suffered violence in their country of origin as well as along the migration route. One survivor who disembarked in Dakar said that he was beaten by a smuggler and unidentified men to force him to pay more money for the crossing. A female survivor told our team that a smuggler took her crossing payment and then raped her ahead of boarding the boat.
“When people take a 2,000-kilometre route that is currently the deadliest in the world, they must be escaping something worse,” says Dalil Adji, head of mission for MSF’s migration task force in West Africa. “People we support frequently tell our teams that they took the route to escape violence and extreme conditions in their country of origin, only to be met with more violence along the way.”
“We call on the governments of West Africa and Europe to prevent this human toll by putting in place safe and legal pathways for people to seek safety, and by creating a migration response that prioritises human life, dignity, and timely assistance,” says Adji.
In addition to providing emergency medical support, MSF teams referred severe cases for specialised medical care and provided survivors with water, food, blankets, and dignity kits, as well as emergency mental health care.
Our teams have been assisting people who disembark from distressed boats from the Atlantic route since 2024. From the launch of the project, MSF teams have been bearing witness to the growing human toll of this migration route, and the level of vulnerability among those who take it. Despite the evident dangers, people continue to take this risky route for lack of alternatives.
In West Africa, many girls will be missing when the new school term begins because they will have been married during the holidays.
Child marriage can be both a cause and a consequence of girls’ lack of access to education. They may drop out of school because they are forced to marry, or they may be married off because they do not have the opportunity to attend school.
According to UNICEF, West and Central Africa have the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world. In this region, four out of 10 girls are married before the age of 18.
Absétou* from Côte d’Ivoire, Aubierge from Benin and Bibata from Burkina Faso all dreamt of continuing their education. Through resistance, activism, and resilience, they tell their stories.
Deputy Leader Richard Tice’s speech to the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham was disrupted by an automated banner rising from the stage.
Greenpeace unfurled the remote control banner on the main stage of Reform’s party conference. It depicts Nigel Farage as ‘Mr Monopoly’ from the famous board game, carrying a sack of cash, with the slogan ‘Collect £5 million, burn the planet’.
Analysis [1] by Desmog indicates that two-thirds of Reform’s funding is from donors with financial interests in fossil fuels, totalling more than £24 million. When recently asked about the link between climate change and this summer’s extreme weather, Mr Tice, Reform UK’s energy spokesman, told people to “enjoy” the hot weather, which was “fantastic” for English wine.[2]
Amy Cameron, Programme Director for Greenpeace UK, said:
“Tice wants to celebrate this summer’s relentless heatwaves and droughts because they’re improving English sparkling wine. But the only thing being toasted in England is our farmland, and the only way you could miss that is if you’re paid not to notice.
“Reform disguise themselves as champions of ordinary people, but they’re funded by billionaires who profit from keeping us hooked on oil and gas, while the rest of us deal with the catastrophic climate consequences. When this summer’s searing temperatures give way to winter storms, 90% of homes in Tice’s own constituency, Boston and Skegness, will be at risk of flooding.
“We need to quit the expensive fossil fuels that are wrecking our climate. A more secure, independent energy future is within reach – we just need the politicians in the pocket of the oil and gas lobby to get out of the way.”
The protest highlights that Reform’s agenda favours the billionaires with fossil fuel interests who fund the party through Reform’s denial of climate change, as the nation is facing drought, heatwaves, wildfires and crop failures, and other countries suffer even more.
The investigation by the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards[3] into the £5 million ‘gift’ donated to Farage by Christopher Harborne, Reform UK’s biggest donor and a billionaire with interests including cryptocurrency and a jet fuel business, is ongoing.
Tice is also under investigation by the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards for possible failure to declare an interest, and a company controlled by Tice is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for donations given to Reform.[4]
Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative journalism unit, and Data Desk recently published an investigation revealing that a jet fuel business owned by Harborne is contracted to supply fuel to the US military from refineries taking oil from Russia and Iran.[5] Recent reporting has also revealed evidence of Reform accepting potentially illegal donations from overseas.[6]
Reacting to the decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to strike 879 applications against Russia from its list of cases on grounds of their lesser importance to case law and a lack of resources for their examination, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:
“The European Court of Human Rights’ decision is deeply disappointing. It deprives hundreds of individuals of what for many of them is their last hope of seeing justice for the violations they have suffered.
