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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Amnesty International’s mission is to conduct research and take action to prevent and end grave abuses of all human rights – civil, political, social, cultural and economic. From freedom of expression and association to physical and mental integrity, from protection from discrimination to the right to housing – these rights are indivisible. Amnesty International is funded mainly by its membership and public donations. No funds are sought or accepted from governments for investigating and campaigning against human rights abuses. Amnesty International is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. Amnesty International is a democratic movement whose major policy decisions are taken by representatives from all national sections at International Council Meetings held every two years. Check online for current details.

First published in 2016 by Except where otherwise noted, This report documents Amnesty Amnesty International Ltd content in this document is International’s work and Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton licensed under a Creative concerns through 2015. Street, London WC1X 0DW Commons (attribution, non- The absence of an entry in this United Kingdom commercial, no derivatives, report on a particular country or international 4.0) licence. © Amnesty International 2016 territory does not imply that no https://creativecommons.org/lice human rights violations of Index: POL 10/2552/2016 nses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode concern to Amnesty International ISBN: 978-0-86210-492-4 For more information please visit have taken place there during the A catalogue record for this book the permissions page on our year. Nor is the length of a is available from the British website: www.amnesty.org country entry any basis for a Library. amnesty.org comparison of the extent and depth of Amnesty International’s Original language: English concerns in a country. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2015/16 THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S HUMAN RIGHTS

iv Amnesty International Report 2015/16 CONTENTS ANNUAL REPORT 2015/16 ABBREVIATIONS ...... ix PREFACE ...... xi FOREWORD ...... 14 AFRICA REGIONAL OVERVIEW ...... 18 AMERICAS REGIONAL OVERVIEW ...... 26 ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL OVERVIEW ...... 34 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA REGIONAL OVERVIEW ...... 41 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGIONAL OVERVIEW ...... 49 ...... 60 ALBANIA ...... 63 ...... 65 ANGOLA ...... 67 ARGENTINA ...... 70 ARMENIA ...... 71 AUSTRALIA ...... 73 AUSTRIA ...... 74 ...... 76 BAHAMAS ...... 78 BAHRAIN ...... 79 BANGLADESH ...... 82 BELARUS ...... 84 BELGIUM ...... 86 BENIN ...... 87 BOLIVIA ...... 88 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA ...... 90 BRAZIL ...... 91 BULGARIA ...... 95 BURKINA FASO ...... 97 BURUNDI ...... 99 ...... 103 ...... 106 CANADA ...... 108 ...... 110 ...... 113 CHILE ...... 115 ...... 117 COLOMBIA ...... 122 CONGO (REPUBLIC OF) ...... 127 CÔTE D’IVOIRE ...... 129 CROATIA ...... 131

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 v ...... 132 CYPRUS ...... 133 CZECH REPUBLIC ...... 134 DEMOCRATIC ...... 136 DENMARK ...... 140 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ...... 141 ECUADOR ...... 143 EGYPT ...... 145 EL SALVADOR ...... 149 ...... 151 ERITREA ...... 152 ESTONIA ...... 154 ETHIOPIA ...... 155 FIJI ...... 156 FINLAND ...... 157 ...... 158 GAMBIA ...... 161 GEORGIA ...... 163 GERMANY ...... 165 GHANA ...... 166 GREECE ...... 168 GUATEMALA ...... 170 GUINEA ...... 172 GUINEA-BISSAU ...... 174 GUYANA ...... 175 HAITI ...... 176 HONDURAS ...... 178 HUNGARY ...... 179 INDIA ...... 181 ...... 186 ...... 190 ...... 194 IRELAND ...... 198 ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES ...... 200 ITALY ...... 204 JAMAICA ...... 207 JAPAN ...... 208 JORDAN ...... 210 KAZAKHSTAN ...... 212 KENYA ...... 214 KOREA (DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF) ...... 217 KOREA (REPUBLIC OF) ...... 220 KUWAIT ...... 222 KYRGYZSTAN ...... 224

vi Amnesty International Report 2015/16 LAOS ...... 226 LATVIA ...... 227 LEBANON ...... 228 LESOTHO ...... 229 LIBYA ...... 231 LITHUANIA ...... 236 MACEDONIA ...... 236 MADAGASCAR ...... 238 MALAWI ...... 239 MALAYSIA ...... 240 MALDIVES ...... 242 MALI ...... 243 MALTA ...... 245 MAURITANIA ...... 247 MEXICO ...... 249 MOLDOVA ...... 253 MONGOLIA ...... 254 MONTENEGRO ...... 255 MOROCCO / WESTERN SAHARA ...... 256 MOZAMBIQUE ...... 260 ...... 261 NAMIBIA ...... 265 NAURU ...... 266 NEPAL ...... 267 NETHERLANDS ...... 269 NEW ZEALAND ...... 270 NICARAGUA ...... 271 NIGER ...... 272 NIGERIA ...... 274 NORWAY ...... 278 OMAN ...... 279 ...... 280 PALESTINE (STATE OF) ...... 284 PANAMA ...... 286 NEW GUINEA ...... 288 PARAGUAY ...... 289 PERU ...... 291 PHILIPPINES ...... 293 POLAND ...... 295 PORTUGAL ...... 297 PUERTO RICO ...... 298 QATAR ...... 299 ROMANIA ...... 300 RUSSIAN FEDERATION ...... 302

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 vii RWANDA ...... 307 SAUDI ARABIA ...... 309 SENEGAL ...... 313 SERBIA ...... 315 SIERRA LEONE ...... 318 SINGAPORE ...... 320 SLOVAKIA ...... 321 SLOVENIA ...... 323 SOMALIA ...... 324 SOUTH AFRICA ...... 328 SOUTH SUDAN ...... 332 SPAIN ...... 336 SRI LANKA ...... 339 SUDAN ...... 342 SWAZILAND ...... 345 SWEDEN ...... 348 SWITZERLAND ...... 348 SYRIA ...... 350 ...... 354 TAJIKISTAN ...... 355 TANZANIA ...... 358 THAILAND ...... 359 TIMOR-LESTE ...... 362 TOGO ...... 363 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO ...... 364 TUNISIA ...... 365 TURKEY ...... 369 TURKMENISTAN ...... 373 UGANDA ...... 375 UKRAINE ...... 378 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ...... 382 UNITED KINGDOM ...... 384 OF AMERICA ...... 387 URUGUAY ...... 391 UZBEKISTAN ...... 392 VENEZUELA ...... 395 VIET NAM ...... 398 YEMEN ...... 400 ZAMBIA ...... 404 ZIMBABWE ...... 405

viii Amnesty International Report 2015/16 ICCPR ABBREVIATIONS International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social AU and Cultural Rights ICRC CEDAW International Committee of the Red Cross UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women ILO International Labour Organization CEDAW COMMITTEE UN Committee on the Elimination of INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION AGAINST Discrimination against Women ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE International Convention for the Protection of CERD All Persons from Enforced Disappearance International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination LGBTI Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and CERD COMMITTEE intersex UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization CIA US Central Intelligence Agency NGO Non-governmental organization ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States OAS Organization of American States EU European Union OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR THE Europe PREVENTION OF European Committee for the Prevention of UK Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment United Kingdom or Punishment UN EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN United Nations RIGHTS (European) Convention for the Protection of UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or ICC Punishment International Criminal Court UN REFUGEE CONVENTION Convention relating to the Status of Refugees

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 ix UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression

UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON RACISM Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance

UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TORTURE Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences

UNHCR, THE UN REFUGEE AGENCY Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

UPR UN Universal Periodic Review

USA United States of America

WHO World Health Organization

x Amnesty International Report 2015/16 PREFACE The Amnesty International Report 2015/16 documents the state of the world’s human rights during 2015. The foreword, five regional overviews and a survey of 160 countries and territories highlight the suffering endured by many, be it through conflict, displacement, discrimination or repression. The Report also highlights the strength and extent of the human rights movement, and surveys the progress made in the safeguarding and securing of human rights. While every attempt is made to ensure accuracy, information may be subject to change without notice.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 xi xii Amnesty International Report 2015/16 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2015/16 FOREWORD AND REGIONAL OVERVIEWS refugees were shaken by the gut-wrenching FOREWORD media image of the drowned body of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi, were forced to react to the “The fact that we are seeing public outcry and the calls to welcome refugees and end the crisis. so many new crises breaking Yet both in Syria’s regional neighbourhood and in western countries, significant gaps in out without any of the old institutional responses to crisis and conflict were exposed. Although some countries in ones getting resolved, clearly the region accepted a large number of Syrian refugees, many governments both within and illustrates the lack of outside the Middle East and North Africa region remained unwilling to increase their capacity and political will to intake of refugees to meaningful levels. Burden- and responsibility-sharing continued end conflict, let alone to to be tremendously lopsided, and provision of resources lagged well behind the rapidly prevent it. The result is an unfolding crisis. Meanwhile, the human rights of many families and individuals on the move alarming proliferation of were violated, including through criminalization of asylum-seekers, unpredictability and refoulement, push-backs and removal to other territories, and through various state impunity.” actions that amounted to denial of access to an asylum process. António Guterres, UN High Commissioner As the world struggled to respond to the for Refugees large numbers leaving Syria, the war raging within the country crystallized urgent The past year severely tested the international concerns around the application of system’s capacity to respond to crises and international human rights and humanitarian mass forced displacements of people, and law that Amnesty International and others found it woefully inadequate. More people are have consistently raised for years. The Syrian currently displaced and seeking refuge conflict has become a byword for the worldwide than at any point since the Second inadequate protection of scores of civilians at World War. This is partly fuelled by the risk, and more broadly for the systemic failure continuing armed conflict in Syria, where of institutions to uphold . more than half of the population has now fled Even as we live in the hope that current beyond the country’s borders or been efforts will yield peace in Syria, over the years internally displaced. So far attempts to resolve the war in the country has also highlighted the conflict have simply served to highlight the impunity gap that ensues when the five global and regional divisions. permanent members of the UN Security Multilateral initiatives to respond to the Council use their veto to block credible and outpouring of refugees, including the UN proportionate action to end war crimes and Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan, have crimes against humanity, and to impede in recent months been jostled by the sheer accountability when such crimes are being or weight of the crisis into stronger co-ordination have been committed. Syria’s dire human across Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and rights situation has demonstrated the Turkey. Governments in Europe, Canada and weakness of systems of civilian protection the USA, where public perceptions of during armed conflicts. In the Syrian crisis,

14 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 and more widely with the actions of the In the Amnesty International Report of armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS), 1977, we welcomed the first meeting of the we see the results of reckless arms trading UN Human Rights Committee, and noted that over decades, and the deadly impact this has it represented one of “a number of on civilians. The conflict has also highlighted developments at the UN in areas important to the retreat of responsibility for refugee Amnesty International’s human rights protection, as countries bickered about concerns”. We added to that developments in “border protection” and “migration areas such as the fight against torture. Over management” rather than taking decisive the years, Amnesty International has helped action to save lives. to foster a critical commitment to the system Even then, emblematic as it might have of international human rights law and been, Syria’s civil war was but one of the international humanitarian law. Yet the many conflicts that contributed to the shortcomings of that system have never been unprecedented global number of refugees, more apparent than they are today. migrants and internally displaced people. Among the various threats to human rights Armed conflicts continued in countries surveyed in this year’s report, we highlight including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan here two related themes. The first clear theme and Yemen. Across several borders, IS of the past year is that the international displayed a gross disregard for civilian lives, system was not robust in the face of hard forcing thousands to flee. In Africa, state and knocks and challenges. As the cracks began non-state actors committed serious violations to show, we realized that the system of and abuses of human rights in Burundi, international protection of human rights itself Cameroon, Central African Republic, needs to be protected. northeastern Nigeria, Somalia and South In 2015, there were several threats to Sudan, including in some cases attacks mechanisms for human rights protection. directed at civilians and civilian infrastructure. Regional human rights protection and These situations have all led to significant accountability in Africa and the Americas numbers of people fleeing their homes to came under internal threat. In addition, seek refuge elsewhere. Conflicts in Israel and governments in Africa hampered co-operation the Occupied Palestinian Territories and with the ICC while claiming to be Ukraine continued to claim civilian lives as all strengthening African systems, even though parties violated international humanitarian they continued to fail to ensure that domestic and human rights law. And while the and regional mechanisms brought justice. Americas welcomed positive developments in Emerging mechanisms in the Middle East and the decades-old Colombian conflict – where, North Africa did not sufficiently promote a even then, accountability might be sacrificed vision of universal human rights. Asia’s in a political deal – violence continued to fledgling system remained largely ineffectual. subvert human rights and institutions in Meanwhile the European system was under countries including Brazil, Mexico and threat, both from the possibility of losing the Venezuela. support of some states and from a massive That we reached this nadir in the year backlog of cases requiring justice and when the UN turned 70, its formation having accountability. beckoned nations to come together to “save Multilateral protections such as the UN succeeding generations from the scourge of Refugee Convention and the UN Convention war” and to “reaffirm faith in fundamental against Torture, and specialized mechanisms human rights”, poses a simple but grim such as those protecting people in peril at challenge: is the international system of law sea, did not succeed in preventing or and institutions adequate for the urgent task containing humanitarian crises, nor in of protecting human rights? protecting civilians against gross human

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 15 rights violations, much less in fostering and governments’ repression of dissent and accountability for atrocities. failure to protect human rights is the “Arab Barbarous attacks on people from Beirut to Spring”, which half a decade ago changed Bamako and Yola, from Tunis to and the face of the Middle East and North Africa elsewhere, also raised questions about the region. role of international human rights law to Five years on from one of the most counter threats posed by non-state actors – dynamic demonstrations of people power the violent armed groups in particular. world has ever seen, governments are using Amnesty International calls for a renewed increasingly calculated means to crush commitment to the protection of the dissent, not just in the Middle East, but international human rights system. To make globally. Particularly disconcerting is the the international system adequate for its task, ample evidence that repression has now states must protect the system itself. become as sophisticated as it is brutal. This must include voluntary restraint in the While 2011 saw the deaths of more than UN Security Council members’ use of the 300 people at the hands of security forces veto in situations of mass atrocity crimes; during Egypt’s “January 25 revolution”, and effective implementation of human rights more than 50 protesters killed in Yemen’s norms across all instruments of international “Bloody Friday”, the swing of the police human rights law; respect for international truncheon in the public square may not make humanitarian law; refraining from actions that the news headline so readily today. Yet in this undermine human rights systems, including report, Amnesty International documents the attacks against or withdrawal of support from continuing and widespread use of excessive them; and alignment of regional human rights force against dissenters and demonstrators, mechanisms with the universal standards of in addition to extrajudicial executions and the international system. forced disappearances, across the globe. Five The second overriding theme of the past years ago, systematic round-ups and torture year is closely related. At their roots, several in the Syrian town of Tell Kalakh marked an of the crises of the past year were set in early manifestation of the backlash by states motion by the resentments and conflicts that in the region against dissent and popular often follow the brutal crushing of dissent by protest. In the intervening years, torture has states, or when states repress that enduring continued in that part of the world, and quest of every person to live in dignity with elsewhere too, often finding cover in the their rights upheld. lingual sophistry of so-called “enhanced Whether it be the Andaman Sea crisis in interrogation techniques” – those dissembling May that saw thousands of refugees and horrors hatched before the “Arab Spring” in migrants adrift at sea without food or water, or the context of the so-called “”. the killing and forcible disappearance of Often, repression was almost routine and, human rights defenders working to protect time and again, was packaged as a necessity people’s rights to land and livelihoods in Latin for achieving national security, law and order, America and the Caribbean: in these and and the protection of national values. The many other cases, the brutal repression of authorities in numerous countries repressed dissent and the denial of people’s basic rights freedom of expression online and cracked – including economic, social and cultural down on dissenters using a range of tools, rights – as well as the failure by states to including arbitrary arrests and detentions, protect the human rights of all, often spawn torture and other ill-treatment, and the death societal tensions, the by-products of which, in penalty. turn, stretch international protection systems Meanwhile, a legal case by Amnesty beyond their limits. The most palpable recent International uncovered Orwellian levels of example of the link between system failure surveillance by some states, particularly

16 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 focused on the lives and work of human defenders and activists to carry out their rights defenders. Today, states’ continuing essential work. Amnesty International development of new methods of repression to therefore calls upon states to ensure that the keep abreast of advancing technology and resolution adopted in November by the UN connectivity is a major threat to freedom of General Assembly to protect the rights of expression. human rights defenders is implemented with Following advocacy by organizations accountability and transparency, including including Amnesty International, the UN the naming and shaming of states that fail to mandated a new special procedure, the uphold these rights. Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy in Beyond the moment that the last full stop the digital age. The work of the Special was inked on that resolution, not one more Rapporteur will be important in the coming human rights defender, nor a member of their months to help develop clear human rights- family, should have their life taken by a state, respecting norms in this area. or be without the protection of a state. Not The crackdown by states on dissent, one more should be harassed, nor be at risk. protest and outspokenness has expanded As the world’s largest organization of since those epoch-making popular human rights defenders, we present to you expressions of the people’s voice that began this report of the state of human rights during five years ago. Amnesty International calls on the past year. While the report captures the states to respect the human rights of above themes and others, its pages cannot individuals and groups to organize, assemble convey the full human misery of the topical and express themselves, to hold and share, crises of this last year, notably the refugee through any medium, opinions that crisis – even now exacerbated in this northern governments may disagree with, and for all to winter. In such a situation, protecting and be protected equally before the law. strengthening systems of human rights and As well as being vital for individual civilian protection cannot be seen as optional. freedom, rights that protect the work and It is literally a matter of life and death. space of human rights defenders do, in their Salil Shetty, Secretary General turn, protect the system of human rights itself. The signs of hope that we saw in 2015 were the result of the ongoing advocacy, organizing, dissent and activism of civil society, social movements and human rights defenders. To give just three examples from the past year: the presence of human rights and accountability elements in the UN Sustainable Development Goals; action in May to prevent forced evictions on the Regional Mombasa Port Access Road project in Kenya; and the release of Filep Karma, a Papuan prisoner of conscience in Indonesia, as a result of 65,000 messages written on his behalf by supporters from around the world. These outcomes were not borne of the benevolence of states. Nor will, in future, such signs of hope be sustained by state actors alone. But governments must allow the space and freedom for human rights

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 17 security threats with disregard for AFRICA REGIONAL international humanitarian law and human rights. Military and security operations in OVERVIEW Nigeria and Cameroon were marked by mass arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, With the African Union (AU) declaring 2016 extrajudicial executions, and torture and other as the Year of Human Rights in Africa, many ill-treatment. Similar patterns of human rights across the continent and beyond hoped that violations were observed in Niger and Chad. Africa’s leaders, regional institutions and the Impunity remained a key cause and driver international community would show the of conflicts and instability. Despite some determination and political will to make progress, there was little or no accountability significant headway in addressing entrenched for crimes under international law committed human rights challenges. by security forces and armed groups in Such hopes were not without foundation. countries as disparate as Cameroon, CAR, As conflict, political instability, authoritarian DRC, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and regimes, poverty and humanitarian disasters Sudan. Internationally, some states and the continued to deny many their rights, security AU also continued their political efforts to and dignity, Africa was also presented with undermine the independence of the real opportunities. Social and economic International Criminal Court (ICC), and to developments were evident in many countries ensure immunity from prosecution for serving and relatively peaceful political transitions heads of state, even when accused of crimes were achieved in others. The adoption of against humanity and other crimes under historic commitments regionally and globally international law. South Africa failed to arrest – including the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the and surrender Sudan’s President al-Bashir to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the ICC in June, in a betrayal of the hundreds offered the potential to realize the rights of thousands of victims killed during the enshrined in the African Charter on Human Darfur conflict. and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) and Many civil society organizations, human international human rights instruments. rights defenders, journalists and political Nevertheless, throughout 2015, serious opponents operated in an increasingly hostile violations and abuses of international environment, with laws aimed at restricting humanitarian and human rights law in the civic space in the name of national security, context of conflicts remained a major counter-terrorism, public order and regulation challenge. Protracted conflicts in the Central of NGOs and media. Civic space remained African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic closed in countries such as Eritrea, Ethiopia of Congo (DRC), Sudan, South Sudan and and The Gambia and deteriorated in others, Somalia caused thousands of civilian deaths with freedoms of expression, association and and left millions living in fear and insecurity. peaceful assembly increasingly restricted. Burundi faced a political crisis and escalating Peaceful assemblies were disrupted with violence. brutal and excessive force, including in In west, central and east Africa – including Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, the in Cameroon, Chad, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Guinea, Niger and Somalia – armed groups such as South Africa, Togo and Zimbabwe. In South al-Shabaab and Boko Haram perpetrated Africa, excessive force was used as a “clean- constant violence, with tens of thousands of up” operation to remove undocumented civilians killed, thousands abducted and immigrants. millions forced to live in fear and insecurity, Elections and political transitions triggered both within and outside conflicts. widespread violations and repression. Many Many governments responded to these countries saw bans on protests, attacks on

18 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 demonstrators by security forces, and Sierra Leone. arbitrary arrests and harassment of political There were reforms and positive measures opponents, human rights defenders and in several countries. In Mauritania, a new law journalists. defined torture and slavery as a crime against The humanitarian crisis endured by the humanity and banned secret detention. Sierra region continued as the Ebola epidemic that Leone ratified the Protocol to the African spread across West Africa in 2014 continued Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on to claim lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra the Rights of Women in Africa. There were Leone. signs of improvement in Swaziland – Yet there were signs of hope and progress. including the release of prisoners of Social and economic developments continued conscience and political prisoners – although to unfold in many countries and offered real repressive legislation continued to be used to optimism in addressing some of the structural suppress dissent. causes of poverty, including inequality, A watershed moment for international climate change, conflict and accountability justice took place in Senegal when the trial deficits. Several states achieved some of the against former Chadian President Hissène UN Millennium Development Goals and Habré opened in July – the first time a court Africa played a critical role in the adoption of in one African state had tried the former the SDGs. leader of another. Some measures taken by the AU Peace and Security Council, as well as sub-regional CONFLICT – COSTS AND VULNERABILITY bodies, to address violent conflicts in the Violent conflicts and insecurity affected many region demonstrated a growing move from countries, resulting in large-scale violations indifference to engagement. Despite capacity and characterized by lack of accountability for limitations, a lack of coherent approaches atrocities. Ongoing conflicts in CAR, DRC, and concerns about the adequacy of Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan measures to address human rights violations were marked by crimes under international and impunity, the AU and regional bodies law and persistent violations and abuses of took notable steps – from mediation to humanitarian and human rights law, peacekeeping – in response to crises and committed by both government forces and conflicts. armed groups. Gender-based and sexual Several regional human rights norms and violence was widely reported and children standards were also developed. In November, were abducted or recruited as child soldiers. the African Commission on Human and Despite coordinated military advances Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) against Boko Haram, the armed group adopted a General Comment on Article 4 continued attacking civilians in Chad, Niger, (right to life) of the African Charter. The AU Nigeria and Cameroon. Its catalogue of Special Technical Committee on Legal Affairs abuses included suicide bomb attacks in (STC) also considered and approved the Draft civilian areas, summary executions, Protocol on the Rights of Older Persons in abductions, torture and recruitment of child Africa, initially developed by the African soldiers. Commission. Regrettably, the STC declined to The impact of Boko Haram’s abuses was approve the Draft Protocol on the Abolition of exacerbated by states’ unlawful and heavy- the Death Penalty in Africa. handed response. Amnesty International More countries also opened up their released a report during the year outlining war human rights records for review. Periodic crimes and possible crimes against humanity reports on implementation of the African committed by the Nigerian military during its Charter were submitted by Algeria, Burkina fight against Boko Haram – including more Faso, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria and than 8,200 people murdered, starved,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 19 suffocated or tortured to death – and calling more than 42,000 people. At least 500 for senior members of the military to be inmates, most of them detained in relation to investigated for war crimes. ongoing investigations into crimes committed In the Far North region of Cameroon, in the context of the conflict, escaped from government security forces carried out mass the in the capital, Bangui, in a mass arbitrary arrests, detentions and extrajudicial break in September. executions, as well as the enforced In central and southern Somalia, civilians disappearances of at least 130 men and boys continued to face indiscriminate and targeted from two villages on the border with Nigeria. attacks amidst continuing armed conflict In Niger – where the government decreed between forces from the Somali Federal and extended a state of emergency in the Government and the AU Mission in Somalia entire Diffa region, which was still in place at on one side and al-Shabaab on the other. All the end of the year – the authorities’ response parties to the conflict committed violations of included extreme restrictions on movement, international humanitarian law and serious as well as the forced return of thousands of violations and abuses of international human Nigerian refugees. In Chad, a restrictive anti- rights law. terrorism law was passed, and the security forces carried out arbitrary arrests and A CRISIS FOR REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS detentions. The bloodshed and atrocities of Africa’s A major humanitarian crisis involving mass conflict zones played a major role in fuelling displacement and civilian casualties and sustaining a global refugee crisis, causing continued to unfold in Sudan’s armed millions of women, men and children to flee conflicts in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue from their homes in gruelling, risky and often Nile, as all parties committed violations of fatal bids to reach safety in their own country international humanitarian law and other or elsewhere. violations and abuses of international human The conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan rights law. Government forces continued alone were responsible for millions of indiscriminate bombings, destruction of displacements. During the year, around one- civilian settlements and obstruction of third of South Kordofan’s population of humanitarian access to civilians. approximately 1.4 million people were Despite the signing of a peace agreement internally displaced, and an estimated in August, the conflict in South Sudan – 223,000 people were displaced in Darfur, characterized by deliberate attacks against bringing the total number of those internally civilians – continued. Both parties carried out displaced in the region to 2.5 million. An mass killings of civilians, destruction of estimated 60,000 people were additionally civilian property, obstruction of humanitarian displaced due to intermittent fighting between aid, widespread gender-based and sexual the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)- violence, and recruitment of child soldiers. North and government forces in Blue Nile The AU Commission of Inquiry on South state. Sudan found evidence of systematic war A further 2.2 million people were displaced crimes and crimes against humanity, as well by the conflict in South Sudan during the as human rights violations and abuses year, with 3.9 million people facing severe committed by both warring parties. food insecurity. Despite a de-escalation of violence since Huge numbers of people were internally the deployment of the multidimensional UN displaced or became refugees after fleeing peacekeeping operation, renewed violence areas affected by violence from Boko Haram. and instability in CAR in September and In Nigeria alone, more than two million people October resulted in civilian deaths, have been forced to flee their homes since destruction of property and displacement of 2009. Hundreds of thousands of refugees

20 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 from Nigeria and CAR were living in harsh evading capture and trying to cross into conditions in crowded camps in Cameroon Ethiopia. Those who managed to leave Eritrea and Niger, where in May government forces faced numerous dangers on routes through of Niger and Cameroon forced thousands of Sudan, Libya and the Mediterranean to reach refugees back to Nigeria, accusing them of Europe, including hostage-taking for ransom bringing Boko Haram attacks to the area. In by armed groups and criminal gangs. Chad, hundreds of thousands of refugees In Malawi, unregistered migrants were kept from Nigeria, CAR, Sudan and Libya in detention beyond the expiry of their continued to live in difficult conditions in custodial sentences, with limited prospect of crowded refugee camps. being released or deported. At least 100 such More than 1.3 million Somalis were detainees, mostly from Ethiopia, were held in internally displaced during the year. Globally, overcrowded at the end of the year. there were more than 1.1 million Somali An ongoing failure by the South African refugees. Yet states hosting Somali asylum- government to establish a systematic seekers and refugees – including Saudi programme of prevention and protection Arabia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, resulted in widespread and violent the UK and Denmark – continued to pressure xenophobic attacks against migrants and Somalis to return to Somalia, claiming that refugees, including on their businesses. security had improved in the country. Kenya’s government threatened to close IMPUNITY FOR CRIMES UNDER Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, INTERNATIONAL LAW presenting the move as a security measure Impunity for serious human rights violations following an attack by al-Shabaab. Against a and abuses – especially those committed in backdrop of harassment of Somali and other the context of armed conflicts – continued to refugees by Kenyan security services, the deprive people of truth and justice, and authorities threatened to forcibly return contributed to further instability and abuses. around 350,000 refugees to Somalia. This Most governments – including in Cameroon, would put thousands of lives at risk and CAR, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and violate Kenya’s obligations under international Sudan – showed little progress towards law. tackling the entrenched accountability gap, Countless numbers of refugees and with those suspected of responsibility for migrants – displaced not only by conflict but crimes under international law rarely held to also by political persecution or the need to account. secure a better livelihood – faced intolerance, Despite promises by Nigeria’s new xenophobia, abuses and violations. Many President to investigate crimes under languished in camps that failed to provide international law and other serious human proper access to water, food, health care, rights violations and abuses committed by the sanitation or education, and many fell prey to military and Boko Haram, no meaningful human trafficking networks. action was taken. The government failed to More than 230,000 people fled Burundi’s hold its own forces to account, and deteriorating political, social and economic prosecuted few people suspected of being situation to neighbouring countries. Boko Haram members. However, the Office Thousands continued to flee Eritrea to escape of the Prosecutor of the ICC identified eight indefinite National Service, which amounts to potential cases involving crimes against forced labour. Eritreans caught trying to humanity and war crimes: six involving Boko escape the country were arbitrarily detained Haram and two involving the Nigerian security without charge or trial, frequently in harsh forces. conditions and without access to lawyers. A Despite the publication on 26 October of “shoot to kill” policy was in place for anyone the report by the AU Commission of Inquiry

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 21 on South Sudan, and the signing of a peace President al-Bashir of Sudan. In November, agreement in August which laid the Kenya’s government attempted to influence foundation for the AU’s decision to set up a the 14th session of the Assembly of States hybrid court, there was no progress towards Parties (ASP) – the political oversight body of its establishment. The Hybrid Court on South the ICC – as part of its attempt to undermine Sudan was announced as an African-led and the trial of Deputy President Ruto, by Africa-owned legal mechanism. threatening to withdraw from the ICC. The In April, CAR’s National Transitional government of Namibia also threatened to Council took a positive step towards withdraw from the ICC in November. establishing an accountability mechanism by More positively, the DRC took a significant adopting a law to establish a Special Criminal step in November when the Senate voted in Court. There was little progress in establishing favour of adopting domestic legislation for the Court, however, which is expected to implementation of the Rome Statute of the investigate and prosecute those responsible ICC. During the 14th session of the ASP in for war crimes and crimes against humanity November, many African states parties to the committed in the country since 2003. Rome Statute of the ICC voiced strong South Africa’s government failed to fulfil its commitment to the ICC and denied support to international legal obligations in June when proposals that could undermine its Sudan’s President al-Bashir – visiting independence. Johannesburg for an AU Summit – was A significant step towards justice for victims allowed to leave the country. Two open ICC of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was arrest warrants had been laid against him for achieved in January following the transfer of his alleged role in genocide, crimes against Dominic Ongwen, alleged former LRA humanity and war crimes in Darfur, and a commander, to the ICC. The beginning in July court order from South Africa’s high court of the trial of Hissène Habré in Senegal – with also prohibited him from leaving. South the accused charged with crimes against Africa’s failure to act saw it join a long list of humanity, torture and war crimes committed states that have failed to arrest and surrender during his tenure between 1982 and 1990 – President al-Bashir to the ICC to face trial. In was a major positive development in Africa’s a worrying development, the African National long fight against impunity. Congress was reported to have resolved in October that South Africa should withdraw REPRESSION OF DISSENT IN THE from the ICC. No steps had been taken by the CONTEXT OF ELECTIONS AND end of the year. TRANSITIONS President Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire stated in Fifteen general or presidential elections took April that there would be no more transfers to place across the continent during the year, the ICC, despite the ICC’s outstanding arrest many forming the backdrop for human rights warrant for former First Lady Simone Gbagbo violations and restrictions. In countries for alleged crimes against humanity. including Burundi, the Republic of Congo, Some states and the AU continued with Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Ethiopia, Guinea, Sudan, political efforts to interfere with or undermine Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia there the independence of the ICC, and to ensure were bans on protests, attacks on immunity from prosecution for serving heads demonstrators, and arbitrary arrests of of state even when accused of crimes against political opponents, human rights defenders humanity and other international crimes. The and journalists. AU Assembly adopted a resolution in June Ethiopia’s general election in May was which reiterated its previous calls for marred by restrictions on civil society termination or suspension of ICC proceedings observing the elections, use of excessive force against Deputy President Ruto of Kenya and against peaceful demonstrators, and

22 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 harassment of political opposition observers. soldiers suspected of being involved were Security officers beat, injured and killed sentenced to death. Political instability in people at polling stations, and four members Lesotho continued following an attempted and leaders of political opposition parties coup in 2014. were extrajudicially executed. Dissent and basic human rights were In Guinea, tensions around the electoral suppressed in DRC and Uganda, linked to process led to violence between supporters of presidential elections scheduled for 2016. As different political parties, and between pressure intensified on the DRC President protesters and security forces, the latter often Kabila to not seek another term after 14 years using excessive and lethal force to police in power, the authorities increasingly targeted demonstrations. human rights defenders and journalists and Presidential and parliamentary elections in violently disrupted demonstrations. In Uganda Sudan saw President al-Bashir re-elected – where President Museveni will seek a fifth amid reports of fraud and vote-rigging, with term in office in elections due in February low voter turnout and opposition political 2016 – police arbitrarily arrested political parties boycotting the elections. Sudan’s opposition leaders, including presidential authorities intensified their suppression of candidates, and used excessive force to freedom of expression as the elections disperse peaceful political gatherings. approached, repressing the media, civil society and opposition political parties, and SHRINKING CIVIC SPACE AND ATTACKS arresting dozens of political opponents. ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS In countries including Burkina Faso, Outside the context of elections, many Burundi, DRC and the Republic of Congo, governments stifled dissent and muzzled attempts by political incumbents to stay in rights to freedom of expression. Peaceful power for a third term sparked protests and assemblies were often disrupted with subsequent state violence. In Burundi, excessive force. Many civil society protests were violently suppressed by the organizations and human rights defenders security forces and there was a marked faced an increasingly hostile environment, increase in torture and other ill-treatment, including through use of laws aimed at especially against those opposed to President restricting civic space. Nkurunziza’s re-election bid. From Such patterns of increasing restrictions September onwards, the situation took place in a wide spectrum of countries, deteriorated even further; killings on a near- including Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, daily basis, including extrajudicial executions, the Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and arbitrary arrests and disappearances Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, became routine. More than 400 people were Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra killed between April and December. Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, In Burkina Faso in September, members of Zambia and Zimbabwe. the Presidential Guard (RSP) attempted a In Angola, there was an increase in coup and took political leaders hostage, crackdown on dissent and outright violations including the President and Prime Minister, of fundamental freedoms, including through triggering public protests. Before being forced the arbitrary detention of activists peacefully to withdraw by the army, the RSP used calling for public accountability of leadership. excessive and sometimes lethal force in a bid In Eritrea, thousands of prisoners of to suppress protests. conscience continued to suffer arbitrary In The Gambia, relatives of those detentions. There was no space for opposition suspected of involvement in a failed coup in political parties, activism, independent media December 2014 were arbitrarily arrested and or academic freedom. detained by law enforcement agencies. Three In South Sudan, the space for journalists,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 23 human rights defenders and civil society to protect LGBTI people against violence and to operate without intimidation or fear continued prosecute the perpetrators, and agreed to to decline significantly. guarantee effective access to health services. Restrictions on the rights to freedoms of However, it rejected recommendations to expression, association and assembly repeal provisions in the Penal Code increased in Mauritania, and activists were criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct jailed for holding anti-slavery rallies. Senegal’s between adults. authorities continued to ban demonstrations The African Commission granted observer by supporters of political parties and human status to the South Africa-based LGBTI rights rights defenders, and to prosecute peaceful organization, the Coalition of African Lesbians demonstrators. (CAL), during its 56th Ordinary Session held in In Tanzania, journalists faced harassment, The Gambia. However, at a subsequent AU intimidation and arrests. Four bills were Summit in South Africa, the Executive Council introduced to Parliament that collectively of the AU declined to approve the codified unwarranted restrictions to freedom Commission’s activity report until it withdrew of expression. the observer status granted to CAL – raising In Zambia, police continued to implement fears that the Commission may be forced to the Public Order Act, restricting freedom of withdraw the decision. assembly. Zimbabwe’s authorities gagged Despite condemnation by the President, freedom of expression, including through there was a sharp increase in killings and crackdowns involving arrests, surveillance, other attacks on people with albinism in harassment and intimidation of those Malawi by individuals and gangs seeking campaigning for the licensing of community body parts to sell for use in witchcraft. In radio stations. Tanzania, the government failed to ensure adequate safety measures for people living DISCRIMINATION AND MARGINALIZATION with albinism; a young girl was reportedly Although 2015 was the AU’s “Year of killed for body parts, and reported cases Women’s Empowerment and Development involved abduction, mutilation and towards Africa’s Agenda 2063”, women and dismemberment. girls frequently suffered abuse, discrimination and marginalization in many countries – often LOOKING AHEAD because of cultural traditions and norms, and Events throughout the year demonstrated the the institutionalization of gender-based extent and depth of Africa’s human rights discrimination through unjust laws. In challenges, as well as the urgent need for conflicts and countries hosting large numbers international and regional institutions to of displaced people and refugees, women protect millions of lives and to address the and girls were subjected to rape and other global refugee crisis by taking a stronger, forms of sexual violence. Positively, countries clearer and more consistent approach to including Burkina Faso, Madagascar and tackling conflict. Zimbabwe launched national campaigns to The year also underlined the desperate end child marriages. need for African states to tackle impunity at Abuses – including persecution and home and abroad – including by withdrawing criminalization – of people who are or are from politicized attacks on the ICC. Effective perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, accountability for human rights violations and transgender and intersex (LGBTI) were crimes under international law could be ongoing in many countries, including transformative for countries across Africa. Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. Alongside the Year of Human Rights in Malawi accepted a UN Universal Periodic Africa, 2016 will mark the 35th anniversary of Review recommendation to take measures to the adoption of the African Charter, the 30th

24 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 anniversary of the Charter’s entry into force and the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the African Court. With such auspicious anniversaries looming, the challenge for most African leaders is to listen to and work with the continent’s growing human rights movement.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 25 The increasing influence of transnational AMERICAS corporations and their involvement in human rights abuses – especially in the extractive REGIONAL and other industries related to the appropriation of territory and natural OVERVIEW resources, mainly in land claimed by and belonging to Indigenous Peoples, other ethnic Events in 2015 underscored the magnitude of minorities and peasant farmers – continued to the human rights crisis facing the Americas threaten human rights across the region. region. A mix of discrimination, violence, A growing number of socio-environmental inequality, conflict, insecurity, poverty, conflicts bred violence and human rights environmental damage and failure to ensure violations. Human rights defenders and justice for violations of human rights activists working to protect land, territory and threatened the protection of human rights natural resources were increasingly exposed and fundamental freedoms in the region. to killings, enforced disappearance and other Although most states supported and ratified criminal acts. In Honduras, local civil society human rights standards and treaties, the organizations faced violent attacks and promise of rights remained hollow for millions, threats by private security guards with ties to confirming a two-year trend of regression on powerful landowners. In Brazil, dozens of human rights. people were killed in conflicts over land and A pervasive culture of impunity allowed natural resources. perpetrators of human rights abuses to Discussions at the Organization of operate without fear of the consequences, American States (OAS) to finalize a proposed denied truth and redress to millions, and American Declaration on the Rights of weakened the rule of law. Impunity was Indigenous Peoples were hampered by frequently sustained by weak, under- barriers to the effective participation of resourced and corrupt security and justice Indigenous Peoples and by some states’ systems, compounded by a lack of political efforts to weaken the draft. Indigenous will to ensure their independence and representatives withdrew from negotiations impartiality. after several states insisted on the inclusion of Throughout the year, the authorities provisions that would, in practice, endorse repeatedly relied on a militaristic response to national laws that disregard the protection of social and political problems, including the Indigenous Peoples’ rights. growing influence of criminal networks and Meanwhile, insecurity, violence and the impact of multinational corporations on economic hardship in Mexico and Central people’s rights. America drove a growing number of people, At the same time, levels of lethal violence in particular unaccompanied children, to across the region remained extremely high. leave their homes and cross borders in Latin America and the Caribbean were home search of better living conditions and an to eight of the 10 most violent countries in the escape from violence. world, and four of these – Brazil, Colombia, Human rights defenders continued to be Mexico and Venezuela – accounted for one in targeted for their work. Standing up for four violent killings worldwide. Only 20 out of human rights was often a dangerous and 100 homicides in Latin America resulted in a even lethal choice, as many governments conviction; in some countries, the share was oversaw an erosion of civic space and the even lower. Violent crime was particularly criminalization of dissent. widespread in El Salvador, Guyana, Unfolding human rights crises at the Honduras, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and national level included Mexico, which was Venezuela. plagued by thousands of complaints of torture

26 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 and other ill-treatment and reports of expressing their views peacefully. extrajudicial executions; the whereabouts of In Brazil, infrastructure construction for the at least 27,000 people remained unknown at 2016 Olympic Games led to ongoing evictions the end of the year. Although September of people from their homes in Rio de Janeiro, marked the first anniversary of the enforced often without adequate notification, financial disappearance of 43 students from the compensation or resettlement. Ayotzinapa teacher training college, one of The year saw positive developments too. In Mexico’s most alarming human rights Colombia, peace talks between the violations in recent history, investigations government and the Revolutionary Armed remained flawed. Forces of Colombia (FARC) continued to In Venezuela, a year after huge make significant progress, raising demonstrations that left 43 people dead, expectations that the country’s 50-year-long hundreds injured and dozens tortured or armed conflict may soon end. otherwise ill-treated, no one had been found Jamaica´s government finally established a guilty of the crimes committed – nor had Commission of Enquiry into human rights charges been dropped against those violations committed during the 2010 state of arbitrarily detained by the authorities. Despite emergency, when security forces killed 76 a reduction in protests at the end of the year, people, including 44 who were alleged to the government’s intolerance of dissent often have been extrajudicially executed. The led to human rights defenders facing threats, President of Peru ratified a national harassment and attacks, and security forces mechanism for the prevention of torture and continued to use excessive force to suppress set up a national register of victims of forced protests. Attacks on opposition politicians and sterilization during the 1990s. activists raised concerns about the fairness of The USA accepted many recommendations congressional elections. Luis Manuel Diaz, a made under the UN Universal Periodic local opposition politician in Guárico state, Review (UPR) process following an was shot dead during a rally before the examination of its human rights record, elections. repeating that it supported calls for the The situation of sexual and reproductive closure of the US detention centre in rights in Paraguay, particularly the case of a Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for the ratification of 10-year-old girl who became pregnant after the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child being repeatedly raped – allegedly by her and the UN Convention on the Elimination of stepfather – attracted global attention, All Forms of Discrimination against Women underscoring the need to repeal the country’s (CEDAW), and for accountability for torture. draconian anti-abortion law. The authorities However, none of the recommendations had refused to allow an abortion, despite evidence been implemented at the end of the year. that the girl’s life was at risk from the pregnancy. PUBLIC SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS The human rights situation in Cuba was at Increasing violence and influence of non-state a crossroads. The year was marked by actors – including criminal networks and warming international relations – with the transnational corporations operating with country taking part in the Summit of the impunity – continued to challenge Americas for the first time, as well as historic governments’ ability to protect human rights. meetings between the Cuban and US Efforts to control criminal networks, including presidents and a state visit by Pope Francis – the occasional use of armed forces, led to and advances such as the release of grave human rights violations and undue prisoners of conscience. Yet the authorities restrictions on freedoms of expression and stifled dissent and continued to arbitrarily peaceful assembly. detain thousands of people simply for Excessive use of force by the police and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 27 other security forces was reported in fostered by an ineffective criminal justice countries including the Bahamas, Brazil, system that – together with corruption and Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, human rights violations by police officers – Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and created a lack of trust in law enforcement and Venezuela. justice institutions. The government Brazil’s security forces often used excessive announced it would tackle corruption and or unnecessary force to suppress protests. impunity by forming an initiative with the OAS Killings during police operations remained to reform the justice system. high and were rarely investigated; a lack of In Chile, cases of police violence and transparency often made it impossible to human rights violations involving members of ascertain the exact number of people killed. the security forces continued to be Off-duty police officers reportedly carried out investigated by military courts, despite unlawful killings as part of death squads concerns about the impartiality and operating in several cities. In Mexico, a independence of such tribunals and number of reported shoot-outs involving the commitments by the authorities to reform the police or military showed signs of extrajudicial military justice system. executions. There was an ongoing lack of political will Nationwide anti-government protests in to confront unresolved human rights Ecuador throughout the year were marked by violations, including thousands of political clashes between the security forces – who killings and enforced disappearances in the reportedly used excessive force and made second half of the 20th century, and to ensure arbitrary arrests – and protesters. the rights to truth, justice and reparation. In Peru, people opposing extractive In Bolivia, measures to ensure truth, justice industry projects were victims of intimidation, and full reparation for victims of human rights excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests. violations during past military and Seven protesters were shot and killed in authoritarian regimes were limited, although circumstances suggesting that security the authorities committed to creating a truth officials used excessive force. commission. Public trials were held in Across the USA, at least 43 people died Argentina for crimes against humanity after police used Tasers on them. There were perpetrated during the military regime of protests at the excessive use of force by 1976-1983, with eight new convictions police in a number of cities. The authorities handed down. However, those from the civil, again failed to track the exact number of business and legal sectors who were people killed by law enforcement officials complicit in human rights violations and each year. crimes under international law had yet to be In Venezuela, public security operations to brought to justice. tackle high crime rates raised concerns of In Chile, there were over 1,000 active cases excessive use of force, including possible of human rights violations committed in the extrajudicial executions, as well as arbitrary past; victims’ organizations condemned the arrests and forced evictions of suspected slow progress in establishing the truth about criminals and their families. thousands of victims of enforced disappearance. However, charges were ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND THE FIGHT TO brought against several former military END IMPUNITY officers, including for the abduction and The denial of meaningful access to justice for killing of singer and political activist Victor scores of people seriously undermined Jara in 1973. human rights, particularly among deprived A Guatemala City appeals court declared and marginalized communities. that a 1986 amnesty decree did not apply to Impunity was pervasive in Honduras, crimes against humanity and genocide in

28 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Guatemala, meaning that a case against violence and a lack of food and water – were former President and army commander-in- particularly harsh in the Bahamas, Bolivia, chief José Efraín Rios Montt could proceed. Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, the USA and In Panama, the trial of former President Venezuela. Manuel Noriega for the enforced disappearance of Heliodoro Portugal was REFUGEES, ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND suspended after Manuel Noriega’s lawyer MIGRANTS appealed against his charge, arguing that the In an escalating humanitarian crisis, migrants trial would violate the terms of his extradition. and refugees – especially large numbers of It was unclear whether the trial would unaccompanied children and adolescents – proceed. crossing Central America and Mexico faced In Haiti, after the death in 2014 of former serious human rights violations as they President Jean-Claude Duvalier, an attempted to gain entry to the USA, and were investigation into allegations of crimes against often detained in harsh conditions. They were humanity committed during his tenure frequently killed, abducted or faced extortion (1971-1986) made little progress. by criminal gangs, who often operated in collusion with the authorities. Women and TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT girls were at particular risk of sexual violence Despite strong anti-torture laws and and human trafficking. mechanisms across the region, torture and In the USA, tens of thousands of families other ill-treatment remained widespread; the and unaccompanied children were authorities failed to prosecute perpetrators or apprehended when attempting to cross the to provide adequate reparation to victims. southern border during the year. Families Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment was were detained for months – many in facilities common in prisons or at the time of arrest, lacking proper access to medical care, and was mainly used against criminal sanitation, water and legal counsel – as they suspects to inflict punishment or to extract pursued claims to remain in the country. confessions. Elsewhere, migrants and their descendants In Argentina, reports of torture – including faced pervasive discrimination, with states beatings with cattle prods, near asphyxiation doing little to tackle entrenched exclusion. with plastic bags, submersion and prolonged Despite the implementation of a law isolation – were not investigated and there intended to address their situation, many was no system in place to protect witnesses. people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Torture victims in Bolivia were deterred from Republic remained stateless after their seeking justice and reparation due to the lack Dominican nationality had been arbitrarily of an independent mechanism to record and and retroactively removed by a Constitutional investigate allegations of abuse. Court judgment in 2013. After the Dominican Mexico came under international scrutiny authorities announced that deportations of in March, when the UN Special Rapporteur irregular migrants would resume in June, tens on torture and other cruel, inhuman or of thousands of Haitian migrants decided to degrading treatment or punishment return to Haiti, mainly for fear of violence, presented a report to the UN Human Rights expulsion or xenophobic behaviour from Council, detailing the generalized nature of employers or neighbours; hundreds settled in torture and the impunity among police and makeshift camps at the border. other security forces. In the Bahamas, there were allegations of Torture and other ill-treatment were arbitrary arrests and abuses against migrants. endemic in Brazil’s prisons, including against Parliament approved migration reforms that boys and girls. could potentially prevent the children of Prison conditions – including overcrowding, irregular migrants born in the Bahamas from

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 29 obtaining Bahamian nationality, at the risk of Development projects, including by the rendering individuals stateless. extractive industry, saw Indigenous Peoples In July, the UN Human Rights Committee repeatedly denied meaningful consultation called on Canada to report back within a year and free, prior and informed consent, which on a range of human rights concerns relating threatened their culture and environment and to migrants and refugees. In a positive led to the forced displacement of entire development, the new government communities. announced that cuts to the Interim Federal Attacks on members of Indigenous Health Program for refugees and asylum- communities in Brazil were widespread and seekers would be reversed and health those responsible were rarely brought to coverage restored. justice. An amendment to the Constitution Nearly 2,000 Colombian nationals – which transferred responsibility for including refugees and asylum-seekers – demarcating Indigenous land from the were deported from Venezuela in August, with executive to the legislative branch of the no opportunity to challenge their expulsion or government threatened to have a negative gather their belongings. In some cases impact on Indigenous Peoples’ access to children were separated from parents. Scores land. The amendment was pending approval of people were forcibly evicted or had their by the Senate at the end of the year. houses destroyed, and some detainees were Paraguay’s Supreme Court rejected a ill-treated. second attempt by a landowner to nullify the In December, the Inter-American country’s 2014 expropriation law, which was Commission on Human Rights expressed passed to return their land to the concern over the vulnerability of more than Sawhoyamaxa community. A resolution to a 4,500 Cuban migrants stranded on the Costa complaint filed by the community against the Rica-Nicaragua border, amid allegations of occupation of their land by the landowner’s abuses by Nicaraguan authorities; the employees was still pending at the end of the Commission called on Central American year. states to allow safe and legal migration to Ecuador’s authorities failed to fully Cubans travelling overland to the USA. implement the 2012 ruling of the Inter- American Court of Human Rights in favour of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, including the Even though every state in the region has complete removal of explosives left on their endorsed the 2007 UN Declaration on the land and the issuing of legislation to regulate Rights of Indigenous Peoples, human rights Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior and violations – including attacks, excessive use informed consent over laws, policies and of force and killings – remained a daily reality measures that affect their livelihoods. for Indigenous Peoples across the region, threatening their rights over their land, HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AT RISK territory and natural resources, their culture Across the region, a pattern of threats and and even their own existence. attacks against human rights defenders, Poverty, exclusion, inequality and lawyers, judges, witnesses and journalists discrimination continued to affect thousands, continued, and there was an increasing trend including in Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, of judicial systems being misused to repress Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. State human rights defenders. Progress in and non-state actors – including businesses investigating such abuses or bringing and landowners – continued to forcibly perpetrators to justice was rare. displace Indigenous Peoples from their own Being a human rights defender carried with lands in the pursuit of economic it the risk of abuses and violence in many development. countries in the Americas. Those taking

30 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 action to tackle impunity and defend women’s hampered by insufficient resources. Cases of and Indigenous Peoples’ rights were at threats, attacks and killings targeting human particular risk of reprisals. rights defenders went largely uninvestigated Human rights defenders in Colombia were and unpunished. In Mexico, the federal at serious risk of attack, mainly by Mechanism for the Protection of Human paramilitaries. Rights Defenders and Journalists lacked In Venezuela, human rights defenders resources and co-ordination, leaving human routinely faced verbal attacks from the rights defenders and journalists inadequately authorities. Cuba’s authorities imposed severe protected; impunity for attacks and violence restrictions on basic freedoms, with remained. thousands of reported cases of harassment of government critics as well as arbitrary arrests RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS and detentions. Human rights defenders and A pattern of increasing violence against others who openly criticized government women continued to be one of the principal policies in Ecuador faced attacks, fines and human rights challenges across the region. unfounded criminal charges; media outlets Little progress was made in addressing this, continued to receive fines under a with states failing to prioritize the protection of communication law that was potentially being women and girls from rape, threats and used to undermine freedom of expression. killings and to hold perpetrators to account. Authorities in Bolivia discredited the work of Legislation was slow to be implemented. NGOs, including human rights defenders, High levels of gender-based violence were and also applied strict regulation for NGOs to reported in Guatemala, Guyana, El Salvador, obtain registration. Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, among Human rights defenders in Guatemala – other countries. Implementation of 2007 especially Indigenous leaders and protesters legislation criminalizing such abuses in defending environmental and land rights and Venezuela remained slow, due to a lack of opposing hydroelectric and mining resources. In the USA, Native American and megaprojects – faced continuous attacks, Alaska Native women continued to threats, harassment and intimidation. experience disproportionate levels of violence, In Honduras, against the backdrop of a being 2.5 times more likely to be raped or general climate of violence and crimes, sexually assaulted than other women in the human rights defenders – particularly women country. In El Salvador, 475 women were – faced threats and attacks which were rarely murdered between January and October – an investigated, as well as judicial harassment. increase from 294 in 2014. Congress approved a law which could be an Violations of sexual and reproductive rights important step to protect human rights had a significant impact on women’s and defenders and journalists, among other girls’ health. By the end of the year, seven groups, although a group of civil society countries in the region – Chile, the Dominican organizations expressed concerns about the Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, vagueness and lack of transparency of the Suriname and Nicaragua – still had a total draft implementation regulations, and asked ban on abortion, or lacked an explicit legal for the approval to be postponed by several provision to protect the woman’s life. In Chile, months. a bill to decriminalize abortion under certain Measures to protect human rights circumstances was pending before Congress defenders were often weakly applied or at the end of the year. In the Dominican ignored entirely. Brazil’s National Programme Republic, the Constitutional Court struck for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders down reforms to the Penal Code which failed to deliver the protection promised in its decriminalized abortion in certain cases. In provisions, and its implementation was Peru, a bill to decriminalize abortion for

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 31 victims of rape was rejected by a against LGBTI people persisted. However, in congressional constitutional commission. a positive development, a gay pride In Argentina, women and girls faced celebration was held for the first time, with obstacles in accessing legal abortion. In the Minister of Justice calling for tolerance Brazil, new legislation and constitutional during the event and expressing his support amendments threatened sexual and for the right of LGBTI people to express reproductive rights and women’s rights. Some themselves peacefully. bills proposed to criminalize abortion in all circumstances, or would effectively prevent ARMED CONFLICT access to safe and legal abortion. In Colombia, ongoing peace talks between the Even when access to abortion services was government and the FARC offered the best legal in certain cases in other countries, chance in more than a decade to put a protracted judicial procedures made access definitive end to the region’s longest-running to safe abortion virtually impossible, internal armed conflict. However, during the particularly for those unable to pay for private year both sides committed crimes under abortion services. Restricted access to international law as well as serious human contraception and information on sexual and rights violations and abuses, principally reproductive issues remained a concern, against Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant especially for the most marginalized women and peasant farmer communities, and human and girls. rights defenders. In Bolivia, high rates of maternal mortality, Security forces, guerrilla groups and particularly in rural areas, remained a paramilitaries perpetrated unlawful killings, concern. forced displacement, enforced All parties to the conflict in Colombia – disappearances, death threats and crimes of security forces, paramilitaries and guerilla sexual violence with almost total impunity. groups – were responsible for crimes of Children continued to be recruited as sexual violence; very few of the alleged combatants by guerrilla groups and perpetrators were brought to justice. paramilitaries. Relatives of victims of human rights violations who campaigned for justice, RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, as well as members of human rights TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE organizations helping them, faced death LGBTI people faced ongoing discrimination threats and other serious human rights and violence across the region, despite abuses. progress in some countries on legislation A ceasefire by the FARC from July and the prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of government’s suspension of aerial sexual orientation and gender identity. bombardments against FARC positions There were violent and unresolved murders seemed to alleviate some of the worst effects of several transgender women in Argentina, of the conflict on civilians in rural areas. as well as reports of hate crimes – including In September, the two sides announced murder and rape – against LGBTI people in they had reached an agreement on the Dominican Republic. Violence and transitional justice and announced that a discrimination towards LGBTI people peace deal would be signed by March 2016. remained a concern in El Salvador, Guyana, However, doubts remained over whether the Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, and agreement, which was not made public until Venezuela. December – coupled with legislation that Consensual sex between men remained could enable suspected human rights criminalized in Jamaica, where homelessness abusers to evade justice – would guarantee and displacement of LGBTI youths and a victims’ right to truth, justice and reparation in failure to investigate threats and harassment line with international law.

32 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY By the end of the year, no one had been brought to justice for human rights violations – including torture and other ill-treatment as well as enforced disappearance – committed in the secret detention and interrogation programme operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA. Over a year after the publication of the declassified summary of a report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence into the CIA programme, the full report remained top secret, thus facilitating impunity. Most, if not all, of the detainees held as part of the programme were subjected to enforced disappearance and to conditions of detention and/or interrogation techniques which violated the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Detainees were still held at Guantánamo, most of them without charge or trial and some still facing trial by military commission, under a system falling short of international fair trial standards.

DEATH PENALTY The USA was once again the only country in the region to carry out executions. Yet there were signs that the worldwide trend towards abolition of capital punishment was slowly but steadily gaining ground there too. The Nebraska legislature voted to abolish the death penalty, although the repeal was on hold at the end of the year after opponents petitioned to have the issue put to the popular vote in 2016. Pennsylvania’s state announced a moratorium on executions; moratoriums also remained in force in Washington State and Oregon.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 33 However, there were also some positive steps ASIA-PACIFIC as Fiji became the world’s 100th fully abolitionist country and Mongolia’s parliament REGIONAL passed a new criminal code removing the death penalty for all crimes. OVERVIEW Millions of refugees and asylum-seekers faced harsh conditions across the Asia-Pacific Even as rapid social and economic change region, and countries as disparate as continued in the Asia-Pacific region, the Australia and China violated international law human rights situation often remained bleak. by forcibly returning people to countries The increasing trend towards repression and where they would face a real risk of serious injustice threatened the protection of human violations. A major humanitarian and human rights in the region. rights crisis occurred in the Bay of Bengal A recurring and central threat to people’s and Andaman Sea, where people smugglers rights was states’ failure to ensure and traffickers abandoned thousands of accountability, with impunity often refugees and migrants at sea, with states entrenched and widespread, denying justice initially turning them away or being slow to and sustaining human rights violations mount search and rescue operations. including torture and other ill-treatment. Specifically, in Nepal the devastating Impunity also fuelled suffering in armed earthquake of 25 April and its aftershocks conflicts, such as in Afghanistan and caused more than 8,000 deaths and 22,000 Myanmar, and perpetuated injustice by failing injuries, and displaced more than 100,000 to ensure reparations for past conflicts, as in people. The government refused to waive Indonesia. costly and time-consuming customs duties In many countries there was a serious and procedures for health and relief supplies, disconnect between governments and the leaving thousands in desperate need. A new people. People, particularly youth, frequently Constitution, rushed through in the felt newly empowered to speak out for their earthquake’s aftermath, was marked by rights, often aided by affordable human rights shortcomings. A federalist communications technologies and platforms, structure was rejected by ethnic groups, including social media. Governments, in leading to violent protests and confrontations. contrast, often sought to shield themselves The security forces resorted to excessive, from accountability or criticism, while some – unnecessary or disproportionate force in such as those of China, Cambodia, India, several clashes with protesters, leading to Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam – intensified dozens of deaths. their crackdown on key freedoms. Severe Extreme repression and systematic violation restrictions on the rights to freedom of of almost all human rights overshadowed life expression, association and peaceful in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea assembly continued in Laos, where (North Korea), and those who fled the country authorities further tightened control of civil reported an increase in arbitrary arrests. society groups. Reduced daily rations severely threatened the Despite a global trend towards abolition, right to adequate food, and hundreds of the death penalty also continued in several thousands of people continued to languish in countries in the region, including extensively prison camps and detention facilities where in China and Pakistan. Indonesia resumed torture and other ill-treatment was widespread executions, Maldives threatened to do so, and and forced labour routine. there was a surge of executions in Pakistan China’s geopolitical influence continued to after a moratorium on the execution of grow, but an appalling internal human rights civilians was lifted in December 2014. situation prevailed. Under the pretext of

34 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 enhancing national security, the government INCREASING ACTIVISM AND increased repression by drafting or enacting SUPPRESSION OF PUBLIC PROTESTS an unprecedented series of laws and A rise in human rights activism that had regulations with the potential to silence emerged in the Asia-Pacific region in recent dissent and crack down on human rights years continued. Protests and other actions, defenders. The authorities also stepped up however, were frequently overshadowed by their controls over the internet, mass media authorities’ efforts to curtail freedoms of and academia. expression, association and peaceful The run-up to Myanmar’s general elections assembly, including through force and in November – the first since a quasi-civilian violence. government came to power in 2011 after People were intimidated and harassed as almost five decades of military rule – was they exercised their right to freedom of marred by the political disenfranchisement of peaceful assembly in Viet Nam; in July, minority groups, in particular the persecuted security forces beat and intimidated peaceful Rohingya, and ongoing conflicts in northern activists attempting to take part in a hunger Myanmar. Nevertheless, the landslide strike in solidarity with prisoners of election victory for the National League for conscience. In Maldives, hundreds of political Democracy, led by former prisoner of opponents of the government taking part in conscience Aung San Suu Kyi, was a historic peaceful protests were arrested and detained, moment offering hope for human rights and in Malaysia organizers of and participants change. The real test of whether this will in peaceful protests were criminalized. happen is yet to come. In Cambodia, a 2014 crackdown on the As the military rulers of Thailand delayed right to freedom of peaceful assembly was their plans for political transition, the country reinforced by criminal convictions for experienced a continuing backslide in demonstrators. In July, 11 opposition meeting its human rights obligations. members and activists were found guilty on Restrictions on human rights – in particular far-fetched charges of insurrection. They had relating to freedoms of expression and taken part in a demonstration in the capital, assembly – which the authorities had , in July 2014 that resulted in promised would be temporary after taking clashes with security forces. No credible power in a military coup in 2014, were in fact evidence was produced that linked the men retained and strengthened. to the violence. A new government came to power in Sri Prison sentences imposed on two activists Lanka in January, bringing constitutional in Thailand for staging a play were part of a reforms and promises of improved human pattern in which the military authorities made rights protection. Many serious challenges unprecedented use of the country’s Lèse- remained, however, including the use of Majesté Law to target freedom of expression. arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and The authorities continued to outlaw “political other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances meetings” of five or more people, and and deaths in custody. A longstanding introduced legislation requiring demonstrators climate of impunity for abuses by both sides to seek permission from the police/authorities, in Sri Lanka’s armed conflict that ended in or face imprisonment. Students and activists 2009 was still largely unaddressed. carrying out small-scale symbolic and There were other smaller signs of progress peaceful demonstrations often experienced in the region, even if sometimes fragile and excessive force or arrests and charges. halting. These included tentative steps A brutal police crackdown on largely towards addressing widespread torture and peaceful student protests in Myanmar was other ill-treatment in Afghanistan, India and subsequently followed by mass arrests and Sri Lanka. widespread harassment of student leaders

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 35 and all those associated with the protests. and detention. They included , leader of In Cambodia, human rights defenders were the All Burma Federation of Student Unions. jailed and the authorities exacerbated existing A series of protests were held in the arbitrary restrictions on the rights to freedom Republic of Korea (South Korea) over the of expression and peaceful assembly by government’s response to the 2014 Sewol increasing arrests for online activity. The new ferry disaster that caused more than 300 Law on Associations and Non-Governmental deaths. Although most protests were Organizations was signed into law despite peaceful, police blockaded street rallies in the protests from civil society that it threatened to capital, Seoul, marking the tragedy’s first undermine the right to freedom of anniversary in April, and used unnecessary association; it remained unclear how the law force against participants on a vigil walk in would be implemented. memory of the victims. In Viet Nam, the state controlled the media and judiciary as well as political and religious REPRESSION OF DISSENT institutions; dozens of prisoners of conscience Many governments in the Asia-Pacific region remained imprisoned in harsh conditions demonstrated an entrenched intolerance of after unfair trials. There was an increase in dissent and resorted to draconian restrictions reports of harassment, short-term arbitrary on human rights. detentions and physical attacks on members May marked the first anniversary of the of civil society. military declaring martial law and seizing In July, China’s authorities launched a power in Thailand. The authorities adopted massive crackdown against human rights harsh measures, abused the judicial system lawyers that persisted throughout the rest of and entrenched their powers to stamp out the year. Activists as well as human rights peaceful dissent or criticism of military rule. defenders and their families were They displayed ongoing intolerance of systematically subjected to harassment, peaceful dissent, arbitrarily arresting students intimidation, arbitrary arrest and violence. and anti-coup activists, and holding The space for civil society, human rights academics, journalists and parliamentarians defenders and freedom of expression also in secret detention or without charge or trial in shrank across South Asia. Pakistan remained military camps. Individuals faced unfair trials one of the world’s most dangerous countries in military courts for speaking out against the for journalists as targeted attacks, including military takeover. Authorities penalized scores killings, by armed groups continued against of individuals for Facebook comments and media workers, and the government failed to statements deemed to be insulting towards provide adequate protection. Bangladesh the monarchy, with courts handing down became increasingly dangerous for those sentences of up to 60 years’ imprisonment. speaking their own minds, with a pattern of North Korea’s government refused to allow repression of freedom of expression that any political parties, independent newspapers included the killing of several secularist or independent civil society organizations to bloggers and publishers. NGOs also faced operate, and barred almost all nationals from legislative restrictions for criticizing the international mobile telephone services. Yet authorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan. In many people took risks to make international India, authorities used restrictive foreign calls. People living close to the border with funding laws to repress NGOs critical of the China took advantage of the unofficial private government. economy and accessed smuggled mobile Human rights defenders in Afghanistan phones connected to Chinese networks to were targeted with impunity and suffered contact people outside North Korea – violence by state and non-state actors. Non- exposing themselves to surveillance, arrest state actors were accused of involvement in

36 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 grenade attacks, bombings and killings of Torture and other ill-treatment remained human rights defenders. Parliament widespread in China during detention and amended a mass media law that could further interrogation. limit freedom of expression. After the Taliban Afghanistan’s government took steps seized control of Kunduz province in towards establishing a national action plan to September, there were reports of mass eliminate torture; the intelligence agency killings, rapes and searches for media issued an order reiterating a ban on its use, workers and women human rights defenders although torture and other ill-treatment by named on a hit list. security officers remained prevalent Elsewhere, governments demonstrating an throughout the prison system. intolerance of public criticism included the In India, torture and other ill-treatment in government of Japan, where a law on official custody, including cases of deaths from secrets that could excessively restrict the right torture, were reported. In a positive move, the to access information held by the authorities Supreme Court directed states to install came into effect in December 2014. South closed-circuit television in all prisons to Korea’s government broadened the prevent torture and other violations, while the application of the National Security Law to government stated it was considering additional groups such as politicians, a move amending the Penal Code to specifically that could further curtail freedom of recognize torture as a crime. expression. Indonesia’s authorities used an Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, internet law to criminalize certain forms of including sexual violence, continued to be freedom of expression, resulting in individuals reported in Sri Lanka, as did suspicious being convicted and imprisoned simply for deaths in custody. Impunity persisted for sharing their opinions online. earlier cases. However, the new government Restrictions on peaceful activism and promised the UN Human Rights Council that dissent in Myanmar intensified, with scores of it would issue clear instructions to all security prisoners of conscience detained and forces that torture and other ill-treatment is hundreds of people facing charges for prohibited and that those responsible would peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of be investigated and punished. expression and assembly. They included student protesters, political activists, media ARMED CONFLICT workers and human rights defenders, in Armed conflict in parts of the Asia-Pacific particular land and labour activists. region continued. Increasing insecurity, Media outlets faced restrictions in Malaysia, insurgency and criminal activity in and activists were intimidated and harassed. Afghanistan saw civilians injured and killed by A Federal Court ruling confirming the the Taliban and other armed groups, as well constitutionality of the repressive Sedition Act as by pro-government forces. Accountability – used to arbitrarily arrest and detain scores for unlawful killings by pro-government forces of human rights defenders and others in and armed groups was virtually non-existent. recent years – further undermined freedom of In October, US forces bombed a hospital expression. run by the NGO Médecins sans Frontières in the city of Kunduz, killing 22 staff and TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT patients and triggering calls for an Torture and other ill-treatment was reported independent investigation. The Taliban in numerous countries in the region, targeted civilians or attacked indiscriminately, including Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, and briefly took control of most of Kunduz Nepal, North Korea, the Philippines, province. Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam. Allegations of violations – including rape Impunity for those responsible was common. and other crimes of sexual violence – were

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 37 made against members of the Myanmar systematically attacked members of the army, particularly in Kachin and northern Indonesian Communist Party and suspected Shan states, where the armed conflict entered sympathizers. There was a continuing failure a fifth year. Both state and non-state actors to ensure truth, justice and reparation for were accused of violations of international appalling human rights violations and the humanitarian law and human rights abuses, deaths of an estimated 500,000 to one million in a climate of impunity. people. The year 2015 also marked the 10th In India, armed groups continued to anniversary of the end of Indonesia’s perpetrate abuses against civilians, including devastating decades-long conflict in Jammu and Kashmir as well as central between Indonesian government forces and India. However, in August a historic peace the pro-independence framework agreement was reached in (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka), in which between northeastern India between the government 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed. and the influential armed group National Despite evidence that violations by security Socialist Council of (Isak-Muivah forces may amount to crimes against faction). humanity – and that both sides may have Armed violence continued in Thailand’s committed war crimes – little has been done three southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and to ensure justice. Narathiwat, as well as parts of Songkhla. There was, however, progress towards accountability in Sri Lanka. A UN IMPUNITY investigation into alleged abuses committed A chronic and entrenched failure to ensure during the final years of the country’s armed justice and accountability for past and conflict, including enforced disappearances present human rights violations and abuses and military attacks targeting civilians, was a major problem in a wide range of concluded that these abuses, if established countries in the Asia-Pacific region. before a court of law, could amount to war Impunity for violations by security forces in crimes and/or crimes against humanity. It India persisted, and legislation granting virtual recommended reforms to address ongoing immunity from prosecution for the armed violations and the establishment of a hybrid forces remained in force in Jammu and court to address crimes under international Kashmir and parts of northeastern India. law, with which the government signalled In Cambodia, impunity continued for agreement. violations during policing of demonstrations, including deaths caused by unnecessary or PEOPLE ON THE MOVE excessive use of force in previous years. Refugees and asylum-seekers continued to Unresolved cases included 16-year-old Khem face significant hardship in the Asia-Pacific Saphath, last seen in January 2014. He was region and beyond. People smuggling and feared to have been the victim of enforced human trafficking in the Bay of Bengal disappearance and was reportedly among at exposed thousands of refugees and migrants least five people shot during a government to serious abuse on board boats. Some crackdown. The Khmer Rouge tribunal heard people were shot on the boats, thrown for the first time evidence on charges of overboard and left to drown, or died from genocide in a case against Nuon Chea, the starvation, dehydration or disease. People former second-in-command of the Khmer were beaten, sometimes for hours, for Rouge, and against Khieu Samphan, the moving, begging for food or asking to use the head of state during the Khmer Rouge era. toilet. Indonesia marked the 50th anniversary of A crisis unfolded in the Bay of Bengal and the 1965 mass human rights violations, when Andaman Sea in May, triggered by Thailand’s – following a failed coup – the military crackdown on human trafficking and the

38 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 smugglers’ and traffickers’ subsequent people to work in countries such as Libya, abandonment of people at sea, causing an Mongolia, Nigeria, Qatar and Russia, often in unknown number of deaths and leaving poor safety conditions and for excessive thousands of refugees and migrants stranded hours; they received wages via the North for weeks and lacking food, water and Korean government, who made significant medical care. deductions. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand initially pushed overcrowded vessels back from their RISING RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC shores and prevented thousands of desperate INTOLERANCE people from disembarking, while regional Some authorities colluded in, or failed to governments were slow in setting up search address, an increasing trend of religious and and rescue operations. Following international ethnic intolerance, exclusion and criticism, Indonesia and Malaysia permitted discrimination. Abuses were reported in people to land and accommodated them on a countries in the Asia-Pacific region including temporary basis. Nevertheless, hundreds or Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Viet even thousands of people remained Nam. unaccounted for, and may have died or been The authorities in Indonesia failed to sold for forced labour. By the end of the year, ensure that all religious minorities were there were serious unanswered questions protected and allowed to practise their faith about a long-term solution for the survivors, free from fear, intimidation and attack. A as – despite Indonesia devoting resources to community of Shi’a Muslims – forcibly evicted housing thousands of refugees and asylum- in 2013 from temporary shelter in East Java – seekers, and helping to fulfil their basic needs remained in limbo throughout 2015; they had – the government had not clarified whether previously been forcibly evicted from their they could stay beyond May 2016. home village in 2012 after attacks by an anti- As a result of the ongoing insecurity and Shi’a mob. Local authorities prevented them armed conflict in Afghanistan, nearly 3 million from returning unless they converted to Sunni Afghans were refugees, mostly living in Iran Islam. Elsewhere, local authorities in Aceh and Pakistan, and almost 1 million Afghans province tore down Christian churches, with were internally displaced in their own country, mob violence forcing around 4,000 people to often in harsh conditions in makeshift camps. flee to North Sumatra province. Australia displayed an ongoing harsh Freedom of religion was systematically approach towards refugees and asylum- stifled in China. A government campaign to seekers. Measures included pushing back demolish churches and take down Christian boats, refoulement, and mandatory and crosses in Zhejiang province intensified and indefinite detention, including in off-shore persecution of practitioners processing centres in Papua New Guinea and included arbitrary detention, unfair trials, Nauru. In March, an independent review of imprisonment and torture and other ill- the Nauru centre documented allegations of treatment. The government maintained rape and other sexual assault. In October, the extensive controls over Tibetan Buddhist authorities announced that asylum-seekers monasteries. The regional government in the would no longer be detained at the centre, predominantly Muslim Xinjiang Uighur which would become an open facility, and Autonomous Region enacted new regulations that the remaining 600 asylum claims would to more tightly control religious affairs and be processed “within a week”. By December ban all unauthorized religious practice. processing had still not been completed. In India, authorities failed to prevent many Migrant workers were abused and incidents of religious violence, and sometimes discriminated against in several countries. contributed to tensions through polarizing North Korea dispatched at least 50,000 speeches. Mobs attacked Muslim men they

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 39 suspected of stealing, smuggling or girls to control their sexuality and make slaughtering cows; and scores of artists, choices related to reproduction, such as to writers and scientists protested against what challenge early marriage or to ensure they said was a climate of growing adequate antenatal and maternal health care. intolerance. Stigma and discrimination by police officials and authorities in India continued to deter DISCRIMINATION women from reporting sexual violence, and Discrimination remained a concern in most states still lacked standard operating numerous countries, with the authorities procedures for the police to address violence frequently failing to act effectively to protect against women. people. Sexual and other gender-based violence Pervasive caste-based discrimination and remained pervasive in Papua New Guinea, violence continued in India, and dominant where there were also ongoing reports of castes continued to use sexual violence violence and killing of women and children against Dalit and Adivasi women and girls. following accusations of sorcery. The There was some progress when the lower government took little preventative action. house of Parliament passed an amendment to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled DEATH PENALTY Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Despite some progress in the Asia-Pacific recognizing new offences and requiring that region towards reducing the use of the death special courts be established to try them, and penalty in recent years, several countries still stipulating that victims and witnesses receive applied the punishment, including in ways protection. contrary to international human rights laws In Nepal, discrimination – including on the and standards. Executions were resumed in basis of gender, caste, class, ethnic origin some countries. and religion – was rife, while in Australia Pakistan reached the shameful milestone Indigenous Peoples were jailed at a of executing more than 300 people since the disproportionate rate. lifting of a moratorium on the execution of Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and civilians in December 2014, following a intersex (LGBTI) people faced widespread terrorist attack. discrimination and same-sex conduct In August, India’s Law Commission remained criminalized in many countries. recommended that the death penalty be However, a ward in the capital Tokyo became abolished for all crimes except terrorism- Japan’s first municipality to pass an related offences and “waging war against the ordinance to distribute certificates that state”. recognize same-sex unions, while India’s Amendments to China’s Criminal Law came upper house of Parliament passed a bill to into effect, reducing the number of crimes protect transgender people’s rights. punishable by death. Although state media claimed that this was in line with the RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS government’s policy of executing fewer Women across the Asia-Pacific region were people, the changes failed to bring the law in frequently subjected to violence, abuse and line with international human rights laws and injustice, including gender-based standards on use of the death penalty. discrimination and violations and abuses of Statistics on how the punishment is used sexual and reproductive rights. continued to be classified as state secrets. In Nepal, gender-based discrimination A new Criminal Code abolishing the death resulted in a range of negative impacts on penalty for all crimes was adopted by women from marginalized groups. These Mongolia’s Parliament, to take effect from included limiting the ability of women and September 2016.

40 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 member states turned a blind eye to human EUROPE AND rights violations that they would once have strongly condemned, as they sought to cut CENTRAL ASIA economic deals and enlist the support of third countries in their efforts to combat terrorism REGIONAL and keep refugees and migrants at bay. Although there was progress on equality for OVERVIEW lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people (in most Western 2015 was a turbulent year in the Europe and European countries at least) and the Central Asia region, and a bad one for human European Commission continued to tackle the rights. It opened with fierce fighting in eastern systemic discrimination against Roma, almost Ukraine and ended with heavy clashes in all underlying trends across the region offered eastern Turkey. In the EU, the year was a bleak outlook for the state of human rights bookended by armed attacks in and around in 2016. Paris, France, and dominated throughout by the plight of the millions of people, most of THE REFUGEE CRISIS them fleeing conflict, who arrived on Europe’s The defining image of the year was that of shores. Against this backdrop, respect for Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy, lying human rights regressed across the region. In on a Turkish beach. Either side of his tragic Turkey and across the former Soviet Union, death in September, over 3,700 refugees and leaders increasingly abandoned respect of migrants lost their lives trying to reach human rights altogether, as they strengthened Europe’s shores, as EU member states their control of the media and further targeted struggled to deal with the impact of a global their critics and opponents. In the EU, the refugee crisis on Europe. While Turkey was regressive trend took a different form. Fuelled hosting over 2 million Syrian refugees, and by lingering economic uncertainty, Lebanon and Jordan a further 1.7 million disenchantment with establishment politics between them, 1 million refugees and and growing anti-EU and anti-immigrant migrants, many of them refugees from Syria, sentiment, populist parties made significant entered the EU irregularly during the year. electoral inroads. In the absence of principled However, the EU, the world’s richest political leadership, the place of human rights as a bloc with a total population of over 500 million cornerstone of European democracies looked people, singularly failed to come up with a shakier than ever. Sweeping anti-terrorism coherent, humane and rights-respecting measures and proposals to restrict the inflow response to this challenge. of migrants and refugees were typically The year began inauspiciously, with announced with all the customary human European leaders declining to replace the rights caveats, but they were increasingly Italian Navy’s Mare Nostrum search and stripped of their content. rescue operation with an adequate In the UK, the ruling Conservative Party put alternative, despite ample evidence of forward proposals to repeal the Human Rights continuing migratory pressure on the central Act; in Russia, the Constitutional Court was Mediterranean route. It took the death of given the power to overrule the decisions of more than 1,000 refugees and migrants in a the European Court of Human Rights; in series of incidents off the Libyan coast over Poland, the ruling Law and Justice Party one weekend in mid-April to finally prompt a pushed through measures restricting the rethink. At a hastily convened summit, EU oversight of the Constitutional Court within leaders agreed to expand EU border agency months of its election. Increasingly Frontex’s maritime border control Operation diminished on the international stage, EU Triton, while a number of countries, including

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 41 the UK and Germany, dispatched additional propose constructive measures for the naval vessels to the region. The results were redistribution of asylum-seekers and the positive: according to the International organization of reception facilities along the Organization for Migration, death rates along route, EU member states for the most part the central Mediterranean route declined by vacillated or actively obstructed potential 9% compared to 2014, but still stood at 18.5 solutions. Only Germany showed leadership deaths for every 1,000 travellers. The number commensurate with the scale of the of refugees and migrants dying in the Aegean challenge. Sea increased considerably, however, Little effort was made to increase safe and reaching over 700 by the end of the year; this legal avenues of entry for refugees into the represented around 21% of all deaths in the EU. Member states agreed to an EU-wide Mediterranean in 2015, compared to 1% in resettlement scheme for 20,000 refugees 2014. from across the globe proposed by the The increase in deaths in the Aegean Sea European Commission in May. UNHCR, the reflected the sharp rise in irregular sea UN refugee agency, had put the number of arrivals in Greece, from the summer onward. Syrian refugees in need of resettlement and In the absence of safe and legal avenues of other forms of humanitarian admission at entry to EU countries, over 800,000 people, 400,000, but other than Germany, hardly any overwhelmingly refugees fleeing conflict or EU countries offered to resettle more than a persecution in Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, few thousands of them. Somalia and Iraq, made the dangerous European leaders also struggled to agree crossing to Greece. Only 3% of those entering on and implement an effective mechanism to Greece irregularly crossed via the largely redistribute arriving refugees and migrants fenced-off land border. across the EU. At a summit in May, EU The logistical and humanitarian challenges leaders voted to approve a relocation scheme presented by such large numbers utterly for 40,000 asylum-seekers from Italy and defeated Greece’s already ailing reception Greece, in the face of fierce opposition from a system. As hundreds of thousands of number of Central European countries. In refugees and migrants left Greece and September, the scheme was extended by a marched on through the Balkans, most of further 120,000, including the relocation of them aiming to reach Germany, the so-called 54,000 asylum-seekers from Hungary. Never “Dublin regime” – the EU system for enough in the first place, the scheme allocating responsibility for the processing of foundered in the face of logistical challenges asylum applications across member states – and the reluctance of recipient states to meet broke down too. The funnelling of refugees the targets they committed to: only around and asylum-seekers to just a few external 200 asylum-seekers had been transferred border countries, essentially Greece and Italy, from Italy and Greece by the end of the year, made it impossible to uphold a system while Hungary declined to participate. allocating the primary responsibility for As pressure mounted, Balkan countries processing asylum claims to the first EU alternated between closing their borders and country the applicant entered. The Schengen simply ushering refugees and migrants Agreement – which abolished border controls through. Border guards used teargas and across internal EU borders – also showed batons to beat back crowds as Macedonia signs of cracking, as Germany, Austria, briefly closed its border in August and Hungary, Sweden and Denmark suspended Hungary permanently sealed its border with its provisions. Serbia in September. By the end of the year, As the crisis grew, EU leaders organized a more or less orderly corridor, passing summit after summit, but to no avail. While through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia the European Commission vainly sought to and Austria, was in place, amounting to an ad

42 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 hoc response to the crisis that remained essentially involved Turkey agreeing to limit entirely contingent on Germany’s continued the flow of refugees and migrants to Greece willingness to accept incoming asylum- by strengthening its border controls, in seekers and refugees. Thousands were still exchange for 3 billion euros of aid for its sleeping rough, as authorities along the route resident refugee population and, unofficially, struggled to provide adequate shelter. the turning of a blind eye to its growing list of Hungary led the way in refusing to engage human rights indiscretions. It ignored the fact with pan-European solutions to the refugee that despite Turkey’s broadly positive crisis. Having seen a sharp increase in reception of over 2 million Syrian refugees, arriving refugees and migrants at the start of many still lived in dire poverty, while those the year, Hungary turned its back on from other countries had little prospect of collective efforts and decided to seal itself off. ever being recognized as refugees on account It constructed over 200km of fencing along its of Turkey’s woefully inadequate asylum borders with Serbia and Croatia and adopted system. Towards the end of the year, legislation rendering it almost impossible for evidence emerged of Turkey forcibly returning refugees and asylum-seekers entering via refugees and asylum-seekers detained in its Serbia to claim asylum. “We think all western border provinces to Syria and Iraq, countries have a right to decide whether they further highlighting that the EU was limiting want to have a large number of Muslims in the influx of refugees and migrants at the their countries”, Hungarian Prime Minister expense of their human rights. Viktor Orbán said in September. As the year drew to a close, around 2,000 Public opinion across Europe ranged from people were still entering Greece daily. While indifference or hostility to strong shows of reception capacity on the Greek islands and solidarity. The shocking scenes of chaos and further along the Balkan route had increased need along the Balkan route prompted and reception conditions improved, they countless individuals and NGOs to plug the remained woefully incommensurate with the gaps in the humanitarian assistance provided scale of the challenge. With no sign of the to refugees and migrants. However, European number of arriving migrants and refugees leaders overwhelmingly chose to listen to decreasing significantly in 2016, the EU was vocal anti-immigrant sentiment and concerns no closer to finding sustainable, rights- over the loss of national sovereignty and respecting solutions for those seeking security threats. As a result, the only policies sanctuary within its borders than at the start they could agree on were measures to of the year. strengthen “Fortress Europe”. As the year progressed, European summits ARMED VIOLENCE increasingly focused on measures designed In January and February, heavy fighting to keep refugees and migrants out or hasten resumed in Ukraine’s eastern region of their return. EU leaders agreed to create a Donbass, as Russian-backed separatists in common list of “safe” countries of origin, to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s which asylum-seekers could be returned after Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic expedited proceedings. They agreed to sought to advance and straighten their strengthen the capacity of Frontex to carry out frontline. Amid heavy military losses, expulsions. Most significantly, they started to Ukrainian forces ceded control over the long- look to countries of origin, and especially contested Donetsk airport and the area transit, to restrict the flow of refugees and around the town of Debaltseve, with heavy migrants to Europe. The outsourcing of the shelling by both sides resulting in numerous EU migration controls to third countries civilian casualties. By the end of the year, the reached its peak with the signing of a Joint UN estimated that the death toll for the Action Plan with Turkey in October. The deal conflict exceeded 9,000 people, including

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 43 2,000 civilians, many of whom appeared to investigate offences by public officials, have died as a result of indiscriminate rocket including torture and other ill-treatment, was and mortar fire. War crimes and other finally adopted. Ukraine took its first tentative violations of international humanitarian law steps towards institutional reform, but the included the torture and other ill-treatment of Donbass region remained far from stable and, detainees by both sides, and the summary like Crimea, a black hole for unmonitored execution of captives by separatist forces. human rights abuses. While the conflict had subsided by the end of While the conflict in Ukraine subsided, year as a fragile ceasefire took hold, the heavy clashes erupted in Turkey as the ever prospect of accountability for the crimes uncertain peace process with the Kurdistan committed remained remote. On 8 Workers’ Party (PKK) collapsed in July. By the September, Ukraine accepted the jurisdiction end of the year, over 100 people were of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with reported killed in the course of law respect to alleged crimes committed in its enforcement operations in urban areas that territory since 20 February 2014, but no took on an increasingly militarized aspect. progress was made on the ratification of the There were numerous reports of excessive Rome Statute of the ICC. While a few criminal use of force and extrajudicial executions by investigations into suspected abuses by Turkish forces. Law enforcement operations Ukrainian forces – mostly by paramilitary were typically conducted under round-the- groups – were opened by Ukrainian clock curfews, often lasting several weeks, authorities, there had been no convictions by during which residents had their water and the end of the year. Total impunity persisted electricity cut and were unable to access in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where a medical treatment or food. The significant more pervasive lawlessness took hold. escalation in human rights violations largely Accountability for the abuses committed in escaped international censure, as Turkey the course of the 2013-2014 pro-European successfully leveraged its crucial role in demonstrations in the capital Kyiv relation to the Syrian conflict and the refugee (“EuroMaydan”) also proved elusive. In crisis to dampen criticism of its domestic November, the Prosecutor General’s Office actions. reported that investigations into over 2,000 criminal incidents related to EuroMaydan FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, were ongoing, with criminal proceedings ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY instigated against 270 individuals. The trial of The respect for freedoms of expression, two former riot police (Berkut) officers on association, and peaceful assembly charges of manslaughter and abuse of deteriorated across the former Soviet Union. authority began but no convictions were Government control over the media, internet secured for EuroMaydan-related crimes censorship, the curbing of protest and the during the year. An International Advisory criminalization of the legitimate exercise of Panel set up by the Council of Europe to these freedoms intensified almost monitor investigations into EuroMaydan everywhere. published two reports in April and November, In Russia, the steady squeeze on both of which deemed the investigations government critics gathered pace, as inadequate. repressive laws enacted in the aftermath of While accountability for past human rights Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency were abuses continued to stall, some progress was applied. By the end of the year, over 100 made in instituting structural reforms to NGOs were included, most of them Ukraine’s notoriously corrupt and abusive law compulsorily, on the Ministry of Justice’s list enforcement agencies; a law backed by the of “foreign agents”. Not a single NGO Council of Europe creating a new agency to succeeded in legally challenging its inclusion

44 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 on the list. The Human Rights Centre (HRC) extracts from an unpublished book deemed Memorial was one of a number of NGOs to be to denigrate the Kazakh people on their fined for failing to brand its publications with Facebook page. They remained in pre-trial the toxic label “foreign agent”, paving the way detention at the end of the year. Drawing for criminal prosecution of its leaders in the inspiration from Russia and sharing the same future. The law, whose purpose was to suspicion of foreign NGO funding, discourage NGOs from receiving foreign Kazakhstan adopted amendments to the Law funding and discredit those that did, was on Non-Profit Organizations, creating a supplemented in May by a new law enabling central “operator” to raise funding and authorities to designate foreign organizations administer state and non-state funds to as “undesirable” if deemed to pose a “threat NGOs, including foreign funding, for projects to the country’s constitutional order, defence and activities that comply with a limited list of or state security”. The target appeared to be issues approved by the government. foreign donor organizations, in particular US Kyrgyzstan also toyed with adoption of a ones. By the end of the year, four US-based “foreign agents” law along Russian lines; a donors had been declared “undesirable”, draft bill was put before Parliament with rendering their continued operations in strong backing from President Atambaev, but Russia – and any co-operation with them – was withdrawn “for further discussion” in illegal. The authorities further extended their June. Parliament also got to a third reading control over the media and the internet. on a law criminalizing “fostering positive Thousands of websites and pages were attitude” towards “non-traditional sexual blocked by government regulators, often in relations”, before it too was withdrawn for violation of the right to freedom of expression. additional consultation. Restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly Tajikistani President Emomali Rahmon was also intensified and the number of public granted lifetime immunity from prosecution protests declined. For the first time, four and the title “leader of the nation”, while peaceful protesters were prosecuted under a Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan remained 2014 law which criminalized the repeated fundamentally unchanged in their deeply breach of the law on assemblies. repressive rules. Georgia and Ukraine In Azerbaijan, the prominent NGO leaders continued to offer broadly free environments, arrested in 2014 were predictably convicted but neither without their wobbles. In Ukraine, on a range of trumped-up charges. At the end it became increasingly dangerous to voice of the year, at least 18 prisoners of pro-Russian views: pro-Russian journalist conscience, including human rights Oles Buzina was shot dead by two masked defenders, journalists, youth activists and gunmen in April, while journalist Ruslan opposition politicians, remained behind bars. Kotsaba became Ukraine’s first prisoner of Leyla Yunus, president of the Institute for conscience for five years when he was Peace and Democracy, and her husband and remanded in custody on charges of treason in co-worker Arif Yunus were released towards February. Following the adoption in May of the end of 2015, although they still faced four so-called “decommunization laws” spurious treason charges. banning the use of communist and nazi The human rights situation in Kazakhstan symbols, the Ministry of Justice initiated also regressed. The new Criminal Code that proceedings to ban the Communist Party of came into effect in January retained the Ukraine. In Georgia, the opposition party offences of inciting social and other United National Movement and several NGOs “discord”. Four criminal investigations were accused the government of orchestrating a opened under the vaguely worded offence, protracted legal battle between an ousted including against activists Yermek Narymbaev former shareholder and the current owners of and Serkzhan Mambetalin after they posted pro-opposition TV station Rustavi 2. In

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 45 November, the Tbilisi City Court ordered the protests were frequent, particularly in the replacement of the station’s director general south-east. and chief financial officer. Elsewhere in Europe, perhaps the most COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY significant human rights regression took place The year began with violent attacks in Paris in Turkey. Against the backdrop of two against journalists at the satirical weekly successive parliamentary elections which Charlie Hebdo and against a Jewish resulted in an outright majority for the ruling supermarket, resulting in 17 deaths and an Justice and Development Party (AK), the outpouring of solidarity both in France and increasingly autocratic rule of its former abroad. Another series of attacks in and leader and current President Recep Tayyip around Paris on 13 November killed a further Erdoğan, and the breakdown of the peace 130 people. The attacks gave fresh impetus – process with the PKK, freedom of expression in France in particular, but also elsewhere in suffered further. Countless unfair criminal Europe – to a raft of measures that threatened prosecutions under criminal defamation and human rights. These included measures counter-terrorism laws targeted political targeting those travelling or intending to travel activists, journalists and other critics of public abroad to commit or otherwise pursue ill- officials or government policy. Particular defined terrorism-related acts; sweeping new targets were pro-Kurdish commentators and surveillance powers; extended powers of supporters of media outlets associated with arrest with reduced procedural guarantees; former AK Party ally Fethullah Gülen. People and “counter-radicalization” measures that expressing criticism of the President, would potentially repress freedom of particularly through social media channels, expression and discriminate against certain were increasingly prosecuted. Over 100 cases groups. of criminal defamation under article 299 for Some of the most significant developments “insulting the President” were initiated by the took place in the area of surveillance, as a President and sanctioned by the Ministry of range of states adopted or tabled measures Justice. granting intelligence and law enforcement Critical media outlets and journalists were agencies almost unfettered access to subjected to immense pressure. Journalists electronic communications. In France, were regularly dismissed by editors for their Parliament approved two laws on surveillance critical reporting and comment. News that provided extensive executive powers to websites, including large swathes of the monitor people’s communications and Kurdish press, were blocked on unclear internet use, including by way of grounds by administrative orders, aided by a indiscriminate mass interception of internet compliant judiciary. Journalists were harassed traffic. The second law, adopted in October, and assaulted by police while covering stories paved the way for the use of mass in the predominantly Kurdish south-east. surveillance techniques on communications Media outlets linked to Fethullah Gülen were in and out of the country, in the pursuit of an systematically targeted, and either taken off undefined list of objectives, including air or taken over by government promoting foreign policy, economic and administrators. scientific interests. None of the new Sensitive protests continued to be surveillance measures required prior judicial disrupted. May Day demonstrations were authorization, instead granting limited and banned for the third year in a row and occasional powers to an administrative Istanbul’s annual Gay Pride was violently authority to advise the Prime Minister. dispersed for the first time in over a decade. Switzerland adopted a new surveillance law Reports of excessive use of force by law which granted sweeping powers to the enforcement agents breaking up Federal Intelligence Service to intercept data

46 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 on internet cables entering or leaving found particularly vivid expression in France Switzerland, access metadata, internet in the wake of the November attacks. A state histories and content of emails, and use of emergency introducing a range of government spyware. The Dutch government measures including the ability to carry out put forward a bill that would in effect legalize warrantless house searches, forcing people to the bulk collection of telecoms data, including remain in specific locations and the power to internal communications without prior judicial dissolve associations or groups broadly approval. The UK government proposed a described as participating in acts that breach new Investigatory Powers Bill which would public order, was declared for an initial period authorize intelligence services to intercept all of 12 days and then extended by three communications in and out of the country, months. In the space of just a few weeks, and oblige phone and internet companies to French authorities conducted 2,700 hand over customers’ internet and phone warrantless house searches, resulting in just histories – all with insufficient judicial control. two terrorism-related investigations being While European governments threatened opened (but another 488 for unrelated the right to privacy, a number of key offences); assigned 360 people to fixed international court decisions laid down residency; and closed down 20 mosques and markers for what is likely to be a fiercely numerous Muslim associations. Throughout contested and highly litigated issue in the the year, the authorities initiated a spate of years ahead. In December, in Roman prosecutions under vague “apology for Zakharov v. Russia, the Grand Chamber of terrorism” legislation, several of them in the European Court of Human Rights apparent breach of the right to freedom of highlighted the need for prior individual expression. suspicion and meaningful judicial scrutiny for France was not alone, however. Proposals any surveillance-related interference with the for new counter-terrorism laws in the right to privacy to be considered necessary aftermath of the November attacks were and proportionate. tabled in countries across the region, After the landmark Digital Ireland case including Belgium, Luxembourg, rendered in 2014, the Court of Justice of the Netherlands, and Slovakia. In all these European Union also delivered another key countries, new proposals included ruling. In October, it invalidated the 15-year- lengthening the time period permitted for pre- old “safe harbour agreement” between the charge detention for persons suspected of USA and the EU, which allowed private terrorism-related offences on a lower standard companies to transfer personal data between of proof than “reasonable suspicion”. the two, on the assumption of an essentially Throughout the year, European states equivalent level of protection of fundamental worked on the adoption of legislation to curtail rights relating to personal data in the USA and criminalize travelling or preparing to and in EU law. Following the revelations of the travel abroad for the vaguely defined purpose extent of the US surveillance programme by of committing or otherwise pursuing Edward Snowden, the Court concluded that terrorism-related acts, following on from the “the United States authorities were able to adoption in 2014 of the UN Security Council access the personal data transferred from the Resolution 2178. In December, the EU Member States to the United States and Commission tabled a proposal for a new process it in a way [that was] beyond what directive that would introduce a prohibition on was strictly necessary and proportionate to travel and acts associated with travel for the the protection of national security.” purpose of committing acts of terrorism The increasing use of exceptional right- abroad into the national legislation of member threatening counter-terrorism measures since states. This followed and referred to the the 11 September 2001 attacks on the USA adoption earlier in the year under the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 47 auspices of the Council of Europe of a treaty containing similar measures. These laws, and others introduced to tackle the so-called “foreign fighters” phenomenon, threatened to various extents a range of human rights guarantees. In several countries, and the UK in particular, these measures went hand in glove with a wider set of measures designed to prevent and identify “violent extremism” that risked discriminating against and stigmatizing Muslims.