“The decision to deny these victims their day in court cannot be justified by Russia’s refusal to execute Court judgments, or the fact that the remaining applications raise no novel questions of law, or restraints on resources. This decision should be reversed and the cases brought back on the Court’s docket.
“Council of Europe member states must meanwhile ensure that the ECtHR has the financial and human resources required to fulfil its fundamental role. In addition, they should exhaust all available means to ensure that Russia is held accountable for its violations under the European Convention on Human Rights and that its obligations to implement the judgments through individual measures, including the payment of compensations to victims, are fulfilled.”
The European Court of Human Rights’ decision is deeply disappointing. It deprives hundreds of individuals of what for many of them is their last hope of seeing justice for the violations they have suffered.
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director
Background
On 3 September 2026, the European Court of Human Rights announced its decision to strike 879 applications against Russia from its list, the earliest pending since 2007, despite acknowledging that they contained potentially well-founded allegations of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court said the cases did not raise issues of marked importance for Russia’s responsibility under the Convention or require further development of its case law.
The applications concerned, among other issues, fair-trial rights, freedom of expression, conditions of detention, property rights and freedom of movement as listed in the Lebedeva and Others v. Russia decision. The applications also included cases brought by former prisoners of conscience, human rights defender Oyub Titiev and opposition activist Andrei Borovikov, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and Stanislav Dmitrievsky, and politician and prisoner of conscience Lev Shlosberg.
Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022 for starting its war of aggression against Ukraine and ceased to be a party to the Convention on 16 September 2022, but the ECtHR retains jurisdiction over violations committed before that date.
At Tabontebike primary school on the remote atoll of Abaiang, Kiribati, the school bell rings out, signalling the start of recess. Children stream out from classrooms, bare feet racing towards the shade of breadfruit trees through the mid-morning humidity.
Nearby a team from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) gathers under a buia. This raised structure, built from coconut tree wood with a palm-thatched roof offers shade and ventilation from the island heat. The team is here to meet with the principal to assess the school’s water and sanitation needs.
Mila Tirikai, an I-Kiribati MSF water and sanitation (WASH) supervisor takes the lead in these discussions. Born in Tarawa, the country’s capital, with family roots in Abaiang and Beru, Mila brings a deep understanding of life in these remote island communities. MSF work closely with Abaiang’s communities as part of a broader climate-sensitive disease approach that addresses non-communicable diseases, particularly in women and children, as well as a unique healthcare waste management project.
For Mila, this work is deeply personal: this is his community.
In Tabontebike, access to a reliable water supply shapes daily life. With no public water system on the island, communities rely on shallow groundwater wells or rainwater collection for everyday drinking water.
Mila Tirikai and Selene Tripp, MSF team members, examine a tippy-tap handwashing station at Tabontebike clinic, Abaiang. Kiribati, April 2026.Diana Worman/MSF
For Tabontebike’s pupils, this translates to a growing uncertainty that the water they draw each day – whether from a well or a rainwater tank – may be too salty to drink, contaminated, or simply not available in the quantity they need. The slow creep of climate change is quietly reshaping children’s everyday lives.
For the I-Kiribati however, this is not a new challenge — they’ve long been addressing the impacts of climate change and advocating for action over many decades.
“From a young age, I was taught that climate change is one of the natural enemies of Kiribati — not only because it affects our daily life, but because we lack the resources to fight it,” says Mila.
“The sea level has risen, flooding homes and washing away our coastline,” he says. “Our wells have turned salty, and traditional crops like bwabwai [giant swamp taro] are dying. The weather has become unpredictable, with stronger winds, longer droughts, and sudden heavy rains.”
“When safe water becomes limited or unreliable, people may depend on contaminated wells or poorly stored water, increasing the risk of diarrhoeal disease, dehydration, skin infections, and other health problems,” Mila says.
On the frontline of the climate crisis
Few people could point to Kiribati on a map, yet it sits on the frontline of the climate crisis. Kiribati is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, its footprint spanning 3.5 million square kilometres of the Pacific, across 32 low-lying atolls and the raised phosphate island of Banaba. Its 138,000 people live on narrow strips of land only metres above sea level, dependent on fragile natural systems for water and fresh food. Climate change and environmental degradation are not an existential threat, but a reality that challenges the most basic determinant of health: safe water.
The reliability and safety of drinking water have a direct impact on health outcomes. When water sources are unsafe for drinking, communities face higher rates of diarrhoeal disease, skin infections, and other waterborne illnesses, which are particularly dangerous for children, pregnant women, and older people. Increasing environmental pressures in Kiribati, such as rising sea levels, temperatures, drought, land degradation, food insecurity and extreme remoteness, compound an already fragile public health landscape.
Mila has no doubts about the profound impacts this has on community health:
“Water is life,” he says.
“It is survival itself. I have witnessed firsthand how water scarcity and limited access affect entire communities, and Kiribati is a striking example of this.”
“When schools and health facilities cannot depend on clean, sufficient water,” he continues, “infection prevention and control, maternal and child health, and treatment of diarrhoeal and skin diseases all become more precarious.”
Te maraia, te buaka, te rongo
To Mila, climate change is not abstract. He describes it using Kiribati words like: te maraia [drought], te buaka [strong winds and waves], and te rongo [when the land feels lifeless].
“These changes don’t happen one at a time, they build on each other, and that’s what makes life harder for our communities,” he says.
“When the rain doesn’t come for a long stretch, our crops suffer and families start to worry about having enough food to eat,” he continues.
MSF’s Sonam Younis, Selene Tripp and Mila Tirikai assess the condition of the community well at Tabontebike Primary School, Abaiang, Kiribati, April 2026.Diana Worman/MSF
“Then when the rain finally does come, it often comes too hard and too fast, flooding the very water sources we depend on and turning them turbid (cloudy) and unsafe to drink,” says Mila. “And because outer islands rarely have the resources to treat or clean this water, families are often left with few safe options.”
There is overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is fuelling more frequent and extreme weather events, including heatwaves, floods, droughts, and storms. A remote island like Abaiang is among the most vulnerable to the impacts.
“Te buaka [the strong winds and waves] bring their own kind of hardship,” Mila says.
“They push the sea into powerful surges that eat away at our coastlines, flooding homes and damaging the wells we rely on for fresh water,” he says. “Because our islands are so narrow, there’s nowhere for the land to retreat to. When we lose a well, a home, or a stretch of land to the sea, it’s not something we can easily get back.”
Rising sea levels and changing weather patterns regularly damage man-made sea walls, like this one in Tarawa, Kiribati, April 2026. Diana Worman/MSF
Strengthening climate-resilient health systems
MSF’s work in Abaiang has a simple goal: strengthening climate-resilient health systems and addressing key health challenges within the community. These activities are done in close partnership with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and local remote healthcare workers. Mila and the WASH team support a programme of strengthening water infrastructure in schools, communities, and health clinics by protecting groundwater, improving rainwater harvesting and storage, upgrading sanitation facilities, and supporting reliable sources of drinking water.
To guide this work, MSF takes an evidence-informed approach to understand Abaiang’s freshwater resources. Rainfall is the only source of recharge for the islands’ freshwater lenses, leading to a more vulnerable water supply. Understanding how the water flows underground is crucial to gaining a broader understanding of groundwater quantity and quality, which will inform what type of water system can realistically be sustained in such a remote setting.
A recent hydrogeological assessment used electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) to investigate the subsurface and characterise the freshwater lens and underlying geological layers. A hydrogeologist mapped the underground layers by placing a line of electrodes into the ground. Sending a small electrical current through the soil and measuring how it travels (since electricity moves differently through water, soil, and rock). The team created a 2D ‘slice’ of the subsurface, producing detailed images of where freshwater is stored.
Then, the team performed infiltration tests to see how quickly the ground absorbs water, known as hydraulic conductivity. This provided crucial information as to how fast water can soak down into the lens, with this information helping inform decisions around sustainable groundwater abstraction.
Mila Tirikai/MSF
Results showed that shallow, hand-dug wells, which are widely used across the island, are highly vulnerable to contamination and often unreliable. These findings support MSF’s ongoing water quality analysis which measures how environmental changes affect well water quality. By testing for salinity and coliform bacteria, the team identify which areas are at highest risk of contamination and map the results using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. Several of the freshwater wells were found to be contaminated, indicating just how susceptible the groundwater is when not protected or replenished through natural cycles.
Protecting the freshwater lens and carefully managing groundwater abstraction are essential to maintaining the resource over time. MSF’s approach takes a multi-dimensional view of water systems: connecting groundwater availability and quality with contamination risks, climate pressures, population changes, infrastructure limits, and how people access and use water. The challenge is then to translate this evidence into a sustainable water supply, acknowledging that solutions that work elsewhere may not be sustainable in practice in Abaiang.