48 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 refugees – mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and MIDDLE EAST AND Jordan – to 4.6 million. Thousands sought to gain entry to Europe via perilous sea NORTH AFRICA crossings from Turkey, and more than 7.6 million people were internally displaced within REGIONAL Syria. Some had been forcibly displaced several times. OVERVIEW Throughout 2015, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continued to bomb For millions of people across the Middle East and shell opposition-held civilian areas and North Africa region, 2015 brought without restraint, killing and injuring calamity and unremitting misery. Armed thousands. They also reportedly used conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya chemical agents in some attacks. They continued to cause countless civilian deaths continued to target medical facilities and to and injuries and forced displacement that in besiege civilian areas controlled by armed the case of Syria was on a truly epic scale. opposition groups, trapping their remaining Elsewhere, government authorities clamped civilian inhabitants and condemning them to down on dissent and tightened controls citing starvation and utter deprivation while the threat to public safety posed by armed exposing them to repeated shelling and groups that carried out a rash of bomb and bombing. At the same time, non-state armed other attacks in countries across the region groups also carried out unlawful killings and and beyond. indiscriminately shelled government-held areas. Large areas of Syria, like much of ARMED CONFLICT northern Iraq, were controlled by the armed In Syria, Yemen and large areas of Iraq and group calling itself Islamic State (IS), whose Libya continuing armed conflicts saw forces also continued to commit war crimes government and non-state forces repeatedly and crimes against humanity, while brazenly commit war crimes and serious human rights advertising their abuses over the internet as a abuses with impunity, killing and injuring propaganda and recruitment tool. In areas it thousands of civilians and driving millions controlled, such as al-Raqqa in Syria and from their homes and into despair and Mosul in Iraq, IS ruthlessly enforced its own destitution. Fighting forces showed little or no narrow interpretation of Islam and deterred regard for the lives of civilians and ignored the opposition with summary killings and other legal obligation of all parties – both state and cruel punishments. In Iraq, in particular, IS non-state – to spare civilians. continued to target Shi’a Muslims and The most severe of these armed conflicts members of the Yazidi and other minorities; continued to rage in Syria, causing more than a dozen mass graves were found widespread devastation and loss of life, while in areas of Iraq formerly held by IS that also severely impacting on Syria’s neighbours contained the mortal remains of Yazidis and other countries in the region and beyond. whom IS forces had summarily killed. Many By the end of the year, according to the UN, Yazidi women and girls remained missing more than 250,000 people had been killed in after being captured by IS fighters and forced Syria since the government’s brutal into sexual slavery. In Iraq, IS forces captured repression of popular protests and demands Ramadi, capital of the predominantly Sunni for reform that began in 2011. Civilians Anbar province, in May, driving out continued to bear the brunt of the conflict. government forces and causing thousands of Millions continued to be forcibly displaced; by people to flee south towards the capital the end of 2015, an additional 1 million Baghdad. After capturing the city, IS forces people had fled Syria, swelling the number of conducted a wave of killings of civilians and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 49 members of the security forces, disposing of to risk by launching attacks from the vicinity bodies by dumping them into the Euphrates of homes, hospitals and schools; deployed River. They imposed strict dress and anti-personnel landmines that pose an behaviour codes and punished alleged ongoing risk to civilians; used lethal force infractions with execution-style public killings; against protesters; closed down NGOs, and IS forces reportedly killed dozens of men they abducted and detained journalists and other alleged were gay by throwing them from the critics. roofs of buildings. IS forces also destroyed On 25 March, a military coalition of nine religious and cultural artefacts, including at Arab states led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the UNESCO World Heritage site at Palmyra the conflict at the request of Yemeni in Syria. President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who The Iraqi government sought to recapture had taken refuge in the Saudi Arabian capital Ramadi and other IS-controlled areas of the Riyadh as Huthi forces advanced, and with north and east, initially augmenting its the aim of restoring President Hadi and his security forces with mainly Shi’a militias government to power. The coalition launched previously responsible for sectarian killings a campaign of air strikes against the Huthis and other serious human rights abuses, and and areas that they controlled or contested, by calling in air strikes by a US-led imposed a partial air and sea blockade and international coalition and assistance from deployed ground troops in support of Yemeni Iran. As they advanced, government forces anti-Huthi forces. While some coalition indiscriminately shelled areas held or attacks targeted military objectives, many contested by IS, killing and injuring civilians. others were indiscriminate, disproportionate In December, the Iraqi army, supported by or appeared to be deliberately directed US-led international coalition air strikes and against civilians and civilian objects, including Sunni tribal fighters, but not Shi’a militias, schools, hospitals and roads, particularly in recaptured Ramadi. The Iraqi authorities Yemen’s northern Sa’da governorate, the continued to detain thousands of mostly Huthis’ main base. In some areas, coalition Sunni Muslims without trial as alleged aircraft also dropped US-made cluster terrorism suspects and subjected them to munitions, despite the international torture and other ill-treatment with impunity; prohibition on the use of these inherently many others were sentenced to death or long indiscriminate weapons, endangering prison sentences after grossly unfair trials civilians’ lives. before courts that commonly convicted Armed groups opposed to the Huthis, defendants on the basis of torture-tainted including IS, summarily killed captured Huthi “confessions”. fighters and carried out suicide and other In Yemen, an array of contending forces attacks targeting civilians. IS bomb attacks on spread misery and mayhem throughout the two Shi’a mosques on 20 March killed more country. Early in the year, Huthi forces than 140 people, all or mostly civilians, and belonging to the northern Zaidi Shi’a minority, wounded hundreds of others. who took control of the capital Sana’a in By the end of the year, Yemen’s armed September 2014, swept southward, conflict had killed more than 2,700 civilians, supported by forces loyal to former President according to the UN, and forcibly displaced Ali Abdullah Saleh, threatening Yemen’s more than 2.5 million people, creating a second and third largest cities, Taiz and the humanitarian crisis. Red Sea port city of Aden. Huthi forces fired The Yemeni conflict was not the only one in explosive weapons indiscriminately into which international forces became direct civilian areas of Yemen and across the border participants. In both Iraq and Syria a US-led into Saudi Arabia; attacked hospitals and international military coalition of Western and medical workers; recklessly exposed civilians Arab states used aircraft and drones to target

50 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 IS forces and some other armed groups, people in need of humanitarian assistance sometimes causing civilian casualties. In and protection, although the agreement Syria, Russia’s armed forces intervened to excluded various armed groups and militias support the al-Assad government, despite its and did not bring an end to hostilities. mounting record of human rights violations, Elsewhere in the region, major, deep-rooted launching air strikes and cruise missile problems remained. The year saw no attacks against areas held by opposition progress towards resolving the Israeli- forces as well as against IS targets; by the end Palestinian conflict even if it did not again of the year, these attacks were reported to flare into open warfare. Israel maintained its have killed hundreds of civilians. relentless land, sea and air blockade of Gaza, Libya, too, remained mired in armed suffocating reconstruction there after the conflict four years after the fall of Mu’ammar devastation caused by the 2014 armed al-Gaddafi’s regime. Two rival governments conflict. In the occupied West Bank, Israel and parliaments vied for supremacy, one continued to promote illegal settlements and based in the east that was internationally severely restricted the movement of recognized and backed by the Operation Palestinians using an array of military Dignity military coalition, and the other, checkpoints, barriers and a fence/wall supported by the Libya Dawn coalition of stretching hundreds of kilometres. Thousands Western-based armed militias and other of Palestinians who opposed Israel’s military forces, in the capital Tripoli. Elsewhere, occupation or engaged in protests against it armed groups pursuing their own ideological, were arrested and detained, with hundreds regional, tribal, economic and ethnic agendas held under renewable administrative orders fought for control, including local affiliates of that empowered the authorities to detain IS and al-Qa’ida. them indefinitely without charge or trial; The various forces ranged against each others were shot by Israeli troops who other committed serious violations of the laws regularly used excessive force against of war, including direct attacks on civilians, Palestinian protesters. Tension rose sharply in including medical workers, and indiscriminate the last quarter of the year amid a spate of or disproportionate attacks, as well as stabbing and other attacks on Israelis by lone unlawful killings, abductions, arbitrary Palestinians. Israeli soldiers and police detention, torture and other serious abuses. responded with lethal force including, at IS-affiliated forces in the Libyan cities of Sirte times, in circumstances when individuals and Derna carried out public killings, posed no imminent threat to life. Israeli forces floggings and amputations, and targeted killed at least 156 Palestinians from the foreign nationals of other faiths. In February, Occupied Palestinian Territories, including an IS-affiliated armed group published children, mostly in the last quarter of the year, graphic video footage on the internet showing some in apparent extrajudicial executions. its mass killing of 21 mostly Egyptian Coptic In January, Palestinian President Christian migrants abducted several weeks Mahmoud Abbas declared Palestine’s earlier, sparking a retaliatory air strike by accession to the Rome Statute and accepted Egyptian war planes. the ICC’s jurisdiction over crimes within its In December, representatives of Libya’s two mandate committed within the Occupied rival governments signed a peace deal Palestinian Territories since June 2014. brokered by the UN, committing to end the However, neither the Palestinian national violence and form a national unity unity government under President Abbas nor government. It offered at least some hope to the Hamas de facto administration in Gaza Libya’s beleaguered population at the end of took any steps to investigate war crimes, a year that saw some 600 civilians killed in including indiscriminate rocket and mortar the armed conflict and almost 2.5 million attacks, summary killings, and other serious

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 51 abuses by Palestinian armed groups during community, and toughening residency the 2014 armed conflict with Israel, or to hold requirements for those already admitted. to account Palestinian security officials More than 12,000 refugees from Syria, responsible for unlawful detentions and denied entry to Jordan, remained in a remote torture. Israel, likewise, failed to conduct desert area on the Jordanian side of the independent investigations into the extensive border with Syria in desperate conditions. war crimes and other violations of Meanwhile, in December, Jordanian international law that its forces committed in authorities deported more than 500 Sudanese Gaza during the 2014 armed conflict, or to refugees and asylum-seekers to Sudan, hold to account those responsible for unlawful where they were at risk of human rights killings in the West Bank and torture and violations, in contravention of the international other ill-treatment of detainees. principle of non-refoulement. Life remained very tough and uncertain REFUGEES, INTERNALLY DISPLACED even for those who escaped Syria and the PEOPLE AND MIGRANTS other countries enmeshed in armed conflict, The human cost of the armed conflicts in due to the hardships and insecurity they Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya in 2015 was encountered as refugees. These difficulties immeasurable, although the continuing surge propelled hundreds of thousands of refugees in refugees fleeing these countries and the to expose themselves to new risks as they even greater number of people who were sought to find greater security further afield, internally displaced within them gave some particularly in EU countries. Huge numbers indication. By the end of the year, the four departed, particularly from Libya and Turkey, conflicts had together created more than 5 which alone hosted around 2.3 million million refugees and asylum-seekers and refugees from Syria, to attempt dangerous sea more than 13.5 million internally displaced crossings to Italy and Greece, often in persons (IDPs), according to UNHCR, the UN overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels provided refugee agency. Elsewhere, such as in Iran, by extortionate people traffickers. Many made state repression also fuelled a continuing flow it and gained entry to the relative safety of of refugees seeking protection abroad. Europe, where they faced a decidedly mixed The impact of the refugee crisis fell most reception as EU states bickered about who heavily on states within the Middle East and should bear responsibility for them and what North Africa region. At the end of the year, should be each state’s “fair share” of Lebanon hosted well over 1 million refugees refugees. Countless others, however, lost their from Syria – they comprised between a lives at sea attempting that stage of their quarter and a third of Lebanon’s total journey, including many infants and other population – and Jordan hosted in excess of children. 641,800 refugees from Syria. The presence of In addition to the more than 1 million so many refugees placed an enormous strain refugees from Syria who swelled its on the host countries’ resources, a strain that population, Lebanon also continued to host was only partly alleviated by faltering several hundred thousand Palestinian international humanitarian assistance and refugees, decades after the conflicts with support, and presented huge social and Israel that led them to flee their homes. They security challenges. In both Lebanon and were afforded protection by the Lebanese Jordan the authorities took measures to authorities but remained subject to staunch the flow of new arrivals, tightening discriminatory laws and policies that denied controls at official and informal border them property inheritance rights, access to crossing points, blocking the entry of certain free public education and certain categories categories of people, notably members of of paid employment. Syria’s long-standing Palestinian refugee Migrants, as well as refugees and those

52 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 internally displaced, remained particularly the Egyptian authorities and the governments vulnerable to abuse in a number of countries. of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the United In Algeria and Morocco, migrants from Arab Emirates (UAE). In these Gulf states, countries in sub-Saharan Africa were liable to those targeted included individuals accused arrest and summary expulsion. In Libya, of harming their countries’ relations with Tripoli-based authorities held up to 4,000 Saudi Arabia by posting comments migrants and other undocumented foreign considered disrespectful to Saudi Arabia’s nationals in indefinite detention in facilities late King or criticizing its military intervention where they faced torture or other ill-treatment, in Yemen. In Qatar, a poet continued to serve and other refugees, asylum-seekers and a 15-year prison term for writing and reciting migrants faced serious abuses, including lines that the authorities deemed offensive to discrimination and labour exploitation. In the country’s Emir. In Jordan, dozens of Israel, the authorities denied asylum-seekers journalists and activists faced prosecution from Eritrea and Sudan access to a fair under Penal Code provisions that prohibit refugee determination process, detained criticism of the King and government more than 4,200 at desert detention facilities institutions and under an anti-terrorism law by the end of the year, and pressured others amended in 2014 that criminalized criticism to leave Israel “voluntarily” or face indefinite of foreign leaders or states. detention. In Iran, the international agreement relating Migrant workers, many from South and to the country’s nuclear programme and the Southeast Asia, also continued to face severe easing of financial and economic sanctions levels of exploitation and abuse in the oil and did not yield any let-up in state repression. gas-rich countries of the Gulf, where the The authorities continued to curtail freedom kafala sponsorship system tied them to their of speech and rights to association and employers and they were inadequately assembly, blocking access to Facebook, protected under labour law. In Qatar, where Twitter and other social media websites, 90% of the workforce were migrant workers, jamming foreign broadcasts, and arresting, the government largely failed to implement detaining and imprisoning journalists, human reforms it had promised in 2014; many rights defenders, trade unionists, artists and construction workers remained exposed to others who voiced dissent, including three unsafe living and working conditions and opposition political leaders held without thousands of domestic workers, mostly charge or trial since 2009. women, faced numerous abuses ranging from Authorities in Saudi Arabia also brooked no low pay and excessive working hours to criticism or dissent and harshly punished physical assault, forced labour and human those who dared advocate reform or speak trafficking. In Kuwait, however, a new law for out in support of human rights. Blogger Raif the first time gave migrant domestic workers a Badawi remained in prison serving the 10- right to one rest day each week and 30 days’ year sentence he received in 2014 after a annual paid leave. court convicted him of “insulting Islam” and violating the Cyber-crime law by setting up REPRESSION OF DISSENT the Free Saudi Network website, Governments across the Middle East and which the authorities closed. The court also North Africa region remained intolerant of sentenced him to a flogging of 1,000 lashes. criticism and dissent and curtailed rights to Dr Zuhair Kutbi, arrested in July, was freedom of expression, association and detained for months, then tried and peaceful assembly. In Algeria and Morocco, imprisoned after he advocated constitutional state authorities used widely drawn criminal monarchy as a form of government in a insult and/or defamation laws to prosecute television interview. and imprison online and other critics, as did In Egypt, the government continued the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 53 relentless crackdown on the Muslim loss of life or fell below the threshold of “most Brotherhood that began when the army serious crimes”. Juvenile offenders were ousted Mohamed Morsi from the presidency among those executed in Iran and facing in July 2013, widening it to encompass their execution in Saudi Arabia. other critics and opponents, as well as advocates of human rights and political TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT reform. The authorities held thousands of Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees detainees on political grounds; by the end of remained common and widespread the year, at least 700 had been held without throughout the Middle East and North Africa sentence by courts for longer than the two- region. It was used to extract information and year legal maximum. Thousands of others “confessions” and to punish and terrorize faced unfair mass trials before criminal or victims and to intimidate others. Those who military courts, which handed down mass perpetrated torture almost always did so with prison sentences and death sentences. Some impunity; courts rarely took serious notice of detainees were subjected to enforced defendants’ allegations of torture in pre-trial disappearance. The authorities rejected any detention and governments rarely conducted criticism of the crackdown on dissent, noting independent investigations into torture or took the threat posed by armed groups that measures to safeguard detainees, although launched increasingly deadly attacks on most countries have ratified the UN security forces, state officials and civilians. Convention against Torture. In Syria, All across the region, national judicial government forces continued to use torture systems were weak, lacked independence systematically, causing countless further and failed to ensure due process and uphold deaths of detainees. In Egypt, security forces the right to a fair trial, especially in cases frequently assaulted detainees at time of against those perceived to be government arrest and thereafter subjected them to critics or opponents. Throughout 2015, courts beatings, electric shocks and painful stress in countries including Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, positions. Iranian courts continued to impose Jordan, Saudi Arabia and UAE, as well as punishments that violate the prohibition of those in Egypt, continued to hand down torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading sentences of imprisonment and death after treatment or punishment, included flogging, convicting defendants in unfair trials; rather blinding, stoning and amputations. than being fearless upholders of justice, such courts operated as mere instruments of state IMPUNITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY repression. Government forces and non-state armed groups committed war crimes, other violations DEATH PENALTY of international humanitarian law and serious The death sentence was widely used across human rights abuses with impunity in Syria, the region, including in states such as Algeria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, and there was no Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia that have not accountability for similar crimes and abuses carried out any executions for years. By committed by Israeli forces and Palestinian contrast, the governments of Iran, Iraq and armed groups during their 2014 conflict and Saudi Arabia remained among the world’s in previous conflicts. In Algeria, it remained a foremost executioners, with Iran being at the crime to campaign for justice for victims of forefront of a disturbing spike in executions. serious abuses by state forces during the Between them, they carried out hundreds of internal armed conflict of the 1990s. In executions despite clear evidence that many Lebanon, no progress was made in of those executed had been sentenced to ascertaining the fate of thousands who were death after unfair trials or for offences, such forcibly disappeared or went missing during as drugs-related crimes, that did not cause and in the aftermath of the civil war that

54 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 ended two decades ago. In Egypt, the and Bidun rights activists faced arrest and authorities failed to investigate and ensure prosecution. In Israel, Palestinian citizens accountability for the killings of hundreds of faced discrimination in many areas, especially protesters by the security forces since June housing and land rights. 2013. In May, Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity FORCED EVICTIONS Commission, appointed following the Israeli authorities continued to demolish “Jasmine Revolution” of 2011, began hearing Palestinian homes in the West Bank, testimonies as part of its investigations into including East Jerusalem, that they said were past human rights violations. However, the built without virtually unobtainable Israeli Commission remained weakened by permits, forcibly evicting their occupants, and corruption allegations and resignations while punished the families of Palestinians who a new draft law threatened to scupper any attacked Israelis by destroying their homes. prospect that it could ensure accountability They also demolished the homes of for economic crimes committed during the Palestinian citizens of Israel mostly in regime that held power until 2011. In Libya, Bedouin villages in the Negev/Naqab region. Tripoli authorities sentenced former Gaddafi- In Egypt, the military carried out forced era officials to long prison terms or death for evictions to create a security “buffer” zone alleged war crimes and other offences along the country’s border with the Gaza committed during the 2011 uprising and Strip. ensuing armed conflict. Their trial was marred by irregularities; the authorities failed to WOMEN AND GIRLS comply with an ICC demand that they hand Women and girls continued to face over Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, son of discrimination under the law and in practice Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi; instead, they put him in all countries in the Middle East and North on trial and sentenced him to death. Africa region; in many, they also faced high levels of sexual and other violence. Personal DISCRIMINATION – MINORITIES status laws commonly accorded women fewer Religious and ethnic minorities continued to rights than men in relation to divorce, custody face discrimination in several countries. In of children and inheritance, while several Iran, Baha’is, Sufis, Yaresan (Ahl-e Haq), countries’ nationality laws barred women Sunni Muslims, Christian converts from Islam, married to foreign spouses, unlike men with and Shi’a Muslims who became Sunni were foreign spouses, from passing on their imprisoned or prevented from freely nationality to their children. practising their faith. Minority rights activists In Jordan, women continued to receive belonging to Iran’s disadvantaged ethnic inadequate protection against violence groups including Ahwazi , Azerbaijani including so-called “honour” crimes. The Turks, Baluchis and Kurds, were given harsh government revised legislation that allowed prison sentences, and remained rapists to escape prosecution if they married disproportionately subject to the death their victim, except in cases where the victim penalty. In Saudi Arabia, discrimination is aged between 15 and 18. In Bahrain, a against the Shi’a minority remained new law afforded greater protection to victims entrenched and Shi’a leaders and activists of domestic violence but only after the were detained and, in some cases, sentenced country’s parliament voted down an article to death in unfair trials. In Kuwait, the that would have criminalized marital rape. In government continued to withhold citizenship Saudi Arabia, women were allowed for the from over 100,000 Bidun, claiming that they first time to vote and stand in municipal were illegal residents although many were elections but they continued to be prohibited born and had lived all their lives in Kuwait, from driving. Iran’s Parliament approved the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 55 general principles of a draft law that actions that the hopes expressed in 2011 undermines women’s right to decide freely remain alive, deep-seated and anything but whether and when to marry, divorce and have an empty dream. children, and debated other draft laws that threaten to further entrench discrimination against women, including one that would block access to information about contraception and outlaw voluntary sterilization. Women in Iran also remained subject to compulsory “veiling” (hijab) laws and to harassment, violence and imprisonment by the police and paramilitary forces that enforced such laws. Women and girls comprised half the population of the region and made an enormous contribution to every society within it, yet they were denied equality with men in virtually all facets of life. No country had a woman head of state, very few women held high political office or senior diplomatic posts, and women were totally or largely absent from the judiciary, particularly its highest levels. This was unsurprising given the continuing prevalence of stereotypical and discriminatory attitudes towards women and their human rights. The most public and extreme manifestation of such prejudice and misogyny were the crimes, including rape, forced marriage, sexual slavery and summary killing, committed against women and girls by IS forces, particularly in Iraq. But throughout the region, the prevalence of gender-based violence and lack of redress for survivors was anything but exceptional. By the end of 2015, the heady hopes of political and human rights reform that the mass popular uprisings of the Arab Spring had aroused across the region four years earlier had been all but totally dashed. Instead of political and social reform, economic advance and greater protection of human rights, the region was gripped by armed conflict, tightening state repression, abuse of rights, and the threat of attack by armed groups. Yet, amid the gloom and despair, thousands of valiant individuals – human rights defenders, medical workers and volunteers, lawyers, journalists, community activists and others – showed through their

56 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 57 58 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2015/16 A-Z COUNTRY ENTRIES Security. It enshrined the government’s AFGHANISTAN pledges to increase women’s role in the four pillars of Resolution 1325: participation, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan protection, prevention, and relief and Head of state and government: Muhammad Ashraf recovery. Ghani Ahmadzai On 29 July the government proclaimed that Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, died in April There was growing insecurity with 2013 in Pakistan. Following this insurgency and criminal activity worsening announcement a string of attacks occurred in across the country. The first three months of the capital, Kabul, between 7 and 10 August. 2015 were the most violent of any Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, Mullah equivalent period on record. The UN Omar’s deputy since 2010, was announced Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) as his successor. In his first public statement recorded 1,592 civilians killed and 3,329 as the new leader on 1 August, he called for injured in the first six months of 2015, Taliban unity and continued jihad, while while 70% of civilian casualties were characterizing reports of a peace process as attributed to Taliban and other armed enemy propaganda. In May, the Ministry of insurgent groups, and 16% to pro-Afghan Interior estimated that there were some 7,180 government forces. The Taliban increasingly foreign fighters across Afghanistan, the attacked soft and civilian targets. In majority of whom were associated with armed September the Taliban took control of most groups Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the of Kunduz province, and the government Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. reported that some 20,000 people were There were reports of the emergence of the internally displaced due to the conflict. The group Islamic State (IS) in at least four majority did not receive any humanitarian provinces of Afghanistan, although the extent assistance from the government. The to which groups operating under its banner Ministry of Women’s Affairs registered had any affiliation to IS in Syria was unclear. thousands of cases of violence against women in the last nine months of the year. ABUSES BY INTERNATIONAL AND AFGHAN Threats, intimidation and attacks by a range FORCES, AND BY PRO-GOVERNMENT of perpetrators against human rights ARMED GROUPS defenders continued in a climate of Civilian casualties resulting from operations impunity, with the government failing to by international military forces decreased investigate cases and bring those suspected considerably, owing to the withdrawal of of criminal responsibility to trial. The US/International Security Assistance Force Afghan Parliament amended the Mass (ISAF) combat forces. Media Law which journalists and human However, attacks by pro-government rights groups feared would further restrict forces, particularly the Afghan national freedom of expression. Afghanistan security forces (ANSF), resulted in an continued to apply the death penalty, often increasing number of civilian casualties in the after unfair trials. first six months of 2015, according to UNAMA. Of a total of 4,921 civilian BACKGROUND casualties, 796 were allegedly caused by pro- On 19 April the unity government completed government forces – a 60% rise compared to its cabinet which received the Parliament’s the same period in 2014. vote of confidence. On 30 June the There were reports of violations carried out government launched its first National Action by the Afghan Local Police (ALP), including Plan relating to UN Security Council intimidation, beatings, illegal detention, Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and targeted killings and child rape. In September

60 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 reported that the US the International NGO Safety Organization military ignored complaints by its personnel of (INSO). INSO recorded 150 attacks on aid the sexual abuse of young boys by ALP workers, resulting in 33 deaths, 33 injuries commanders on its bases. and 82 abductions over nine months in 2015. Accountability for unlawful killings by pro- Civilians continued to be subject to killings, government forces and groups was virtually hostage-taking and arbitrary punishments by non-existent, although President Ghani armed groups as a result of trials by ad hoc pledged to take steps to reduce civilian justice structures. These did not exhaust all casualties. judicial guarantees, in violation of On 3 October US forces bombed a hospital international humanitarian law. run by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) in On 23 February, 30 civilians, mostly Kunduz province in the north, killing 40 members of the Hazara community, were people, including 14 hospital staff, and abducted by armed groups in Zabul province. destroying parts of the building. MSF called On 11 May, 19 were released in exchange for for an independent investigation into the relatives of Uzbek insurgents, held in bombing. government prisons. The fate of the remaining 11 was unknown at the end of the ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS year. Attacks by the Taliban and other armed On 10 April the bodies of five Afghan insurgent groups continued to cause the employees of the NGO Save the Children majority of civilian casualties. UNAMA were found in Uruzgan province. They had attributed 70% of civilian deaths and injuries been abducted on 1 March in an attempt to between 1 January and 30 June to attacks exchange them for Taliban prisoners. carried out by armed groups (3,436 civilian On 28 September, the Taliban took control casualties, including 1,213 dead and 2,223 of Kunduz city, releasing nearly 700 injured, representing a 3% decrease from the prisoners, among them at least 100 Taliban same period in 2014). The Taliban claimed members. Much public and private property responsibility for incidents causing over 1,000 was destroyed, including that of media civilian casualties, and UNAMA attributed an organizations. Reports of rapes and unlawful additional 971 civilian casualties to Taliban- killings were rife. affiliated commanders. UNAMA documented 10 civilian casualties caused by groups HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS associated with IS, primarily in the east. Threats, intimidation and attacks against Most civilian casualties attributed to the human rights defenders continued in a Taliban and other armed groups were the climate of impunity, with the government result of violations of international failing to investigate cases and bring those humanitarian law, amounting to war crimes. suspected of criminal responsibility to justice. The Taliban and other armed groups Human rights defenders suffered bombings, continued deliberate attacks on civilians and grenade attacks and assassinations by state civilian objects, using weapons such as and non-state actors. Women participating in pressure plate improvised explosive devices public life were at greater risk of (IEDs). According to its official statements, discrimination and violence than men the Taliban reinstated their policy of because they were perceived as defying deliberately targeting individuals associated cultural and social norms. with the government or seen by them as On 8 January Senator Rohgul Khairzad was “pernicious”. seriously injured when her car was fired upon Eleven NGO-run clinics and nine public by unknown assailants. She was previously schools were closed down in Nangahar attacked in 2013 by Taliban insurgents who province due to threats from IS, according to fired at her car, killing her seven-year-old

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 61 daughter and brother; her 11-year-old VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS daughter was left paralyzed. The government took steps to improve On 16 February Angiza Shinwari, a women’s participation in governance. On 21 provincial council member in Nangahar March President Ghani and Abdullah province and defender of women’s rights, Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer of died following a targeted bomb attack on her Afghanistan, announced four women among vehicle which also killed her driver and the nominees to lead the Ministry of Women’s injured four others. No one claimed Affairs, the Ministry of Higher Education, the responsibility and no arrests were made. Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and On 28 September the Taliban took control Disabled, and the Ministry of Counter of Kunduz province in a surprise attack. Narcotics. There were reports of house-to-house By 20 August, 75 police women councils searches for media personnel and women (PWCs) had been established – 45 in Ministry human rights defenders allegedly named on a of Interior directorates and Kabul police hit-list. Many women human rights defenders districts, and 30 in provinces. The PWCs were fled the city, while others were forced into introduced in December 2014 by the Ministry hiding. of Interior with the aim of strengthening and building capacity among female police REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED officers. On 14 September the Afghan cabinet PEOPLE approved the Regulation Against Sexual Afghanistan continued to produce vast Harassment of Women and Girls, which numbers of refugees and internally displaced criminalizes and penalizes certain acts of persons, second only to Syria. According to sexual harassment of women. At the end of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, nearly three the year the Ministry of Women’s Affairs million Afghans were refugees, the majority of (MOWA) was drafting a further regulation to whom were living in Iran and Pakistan. Nearly prevent discrimination in the workplace, due one million Afghans were internally displaced to be sent to the Ministry of Justice for review in Afghanistan. in 2016. Following a presidential decree of 2 The armed conflict, insecurity and natural January, 144 women and girls who had been disasters were the main causes of detained for so-called “moral” crimes were displacement in Afghanistan. Despite the released. launch by the government of the National The Ministry of Women’s Affairs registered Internally Displaced People Policy in February more than 4,000 cases of violence against 2014, at the end of 2015 many thousands of women in the last nine months of the year. people were still living in camps and Violence against women was severely under- makeshift shelters, where overcrowding, poor reported in Afghanistan due to insecurity, lack hygiene and harsh weather conditions of a functioning government or judiciary, and increased the prevalence of communicable traditional practices which combined to and chronic diseases such as malaria and discourage victims and their families from hepatitis. reporting violence. According to the UN Office for Coordination On 12 February, police in Balkh arrested of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in the first six people in connection with the marriage of six months of 2015 some 103,000 people an 11-year-old girl. were reportedly displaced mainly because of On 19 March, Farkhunda Malikzada was the armed conflict and insecurity across killed by a mob near the Shah-e Du Afghanistan. The government reported that Shamshira shrine in Kabul after being falsely some 20,000 people were internally displaced accused of burning a copy of the Qur’an. A as a result of the conflict in Kunduz province primary court in Kabul sentenced four men to in September. death for her murder, while others received

62 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 prison sentences. On 2 July an appeal court poor sanitation facilities. overruled the four death sentences and While conflict-related detainees held in US reduced them to prison sentences of between custody were transferred to the Afghan 10 and 20 years. authorities in December 2014, a lack of On 9 August a woman accused of adultery accountability for illegal detentions, ill- was hanged during a tribal court hearing by treatment and torture of detainees by US the Taliban in Badakhshan province. personnel in Afghanistan persisted.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION DEATH PENALTY Journalists in Afghanistan continued to face Afghanistan continued to apply the death violence and censorship by state and non- penalty, often after unfair trials. By the end of state actors. Some journalists were killed the year, results were still awaited of the during attacks, while others were forced to review of nearly 400 death row cases ordered leave their homes and seek sanctuary by President Ghani in 2014. elsewhere. Nai, a media watchdog in On 28 February Raees Khudaidad was Afghanistan, reported 73 cases of attacks hanged at Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, after against journalists and media workers, with being charged with murder, kidnapping and the majority being committed by government armed robbery. representatives, including police and security agencies, as well as elected officials. The government failed to investigate those ALBANIA suspected of responsibility for attacks against journalists and media workers. On 28 January Republic of Albania Parliament amended the Mass Media Law Head of state: Bujar Nishani and limited media freedom, which journalists Head of government: Edi Rama and human rights groups feared would further restrict freedom of expression. Roma and Egyptian communities were denied adequate housing and subjected to TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT forced evictions. Thousands of Albanians, On 4 May the government established a driven by poverty, sought asylum in the EU. working committee to launch a National Protection against domestic violence Action Plan for the elimination of torture. On remained inadequate. 25 June the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, issued an BACKGROUND order reiterating the prohibition on torture, The European Commission in November particularly its use during police required Albania to protect fundamental interrogations. Despite these developments, rights, reform the judiciary and combat torture and other ill-treatment, as well as corruption and organized crime before talks incommunicado detention, remained on EU membership could commence. In prevalent throughout the prison system, while June, a parliamentary committee reported the authorities continued to arrest and detain widespread corruption among police, individuals arbitrarily without due process. prosecutors and the judiciary. In December Individuals were frequently detained for acts around 50,000 people joined opposition-led that were not offences under Afghan law. protests against government corruption and They included so-called “moral” crimes such rising poverty. as “running away”, which affected mainly A law introduced in May enabled the women and girls. Prison conditions remained subjects of surveillance by the communist-era below international standards with state security service (Sigurimi) to access overcrowding, insufficient food and water and their files.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 63 ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES between January and June, defendants were The authorities made no progress in bringing convicted of family violence in 185 out of 190 to justice those responsible for the enforced prosecutions; most had pleaded guilty. disappearance in 1995 of Remzi Hoxha, an ethnic Albanian from Macedonia, or in HOUSING RIGHTS establishing the whereabouts of his remains. Many Roma and Egyptians, as well as young Former state security agent Ilir Kumbaro, people leaving social care, failed to meet the convicted in 2012 for the torture and income threshold required to access social subsequent death of Remzi Hoxha, remained housing. Many Roma were unable to at large after absconding from an extradition regularize their homes under the 2014 law on hearing in the UK. the legalization of property, which allowed In March, an Office of Missing Persons was “illegal constructions” to be demolished. In established to locate the remains of Albanians July, 70 mainly Romani families’ houses were forcibly disappeared under the communist demolished in Selita, Tirana, during a forced government between 1944 and 1991. eviction in advance of road construction.

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND IMPUNITY ASSEMBLY In June the prosecutor found that the failure Media independence was compromised by of former State Police director Hysni Burgaj self-censorship, government pressure on and his deputy Agron Kuliçaj to execute arrest media outlets and threats against journalists. warrants for members of the Republic Guard, Journalist Aurora Koromani received police who were alleged to have shot and killed four protection in June after receiving threats protesters in an anti-government believed to originate from the armed group demonstration in January 2011, was not a Islamic State (IS), following her investigations criminal offence. Despite convictions for the into IS recruitment in Albania. Several other deaths of three protesters, impunity persisted journalists sought asylum in the EU and in the case of the fourth, Aleks Nika. Norway on the basis that the authorities were unable to protect them. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Civil society activist Nderim Lushi was Ill-treatment of suspects in police stations was convicted in December of organizing an illegal widespread; police and medical staff failed in assembly and inciting violence “against the their duty to report such incidents. constitutional order” after a peaceful In July, the Ombudsperson reported on demonstration in May in Kukës which called chronic overcrowding and inadequate on the government to cancel electricity debts conditions and health care in places of and encouraged citizens not to leave Albania. detention. Police had used excessive force against demonstrators. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS Albania remained a transit country for VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS migrants and refugees. Thousands of State police reported 1,696 cases of family Albanians applied for asylum in EU countries, violence in the first six months of the year, including 54,762 in Germany, which rejected giving rise to 993 requests for civil protection 99% of their claims; thousands were orders. Of 406 requests submitted to courts deported back to Albania from Germany and in the capital Tirana between January and Sweden. August, only 118 were granted, with 251 applicants withdrawing their application, or not attending court due to pressure from their abusers or family members. In Tirana

64 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 southern city of Laghouat by arresting ALGERIA peaceful activists and protesters, including those protesting in solidarity with detained People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria activists. Some of those arrested were Head of state: Abdelaziz Bouteflika prosecuted on charges including participation Head of government: Abdelmalek Sellal in “unarmed gatherings”, including Mohamed Rag, Belkacem Khencha and other members The authorities restricted freedoms of of the National Committee for the Defence of expression, association and assembly, the Rights of the Unemployed (CNDDC), who arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning received prison terms of between one and two peaceful protesters, activists and years, some of which were reduced on journalists. Legislators amended the Penal appeal. In March, a court in the southern city Code to protect women from violence. of El Oued sentenced five peaceful protesters Perpetrators of torture and other serious to prison terms of up to four months. At the human rights abuses in the 1990s end of the year, they remained at liberty continued to evade justice. Courts handed pending an appeal to Algeria’s High Court.2 In down death sentences; no executions were October, a court in Tamanrasset sentenced carried out. seven protesters to one-year prison terms; six had their prison terms suspended on appeal.3 BACKGROUND The authorities continued to enforce a ban In January, unprecedented protests took on all demonstrations in Algiers. In February, place in southern Algeria against fracking – security forces prevented a peaceful the hydraulic fracture of rock to extract shale gathering in support of anti-fracking gas. demonstrators by arresting people as they In July, at least 25 people were killed and arrived at the protest location and detaining others were injured in communal violence in them for several hours. the M‘zab Valley, 600km south of the capital In June, police forcibly dispersed a Algiers. peaceful protest by members of SOS There were clashes between the security Disparus, a group campaigning on behalf of forces and armed opposition groups in victims of enforced disappearance during the various areas, according to media reports. internal armed conflict of the 1990s, The authorities stated that the security forces including elderly relatives of those who killed 109 alleged members of armed groups disappeared and whose fate the authorities while disclosing few details of the have never disclosed. circumstances in which they were killed. The armed group al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (AQIM) said it carried out an attack in the The authorities prosecuted journalists, northern province of Ain Defla in July that cartoonists, activists and others on insult, killed 14 soldiers. defamation and other similar charges. The authorities persisted in their refusal to In February, a court in Oran convicted allow visits to Algeria by some UN human Mohamed Chergui of insulting the prophet rights bodies and experts, including those Muhammad after Mohamed Chergui’s with mandates on torture, counter-terrorism, employer, the newspaper El Djoumhouria, enforced disappearances and freedom of complained about an article he submitted association.1 based on foreign academic research about Islam. He received a three-year prison term FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY and a fine of 200,000 Algerian dinars (around In January, the authorities responded to US$1,900) in his absence. His prison term protests against unemployment in the was later reduced to a one-year suspended

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 65 sentence, against which he appealed. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION In March, a court in El Oued sentenced Associations seeking legal registration under anti-corruption and CNDDC activist Rachid Law 12-06, including Amnesty International Aouine to a fine of 20,000 Algerian dinars Algeria, were left in limbo by the authorities, (around US$190) and six months’ who failed to respond to registration imprisonment – reduced to four months on applications. The law, which took effect in appeal – after it convicted him of “incitement 2012, imposes wide-ranging and arbitrary to an unarmed gathering”. The charge related restrictions on the registration of associations to a sarcastic comment that he had posted on and makes it a crime, punishable by up to six Facebook.4 months’ imprisonment and a fine, to belong Journalist, Abdelhai Abdessamia was to an unregistered, suspended or dissolved released on bail in September after more than association. two years in pre-trial detention. He worked for the Djaridati and Mon Journal newspapers HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS until the authorities shut them down in 2013 In August, Italian authorities arrested Algerian for reporting on President Bouteflika’s health. human rights lawyer Rachid Mesli, founder of Authorities accused him of helping to the Geneva-based human rights NGO smuggle the newspapers’ editorial director out Alkarama and a political refugee in of Algeria to Tunisia. Following his arrest in Switzerland. His arrest came after Algerian 2013, judicial police held Abdelhai authorities requested his extradition on Abdessamia in arbitrary detention for six charges of providing phones and cameras to days, in breach of Algerian law, before terrorist groups, for which they had convicted handing him over to the national gendarmerie him in his absence based on a previous and military security for interrogation. “confession” that he said had been obtained In October, security forces arrested activist by torture. Italy’s judicial authorities placed Hassan Bouras, a leading member of the him under house arrest for more than three Algerian League for the Defence of Human weeks before lifting the restriction and Rights (LADDH), in the western city of El allowing him to return to Switzerland.7 Bayadh. He remained in detention at the end In December, local authorities banned a of the year while under investigation for training event in Algiers for members of the “insulting a public institution” and “inciting Maghreb Co-ordination of Human Rights citizens or inhabitants to take up arms against Organizations, including human rights the authority of the state or against each defenders from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and other”, charges that could incur the death Mauritania. penalty.5 In November, a court in El Oued sentenced JUSTICE SYSTEM cartoonist Tahar Djehiche to a six-month In July, the government decreed prison term and a fine of 500,000 Algerian amendments to the Code of Criminal dinars (around US$4,600) for “insulting” Procedure, broadening the range of President Bouteflika and “inciting” others to alternatives to pre-charge and pre-trial join a shale gas protest in a comment Tahar detention. Suspects were granted a specific Djehiche made on his Facebook page. He right of access to lawyers during pre-charge had previously been cleared by a court of first detention, but not during interrogation. instance. At the end of the year, he remained Following deadly clashes in the northern at liberty pending an appeal before the High Saharan region, the security forces arrested Court.6 25 people in Ghardaia in July, including Kameleddine Fekhar and other activists supporting the autonomy of the M’zab region, and placed them in pre-trial detention for

66 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 investigation on suspicion of terrorism and DEATH PENALTY inciting hatred. They remained in detention at Courts imposed dozens of death sentences, the end of the year. mostly on murder and terrorism charges, including in cases dating back to the internal WOMEN’S RIGHTS armed conflict of the 1990s. No executions In December, legislators amended the Penal have been carried out since 1993. Code, criminalizing physical violence against a spouse and indecent assaults on women carried out in public.8 However, women 1. The UN Human Rights Council needs to put in place effective remained inadequately protected against measures to evaluate and follow up on non-co-operation with Special gender-based violence in the absence of a Procedures (IOR 40/1269/2015) comprehensive law, while the Penal Code 2. Algeria: Halt repression of fracking and unemployment protesters continued to give immunity from criminal (MDE 28/2122/2015) prosecution to men who rape girls under the 3. Algeria: End relentless targeting of government critics (MDE age of 18 if they marry their victim. 28/2951/2015) 4. Algeria: Halt repression of fracking and unemployment protesters IMPUNITY (MDE 28/2122/2015) 2015 marked the 10th anniversary of the 5. Algeria: End relentless targeting of government critics (MDE Charter on Peace and National 28/2951/2015) Reconciliation, under which the security 6. Algeria: End relentless targeting of government critics (MDE forces obtained immunity from prosecution 28/2951/2015) for crimes committed during the internal 7. Algerian human rights defender at risk of extradition must be armed conflict of the 1990s and released immediately (MDE 28/2313/2015) subsequently, and public criticism of their 8. Algeria: Global reform needed to combat gender-based violence (MDE conduct during the conflict was criminalized. 28/3044/2015) The authorities continued to fail to investigate thousands of enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations and ANGOLA abuses, bring perpetrators to justice, and provide effective remedies to victims’ families. Republic of Angola Families of those forcibly disappeared who Head of state and government: José Eduardo dos continued to seek truth and justice were Santos subject to surveillance and repeated summons for questioning by the security Freedoms of expression, association and forces. assembly were severely restricted. At least 16 prisoners of conscience were in REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS detention; 15 of them were placed under Sub-Saharan African refugees and migrants house arrest on 18 December. The continued to enter Algeria irregularly, mostly authorities used criminal defamation laws through the southern borders. Algerian and state security legislation to harass, security forces arrested migrants and asylum- arbitrarily arrest and detain individuals for seekers, in particular at the southern borders. peacefully expressing their views, and to In April, the Algerian army arrested around restrict press freedom. The government 500 sub-Saharan migrants near the border passed a new law restricting the activities of with Niger, according to press reports. The NGOs. Algerian authorities reported that nationals of Niger within the group were then “voluntarily” BACKGROUND returned to Niger in co-operation with The global drop in the price of oil during 2015 Nigerien authorities. negatively affected the economy.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 67 Security forces used excessive force Eduardo dos Santos.1 They were formally against people who criticized the government, charged on 16 September with preparatory exposed corruption or denounced human acts of rebellion and of plotting against the rights violations. The space for the exercise of President. Two women activists were charged the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful with the same crimes, but were not detained. assembly and association shrank as human Lawyers for the 15 were only officially rights defenders and government critics were informed of the charges on 30 September, arrested and subjected to criminal beyond the 90 days’ pre-trial detention period prosecutions by an increasingly politicized permitted by law. The charges, which are judiciary. considered state security crimes, each carry a When its human rights record was penalty of up to three years’ imprisonment. assessed under the Universal Periodic Review Three activists faced additional charges: (UPR) in 2014, Angola had accepted 192 of Manuel Nito Alves, for illegal change of name the 226 recommendations made and stated (maximum penalty one month’s that it would give further consideration to the imprisonment); Luaty Beirão for falsification of remaining 34 recommendations, including documents (maximum penalty eight years’ many related to freedoms of expression, imprisonment); and Osvaldo Caholo for theft association and peaceful assembly. In March of documents (maximum penalty eight years’ 2015, Angola rejected these imprisonment). recommendations, including Four of the 15 activists went on hunger recommendations to refrain from using strike on 20 September for several days to criminal defamation laws to restrict the right protest against their unlawful detention. On 9 to freedom of expression. October, Luaty Beirão, who had remained on hunger strike, was transferred to the prison PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE hospital of São Paulo, where he accepted an The authorities continued to imprison intravenous saline drip on 11 October but no government critics, human rights defenders, solid food.2 On 15 October, he was political activists and journalists. At the end of transferred to a private hospital in Luanda. He the year, at least 16 prisoners of conscience ended his hunger strike after 36 days. were in detention, 15 under house arrest. The trial of the activists started on 16 On 14 September human rights defender November and breached numerous José Marcos Mavungo was sentenced to six international fair trial standards, including the years’ imprisonment on charges of rebellion, right to a public hearing and the right to be a state security crime. He had been involved tried without undue delay.3 On 18 December, in organizing a peaceful demonstration on 14 the 15 activists were placed under house March, the day he was arrested, and was arrest. The trial was scheduled to continue on accused of association with a group of men 11 January 2016. found with explosives and flyers the day before the demonstration. No evidence of this FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY association or of José Marcos Mavungo’s Although by law demonstrations do not involvement in producing the flyers was require authorization, the authorities presented, nor were the other men brought to frequently refused to allow them to take trial. place. When demonstrations did take place, Fifteen male youth activists were arrested police often arbitrarily arrested and detained and detained by security forces between 20 peaceful protesters. On a number of and 24 June in the capital, Luanda, in occasions police detained and beat protesters connection with a peaceful meeting they before leaving them many kilometres away attended to discuss politics and governance from where they were seized. concerns under the presidency of José On 29 July, police in Luanda beat and

68 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 arrested participants at a peaceful protest FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION calling for the release of the 15 youth activists The authorities continued to use criminal detained in June. defamation laws and state security laws to On 8 August, protesters peacefully suppress peaceful expression of opinions, demanding the release of the 15 youth especially those critical of the government. activists were assaulted by armed police who Rafael Marques de Morais, an anti- used batons and dogs against them and beat corruption and human rights journalist, was several of the protesters. Several people were convicted of slanderous denunciation in May. briefly detained before being released without The conviction was based on allegations of charge. Those protesting included the criminal conduct he made after the mothers and wives of some of the detained publication of his 2011 book, Blood activists. Diamonds, in which he accused military On 11 October, supporters of the 15 youth generals and two mining companies of activists held a vigil at Sagrada Família complicity in human rights abuses committed Church in Luanda. According to those who in the diamond fields of Lundas province. He took part, the police arrived at the vigil with was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, guns, water cannons and dogs. To avoid suspended for two years. His lawyers lodged conflict with the police, the participants cut an appeal before the Supreme Court in June, the vigil short. The next day another vigil was but it had not been heard by the end of 2015. held, and several people were briefly detained (The average time for an appeal to be heard by the police before being released without is two years.) charge. Attorney Arão Bula Tempo, Chair of the FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION Cabinda Bar Association, was detained on 14 The government enacted a new law covering March in the province of Cabinda and the registration of NGOs, Presidential Decree conditionally released on 13 May. On 22 74/15 of 23 March. The law imposed rigorous October he was formally charged with restrictions on how organizations must attempting to collaborate with foreigners to register and report their finances. The new constrain the Angolan state (maximum law’s provisions could stifle the ability of penalty five years’ imprisonment) and NGOs and other civil society organizations to rebellion (maximum penalty 12 years’ organize and operate. Under the new decree, imprisonment). Both offences are classified the Public Prosecutor’s Office is empowered as crimes against the security of the state. to suspend the activities of national and The charges were based on an allegation that international NGOs on suspicion of money Arão Bula Tempo had invited journalists from laundering, or illegal or harmful acts against the Republic of Congo to cover a Angola’s sovereignty and integrity. In addition, demonstration organized by José Marcos Article 15 limits the ability of NGOs to receive Mavungo (see above). Arão Bula Tempo’s and utilize resources and to carry out their health deteriorated towards the end of the activities as they determine best to achieve year and he wished to seek health care their objectives. The ability to seek, receive outside Cabinda province. However, he was and utilize funding is a critical component of not allowed to leave Cabinda. These the right to freedom of association. restrictions violated Arão Bula Tempo’s right to freedom of movement and his right to the highest attainable standard of health.4 No 1. Angola: Detained activists must be immediately released (News story, date had been set for his trial by the end of 22 June) the year. 2. Angola: Prisoner of conscience in critical condition must be released immediately (News story, 20 October) 3. Angola: Kangaroo court undermines judicial independence as trial of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 69 activists enters fourth week (News story, 8 December) RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 4. Urgent Action, Angola: Further information: Two activists still face TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE 10-15 years in jail (AFR 12/2039/2015) In September, a well-known Argentinian LGBTI activist, Daiana Sacayán, was found dead in her apartment. She was the third ARGENTINA transgender woman – after Marcela Chocobar and Coty Olmos – to have died in violent Argentine Republic circumstances in one month. By the end of Head of state and government: Mauricio Macri the year nobody had been charged over their (replaced Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in deaths. November) INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Women and girls faced obstacles in Although the Constitution recognizes the accessing legal abortions. Discrimination rights of Indigenous Peoples to their ancestral against Indigenous Peoples remained a lands and to participate in the management concern. People suspected of committing of natural resources, these rights were rarely crimes during the military dictatorship respected. (1976 to 1983) stood trial. Reports of Félix Díaz, leader of La Primavera torture and other ill-treatment were not community (Potae Napocna Navogoh) in investigated. Formosa Province, continued to face criminal proceedings in three separate cases on BACKGROUND charges dating from 2010 of illegal The presidential elections dominated the occupation of land, resistance to authority political landscape during the year. Mauricio and theft. He denied the allegations. In June Macri was elected President after a second the defence called for the decision to try him ballot on 22 November. for allegedly seizing land to be overturned. However, by the end of the year the decision SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS was still pending. The Ministry of Health published a new In October, Relmu Ñamku, leader of the protocol for the implementation of legal Mapuche community of Winkul Newen in abortions in line with a 2012 ruling by the Neuquén Province, was tried on Supreme Court. The protocol had not disproportionate charges for resisting unlawful received ministerial endorsement by the end eviction from her ancestral territory. She was of the year. More than half of jurisdictions acquitted of the charge of attempting to lacked comprehensive hospital protocols that murder a police officer. It was the first would guarantee access to legal abortion criminal trial in the region to include an when a pregnancy is the result of rape or intercultural jury and a simultaneous poses a risk to the health or life of the woman interpretation into Mapuzungun, the native or girl. language of the Mapuche. A woman from a deprived neighbourhood in Tierra del Fuego was released on bail after TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE being charged in 2013 with having a Public trials were held for crimes against clandestine abortion. She had faced humanity perpetrated during the military restrictions in accessing a legal abortion in regime between 1976 and 1983. There were her locality. The outcome of the trial was eight new convictions, bringing the total pending at the end of the year. number of those sentenced between 2006 and 2015 to 142. There was little progress in bringing to justice those from the civil, business and legal

70 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 sectors. According to the Public Prosecutor’s witnesses to torture. There were further Office, questions about responsibility delays in establishing the National System for remained even in cases where significant the Prevention of Torture. evidence had been gathered. To date, only one member of the judiciary and two businessmen have been convicted. ARMENIA On 23 September, the Chamber of Deputies passed a bill to the Senate Republic of Armenia proposing the creation of a commission, with Head of state: Serzh Sargsyan representatives from both the Chamber and Head of government: Hovik Abrahamyan Senate, to identify economic and financial interests that had colluded with the military Largely peaceful protests were repeatedly dictatorship. disrupted, including with the use of excessive force by police, which led to yet IMPUNITY more and larger protests. Protest organizers The investigation into the death in January of faced arrest and criminal prosecution on Alberto Nisman, prosecutor in the case of the questionable charges. An anti-government 1994 attack on the Jewish Mutual Association protester was reported attacked and beaten. of Argentina (AMIA) building in the capital, Torture and other ill-treatment, and Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed, impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, continued at the end of the year. remained a concern. New provisions for In August, the public hearing into the alternative civilian service, introduced into cover-up of the investigation into the 1994 law in 2013, were made available for AMIA attack began. Among those accused of conscientious objectors. the cover-up were a former judge and prosecutor and high-ranking officials, BACKGROUND including former President Carlos Menem. In a referendum on 6 December, Armenians The main case relating to the attack has been voted for constitutional amendments that stalled since 2006 when a judge issued transferred executive power from the orders for the capture and extradition of eight presidency to parliament. However, concerns Iranian nationals and a Lebanese national for were raised by the opposition that this could questioning. Four of these orders remained in also allow the incumbent President to remain force and the subject of an Interpol “red in power after his second term. alert”. Iran refused the extradition requests for the eight Iranians. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY The year was marked by growing public TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT discontent and widespread protests around a There were reports of the use of torture range of social and political issues, and the during arrest and in prisons in the provinces authorities’ attempts to clamp down on their of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Chubut. organizers and participants. The two issues Methods included the use of electrified cattle prompting the strongest protests across the prods, near-asphyxiation with a plastic bag or country were a planned rise in electricity by submersion in water, and prolonged prices, and the constitutional amendments isolation. that would allow the President to remain in Reports of torture and other ill-treatment power beyond the second term, in June and were not investigated and Argentina still in October respectively. lacked a national system for recording On 21 September, Smbat Hakobian, a information relating to reports of torture. member of a political group critical of the There was no system in place to protect government, was severely beaten after

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 71 returning from an anti-government FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION demonstration in Yerevan, sustaining head Five members of the Founding Parliament injuries and broken ribs. Police opened an opposition movement were arrested on investigation and detained three men as charges of planning mass unrest after they suspects. An investigation into a similar attack announced their plans to hold an anti- against three protesters in 2014 reached no government rally on 24 April, the day which conclusion in 2015. Armenians marked as the centenary anniversary of the Armenian genocide. This Excessive use of force was despite the fact that the organizers had On repeated occasions, police targeted secured official permission to hold the rally. peaceful protesters and largely peaceful On 9 April, a court in Yerevan ruled to gatherings with excessive force and arrests. remand them for two months. They were Activists taking part in anti-government released on 4 May, following mass protests in protests continued to face risk of violence Yerevan, but the criminal proceedings against from police and pro-government groups. them were not closed. On 15 January, police blocked thousands from marching towards the Russian TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Consulate in Gyumri, to protest against the Torture and other ill-treatment in police murder of a family of six by a Russian soldier. custody and in prisons, as well as impunity According to eyewitness reports, clashes for the perpetrators, remained a concern. ensued after police in riot gear used Local human rights groups highlighted the truncheons and fired tear gas and stun practice by which law enforcement officials grenades, while the protesters threw stones in suspected of using torture were often response. Police detained 21 people and removed temporarily from their positions and released them the following day. Nine later re-appointed to the same, or higher, protesters and three police officers were position in a different police department. reported wounded. Investigation into the incident was opened but was still ongoing at RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, the end of the year. TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE On 19 June, thousands started a multi-day On 17 May, some 100 activists marked the sit-in protest in the centre of the capital, International Day against Homophobia and Yerevan, prompted by the government’s Transphobia in a closed venue. announcement of a planned increase in Discrimination against LGBTI individuals electricity tariffs. On 23 June, approximately remained a concern, in the absence of 500 demonstrators marched towards the gender-specific anti-discrimination legislation Presidential Administration building, and and amid widespread reports of hate speech. blocked the road in front of the police cordon. Police used excessive force to disperse them, CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS including dousing people with water cannon. Armenia started implementing the legal In response, some protesters threw water amendments from 2013 on alternative civilian bottles but otherwise the crowd remained service, allowing conscripted conscientious peaceful; 237 people were detained and then objectors to work in public service instead of released without charge. Police also used serving in the armed forces. excessive force against several journalists, confiscating and damaging their equipment, for which they later issued an official apology. 1. Armenia: Investigate alleged police abuses after protesters doused Investigation into the incident was still with water cannon and arrested (News story, 23 June) ongoing at the end of the year.1

72 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 aggravated home burglaries for adults and AUSTRALIA children aged 16 and 17, and by tightening the mandatory sentencing counting rules for Australia non-violent home burglaries. Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Sir Indigenous adults were 14 times more Peter Cosgrove likely than non-Indigenous adults to be Head of government: Malcolm Turnbull (replaced Tony incarcerated and deaths in custody Abbott in September) continued. In May, an Indigenous man in the Northern Territory died of heart failure in a Australia jailed Indigenous people at a police watch house, three hours after being disproportionate rate to non-Indigenous taken into custody on suspicion of drinking people; some children were detained with alcohol in a regulated place. The coroner adults. Australia continued its hard-line criticized the paperless arrest system under policies towards asylum-seekers, including which the man was taken into custody as pushing back boats, refoulement, and “manifestly unfair” in its disproportionate mandatory and indefinite detention, as well impact on Indigenous people, who were more as offshore processing on Nauru and in likely to be targeted by the laws. Three Papua New Guinea. Those assessed as prisoners died in two Western Australia refugees on Nauru were denied the right to prisons during September, November and settle in Australia and offered temporary December, adding to the list of deaths in visas or residency in Cambodia. Papua New custody yet to be heard by the Western Guinea had yet to finalize a temporary visa, Australian Coroner. One prisoner died in a to be granted to those recognized as New South Wales prison in December. refugees, leaving many people in a legal In June, the Federal government handed limbo unable to leave Manus Island. Staff responsibility for essential and municipal and contractors who complained about services in remote Indigenous communities to human rights violations at immigration state governments. The Western Australian detention facilities could face criminal Premier stated that up to 150 communities proceedings under new legislation. New may be closed as a result; widespread “security” legislation extended data protests ensued. Following the protests the interception powers and a law was passed Western Australian government initiated a stripping dual nationals of their Australian consultation process. citizenship for terrorism-related activities. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Australia continued its punitive approach to Indigenous children were 24 times more likely asylum-seekers arriving by boat by pushing to be detained than non-Indigenous children. them back at sea, returning them to countries As the age of criminal responsibility in of origin without proper assessment of asylum Australia is 10, laws allowed for children aged claims, creating a risk of refoulement, or by 10 and 11 to be detained in every jurisdiction transferring them to Australian-run facilities in in violation of the UN Convention on the Nauru or Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. Rights of the Child. Australia detained By 30 November, 926 people were children with adults in Queensland and detained in Papua New Guinea and 543 provided limited separation between detained people remained in the “open” facility on children and adult prisoners in at least one Nauru, including 70 children. detention centre in the Northern Territory. In March, the government released an The Western Australian government independent review of the Nauru centre, widened existing mandatory sentencing by which documented allegations of rape and introducing mandatory sentences for sexual assault – including of children – as

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 73 well as cases of harassment and physical since December 2013 it had pushed back 20 assault (see Nauru entry). The Australian boats, carrying a combined total of 633 government accepted all of the people, including one directly to Vietnam in recommendations but despite this in August a July. In November, another boat carrying 16 Senate report stated conditions were “not asylum-seekers was reportedly pushed back adequate, appropriate or safe”. In October to Indonesia. the Nauru government announced that In September the government announced asylum-seekers would no longer be detained that it would resettle an additional 12,000 in the centre, which would become an open Syrian refugees in response to the crisis in the facility. It also announced that the remaining Middle East. 600 asylum claims would be processed “within a week”. By the end of December COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY processing still had not been completed. Parliament passed legislation stripping those In June, four refugees were transferred to with dual nationality of their Australian Cambodia as part of a deal signed in citizenship on the basis of suspicion of September 2014 where Australia paid an involvement in terrorist-related activities. additional A$40 million (US$28 million) in aid Australian dual nationals risked losing to Cambodia, as well as a further A$15 million citizenship without any criminal conviction (US$10.5 million) for specific expenses, to and with limited procedural safeguards. relocate refugees there from its offshore Legislation was passed authorizing the immigration processing centre on Nauru. mass surveillance of personal metadata. While one of the four agreed to return from Cambodia to Myanmar in October, a fifth man INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY was transferred to Cambodia from Nauru in In November, Australia’s human rights record November. was assessed for the second time under the Also in June, Indonesian officials alleged UN Universal Periodic Review. Australia Australia paid people-smugglers US$31,000 received criticism for its failure to ratify the in May to return to Indonesia a boat carrying Optional Protocol to the UN Convention 65 asylum-seekers. A Senate Inquiry was against Torture and its failure to address ongoing at the end of the year. Indigenous incarceration rates. Australia Australia continued its policy of indefinite received recommendations to introduce a mandatory detention, with 1,852 people Human Rights Act and to end mandatory detained in onshore immigration detention detention of asylum-seekers. centres as of 1 December. They included 104 children, despite the government’s pledge in August 2014 to end the detention of children. AUSTRIA In July the government introduced the Border Force Act 2015, which includes Republic of Austria prison sentences for government staff and Head of state: Heinz Fischer contractors, including health and child Head of government: Werner Faymann welfare professionals, who speak out about human rights abuses in immigration Over 85,000 people sought asylum in the detention. country by the end of November – a It also proposed legislation that would allow remarkable increase on previous years. immigration detention employees to use Thousands of asylum-seekers in the force, including lethal force, against any reception centre of Traiskirchen were left to individual in detention, while removing sleep in inadequate facilities, with poor judicial oversight. medical care and a lack of protection for In August the government announced that unaccompanied minors. The government

74 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 took insufficient steps to address ill- prison of a 74-year-old man. Related treatment and neglect in the penal and disciplinary proceedings were dropped in preventive detention systems. The June. A taskforce on preventive detention authorities’ failure to respond adequately to established in 2014 by the Minister of Justice reports of ill-treatment by the police published its report in January, persisted. Gaps in the Anti-Discrimination recommending measures to address the law remained. growing number of people in preventive detention, and its increasing length and REFUGEES, ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND frequent imposition for minor offences. MIGRANTS In July, the European Court of Human Tens of thousands of refugees, asylum- Rights found that a 16-month delay in dealing seekers and migrants entered Austria during with an application for release from a the year, the majority of whom then travelled psychiatric institution submitted by a to Germany. In one weekend in September, convicted offender in May 2006 constituted a more than 15,000 refugees and migrants violation of the right to liberty. entered Austria from Hungary. As of the end of November, approximately 85,500 people POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES had requested asylum in Austria in 2015, There were reports that police used excessive compared with 23,861 in the same period in force on several occasions. Victims of torture 2014. and other ill-treatment continued to The authorities struggled to offer adequate experience difficulties in obtaining justice and reception conditions. By mid-August, over reparation. Complaints of ill-treatment by the 4,000 asylum-seekers were hosted in the police were often followed by an inadequate reception centre of Traiskirchen in extremely response by both the police and the judicial poor conditions, with over 2,000, including system. children, sleeping outdoors. Access to The government continued to refuse to medical care was insufficient. Many create a compulsory identification system for unaccompanied minors were left without police officers. protection. In October, a constitutional law came into force, expanding the government’s DISCRIMINATION powers and allowing it to identify sites to host Following a ruling by the Constitutional Court asylum-seekers should provincial authorities in December 2014, legislation banning same- fail to do so in a timely manner. Amendments sex couples from adopting children other than to the asylum law, which were proposed by each other’s biological children, ceased to be the government in November to introduce in force at the end of the year. In February, temporary asylum and limit family new legislation was enacted to allow women reunification, were pending at the end of the in a same-sex relationship to access year. reproductive medicine. The length of the asylum procedure, often Discriminatory differences remained lasting several years, remained a problem. between marriage and registered partnerships regarding the minimum age, naming rights PRISON CONDITIONS and separation, among others. Marriage The authorities failed to promptly and remained exclusively reserved for effectively respond to cases of ill-treatment heterosexual partners, and registered and neglect of detainees in penal and partnerships for same-sex couples. preventive detention systems. Medical and The government failed to amend the Anti- mental health care remained inadequate. In Discrimination Law to ensure equal protection March, criminal proceedings were dropped against all forms of discrimination in the against staff for the prolonged neglect in Stein access to goods and services – including on

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 75 the basis of religion and belief, age and comfortably won Parliamentary elections on 1 sexual orientation. November. The main opposition parties boycotted the elections due to constant COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY harassment by the authorities. The OSCE In March, a Police State Protection bill was Office for Democratic Institutions and Human proposed, expanding the powers of the Rights (ODIHR) cancelled its election Federal Office for the Protection of the monitoring mission because of restrictions Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism, imposed by the government, while the OSCE without adequate oversight by independent representation in had discontinued its authorities. The adoption of the bill was operations in July. pending at the end of the year. International human rights monitors were barred and expelled from the country. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International AZERBAIJAN delegates were refused entry and expelled on arrival, as were several international Republic of Azerbaijan journalists during the European Games. In Head of state: September, the government cancelled a visit Head of government: Artur Rasizade planned by the European Commission to the country, after the European Parliament called The crackdown on civil society and on the government to release imprisoned persecution of political dissent continued. human rights defenders. In October, the Human rights organizations remained Council of Europe withdrew from the joint unable to resume their work. At least 18 working group on human rights issues in prisoners of conscience remained in Azerbaijan, in protest at the deteriorating detention at the end of the year. Reprisals human rights situation. against independent journalists and activists persisted both in the country and abroad, FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION while their family members also faced Leading human rights NGOs were unable to harassment and arrests. International resume their work, as a result of the freezing human rights monitors were barred and of their assets and ongoing harassment – expelled from the country. Reports of torture including criminal prosecution – of their and other ill-treatment persisted. members. Several NGO leaders remained in prison while others were forced into exile for BACKGROUND fear of persecution. The national currency lost a third of its value After 10 months spent inside the Swiss in US dollar terms after the government Embassy to avoid prosecution on trumped-up devalued it in response to plummeting oil charges, the founder and leader of the prices. The economy remained heavily Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety dependent on oil, leading to considerable (IRFS), Emin Huseynov, was allowed to leave price hikes and falling real income. the country on 12 June but was stripped of In June, the first European Games, a major his citizenship. The IRFS office had been international sporting event intended to raided and sealed off by the authorities in showcase Azerbaijan, were held in the 2014, and its online broadcasting channel, capital, Baku. They came at considerable Obyektiv TV, taken off air. economic cost, amid reports of the government pressuring businesses for PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE financial contributions and salary reductions At least 18 government critics, including for public sector employees. prominent human rights defenders, remained The ruling New Azerbaijan party behind bars on fabricated charges at the end

76 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 of the year. Facebook post on a famous footballer. Six Following their arrest in 2014, four NGO men were arrested and charged in leaders were sentenced to lengthy prison connection with his death. sentences on trumped-up charges of On 16 September, police apprehended two embezzlement, illegal entrepreneurship, tax reporters from Meydan TV, an independent, evasion and abuse of authority. Rasul Jafarov, online Azeri-language media outlet. Aytaj founder of the Human Rights Club, was Ahmadova was released after questioning but sentenced to six and a half years’ Shirin Abbasov was held incommunicado for imprisonment on 16 April; Intigam Aliyev, two days and sentenced to 30 days’ head of the Legal Education Society, to seven administrative detention for allegedly resisting and a half years on 22 April; Leyla Yunus, police; he served his full sentence. president of the Institute for Peace and On 8 December, Fuad Gahramanli, deputy Democracy, and her husband and co-worker chairman of the opposition Popular Front Arif Yunus to eight and a half and seven years Party, was arrested in connection with his respectively on 13 August. Leyla and Arif posts on Facebook criticizing the government Yunus were given conditional sentences on and calling for peaceful protest and appeal on 9 December, and both released. resistance. He was remanded for three Investigative reporter , also months as a criminal suspect, accused of under arrest since 2014, was sentenced to calling for government overthrow and seven and a half years’ imprisonment on 1 incitement of religious hatred. September. Prisoners of conscience Bashir Suleymanli, Arrests of journalists’ relatives co-founder of the Election Monitoring and Relatives of media workers who work from Democracy Studies Centre, and opposition abroad and are critical of the government activist Orkhan Eyyubzade were released faced harassment by the authorities. On 13 under a presidential pardon on 18 March. February, police detained Elgiz Sadigli, brother of Tural Sadigli, a blogger who had FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION participated in a street protest in Berlin during All mainstream media remained under President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Germany. government control; independent outlets Elgiz Sadigli was remanded for two months on faced harassment and closure. Independent drug-related charges and then released journalists continued to face intimidation, following international outcry. harassment, threats and violence. In June, Meydan TV exiled director and On 26 January, deputy chair of the IRFS former prisoner of conscience Emin Milli Gunay Ismayilova was attacked by an reported receiving threats from the authorities unidentified man in the lobby of her following his disapproving coverage of the apartment building in Baku. An investigation European Games. On 23 July, his brother-in- into the incident was still ongoing at the end law Nazim Aghabayov was arrested on drug- of the year. related charges and placed in detention. His In May, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty cousin, Polad Abdullayev, was arrested on 27 decided to close its office in Baku. It had July and released within a few days after been raided and searched by the authorities several relatives wrote an open letter in December 2014, and remained sealed repudiating Emin Milli’s work. since. In July, police arrested three relatives of On 8 August, Rasim Aliyev, journalist and Ganimat Zahid, an exiled journalist and chair of the IRFS, was severely beaten by a former prisoner of conscience, who runs the group of men in Baku and died in hospital the Turkey-based TV SAAT, a broadcasting following day. He had reported receiving channel available online. His nephew and threats on social media related to his cousin were arrested on 19 and 22 July for

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 77 resisting police orders and released after BACKGROUND serving 25 and 30 days respectively of A controversial migratory reform was adopted, administrative detention. Another nephew putting thousands of migrants and their was arrested on 22 July and charged with children born in the Bahamas at risk of drug possession. human rights abuses. On 13 October, police arrested and The homicide rate steadily increased in remanded Vakil and Raji Imanovs, brothers of recent years, in a context of high Meydan TV exiled editor Gunel Movlud, in two unemployment and a weak justice system. separate raids in different parts of the According to the local press, 110 murders country, also on drug-related charges. were recorded in 2015 as of September, a 25% increase compared with the same FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY period in 2014. Peaceful street protests were prevented or dispersed by police using violence. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE On 22 August, several hundred residents of Excessive use of force, including killings, by the city of Mingechevir gathered peacefully to security forces continued to be reported, protest against the death of a man in police often in circumstances suggesting that they custody. They were violently dispersed by tear may have been extrajudicial executions. gas and sound bombs, and chased and On 14 August, Bahamian-Haitian Nixon beaten by baton-wielding riot police. Vaximar was killed by police at his home in the Gamble Heights community on the island TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT of New Providence. According to his family, Torture and other ill-treatment continued to he was sleeping and unarmed when police be committed with impunity for the burst into his house and shot him dead. perpetrators, in the absence of effective investigations and prosecutions. MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Prisoner of conscience Ilgar Mammadov In March, the Ministry of Education issued a told his lawyer that on 16 October he had school registration policy requiring every child been knocked onto the floor, kicked and to prove their regular status in the country to punched by two prison guards and the head attend school, in violation of the Bahamas’ of prison, who warned that he would not leave human rights obligations.1 prison alive. His lawyer noticed injuries and On 20 March, the Inter-American bruises on his head and neck when visiting Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held him the next day. a hearing to discuss the situation of migrants’ rights in the Bahamas. Local activists working with migrants BAHAMAS reported regular round-ups of migrants by immigration officials, raising concerns over Commonwealth of the Bahamas arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation of Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by migrants and their descendants. Marguerite Pindling In June, Haitian migrant Jean-Marie Head of government: Perry Gladstone Christie Justilien was shot in the neck by an immigration officer during an attempt to arrest There were allegations of arbitrary arrests undocumented migrants, and was detained and abuses against migrants. Deaths in and charged with illegal entry into the custody were reported. Impunity for country. On 2 December, a court found him allegations of police abuses remained the not guilty; his lawyer reported that he was norm. arbitrarily deported to Haiti on 7 December, without having been issued a deportation

78 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 order and with no possibility to challenge the online and other dissent. Opposition leaders decision in court. remained imprisoned; some were prisoners of conscience. Torture and other ill- Discrimination – stateless persons treatment remained common. Scores were In May, the Parliament approved migration sentenced to long prison terms after unfair reforms that could potentially prevent the trials. Authorities stripped at least 208 children of undocumented migrants born in people of their Bahraini nationality. Eight the Bahamas from accessing Bahamian people were sentenced to death; there were nationality, at the risk of rendering individuals no executions. stateless. BACKGROUND PRISON CONDITIONS Tension remained high between the minority In February, the IACHR requested the Sunni-dominated government and the adoption of precautionary measures for opposition, which was supported mainly by persons held in the Carmichael Road the Shi’a majority population. There were Detention Centre. This followed concerns on frequent protests by Shi’a demanding the inhumane conditions of detention, including release of imprisoned opposition leaders, to extreme overcrowding and a lack of which the security forces often responded appropriate medical attention that could with excessive force. The police were targeted affect prisoners’ right to life and physical in several bomb explosions; one killed two integrity. police officers on the island of Sitra in July, Deaths in custody continued to be and another killed an officer in the village of reported, raising further alarms over the lack Karannah in August. of appropriate oversight mechanisms, in In March, Bahrain joined the Saudi Arabia- particular in police lock-ups. led coalition that engaged in the armed conflict in Yemen (see Yemen entry). JUSTICE SYSTEM The authorities constructed new facilities in Despite the authorities’ efforts to reform the Dry Dock Prison to hold children aged 15 to justice system in recent years, the capacity of 18, transferring 300 juvenile offenders from the Bahamas to prosecute and convict in Jaw Prison to Dry Dock in May. criminal cases remained a concern. In June, In June, the US government lifted its the Attorney General reported that 600 cases embargo on arms sales to the Bahrain were backlogged in the Supreme Court. National Guard and Bahrain Defence Forces, and in August approved a US$150 million deal to supply military aircraft parts, 1. Bahamas: Amnesty International seeks clarification to the authorities ammunition and communications equipment on migration reforms (AMR 14/1264/2015) to Bahrain. A joint statement signed by 35 countries at the UN Human Rights Council in September BAHRAIN expressed serious concern about human rights violations in Bahrain including Kingdom of Bahrain imprisonment of those exercising their rights Head of state: King Hamad bin ‘Issa Al Khalifa to freedom of expression, assembly and Head of government: Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al association, and lack of accountability. Khalifa FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND The government continued to curtail ASSOCIATION freedoms of expression, association and The authorities severely curtailed the rights to assembly and cracked down further on freedom of expression and association, and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 79 arrested and prosecuted political and vague charges. In June, Sheikh ‘Ali Salman, religious activists who criticized the Secretary General of the main opposition government through social media or at public party, Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, gatherings. Others were prosecuted and received a four-year prison term after an convicted for criticizing the late King Abdullah unfair trial on charges that included “public of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-led air strikes incitement to loathing and contempt of a sect in Yemen. The authorities continued to detain of people which will result in disrupting public prisoners of conscience sentenced after order”. unfair trials in previous years. Several In July, a month after his release from prisoners of conscience were released after prison under a royal pardon, security completing their sentences. authorities arrested Ebrahim Sharif, the In March, the Shura Council approved former Secretary General of the National amendments to Article 364 of the Penal Code Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad) party, and which would increase the penalty for charged him with “inciting hatred and “insulting parliament, the Shura Council, contempt of the regime” and attempting to security forces, judges or public interest” to overthrow the regime “by force and illegal two years’ imprisonment, and increase the means”. His trial was ongoing at the end of maximum prison sentence for publicly the year. encouraging others to “defame” to three A court sentenced Fadhel Abbas Mahdi years’ imprisonment, or longer for defamation Mohamed, Secretary General of the Unitary in the media; the amendments had not been National Democratic Assemblage (al- enacted by the end of the year. In September, Wahdawi) party, to five years in prison in June the Cabinet approved regulations which for “spreading false information” after the would penalize media outlets for “spreading party said the Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen false or damaging information that could were a violation of international law. affect foreign relations”. The authorities continued to prevent or Police rearrested prominent human rights restrict visits to Bahrain by international defender Nabeel Rajab in April for posts on human rights groups, including Amnesty Twitter about torture in Jaw Prison and Saudi- International. led air strikes in Yemen, and in May an appeal court confirmed his earlier six-month FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY sentence for “publicly insulting official The authorities continued to ban all institutions”. In July, the authorities released demonstrations in the capital, Manama, but him under a royal pardon, four days after the protests continued in Shi’a villages European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding the release of political prisoners. urging the government to release him and The security forces frequently used excessive other prisoners of conscience. He remained force, including tear gas and shotguns, to banned from leaving Bahrain. disperse protesters, injuring some protesters In October, a court upheld the conviction of and bystanders. They also arrested and beat activist Zainab al-Khawaja and reduced her protesters. Some protesters received prison three-year prison sentence to one year for sentences. “insulting the King” by ripping up a photo of In January, a police officer shot a protester the King in court in October 2014. A court carrying a photo of opposition leader Sheikh also upheld her convictions for “destroying ‘Ali Salman at close range in the village of government property” and “insulting a public Bilad al-Qadeem. In November, a court official”. acquitted the officer. The authorities summoned and interrogated some political opposition leaders, and prosecuted and imprisoned others on

80 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY Investigations Unit (SIU), the institution in The authorities revoked the nationality of charge of investigating police abuses. The Bahrainis convicted of terrorism-related SIU subsequently closed the investigation offences or other illegal acts, stripping at least citing a lack of evidence. In December, a 208 people, including nine children, of their court sentenced Hussain Jawad to two years citizenship during the year, rendering many in prison. stateless. An appeal court reinstated the nationality of nine individuals. UNFAIR TRIALS In January, the Interior Ministry revoked the Hundreds of people were convicted in unfair citizenship of 72 of the 208 people, including trials on charges of rioting, illegal gathering or human rights defenders and former MPs, as committing terrorism-related offences. Many well as Bahrainis allegedly fighting with the defendants in terrorism cases were convicted armed group Islamic State (IS). One of the 72 largely on the basis of “confessions” that they was deported; others were told to surrender said interrogators had forced them to make their passports and identification cards and under torture; some received death commit to regularizing their legal status as sentences. foreigners, or leave Bahrain. Some filed a Abbas Jamil al-Samea’ and two other men court appeal against the decision but this was were sentenced to death in February, rejected in December. convicted of a bombing in March 2014. Their trial, in which seven co-defendants were TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT sentenced to life imprisonment, was unfair: Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, the court failed to adequately investigate their mainly suspects in security or terrorism- allegations of torture and other ill-treatment related cases, remained rife, particularly by CID interrogators; they were denied access within the Criminal Investigations Directorate to their lawyers until their trial began; their (CID). Police and other security officials also lawyers were not permitted to see the full beat or otherwise abused people when case file, and their requests to cross-examine arresting them and transporting them to prosecution witnesses were ignored. police stations. At Jaw Prison, detainees faced repeated beatings, were required to IMPUNITY sleep in tents and were denied any A climate of impunity persisted. The communication with their families for several authorities failed to hold senior officials weeks after the security forces used tear gas accountable for torture and other human and shotguns to quell a disturbance at the rights violations committed during and since prison in March. the 2011 protests. The few investigations that Human rights defender Hussain Jawad, led to prosecutions of some low-ranking Chairman of the European-Bahraini police officers resulted in lenient sentences or organization for Human Rights, said he was acquittals. blindfolded, handcuffed behind his back, In April, a court acquitted a police officer of denied access to a toilet, beaten and causing the death of Fadhel Abbas Muslim threatened with sexual abuse while under Marhoon, who was shot in the head in interrogation by CID officers after his arrest in January 2014. The officer was sentenced to February. Although the Public Prosecution three months in prison for injuring Sadeq al- Office ordered his release, CID officers took Asfoor, who was with Fadhel Abbas, by him back into detention and again tortured shooting him in the stomach. The SIU him until he “confessed” to receiving money appealed against the three-month sentence. to support and finance subversive groups. He In November, the Court of Cassation later refuted this confession and lodged a ordered the retrial of two police officers complaint of torture with the Special convicted of causing the death in custody of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 81 ‘Ali ‘Issa al-Saqer in 2011. An appeal court BACKGROUND had reduced their 10-year prison sentences An anti-government campaign led by the to two years in September 2013. opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party In June, six police officers received prison (BNP) between January and March turned sentences ranging from one to five years for violent as hundreds of buses and other causing the death in custody of Hassan al- vehicles were attacked, allegedly by Shaikh in November 2014. demonstrators using petrol bombs. Dozens of passengers were killed and scores more WOMEN’S RIGHTS injured. No one directly involved in the In April, parliament voted down an article in attacks was brought to justice. the new Domestic Violence Protection Law Police arrested senior members of the BNP (Law 17 of 2015) that would have and charged them with arson. They included criminalized marital rape. The law, which was Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the party’s enacted in August, empowered the Public acting Secretary General, who was frequently Prosecution Office and courts to issue arrested during the year for periods of weeks protection orders of up to three months for or months before being released. victims of domestic violence, and set a Hundreds of opposition members were penalty of three months’ imprisonment for detained for days or months before being breaches of the order involving violence. released. Some were charged with arson. A number of foreign nationals were DEATH PENALTY targeted for attacks by unidentified assailants. The death penalty remained in force for Between 28 September and 18 November, murder, terrorism-related offences and other an Italian aid worker and a Japanese national crimes, including drugs offences. The courts were shot dead; an Italian doctor survived a sentenced eight people to death, some after gun attack. unfair trials, and commuted two death A 13-year-old boy, Samiul Islam Rajon, was sentences to life imprisonment. There were beaten to death in public in July after being no executions. accused of theft, prompting strong public criticism of the neglect suffered by children living on the street. The government ordered BANGLADESH an investigation into the killing shortly afterwards. People’s Republic of Bangladesh At least 16 people accused of mass human Head of state: Abdul Hamid rights violations during the 1971 Head of government: Sheikh Hasina Independence War were on trial at the end of the year. Well-documented killings by pro- Dozens of people were killed when independence forces were not addressed by passenger buses and other vehicles were the authorities. attacked with petrol bombs in the context of anti-government campaigns. Hundreds of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION opposition supporters were detained for Independent media outlets critical of the various periods, at times on politically authorities came under severe pressure. In motivated grounds. Independent media October the government warned business came under severe pressure and freedom of enterprises that they would be penalized if expression was restricted. At least nine they advertised in Prothom-Alo and the Daily secularist bloggers and publishers were Star, two leading newspapers known for their attacked, five of whom died from their critical stance. injuries. More than 40 people were In November, a parliamentary standing subjected to enforced disappearance. committee recommended that the anti-