A climate-resilient response therefore, should integrate protected groundwater use, carefully managed abstraction and treatment, rainwater harvesting, and community-led water management within systems that can be sustained over time.
Using this evidence, MSF and community members work together to rehabilitate wells located near schools and clinics, employing simple adaptions like covering open water sources, improving drainage, installing and maintaining rainwater harvesting systems and establishing hygiene committees to protect these vital resources.
The support and knowledge from the community is crucially important, emphasises Mila: “Residents’ long-term observations, such as changes in taste, water levels, or historical avoidance of certain sources helped validate technical findings and, in some cases, identified issues before they were formally confirmed through mapping.”
A call for action
As COP31 approaches, the urgency to acknowledge and strengthen the link between climate change and health grows ever stronger.
The interconnected link between climate and health is undeniable. Climate-sensitive diseases such as diarrhoeal illness, skin infections and vector-borne diseases are linked to water scarcity, flooding and poor sanitation. These impacts on already fragile health systems are happening now. Strong climate action through reducing emissions and adapting health systems means better health outcomes for all.
Rubbish accumulates along the beach in Eita. Waste management remains an ongoing challenge due to limited land and resources. Kiribati, April 2026.Diana Worman/MSF
COP decisions matter because they influence the environment in which communities and health systems operate. This can shape whether Kiribati and other small island developing states have the resources to prepare for climate challenges, but this can only be done if health is considered central to climate action decision-making.
“I want global leaders to understand that in Kiribati, climate change, water, and health are directly connected,” says Mila.
Lessons from Abaiang
At Tabontebike primary school, the gong sounds, and recess ends.
The solutions proposed by MSF are modest but transformative at the school. In a month’s time, MSF’s WASH team return to the school and install well covers to reduce contamination and upgrade rainwater systems with first-flush devices, repair gutters and debris filters, and improve piping. They spend time with school staff and community members to train them on how to maintain these improvements and later MSF’s health promoters visit classes to guide hygiene and sanitation sessions with children and teachers.
On these fragile atolls, the climate crisis is a health and humanitarian crisis, particularly for the children growing up on the frontline.
Climate change disproportionately hits the most vulnerable people. This includes people who are among the least responsible for the crisis, but are paying the highest price.
Kiribati may be small, but its experience carries global significance. What we learn here can inform climate and health responses across the Pacific and beyond. Investment in resilient, climate-ready water systems is a global imperative, not a local choice.
“Global leaders must move beyond discussion and provide practical, long-term support,” says Mila. “Protecting water in Kiribati means protecting health, dignity, and the future of our communities.”
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports Kiribati’s national priorities for strengthening WASH, environmental health and climate-resilient health systems, including the Ministry of Health and Medical Services’ focus on protecting communities from climate-sensitive health risks. In coordination with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy, and local communities, MSF continues to support agreed monitoring of water quality, alongside training and clear handover arrangements so that infrastructure and knowledge can be maintained locally and sustainably in the future.
In response to the Tunis Court of Cassation upholding the convictions and lengthy prison sentences against 34 defendants in the politically motivated ‘conspiracy case’, Yasmine Ahmed, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Regional Human Rights Impact, said:
“The Tunis Court of Cassation’s decision to uphold these unjust convictions is a devastating blow to justice and an appalling indictment of the Tunisian justice system. By validating these draconian sentences, ranging up to 45 years, following a sham trial based on unfounded charges, the authorities have doubled down on their relentless campaign to eliminate political dissent and silence independent voices.
The Tunis Court of Cassation’s decision to uphold these unjust convictions is a devastating blow to justice and an appalling indictment of the Tunisian justice system.
Yasmine Ahmed, Amnesty International
“From the outset, this trial was severely compromised by grave due process violations, including forcing defendants to attend hearings remotely and stripping them of their right to be present at their own trial. The Court of Cassation had a final judicial opportunity to correct this injustice and yet instead today’s verdict exposes the authorities’ chilling determination to silence all remaining opposition.
“Those imprisoned include human rights lawyer Ayachi Hammami, opposition figure Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, and political activist Chaima Issa amongst many others wrongfully imprisoned. Tunisia’s authorities must immediately quash these unjust convictions, drop all charges, and unconditionally release all those detained solely for exercising their human rights. The authorities must stop misusing the criminal justice system as a tool for political repression.”
KOROR, PALAU, Friday 4 September 2026 – At the closing of the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Palau overnight, Greenpeace Australia Pacific called out Australia for promising climate action while expanding fossil fuel production, and is urging Pacific leaders to unite ahead of the Pacific Pre-COP.
Speaking from Palau, Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Against the backdrop of the 1.5°C UNEP report, this Forum was a vital opportunity for Pacific leadership to shine by firmly calling out fossil fuels and banding together for our shared Pacific future. While the final communique reaffirmed the need to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, Pacific leaders missed the opportunity to hold the Australian government accountable for their continued approval of new coal and gas projects.
“At Pacific Pre-COP in Nadi, we are calling for Pacific priorities to be centred and respected by Australia and our global partners: they must support the ambition of a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific, ensure access to adequate climate finance and lead a global push to hold the line on 1.5°C as a matter of Pacific survival.
“Leaders fell short at the Pacific Islands Forum, and Pacific Pre-COP is the opportunity to match the ambition with urgency, and set the vaka on course toward a peaceful, just Pacific future.”
Speaking from Palau, Dr Simon Bradshaw, COP31 Lead and climate expert at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“The Pacific Islands Forum was an opportunity for Prime Minister Albanese to show real commitment to climate action and to its Pacific partnership. Instead, this week the Australian Government ‘celebrated’ the first extraction of polluting gas from the Beetaloo Basin and approved an extension of one of Australia’s largest coal mines. All amidst a still unfolding flood crisis in Nepal-Tibet and the devastating news that the world will blow through 1.5°C of warming — a survival line for Pacific communities.
“These are not the actions of a government aspiring to be a global climate leader and effective middle power in turbulent times, they are the actions of a government still beholden to the fossil fuel industry. Australia, get it together.
“As we head towards the Pacific Pre-COP, our Prime Minister and Government must remember the responsibility we have taken on. We must hold the line on returning warming to 1.5°C as our legal and moral obligation. This means doing everything possible to accelerate the global transition away from fossil fuels, starting at home.”
Dr. Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka, founder of Finafinau – an American Samoa youth-focused environmental organization, engages in radio communication with the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer in Pago Pago Harbor. Dr. Suluai-Mahuka’s message to the research ship was that the people of American Samoa welcome science that helps us better understand and protect the deep ocean, but raised concerns over the current expedition’s mission to map and quantify deep sea minerals. Waters offshore the U.S. territory are currently subject to a U.S. Interior Department Marine Minerals Administration proposed lease sale of approximately 31.4 million acres (or roughly 48,000–50,000+ square miles) for commercial deep sea mining. At the time of the radio communication, the lease sale was scheduled for November 19, 2026 and if sold would be the first lease of its kind in U.S. domestic waters and could potentially become the site of the world’s first commercial deep sea mining operation. The radio communication was part of a broader direct communication with the ship involving Finafinau, American Samoa activists, and Greenpeace USA.
Photos and videos are available in the Greenpeace Media Library
Pago Pago, American Samoa (Sept. 2, 2026) – American Samoan community leaders, accompanied by Greenpeace USA activists, peacefully confronted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research ship Okeanos Explorer in Pacific waters off Pago Pago Harbor. The activists held banners that read “Don’t Mine the Moana” in protest over concerns that the ship’s efforts to map seabed minerals off American Samoa and test whether radon can help locate mineral deposits could be used to advance the federal government’s deep sea mining agenda in the region.
Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka, founder of American Samoa’sFinafinauFoundation, delivered amessage of protest to theOkeanos Explorerby radio channel,stating: “American Samoa says no to deep-sea mining because the moana is so much more than a resource. It feeds us. It connects our islands. It carries our culture, our history, and our responsibility to those who come after us.
“Part of this expedition is focused on locating and understanding deep-sea mineral resources. At the same time, the federal government is moving toward leasing millions of acres of the seafloor around our islands for those very minerals. For us, those two things cannot simply be separated.
“The knowledge you help create can deepen humanity’s understanding of the ocean and strengthen the case for protecting it. But when that same knowledge is used to locate and characterize minerals for future extraction, we have every right to ask what purpose that science is ultimately serving. We stand in solidarity with communities from the Marianas to Hawaiʻi, California, Oregon, and Washington who have also said no to deep-sea mining and yes to protecting our shared ocean.”