82 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 corruption NGO Transparency International police authorities complained publicly about should be deregistered in Bangladesh for the legal safeguards against torture, calling on criticizing the Parliament. the government to decriminalize torture in A court in Dhaka imposed charges of time of war, threat of war, internal political contempt of court against 49 civil society instability or public emergency, or when activists who criticized its trials as unfair. torture is ordered by a superior or a public Authorities blocked social media messaging authority. and other communications applications in November, in what constituted restrictions on freedom of expression. A government memorandum issued in Bloggers expressing secular views were January placed severe restrictions on people attacked, reportedly by Islamist groups. In wishing to visit or organize events in the February, Avijit Roy was hacked to death by Chittagong Hill Tracts, in breach of the men wielding machetes. His wife, Rafida government’s obligation to respect the rights Ahmed Bonya, survived. By August, three of Indigenous Peoples, as well as freedom other bloggers, Washiqur Rahman, Niloy Neel from discrimination and freedoms of and Ananta Bijoy Das, had been hacked to movement, peaceful assembly and death. In October, a publisher of secularist association. literature was hacked to death, and a publisher and two secularist writers survived VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS an attack. Government authorities, including According to the Bangladesh National the Prime Minister, accused the bloggers and Women Lawyers Association, more than 240 publishers of offending religious feelings in complaints of rape were reported in the their writings. media between January and May. Human rights groups said while reported incidents of ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES rape had risen in recent years, the conviction Members of the security forces in plain rate was extremely low, mainly due to the lack clothes arrested dozens of people and later of timely and effective investigations. Many denied knowledge of their whereabouts. A women and girls were reluctant to report rape survey of national newspapers conducted by to the authorities. Survivors of rape were the human rights organization Ain O Salish required to prove that force was used against Kendra indicated the enforced disappearance them, including having to undergo a physical of at least 43 individuals, including two examination. women, between January and September. Of the 43, six were later found dead; four were DEATH PENALTY released after their abduction; and five were At least 198 people were sentenced to death, found in police custody. The fate and including six men convicted of killing Samiul whereabouts of the other 28 was unknown. Islam Rajon (see above). They also included Trials continued against three Rapid Action Oishee Rahman, sentenced to death for Battalion officers charged with abducting and killing her parents in 2013. Her lawyers killing seven people in April 2014. No argued that she was under the age of 18 at members of security forces or officials the time of the alleged murder and therefore implicated in other cases of enforced not subject to the death penalty, but the court disappearance were brought to justice. upheld a medical examination that concluded she was 19. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), a While torture and other ill-treatment in police Bangladeshi court established to investigate custody was widespread, torture complaints the events of the 1971 independence war, were rarely investigated. In March, senior sentenced four more people to death. The

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 83 proceedings of the Tribunal were marked with Internationally mediated talks on the severe irregularities and violations of the right conflict in eastern Ukraine, hosted in the to a fair trial. Challenges to the jurisdiction of capital, Minsk, aided Belarus’ diplomatic the court continued to be barred due to a efforts to improve relations with the EU. In constitutional provision. Statements from October, the EU suspended its longstanding prosecution witnesses shown by the defence sanctions against senior Belarusian officials, to have been false were still used as evidence with the exception of four security officers in court. Affidavits by defence witnesses that believed to be linked to enforced the accused was too far from the site of the disappearances of political activists in earlier offence to be involved were not admitted. The years. government prevented defence witnesses The national currency lost over 50% of its abroad from attending trials by denying visas. value against the US dollar, and the economy Appeals processes were marked by similar was projected to contract by around 4%, flaws. largely due to the economic downturn in Despite repeated calls by Amnesty Russia, its principal trading partner. International and other human rights organizations to stop executions after unfair DEATH PENALTY trials and flawed appeal hearings, three Belarus retained the death penalty. No prisoners were executed in 2015, bringing the executions were reported, but on 18 March number of executions after ICT trials to four. Syarhei Ivanou was sentenced to death. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal on 14 July. On 20 November, the Hrodna Regional BELARUS Court handed down a death sentence to Ivan Kulesh.1 Republic of Belarus On 1 April, the UN Human Rights Head of state: Alyaksandr Lukashenka Committee adopted the view that the Head of government: Andrey Kabyakou execution of Aleh Hryshkautsou in 2011 constituted a violation of his right to life; that Legislation severely restricting freedoms of he had not received a fair trial; and that his expression, association and peaceful confession had been obtained under duress. assembly remained in place. Journalists continued to face harassment. Several PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE prisoners convicted in politically motivated In August, prisoners of conscience Mikalai trials in previous years were released but Statkevich and Yury Rubtsou were released compelled to regularly report their by a presidential order, along with other movements and activities to police. At least activists, Mikalai Dzyadok, Ihar Alinevich, two people were sentenced to death, but no Yauhen Vaskovich and Artsyom Prakapenka, executions were reported. Harassment and who had been imprisoned following politically persecution of human rights defenders motivated trials. However, their convictions continued, as did discrimination, were not quashed and they were placed harassment and violence against members under considerable restrictions, including of sexual minorities. “prophylactic supervision”. Former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich BACKGROUND therefore was prevented from standing in In October, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka forthcoming elections, and was ordered to comfortably won his fifth consecutive term in regularly report his movements and activities office, against a backdrop of state-controlled to the police for the following eight years. media as well as harassment and reprisals Failure to comply could lead to heavier against political opponents. restrictions and new criminal charges. Similar

84 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 restrictions, for shorter periods of time, were nature of these phrases, they were charged imposed on the other five released activists. with the crime of “malicious hooliganism” and may face up to six years in prison if FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION convicted. Vyachaslau Kasinerau sustained a The media remained under tight government broken jaw during the detention by police and control, and independent media outlets and was hospitalized. Their trial was still pending journalists routinely faced harassment. at the end of the year. Freelance journalists who contributed to foreign media were required to obtain FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign The Law on Mass Events, under which any Affairs, which was regularly refused or assembly or public protest is regarded as indefinitely delayed. Kastus Zhukouski, who unlawful unless expressly permitted by the worked for Poland-based Belsat TV, was fined authorities, continued to be regularly applied. three times for working without accreditation, On 27 September, a street assembly in the most recently on 9 July, and three more times town of Baranavichy, which had been in previous years, by the Central District Court organized in support of presidential candidate and the Zheleznodorozhnyi District Court in Tatsyana Karatkevich and sanctioned by the Homel, as well as the Rahachou District authorities, was joined by some 30 football Court. According to independent media fans on their way to a football match. Shortly watchdog Index on Censorship, since January after they started chanting “Long live at least 28 freelance journalists were issued Belarus!”, police arrived at the scene and fines of between 3 and 7.8 million roubles took them away in vans. The remaining (US$215-538) for working without protesters were allowed to carry on. accreditation. On 30 September, a court in Minsk issued Under the vaguely worded amendments to fines of between 5.4 and 9 million roubles the Law on Mass Media passed in December (US$300-500) to Mikalai Statkevich and 2014, the Ministry of Information was given Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, both of them the power to compel internet providers to presidential candidates in 2010, and leader of block access to specific online resources, the United Civic Party Anatol Lyabedzka, for without a court order. On 27 March, access to organizing an “unsanctioned” protest in the websites of human rights organization connection with the forthcoming election. Vyasna and of independent news platforms Other peaceful protesters were similarly Belarusian Partisan and Charter ’97 was arrested and fined during the year. blocked under this provision. Between 2 and 5 October, the websites of FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND HUMAN news agencies BelaPAN and Naviny.by RIGHTS DEFENDERS became inaccessible following a hacker’s Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code, which attack, after they published reports of prohibits activities by unregistered students being forced to take part in a public organizations (political parties and religious prayer service attended by the President. groups, as well as NGOs), remained in place. On 11 August, activists Vyachaslau Elena Tonkacheva, a prominent human Kasinerau, Yaraslau Uliyanenkau, Maksim rights defender and Chair of the Board of the Pyakarski and Vadzim Zharomski, and one Center for Legal Transformation, was ordered unnamed Russian national, were detained in to leave Belarus and barred from re-entering Minsk for putting up graffiti “Belarus must be the country for three years. A Russian Belarusian” and “Revolution of national, she had been a resident of Belarus consciousness”. They were released on 31 since 1985. The order was issued on 5 August after agreeing not to disclose details of November 2014 and referred to repeated the investigation. Because of the political traffic offences; Elena Tonkacheva repeatedly

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 85 tried to appeal it, without success. Minsk City Court dismissed her final appeal on 19 BELGIUM February, forcing her to leave by 21 February. Leanid Sudalenka, head of human rights Kingdom of Belgium NGO Homel Centre for Strategic Litigation, Head of state: King Philippe received at least two death threats via email in Head of federal government: Charles Michel March, which the authorities refused to investigate. On 8 April, police searched his The government introduced several home and office, and on 14 April a criminal proposals to combat terrorism that raised case was opened against Leanid Sudalenka human rights concerns. The number of himself. The authorities accused him of asylum-seekers spiked in the second half of distributing pornography from his email the year. Their asylum claims could not be account, but he claimed it had been hacked. registered promptly by authorities and as a Leanid Sudalenka believed these were result hundreds of people remained without reprisals for his work in helping victims of shelter. human rights violations take complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee. The latest COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY complaint was submitted on 28 February by The parliament adopted new measures to Olga Haryunou, whose son had been secretly counteract terrorism, in particular the executed on 22 October 2014 and who criminalization of travelling into or out of demanded to know the location of his grave. Belgium with the purpose of perpetrating a terrorism-related offence, the expansion of RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, the grounds for stripping a person of Belgian TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE nationality or refugee status if convicted for Members of sexual minorities continued to offences related to terrorism, and new face routine discrimination, harassment and measures to combat violent “extremism”. As violence. with previously adopted measures to Mikhail Pischevsky, who had been beaten counteract terrorism, the authorities did not by anti-LGBTI activists as he was leaving a carry out an evaluation of the compliance of gay party at a club in Minsk on 25 May 2014, the new measures with human rights died on 27 October of complications caused standards. by his severe head injuries. Only one of his In November, in the aftermath of the attackers was convicted and sentenced to two attacks in Paris, France, the Prime Minister years and eight months’ imprisonment for proposed further measures. hooliganism and negligence, and released In December, the Council of Ministers under presidential pardon in August, having approved proposals concerning some of the served 11 months of his sentence. announced measures. They included the extension of pre-charge detention from 24 to 72 hours and the power to carry out searches 1. Second known death sentence in Belarus in 2015: Ivan Kulesh (EUR at any time in investigations of terrorism- 49/2926/2015) related offences. They also included the establishment of a database of Belgian nationals or residents who have attempted to travel or have travelled abroad to fight in armed conflicts or with armed groups labelled as terrorist organizations by the government.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT In June, the European Court of Human Rights

86 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 ruled that extraditing Abdallah Ouabour to DEATHS IN CUSTODY Morocco, where he was convicted for In June, seven police officers, a psychiatrist supporting a terrorist organization, would and the director of a medical facility which violate his right to be free from inhuman and refused treatment, were convicted for the degrading treatment. In July, the Court of death of Jonathan Jacob, who died in 2010 Cassation ordered the retrial of Abdallah after being physically assaulted by police Ouabour, Lahoucine El-Haski and Khalid while in custody. Bouloudodie. The men were convicted in 2006 and 2007 for terrorism-related offences VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS in Belgium. However, the legal proceedings In July, the French community government had relied on evidence that might have been adopted a new four-year plan aimed at obtained through the use of torture in combating violence against women and Morocco. domestic violence, with a strong focus on sexual violence. On 11 December, federal REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS authorities presented a National Plan to The number of asylum-seekers spiked combat gender-based violence. between July and September. Due to the limited capacity of the Immigration Office, DISCRIMINATION hundreds of asylum-seekers were unable to In June, the European Court of Human Rights register their claims on the day of their arrival communicated the case Belkacemi and and, as a consequence, were not provided Oussar v. Belgium to the government. The with shelter. About 500 reportedly camped in plaintiffs alleged that the prohibition on sub-standard conditions in front of the wearing the full-face veil, enforced since Immigration Office. In September, the Council 2011 in Belgium, violated their human rights. of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Despite the government’s commitment to called on Belgium to speed up the registration reform the law on legal gender recognition, procedure and increase reception capacity. transgender people continued to be required On 16 October, the government announced to comply with inhuman and degrading plans to open eight new reception centres treatments, including sterilization, as a with an overall capacity of 1,600 places. precondition to obtaining legal recognition of The government agreed to resettle 550 their gender. refugees from Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In October, the implementation phase started for the BENIN resettlement of the first 300 refugees. Republic of Benin PRISON CONDITIONS Head of state: Thomas Boni Yayi According to official statistics published in Head of government: Lionel Zinsou March, the prison population was 113% of the capacity, significantly lower than in There were rising tensions in the capital previous years. However, in some specific Cotonou and other towns ahead of facilities the overcrowding rate was reported legislative elections. The attempted arrest of to be much higher. a political opponent led to two days of Despite the opening of a specialized protests and clashes between protesters and forensic psychiatric centre in 2014, the security forces in Cotonou. Freedom of majority of offenders with mental illnesses expression remained under threat as remained detained in regular prisons, where protests were banned after elections; a insufficient care and treatment were provided. journalist reported receiving threats. Prisons remained overcrowded.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 87 BACKGROUND charge for five days before being released Legislative elections were held in April, with unconditionally. the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE), a coalition of 50 parties supporting PRISON CONDITIONS President Boni Yayi, becoming the largest Prisons remained overcrowded. The Cotonou group in the National Assembly, with 33 out prison held 1,130 detainees despite a of 83 seats. The National Assembly elected maximum capacity of 500, resulting in harsh political opponent Adrien Houngbédji as its conditions of detention. In May, all detention president. Presidential elections were centres in the country failed to provide scheduled to take place in February 2016; prisoners with food for three days, after the President Boni Yayi pledged that he would state failed to pay its contractors. not seek a third term. DEATH PENALTY FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND Despite the country’s ratification in 2012 of ASSEMBLY the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR In May, the Minister of the Interior banned all aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, protests until the end of the electoral process. the government had yet to adopt laws President Boni Yayi filed a complaint against removing the death penalty from its national opposition deputy Armand-Marie Candide legislation. Azannaï for slander. An attempt to arrest him sparked clashes between protesters, the police and the army in Cotonou. BOLIVIA Demonstrators were dispersed using tear gas and about 10 people were injured. More Plurinational State of Bolivia than 20 people were arrested on charges of Head of state and government: Evo Morales Ayma rebellion, vandalism and violence for their participation in the protests and riots between Truth, justice and full reparation for victims 4 and 6 May. Other demonstrations were also of human rights violations committed during banned by police and gendarmerie in other past military regimes were still pending. cities, including Azovè, southwestern Benin. Insufficient steps were taken to guarantee In May, journalist Ozias Sounouvou full enjoyment of sexual and reproductive reported receiving anonymous arrest threats rights. Discredit from the authorities of the after criticizing the President for hindering work of NGOs, including human rights press freedom. defenders, paired with strict regulation to In June, 12 students at Abomey-Calavi obtain registration remained a concern. University who were protesting against the elimination of exam resits were beaten and BACKGROUND arrested by security forces, before being Justice remained out of reach, mainly for released a few days later. The protests were those without economic means. Allegations of initially peaceful; some protesters burned corruption, political interference and delays in tyres and set a firetruck alight following the the administration of justice further use of excessive force by police. dampened trust in the system. In August, journalist Boris Tougan was In July, the CEDAW Committee urged arrested for compromising state security after Bolivia to take steps within two years to he published an article asserting that the prevent violence against women, ensure country’s participation in the regional force education and access to information on fighting the armed group Boko Haram was sexual and reproductive rights and amend solely intended to help President Boni Yayi national laws to decriminalize abortion, stay in power. He was detained without among other recommendations.

88 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 IMPUNITY into his complaint, despite violent injuries. Measures to ensure truth, justice and full reparation for victims of human rights SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS violations committed during past military and High rates of maternal mortality, particularly authoritarian regimes (1964-1982) were very in rural areas, limited access to modern limited. The authorities took no concrete contraceptives, including emergency steps to establish a truth commission contraception, and a high rate of teenage following a commitment made in March pregnancies remained a concern.2 following a public hearing at the Inter- Despite a resolution issued by the Ministry American Commission of Human Rights.1 A of Health in January, the 2014 Plurinational bill that was presented by victims’ Constitutional Court ruling that abolished the organizations to the Plurinational Legislative requirement of judicial authorization for Assembly to create such a commission was abortion in cases of rape was not pending at the end of the year. implemented. In July, the Public Ministry announced the creation of a genetic data bank to identify the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS remains of potential victims of enforced In March the government issued a supreme disappearance. It is estimated that around decree to modify the 2007 regulation on 150 people were forcibly disappeared during consultation and participation in hydrocarbon the military regimes. The Public Ministry activities. The decree contained new rules, called on the relatives of victims of enforced including strict deadlines and a methodology disappearances to undertake blood tests to to be set up by the authorities, which could establish possible matches. obstruct the rights of Indigenous Peoples to No progress was made to ensure full and consultation and free, prior and informed fair reparation to victims of past human rights consent over projects that affect them. violations after the qualification process In April charges against 12 police officers ended in 2012. for excessive use of force during a peaceful march against the construction of a road TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT through the Isiboro-Sécure Indigenous The absence of an independent mechanism Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) in 2011 to record and investigate allegations of torture were dismissed. The trial of six other police deterred victims from pursing justice. No officers whose charges remained had not efforts were made to ensure the full begun at the end of 2015. independence of the national preventive mechanism against torture, dependent on the HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Ministry of Justice. The regulation of this In September the authorities announced that mechanism was pending at the end of the 38 NGOs were considered “irregular” year. because they had not submitted the In June Juan Bascope lodged a complaint necessary documents to confirm their identity of torture, death threats and discrimination in line with a 2013 regulation. A decision by that he was subjected to while in detention in the Plurinational Constitutional Court 2014 in Maripiri in the Yungas region. He was submitted by the Ombusdman against that accused of killing three members of the regulation was pending. The Ombudsman security forces and a doctor during a joint raised the regulation’s potential breach to the police and military operation against illegal right of assembly and the principle of non- coca plantations in the municipality of Apolo discrimination of some of its articles. in 2013. He was detained and brought before In August the Vice-President discredited a judge three days later. However, no the work of four local organizations for investigation is known to have been initiated criticizing government plans, and threatened

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 89 international NGOs based in the country with force on 1 June. expulsion should they get involved in what the authorities consider domestic politics. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION In February, the National Assembly of PRISON CONDITIONS Republika Srpska adopted a Law on Public Inadequate sanitary facilities, poor access to Peace and Order that brought the internet health and food provision and overcrowding and social networks into its definition of in prison remained a concern. Research by “public space”. Concerns were raised by the Pastoral Penitenciaria found that there NGOs and the OSCE Representative on were almost 14,000 prisoners in 2015, for a Freedom of the Media over the possibility of maximum capacity of 5,000. Delays in individuals being prosecuted for their online concluding trials within a reasonable time and activities, on charges of breaching public the excessive use of pre-trial detention were peace and order. the main reasons for overcrowding. Threats and attacks against journalists persisted. In October, an arson attack was carried out on the car of a journalist from a 1. Bolivia: Derecho a la verdad, justicia, reparación de las víctimas de local radio station. Targeted cyber attacks on las violaciones graves de derechos humanos cometidas durante los news websites continued. Only 15% of court gobiernos militares de Bolivia (1964-1982) (AMR 18/1291/2015) cases relating to attacks against journalists 2. Bolivia: Briefing to the UN Committee on the Elimination of were resolved in the past 10 years. Discrimination Against Women (AMR 18/1669/2015) DISCRIMINATION The 2009 judgment of the European Court of BOSNIA AND Human Rights in the case of Sejdić-Finci v. BiH, which found the power-sharing HERZEGOVINA arrangements set out in the Constitution to be discriminatory, remained unimplemented. Bosnia and Herzegovina Under the arrangements, citizens such as Head of state: Rotating presidency – Bakir Jews and Roma who do not declare Izetbegović, Dragan Čović, Mladen Ivanić themselves as belonging to one of the three Head of government: Denis Zvizdić (replaced constituent peoples of the country (Bosniaks, Vjekoslav Bevanda in March) Serbs and Croats) are excluded from running for legislative and executive office. In June, Violations of the right to freedom of the implementation of the judgment was expression as well as discrimination against removed as a requirement for the signing of Jews and Roma continued to occur. Access the SAA, leaving little hope of the decision to justice and reparation for past crimes being implemented. remained limited due to a lack of commitment to adopt, and secure adequate CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW resources for, state-wide programmes. Proceedings continued at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia BACKGROUND against former General Ratko Mladić for The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and genocide, crimes against humanity and Herzegovina (BiH) and the government of the violations of the laws or customs of war, Federation of BiH, one of the constituent including at Srebrenica. A verdict in the case entities, were formed at the end of March, five against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan months after the 2014 general elections. The Karadzić was still pending at the end of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement year. (SAA) between the EU and BiH entered into In May, the Parliamentary Assembly of

90 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a set of required to pursue compensation claims in amendments to the Criminal Code. The civil proceedings, which required them to amendments introduced enforced reveal their identity. disappearance as a separate crime and In November, the heads of the Serbian and provided a clearer definition of acts of torture. Bosnian governments signed a protocol on Additionally, the amendments aligned the co-operation in the search for missing definition of war crimes of sexual violence persons. In BiH, over 8,000 people remained with international standards by excluding the missing from the war. need to demonstrate use of force as a requirement to qualify the crime as such. However, entity courts and courts in the 1. Bosnia and Herzegovina: 20 years of denial and injustice (News story, Brčko District continued to apply the former 14 December) Criminal Code, leading to the ineffective prosecution of such crimes at the sub-state level, to which cases were increasingly being BRAZIL transferred. Legislation that would enable effective Federative Republic of Brazil reparation, including a comprehensive Head of state and government: Dilma Rousseff programme for victims of crimes under international law, and free legal aid services to Serious human rights violations continued to victims of torture and civilian victims of war, be reported, including killings by police and remained absent. The harmonization of entity the torture and other ill-treatment of laws regulating the rights of civilian victims of detainees. Young black men from favelas war was still not completed. (shanty towns) and marginalized About half of the over 500 people who were communities were at particular risk. The charged with war crimes in the past 10 years security forces often used excessive or were indicted in the last two years. However, unnecessary force to suppress protests. this notable progress was halted by the EU Conflict over land and natural resources decision to stop funding the cost of services resulted in the killings of dozens of people. and courts prosecuting war crimes until the Rural communities and their leaders new Justice Sector Reform Strategy for continued to face threats and attacks by 2014-2018 was adopted in September. The landowners, especially in the north and process was delayed as Republika Srpska, northeast of the country. Lesbian, gay, unlike the country’s other two political units, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) refused to adopt the Strategy. In December, it people continued to face discrimination and announced its decision to suspend co- violence. Civil society opposition to new operation with the State Court of Bosnia and legislation and constitutional amendments Herzegovina, further limiting effective that threatened to set back sexual and investigations into and prosecutions of those reproductive rights, women’s rights and suspected of responsibility for war crimes and children’s rights intensified; young people who may be hiding on Republika Srpska and women were prominent in these territory.1 An agreement on a joint action plan mobilizations. Brazil did not present itself to implement the Strategy was still pending at as a candidate for re-election to a seat on the end of the year. the UN Human Rights Council. In June, a Bosnian court granted the first ever financial compensation to a victim of PUBLIC SECURITY wartime rape and sentenced the perpetrators, Public security and the high rates of two former Bosnian Serb soldiers, to 10-year homicides among black youth remained a prison sentences. Previously, victims were major concern. The government failed to

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 91 present a concrete national plan to reduce impartiality of the Civil Police investigation.2 homicides in the country, despite having Eduardo de Jesus Ferreira, a 10-year-old announced in July that it would do so. boy, was killed by Military Police officers According to a Brazilian Forum on Public outside his home in the Complexo do Alemão Security report covering 2014, more than neighbourhood, Rio de Janeiro, on 2 April. 58,000 people were victims of homicides; the Police officers tried to alter the crime scene number of police officers killed showed a and remove his body, but were prevented small decrease of 2.5% over the previous from doing so by the family and neighbours. year to 398; and more than 3,000 people Eduardo’s mother and family had to leave the were killed by the police, an increase of city following death threats. around 37% over 2013. Five young black men aged between 16 and 25 years old were shot dead in the UNLAWFUL KILLINGS neighbourhood of Costa Barros in Rio de In 2015, killings during police operations Janeiro on 29 November by military police remained high, but a lack of transparency in officers from the 41st Military Police Battalion. most states made it impossible to ascertain The car in which the men were seated was the exact number of people killed as a result shot more than 100 times by police officers. of these operations. In the states of Rio de There were reports that off-duty officers Janeiro and São Paulo there was a significant carried out unlawful killings as part of death increase in the number of people killed by squads operating in a number of cities. police officers while on duty, continuing the In Manaus in the northern state of trend observed in 2014. Killings by police Amazonas, 37 people were killed in a single officers while on duty were rarely investigated weekend in July. In Osasco, a city in the and there were frequent reports that the metropolitan area of São Paulo, 18 people officers involved sought to alter the crime were killed in one night and initial scene and criminalize the victim. Officers investigations indicated the involvement of frequently attempted to justify the killings as Military Police officers. acts of self-defence, claiming the victim had In February, 29-year-old Vitor Santiago resisted arrest. Borges was shot by members of the armed In September, a 13-year-old boy was killed forces in Maré favela. He was paralyzed as a during a police operation in Manguinhos and result of his injuries. The authorities failed to a 16-year-old boy was shot dead in Maré, provide him or his family with adequate both favelas of Rio de Janeiro.1 assistance or to conduct a full and impartial In February, 12 people were shot dead and investigation into the shooting. The army had four others injured by Military Police officers been performing policing duties in the during an operation in the neighbourhood of community since April 2014. Soldiers were Cabula in the city of Salvador in the deployed to Maré ahead of the World Cup northeastern state of Bahia. Residents and were supposed to have left soon after the reported feeling threatened and fearful at the event ended. However, they continued to frequent presence of Military Police after the carry out law enforcement functions in the killings. An investigation by the Civil Police community until June 2015. Residents concluded that the Military Police officers reported a number of human rights violations acted in self-defence. However, organizations by the military forces during this period, working on the case found strong evidence including physical violence and shootings. suggesting that the 12 people were extrajudicially executed. The Public IMPUNITY Prosecutor’s Office condemned the actions of Police responsible for unlawful killings the Military Police officers involved in the enjoyed almost total impunity. Out of 220 killings and called into question the investigations into police killings opened in

92 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 2011 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, by 2015 CHILDREN’S RIGHTS only one case had led to a police officer being The juvenile justice system also suffered from charged. As of April 2015, 183 of these severe overcrowding and degrading investigations remained open.3 conditions. There were numerous reports of The National Congress established two torture and violence against both boys and Parliamentary Commissions of Investigation, girls and a number of minors died in custody one in the Senate and the other in the House during the year. of Representatives, to investigate the high In August, the House of Representatives rates of homicides of black youth. At the approved an amendment to the Constitution same time, a law to amend the current reducing the age at which children can be Disarmament Law in order to allow greater tried as adults from 18 to 16 years. The access to firearms gained momentum in the amendment was awaiting approval by the National Congress. Brazil did not ratify the Senate at the end of the year. If passed, it will Arms Trade Treaty. violate a number of Brazil’s obligations under A Parliamentary Commission of international human rights law to protect the Investigation was established in October in rights of the child. Rio de Janeiro’s state assembly. Its investigation into police killings was due to be FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY completed in May 2016. The Civil Police of A protest held on 29 April in the state of Rio de Janeiro announced that all cases of Paraná against changes in the rules police killings would be investigated by the governing teachers’ social security benefits Homicides Divisions. and retirement was met with unnecessary or excessive use of force by Military Police. PRISON CONDITIONS, TORTURE AND Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to OTHER ILL-TREATMENT disperse protesters. More than 200 protesters In March, the President nominated 11 were injured and at least seven people were experts to the National Mechanism to Prevent briefly detained. The Public Defender’s Office and Fight Torture. The group is part of the and the Public Prosecutor’s Office took legal National System to Prevent and Fight Torture action against the government as a result of and its mandate will include visiting and the incident. The case was pending at the inspecting places of detention. end of the year.4 Severe overcrowding, degrading conditions, In October, the Senate approved a bill torture and violence remained endemic in making terrorism a separate crime in the prisons. No concrete measures were taken by Criminal Code. There were fears that if the authorities to overcome serious passed in its current form, the law could be overcrowding and harsh conditions in used to criminalize protesters and label them Pedrinhas prison in the northeastern state of as “terrorists”. The bill was pending final Maranhão. In October, it came to light that in approval by the House of Representatives at 2013, an inmate of Pedrinhas had been the end of the year. killed, grilled and partially eaten by other inmates. HOUSING RIGHTS Prisoner revolts were reported in a number Since Rio de Janeiro was chosen in 2009 to of states. In the state of Minas Gerais, three host the 2016 Olympic Games, thousands of detainees were killed during a prison revolt in people have been evicted from their homes in the Teofilo Otoni facility in October and two in connection with the building of infrastructure similar circumstances in Governador for the event. Many families did not receive Valadares prison in June. In October, there proper notification, sufficient financial were disturbances in Londrina prison in the compensation or adequate resettlement. Most southern state of Paraná. of the 600 families of the community of Vila

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 93 Autódromo, located near the future Olympic of the Biological Reserve of Gurupi, an Park, were evicted by the municipality. In environmentally protected area of the Amazon June, members of the municipal guards forest in the state of Maranhão. He had assaulted remaining residents who were reported and campaigned for several years peacefully protesting against the evictions. against illegal logging and deforestation in the Five residents were injured, including Maria Amazon and worked to defend the rights of da Penha Macena who sustained a broken his community. He was also a member of the nose. At the end of the year, the remaining Rural Workers Union of Bom Jardim. He had residents were living in the shadow of ongoing received several death threats, which had demolition work and without access to basic been repeatedly reported to the authorities by services such as electricity and water. the Land Church Commission and a local In the city of Rio de Janeiro, the majority of human rights organization. However, no condominiums that were part of the “My action had been taken to protect him. house, my life” housing programme for low- Cases of threats, attacks and killings income families were controlled by milícias targeting human rights defenders were rarely (organized criminal groups largely made up of investigated and remained largely former or off-duty police, firemen and military unpunished. There were concerns that those agents) or organized criminal gangs. This put responsible for the killing in October 2010 of thousands of families at risk of violence, many Flaviano Pinto Neto, a leader of the Charco of whom were forced out of their homes as a Quilombola community in Maranhão state, result of intimidation and threats. would not be brought to justice. Despite a thorough investigation, in October the courts HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS dismissed the charges against the accused The National Programme for the Protection of and blamed the victim for his own death. At Human Rights Defenders failed to deliver the the end of the year it was unclear whether protection promised in its provisions. Lack of this decision would be appealed against by resourcing continued to hamper the Public Prosecutor’s Office. implementation, leaving defenders at risk, The 5 November collapse of the Samarco and the absence of a legal framework in the company mining dam, controlled by Vale and Programme also undermined its BHP Billiton in the state of Minas Gerais, was effectiveness. A bill to create a legal considered to be Brazil’s biggest ever framework to support the co-ordination of environmental disaster. It resulted in deaths federal and state governments in the and injuries and other serious human rights protection of defenders was pending before violations including insufficient access to Congress at the end of the year. clean water and safe housing for affected Conflicts over land and natural resources families and communities, and lack of reliable continued to result in dozens of deaths each information. The river of toxic sludge also year. Rural communities and their leaders violated the right to livelihood of fishermen were threatened and attacked by landowners, and other workers who depend directly or especially in the northern and northeastern indirectly on the waters of the Rio Doce river. regions. In October, five people were killed in Vilhena in the state of Rondônia in the context INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS of land conflicts in the area. The demarcation process of Indigenous Raimundo Santos Rodrigues, also known Peoples’ lands continued to make extremely as José dos Santos, was shot and killed on 25 slow progress, despite the fact that the federal August in the city of Bom Jardim in the state government had both the legal authority and of Maranhão. His wife, who was with him at the financial means to progress the time, was shot and injured. Raimundo implementation. Several cases remained Santos Rodrigues was a member of the Board pending at the end of the year. Attacks

94 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 against members of Indigenous communities remained widespread and those responsible 1. Brazil: Police operation kills two and injures others (AMR were rarely brought to justice. 19/2424/2015) There was increasing concern at the 2. Brazil: Twelve people killed by Military Police (AMR 19/002/2015) dramatically deteriorating situation of the 3. Brazil: “You killed my son” – homicides by the Military Police in the Guarani-Kaiowá community of Apika’y in city of Rio de Janeiro (AMR 19/2068/2015) Mato Grosso do Sul. An eviction order that 4. Brazil: Military police attack protesting teachers (AMR 19/1611/2015) could have left the community homeless was 5. Brazil: Indigenous community faces forced eviction (AMR temporarily suspended in August. However, 19/2151/2015) at the end of the year, the risk of eviction remained.5 On 29 August, local ranchers attacked the BULGARIA Indigenous community of Ñanderú Marangatú in the municipality of Antonio Republic of Bulgaria João, state of Mato Grosso do Sul. One man, Head of state: Rosen Plevneliev Simião Vilhalva, was killed and several women Head of government: Boyko Borisov and children were injured. No investigation was initiated into the attack and no measures Allegations of push-backs of refugees and were put in place to protect the community migrants by border police persisted, the from further violence. reception conditions of asylum-seekers An amendment to the Constitution remained poor and there was no integration transferring responsibility for demarcating plan for recognized refugees. Local and Indigenous lands from the executive to the national authorities continued to forcibly legislature, where the agribusiness lobby is evict Roma. The amendment of hate crime very strong, was approved by a special legislation stalled. Commission of the House of Representatives in October. The amendment was awaiting REFUGEES, ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND approval by a Plenary of the House at the end MIGRANTS of the year. If passed, it would have a A fourfold increase in the number of refugees significant negative impact on Indigenous and migrants entering through the border Peoples’ access to land. with Turkey was registered in 2015, following a significant drop in 2014 after the SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS introduction of border protection measures. New legislation and constitutional The authorities announced a plan to extend amendments under discussion in Congress the current 33km fence on the border by posed a serious threat to sexual and 60km, to divert the migration flows to official reproductive rights and women’s rights. At the border crossings. However, NGOs reported end of the year, the National Congress was that people in search of international considering bills that proposed to criminalize protection who were trying to enter Bulgaria abortion in all circumstances, for example the through checkpoints were rejected. An so-called Bill of the Unborn Child. Another extensive surveillance system, including proposal would effectively prevent access to sensors and thermal cameras, remained in safe and legal abortions in the public health place at the border with Turkey. system even in those cases currently allowed In October, an Afghan asylum-seeker died under Brazilian legislation, such as when the after a warning shot fired by a police officer at woman’s life is at risk or the pregnancy is a the Bulgarian-Turkish border ricocheted on a result of rape. If passed, the measure would nearby bridge and hit him. The Bulgarian also end emergency assistance to victims Helsinki Committee (BHC) expressed of rape. concerns over inconsistencies between the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 95 authorities’ and witnesses’ versions. The village of Gurmen and the Orlandovzi investigation launched by the Prosecutor’s neighbourhood in Sofia. Between June and Office was ongoing at the end of the year. September, 14 households were demolished There continued to be no integration plan in Gurmen. In July, following a request by for recognized refugees and other NGOs for interim measures, the European beneficiaries of international protection. Court of Human Rights advised the Although the government adopted the government not to proceed with the evictions National Strategy on Migration, Asylum and unless adequate alternative housing was Integration for 2015-2020 in June, it failed to provided. However, following the demolitions, follow it up with an Action Plan that would around 60 Roma, including elderly people, at implement the Strategy. least one pregnant woman and two disabled Concerns persisted over the reception children, were left homeless. There was no conditions of asylum-seekers, in particular genuine consultation to identify alternatives to with regard to food, shelter and access to planned evictions and adequate resettlement health care and sanitary goods. In January, options. In September, the UN High the monthly allowance of 65 leva (€33) for Commissioner for Human Rights urged asylum-seekers in reception centres was Bulgaria to halt such human rights violations. stopped. The BHC filed a complaint, arguing At the end of the year, 96 Roma households that the removal of the allowance violated in the Kremikovtzi settlement remained at risk national legislation. of eviction.2 NGOs documented allegations of summary In August, the homes of 46 Romani push-backs of refugees and migrants by families – including children and single Bulgarian police at the border with Turkey.1 In mothers – were demolished without prior March, two Iraqi Yazidis died of hypothermia notice in the Maksuda neighbourhood in the on the Turkish side of the border, after town of Varna. An estimated 400 people, 150 allegedly being severely beaten by Bulgarian of them children, were rendered homeless in police. The authorities denied the allegations, severe weather conditions. Only a few people and the Ministry of Interior’s investigation into were offered temporary housing in an the case was discontinued as the authorities overcrowded and inadequate social centre. said they were unable to establish the location On 15 September, the authorities of the incident. No other investigation into announced the demolition of four Roma cases of push-backs was pending at the end houses in the town of Peshtera. However, of the year. they stalled after the European Court of Human Rights indicated that the authorities HOUSING RIGHTS – FORCED EVICTIONS should not proceed unless adequate OF ROMA alternative housing was available. Despite the constitutional right to housing, housing legislation in Bulgaria does not DISCRIMINATION – HATE CRIMES explicitly prohibit forced evictions, nor does it In June, the Council of Europe Commissioner establish safeguards in line with international for Human Rights raised concerns over the human rights standards. Authorities high levels of racism and intolerance against continued to forcibly evict Romani several groups including refugees, asylum- communities from informal settlements. Some seekers and migrants, who remained were relocated to inadequate housing, while particularly vulnerable to violence and others were rendered homeless. harassment. In May-June, following anti-Roma Hate crimes against Roma, Muslims, Jews demonstrations, local and national authorities and other ethnic and religious minorities announced a plan to demolish Romani continued to be largely prosecuted as acts houses in the Kremikovtzi settlement in the motivated by “hooliganism”, rather than

96 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 under the criminal law provisions specifically segregation among prisoners and a lack of enacted for “racist and xenophobic hate contact with the outside world. crimes”.3 In May, the European Court of Human Rights found in Karahhmed v. Bulgaria that 1. Bulgaria: It’s time to address the allegations of abuse of refugees and the authorities’ failure to prevent the migrants by the police (EUR 15/3058/2015) disruption by a group of violent protesters of a 2. Bulgaria: Further information: Romani families remain at risk of Muslim Friday prayer in 2011 amounted to a forced eviction (EUR 15/2334/2015) violation of the right to freedom of religion or 3. Bulgaria: Missing the point: Lack of adequate investigation of hate belief. crimes in Bulgaria (EUR 15/0001/2015) The government did not follow up on earlier steps to amend hate crime legislation, which in its current state does not provide for BURKINA FASO explicit protection against hate crimes perpetrated on the basis of age, disability, Burkina Faso gender or sexual orientation. In March, the Head of state: Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (replaced Parliament adopted a bill which extended the Michel Kafando on 29 December) scope of the protection against discrimination Head of government: Yacouba Isaac Zida on grounds of sex to transgender people, although this only applied to “legal During protests following an attempted coup reassignment cases”. in September, Presidential Guard (RSP) soldiers killed 14 protesters and bystanders TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT and injured hundreds of others. Freedoms of National and international organizations, expression and assembly were restricted and including the European Committee for the human rights defenders, protesters and Prevention of Torture and the Council of journalists faced ill-treatment and Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, intimidation. The interim government was criticized the juvenile justice system as reinstated and investigations were opened inadequate and called for a comprehensive into the September coup and crimes reform. committed during the 2014 unrest. Levels The Commissioner for Human Rights, of early and forced marriage remained high. following a visit in February, raised concerns Access to sexual and reproductive rights was over the slow pace of the deinstitutionalization limited. (the transfer from psychiatric institutions to community-based care) of children and BACKGROUND adults with disabilities. He also criticized the Transitional authorities governed the country overrepresentation of Roma children, poor after President Blaise Compaoré fell from children and children with disabilities in such power in October 2014 following protests over institutions, as well as reports of physical and his attempts to change the Constitution. In psychological violence by staff and among April, the Transitional Parliament adopted a children. new electoral code that disqualified Following a visit in 2014, the Committee for supporters of the 2014 constitutional the Prevention of Torture called for urgent amendment from running for office in 2015. and effective actions to address longstanding In September, a National Commission on concerns over the ill-treatment of people – Reconciliation and Reform made several including juveniles and women – both by recommendations including the adoption of a police and in prison, over inter-prisoner new Constitution, the abolition of the death violence, overcrowding, poor health care, low penalty and the disbanding of the RSP. staffing levels, excessively harsh discipline, In September, members of the RSP

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 97 attempted a coup, and took the interim five people, including a child, being forced to President, Prime Minister and other lie down and beaten with belts with metal government members hostage, triggering buckles. Six RSP soldiers whipped a member widespread protests. The RSP used excessive of the Balai Citoyen social movement as he force against protesters and bystanders lay on the ground. Jean Jacques Konombo, before withdrawing under pressure from the photographer for Les Editions Sidwaya, was national army. The RSP was later disbanded kicked and beaten with a belt by more than and those suspected of involvement in the six RSP soldiers until he lost consciousness. attempted coup arrested. In November, the His camera and phone were destroyed. Transitional Parliament modified the Constitution limiting the Presidential mandate FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND to two terms of five years and removing ASSOCIATION amnesty for former presidents. Roch Marc In September, Parliament adopted legislation Christian Kaboré was elected President in the leading to the repeal of the law punishing same month, ending the one-year transition. press offences with prison sentences. Later In December, Salif ou Diallo was elected that month, there were restrictions on President of the National Assembly. freedom of expression, including attacks on journalists, political figures and human rights EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE defenders during the coup. At least 10 During the September coup, peaceful journalists and media stations including Radio protests were repressed; the RSP used Omega, Savane FM and Laafi were also excessive force to prevent people from attacked; cameras and other material were assembling. Fourteen unarmed people were destroyed or confiscated. At the Radio Omega shot dead, including six who were shot in the station, RSP soldiers fired bullets in the air, back while running away from security set staff motorbikes alight and threatened to forces.1 The RSP chased and fired shots in burn the station down. The studio of Serge densely populated areas, leading to deaths Bambara (“Smockey”), leader of Balai and hundreds of injuries. Among the victims Citoyen, was also attacked with an anti-tank was 16-year-old Jean-Baptiste Yoda, who was rocket and computers and materials stolen. shot dead while running with two others. A pregnant woman was also shot in the IMPUNITY stomach while standing in her doorway in the Judicial authorities opened investigations into Nonsin neighbourhood of the capital, the killings of four people following excessive Ouagadougou. The bullet pierced her uterus or lethal force by security forces, including and hit the unborn baby. Both mother and the RSP, during the October 2014 unrest.2 child survived following medical intervention. However, no one had been charged or tried for these crimes under international law by TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the end of 2015. In September, Commissions Prisoners alleged that they were subjected to of Inquiry were established to investigate the torture and other ill-treatment in police 2014 killings and those suspected of custody in Ouagadougou. One detainee involvement in the September coup. Neither alleged that he was tortured for six days at had yet been tasked with investigating human Ouagadougou’s central police station; his rights violations relating to the killings of hands were handcuffed to his ankles, a protesters and bystanders in 2015. wooden bar was put underneath his knees and he was suspended in a squatting position MILITARY TRIBUNAL from between two tables. Military officers including generals, as well as In September, the RSP physically assaulted civilians, were arrested in Ouagadougou protesters and bystanders. A witness filmed following the September coup and charged

98 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 with offences including threatening state walked more than 160km over three days to security, crimes against humanity and escape being forced by her father to marry a murder. More than 50 people, including 70-year-old man who already had five wives. General Djibril Bassolé and General Gilbert In October the Transitional Parliament Dienderé, were due to be tried by a military adopted a law on the prevention and sanction tribunal. Two journalists, Adama Ouédraogo of violence against women and girls and the and Caroline Yoda, were also charged for provision of support for victims. The law also complicity to threaten state security. criminalized and provided for sanctions for General Dienderé also faced charges in forced and early marriage and sexual connection with the murder of former violence. President Thomas Sankara, including assassination and possession of a dead body, DEATH PENALTY while in December an international arrest A bill aiming to abolish the death penalty had warrant was also issued against former not been examined by Parliament at the end President Blaise Compaoré for his suspected of the year. role in this murder. Authorities said that an extradition request would be sent to Côte d’Ivoire. 1. Burkina Faso: No amnesty for soldiers who killed unarmed civilians In the same month, three former members (News story, 14 October) of the RSP were charged in connection with 2. Burkina Faso: “Just what were they thinking when they shot at the murder of Norbert Zongo, a journalist who people?” (AFR 60/001/2015) was assassinated in 1998, and more than 15 RSP members were arrested for their suspected involvement in a plan to help BURUNDI Generals Bassolé and Dienderé escape from prison. Republic of Burundi Head of state and government: Pierre Nkurunziza WOMEN’S RIGHTS Women’s and girls’ access to sexual and The government increasingly restricted the reproductive health information, services and rights to freedom of expression, association goods were limited, resulting in just 17% of and peaceful assembly. Protests by women reporting using contraception. Cost, members of the political opposition, civil distance to health centres and pharmacies, society and others against the President’s lack of information and negative male decision to stand for a third term were attitudes towards contraception remained the violently repressed by the security forces, in main barriers obstructing access. particular the police and national Early and forced marriage was a serious intelligence services (SNR). Demonstrators concern, with over 52% of girls being married were met with excessive force by the police before the age of 18, around 10% before they and those detained were tortured and were 15 years old. The government failed to otherwise ill-treated by the SNR. Security fulfil its obligations to prevent forced and early forces also attacked independent media marriages, as well as to guarantee the premises. There were several cases of protection of girls and women at risk through unlawful killings of perceived opponents of the provision of information on, and access the President. to, safety. Perpetrators of forced and early marriage were not held to account. Dozens of BACKGROUND women and girls told Amnesty International In February, the head of the SNR, General that they were victims of forced and early Godefroid Niyombare, warned President marriage, including a 13-year-old girl who Nkurunziza not to seek a third term in office,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 99 predicting that doing so would be seen as a protection mission was rejected by the violation of the Arusha Accords and the government. Constitution. Days later, he was dismissed by After months of instability, the political, the President. social and economic situation deteriorated. In March, several high-ranking members of The International Monetary Fund stated that the ruling National Council for the Defense of the economy would shrink by more than 7% Democracy-Forces of Defense of Democracy in 2015 as the country’s tax revenue (CNDD-FDD) publicly called on President collector, Office Burundaise des Recettes, Nkurunziza not to seek a third term. They registered losses due to the crisis. were subsequently expelled from the party. Many of Burundi’s development partners, Despite similar calls from the Catholic such as Belgium, the Netherlands and the Church, civil society, the political opposition USA, partially or completely stopped their and many regional and international actors, projects. The EU initiated a dialogue with the the CNDD-FDD selected President Burundian authorities under Article 96 of the Nkurunziza on 25 April as their candidate for Cotonou Agreements to re-evaluate its future the 2015 presidential elections. The decision co-operation with the government. According sparked protests in the capital, Bujumbura, to UNICEF, 80% of social sector ministries and other parts of the country. Protests were had previously been reliant on external aid. violently repressed and protesters responded More than 230,000 people fled to with violence. neighbouring countries. The fragile cohesion On 5 May, the Constitutional Court upheld between different ethnic groups resulting President Nkurunziza’s candidacy, a day after from the implementation of the Arusha the Court’s vice-president had fled the Accords was destabilized by the political country, having accused the government of crisis. Incendiary rhetoric from high-level putting pressure on the judges. officials increased tensions towards the end of On 13 May, a group of generals attempted the year. to overthrow the government while President Nkurunziza was in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND attending a regional heads of state summit on ASSOCIATION Burundi. The attempted coup failed. Several In the run-up to the elections, activities by officers fled the country and security forces political opposition parties and civil society loyal to the President arrested others. organizations were restricted. In March, the Legislative elections were held in June and then Mayor of Bujumbura issued a directive presidential elections in July. Pierre authorizing public meetings organized by the Nkurunziza won the election and was sworn ruling political party only. On 17 April, more in on 20 August. The security forces than 100 people were arrested during a rally continued their clampdown on perceived against President Nkurunziza’s candidacy. On opponents. Three military installations in 24 April, a day before the CNDD-FDD was Bujumbura and one in Bujumbura Rural were due to select its presidential candidate, the attacked before dawn on 11 December. Minister of Interior banned all Systematic violations were carried out in the demonstrations. cordon and search operations that followed. Despite these measures, many protested in Efforts by the East African Community, the the streets of Bujumbura against President AU and the UN failed to bring together Nkurunziza’s re-election bid. Demonstrations Burundian stakeholders in an externally by political opposition groups were violently mediated dialogue to resolve the crisis, with suppressed by security forces; those talks that reopened on 28 December soon organized by the ruling political party or in stalling. The decision of the AU Peace and support of President Nkurunziza’s candidacy Security Council to send a prevention and went ahead without interference.

100 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – the private media of having links to people JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA behind the attempted coup. In November, the The government restricted international Prosecutor requested the extradition of five journalists’ access to demonstrations. In a journalists. RPA’s accounts were frozen and number of incidents, officials made threats cars seized in December. against members of international media outlets. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE The government’s response to the protests Attacks on media organizations failed to comply with regional and On 26 April, government officials stormed international standards.3 Police used Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), which was excessive or lethal force against protesters, broadcasting live from the protests. On the including by firing live bullets during same day, authorities prevented four private demonstrations. radio stations from broadcasting beyond Bujumbura. On 27 April, authorities shut ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTION down the studio of la Maison de la Presse, a The UN Office of the High Commissioner for common space for media outlets to hold joint Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that at least shows on special occasions. 3,496 people were arrested in relation to the On 13-14 May, security forces partially or political crisis. Many were detained following completely destroyed the premises of four their participation in peaceful protests against private media outlets: RPA, Radio Television President Nkurunziza’s third term. Many Renaissance, Radio Isanganiro and Radio detainees were denied visits from their Bonesha. The government accused them of families or lawyers. supporting the attempted coup against In certain instances, members of the ruling President Nkurunziza. Radio Television party’s youth wing, Imbonerakure, were Rema, a pro-government media outlet, was involved in the arrests of perceived opponents partially destroyed by unidentified armed of President Nkurunziza, including protesters. individuals. Among those detained, UNICEF identified 66 children charged with “involvement in armed Harassment of journalists groups”. Burundian journalists were targeted and received threats from the authorities.1 Most IMPUNITY fled and sought refuge in neighbouring 2015 was marked by an increased tolerance countries. of impunity. Bob Rugurika, managing director of RPA and a well-known journalist, was arrested and Security forces detained on 20 January after broadcasting There was concern that members of the investigative reports about the September security forces involved in human rights 2014 killing of three elderly Italian nuns in violations during public demonstrations were Bujumbura. He was charged with complicity not held to account. The General Director of in the killing, obstructing the course of justice Police stated in July that five police officers through violating confidentiality of a criminal were under investigation. The Prosecutor investigation, harbouring a criminal and lack General announced an investigation into of public solidarity. He was released on bail allegations of extrajudicial executions during on 18 February.2 the 11 December search operations. In its report on the demonstrations against President Nkurunziza’s third term bid, a Imbonerakure Commission of Inquiry established by the The government failed to investigate government accused some journalists from allegations of intimidation and harassment of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 101 individuals by the Imbonerakure, such as TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT those documented by the OHCHR in The use of torture and other ill-treatment by Burundi. security forces increased, especially against those opposed to President Nkurunziza’s re- Extrajudicial executions election bid. Cases of torture and other ill- The government failed to investigate or treatment were reported in official detention suspend members of security forces accused centres, mainly at SNR headquarters, and an of extrajudicial executions. unofficial detention centre known as “Chez The Appui pour la Protection des Ndadaye” in Bujumbura. Security forces used Institutions (API), a police unit of the techniques including beating detainees with presidential guard, committed human rights metal bars, wooden sticks and military belts. violations, including extrajudicial executions Some victims were submerged in dirty water of political opponents. API was reported to and others put in rooms covered with glass have been involved in the killing of Zedi shards or forced to sit in acid.5 Feruzi, president of the opposition party The authorities had not conducted any Union for Peace and Democracy- investigation or brought to account any Zigamibanga. He was killed with one of his members of the intelligence service or police bodyguards on 23 May. On 7 September, in relation to these acts by the end of the Patrice Gahungu, spokesperson of the same year. party, was shot dead by unidentified armed men. UNLAWFUL KILLINGS Members of API were also said to have At least two high-ranking members of the been involved in the killing of Vénérant security forces were killed in targeted attacks Kayoya and Léonidas Nibitanga on 26 April in by men in uniform. On 2 August, General Cibitoke neighbourhood, Bujumbura, as well Adolphe Nshimirimana, considered to be as the 15 May killing of Faustin close to President Nkurunziza, was shot dead Ndabitezimana, a nurse and member of the in Bujumbura. Following investigations, four Front for Democracy in Burundi, an army officers appeared before a court in opposition party in Buterere, Bujumbura. Bujumbura on 2 September, accused of his On 13 October, cameraman Christophe murder. Nkezabahizi and his wife and two children, On 15 August, Jean Bikomagu, retired and Evariste Mbonihankuye, an employee of Colonel and former Chief of Staff during the the International Organization of Migration, civil war, was shot dead at his residence in were killed in Bujumbura. An OHCHR Bujumbura by armed men. The government investigation indicated possible API indicated that investigations were ongoing but involvement, although the prosecutor’s office no findings had been made public by year’s accused a group of youths. end. On 11 September, the current Chief of Following the attacks on military Staff survived an armed attack against his installations on 11 December, Burundian convoy in Bujumbura. security forces carried out cordon and search Almost daily from September, dead bodies operations in so-called opposition were found in the streets of Bujumbura and neighbourhoods, during which they occasionally in other parts of the country. systematically killed dozens of people. There According to the OHCHR, at least 400 people were reports of bodies being buried in mass were killed between April and mid-December, graves. Witnesses cited the involvement of including members of the ruling political API and the anti-riot brigade, alongside party, the CNDD-FDD. regular police units.4

102 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Civil society’s opposition to President CAMBODIA Nkurunziza’s third term through its campaign “Stop the third term” led to increased Kingdom of Cambodia harassment and intimidation against human Head of state: King Norodom Sihamoni rights defenders. Government officials Head of government: referred to them as leaders or supporters of an insurrectional movement. Many of them Arbitrary restrictions on the rights to were named in the government’s Commission freedom of expression and peaceful of Inquiry report on the protests. Many fled assembly continued. A law came into force the country or were in hiding in Burundi at severely threatening the right to freedom of the end of the year. In November, the association. Impunity continued for human government suspended the activities of rights violations in the policing of several NGOs and froze their accounts, as demonstrations in 2013 and 2014, well as those of three leading activists. including deaths resulting from the On 3 August, leading human rights unnecessary and excessive use of force. defender Pierre Claver Mbonimpa survived an Political activists and human rights attempted killing by unidentified armed men defenders were jailed and arrests for online while returning home.6 His son-in-law, Pascal activity increased. Flagrant violations of the Nshimirimana, was shot dead at his house in UN Refugee Convention, including Bujumbura on 9 October. On 6 November, refoulements, took place. Welly Fleury Nzitonda, Pierre Claver’s son, was killed after being arrested by the police. BACKGROUND The authorities had not investigated these Prime Minister Hun Sen succeeded the long- attacks or brought anyone to account by the serving president of the ruling Cambodia end of the year. People’s Party (CPP), Chea Sim, who died in June. Political tensions continued between the 1. Burundi: Media clampdown intensifies in aftermath of coup attempt CPP and the opposition Cambodian National (Press Release, 12 June) Rescue Party (CNRP), despite the two 2. Burundi: Further information: Prominent journalist released: Bob respective leaders announcing a “culture of Rugurika (AFR 16/1134/2015) dialogue” in April. Negotiations between the 3. Braving bullets: Excessive force in policing demonstrations in Burundi two parties led to an agreement on a new Law (AFR 16/2100/2015) on the National Election Committee, 4. “My children are scared”: Burundi's deepening human rights crisis amendments to the Law on the Election of (AFR 16/3116/2015) Members of the National Assembly, and the 5. Burundi: Just tell me what to confess to – torture by police and release of imprisoned political activists and intelligence services since April 2015 (AFR 16/2298/2015) human rights defenders in April. The legal 6. Burundi: Shooting of human rights activist increases climate of fear changes were widely criticized for restricting (News story, 6 August) freedom of expression. In July, political tensions between the two parties re-escalated over an opposition campaign on alleged Vietnamese border encroachment. In November, an arrest warrant was issued for CNRP leader for a 2011 conviction for defamation and incitement to discrimination. He received a two-year prison sentence that was never enforced. In December, Sam Rainsy was summonsed on

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 103 charges of being an accomplice in a forgery additional two years’ imprisonment on case against opposition Senator Hong Sok charges arising from a separate Hour. demonstration in October 2014 when he was The mandates of the UN Special violently attacked by security forces. Rapporteur on the situation of human rights In August, three activists from conservation in Cambodia and the local UN Human Rights NGO Mother Nature – Try Sovikea, Sun Mala Commissioner office were both renewed for and Sim Samnang – were arrested amid a two years. The UN provided assistance in campaign to prevent alleged illegal sand drafting an Access to Information Law. The dredging in Koh Kong province. The three National Police announced that a law on state men faced two years in prison if convicted on secrets was being drafted. allegations that they threatened to destroy a The expression of anti-Vietnamese dredging vessel. In October, Vein Vorn, a sentiment remained prevalent, with CNRP community representative in Koh Kong, was leaders continuing to use the term yuon, arrested on charges related to his peaceful widely considered derogatory. activism against a major dam project. In In September, the General Department of August, two monks, Dev Tep and Chea Immigration stated that it had deported 1,919 Vanda, who had participated in several illegal migrant workers, 90% of whom were demonstrations since the 2013 election, Vietnamese. including opposition-led demonstrations Local human rights groups continued to concerning alleged border encroachment by receive complaints about new land disputes Viet Nam, were defrocked and arrested on affecting thousands of families and involving charges of drug possession, forgery and well-connected military and political figures. making death threats, which they claimed were fabricated. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY In April, 10 women land activists, arrested IMPUNITY and convicted in November 2014 for the No one was held to account for a range of peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of violations by security forces in the course of a assembly, were released after being pardoned violent crackdown on freedom of peaceful by the King. Nine others – five CNRP assembly over 2013 and 2014, including at activists, three monks and one woman whose least six killings resulting from the family were involved in a land dispute – were unnecessary or excessive use of force during released on bail. The releases were part of the that period.1 Despite announcing official dialogue reached between the CPP and investigations in the wake of those events, no CNRP. findings were published into the crackdown In July, 11 CNRP officials and members that resulted in serious injuries to scores of were convicted of leading and participating in people and the enforced disappearance of an insurrection and sentenced to between 16-year-old Khem Saphath. seven and 20 years’ imprisonment. The In August, former governor of Bavet city in charges arose from a demonstration in July Svay Rieng province, Chhouk Bandith (who 2014 that resulted in clashes between was convicted in his absence and sentenced security forces and opposition supporters. to 18 months’ imprisonment in June 2013 on The convictions were not supported by minor charges for shooting into a crowd of evidence to link the 11 to the insurrection demonstrating workers in 2012 and injuring allegations. Charges also remained in place three women) turned himself in after the against seven opposition MPs arrested and Prime Minister called for his arrest. released in the aftermath of the demonstration. One of those convicted, Ouk FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION Pich Samnang, was sentenced to an In August, King Sihamoni signed into law the

104 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 controversial Law on Associations and Non- summoned for questioning on a series of Government Organizations (LANGO) despite a charges arising from comments he made sustained campaign by civil society for the about judicial conduct in a case involving the law to be dropped on the grounds that it arrest of villagers engaged in a land dispute. violates the right to freedom of association. By the end of the year, it remained unclear how REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS the law would be implemented. In violation of the UN Refugee Convention Tripartite discussions involving the and international human rights law, government, unions and employers’ Cambodia forcibly returned 45 minority ethnic representatives on a controversial draft Trade Jarai asylum-seekers to Viet Nam in February. Union Law continued behind closed doors At least 36 other Montagnards – a term used with government representatives refusing to loosely to refer to mostly Christian indigenous publish newer versions of the draft. minority groups in Viet Nam – were also returned over the course of the year after FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Cambodia refused to register their asylum A year after the creation of a “Cyber War claims.2 Team” within the Council of Ministers whose In June, four refugees arrived in Cambodia function was to “investigate, collect, analyze from Nauru as part of a A$40 million (US$28 and compile all forms of … news [and] to million) deal with Australia, which is counter inform the public with the aim to protect the to the object and purpose of the Refugee government’s stance and prestige”, there was Convention. an upsurge in criminal charges for online expression. ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES In August, opposition Senator Hong Sok Two years after he was last seen in January Hour was arrested on forgery and incitement 2014 with an apparent gunshot wound to his charges for posting a video online which chest at a demonstration on the outskirts of included an edited article from a 1979 treaty Phnom Penh, the fate or whereabouts of 16- between Cambodia and Viet Nam concerning year-old Khem Saphath remained unclarified. the shared border. Days later, a student was arrested on incitement charges after stating INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE on Facebook that he planned to initiate a In September, the Extraordinary Chambers in “colour revolution” at an unspecified date in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC, Khmer Rouge the future. Both men were held in detention tribunal) heard for the first time evidence on despite a presumption in the Criminal charges of genocide in the second case Procedure Code in favour of bail. against Nuon Chea, former second-in- In December, further arrest warrants were command of the Khmer Rouge, and Khieu issued in the Hong Sok Hour case for CNRP Samphan, former head of state. leader Sam Rainsy and two men responsible for his Facebook page, Sathya Sambath and Ung Chung Leang. All three men went into 1. Taking to the streets: Freedom of peaceful assembly in Cambodia self-imposed exile. (ASA 23/1506/2015) A draft Cybercrimes Law leaked to the 2. Cambodia: Refoulement and the question of “voluntariness” (ASA public in 2014, which included a series of 23/2157/2015) provisions that would criminalize online expression, remained pending. In July, Ny Chakrya, head of monitoring for the Cambodia Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC, the oldest human rights organization in Cambodia), was

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 105 ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS CAMEROON Boko Haram committed crimes under international law and human rights abuses, Republic of Cameroon including suicide bomb attacks in civilian Head of state: Paul Biya areas, summary executions, torture, hostage Head of government: Philémon Yang taking, abductions, the recruitment of child soldiers, looting and destruction of public, The armed group Boko Haram disrupted the private and religious property. These crimes lives of thousands of people in northern appear to be part of a systematic attack Cameroon, committing crimes under against the civilian population across both international law including unlawful killings, northeastern Nigeria and the Far North in attacks against civilian objects, Cameroon. According to the UN, 770 civilians misappropriation of property and assets, were killed and some 600 women and girls looting and abductions. In an attempt to abducted by Boko Haram in Cameroon since prevent Boko Haram from capturing 2013. Many schools were also targeted, territory, security forces carried out arbitrary leaving 35,000 children without access to arrests, detentions, enforced disappearances education since 2014. and extrajudicial executions of suspected On 4 February, Boko Haram attacked the members of the group. Hundreds of village of Fotokol, killing at least 90 civilians thousands of refugees from Nigeria and the and 19 soldiers, and set dozens of buildings Central African Republic continued to live in alight. On 17 April, it attacked the village of precarious conditions. Freedoms of Bia, killing at least 16 civilians, including two expression, association and assembly children, and burned over 150 houses. In continued to be restricted. Human rights Maroua, between 22 and 25 July, three defenders were intimidated and harassed, suicide attacks in crowded civilian areas killed including by government agents. Lesbian, at least 33 people and wounded more than gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex 100. At least 23 suicide bombings carried out (LGBTI) people continued to face between July and December 2015 resulted in discrimination, intimidation and the deaths of about 120 civilians. Boko harassment, although arrests and Haram used girls as young as 13 to carry out prosecutions declined from previous years. the attacks. An anti-terrorism law promulgated on 23 December 2014 infringed basic rights and ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS freedoms, and extended the scope of the Security forces arrested at least 1,000 people death penalty to a broader set of crimes. accused of supporting Boko Haram in the Far North, including in mass cordon and search BACKGROUND operations where dozens of men and boys There was continuing instability in the country were rounded up and arrested. During such as a result of violence in the Central African operations, security forces used excessive Republic, in southeastern Cameroon, and of force and committed human rights violations armed conflict between Boko Haram and such as arbitrary arrests, unlawful killings – security forces in the Far North. A significant including of a seven-year-old girl – and deployment of security forces in the Far North destruction of property. Other violations prevented Boko Haram from taking control of include enforced disappearances, deaths in Cameroonian soil. However, security forces at custody and mistreatment of prisoners. times failed to protect the civilian population Eighty-four children were detained without from attacks and themselves committed charge for six months in a children’s centre in crimes under international law and human Maroua, following a raid on Qur’anic schools rights violations. in the town of Guirvidig on 20 December

106 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 2014. maximum capacity of 2,000. The main Journalists continued to be arrested and factors of recent prison overcrowding, in detained without charge by security forces, as addition to the wave of arrests of Boko Haram part of their operation against Boko Haram. suspects, included the large number of Simon Ateba, a Cameroonian journalist, was detainees held without charge and the arrested on 28 August at the Minawao ineffective judicial system. In response, the refugee camp and held by Cameroonian government has provided funding to build officials for four days. He had travelled to more cells at Maroua prison, and committed Minawao to investigate the living conditions of to building new prisons across the country. Nigerian refugees, but was accused of spying on behalf of Boko Haram. Radio France REFUGEES' AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Internationale correspondent Ahmed Abba At least 180,000 refugees from the Central was arrested in Maroua on 30 July and was African Republic lived in harsh conditions in held incommunicado for over three months crowded camps along bordering areas of before being charged with “inciting or southeastern Cameroon. Since the escalation justifying terrorism”. of violence in northeastern Nigeria in 2013, On 27 April, the UN Working Group on hundreds of thousands of people have fled Arbitrary Detention stated that the detention across the border into Cameroon. The of Franco-Cameroonian lawyer Lydienne Yen Minawao refugee camp in the Far North Eyoum was arbitrary. hosted over 50,000 refugees as of December, 75% of whom were between eight and 17 DEATHS IN CUSTODY AND ENFORCED years of age. There were concerns that, DISAPPEARANCES contrary to the provisions of the 1951 UN Over 200 men and boys were arrested on 27 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, December 2014 in a cordon and search the Cameroonian military deported Nigerians operation in the villages of Magdeme and who had long resided in Cameroon back to Doublé. At least 25 men died during the night Nigeria, accusing them of supporting Boko of their arrest in a makeshift cell, while 45 Haram. others were taken to Maroua prison the following day. At least 130 people therefore RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, remain unaccounted for and are presumed to TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE be victims of enforced disappearance, with Discrimination, intimidation, harassment and evidence suggesting more may have died in violence against LGBTI people remained a custody. An internal investigation has yet to concern, although the number of arrests and identify those victims, reveal the location of prosecutions reduced from previous years. their bodies, and interview key witnesses. The continued criminalization of same-sex sexual activity still led to individuals being PRISON CONDITIONS harassed and blackmailed, including by Prison conditions remained poor: chronic security forces, because of their suspected overcrowding, inadequate food, limited sexuality. Two people remain in prison on medical care, and deplorable hygiene and charges – one of whom is awaiting trial – sanitation. The wave of arrests of individuals relating to their sexual identity. A peaceful suspected of supporting Boko Haram further demonstration organized by an LGBTI aggravated these conditions. Maroua prison organization to commemorate the death of houses 1,300 detainees, more than three LGBTI activist Eric Lembembe and call for a times its intended capacity (350), and over thorough investigation was held on 14 July. 40 detainees died between March and May. The population of the central prison in Yaoundé is approximately 4,100, for a

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 107 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Human rights defenders continued to be CANADA victims of intimidation, harassment and threats. In February, following a statement by Canada the Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Network (REDHAC) on the alleged death in Governor General David Johnston custody of more than 50 people in Maroua, Head of government: Justin Trudeau (replaced executive director and Stephen Harper in November) president Alice Nkom received death threats on TV and in the press. Ngo Mbe has been Sweeping reforms to national security laws the target of repeated threats because of her raised human rights concerns. Following a human rights-related work. change of government, the process to Alhadji Mei Ali, head of human rights develop a long-demanded public inquiry into organization Os-Civile, was repeatedly missing and murdered Indigenous women threatened by state agents since July. This and girls was launched and commitments followed his campaign against the impunity were made to address a range of other surrounding the killing of a human rights human rights concerns. defender who had challenged the appointments of two traditional leaders in INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS 2011. In June, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its calls to action based FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, on six years of hearing. It included a finding ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY that Canada’s residential school system for Perceived or actual opponents of the Aboriginal children constituted “cultural government were denied the right to organize genocide” and set out extensive peaceful activities and demonstrations. On 15 recommendations to help restore Indigenous September, five members of Dynamique communities and prevent further harm to Citoyenne, a platform regrouping several civil Indigenous children. society organizations, were arrested while In July, construction of the Site C dam in holding a seminar on electoral governance British Columbia began without addressing its and democratic change. They were held in impact on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. custody for seven days without charge. In July, the UN Human Rights Committee Journalists reported practising self- called on Canada to report back within one censorship to avoid repercussions for year on progress made in addressing violence criticizing the government, especially on against Indigenous women and girls and security matters. The National protecting Indigenous land rights. Communication Council sanctioned more An appeal against the decision to allow the than 20 media outlets during the year and Northern Gateway Pipeline project to proceed some of its decisions were contested by the in northern British Columbia, despite Journalism Trade Union. At the end of the opposition from many Indigenous Peoples year, journalists Rodrigue Tongué, Felix Ebole who depend on lands and waters potentially Bola and Baba Wamé still faced charges in impacted by the project, was pending at the front of a military tribunal for the “non- end of the year. denunciation” of sources. A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling in a case started in 2008 alleging discrimination in federal government underfunding of child protection in First Nations Indigenous communities had been pending for 14 months at the end of the year.

108 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 WOMEN’S RIGHTS case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar who was In March, the CEDAW Committee concluded illegally imprisoned in Syria in 2002-2003 that the Canadian police and justice system after being subject to rendition from the USA. had failed to effectively protect Indigenous The charges were the first ever brought in women from violence, hold offenders to Canada for torture outside the country. account and ensure redress for victims. Two lawsuits challenging the widespread In December, following the change of use of solitary confinement remained government, a process to launch a public pending. inquiry into violence against Indigenous women and girls was initiated; the inquiry was REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS expected to begin in 2016. In October, reports emerged that government officials suspended processing Syrian refugee COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY cases for several weeks during the summer In May, Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen held and were screening cases to prioritize at Guantánamo Bay for 10 years beginning refugees from ethnic and religious minorities when he was 15 years old and repatriated to as well as refugees who have run businesses Canada in 2012 under a prisoner transfer and who speak English or French fluently. In agreement, was released on bail pending an November, the new government announced a appeal against his conviction in the USA. Also plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by the in May, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled end of 2015 towards a total of 25,000 by that Omar Khadr must be treated as a minor early 2016. At the end of the year, within the Canadian corrections system. approximately 6,000 Syrian refugees had In June the 2015 Anti-terrorism Act arrived in Canada. became law. It expands the authority of In July the UN Human Rights Committee Canadian government agencies to share called on Canada to report back within a year information about individuals without on a range of human rights concerns facing adequate safeguards and allows the Canadian immigrants and refugees. Security Intelligence Service to take measures In July, the Federal Court overturned the to reduce security threats, even if such “designated country of origin” list under measures would violate rights. The new law which refugee claimants from “safe” creates a criminal offence of advocating or countries were denied the right to appeal promoting the commission of “terrorism refused refugee claims. offences in general” which undermines the In August, Cameroonian national Michael right to freedom of expression. A legal Mvogo was deported from Canada, 13 challenge to the new law was pending at the months after the UN Working Group on end of the year and the new government Arbitrary Detention had called for him to be made a commitment to revise some of its released from indefinite detention. provisions. In November, the new government A legal challenge to Citizenship Act reforms announced that cuts to the Interim Federal passed in 2014 allowing dual nationals Health Program for refugees and refugee convicted of terrorism and other offences to claimants would be reversed and health be stripped of Canadian citizenship remained coverage restored. pending. The new government promised to repeal the 2014 reforms. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY In February, a joint investigation was JUSTICE SYSTEM launched by federal and provincial agencies In September, the Royal Canadian Mounted into whether Imperial Metals breached any Police laid criminal charges for torture against laws when the tailings dam at its Mount Polley a Syrian military intelligence officer in the mine collapsed in 2014. The disaster spilled

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 109 24 million cubic metres of mining waste water National Reconciliation Forum held in the into fish-bearing waterways. capital, Bangui, in May did not succeed in In May, the fourth annual report to bringing an end to violations of international Parliament assessing the human rights effects humanitarian law and violations and abuses of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade of international human rights law. Many of Agreement was released. It again failed to those suspected of criminal responsibility consider human rights concerns, including for crimes under international law, including serious abuses facing Indigenous Peoples, commanders of the Séléka and anti-Balaka Afro-descendant communities and others in forces, as well as other militias and their areas of resource extraction investment in allies, were yet to be effectively investigated Colombia. or brought to justice. The International In October, Canada was one of 12 Criminal Court (ICC) continued to countries to sign the Trans-Pacific investigate crimes under international law. Partnership, a major new free trade deal, According to the UN and relief which did not include human rights organizations, 2.7 million people remained safeguards. in need of humanitarian assistance, By the end of the year, five lawsuits were including more than 460,000 internally pending before Canadian courts seeking to displaced people and 452,000 refugees in establish Canadian parent company liability neighbouring countries. for human rights harms committed in mining operations in Eritrea and Guatemala. BACKGROUND The conflict that led to the loss of thousands LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR of lives in 2014 continued throughout 2015. INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS Between September and October, a major Draft legislation which would have added upsurge in violence, including attacks gender identity as a prohibited ground of targeted at civilians, resulted in the deaths of discrimination in Canada’s Human Rights Act more than 75 people and injuries to hundreds and hate crimes laws did not pass the Senate more, in addition to widespread destruction of before Parliament was recessed in advance of private and public property. The federal elections. UN Multidimensional Integrated Despite repeated calls, the government did Stabilization Mission in the Central African not ratify the Arms Trade Treaty or the Republic (MINUSCA), supported by the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention French “Sangaris” force, struggled to fully against Torture. prevent violations of international humanitarian law. In January, a ceasefire agreement between CENTRAL former Presidents François Bozizé and Michel Djotodia, both under UN and US sanctions, AFRICAN REPUBLIC and radical factions of the anti-Balaka and ex- Séléka forces, was signed in Nairobi but was Central African Republic rejected by the transitional authorities and the Head of state: Catherine Samba-Panza international community. In May a national Head of government: Mahamat Kamoun reconciliation forum postponed elections originally scheduled for August and ruled out Crimes under international law, including immunity for those suspected of criminal war crimes and crimes against humanity, responsibility for crimes under international were committed by all parties to the law. A Disarmament, Demobilization, conflict. Security operations by international Rehabilitation and Reintegration accord and forces and political initiatives such as the an agreement on the demobilization of child

110 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 soldiers were also signed by 11 armed from violence. groups. On 26 October, anti-Balaka fighters In August, the Special Representative of attacked a delegation of ex-Séléka who had the UN Secretary-General to the Central come to Bangui to meet President Samba- African Republic resigned following Panza. Two of the four members of the allegations that a 12-year-old girl was raped delegation remained unaccounted for. In the by a UN peacekeeper during a security ensuing violence houses were burned and operation in Bangui. people killed during confrontations involving On 13 December a new Constitution was armed Muslim gangs, anti-Balaka and approved in a referendum. national security forces.

ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS AND VIOLATIONS BY UN PEACEKEEPERS COMMUNAL VIOLENCE On 10 July, four men were severely beaten Serious violations of human rights and after being arrested by MINUSCA international humanitarian law, including peacekeepers in the town of Mambéré in the unlawful killings, torture and other ill- south-west. One died later of his wounds. treatment, abductions, sexual assaults, Twenty peacekeepers were repatriated on 20 looting and destruction of property, were July by MINUSCA for excessive use of force perpetrated by all armed groups involved in against detainees. the conflict, including the ex-Séléka and the On 2 and 3 August, a failed attempt by anti-Balaka whose fighters could operate MINUSCA peacekeepers to arrest a Muslim freely across much of the country, facilitated self-defence group leader in the PK5 enclave by the heavy circulation of small arms. of Bangui resulted in fierce fighting and the In February, armed ethnic Peulh herders, death of one peacekeeper. Evidence strongly at times supported by ex-Séléka and anti- suggested that a 12-year-old girl was raped Balaka fighters, attacked civilians along a by a MINUSCA soldier during the operation, corridor used for the seasonal movement of while two civilians were killed after UN livestock in the central regions, leading to soldiers apparently shot indiscriminately down temporary mass displacement of populations an alleyway.1 An investigation by the UN in the towns of Kouango, Kaga Bandoro and International Office for Oversight was under Batangafo. way at the end of the year. On 26 September, following the killing of a Allegations of sexual violence by French 17-year-old Muslim moto-taxi driver, armed and other peacekeepers against children as men attacked residents of areas near the young as nine were under investigation at the Muslim enclave known as PK5, killing dozens end of the year. of people. Members of Muslim self-defence groups, anti-Balaka militia and a number of FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND their supporters committed widespread DISPLACEMENT abuses, including killings, rapes and In the first months of 2015, internally destruction of property. More than 75 people displaced people from the Peulh community were killed and 400 wounded, including stranded in the town of Yaloké were civilians. More than 250 houses were set repeatedly forbidden from leaving the town by alight in non-Muslim areas and more than local authorities, acting under orders from the 40,000 civilians were forced to flee their interim central government. homes. Although MINUSCA, supported by The freedom of movement of about 25,000 French peacekeepers, helped to secure key Muslims living in enclaves in several towns installations in Bangui, including the airport protected by UN peacekeepers was restricted and government buildings, its intervention because of risks of attack by members of was slow and failed to protect civilians anti-Balaka and their affiliates.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 111 More than 460,000 people remained escaped from the Ngaragba male prison in internally displaced, including approximately Bangui. On 28 September, between 500 and 60,000 in Bangui, living in harsh conditions 700 detainees, including anti-Balaka fighters, in makeshift camps. The crisis forced around escaped from the same prison as violence 200,000 people to flee to Cameroon, Chad, escalated in Bangui. On 4 November, 11 Democratic Republic of the Congo and the inmates escaped from the detention facility in Republic of Congo since December 2013, the town of Bria. bringing the number of Central African refugees in neighbouring countries to about INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE 452,000. On 30 May, the President promulgated a law creating a Special Criminal Court composed FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF of national and international prosecutors and Some Muslims returning to ethnically judges, tasked with investigating international cleansed areas in the west of the country crimes committed in the country since were forced by anti-Balaka to abandon their January 2003 and to complement the work of religion or convert to Christianity. Outside the ICC. By the end of year, the Special areas in the west of the country where Criminal Court was yet to be operational, due Muslims live under the protection of UN particularly to lack of funding. ICC peacekeepers, threats by anti-Balaka meant investigations, which had begun in that Muslims had little freedom to practise September 2013 into crimes committed since their religion in public, wear traditional August 2012, continued. Muslim clothing or reconstruct destroyed mosques. NATURAL RESOURCES Conflict diamonds smuggled from the Central IMPUNITY African Republic were traded on international The presence and functioning of judicial markets, funding amed groups who controlled institutions remained limited, especially mine sites, “taxed” miners and extorted outside Bangui. Judicial authorities lacked the protection money. Two of the biggest capacity to investigate and prosecute diamond buying houses – Badica and Sodiam suspects of crimes, including human rights – purchased diamonds worth several million violations. dollars during the conflict, including from Few of those suspected of criminal areas where ex-Séléka and anti-Balaka responsibility for crimes under international groups were known to operate. While both law, including commanders of the Séléka, companies denied buying conflict diamonds, anti-Balaka, other militias and their allies, it was believed they purchased diamonds were investigated or brought to justice. On 17 without adequately investigating whether they January, Rodrigue Ngaïbo, a prominent anti- funded armed groups. The government failed Balaka leader known as “Andilo”, was to provide protection to artisanal (small-scale) arrested by MINUSCA in the town of Bouca. miners, including children, who often worked In October, MINUSCA met with Nourredine in dangerous conditions. Adam, an ex-Séléka commander suspected of crimes against humanity and subject to UN sanctions and national and international 1. Central African Republic: UN troops implicated in rape of a girl and arrest warrants. indiscriminate killings must be investigated (News story, 11 August)

PRISON CONDITIONS Prison conditions remained poor and security weak. In August, 17 detainees, including some high-ranking anti-Balaka commanders,

112 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 separate suicide attacks in the market of CHAD Bagassola and in an informal settlement of internally displaced people in Kousseri. On 5 Republic of Chad December, at least 27 civilians were killed Head of state: Idriss Déby Itno and more than 80 injured in three suicide Head of government: Kalzeubé Payimi Deubet attacks in different locations in the market of Loulou Fou, in the Lake Chad region. The armed group Boko Haram stepped up attacks in the capital, N’Djamena, and COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY around Lake Chad, killing and abducting On 30 July, the National Assembly adopted civilians, and looting and destroying an anti-terrorism law that provided for the properties. The authorities took several death penalty and increased the punishments counter-terrorism and security measures, for lesser terrorism offences from the previous including passing a restrictive anti-terrorism maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment to life. law. The security forces carried out arbitrary The maximum period before suspects must arrests and detentions. The authorities be brought before a court was increased from continued to restrict the right to freedom of 48 hours to 30 days, renewable twice by the expression by dispersing demonstrations, Public Prosecutor. The definition of often using excessive or unnecessary force. “terrorism” in the bill is extremely broad, Hundreds of thousands of refugees from including disruption of public services, and Nigeria, Central African Republic, Sudan opposition parties and civil society and Libya continued to live in difficult organizations expressed concern that the bill conditions in crowded refugee camps. could be used to curtail freedoms of Former Chadian President Hissène Habré expression and association. The bill became faced trial on charges of crimes against law on 5 August. humanity, torture and war crimes at the Also in July, the authorities imposed a Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal. series of counter-terrorism measures affecting the Chadian population and foreign nationals. ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS In addition to an increase in search Boko Haram killed more than 200 civilians operations in homes, checkpoints and public during the year, and looted and destroyed places, veils fully covering the face and public private properties and public facilities. begging were banned. Violence led to the displacement of On 9 November, a state of emergency was approximately 70,000 people. declared in the Lake Chad region and In February, Boko Haram killed more than provided the governor of the region with the 24 people, including civilians, on the islands authority to ban the movement of people and of Lake Chad, including in the localities of vehicles, search homes and recover arms. Kaiga-Kingiria, Kangalom, and Ngouboua. On The security forces were accused of 3 April Boko Haram ambushed civilians going carrying out arbitrary arrests and detentions to market and killed seven with knives and by both local civil society organizations and guns in the village of Tchoukou Telia. On 15 international bodies. The UN Office of the June, 38 civilians were killed and more than High Commissioner for Human Rights 100 injured in a twin suicide attack by reported that more than 400 foreign nationals suspected Boko Haram members in of 14 nationalities were arrested following spot N’Djamena. On 11 July, a suspected Boko checks in a two-week period after the 15 Haram suicide bomber wearing a woman’s June bomb attack in N’Djamena. burqa killed at least 15 civilians in a market in N’Djamena and injured more than 80. On 10 EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE October at least 43 civilians were killed in The rights to freedom of expression and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 113 association were violated as security forces force. used excessive or unnecessary force to On 23 June, Laurent Correau, a journalist disperse demonstrations in N’Djamena and with Radio France Internationale, was other towns such as Kyabé in the south of the assaulted alongside an international human country, where at least three people were rights defender in N’Djamena by state agents. reportedly killed during a demonstration on Laurent Correau was forcibly expelled from 25 April. Chad the same day. On 9 March, in N’Djamena, security forces dispersed a students’ demonstration using REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS tear gas, batons and live ammunition. Four In addition to approximately 70,000 people students were allegedly killed and many other internally displaced by Boko Haram attacks, protesters injured. No one was investigated or Chad hosted almost 500,000 refugees – the charged in relation to these deaths during second highest total in Africa – from 2015. Videos also showed that students neighbouring countries including Sudan, arrested during the demonstration were Central African Republic, Nigeria and Libya. subjected to torture and other ill-treatment by Many lived in poor conditions in overcrowded members of the Mobile Police Intervention refugee camps. The UN Office of the High Group. Security forces beat the students and Commissioner for Human Rights reported forced them to roll on the ground, to wipe that during 2015 Chad forced Nigerian their faces with sand and to pull their own refugees back to their country, contrary to the ears. principle of non-refoulement, accusing them On 20 May, after a video revealing the of being Boko Haram members. identity of the security forces who tortured and otherwise ill-treated the students was INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE broadcast on the internet, the Supreme Court On 20 July, the trial of former Chadian of N’Djamena sentenced eight policemen to President Hissène Habré opened at the six months’ imprisonment and a fine of Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal on 50,000 CFA francs (US$80) for “unlawful charges of crimes against humanity, torture violence, wilfully beating and wounding and and war crimes, allegedly committed between complicity”. Six other officers were acquitted. 1982 and 1990 when he ruled Chad. This was the first time that an African court had FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION prosecuted a former African president under On 15 June, Djeralar Miankeo, land rights the principle of universal jurisdiction.1 activist and Director of Association On 25 March, 20 former state security Ngaoubourandi (ASNGA), was arrested and agents connected to President Habré’s charged with “insulting the judiciary” by the regime were convicted of torture by the Public Prosecutor of Moundou after N’Djamena Criminal Court. The court questioning the competence of Chadian acquitted four of the accused and found the judicial officials in a radio interview. He was Chadian state liable for the defendants’ sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and a actions. The defendants and the state were fine by the High Court of Justice of Moundou. ordered to pay compensation of 75 billion On 28 July the Appeal Court of Moundou CFA francs (US$125 million) to the 7,000 overturned the verdict, dropped all charges civil parties. In 2014 the Chadian authorities against him and released him. had declined to transfer these suspects to the On 22 June, Mahamat Ramadane, editor of Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal, the newspaper Alwihda, was arrested and or to allow representatives of the Chambers to held until the following day for photographing interview them in Chad. a security operation in N’Djamena where the police were reported to have used excessive

114 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 DEATH PENALTY international human rights obligations in On 29 August, 10 suspected Boko Haram specific cases when deciding to transfer such members were executed by firing squad after cases to the jurisdiction of ordinary courts.1 being sentenced to death in a trial held In May, the Martial Court (the appeal court behind closed doors the previous day. They in the military justice system) reduced the were convicted of carrying out the twin sentence imposed on a former police officer attacks that killed 38 people in N’Djamena in for fatally shooting 16-year-old Manuel June. It was the first execution since 2003. In Gutiérrez Reinoso and injuring Carlos Burgos 2014 Chad had announced that it would Toledo during a protest in 2011, from three abolish the death penalty, but in July 2015 years and 61 days to 461 days. The Martial included it in a new anti-terrorism law. Court disregarded the military tribunal’s finding that methods short of the use of firearms were available to disperse the 1. Chad: Time for justice for victims of Hissène Habré’s regime (News demonstrators, instead stating that there was story, 20 July) no proof of intention to cause injury on the part of the officer.2 This decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court in CHILE December. Investigation into the death of Iván Vásquez Republic of Chile Vásquez in police custody in 2014 in Chile Head of state and government: Michelle Bachelet Jeria Chico, Aysén region, made some progress. The family requested a third, more Cases of police violence continued to be comprehensive, autopsy, given the dealt with by military courts. Legal discrepancies between two previous proceedings against those responsible for autopsies. In July the Martial Court agreed to past human rights violations continued. conduct this autopsy, which was still pending Abortion remained criminalized in all at the end of the year. circumstances. A few cases of police violence were dealt with by the ordinary courts. Among them BACKGROUND were the cases of Nelson Quichillao, a In October, President Bachelet announced mineworker who was shot dead by the the process that would be followed in order to security forces during a protest in July in El adopt a new Constitution in 2017. The Salvador, Atacama Region, and that of 28- current Constitution was adopted during the year-old student Rodrigo Avilés who was military government of General Pinochet and, seriously injured by police water cannon in for many, is not consistent with a democratic May. Investigations into the cases were system. continuing at the end of the year. Allegations of political corruption, involving In September, the Special Rapporteur on a number of public officials, were investigated the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly throughout the year. and of association called on the authorities to end the use of military courts to deal with SECURITY FORCES AND THE MILITARY cases of human rights violations. JUSTICE SYSTEM Cases of human rights violations involving IMPUNITY members of the security forces continued to Efforts to bring to justice those responsible for be dealt with by military courts, despite public past human rights violations continued. commitments by the authorities to reform the According to the President of the Supreme relevant legislation. The Supreme Court, Court, by March there were 1,056 active however, upheld the right to due process and cases, of which 112 related to allegations of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 115 torture. Official data from the Ministry of the the end of the year. Interior Human Rights Programme indicated In July, the UN Committee on Economic, that 72 of the 122 people who were convicted Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) urged of human rights violations between 2014 and Chile to expedite the adoption of a bill to September 2015 were serving prison decriminalize abortion in some sentences. circumstances. However, victims’ organizations condemned the slow progress in establishing INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS the truth about the thousands of victims of There were renewed allegations of excessive enforced disappearance. use of force and arbitrary detention during Information and documentation gathered police operations against Mapuche by the Valech Commission on politically communities. motivated torture and imprisonment during In July, the CESCR urged Chile to the Pinochet era remained classified as guarantee constitutional recognition of the confidential, even from the judiciary, and rights of Indigenous Peoples, ensuring their therefore secret for 50 years and unavailable right to free, prior and informed consent with to those seeking justice for the victims. regard to decisions that may directly affect In October, after a 40-day hunger strike by their rights.5 some victims of torture, a law was passed In October, the Inter-American Commission granting early economic reparation to victims of Human Rights ordered precautionary of torture and political imprisonment. measures for Mapuche Indigenous leader In July, 10 former military officers were Juana Calfunao and members of her family charged with the kidnapping and killing of the living in the community of Juan Paillalef in singer and political activist Víctor Jara in southern Chile. The decision followed reports 1973. of excessive use of force by the security Following information received from a forces, threats and intimidation against the military officer, seven former military officers family in 2014 and 2015 linked to land were charged in July for burning 19-year-old disputes. Rodrigo Rojas to death and severely injuring 18-year-old Carmen Gloria Quintana in 1986. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, No progress was made in overturning the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE 1978 Amnesty Law.3 In October, legislation on civil partnerships, In September, the Inter-American Court of including for same-sex couples, came into Human Rights ruled that Chile had denied force. effective remedy to 12 people sentenced A bill on the right to gender identity that by a military tribunal between 1974 and1975. would allow people to change their name and The case against them had not been gender on official documents remained quashed, despite evidence that their pending before the Senate at the end of the confessions were extracted under torture, and year. their allegations of torture had not been investigated. 1. Chile: Un avance: Otro caso de violaciones de derechos humanos se SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS traspasa a la justicia ordinaria (AMR 22/1149/2015) Abortion remained a criminal offence in all 2. Chile: El uso excesivo e innecesario de la fuerza policial debe circumstances.4 A bill to decriminalize investigarse y sancionarse en tribunales ordinarios (AMR abortion when the pregnancy poses a threat 22/1738/2015) to the life of the woman or is the result of rape 3. Chile: Amnesty law keeps Pinochet’s legacy alive (News story, 11 or incest or in cases of serious foetal September) malformation was pending before Congress at 4. Chile’s failure to protect women and girls: The criminalization of

116 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 abortion is a human rights violation (Amnesty International Chile, unprecedented government crackdown on June 2015) human rights lawyers and other activists. Over 5. Chile: Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and the following weeks, at least 248 lawyers and Cultural Rights: 55th session (AMR 22/1479/2015) activists were questioned or detained by state security agents, and many of their offices and homes were raided. At the end of the year, 25 CHINA people remained missing or in custody, and at least 12 of them, including prominent People’s Republic of China human rights lawyers Zhou Shifeng, Sui Head of state: Muqing, Li Heping and Quanzhang, Head of government: Li Keqiang were held in “residential surveillance in a designated location” on suspicion of A series of new laws with a national security involvement in state security crimes.1 This focus were drafted or enacted that form of detention allows the police to hold presented grave dangers to human rights. individuals suspected of such crimes for up to The government launched a massive six months outside the formal detention nationwide crackdown against human rights system, with suspects denied access to legal lawyers. Other activists and human rights counsel and families. Family members were defenders continued to be systematically also subject to police surveillance, subjected to harassment and intimidation. harassment and restriction of their freedom of Five women’s rights activists were detained movement. for planning to mark International Women’s Human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was Day with a campaign against sexual given a three-year suspended sentence on harassment. Authorities stepped up their charges of “picking quarrels and provoking controls over the internet, mass media and troubles” and “inciting ethnic hatred”, academia. Televised “confessions” of critics primarily on the basis of comments he had detained for investigation multiplied. made on social media. He was barred from Freedom of religion continued to be practising law as a result of the conviction. systematically stifled. The government In April journalist Gao Yu was sentenced to continued its campaign to demolish seven years’ imprisonment by a court in the churches and take down Christian crosses in capital, , on the charge of “disclosing Zhejiang province. In the predominantly state secrets” for sharing an internal Muslim Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Communist Party document in which freedom Region, the regional government enacted of the press and “universal values” such as new regulations to more tightly control freedom, democracy and human rights came religious affairs and ban all unauthorized under severe attack. In November, her religious practice. The government sentence was reduced to five years and she maintained extensive controls over Tibetan was released from prison on medical parole. Buddhist monasteries. The UN Committee Her release came after her family and friends against Torture regretted that previous claimed she did not have access to necessary recommendations had not been medical care in detention.2 implemented. Of the more than 100 people in mainland China detained for supporting Hong Kong HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS protests in 2014, eight had been formally Human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists arrested and remained in detention as of and activists faced increased intimidation, December. At least two had reported being harassment, arbitrary arrest, and violence. tortured in detention.3 The detention of lawyer and her In March, five women’s rights activists – family on 9 July marked the beginning of an , Wang Man, Wu Rongrong, Li

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 117 Tingting and – were arrested give the Ministry of Public Security the and detained on the charge of “picking responsibility to oversee the registration of quarrels and provoking troubles” for planning foreign NGOs, as well as supervising their to mark International Women’s Day by operations and pre-approving their activities. launching a campaign against sexual The wide discretion given to authorities to harassment. They were released on “bail oversee and manage the work of NGOs raised pending trial” on 13 April after the risk that the law could be misused to unprecedented international pressure, intimidate and prosecute human rights although they continued to suffer police defenders and NGO workers. interrogations, evictions and confiscation of The draft Cyber Security Law,7 which personal items while on bail. purports to protect internet users’ personal Many former employees and volunteers of data from hacking and theft, would also force Yirenping, a well-known anti-discrimination companies operating in China to censor advocacy organization, were detained and content, store users’ data in China, and suffered harassment and intimidation. Two enforce a real-name registration system in a former employees – Guo Bin and Yang way that runs counter to national and Zhangqing – were detained on 12 June on international obligations to safeguard the right suspicion of “illegal business activity”; they to freedom of expression and the right to were released on bail on 11 July.4 privacy. The draft law would prohibit In December, at least 33 workers and individuals or groups from using the internet labour rights activists were targeted by police; to “harm national security”, “upset social seven were detained in Guangdong province, order”, or “harm national interests” – vague where labour unrest and strikes were on the and imprecise terms that could be used to rise. The detention centres did not allow further restrict freedom of expression. access to lawyers on the grounds that the In December, parliament passed the Anti- cases involved “endangering national Terrorism Law, which had virtually no security”.5 safeguards to prevent those who peacefully practised their religion or simply criticized LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR government policies from being persecuted INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS on broad charges related to “terrorism” or The government enacted or drafted a series “extremism”. of sweeping laws and regulations under the pretext of enhancing national security. There FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – INTERNET were fears that they could be used to silence AND JOURNALISTS dissent and crack down on human rights In January the government announced that defenders through expansive charges such as the internet would be the main “battlefield” in “inciting subversion”, “separatism” and 2015 in its campaign to “fight pornography, “leaking state secrets”. There were concerns and unlawful [information]”. The same that the National Security Law, enacted on 1 month, the government announced it had July, includes a broad and vague definition of shut down 50 websites and WeChat accounts “national security” that comprises areas such – many related to discussion of current as politics, culture, finance and the internet. events, military affairs or anti-corruption The draft Foreign NGO Management Law, if platforms, and 133 accounts that were enacted in the form presented for public disseminating information that was “distorting consultation in May, would severely restrict history of the Communist Party and national the rights to freedom of association, peaceful history”. Also in January, the Minister of assembly and expression.6 While the law was Education stated that foreign textbooks would ostensibly designed to regulate and even be banned in order to stop the spread of protect the rights of foreign NGOs, it would “wrong Western values”, and he warned

118 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 against universities being infiltrated by and was later placed under “residential “hostile forces”. surveillance in a designated location”.8 In August, according to state media, 197 Numerous other pastors and “house church” people were “punished” in a special leaders were also subsequently put under the campaign led by the Ministry of Public same form of incommunicado detention. Security for allegedly spreading rumours Falun Gong practitioners continued to be about the stock market, the chemical subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, explosion in the coastal city of earlier unfair trials and torture and other ill- that month, or other issues. treatment. Later that month, Wang Xiaolu, a reporter with the financial magazine Caixin, was DEATH PENALTY detained after the government claimed that Amendments to the Criminal Law, which an article he wrote about the stock market came into effect in November, reduced the was “fabricated”. He was forced to make a number of crimes punishable by death from “confession”, which was broadcast on 55 to 46.9 State media indicated that although national TV and was subsequently placed in the nine crimes were rarely used and would “residential surveillance in a designated have little impact in reducing the number of location”. Chinese media observers believed executions, their deletion was in line with the he was used as a scapegoat and as a caution government’s policy of “kill fewer, kill more to keep the press from reporting negative cautiously”. However, the revised provisions news about the downturn in the stock market. still failed to bring the Criminal Law in line In October, investigative reporter Liu Wei with requirements under international law and was detained after he exposed a corruption standards on the use of the death penalty. scandal involving government officials. Famed Statistics continued to be classified as state historian Yang Jisheng was forced to resign as secrets. editor at the liberal journal Yanhuang On 24 April, Li Yan, a victim of domestic Chunqiu after the State Administration of violence who had killed her husband in 2010, Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was given a “suspended” death sentence criticized the magazine for publishing dozens with a two-year reprieve which is normally of articles that were “against the regulations”. converted into a life sentence at the end of that period. The Supreme People’s Court, in FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF an unprecedented move in 2014, had The campaign to demolish churches and take overturned her initial death sentence and down crosses in Zhejiang province that was ordered a retrial. Evidence of the sustained launched in 2013 intensified throughout domestic violence had been ignored by 2015. According to international media judges at the original trial, just as her previous reports, more than 1,200 crosses had been calls for police protection had gone torn down during the campaign, prompting a unheeded. In March, the Supreme People’s series of protests. In July, the Zhejiang Court and government had issued new provincial government passed a regulation guidelines on domestic violence cases, restricting the size of an object attached at including recommendations on sentencing for the top of a building to not exceed one tenth victims of domestic violence who commit of the total size of the building, which many crimes against their abuser. In December the believed was aimed at legitimizing the parliament passed the Domestic Violence Law removal of crosses. which for the first time required police to Zhang Kai, a lawyer who was offering legal investigate all reports of domestic violence assistance to the affected churches, was and set up a restraining order system to detained on 25 August on suspicion of state protect victims. security crimes and “disturbing public order”

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 119 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT incommunicado detention through Torture and other ill-treatment remained “residential surveillance in a widespread in detention and during designated location”. interrogation, largely because of shortcomings in domestic law, systemic problems in the SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS criminal justice system, and difficulties with In October, the government announced implementing rules and procedures in the changes to the family planning policy. After face of entrenched practices. Lawyer Yu many years of incremental changes, the Wensheng was tortured during his detention authorities promoted this change as an end to from October 2014 to January 2015 at Daxing the “one-child policy”, and as allowing one Detention Centre in Beijing. He was couple to have two children. Policies allowing questioned for 15 to 16 hours every day while rural households and ethnic minorities under seated on a rigid restraint chair, handcuffed certain circumstances to have additional for long hours and deprived of sleep.10 children would continue. The government Detainees with deteriorating health were also announced that it would take steps to either denied or were unable to access regularize the status of China’s 13 million adequate medical treatment. These included undocumented children born in contravention Gao Yu and Su Changlan, the latter a of the old policy.11 prominent women’s rights activist who remained in detention throughout the year TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION AND after being detained in October 2014 for TIBETAN POPULATED AREAS IN OTHER supporting the pro-democracy protests in PROVINCES Hong Kong. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Zhou Jinjuan, an 84-year-old victim of establishment of the Tibetan Autonomous forced eviction who had sought redress in Region in September, the Chinese Beijing by visiting government offices, was government issued a white paper denouncing detained in August and placed in an unofficial the “middle way” approach advocated by the detention facility for more than a week without Dalai Lama and the “Dalai Lama group’s necessary medical treatment, which separatist activities”. In a ceremony marking contributed to her losing sight in one eye. the anniversary, political leader Yu On 18 June, when , Zhengsheng vowed to fight against defence lawyer for several Falun Gong separatism and urged the army, police and practitioners, was speaking in Dongchangfu judicial staff in Tibet to be ready to fight a District Court in City, protracted battle against the “14th Dalai Province, he was interrupted by the judge clique”. and expelled from the courtroom for Ethnic Tibetans continued to face “disrupting court order”. Wang Quanzhang discrimination and restrictions on their rights said that court police dragged him to another to freedoms of religious belief, expression, room and beat him. association and peaceful assembly. Several In December the UN Committee against Tibetan monks, writers, protesters and Torture repeated recommendations on legal activists were detained, including Tibetan safeguards to prevent torture; and reported monk Choephel Dawa and Tibetan writer and harassment of lawyers, human rights blogger Druklo.12 At the end of the year the defenders and petitioners as well as lack of charges against them and their place of statistical information on torture. It also urged detention were not known. the authorities to stop sanctioning lawyers for Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a Tibetan religious taking action in accordance with recognized and community leader who was imprisoned professional duties, and to repeal legal for “inciting separatism” in 2002, died in July provisions that allowed de facto while serving a life sentence. Police harassed

120 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 and detained family members and others who Thailand deported 109 Uighurs to China, had gathered to demand the return of his where they were at risk of torture, enforced body so that customary Buddhist religious disappearance and execution.14 In November, rites could be performed.13 The authorities two pro-democracy activists who had been cremated his body against the family’s granted refugee status by UNHCR, the UN wishes. There were also reports that the refugee agency, and had confirmed police countered these large-scale protests resettlement destinations, were also with excessive and arbitrary use of force, repatriated to China. China continued to including tear gas and gunshots. ignore non-refoulement obligations in At least seven people set themselves on fire international law by repatriating North in Tibetan-populated areas during the year in Koreans to North Korea, where they risked protest against repressive policies by the detention, imprisonment, torture and other ill- authorities; at least five died as a result. The treatment and forced labour. number of known self-immolations since February 2009 rose to 143. HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION XINJIANG UIGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION Police in Hong Kong formally arrested 955 A “Strike Hard” campaign targeting “violent people during the year who had taken part in terrorism and religious extremism”, which the 79-day pro-democracy protests in Hong had originally been a limited one-year-long Kong between September and December campaign launched in May 2014, was 2014, also known as the “Umbrella extended throughout 2015. At the campaign’s Movement”. A further 48 were summoned. one-year mark in May, the authorities claimed Among those arrested were opposition to have broken up 181 “terror groups”. An lawmakers, the three co-founders of the increasing number of violent incidents and “Occupy Central” civil disobedience counter-terrorism operations were reported, campaign, and leaders of two student groups resulting in many casualties. – Alex Chow of the Federation of Students On 1 January new “Enforcement of and Joshua Wong of “Scholarism”, a youth- Religious Affairs Regulations” came into led pro-democracy organization. A pattern of effect in the region, with the professed goal of long intervals between initial arrests and the more tightly controlling online decision to prosecute meant that only a small communications, and clamping down on the proportion of the protesters who had been role of religion in “marriage, funerals, culture, arrested were convicted by the end of 2015. the arts, and sports”. In effect, this further In October, Ken Tsang Kin-Chiu, a pro- tightened restrictions on Uighurs, a mainly democracy activist whose beating by police Muslim Turkic ethnic group, living in the during the protest in 2014 was caught on region who have been subjected to extensive camera by a local TV channel, was charged discriminatory practices for many years. The with one count of “assaulting police officers in same month, the region’s capital city, the due execution of their duties” and four Urumqi, banned the wearing of burqas. counts of “resisting a police officer in the due As in previous years numerous counties execution of his duty”. The seven police posted notices on their websites stating that officers who allegedly carried out the beating primary and secondary school students and were charged with “causing grievous bodily Communist Party members should not be harm with intent” on the same day. In permitted to observe Ramadan. December the officers and Ken Tsang pleaded not guilty. FORCED REPATRIATIONS FROM The Hong Kong University administration NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES was criticized for decisions which raised After Chinese diplomatic pressure, in July, concerns about academic freedom in Hong

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 121 Kong. These included university sanctions, in 13. China: Return the body of prominent Tibetan monk Tenzin Deleg August against law professor Benny Tai for Rinpoche who died in prison (ASA 17/2102/2015) his handling of anonymous donations related 14. Thailand must not send Uighurs to Chinese torture (News story, 9 July) to the protests, which the administration claimed violated university procedures, and in September, the university’s governing council COLOMBIA rejection of a nomination committee’s choice to appoint Johannes Chan Man-mun, Republic of Colombia professor of law and former Dean of the Head of state and government: Juan Manuel Santos Faculty of Law, as a pro-vice-chancellor. Calderón Media, academics and students claimed these decisions were retaliation for the two Peace talks between the government and academics’ support for the 2014 “Umbrella” the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia protests. (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de In a landmark judgment in February, Law Colombia, FARC) made significant progress. Wan-Tung was found guilty of intimidating, The two sides announced that an agreement assaulting and causing bodily harm to her had been reached on transitional justice and employees, Indonesian migrant domestic that a peace deal would be signed in 2016. workers Erwiana Sulistyaningsih and Tutik The agreement appeared to fall short of Lestari Ningsih. She was sentenced to six international law standards on victims’ right years in prison. to truth, justice and reparation. The FARC’s unilateral ceasefire and the government’s suspension of aerial 1. China: Latest information on crackdown against lawyers and activists bombardments on FARC positions reduced (Press release, 28 August) the intensity of hostilities. However, the 2. China: Authorities show callous disregard for imprisoned journalist by conflict continued to have a negative impact denying appropriate medical care (Press release, 6 August) on the human rights of the civilian 3. China: Release supporters of Hong Kong pro-democracy protests population, especially Indigenous Peoples, (Press release, 28 September) Afro-descendant and peasant farmer 4. Further information – China: Two activists released in China (ASA communities, and human rights defenders. 17/2097/2015) The security forces, guerrilla groups and 5. China: Activists held in crackdown on labour rights (ASA paramilitaries were responsible for crimes 17/3015/2015) under international law. 6. China: Submission to the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Congress approved legislation that Affairs Commission on the second draft Foreign Non-Governmental threatened to exacerbate the already high Organizations Management Law (ASA 17/1776/2015) levels of impunity, especially for members 7. China: Submission to the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative of the security forces implicated in human Affairs Commission on the draft “Cyber Security Law” (ASA rights violations, including unlawful killings, 17/2206/2015) torture, enforced disappearances, death 8. China: Lawyer supporting churches in China detained (ASA threats, forced displacement and rape. 17/2370/2015) Hundreds of candidates in the October 9. China: Submission to the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative regional elections were threatened and some Affairs Commission on the Criminal Law Amendment (9) (Second killed, mainly by paramilitaries, but in fewer Draft) (ASA 17/2205/2015) numbers than in previous polls. 10. China: Submission to the UN Committee against Torture (ASA 17/2725/2015) PEACE PROCESS 11. China: Reform of one-child policy not enough (News story, 29 October) On 23 September, the government and the 12. China: Fears for Tibetan monk detained in China – Choephel Dawa FARC announced an agreement on (ASA 17/1551/2015) transitional justice – made public on 15

122 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 December – and that a peace deal would be law, including unlawful killings, forced signed by 23 March 2016. Its central displacement, enforced disappearances, component was a Special Jurisdiction for death threats and crimes of sexual violence. Peace, which would consist of a tribunal and Children continued to be recruited as special courts with jurisdiction over those combatants by guerrilla groups and directly or indirectly involved in the conflict paramilitaries. implicated in “serious human rights violations By 1 December, the Victims’ Unit had and breaches of international humanitarian registered 7.8 million victims of the conflict, law”. including almost 6.6 million victims of forced Those who deny responsibility for grave displacement, more than 45,000 enforced crimes, if found guilty, would face up to 20 disappearances and around 263,000 conflict- years in prison. Those who admit related killings; the vast majority of victims responsibility would receive non-custodial were civilians. sentences of between five and eight years’ According to figures from the Colombian “effective restriction of freedoms”. NGO CODHES (Consultoría para los Derechos By proposing sanctions that do not appear Humanos y el Desplazamiento), more than to be proportionate to the severity of crimes 204,000 people were forcibly displaced in under international law, Colombia may be 2014, compared to almost 220,000 in the failing to comply with its obligation under previous year. international law to prevent and punish such The National Indigenous Organization of crimes. Colombia recorded 35 killings and 3,481 An Amnesty Law that would benefit those forced displacements in 2015. The situation accused of “political and related crimes” was of Indigenous communities in Cauca proposed. Although a definition of what Department, many of which were constitutes “related crimes” had yet to be campaigning for recognition of their territorial agreed, those convicted of grave crimes rights, was particularly acute. would be excluded. On 6 February, Gerardo Velasco Escue and On 4 June, the two sides announced plans Emiliano Silva Oteca of the Toéz Indigenous for a truth commission, although the courts resguardo (reservation) were forcibly would not be able to use any information disappeared after being stopped by uncovered by the commission. This could unidentified armed men near the hamlet of La undermine the ability of the judiciary to Selva in Caloto Municipality, Cauca prosecute crimes under international law. Department. Two days later, the community On 17 October, the two sides reached found their bodies bearing signs of torture in agreement on a mechanism to locate and the municipality of Guachené. On 5 February, recover the remains of many of those – both a death threat by the Black Eagles (Águilas civilians and combatants – still missing as a Negras) paramilitary group announcing that it result of the conflict. was “time for social cleansing in northern Cauca” had been circulated in the area and INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT neighbouring municipalities. The armed conflict continued to have a On 2 July, two small explosive devices significant human rights impact on civilians, injured several people in Bogotá. The especially those living in rural areas.1 authorities attributed the attack to the Many communities living in poor urban guerrilla group National Liberation Army areas, including Afro-descendants in the (ELN). Fifteen people, many of them human Pacific city of Buenaventura, were also rights defenders and student activists affected.2 belonging to the People’s Congress (Congreso All the parties to the conflict were de los Pueblos) social movement, were responsible for crimes under international arrested, although only 13 were charged.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 123 Some public officials linked all 13 to the July Community Council was shot dead by the explosions and the ELN, but only three were FARC on 3 August in Tumaco Municipality, eventually charged with “terrorism” and Nariño Department. The FARC had membership of the ELN. The other 10 were threatened in October 2014 that they would charged with weapons-related offences. kill him if he remained leader of the Council, There were concerns that these events may which had been seeking the restitution of have been used to undermine the work of territory since 2012. human rights defenders. Some members of According to the NGO País Libre, there the People’s Congress have in the past been were 182 kidnappings in January-November. subjected to death threats and harassment The ELN accounted for 23 of these, the FARC for their work in defence of human rights. In for seven and paramilitaries for 24. However, January, one of the leaders of the People’s most kidnappings (123) were attributed to Congress, Carlos Alberto Pedraza Salcedo, common delinquency. Landmines, mostly laid was killed in Bogotá. by the FARC, continued to kill and maim civilians and members of the security forces. SECURITY FORCES Reports of extrajudicial executions by the PARAMILITARIES security forces, a widespread and systematic Paramilitary groups, which the government practice during the conflict, continued to fall. referred to as criminal gangs (bandas Such practices included “false positives”: criminales, bacrim), continued to commit unlawful killings by the security forces – in crimes under international law and serious return for benefits such as bonuses, human rights violations, despite their additional leave or promotions – in which the supposed demobilization in the government- victims, usually poor young men, were falsely sponsored Justice and Peace process that presented as combat kills. “False positives” began in 2005. Paramilitaries – sometimes were prevalent during the administration of acting with the support or acquiescence of President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010). state actors, including members of the Although the latest report of the UN High security forces – threatened and killed, Commissioner for Human Rights, published among others, human rights defenders. in January, did not record any “false On 11 January, a pamphlet from the Black positives”, it did include cases “in which the Eagles Northern Bloc Atlantic Coast (Bloque armed forces attempted to disguise victims of Norte Costa Atlántica Águilas Negras) was arbitrary killings as enemy combat casualties circulated in Atlántico Department. The death or rearranged the crime scene to make it threat named around 40 individuals, appear as self-defence”. including human rights defenders, trade Little progress was made in investigating unionists, land claimants, and a state official those suspected of criminal responsibility for working on land restitution. Those named in such crimes, especially high-ranking officers. the death threat had been involved in the The Office of the Attorney General registered land restitution process and issues relating to more than 4,000 reported extrajudicial the peace process. executions over recent decades. Only 122 of the more than 30,000 paramilitaries who supposedly laid down their GUERRILLA GROUPS arms in the demobilization process had been Guerrilla groups were responsible for crimes convicted of human rights-related crimes by under international law and human rights the end of the year. Some 120 paramilitaries abuses, including unlawful killings and were released after serving the maximum indiscriminate attacks that placed civilians at eight years in prison stipulated in the Justice risk. Afro-descendant community leader and Peace process. Legal proceedings Genaro García of the Alto Mira y Frontera against most of them were ongoing. Concerns

124 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 remained about the security risks the Alberto Arzayús Guerrero was sentenced to paramilitaries posed to the communities to six years’ imprisonment for the psychological which they returned after their release. Most torture of journalist Claudia Julieta Duque. paramilitaries, however, did not submit On 6 November, in a ceremony ordered by themselves to the Justice and Peace process the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and received de facto amnesties without any President Santos assumed responsibility and effective investigations to determine their asked forgiveness for the state’s role in the possible role, or that of those who colluded enforced disappearance of 10 people, the with them, in human rights violations. enforced disappearance and extrajudicial execution of an 11th person, and the torture IMPUNITY of several other individuals. These crimes The state continued to fail to bring to justice occurred after security forces stormed the the vast majority of those suspected of Palace of Justice in Bogotá in November individual criminal responsibility for crimes 1985 where people were being held hostage under international law. The government also by the M-19 guerrilla group. Some 100 steered through approval of legislation – such people died in the assault. Very few of those as Legislative Act No 1 amending Article 221 alleged to have been responsible for these of the Constitution and Law 1765 – that crimes have been held to account. threatened to increase the already high levels On 16 December, the Supreme Court of impunity. overturned the conviction of retired colonel The military justice system continued to Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega who in 2010 had claim jurisdiction over and subsequently close been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the investigations into alleged human rights crime of enforced disappearance in relation to violations by members of the security forces, this case. without holding to account those allegedly implicated. LAND RIGHTS Relatives of victims of human rights The land restitution process, which began in violations who campaigned for justice, as well 2012 with the aim of returning to their rightful as members of human rights organizations occupants some of the millions of hectares of helping them, faced death threats and other land illegally acquired or forcibly abandoned serious human rights violations from during the conflict, continued to make slow paramilitaries and members of the security progress. By the end of 2015, only 58,500 forces.3 hectares of land claimed by peasant farmers, Some progress was made in bringing to one 50,000-hectare Indigenous territory and justice some of those implicated in a scandal one 71,000-hectare Afro-descendant territory involving the now-disbanded civilian were subject to judicial rulings ordering their intelligence service (Departamento return. The main stumbling blocks included Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS). The DAS the failure to guarantee the security of those was implicated in threats and illegal wishing to return, and the lack of effective surveillance of human rights defenders, social and economic measures to ensure any politicians, journalists and judges, mainly returns were sustainable. during the government of President Uribe. On Leaders of displaced communities and 28 April, the Supreme Court of Justice those seeking the return of their lands were sentenced former DAS Director María del threatened or killed.4 Members of Indigenous Pilar Hurtado to 14 years in prison and and Afro-descendant communities seeking to President Uribe’s former chief of staff, defend their territorial rights, including by Bernardo Moreno, to eight years’ house arrest denouncing the presence of illegal mining or for their roles in the scandal. On 1 October, opposing the development of outside mining former DAS intelligence director Carlos interests on their collective territories, were

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 125 also targeted.5 your days are numbered, your blood will be There were concerns that Law 1753, as fertilizer for the fatherland… this message approved by Congress on 9 June, could is also for your children and women.” enable mining and other economic sectors to gain control over illegally acquired lands. This VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS could undermine the right of many of these All parties to the conflict were responsible for lands’ legitimate occupants, especially on crimes of sexual violence committed mainly Indigenous and Afro-descendant territories, to against women and girls. Very few of the claim ownership over them.6 alleged perpetrators were brought to justice. In June, the decision by prosecutors to HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS close the case against and release one of the Human rights defenders – including main suspects in the kidnapping and rape of Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant journalist Jineth Bedoya by paramilitaries in farmer community leaders, trade unionists, 2000 led to a public outcry that forced journalists, land activists and those prosecutors to quickly reverse their decision. campaigning for justice – were at risk of In July, the government promulgated Law attack, mainly by paramilitaries.7 There were 1761, which categorized femicide as a also reports of thefts of sensitive information separate crime and increased the held by human rights organizations. punishment for those convicted of this Some criminal investigations into human offence to up to 50 years’ imprisonment. rights defenders continued to raise concerns Human rights defenders campaigning for that the legal system was being misused in an justice in sexual violence cases were attempt to undermine their work. In threatened, and some threats against women September, Indigenous leader Feliciano activists involved threats of sexual violence.8 Valencia was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for illegally holding captive a US ASSISTANCE member of the security forces who had US assistance to Colombia continued to fall. infiltrated an Indigenous protest in Cauca The USA allocated some US$174.1 million for Department. Feliciano Valencia, who had long military and US$152.2 million for non-military been the target of harassment by civilian and assistance to Colombia. In September, 25% military officials for his defence of Indigenous of the total military assistance for the year was Peoples’ territorial rights, denied the charges. released after the US Secretary of State According to the NGO We Are Defenders determined that the Colombian authorities (Somos Defensores), 51 human rights had made progress on human rights. defenders were killed in January-September, compared to 45 during the same period in INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY 2014. According to provisional figures from In his January report, the UN High the NGO National Trade Union School Commissioner for Human Rights welcomed (Escuela Nacional Sindical), 18 members of progress in the peace talks, but expressed trade unions were killed in 2015, compared concern about impunity and the human rights to 21 in 2014. impact of the conflict, especially on The number of death threats against Indigenous and Afro-descendant human rights defenders again increased. An communities and human rights defenders. email sent on 9 March by the Black Eagles Although the report noted that all the warring South Bloc (Águilas Negras Bloque Sur) parties were responsible for human rights threatened 14 individuals, including abuses and violations, it stated that politicians active on human rights and peace- paramilitaries (referred to as “post- related issues, and two human rights NGOs. demobilization armed groups linked to The threat read: “Communist guerrillas… organized crime”) represented “the main

126 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 public security challenge”. nationals resumed, targeting West African In August, the CERD Committee noted that citizens, while no investigations were the armed conflict continued to have a launched into the 2014 “Mbata ya Bakolo” disproportionate impact on Indigenous operation, in which more than 179,000 Peoples and Afro-descendant communities nationals from the Democratic Republic of and criticized the failure to ensure the the Congo (DRC) were expelled. The UN effective participation of these communities in Committee against Torture expressed the peace process. serious concern that torture and other ill- The UN Committee against Torture treatment occurred in most places of expressed concern over “the persistence of detention. Conditions of detention remained grave human rights violations, including harsh. Presidential elections will be held in extrajudicial killings and enforced March 2016. disappearances in the State party” and the fact that “it has not received information BACKGROUND concerning criminal trials or convictions for A referendum to amend the Constitution was the offence of enforced disappearance ”. held on 25 October. It was both boycotted by the main opposition coalition and the subject of major demonstrations. However, the 1. Colombia: Peasant farmer linked to Peace Community killed (AMR amendment was passed on 27 October and 23/2554/2015) confirmed by the Constitutional Court on 2. Colombia: Human rights defender under surveillance: Berenice Celeita 6 November, allowing the incumbent (AMR 23/1945/2015) President to run for a third term in 2016. 3. Colombia: Caller “will kill” missing man’s mother (AMR 23/2022/2015) FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND 4. Colombia: Land restitution process sparks more threats (AMR ASSEMBLY 23/0003/2015) Freedom of expression was curtailed. 5. Colombia: Restoring the land, securing the peace: Indigenous and Members of opposition parties who spoke Afro-descendant territorial rights (AMR 23/2615/2015) against the proposed amendment to the 6. Colombia: National Development Plan threatens to deny the right to Constitution were particularly targeted. From land restitution to victims of the armed conflict and allow mining July to October, there was a wave of arrests of firms to operate on illegally acquired lands (AMR 23/2077/2015) political opponents protesting against the 7. Colombia: Director of human rights NGO threatened: Iván Madero constitutional review. Vergel (AMR 23/2007/2015) In October, media freedom was arbitrarily 8. Colombia: Harassed for fighting sexual violence (AMR 23/002/2015) restricted when mobile internet, text messaging services and some radio broadcast signals were disrupted in the capital, CONGO Brazzaville, ahead of protests organized by the opposition. (REPUBLIC OF) On 9 October, six activists from youth movements were arrested following a Republic of Congo peaceful protest they had organized against Head of state and government: Denis Sassou Nguesso the referendum. They were charged with “participation in an unauthorized protest ”. Security forces used unnecessary or On 22 October, security forces surrounded excessive force, including lethal force, the house of opposition leader Guy Brice against demonstrators opposing proposed Parfait Kolélas in Brazzaville. He was kept changes to the Constitution. Protesters were under de facto house arrest for 12 days arbitrarily arrested and freedom of together with 25 others. No judicial warrant expression was curtailed. Expulsions of non- authorized the action.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 127 On 23 November, Paulin Makaya, nationals, including refugees and asylum- president of the political party “Unis pour le seekers, were rounded up, arbitrarily detained Congo” (UPC), who openly opposed the and forcibly returned by the police. proposed changes to the Constitution, was Government authorities portrayed the security arrested by police officers while at the office operation as a response to increased of the Public Prosecutor of the High Court of criminality, which they believed was being Brazzaville. He was with his lawyer to report driven by kuluna gangs (organized criminal for questioning as part of an investigation. He gangs) from the DRC. was kept in detention at the Central Police On 14 May, the second phase of the Station of Brazzaville from 23 November until operation was launched in Pointe-Noire. It 1 December without being brought before a was characterized by arrests, detentions and court or charged and was questioned on deportations targeting West African nationals, several occasions in the absence of his including Senegalese, Malians, and Ivorians. lawyer. A request for bail submitted by his Police targeted specific neighbourhoods, lawyers on 2 December was not addressed, carrying out cordon and search operations, despite a reminder on 11 December. Paulin resulting in arbitrary arrests. Those arrested Makaya was still in pre-trial detention at the were placed in retention facilities lacking central prison of Brazzaville at the end of the access to running water, adequate food and year. On 5 June, protests were organized by bedding as well as washing and sanitary students in the cities of Brazzaville, Pointe- facilities. NGOs were denied access to the Noire and Dolisie following the revocation of retention sites. No official figures were issued the Baccalauréat exam due to massive fraud concerning the number of people arrested and serious irregularities. Many students were and returned during the operation. injured in clashes with the police and several were arrested. INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY On 7 May, the UN Committee against Torture EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE expressed serious concern about numerous On 17 October, in Pointe-Noire, a plain- reports of torture and other ill-treatment clothes police officer fired live ammunition occurring in most of the country’s places of into a crowd demonstrating against the detention. The Committee highlighted the referendum, wounding 13 people. systematic use of pre-trial detention, the On 20 October, security forces fired tear failure by authorities to observe statutory gas and live ammunition at protesters in limits on its imposition and the failure to Brazzaville demonstrating against the ensure detainees’ right to legal representation proposed constitutional changes. Six people and to have their relatives informed of their were reported to have been killed. On the detention. same day, opposition groups reported that at least 12 protesters and bystanders had been PRISON CONDITIONS killed by military police and several others Detention conditions remained extremely wounded in protests organized in Pointe- poor, including through chronic Noire. No investigations into these incidents overcrowding, inadequate food, lack of had been initiated at the end of the year. drinking water, limited medical care and personnel and sub-standard hygiene and REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS sanitation facilities. In April, three detainees No investigations were launched into serious died in detention at the Pointe-Noire Central human rights violations committed in 2014 by police station, including one, Batola Régis, Congolese security forces and others during who was held in a small, overcrowded cell the first phase of the Mbata Ya Bakolo and died of malnutrition. No investigation had operation, in which more than 179,000 DRC been launched into these deaths by the end

128 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 of the year. year, the list of those pardoned had not been made public. Largely peaceful presidential elections were CÔTE D’IVOIRE held in October. President Ouattara was re- elected for another five-year term on a turnout Republic of Côte d'Ivoire of 53%, with some opposition members Head of state: Alassane Ouattara boycotting the poll. Head of government: Daniel Kablan Duncan JUSTICE SYSTEM Hundreds of detainees still awaited trial in More than 200 supporters of former President connection with post-electoral violence in Gbagbo remained in detention on charges 2010 and 2011, and concerns remained including public disorder and genocide linked about selective accountability for crimes to the conflict after the 2010 elections. committed during that period. Freedoms of Among them were more than 30 prisoners expression and assembly were restricted and extradited from Liberia in 2012 and 2014. In there was a wave of arbitrary arrests of August, 20 military officers who had backed political opponents prior to elections. The President Ouattara, including Chérif Ousmane trial of Laurent Gbagbo and Laurent Blé and Lossény Fofana, were charged with Goudé at the ICC was scheduled to begin in crimes relating to post-electoral violence. 2016. Simone Gbagbo was not transferred In March, 78 supporters and relatives of to the ICC despite an outstanding arrest Laurent Gbagbo, including Simone and warrant. Michel Gbagbo and Geneviève Bro Grebé, were tried in the Abidjan Assize Court. BACKGROUND Eighteen people were acquitted, and some of The security situation remained stable despite those convicted received suspended prison attacks in early 2015 by armed groups and sentences. Simone Gbagbo was sentenced to intercommunal clashes in the west. In June, 20 years’ imprisonment for undermining state the mandate of the UN Operation in Côte security, participation in an insurrectionary d’Ivoire (UNOCI) was extended for an movement, and public disorder. Geneviève additional year. In the same month, the Bro Grebé was sentenced to 10 years for National Assembly adopted a law against similar crimes. At the end of the year the terrorism, giving the Prosecutor of the Court implementation of her sentence was of First Instance in Abidjan jurisdiction to suspended pending an appeal. qualify crimes as acts of terrorism and to hold Amnesty International’s trial observer noted suspects in custody for up to eight days. that, contrary to the right to have a criminal The 2014 report of the Dialogue, Truth and conviction reviewed by a higher tribunal, Côte Reconciliation Commission (CDVR), d’Ivoire’s law restricts appeals to points of law established to shed light on post-electoral before the Court of Cassation. The right to violence, had still not been made public by appeal in this case was further undermined the end of the year. In March, the National by the Assize Court’s failure to provide a full Commission for Reconciliation and written judgment. He also noted that, Compensation of Victims (CONARIV ) was although during the trial several of the created to complete the work of the CDVR, in accused raised allegations that they had been particular to register unidentified victims of tortured in pre-trial detention, the Court did the post-electoral violence. In December, not appear to consider them. President Ouattara committed to pardoning over 3,000 people detained since the ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS electoral crisis, either totally or partially In May, Sébastien Dano Djédjé, Justin Koua removing their sentences. At the end of the and Hubert Oulaye, high-ranking members of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 129 the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), were of the press. In July, Joseph Gnanhoua Titi, arrested.1 They had organized a ceremony to director of Aujourd’hui, a daily newspaper, inaugurate Laurent Gbagbo as FPI President was arrested and charged with publishing in Mama, his home town. Sébastien Dano false news and insulting the President. An Djédjé and Justin Koua were charged with article published earlier that month accused violation of a court order, violence and assault President Ouattara of embezzling foreign aid on security forces, rebellion and public and money laundering. A week later, the disorder. Hubert Oulaye was charged with charges against Joseph Gnanhoua Titi were killing UNOCI soldiers in 2012. Sébastien dropped and he was released. Dano Djédjé was provisionally released in December. The other two men were detained INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE pending trial. The arresting officers allegedly Despite the outstanding ICC arrest warrant for beat Hubert Oulaye’s 15-year-old Simone Gbagbo for alleged crimes against granddaughter, who was suffering from humanity, President Ouattara stated in April malaria, at his home. In September, one that there would be no more transfers to the guard accused of informing the family of ICC. In the same month, the ICC joined the Sébastien Dano Djédjé that he was sick was trials of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé arrested and detained. Goudé. In May, the ICC rejected Côte Between mid-September and October, d’Ivoire’s appeal against the admissibility of more than 50 people, mostly members of the Simone Gbagbo’s case before the ICC. In political opposition, were arrested. The October, the ICC also rejected Laurent majority were held on charges of public Gbagbo’s request to hold the opening disorder after participating in unauthorized statements of his trial in Abidjan or Arusha. In peaceful demonstrations.2 Although some the same month, it was announced that the were later released, more than 20 remained trial of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé detained at the end of the year. Many were ill- Goudé would start in January 2016. Laurent treated during arrest and were held in Gbagbo’s latest request for provisional release incommunicado detention for several weeks. was also rejected. In September, Samba David’s house was ransacked and he was beaten with rifle butts. PRISON CONDITIONS He was held incommunicado for two days The UN Human Rights Committee report in without access to a lawyer or medical March conveyed concerns about prison treatment. He was charged with public conditions throughout the country. It noted in disorder, violation of a court order and particular the large number of pre-trial complicity in the destruction of property, and detainees, the unsanitary conditions and lack sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. of adequate medical facilities, the failure to detain children and adults separately, and the FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND severe overcrowding in the Maison d’Arrêt et ASSEMBLY de Correction d’Abidjan (MACA) detention The authorities banned at least 10 protest centre in Abidjan. marches organized by NGOs and the main opposition party. Tear gas and batons were DEATH PENALTY used to disperse protesters. At least 80 In March, Parliament unanimously approved people were arrested in different parts of the two bills amending the Criminal Code and the country and charged with public disorder. At Code of Criminal Procedure to exclude the the end of 2015, they were still in detention death penalty, which had been abolished in awaiting trial. the 2000 Constitution. In its March report, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern about freedom

130 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 The municipal court in Split acquitted three 1. Côte d’Ivoire. L’arrestation d’opposants à l’approche de la men standing trial for a homophobic attack présidentielle envoie un signal préoccupant (News story, 7 May) against six women in the town in 2012. The 2. Côte d’Ivoire: Il faut mettre fin aux arrestations arbitraires victims alleged that the local police had d’opposants à l’approche de la présidentielle (Press release, 5 threatened them when they filed their October) complaint, failed to arrest the suspects on the spot and investigate the crime CROATIA effectively. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Republic of Croatia In June, the Osijek County Court confirmed Head of state: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (replaced Ivo the decision of the Zagreb Municipal Court, Josipović in February) finding that Zagreb Pride, a lesbian, gay, Head of government: Zoran Milanović bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organization, violated the honour and dignity Croatia struggled to provide adequate of a former employee of the Croatian Radio reception conditions and access to asylum Television (HRT) by placing her on the annual proceedings to the large number of refugees list of candidates for the most homophobic and migrants that arrived in the country. person of the year 2013. The Court ordered Parliament passed a law providing survivors the organization to pay 41,018.91 HRK of war crimes of sexual violence with (€5,414) to the journalist and to publish the reparations. Discrimination against Croatian verdict on its website. Serbs and Roma continued. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE DISCRIMINATION In February, the International Court of Justice The state-wide celebration in August of the cleared Serbia and Croatia of mutual claims 20th anniversary of Operation Storm, which of genocide, finding that neither Serbia nor saw 200,000 Serbs flee from Croatia in 1995, Croatia had established the necessary intent brought tensions between Serb and Croat on the part of the other to commit genocide nationalists back. during the conflict in the 1990s. In August, the town council of Vukovar In May, the Croatian Parliament passed the passed a motion to remove public signs in the Law on the rights of victims of sexual violence Cyrillic (Serb) alphabet, and to require a in war. The Law provides survivors of wartime special request and the payment of a fee for sexual violence with Croatian citizenship, a the receipt of official communications in lump-sum compensation amounting to Cyrillic, despite the fact that 34% of the €13,000 and a monthly allowance amounting town’s population were ethnic Serbs. The to €328. In addition to the payments, Croatian law on minority rights entitles survivors will be entitled to health care, minorities amounting to one third of the medical rehabilitation and psychological municipal population to official usage of their support. The Law entered into force in June languages and scripts. Discrimination against with the first allowances due to be paid out in Croatian Serbs in public sector employment January 2016. and in the restitution of tenancy rights to However, Croatia had not yet adopted a social housing vacated during the 1991-1995 comprehensive legislative framework that war persisted. would regulate the status of, and access to Social exclusion of and discrimination reparation for, all civilian victims of war against Roma remained widespread, crimes. particularly in accessing adequate housing Croatia did not ratify the International and employment opportunities. Convention against Enforced Disappearances

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 131 nor did it adopt a law on missing persons. In diplomatic relations. the absence of these legal instruments, Despite this, in September President relatives of the 1,600 missing persons in Obama renewed the Trading with the Enemy Croatia were denied access to justice and Act, which imposes financial and economic reparations. sanctions on Cuba. In October the UN General Assembly adopted, for the 24th REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS consecutive year, a resolution calling on the By the end of the year, more than 550,000 USA to lift the unilateral embargo. refugees and migrants had transited through By the end of the year, Cuba had failed to Croatia towards other EU countries, with the ratify either the ICCPR or ICESCR, both of assistance of state authorities providing free which it had signed in February 2008, or the transportation.1 Only a few hundred people Rome Statute of the International Criminal made an asylum application and, by October, Court. 37 had been granted international protection. The authorities failed to identify vulnerable FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND individuals, including unaccompanied minors ASSOCIATION and victims of human trafficking entering the Government critics continued to experience country through its land borders. harassment, “acts of repudiation” (demonstrations led by government supporters with participation of state security 1. Hundreds of refugees stranded in dire conditions on Croatia/Slovenia officials), and politically motivated criminal border (News story, 19 October) prosecutions. The judicial system remained under political control. The government continued to control CUBA access to the internet and blocked and filtered websites, limiting access to Republic of Cuba information and criticism of the state. Activists Head of state and government: Raúl Castro Ruz reported that mobile phones were without service during the Pope’s visit in September. Despite increasingly open diplomatic relations, severe restrictions on freedoms of ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS expression, association and movement Reports continued of government critics, continued. Thousands of cases of including journalists and human rights harassment of government critics and activists, being routinely subjected to arbitrary arbitrary arrests and detentions were arrests and short-term detention for reported. exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly and BACKGROUND movement. The year saw significant changes in Cuba´s The Cuban Commission for Human Rights diplomatic relations. In April, President Castro and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) met US President Barack Obama during documented more than 8,600 politically Cuba’s first attendance of the Summit of the motivated detentions of government Americas, the first meeting between leaders opponents and activists during the year. of the two countries in nearly 60 years. In Prior to Pope Francis’ visit in September, May, Cuba was removed from the USA’s list the authorities announced they would release of countries designated as state sponsors of 3,522 prisoners, including people over 60 international terrorism. Cuba and the USA years of age, prisoners under 20 years of age reopened their respective embassies and with no previous criminal record, chronically announced their intent to re-establish ill prisoners, and foreign nationals whose

132 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 countries agreed to repatriate them, of conscience Iván Fernández Depestre and according to Granma, the official newspaper Emilio Planas Robert were apparently of the Communist Party. released unconditionally. The two men had However, before and during the Pope’s been sentenced to three and three-and-a-half visit, human rights activists and journalists years’ imprisonment respectively, on the reported significant increases in arrests and charge of “dangerousness”.1 short periods of detention. In September Prisoner of conscience Ciro Alexis alone, the CCDHRN registered 882 arbitrary Casanova Pérez was released upon arrests. They included three activists who completion of his sentence in June 2015.2 He reportedly approached the Pope to discuss had been found guilty in December 2014 of human rights. The three went on hunger “public disorder” following his one-man strike in detention. demonstration against the government in the Members and supporters of the Ladies in streets of his hometown Placetas. White, a group of women calling for the Graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado Machado, release of political prisoners and greater known as El Sexto, was arrested by agents of freedoms, and members of the Patriotic the political police in Havana while travelling Union of Cuba, a dissident group, were in a taxi on 25 December 2014. He was regularly arrested and detained for periods of carrying two pigs with “Raúl” and “Fidel” up to 30 hours, according to CCDHRN. The painted on their backs, which he intended to detentions were carried out to prevent the release at an art show on Christmas Day. He activists from attending their regular Sunday was accused of “disrespecting the leaders of marches and to stop them protesting. the Revolution” but was never brought to On 10 December, International Human court. He was released from detention on Rights Day, the political police detained 20 October. activists, including many in their homes, to prevent their peaceful protest. They also INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY stopped journalists from leaving their offices Cuba has not granted Amnesty International to report the story. access to the country since 1990.

PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE Laws covering “public disorder”, “contempt”, 1. Cuba: Prisoner releases must lead to new environment for freedoms “disrespect”, “dangerousness” and (Press release, 8 January) “aggression” were used in politically 2. Urgent Action: Political dissident must be released (AMR motivated prosecutions, or threats of 25/1379/2015) prosecution, against government opponents. In January, the authorities released five prisoners of conscience along with a group of CYPRUS more than 50 people believed to have been imprisoned for political reasons. The USA had Republic of Cyprus requested they be freed as part of an Head of state and government: Nicos Anastasiades agreement between the two governments to “normalize” relations. Irregular migrants were detained for On 7 and 8 January, brothers Vianco, prolonged periods in inadequate conditions. Django and Alexeis Vargas Martín, were In November, Parliament recognized the released from prison. The three men had right to same-sex civil unions. Allegations of been detained since December 2012 and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials were sentenced in June 2014 to between continued. two-and-a-half and four years’ imprisonment for “public disorder”. On 8 January, prisoners

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 133 BACKGROUND ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES In May, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot Between January and August, the Committee leaders resumed negotiations regarding the of Missing Persons in Cyprus exhumed the reunification of the island. remains of 111 people, bringing the total number of exhumations since 2006 to 1,061. REFUGEES' AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Between August 2006 and January 2015, the Certain categories of asylum-seekers and remains of 625 missing individuals (476 irregular migrants who could not be deported Greek Cypriots and 149 Turkish Cypriots) had continued to be detained for prolonged been identified and restituted to their families. periods. Domestic remedies to challenge immigration detention remained ineffective. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT In July, the European Court of Human Allegations of ill-treatment in pre-trial custody Rights issued three rulings relating to the and immigration detention continued. In detention of 17 Syrian Kurds in 2010 and August, a video was released showing police their subsequent deportation despite some of officers beating an individual in pre-trial them having asylum proceedings pending custody at the Chrysochous police station in before the Supreme Court. The Court ruled February 2014. The General Prosecutor that their detention had no legal basis and the ordered the Authority Investigating Allegations procedures available to asylum-seekers and and Complaints against the Police to bring irregular migrants to challenge their detention criminal charges against the police officers did not offer an effective remedy. involved in the incident. In September, 14 detainees including several asylum-seekers at the Menoya RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, immigration detention centre started a hunger TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE strike in protest at their prolonged detention At the end of November, Parliament and substandard detention conditions. recognized the right to same-sex civil unions. In September, 115 people were rescued However, the new legislation does not include from a vessel off the southern coast and joint adoption rights for same-sex couples and settled in a reception centre for asylum- the legal recognition of transgender people. seekers in Kofinou. Most of the asylum- seekers who arrived in 2015 entered from the north and via the UN Buffer Zone. CZECH REPUBLIC In September, the Minister of Interior stated that Cyprus was willing to take up to 300 Czech Republic Syrian refugees under the EU agreed Head of state: Miloš Zeman relocation scheme, but would “seek for them Head of government: Bohuslav Sobotka to be Christian Orthodox”. In mid-November, Nataliya Konovalova, a The European Commission continued Russian national, was extradited to Russia infringement proceedings against the Czech despite pending asylum proceedings. Republic for discrimination against Roma. In December, the Council of Europe The government adopted measures aimed at Commissioner for Human Rights expressed improving equal access to education. The his concerns about the grave shortcomings of routine detention of refugees and migrants the Cypriot asylum system and urged for provoked domestic and international improvement of reception conditions for criticism. asylum-seekers. There was an increase in the international DISCRIMINATION – ROMA protection status recognition rates in comparison to 2014.

134 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Education where they could not access remedies The European Commission continued through court proceedings due to the statute infringement proceedings against the Czech of limitations. In a letter to the Prime Minister Republic for discrimination against Roma in in October, the Council of Europe education, amounting to a violation of the EU Commissioner for Human Rights urged the Race Equality Directive, on account of the government to adopt the law. The Prime over-representation of Romani children in Minister dismissed the recommendation, schools and classes for pupils with mild arguing that it was not necessary. mental disabilities, where they represent a third of all pupils. In March, Parliament RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA adopted an amendment to the Schools Act Between June and September, hundreds of introducing measures to support pupils with protesters participated in anti-refugee and special educational needs in mainstream migrant demonstrations in the capital, schools. The amendment will enter into force Prague, and other cities. Some protests were on 1 September 2016. In May, the Prime countered by refugee rights and anti-racism Minister dismissed the Minister of Education activists. following Ministry staff’s complaints of Groups supporting refugees faced threats bullying by the Minister. On 17 June, a new from far-right organizations. In September, Minister of Education with a record of stickers featuring a noose and “death to engagement in human rights was appointed. traitors” were placed on the display window On 23 September, the government adopted and door of the community centre Kašpárek, an amendment to the Schools Act that in the town of Pardubice. The incident introduced a compulsory year of pre-school happened a few days after the centre education. In September, the Minister of organized a food drive and other aid for Education announced that the Ministry was refugees. Police informed the media that they considering abolishing the educational were investigating the case as a programme for pupils with mild mental misdemeanour. disabilities. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Housing The government continued to refuse the In October, a government report on the relocation of refugees within the EU. In situation of the Roma minority concluded that October, the Prime Minister called for the about half of the 242,000 Roma in the powers of the EU Border Agency, Frontex, to country met the government’s definition of be strengthened, to protect the external social exclusion. The government presented a borders of the Schengen area. According to Conceptual Framework on Social Housing in opinion polls, 50% of Czech people opposed October with the aim of improving access to policies consisting of accepting refugees affordable housing for those in need. The fleeing armed conflict. Framework envisaged the adoption of a new Since the beginning of the year, police law on social housing in 2016. routinely checked trains for irregular migrants. Those without valid visas were Sexual and reproductive rights apprehended and brought to a detention On 1 October, the government rejected a centre while their deportation proceedings draft law on reparations for Romani women were pending. The NGO Organization for Aid who were forcibly sterilized between 1966 to Refugees reported in September that about and 2012. The draft, presented by the 700 refugees and migrants, predominantly Minister for Human Rights, aimed to ensure from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, were held in access to remedies for the women, such as one of the centres, Bělá-Jezová. As the centre monetary compensation, including in cases only had a capacity of 260 people, a large

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 135 number of refugees and migrants had to of protective measures. sleep in military tents, a gym and pre- fabricated containers. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, In October, the Public Defender of Rights TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE (Ombudsperson) stated that living conditions In November, a district court in Prostějov in the Bělá-Jezová centre amounted to recognized an adoption order which had been degrading treatment and were worse than in issued for a gay couple by a district court in prison. Adults were brought to the premises California in 2007. The Czech-French couple handcuffed, routinely checked by the police permanently living in the USA applied for the in the evening and accommodated in recognition to move to the Czech Republic unhygienic sleeping quarters. Food was and continue enjoying the right to family life. distributed by police officers wearing The Prostějov court held that recognition of balaclavas and helmets. Refugees and the adoption was in the best interests of the migrants held in the centre were charged for children despite the lack of legislative their stay at a rate of €260 per month. In its provision allowing adoption by same-sex response on 13 October, the Ministry of couples. Interior ignored these concerns and rejected the Ombudsperson’s recommendation to stop placing families with children in the centre. DEMOCRATIC On 22 October, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized the treatment of REPUBLIC OF migrants and refugees and expressed concern that the government was pursuing THE CONGO detention as a routine policy. The President’s spokesperson said the criticism was part of a Democratic Republic of the Congo campaign against the country. On Head of state: Joseph Kabila 17 November, the President attended a Head of government: Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon demonstration in Prague organized by the anti-Islam group Block Against Islam. In his Government repression of protests against speech he declared that there are half a attempts by President Kabila to run for the million foreigners living in the country with presidency beyond the two terms allowed by whom “there are no problems... Their culture the Constitution intensified. Violations of is fully compatible with European values. It is the rights to freedoms of expression, not a culture of assassins, it is not a culture of association and peaceful assembly religious hatred.” increased. Human rights defenders, youth activists and politicians were threatened, TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT harassed, arbitrarily arrested and in some Patients with mental disabilities continued to cases convicted for peacefully exercising be ill-treated in mental health institutions. In their rights. In the east of the Democratic March, the European Committee for the Republic of the Congo (DRC), the security Prevention of Torture called for an end to the situation remained volatile, with numerous practice of police officers restraining agitated armed groups perpetrating serious abuses of patients in psychiatric hospitals; expressed human rights and violations of international concerns over the use of net beds as a humanitarian law. The failure of the protective measure or means of restraint, Congolese army and the UN peacekeeping often for excessive duration; and reiterated its force MONUSCO (UN Organization call to withdraw them from psychiatric Stabilization Mission in the DRC) to protect hospitals and to use more suitable means, the civilian population led to a high civilian such as bordered beds, for patients in need death toll and mass displacements.

136 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 BACKGROUND support of MONUSCO. The overall Speculation on constitutional change and deteriorating relationship between the army other ways to extend President Kabila’s and MONUSCO left them unable to mandate, due to end in December 2016, adequately protect civilians and sparked the triggered public protests and widespread creation of self-proclaimed “self-defence” criticism. groups. In February, the government started a decentralization process, dividing the FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND country’s 11 provinces into 26 entities. The ASSEMBLY Independent National Election Commission Security forces dispersed demonstrations (CENI) failed to organize local elections against a bill amending the electoral law, seen planned for 25 October and elections for the as an attempt to extend President Kabila’s governors of the new provinces. On 29 term, using excessive force. At least 36 October, the President appointed special people were killed and several hundred commissioners to govern the provinces. In arrested between 19 and 21 January. Two October, both the President and the Vice- opposition leaders, Ernest Kyaviro and Cyrille President of the CENI resigned, which Dowe, were arrested at the protests and held increased concerns that presidential elections in incommunicado detention for 86 and 145 would not be organized within constitutional days respectively. Jean-Claude Muyambo, delays. who had left the ruling coalition after speaking In September, the “G7”, a platform of out publicly against a third term for President parties within the majority, was excluded from Kabila, was arrested on 20 January. His trial the ruling coalition after calling on the on seemingly politically motivated charges President to respect the Constitution. was ongoing at the end of the year. Nine members of the National Human On 15 March, security forces stormed a Rights Commission were appointed. press conference in the capital Kinshasa, The government-led military Operation where youth activists were launching a civic “Sokola 1” (“operation clean-up” in Lingala) education platform, Filimbi. Twenty-seven against the armed group Allied Democratic people were arrested. Two of them, Fred Forces (ADF) continued in Beni territory, Bauma and Yves Makwambala, remained in North Kivu province. In early September, detention at the end of the year and there was an upsurge of attacks by faced serious charges, including conspiracy presumed ADF members against civilians, against the head of state.1 Solidarity protests after an absence thereof for nearly four following the arrests were systematically months. repressed. Protesters were arbitrarily arrested After the expiration of a six-month and subjected to torture and other ill- ultimatum for the Democratic Forces for the treatment. On 18 September, four activists Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) to disarm, the from the youth movement Lutte pour le Congolese army implemented Operation Changement (LUCHA, “struggle for change”) “Sokola 2” to neutralize the FDLR, whose were convicted of incitement to civil military capacity is said to be still largely disobedience in violation of their right to intact. peaceful assembly. Following the appointment of two generals On 15 September, a peaceful opposition suspected of having committed human rights rally in Kinshasa was attacked by unidentified violations, MONUSCO decided to halt its assailants. Police failed to protect the military collaboration with the Congolese army protesters. on “Sokola 2”. However, the army’s On 8 October, the Mayor of Lubumbashi operations against the Front for Patriotic issued a ban on all public political protests. Resistance in Ituri (FRPI) continued with the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 137 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION The ADF was responsible for a high number Freedom of expression was seriously curtailed of unlawful killings, pillages, kidnappings as during the year.2 The authorities targeted well as incidents of rape and sexual slavery. politicians and activists for peacefully On 2 May, the ADF attacked two locations mobilizing against perceived attempts by close to Mavivi, North Kivu province, and President Kabila to extend his term and killed at least 10 civilians. delays in the organization of presidential Abuses by the FDLR included unlawful elections. killings, looting, rape and other sexual Vano Kiboko, a former MP from the ruling violence as well as forced labour. FDLR coalition, was arrested and convicted after he fighters forced civilians to work in mines and suggested during a press conference that the to transport pillaged goods, weapons and coalition should start identifying a successor munitions. to President Kabila. The FRPI was responsible for large-scale Journalists continued to be victims of looting operations, rape and other sexual harassment, threats and arbitrary arrests; free violence as well as unlawful killings of flow of information was often impeded. civilians. Operations against the armed group On 16 January, Canal Kin Télévision caused large displacements of civilians. (CKTV) and Radiotélévision Catholique Elikya (RTCE) had their transmission signals cut VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS after they broadcast the opposition’s call for Sexual violence against women and girls mass protests. RTCE’s signal was re- remained rampant, both in conflict and non- established in June. CKTV remained closed; conflict zones, urban and rural areas. The Radio Télévision Lubumbashi Jua, a station prosecution of such crimes remained owned by Jean-Claude Muyambo, was closed challenging due to a lack of resources. Most down when he left the ruling coalition. TV perpetrators enjoyed total impunity. station Canal Futur remained closed throughout the year. CHILD SOLDIERS During the January protests, internet and Armed groups continued to recruit children text messaging services were cut by the throughout the year. They were used as authorities, supposedly to manage public combatants, escorts, servants, tax collectors, order. The signal of Radio France messengers or cooks. In the first eight Internationale was also temporarily blurred. months of the year, more children were Five radio stations which had been closed successfully rescued from armed groups than in November 2014 after they reported attacks in the whole of 2014. by the ADF remained closed throughout the year. COMMUNAL VIOLENCE The conflict between the Batwa and Luba ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS communities continued throughout the year The numbers of arbitrary arrests and and caused a high civilian death toll. On detentions remained high. Many of them were 21 October, a peace deal was signed between carried out by intelligence services. Arbitrary the two communities. arrests were often followed by prolonged incommunicado detention during which CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY people were detained without charge, access Victims of forced evictions that took place in to a lawyer or being presented to a judge. the Kawama community, Lubumbashi, in 2009, continued to be denied access to ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS justice and their right to remedy by Congolese Armed groups continued to commit abuses courts. The evictions were carried out by the against civilians in the east of the country. police using bulldozers belonging to the

138 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 mining company Entreprise Générale Malta promulgated into law on 2 January 2016, Forrest – a subsidiary of the Belgian company contains the death penalty for war crimes, Groupe Forrest International – with rights to crimes against humanity and genocide. the concession located next to the community. The company continued to deny PRISON CONDITIONS any responsibility in enabling the evictions. Prison conditions remained dire. Malnutrition, An appeal against the court decision was a lack of basic hygiene, infectious diseases ongoing in Lubumbashi. and poor medical care led to the deaths of scores of prisoners. Detention facilities were IMPUNITY highly overcrowded and the prison The justice system continued to suffer from a administration was severely underfunded. serious lack of capacity to prosecute all crimes under international law. Persisting HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS impunity for past crimes paved the way for Human rights defenders and activists ongoing violations and abuses against continued to be targets for intimidation, civilians by armed groups and the army. threats, arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment as well The army was allegedly responsible for an as incommunicado and secret detention. attack against the city of Matukaka in Christopher Ngoyi, a human rights February, during which more than 10 civilians defender monitoring the excessive use of were killed. Bernard Byamungu, from the force by police during the January protests, 809th regiment, was arrested in February for a was arrested and detained incommunicado similar attack against civilians in the villages for 21 days. He remained in detention at the of Tenambo and Mamiki in October 2014. He end of the year, awaiting trial. reportedly remained in military custody at the Youth movements working on civic end of the year. education and governance were targeted. Cobra Matata, FRPI leader, was arrested in Three individuals linked to Filimbi and January. He was indicted by the military LUCHA were arbitrarily arrested and held in prosecutor for war crimes and crimes against incommunicado detention before being humanity, including the recruitment of released without charge. children. On 18 September, a final verdict was In March, over 400 bodies were reported to handed down for the double murder of have been buried in a mass grave on the human rights defender Floribert Chebeya and outskirts of Kinshasa. Some of the bodies his driver Fidel Bazana. Police officer Daniel were suspected to be those of victims of Mukalay, who was found guilty under extrajudicial executions and enforced extenuating circumstances, was sentenced to disappearances. No credible, independent 15 years in prison while four other officers and effective investigation had taken place at were acquitted. the end of the year.3 In September, a trial of 23 members of the INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE Bantu and Batwa communities for genocide In April, ADF leader Jamil Mukulu was and crimes against humanity started before arrested in Tanzania. He was extradited to the Court of Appeal in Lubumbashi. It was the Uganda on 10 July and faced charges of first trial for international crimes to take place murder, terrorism, treason, human rights before civil courts in the country. abuses, kidnapping and recruitment of In another positive step in the fight against minors in both Uganda and DRC. impunity, the National Assembly and the On 2 September, the trial of former Senate adopted legislation implementing the Congolese general Bosco Ntaganda started Rome Statute of the ICC in June and before the ICC. He was being prosecuted for November respectively. The final bill, 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 139 crimes against humanity – including murder, started, and in November the Director for rape and sexual slavery as well as forced Public Prosecutions called for changes to recruitment and use of child soldiers – howpolice were handling these cases. The allegedly committed in 2002-2003 in reports, however, did not include the Ituri province. examination of the reason for the Two FDLR leaders, Ignace Murwanashyaka disproportionately high attrition rate in and Straton Musoni, were sentenced by a prosecuting cases of rape. court in Germany in September. Both were convicted of leading a terrorist organization REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS and Ignace Murwanashyaka was found guilty People awaiting the result of their asylum of war crimes. claim or deportation to their country of origin Despite an ongoing military operation – including victims of torture, unaccompanied against the FDLR, Sylvestre Mudacumura, the children and persons with mental illness – alleged commander of its armed branch, continued to be held in detention for remained at large. immigration control purposes. No effective screening of asylum-seekers was put in place to identify people who were unfit to be placed 1. DRC: Free human rights activists (News story, 19 March) in detention. 2. Treated like criminals: DRC’s race to silence dissent (AFR In November, a number of potentially 62/2917/2015) harmful amendments to the Aliens Act were 3. DRC: Authorities should work hand in hand with MONUSCO to ensure introduced in order, according to the thorough and independent investigations into mass grave (AFR government, to respond to the increasing 62/1414/2015) number of people seeking asylum in the country. The amendments included powers to temporarily suspend judicial oversight of DENMARK decisions made by the police to detain asylum-seekers and migrants, as well as a Kingdom of Denmark widening of the grounds on which asylum- Head of state: Queen Margrethe II seekers can be detained by the police. Head of government: Lars Løkke Rasmussen (replaced Helle Thorning-Schmidt in June) FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY In September, the Eastern High Court ruled Impunity for the majority of rape cases that the Copenhagen police had unlawfully continued. A commission established to removed and detained a protester during investigate actions of Danish soldiers an official state visit by Chinese officials involved in military operations overseas was in 2012. During the hearing, evidence was closed down by the government before it heard alleging that the police removed was able to come to any conclusions about demonstrators and confiscated their banners possible wrongdoing. without an adequate legal basis. The Copenhagen police conceded that the VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS evidence “raised doubts” about the police The majority of reported rape cases were action and referred the case to the closed by the police or the prosecution and Independent Police Complaints Authority. never reached trial. Most cases were closed New evidence subsequently emerged due to “the state of the evidence ”.1 During suggesting that police officers acted on orders the year the State Prosecutors released two from superiors, despite denials by senior reports showing that many reported rape officers in a parliamentary hearing. The cases were being closed by the police before Copenhagen police also informed parliament a formal police investigation had even been that they were unable to identify the police

140 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 officers involved, although a number of bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) officers subsequently claimed that their people. identity had been known. As a result of this apparent misinformation and the alleged BACKGROUND violations of the rights to freedom of In June, following an agreement between the expression and peaceful assembly, the ruling and the main opposition parties, Ministry of Justice established a commission Congress adopted an amendment to the to investigate. Constitution allowing the outgoing President to run for a consecutive term. A few days TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT later, the President announced his intention In June, the government closed down the to run for a second term in the 2016 Iraq-Afghanistan Commission established in presidential elections. 2012 by the previous government to A draft regulation governing the internal investigate actions of Danish soldiers involved procedures of the Public Defender’s Office, in military operations overseas. In particular, established in 2013, was submitted to the Commission was tasked to investigate Congress in July, but remained pending at practices regarding the apprehension and the end of the year. detention of Iraqis, whether Danish soldiers The Ministry of Foreign Affairs led a had handed over detainees to personnel from consultative process with different civil society other countries and determine Danish liability groups aimed at developing a national human and responsibility for the detainee under rights plan. international law. The Commission was closed before it could come to any conclusions, as POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES the government stated that there was no need The Office of the Prosecutor General reported for such an investigation as no new 152 killings by security forces between information would emerge. January and September. Many killings took place in circumstances suggesting that they may have been unlawful. 1. Denmark: Human Rights in Review: 2011-2015 – Amnesty Congress continued to debate a draft law International Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review, on police reform, but had not approved it by January–February 2016 (EUR 18/2332/2015) the end of the year. As a consequence, the process for a comprehensive reform of the police was further delayed. DOMINICAN There was a 6% fall in the number of murders between January and September REPUBLIC compared with the same period in 2014; however, the number remained high. Apart Dominican Republic from the publication of progress reports on Head of state and government: Danilo Medina Sánchez the national system of response to emergencies, no information was made A law to reform the police was not passed. available on the implementation of the Many people of Haitian descent remained National Security Plan, which had formally stateless despite the implementation of a been launched in March 2013. law intended to address their situation (Law 169-14). A new Criminal Code removing the IMPUNITY total ban on abortion failed to enter into No progress was made in the investigation force. Parliament failed to adopt legislation into the enforced disappearance of three men that could have advanced the protection of – Gabriel Sandi Alistar, Juan Almonte Herrera the rights of women, girls and lesbian, gay, and Randy Vizcaíno González – who were last

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 141 seen in police custody in July 2009, been the victim of a xenophobic killing. No September 2009 and December 2013, one had been brought to justice for the killing respectively. Their fate and whereabouts by the end of the year. Attacks on Haitian remained unknown. In June, the Supreme migrants in retaliation for crimes allegedly Court accepted the appeal of six members of committed by other Haitians were reported.2 the security forces arguing that their 2013 On 17 June, the deadline expired for prosecution for the killing of Cecilio Díaz and applications to the National Regularization William Checo in 2009 had been initiated Plan for Foreigners with Irregular Migration after the expiry of the statute of limitations, Status. The government announced that and decided to terminate the proceedings 288,486 migrants had applied. At the end of against them. September, the government stated that the status of more than 239,000 applicants had DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY been regularized. The authorities continued to implement The government officially resumed Law 169-14, which was intended to restore deportations of irregular migrants in mid- nationality to those who had been arbitrarily August.3 From mid-June onwards, tens of and retroactively deprived of their Dominican thousands of Haitian migrants decided to nationality by a 2013 Constitutional Court return to Haiti, mainly because of fear of judgment. The administrative process for violent expulsion or xenophobic pressures Dominican-born people of foreign descent from employers or neighbours. This whose birth had been previously registered in movement of people led to an escalation of the Dominican Civil Registry (so-called tensions between the Dominican Republic “Group A”) to regain their nationality was and Haiti. The OAS responded by sending a slow, and many people continued to be mission to both countries in July. Following arbitrarily deprived of their identity the visit, the Dominican authorities refused documents. Of the estimated 55,000 the offer of mediation by the OAS Secretary Dominican-born people of foreign descent General or to negotiate a protocol for whose birth had never been registered (so- deportations with Haiti. The authorities did called “Group B”), only 8,755 applied for the not make their own protocol public. naturalization plan provided by the Law within In most deportation cases, the authorities the deadline, set for 1 February. The assessed each case individually. However, government failed to publicly acknowledge according to the International Organization for the existence of a large group of people who Migration and some Dominican and Haitian could not enrol in the plan and who therefore civil society organizations, several people who remained stateless.1 had applied to the National Regularization Scores of Dominicans of Haitian descent Plan reported having been deported. were arbitrarily detained and threatened with expulsion to Haiti as “irregular” migrants. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS However, in the vast majority of cases the According to official statistics, the first authorities released them upon verification semester of the year saw a decrease of 4% in that they were born in the Dominican the number of killings of women and girls, Republic. compared with the same period in 2014. Parliament had yet to adopt a MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS comprehensive law to prevent and address In February, following an escalation of violence against women approved by the tensions between the Dominican Republic Senate in 2012. and Haiti, the body of a Haitian migrant was found hanging from a tree in a park in SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Santiago. There were fears that he may have In December 2014, Congress passed

142 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 amendments to the Criminal Code decriminalizing abortion where pregnancy ECUADOR posed a risk to the life of the woman or girl; where the foetus would be unable to survive Republic of Ecuador outside the womb; or where the pregnancy Head of state and government: Rafael Vicente Correa was the result of rape or incest. Anti-abortion Delgado groups subsequently challenged the constitutionality of the reform. On Those critical of the authorities, including 2 December, the Constitutional Court human rights defenders, faced attacks, fines declared that the adoption of the Code was and unfounded criminal charges. The rights unconstitutional due to procedural errors and of Indigenous Peoples to free, prior and ordered the previous one, adopted in 1884, to informed consent over decisions affecting remain in force.4 their livelihoods were not fulfilled. The Ministry of Health, in co-operation with civil society organizations, drafted protocols to BACKGROUND implement the decriminalization of abortion in The National Assembly voted in favour of 15 the three circumstances permitted by the constitutional amendments proposed by the Criminal Code. executive, which included authorizing the use In July, following pressure from religious of the military to respond to internal public groups, the President of the Chamber of security situations and enabling the indefinite Deputies removed a draft law on sexual and re-election of the President and other reproductive health from the agenda for authorities. discussion by Parliament. The law had not Nationwide anti-government protests led by been debated by the end of the year. trades unions, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and civil society took place RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, throughout the year. They were marked by TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE clashes between the security forces and Civil society organizations reported hate protesters and reports of excessive use of crimes against LGBTI people, including force and arbitrary arrests by the security murder and rape. forces. At least 21 people detained during The commission of the Chamber of anti-government protests in December in the Deputies which analyzed the draft law on capital, Quito, were sentenced amid concerns sexual and reproductive health removed about violations of their right to a fair trial. proposed sanctions for discrimination in In March, the International Court of Justice access to health care on grounds of sexual (ICJ) backed a 2011 Ecuadorian court ruling orientation and gender identity. The law was that granted compensation to Amazon pending discussion at the end of the year. Indigenous communities affected by environmental damage caused by the USA- based energy company Chevron. The ICJ 1. “Without papers, I am no one”: Stateless people in the Dominican ruled that a previous agreement between Republic (AMR 27/2755/2015) Chevron and authorities did not prevent 2. Dominican Republic: Authorities must investigate xenophobic violence Amazon Indigenous communities from (AMR 27/1449/2015) seeking compensation from the company. In 3. Dominican Republic officially resumes deportations amid concerns for a separate court case, also in March, the ICC Dominicans of Haitian descent (AMR 27/2304/2015) ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to decide on a 4. Dominican Republic takes women’s rights back to 1884 (News story, complaint filed by Indigenous communities 3 December) against Chevron’s Chief Executive Officer.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 143 FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, under a communication law granting wide- ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY ranging powers to the Information and Human rights defenders and others who Communication Superintendent, a public openly criticized government policies were servant elected from a shortlist provided by threatened and harassed. Attempts were the President, to limit and regulate the media. made to prevent them from carrying out their There were concerns that the law’s work and they faced attacks, fines, application was jeopardizing the right to harassment and unfounded criminal freedom of expression and creating a climate charges. of self-censorship. In May, La Hora In September, using an executive decree newspaper was fined US$3,540 for not granting the authorities wide powers to covering an event by the Mayor of Loja which monitor and dissolve NGOs, the National was deemed to be of public interest. The Communication Secretariat threatened to newspaper refused to pay the fine. close down human rights NGO Fundamedios, In February, the owner of Crudo Ecuador, a apparently in reprisal for the organization’s Facebook page that published satirical denunciations of violations of the rights to political memos, closed down the page after freedom of expression and association. At the receiving threats. The threats commenced end of September, the Secretariat issued a after the President referred to Crudo Ecuador “final warning” to Fundamedios to “comply in his weekly television programme and with the prohibition of exercising matters of a encouraged his supporters to counteract political nature, avoiding raising unfounded those who criticized the authorities through alerts for the sole purpose of damaging the social media. prestige of Ecuador and its institutions”. Human rights defender Paulina Muñoz INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Samaniego was subjected to an intimidation The authorities continued to fail to fully campaign which she believed was related to implement the 2012 ruling of the Inter- her work with Ecuador Decide, a coalition of American Court of Human Rights in favour of civil society organizations which oppose the the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, including the Free Trade Agreement between Ecuador and complete removal of explosives left on their the European Union. No investigation had land and the issuing of legislation to regulate been opened by state prosecutors by the end Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior and of the year despite her having filed a informed consent over laws, policies and complaint. measures that affect their livelihoods. In May, In February, environmental activist and personnel authorized by the Ministry of the community leader Darwin Javier Ramírez Environment entered the Sarayaku territory Piedra was sentenced to 10 months’ without consent to carry out an environmental imprisonment on charges of “rebellion” for impact assessment for future oil extraction on his alleged participation in an attack against the territory. National Mining Agency delegates. The prosecution did not provide credible evidence SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS against him and his sentence appeared to be Women and girls continued to face limited an attempt to silence his campaign against access to modern contraceptives, with the the impact of mining activities on the right to most vulnerable disproportionately affected. water of Junin communities in Intag region, In February, the CEDAW Committee raised Imbabura province, northern Ecuador. He concerns at the limited access to sexual and was released the same day as his sentencing, reproductive health services, education and as he had already served the length of his information. sentence in pre-trial detention. Abortion remained illegal in all cases, Media outlets continued to receive fines except where the life of the woman was at risk

144 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 or in cases of rape when the victim was a Egypt closed its border with Gaza, State of woman with a mental disability. Palestine, for much of the year. The Egyptian army destroyed smuggling tunnels under the border, reportedly flooding the area with EGYPT water. In February, Egypt carried out air strikes in Arab Republic of Egypt Libya killing at least seven civilians, after an Head of state: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi armed group there beheaded a group of Head of government: Sherif Ismail (replaced Ibrahim Egyptian Coptic Christians they had Mahlab in September) abducted.1 In March, Egypt joined the Saudi Arabia-led The human rights situation continued to international coalition that engaged in the deteriorate. The authorities arbitrarily armed conflict in Yemen. President al-Sisi restricted the rights to freedom of announced that the Arab League had agreed expression, association and peaceful to form a “joint Arab military force” to combat assembly, enacted a draconian new anti- regional threats. terrorism law, and arrested and imprisoned On 13 September, army and security forces government critics and political opposition in the Western Desert region attacked and leaders and activists, subjecting some to killed 12 people, including eight Mexican enforced disappearance. The security forces tourists, apparently after mistaking them for used excessive force against protesters, members of an armed group. refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. On 23 September, President al-Sisi Detainees faced torture and other ill- pardoned 100 men and women, including treatment. Courts handed down hundreds of journalists and scores of activists imprisoned death sentences and lengthy prison for participating in protests. The pardon did sentences after grossly unfair mass trials. not extend to imprisoned leaders of Egypt’s There was a critical lack of accountability; youth movement or Muslim Brotherhood most human rights violations were leaders. committed with impunity. Women and Parliamentary elections held between members of religious minorities were October and December had an officially subject to discrimination and inadequately reported turnout of 28.3%. protected against violence. People were arrested and tried on charges of COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY “debauchery” for their perceived sexual In August the government enacted Law 94 of orientation or gender identity. The army 2015, a new anti-terrorism law that defines a forcibly evicted communities from their “terrorist act” vaguely and in overly broad homes along the border with Gaza. terms. The new law gave the President Executions were carried out following grossly powers to “take necessary measures to unfair trials. ensure public order and security”, equivalent to those granted by a state of emergency; BACKGROUND established special courts; and provided for Security conditions remained tense, heavy fines for journalists whose reporting on particularly in the Sinai region. The authorities “terrorism” differed from official statements.2 said that the army and other security forces killed hundreds of “terrorists”, mostly in North ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS Sinai, where the armed group calling itself Armed groups launched attacks deliberately Sinai Province, an affiliate of the armed group targeting civilians. Islamic State (IS), claimed responsibility for On 29 June, the Prosecutor General was several major attacks. killed by a bomb in the capital, Cairo. It was

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 145 unclear who was responsible. Egypt’s highest court, overturned the The armed group Sinai Province claimed convictions of three jailed journalists working responsibility for several attacks, including for the broadcaster Al Jazeera – Peter Greste, one on 29 January that reportedly killed 40 Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed – and people, including civilians, soldiers and police ordered their retrial. The authorities deported officers. On 1 July, an assault by Sinai Peter Greste on 1 February; Mohamed Fahmy Province on the North Sinai town of Sheikh and Baher Mohamed were released on bail Zuweid killed 17 members of the army and on 12 February but sentenced to prison terms security forces, according to the Ministry of of three and three and a half years Defence; at least 100 members of the armed respectively on 29 August on charges of group were also killed in the assault. Sinai broadcasting “false news” and operating Province also claimed responsibility for without authorization. President al-Sisi causing the crash of a civilian Russian airliner pardoned the two men on 23 September. on 31 October. All 224 people on board were On 11 April a court in Cairo sentenced 14 killed, mostly Russian nationals. Russia’s opposition-linked journalists to 25-year prison Federal Security Service announced on terms after convicting them of “broadcasting 17 November that a bomb had brought down false news”, and sentenced another journalist the plane. to death for allegedly forming “media committees” and “leading and funding a FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION banned group”. The court tried several Journalists working for outlets critical of the defendants in their absence. They were tried authorities, or linked to opposition groups, as part of a group of 51 alongside leading were prosecuted for reporting “false news” Muslim Brotherhood figures. Those jailed and on other politically motivated criminal lodged appeals with the Court of Cassation, charges. Courts sentenced some to lengthy which overturned their conviction in prison terms and one was sentenced to December and ordered a retrial. death. Individuals continued to face prosecution on criminal charges such as FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION “defaming religion” and offending “public Human rights organizations were subject to morals” for peacefully exercising their right to arbitrary restrictions on their activities and freedom of expression. In November, a funding under the Law on Associations (Law prominent investigative journalist was briefly 84 of 2002). Staff of some human rights detained by military intelligence and organizations were arrested and questioned prosecutors over an article he wrote about the by security officials, and also questioned by army. an “expert committee” appointed by the Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known authorities as part of an ongoing criminal as Shawkan, was referred to trial in August investigation into the activities and foreign with 738 co-defendants, who included funding of human rights groups. The leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group and authorities prevented some human rights and their supporters. Arrested while covering the political activists from travelling abroad.3 violent dispersal by security forces of a protest By the end of the year, the government on 14 August 2013, Mahmoud Abu Zeid was said it had closed more than 480 NGOs detained without charge for almost two years because of their alleged links to the Muslim before the Public Prosecution Office referred Brotherhood group. his case to court. The trial was due to begin in On 21 October, security forces raided the December, but was postponed because the Mada Foundation for Media Development, a courtroom could not hold the hundreds of Cairo-based journalism NGO. They detained defendants. all those present and questioned them for On 1 January, the Court of Cassation, several hours before releasing all but the

146 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 organization’s director, whom they held Student Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed without charge on suspicion of “international Hussein remained detained without charge or bribery – receiving foreign funding” and trial, more than 700 days after his arrest in belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. January 2014 for wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Nation without torture”. Prison guards EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE beat him in July, his family said. The authorities arbitrarily restricted the right to freedom of peaceful assembly under the ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Protest Law (Law 107 of 2013). There were Human rights groups reported receiving fewer protests than in recent years, but scores of complaints concerning cases of security forces continued to use excessive or individuals arrested by the security forces and unnecessary force to disperse “unauthorized” then detained incommunicado, in conditions demonstrations and other public gatherings, that in some cases amounted to enforced resulting in deaths and serious injuries. disappearance. Security forces shot and killed protester Security forces arrested students Israa Al- Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh on 24 January during a Taweel, Sohaab Said and Omar Mohamed Ali demonstration in central Cairo. Widely in Cairo on 1 June and subjected them to circulated videos and photographs of her enforced disappearance for 15 days, during death sparked outrage. At least 27 people which Sohaab Said said that he and Omar died in protest-related violence between Mohamed Ali were tortured. Both men faced 23and 26 January across Egypt, most as a an unfair trial before a military court. Israa Al- result of excessive force from the security Taweel, who has a disability as a result of forces. Two members of the security forces being shot during a protest in 2014, was also died. released from prison in December but At least 22 fans of the Zamalek football remained under house arrest. club died in a stampede at a stadium in New Cairo on 8 February, after security forces TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT recklessly fired tear gas to disperse them. Detainees held by state security forces and military intelligence were tortured, including ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS by being beaten and subjected to electric Security forces arrested 11,877 members of shocks and stress positions. Security forces “terrorist groups” between January and the frequently beat detainees at the time of their end of September, according to the Assistant arrest and when transferring them between Minister for Public Security at the Ministry of police stations and prisons. Throughout the the Interior. The crackdown was thought to year there were reports of deaths in custody include members and perceived supporters as a result of torture and other ill-treatment of the Muslim Brotherhood and other and lack of access to adequate medical care.4 government critics. The authorities had Conditions of detention in prisons and previously stated that they had arrested at police stations remained extremely poor. Cells least 22,000 people on such grounds in were severely overcrowded and unhygienic, 2014. and in some cases officials prevented families In some cases, detainees in political cases and lawyers giving food, medicine and other were held in prolonged detention without items to prisoners. charge or trial. By the end of the year, at least 700 people had been held in preventive UNFAIR TRIALS detention for more than two years without The criminal justice system continued to being sentenced by a court, in contravention serve as an instrument of state repression, of the two-year limit on such detention in with courts convicting hundreds of Egyptian law. defendants on charges such as “terrorism”,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 147 “unauthorized protesting”, engaging in imprisonment for fatally wounding protester political violence and belonging to banned Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh. However, the groups, after grossly unfair mass trials in authorities also separately prosecuted 17 which prosecutors did not establish the eyewitnesses to the killing, including human individual criminal responsibility of the rights defender Azza Soliman, on charges of defendants.5 “unauthorized protesting” and “disturbing At least 3,000 civilians stood trial before public order”. Courts acquitted the 17 unfair military courts on “terrorism” and other eyewitnesses on 23 May, and again on charges alleging political violence. Many, 24 October following an appeal by the Public including leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Prosecution Office. were tried in mass trials. Military trials of Two members of the security forces were civilians are fundamentally unfair. jailed for five years in December on charges Former President Mohamed Morsi faced of torturing to death a lawyer at Mattareya five separate trials, alongside hundreds of co- Police Station in Cairo in February. accused, including Muslim Brotherhood Former President Hosni Mubarak and leaders. On 21 April a court sentenced him to several of his former senior security officials 20 years in prison for alleged involvement in were retried by the Court of Cassation in armed clashes outside Cairo’s Presidential November on charges of orchestrating a Palace in December 2012. On 16 June, he deadly crackdown on protesters during the was sentenced to death for allegedly 2011 “25 January Revolution”. The trial was orchestrating a prison escape during the ongoing at the end of the year. 2011 uprising, and a 25-year prison term on an espionage charge. The trials were WOMEN’S RIGHTS fundamentally unfair as they relied on Women and girls continued to face evidence gathered while Mohamed Morsi was discrimination in law and in practice, and subject to enforced disappearance by the were inadequately protected against sexual army, during the months after he was ousted and other gender-based violence. Despite from power in 2013. Verdicts in other trials announcing a national strategy to combat against the former President were still violence and discrimination against women pending at the end of the year. and girls, the authorities largely failed to implement substantive measures, including IMPUNITY amending or repealing discriminatory The authorities failed to conduct effective, Personal Status Laws that prevent women independent and impartial investigations into from obtaining a divorce from an abusive most incidents of human rights violations, husband without forfeiting their financial including the repeated use of excessive force rights.6 by security forces that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of protesters since July 2013. DISCRIMINATION – RELIGIOUS Investigations by the Public Prosecution into MINORITIES protests and incidents of political violence Religious minorities, including Coptic instead focused on alleged abuses by the Christians, Shi’a Muslims and Baha’is, authorities’ opponents and critics. continued to face discriminatory restrictions. Courts held a small number of members of There were new incidents of sectarian the security forces responsible for unlawful violence against Coptic Christian killings, in cases arising from several communities; these communities also faced incidents that had attracted wide national and obstacles to rebuilding churches and other international condemnation. properties damaged in sectarian attacks in On 11 June a court sentenced one 2013. member of the security forces to 15 years’ The Ministry of Endowments closed the al-

148 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Imam al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo from 22 to 17 May had been sentenced after a grossly 24 October to prevent Shi’a Muslims from unfair trial before a military court, despite marking the Day of Ashura there; the Ministry evidence that security officials tortured them said the closure was to prevent “Shi’a to force them to “confess” to capital offences untruths”. and falsified their arrest dates in official documents. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Individuals continued to face arrest, detention 1. Libya: Mounting evidence of war crimes in the wake of Egypt's and trial on “debauchery” charges, under airstrikes (News story, 23 February) Law 10 of 1961, on the basis of their real or 2. Egypt’s president to sign draconian counter-terrorism law today perceived sexual orientation and gender (News story, 13 August) identity. 3. Egypt: Renewed crackdown on independent groups: Government On 12 January a court acquitted 26 men of investigating human rights workers (MDE 12/1873/2015) “debauchery” charges; they had been 4. Egypt: Spate of detainee deaths points to rampant abuse at Cairo’s arrested at a Cairo bathhouse in December Mattareya Police Station (News story, 4 March) 2014. 5. Generation jail: Egypt's youth go from protest to prison (MDE 12/1853/2015) REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS 6. Circles of hell: Domestic, public and state violence against women in Security forces continued to use excessive Egypt (MDE 12/004/2015) force and unnecessary lethal force against 7. Syria: Voices in crisis - August 2015 (MDE 24/2352/2015) refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants who 8. Egypt: Confirmation of 183 death sentences “outrageous” (News sought to enter or leave Egypt irregularly.7 At story, 2 February) least 20 Sudanese nationals and one Syrian national were killed while trying to leave Egypt irregularly. EL SALVADOR

HOUSING RIGHTS – FORCED EVICTIONS Republic of El Salvador The armed forces continued to forcibly evict Head of state and government: Salvador Sánchez communities living along Egypt’s border with Cerén Gaza, where the authorities sought to create a security “buffer zone”. A total legal abortion ban remained in place, The government continued to discuss violating women’s human rights. Human development plans for Cairo that did not rights defenders of lesbian, gay, bisexual, include sufficient safeguards to prevent transgender and intersex (LGBTI) forced evictions. communities and those defending and promoting sexual and reproductive rights DEATH PENALTY faced increasing risks and particularly Courts handed down hundreds of death suffered violence and intimidation from sentences on defendants convicted on state agents, individuals and private groups. “terrorism” and other charges related to the The 1993 Amnesty Law was not repealed, political violence that followed Mohamed presenting an obstacle for accessing justice Morsi’s ousting in July 2013, and for murder and reparations for victims of human rights and other crimes. Those executed included violations that occurred during the prisoners sentenced after unfair trials before 1980-1992 armed conflict. criminal and military courts.8 At least seven men were executed in BACKGROUND relation to political violence; one on 7 March Legislative and municipal elections were held after an unfair trial. Six men executed on in March. A 30% gender quota in the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 149 electoral lists was required for the first time. pregnancy-related grounds. She was released No party reached the required number of after serving seven years of a 30-year representatives to achieve a majority in the sentence based on charges of “aggravated Legislative Assembly. murder” after suffering a miscarriage. Levels of gang-related violence and Authorities recognized judicial errors in the organized crime surged and homicide rates original prosecution. More than 15 women soared. According to official records, 4,253 remained in jail under similar circumstances. homicides were registered in the first eight In March, the UN Human Rights Council months of the year, compared with 3,912 for adopted the outcome of the UPR of El the whole of 2014. Criminal violence forced Salvador. Fourteen recommendations were many Salvadorians to leave the country, and made relating to sexual and reproductive also led to the internal displacement of rights. While El Salvador accepted thousands of families, according to the Civil recommendations to provide access to sexual Society Roundtable against Forced and reproductive health services, including Displacement Provoked by Violence and contraception, it merely “noted” the Organized Crime. recommendation to decriminalize abortion In September, the Inter-American and remove the total ban. El Salvador Commission on Human Rights requested El remained silent on a recommendation to Salvador to adopt precautionary measures to immediately and unconditionally release all protect the life and personal integrity of three women imprisoned for having undergone an men who allegedly had been subjected to abortion or suffering a miscarriage.1 enforced disappearances, and of their In November, the Office of the Human families who had been attacked and Rights Ombudsman issued a resolution on threatened after enquiring with the authorities the case of Maria Teresa Rivera, who was about the whereabouts of their relatives. sentenced to 40 years in prison after In September, amid reports and complaints experiencing an obstetric complication and of increased violence against LGBTI was wrongfully accused of having an abortion. communities, the Legislative Assembly The Ombudsman found violations of due reformed the Criminal Code to increase the process and the presumption of innocence, penalties for crimes motivated by political and determined that the participation of Maria opinions, racial hatred or sexual orientation Teresa Rivera was not demonstrated during and gender identity. trial.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Between January and October, 475 women The Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of were murdered, an increase from 294 in Therapeutic, Ethical and Eugenic Abortion 2014, according to information gathered by and the Feminist Collective for Local the Salvadoran Women’s Organization for Development – leading organizations in the Peace and official records. Despite the promotion of sexual and reproductive rights – Special Comprehensive Law for a Life Free were harassed and stigmatized by state from Violence for Women, some judges officials, individuals and private groups continued to qualify gender-based murders of because of their work on women’s rights. women and girls as homicide instead of the Both organizations were called “unscrupulous crime of feminicide as defined in law, groups” and “unpatriotic traitors”. according to the Salvadoran Women´s Human rights defenders working for the Organization for Peace. defence and promotion of sexual and In January, the Legislative Assembly reproductive rights were also particularly granted the request of pardon in favour of stigmatized for the legal assistance provided “Guadalupe”, a woman incarcerated on to women convicted of homicide after

150 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 suffering obstetric emergencies. Defamatory report the status of the investigation. Almost campaigns against human rights defenders two months later, the Attorney General aggravated the risks they faced. The submitted a report, followed by a second in authorities failed to take effective measures to July after the Constitutional Chamber curb their stigmatization and reduce risks.2 requested additional details. By the end of the Human rights defenders from the LGBTI year, no decision had been issued by the communities also reported violence and Constitutional Chamber. intimidation. In May, Francela Méndez, a In July, the Constitutional Chamber transgender activist and member of the established the responsibility of the armed Salvadoran Women’s Network of Human forces in the enforced disappearance of 11 Rights Defenders, was murdered.3 By the end people in the context of the 1982 military of 2015, no one had been brought to justice. “Cleaning Operation”. The Constitutional Organizations reported an increase in cases Chamber’s ruling required the National of harassment and violence against the Defence Ministry to provide information about transgender community by state agents and the operation and in particular the fate and other individuals. whereabouts of the victims. The Constitutional Chamber requested the Attorney General’s IMPUNITY Office to immediately start an investigation. The 1993 Amnesty Law remained in place, denying access to justice and reparations to victims of the human rights violations 1. Amnesty International calls on El Salvador to decriminalize abortion committed during the armed conflict and immediately release all women imprisoned for pregnancy-related (1980-1992). In April, former General and complications (AMR 29/1254/2015) Defence Minister Eugenio Vides Casanova 2. Defenders under attack! Protecting sexual and reproductive rights in was deported from the USA after an the Americas (AMR 01/2775/2015) immigration judge in Florida ruled in 2012 3. El Salvador: El Estado debe garantizar justicia en el asesinato de that he should be sent back to El Salvador for activista transgénero (AMR 29/1855/2015) his role in human rights violations committed 4. El Salvador: No amnesty for human rights violations (AMR by the armed forces during the armed 29/1431/2015) conflict.4 By the end of the year, there was no public information suggesting that former General Vides was facing any legal EQUATORIAL proceeding. In March, the Human Rights Ombudsman GUINEA called upon the authorities to overcome the prevalent impunity for human rights violations Republic of Equatorial Guinea during the armed conflict. The Ombudsman Head of state and government: Teodoro Obiang also called on the Legislative Assembly to Nguema Mbasogo deprive the Amnesty Law of its legal effects and urged the Attorney General’s Office to Children were among hundreds of people effectively investigate victims’ claims. arbitrarily arrested, detained and beaten In March, more than a year after a ruling by following disturbances at the African Cup of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Nations football tournament. The rights to Court of Justice ordering the Attorney freedom of expression and assembly were General’s Office to thoroughly investigate the suppressed and police used excessive force 1981 San Francisco Angulo massacre, in to disperse peaceful demonstrations. which 45 people were killed allegedly by Political opponents were banished and members of the army, the Constitutional confined to their home villages. Chamber required the Attorney General to

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 151 BACKGROUND judge, who ordered the release of those aged In January and February, Equatorial Guinea nine to 11, but confirmed the detention of the hosted the African Cup of Nations football rest and ordered their transfer to Black Beach tournament. As opposition to the tournament prison in Malabo. At the prison, child and mounted, President Obiang threatened severe adult detainees and convicted prisoners were measures against those who disrupted or held together. On 13 February, the detainees called for a boycott of the games. again appeared in court and all were released In May, President Obiang dissolved the without charge. judiciary. For nearly a month there was no functioning judiciary in the country. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY On 25 and 26 March, police in Bata and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Malabo used excessive force and tear gas to Criticism of the government was not allowed. disperse peaceful demonstrations by In mid-January several people including university students protesting over the system political activist Celestino Okenve were for granting scholarships. Scores of students arbitrarily arrested and detained for up to two were arrested and beaten in both cities. weeks for criticizing the hosting of the African Those arrested in Bata were released without Cup of Nations and calling for a boycott of the charge the next day. In Malabo, police carried games. All were later released uncharged.1 out arbitrary arrests and beatings of students On 19 February, Luis Nzo Ondo, a member and others suspected of being students, in of the political party Republican Democratic the streets and in their homes. A 13-year-old Force (FDR), was arbitrarily arrested and boy was arrested in the street as he used his banished to his village for campaigning mobile phone to film police arresting and against the unlawful arrest and banishment of beating students and forcibly entering their FDR leader Guillermo Nguema Ela.2 They homes. At least 50 students were held for two both remained confined to their respective weeks before being released without charge. villages at the end of the year. However, the 13-year-old boy and five other young people remained in police custody for CHILDREN’S RIGHTS another week before being released without On 5 February, dozens of children were charge. The police claimed that as they were among 300 youths arbitrarily arrested and not students they must have been beaten following disturbances during the “troublemakers”. African Cup of Nations semi-finals in the capital, Malabo. At least 12 of those arrested were under 16, the age of criminal 1. Equatorial Guinea: African Cup of Nations peaceful protesters must responsibility in Equatorial Guinea, including be released (News story, 29 January), Urgent Action: Three detainees four children between nine and 11 years of should be released (AFR 24/0001/2015), Equatorial Guinea: Three age. The majority were arrested in their detainees released (AFR 24/0002/2015) homes at night, or in streets far from the 2. Equatorial Guinea: Release human rights defender and opposition football stadium. They were taken to Malabo leader (Press release, 20 March 2015) Central Police Station, where the young detainees reported having received floggings of 20 to 30 lashes each. They were held in ERITREA appalling conditions in overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells also occupied by adult State of Eritrea criminal suspects. Some detainees were Head of state and government: Isaias Afewerki released after their families paid bribes to the police. However, on 11 February some 150 Thousands continued to leave the country to detainees appeared before the investigating flee the indefinite National Service, a

152 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 nationwide system amounting to forced military training under the requirement that all labour. During the summer, Eritreans children undergo grade 12 of secondary constituted the third largest group crossing school at the Sawa National Service training the Mediterranean, after Syrians and camp. There they faced harsh living Afghans, and a majority of those who lost conditions, military-style discipline and their lives in the journey. Rule of law weapons training. Some children dropped out remained non-existent; political opposition of school early to avoid this fate. Children was still banned; and independent media or were also conscripted into training in round- universities were not allowed to operate. ups conducted by the military, in search of Restrictions on freedoms of religion and people evading National Service. movement remained. Arbitrary detention Thousands of people tried to avoid this without charge or trial continued to be the system, including by attempting to flee the norm for thousands of prisoners of country. Those caught trying to do so, conscience. including children, were arbitrarily detained without charge or trial, often in harsh BACKGROUND conditions, and lacked access to a lawyer or In May, new Civil and Penal Codes, as well as family members. Civil and Penal Procedure Codes, were A “shoot-to-kill” policy remained in place promulgated to replace the transitional Codes for anyone evading capture and attempting to in place since the country’s independence. cross the border into Ethiopia. In September, a joint venture formed of Older people continued to be conscripted Sunridge Gold Corp, a Canadian company, into the “People’s Army”, where they were and the Eritrean National Mining Corporation given a weapon and assigned duties under (ENAMCO) signed an agreement with the threat of punitive repercussions. Men of up to Ministry of Energy and Mines for gold, copper 67 years of age were conscripted. and zinc mining operations. Nevsun Resources, a Canadian mining company, PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE faced a lawsuit in Canada over the alleged Thousands of prisoners of conscience and use of conscripted labour by its sub- political prisoners, including former contractor, the Eritrean state-owned Segen politicians, journalists and practitioners of Construction, at the Bisha mine – also a joint unauthorized religions, continued to be venture with ENAMCO. detained without charge or trial, and lacked access to a lawyer or family members. Many FORCED LABOUR – NATIONAL SERVICE had been detained for well over a decade. Mandatory National Service continued to be The government denied it was detaining extended indefinitely in a system that many of these prisoners and refused to amounts to forced labour. A significant provide families with information on their proportion of the population was in open- whereabouts and health, or to confirm any ended conscription, in some cases for up to reports of deaths in custody. 20 years. Conscripts were paid low wages that did not enable them to cover their families’ TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT basic needs, and had limited and arbitrarily Detainees, including children, were held in granted leave allowances which in many harsh conditions, often in underground cells cases disrupted their family life. Conscripts and shipping containers, with inadequate served in the defence forces and were food, water, bedding, access to sanitation assigned to agriculture, construction, facilities or natural light. In some cases, these teaching, civil service and other roles. There conditions amounted to torture. Children were was no provision for conscientious objection. sometimes detained with adults. Children continued to be conscripted into

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 153 REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS number of asylum applications Eritreans fleeing the country faced multiple remained low. dangers on routes through Sudan, Libya and the Mediterranean to reach Europe, including RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, hostage-taking for ransom by armed groups TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE and people smugglers. The Cohabitation Act, passed in October Refugees arriving in Europe reported 2014, allowing unmarried, including same- having paid smugglers, many of whom were sex, couples to register their cohabitation, was Eritreans themselves, for each stage of the due to enter into force on 1 January 2016. journey. There were allegations of members However, the authorities’ failure to undertake of the army being involved in smuggling all required preparatory work, especially people out of Eritrea. amendments to related laws, was likely to High numbers of children left Eritrea alone undermine its positive impact for some time. to avoid conscription, leaving them vulnerable to abuse. Smugglers reportedly offered to take DISCRIMINATION – ETHNIC MINORITIES children to Europe for free, holding them According to data from the Ministry of hostage once they reached Libya and Interior, 83,364 people resident in the demanding money from their parents in country remained stateless as of Eritrea to free them. 1 September, over 6% of the population. The In response to the increasing numbers of vast majority were Russian speakers. refugees, some European countries such as The authorities made significant steps to the UK tightened their guidance on asylum address statelessness, especially among cases of Eritrean nationals, making untenable children. On 21 January parliament approved claims of improvements in the country of several amendments to the Citizenship Act, origin as a basis on which to reject cases. due to enter into force on 1 January 2016. The amendments aimed to facilitate the INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY acquisition of Estonian citizenship, for In June, the UN-mandated Commission of example by providing for its automatic Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea presented acquisition by children born to stateless its first report, documenting numerous cases parents. and patterns of human rights violations since In February the Estonian language the country’s independence and stating that requirements to obtain citizenship were the government may be responsible for simplified for applicants aged over 65, crimes against humanity. allowing this group to take only an oral test and not a written exam. Unemployment remained significant ESTONIA among ethnic minorities, perpetuating concern that Estonian language requirements Republic of Estonia for all public employees and private sector Head of state: Toomas Hendrik Ilves jobs that interface with the public were Head of government: Taavi Rõivas placing them at a disadvantage.

Legislation allowing unmarried, including REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS same-sex, couples to register their The number of asylum applications, although cohabitation was due to enter into force on still low, increased over 2014, with about 200 1 January 2016. The authorities took received in the first nine months of 2015. significant steps to reduce statelessness, While most asylum-seekers gained access to especially among children, but around Estonian territory by crossing the country’s 83,000 people remained stateless. The borders irregularly, concern remained about

154 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 denial of access to territory and asylum at affected more than 8 million people in the official border crossings. north and east. In early September, there was an arson attack against the only asylum-seekers’ ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS reception centre in the country, in Vao village, Police and security officers arrested Omot Lääne-Viru County. Although no serious Agwa Okwoy, Ashinie Astin Titoyk and Jemal injuries were reported, about 50 people, Oumar Hojele at Addis Ababa Bole including several children, were sleeping in International Airport on 15 March, on their the centre at the time. Investigations were way to a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. The ongoing at the end of the year. workshop was organized by the NGO Bread for All with the support of the NGOs Anywaa Survival Organisation and GRAIN. The police ETHIOPIA held the three men for 161 days without bail at the Maekelawi detention centre, beyond Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia the four months allowed by the Anti-Terrorism Head of state: Mulatu Teshome Wirtu Proclamation (ATP), under which they were Head of government: Hailemariam Desalegn charged on 7 September. On 12 May, security officers arrested two Members and leaders of opposition parties campaigners and three supporters of the as well as protesters were extrajudicially Semayawi Party who were putting up executed. General elections took place in campaign posters in the capital, Addis Ababa. May against a backdrop of restrictions on They were released on bail after four days in civil society, the media and the political detention. opposition, including excessive use of force On 19 May, Bekele Gerba and other against peaceful demonstrators, the members of the Oromo Federalist Congress disruption of opposition campaigns, and the were campaigning in when police and harassment of election observers from the local security officers beat, arrested and opposition. The police and the military detained them for a couple of hours. conducted mass arrests of protesters, Over 500 members of Medrek were journalists and opposition party members as arrested at various polling stations in Oromia part of a crackdown on protests in the region on 24 and 25 May. Security officers Oromia region. beat and injured 46 people during the elections; six people sustained gunshot BACKGROUND injuries and two were killed. The ruling political party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, won EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS all the seats in the Federal and Regional Four members and leaders of opposition Parliaments in the general election. parties were killed after the election. The opposition Semayawi Party reported Samuel Aweke, founder of the Semayawi that the National Election Board of Ethiopia Party, was found dead on 15 June in the city (NEBE) refused to register over half of its of Debre Markos. A few days before his death proposed candidates for the House of he had published an article in his party’s Peoples’ Representatives: of 400 candidates, newspaper, Negere Ethiopia, criticizing the only 139 were able to stand for election. The behaviour of local authorities, police and opposition Medrek coalition reported that the other security officials. The Semayawi Party NEBE only approved 270 of the 303 claimed that Samuel Aweke had received candidates it had proposed to register. threats from security officials after the article Famine due to rainfall shortages during the was published. main harvesting season (June to September) On 16 June, Medrek member Taddesse

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 155 Abreha was accosted on his way home in the Democracy and Justice opposition party. Western Tigrai zone by three unknown people Police beat demonstrators with batons, sticks who attempted to strangle him. He died and iron rods on the head, face, hands and shortly after reaching his home. legs, injuring more than 20 of them. Medrek member Berhanu Erbu was found On 22 April, the government called a rally dead on 19 June near a river in the Hadiya on Meskel Square to condemn the killing in zone, 24 hours after he was taken from his Libya of Ethiopian migrants by affiliates of the home by two police officers. armed group Islamic State (IS). When some Asrat Haile, election observer on behalf of demonstrators shouted slogans during the Medrek in the Adio Kaka unit, Ginbo Woreda rally, police used excessive force, including district and Kefa zone, died after being tear gas and beatings, to disperse the crowd, repeatedly beaten by police officials on 5 July. which escalated the situation to clashes None of these deaths except Samuel between protesters and police. A journalist Aweke’s was investigated. The Semayawi reported that 48 people had been injured and Party said the trial, conviction and sentencing admitted to hospital, and that many others of Samuel Aweke’s killer were a “sham”, sustained minor injuries. Hundreds were intended to protect the real culprit. reported to have been arrested. Woyneshet Molla, Daniel Tesfaye, Ermias Tsegaye and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Betelehem Akalework were arrested on 22 In the run-up to the general elections, the April and charged with inciting violence government continued to use the ATP to during the rally. They were convicted and suppress freedom of expression through the sentenced to two months in prison, and were continued detention of journalists and kept in custody for more than 10 days after protracted trials: it arrested and charged at the completion of their prison term, although least 17 journalists under the ATP. Many also courts had ordered their release. The police fled the country due to intimidation, released them on bail on 2 July. harassment and politically motivated criminal charges. Police arrested Habtamu Minale, editor-in- FIJI chief of Kedami newspaper and reporter for YeMiliyonoch Dimts newspaper, on 9 July at Republic of Fiji his house. He was released on 26 July Head of state: Jioji Konousi Konrote (replaced Ratu without charge. Epeli Nailatikau in November) The Public Prosecutor dropped the charges Head of government: Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama against two members of the Zone 9 bloggers’ group. On 16 October, the High Court Fiji became the 100th abolitionist country acquitted five of the Zone 9 bloggers of when it abolished the death penalty for all terrorism charges, after they had spent over crimes. A review of a decree which has 500 days in pre-trial detention. curtailed workers’ rights since 2011 was On 22 October, the High Court convicted announced but had not been completed by and sentenced in his absence Gizaw Taye, the end of the year. The prosecution of the Manager of Dadimos Entertainment and 2012 torture case of prisoner Iowane Press, to 18 years’ imprisonment for terrorism Benedito began. Freedom of expression . remained restricted by a range of national laws, including the Media Industry FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Development Decree 2010.1 On 27 January, police used excessive force to disperse a peaceful demonstration in Addis INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY Ababa that was organized by the Unity for In March, following its examination under the

156 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 UPR, Fiji accepted numerous organizations and opposition parties claimed recommendations by the UN Human Rights that the Act contravened ILO core Council, in particular to issue a standing conventions. invitation to the UN Special Procedures. At the same session, however, Fiji failed to ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS accept recommendations to amend national Between July and December, 76 people were legislation to ensure guarantees of the rights arrested on sedition and related charges to freedom of expression, association and related to acts in August 2014. Various peaceful assembly in line with international concerns were raised by the defendants’ human rights law. lawyers regarding the lack of disclosure of information leading to the arrests; prolonged FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION detention periods before bringing them in Freedom of expression remained restricted by front of a court; the denial of access to a range of national laws, including the Media lawyers and family visits; and harsh prison Industry Development Decree 2010. Despite conditions. a small amendment to the Decree in July 2015 which decreased fines on individual TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT journalists for reporting certain news, heavy Extensive immunities under the Constitution fines remained in place for publishers and continued to make it almost impossible to editors. After the amendment no further fines hold state actors accountable for serious were imposed on publishers and editors human rights violations such as torture and during the year. other ill-treatment. In October court proceedings began in the case of police and WORKERS’ RIGHTS military officers accused of torturing escaped In March the government announced a prisoner Iowane Benedito in 2012. However, review of the Essential National Industries the authorities failed to launch investigations (Employment) Decree 2011 which severely into many past cases of torture and other ill- restricts collective bargaining rights, the right treatment. Fiji had still not ratified the UN to strike and the right to form and join trade Convention against Torture. unions in certain sectors. The proposed amendment to the Decree would need to meet international labour standards, including 1. Fiji: Amnesty International welcomes the government’s efforts to compliance with ILO treaties ratified by Fiji, as recognize economic and social rights, but regrets the rejection of recommended in the review. recommendations on freedom of expression, assembly and Despite protests by union members, the association (ASA 18/1257/2015) announcement of the review led to the ILO deferring a Commission of Inquiry on the basis that there would be a joint FINLAND implementation report delivered to the ILO governing body meeting by the government, Republic of Finland the Employer’s Federation and the Fiji Islands Head of state: Sauli Niinistö Council of Trade Unions. The joint Head of government: Juha Sipilä (replaced Alexander implementation report was not agreed to by Stubb in May) all parties and in November the ILO decided to initiate a mission to Fiji to determine Reforms to immigration and asylum obstacles to progress. legislation made some limited Despite strong opposition the government improvements to the detention of asylum- passed the Employment Relations seeking and migrant children, but concerns Amendment Act in July. Trade union about detention conditions remained.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 157 Support for victims of gender-based violence gender-based violence. remained inadequate and under-resourced. In September, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health prepared a draft decree to create REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS a body to co-ordinate work combating In July, amendments to the Aliens Act on violence against women. The Ministry detention of asylum-seekers and migrants proposed that the body consist of a network came into force. The law stated that of civil servants working within the limitations unaccompanied children under the age of 15 of their current offices, but envisioned only a can no longer be detained under any limited role for women’s or victim support circumstances. However, unaccompanied organizations. children aged between 15 and 17 may be detained for up to 72 hours once there is an DISCRIMINATION – TRANSGENDER enforceable decision on their removal from PEOPLE Finland; the period of detention can be Legislation on legal gender recognition extended by 72 hours for extraordinary continued to violate the rights of transgender reasons. Families with children may be individuals. Transgender people can obtain detained where no sufficient alternatives exist, legal gender recognition only if they agree to and where the child and a social welfare be sterilized, are diagnosed with a mental representative’s views have been heard. disorder, and are aged over 18. The legislative amendments included restrictions on visits and broader authorization COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY for trained staff to use force in detention In June, the new government stated an centres. intention to draft legislation criminalizing In August, the European Committee for the travel for terrorism purposes and participation Prevention of Torture published its report on in organizations proscribed as terrorist Finland, recommending several organizations by the EU and the UN. improvements to legislation on detention and conditions of detention. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS Conscientious objectors to military service VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS continued to be punished for refusing to In April, Finland ratified the Council of Europe undertake alternative civilian service, which Convention on Preventing and Combating remained punitive and discriminatory in Violence against Women and Domestic length. The duration of alternative civilian Violence (Istanbul Convention), which entered service was 347 days, more than double the into force in Finland in August. Despite shortest military service period of 165 days. ratification, there was neither an action plan nor any dedicated budget for the effective implementation of the Convention. Services FRANCE for women who have experienced violence remained inadequate and under-resourced. French Republic Finland fell short of the shelter requirements Head of state: François Hollande and recommendations in the Istanbul Head of government: Manuel Valls Convention, and despite the national shelter network becoming state-funded and co- In January and November, several attacks ordinated, the number of shelters and targeting the population were carried out in accessibility for disabled people was and around the capital, Paris, killing over insufficient. There were no walk-in services, 140 people and injuring hundreds. In no long-term support services for survivors of January, the government adopted further violence, nor a 24/7 helpline for victims of counter-terrorism measures. On 14

158 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 November, it formally declared a state of participating in acts that breach public order. emergency that was subsequently extended Under the law, pre-judicial authorization for by Parliament until February 2016. these measures was not required. In December, the government proposed a COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY bill to include a provision on the state of In January, violent attacks in Paris on emergency in the Constitution. journalists at the satirical weekly Charlie According to the Ministry of Interior, police Hebdo and at a Jewish supermarket left 17 carried out 2,029 house searches between people dead. In the aftermath of the attacks, 14 November and 1 December. In the same the government issued several decrees aimed period, 296 individuals were subjected to at implementing some of the provisions of the forced residency. Public demonstrations were 2014 anti-terrorism law. In particular, on banned in the Paris region (Ile-de-France) 14 January, the government issued a decree shortly after 13 November. The ban was banning travel abroad for the purposes of extended to other regions between 28 and 30 committing a terrorist act as defined under November, when several demonstrations French law. According to the Ministry of were scheduled to take place in the context of Interior, 222 individuals were subjected to the Paris Climate Conference (the 21st such a travel ban between January and Conference of Parties, known as COP 21). November. Several Muslim individuals were targeted On 5 February, authorities issued a decree for house searches or forced residency on the regulating the administrative blockage of basis of vague criteria, including religious websites, including those deemed to incite or practices deemed by the authorities to be justify terrorist acts. According to the Ministry “radical”, and thus constituting a threat to of Interior, 87 websites were blocked from public order or national security. The police January to November. Moreover, about 700 also searched mosques and other Muslim individuals were prosecuted for inciting or prayer spaces, and in some instances shut justifying terrorism, on the basis of a new them down. The authorities imposed forced provision (“apology of terrorism”) which had residency on 26 environmental activists in the been introduced in the 2014 anti-terrorism context of the COP 21 on the basis of their law. Due to the vague definition of the possible engagement in violent offence, in many cases authorities prosecuted demonstrations. individuals for statements that did not constitute incitement to violence and fell SURVEILLANCE within the scope of legitimate exercise of In July, Parliament passed a law that granted freedom of expression. the Prime Minister the power to authorize – After a series of eight seemingly co- without independent judicial oversight and ordinated armed attacks in and around Paris only upon consultation with an ad hoc on 13 November that resulted in 130 deaths committee – the use of surveillance measures and hundreds of injuries, the government on the national territory for a wide range of declared a state of emergency. On goals, including the protection of economic or 20 November, Parliament passed a bill that overarching foreign policy interests. The extended the state of emergency until 26 measures included the power to employ mass February 2016, amended the 1955 law on surveillance techniques for the purpose of the state of emergency, and provided for a tackling terrorism. range of measures that deviated from the In November, another law was passed, ordinary criminal law regime. The measures allowing the mass surveillance of all electronic included house searches without a warrant, communications sent to – or received from – forced residency and the power to dissolve abroad. The Prime Minister retained the associations or groups broadly described as power to authorize such surveillance, without

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 159 any prior consultation or independent judicial targeting migrants in Calais. oversight, for the purpose of achieving In July, a new asylum law was passed with vaguely defined goals. the aim of strengthening procedural guarantees for asylum-seekers, shortening TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the waiting time for assessing applications On 6 February, the French and Moroccan and protecting asylum-seekers’ economic and governments signed an additional protocol to social rights. their bilateral convention for legal co- Authorities agreed to relocate almost operation on criminal matters. The agreement 31,000 asylum-seekers in 2016-2017 and to facilitated the transfer to Moroccan authorities resettle 2,750 refugees, mainly from Syria. of complaints filed in France by Moroccan Unaccompanied children continued to be victims of alleged crimes perpetrated in routinely detained at the Roissy Charles de Morocco. Gaulle airport’s “waiting zone”. In April, the Paris Court of Appeal approved a petition to call Geoffrey Miller, former chief DISCRIMINATION of the US detention facility at Guantánamo According to NGOs, almost 4,000 Roma living Bay, Cuba, to give testimony in the cases of in 37 informal settlements were forcibly two French former Guantánamo detainees, evicted in the first half of the year. Migrants and , who had and asylum-seekers were also forcibly evicted alleged that they were tortured at the from informal settlements throughout the detention centre. year. In June and July, hundreds of them On 17 September, the Prime Minister were repeatedly evicted from several locations signed an order to extradite Kazakhstani in Paris. national Mukhtar Ablyazov to Russia, despite In March, the European Court of Human the high risk of unfair trial or onward transfer Rights communicated to the government from Russia to Kazakhstan, where he would three cases regarding transgender individuals be at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. An who were denied legal recognition of their appeal was pending before the Council of female gender because they had refused to State at the end of the year. comply with medical criteria. On 17 April, the government adopted an REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS action plan to combat racism and anti- Approximately 5,000 migrants, asylum- Semitism. Among other measures, it seekers and refugees continued to live in recommended the adoption of an harsh conditions in an informal settlement in amendment to the Criminal Code to ensure the northern city of Calais. that perpetrating a crime with a racist or anti- On 23 November, the Council of State Semitic motive constituted an aggravating found that living conditions in the informal circumstance. settlement in Calais amounted to inhuman In August, the UN Human Rights treatment, and ordered the immediate Committee recommended the revision of the installation of water and sanitation services in 2004 law prohibiting the wearing of religious the settlement. symbols in schools and of the 2011 law Both the UN Human Rights Committee and banning face covering. The Committee stated the national Ombudsperson raised concerns that the laws constituted a violation of the over instances of violence, harassment and right to freedom of religion and that they had ill-treatment of migrants, asylum-seekers and a disproportionate impact on women and refugees by law enforcement agents in Calais. girls, as well as on specific religious groups. On 2 December, the independent authority In November, the European Court of Human overseeing places of detention criticized the Rights found that the refusal of a state abusive use of administrative detention employer to extend the contract of a social

160 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 worker who was wearing the headscarf did February seeking an invitation to conduct a not violate her rights to freedoms of fact-finding mission. expression and religion. In June, Gambia expelled the EU’s Chargée d’Affaires, asking her to leave within 72 hours FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION with no explanation. On 20 October, the Court of Cassation Plans for a Human Rights Commission confirmed the conviction of 14 individuals for were developed. In November, President incitement to racial discrimination on the Jammeh announced that female genital basis of the 1881 law on freedom of the mutilation (FGM) would be banned and a bill press. In 2009 and 2010, they had criminalizing FGM was passed in December participated in non-violent initiatives in a by the National Assembly. supermarket calling for the boycott of Israeli products. ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES In January, dozens of friends and relatives of CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY people accused of involvement in the 2014 In November, the Senate rejected a bill aimed attempted coup were detained at establishing a framework to ensure the incommunicado. The authorities refused to respect of human rights by multinational acknowledge their detention or to provide companies, including their subsidiaries, sub- information on their whereabouts. Those contractors and suppliers. The bill had been detained included women, elderly people and approved in March by the National Assembly. a child. They were released in July after six months in detention without charge, in violation of Gambia’s Constitution. Some of GAMBIA those detained were tortured at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters, Republic of the Gambia including with beatings, electric shocks, Head of state and government: Yahya Jammeh or being detained in confined holes in the ground. The December 2014 attempted coup led to arrests and further human rights violations. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – The authorities continued to repress dissent JOURNALISTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS and display a lack of willingness to co- DEFENDERS operate with UN and regional human rights Journalists and human rights defenders were mechanisms or comply with their arbitrarily arrested and detained and recommendations. restrictive laws continued to curb the right to freedom of expression. BACKGROUND On 2 July, Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay, director In April, Gambia rejected 78 of the 171 of Teranga FM radio station, was detained recommendations at the UPR, including and held incommunicado for 12 days. A few removing restrictions on freedom of days after his release, Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay expression, ratifying the International was again detained, beaten, charged with Convention against enforced disappearance, several counts of sedition and denied bail. He and abolishing the death penalty.1 remained in detention; his trial was ongoing at The government ignored calls by the the end of the year.2 international community to conduct a joint In June, a well-known rapper, Killa Ace, independent investigation into the aftermath fled Gambia after receiving death threats of the 2014 attempted coup, most notably following the release of a song accusing the disregarding the African Commission on government of repression and extrajudicial Human and Peoples’ Rights resolution in executions.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 161 In June, Lamin Cham, a radio show host former director of the NIA, Lamin Bo Badjie, and music promoter, was arrested in the and former police chief, Ensa Badjie. Despite capital, Banjul, and detained at NIA the releases, other political opponents, headquarters and released without charge 20 journalists and prisoners of conscience days later. remained in detention, including the national Human rights activist Sait Matty Jaw, who treasurer of the opposition United Democratic was arrested in Banjul in December 2014 Party, Amadou Sanneh, as well as party and tried over work done on a survey for members Alhagie Sambou Fatty and Malang Gallup on good governance and corruption, Fatty.5 was finally discharged in April. DEATH PENALTY FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY On 30 March, a military court at the Fajara In April, police obstructed a nationwide tour barracks in Bakau, near the capital, handed by the opposition United Democratic Party down death sentences on three soldiers and with roadblocks. The tour was granted sentenced three others to life imprisonment permission to continue after a four-day for their involvement in the 2014 coup. The stand - off. trial was held in secret, with media and In November, police arrested over 40 independent observers barred from people during and after a protest by young observing.6 people and community members in Kartong against sand mining. Witnesses reported RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, excessive use of force by the police with some TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE people injured. Thirty-three were charged Three men suspected of being gay were put with various offences including conspiracy, on trial for “unnatural acts”. Two were breach of the peace, riot, causing malicious acquitted in August while the remaining man injuries and riotously interfering with a was still facing trial at year’s end. They had vehicle. They were unconditionally released been arrested in November 2014, a month eight days later, following a statement by the after Gambia introduced life sentences for the President ordering their release.3 offence of “aggravated homosexuality”. Many LGBTI people fled the country. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The UN Special Rapporteur on torture issued IMPUNITY a report in March citing that torture was The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, “prevalent and routine”, particularly by the summary or arbitrary executions issued a NIA in the early stages of detention. The report in May, documenting a handful of state report expressed concerns over prison investigations into police abuse, none of conditions and the lack of an effective which resulted in convictions. It stated that complaints mechanism to address allegations citizens were “reluctant to denounce abuses, of torture and other ill-treatment. He noted engage legal services or seek redress, even that “the nature of the torture is brutal and for the most serious violations, including includes very severe beatings with hard disappearances, torture or probable objects or electrical wires; electrocution, executions.” asphyxiation by placing a plastic bag over the The authorities made no progress towards head and filling it with water and burning with implementing the judgments of the ECOWAS hot liquid”.4 Court of Justice in the enforced On 25 July, at least 200 prisoners were disappearance of journalist Ebrima Manneh released by President Jammeh from Mile 2 (2010), the torture of journalist Musa prison, including several detained for treason Saidykhan (2010) and the unlawful killing of and several government officials, such as the Deyda Hydara (2014).

162 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 managers of pro-opposition TV channel 1. Gambia: Sharp deterioration of human rights in 21st year of President Rustavi 2. Several UNM offices across the Jammeh’s rule (News story, 22 July) country were vandalized by mobs in politically 2. Gambia: Further information: radio director rearrested, held motivated attacks. incommunicado: Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay (AFR 27/2155/2015) A 26% devaluation of the national currency 3. Gambia: Release peaceful protesters and community members against the US dollar affected numerous arbitrarily detained (News story, 30 November) families who had taken out loans in earlier 4. Gambia must take immediate steps to address concerns of UN years, and increased economic vulnerability Special Rapporteurs on torture and extrajudicial executions: Amnesty for many. International’s written statement to the 28th session of the UN Movement in and out of the breakaway Human Rights Council (AFR 27/1100/2015) territories and South Ossetia 5. Gambia: Prisoner release should include all those detained for remained restricted, while security and expressing dissent (News story, 24 July) humanitarian concerns over the two dormant 6. Gambia: Soldiers sentenced to death in secret trial must not be conflicts persisted. Tensions heightened executed (News story, 1 April) when, on 10 July, border posts were unilaterally moved several hundred metres outward from South Ossetia. Several civilians GEORGIA were reportedly detained and fined for “illegally” entering into South Ossetia across a Georgia largely undemarcated de facto border. Head of state: Giorgi Margvelashvili In October, the Prosecutor of theICC visited Head of government: Giorgi Kvirikashvili (replaced Georgia, shortly after requesting that the ICC Irakli Garibashvili in December) authorize an investigation into the situation during the Georgian-Russian war in August Legal battles around the pro-opposition TV 2008. channel Rustavi 2 raised concerns over freedom of expression. Allegations of JUSTICE SYSTEM political pressure on the judiciary and Concerns over fairness of judiciary selective selective justice persisted, particularly justice and politically motivated prosecutions following the rearrest and conviction of a persisted. former politician one day after the On 17 September, the Constitutional Court Constitutional Court ordered his release. In ruled to release Gigi Ugulava, an opposition several instances police prevented or limited activist and former Mayor of the capital, peaceful gatherings. The investigation of Tbilisi. It deemed his pre-trial detention since allegations of ill-treatment by law 2013 – on charges of misappropriation of enforcement officials remained slow and public funds and money laundering – illegal ineffective, while a proposal for an as it exceeded the nine-month legal limit. The independent investigative mechanism was Court’s judges came under heavy criticism put forward but not yet legislated on. from senior government officials for this decision and were threatened with violence BACKGROUND by some pro-government groups. On Towards the end of the year, political tensions 18 September, Gigi Ugulava was sentenced rose following incendiary remarks by the then to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment on Prime Minister against the opposition party account of these charges, and rearrested the United National Movement (UNM), public same day. screenings of clandestine videos of prison Contrary to widely held expectations, the rape dating back to the UNM-led judge who presided in a controversial 2006 government, and leaked communications murder trial was reappointed by the High between the exiled former President and Council of Justice on 25 December at the end

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 163 of his tenure. He had been criticized for his RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, handling of the case in which, according to TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE the European Court of Human Rights 2011 The International Day against Homophobia decision, “the different branches of State and Transphobia (IDAHOT) proceeded power… acted in concert in preventing justice peacefully in Tbilisi in a discreet location on from being done.” 17 May. The authorities had refused to guarantee the event’s safety unless it was FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION held at a specific location without any prior Concerns over freedom of expression were public announcement. voiced by local NGOs and political On 12 May, the European Court of Human commentators who believed that a lawsuit by Rights ruled in Identoba and Others v. a former shareholder of Rustavi 2 against its Georgia that the police’s failure to protect current owners was prompted by the participants of the 2012 IDAHOT march government to deprive the opposition of its constituted discrimination and restricted main mouthpiece. On 21 October, the participants’ freedom of assembly. director of Rustavi 2 reported having been On 7 August, Tbilisi City Court convicted a blackmailed, claiming that the security man of arson and battery and sentenced him services threatened to release intimate to four years in prison for physically assaulting footage of him unless he resigned. The Tbilisi one transgender woman and burning the flat City Court found in favour of the former of another whom he had killed. However, the shareholder, and Rustavi 2 managers were Court ruled that the killing was an act of self- forcibly replaced with pro-government defence and acquitted him of the relevant caretakers on 5 November, against the charge. Constitutional Court ruling that an appeal had On 23 October, Tbilisi City Court acquitted to be heard first. four men charged with attacking the 2013 IDAHOT rally in Tbilisi due to “insufficient FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY evidence” despite the men reportedly being In several instances police unduly limited or identifiable on video and photo footage of the prevented peaceful gatherings, while on a event. A fifth man, also identifiable in the number of occasions they failed to prevent footage, had been acquitted earlier. Dozens of clashes between political opponents. men had taken part in the attack but none On 15 March, approximately 50 supporters were convicted. of the Georgian Dream ruling coalition forcibly entered the local offices of UNM and an TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT affiliated group in Zugdidi, armed with Local human rights organizations reported wooden sticks, throwing stones and smashing new cases of ill-treatment by law enforcement windows. Nine people were reported injured, officials. The investigation of alleged abuses including one of the police officers who tried by members of the General Inspection of the to intervene but were outnumbered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs was slow and attackers. ineffective. On 12 June, 15 activists attempted to stage A draft model of an independent a protest at Heydar Aliyev Square in Tbilisi investigative mechanism for the investigation against Azerbaijan’s poor human rights of criminal offences committed by law record, ahead of the first European Games in enforcement officials was jointly proposed by Azerbaijan’s capital Baku. Ahead of the the human rights Ombudsman and some picket, police officers cordoned off the square NGOs. However, the law required to establish and denied access to activists without the mechanism was not considered until the providing a reason. end of the year.

164 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 application had been rejected. The amended GERMANY Asylum Seekers Benefits Act, in force since April, fell short of human rights standards, Federal Republic of Germany particularly regarding access to health care. A Head of state: Joachim Gauck new law passed in October expanded the list Head of government: Angela Merkel of safe countries of origin to include Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro, thus limiting the Around 1.1 million asylum-seekers entered opportunity for nationals of these countries to the country throughout the year. The seek protection. The law also introduced government unilaterally decided for a period severe cuts to benefits set out in the Asylum of time not to return Syrian asylum-seekers Seekers Benefits Act for rejected asylum- to their first country of entry in the EU. It seekers remaining in Germany in breach of expanded the list of safe countries of origin an order to leave the country – or anyway and introduced severe cuts to benefits for remaining without legal status – and for certain categories of asylum-seekers. The asylum-seekers who moved to Germany authorities’ failure to effectively investigate despite having been relocated to another alleged human rights violations by police European country. persisted. Hate crimes against refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants increased TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT sharply. The authorities continued to fail to effectively investigate allegations of ill-treatment by REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS police and did not establish any independent The influx of asylum-seekers, mostly from complaints mechanism to investigate those Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, increased allegations. The obligation for police officers considerably in the second half of the year, to wear identity badges was not extended from already high levels. By the end of the beyond the federal states of Berlin, year Germany had received around 1.1 Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen, million asylum-seekers. In August, Prime Hessen and Schleswig-Holstein. Minister Angela Merkel highlighted the The National Agency for the Prevention of necessity to address the needs of incoming Torture, Germany’s preventive mechanism refugees; invited other European leaders to under the Optional Protocol to the UN share responsibility for people seeking Convention against Torture, remained protection in Europe; and decided to consider severely under-resourced. The appointment asylum applications submitted by tens of procedure for the National Agency’s members thousands of Syrians arriving in Germany continued to fall short of international through countries such as Hungary and standards on independence and Austria, rather than seeking their return to the transparency, and excluded civil society first EU country they entered – a measure representatives. that was enforced for about three months. By In May, national media reported on the the end of the year, 476,649 asylum alleged abuse of two Afghan and Moroccan applications had been submitted. Germany refugees in the holding cells of the federal contributed to the EU schemes for police at Hannover’s main train station in resettlement and relocation by pledging 1,600 2014. Investigations against a federal police and 27,555 places respectively. officer were ongoing at the end of the year. In July, a new law improved the legal status of resettled refugees, including by facilitating DISCRIMINATION family reunification, but increased powers to On 27 January, the Constitutional Court found detain asylum-seekers under the Dublin that the prohibition on teachers wearing Regulation and those whose asylum religious symbols and dress, with the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 165 exception of those expressing Christian or Rwandan citizen Onesphore Rwabukombe, Western values, which was in force in North- who was sentenced in 2014 to 14 years’ Rhine Westphalia since 2006, was imprisonment for aiding the commission of a discriminatory. Similar prohibitions remained massacre at the Kiziguro church compound. in force in other German states. It was found on appeal that Rwabukombe Opposition to refugees, asylum-seekers and was actively involved in the murder of 450 migrants, particularly Muslims, resulted in people at the Kiziguro church, and that his hundreds of protests being staged across the previous sentence was too lenient. The case country. Hate crimes against refugees, was referred back to a lower court in asylum-seekers and migrants increased Frankfurt for retrial. sharply. According to the government, 113 On 28 September, the Higher Regional violent attacks against asylum shelters were Court in Stuttgart sentenced Rwandan leaders perpetrated in the first 10 months of the year, of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of compared with 29 in 2014. Rwanda (FDLR) Ignace Murwanashyaka and The Federal Parliament considered an Straton Musoni to 13 and eight years in amendment to Section 46 of the Criminal prison respectively. They were both found Code, which, if passed, would require courts guilty of leadership of a foreign terrorist group, to take into account a racist or xenophobic while Ignace Murwanashyaka was additionally motivation when deciding sentences. convicted of aiding in war crimes. It was the In June, the UN Committee on the first trial based on the 2002 Code of Crimes Elimination of Racial Discrimination against International Law. highlighted the authorities’ failure to On 5 December 2014, the Higher Regional investigate the racial motivation of offences, Court in Düsseldorf convicted three German including in relation to murders perpetrated citizens, originally from Rwanda, for their by the far-right group National Socialist support to the FDLR. Underground (NSU) against members of ethnic minorities. Moreover, the Committee raised concerns regarding the discriminatory GHANA impact of police stop-and-search powers on ethnic minorities. Republic of Ghana Several proceedings regarding the alleged Head of state and government: John Dramani Mahama discriminatory impact of identity checks carried out by federal police under Section Excessive use of force by police was 22(1)(a) of the Federal Police Act were reported in the context of demonstrations pending at various levels of administrative and mass evictions. Torture and other ill- courts. treatment continued to be reported and prison conditions remained a concern. ARMS TRADE Violence against women remained In March, the Federal Security Council widespread; there was particular concern released new principles in line with about banishment for witchcraft. Lesbian, international standards for the sale of small gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex arms and light weapons. In July, the Federal (LGBTI) people faced discrimination and Cabinet passed a policy paper for the were targeted for attack. Death sentences introduction of post-shipment controls. continued to be handed down.

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE BACKGROUND On 21 May, the Federal Court of Justice A process to review the Constitution was partially overturned the decision of the delayed owing to a court case challenging the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court in the case of legality of the Constitutional Review

166 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Implementation Committee. In October, the VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Supreme Court dismissed the case. Violence against women and girls remained widespread. In recent years, several hundred FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY women have been accused of witchcraft by In September, police fired tear gas and used members of their communities and banished batons to disperse demonstrators taking part to live in isolated camps with minimal access in a peaceful demonstration, after failing to to health care, education, sanitation and other agree on a route for the march. The services. Although the government, in demonstration was organized by the Let My collaboration with traditional leaders and civil Vote Count Alliance calling for a new voters’ society, shut down the Bonyasi witch camp in register. December 2014, and announced it would close others, some camps remained open at TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the end of the year. In October, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture visited Ghana to follow up on the RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, recommendations he had made following his TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE 2013 visit. While welcoming the fact that Consensual same-sex conduct between men some progress had been made, he expressed remained a criminal offence and many LGBTI concern that the police and intelligence people faced discrimination, violence and services continued to use torture and other ill- police harassment. treatment. In February, some Ghanaian celebrities He also noted the lack of due diligence and condemned the beating of a music promoter urgency shown by oversight mechanisms in who was suspected of being gay. investigating allegations of torture or other ill- In September, police arrested Sulley treatment and the need for the expansion and Fuiseni, leader of a group called Safety effective implementation of the Legal Aid Empire which is accused of attacking LGBTI Scheme. people in the Nima disctrict of Accra. His trial He noted no significant lessening of was continuing at the end of the year. overcrowding in detention centres or improvement in conditions of detention, such DEATH PENALTY as poor sanitation and inadequate nutrition. No executions have taken place since 1993. However, Ghana retains the death penalty HOUSING RIGHTS and courts continued to hand down death A National Housing Policy was adopted in sentences. The government took no action March, with the overall goal of providing during the year in response to the decent and affordable housing that is recommendations made in 2014 by the UN accessible and sustainable. Human Rights Committee and the On 20-21 June, several thousand people Committee’s condemnation of the use of were evicted from Accra’s largest slum, Old automatic and mandatory death sentences in Fadama. Popularly known as Sodom and Ghana. Gomorrah, the slum was home to around Proposals made by the Constitutional 50,000 people. Police used tear gas against Review Implementation Committee to abolish people demonstrating against the demolition the death penalty were stalled as a result of and several people were injured. Amnesty delays in the constitutional review process. International expressed concern that these evictions did not conform to international human rights standards and that better guidelines are needed.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 167 During the same month, the party took third GREECE place in the parliamentary elections and elected 18 MPs. Hellenic Republic Head of state: Prokopis Pavlopoulos (replaced REFUGEES, ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND Karolos Papoulias in March) MIGRANTS Head of government: Alexis Tsipras (replaced Vassiliki More than 851,319 refugees, asylum-seekers Thanou Christophilou in September, who served as and migrants crossed the sea to arrive in the interim Prime Minister after the resignation of Aegean islands during the year. In the same Tsipras in August) period, more than 612 people, including many children, died or were unaccounted for The dramatic increase in arrivals of asylum- in the crossing when the boats carrying them seekers and irregular migrants on the capsized. Aegean islands pushed an ineffective first Collective expulsions by police continued at reception system beyond breaking point. the Greek-Turkish land border; several Collective expulsions continued at the refugees and asylum-seekers reported Greek-Turkish border. Allegations of torture instances of violent push-backs. Push-backs and other ill-treatment and excessive use of also continued at sea. Eleven push-back force by police persisted. A law extending incidents were reported to have occurred at civil unions to same-sex couples was voted the Greek-Turkish land and sea borders at the end of the year. between November 2014 and the end of August 2015. In October, the Prosecutor of BACKGROUND the Thessaloniki Appeals Court ordered the At the end of June, the government imposed Internal Affairs Directorate of the Police to capital controls on banks while in a July conduct a criminal investigation into a series referendum 61.3% of voters rejected a of reports by NGOs concerning collective stringent bailout plan by Greece’s creditors. expulsions of refugees and migrants by police Shortly after, following several months of in Evros. intensive negotiations, the government agreed In July, new legislation (Law 4332/2015) a new bail-out plan with the European was adopted setting out requirements for the Institutions and the International Monetary granting of Greek citizenship to children of Fund. migrants. In October, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Reception conditions expressed concern about the severe impact The already ineffective first reception system of the financial crisis on the enjoyment of the proved incapable of adequately responding to rights to work, social security and health the dramatic increase in refugees and particularly by certain disadvantaged groups. migrants arriving on the Aegean islands. Poor The trial of 69 people including the leader, planning, the ineffective use of EU funds and MPs and supporters of Golden Dawn began the deep financial crisis exacerbated the in April. The defendants had been indicted humanitarian crisis on the islands. Local for running and participating in a criminal activists, volunteers, NGOs and UNHCR, the organization and a range of other offences, UN refugee agency, tried to cover the including numerous racist attacks and the enormous gaps in humanitarian provision for murder of anti-fascist singer Pavlos Fyssas in refugees.1 2013. In September, the party’s leader, Nikos Reception conditions on islands such as Mihaloliakos, acknowledged during a media Lesvos and Kos were inhuman. Deficiencies interview that the party had political included a lack of police and coastguard staff, responsibility for the murder of Pavlos Fyssas. insufficient tents, lack of food and poor

168 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 hygiene conditions. The vast majority of new third-country nationals from Maghreb arrivals had no access to the First Reception countries for immigration purposes. Service. Obstacles to accessing asylum procedures In mid-October, the Greek authorities remained for both detained and non-detained established a pilot scheme for the screening asylum-seekers. of new arrivals by the EU border agency and the Greek police. The “hotspot” operated at TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the Moria immigration detention centre on Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of Lesvos. However, reception conditions there individuals, including refugees and migrants remained dire.2 in immigration detention or during push-back There was inadequate accommodation and operations, persisted. facilities for refugees and migrants arriving in In September, lawyers reported that nine Athens, the capital, where hundreds of individuals, some of them children, were ill- people, including families, stayed for several treated by police officers belonging to the days and nights in parks and squares of the DELTA special police unit following their city. In August, the authorities established a arrest in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia in reception centre in the area of Elaionas, in Athens. A criminal investigation was initiated Athens, to provide temporary shelter to new by the Internal Affairs Directorate of the arrivals. Three stadiums in Attika were also Police. used to provide temporary shelter to refugees In April, the Athens Mixed Jury Court and migrants when needed. convicted two police officers of the torture in In November and December, reception May 2007 of Christos Chronopoulos, who had conditions at the informal Idomeni refugee a mental health disability. The Court handed camp deteriorated markedly after down sentences of eight years’ imprisonment Macedonian authorities imposed selective to each officer; the sentences were border controls on arriving refugees and suspended on appeal. migrants.3 The camp was evacuated following a police operation in mid-December. People EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE not allowed to cross the border were Allegations of excessive use of force by police transferred to Athens by bus and offered continued. In August, more than 2,000 temporary shelter in a stadium. refugees and migrants were locked in inhuman conditions in the local sports Detention of asylum-seekers and migrants stadium on Kos. Reports emerged of police In February, the Ministers for Migration Policy being unable to manage the crowd and and Citizens’ Protection took some steps to dispersing them by spraying them with fire reform the policy of systematic and prolonged extinguishers. On several occasions between detention of asylum-seekers and irregular August and October, riot police on Lesvos migrants. In particular, the authorities ceased reportedly used tear gas and beat refugees to implement the widely criticized policy of and migrants waiting to be admitted for indefinite detention and released a large screening at the Moria immigration detention number of asylum-seekers and irregular centre and those being registered in migrants held for more than six months. Mytilene port. Unaccompanied children were often held with adults and remained in detention for DISCRIMINATION several weeks under poor conditions. Conditions in immigration detention areas, Hate crime including police stations, often amounted to Hate-motivated attacks against refugees and inhuman or degrading treatment. At the end migrants continued. In July, the Piraeus of the year, the authorities started detaining Felony Court of Appeals found a bakery

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 169 owner guilty of abducting, robbing and remained in a segregated separate school in causing serious bodily harm to Egyptian Sofades, a town in Central Greece. migrant worker Walid Taleb in 2012. The In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on Court sentenced him to 13 years and two contemporary forms of racism expressed months in prison. Three other men were concerns about the housing conditions at the found guilty of abetting and were given prison Roma settlement in Spata, a town near sentences which were later suspended on Athens, including the lack of electricity and its appeal. implications for the education and health of On 3 September, a group of 15 to 25 men, Roma children. allegedly members of Golden Dawn, attacked refugees on Kos and threatened activists. WOMEN’S RIGHTS Police took no action to stop the group from In October, the UN Committee on Economic, attacking the refugees, and riot police only Social and Cultural Rights reiterated its intervened after the physical attacks had concerns over the high incidence of domestic started. violence and the low rates of prosecution, as During the year, the NGO Colour Youth well as the under-representation of women in documented in the project “Tell us” 73 political and public life. incidents of hate-motivated attacks against members of the LGBTI community, compared CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS with 22 incidents documented during the Alternative civilian service remained punitive whole of 2014. On 24 September, two men and discriminatory. Men refusing military were convicted of an attack against a conscription who also refused to carry out transgender woman in a bar in Thessaloniki alternative civilian service continued to face on 19 September and received a sentence of prosecution in the military justice system for 19 months’ imprisonment. insubordination, facing sentences of up to two At the end of the year, the investigation of years’ imprisonment and significant fines. the homophobic and racist attack in August 2014 against Costas, a Greek national, and his partner, had made no progress. The 1. Humanitarian crisis mounts as refugee system pushed to breaking perpetrators had not been found or identified. point (Press release, 25 June) 2. Urgent Action: Refugees face hellish conditions on Islands (EUR Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and 25/2798/2015) intersex people 3. Fear and fences: Europe’s approach to keeping refugees at bay (EUR On 22 December, Parliament passed a law 03/2544/2015) extending civil unions to same-sex couples. The new law enables same-sex couples to enjoy some of the rights granted to married GUATEMALA couples, including emergency medical decisions and inheritance rights, but does not Republic of Guatemala guarantee adoption rights and legal gender Head of state and government: Alejandro Maldonado recognition for transgender people. Aguirre (replaced Otto Pérez Molina in September)

Roma In a landmark development, the President Roma children continued to face segregation and Vice-President resigned and were or exclusion from education in many parts of detained on corruption charges. Important Greece, including the towns of Aspropirgos, progress towards accountability was made, Sofades and Karditsa. Despite the 2013 ruling although justice was still elusive for human of the European Court of Human Rights in rights violations and crimes under Lavida and others v. Greece, Roma children international law committed during the

170 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 internal armed conflict. Human rights 1960 and 1996 continued to be slow and defenders, including environmental and halting. However, important steps towards land rights defenders protesting against accountability were made. In October, a hydroelectric and mining projects, and Guatemala City appeals court declared that a journalists, were threatened, attacked, 1986 amnesty decree could not be applied to harassed and intimidated. Violence against crimes against humanity and genocide. As a women and girls continued to be systemic. result, the case against former President and Commander-in-Chief of the Guatemalan BACKGROUND army, José Efraín Ríos Montt, could proceed. The country was shaken by revelations in In August, the Guatemalan Court for High April by the International Commission against Risk ruled that Efraín Ríos Montt should be Impunity in Guatemala and the Guatemalan tried behind closed doors in special criminal Public Prosecutor’s Office of wide-reaching proceedings due to begin in January 2016.1 corruption involving the customs agency. Ríos Montt will be represented by a third More than a dozen officials were charged and party during the trial and the court is not arrested for their alleged participation, empowered to hand down a prison sentence, including Vice-President Roxana Baldetti. In owing to the 89-year-old defendant’s poor September, President Pérez Molina resigned, health. In January, a civilian court in one day after Congress stripped him of his Guatemala City found Pedro García immunity from prosecution. Otto Pérez Molina Arredondo, former chief detective of the now- was the first ever serving president to face defunct National Police, guilty of orchestrating criminal charges. a fire in the city’s Spanish Embassy that killed The scandal gained momentum over a 37 people in 1980.2 He was sentenced to 90 period of months during which public protests years in prison for murder, attempted murder mounted. Massive anti-corruption and crimes against humanity. demonstrations lasting several months were Civil society organizations continued to seen in the streets of a number of cities push for the approval of Law 3590, which around the country, bringing together many would create a National Commission for the different groups and sectors of society in an Search for Victims of Enforced Disappearance unprecedented fashion. However, the and Other Forms of Disappearance. The law atmosphere of increased social mobilization, was first presented before Congress in 2006. demonstrations and civic activity also resulted in threats and intimidation against HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS participants. Human rights defenders, particularly In September, Alejandro Maldonado Indigenous leaders and protesters defending Aguirre, a former Constitutional Court judge, environmental and land rights and opposing was sworn in as President. Presidential hydroelectric and mining megaprojects faced elections, which had been scheduled before continuous attacks, threats, harassment and the scandal broke, were held in September intimidation during the year. with a run-off in October. The winner, The Guatemalan human rights organization comedian James Ernesto “Jimmy” Morales UDEFEGUA documented 337 acts of Cabrera, was due to take office in January aggression against human rights defenders in 2016. the first half of 2015, more than the number recorded in the whole of 2012, the year IMPUNITY President Pérez Molina took office. Truth, justice and reparations for human Documented abuses rose by over 166% rights violations and crimes under during his presidency, according to international law committed during the UDEFEGUA. country´s internal armed conflict between UDEFEGUA stated that almost 71% of all

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 171 documented attacks and intimidation against throughout the year, compared with 774 in human rights defenders in the first half of 2014. The Public Prosecutor’s Office stated 2015 targeted Indigenous leaders and that violence against women had been the defenders working on environmental and land most frequently reported crime in the country rights issues. Leaders of movements opposing in 2013 and 2014. hydroelectric projects in Huehuetenango Guatemala had yet to comply with a 2014 Department were arbitrarily arrested and tried ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human in proceedings that local groups said were Rights in the case of María Isabel Véliz characterized by irregularities and violations Franco, who was 15 at the time of her death of due process. According to UDEFEGUA, in 2001. The Court found Guatemala eight human rights defenders were in prison responsible for her gender-based killing and at the end of the year. the subsequent failure to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible. The FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – judgment called on the authorities to carry out JOURNALISTS an effective investigation, make a public In March, Prensa Libre correspondent Danilo apology, and reinforce state institutions to López and Radio Nuevo Mundo reporter investigate and prosecute gender-based Federico Salazar were shot dead by gunmen violence. Compensation for victims, including while walking in a park in Mazatenango, the María Isabel Véliz Franco’s mother, had not capital of Suchitepéquez Department. Danilo been paid by the end of the year. López, according to the authorities the probable target of the attack, had frequently received threats for his reporting on local 1. Guatemala: Court ruling on Ríos Montt’s case highlights flaws in government corruption and was investigating justice system (News story, 25 August) a story on money laundering shortly before 2. Guatemala: Conviction of ex-police chief finally brings justice for his death. The authorities arrested several 1980 Spanish embassy attack (News story, 20 January) people they accused of having carried out or planned the crime, including two police officers, but no one was charged with GUINEA ordering the crime. At the end of the year, it remained unclear who was behind the Republic of Guinea killings; investigations were ongoing. Head of state: Alpha Condé Head of government: Mohamed Saïd Fofana LAND DISPUTES In July, an appeals court suspended In the context of the presidential election, operations of the contested El Tambor gold authorities banned demonstrations and the mine until further community consultations security forces regularly used excessive were held. In a separate case in September, a force against demonstrators. Arbitrary criminal court suspended operations of a arrests continued, including of opposition palm oil company in Petén Department members. People were arrested because of pending further investigation of its alleged their perceived sexual orientation. Impunity responsibility for the contamination of a local for human rights violations persisted. river. In both cases, the activists and human rights defenders involved had been BACKGROUND intimidated, threatened and attacked. President Alpha Condé was re-elected in October with 57.84% of the vote. The VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS opposition contested the election results, The National Institute of Forensic Science citing irregularities. Violence between reported that 766 women were murdered members of opposition parties and clashes

172 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 with security forces led to at least 20 deaths union were arrested in October. All of them and hundreds of people injured in incidents were charged with contempt of the head of linked to the elections throughout the year. state and defamation. They were still in detention at the end of the year.4 INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY In May, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Guinea’s human rights record was assessed Detention found that the detention of General under the UPR in January. The concerns Nouhou Thiam, Adjudant Mohamed Kaba, raised included restrictions on the right to Lieutenant Mohamed Condé, Colonel Saadou freedom of peaceful assembly, excessive use Diallo and Lieutenant Kémo Condé was of force to disperse demonstrators and a arbitrary. They were arrested in 2011 culture of impunity within the security forces. following an attack on President Condé’s Guinea did not accept recommendations to house. The Working Group called on Guinea abolish the death penalty or to decriminalize to release the men. They were still in consensual same-sex relations.1 detention at the end of the year.

EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, At least 20 people died during violence TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE around the election period, at least half of Article 325 of the Criminal Code criminalizes which were killed by security forces.2 Other consensual same-sex sexual acts. At least people, including children, were injured by three people were arrested because of their live ammunition, misuse of riot equipment, or perceived sexual orientation. Two men were in accidents with security force vehicles. arrested on 22 April in Conakry. In May, the Three journalists were beaten by the police in Tribunal of Mafanco sentenced them to three Hamdallaye, Boké region, in May. months’ imprisonment. In June, the National Assembly passed a bill on maintaining public order which defined IMPUNITY how and when force can and cannot be used Investigations continued into the massacre in to police protests. The bill could restrict the the Grand Stade de Conakry in 2009, when right to peaceful assembly: it would not allow security forces killed more than 100 peaceful spontaneous public assembly, while security demonstrators and injured at least 1,500 forces would retain the power to disperse others. Dozens of women were raped and groups of otherwise peaceful protesters if at others disappeared. Moussa Dadis Camara, least one person is believed to have a then head of the military junta, was indicted weapon. Such clauses could be used as in July. Mamadouba Toto Camara, then grounds for banning or repressing peaceful Minister of Public Security and Civilian protests. Protection, was indicted in June. Impunity for other human rights violations ARBITRARY DETENTIONS committed by members of the security forces Members of opposition groups, trade persisted. No progress was made towards unionists and other people who expressed bringing to trial gendarmes and police officers dissent were arbitrarily detained ahead of the suspected of criminal responsibility for using elections.3 Jean Dougo Guilavogui, a union excessive force against peaceful leader and retired member of the armed demonstrators, leading to death and injuries forces, was arrested in the capital, Conakry, between 2011 and 2015. on 19 September and detained without being There was no investigation of members of brought before judicial authorities until his the police, gendarmerie and army who were indictment on 25 September. His extended involved in the systematic pillage and detention is contrary to international law and contamination of water sources of Womey, to Guinean law. Four other members of the Nzérékoré region, in September 2014.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 173 Security forces had been deployed to the area following the killings of seven members of an GUINEA-BISSAU Ebola sensitization team and a bystander in Womey. Several people arrested reported Republic of Guinea-Bissau being subjected to torture and at least six Head of state: José Mário Vaz women were raped as they attempted to Head of government: Carlos Correia (replaced Baciro return to their village to seek food or Djá in September, who replaced Domingos Simões valuables. Two men died in detention in Pereira in August) December 2014 and May 2015. In April, the Tribunal of Nzérékoré sentenced 11 of the The human rights situation improved. villagers to life imprisonment for murder. However, there were reports of torture and In March the Assize Court of Kankan other ill-treatment and deaths in police adjourned the trial of four security force custody. The authorities took no action to members charged with killing six people improve poor detention conditions. during a strike at a mine in Zogota in 2012. The accused officers failed to appear in court. BACKGROUND In June, members of the community of In January, Guinea-Bissau’s human rights Saoro village, Nzérékoré region, filed a case record was assessed under the UPR. The before ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, government accepted most recommendations claiming that the Guinean authorities made made and noted for further consideration no effort to prosecute security forces accused those related to the ratification of the Optional of arbitrary arrest, torture, rape and unlawful Protocol to the ICESCR, and the Convention killings of villagers protesting against their on the Non-Applicability of Statutory forced eviction in 2011. Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. August saw the unconstitutional dismissal 1. Guinea: The culture of excessive use of force threatens civil and by President Vaz of Prime Minister Simões political rights ahead of the presidential elections (AFR Pereira and his government. A week later 29/1950/2015) President Vaz appointed Baciro Djá as Prime 2. Guinea: Preventing the excessive use of force and respecting freedom Minister, despite opposition from Parliament of peaceful assembly in the run-up to the 2015 elections and beyond and widespread protest by civil society which – a call to action (AFR 29/2160/2015); “Guinea: Unarmed people shot demanded the reinstatement of Domingos in the back and beaten to death by the security forces in Conakry” Simões Pereira. Lacking parliamentary (News story, 22 October) approval, Baciro Djá was unable to form a 3. Guinea: Urgent health concern for two detainees (AFR 29/ government until 10 September, only to be 1868/2015); Guinea: Further information: Two detainees released on dismissed five days later after the Supreme health grounds (AFR 29/1889/2015) Court ruled the President’s actions 4. Guinea: Further information: Four more trade unionists detained (AFR unconstitutional. Carlos Correia was then 29/2660/2015) appointed Prime Minister and a new government was formed in mid-October, with Parliament’s support.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT There were several reports of torture and other ill-treatment by police in the northern town of Bissorã, where local residents referred to the police station as a torture centre. Tchutcho Mendonça was arrested on 3 July at his home in Bissorã, following an

174 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 argument with his father. He was taken to November, 133 people had been murdered, Bissorã police station where he was tortured compared with 130 during the same period in and died two days later. Those who saw his 2014, according to the Guyana Police Force body reported that it showed signs consistent (GPF). with torture. Ten police officers were General elections were held in May and subsequently arrested but none had been David Granger was elected President. tried by the end of the year. Granger´s coalition won over a party which Also in July, police approached and beat had held power for 23 years. Mamadú Djaló in a street in Bissorã, causing Prior to elections, during a sensitive injuries to his torso. No investigation was electoral contest, a political activist was killed, known to have been carried out into the causing concern about potential limitations on beating by the end of the year. freedom of expression. In January, Guyana’s human rights record was examined under PRISON CONDITIONS the UPR. In June, the NGO Guinea-Bissau Human Rights League reported that conditions of POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES detention throughout the country were Allegations of excessive use of force by the appalling and amounted to cruel and GPF during arrests and detention remained a inhuman treatment, particularly the cells of concern. Guyana accepted recommendations the Criminal Investigation Police and the made during the UPR to strengthen the Second Police Station, both in the capital independence of the Police Complaints Bissau, and called for their closure. Authority and increase its resources and Conditions in these cells included severe capacity. overcrowding, with some inmates having to sleep in the toilets, poor sanitation and CHILDREN’S RIGHTS ventilation, all of which reportedly led to Corporal punishment continued in schools, in detainees becoming ill. According to the contravention of the UN Convention of the NGO, the cell at the Criminal Investigation Rights of the Child. While the government Police had capacity for 35 people but conducted consultations with civil society on regularly held over 100. The authorities had the use of corporal punishment, the law taken no action to improve conditions by the remained unchanged. end of the year. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS High levels of sexual and other physical GUYANA violence against women and girls continued. According to a Latin American Public Opinion Republic of Guyana Project survey published in 2014, acceptance Head of state and government: David Arthur Granger of domestic violence was high in Guyana. The (replaced Donald Ramotar in May) GPF had registered 300 reports of rape for 2015 as of November, compared with 238 for There were continuing concerns about the same period last year. excessive use of force by the police, Conviction rates for sexual offences violence against women and girls, and remained alarmingly low. According to discrimination and violence towards lesbian, women’s rights groups, police continued to gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex fail to take reports seriously. (LGBTI) people. In July, the former Minister of Health was charged with using insulting language BACKGROUND towards a women’s rights activist who Violent crime remained widespread. By confronted him on issues of maternal health.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 175 He had threatened to “slap” her and have her homeless by the January 2010 earthquake “stripped” of her clothes. remained displaced. Hundreds of Haitian migrants returning or deported from the RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Dominican Republic settled in makeshift TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE camps with no access to services. Concerns Violence and discrimination towards LGBTI remained over the lack of independence of people remained a serious concern. There the justice system. continued to be no legal protection against discrimination based on real or perceived BACKGROUND sexual orientation and gender identity and The failure to hold long-overdue legislative expression, and same-sex sexual conduct elections rendered Parliament dysfunctional. between men remained criminalized. On 16 January, following an agreement with In July 2015, days after civil society groups the political parties, the President confirmed held a candlelight vigil to mark the one-year the appointment of Evans Paul as Prime anniversary of the death of two transgender Minister who, two days later, announced the sex workers, a transgender sex worker known formation of a transitional government as “Nephi” was killed in Georgetown. A including members of opposition parties. suspect was reportedly charged in August. The first round of legislative elections was The Society Against Sexual Orientation held on 9 August, and was marked by Discrimination (SASOD), a local NGO, widespread disruption and violence. The first continued to receive reports of discrimination round of presidential elections as well as the based on sexual orientation and gender second round of legislative elections and identity in the workplace. According to municipal elections were held on 25 October. SASOD, transgender youth continued to be Although these election rounds saw minimal made homeless due to discrimination from violence, opposition candidates and national within their home environment and children’s election observers alleged massive frauds. homes lacked the capacity to respond to their Following mass demonstrations and the needs. refusal of the presidential candidate who had In response to recommendations made qualified second to participate in the electoral during the UPR, Guyana agreed “to run-off scheduled on 27 December, on strengthen the protection of LGBT 22 December President Martelly established individuals” and “to continue its effort in a commission tasked with evaluating the 25 eliminating discrimination against LGBTI October election. On 21 December, the run- people starting with the review of its related off was postponed. legislation”. Another 14 recommendations on In October, the UN Security Council LGBTI issues, including to reform the renewed the mandate of the UN Stabilization Criminal Law Offences Act, were rejected by Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) for a 12th year Guyana. and affirmed its intention to consider the possible withdrawal of the mission within a year. HAITI Severe drought in the North-West and South-West departments negatively impacted Republic of Haiti on food security and nutrition, especially for Head of state: Michel Joseph Martelly rural families and those living on the Head of government: Evans Paul Dominican-Haitian border.

Legislative, presidential and municipal INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE elections were held amid violence and At the end of June, more than 60,000 people controversy. More than 60,000 people made made homeless by the January 2010

176 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 earthquake were still living in 45 makeshift IMPUNITY camps. Living conditions in camps worsened The investigation into alleged crimes against as many humanitarian programmes ended humanity committed by former President due to a lack of funding. Many displaced Jean-Claude Duvalier and his former people left the camps after being allocated collaborators made little progress. Following one-year rental subsidies. However, the his visit to Haiti in September, the UN government failed to implement durable Independent Expert on the situation of human solutions for displaced people.1 rights in Haiti reiterated his recommendation for the creation of “a truth, justice and peace REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS commission to clarify and provide remedy” for Tens of thousands of Haitian migrants and the victims of past human rights violations their families returned to Haiti after the under François and Jean-Claude Duvalier and Dominican authorities announced that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. deportations of irregular migrants would resume from 17 June. Many were reportedly JUSTICE SYSTEM deported; others fled following threats or The appointment of a new President of the fearing violent expulsion. Hundreds settled in High Council of the Judiciary in March helped makeshift camps at the border. Haitian and restore the institution’s credibility. It was also international human rights organizations, as strengthened by the appointment of a well as the UN Independent Expert on the Director of the Judicial Inspectorate and 10 situation of human rights in Haiti, raised sitting judges as inspectors. However, delays concerns about the lack of access to services in the renewal of judges’ tenure and in vetting for people living in camps in the Anse-à-Pitres processes negatively impacted on the municipality. efficiency of the judiciary. Concerns remained about the overall lack RIGHT TO HEALTH – CHOLERA EPIDEMICS of independence of the justice system. For In the first six months, the number of cases example, human rights organizations and deaths from cholera tripled compared expressed concern that a decision by the with the same period in 2014. According to Port-au-Prince criminal court in April to official statistics, 9,013 people died of cholera dismiss the case against two alleged gang between October 2010 and August 2015. The members was politically motivated. humanitarian response remained largely About 800 detainees in penitentiaries in the underfunded. The UN, which is deemed to Port-au-Prince region benefited from a case have inadvertently triggered the epidemic, review ordered by the Ministry of Justice to continued to refuse to ensure victims’ right to deal with prolonged pre-trial detention and remedy and reparations.2 prison overcrowding. However, by the end of September, an excessively high number of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS detainees remained in pre-trial detention. A bill on preventing, prosecuting and eradicating violence against women, drafted RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, in 2011, and the draft penal code containing TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE progressive provisions on gender-based Cases of verbal and physical attacks against violence remained stalled because of the LGBTI people were reported during the year, dysfunctional Parliament. Convictions in most of which were not thoroughly cases of sexual violence against women investigated. According to LGBTI rights remained low and the majority of domestic organizations, some presidential and violence cases were not investigated or legislative candidates made homophobic prosecuted. statements during the electoral campaign. Although LGBTI rights organizations were

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 177 able to contribute to the training of new police reform the justice system and strengthen the recruits, no similar training was known to independence of the judicial branch. The have been organized for existing police protesters rejected this proposal as officers. insufficient and continued to push for an international commission with investigative powers. 1. Haiti: “15 Minutes to leave”: Denial of the right to adequate housing in post-quake Haiti (AMR 36/001/2015) HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS 2. Haiti: Five years on, no justice for the victims of the cholera epidemic Congress approved in April the Protection (AMR 36/2652/2015) Law for Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, Social Communicators and Justice Officials. The move was welcomed as an important HONDURAS step to protect these groups, but in August a group of civil society organizations wrote to Republic of Honduras the government to voice concerns about the Head of state and government: Juan Orlando vagueness and lack of transparency of the Hernández Alvarado draft implementation regulations, and asked to postpone its approval by several months. Amid a general climate of crime and Human rights defenders, particularly violence, human rights defenders, women, faced threats and violence – abuses Indigenous, peasant and Afro-descendant which were rarely investigated. The leaders involved in land disputes, lesbian, government failed to implement protection gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex measures ordered by the Inter-American (LGBTI) activists, justice officials and Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and journalists were targeted with violence and to investigate a series of abuses in recent intimidation by state and criminal actors in years against Indigenous Tolupan leaders, retaliation for their work. A weak criminal including the killings of two of their members justice system and corruption contributed to by local hitmen during demonstrations in a climate of extensive impunity for these 2013.1 abuses. In addition to violence, human rights defenders faced judicial harassment in BACKGROUND retaliation for their work. Women's rights The Honduran Supreme Court ruled in April defender Gladys Lanza Ochoa was convicted to eliminate an article in the Constitution that of criminally defaming the director of the limits presidential terms to one in office. The Foundation for the Development of Urban change meant that President Hernández and Rural Social Housing (FUNDEVI) and would be able to seek re-election in 2017. sentenced to a year and a half in prison after Tens of thousands of protesters dubbed her organization supported a woman who had “the indignant ones” (los indignados) accused him of sexual harassment.2 She protested for months against corruption after remained free as she appealed against her a series of scandals involving the government sentence. Journalist Julio Ernesto Alvarado and political parties, in some of the biggest lost a series of appeals against his conviction marches in recent Honduran history. The on charges of criminal defamation against the government resisted the protesters’ demand dean of the economics school at the for the formation of an international Autonomous National University of Honduras commission with the power to investigate (UNAH). His sentence included a 16-month crimes and corruption by government ban on practising journalism. officials. Instead, it announced in September In August, Honduras said it would comply an initiative in conjunction with the OAS to with 2014 recommendations by the IACHR

178 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 regarding human rights violations committed policeman but a police spokesperson said the by the state against environmental activist officers who participated in the eviction never Carlos Escaleras Mejía, who was murdered in fired their weapons, and that the police would 1997, and members of his family. The IACHR launch an investigation. had established that Honduras was responsible for the violation both of Escaleras’ LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS right to life, freedom of association and Local civil society groups warned that political rights, and of his family’s integrity. proposed changes to the Criminal Code The recommendations include accepting before Congress would eliminate language international responsibility for the state’s introduced in 2013 to Article 321, which failure to carry out an effective investigation prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual into the killing, fully investigating the murder orientation and gender identity. and disciplining the officials who failed in their duty. 1. El Estado hondureño debe garantizar la vida e integridad personal de IMPUNITY líderes Indígenas Tolupanes (AMR 37/2193/2015) Although government statistics showed a 2. Honduras: Nadie debe ser criminalizado por defender los derechos decrease in homicide rates, the country humanos y Gladys Lanza no puede ser la excepción (AMR continued to suffer from a high rate of violent 37/001/2015) crime which, together with a deficient criminal justice system, resulted in pervasive impunity for human rights abuses. The HUNGARY Alliance for Peace and Justice, a Honduran NGO, found in a 2014 report that fewer than Hungary 4% of murder cases resulted in a conviction. Head of state: János Áder The ineffective criminal justice system and Head of government: Viktor Orbán evidence of corruption and human rights violations by police officers contributed to a Hungary constructed fences along its lack of trust in law enforcement and justice southern borders, criminalized irregular institutions. entry to its territory and expedited the return of asylum-seekers and refugees to Serbia, LAND DISPUTES effectively transforming Hungary into a Local campesino organizations in the Bajo refugee protection-free zone. Roma Aguán region faced violent attacks and continued to be at risk of forced eviction threats in recent years by private security and inadequately protected against hate guards with ties to powerful landowners, and crimes. abuses by soldiers during evictions related to long-running land disputes. Local BACKGROUND organizations in the Bajo Aguán region claim In March, the NGOs Eötvös Károly Institute, that 90 campesinos were killed between 2008 Hungarian Helsinki Committee and and 2013. Despite the establishment in April Hungarian Civil Liberties Union published a 2014 of a special unit in the Attorney report concluding that the replacement of General’s Office to investigative these killings, judges of the Constitutional Court and the there was little progress in the cases. 2010 constitutional amendments undermined In September, a forced eviction of the Court’s independence. campesinos in the department of Cortés resulted in the death of a teenager in REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS unclarified circumstances. Peasant farmers In response to a significant increase in the said the boy was shot and killed by a number of refugees and migrants entering the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 179 country since January, the government proceedings against Hungary for breaching adopted measures aimed at keeping them out the EU asylum law. of the country. On 15 September, the government declared a “state of crisis due to FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION the situation caused by mass immigration”. NGOs critical of government policies faced On the same day, the construction of a fence harassment and threats of losing their on the border with Serbia was finished, while registration. In January, four NGOs amendments to the Criminal Code and responsible for managing and distributing the Asylum Law entered into force, making it an European Economic Area (EEA)/Norway offence to enter the country through the Grants faced a criminal investigation and border fence and establishing “transit zones” were threatened with suspension of their tax at the border. On 17 October, a fence on the registration number. The proceedings border with Croatia was completed. Within initiated to withdraw their registration were two days, the number of refugees and suspended by the courts in February and migrants entering Hungary daily dropped May. On 19 June, following a motion from over 6,000 to a few dozen. By the end of submitted by NGOs, the Administrative and the year, over 900 people were prosecuted for Labour Court of Eger requested the “illegal border crossing” and subjected to Constitutional Court to clarify whether the expulsion proceedings. attempt to suspend the NGOs’ registration Criminalization of irregular entry and the was in breach of the Basic Law of Hungary sealing off of the borders complemented (the Constitution). On 5 October, the legislative measures adopted in the summer Constitutional Court found that the procedure that had restricted access to asylum more did not violate the Constitution. generally. On 1 August, an amendment to the One of the affected NGOs, the Ökotárs Asylum Law entered into force, authorizing Foundation, reported in January that the the government to issue a list of “safe Office of the Public Prosecutor was also countries of origin” and “safe third countries investigating the lawfulness of activities of two of transit”. As a result, asylum applications by NGOs that received funding from the Grants. people from “safe countries of origin” could In June, it concluded its investigation into the be rejected, and those who transited through NGOs and found no criminal wrongdoing. In “safe third countries” before reaching May, the Norwegian Ministry for European Hungary could be returned to the transit Economic Area and EU Affairs announced the country. Serbia, Macedonia and EU member results of an independent audit into NGO states, including Greece, were subsequently programmes funded by the Grants in deemed “safe” by the authorities. This led to Hungary and concluded that the programmes concerns expressed by NGOs that the were run in line with legal requirements. application of the law could lead to the A district court in Buda held in January that violation of Hungary’s obligation of non- a police raid carried out on the offices of two refoulement, as Hungary would not assess NGOs in September 2014 following a criminal whether an individual applicant would be at complaint by the Government Control Office risk of serious human rights violations in the for misappropriation of assets was unlawful. country of origin or transit. In October, the European Commission expressed a number DISCRIMINATION – ROMA of concerns in response to these measures, Discrimination against Roma in access to including that Hungary is carrying out a housing and the failure to protect Roma and “possible quasi-systematic dismissal” of other minorities from hate crimes continued. asylum applications submitted at the border In June, the European Commission against with Serbia. In December, the European Racism and Intolerance noted that racist Commission initiated infringement motivation still doesn’t feature as a specific

180 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 aggravating circumstance for offences in the municipality’s approach to so-called “slum Criminal Code. clearance”. The report also urged the municipality to prevent evictions, develop a Hate crimes plan for families facing homelessness and In September, the County Court in Eger held devise a holistic approach with the Ministry of that police discriminated against Roma in the Human Capacities to deal with slum town of Gyöngyöspata when it failed to protect eliminations. them from far-right groups in the spring of In July, the Equal Treatment Authority 2011. The complaint was submitted by the upheld a discrimination complaint by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, which alleged Hungarian NGO NEKI against the that police failed to intervene against various municipality. The municipality’s appeal was paramilitary groups that held patrols in the pending at the end of the year. Roma neighbourhood in Gyöngyöspata for several weeks. FREEDOM OF RELIGION In October, the European Court of Human Freedom of religion continued to be Rights found in Balázs v. Hungary that restricted. Following the 2011 Church Law Hungary had violated the prohibition of that required churches and other religious discrimination, resulting from the failure to organizations to re-register and the 2014 investigate a racist attack against a Romani European Court of Human Rights judgment in man in Szeged in 2012. The man suffered Magyar Keresztény Mennonita Egyház and bodily injuries and alleged that they were others v. Hungary, which held that the aggravated by the perpetrator’s racist motive. deregistration had violated the right to The European Court of Human Rights held religious freedom, the government proposed that the prosecuting authorities failed to an amendment to the law in September. identify the racist motive of the crime despite However, according to the NGO Forum for “powerful hate crime indicators”, in breach of Religious Freedom, the amendment did not the European Convention on Human Rights. address the arbitrariness of the deregistration procedure that was criticized by the European Access to housing Court of Human Rights. The Forum further Around 100 families, mainly Roma, remained voiced concerns that a number of religious at risk of forced eviction in the “Numbered communities would continue to be denied Streets” neighbourhood of Miskolc. Between rights they held previously as churches. March and June, roughly 120 families were forcibly evicted. Many had to move in with relatives, to houses requiring renovation, or INDIA face homelessness. The vast majority of previously evicted families were not provided Republic of India with adequate alternative housing or Head of state: Pranab Mukherjee compensation. Head of government: Narendra Modi On 14 May, Hungary’s highest court ruled that the Miskolc municipality violated the Authorities clamped down on civil society country’s equal treatment legislation when it organizations critical of official policies, and forcibly evicted hundreds of Roma from a increased restrictions on foreign funding. long-established neighbourhood, as well as Religious tensions intensified, and gender- their rights to a private and family life and to and caste-based discrimination and violence freedom of movement. remained pervasive. Censorship and attacks On 5 June, the Office of the Commissioner on freedom of expression by hardline Hindu for Fundamental Rights published a report on groups grew. Scores of artists, writers and the situation in Miskolc, criticizing the scientists returned national honours in

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 181 protest against what they said was a climate detention on executive orders without charge of growing intolerance. Controversial land or trial. Authorities also continued to use acquisition measures were dropped “anti-terror” laws such as the Unlawful following popular opposition. Abuses by Activities (Prevention) Act and other state- armed groups continued to threaten specific laws which do not meet international civilians, but a historic peace framework human rights standards. agreement was reached in Nagaland. The In April, the state criminal justice system remained flawed, passed an anti-terror bill containing several violating fair trial rights and failing to ensure provisions which violated international justice for abuses. Extrajudicial executions standards. The bill was pending approval by and torture and other ill-treatment the President in December. Similar laws persisted. remained in force in Maharashtra and Karnataka states. ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS In March, three men were tortured and killed CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION AND in Lohardaga, Jharkhand state, allegedly by VIOLENCE Maoist fighters. In May, around 250 villagers Incidents of violence against Dalits and were abducted and held hostage for a day in Adivasis were reported from states including Sukma, Chhattisgarh state, reportedly by Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Tamil Maoist fighters attempting to pressurize the Nadu. According to statistics released in state government to stop work on a bridge. August, over 47,000 crimes against members Maoist armed groups were accused of of Scheduled Castes, and over 11,000 crimes threatening and intimidating Adivasi against members of Scheduled Tribes, were (Indigenous) people and occupying schools. reported in 2014. In October, two Dalit In Jammu and Kashmir state, armed children were burned to death in an arson groups threatened mobile phone operators attack near , allegedly by dominant caste and attacked mobile towers and telecom men. offices in May, June and July, killing two In December, Parliament amended the people. In September, unidentified gunmen Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes killed a three-year-old boy and his father in (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, recognizing Sopore. The same month, the bodies of four several new offences. The amendments also armed group members suspected to have required that special courts be established to been killed by rival groups were found in the try these offences and that victims and state. witnesses receive protection. In July, armed group members attacked a In July, an official census stated that over police station and bus station in Gurdaspur, 180,000 households were engaged in Punjab state, killing three civilians. “manual scavenging” – the practice of In August, the government announced a cleaning human waste carried out mainly by peace agreement with the National Socialist Dalit people. Activists said the figure was an Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah faction) underestimate. armed group, which civil society groups said Dominant castes continued to use sexual could improve the human rights situation in violence against Dalit and Adivasi women and Nagaland state and parts of northeast India. girls.

ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS CHILDREN’S RIGHTS Human rights defenders, journalists and A legal requirement that private schools protesters continued to face arbitrary arrests reserve 25% of places at the entry level for and detentions. Over 3,200 people were children from disadvantaged families being held in January under administrative continued to be poorly enforced. Dalit and

182 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Adivasi children continued to face for a range of industrial projects. Following discrimination. nationwide opposition from farmers’ groups, In December, Parliament passed civil society and political parties, the amendments to juvenile justice laws which government said in August that it would not allowed children aged 16 to 18 to be treated pursue the amendments. Many industries, as adults in cases of serious crimes, in including public sector coal mines, railways violation of India’s international legal and highways, were still not required to obtain obligations. the consent of Indigenous communities or In May, the cabinet approved amendments conduct social impact assessments. to child labour laws which prohibited the Vulnerable communities in resource-rich employment of children under 14. The areas remained at risk of forced evictions. amendments made an exception for children The Environment Ministry sought to abolish a working in family enterprises or in the requirement for consent from village entertainment industry, which activists said assemblies for certain infrastructure projects. would encourage child labour and In April, the Environment Ministry rejected disproportionately affect children from an offer from the UN Environment marginalized groups and girls. Programme to assess the spread of toxic wastes at the site of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak COMMUNAL AND ETHNIC VIOLENCE disaster. In August, the Madhya Pradesh Authorities failed to prevent hundreds of state government incinerated 10 tonnes of the incidents of communal violence across the waste in Pithampur, 250km from Bhopal, country. Some politicians contributed to which activists said had violated Supreme religious tensions by making speeches Court orders and endangered the health of justifying discrimination and violence. At least local residents. four Muslim men were killed in attacks by mobs which suspected them of stealing, DEATH PENALTY smuggling or slaughtering cows. In August, two MPs introduced bills seeking In September, a commission investigating abolition of the death penalty. The State communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Assembly of Tripura passed a unanimous Pradesh state, in 2013 submitted a report resolution urging the central government to which journalists said blamed members of abolish capital punishment for murder. political parties, police and senior In August, the Law Commission of India administrative officials. submitted a report to the government In February, the government formed a favouring speedy abolition of the death team to reinvestigate closed cases related to penalty. The Commission said that the death the 1984 Sikh massacre and file charges. The penalty in India is “an irreversible punishment team’s term was extended for a year in in an imperfect, fragile and fallible system” August. but recommended that it be retained for At least eight people were killed in ethnic terrorism-related offences and “waging war clashes in Manipur state over demands for against the state”. regulating the entry of non-domicile people into the region, and the enactment of laws EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS affecting the rights of Indigenous people. In March, a Delhi court acquitted 16 policemen accused of killing 42 Muslim men CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY in Hashimpura, Uttar Pradesh, in 1987. The In February, the government introduced a bill court stated it could not convict anyone to amend India’s land acquisition law which because of the “scanty, unreliable and faulty removed requirements related to obtaining investigation”. consent and conducting impact assessments In April, Andhra Pradesh police and forest

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 183 officials shot dead 20 suspected smugglers in registration of an NGO run by the activists to an alleged extrajudicial execution. The same receive foreign funding. month, police killed five pre-trial detainees in Telangana who were being taken to court, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION claiming they had attempted to overpower Laws which did not meet international them. Police investigations into both incidents standards on freedom of expression were were ongoing at the end of the year. used to persecute human rights defenders A Central Bureau of Investigation Court and others. In January, two activists were discharged several police officials suspected arrested in Kerala for possessing “pro-Maoist” of involvement in an extrajudicial execution in literature. In October, a Dalit folk singer was Gujarat in 2005. In June, the UN Special arrested in Tamil Nadu for writing songs Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions noted criticizing the state government and Chief in a follow-up report on India that guidelines Minister. by courts and the National Human Rights In March, the Supreme Court struck down Commission often “remained on paper with Section 66A of the Information Technology little or no implementation on the ground”. Act as being vague and overly broad. The law In July, the Supreme Court ordered the had been used to prosecute people for central government, Manipur state legitimately exercising their right to free government and National Human Rights speech online. Commission to file a report on over 1,500 In August, the Maharashtra state cases of alleged extrajudicial executions in government issued a circular on how India’s Manipur. sedition law must be applied, suggesting that criticism of a government representative FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION would amount to sedition. It withdrew the Authorities took several measures to repress circular in October. In December, an MP civil society organizations, including using the introduced a bill in Parliament seeking Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) revision of the sedition law. – which restricted organizations from There were several instances of receiving foreign funding – to harass NGOs intimidation and attacks against journalists, and activists. authors, artists and human rights defenders The government took a series of actions by religious and caste-based groups. Two against Greenpeace India, including rationalist writers were killed in attacks preventing one of its campaigners from thought to be related to their criticism of travelling to the UK in January, ordering the religious intolerance and idolatry. organization’s bank accounts to be frozen in In July, the government argued before the April and cancelling its FCRA registration in Supreme Court that privacy was not a September. High Courts ruled that some of fundamental right under the Constitution. In these steps were illegal. September, authorities proposed – and The Ministry of Home Affairs cancelled the withdrew after facing opposition – a draft FCRA registration of thousands of NGOs for encryption policy which would have violating provisions of the law. In April, the threatened free expression and privacy. Ministry ordered that it would have to approve Authorities restricted access to internet foreign funds from certain identified donor services on several occasions, including in organizations. Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir states, on In July, the Central Bureau of Investigation grounds of public order. registered a case against human rights activists Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand for IMPUNITY – SECURITY FORCES allegedly violating provisions of the FCRA. In Impunity for violations by security forces September, authorities suspended the persisted. Legislation providing virtual

184 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 immunity from prosecution such as the education and health care. Attacks on Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) transgender people continued. remained in force in Jammu and Kashmir Section 377 of the Penal Code continued to state and parts of northeast India. be used to criminalize same-sex relations In February, the Ministry of Home Affairs between consenting adults. Senior officially rejected the report of a committee government officials made contradictory set up in 2004 to review the AFSPA, which statements about whether the law should be recommended the repeal of the law. In June, retained. In December, the introduction of a the state of Tripura withdrew the AFSPA 18 bill to decriminalize same-sex relations was years after it was introduced “in view of the defeated in the lower house of Parliament. decrease of militancy-related incidents”. In In August, the state July, a committee appointed to evaluate the proposed a draft bill on women’s rights which status of women recommended the repeal of specified equality before the law for every the AFSPA. In November, the Meghalaya woman “irrespective of her sexual High Court directed the central government to orientation”, the first time a state government consider enforcing the AFSPA in one region had recognized discrimination on the basis of to maintain law and order. sexual orientation in law. In September, the Indian Army confirmed life sentences for six of its personnel found TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT guilty by a military court of killing three men Torture and other ill-treatment in police and in Machil, Jammu and Kashmir in an judicial custody were reported. In July, the extrajudicial execution in 2010. Supreme Court directed state governments to install closed-circuit television cameras in all PROLONGED PRE-TRIAL DETENTION prisons within two years to prevent torture Prolonged pre-trial detention and and other violations of prisoners’ rights, and overcrowding in jails remained widespread. to consider installing them in all police As of January, over 282,000 prisoners – 68% stations. Also in July, the Ministry of Home of the total prison population – were pre-trial Affairs stated that the government was detainees. Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims considering amending the Penal Code to continued to be disproportionately specifically recognize torture as a crime. In represented. November, the Chhattisgarh police began A 2014 Supreme Court order directing investigating allegations that security force district judges to release pre-trial detainees personnel had raped two women and a girl who had been held for over half of the term the previous month. they would have served if convicted was NGOs continued to report deaths from poorly implemented. torture of prisoners while in police custody. In September, the central information Statistics released in August showed that 93 commission, responding to an Amnesty cases of deaths and 197 cases of rapes in International India application, said that state police custody were reported in 2014. In governments were obligated to periodically August the National Human Rights provide information to authorities and Commission recorded 1,327 deaths in judicial prisoners about detainees’ eligibility for custody between April 2014 and January release. 2015.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Although nearly 322,000 crimes against In April, the upper house of Parliament women, including over 37,000 cases of rape, passed a bill to protect the rights of were reported in 2014, stigma and transgender people, including their rights to discrimination from police officials and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 185 authorities continued to deter women from Harassment, intimidation and attacks reporting sexual violence. A majority of states against religious minorities occurred continued to lack standard operating throughout the country. A new Acehnese procedures for the police to deal with cases of Islamic Criminal Code came into force in violence against women. October, expanding the use of corporal In over 86% of reported rape cases, the punishment to include consensual sexual survivors knew the alleged offenders. relations. There were 14 executions. Statistics released in August showed that nearly 123,000 cases of cruelty by husbands BACKGROUND or relatives were reported in 2014. In March, Despite commitments made during his the central government announced that it was election campaign in 2014, President Joko considering allowing for the withdrawal of a Widodo failed to address past human rights complaint of cruelty if a compromise is violations. Freedom of expression was further reached between the parties. restricted and the use of the death penalty for In July, a committee appointed to evaluate drug-related offences increased. the status of women made key recommendations on prevention, protection POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES and access to justice for women and girls Reports continued of human rights violations facing violence. Among other by police and military, including unlawful recommendations, it urged the government to killings, unnecessary and excessive use of make rape within marriage a criminal offence, force, torture and other cruel, inhuman or introduce a special law on honour crimes, degrading treatment or punishment. and not dilute laws relating to cruelty by In March, members of the Police Mobile husbands. Brigade (Brimob) attacked residents in In December, the government stated in Morekau village, Seram Bagian Barat District, Parliament that it intended to amend the province, after they had complained Penal Code to criminalize marital rape. to Brimob officers who had entered the village Caste-based village bodies continued to that they were disturbing a religious order sexually violent punishments for ceremony. Thirteen people were seriously perceived social transgressions. injured. Despite promises of an investigation Discrimination and violence against women by the head of the regional police, no charges from marginalized communities remained were brought. widespread, but reporting and conviction In August, off-duty military personnel shot rates were low. dead two people after opening fire in front of a church in Timika, Papua province. Also in Timika, police shot two unarmed high school INDONESIA students during a “security operation” in September, killing one. Republic of Indonesia In Jakarta, the provincial police force used Head of state and government: Joko Widodo unnecessary force against protesters at a peaceful labour rally in October. Police Security forces faced allegations of human arrested and beat 23 protesters, as well as rights violations, including the use of two legal aid activists who reported injuries to unnecessary or excessive force. Arbitrary the head, face and stomach. Police blamed arrests of peaceful protesters, especially in the protesters for the violence. All were Papua, occurred throughout the year. The released after being charged with threatening government restricted activities marking the public officials and refusal to disperse. 50th anniversary of the serious human rights violations of 1965-1966.

186 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 IMPUNITY during the conflict. Some provisions in the by- More than 10 years after the murder of law under which the Commission was created prominent human rights defender Munir Said fell short of international law and standards. Thalib, the authorities had failed to bring all Its mandate was limited to genocide, crimes the perpetrators to justice. against humanity and war crimes and did not September marked the 50th anniversary of include other crimes under international law the serious human rights violations of including torture, extrajudicial executions and 1965-66. Human rights organizations have enforced disappearances.1 documented a range of human rights Investigations into shootings, torture and violations in the context of the abortive 1965 other ill-treatment by police and the military coup, including unlawful killings, torture continued to stagnate. Despite promises from including rape, enforced disappearances, President Widodo for a thorough investigation sexual slavery and other crimes of sexual into the December 2014 incident in which violence, slavery, arbitrary arrest and security forces shot dead four students in detention, forced displacement and forced Paniai, no one had been brought to justice by labour. An estimated 500,000 to one million the end of the year.2 people were killed during that time and hundreds of thousands were held without FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION charge or trial for periods ranging from a few Prisoner of conscience Filep Karma was days to more than 14 years. Although no legal released on 19 November after spending impediments to full citizenship remained for more than a decade in prison for his peaceful victims of these crimes, a culture of impunity political expression. This was the latest in a continued to exist for perpetrators. positive but limited step by the authorities to In May, the Attorney General announced increase freedom in Papua and West Papua that the government would establish a non- provinces. In May, the President granted judicial mechanism to resolve past human clemency to five political activists in Papua rights violations through a “reconciliation province imprisoned for breaking into a committee”. It was seen by human rights military compound, and pledged to grant groups as a small but positive step following clemency or an amnesty to other political decades of impunity for past human rights activists. violations and abuses that occurred during Prisoners of conscience, including Johan the rule of former President Suharto Teterissa in Maluku, remained imprisoned for (1965-1998). However, victims and NGOs peaceful demonstrations under articles of the remained concerned that this process would Indonesian Criminal Code relating to makar prioritize reconciliation and undermine efforts (rebellion).3 At least 27 prisoners in Papua at truth and justice. also remained imprisoned under these In 2015, the people of Aceh articles, and 29 prisoners of conscience from commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Maluku remained imprisoned. 2005 Helsinki Peace Agreement between the The arrest and detention of peaceful government and the armed pro- activists also continued in Papua and West independence Free Aceh Movement. The Papua provinces. In May, authorities arrested agreement ended a 29-year conflict during 264 peaceful activists who had planned which between 10,000 and 30,000 people peaceful protests marking the 52nd were killed, many of them civilians. In anniversary of the handover of Papua to the November, the Aceh House of People’s Indonesian government by the UN.4 A further Representatives appointed a team charged 216 members of the West Papua National with appointing commissioners for the Aceh Committee (KNPB) were arbitrarily detained Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body for participating in peaceful demonstrations in set up to examine abuses that occurred support of Papua’s application to join the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 187 Melanesian Spearhead Group – a sub-Pacific panel sessions related to these human rights intergovernmental organization. While most violations after authorities threatened to were later released, 12 were charged for revoke their permit.7 participating in the protest, including under At least six people remain detained or the “rebellion” laws.5 imprisoned under blasphemy laws. In President Widodo announced in May that January, six members of Gafatar, a national restrictions on foreign journalists applying to cultural movement that was criticized by visit Papua were to be lifted; this had not Islamic organizations who believed it been implemented fully by the end of the promoted “deviant” beliefs, were arrested in year. In early October, three Papuan male Banda Aceh in Aceh Province and charged activists who had accompanied a French under Article 156 of the Criminal Code for journalist to Pegunungan Bintang District in insulting religion. In June the head of the Papua to cover the activities of the KNPB group was sentenced to four years’ were arrested and interrogated by the local imprisonment. immigration officer about the activities of the In October, police passed a new national journalist. They were held for 10 hours before regulation (Surat Edaran No. SE/6/X/2015) on being released without charge. hate speech. Although the regulation refers to Convictions continued to be documented expression “aimed to inflict hatred or hostility throughout the year of people peacefully [against] individuals”, civil society activists expressing their views under laws concerning were concerned that they may be used to criminal defamation, blasphemy and “hate charge individuals accused of criminal and speech”. religious defamation. In March, the Bandung District Court sentenced a woman to five months’ FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF imprisonment after she had written a Harassment, intimidation and attacks against “private” message to a friend on Facebook religious minorities persisted, fuelled by accusing her husband of abusing her. He discriminatory laws and regulations at both reported her to the police after finding the national and local levels. accusation when he accessed her account In July, members of the Christian and she was charged under Article 27(1) of Evangelical Church (Gereja Injil di Indonesia, the Electronic Information and Transaction GIDI) burned down a Muslim place of worship Law (Law No.11/2008) with “transmitting in Karubaga, Tolikara District, Papua electronic content that violated decency”.6 province, where Muslims were celebrating Eid A further three people were convicted of al-Fitr. Members of GIDI originally had criminal defamation under the law in gathered to complain that the noise from the Yogyakarta, South Sulawesi and Central Java place of worship was interrupting a church during the year. event. Security officials from both the military The government continued to restrict and police shot into the crowd, killing one activities relating to the serious human rights man. GIDI youths then destroyed the Muslim violations of 1965-1966. In October, police in place of worship and several shops in the Salatiga, Central Java, confiscated and vicinity. Two men were arrested for inciting burned hundreds of copies of Lentera violence. magazine, run by the Satya Wacana In October, Christian churches were University’s Faculty of Social and attacked by a group of at least 200 people in Communication Studies in Salatiga, because Aceh Singkil District after the local it featured an in-depth report and front cover government ordered the destruction of 10 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the churches in the district, citing provincial and violations. That same month, the Ubud district level by-laws limiting houses of Writers and Readers Festival removed three worship. The attackers burned down one

188 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 church and attempted to attack another but 30 lashes respectively. The by-law makes it were stopped by local security forces. One difficult for victims of rape to seek justice, as assailant was killed during the violence and the victims themselves now need to provide approximately 4,000 Christians fled to evidence of rape. False accusations of rape or neighbouring North Sumatra Province adultery were also punishable by caning.10 immediately afterwards. Ten people were arrested. The Aceh Singkil government went DEATH PENALTY ahead with its plans to destroy the remaining Fourteen prisoners were executed in January churches.8 and April, 12 of whom were foreign nationals. In November, a place of worship of a local All of these related to drug-trafficking Indigenous beliefs community in Rembang, offences, for which President Widodo had Central Java, was burned down by a mob previously stated he would refuse to consider during the process of renovation. Before the any clemency applications.11 The government attack, the community leader had received a allocated funding to conduct further threat by a local Islamic organization and was executions in 2016. At least 131 people also asked by the Rembang District head of remained under sentence of death. government to stop the renovation. At the end of 2015 no one had been held accountable for the attack. 1. Indonesia: Appointment of Aceh Truth Commission selection team a The situation of a number of religious step closer to truth and reparation for victims (ASA 21/2976/2015) minority communities who had been subject 2. Indonesia: Paniai shootings – make investigation findings public and to harassment, violence and forced eviction bring perpetrators to justice (ASA 21/0001/2015) remained uncertain. Three years after local 3. Indonesia: Release Johan Teterissa and other prisoners of conscience authorities evicted a community of Shi’a (ASA 21/1972/2015) Muslims in Sampang, East Java, after an anti- 4. Indonesia: End attacks on freedom of expression in Papua (ASA Shi’a mob threatened violence, 300 members 21/1606/2015) remained displaced from their homes.9 5. Indonesia: End mass arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters in Papua Members of the Presbyterian Yasmin (ASA 21/1851/2015) Church and the Filadelfia Church continued 6. Indonesia: Two women convicted under internet law for social media to hold congregations outside the presidential posts (ASA 21/1381/2015) palace in Jakarta in response to their 7. Indonesia: Stop silencing public discussions on 1965 violations (ASA churches remaining sealed off in Bogor and 21/2785/2015) Bekasi respectively. Although the Supreme 8. Indonesia: Christian minority in Aceh under threat (ASA Court overturned the Bogor administration’s 21/2756/2015) revocation of the Yasmin Church’s building 9. Indonesia: Three years later, forcibly evicted Sampang Shi’a permit in 2011, the Bogor city government community still wanting to go home (ASA 21/2335/2015) continued to refuse to allow the church to 10. Indonesia: Repeal or revise all provisions in the new Aceh Islamic reopen. Criminal Code that violate human rights (ASA 21/2726/2015) 11. Flawed justice: Unfair trials and the death penalty in Indonesia (ASA CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING 21/2434/2015) PUNISHMENT At least 108 people were caned in Aceh under Shari’a law for gambling, drinking alcohol or “adultery” during the year. In October, the Acehnese Islamic Criminal Code came into force, expanding the use of corporal punishment for same-sex sexual relations and intimacy between unmarried individuals, with punishment of up to 100 and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 189 IRAN alleged crime. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, Islamic Republic of Iran ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY Head of state: Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei (Leader The authorities continued to severely restrict of the Islamic Republic of Iran) freedoms of expression, association and Head of government: Hassan Rouhani (President) assembly. They blocked Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites, closed or The authorities severely curtailed the rights suspended media outlets including the Zanan to freedom of expression, association and monthly women’s magazine, jammed foreign assembly, arresting and imprisoning satellite television stations, arrested and journalists, human rights defenders, trade imprisoned journalists and online and other unionists and others who voiced dissent, on critics, and suppressed peaceful protests. vague and overly broad charges. Torture and In August, the Ministry of Communications other ill-treatment of detainees remained and Information Technology announced the common and was committed with impunity; second phase of “intelligent filtering” of prison conditions were harsh. Unfair trials websites deemed to have socially harmful continued, in some cases resulting in death consequences, with the support of a foreign sentences. Women and members of ethnic company. The authorities continued efforts to and religious minorities faced pervasive create a “national internet” that could be discrimination in law and in practice. The used to further impede access to information authorities carried out cruel punishments, via the internet, and arrested and prosecuted including blinding, amputation and those who used social media to express floggings. Courts imposed death sentences dissent.1 In June, a spokesperson for the for a range of crimes; many prisoners, judiciary said that the authorities had arrested including at least four juvenile offenders, five people for “anti-revolutionary” activities were executed. using social media, and five others for “acts against decency in cyber-space”. BACKGROUND Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi, Negotiations between Iran and the five Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karoubi permanent member states of the UN remained under house arrest without charge Security Council, plus Germany, resulted with or trial. Scores of prisoners of conscience Iran agreeing in July to restrict its nuclear continued to be detained or were serving development programme in return for the prison sentences for peacefully exercising lifting of international sanctions. their human rights. They included journalists, In March, the UN Human Rights Council artists, writers, lawyers, trade unionists, renewed the mandate of the UN Special students, women’s and minority rights Rapporteur on the situation of human rights activists, human rights defenders and others. in Iran; the Iranian authorities continued to Under the 2013 Islamic Penal Code, deny him entry to Iran and to prevent access individuals convicted of multiple charges by other UN experts. The Human Rights must serve only the lengthiest single Council also formally adopted the outcome of sentence, but judges are required to impose its second UPR of Iran. Iran accepted 130 sentences that exceed the statutory maximum recommendations, partially accepted 59 for any single offence when they convict others, and rejected 102. Those rejected defendants of more than three crimes. This included recommendations that Iran ratify the has resulted in the authorities bringing UN Convention against Torture and CEDAW, multiple spurious charges against some and cease using the death penalty against peaceful critics as a means to ensure a those aged under 18 at the time of the lengthy prison term.2

190 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 The authorities continued to suppress inadequate food and exposed to extreme peaceful protests. On 22 July, police temperatures. This included prisoners in Dizel temporarily arrested scores and dispersed Abad Prison in Kermanshah, Adel Abad thousands of teachers who gathered outside Prison in Shiraz, Gharchak Prison in Varamin, Parliament in the capital, Tehran, to protest and Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad. According against the authorities’ harassment of to some former detainees, in Tabriz Central teachers engaged in trade union activities and Prison, some 700 to 800 prisoners were held related protests, and demand the release of in three poorly ventilated, insanitary cells with prominent trade unionists, including Ismail access to only 10 toilets. The authorities often Abdi, who remained in detention.3 disregarded prison regulations which required that different categories of detainees and TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT prisoners be held in separate prison sections, Detainees and prisoners continued to report prompting hunger strikes by some political acts of torture and other ill-treatment, prisoners, including prisoners of conscience. particularly during primary investigations The death of at least one prisoner of mainly to force “confessions” or gather other conscience, Shahrokh Zamani, was reported, incriminatory evidence. possibly attributable to poor prison conditions A new Code of Criminal Procedures, which and inconsistent medical care. entered into force in June, introduced some safeguards including central electronic Cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment registers of detainees held in each province. Courts continued to impose, and the However, the new Code did not provide authorities continued to carry out, adequate protection against torture and failed punishments that violate the prohibition of to bring Iranian law into conformity with torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading international law and standards. The Code punishment. These were sometimes carried failed to guarantee individuals adequate out in public and included flogging, blinding access to an independent lawyer from the and amputations. On 3 March the authorities time of arrest, a legal requirement for in Karaj deliberately blinded a man in his left protection against torture and other ill- eye after a court sentenced him to treatment. No specific crime of torture is “retribution-in-kind” (qesas) for throwing acid defined in Iranian law and the new Code into the face of another man. He also faced failed to establish detailed procedures for blinding of his right eye. The authorities investigating torture allegations. Moreover, postponed punishment of another prisoner while the Code excludes statements obtained scheduled for 3 March; he was sentenced to through torture as admissible evidence, it blinding and being made deaf.5 does so only in general terms, without On 28 June, authorities at the Central providing detailed provisions. Prison in Mashhad, Khorasan Province, Detainees and sentenced prisoners were amputated four fingers from the right hands denied adequate medical care; in some of two men sentenced for theft, apparently cases, the authorities withheld prescribed without anaesthetic.6 medications to punish prisoners, or failed to Sentences of flogging were also carried out. comply with medical doctors’ In June, a Deputy Prosecutor General in recommendations that prisoners should be Shiraz announced that 500 people had been hospitalized for treatment.4 The authorities arrested and 480 of them had been tried and also frequently subjected detainees and convicted within 24 hours for publicly prisoners to prolonged solitary confinement breaking their fast during Ramadan. Most amounting to torture or other ill-treatment. received flogging sentences administered by Prisoners were kept in severely the Office for Implementation of Sentences. overcrowded and insanitary conditions with Some floggings were reportedly carried out

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 191 in public. convict defendants and impose harsh penalties.8 UNFAIR TRIALS Many trials, including some that resulted in FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF death sentences, were grossly unfair. Prior to Members of religious minorities, including trial, the accused were frequently detained for Baha’is, Sufis, Yaresan (Ahl-e Haq), Christian weeks or months during which they had little converts from Islam, Sunni Muslims, and or no access to lawyers or their families, and Shi’a Muslims who became Sunni, faced were coerced into writing or signing discrimination in employment and restrictions “confessions” that were then used as the on their access to education and freedom to main evidence against them in unfair practise their faith. There were reports of proceedings. Judges routinely dismissed arrest and imprisonment of dozens of Baha’is, defendants’ allegations of torture and other ill- Christian converts and members of other treatment in pre-trial detention without religious minorities, including for providing ordering investigations. education for Baha’i students who are denied After years of deliberation, the new Code of access to higher education. Criminal Procedures took effect in June. It The authorities continued to destroy sacred brought about some improvements, including sites of Baha’is, Sunnis and Sufis including stricter regulation of interrogations and the their cemeteries and places of worship. requirement that detainees be informed of In August, a Revolutionary Court in Tehran their rights, but it was seriously weakened by convicted Mohammad Ali Taheri of amendments approved only days before its “spreading corruption on earth” for entry into force. These included an establishing a spiritual doctrine and group amendment that restricted the right of called Erfan-e Halgheh, and sentenced him to detainees in national security cases to be death. He had previously received a five-year represented by lawyers of their own choosing prison term and been sentenced to 74 lashes during the often lengthy investigation phase; and a fine in 2011 for allegedly “insulting instead, they can only choose a lawyer Islamic sanctities”.9 Prison sentences were approved by the Head of the Judiciary. The also issued against several of his followers. In Code applied the same restriction to suspects December, the Supreme Court overturned his in cases of organized crime, which can result sentence due to “incomplete investigations” in sentences of death, life imprisonment or and remanded the case to the Court of First amputation.7 Responding to criticism of the Instance. amendments, a senior judiciary official said, “the issue is that there are individuals among DISCRIMINATION – ETHNIC MINORITIES lawyers who could be trouble makers”. In Iran’s disadvantaged ethnic groups, including some cases, it appeared that courts had Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, extended the restriction on defendants’ right Kurds and Turkmen, continued to report that to a lawyer of their own choosing to the trial the state authorities systematically phase. discriminated against them, particularly in Special courts, including the Special Court employment, housing, access to political for the Clergy which was effectively office, and the exercise of cultural, civil and established outside the law, and the political rights. They remained unable to use Revolutionary Courts, continued to function their own language as a medium of without observing international fair trial instruction for primary education. Those who standards. The judiciary was not independent called for greater cultural and linguistic rights and courts remained susceptible to pressure faced arrest, imprisonment, and in some from security authorities, such as the Ministry cases the death penalty. of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, to Security forces disproportionately repressed

192 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 protests by ethnic minorities including Ahwazi and outlaw voluntary sterilization. The general Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks and Kurds. Between principles of another draft law, the March and April, the authorities were Comprehensive Population and Exaltation of reported to have carried out many arrests in Family Bill, were passed in Parliament on the Arab-populated , 2 November. If enacted, the law would including after a football match in March require all private and public entities to where Ahwazi Arab young men displayed a prioritize, in sequence, men with children, banner in solidarity with Younes Asakereh, an married men without children and married Ahwazi Arab street vendor who died on women with children when recruiting staff. 22 March after setting himself alight in a The law also risks further entrenching protest against the city authorities. He was domestic violence as a private “family apparently left without emergency medical matter”. treatment due to lack of funds. The arrests In practice, women continued to have took place in the lead-up to the 10th reduced access to affordable modern anniversary of mass anti-government contraception as the authorities failed to demonstrations in Khuzestan in April 2005 restore the budget of the state family planning following the publication of a letter that programme cut in 2012. referred to government plans to implement Women and girls remained inadequately policies that would reduce the population of protected against sexual and other violence, Arabs in Khuzestan. During the protest, police including early and forced marriage. The were reported to have particularly targeted authorities failed to adopt laws criminalizing men wearing traditional Arab clothing for these and other abuses, such as marital rape arrest and beatings.10 and domestic violence. Compulsory “veiling” In November, several individuals belonging (hijab) laws also continued to empower police to the Azerbaijani Turk ethnic group were and paramilitary forces to target women for reported to have been arrested, after largely harassment, violence and imprisonment. peaceful demonstrations erupted in several The authorities came under local and cities in protest against a television international pressure to allow women access programme that members of the Azerbaijani as spectators to international men’s volleyball Turk community considered offensive. matches in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium but On 7 May, riot police were reported to have continued to exclude them in the face of used excessive or unnecessary force to opposition from ultra-conservative groups, disperse demonstrators in Mahabad, a city in such as Ansar Hezbollah. West Azerbaijan province largely populated by members of the Kurdish minority, who were DEATH PENALTY protesting after a Kurdish woman fell to her The authorities continued to use the death death in unclear circumstances. penalty extensively, and carried out numerous executions, including of juvenile offenders. WOMEN’S RIGHTS Some executions were conducted in public. Women remained subject to discrimination The courts imposed numerous death under the law, particularly criminal and family sentences, often after unfair trials and for law, and in practice. Women and girls also offences such as drugs offences that did not faced new challenges to their sexual and meet the threshold of most serious crimes reproductive health and rights. Parliament under international law. The majority of those debated several draft laws that would further executed during the year were sentenced on erode women’s rights, including the Bill to drugs charges; others were executed for Increase Fertility Rates and Prevent murder or after being convicted on vague Population Decline, which would block charges such as “enmity against God”. access to information about contraception Many detainees accused of capital offences

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 193 were denied access to legal counsel during prison conditions (MDE 13/2508/2015) the investigative phase when they were held 5. Iran: Man forcibly blinded in one eye in “unspeakably cruel” in detention. The new Code of Criminal retribution punishment (News story, 5 March) Procedures repealed Article 32 of the 2011 6. Iran amputates fingers of two men in shocking act of cruelty (MDE Anti-Narcotics Law, which had denied 13/1998/2015) prisoners sentenced to death on drugs 7. Iran: Draconian amendment further erodes fair trial rights (MDE charges a right of appeal. It remained 13/1943/2015) unclear, however, whether those sentenced 8. Iran: Activists tortured for alleged “flag-burning” (MDE before the Code took effect would be eligible 13/2110/2015) to appeal. 9. Iran: Mohammad Ali Taheri sentenced to death (MDE 13/2245/2015) Scores of juvenile offenders remained on 10. Iran: Sweeping arrests of Ahwazi Arab activists (News story, 28 April) death row. Several juvenile offenders were re- 11. Iran: Whereabouts of juvenile offender on death row emerge five sentenced to death after receiving a retrial months after scheduled execution (News story, 13 July) pursuant to the new juvenile sentencing guidelines of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code. Amnesty International was able to confirm the IRAQ execution of at least three juvenile offenders: Javad Saberi, hanged on 15 April, Samad Republic of Iraq Zahabi, hanged on 5 October, and Fatemeh Head of state: Fuad Masum Salbehi, hanged on 13 October. Human Head of government: Haider al-Abadi rights groups reported that another juvenile offender, Vazir Amroddin, an Afghan national, The human rights situation continued to was hanged in June or July. In February, the deteriorate. Government security forces, authorities transferred Saman Naseem, government-allied militias and the armed sentenced in 2013 for a crime that was group Islamic State (IS) committed war committed when he was aged 17, to an crimes and human rights abuses. undisclosed location prompting fears and Government forces carried out wide international concern that he was about indiscriminate attacks on areas under IS to be executed. He was subjected to enforced control, and committed extrajudicial disappearance for five months; the authorities executions. IS forces carried out mass ultimately permitted him to phone his family execution-style killings and abductions, in July, and confirmed to his lawyer that the including abductions of women and girls for Supreme Court had ordered his retrial in sexual slavery. Government authorities held April.11 thousands of detainees without trial; torture The Islamic Penal Code continued to and other ill-treatment of detainees provide for stoning as a method of execution; remained rife. Many trials did not meet at least two stoning sentences were issued international standards of fairness. Women but no executions by stoning were reported and girls faced discrimination and sexual during the year. and other violence. Journalists operated in hazardous conditions. Courts continued to impose death sentences, mostly on 1. Iran: Film producer given jail term after unfair trial: Mostafa Azizi terrorism charges; dozens of executions (MDE 13/2272/2015); Iran: Couple sentenced to jail on security were carried out. charges (MDE 13/2520/2015) 2. Iran: Harsh prison sentences for two female activists highlight BACKGROUND rampant injustice (News story, 2 June) The armed conflict continued between 3. Iran: Prominent trade unionist unlawfully detained: Ismail Abdi (MDE government security forces and IS forces; the 13/2208/2015) latter controlled predominantly Sunni areas 4. Iran: Death of trade unionist must trigger action to tackle appalling north and east of the capital, Baghdad,

194 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 including the city of Mosul. Government Prime Minister al-Abadi pledged to dismiss forces were supported by Popular corrupt military officers. A draft National Mobilization Units (PMUs) composed mainly Guard Law to regulate armed militias and of Shi’a militias. In May, IS forces captured support greater local control of the security Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, causing forces and police to reduce the thousands to flee to Baghdad and other cities, marginalization of Sunnis and Kurds within and massacred captive members of the the security forces proved particularly security forces. In response to the IS controversial; some members of Parliament advance, Prime Minister al-Abadi agreed to said it threatened national security. the deployment of PMUs to support a Several UN human rights bodies that counter-offensive by government forces, conducted reviews of Iraq in 2015, including despite the PMU’s record of committing the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the serious human rights violations against Sunni Committee against Torture and the Human Muslims. At the end of the year, Mosul Rights Committee, expressed concern about remained under IS control while Ramadi was the deteriorating human rights situation. recaptured by Iraqi security forces in December. Kurdish Peshmerga forces INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT discovered mass graves in Sinjar after they Government forces and PMUs committed war recaptured the town from IS in November. crimes, other violations of international The conflict caused the deaths of some humanitarian law and human rights 6,520 civilians between January and October, violations, mostly against Sunni communities according to the UN, and the forcible in areas under IS control. In Anbar, Ninevah displacement of nearly 3.2 million people and Salah al-Din provinces, indiscriminate air since January 2014, exacerbating the existing strikes by government forces killed and humanitarian crisis. Many of those displaced injured civilians and hit mosques and sought refuge in the semi-autonomous hospitals. Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. In areas they recaptured from IS, All parties to the conflict committed war government security forces and allied militias crimes, other violations of international carried out reprisal killings of local Sunnis humanitarian law and human rights abuses. suspected of supporting IS and burned Both PMUs and IS reportedly used child homes and mosques. In one such case in soldiers. January, security forces and allied Shi’a Parliament created a Human Rights militias extrajudicially executed at least 56 Advisory board for NGOs in January to Sunni Muslims in Barwana village, Diyalah facilitate consultation with civil society groups province, after rounding up local men over revising legislation to comply with human ostensibly to check their identities. The rights; however, no significant legal reforms victims were shot, mostly while handcuffed. had been made by the end of the year. Also in January, members of a Yezidi militia In August, an official investigation into the attacked Jiri and Sibaya, two predominantly capture of Mosul by IS forces in June 2014 Sunni Arab villages in the northwestern Sinjar blamed former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki region. The militia carried out execution-style and his officials for the security forces’ killings of 21 civilians, including children and abandonment of the city. elderly men and women, and abducted other In September, President Masum ratified civilians. Residents said that Kurdish Law 36 of 2015, prohibiting political parties Peshmerga and Asayish forces were present from having military wings or affiliating with when the killings were perpetrated. The armed groups, but a proposed amnesty law homes of Sunni Arabs were also looted and and draft laws on accountability and justice burned by Yezidi militias after Peshmerga had not been enacted at the end of the year. forces recaptured Sinjar from IS in November.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 195 US, UK, French and other foreign military VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS forces carried out air strikes against IS in Women and girls faced discrimination in law support of the Iraqi government; some of and in practice, and were inadequately these attacks reportedly killed and injured protected against sexual and other violence. civilians in areas controlled or contested They were subjected to acute abuses in IS- by IS. controlled areas, where women and girls were reportedly sold as slaves, forced to become ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS wives of IS fighters or killed for refusing. In Armed groups killed and injured civilians March, IS forces reportedly killed at least nine throughout Iraq in suicide and car bomb Shi’a women belonging to the Turkmen attacks that were either indiscriminate or minority for refusing to marry IS fighters after deliberately targeted civilians. IS fighters killed IS forces killed their husbands. civilians in indiscriminate shelling and continued to abduct and kill civilians in areas ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS where they gained control, including civilians Security forces carried out arrests without who opposed their control. In March and judicial warrants and without informing those November, media reported that IS forces they arrested or their families of any charges. used chlorine gas in bomb attacks. Some 500 Detainees, particularly terrorism suspects, people, including civilians, died during the were held incommunicado for weeks or fighting for control of Ramadi in May. IS months following arrest, often in conditions forces that seized control of the city killed amounting to enforced disappearance and in civilians and members of the security forces, secret prisons controlled by the Ministries of throwing some bodies in the Euphrates River. the Interior and Defence that were not open The armed group also summarily killed some to inspection by the Office of the Public of its own fighters for fleeing. Prosecution or any monitoring bodies. In May, IS enforced strict rules on dress, behaviour the Minister of the Interior denied that his and movement on the inhabitants who ministry operated secret detention facilities, in remained in the areas they controlled, and response to complaints of enforced severely punished infractions. Its fighters disappearances by detainees’ families. Many carried out execution-style public killings and detainees were released without charge but other punishments, including after its thousands of others continued to be held in “courts” condemned people for transgressing harsh conditions, including at Nassiriyah its rules or its interpretation of Islamic law. IS Prison, south of Baghdad, which was mostly also summarily killed dozens of men they used to hold Sunni men convicted of or facing perceived to be gay, often throwing them to trial on terrorism charges, and where their deaths from high-rise buildings. In prisoners were reportedly abused. Mosul, IS forces controlled all movement into and out of the city and prevented people TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT leaving to obtain medical care elsewhere Torture and other ill-treatment remained unless they provided guarantors of their common and widespread in prisons and return; IS reportedly beheaded some detention centres and was committed with guarantors when people they had allowed to impunity. Interrogators tortured detainees to leave failed to return. extract information and “confessions” for use IS fighters burned or destroyed Shi’a, Yezidi against them at trial; some detainees and other religious shrines and cultural reportedly died as a result of torture. In April, artefacts, as well as homes vacated by a member of the parliamentary Human Rights government officials and members of the Committee said that detainees continued to security forces. face torture and the use of forced confessions. The UN Committee against

196 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Torture criticized the government’s failure to Rights said it was overly restrictive. investigate torture allegations and called for In July and August, thousands of people increased safeguards against torture. took to the streets in Baghdad, Basra and other cities to protest against official UNFAIR TRIALS corruption, electricity cuts, water shortages The criminal justice system remained and the authorities’ failure to provide other critically flawed and the judiciary lacked basic services. At least five people were killed independence. Trials, particularly of when the security forces used unnecessary defendants facing terrorism charges and force to disperse the protests. In the weeks possible death sentences, were systematically that followed, several protest leaders were unfair with courts often admitting torture- killed by unidentified assailants in Baghdad, tainted “confessions” as evidence, including Nassiriyah and Basra. The Minister of the “confessions” broadcast by state-controlled Interior claimed that the killings were television channels before suspects were unconnected to the protests but it was referred to trial. unclear to what extent they were investigated Lawyers representing terrorism suspects by the authorities. faced threats and intimidation by security The situation for journalists remained officials and were physically attacked by hazardous. They were subject to threats and members of militias. Judges, lawyers and violence by the security forces and abduction court officials continued to be attacked and and killing by IS and other armed groups. In killed by IS and other armed groups. April, the Minister of the Interior claimed that In July, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in negative media reporting about the security Baghdad sentenced 24 alleged IS members forces was hampering the fight against IS. to death after it convicted them of unlawfully In February, several journalists were killing at least 1,700 military cadets from the assaulted by a senior security official’s “Speicher” Military Camp, near Tikrit in Salah bodyguards at a press conference in al-Din governorate, in June 2014. Four other Baghdad. In April, Reuters news agency’s men were acquitted. The trial, which was Baghdad bureau chief, Ned Parker, left Iraq completed in a few hours, was based mainly because of threats he received from Shi’a on “confessions”, which the defendants said militia. The threats came after he reported they had been forced to make under torture that PMUs had committed abuses and looting in pre-trial detention, and video footage of the after they recaptured Tikrit from IS. massacre previously circulated by IS. The In May, Raed al-Juburi, an outspoken defendants all denied involvement in the journalist at al-Rasheed television channel killings, with some denying that they had and columnist for Azzaman newspaper, was been present in Tikrit at the time of the crime. found dead at his home in Baghdad with None of the defendants had legal counsel of bullet wounds to his chest. The outcome of their own choosing but were represented by the investigation into his death remained court-appointed lawyers, who requested undisclosed at the end of the year. leniency but did not dispute the evidence or the admissibility of the “confessions”. REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND Iraq continued to host some 244,527 ASSEMBLY refugees from Syria. Fighting between The authorities restricted the right to freedom government forces and IS caused nearly of expression, including media freedom. In 3.2 million people, mostly from Anbar, June the government introduced a new law to Ninevah and Salah al-Din provinces, to flee regulate media networks; the official their homes and become internally displaced. Independent High Commission for Human Many fled to the Kurdistan region or other

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 197 governorates. Some were forcibly displaced Abdel-Wehab Mahmoud Hameed al-‘Akla – to more than once. Some 500,000 people fled death on terrorism charges for beheading a Anbar province in May when IS forces man in 2010. All three alleged that security captured Ramadi; many were denied entry to officials tortured them during months of Baghdad by the authorities. Humanitarian incommunicado detention and forced them to conditions for internally displaced people “confess” to killing people unknown to them. remained harsh; they often lacked access to In August, the KRG authorities hanged basic services and some were reportedly Farhad Jaafar Mahmood and his wives attacked and injured by local residents in the Berivan Haider Karim and Khuncha Hassan Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. Others who fled Ismaeil, ending a seven-year hiatus on to the Kurdistan region were arrested for executions in the region. A court in Dohuk suspected links to IS. had sentenced the three to death in April 2014 after convicting them on abduction and KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ murder charges. Political tensions rose in the semi- autonomous Kurdistan region, amid efforts by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to IRELAND extend KDP leader Massoud Barzani’s term of office as President of the Kurdistan Regional Republic of Ireland Government (KRG); a move that other Head of state: Michael D. Higgins political parties opposed. In October, Head of government: Enda Kenny hundreds of public sector employees protested in Sulaimaniyah and other eastern Access to and information about abortion cities to demand payment of overdue salaries. remained severely restricted and In October, KDP militia forces fired at criminalized. Equal access to civil marriage protesters in Qaladze and Kalar, killing at for same-sex couples was introduced. Legal least five and injuring others. The KDP said gender recognition legislation was enacted. investigations were opened into the burning of its headquarters but did not specify that the SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS investigations would cover killings by its In July the UN Committee on Economic, militias. Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) criticized The KRG authorities arrested and detained Ireland’s “highly restrictive legislation on people suspected of supporting or having abortion and its strict interpretation thereof”, links to IS but did not disclose their number. and its “criminalization of abortion, including in the cases of rape and incest and of risk to DEATH PENALTY the health of a pregnant woman”. It The authorities continued to impose the death recommended that Ireland take all necessary penalty extensively and carried out dozens of steps, including a referendum on abortion, to executions. Most of those sentenced to death revise its legislation on abortion. Concerns were Sunni men convicted under the 2005 were raised at the impact on women and girls Anti-Terrorism Law. In June, the Cabinet of the law on access to and information about agreed to amend the Code of Criminal abortion, and how the constitutional Procedures to allow the Minister of Justice to protection afforded to the foetus also ratify execution orders if the President fails to impacted on maternity care.1 Abortion is act on them within 30 days. The following constitutionally permitted only when a month, President Masum ratified at least 21 woman’s or girl’s life is at “real and death sentences. substantial risk”, and carries a possible 14- In September, a court in Baghdad year prison sentence in all other sentenced three brothers – Ali, Shakir and circumstances.

198 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS constitutional reform in areas including In November, Ireland signed the Council of equality for women and blasphemy remained Europe Convention on preventing and outstanding. combating violence against women and domestic violence. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The CESCR expressed concern at the In November, the European Committee for government’s responses to domestic violence. the Prevention of Torture published the It criticized the lack of a prompt, thorough findings of its 2014 visit. The Committee and independent investigation into the noted improvements in the prison system, but allegations of past abuses in the religious-run expressed concern at interprisoner violence, “Magdalene Laundries”, and that survivors continuing lack of in-cell sanitation in some were not provided with adequate remedies. prisons, conditions akin to solitary confinement as punishment, deficiencies in DISCRIMINATION health care (including mental health care), In May, a popular referendum was passed and the placement of immigration detainees ensuring constitutional provision for equal with remand and convicted prisoners. The access to civil marriage for same-sex couples. Committee noted receiving some reports of ill- Legislation was enacted in October. treatment by the police, and recommended Legislation providing for legal gender improved health care services in police recognition was enacted and came into force stations as a safeguard against ill-treatment. in September, substantially meeting human There were concerns at delays by the rights standards. government in ratifying the Optional Protocol There were renewed concerns at the to the UN Convention against Torture and institutionalization of people with disabilities establishing the required National Preventive and the poor living conditions for people with Mechanism. disabilities in residential centres. Concerns were also raised at possible neglect and REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS abuse in some centres. In September, the government announced that it would accept up to 4,000 people in LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR need of international protection, including INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS both those requiring relocation from within The CESCR was critical of the limited the EU, and the 520 Syrian refugees then statutory definition of human rights provided being resettled in Ireland directly from the in respect of some of the functions of the Middle East. Human Rights and Equality Commission.2 It Concerns remained about the poor living concluded that this limitation, together with conditions in “direct provision” centres and the lack of recognition of economic, social the lengthy stay (around 51 months) by and cultural rights in domestic law, are asylum-seekers. A report was issued in June “major factors” preventing the Commission by a working group established by the from exercising its mandate and applying the government to identify possible improvements full range of rights. It recommended that the to direct provision. The government government review the 2014 legislation. established a task force in July to further By the end of the year the government had consider whether and how to implement the still not responded to the February 2014 group’s recommendations. recommendation by the government- Legislation providing for a single procedure established Constitutional Convention that the to deal with both claims for refugee status Constitution be amended to incorporate and claims for other forms of protection was economic, social and cultural rights. Several enacted in December. other Convention recommendations for

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 199 BACKGROUND 1. She is not a criminal – the impact of Ireland’s abortion law (EUR Israeli-Palestinian relations remained tense 29/1597/2015) throughout the year. In January, after 2. Ireland: Submission to the CESCR (EUR 29/1629/2015) Palestine applied to join the ICC and accepted its jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian ISRAEL AND THE Territories (OPT) since June 2014, Israel temporarily ceased paying monthly tax OCCUPIED revenues due to the Palestinian authorities. Later in January, the ICC Prosecutor opened PALESTINIAN a preliminary examination into alleged crimes under international law by Israel and by TERRITORIES Palestinian armed groups; Israel condemned the move, but began limited engagement with State of Israel the ICC Prosecutor in July. Head of state: Reuven Rivlin International efforts failed to restart Israeli- Head of government: Benjamin Netanyahu Palestinian negotiations. The Israeli government continued to support the In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, promotion and expansion of illegal Israeli forces committed unlawful killings of settlements in the West Bank, including East Palestinian civilians, including children, and Jerusalem, and took steps to authorize detained thousands of Palestinians who several West Bank settlement outposts that protested against or otherwise opposed had been established without government Israel’s continuing military occupation, permission. holding hundreds in administrative From October there was a significant detention. Torture and other ill-treatment upsurge in violence in which Palestinians, remained rife and were committed with mostly individuals not affiliated with armed impunity. The authorities continued to groups, carried out stabbings, shootings, car- promote illegal settlements in the West ramming and other attacks against Israeli Bank, and severely restricted Palestinians’ forces and civilians in both Israel and the freedom of movement, further tightening West Bank, and increased protests against restrictions amid an escalation of violence Israel’s military occupation. Israeli forces from October, which included attacks on responded to attacks and protests with lethal Israeli civilians by Palestinians and apparent force. Twenty-one Israeli civilians and one US extrajudicial executions by Israeli forces. national were killed by Palestinians during the Israeli settlers in the West Bank attacked year, all but four between October and Palestinians and their property with virtual December. Israeli forces killed more than 130 impunity. The Gaza Strip remained under an Palestinians between October and December. Israeli military blockade that imposed Palestinian armed groups in Gaza collective punishment on its inhabitants. sporadically fired indiscriminate rockets into The authorities continued to demolish southern Israel; no deaths were reported. Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Israel responded with air strikes on Gaza; one inside Israel, particularly in Bedouin villages strike in October killed two civilians. Israel in the Negev/Naqab region, forcibly evicting also carried out several air strikes and other their residents. They also detained and attacks on sites in Syria. deported thousands of African asylum- seekers, and imprisoned Israeli conscientious objectors.

200 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT – GAZA hunger strike for 65 days to protest against BLOCKADE AND WEST BANK his administrative detention; he was released RESTRICTIONS in November without charge. Israeli forces maintained their land, sea and The Israeli authorities launched a new air blockade of Gaza, in force since 2007, clampdown on protests by Palestinians in the imposing collective punishment on the OPT amid the escalation in violence from territory’s 1.8 million inhabitants. Israeli October, arresting more than 2,500 controls on the movement of people and Palestinians, including hundreds of children, goods into and from Gaza, particularly on and significantly increasing their use of essential construction materials, combined administrative detention. More than 580 with Egypt’s closure of the Rafah border Palestinian administrative detainees were crossing and destruction of cross-border held by the end of the year, including at least tunnels, severely hindered post-conflict five children. In addition, several Israeli Jews reconstruction and essential services and suspected of planning attacks on Palestinians exacerbated poverty and unemployment. were held in administrative detention. Israeli forces continued to impose a “buffer Palestinians from the OPT who were zone” inside Gaza’s border with Israel and charged faced unfair trials in military courts. used live fire against Palestinians who entered In December, Palestinian parliamentarian or approached it. They also fired at Khalida Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months’ Palestinian fishermen within or near an imprisonment and a fine following a plea “exclusion zone” that Israel maintained along bargain made after months of unfair military Gaza’s coast, killing one and injuring others. court proceedings.1 In the West Bank, Israel severely restricted the movement of Palestinians, who were TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT excluded from large areas that had either Israeli military and police forces, as well as been designated as military firing zones, or Israel Security Agency (ISA) personnel, were near the fence/wall constructed by Israel tortured and otherwise ill-treated Palestinian or within illegal settlements, and maintained detainees, including children, particularly an array of military checkpoints and bypass during arrest and interrogation. Reports of roads that restricted Palestinian travel while torture increased amid the mass arrests of allowing free movement for Israeli settlers. Palestinians that began in October. Methods Israeli forces established new checkpoints included beating with batons, slapping, and barriers, particularly in East Jerusalem throttling, prolonged shackling, stress and the Hebron governorate, amid the positions, sleep deprivation and threats. upsurge in violence from October, subjecting Jewish suspects detained in connection with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to attacks on Palestinians also alleged torture. restrictions amounting to collective Impunity for torture was rife. The authorities punishment. had received almost 1,000 complaints of torture at the hands of ISA since 2001 but ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS had yet to open any criminal investigations. The authorities detained thousands of In July, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, Palestinians from the OPT; most were held in extended legislation exempting the police and prisons inside Israel, in violation of ISA from recording interrogations of international law. Hundreds were held without Palestinian “security suspects”, with charge or trial under renewable administrative government endorsement, contravening a detention orders, based on information 2013 recommendation of the Turkel withheld from them and their lawyers; some Commission (see below). The same month engaged in prolonged hunger strikes in the Knesset approved legislation allowing the protest. Mohammed Allan, a lawyer, went on authorities to subject detainees on hunger

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 201 strike to forced feeding, despite opposition thousands with rubber-coated metal bullets from human rights groups and the UN. and live ammunition. While many protesters threw rocks or other projectiles, they generally UNLAWFUL KILLINGS posed no threat to the lives of well-protected Israeli soldiers and police killed at least 124 Israeli soldiers when they were shot. In Palestinians from the OPT in the West Bank, September, Israel’s security cabinet including East Jerusalem, 22 in the Gaza authorized police to use live ammunition in Strip, and 10 inside Israel during the year. East Jerusalem. On 9 and 10 October, Israeli Many of those killed, including children, forces used live ammunition and rubber- appeared to be victims of unlawful killings. coated metal bullets against Palestinian They included Muhammad Kasba, aged 17, protesters in border areas of the Gaza Strip, and 15-year-old Laith al-Khalidi, who were killing nine, including a child, and injuring shot in the back on 3 and 31 July respectively scores. after throwing stones or petrol bombs at Israeli military checkpoints or vehicles, and FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, Falah Abu Maria, who was shot in the chest ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY on 23 July when Israeli forces raided his Israeli military orders prohibiting unauthorized home. demonstrations in the West Bank were used Many of the deaths occurred in the last to repress protests by Palestinians and jail quarter of the year when Israeli police and activists, including human rights defender military forces fatally shot Palestinians who Murad Shtewi, who was released in January carried out stabbings or other attacks on after serving a nine-and-a-half-month Israelis, including civilians, or were suspected sentence under Military Order 101. On of intending such attacks, in circumstances numerous occasions, journalists covering where they were not posing an imminent protests and other developments in the West threat to life and could have been Bank were assaulted or shot by Israeli police apprehended, making the killings unlawful. In and military forces. some cases, Israeli forces shot dead The authorities also increased restrictions Palestinians as they lay wounded, or failed to on Palestinian citizens inside Israel, banning provide timely medical assistance to injured the northern branch of the Islamic Movement Palestinians. and closing 17 NGOs associated with it in November, and arresting more than 250 Extrajudicial executions demonstrators and protest organizers Some Palestinians appeared to be victims of between October and December. extrajudicial executions, including Fadi In September, Israeli whistle-blower Alloun, whom Israeli forces shot dead on Mordechai Vanunu was sentenced to one 4 October in Jerusalem; Dania Ershied, 17, week’s house arrest following an interview and Sa’ad al-Atrash, whom Israeli forces shot with Israel’s Channel 2. He continued to be dead in Hebron on 25 and 26 October; and banned from travelling abroad and Abdallah Shalaldah, whom Israeli undercover communicating electronically with foreign forces killed on 12 November in al-Ahli nationals throughout the year. Hospital in Hebron. HOUSING RIGHTS – FORCED EVICTIONS EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE AND DEMOLITIONS Israeli forces, including undercover units, In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, used excessive and lethal force against Israeli forces demolished at least 510 protesters in both the West Bank and the Palestinian homes and other structures built Gaza Strip, killing dozens, including 43 in the without Israeli permits, which are virtually last quarter of the year, and injuring impossible to obtain, forcibly evicting more

202 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 than 610 people. They also forcibly evicted sentenced in January 2016, in most cases more than 120 people by demolishing or the Israeli police failed to investigate alleged making uninhabitable 19 family homes of crimes by settlers effectively and prosecute Palestinians who carried out attacks on suspects, leading to continued impunity for Israelis. In Area C of the West Bank, under settler violence. full Israeli control, dozens of Bedouin and herding communities continued to face IMPUNITY forcible relocation. In June the UN Independent Commission of The authorities also demolished scores of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict published Palestinian homes inside Israel that they said its report, documenting war crimes by Israeli were built without permits, mostly in Bedouin forces and Palestinian armed groups during villages in the Negev/Naqab region. Many of the 50-day conflict and calling for the villages were officially “unrecognized”. In accountability. Israel rejected the UN findings May, the Supreme Court approved the and continued its military investigations, but planned demolition of the “unrecognized” they were not independent and failed to village of Um al-Heiran and the eviction of its deliver justice. Israeli military authorities Bedouin residents to construct a new Jewish opened investigations into deaths of town. In November the government approved Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West the establishment of five new Jewish Bank, but these investigations were similarly communities in the region, including two on flawed, and only one case from 2013 led to the sites of existing Bedouin villages. an indictment for “negligent use of a firearm”, following lengthy delays and an appeal to SETTLER VIOLENCE Israel’s High Court. Israelis living in illegal settlements in the In September, a government committee occupied West Bank frequently attacked released its review of the Turkel Commission’s Palestinian civilians and their property, recommendations of 2013 on Israel’s sometimes in the presence of Israeli soldiers investigation systems and their compliance and police who failed to intervene. A settler with international law. It side-stepped some arson attack on the Dawabsheh family home recommendations, such as making war in the village of Duma, near Nablus, on crimes offences under national law, and failed 31 July killed 18-month-old Ali and his to define practical steps or budgets necessary parents Sa’ad and Riham, and critically to implement others. injured his four-year-old brother Ahmad. The incident highlighted an increase in settler VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS attacks inside Palestinian communities, There were new reports of violence against leaving many Palestinians feeling unsafe in women, particularly within Palestinian their homes. Suspects were subsequently communities in Israel. According to activists, arrested, and several remained in detention at at least 18 women were murdered in Israel, the end of the year. mostly by partners or family members; some An Israeli civilian shot and killed Fadel al- were killed after seeking police protection. Qawasmeh in close proximity to Israeli soldiers in the Old City of Hebron on REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS 17 October; the Israeli man was not arrested The authorities continued to deny asylum- at the scene and there were no indications he seekers, over 90% of whom were from Eritrea would be prosecuted. and Sudan, access to a fair refugee status Although two of the three Israelis charged determination process. More than 4,200 were with the July 2014 abduction and killing of held at the Holot detention facility and Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir Saharonim Prison in the Negev/Naqab desert were convicted in November and due to be at the end of the year.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 203 In August, the High Court of Justice ruled that provisions of a December 2014 1. Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Palestinian parliamentarian amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration sentenced: Khalida Jarrar (MDE 15/3031/2015) Law allowing the authorities to detain asylum- seekers at Holot for 20 months were disproportionate, and ordered the government ITALY to revise the law and release those who had been held at the facility for more than a year. Republic of Italy Around 1,200 out of approximately 1,800 Head of state: Sergio Mattarella (replaced Giorgio asylum-seekers were subsequently released Napolitano in February) from Holot, but they were arbitrarily banned Head of government: Matteo Renzi from the cities of Tel Aviv and Eilat. Thousands of others were summoned to A spiralling death toll among refugees and Holot under expanded detention criteria, and migrants trying to reach Italy by boat from the numbers detained at the facility reached North Africa was recorded between January an all-time high. In November the and April. The number of deaths decreased government introduced a new draft after European governments deployed naval amendment under which asylum-seekers resources to save lives on the high seas. The would be detained at Holot for a year, implementation of an EU-agreed system to extendable by an additional six months. screen arrivals – the “hotspot approach” – Only a handful of the thousands of Eritrean raised concerns. Discrimination against and Sudanese nationals who had applied for Roma continued, with thousands segregated asylum by the end of the year were granted in mono-ethnic camps. Italy failed to asylum, and the authorities continued to introduce the crime of torture into domestic pressure many, including detainees at Holot, legislation, to establish an independent to leave Israel “voluntarily”. By the end of national human rights institution and to November, more than 2,900 asylum-seekers provide legal recognition to same-sex had accepted such “voluntary return”. In couples. November, a district court upheld a government decision announced in March to REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS deport some of the 45,000 asylum-seekers Over 153,000 refugees and migrants arrived still in the country without their consent to in Italy after crossing the central Rwanda and Uganda or detain them Mediterranean on unseaworthy and indefinitely at Saharonim prison. The overcrowded boats. The overwhelming government refused to release details on majority departed from North Africa and were reported agreements with Rwanda and rescued at sea by the Italian coastguard and Uganda, or any guarantees that those Navy, other countries’ vessels, or by NGOs’ or deported, “voluntarily” or otherwise, would merchant vessels. not subsequently be transferred to their home About 2,900 refugees and migrants died or countries, violating the prohibition of disappeared at sea while attempting the refoulement. crossing during the year. The death rate considerably increased in the first four CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS months, when about 1,700 deaths were At least four conscientious objectors were reported, including over 1,200 caused by two imprisoned. They included Edo Ramon, major shipwrecks in April alone. This was imprisoned repeatedly from March for linked to the reduction in resources for refusing to serve in the Israeli military. proactive patrolling enforced at the end of 2014, with Operation Mare Nostrum being replaced with the smaller, border control-

204 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 focused Operation Triton by Frontex, the EU seekers and migrants may be subjected to border management agency. arbitrary detention and forced fingerprinting At the end of April, European governments in centres designated as “hotspots”. In Sicily, decided to reinstate patrolling of the central authorities issued expulsion orders to Mediterranean, through improvements to the individuals upon arrival, raising concern that Triton operation, the launch of independent people ineligible for relocation may be life-saving operations by individual expelled without being previously granted an governments and the establishment of the EU opportunity to seek asylum or receive military operation in the southern Central information regarding their rights. Mediterranean (EUNAVFOR MED, later In September, the European Court of relabelled Operation Sophia), to tackle human Human Rights condemned Italy, in the smuggling. Such measures, coupled with Khlaifia case, for the arbitrary detention, ill- increased efforts by NGOs, led to a drastic treatment and collective expulsion of a group reduction of the death rate in the following of Tunisians in 2011. The case concerned months. However, due to the high number of their detention in the Lampedusa reception people travelling – pushed by the centre and on military vessels, and their deteriorating situation in countries of origin summary repatriation to Tunisia, without and transit – and the absence of safe and taking into account their individual legal alternatives to seek protection in Europe, circumstances. loss of life at sea continued to be recorded “Irregular entry and stay” in the territory during the remainder of the year. remained a crime. The government failed to Italian authorities struggled to ensure adopt decrees to abolish it, although adequate reception conditions for the tens of instructions to do so had been passed by thousands of people disembarked in the Parliament in April 2014. country. The government enforced a plan to distribute them in reception centres across DISCRIMINATION the country, in some cases encountering fierce resistance from local authorities and Roma population, including violent attacks. In July, Thousands of Romani families continued to in Quinto di Treviso, Northeast Italy, residents live in segregated camps and shelters, often and far-right militants broke into flats destined in poor conditions, as highlighted by the UN to receive asylum-seekers, took the furniture Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural outside and set it on fire, leading the Rights in October. The government‘s failure to authorities to move the asylum-seekers to effectively implement the National Strategy for another location. Roma Inclusion (NSRI) meant that, three In August, new legislation was adopted to years after its adoption, no significant transpose EU directives on asylum, progress had been achieved towards offering restructuring the reception system. Concern adequate alternative housing to Romani was raised in relation to a planned increase in families unable to provide for themselves. the use of detention in Identification and Roma living in camps continued to have little Expulsion Centres (CIEs). chance to access social housing, particularly In September, Italy started applying the so- in the capital, Rome. Forced evictions of called “hotspot approach”, under which Roma were reported across the country. In asylum-seekers of certain nationalities would February, about 200 people, including be identified to benefit from relocation to children and pregnant women, were evicted other EU member states where they could from the Lungo Stura Lazio camp in Turin. seek asylum. The relocation programme led The European Commission against Racism to the transfer of 184 people by the end of the and Intolerance criticized evictions, often year. There were concerns that asylum- executed without providing procedural

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 205 safeguards and alternative accommodation. It facilitate accountability for abuse. also reiterated recommendations to In April, the European Court of Human strengthen the independence and powers of Rights found in the Cestaro case that police the National Office against Racial storming the Diaz school, Genoa, during the Discrimination (UNAR), co-ordinating the G8 summit in 2001, had committed torture implementation of the NSRI. However, the against demonstrators sheltered therein. The government reduced the UNAR’s resources Court underscored how no official had been and interfered with its activities. convicted for such treatment, linked to the In May, the Rome Civil Court recognized in absence of the crime of torture within the a landmark ruling that the assignment of domestic legislation, to the application of the housing to Roma in the mono-ethnic camp of statute of limitations, and to the lack of police La Barbuta, near Ciampino airport, in an area co-operation. deemed unsuitable for human habitation, A national ombudsperson for the rights of constituted discriminatory conduct and had to detainees was still due to become operational be discontinued. The authorities had not at the end of the year. taken any concrete action to enforce the ruling by the end of the year. DEATHS IN CUSTODY Concerns remained about the lack of Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and accountability for deaths in custody, despite intersex people slow progress in a few cases. In July, the European Court of Human Rights In June, a trial for manslaughter started held in the Oliari case that Italy had violated against four police officers and three Italian the applicants’ right to a private and family Red Cross volunteers, in the case of Riccardo life, because of the lack of legal framework to Magherini, who died during his arrest in a protect the rights of same-sex couples. street in Florence in March 2014. Nonetheless, Parliament failed to approve Shortcomings in the investigations had been pending legislation to address this gap. In reported in previous months. December, the Court of Appeal of Rome New evidence, including witness confirmed the right of a woman to formally statements, emerged in the case of Stefano adopt the child born by her female partner as Cucchi, who died a week after his arrest in a result of artificial insemination. the prison wing of a Rome hospital in 2009, In July, the Court of Cassation ruled that reinforcing the presumption that he may have transgender individuals must be able to died as a result of beatings. In September, obtain legal recognition of their gender fresh investigations were launched by without the requirement to undergo any prosecutors against police officials involved in medical treatment. his arrest. In December, the Court of At the end of the year, Parliament had not Cassation ordered a new trial for five doctors yet approved legislative amendments to who had been acquitted on appeal of charges extend to homophobic and transphobic of manslaughter. crimes the application of penalties against hate crimes based on other grounds. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY The European Court of Human Rights TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT convened a public hearing in June in the A bill to incorporate the crime of torture into Nasr and Ghali case. Lawyers for Usama national legislation initially passed one branch Mostafa Hassan Nasr (known as Abu Omar) of Parliament in April, but failed to pass in the and his wife Nabila Ghali argued that Italian end. Similarly, the government failed to police and intelligence operatives were introduce identification tags on the uniforms responsible for colluding with the CIA in Abu of law enforcement officers that would Omar’s kidnapping in February 2003 and ill-

206 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 treatment in Milan, his subsequent illegal BACKGROUND rendition to Egypt, and his torture and other Jamaica continued to have one of the highest ill-treatment in secret detention in Cairo. The homicide rates per capita in the world. Violent case remained pending at the European crime remained a key concern for the public. Court of Human Rights. In December, Between January and June, police recorded President Mattarella granted a pardon to a 1,486 reports of serious and violent crimes, CIA agent and a partial pardon to another classified as murders, shootings, rapes and one; both agents had previously been aggravated assaults. According to media convicted in their absence by Italian courts reports, there were more than 1,100 murders for their role in the kidnapping and rendition. during the year, an increase of approximately In February, new counter-terrorism laws 20% compared with 2014. were adopted that increased prison sentences The Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act for “persons who are recruited by others to 2015 came into force in April, removing commit acts of terrorism”, and provided powers of arrest and detention for possession penalties for persons who organize, finance, or use of small quantities of cannabis and or promote travel “for the purpose of allowing members of the Rastafarian faith to performing acts of terrorism”. The laws also use the drug for religious purposes. made it a crime for a person to participate in In May, Jamaica was examined under the a conflict on a foreign territory “in support of a UPR. Jamaica accepted 23 of the 177 terrorist organization”, and granted the recommendations made. government the authority to keep a list of The government took steps to establish a websites used for recruitment and to instruct National Human Rights Institution. Internet service providers to block such sites. POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Human rights organizations continued to INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS highlight concerns around arbitrary arrests Despite the government’s promises, Italy and ill-treatment in police custody. again failed to establish a national human After years of rising numbers of police rights institution in accordance with the killings (over 200 per year from 2011 to Principles relating to the Status of National 2013), the numbers began to decline in 2014 Institutions (Paris Principles). and 2015. The Independent Commission of Investigation (INDECOM), an independent police oversight agency, reported 50 killings JAMAICA involving the police in the first half of 2015, fewer than for the same period of 2014. Jamaica A long-overdue Commission of Enquiry into Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by human rights violations committed during the Patrick Linton Allen 2010 state of emergency began in December Head of government: Portia Simpson Miller 2014 and was scheduled to be completed in early 2016. During the state of emergency, 76 Excessive use of force by the police and civilians were killed by security forces, extrajudicial executions continued. A including 44 who were alleged to have been Commission of Enquiry into alleged human extrajudicially executed. rights violations during the 2010 state of emergency was under way. Violence and JUSTICE SYSTEM discrimination against lesbian, gay, Major backlogs in the judiciary led to bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) continued delays and hampered access to people continued. In August Jamaica held justice. In particular, investigations into police its first gay pride march. killings remained slow. With a high number of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 207 new cases and few resources, the capacity of Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and the Coroner´s Court to help resolve the Gays (J-FLAG) received 47 reports of human backlog also remained limited. rights violations against LGBTI people. Homelessness and displacement of LGBTI CHILDREN’S RIGHTS youths remained a concern. Young people According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, pushed out of their homes because of their 29 children were murdered between January sexual orientation or gender identity and June, suggesting a failure by the state to continued to live in storm drains and protect children from extreme violence and abandoned buildings. Local NGOs supported abuse. Conditions of detention and treatment homeless LGBTI youths, while the state did of juvenile offenders were poor. The NGO little to help. By mid-year, J-FLAG had Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) documented high provided social and crisis services to 329 levels of attempted suicide among children LGBTI people and continued to receive and young people in juvenile prisons, raising requests for advice from LGBTI Jamaicans serious concerns about the psychosocial planning to seek asylum in other countries. health and well-being of juveniles in state In August, a gay pride celebration was held institutions. JFJ also reported that juvenile in Jamaica for the first time. The Minister of offenders were not presented promptly before Justice called for tolerance during the a judge, exceeding the constitutional period to celebration and expressed his support for the assess the legality of detention and rights of LGBTI people to express themselves contravening the UN Convention on the peacefully. Rights of the Child.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS JAPAN High levels of gender-based violence and domestic violence continued with high Japan numbers of women killed by their spouse or Head of government: Shinzo Abe partner. Lesbian, bisexual and transgender women were at risk of sexual violence due to Despite the post-World War II Constitution their real or perceived sexual orientation and that renounced the “use of force as means gender expression. of settling international disputes”, in July The government was finalizing a National Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed through Strategic Plan of Action to Eliminate Gender- the House of Representatives new based Violence in Jamaica. A Joint Select legislation that would allow Japan’s self- Committee of Parliament was under way to defence forces to join collective military review the Sexual Offences Act 2009. Civil actions overseas. Negative public reaction society organizations made recommendations opposing the legislation included one of the during the review, which included widening largest demonstrations in decades. The the definition of rape, decriminalizing sex Japanese and South Korean governments work, and using gender-neutral language reached a settlement on the military sexual throughout the Act. slavery system before and during World War II; the outcome was severely RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, criticized by survivors. Executions of people TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE on death row continued. There remained no legal protection against discrimination based on real or perceived DISCRIMINATION – ETHNIC MINORITIES sexual orientation or gender identity. Despite a 2014 recommendation by the Consensual sex between men remained CERD Committee , the ruling coalition criminalized. Between January and July, the opposed legislation prohibiting racial

208 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 discrimination. A group of national lawmakers legally binding certification, and have nonetheless submitted a bill to the Parliament visitation rights in hospitals and the ability to that would require the government to create co-sign tenancy agreements. The Setagaya anti-discrimination programmes. Discussion ward in Tokyo adopted similar guidelines in of the bill began in August. With the increase July, while cities outside Tokyo announced of demonstrations targeting ethnic Koreans, possible future arrangements for same-sex some municipal governments, including partnerships. Osaka, proposed ordinances to curb hate speech against foreigners and minorities. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS On the 70th anniversary of the end of World REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS War II, Prime Minister Abe expressed grief, Concerns around the refugee application but only referred to apologies made by former process continued. The Ministry of Justice heads of government. The government granted refugee status to only 11 people out reached an agreement with South Korea in of more than 5,000 applicants in 2014. In December and acknowledged Japan’s deep June the Ministry unveiled plans to introduce responsibility for the military sexual slavery a pre-screening procedure to exclude system before and during the war, which “ineligible” applicants from entering the resulted in women and girls being forced into process, claiming that people seeking job sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial opportunities accounted for the increased Army. The outcome was criticized as the numbers of applications for asylum. Criteria agreement did not take into account the views for qualification were not clearly specified. In and needs of survivors and they were not August, a man from Sri Lanka filed another involved in the negotiations. lawsuit against the Ministry, which continued to refuse him refugee status despite an Osaka FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION District Court ruling in his favour. This was the The Act on the Protection of Specially first time that a government refusal to follow a Designated Secrets, which came into effect in court decision on refugee status resulted in a December 2014, contained provisions that second lawsuit. could violate the right to access information held by public authorities. Critics of the Act MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS stressed that the government could withhold The government maintained tight restrictions information without clear designation criteria, on immigration and announced plans to that parliamentary committees overseeing the expand further the existing Technical Intern designation of secrets were too weak, and Training Program to bring in more foreign that journalists risked imprisonment for workers. The Program was subject to abuse soliciting and reporting information by employers, resulting in forced labour, lack designated as secrets. At the end of the year of effective oversight or protection for workers, the government had yet to set up an and other human rights abuses. As of June, independent oversight mechanism that would some 180,000 foreigners worked under the include whistleblower provisions and could Program. effectively prevent abuse of the Act.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, JUSTICE SYSTEM TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE A bill revising the criminal procedure law to In April, the Shibuya ward in Tokyo became require video or audio recording of the first municipality in Japan to pass an interrogations by police or prosecutors in their ordinance that would acknowledge same-sex entirety was passed at the House of unions as equivalent to marriage. Registered Representatives in August, but had not been same-sex partners would be offered non- discussed at the House of Councillors by the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 209 end of the year. The proposed law was Security Directorate (PSD), which runs the applicable only to “serious crimes” to be tried police and prisons, and the gendarmerie, under the lay judge system, approximately were prematurely retired. The Prime Minister 2% of all criminal cases. It also failed to announced that this was due to a “lack of co- abolish or reform the daiyo kangoku system, ordination between security organizations”. which allows the police to detain suspects for up to 23 days prior to charge, facilitating COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY torture and other ill-treatment in order to Alleged supporters of IS and other armed extract confessions during interrogation. groups were prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws and other legislation by the State Security Court (SSC), a quasi-military court JORDAN whose procedures failed to meet international fair trial standards. Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Head of state: King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Head of government: Abdullah Ensour In August, the National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) said it had received 87 The authorities restricted freedoms of complaints of torture and other ill-treatment expression, association and assembly, and during 2014. In response, Prime Minister prosecuted and imprisoned government Ensour announced the appointment of a critics. Torture and other ill-treatment ministerial committee including officials from continued in detention centres and prisons, the General Intelligence Department (GID) and the State Security Court continued to and Public Security Directorate (PSD), and conduct unfair trials. Women were chaired by the government’s co-ordinator on discriminated against in law and in practice human rights, to examine the NCHR’s and inadequately protected against sexual findings. In December, the UN Committee and other violence. Courts passed death against Torture expressed concern at sentences and executions were carried out. “consistent reports of widespread use of Jordan hosted more than 641,800 refugees torture and ill-treatment of suspects by from Syria. security and law enforcement officials” highlighting GID and Criminal Investigation BACKGROUND Department (CID) detention facilities. Jordan continued to be affected by the armed Amer Jubran, a Palestinian-Jordanian conflict in neighbouring Syria, hosting activist, said he was tortured and otherwise ill- refugees and suffering civilian casualties in treated during two months in GID detention cross-border firing from Syria. In February, and forced to sign a “confession”, which the Jordanian warplanes launched further attacks SSC panel of military judges accepted as on areas in Syria controlled by the armed evidence against him when they sentenced group Islamic State (IS), after IS issued a him in July to 10 years’ imprisonment on video showing its fighters burning to death the charges that included possessing arms and captured Jordanian fighter pilot Muath al- explosives and belonging to Hizbullah. In Kasasbeh. November, the Court of Cassation confirmed Around 12 people reportedly died during his conviction. His co-defendants, some of violent clashes with security forces who whom also alleged that they were tortured by raided several homes in Ma’an in southwest the GID, received sentences of two to three Jordan in May and June. In May, following years’ imprisonment. the events in Ma’an and the death in custody of Abdullah Zu’bi (see below), the Interior DEATHS IN CUSTODY Minister resigned and the heads of the Public In May, Abdullah Zu’bi died in custody in

210 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Irbid following his arrest for alleged drugs year, including a proposal to prohibit and offences. Three police officers were charged criminalize strikes by workers in “vital with forcing a “confession” and beating sectors”. Abdullah Zu’bi to death; two others faced charges of negligence and disobeying orders. WOMEN’S RIGHTS An official autopsy, conducted after a video of Women suffered discrimination in law and Abdullah Zu’bi’s bruised body was shared on practice, and were inadequately protected the internet, attributed his death to a beating against violence, including so-called “honour” inflicted in custody. At the end of the year it crimes. The Citizenship Law continued to bar remained unclear whether the accused police almost 89,000 Jordanian women with foreign officers had been tried. In another case, an spouses from passing their nationality to their official autopsy concluded that Omar al-Naser children or spouses, denying them access to died due to being beaten in CID custody in state services. In January, however, the September; the case was referred to the government enabled the children of women police Public Prosecutor. Police officers with foreign spouses to apply for identity accused of such crimes in Jordan are cards if they have resided in Jordan for at prosecuted before a special police least five years, thus increasing their access court that is neither independent nor to medical care, education, work permits, transparent. property ownership and a driving licence. Tadamun, the Jordanian Women’s ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION Solidarity Association, reported in September During the year, thousands of people were that it had documented 10 possible “honour” detained under the 1954 Crime Prevention killings of women and girls between January Law, which empowers regional governors to and August, based on media reports. In May, authorize the detention of criminal suspects the cabinet approved amendments cancelling for up to one year without charge, trial or any provisions of the Penal Code under which means of legal remedy. rapists could escape prosecution by marrying their victim. This did not apply to cases where FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, the rape victim was between 15 and 18 years ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY old, on the grounds that marriage to the The authorities restricted the rights to perpetrator could protect her from being freedom of expression, association and killed by family members in the name of assembly using laws that criminalize “honour”. peaceful protest and other peaceful expression. Tens of journalists and activists REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS were arrested and detained, including under Jordan hosted more than 641,800 refugees provisions of the Penal Code, which bans from Syria, including some 13,800 criticism of the King and government Palestinians, as well as a growing number of institutions, and the anti-terrorism law as refugees from Iraq. The authorities amended in 2014, which criminalizes maintained strict controls at official and criticism of foreign leaders or states that is informal border crossings and denied entry to deemed to harm Jordan’s relations with those Palestinians, single unaccompanied men states. Those prosecuted included journalists, unable to prove family ties in Jordan, and pro-reformists and members of the Muslim people without identity documents. In March, Brotherhood, some of whom were tried before Prime Minister Ensour told the Third the SSC. International Humanitarian Pledging The Ministry of Justice proposed Conference that refugee numbers already comprehensive amendments to the Penal exceeded Jordan’s capacity. Yet international Code, which were pending at the end of the humanitarian funding and resettlement

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 211 allocations for Syria’s refugees in Jordan “credible opposition”. remained inadequate. Falling oil prices led to an economic Jordan forcibly returned scores of refugees downturn. The national currency was to Syria. In violation of international law it devalued in August. denied entry to over 12,000 refugees from Syria who remained in dire conditions in the TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT desert area on the Jordanian side of the The new Criminal Code and Criminal border with Syria; and, in December, Procedure Code included positive deported more than 500 Sudanese refugees amendments. The changes included a and asylum-seekers to Sudan, where they provision that allegations of torture should be were at risk of human rights violations. automatically registered and investigated as criminal offences by a different agency from DEATH PENALTY the one whose officers were accused of Courts continued to impose death sentences abuse, bypassing the prior internal screening and executions were carried out. In February, which had resulted in the dismissal of most Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli, two complaints. The statute of limitations in Iraqi nationals linked to al-Qa’ida, were relation to cases of torture was abolished, and hanged. It appeared from the timing of the those charged or convicted of torture were executions that they were a response to the excluded from potential amnesties. The killing by IS of a Jordanian pilot. In 2006, maximum penalty for torture was increased to Sajida al-Rishawi had told the UN Special 12 years’ imprisonment. However, lawyers Rapporteur on torture that she had been reported that, while complaints of torture and tortured in pre-trial detention. other ill-treatment were registered as crimes, they were still not properly investigated. In May, Iskander Tugelbaev was beaten in KAZAKHSTAN prison; he was in a coma for three days, which left him unable to speak or walk Republic of Kazakhstan unaided, according to his lawyer. At the end Head of state: Nursultan Nazarbayev of the year, he was still waiting to hear Head of government: Karim Massimov whether the case would proceed to prosecution. Impunity for torture and other ill-treatment From 1 January to 30 November, 119 remained largely unchallenged, and there complaints of torture were registered and 465 was still no independent and full cases of torture were terminated. Eleven investigation into reports of torture following cases reached court and five people were the suppression of the Zhanaozen protests found guilty, of whom only one was given a in 2011. Freedoms of expression, prison sentence. These numbers did not association and peaceful assembly reveal the real scale of the problem, as many continued to be restricted. victims were too afraid to register a complaint of torture. BACKGROUND Public Monitoring Commissions and the A new Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) had Code and Code of Administrative Offences the right to visit prisons and most places of came into force at the beginning of the year. detention, but had limited capacity and Early presidential elections were held resources to do so, and faced bureaucratic unexpectedly in April. President Nazarbayev restrictions. The NPM could only undertake was re-elected to a fifth term in office, unannounced visits with the Ombudsman’s winning 97.7% of the vote. OSCE election permission. monitors reported that the elections lacked

212 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION sanctions for “propaganda of non-traditional The operating climate for the media remained sexual orientation” among minors.1 It was restricted, and media outlets were forcibly rejected by the Constitutional Council in May closed or prevented from operating on for technical reasons, but was expected to be administrative grounds or because they were revised and sent back to Parliament. accused of being a threat to national security. Journalists continued to face harassment and FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION intimidation. Independent media outlets had Clauses in the Criminal and Administrative difficulty generating advertising revenue, as Offences Codes made it a criminal offence to businesses feared reprisals from the lead or participate in an unregistered authorities if they placed advertisements in organization. “Leaders” of associations these publications. became a separate category of offenders, In February, an appeal against the closure providing for harsher penalties; the definition of the newspaper Adam Bol was rejected. of “leader” was very broad, potentially Adam Bol had been closed down on national including any active member of an NGO or security grounds in December 2014, after it other civic association. In practice, many published an interview with a member of the NGOs were denied registration for minor opposition who was based in Ukraine. Later in infringements. the year, the Almaty city authorities attempted In October, legal amendments affecting to close down its successor publication, NGOs’ access to funding were passed by Adam, on administrative grounds. In Parliament, and were signed into law in September, a three-month ban came into December. These will lead to the creation of a force, on the grounds that Adam was central “operator” to administer and distribute registered to publish in Russian and Kazakh, all state and non-state grants to NGOs, but was only publishing in Russian. In including foreign funding, for projects and October, Adam was ordered by a court to activities that comply with a vaguely worded close down upon the request of the Office of list of issues approved by the government. the Prosecutor General, on the grounds that it Failure to supply accurate information for the was illegally continuing to publish content via operator’s centralized database could lead to its Facebook page. fines or a temporary ban on activities. Civil Amendments to the Communications Law society activists were concerned that this new adopted in 2014 gave the Office of the law would limit NGOs’ access to foreign Prosecutor General the power to force funding and constrain their activities. internet providers to block access to internet content without a court order, should that FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY content be deemed as “extremist” and a Freedom of peaceful assembly remained security threat. These powers were used to heavily restricted. Permission from local block access intermittently or permanently to authorities was needed to hold any kind of Kazakhstan-based news outlets and to street protest and this was often refused, or individual articles on international news sites. permission was given to hold the event in a The Criminal Code retained criminal non-central location. Penalties of up to 75 sanctions for defamation and for vaguely days’ administrative detention were worded offences of inciting social and other introduced for violations of the rules on “discord”. At least four people faced criminal holding assemblies; “promotion” of a protest, investigation for inciting national discord for including via social media, was effectively their posts on social media sites. criminalized. A proposed Law on Protection of Children Authorities used “preventive” detention to from Information Harming their Health and stop peaceful protests from going ahead. In Development included administrative January, journalists were arrested on their

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 213 way to a protest in Almaty in support of Adam of not complying with tax and regulatory Bol; they were taken to local police stations to norms or accused of providing support to “acquaint them with the law”, and released terrorists. NGOs were threatened with shortly after. deregistration by the NGOs Co-ordination The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to Board (NGO Board), which was challenged in freedom of peaceful assembly and of court. association, who visited Kazakhstan in Kenya continued to ask the ICC to drop the January and August, called on the authorities case involving Deputy President William Ruto, to allow an international investigation into the arguing that the Office of the Prosecutor, use of lethal force against protesters in through local civil society organizations, had Zhanaozen in 2011, and into reports of procured some of the witnesses. In the build- torture and other ill-treatment of those up to the Assembly of State Parties, MPs detained following the protests. He also affiliated with the ruling coalition ratcheted up expressed concern that the criminalization of calls for the case to be dropped. No “incitement of discord” in the Criminal Code measures were put in place to ensure justice could be used to criminalize the activities of and reparations for victims of the 2007-2008 political parties and trade unions. post-electoral violence. The President announced during his State of the Nation address on 26 June that Kenya would set up 1. Urgent action: Kazakhstan: Stop LGBTI “propaganda” legislation (EUR a reparation fund to compensate victims, but 57/1298/2015) that it would not be limited to victims of the 2007-2008 post-electoral violence.