The Okeanos Explorerresponded, “We thank you for your message. And coming from Hawai’i and living in Hawai’i we understand the Moana. It is our purpose here to understand the oceans and what that entails from the ocean surface to the bottom of the ocean, and we are only here for research purposes only. It is to the politicians and the people who make the decisions to decide what they do with their oceans. We are only here for science as a whole. To better ourselves as a nation, to better ourselves as a community, and better ourselves as Ohana.”
Activists from Finafinau, Greenpeace USA and the broader American Samoan public met the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer in Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa during the ship’s expedition to the U.S. territory to map and quantify deep sea minerals. They displayed banners reading “Don’t Mine the Moana”, “Stop Deep Sea Mining” and “Protect the Pacific” as the ship engaged in crew change operations just offshore. The activists were concerned with the research vessel’s current expedition to map and quantify deep sea minerals. Waters offshore the U.S. territory are currently subject to a U.S. Interior Department Marine Minerals Administration proposed lease sale of approximately 31.4 million acres (or roughly 48,000–50,000+ square miles) for commercial deep sea mining. At the time of the demonstration, the lease sale was scheduled for November 19, 2026 and if sold would be the first lease of its kind in U.S. domestic waters and could potentially become the site of the world’s first commercial deep sea mining operation.
Gov. Pulaali’i Nikolao Pula has warned that the untested extraction processes could harm the territory’s tuna-dependent economy. StarKist’s Pago Pago cannery — the last one left in American Samoa — employs roughly 2,450 workers and anchors an estimated 4,500 jobs territory-wide, in a territory of about 55,000 people. The territory’s stand echoes a broader regional wave: Fiji, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Kanaky (New Caledonia) and the Federated States of Micronesia have all called for moratoriums on seabed mining, and Māʻohi Nui (French Polynesia) and Hawaiʻi have banned it outright in their own waters.
“We are being told to soften our concerns because this is ‘only exploration,’ but exploration for deep sea minerals still involves removing material from the seafloor, and it is being done for the purpose of determining whether and how commercial mining can move forward. Exploration is the front door to commercial mining. It is an unacceptable risk to our communities,” said Uisaina T. Collins, Finafinau board member.
Arlo Hemphill, Greenpeace USA’s Deep Sea Mining Campaign Project Lead, said: “The U.S. has used the Pacific as a testing ground before, without permission, consultation or foresight of the consequences. Now, Washington wants the Pacific to pay the price again – this time for its misguided critical mineral agenda. How many more times must communities say no to deep sea mining before this Administration gets the message? People – not profit —should decide the future of the ocean.”
Contacts:
Tanya Brooks, Senior Communications Specialist at Greenpeace USA, [email protected], +1 703 342 9226
Greenpeace USA (Inc.) is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.
Amnesty International presents Stories That Resist, its first Virtual Museum—an immersive 360° experience that allows visitors to explore 65 years of campaigning, research and collective action in defence of human rights around the world.
Across five thematic galleries, visitors can explore more than 50 historical items, including emblematic objects from Amnesty International’s archives, campaigns that defined generations, photographs, videos, awards and testimonies from people who chose to act in the face of injustice.
“The history of Amnesty International is made up of people who refused to remain indifferent. This museum allows us to honour their courage, preserve the memory of our struggles and remind ourselves that every action, however small it may seem, can help transform a life,” said Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas.
The history of Amnesty International is made up of people who refused to remain indifferent. This museum allows us to honour their courage, preserve the memory of our struggles and remind ourselves that every action, however small it may seem, can help transform a life.”
Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas.
The museum offers visitors a closer look at some of the most significant moments and honours in Amnesty International’s history, including the story of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the organization in 1977 for its contribution to the defence of human rights.
It also features individuals and movements honoured with the Ambassador of Conscience Award, Amnesty International’s highest distinction, presented to those who have confronted injustice and used their voices and actions to inspire millions of people. Recipients include Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Ai Weiwei, Alicia Keys, Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement.
Developed in the Americas, the initiative aims to introduce the movement’s history to new audiences and inspire more people and future generations to join the defence of human rights.
More than a digital archive, Stories That Resist is a space for memory, education and participation that demonstrates what can be achieved when thousands of people organize and act in the face of injustice.
The museum is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, includes accessibility features for all visitors and can be explored free of charge from anywhere in the world.
“Every campaign, every investigation, every object and every person who chose to act is part of this history. Today, that legacy has a new space where it can continue to inspire,” said Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas.
Every campaign, every investigation, every object and every person who chose to act is part of this history. Today, that legacy has a new space where it can continue to inspire,”
Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas.