KENYA POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES On 2 April, gunmen attacked Garissa Republic of Kenya University College in northeastern Kenya, Head of state and government: Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta near the Somali border. The attackers killed 147 students and injured 79 before Continued attacks in Kenya carried out by detonating suicide vests when cornered by al-Shabaab, the Somali-based armed group, security forces. Al-Shabaab claimed led Kenya to step up its counter-terrorism responsibility for the attack. The government operations, which resulted in an increase of made publicly available their list of the most extrajudicial executions, enforced wanted suspected members of al-Shabaab disappearances and other human rights and appealed to the public to provide violations. Human rights organizations information leading to their arrest. reporting on violations by security agencies On 14 June, 11 people believed to be al- during these operations were increasingly Shabaab members and two Kenyan military harassed. Some civil society organizations officers were killed in an attack on a military were shut down or threatened with closure base in Lamu, a town near the Kenya-Somalia through judicial or administrative measures. border. The attack occurred on the first anniversary of a similar attack in Mpeketoni BACKGROUND town, in which suspected members of al- In the context of counter-terrorism operations Shabaab killed at least 60 people. and the prevailing security situation, hundreds of individuals were forcibly REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS disappeared or extrajudicially executed. Civil Politicians and community leaders blamed society organizations, especially those Somali refugees for the attack on Garissa documenting human rights violations in the University College. They publicly claimed that context of security operations, were accused the Daadab refugee camp, in Garissa, was

214 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 the breeding ground for terrorism. Daadab media guaranteed under Articles 33 and 34 hosts at least 600,000 refugees and asylum- of the Constitution”. The section penalized seekers, most of whom are Somali. media coverage “likely to cause public alarm, The Deputy President called for the closure incitement to violence, or disturb public of Dadaab refugee camp within three months peace” or that “undermines investigations or from April.1 At a UNHCR, the UN refugee security operations by the National Police agency, meeting in Geneva on 4 October, Service or the Kenya Defence Forces.” The Kenya’s Interior Minister expressed concern maximum sentence for offenders was three “about the alleged involvement or years in prison, a fine of 5 million shillings complacency of some UNHCR personnel, (US$55,000) or both. who facilitate terrorist activities” in the On 25 October, the Parliamentary Powers country. and Privileges Bill 2014 was passed, Around 350,000 Somali refugees were at criminalizing, among other things, any risk of being forcibly returned to Somalia, publication deemed by the Speaker of which would amount to a violation of Kenya’s Parliament or parliamentary committee chairs obligations under international law and put to amount to false or scandalous libel of hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. There Parliament. The bill also prescribed a were also at least 250,000 refugees from 500,000-shilling fine or two-year jail term, or other countries. Forcibly returning them both, for journalists found guilty of would have put them at risk of human rights contravening the provision. Journalists abuses, such as rape and killings. Kenya is a reporting on issues such as bribery or party to the UN Refugee Convention and the corruption scandals were at risk for exercising African Union Convention Governing the their right to freedom of expression. On Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in 10November , John Ngirachu, a Daily Nation Africa, both of which include the principle of parliamentary editor, was arrested by Criminal non-refoulement that prohibits states from Investigation Department officers at forcibly returning people to a place where Parliament for allegedly breaching they would be at real risk of human rights confidentiality over a story highlighting violations. questionable spending within the Interior Ministry. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION On 7 July, Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria On 19 December 2014, the President made a statement encouraging residents in approved the Security Laws (Amendment) Act his constituency to slash with machetes (SLAA). Two of the sections contain critics of the National Youth Service project in provisions restricting freedom of speech and the constituency. On 8 July, the National media freedom. As soon as the amendment Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) was adopted and signed into law, a coalition called for the Inspector General of the Police including opposition parties filed a petition to arrest and prosecute the legislator over before the High Court challenging many incitement. Kuria was detained at Kilimani provisions of the SLAA on the grounds that Police Station after the Director of Public they were contrary to the right to freedom of Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko ordered expression. his prosecution for inciting his constituents. On 23 February, the Constitutional and Other politicians also faced charges for Human Rights Division of the High Court incitement, including Nairobi Orange ruled on the constitutionality of the SLAA, Democratic Movement chair George Aladwa, holding that eight clauses of the law were who appeared in court on 27 October. On unconstitutional. In its ruling, the High Court 15 December, the DPP lodged an appeal with struck down Section 12 of the law for the High Court to have Kuria and Aladwa “violating the freedom of expression and the detained.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 215 CRACKDOWN ON CIVIL SOCIETY NGOs of misappropriation of funds, funding ORGANIZATIONS of terrorism, money laundering, diversion of A week after the attack on Garissa University, donor money and failing to file their audited 85 companies and NGOs, including Muslims books of accounts as required by law. On for Human Rights (MUHURI) and Haki 30 October, the Cabinet Secretary for Africa, were designated as “specified entities” Devolution and National Planning ordered the by the Inspector General of the Police (IGP) in revocation of the decision to issue the notice a Gazette notice, a step before being of deregistration. The NGO Kenya Human classified as a terrorist organization under the Rights Commission instituted a suit against Prevention of Terrorism Act. the NGO Board’s illegal and irregular actions. On 20 and 21 April, the Kenya Revenue Authority raided the offices of MUHURI and FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Haki Africa, disabling their servers, On 19 January, the police used tear gas confiscating computer hard drives and other against schoolchildren of Langata Primary documents to determine whether the two School who were peacefully protesting against organizations were tax compliant. Their hard a politician’s alleged move to seize their drives were returned on 23 December. The playground and turn it into a car park. Five Mombasa High Court ruled on 12 June that pupils and a police officer were injured during the organizations had no links to terrorism, the protest. The officer in charge of the but fell short of giving an explicit order to operation was suspended. unfreeze their bank accounts. The two organizations appealed the ruling and on FORCED EVICTIONS 12 November, the High Court found that the During the night of 17 May, a bulldozer Inspector General of the Police’s action to accompanied by armed police woke up freeze their accounts was unconstitutional residents of Jomvu in Mombasa County.2 The and therefore null and void. The judge bulldozer demolished shops and homes that ordered the immediate unfreezing of the had been marked with yellow crosses for accounts. demolition, to pave way for the expansion of On 15 May, a task force created in 2014 by the Mombasa-Mariakani Highway. The the Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and authorities had not adequately engaged Planning to consult stakeholders on residents of Jomvu in prior genuine amendments to the Public Benefit consultations on the evictions and alternatives Organizations Act 2013 released its report. to them. Over 100 people were made Among its key recommendations, the report homeless overnight. Approximately 3,000 asked to monitor donors and beneficiaries, as residents of Deep Sea, an informal settlement well as Public Benefit Organizations (PBOs), in the capital, Nairobi, were threatened with for transparency and accountability. The evictions multiple times to make way for the report also recommended that PBOs be EU-funded “Missing Link” road construction obliged to disclose the sources of their project.3 The community had challenged the funding and declare how they intend those eviction in court and raised concerns around funds to be utilized. Civil society organizations due process and adequate compensation. On opposed the recommendations of the report, 8 July, the Kenya Urban Roads Authority told arguing that many of them never came up residents that unless they withdrew their court during the 2014 public hearings. action challenging the eviction, authorities On 28 October, the NGO Board notified would not engage with them. 957 NGOs, through its executive officer, of On 21 August, more than 300 homes were their requirement to submit their audited destroyed and an estimated 500 people were bank accounts within two weeks or be forcibly evicted in a government operation in deregistered. The NGO Board accused the Nairobi’s informal settlement of Mathare. No

216 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 warnings were given and no alternative systematic surveillance. The government housing was provided. arranged for more than 50,000 people to work in other countries, collecting their RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, wages directly from employers and keeping TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE a significant portion for its own revenue. On 24 April, the High Court ruled that Little progress was made in addressing members of an LGBTI rights organization cases of abductions and enforced could formally register their organization. The disappearances of foreign nationals. Court rendered its decision following a petition filed by the National Gay and Lesbian BACKGROUND Human Rights Commission to register under In the fourth year of Kim Jong-un’s rule, the NGO Board Act. The NGO Board had international media continued to report rejected the group’s request to register in executions of senior officials. The Head of March 2013. The three-judge High Court State did not attend celebrations marking the ruled that the NGO Board’s decision violated anniversary of the end of World War II in Article 36 of Kenya’s Constitution and was China and Russia. Inter-Korean relations contrary to the right of freedom of association. remained tense. Explosions of North Korean landmines in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in early August 1. Crisis looms for Somali refugees as Kenya orders closure of Dadaab caused severe injuries to two South Korean refugee camp (News story, 16 April) soldiers. South Korean broadcasts across the 2. Kenya: Driven out for development; forced evictions in Mombasa, border to seek an apology resulted in the Kenya (AFR 32/2467/2015) military on both sides exchanging artillery fire 3. Kenya: Deep Sea residents at risk of forced eviction (AFR later that month. The tension was resolved 32/2054/2015) after a 43-hour high-level dialogue; North Korea expressed regret over the explosions, and a mutual agreement was reached to KOREA continue the reunions of separated families. Natural disasters including a severe summer (DEMOCRATIC drought and floods killed at least 40 people, and affected more than 10,000 others, PEOPLE’S according to state media. REPUBLIC OF) FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION The authorities continued to impose severe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea restrictions on freedom of expression, Head of state: Kim Jong-un including the right to seek, receive and impart Head of government: Pak Pong-ju information regardless of national borders. Although there were three million domestic North Koreans continued to suffer denial mobile service subscribers among the and violations of almost every aspect of their population of 25 million, virtually all nationals human rights. Authorities continued to were barred from international mobile arbitrarily arrest and detain individuals telephone services and access to the internet. without fair trial or access to lawyers and Only tourists and foreign residents were family, including nationals of the Republic allowed to purchase special SIM cards to of Korea (South Korea). Households, make calls outside the country or access the particularly those with members suspected internet using smart phones. The existing of having fled the country or trying to access computer network remained available, outside information, remained under providing access to domestic websites and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 217 domestic email services only, but even this government for such purposes as ideological was not yet widely accessible. education were authorized to conduct home North Koreans who lived close to the visits at any time, and report on people’s Chinese border undertook significant risks in activities. Group leaders, together with using smuggled mobile phones that were another dedicated unit of the State Security connected to Chinese networks in order to Department, monitored people’s radio and make contact with individuals outside the television habits. Households that were country. People who did not own one of these suspected of watching foreign audiovisual phones needed to pay an exorbitant fee and materials, or receiving money from a family go through a broker. While calling outside member who had fled the country, were North Korea was not a criminal offence in subject to heightened surveillance. itself, the use of smuggled mobile phones to connect to Chinese mobile networks exposed ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS all individuals involved to the risk of North Koreans who fled the country reported surveillance, as well as arrest and detention that arrests had increased, as border controls on various charges, including espionage. of both people and goods had tightened The government continued to restrict under Kim Jong-un’s rule. These arrests were access to various outside sources of arbitrary, as they often took place as a information despite the absence of any punishment for exercising human rights, as a domestic independent newspapers, media or crackdown on the private market economy, or civil society organizations. Authorities used for extorting bribes. radio waves to obstruct the reception of Hundreds of thousands of people remained foreign television or radio broadcasts, while detained in political prison camps and other also making foreign channels unreceivable on detention facilities, where they were subjected legally available appliances. Individuals to systematic, widespread and gross human keeping, watching or copying and sharing rights violations such as torture and other ill- foreign audiovisual materials risked arrest, if treatment, and forced labour. Many of those the material was deemed to be “hostile held in these camps had not been convicted broadcasting or enemy propaganda” under of any internationally recognizable criminal the criminal law. offence, but were detained through “guilt-by- association”, only for being related to RIGHT TO PRIVACY individuals deemed threatening to the state. North Koreans who made calls using In May and June, three South Korean men, smuggled mobile phones reported that they Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun- experienced frequent jamming of lines and gil, were given life sentences after being wiretapping of conversations, among other convicted of espionage, among other charges, forms of infringement on the right to privacy. through judicial procedures that fell short of A special unit of the State Security international fair trial standards. A South Department for covert intelligence and digital Korean student, Joo Won-moon, who had operations used sophisticated, imported been arrested for illegally entering the country monitoring devices to detect mobile phone in April, was released in October after more users who tried to make calls out of the than five months of detention without access country. Individuals whose conversations to his lawyer or family.1 were overheard could be arrested if they were found calling someone in South Korea, or if MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS they requested money to be sent to them. The government dispatched at least 50,000 Person-to-person systems of surveillance people to countries such as Libya, Mongolia, also remained a threat to privacy. Nigeria, Qatar and Russia to work in various Neighbourhood groups set up by the sectors including medicine, construction,

218 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 forestry and catering. Workers were often same months in 2013 and 2014. The public subjected to excessively long hours, poor distribution system was the main channel of safety conditions, deprivation of information providing food to at least 18 million people – about labour laws and lack of access to any three quarters of the population. With the government agencies monitoring compliance. reduction in rations, the right to adequate Workers did not receive wages directly from food of most individuals was severely employers, but through the North Korean threatened. government after significant deductions. Workers remained under surveillance in the INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY host countries as they would be in North Following intensified international scrutiny Korea, and contact with the local population after the publication in 2014 of a report by was heavily restricted. the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT Korea, and related discussion at the UN In the first 10 months of 2015, the South Security Council later that year, the UN High Korean Ministry of Unification reported the Commissioner for Human Rights opened a arrival of 978 North Koreans, among them a field office in Seoul, the capital of South teenage soldier who walked across the inter- Korea, on 23 June. The new office had been Korean border on 15 June. According to among the recommendations of the report, South Korea media, the North Korean military and was tasked with monitoring and planted extra landmines in 2015 to prevent its documenting the human rights situation in soldiers from fleeing to South Korea. The North Korea, as steps towards accountability. numbers of arrivals were in line with the Its opening was met with severe criticism 1,397 people reported to have arrived in from the North Korean government. The UN 2014, and similar figures for 2013 and 2012. Security Council held another discussion of These figures remained low compared with human rights in North Korea on previous years, due to tight border controls. 10 December. North Koreans forcibly returned from China Other UN bodies made efforts to address or other countries continued to be at risk of international abductions and enforced detention, imprisonment, forced labour and disappearances, but yielded minimal tangible torture and other ill-treatment. China ignored progress. The North Korean government non-refoulement obligations in international wrote to the UN Working Group on Enforced law by sending back North Koreans and or Involuntary Disappearances in August with seemingly continued this practice through a regard to 27 outstanding cases; the Working 1986 agreement with North Korean Group noted in its report that the information authorities. Russia was reported to be provided was insufficient for clarification of formalizing a similar agreement. the cases.

RIGHT TO FOOD The UN Food and Agriculture Organization 1. Further information: Student released by North Korea (ASA reported in September that, after increases in 24/2609/2015) three consecutive years, food production had been stagnant in 2014, while the drought of 2015 had reduced the production of rice and other cereals by more than 10%. Possibly as a result, the government reduced the daily food rations for households in July and August from 410g to 250g per person, well below the amount distributed during the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 219 their right to freedom of expression. The KOREA government broadened the application of the NSL to include new categories and additional (REPUBLIC OF) groups of individuals such as politicians, serving parliamentarians and foreign Republic of Korea nationals. Head of state: Park Geun-hye In January, the Supreme Court upheld an Head of government: Hwang Kyo-ahn (replaced Chung earlier Seoul High Court decision which found Hong-won in June) Lee Seok-ki and six other members of the opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP) The authorities continued to restrict the guilty of charges under the NSL, shortly after rights to freedom of expression, association the Constitutional Court decision in late 2014 and peaceful assembly. Police used that dissolved the UPP because it had unnecessary force during a vigil walk in violated the country’s “basic democratic memory of the victims of the Sewol ferry order”. accident, and a protester was seriously Also in January, US national Shin Eun-mi injured in a demonstration where police was deported for allegedly speaking positively used water cannons. Although the right of about the Democratic People’s Republic of conscientious objectors to be exempted Korea (North Korea). Hwang Seon, a national from military service continued to be of South Korea, was arrested the same denied, lower courts made a number of month, charged in February under the NSL decisions in favour of recognizing with “causing social confusion” through a conscientious objection. Migrant agricultural speaking tour allegedly praising the North workers faced trafficking for exploitation. Korea regime, and was released on bail in June.2 BACKGROUND The outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS Syndrome (Mers) resulted in 38 deaths, No effective steps were taken to recognize the restrictions to daily life and a severe blow to right of conscientious objectors to be the economy of the Republic of Korea. The exempted from military service.3 More than government was criticized by the public and 600 conscientious objectors remained in international actors for inadequate prison, facing economic and social preparation and delay in the response to the disadvantages beyond their jail terms due to virus. The selection of the new Chairperson of their criminal records. the National Human Rights Commission of However, a number of decisions Korea lacked transparency and there was recognizing conscientious objection have insufficient consultation with civil society been made by lower courts, including three in groups and other relevant stakeholders.1 The 2015. While the Constitutional Court was still annual Pride Parade took place peacefully in examining the legality of conscientious June although police initially rejected the objection, in May the Gwangju District Court application, citing clashes between lesbian, acquitted three conscientious objectors gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex accused of breaking the law by refusing participants and conservative protesters in military duty. District courts in Suwon and 2014. Gwangju further acquitted three other conscientious objectors in August. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION The revision of the Military Service Act and Detentions and prosecutions under the the Enforcement Decree of the Military National Security Law (NSL) were used to Service Act came into force on 1 July. Based intimidate and imprison people exercising on this revision, information on individuals

220 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 refusing to perform military service without of the Assembly and Demonstration Act and “justifiable” reasons was liable to be made obstructing police in relation to the rallies. public on the internet, potentially leading to The police claimed that some of these violations of the rights to freedom of thought, protests were illegal, even though the conscience and religion, to privacy and to protesters said they were lawfully exercising freedom from discrimination.4 their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION In May, the Constitutional Court upheld the MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS constitutionality of Article 2 of the Teachers’ Migrant agricultural workers continued to be Union Act, which provided the government trafficked for exploitation, including forced with the legal basis to strip the Korean labour. Many were compelled to work in Teachers and Education Workers Union of its conditions they had not agreed to – including official status. At the end of the year the excessive working hours and underpayment – original case challenging the government’s under the threat of punishment such as action was still pending at the Seoul High dismissal and violence. Under the terms of Court. the Employment Permit System, it was The Supreme Court ruled in June that extremely difficult for migrant workers to seek irregular migrant workers had the same rights and secure alternative employment if they to form and join a union as other South were subject to exploitation or other abuse by Korean workers, but the authorities continued their employer. to delay registering the Seoul-Gyeonggi- Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU). The DEATH PENALTY Seoul Regional Labour Office demanded that In July, lawmaker Yu In-tae of the New the MTU change its rules and regulations Politics Alliance for Democracy submitted a before finally granting registration in August. bill to the National Assembly that would abolish the death penalty. This was the FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY seventh time that such a bill had been The Sewol ferry accident in April 2014, which introduced but none were brought to a vote resulted in the deaths of more than 300 before the full Assembly. people, many of them students, generated a series of overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations expressing discontent about 1. South Korea: Secrecy of Chair appointment undermines independence the government’s response. Police blockaded of National Human Rights Commission of Korea (ASA 25/2161/2015) street rallies marking the one-year anniversary 2. South Korea: National Security Law continues to restrict freedom of and used unnecessary force against expression (ASA 25/001/2015) participants on a vigil walk in memory of the 3. South Korea: Sentenced to life – conscientious objectors in South victims, near Gwanghwamun in central Seoul Korea (ASA 25/1512/2015) on 16 April.5 4. South Korea: Amnesty International’s submission to the UN Human In July, two prominent human rights Rights Committee, 115th Session (19 October - 6 November 2015) defenders, Park Rae-goon and Kim Hye-jin, (ASA 25/2372/2015) were detained by police for organizing 5. South Korea: Clampdown against Sewol ferry anniversary protest an demonstrations to seek additional action from insult to the victims (Press Release, 17 April) the government in response to the accident.6 6. South Korea: Arrest of two human rights defenders for organizing The two were members of the standing demonstrations (ASA 25/2129/2015) committee for the group “April 16 Alliance” calling for an investigation into the accident. They had been under investigation for three months on charges which included violation

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 221 law criminalizing and further restricting online KUWAIT expression, due to come into force in January 2016, and extended prohibitions in existing State of Kuwait legislation to include online expression, Head of state: Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al- including social media and blogs. Sabah There were prosecutions for insulting Arab Head of government: Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al- leaders on social media, including the late Hamad al-Sabah King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. In January, a court sentenced Bidun rights The authorities tightened restrictions on activist Abdulhakim al-Fadhli to one year’s freedom of expression, including by imprisonment followed by deportation on adopting a new cybercrime law, and charges arising from his participation in a prosecuting opposition and online critics. February 2014 gathering that marked the The government also adopted a law third anniversary of a demonstration calling requiring all citizens and residents to for Bidun people to be granted Kuwaiti provide DNA samples on anti-terrorism citizenship. His sentence was upheld on grounds. Members of the Bidun minority appeal in December. He also received a faced discrimination and were denied separate five-year prison term and a citizenship rights. Migrant workers faced deportation order after a court convicted him inadequate protection against exploitation on charges of insulting the Emir, damaging a and abuse. Courts continued to hand down police vehicle and taking part in an illegal death sentences; no executions were demonstration. reported. In March, police arrested and beat human rights activist Nawaf al-Hendal as he BACKGROUND monitored a peaceful opposition On 26 June a suicide bomber attacked the demonstration. He was detained for two days Imam Sadiq Mosque, a Shi’a mosque in before being charged with “illegal gathering”. Kuwait City, killing 27 people and wounding Musallam al-Barrak, a prominent more than 220 others. It was Kuwait’s most government critic and former MP, began devastating suicide attack to date. serving a two-year prison term in June. He In March, Kuwait joined the Saudi Arabia- had been sentenced in April 2013 to five led international coalition that engaged in the years’ imprisonment for a speech criticizing armed conflict in Yemen (see Yemen entry). the government; the sentence was reduced In June, the government accepted 179 on appeal. More than 60 others who recommendations made during the UPR of protested against his arrest by publicizing or Kuwait, including nine relating to freedom of reciting extracts from his speech also faced expression. It rejected 71 others, including prosecution; two people were sentenced to recommendations on the rights of Bidun and prison terms and 21 others received advocating abolition of the death penalty. suspended sentences. In July, prosecutors questioned 13 people FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND over discussions on the social media site ASSEMBLY WhatsApp about video footage taken in 2014 The authorities continued to restrict the right that appeared to show leading members of to freedom of expression, prosecuting and the government advocating the Emir’s imprisoning government critics and online removal from power. The 13, who included activists under penal code provisions that members of the ruling family, were freed on criminalize comments deemed offensive to bail and banned from leaving Kuwait; their the Emir, the judiciary and foreign leaders. In trial was ongoing. June, Parliament adopted a new cybercrime

222 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY The authorities increased security measures In April, the authorities arrested Sa’ad al- following the June suicide bombing at the ‘Ajmi, a political activist and adviser to former Imam Sadiq Mosque. They tried 29 Kuwaitis MP Musallam al-Barrak (see above), and and foreign nationals, five in their absence, deported him to Saudi Arabia, claiming that on charges linked to the attack. Fifteen were he held Saudi citizenship, which he denied. convicted and, of these, seven were In May, the Administrative Appeal Court sentenced to death. In December, the Appeal ordered the government to restore the Kuwaiti Court confirmed one of the death sentences citizenship of Abdullah Hashr al-Barghash, a and commuted another to 15 years’ former MP whose nationality the authorities imprisonment; it had not ruled on the other revoked in July 2014. The government defendants’ appeals by the end of the year. appealed against the ruling. In November the The authorities also prosecuted people Administrative Appeal Court ruled that the accused of supporting extreme jihadist armed case fell outside its jurisdiction. groups in Iraq and Syria. In July, the Criminal Court sentenced six men to prison terms DISCRIMINATION – BIDUN ranging from five to 20 years, followed by The government continued to withhold deportation, after convicting them of “hostile Kuwaiti citizenship from over 100,000 Bidun, acts” against Iraq and Syria, endangering or stateless residents of Kuwait, whom they Kuwait’s relations with those countries, and considered to be illegal residents. Bidun joining the banned organization Daesh rights activists faced arrest and prosecution. (another name for the armed group Islamic Two days after the June mosque bombing, for State, or IS). Another two defendants were which 13 Bidun were among those arrested, acquitted. All eight defendants alleged in the authorities stopped issuing Bidun with court that security officials had beaten them travel documents except for those seeking in pre-trial detention to coerce them to medical treatment abroad. confess. The court failed to investigate their In an August memorandum to Parliament, allegations. the government’s Central System to Resolve In July, Parliament approved a new law Illegal Residents’ Status, which administers requiring all citizens and residents in Kuwait Bidun affairs in Kuwait, said that it was not to provide samples of their DNA, citing anti- mandatory that 31,189 Bidun listed in the terrorism as the justification. Refusal to 1965 census, used by the government as the comply with the law became punishable by basis for determining citizenship, should be up to one year’s imprisonment and a fine. naturalized. The Central System said that Press reports in July indicated that the other considerations, such as security, should government planned to implement an be taken into account when considering their emergency decree to extend the length of right to Kuwaiti nationality. This determination time that a suspect can be held in detention adds a further obstacle for Bidun to be without charge; however, no such provision granted Kuwaiti nationality. had been enacted by the end of the year. In September, further torture allegations WOMEN’S RIGHTS emerged after 25 Kuwaitis and an Iranian Kuwaiti women had the right to vote and went on trial before the Criminal Court stand as candidates in elections, but accused of espionage and terrorism-related continued to face discrimination in law and in charges. The defendants said officials had practice. In particular, the law accorded tortured them with electric shocks, hanging women fewer rights than men in family by the legs and beatings to force them to matters, such as divorce, child custody and “confess”. The Court was due to deliver its inheritance. verdict in January 2016.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 223 MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS detention under the National Preventive Migrant workers, including those in the Mechanism and instructions on how to domestic, construction and other sectors, document torture issued by the Ministry of faced exploitation and abuse. Parliament Health to medical personnel based on the UN passed a law in June that for the first time Manual on the Effective Investigation and gave migrant domestic workers, Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, predominantly women, labour rights including Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or one day of rest per week, 30 days’ annual Punishment (Istanbul Protocol). paid leave and an end-of-service payment On 16 June 2015, the European Court of equivalent to one month’s salary for each year Human Rights issued a judgment on worked. Khamrakulov v. Russia, stating that forcible return of ethnic Uzbek applicants from Russia DEATH PENALTY to Kyrgyzstan would expose them to risk of At least 15 people were sentenced to death, torture and other ill-treatment. including five in their absence. No executions Kyrgyzstan accepted the recommendations were reported. of the UPR of Kyrgyzstan in June, aimed at combating torture and other ill-treatment. These concerned the investigation of KYRGYZSTAN allegations, particularly those by members of ethnic minorities, relating to the June 2010 Kyrgyz Republic violence and ensuring that the National Head of state: Almaz Atambaev Centre for the Prevention of Torture be Head of government: Temir Sariev (replaced adequately resourced and remained Dzhoomart Otorbaev in May) independent.

No impartial and effective investigation took IMPUNITY place into human rights violations, including Only a minority of alleged torture and of crimes against humanity, committed during gender-based violence cases led to an the June 2010 violence and its aftermath. effective investigation, and still fewer resulted The authorities failed to take effective in the prosecution of perpetrators. measures to end torture and other ill- The NGO Coalition against Torture in treatment and bring perpetrators to justice. Kyrgyzstan documented 79 cases of torture The space for civil society continued to and other ill-treatment in the first half of shrink, against the background of growing 2015. A specialist investigation unit created intolerance towards ethnic, sexual and other by the Prosecutor General’s Office in June minorities. Legislation restricting freedoms started criminal investigations into three cases of expression and association was of torture. By October, 35 criminal cases in introduced and later withdrawn “for relation to over 80 law enforcement officers consultation”. Prisoner of conscience accused of acts of torture were under Azimjan Askarov remained in detention consideration by the courts. However, only in while the homes of lawyers and the NGO four cases dating back to 2011 did courts who worked on his and other ethnic Uzbeks’ hand down a guilty verdict. cases were raided by security officials. The authorities made no genuine effort to effectively investigate the June 2010 ethnic TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT violence in Osh and Jalal-Abad, where serious Torture and other ill-treatment, and impunity crimes were committed by members of both for these violations, remained commonplace ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities, but despite the introduction, in late 2014, of a the latter sustained most deaths, injuries and programme of monitoring of places of damage. Since then, ethnic Uzbeks have

224 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 been targeted disproportionately for “fostering positive attitude” towards “non- prosecution. Nonetheless, Kyrgyzstan traditional sexual relations”, and envisaged rejected the UPR recommendations to sanctions ranging from fines to one-year redress the lack of ethnic representation in imprisonment. The draft law was withdrawn the police and security forces, and adopt before it could be voted in the third and final comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. reading, “for additional consultation”, and is Lawyers defending ethnic Uzbeks detained in expected to be returned to Parliament again. the context of the violence have continued to Human rights defenders and other civil face harassment in connection with their society activists faced increasing harassment work. and pressure from the authorities in On 21 May, the Sokolukski District Court connection with their work, and complained sentenced three staff members of a local of a growing climate of insecurity. court in the Talas region to eight years each A draft law was reintroduced in Parliament for gang-raping a woman, Kalia Arabekova, in that would force NGOs receiving foreign aid December 2013. However, the judge refused and engaging in any form of vaguely defined to order the arrest of the men pending their “political activities” to adopt and publicly use appeal hearing, despite the victim’s repeated the stigmatizing label of “foreign agents”. The complaints about the threats she was President and senior political figures spoke receiving. On the night of 21 July, she was strongly in support of this initiative, modelled assaulted, threatened and raped at her place on similar legislation adopted in Russia in of residence by two masked men, one of 2012. The draft law was withdrawn “for whom she was able to recognize as her initial further discussion” in June, but was expected assailant. to be back before Parliament for further consideration and adoption. PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE On 27 March members of the State Azimjan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek human Committee of National Security (GKNB) in rights defender and a prisoner of conscience Osh searched the office of human rights NGO who was sentenced to life in prison for Bir Duino (“one world”) and the homes of two purportedly participating in the 2010 ethnic lawyers working for it, Valerian Vakhitov and violence, remained in prison. His award by Khusanbai Saliev. During these raids, GKNB the US State Department of the Human officers seized documents relating to the Rights Defenders Award in July prompted an cases the lawyers were working on, as well as angry response from senior Kyrgyz officials. computers and digital memory devices. The The President denounced the award as a lawyers’ complaint about the searches and provocation aimed at inciting separatism and the local court’s decision authorizing them the government rescinded a 1993 co- was heard at Osh Regional Court and the operation agreement with the USA. Supreme Court on 30 April and 24 June respectively, both of which ruled that the FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND searches constituted illegal interference in the ASSOCIATION lawyers’ work. Bir Duino has, among other In a climate of growing intolerance and things, provided legal assistance to ethnic discrimination against members of the Uzbeks who faced prosecution following the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and June 2010 violence in Osh, including Azimjan intersex (LGBTI) community, a draft Askarov. homophobic law introduced in Parliament in 2014 was adopted in its second reading in June by an overwhelming majority of MPs. It proposed amendments to the Criminal Code and other legislation which criminalized

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 225 Mekong River dams potentially impacting LAOS livelihoods in neighbouring countries.

Lao People’s Democratic Republic FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Head of state: Choummaly Sayasone After the enactment of the Prime Ministerial Head of government: Thongsing Thammavong Decree on management of information through the internet in 2014, at least two Severe restrictions on freedom of individuals were arrested in relation to expression, association and peaceful information posted online. assembly continued and authorities A Natural Resources and Environmental prepared to further tighten control of civil Department staff member was arrested in society groups. Two prisoners of conscience June for posting a “confidential document” arrested in 1999 for attempting a peaceful on Facebook regarding a land concession protest remained imprisoned. One activist granted by the Luang Prabang local was imprisoned for online criticism of the authorities to Chinese investors. She was government. Restrictions on practising released in August. Another woman, Phout Christianity were reported, including arrests Mitane, was detained for two months after a and prosecutions. No progress was recorded photograph she took showing police allegedly in the case of a prominent civil society extorting money from her brother was posted member, three years after his enforced online. disappearance. In October Bounthanh Thammavong, a Polish national of Lao descent, was convicted BACKGROUND of criticizing the ruling party in a Facebook In June, Laos accepted 116 of 196 posting and sentenced to four-and-a-half recommendations received during the second years’ imprisonment. A diplomatic official UPR of Laos. While Laos did not reject complained that Bounthanh Thammavong outright any recommendations, it indicated was denied access to a lawyer during his trial. disagreement with the remaining 80 recommendations which were noted. Several FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION of these pertained to freedom of expression, A new Decree on Associations and association and peaceful assembly, and to Foundations, severely limiting the right to human rights defenders. freedom of association in violation of Ahead of Laos chairing the ASEAN in 2016, international law, was still pending in civil society groups in the region called for December. In May, the UN Special their annual gathering, the ASEAN People’s Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, on Forum, to be held outside the country on the freedom of peaceful assembly and grounds that free discussion of key regional association, and on the situation of human rights issues will be impossible in Laos. rights defenders, expressed serious concerns A concession for the construction of a about numerous provisions of the Decree. It controversial hydropower dam on the Mekong requires associations and foundations to River at Don Sahong was approved by “operate in accordance with the [ruling] Parliament, despite objections from Party’s policy, government’s socio-economic downstream countries as to the dam’s development plan, State’s laws and its expected ecological and social impact. regulations”. Construction of the US$3.5 billion Xayaburi Dam entered its final stage. Plans for scores ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES more dams throughout the country were Sombath Somphone, a prominent civil society either under development or under member who was abducted outside a police construction, including eight mainstream post in the capital, Vientiane, in December

226 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 2012, remained disappeared with no RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, progress in his case. In March, a former TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE military general heading a non-profit In June, Parliament passed amendments to organization – widely believed to be a the Education Law requiring schools to government proxy – made a failed attempt to provide “morality” education based on have Sombath Somphone’s name removed constitutional values, which include a from the agenda of the ASEAN People’s definition of marriage as the union between a Forum event. No progress was made in the man and a woman. The new legislation risked case of Sompawn Khantisouk, an placing Latvia in breach of its international entrepreneur who was active on conservation obligations to respect freedom of expression issues. He remained disappeared since being and the requirement of non-discrimination abducted by men believed to be police in with regard to LGBTI people’s relationships 2007. Laos accepted some, but not all, UPR and families. There was also concern that it recommendations calling for an impartial would restrict children’s access to sex and investigation into Sombath Somphone’s sexuality education with potentially negative enforced disappearance and for Laos’ impacts on their right to health. ratification of the International Convention for Concerns remained about the lack of the Protection of All Persons from Enforced express protection in criminal law against Disappearance. incitement to hatred and violence on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. In DEATH PENALTY the first nine months of 2015, Latvian NGO Approximately 20 people were reported to Mozaika recorded 14 attacks against LGBTI have been sentenced to death in 2015, people. None resulted in serious injuries. mainly for drug-related offences. While Laos Victims told Mozaika they did not report the is not known to have carried out executions attacks to the police for fear that they would since 1989, it failed to accept more than a not be taken seriously. dozen UPR recommendations calling for an In June, EuroPride, an international official moratorium on the death penalty. gathering in support of LGBTI people’s rights, took place in Riga, the capital, without major incidents. About 5,000 people participated, LATVIA including three Latvian MPs. The authorities allowed the parade to pass through the main Republic of Latvia street of Riga and to cover 2.2km, a route Head of state: Raimonds Vējonis (succeeded Andris four times longer than in the past. The police Bērziņš in July) offered effective protection to participants. Head of government: Laimdota Straujuma DISCRIMINATION ‒ STATELESS PERSONS Parliament passed amendments to the There continued to be a high number of Education Law which discriminated against stateless people – over 262,000 at the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and beginning of 2015, according to figures of intersex (LGBTI) people. Protection for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. Stateless LGBTI people against hate crimes remained people, the vast majority ethnic Russians, inadequate. Over 262,000 people remained were excluded from the enjoyment of political stateless. Appeals against negative asylum rights. decisions had no suspensive effect, leaving people at risk of being returned to countries REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS where their rights could be violated. The number of asylum applications remained low, with about 200 received in the first eight months of the year. Recognition rates also

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 227 remained very low. However, in September repercussions for Lebanon. Cross-border Latvia agreed to relocate 531 asylum-seekers firing and the participation of Hizbullah from other European countries. Concerns fighters in the conflict in support of the Syrian remained about the excessive use of government threatened Lebanon’s security. detention for asylum-seekers and the non- Some 1.2 million Syrians had claimed refugee suspensive effect of appeals against negative status in Lebanon by the end of the year. In decisions under the accelerated asylum January, Lebanon ended its open-border procedure. The latter increased the risk of policy, preventing refugees without entry visas individuals being returned to countries where from entering the country. they could face serious human rights abuses. In August, fighting between rival factions at Ain el-Helweh, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, caused three deaths. Security LEBANON conditions in Tripoli remained fragile due to tensions related to the Syrian conflict. In Lebanese Republic Syria, the armed group Islamic State (IS) Head of state: vacant since May 2014, when Michel continued to hold Lebanese soldiers and Suleiman’s term ended members of security forces whom they Head of government: Tammam Salam abducted in 2014, while Jabhat al-Nusra freed the ones it held. Security forces used excessive force to disperse some demonstrations and to quell EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE a protest by prisoners. Women continued to There were several incidents of excessive use be discriminated against in law and in of force, particularly by the Internal Security practice. Migrant workers faced exploitation Forces (ISF). In August, ISF officers and army and abuse. The authorities took no steps to soldiers used excessive force against people investigate the fate of thousands of people demonstrating in Beirut as part of the “You who disappeared or went missing during the Stink” protests against the lack of rubbish civil war of 1975 to 1990. Palestinian clearance and other public services. Officers refugees long-resident in Lebanon continued fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, tear gas to suffer discrimination. Lebanon hosted canisters and water cannon, reportedly over 1.2 million refugees from Syria but injuring over 300 people. The Minister for the closed its border and enforced new entry Interior said eight members of the ISF would requirements from January, and barred the face disciplinary action over the incident. entry of Palestinians fleeing from Syria. Courts handed down at least 28 death TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT sentences; there were no executions. In June, five officers were charged with using violence against prisoners at Roumieh Prison BACKGROUND after two videos were posted on social media Political disagreements between the main showing ISF officers beating inmates. political parties prevented the election of a Despite ratifying the Optional Protocol to successor to President Suleiman, who left the UN Convention against Torture in 2000, office in May 2014. In June 2015, thousands by the end of the year Lebanon had yet to of people took to the streets of the capital, establish a national monitoring body on Beirut, to protest against the government’s torture, as the Optional Protocol requires. failure to provide basic services amid an escalating waste-management crisis, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS accusing the authorities of corruption and a Lebanon hosted around 300,000 Palestinian lack of accountability and transparency. refugees and 1.2 million Syrian refugees. The armed conflict in Syria had huge Palestinian refugees, many of whom entered

228 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Lebanon decades ago, remained subject to predominantly women, were especially discriminatory laws and regulations that deny vulnerable as they were employed under the them the right to inherit property or access kafala sponsorship system that ties the worker free public education and prevent them from to their employer. In January, the Minister for working in 20 professions. At least 3,000 Labour refused to recognize the trade union Palestinians who did not hold official identity formed by migrant workers. documents also faced restrictions in registering births, marriages and deaths. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE In January the government overturned its open-border policy and began restricting Special Tribunal for Lebanon entry for Syrian refugees. Lebanon also The Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for continued to bar the entry of Palestinians Lebanon (STL) continued to try five men in fleeing the Syrian conflict. In May, Lebanon their absence for alleged complicity in the instructed UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, killing of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri to provisionally suspend all new registrations and others in a car bombing in Beirut in of Syrian refugees. Refugees from Syria who 2005. In September, the STL acquitted entered Lebanon before January faced Lebanese journalist Karma Khayat and her problems in renewing residency permits. employer Al Jadeed TV of obstructing justice Those who could not afford to renew annual but convicted her of contempt of court for residency permits, which they required to ignoring a court order to remove information remain in Lebanon legally, became irregular related to confidential witnesses, sentencing in status and liable to arrest, detention and her to a fine of €10,000. deportation. The international community failed to IMPUNITY provide adequate support to help Lebanon The fate of thousands of people who were cope with the Syrian refugee crisis. abducted, forcibly disappeared or who went Humanitarian assistance remained missing during and after the civil war of underfunded and there were few resettlement 1975-1990 remained undisclosed. The places offered by third countries to the most authorities failed to establish an independent vulnerable refugees. national body to investigate the fate of those disappeared and missing. WOMEN’S RIGHTS Women continued to face discrimination in DEATH PENALTY law and in practice, particularly in relation to Courts imposed at least 28 death sentences family matters including divorce, child for murder and terrorism-related crimes, custody and inheritance. Lebanese women including some in cases where the married to foreign nationals remain barred defendants were tried in their absence. No from passing on their nationality to their executions have been carried out since 2004. children. The same restriction did not apply to Lebanese men married to foreign nationals. The authorities failed to criminalize marital LESOTHO rape or gender-based violence outside the home. Kingdom of Lesotho Head of state : King Letsie III MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS Head of government: Pakalitha Mosisili (replaced Migrant workers were excluded from the Thomas Motsoahae Thabane in March) protections provided under national labour laws, exposing them to exploitation and abuse Political instability persisted following an by employers. Migrant domestic workers, attempted coup in 2014. Tension within the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 229 armed forces resulted in the killing of the his family disputed this, insisting his killing former Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) was a carefully planned assassination by commander, Lieutenant-General former army colleagues. Maaparankoe Mahao, in June. At least 23 A 10-member SADC Commission of Inquiry soldiers were arrested in May, accused of led by Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi of Botswana leading a mutiny. They remained in was set up on 3 July to investigate security- detention and were allegedly tortured. related issues facing Lesotho, including the killing of Maaparankoe Mahao. The BACKGROUND Commission concluded its work prematurely More than half the population live below the on 23 October due to the lack of co-operation poverty line and persistent droughts, flooding by the government and the LDF. and early frosts have led to low agricultural productivity in recent years. Lesotho’s TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT economy is largely dependent on textile Some LDF members fled to South Africa after manufacturing, income from the Southern being harassed and threatened because of African Customs Union (SACU), diamond their perceived loyalty to the former army mining, and remittances from miners in South chief. Africa. The country faces food insecurity At least 23 soldiers thought to be loyal to exacerbated by weather-related shocks, Maaparankoe Mahao were detained at widespread chronic malnutrition and the Maseru Maximum Security Prison in May. second highest rate of HIV and AIDS in the They were charged with sedition and mutiny, world. The worsening food deficit, as well as charges that carry the death penalty. They the growing retrenchment of Lesotho appeared before a court-martial on 5 October, nationals working in countries such as South but the court-martial was then suspended to Africa, exacerbated household poverty in allow the SADC Commission to carry out its Lesotho. work. The 23 remained in detention and were General elections on 28 February failed to allegedly tortured. produce a clear winner. A coalition The soldiers challenged their detention and government was formed by Prime Minister the composition of the court-martial in the Pakalitha Mosisili’s Democratic Congress and Maseru High Court. On 5 October, the High six other political parties. The Southern Court ordered the release of the 23 soldiers African Development Community (SADC) on “open arrest”, a form of military bail, to continued to mediate between the country’s enable them to participate in the SADC political rivals in order to de-escalate tension Commission of Inquiry. The LDF failed to between the military and the police, tension comply with the court order to release all the that had its roots in the politicization of the soldiers. Only five soldiers were released by security sector. early December on “open arrest”, with their movements being monitored. The court- EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS martial resumed on 1 December but it was On 25 June, former LDF head Lieutenant- later adjourned until 1 February 2016. General Maaparankoe Mahao was shot dead in Maseru by soldiers seeking to arrest him POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES for allegedly plotting to lead a rebellion in the Members of the armed forces obstructed army. Maaparankoe Mahao had been police investigations into a number of high dismissed from the LDF on 21 May. He profile criminal cases from 2014 and 2015 challenged his dismissal in court in June, linked to politicized divisions within the armed shortly before his killing, arguing that it was forces. These included attacks on the homes illegal. The government claimed that of senior politicians, political killings and Maaparankoe Mahao had resisted arrest, but abductions.

230 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 On 17 August, former police commissioner severely restricted. Detention without trial Khothatso Tšooana was compelled by the persisted; torture and other ill-treatment government to take early retirement. He was was common. Women, migrants and accused of incompetence, and of polarizing refugees faced discrimination and abuses. and politicizing the Lesotho Mounted Police The death penalty remained in force; several Service. former senior officials were sentenced to death after a deeply flawed trial. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Members of political elites and the army BACKGROUND continued to interfere with the broadcast Two rival governments and parliaments media. Journalists were subjected to claimed legitimacy and fought for control, harassment and intimidation by political and each supported by loose coalitions of armed security authorities. There was no progress in groups and forces over which they did not the case of Lloyd Mutungamiri, editor of the exercise effective control; armed groups Lesotho Times, who was charged with exploited the absence of central authority to criminal defamation in September 2014 for consolidate their power. Operation Dignity, reporting on police corruption. comprising Libyan National Army battalions, tribal militias and volunteers, supported the DEATH PENALTY government and House of Representatives Lesotho retained the death penalty under (HOR) based in Tobruk and al-Bayda. The Statutory Law as a form of punishment. The Tobruk and al-Bayda-based administration country achieved 20 years without carrying was the internationally recognized out any executions. government until the adoption of the Libyan Political Agreement in December (see below). INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY Libya Dawn, a coalition of militias from cities In January Lesotho’s human rights record was and towns in western Libya, backed the examined under the UPR. Plans to set up a Tripoli-based self-declared National Salvation Human Rights Commission, as Government (NSG) and General National recommended during the UPR, progressed Congress (GNC). Military blocks fragmented during 2015. throughout the year contributing to the chaotic situation. In October, the HOR extended its mandate LIBYA by amending the constitutional declaration. Both parliaments adopted new laws but it State of Libya remained unclear to what extent they were Head of state: Disputed enforced. Head of government: Fayez Serraj became Prime Most fighting between Libya Dawn and Minister designate of the Government of National Operation Dignity forces occurred along Accord on 17 December. He replaced Abdallah al- Libya’s western coast and in the Nafousa Thinni of the interim government and Khalifa Ghweil Mountains. Local ceasefires contributed to of the National Salvation Government. reduced fighting, prisoner exchanges and releases in western Libya. In the east, fighting The armed conflict continued. Forces between Operation Dignity and the Shura affiliated to two rival governments, as well Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, a as armed groups, committed war crimes and coalition of Islamist armed groups including other violations of international Ansar al-Shari’a, caused civilian casualties humanitarian law and human rights abuses and extensive damage in Benghazi, and with impunity. Rights to freedom of trapped civilians without access to expression, association and assembly were humanitarian aid.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 231 Elsewhere, armed groups pursuing their unknown, but some 20,000 were injured own ideological, regional, tribal, economic between May 2014 and May 2015, the UN and ethnic agendas fought for control. In estimated. At least 600 civilians were killed in August, the armed group Islamic State (IS) 2015 according to the ICC Prosecutor. consolidated its control of the city of Sirte and Violence impeded civilian access to food, surrounding coastal areas. IS forces were also health care, water, sanitation and education. present in the cities of Benghazi, Sabratha Many health facilities were closed, damaged and Derna, although they lost control of or inaccessible due to fighting; those still Derna in June after clashes with the Shura functioning were overcrowded and lacked Council of Mujahidin in Derna, an apparently essential supplies. Around 20% of children al-Qa’ida-affiliated coalition of armed groups. were unable to attend school. In December, following 14 months of All sides committed serious violations of negotiations facilitated by the United Nations international humanitarian law, including war Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), crimes, and human rights abuses. They members of the political dialogue including carried out reprisal abductions and detained members of rival parliaments signed the civilians including humanitarian workers and Libyan Political Agreement to end the medical staff because of their perceived violence and form a “Government of National political affiliation or origin, often holding Accord” consisting of a Presidency Council them as hostages to secure prisoner and Cabinet. Despite being unanimously exchanges or ransoms. They tortured and endorsed by the UN Security Council, the otherwise ill-treated detainees and carried out agreement did not cease hostilities and was summary killings. The warring parties also opposed by the heads of rival parliaments launched indiscriminate and disproportionate who sought to reach a separate deal, attacks and direct attacks on civilians and highlighting rifts within the political blocks. civilian objects. In October, the Constitution Drafting In May and June, Libya Dawn-affiliated Assembly issued the first draft of a new armed groups abducted scores of Tunisians, Constitution which included key human rights including consular staff, in the capital, Tripoli, provisions but failed to comply with Libya’s apparently in retaliation after Tunisian international human rights obligations relating authorities arrested a Libya Dawn to freedom of expression, non-discrimination commander. They were released weeks later. and the right to life. IS forces committed scores of summary In February, the HOR repealed Law killings of captured fighters and abducted 13/2013 on Political and Administrative civilians, including foreign nationals, Isolation that had barred officials from the suspected informants and opponents, and previous administration of Mu’ammar al- men accused of engaging in same-sex sexual Gaddafi from holding positions of relations or practising “black magic”. In Sirte responsibility within public institutions. and Derna, IS enforced its own interpretation The lack of rule of law saw rising of Islamic law, carrying out public execution- criminality, with increasing abductions of style killings in front of crowds containing foreign nationals and others for ransom. children, and leaving victims’ corpses on public display. They also carried out public INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT floggings and amputations, and publicized Civilians continued to bear the brunt of the some crimes, including their beheading and conflict. According to the UN Office for the shooting dead of at least 49 Egyptian and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, by Ethiopian Coptic Christians, in videos posted October some 2.44 million people needed on the internet.1 humanitarian assistance and protection. The IS forces carried out indiscriminate suicide number of civilian casualties remained attacks and direct attacks on civilians, such

232 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 as the January shooting and bombing of a with the ICC; despite this the authorities failed Tripoli hotel that killed at least eight people. In to transfer Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi to the ICC August, following an attempt to oust IS forces to face prosecution on charges of crimes from Sirte, IS forces indiscriminately shelled a against humanity. He remained in militia residential neighbourhood forcing civilians to detention. flee, and destroyed homes of civilians they The ICC Prosecutor expressed concern perceived as opponents. about IS crimes and alleged international Libya Dawn and the Libyan Air Force humanitarian law violations by Libya Dawn launched air strikes, some of which killed and and Operation Dignity forces but failed to injured civilians. Evidence of use of initiate new investigations, citing insufficient internationally banned cluster bombs was resources and Libya’s instability, and called found in at least two locations; Operation on state parties to the Rome Statute of the Dignity forces appeared to be responsible. ICC to provide funding. The Prosecutor did Operation Dignity forces also attacked and not seek judicial review of a 2013 burned the homes of suspected supporters of admissibility decision allowing a Libyan court the Shura Council of Benghazi to try former al-Gaddafi era Military Revolutionaries and others, and reportedly Intelligence chief Abdallah al-Senussi; he was abducted, detained, tortured and otherwise among nine defendants sentenced to death in ill-treated civilians. They also reportedly July. committed summary killings of civilians and In July, the HOR adopted a law granting captured fighters. amnesty for some crimes committed since a In the south, fighting along ethnic and tribal similar law was adopted in 2012. It excluded lines often in urban areas, between Tebu and terrorism; torture, including rape; and other Tuareg militias in Obari and Sabha, as well as serious crimes, but not forced displacement. between Tebu and Zway militias in Kufra, In December, UN Security Council caused hundreds of civilian casualties in resolution 2259 called on the new addition to mass displacement and damage Government of National Accord to hold to to civilian objects. account perpetrators of violations of Allies of Libya’s internationally recognized international humanitarian law and human government, including the USA, carried out rights abuses. air strikes against IS and other armed groups they accused of “terrorism”. In February, at INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT least one air strike by Egypt appeared to be There were some 435,000 internally disproportionate; it hit a residential area killing displaced persons in Libya; many were seven civilians and injuring others.2 displaced more than once. Over 100,000 internally displaced persons resided in IMPUNITY makeshift camps, schools and warehouses. In March, the UN Human Rights Council Under UNSMIL sponsorship, asked the UN High Commissioner for Human representatives of Tawargha and Misratah Rights to investigate violations and abuses of signed a document setting out principles and human rights committed in Libya since the measures to allow the safe, voluntary return of beginning of 2014. Also in March, UN 40,000 people forcibly displaced from Security Council resolution 2213 called for an Tawargha in 2011 as well as plans for immediate, unconditional ceasefire; the reparations and accountability for human release of arbitrarily held detainees and the rights abuses. transfer of others to state custody; and accountability, including targeted sanctions JUSTICE SYSTEM against perpetrators. The Security Council The criminal justice system remained also called on the authorities to co-operate dysfunctional and ineffective. Courts in Sirte,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 233 Derna and Benghazi remained closed for ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY security reasons. Armed groups and unknown perpetrators Judges, prosecutors and lawyers faced targeted media and NGO workers and human attacks, abduction and threats. The body of rights defenders with assassinations, Mohamed Salem al-Namli, an appeal court abductions and threats. judge in al-Khoms, was found near Sirte in In January, unknown assailants fired August, 10 days after his abduction by IS. rocket-propelled grenades at al-Nabaa Several GNC decisions further undermined television station in Tripoli, a station perceived the independence of the judiciary. The GNC to hold pro-Libya Dawn views. appointed the President of the Supreme Court In February, armed men abducted two in May, and appointed 36 judges to the members of the National Commission for Supreme Court in October. Human Rights, a local human rights NGO, in In Tripoli, judges suspended work in June Tripoli; they were released a few weeks later. in response to alleged interference by Also in February, Intissar Husseiri, a civil executive and legislative authorities, and society activist, and her aunt were found dead called for protection for the courts and in a car in Tripoli; both had been shot in the prosecutors. head. The General Prosecution opened an Misratah authorities released scores of investigation but did not disclose its findings. detainees that they had held without trial In April, armed men killed journalist Muftah since the 2011 armed conflict, including al-Qatrani at his Benghazi office. The bodies people displaced from Tawargha. Thousands of five members of a crew from Barqa of other detainees remained held without television station, missing since August 2014, charge or trial across the country. were found near al-Bayda. The fate of Tunisian media professionals Sofiane UNFAIR TRIALS Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari and Libyan Although the criminal justice system largely political activist Abdel Moez Banoun, all failed to function, the Tripoli Court of Assize missing since 2014, remained undisclosed. tried 37 former officials from the The Tripoli-based NSG intermittently administration of Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi for blocked access to online media outlets allegedly committing war crimes and other including Bawabat al-Wasat, perceived to be offences during the 2011 armed conflict. The critical of the NSG’s actions. In November, trial was marked by serious violations of due the Ministry of Culture of the NSG issued a process, in particular defence rights and the statement urging civil society organizations court’s failure to duly investigate allegations of not to attend any meetings abroad without torture and other ill-treatment of defendants. prior notification, while the Minister of Culture The defendants included Saif al-Islam al- of the internationally recognized government Gaddafi, a son of Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi, who urged security agencies to ban any media or was tried in his absence as he continued to civil society organizations funded by foreign be held at an undisclosed location in Zintan. entities. On 28 July, the court sentenced him along The NGO Reporters Without Borders with Abdallah al-Senussi and seven other recorded more than 30 militia attacks against defendants to death and imposed prison journalists between January and November. sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment on 23 other defendants.3 A TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT review of the convictions before the Supreme Torture and other ill-treatment remained Court was still pending at the end of the year. common in prisons and detention centres throughout Libya, under both the FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, internationally recognized government and the Tripoli authorities, as well as militias, and

234 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 led in some cases to death. protection or assistance. Many faced serious In August, a video circulated on social abuses, discrimination and labour media apparently showed officials torturing exploitation. Members of religious minorities, As-Saadi al-Gaddafi and other detainees at al- especially Christians, were particularly Hadba Prison in Tripoli. Later videos showed targeted by armed groups seeking to enforce officials threatening to torture As-Saadi al- their own interpretation of Islamic law. Gaddafi.4 The prison director said he had Foreign nationals who entered Libya suspended those responsible but it was irregularly were subject to extortion, torture, unclear whether an investigation by the abduction and sometimes sexual violence by General Prosecutor resulted in prosecutions. criminal gangs engaged in smuggling and The authorities informed UNSMIL that arrests people trafficking. had been carried out without providing further The Tripoli-based Department of details. There were reports that those Combating Irregular Migration continued to responsible went into hiding. hold between 2,500 and 4,000 undocumented foreign nationals in indefinite WOMEN’S RIGHTS detention at 15 centres across the country, Women remained subject to discrimination where many faced torture, following their in law and in practice, and were detention or interception at sea. inadequately protected against gender-based Amid violence and abuses, thousands violence. sought to leave Libya and cross the Armed groups intimidated and threatened Mediterranean Sea to Europe in unseaworthy women activists and human rights defenders vessels. By 5 December, some 153,000 to deter them from engaging in public affairs refugees and migrants had reached Italy by and advocating for women’s rights and sea, most after departing from Libya; about disarmament. 2,900 drowned while attempting the journey, Child marriage appeared to be increasing. according to the International Organization for Girls as young as 12 years old were reportedly Migration. married to IS fighters in Derna to protect their The internationally recognized government families. prohibited the regular entry into Libya of In October, the Tripoli-based GNC Syrian, Palestinian, Bangladeshi and amended the 1984 Law on marriage, divorce Sudanese nationals in January, and extended and inheritance, introducing more the ban to include nationals of Yemen, Iran discriminatory provisions against women and and Pakistan in September. girls, and increasing the potential for child marriage. The amendments allowed men to DEATH PENALTY divorce their wives unilaterally without The death penalty remained in force for a obtaining court approval and prohibited wide range of crimes. Former al-Gaddafi era women from acting as witnesses to marriage. officials and perceived supporters of his rule Women faced arbitrary restrictions on their were sentenced to death. No judicial freedom of movement. Those travelling executions were reported. without a male companion were harassed by militias, and in some cases prevented from travelling abroad, in accordance with a 2012 1. Cold-blooded murder of Copts in Libya a war crime (MDE fatwa by Libya’s Grand Mufti. 19/0002/2015) 2. Libya: Mounting evidence of war crimes in the wake of Egypt‘s air REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS strikes, (News story, 23 February) In September, the UN estimated that there 3. Libya: Flawed trial of al-Gaddafi officials leads to appalling death were around 250,000 refugees, asylum- sentences (News story, 28 July) seekers and migrants in Libya in need of 4. Libya: Allegations of torture of As-Saadi al-Gaddafi and two others

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 235 must be thoroughly investigated (MDE 19/2310/2015) detention and torture of , who remained detained at the US detention facility Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. A final decision by LITHUANIA the European Court was pending at the end of the year. Republic of Lithuania Head of state: Dalia Grybauskaitė RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Head of government: Algirdas Butkevičius TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Transgender people continued to be denied An investigation continued at the national legal gender recognition because of legislative level into allegations that Lithuania hosted a gaps. At the end of the year, a bill aimed at secret site for the CIA where detainees were prohibiting gender reassignment was pending tortured. A decision on a related case was before Parliament. pending at the European Court of Human Several bills on registered partnerships Rights. Legal gender recognition remained were considered by Parliament. In October, a unavailable to transgender people. proposal introduced by the Ministry of Justice on registered partnerships for different-sex COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY couples was rejected by Parliament. The Arvydas Anušauskas, a Member of Minister of Justice explicitly opposed Parliament and former head of a registered partnerships for same-sex couples. parliamentary committee that had At the end of the year, a proposal aimed at investigated allegations that Lithuania hosted banning civil partnerships for all couples and a CIA secret detention facility, publicly stated a second proposal to establish civil that a December 2014 report by a US Senate partnerships for all couples were pending. committee “makes a convincing case that Several bills aimed at restricting the rights of prisoners were indeed held at the Lithuanian LGBTI people were under consideration by site”. In January 2015, the NGO Reprieve Parliament. published a dossier, including new evidence sourced by Reprieve and information from the US Senate report, which concluded “beyond MACEDONIA reasonable doubt” that detainees were held in secret CIA detention in Lithuania in 2005 and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 2006. Head of state: Gjorge Ivanov In April, a closed investigation into the Head of government: Nikola Gruevski secret site allegations was reopened and merged with an ongoing investigation into The publication of audio recordings not only claims by Saudi Arabian national Mustafa al- revealed evidence of government corruption, Hawsawi that he had been held in secret but demonstrated widespread covert detention in Lithuania and tortured at some surveillance. The authorities failed to point between 2004 and 2006. The respect the rights of refugees and migrants, investigation was ongoing at the end of 2015. including by the use of unlawful detention In September, final submissions were filed and the excessive use of force. against Lithuania at the European Court of Human Rights in a case brought by Abu BACKGROUND Zubaydah, who alleged that he had been held A political crisis followed the publication of in secret CIA detention in Lithuania between audio recordings of conversations between February 2005 and March 2006. The ministers, members of the ruling party Lithuanian Prosecutor General had refused to (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary investigate the illegal transfer, secret Organization – Democratic Party for

236 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Macedonian National Unity) and public 2013 for defamation. officials. The recordings, made public by Zoran EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE Zaev, leader of the opposition Social On 9 May, special police units launched an Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) armed operation in Kumanovo, with the revealed government corruption, abuse of alleged aim of preventing attacks against state office, electoral fraud and a lack of respect for and civilian targets. In heavy exchanges of human rights and the rule of law, including fire, 14 ethnic Albanians and eight police interference in the independence of the officers were killed. Thirty ethnic Albanians, judiciary. including former members of the Kosovo Zoran Zaev was indicted, with others, for Liberation Army, were arrested; some alleged crimes including espionage; the government that they were beaten in detention. The claimed that the recordings were fabricated Ministry of Interior ignored calls for an by foreign intelligence services. In May, mass independent inquiry into the operation. demonstrations called on the Prime Minister to resign following his suggested complicity in REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS covering up responsibility for the killing of a At least 600,000 migrants and refugees, young man at a demonstration in 2011. The predominantly from Syria, travelled through Minister of Interior and the Director of Macedonia, aiming to seek asylum in the EU. Security and Counter-Intelligence resigned in Before June, refugees and migrants were May. routinely pushed back to Greece, at the Following an EU-brokered agreement in border and from within the country, ill-treated June, the opposition ended their boycott of by border police and subjected to arbitrary Parliament in September. After further EU detention, and were vulnerable to exploitation intervention, the SDSM took up ministerial by smugglers and attacks by armed gangs.1 posts in an interim government in November, In August, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and deputy prosecutors were appointed to reported that the asylum system was unable investigate the alleged criminal offences to provide effective protection. revealed in the surveillance recordings. A After 19 June, following an amendment to package of electoral reforms required before the Law on Asylum, 388,233 refugees elections in April 2016 was not in place at the registered their interest in claiming asylum at end of the year. the border. However, most travelled by train to the Serbian border. According to Ministry FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION of Interior statistics, only 86 asylum Over 2,000 journalists were estimated to be applications were submitted after 19 June. under surveillance by the government. At the time, up to 7,000 people a day were Published recordings indicated the indirect entering the country from Greece. On 19 financing of pro-government media, and August, the government declared a crisis on political influence over the appointment of the border and deployed paramilitary police journalists and news content. and the army, which used stun grenades and Attacks on independent journalists baton rounds to push refugees back or continued: in April, critical journalist Borjan prevent them from crossing into the country. Jovanovski received death threats and in July Police again used excessive force against Sashe Ivanovski was punched by a deputy refugees at the end of August, and arbitrarily Prime Minister. Investigative journalist beat refugees in September. From Tomislav Kezarovski was released in January 19 November, only Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian from house arrest following appeal, and nationals were allowed to enter the country; international condemnation of his police initially used excessive force to deny imprisonment under a sentence imposed in access to other nationalities arbitrarily

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 237 identified as economic migrants. Over 1,000 mainly Syrian refugees and MADAGASCAR migrants, including children, were unlawfully detained in inhuman and degrading Republic of Madagascar conditions at the Reception Centre for Head of state: Hery Rajaonarimampianina Foreigners in Gazi Baba, Skopje. Many Head of government: Jean Ravelonarivo (replaced alleged they were ill-treated by Ministry of Roger Kolo in January) Interior guards. The centre closed during July following international pressure, including Extrajudicial executions by security forces in from the UN Committee against Torture. the south, in the context of action to combat However, the unlawful detention of refugees cattle theft, continued with almost total and migrants resumed after the November impunity. Journalists, students, border closure; around 55 people, environmental activists and others were predominantly Iranian and Moroccan harassed and intimidated. Some were nationals, were detained in December. sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Some 10,210 Macedonians, many of them Roma, fled discrimination and poverty to BACKGROUND apply for asylum in EU countries; few were Fifty-five years after independence, successful. Madagascar remained the fifth poorest maritime country in the world with an RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, estimated 92% of Malagasy living on less TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE than US$2 per day. It was ranked bottom of During Pride week in June, activists protested its tier in the Human Development Index. against the authorities’ failure to investigate Political instability continued, putting attacks on the lives of LGBTI individuals and national reconciliation and economic their organizations’ premises. In January, development at risk. On 26 May, opposition Parliament voted to amend the Constitution to members in the National Assembly voted define marriage as solely between a man and overwhelmingly in favour of removing a woman. President Rajaonarimampianina from office. The President challenged the legitimacy of COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY the vote and rejected the outcome. On In February, the government finally submitted 13 June, the High Constitutional Court ruled an action plan to the Council of Europe in the in favour of the President. case of German national Khaled el-Masri, as Ongoing high levels of poverty among the required by the 2012 judgment of the majority of the population undermined access European Court of Human Rights, although it to economic and social rights including food, failed to provide for an effective criminal water and education, and fuelled social investigation into his allegations. The Court tensions. An outbreak of plague in August led had ruled Macedonia liable for Khaled el- to at least 10 deaths. Severe flooding between Masri's incommunicado detention, enforced January and March left tens of thousands of disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment people displaced and at least 19 dead. in 2003, and subsequent handover to the US Cattle theft remained a serious problem, CIA, which transferred him out of Macedonia leading to violent clashes between villagers to a secret detention site in Afghanistan. and cattle rustlers, in which dozens of people died.

1. Europe’s borderlands: Violations of the rights of refugees and POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES migrants in Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary (EUR 70/1579/2015) Widespread killings of suspected cattle rustlers continued. A military operation,

238 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Fahalemana 2015, launched in mid-August suffered multiple injuries. He was given a six- to combat cattle theft, led to a number of month suspended sentence in September violent clashes between cattle rustlers and after being convicted on charges including security forces, with killings by both sides. incitement to disturb public order and to Several suspected cattle rustlers were overthrow the government. extrajudicially executed by the military. Local people were injured and some were killed. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS The killings were not investigated and no-one In March, UNICEF reported that 47% of was held to account. children under five suffered chronic On 26 August, eight soldiers and 15 malnutrition, and that their living conditions suspected cattle rustlers died following a were adversely affected by factors including clash at Ankazoabo-Sud. Witnesses reported homelessness, poor nutrition and lack of indiscriminate assaults by state security access to basic health care. forces on villagers presumed to be cattle rustlers. In September, at least 18 people, PRISON CONDITIONS including at least one police officer, three Prisons were overcrowded with more than villagers and 14 suspected cattle rustlers, half of all detainees in pre-trial detention. were killed during violent clashes in Ivahona Food rations allocated to prisoners were cut commune. According to witness testimonies, by more than half in 2015, according to the military officers later summarily executed the ICRC, posing serious threats to health. suspects. On 2 September, the extrajudicial executions of three people were reported after MALAWI security forces entered Tsarazaza Maevatanana village to make documentation Republic of Malawi checks. Head of state and government: Arthur Peter Mutharika

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – Attacks against people with albinism ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS increased sharply. In May, Malawi’s human Environmental activists were at risk of rights record was assessed under the UPR. imprisonment for criticizing activities by The government adopted 154 out of 199 extractive industries, in particular illegal recommendations, mainly rejecting those logging of rosewood. concerning abolition of the death penalty On 22 May, environmental activist Armand and repealing sections of the Penal Code Marozafy was sentenced to six months’ criminalizing same-sex sexual conduct imprisonment and ordered to pay 12 million between consenting adults. ariary (US$3,650) after his personal email reporting that two local tour operators were DISCRIMINATION – PEOPLE WITH involved in illegal rosewood trafficking was ALBINISM leaked on social media. The court in There was a sharp increase in attacks on Maroantsetra found him guilty of defamation people with albinism by individuals and gangs under a controversial cyber criminality law. seeking body parts to sell for use in witchcraft. People with albinism and their EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE families lived in fear of attacks and in some On 31 August, the gendarmerie used instances children with albinism stopped excessive force to break up a demonstration going to school. The Association of People by students at Ankatso University in the Living with Albinism in Malawi recorded at capital, Antananarivo. Student leader Jean- least 19 cases of killings, attempted Pierre Randrianamboarina was beaten and abductions or disappearances. Fifteen of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 239 those cases involved children, 10 of them Ethiopia, were held in overcrowded prisons girls. after being charged with illegal entry and On 19 March, the President issued a fined US$35 or imprisoned for between two statement condemning attacks on people with and nine months. However, in November the albinism, and called on security agencies to International Organization for Migration in arrest perpetrators and provide protection to collaboration with the Ethiopian government people at risk of attack. The Minister of facilitated the return of 223 Ethiopians. Earlier Internal Security reported that eight suspects in the year at least 164 of the most vulnerable had been arrested in connection with some of cases, including minors and elderly people, the attacks. were also returned to Ethiopia. At the end of In May, police reported that they had the year, 20% of the total prison population arrested four men for abducting and killing were awaiting trial with some having been on Symon Mukota, a man with albinism, in remand for years without appearing before a December 2014. The men were caught with court. the deceased’s bones after failing to find a buyer. DEATH PENALTY In September, a primary schoolteacher, After years of delay, in February the process Philip Ngulube, pleaded guilty before the was begun to re-sentence death row Principal Magistrate in Mzuzu of attempting to prisoners following the 2007 High Court ruling sell a woman with albinism to a foreign declaring mandatory death sentencing national, who reported the matter to the unconstitutional. Forty-six prisoners were police. In December four people appeared in released immediately and five were court after being arrested in Mchinji district in sentenced to terms of imprisonment. connection with the alleged murder of Pepuzan Prescote, a man with albinism who had disappeared in August. The four were MALAYSIA remanded in custody at Lilongwe Maximum Prison. Malaysia Head of state: King Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Head of government: Najib Tun Razak TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE During the UPR the government accepted a The crackdown on freedom of expression recommendation to take measures to protect and other civil and political rights LGBTI people against violence and to intensified. The Sedition Act was amended prosecute the perpetrators. The authorities and a new Prevention of Terrorism Act was also agreed to guarantee that LGBTI people passed. Police used unnecessary or have effective access to health services, excessive force when arresting opposition including treatment for HIV/AIDS. The party leaders and activists. government rejected recommendations to repeal provisions in the Penal Code BACKGROUND criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual In February, the Federal Court upheld the conduct between adults. conviction and five-year prison sentence of opposition leader and prisoner of conscience REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges dating to Concerns remained about unregistered 2008. The charges were seen as politically migrants kept in detention beyond expiry of motivated and an attempt to silence their custodial sentences, with limited government critics.1 In December, a National prospect of being released or deported. At Security Council bill was passed by least 500 such detainees, mostly from Parliament, effectively granting expansive

240 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 powers to an appointed Council and the 124 of the Penal Code for acts “detrimental to security forces. parliamentary democracy”. The government imposed travel bans on FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION some opposition members. On 29-30 August, The Sedition Act was amended in April the Bersih 4 rallies, which demanded free resulting in a further erosion of freedom of and fair elections, among other things, were expression.2 The scope of offences was held in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota amended to cover electronic media, including Kinabalu despite being declared illegal by the harsher penalties such as mandatory and government. increased prison sentences. It was used to silence government critics. At least 15 people ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS were charged under the Act, including The Prevention of Terrorism Act, passed on political cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque 7 April, allowed for the detention of terrorist (“Zunar”).3 All cases were ongoing at the end suspects without charge or trial for up to two of 2015. On 6 October, five Federal Court years, renewable without judicial review of the judges unanimously dismissed a case reasons for detention. The Act established a brought by law lecturer Azmi Sharom, Prevention of Terrorism Board which will have challenging the constitutionality of the powers to make detention or restriction orders Sedition Act. “in the interest of the security of Malaysia” on In March, three journalists were arrested by the advice of inquiry officers who may obtain police and officers from the Malaysian evidence in any form, including evidence that Communication and Multimedia Commission would not be admissible in court. The Bar for publishing a report concerning the Council and human rights groups were Kelantan state Hudud Bill, which criminalizes concerned that the Act could lead to torture certain acts, purportedly according to Islamic of detainees, and could facilitate repression of principles. The amended Bill as proposed legitimate dissent and freedom of expression. allows corporal and capital punishment for a The Security Offences (Special Measures) number of acts, including “adultery”. Act continued to be used to arbitrarily arrest The authorities continued to use the and detain people alleged to have committed Printing Presses and Publications Act to set security offences. It allowed for indefinite, so- restrictions on and suspend media outlets called preventive, detention without charge or and publishing houses, and ban materials trial and undermined fair trial rights. critical of the government. Licences for print publications, revocable by the Home Minister POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES and difficult for independent outlets to obtain, Unnecessary or excessive use of force and remained a stringent requirement. allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees by the police continued to be FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND reported. Caning continued to be used as a ASSOCIATION form of punishment. There were 11 recorded Various laws were used against organizers deaths in custody as a result of alleged torture and participants of peaceful protests or other ill-treatment. The government throughout the year. The Peaceful Assembly continued to reject calls to establish an Act, Sedition Act, and Sections 120, 141, Independent Police Complaints and 124b, 124c and 143 of the Penal Code, were Misconduct Commission as recommended by used alone or in combination against a Royal Commission in 2005. individuals involved in a street demonstration in February, the #KitaLawan rally in March, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS and the 1 May Workers Day rally. Peaceful Malaysia faced international criticism as protesters were often charged under Section thousands of refugees and migrants from

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 241 Myanmar and Bangladesh attempted to land activists were detained and later released on Langkawi Island, Kedah state, in May. after being charged with criminal offences. Malaysia and Indonesia eventually agreed to The government stated that flogging would provide humanitarian assistance and not be removed from Maldivian law. temporary shelter for up to 7,000 refugees and migrants for up to one year.4 BACKGROUND The discovery in May and August of more The Supreme Court increasingly assumed the than 100 mass graves on the Thai-Malaysian role of a legislature by unilaterally issuing border raised renewed concerns about rulings that had the force of law, some of human trafficking. which undermined human rights. One such ruling reduced the period for launching an DEATH PENALTY appeal from 90 to 10 days, making it The death penalty continued to be retained as extremely difficult for prisoners to prepare the mandatory punishment for drug their appeal. Another severely undermined trafficking, murder and discharge of firearms the constitutional independence of the with intent to kill or harm in certain Human Rights Commission of the Maldives circumstances. In November the government (HRCM) when the Supreme Court declared announced that legislative reforms to review that it should “work like a ministry or an the mandatory death penalty laws would be extension of the government instead of an introduced in Parliament in early 2016. independent body”. The government failed to Official figures indicated that 33 executions ensure the Commission’s independence. were carried out between 1998 and 2015, Maldives’ human rights record was but no further details on executions were assessed under the UPR in May. It focused made publicly available. on a range of human rights concerns, including flaws within the judicial system that had not been addressed since the previous 1. Malaysia: Anwar verdict will have chilling effect on freedom of UPR. expression (News story, 10 February) The new Penal Code finally came into force 2. Malaysia: Human rights “black hole” expanding (ASA 28/1356/2015) in July. There were reports that some people 3. Malaysia: Stop politically motivated arrests under the Sedition Act had been charged and tried under the new (ASA 28/1235/2015) Code. They included two women sentenced 4. Indonesia/Malaysia/Thailand: Further information: Ensure the safety by a Hithadhoo court to 100 lashes and of refugees and migrants (ASA 01/1786/2015) several months house arrest, each for giving birth to a child years ago without being MALDIVES married. UNFAIR TRIALS Republic of Maldives Constitutional safeguards for the right to a fair Head of state and government: Abdulla Yameen Abdul trial were increasingly eroded. Although the Gayoom government maintained that due process was followed, severe irregularities were revealed Judicial overreach included curtailing the during a series of trials leading to the long- independence of the Human Rights term imprisonment of the government’s Commission of Maldives, which the political opponents. They included the trials of government failed to defend. Judicial former President Mohamed Nasheed, impartiality was a serious concern. Leading sentenced in March to 13 years for allegedly political opponents of the government were ordering the detention of a judge during his sentenced to long-term imprisonment after presidency; former Defence Minister grossly unfair trials. Hundreds of opposition Mohamed Nazim, sentenced in March to 11

242 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 years for allegedly keeping an unlicensed death threats, and police failed to carry out weapon; and former Deputy Speaker of effective investigations and bring the Parliament Ahmed Nazim, sentenced in perpetrators to justice. Political rallies were March to 25 years for alleged corruption.1 attacked by gangs suspected of working in In these cases, the lawyers for the accused collaboration with the police. None of the were not given adequate time to prepare their attackers, even those allegedly known to the defence and the right of the defence to call police, had been brought to justice by the end and examine witnesses was either denied or of the year. severely limited. Impartiality was a serious concern. In Mohamed Nasheed’s trial, two of CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING the three judges who tried and convicted him PUNISHMENT had themselves acted as witness to the Courts continued to sentence people, the vast alleged offence by signing a witness majority of them women, to flogging, most statement as part of the initial complaint. In commonly for fornication.2 The sentences the former Defence Minister’s trial, some of were carried out. Despite flogging constituting the documents provided by the prosecution cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and used as evidence at the trial were never and concerns voiced by the CEDAW shown to the defence. Committee in February, the government The UN Working Group on Arbitrary stated that they would not remove the Detention concluded in October that the punishment from Maldivian law. detention of Mohamed Nasheed was politically motivated and his trial unfair. The DEATH PENALTY Working Group stated that “the adequate No executions have been carried out for more remedy would be to release Mr Nasheed than 60 years, but the government continued immediately and accord him an enforceable to declare that people sentenced to death right to compensation”. The government would be executed. rejected the Working Group’s opinion.

JUSTICE SYSTEM 1. Maldives: Assault on civil and political rights (ASA 29/1501/2015) Judicial impartiality remained a serious 2. 60th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination concern which the government failed to against Women: The Republic of Maldives - review of the combined address. The authorities frequently claimed fourth and fifth periodic report (ASA 29/002/2015) that they would not address any complaints against the judiciary because courts were independent. At the same time, the MALI government failed to strengthen the Judicial Services Commission to enable it to address Republic of Mali impartiality and other issues related to the Head of state: Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta judiciary. Head of government: Modibo Keïta (replaced Moussa Mara in January) FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Hundreds of political opponents of the The internal armed conflict perpetuated a government taking part in peaceful climate of insecurity, particularly in the demonstrations were arrested, detained for north, despite the signing of a peace days or weeks, and released only after having agreement. Crimes under international law conditions imposed preventing them from and abuses by armed groups persisted in taking part in future demonstrations for a different parts of the country. certain period. Journalists, human rights defenders and opposition politicians received

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 243 BACKGROUND In July, members of the armed group al- Violent clashes and insecurity threatened Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) different parts of the country with attacks attacked MINUSMA soldiers on the road against government forces and the UN between Goundam and Timbuktu, killing six Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization MINUSMA soldiers and injuring five. In Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). In June, the August, an armed group attacked a residency government and the Co-ordination of the for UN subcontractors in Sévaré, killing over Movement of Azawad (CMA) signed a peace 10 people, including foreign nationals. agreement in Algiers, Algeria, that included In October, six civilians were killed and two initiatives for further decentralization and the injured after armed men used landmines and establishment of an international Commission rocket launchers to attack a convoy of of Inquiry to investigate crimes under vehicles between Gossi and Gao in the north. international law, including war crimes, Vehicles belonging to MINUSMA crimes against humanity, genocide and subcontractors were the main targets. crimes of sexual violence. The peace In November, armed groups killed 19 agreement also provided that there would be civilians during a siege at the Radisson Hotel no amnesty for those suspected of criminal in Bamako in which more than 150 people responsibility for the named crimes. In order were taken hostage. Both Al-Mourabitoun and to remove any obstacle to the CMA signing the Massina Liberation Front claimed the peace agreement, arrest warrants were responsibility. lifted against 15 of its members who faced At the end of the year Stephen McGowan charges including sedition and terrorism, and and John Gustafsson, kidnapped by others were later released from detention in members of AQIM in northern Mali in 2011, the capital, Bamako. In the same month, the were still being held hostage. MINUSMA mandate was extended by one year. At the end of the year, armed groups EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE still controlled Kidal, one of the largest In January, MINUSMA soldiers fired live northern cities. In November, a nationwide bullets at civilians outside a UN base in Gao, state of emergency was declared following an killing three and injuring four others during a attack on the Radisson Hotel in Bamako; it violent demonstration against the UN plan to was extended to the end of March 2016. create a buffer zone in the northern town of Clashes between armed groups, MINUSMA Tabankort. In March, the victims’ families and government forces continued, leading to filed complaints against MINUSMA for over 250 casualties – including over 60 murder; a UN investigation recognized civilians. MINUSMA officers as responsible for the In August, a former minister and member deaths and said that the police unit had used of the political opposition, Ousmane Oumarou unauthorized and excessive force. The full Sidibé, was made president of the Truth and report of the investigation was not made Reconciliation Commission (CVJR). public. More than 130,000 Malian refugees were still in neighbouring countries, and over ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS 60,000 people remained internally displaced. In August, around 200 people peacefully protested against heavy taxation in the ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS western town of Yélimané, in the Kayes In March, a masked gunman opened fire in a region. One day later, the police arrested 17 bar-restaurant in Bamako, killing three members of the Yélimané Dagkane Malians and two foreign nationals. The armed association; they were later charged with group Al-Mourabitoun claimed responsibility inciting revolt, opposing legitimate authority for the attack. and participation in an unauthorized protest.1

244 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Two other members, Bakary Diambou and Daman Konte, were also arrested in Bamako MALTA and charged with inciting rebellion. All were provisionally released in November. Republic of Malta Head of state: Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca IMPUNITY Head of government: Joseph Muscat In Bamako in March, seven human rights organizations filed complaints on behalf of 33 There was a further reduction in the number victims, against 15 people, for war crimes and of refugees and migrants entering Malta crimes against humanity committed in 2012. irregularly by boat or disembarked there In June, the authorities lifted arrest warrants after search and rescue operations. issued against 15 CMA officials suspected of Authorities continued to automatically committing crimes under international law. detain them, but introduced a review In October, the UN Independent Expert on process to assess the reasons for detention the situation of human rights in Mali in each case, leading to a shortening of expressed deep concern about the time taken detention periods. New legislation was to investigate and bring to trial cases of war approved to advance transgender and crimes and human rights violations intersex people’s rights. Abortion remained committed during the 2012 conflict. In the prohibited in all circumstances. same month, eight supporters of General Amadou Sanogo, leader of the military junta REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS that ruled Mali for part of 2012, escaped from Malta participated under the Frontex Triton prison. They were facing trial for the murder operation in the rescue of refugees and and kidnapping of “red beret” soldiers who migrants crossing the central Mediterranean had opposed the 2012 military coup. At the irregularly on overcrowded and unseaworthy end of the year, General Sanogo and 29 vessels. However, authorities maintained a others, including General Ibrahim Dahirou restrictive interpretation of search and rescue Dembélé, were still in detention and awaiting obligations at sea. By the end of the year, 104 trial for murder and complicity in kidnapping people had arrived on Malta irregularly by of the “red berets”. boat. This was a reduction over previous numbers as most people rescued at sea were INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE disembarked in Italy. In September, Ahmed Al Faqi Al Mahdi, In January, a boat carrying about 122 member of armed opposition group people from sub-Saharan Africa drifted in the Ansardine and allegedly head of the Manners central Mediterranean for about eight days. Brigade (also known as Hesbah), which When it eventually reached Maltese territorial occupied northern Mali in 2012, was waters, about 35 people had either died or surrendered to the ICC by Niger, following the disappeared at sea. Maltese authorities issuance of a warrant of arrest against him. rescued the 87 men found alive on board and He is suspected of war crimes over the disembarked them in Malta, where they were destruction of nine mausoleums and a placed in precautionary quarantine due to mosque in Timbuktu in 2012. The fears they could carry diseases. The asylum- preliminary hearings were due to be held in seekers remained held there even after the January 2016. quarantine was lifted. The authorities continued to automatically detain asylum-seekers and migrants arriving 1. Mali must release 17 prisoners of conscience detained for two months irregularly, in breach of international law (AFR 37/2675/2015) obligations. However, a review process to assess the grounds for detention in each

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 245 individual case was introduced in practice, trawler carrying over 400 people which sank and then codified through subsidiary in October 2013, resulting in about 200 legislation adopted in December. The deaths. According to testimonies from introduction of such a review process, survivors and other evidence, failures by combined with the reduced number of Italian and Maltese authorities delayed the arrivals, led to most people being released rescue operation. within three months, a significant reduction in the length of detention. In December, the RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, government adopted a new policy aiming at TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE the abolition of automatic detention, to align In April, Parliament approved unanimously with EU legislation and previous judgments of the Gender Identity, Gender Expression and the European Court of Human Rights. Sex Characteristics (GIGESC) Act. Welcomed In January, the Minister of Interior told by LGBTI organizations internationally, the Parliament that no records had been kept Act includes ground-breaking provisions for between 2004 and 2012 of allegations of the advancement of transgender and intersex excessive use of force by officers of the people’s rights. It prohibits discrimination on detention services against refugees and grounds of gender identity and provides for a migrants in detention, nor of any related simplified procedure allowing transgender investigation or disciplinary proceedings. individuals to obtain legal recognition of their Serious abuses against detainees had been gender without the requirement to undergo described within the findings of the inquiry, any medical treatment or psychological published in December 2014, on the death in assessment. The Act also outlaws any sex custody of Malian national Mamadou Kamara assignment treatment or surgical intervention in 2012. on the sex characteristics of an intersex In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on the minor, if these can be deferred until the human rights of migrants published his report person can provide informed consent. At the on his December 2014 visit to Malta. His end of the year, over 40 people were reported recommendations included that detention of as having obtained legal recognition of their migrants should not be automatic but gender on the basis of the new legislation, decided on a case-by-case basis, and that all doubling the total number recorded in the detainees should have full access to justice, previous 15 years. including a more accountable system for In January, for the first time the Maltese lodging complaints within detention and Refugee Commissioner granted international reception centres. protection to a transgender person on As of the end of November, Malta had grounds of gender identity. The parliament received 1,561 asylum applications. The vast had amended the Constitution in 2014 to majority were submitted by individuals who protect individuals against discrimination on had been able to travel regularly to Malta or grounds of sexual orientation or gender who had been living in the country already identity. before the reason for their asylum application materialized, particularly Libyan nationals. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS In June, the government initiated Women continued to be denied access to consultations aimed at the adoption of a abortion, which remained prohibited in all National Migrant Integration Strategy to circumstances, including when the woman’s facilitate non-EU nationals’ integration within life is at risk. Maltese society. At the end of the year, the government was still refusing to disclose detailed information about the search and rescue operation of a

246 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist MAURITANIA Movement in Mauritania, to two years in prison for belonging to an unrecognized Islamic Republic of Mauritania organization, participating in an unauthorized Head of state: Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz assembly and assaulting security officers. The Head of government: Yahya Ould Hademine three activists were arrested in November 2014 with other protesters while campaigning Three anti-slavery activists were imprisoned against slavery and raising awareness among and a blogger received a death sentence for the local population of the land rights of apostasy, as restrictions on freedoms of people of slave descent. Their sentences were expression and assembly increased; a new upheld by the Appeal Court of Aleg in August law on civil society associations further 2015.3 threatened these freedoms. Conditions of In August, the UN Special Rapporteur on detention remained harsh, while the the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly practice of torture and other ill-treatment and association called on the National was widespread, with long periods of police Assembly to reject a draft law on civil society custody allowed by anti-terrorist legislation. associations that had been approved by the New laws defined torture and slavery as Council of Ministers without public crimes against humanity and strengthened consultation. measures to combat them. In November, retired colonel Oumar Ould Beibacar was arrested at a political rally in the BACKGROUND capital Nouakchott, during which he spoke of In November, Mauritania’s human rights the extrajudicial execution of military officers record was investigated under the UPR.1 in the 1990s. He was detained at the Mauritania adopted more than 136 Nouakchott Directorate for National Security recommendations, including the and released six days later but remained establishment of a national mechanism to under judicial supervision. combat torture. It rejected 58 recommendations, including the abolition of TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the death penalty and removing the crime of Prisoners suspected of belonging to al-Qa’ida apostasy from legislation. in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the armed group Islamic State (IS), as well as FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSEMBLY women and children, were subjected to AND ASSOCIATION torture and other ill-treatment. These Freedoms of expression and assembly were practices were routinely used to extract curtailed, which led to the detention of “confessions” and punish and humiliate prisoners of conscience. suspects. The use of torture and other ill- In December 2014, Mohamed Mkhaïtir, a treatment was also facilitated by the 2010 blogger who was held in pre-trial detention for anti-terrorist law, which allowed for detainees almost a year, was sentenced to death for suspected of terrorist acts to be held in police apostasy at the Nouadhibou Court in custody for up to 45 days. This limit was northwest Mauritania. He had written a blog regularly exceeded, including by more than a criticizing the use of religion to marginalize year in one case. certain groups in society, and was still in One prisoner in the Nouakchott civil prison, detention at the end of 2015.2 arrested in April 2015 and accused of In January, the Rosso Court in southern belonging to IS, was allegedly tortured while Mauritania sentenced Brahim Bilal Ramdane, in pre-trial detention. His eyes were Djiby Sow and Biram Dah Abeid, a former blindfolded, and he was handcuffed, presidential candidate and president of the punched, and beaten with batons. After

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 247 seven days he said he was forced to sign a October, after the adoption of the law on “confession”. He alleged torture at his torture. They remained disappeared at the hearing in June 2015, but was ignored and end of the year. convicted. There has been no investigation The authorities have still not opened an into his allegations. investigation into the cases of 14 men One woman was allegedly tortured in pre- convicted of terrorism-related offences, who trial detention, where she said officers tore were victims of enforced disappearance in her clothes and slapped her to force a 2011. They were held in harsh conditions in confession. After her trial, she was taken out Salahdine prison, where one of them died in of prison and brought to a police station May 2014; the remaining 13 were transferred where she was again beaten. The prison to Nouakchott central prison in May and July authorities saw the bruising on her body upon 2014. her return and the case was brought to the attention of the public prosecutor. SLAVERY Children were also beaten in both pre-trial In August, a new law was adopted against detention and in prison, where they shared a slavery (amending the 2007 law), defining courtyard with adults. One of them reported slavery as a crime against humanity, doubling being handcuffed and beaten for four days so the prison term for offenders and defining 10 he would confess. Other reported torture types of slavery, including forced marriage. methods included being whipped with cables, In December, two people were placed in suspended from the ceiling and having water detention and charged with acts of slavery. poured into the nostrils. Prisoners in the Salahdine prison reported DEATH PENALTY that they were never allowed to practise any Although no executions were carried out in exercise in the courtyard and that the water over 20 years and in spite of a de facto given to them was dirty, making some of them moratorium, death sentences continued to be ill. imposed. In July, two men were sentenced to In August, new laws defined torture as a death after being convicted of the rape of a crime against humanity, prohibited secret young girl. In December, one person who had detention and created a national body with a been sentenced to death for terrorist acts mandate to investigate detention centres at escaped from the Nouakchott central prison. any time.

ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES 1. Mauritania: Actions speak louder than words: Amnesty International In February, Khadim Ould Semen, Mohamed submission to the Universal Periodic Review, November 2015 (AFR Ould Cbih and Mohamed Khaled Ould 38/1813/2015) Ahmed, three prisoners sentenced to death 2. Mauritania must immediately release Mohamed Mkhaïtir, blogger for a shooting at Tourine, were victims of sentenced to death for apostasy (AFR 38/0002/2015) enforced disappearance. They were part of a 3. Mauritania must immediately release jailed anti-slavery activists and sit-in organized in prison after a prisoner was human rights defenders (AFR 38/0001/2015); Mauritania: Anti- not released on the due date. Prison slavery activist’s harsh sentence upheld on appeal (News story, 20 authorities reported that violence occurred August) during the sit-in. The prison guards fired tear gas canisters and beat the prisoners with batons before taking the three men away, who have not been seen since. In July, the Minister of Justice said that he was unable to clarify their whereabouts and that a delegation would be allowed to visit them in

248 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 as a bill before Congress to create special MEXICO economic zones in the impoverished south. Other measures announced in the package United Mexican States such as new laws on torture and Head of state and government: Enrique Peña Nieto disappearances had yet to be implemented. The share of people living in poverty rose Impunity persisted for grave human rights from 45.5% to 46.2% between 2012 and violations including torture and other ill- 2014, according to official data released in treatment, enforced disappearances and July. The share of those living in extreme extrajudicial executions. More than 27,000 poverty decreased from 9.8% to 9.5% in the people remained missing or disappeared. same period. Human rights defenders and journalists In April, the Supreme Court ruled that 40 continued to be threatened, harassed or days of pre-charge detention (arraigo) is killed. The number of detentions, constitutional for serious offences, a practice deportations and complaints of abuse of that has been condemned by several treaty irregular migrants by the authorities bodies. increased significantly. Violence against women continued to be widespread. Large- POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES scale development and resource exploitation Violence related to organized crime remained projects were carried out without a legal a serious concern. Despite official figures framework regarding the free, prior and reporting a slight increase in homicides from informed consent of Indigenous 35,930 in 2014 to 36,126 in 2015, the communities they affected. The Supreme figures combined manslaughters and Court upheld same-sex couples´ rights to murders, omitting the fact that the monthly marry and adopt children. average number of murders increased by 7%. While fewer soldiers were deployed in law BACKGROUND enforcement operations, numerous human President Peña Nieto reached the middle of rights violations were still attributed to armed his six-year administration term. The ruling forces. There were plans to increase the Institutional Revolutionary Party retained a presence of marines in law enforcement majority in elections to renew the lower house tasks. of the National Congress; several states Human rights violations at the hands of elected governors and other local officials. armed forces and police remained common, A new General Transparency Law enacted especially in the states of Tamaulipas, in May strengthened protections on the right Michoacán and Guerrero, where major to access information. security operations were carried out. The government defended its education In April, the Inter-American Court of reforms against mass protests from teacher Human Rights deemed that the 2014 reform unions and social movements. It prosecuted to the Code of Military Justice did not fully members of teacher unions in cases that comply with several of the Court’s previous appeared to be politically motivated and rulings, since it failed to exclude from military transferred four defendants to a maximum jurisdiction human rights violations committed security prison in October. against members of the armed forces. A 10-point security plan, announced in Congress failed to further reform the Code to November 2014 by President Peña Nieto comply with the Court’s rulings. after mass demonstrations against the enforced disappearance of 43 students, EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS resulted in a number of state governments Perpetrators of extrajudicial executions taking control over municipal police, as well continued to enjoy almost absolute impunity.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 249 For the second consecutive year, the tackle torture were announced, including authorities published no statistics on the internal investigation guidelines on torture number of people killed or wounded in from the Federal Attorney General's Office. clashes with the police and military forces, as On 10 December, President Peña Nieto part of the fight against organized crime. presented a bill to Congress for a General Law Journalists alleged that 16 unarmed people on Torture, resulting from a constitutional were killed by federal police officers and other reform that enabled Congress to legislate on security forces in Apatzingán, Michoacán, in torture and disappearances at federal and January. The National Human Rights state levels. Commission ordered an investigation into the As in previous years, the special medical killings. More than 40 people were killed in examination procedure of the Federal May during a police operation in Tanhuato, Attorney General’s Office for cases of alleged Michoacán. Investigations into the crimes torture was not applied in most cases, with a were not made public and no one had been backlog of more than 1,600 requests on file.1 prosecuted at the end of the year. Officials generally failed to apply the In June, the NGO Centro Prodh uncovered procedure in compliance with the principles that a military order “to take down criminals” of the Istanbul Protocol. In many cases, (meant as “to kill” in this context) was the investigations into torture and other ill- basis for operations carried out in 2014 in treatment did not advance without the Tlatlaya, state of Mexico, when soldiers killed presence of an official examination. 22 people who allegedly belonged to a gang. Independent medical experts continued to The authorities claimed that the event was a face obstacles to carry out their work and shootout with gunmen, but the National have their examinations accepted as evidence Human Rights Commission and a special in criminal trials. congressional commission of inquiry In September, in its first ruling on the separately concluded that a majority of people country, the UN Committee against Torture were shot when they no longer posed a found that the torture by soldiers of four men threat. Seven soldiers were arrested, but only in 2009 who had been charged with crimes three remained in jail pending trial at the end including kidnapping breached the UN of the year. The Federal Attorney General’s Convention against Torture. Following the Office did not investigate any military officers ruling, the four men were acquitted of all or others with command responsibility who charges; however, the soldiers had not been failed to prevent or stop these crimes. charged at the end of the year.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Torture and other ill-treatment remained Enforced disappearances with the widespread among law enforcement and involvement of the state and disappearances investigative officials and little progress was committed by non-state actors continued to made to eradicate it. Authorities denied the be widespread. By the end of the year, the magnitude of the problem, while torture government reported that 27,638 people complaints at both federal and state levels (20,203 men and 7,435 women) were persisted. The government was unable to missing but did not specify how many were provide information on any charges laid or subjected to enforced disappearance. The sentences handed down at a federal level. In few criminal investigations that took place into April, three police officers were charged with these cases were generally flawed, with torture in Baja California state; the charges authorities failing to search for the victims. were rejected by a judge and appealed by the Impunity for these crimes remained almost prosecutor. absolute. In October, the Attorney General Legislative and policy developments to created a Special Prosecutor’s Office to

250 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 handle cases of disappeared or missing established. The number of requests for people. protection under the Mechanism remained Groups of victims and their families as well steady and approximately 90% of requests as human rights organizations engaged in a were admitted. Impunity for threats and acts national debate and produced a series of of aggression remained. requirements for the General Law on In June, Mayan journalist Pedro Canche Disappearances. On 10 December, President was released after spending nine months in Peña Nieto sent a bill to Congress which fell pre-trial detention under unsubstantiated short of international standards. charges of sabotage brought against him as a In January, the Federal Attorney General reprisal for peacefully exercising his right to again stated that 43 students from a teacher freedom of expression. Other journalists training college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, who continued to be harassed by authorities, were forcibly disappeared in September 2014 some of whom fled their hometown or and remained missing, were killed, burned suspended their work for fear of reprisals. In and dumped in a river. The remains of one July, photojournalist Rubén Espinosa Becerril, student were identified, but the whereabouts activist Nadia Dominique Vera Pérez and of the other 42 remained undisclosed. In three other women were found dead in an September, an Interdisciplinary Group of apartment in Mexico City. Both Rubén Independent Experts (GIEI) appointed by the Espinosa and Nadia Vera had left the state of Inter-American Commission on Human Veracruz months earlier due to threats. Rights determined that the investigation was seriously flawed and concluded that the FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY conditions of the site made it impossible to The Supreme Court continued to analyze a burn the bodies in the way described by the legal challenge to Mexico City’s 2014 Law on authorities. The GIEI confirmed that military Mobility. The law threatens freedom of intelligence agents in plain clothes followed peaceful assembly, including through a prior and watched the students during the attacks authorization regime for demonstrations, a and detentions, and that municipal, state and lack of provisions on spontaneous federal authorities were aware of the attacks. demonstrations and government powers to By the end of the year, approximately 100 ban protests in specific places. Amnesty people had been arrested and were on trial, International and other international but none had been charged with enforced organizations submitted a joint amicus brief to disappearance. the Court, arguing that certain provisions in the law violate international law standards. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND JOURNALISTS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Human rights defenders and journalists Violence against women and girls remained continued to be threatened, harassed, endemic, including killings, abductions and attacked or killed. Those defending the sexual violence. The National System for the environment and land rights continued to be Prevention, Sanction and Eradication of at particular risk. A number of journalists Violence against Women announced for the working on issues related to the state of first time the activation of a “Gender Alert” Veracruz were killed. The federal Mechanism mechanism in the state of Morelos and parts for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders of the state of Mexico. The “Gender Alert” is and Journalists lacked resources and co- designed to mobilize authorities to combat ordination, which left human rights defenders widespread gender-based violence and elicit and journalists inadequately protected. The an effective, official response to cases of Prevention, Monitoring and Analysis Unit was violence. installed three years after the Mechanism was In July, five men were handed multiple life

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 251 sentences for the abduction, sexual by migration authorities, police and the exploitation and killing of 11 women in the US military were registered along Mexico’s border town Ciudad Juárez, whose remains southern border. were found in the desert surrounding the town in 2012. The court’s ruling recognized INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS the endemic nature of gender-based violence The country still lacked a legal framework on in the area, and ordered new investigations the right of Indigenous Peoples to free, prior for other perpetrators involved. and informed consent regarding development projects affecting their lands and traditional REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS way of life. Two Indigenous Yaqui leaders who Migrants and asylum-seekers passing through had been imprisoned for protesting against Mexico continued to be subjected to mass the construction of an aqueduct were abductions, extortion, disappearances and released because of a lack of evidence other abuses committed by organized crime against them. The aqueduct’s operation, groups, often working in collusion with state however, continued even after a national agents. A majority of reported abductions took anthropology authority found that it place in the state of Tamaulipas. Mass threatened the survival of the Indigenous attacks against migrants by criminal groups community. persisted throughout the country, with no proper investigations nor access to justice INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY and reparations for victims. In June, armed The government reacted harshly to men attacked a group of approximately 120 international criticism of its human rights Central American migrants in Sonora state; no record. In March, the UN Special Rapporteur investigation had been carried out at the end on torture was publicly questioned after he of the year. An expert forensic commission published a report describing torture as formed in 2013 to identify remains of widespread in the country. A report on migrants massacred in San Fernando, Mexico by the UN Committee on Enforced Tamaulipas, and nearby municipalities Disappearances was described by the reported on the identification of victims to government as “not contributing additional relatives in Central America. Authorities elements” to address the problem. continued to obstruct the Commission’s work In May, the Supreme Court decided that by withholding information and complicating the country was not bound to comply with the delivery of remains to families. judgments of the Inter-American Court of The flow of refugees and migrants from Human Rights that relate to restrictions on Central America continued to increase, many human rights contained in the Constitution. of them leaving their country due to violence. The decision contradicted international law The implementation of the Southern Border and risks perpetuating human rights Plan led to increased numbers of violations such as arraigo. deportations and detentions of migrants For the first time since 1996, the Inter- entering the country. As of November, American Commission on Human Rights 178,254 irregular migrants had been visited Mexico in September to assess the apprehended and detained by the National human rights situation. In its preliminary Institute of Migration, compared with 127,149 observations the Commission highlighted, in 2014; however, this was not reflected by a among others, the issues of torture, enforced commensurate increase in the number of disappearances, violence against women and asylum claims granted. The number of extrajudicial executions, and expressed deportations of Central American migrants by concern about the impunity for such crimes. Mexico overtook those by the USA. The UN High Commissioner for Human Complaints of heavy-handed joint operations Rights visited the country for a similar

252 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 purpose and stated that “there is broad several high-profile resignations, including of consensus nationally, regionally and three successive Prime Ministers in the internationally on the gravity of the human course of the year. rights situation in Mexico today”. Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova and former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat was stripped of his parliamentary 1. Paper promises, daily impunity: Mexico's torture epidemic continues immunity by an unexpected vote in (AMR 41/2676/2015) Parliament on 15 October, and remanded as a suspect in a corruption case.

MOLDOVA TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees by Republic of Moldova the police persisted, in spite of ongoing Head of state: Nicolae Timofti reform of the Ministry of Interior. The Head of government: Gheorghe Brega (replaced Prosecutor General’s Office registered 319 Valeriu Streleț in October as acting Prime Minister, complaints during the first half of the year, a who replaced Chiril Gaburici in July, who replaced negligible reduction from the same period in Iurie Leancă in February) 2014. Impunity remained a concern, with criminal investigations initiated in 53 cases, Corruption scandals and economic and only six reported convictions resulting in deterioration prompted a series of anti- imprisonment for the perpetrators. government protests. The number of The persistent issue of inhuman and registered complaints of torture and other degrading conditions in pre-trial detention ill-treatment slightly decreased, while gained new prominence in connection with impunity for torture persisted. The Chişinău public awareness of the detention of Vladimir Pride march took place under police Filat and of members of the “Grigore protection but hate crimes on the basis of Petrenco group”. sexual orientation or gender identity were On 30 June, the Supreme Court of Justice not effectively addressed. reviewed the four-year sentence of former Minister of Interior Gheorghe Papuc, who had BACKGROUND been convicted of negligence during events In May, it transpired that US$1 billion had on 7 April 2009 that had resulted in the death disappeared from three Moldovan banks of Valeriu Boboc and dozens of injured street through questionable transactions in protesters. The Court issued him with a fine of November 2014. On 6 September, tens of MDL20,000 (US$1,000) instead and thousands of people attended a peaceful acquitted Vladimir Botnari, former police demonstration in the capital, Chişinău, commissioner of Chişinău, who had demanding the resignation of the President previously been given a two-year conditional and the government, and hundreds of sentence. protesters camped in tents in the city centre. In March the Chişinău Court of Appeal Eight activists from a left-wing party tried to found a former police officer guilty of “abuse forcibly enter the Prosecutor General's Office of power and intentional infliction of serious and were detained; their leader, Grigore bodily or health injury” in connection with the Petrenco, and six others were repeatedly death of Valeriu Boboc, and sentenced him to remanded and accused of trying to incite 10 years’ imprisonment. The officer had fled mass disturbances. A handful of protesters Moldova and was sentenced in his absence. were still camping in central Chişinău at the end of the year. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Political and media revelations led to Television viewers across the country

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 253 complained of unexplained broadcast once it goes into effect in September 2016. interruptions by Jurnal TV in early September, Impunity for torture and other ill-treatment, prompting speculation that the disruption had particularly by law enforcement officials been caused by national telecommunications during interrogations to obtain operator Moldtelecom to limit the coverage of “confessions”, remained widespread. the 6 September mass protest in Chişinău. Residents of urban areas continued to be at Some cable television providers reportedly risk of forced eviction. Discrimination and took Jurnal TV off air at the same time, citing harassment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, technical issues. transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people remained of concern. Journalists often RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, practised self-censorship for fear of TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE prosecution. Human rights defenders and An LGBTI march took place on 17 May in journalists continued to raise increased Chişinău, under police protection. Counter- difficulties in carrying out human rights demonstrators, including Orthodox Christian work. activists, attempted to disrupt the event and pelted eggs and firecrackers at the TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT participants. Five attackers were arrested by Impunity persisted for many allegations of the police but it is unknown whether they torture and other ill-treatment committed by were charged with any offence. law enforcement officials. Since the closure in 2014 of the Special Investigation Unit, DISCRIMINATION complaints of torture against law enforcement Hate crimes, which are not a distinct crime officers were investigated by police under the Criminal Code, remained under- themselves and not an independent body, reported and poorly investigated, instead raising concerns regarding impartiality. Only being qualified as hooliganism or robbery. certain officials tasked with investigation LGBTI organization GenderDoc-M within the justice system were considered registered at least four instances of hate liable under Article 251 of the Criminal Code, crimes and 19 hate-motivated incidents. thereby potentially allowing others suspected In September, the Supreme Court of of extracting forced testimonies to escape Justice overturned the decision of the lower accountability. Complaints of mental torture court and acquitted Bishop Marchel of the were dropped more often than those of Moldovan Orthodox Church of hate speech, physical ill-treatment because of alleged incitement to discrimination and spreading difficulties in establishing the facts. false information. The Bishop had called for LGBTI individuals to be barred from working UNFAIR TRIALS in educational, catering and medical Regular instances of denial of pre-trial rights institutions because, he claimed, "92% of continued to be reported, such as the right to them have HIV”. freedom from torture and other ill-treatment, as well as the rights to access health care, families and lawyers. Instances were reported MONGOLIA of police and prosecutors using deception and intimidation against suspects and their Mongolia family members. Head of state: Tsakhia Elbegdorj Head of government: Chimediin Saikhanbileg HOUSING RIGHTS – FORCED EVICTIONS Residents of ger districts (areas without In December, a new Criminal Code was adequate access to essential services) of the passed, fully abolishing the death penalty capital, Ulaanbaatar, claimed that they were

254 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 under constant fear of forcible eviction from their homes. Problems were exacerbated by MONTENEGRO the lack of transparency in city development plans and lack of clear prohibition against Montenegro forced evictions in law or policy. Some Head of state: Filip Vujanović residents of Bayanzurkh district in Head of government: Milo Djukanović Ulaanbaatar claimed they were harassed and threatened into signing development plans Threats and attacks against independent and contracts to turn over their land. media and journalists continued; few perpetrators were brought to justice. Police RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, used excessive force during mass protests TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE organized by opposition parties against the LGBTI people continued to face widespread government’s failure to address poverty, discrimination. According to an LGBTI rights crime and corruption. organization, police officers were often reluctant to intervene. Their responses to CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW LGBTI people alleging discrimination revealed In October the Supreme Court rejected a deeply discriminatory attitudes, and they request to review the legality of the final often became abusers themselves by further judgment in the “Deportations Case” which harassing individuals. had acquitted nine former police officials of the enforced disappearance in 1992 of 60 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – Bosnian refugees. Amnesty International had JOURNALISTS considered the verdict to be inconsistent with Defamation laws, as outlined in Mongolia's domestic law and international humanitarian criminal and civil laws, were used against law. journalists reporting content deemed In September the UN Committee on offensive, including corruption and the Enforced Disappearances expressed activities of legislators. Many journalists and concerns about shortcomings in war crimes independent publications practised a degree proceedings, which may have led to impunity, of self-censorship due to fear of legal urged the authorities to recognize the relatives reprisals. of the disappeared as victims, and called on the new Commission on Missing Persons to DEATH PENALTY establish the whereabouts of 61 people In December a new Criminal Code removing missing since the armed conflicts of the the death penalty for all crimes was adopted 1990s. by the State Great Hural (Parliament). At least two individuals were sentenced to death, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION including one who was reported to have been In May a Commission established to 17 years old when the crime was committed. investigate historical attacks on journalists One of the sentences was commuted to 25 requested access to relevant classified years’ imprisonment on appeal.1 documents; the request was rejected without legal reasoning by the agency responsible for protection of personal data. 1. Mongolia: Open letter on the death penalty (ASA 30/2490/2015) A witness to the 2004 murder of Dan newspaper editor Duško Jovanović was promised protection before testifying. In August, his widow left the country after her car was vandalized. Damir Mandić’s conviction for complicity in the murder was

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 255 confirmed in October. adequately assessing the available evidence. In November, on the eve of International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Journalists, the prosecutor closed the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE investigation into the beating in 2007 of Proposed Pride marches in Nikšić were journalist Tufik Softić, despite the arrest and prohibited on three occasions on security detention of two suspects in 2014. grounds; the Podgorica Pride took place Journalists and human rights defenders without incident in December. were vilified in pro-government media. In In May, three men were each sentenced to January, TV Pink called for the imprisonment three months’ imprisonment for a verbal of Tea Prelević, director of the NGO Human attack in April on Stevan Milivojević, director Rights Action, following her advocacy on of the NGO LGBT Forum Progres. behalf of a trafficked woman. In April, Podgorica Court found that the REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS security services’ surveillance since 2010 of Some 1,107 Roma, Egyptians and Ashkali the NGO MANS, which conducts people displaced from Kosovo in 1999 had investigations into corruption and organized been granted legal status in Montenegro. crime, had been unlawful, and awarded However, 595 others remained at risk of compensation to MANS employees. statelessness, pending approval of their applications; most of the 700 who had not EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE applied were believed to have left the country. Hundreds of riot police used excessive force According to UNHCR, the UN refugee and tear gas on 17 October to remove a camp agency, 144 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians outside Parliament, established during mass were assisted to return to Kosovo. In demonstrations that commenced on 27 December, 48 Kosovo Roma and Egyptian September. Opposition leaders and Members families who had lived at Konik camp since of Parliament were injured. Two journalists 1999 were finally resettled into new were detained. On 24 October, members of apartments. the Democratic Front opposition party Over 4,000 Montenegrins sought asylum in attempted to force their way into Parliament the EU, 3,233 of them in Germany. after being denied entry, injuring 20 police Montenegro remained a transit country for officers. Police reacted with tear gas, shock- migrants and refugees, mainly Syrian grenades and rubber bullets, injuring 27 nationals. By the end of November, out of protesters, including those who had not used 1,570 applicants, 14 had been granted violence. The Council for Civil Control of the refugee status, and two subsidiary protection. Police, which subsequently reviewed three incidents, found police officers responsible for ill-treatment and abuse of authority. In MOROCCO / November, two members of the Special Anti- Terrorist Unit were detained on suspicion of WESTERN SAHARA the ill-treatment of Miodrag Martinović. Kingdom of Morocco TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Head of state: King Mohamed VI In April the European Court of Human Rights Head of government: Abdelilah Benkirane ruled that Montenegro should pay compensation to Dalibor Nikezić and Igor The authorities restricted rights to freedom Milić, who were ill-treated at Spuž prison in of expression, association and assembly, 2009, finding that the state prosecutor had arresting and prosecuting critics, harassing discontinued criminal proceedings without human rights groups and forcibly dispersing

256 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 protests. Torture and other ill-treatment and the website reported on the explosion of a unfair trials were reported. Women car. The court fined him and suspended continued to face discrimination. Migrants Badil.info for three months. In November, the and asylum-seekers were arbitrarily arrested Court of First Instance in Casablanca and subjected to unnecessary and excessive convicted Taoufik Bouachrine, editorial use of force. Courts continued to impose director of Akhbar Al Yaoum newspaper, of death sentences; there were no executions. defamation after the newspaper published a story based on leaked diplomatic cables. The BACKGROUND court sentenced him to a two-month In March, Morocco joined the Saudi Arabia- suspended prison term and a fine of 1.6 led coalition of states that engaged in the million Moroccan dirhams (about armed conflict in Yemen (see Yemen entry). US$150,000). In April, the government published a draft The authorities prevented several human bill to amend the Penal Code, part of broader rights activists from leaving Morocco to attend plans to reform the justice system. Human events abroad and subjected them to rights groups said the draft failed to rectify interrogations. In November, seven Moroccan existing deficiencies in the Code. Other draft civil society activists, including Maati Monjib, laws to amend the Code of Criminal an historian and co-founder of the NGO Procedure and the Statute of Judges, and to Freedom Now, were prosecuted on various establish a Higher Judicial Council, remained charges including harming internal state under consideration. security after training people to use a citizen journalism smartphone application. They FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION faced penalties of up to five years in prison if The authorities prosecuted journalists convicted. deemed to have insulted public figures, state The authorities also banned cultural events, institutions and the government’s human including the public performance of a play rights record, and convicted some on about African migrants in Morocco. apparently trumped-up, common-law charges. They continued to crack down on FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION human rights advocates, activists and artists, Groups that criticized the government’s subjecting some to prosecutions and human rights record were harassed by the restrictions on movement. authorities, who prevented them from In March, a court in the capital Rabat carrying out legitimate public events and sentenced journalist Hicham Mansouri to 10 internal meetings, often informally through months’ imprisonment after convicting him of verbal warnings or by using the security adultery in an unfair trial brought on forces to block access to venues. They apparently politically motivated charges.1 In restricted research activities by international July, a court in Kenitra convicted caricaturist human rights groups, including Amnesty Khalid Gueddar of public drunkenness and International, Human Rights Watch and causing “offence to a public institution ”, NOVACT International Institute for Nonviolent imposing a three-month prison sentence. Action. Several independent journalists were In June the authorities expelled two convicted on charges of false reporting, Amnesty International staff members who defamation and insult, and given heavy fines.2 were visiting Morocco to investigate In August, the Court of First Instance in conditions for migrants and refugees at the Meknes convicted Hamid Elmahdaouy, country’s border with Spain.3 The authorities editorial director of the online news website said they had not given permission for the Badil.info, of reporting false news and visit, despite previously informing Amnesty publishing an unregistered newspaper, after International that no such permission

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 257 was required. REPRESSION OF DISSENT – SAHRAWI The authorities continued to bar the legal ACTIVISTS registration of several human rights The authorities targeted Sahrawi activists who organizations. At the end of the year, 41 of advocated for the self-determination of the 97 local branches of the Moroccan Western Sahara and reported human rights Association for Human Rights (AMDH), abuses. They forcibly dispersed gatherings, Morocco’s largest human rights group, often using excessive force, and prosecuted remained unregistered and in legal limbo protesters. Some Sahrawi prisoners went on because local officials refused to accept their hunger strike to protest against torture and registration applications or provide receipts other ill-treatment. The authorities also for those deposited. In June the restricted access to Western Sahara for administrative tribunal of Fes ruled that foreign journalists, activists and human rights authorities in Tahla could not refuse to accept defenders, barring entry to some and the registration documents filed by the local expelling others. AMDH branch and should issue a receipt. More than two years after his arrest, Mbarek Daoudi, a former soldier and FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY advocate of Sahrawi self-determination, The security forces dispersed protests by received a five-year prison sentence on what human rights defenders, political activists, appeared to be politically motivated charges unemployed graduates and students, of possessing ammunition without a licence sometimes by force. Some protesters were and attempting to make a weapon. He alleged arrested, fined and imprisoned. that interrogators forced him to sign an In January, a court in Ouarzazate incriminating statement under torture sentenced Mustafa Faska and Omar Hourane following his arrest in September 2013. In to three years’ imprisonment after convicting December, Hamza Ljoumai was sentenced to them on charges that included robbery, a two-year prison term after taking part in a violence and forming a criminal gang after protest for self-determination in 2013. He they participated in protests against a silver said that police officers tortured him in mine in Imider, where a peaceful sit-in protest custody and forced him to sign an has continued since 2011. interrogation report he was not allowed to In July the authorities prevented three read. members of the al-‘Adl Wal Ihsane (Justice In March, the NGO Sahrawi Association of and Spirituality) organization from leaving Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Morocco for failing to pay fines imposed for Committed by the Moroccan State obtained “holding an unauthorized meeting” in a official registration 10 years after it first private home. They had previously told a submitted its application to the authorities, court that they would go to prison rather than although its activities remained restricted. pay the fines. Other Sahrawi rights associations, such as the In September, security forces arrested 80 Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights members and supporters of the Annahj Defenders, continued to be denied official Addimocrati (Democratic Path) party as they registration, which they require to operate sought to participate in marches and legally. distribute flyers calling for a boycott of In April the UN Security Council extended communal and regional elections. None faced the mandate of the UN Mission for the charges. Some accused the mostly plain- Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) clothes security officers of using excessive for another year, again without including any force. human rights monitoring component.

258 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the sentences. The authorities failed to ensure that detainees and prisoners were adequately protected COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY against torture and other ill-treatment. In The authorities detained Younous Chekkouri, particular, the authorities failed to promptly a former detainee of the US detention facility investigate allegations or ensure at Guantánamo Bay, immediately upon his accountability. return to Morocco in September and In September, the Moroccan authorities investigated him on terrorism-related charges. closed the investigation into the torture In May the government passed a new law allegations of Ali Aarrass, which they had making it a crime for Moroccans to join a opened in May 2014 following a decision by terrorist group abroad, punishable by up to the UN Committee against Torture. Ali 10 years in prison. The amendment Aarrass, who received a 12-year prison compounded problematic aspects in existing sentence on terrorism charges in 2012 after anti-terrorism legislation including the Spanish authorities forcibly returned him to provision for 12 days’ pre-charge detention Morocco, remained imprisoned despite calls with delayed access to legal counsel, and the for his immediate release by the UN Working vague concept of “advocacy of terrorism”, Group on Arbitrary Detention and had yet to punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. receive a response by the Court of Cassation nearly three years after his appeal. IMPUNITY Some prisoners launched hunger strikes in Victims of serious human rights violations protest against alleged ill-treatment by prison committed between 1956 and 1999 staff and harsh prison conditions, including continued to be denied justice.5 The overcrowding, poor hygiene and lack of authorities failed to implement access to medical care. recommendations made by the Equity and The authorities responded to allegations of Reconciliation Commission, which examined torture against Moroccan officials, filed in human rights violations between 1956 and French courts and submitted to UN bodies, 1999, including a national strategy to combat by prosecuting the complainants on impunity. defamation and other charges. Those prosecuted included Zakaria Moumni, who WOMEN’S RIGHTS said he was tortured in detention in 2010, Women faced discrimination in law and in ACAT-France, a French anti-torture NGO, and practice, and were inadequately protected two torture complainants who were assisted against sexual and other violence. by ACAT-France.4 In July, France and In March the King asked the government to Morocco adopted an amendment to a judicial revise Morocco’s restrictive abortion laws. In co-operation agreement between the two May the authorities said that access to countries. The amendment decreed that all abortion would be extended to women whose complaints alleging violations on Moroccan health was at risk due to foetal impairment or territory, including by French nationals, are to who were pregnant as a result of rape or be transferred to Moroccan courts, thus incest; the authorities had not published draft denying victims of torture or other serious legislation by the end of the year. abuses in Morocco any means of obtaining In July the authorities charged two women remedy through French courts. with public indecency, apparently for wearing In June a court in Fes sentenced two short skirts. The charges were dropped prison officials to five-year prison terms for following a national and international public causing the death of an inmate at Ain Kadou outcry. Prison in Fes in 2008. The victim’s family The government failed to move forward on appealed against the apparent leniency of a draft law, announced in 2013, criminalizing

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 259 violence against women and children. 3. Amnesty International staff members expelled from Morocco (Press release, 11 June) RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 4. Shadow of impunity: Torture in Morocco and Western Sahara (MDE TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE 29/001/2015) Consensual same-sex sexual relations 5. Morocco/Western Sahara: Time for truth 50 years after enforced remained a crime. In May and June, courts in disappearance of opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka (MDE Oujda and Rabat convicted five men on 29/2747/2015) charges that included indecency and engaging in homosexual acts, and sentenced them to prison terms of up to three years, MOZAMBIQUE reduced to five months on appeal. Republic of Mozambique REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Head of state and government: Filipe Jacinto Nyussi Migrants and asylum-seekers from countries in sub-Saharan Africa faced arrest and No one was held responsible for the murder alleged that Moroccan and Spanish border of a constitutional law expert who stated authorities used unnecessary and excessive that a proposal by the opposition party on force to prevent them gaining entry to Spain. provincial autonomy was constitutional. The Moroccan authorities allowed the summary Public Prosecutor charged two men with a return of some migrants who did gain crime against the security of the state for irregular entry to Spain (see Spain entry). criticizing former President Armando In February the authorities arrested over Guebuza. A new Penal Code came into 1,000 migrants and asylum-seekers in raids force. Draft laws impacting on the rights of in and around the northeastern port city of women and girls were passed into law. Nador. They transported them to cities in southern Morocco and detained them for BACKGROUND several days before releasing them. In May, Filipe Nyussi of the Mozambique Liberation the government announced that it would Front (FRELIMO), the ruling party, was sworn build a wall along Morocco’s border with in as President on 15 January, after winning Algeria. In November, two migrants allegedly 57% of the votes cast in October 2014. died of asphyxiation after the authorities lit a Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the fire outside a cave they had taken refuge in Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), during a raid near the northern city of Fnideq. the main opposition party, rejected the election outcome and boycotted the opening POLISARIO CAMPS of Parliament in January. Throughout the The Polisario Front again failed to take any year, RENAMO campaigned for provincial steps to hold to account those responsible for autonomy in the central and northern regions, human rights abuses committed in the 1970s where the party claimed it had taken the and 1980s in camps under its control. majority of votes. In April, Parliament rejected a bill put forward by RENAMO that aimed to DEATH PENALTY formalize regional autonomy. Courts handed down death sentences; there In September, clashes between national have been no executions since 1993. armed forces and RENAMO’s militia resumed following several months of post-electoral tension. On 13 September, Afonso 1. Morocco: Further information: Jail term of press freedom advocate Dhlakama’s convoy was hit by gunfire while upheld: Hicham Mansouri (MDE 29/1754/2015) he was campaigning in Manica province. The 2. Morocco: Court orders suspension of news website, editors fined for result of an investigation into the incident was “false news” and “defamation” (MDE 29/2260/2015) still pending at the end of the year.

260 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 A stagnation of the country’s poverty level breaching the State Security Law. in the past decade contributed to fuelling On 16 September, the Kampfumo social clashes. Municipal District Court acquitted both men on the grounds that publishing a letter did not LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS qualify as a crime under Mozambican law. In October, the Council of Ministers approved The Public Prosecutor appealed against the the Regulation of the Access to Information Court’s decision. The Court had not yet Law, which had come into force in December decided on the appeal at the end of the year. 2014. The law established the responsibility On 3 March, Gilles Cistac, a constitutional of governmental authorities and private law expert, was shot dead by four gunmen in entities with regard to the release and Maputo, the capital. A prominent academic, dissemination of information that is in the he had publicly stated that RENAMO’s public interest; deadlines for providing the proposal on provincial autonomy was information; and a legal mechanism constitutional, drawing criticism from whenever a request for information is denied. FRELIMO. Hundreds of human rights activists A new Penal Code came into force in July. and students marched in Maputo on 7 It includes a number of positive revisions March, calling for justice for his murder. The such as the decriminalization of abortion, the police publicly launched an investigation into option of non-custodial sentences as an his killing but those responsible had not been alternative to prison, and the criminalization identified by the end of the year. of actions that are destructive to the environment. ARBITRARY DETENTIONS Under the new Code, abortion is legal when For the third year running, no action was the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s or taken to hold anyone to account for the the foetus’ health, when it is the result of rape arbitrary and unlawful detention of José or incest, or when the abortion is undertaken Capitine Cossa. He was detained without during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy by a charge or trial in Machava Maximum Security qualified health professional at an official Prison and released in 2012. health centre. The need to approve the Regulation on the decriminalization of abortion and the fact that MYANMAR the Criminal Procedure Code has not been revised constitute an obstacle for the Republic of the Union of Myanmar implementation of the new legislation. Head of state and government: Thein Sein

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Authorities failed to address rising religious On 19 June, the Public Prosecutor formally intolerance and incitement to discrimination charged Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco with a and violence against Muslims, allowing crime against the security of the state for hardline Buddhist nationalist groups to grow defaming former President Armando in power and influence ahead of the Guebuza. The accusation was based on an November general elections. The situation open letter published on Carlos Nuno Castel- of the persecuted Rohingya deteriorated still Branco’s Facebook page in November 2013, further. The government intensified a which criticized Armando Guebuza’s clampdown on freedoms of expression, governance record. association and peaceful assembly. Reports The Facebook post was later published in of abuses of international human rights and Mediafax, a newspaper. Fernando Mbanze, humanitarian law in areas of internal armed editor of Mediafax, was charged with conflict persisted. Security forces suspected “abusing freedom of the press” and of human rights violations continued to

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 261 enjoy near-total impunity. sentenced to two years in prison with hard labour for “insulting religion” in an October BACKGROUND 2014 speech criticizing the use of Buddhism On 8 November, Myanmar held much to promote discrimination and prejudice. anticipated general elections, which saw the Women’s rights activists and other human opposition National League for Democracy rights defenders who spoke out against the claim the majority of seats in Parliament. A four “protecting race and religion” laws were new government was scheduled to be in subjected to harassment and intimidation, place by the end of March 2016. Although including sexually abusive threats. widely praised as being credible and transparent, the elections were otherwise The Rohingya minority marred by the disenfranchisement of minority The situation of the Rohingya minority groups and ongoing restrictions on freedom of continued to deteriorate. Most remained expression. effectively deprived of citizenship rights under In June, the military blocked an attempt to the 1982 Citizenship Law, and continued to amend the 2008 Constitution to remove its face severe restrictions on their right to legislative veto over constitutional freedom of movement, limited access to life- amendments and a clause which bars saving health care, and denial of their rights opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from to education and equal employment being elected President by Parliament. opportunities. There were ongoing reports of In July Myanmar ratified the Chemical arbitrary arrests and torture and other ill- Weapons Convention and signed the ICESCR. treatment of Rohingya in detention, as well as deaths in custody at the hands of security DISCRIMINATION forces. Access to Rakhine State for There was an alarming rise in religious international observers remained severely intolerance, and in particular anti-Muslim restricted. sentiment, with hardline Buddhist nationalist In February, the President announced the groups growing in influence. The authorities revocation of all Temporary Registration Cards failed to address incitement to discrimination (TRCs) – also known as “white cards” – and violence based on national, racial and leaving many Rohingya without any form of religious hatred. identity document. The move effectively Between May and August Parliament barred Rohingya – and other former TRC adopted four laws aimed at “protecting race holders – from being able to vote in the and religion”, originally proposed by hardline November elections. The exclusion of the Buddhist nationalist groups. The laws – the Rohingya was further cemented by the Religious Conversion Law, the Buddhist disqualification of almost all Rohingya who Women’s Special Marriage Law, the applied to contest the elections as Population Control Healthcare Law and the candidates. Many other Muslims were also Monogamy Law – were passed despite disqualified on discriminatory grounds. containing provisions that violate human The deteriorating situation of the Rohingya rights, including by discriminating on religious led increasing numbers to leave Myanmar. and gender grounds. There were fears that According to UNHCR, the UN refugee they would entrench widespread agency, 33,000 people – Rohingya as well as discrimination and fuel further violence Bangladeshi nationals – left the Bay of Bengal against minority groups.1 by boat during the year. In May, a crackdown People who spoke out against on trafficking in neighbouring Thailand saw discrimination and rising religious intolerance thousands of people – many Rohingya fleeing faced retaliation from state and non-state Myanmar – stranded at sea on overcrowded actors. On 2 June, writer Htin Lin Oo was boats controlled by traffickers and people

262 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 smugglers. Many were beaten and held prisoners of conscience. According to state hostage for ransom.2 media, the new Prisoners of Conscience Affairs Committee would be “promptly PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE carrying out prisoners of conscience affairs at Authorities continued to arrest and imprison the grassroots level”. However, by the end of people for peacefully exercising their rights, the year, there was no information regarding including student protesters, political activists, its mandate, resources or activities and it was media workers and human rights defenders, unclear whether it was operational.5 in particular land and labour activists.3 By the end of the year at least 114 prisoners of FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, conscience were behind bars while hundreds ASSOCIATION AND PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY of others released on bail were facing charges Broad and vaguely worded laws were used to – and prison – solely for the peaceful exercise stifle dissent and restrict the rights to freedom of their rights. of expression, association and peaceful In March the police violently dispersed a assembly. They included the Peaceful largely peaceful student protest against the Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, new National Education Law in the town of Penal Code provisions criminalizing “unlawful Letpadan in Bago Region. Over 100 student assemblies”, “insulting religion” and protesters, leaders and their supporters were “incitement”, and the Unlawful Associations subsequently charged with a range of Act among others. There were no attempts to criminal offences for their participation in the review or amend laws which restricted these protests. Among them was student leader rights. Phyoe Phyoe Aung, who was facing over nine Authorities intimidated and monitored years’ imprisonment if convicted for her human rights defenders and peaceful peaceful activities. In the subsequent days activists, subjecting them to multiple forms of and weeks, authorities subjected students harassment and surveillance – including and their supporters to surveillance and other being followed; having their photo taken when forms of harassment in a blatant attempt to attending events and meetings; searches in intimidate and punish those connected with their offices and homes; and harassment and the student protests.4 intimidation of their family members, In October, one month ahead of the colleagues or friends. general elections, authorities detained several Journalists remained subjected to people for social media posts mocking the harassment, arrest, prosecution and military. Among those detained was ethnic imprisonment solely for carrying out their Kachin peace activist Patrick Kum Jaa Lee, activities peacefully, leading some to self- whose repeated requests for bail were censor.6 rejected, despite him suffering from ill-health in detention. These people were charged INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT under the 2013 Telecommunications Act, On 15 October, the government and eight raising alarm that authorities may be moving ethnic armed groups signed the Nationwide their repression to the digital sphere. Ceasefire Agreement, aimed at putting an end A prisoner amnesty on 30 July saw the to decades of armed conflicts between the release of 11 prisoners of conscience among military and the many armed ethnic groups. the 6,966 prisoners released. Prisoner of However, the authorities’ decision to exclude conscience Tun Aung was released in some armed ethnic groups from the accord January following a Presidential pardon. meant that the seven other groups invited to On 5 January, President Thein Sein sign the agreement – including all those in reconstituted a committee established in active conflict with the Army – chose not 2013 to scrutinize cases of remaining to do so.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 263 Fighting intensified in Kachin and Shan held to account for any human rights abuses states, with ongoing reports of killings, by the end of the year.8 enforced disappearances, rape and other crimes of sexual violence and forced labour.7 REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED The government continued to deny full and PEOPLE sustained access for humanitarian workers to According to the UN Office for the displaced communities. Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), In February thousands were displaced, with there were over 230,000 internally displaced reports of killings when renewed fighting people in Myanmar. These included over broke out between the Myanmar Army and 100,000 people displaced by fighting in the armed group the Myanmar National Kachin and Northern Shan states and Democratic Alliance Army in the Kokang Self- 130,000 people, mostly Rohingya, in Rakhine Administered Zone. The President imposed State displaced since violence erupted there Martial Law in the region on 17 February, in 2012. In July, 1.7 million people were lifting it nine months later on 17 November. temporarily displaced by massive floods In October, new military offensives in central across the country. Shan State led to the displacement of around Some 110,000 refugees and others from 6,000 people. Up to 4,000 were still Myanmar lived in nine camps on the displaced by the end of the year. Thailand-Myanmar border, uncertain of their In September, the government signed the future. Many expressed concerns about Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on returning to Myanmar, pointing to ongoing the Rights of the Child on the involvement of militarization, persistent impunity, the children in armed conflict. The Army was continued presence of landmines, and limited reported to have discharged 146 children and education and employment opportunities as young adults from its forces. There were barriers to voluntary returns. continued reports that child soldiers were being recruited by state and non-state actors. IMPUNITY Members of the security forces continued to CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY violate human rights with near-total impunity. The legal framework remained inadequate to Investigations into human rights violations by prevent businesses from causing or the security forces were rare, and when they contributing to human rights abuses. There did occur they lacked transparency and was no legislation prohibiting forced evictions, independence. Perpetrators were seldom nor adequate environmental safeguards held to account. Victims and their families ensuring that people were protected against continued to be denied their rights to justice, negative human rights impacts of water, air or truth and reparation.9 soil pollution caused by extractive and In May, the Myanmar National Human manufacturing industries. Rights Commission (MNHRC) announced Thousands of people were at risk of being that it had been made aware that a military forcibly evicted from their homes and farms to court had acquitted two army officials of make way for the controversial Letpadaung charges relating to the death of journalist copper mine in central Myanmar. The wider Aung Kyaw Naing (also known as Par Gyi), Monywa mining project, of which Letpadaung who was shot dead in military custody in forms part, has a long history of human rights October 2014. The court-martial was held abuses, including forced evictions, violent despite a police investigation and court repression of protests by the authorities, and inquest already being underway. Aung Kyaw environmental impacts posing a threat to local Naing’s family was unaware of the court- people’s health and access to clean water. martial until the MNHRC announcement. No None of the companies involved had been one had been brought to justice for the killing

264 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 by the end of the year. (ICJ): Parliament must reject discriminatory "race and religion" laws State officials, including members of the (ASA 16/1107/2015) security forces, remained protected from 2. Deadly journeys: The refugee and trafficking crisis in Southeast Asia prosecution for past human rights violations (ASA 21/2574/2015) by immunity provisions in the 2008 3. "Going back to the old ways": A new generation of prisoners of Constitution. In December, a bill was conscience in Myanmar (ASA 165/2457/2015) submitted to Parliament which would 4. Myanmar: End clampdown on student protesters and supporters (ASA guarantee former Presidents lifetime 16/1511/2015) immunity from prosecution for “actions” – 5. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch: Open letter on the which could include human rights violations, establishment of the Prisoners of Conscience Affairs Committee (ASA crimes against humanity and war crimes – 16/0007/2015) taken while they were in office. The bill had 6. Caught between state censorship and self-censorship: Prosecution not been adopted by the end of the year. and intimidation of media workers in Myanmar (ASA 16/1743/2015) 7. Myanmar: Investigate alleged rape and killing of two Kachin women DEATH PENALTY (ASA 16/0006/2015) No executions were carried out. At least 17 8. Open for business? Corporate crime and abuses at Myanmar copper new death sentences were imposed during mine (ASA 16/0003/2015) the year. 9. Myanmar: Four years on, impunity is the Kachin conflict’s hallmark (ASA 16/1832/2015) INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY 10. Myanmar: Stalled reforms: Impunity, discrimination and ongoing In November, Myanmar’s human rights human rights abuses: Amnesty International submission to the record was assessed under the UPR.10 Universal Periodic Review (ASA 16/2276/2015) Myanmar rejected key recommendations to review specific laws which restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association and NAMIBIA peaceful assembly and refused to acknowledge the systemic discrimination Republic of Namibia facing the Rohingya minority. Head of state and government: Hage Gottfried Geingob The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar made The long-running Caprivi detainees’ treason two official visits to the country during the trial concluded. Violations of the right to year, yet she was hampered in carrying out freedom of expression continued. Cases of her mandate. In August, she was only given women being killed as a result of domestic permission to travel for five days, had violence were reported. A journalist was difficulties meeting with government assaulted and briefly detained by police for interlocutors, and was denied access to taking a photograph of police arresting a Rakhine State. She also reported surveillance criminal suspect. and harassment of civil society members who met with her. By the end of the year, there CAPRIVI DETAINEES’ TRIAL was still no agreement to establish an Office The Caprivi detainees’ trial concluded on 7 of the UN High Commissioner for Human September. Judge Elton Hoff found 30 of the Rights (OHCHR) in Myanmar. While OHCHR 65 accused guilty of charges of high treason, staff were able to operate in Myanmar, they nine charges of murder, and 90 counts of did not have full and sustained access to the attempted murder. Thirty-two people were country, impeding their ability to undertake acquitted and released, and a further three their work. were found guilty of other charges. The detainees were originally arrested and charged in 1999 for allegedly attempting to 1. Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists secede the then Caprivi region from the rest

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 265 of the country. They had spent more than 14 Oshikoto Region. In the same month, Justine years in remand prison. The majority of them Shiweda, a 50-year-old teacher at Onalulago suffered health problems linked to age and Primary School in Oniipa constituency, was prolonged detention and many of their shot dead by her husband. In 2014, UNAIDS, relatives had no means of visiting them. Many the joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, and of the Caprivi detainees were possible Victims 2 Survivors, a Namibian NGO, called prisoners of conscience because they were for gender-based violence to be declared a arrested solely on the basis of their actual or national disaster. perceived political views, ethnicity or membership of certain organizations. The length of their pre-trial detention violated the NAURU rights of the accused to a fair trial. Ten of the accused died in police custody before the Republic of Nauru High Court trial commenced in Grootfontein, Head of state and government: Baron Waqa Otjozondjupa Region, in 2003, while another 12 who went on trial died before its end. There were ongoing concerns about Most of the detainees reported being independence of the judiciary and tortured or otherwise ill-treated at the time of restrictions on freedom of expression. their arrest. Asylum-seekers continued to be housed at In passing his verdict, Judge Hoff upheld a the Australian-run immigration processing 2001 Supreme Court decision, making centre on Nauru amid reports of sexual and confessions extracted under coercion other physical abuse, including of children. inadmissible and also dismissed testimonies secured by torture or illegal police behaviour. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION In April the government blocked access to FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Facebook for several weeks, claiming it The right to freedom of expression continued needed to stop the sexual exploitation of to be violated. children. On 12 May, new criminal laws On 5 December, New Era journalist imposed seven-year prison sentences for Nuusita Ashipala was physically assaulted by publishing statements which coerced, a police officer in Oshakati, Oshana Region, intimidated or caused emotional distress. and was locked up in a police van for about These laws failed to comply with international 30 minutes for taking pictures of police human rights law and standards on the right officers arresting a criminal suspect at the to freedom of expression and imposed Game shopping complex. She was ordered to excessive penalties. delete the pictures from her camera before Court cases continued against five being released without charge. opposition MPs who were suspended from Parliament in 2014 after being accused of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS criticizing the government in international Violence against women, in particular so- media. All five had their passports cancelled. called passion killings, remained a concern. In June three of the MPs were also detained, On 21 April, the police reported the death two without bail for one month, after of a 26-year-old mother of two from the participating in protests criticizing the Oneshila informal settlement in Oshakati East. government. She had been murdered in full view of her children by her male partner. FAIR TRIALS On 20 June, Martha Iyambo died after Concerns remained about the independence being stabbed by her ex-boyfriend at Oyovu of the judiciary and unreasonable delays after village in the Omuntele constituency, judicial officers were effectively dismissed in

266 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 early 2014, jeopardizing the right to to establishing a National Preventive a fair trial. Mechanism to monitor places of detention at the earliest opportunity. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS In November, Nauru’s human rights record By 30 November, 543 people, including 70 was assessed for the second time under the children, remained in the Australian-run UN UPR. The government agreed to ensure centre on Nauru. Approximately 621 refugees judicial independence, introduce specific were living on temporary visas in the laws against family violence, and to improve community. The reopening of Australia’s measures to safeguard the rights of refugees immigration processing centre on Nauru in and asylum-seekers. 2012 led to numerous human rights abuses. In March, an independent report released by the Australian government made NEPAL recommendations to address ongoing concerns about the safety of women and Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal children in the centre (see Australia entry). Head of state: Bidhya Devi Bhandari (replaced Ram The Nauru government stated it was deeply Baran Yadav in October) concerned by the findings and would make Head of government: Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli all resources available to help Australia (replaced Sushil Koirala in October) implement the changes. However, in August a report by the Australian Senate into the A new Constitution was rushed through in abuse allegations stated that the current the aftermath of the devastating earthquake conditions and circumstances were not of 25 April. Adopted in September, it was adequate, appropriate or safe. Despite key marked by human rights shortcomings and a recommendations, Nauru had yet to federalist structure rejected by ethnic implement a child protection framework. groups in the Terai. Violent clashes between In October the Nauru government protesters and police led to more than 50 announced that the centre would be an deaths. Discriminatory relief distribution “open” facility, with those housed there free after the earthquake impacted marginalized to come and go. It also announced that the groups, and reconstruction efforts were remaining 600 asylum claims would be delayed in all affected areas. processed “within a week”. By the end of Discrimination, including on the basis of December processing had still not been gender, caste, class, ethnic origin and completed. religion, remained rife. Ongoing reports of violence against refugees in the community raised concerns BACKGROUND that Nauru remained ill-equipped to provide On 25 April, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake the necessary safeguards to protect asylum- struck Nepal, followed by hundreds of seekers and to meet the needs of refugees aftershocks. By October, the Home Ministry who were settled. had reported 8,856 deaths and 22,309 A ban on foreign journalists visiting the people injured in the original earthquake. A island was made explicit in a statement from total of 602,257 homes were recorded as the Nauru government in October. having been completely destroyed and a further 285,099 partially destroyed. Over INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY 100,000 displaced people were forced to live In May, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention in camps for months. Access to basic health of Torture inspected Nauru’s police station services was challenging or non-existent for and prison, as well as the Immigration many and food security was fragile. Detention Centre. The government committed The Constituent Assembly failed to adopt a

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 267 new Constitution by the 22 January deadline IMPUNITY but, following the earthquakes, rushed to an On 26 February, the Supreme Court ruled agreement on a text that was adopted in against provisions that recommend amnesties September. Madhesi and Tharu groups for crimes under international law in the Truth organized often violent protests in response to and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Act, the proposed federal structure, and security passed by the Constituent Assembly in April forces resorted to the use of force. Starting 2014. The government rejected the Supreme from the third week of September, Court’s decision and filed a review petition. obstructions at the various entry/exit points at The TRC and a Commission on Enforced the India-Nepal border prevented trucks Disappearances, established under the Act, carrying fuel, food and medicine from began operating despite the amnesty entering from India, causing severe provisions, risking further impunity for shortages. perpetrators of international crimes committed during the armed conflict. LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Accountability for human rights abuses INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS continued to be seriously undermined by The draft Constitution presented for public police failures to register First Information consultation in July raised major human Reports, conduct investigations and follow rights concerns, with the rights of women, court orders. These included cases of alleged and marginalized communities such as Dalits, extrajudicial executions, gender-based inadequately protected. There were serious violence, torture and other ill-treatment, and concerns around the citizenship provisions trafficking of women and children. which discriminated against single women and same-sex couples, and around provisions MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS including freedoms of religion and expression, Just over 500,000 Nepalese migrated through access to justice, preventative detention, official channels for work, largely in low- sexual and reproductive rights and child skilled sectors such as construction, rights. During the public consultation, manufacturing and domestic work. Many approximately 40,000 recommendations from continued to be trafficked for exploitation and human rights organizations and the public forced labour by recruitment agencies and were received by the Constituent Assembly, brokers. Recruiters deceived migrant workers but it failed to make necessary changes and about their pay and conditions, and charged key concerns remained unaddressed in the fees despite the government’s “free visa” final text, adopted on 20 September. policy which allowed migrant workers to travel On 8 August, four major political parties abroad without cost. Women aged under 30 brokered an agreement to define Nepal as a were banned from migrating for work to Gulf federal republic in the new Constitution and States. While this was intended to protect to split it into seven federally administered women, it meant many were forced to use states. Ethnic groups in south and mid-west informal channels, thus increasing their risk Nepal protested against the new structure of exploitation and abuse. Following the April which they saw as denying them political earthquakes, migrant workers in the Gulf, representation. This resulted in a surge of Malaysia and other countries also often violent protests in the Tarai region. encountered problems with returning to their Security forces resorted to excessive, families in Nepal. disproportionate or unnecessary force in several clashes with protesters. By October, at TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT least 47 civilians and 10 police had been Torture and other ill-treatment by police killed in clashes. continued, particularly during pre-trial detention, to extract confessions and

268 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 intimidate individuals. Following the 2011 was applied in only a handful of Constitution-related violence in the Tarai, criminal cases due to a lack of awareness reports of pre-trial detention spiked. about the Act and victims’ fears of reporting By the end of 2015 the Constituent attacks. Assembly had failed to pass legislation Women from marginalized groups, defining and providing criminal penalties for including Dalits and impoverished women, torture, or to reform the Penal Code and continued to face particular hardship because Criminal Procedure Code in line with of discrimination. Laws criminalizing rape international law and standards. A bill continued to be inadequate and to reflect criminalizing torture was before the Assembly. discriminatory attitudes towards women. This did not meet international standards as it Gender-based discrimination also limited the recognizes torture and other ill-treatment as ability of women and girls to control their taking place only in police custody, limits sexuality and make choices related to punishments for perpetrators and reproduction, including use of contraception; compensation for victims, and places a 90- to challenge early marriages; to ensure day limitation for registering complaints. adequate antenatal and maternal health care; and to access sufficient nutritious food. It also HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION POST- put them at risk of domestic violence, EARTHQUAKE including marital rape. One consequence was There were serious concerns that relief efforts that women and girls continued to be at high failed to ensure that the needs of all risk of developing uterine prolapse, often at earthquake-affected populations were met, an early age. particularly those from marginalized groups. Reports from survivors indicated numerous incidents of discrimination based on caste, NETHERLANDS socioeconomic status and gender in relief distribution. Kingdom of the Netherlands In June the government refused to waive Head of state: King Willem-Alexander costly and time-consuming customs duties Head of government: Mark Rutte and procedures for aid deliveries. These decisions worsened the already serious risk of Solitary confinement continued to be used leaving affected populations without access to in immigration centres. The government desperately needed aid. By October, the failed to introduce measures to prevent government had not set up the National ethnic profiling by the police. Reconstruction Authority or spent the US$4.1 billion pledged at a donor conference REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS on 25 June for earthquake reconstruction. At the end of 2015, the rights of affected Immigration detention populations to basic needs such as adequate Solitary confinement continued to be used in housing, recognition under law, food, water immigration detention centres, both as a and sanitation, and to freedom of movement, means of control and as a punitive measure.1 including protection against forced relocation In March, body scan equipment was of displaced persons, remained at risk. introduced in detention centres, making strip searches of detained migrants largely DISCRIMINATION unnecessary. Discrimination, including on the basis of In September the government tabled a gender, caste, class, ethnic origin and draft law regulating immigration detention. religion, persisted. The Caste-based The law mentions the need to consider Discrimination and Untouchability Act of alternatives to detention. However, it includes

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 269 provisions that would, in practice, likely lead profiling, or institute systematic monitoring of to harsher conditions for detained irregular stop-and-search operations. migrants and asylum-seekers.2 The law also fails to establish an effective mechanism to RIGHT TO PRIVACY prevent the detention of vulnerable groups, In July the government published proposals and the authorities’ power to use solitary to amend the powers of the intelligence and confinement remain unchanged. security services, including provisions which in effect would legalize indiscriminate bulk Economic, social and cultural rights collection of telecoms data. The proposals The government failed to implement the also failed to include necessary safeguards, recommendation by the European Committee such as prior judicial approval of decisions to of Social Rights that all people, including intercept personal communication or hack irregular migrants, should unconditionally electronic devices. have access to shelter and basic necessities. In April, the government put forward a TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT proposal to establish shelters in a limited The government refused to take steps to number of municipalities, but make evaluate or amend the current operation of accommodation there dependent on the the Dutch National Prevention Mechanism, willingness of the irregular migrant to co- established under the Optional Protocol to the operate in their deportation. Convention against Torture, despite ongoing criticism of its independence and efficacy. Refoulement The government continued its attempts to deport rejected asylum-seekers to southern 1. Netherlands: Isolation in detention (Press release, 3 March) and central Somalia, including – under 2. Netherlands: Submission to the UN Committee against Torture (EUR certain circumstances – to al-Shabaab- 35/2104/2015) controlled areas, against guidelines issued by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. In August, the government decided to temporarily halt NEW ZEALAND forced returns of Uighurs to China, in anticipation of a new guidance report. New Zealand In May, Mathieu Ngudjolo, a former Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Congolese militia leader, was returned to the Jerry Mateparae Democratic Republic of the Congo despite Head of government: John Key alleged fears for his safety, after the Council of State rejected his request for asylum. Economic, social and cultural rights lacked Mathieu Ngudjolo was acquitted by the ICC of sufficient legal protection. Māori war crimes and crimes against humanity, a (Indigenous people) continued to be over- decision confirmed on appeal on represented in the criminal justice system. 27 February. Family violence was widespread and levels of child poverty remained high. Asylum- DISCRIMINATION – POLICING seekers were detained alongside remand In response to concerns about ethnic profiling prisoners. by the police, the government committed to undertaking measures focused on awareness LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR raising and training of police officers. INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS However, it still did not introduce clear The government did not give a formal guidelines to limit widespread stop-and- response to the recommendations made by search powers that increase the risk of ethnic the Constitutional Advisory Panel in 2013 to

270 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 improve the Bill of Rights Act 1990. Security Bureau's (GCSB) “full-take Economic, social and cultural rights collection” of data on the Pacific region. The continued to lack full protection in domestic Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security legislation. opened an inquiry into the way the GCSB undertakes its foreign intelligence activities. JUSTICE SYSTEM Both the UN Committee against Torture and REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention The UN Working Group on Arbitrary expressed concern at the disproportionate Detention expressed concern that New representation of Māori in the criminal justice Zealand was using the prison system to system. Māori, who are 15% of the general detain some asylum-seekers alongside population, make up 51% of the total prison remand detainees. population and 65% of the female prison population. The High Court in July held that a blanket NICARAGUA ban on prisoners’ right to vote was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act. Republic of Nicaragua Head of state and government: Daniel Ortega VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Saavedra Acknowledging that the level of family violence was “horrific”, the Ministry of Justice Human rights defenders as well as in August initiated a consultation, including Indigenous and Afro-descendant groups on the need for a review of existing legislation. were threatened and intimidated in In the document, the Ministry acknowledged retaliation for their work, particularly in the that “gender is a significant risk factor for context of public protests. News outlets and victimization and harm across all forms of civil society organizations faced harassment. family violence” and that the substantial Several people were killed and hundreds majority of intimate partner violence involving displaced as a result of an intensifying land coercive control occurs against women. conflict in the North Caribbean Coast. Young women were identified as particularly Violence against women continued; a total vulnerable, and at increasing risk when they ban on abortion remained in place. have children. BACKGROUND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS The Sandinista National Liberation Front party New Zealand retained three reservations to continued to excercise significant control over the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. all branches of government. In November, the The 2015 Technical Report on Child government formally approved an Poverty found that up to 29% of New Zealand environmental impact study that would allow children lived in relative poverty and 9% were the construction of a major infrastructure living in severe poverty, impacting on their project known as the Gran Canal access to adequate housing, health care, food Interoceánico, a channel connecting the and education. Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, to go forward. Its fate was uncertain due to RIGHT TO PRIVACY financial constraints. The extent of surveillance powers and the sharing of that information with foreign intelligence partners remained unclear. Leaked National Security Agency documents revealed the Government Communications

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 271 LAND DISPUTES AND INDIGENOUS WOMEN’S RIGHTS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS In a hearing in October before the IACHR, The Inter-American Commission on Human Nicaraguan and regional human rights Rights (IACHR) ordered Nicaragua to provide organizations discussed their concerns about protection measures to the Miskito people, human rights abuses against women and after the ongoing conflict between the girls, including the total ban on abortion and Indigenous community and colonos (settlers) access to justice for women and girls attempting to take over the community's suffering from acts of violence or abuse. The ancestral land escalated in September. The Nicaraguan Network of Women Against Center for Justice and Human Rights of the Violence reported that 35 women and girls Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua reported that were murdered (classified as “femicide” in between 2013 and 2015, 24 Miskitos had the Criminal Code) in the first half of the year, been killed, 30 attacked and hundreds more down from 47 in the same period in 2014. displaced. However, the NGOs expressed concern about Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other reforms passed in 2013 that weakened the groups protesting against the Gran Canal Comprehensive Law against Violence against Interoceánico were intimidated, attacked and Women (Law 779), by offering women arbitrarily detained, according to the mediation with their abusive partners in some Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights cases of domestic violence. (CENIDH). In October, police officers created a roadblock to stop thousands of campesinos (peasant farmers) from protesting against the 1. Nicaragua: Defensores de derechos humanos deportados canal; several protesters were attacked by arbitrariamente (AMR 43/1687/2015) pro-government groups, according to the human rights organization Popol Na Foundation. Protesters accused the NIGER government of granting the licence for the canal without the free, prior and informed Republic of Niger consent of the Indigenous Peoples who could Head of state: Mahamadou Issoufou be displaced by its construction. Head of government: Brigi Rafini Activists protesting against mining projects in Nicaragua were also intimidated and The armed group Boko Haram committed harassed, according to the CENIDH. crimes under international law, escalating the conflict and leading to an increase in FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, the number of people displaced. The ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY authorities introduced a state of emergency Government officials and supporters sought to in Diffa region. Human rights defenders repress and stigmatize the work of civil were arbitrarily arrested. The government society organizations and media outlets that restricted freedom of expression. Thousands had been critical of the ruling party. In May, of refugees were deported back to Nigeria. two members of the Center for Justice and International Law, a regional human rights BACKGROUND organization, were denied entry into the Boko Haram (which changed its name in country and deported when they arrived at April to Western African Province of the the airport in the capital, Managua, to attend Organisation of the Islamic State) intensified a human rights event. No official reason was its attacks against civilians, mainly in the given.1 southeastern Diffa region bordering Nigeria and Lake Chad. The resulting displacement and destruction, in addition to measures

272 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 taken by the government in response, had a against this measure was detained without major impact on the economy of the charge for two days. region, causing severe food shortages. According to OHCHR, the Ministries of Following an attempted coup in December, Interior and Defence interfered in the judicial nine soldiers were arrested and will be tried process, leading to the rearrest of Boko before a military tribunal. Haram suspects acquitted for lack of evidence. The same ministries refused to ARMED CONFLICT investigate allegations of torture and other ill- Boko Haram carried out more than 20 attacks treatment by the army, claiming that this against civilian objects and army positions in could demoralize troops. Diffa region killing at least 190 civilians and OHCHR also expressed concern about the 60 security force members. arrest in July of 40 children in Diffa region In April, Boko Haram members attacked and their detention in Koutoukale and Kollo the Isle de Karamga, surrounding the island prisons before they were transferred to the with boats at night and shooting dead 28 juvenile section in Niamey prison. civilians and 46 soldiers. There were further attacks in Diffa region between June and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION December, including suicide bombings. Freedom of expression was severely The security forces carried out reprisal restricted, sometimes in the name of national attacks and arrested more than 1,000 people. security. In February, the Nigerien army bombed a In June, two newspapers, L’Actualité and convoy of trucks carrying smoked fish to L’Opinion, were banned from publishing for Nigeria, a trade banned under the state of one month for “violating the journalists’ emergency as it is believed to be a source of charter”. The Superior Council for food and revenue for Boko Haram. Communication gave no further explanation. In February, at least 36 civilians were killed In May, Moussa Tchangari, Secretary in the village of Abadam-Niger, on the General of Alternative Citizens’ Spaces, was Nigerian border, when an unidentified military arrested while taking food to eight village plane bombed a funeral party. chiefs in Diffa region who had been arrested In September, the Office of the High for “failure to cooperate with the authorities in Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) the fight against Boko Haram”. His expressed concerns about attacks on civilians organization had criticized the government’s by both Boko Haram and the Nigerien army. failure to protect human rights in view of Boko Haram attacks. He was provisionally released SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS after 10 days.1 The impact of abuses committed by armed Nouhou Azirka, President of the Movement groups was exacerbated by the state’s for the Promotion of Responsible Citizenship, response, notably forced displacement and was detained in police custody for restrictions on freedom of movement. “endangering national defence” in May. He In February, the government decreed a had stated in a television interview that state of emergency in the entire Diffa region. soldiers in Diffa region had complained of It was extended for three months in May and poor working conditions. He was provisionally reinstated in October. The state of emergency released after four days.2 prohibited the circulation of vehicles with two In November, five journalists were arrested, wheels, or registered in Nigeria, as well as including Souleymane Salha, journalist of the sales of pepper and fish. In July, after suicide weekly Le Courrier. He was released without attacks involving women wearing burqas, the charge after 10 days. authorities prohibited veils covering the cheeks. In July, an imam who protested

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 273 INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE AND year. Torture and other ill-treatment by the REFUGEES police and security forces were widespread. The number of refugees and displaced Demolitions of informal settlements led to people rose significantly, exacerbating the the forced eviction of thousands of people. humanitarian situation, particularly in the Death sentences continued to be imposed; south. By the end of the year, Niger was host no executions were reported. to more than 115,000 people displaced by conflict in Nigeria, Libya and Mali, and to BACKGROUND more than 100,000 internally displaced The general election took place on 28 March people and returnees. to elect the President and members to the In April, the Governor of Diffa ordered the Senate and the House of Representatives; the evacuation of islands on Lake Chad, following governorship and state assembly election was a Boko Haram attack. At least 14 people died held on 11 April. The candidate from the from hunger, thirst and heat during the long opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) march to the camp of N’guigmi. Soldiers party, Muhammadu Buhari, won the reportedly prevented them from being presidential election. The new cabinet transported to the camp by local carriers and members were sworn in on 11 November. essential resources such as water and food In July, President Buhari retired the military were lacking when they arrived. service chiefs appointed by former President In January and May, the army forced Goodluck Jonathan – including two military thousands of refugees back to Nigeria, officials whom the authorities failed to accusing them of bringing Boko Haram investigate for their potential responsibility for attacks to the area. crimes under international law – and replaced them. PRISON CONDITIONS Protests for an independent state of Biafra Prisons remained very overcrowded. Civil took place in the south and southeast. On society groups reported that at the end of 14 October, Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the 2014, 1,000 people were held in Niamey Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and civilian prison, which has a capacity of 350. director of Radio Biafra, was arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy, managing and belonging to an unlawful society and 1. Niger: The fight against Boko Haram must not serve as an excuse to intimidation. On 17 December, the Federal violate freedom of expression (News story, 19 May); Urgent Action, High Court in the capital Abuja ordered his Human rights defenders held without charge (AFR 43/1716/2015) unconditional release from the custody of the 2. Urgent Action: Human rights defenders held without charge (AFR Department of State Services. However, he 43/1716/2015) was not released and was charged with treason on 18 December; he remained in detention at the end of the year. NIGERIA In November, the report of an investigative committee established by the President on Federal Republic of Nigeria the procurement of arms and equipment in Head of state and government: Muhammadu Buhari the security sector found, among other things, (replaced Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in May) fictitious contracts amounting to several billion US dollars. The President ordered the The conflict between the military and the arrest of all those implicated in the report, armed group Boko Haram continued, including Sambo Dasuki, the National resulting in the deaths of thousands of Security Adviser for 2012-2015. He remained civilians and over 2 million internally in detention at the end of the year. displaced people (IDPs) at the end of the

274 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 ARMED CONFLICT war crimes by the military between June and December. However, no further action was Boko Haram taken to initiate independent and impartial Boko Haram continued to commit war crimes investigations. In its November report on and crimes against humanity in northeastern preliminary examinations, the Office of the Nigeria, killing thousands of civilians.1 In Prosecutor of the ICC identified eight potential January, the group expanded the territory cases involving the commission of crimes under its control by seizing the towns of Baga against humanity and war crimes by Boko and Monguno in Borno state. Boko Haram Haram (in six cases) and the security forces fighters deliberately killed civilians, (two cases). particularly men of fighting age, detained Extrajudicial executions by the military of others and destroyed buildings. In the attack people suspected of being members of Boko on Baga, Boko Haram killed hundreds of Haram continued. civilians in what may be its deadliest attack to The military arrested people during date. Satellite images revealed that more than “screening operations”, where members of 3,700 buildings had been damaged or the public were lined up in front of destroyed in the attack. informants, or arrested at their homes. Others Thousands of civilians lived under Boko were arbitrarily arrested as they attempted to Haram’s violent rule, either in the captured flee attacks by Boko Haram or areas towns or after being abducted and taken to controlled by the group. In many cases the camps. Many women and girls were raped arrests were made without reasonable and forced into marriage. suspicion or without adequate investigation. From March, a sustained offensive by the Suspects detained by the military had no military, with assistance from the armed access to their families or lawyers and were forces of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, forced not brought before a court. They were mostly Boko Haram out of major towns in young men, although women, children and northeastern Nigeria. However, Boko Haram older men were also detained. continued to kill civilians through raids on Muhammad Mari Abba, a doctor and smaller towns and villages as well as bomb consultant for the WHO who was arrested in attacks.2 2012 in Yobe state, had not been charged Bomb attacks targeted markets, transport and remained in incommunicado detention at hubs, bars, restaurants and places of worship the end of the year. in cities across the northeast, as well as Abuja Alhaji Bukar Yaganami, a businessman and the towns of Jos, Kano and Zaria.3 Boko who was arrested in Maiduguri, Borno state, Haram used young women and girls as in 2013, remained in military detention at the suicide bombers in many of the incidents. end of the year, in spite of a July 2014 court The military announced the recovery of order for his release on bail. more than 1,400 people from Boko Haram- Conditions in some military detention controlled territory, mostly women and centres seemingly improved. Detainees were children. The fate of 219 schoolgirls abducted given three meals a day, access to washing from the town of Chibok, Borno state, on 14 facilities and to medical assistance. However, April 2014 remained unknown. suspects continued to die in detention. Routine torture and other ill-treatment led to Security forces deaths in detention centres, as suspects The military committed war crimes and continued to be held incommunicado. possible crimes against humanity in its Small numbers of suspects were released response to Boko Haram between 2011 and throughout the year; the military announced 2015.4 President Buhari promised to the release of 310 suspects in July and investigate evidence of several instances of September, following the completion of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 275 investigations. Many had been detained for Act was passed into law. The Act adopted over a year. Some detainees received 10,000 new provisions which improved the criminal naira (approximately US$50) or clothes upon justice system. Key provisions included their release, while others received nothing. compensation to victims of crime, non- On 21 December, the Federal High Court custodial sentences and electronic records of in Abuja discharged five police officers of the proceedings. alleged murder of Boko Haram leader However, prisons remained overcrowded Mohammed Yusuf in 2009. and court processes slow; frequent strikes by court employees, such as court clerks, over Internally displaced people pay and the consequent closure of courts led In September, the International Organization to delays in trials and the supervision of pre- for Migration estimated that over 2.1 million trial detention. people were internally displaced in northern Nigeria; 92% of them lived in host TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT communities, while the remainder lived in Torture and other ill-treatment by police and camps. The camps in Maiduguri were military remained pervasive. Extrajudicial overcrowded, with inadequate access to food executions, extortion, and arbitrary and and sanitation. The government established a prolonged detention were rife. committee to investigate allegations of human In July, the police announced they were trafficking and sexual abuse of IDPs, with the reviewing the Force Orders, including Force complicity of security and camp officials. The Order 237, which allows police officers to results of the investigation had not been shoot suspects and detainees who attempt to made public by the end of the year. avoid arrest or escape – whether or not they pose a threat to life. The Inspector General of EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE Police also announced that over the past On 12-13 December, the military reportedly three years, almost 1 billion naira (US$5 killed hundreds of members of the Shi'a million) had been paid out as compensation Islamic Movement of Nigeria in Zaria, Kaduna to victims of human rights violations by the state. The group’s leader, Ibraheem Zakzaky, police. was arrested at his residence and remained Many police divisions, including the Special in incommunicado detention at the end of the Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the Force year. Hundreds of others were also arrested. Criminal Investigation Division, kept rooms On 17 December, the military killed five where suspects were tortured while being people when they opened fire on members of interrogated. In November, the Inspector the IPOB who were demonstrating in Onitsha, General of Police announced the creation of a Anambra state, in celebration of the initial Complaints Response Unit and a reform announcement of Nnamdi Kanu’s release. initiative for the SARS, in response to public concerns about alleged violations by police COMMUNAL VIOLENCE officers across the country. Violence between ethnic groups continued to The Anti-Torture Bill – intended to prohibit claim lives. In Riyom and Barikin Ladi, local and criminalize the use of torture – was government areas in Plateau state, passed by Parliament in June. It had not communities clashed over allegations of cattle been signed into law by the end of the year. rustling and land disputes. Perpetrators of violence were rarely investigated and DEATH PENALTY prosecuted. The authorities continued to sentence people to death. No executions were known to have JUSTICE SYSTEM been carried out. In May, the Administration of Criminal Justice In December, the death sentences

276 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 imposed on 66 soldiers by a court martial in houses in 2009. 2014 were commuted to 10 years' imprisonment each. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, On 28 May, Moses Akatugba was pardoned TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE after 10 years on death row. The rights of LGBTI people continued to be On 25 June, the Upper Sharia Court in curtailed. Human rights defenders reported a Kano sentenced Islamic scholar Abdulaziz significant increase in the number of arrests Dauda, also known as Abdul Inyass, and of LGBTI people and of police extortion. eight of his followers to death for blasphemy. The Coalition for the Defense of Sexual In September, the Governor of Cross River Rights, a coalition of NGOs working on the state signed into law a bill making the death rights of LGBTI people in Nigeria, cited over penalty mandatory for kidnapping. 200 cases across the country where people perceived to be LGBTI were beaten by mobs HOUSING RIGHTS and handed over to the police. Mass forced evictions continued. The new governments of the states of WOMEN’S RIGHTS Lagos and Kaduna rendered thousands of In May, former President Jonathan signed the people homeless and vulnerable to other Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act human rights violations when they conducted into law. The law criminalizes female genital mass forced evictions without consultation, mutilation and “subjecting a widow to harmful compensation and the provision of alternative traditional practices". However, the Act’s accommodation. definition of rape falls short of international In August, hundreds of residents of the standards in that it does not sufficiently cover Bayan Alhudahuda community in Zaria were all forms of coercion. The law could also be given a demolition notice of 28 days, ordering strengthened by explicitly prohibiting marital them to demolish their own houses or risk rape. being charged a fee for the authorities to do so. Ninety-two homes, with between 10 and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 40 residents each, were demolished. Two Section 38 of the Cyber Crime Act, which weeks later, the affected residents were still became law in May, requires internet service sleeping in the classrooms of a nearby school, providers to keep all traffic and other data of mosques and marketplaces. subscribers for two years and make that data In September, around 10,200 residents of available to law enforcement agencies upon the Badia-East community, Lagos, were request, without a court order, thus violating forcibly evicted from their homes less than 24 the rights to privacy and freedom of hours after being notified that the Ojora expression. (traditional ruler of the community) had been In March, two Al Jazeera journalists granted the right to take possession of them. covering the conflict in northeastern Nigeria Many of the residents continued to sleep on were detained by the military in Maiduguri. the demolition site for up to three weeks They were released after 13 days. afterwards and remained homeless. In July, 10 residents of Bundu Ama in the CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY city of Port Harcourt received 6.5 million naira Twenty years after the execution of (approximately US$30,000) as part of the environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and payment of 11 million naira awarded by the eight others, oil pollution continued to cause ECOWAS Court against the federal devastation to the Niger Delta region, harming government. This was compensation for the livelihoods and health of its inhabitants. unlawful shootings during a peaceful protest There were hundreds of new spills during the against the planned demolition of their year, and oil companies failed to clean up the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 277 contamination of previous spills, some of which occurred decades ago.5 NORWAY The government continued to fail to hold oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to Kingdom of Norway account. It did not provide the oversight Head of state: King Harald V needed to ensure that companies do more to Head of government: Erna Solberg prevent spills from happening, or to respond to them in a timely and adequate manner. A new, independent national human rights Companies’ response to spills was frequently institution was established. The Ministry of slow and clean-up was inadequate. Health proposed legislation to improve Oil companies continued to blame the vast access to legal gender recognition for majority of spills on sabotage and theft, a transgender people. Serious concerns claim which was based on a flawed oil spill remained about rape and other violence investigation process led by the oil companies against women. rather than the government watchdog, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Agency (NOSDRA). INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS NOSDRA published details and a map of On 1 July the National Institution for Human investigations into spills online, but it did not Rights was re-established as an independent release information about the response to body reporting to Parliament. Prior to this, spills and clean-up. since its establishment in 2002, it had been In August, President Buhari announced part of the Norwegian Centre for Human that his government would begin the clean-up Rights based in the Law Faculty at the and restoration of the oil-damaged Ogoniland University of Oslo. region, in line with the recommendations of the UN Environment Programme. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE A sum of £55 million (US$83 million) paid On 19 January, the Court of Appeal dismissed out by the oil company Shell was distributed an appeal by a Rwandan national against his to the Bodo community, following the 2013 conviction by the Oslo District Court for settlement of a court case in the UK in 2014. murder during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. However, Shell had yet to clean up the The Court of Appeal confirmed his sentence damage caused by two massive spills at Bodo of 21 years’ imprisonment for premeditated in 2008. complicity in the murder of 2,000 people in two massacres, and of seven people in a separate incident. He appealed against the 1. "Our job is to shoot, slaughter and kill": Boko Haram’s reign of terror decision to the Supreme Court. He was not in north east Nigeria (AFR 44/1360/2015) charged with genocide, as the article defining 2. Boko Haram: Civilians continue to be at risk of human rights abuses genocide only entered into force in 2008 and by Boko Haram and human rights violations by state security forces does not have retroactive effect. (AFR 44/2428/2015) 3. Nigeria: Boko Haram: Bombing campaign sees civilian deaths spiral DISCRIMINATION – TRANSGENDER (AFR 44/2498/2015) PEOPLE 4. Nigeria: Stars on their shoulders, blood on their hands – war crimes In June, the Ministry of Health proposed committed by the Nigerian military (AFR 44/1657/2015) legislation granting transgender people 5. Nigeria: Clean it up: Shell's false claims about oil spill response in access to legal gender recognition from the the Niger Delta (AFR 44/2746/2015) age of 16 on the basis of self-identification. Children aged between seven and 16 will have access to legal gender recognition with the consent of parents or guardians. The

278 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 proposed law is expected to be presented to application for protection examined in another Parliament and put to a vote during 2016.1 country en route to Norway. Despite this positive development, violence motivated by discriminatory attitudes towards CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY transgender people was still not criminalized In October, after two years’ delay, the as hate crime. government launched a national action plan to implement the UN Guiding Principles on VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN business and human rights. The action plan Serious concerns remained about rape and lacked clarity on due diligence and the extent violence against women, in particular around to which the guiding principles ought to apply the legal definition of rape in the Penal Code, to Norwegian companies operating in the low conviction rates and inadequate access country and those operating abroad. for rape survivors to reparation and rehabilitation. In January the National Police Directorate published an evaluation which 1. Norway: High hopes for a watershed moment on transgender rights concluded that police investigations were (News story, 10 April) unsatisfactory in 40% of sexual violence cases reported to the police. OMAN REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS According to government statistics, 31,145 Sultanate of Oman people claimed asylum in Norway during the Head of state and government: Sultan Qaboos bin Said year, a three-fold increase on 2014. Al Said In April, the government announced that children of asylum-seekers whose The authorities restricted freedom of applications had been rejected and who had expression and increased arrests and been returned to their countries of origin harassment of political and human rights between 1 July 2014 and 18 March 2015, activists and government critics. Women after spending four and a half years or more continued to face discrimination in law and in Norway, could seek to have their cases in practice. The death penalty remained in reopened. The move followed strong criticism force; no executions were reported. of the immigration authorities’ previously narrow interpretation of the principle of the BACKGROUND best interests of the child in asylum and Oman’s human rights record was examined removal proceedings. under the UPR in November. Oman said it On 25 November the Ministry of Justice would consider all 233 recommendations and issued an instruction which denied access to was due to respond by 31 March 2016. the asylum procedure in Norway for any person who applied for protection after having FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION lived in or transited through Russia. Third- The authorities continued to restrict freedom country nationals, including those without any of expression, arresting and prosecuting regular legal status in Russia, faced being online journalists, bloggers and others on returned to Russia. This caused particular public order charges or under vaguely worded concern for Syrian asylum-seekers. The penal code provisions that criminalize decision followed Parliament’s adoption of insulting the Sultan. The authorities also amendments to section 32 of the Immigration harassed activists by confiscating their Act 2008, earlier in November, removing any identification papers and banning them from requirement for Norwegian authorities to foreign travel. consider whether asylum-seekers had had an In March, the authorities detained online

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 279 activist Talib al-Saeedi for three weeks and the Special Rapporteur’s visit and rejected his released him without charge. The same findings. month, a court in the southern city of Salalah sentenced blogger Saeed al-Daroodi, arrested WOMEN’S RIGHTS in October 2014, to one year in prison and a Women were not accorded equal rights with fine; he was convicted of “trying to men in criminal law, which attached less overthrow the government” and weight to the evidence of a woman than to the “spreading hate”. evidence of a man, and under personal status In April, an appeal court in Salalah released law, which accorded men greater rights in human rights activist Saeed Jaddad after he relation to divorce, child custody, inheritance appealed against his one-year prison and conferral of nationality. sentence and a fine following his conviction under the Cyber Crimes Law. In November DEATH PENALTY his sentence was upheld and he was arrested Oman retained the death penalty for a range to serve his prison sentence. In a separate of crimes; no executions were reported. case, in September, the Appeal Court in Muscat upheld his three-year prison sentence and a fine on charges of “undermining the PAKISTAN prestige of the state”, “incitement to protest” and “using social media to disseminate Islamic Republic of Pakistan information that infringed the sanctity of Head of state: Mamnoon Hussain public order”. Head of government: Muhammad Nawaz Sharif The authorities arrested at least eight men in July and August following comments they Executions resumed following the Pakistani had made on social media websites and their Taliban-led attack on the Army Public alleged links to Mohammad al-Fazari, a School in Peshawar in December 2014. human rights activist and founder and editor Adding to concerns over fair trials, newly of the Citizen online journal, who fled Oman established military courts were authorized in July. to try all those accused of terrorism-related Former Shura Council member Dr Talib al- offences, including civilians. A new National Ma’mari and city councillor Saqr al-Balushi Human Rights Commission was established remained in prison serving four-year and one- with a mandate to promote and protect year terms respectively, after an unfair trial in human rights, but was restricted from 2014. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary investigating allegations of human rights Detention had in December 2014 stated that abuses against the intelligence agencies. Dr Talib al-Ma’mari was arbitrarily detained Religious minorities continued to face and that the government should release and discrimination, persecution and targeted compensate him. attacks. Human rights activists experienced In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on the harassment and abuse. In March, Baloch rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of activists were barred from leaving the association reported on his 2014 visit to country to speak at a conference in the USA Oman. Among other findings, he described about human rights violations in Balochistan “the legal environment for the exercise of the and Sindh. A new policy for international rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and NGOs was passed in October, giving the association”, including online expression, as government the power to monitor their funds “problematic” He urged Oman to ratify key and operations and to close them down on international human rights treaties and the basis of activities considered to be withdraw its reservations to other treaties to against the interests of Pakistan. In which it is a party. The government criticized November, the government restored a

280 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 separate Ministry of Human Rights, which it kidnapping, and terrorism-related charges. had merged with the Ministry of Law and Faisal Mehmood and Aftab Bahadur were Justice in 2013. among those executed despite claims and supporting evidence submitted by their BACKGROUND lawyers that they were juveniles at the time of Following the attack on the Army Public the offences for which they were convicted. In School in Peshawar on 16 December 2014 in October, the Supreme Court upheld the death which 149 people were killed, including 132 sentence of Mumtaz Qadri for killing the children, the political and military leadership Punjab governor in 2011. announced a 20-point National Action Plan Military courts sentenced at least 27 people (NAP) to counter terrorism. Its to death and four to life imprisonment. Details implementation started with the immediate of the allegations and trial proceedings resumption of executions for prisoners remained unknown. Death sentences convicted of terrorism-related offences. In imposed on at least two people were January, the President signed the 21st challenged in the Peshawar High Court Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2015 and (PHC), including by Haider Ali, whose parents the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act 1952, claimed he was a juvenile when arrested in giving military courts jurisdiction for two years 2009, and Qari Zahir Gul, whose parents to try civilians for terrorism-related offences. claimed he did not have a fair trial. The PHC Under the NAP the government also pledged upheld both death sentences in October to curb hate through speech and literature, during in-camera proceedings. protect minorities, and prevent terrorism. By October, up to 9,400 people had been DISCRIMINATION – RELIGIOUS arrested according to government figures on MINORITIES allegations of inflaming sectarian hate; some Religious minorities, both Muslim and non- booksellers and publishers claimed they were Muslim, continued to face laws and practices unfairly targeted by police who were under that resulted in discrimination and pressure to make arrests. Major floods for the persecution. In February, Tehreek-e-Taliban fifth year in a row displaced hundreds of Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for an thousands and killed more than 200 people. attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar that In October, an earthquake in Kush killed at least 20 worshippers and injured 60. range of Afghanistan killed at least 28 people In March, a suicide attack on two churches in in Pakistan. Lahore claimed by Jamaat ul Ahrar, a splinter group of the TTP, killed at least 22 people. DEATH PENALTY Following the attack, a group of Christians in The Prime Minister announced the the same neighbourhood killed two Muslim resumption of executions of people convicted men. In May, 45 Ismailis on a bus in Karachi of terrorism-related offences following the were attacked and killed; and various groups, Peshawar school attack in December 2014. including TTP, Jundullah and the armed In March the moratorium on the death group Islamic State (IS), claimed penalty was lifted for all 28 offences for which responsibility. At least three Hindu temples in the death penalty is provided, including non- Sindh province were attacked; there were no lethal crimes. In November, a parliamentary reports of deaths or injuries. panel approved the punishment of life Blasphemy laws remained in force, mostly imprisonment or the death penalty for the in Punjab province; they applied to people of rape of girls aged 13 or under. all religions but were disproportionately used More than 300 executions were recorded against religious minorities. An appeal against during the year, most for murder and others the death sentence of Asia Noreen (also for rape, attempted assassination, known as Asia Bibi) in October 2014 was

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 281 admitted in the Supreme Court but a hearing month later in Jamshoro district. date was not confirmed at the end of the year. The NGO, Human Rights Commission of An appeal against Sawan Masih’s conviction Pakistan, documented a rise in killings of and death sentence for blasphemy allegations suspects in Karachi during paramilitary that sparked a mob attack against residents security operations, as 255 people were killed of Lahore’s Joseph Colony in 2013 remained in the first half of 2015. The political party pending in the Lahore High Court. In its Muttahida Qaumi Movement claimed that judgment against Mumtaz Qadri, the some of its members were abducted and Supreme Court noted that criticism of the unlawfully killed. blasphemy law did not amount to blasphemy. In November, an amendment to the It remained a criminal offence for members Pakistan Army Act gave retrospective legal of the Ahmadiyya faith to propagate, profess cover to arrests by the armed forces and law or practise their religion openly. enforcement agencies. Lawyers for Qari Zahir Forced conversions and marriages of Gul and Haider Ali, who were tried in the Hindu girls to Muslim men continued, newly established military courts, claimed particularly in Sindh. they were subjected to enforced disappearance and unlawful detention prior to ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS their trials. Armed groups continued to carry out targeted attacks against civilians, including health INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT workers and civilians affiliated with the The civilian population in FATA continued to government. be affected by internal armed conflict. The At least eight members of polio vaccination Pakistan Army continued its military teams – six men and two women – were killed operations, started in 2014, against non-state by armed groups in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa armed groups in North Waziristan and Khyber (KPK) province, the Federally Administered tribal agency. The Army claimed that over Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan 3,400 militants were killed and at least province. 21,193 arrested during these operations. Due Armed groups continued to target civilians to the lack of transparency of the operations affiliated with the government or government- and independent media coverage, and run projects. In April, 20 construction workers previous concerns of disproportionate use of from Sindh and Punjab were killed in Kech force in similar operations, serious concerns district, Balochistan; the Balochistan remained about the circumstances Liberation Front claimed responsibility. In surrounding the killings, and the treatment in August, several armed groups, including detention and fair trials of those arrested. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, claimed responsibility More than one million people remained following a suicide attack that killed 18 displaced as a result of the current and past people, including the Punjab Home Minister. armed conflict in the northwest. US drone strikes reduced in number and POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES were carried out mainly in North Waziristan. Enforced disappearances continued with Information about the impact on civilians was impunity, particularly in Balochistan, KPK and scarce. Two foreign aid workers – US national Sindh. Bodies were later found bearing Warren Weinstein and Italian national apparent bullet wounds and torture marks. Giovanni Lo Porto – who had been held as Raja Dahir, affiliated with the banned Sindhi hostages by al-Qa’ida were among those nationalist party Jeay Sindh Mutihida Muhaz, killed in a US drone strike in January, was subjected to enforced disappearance highlighting again the wider concerns that after a raid on his home by security forces in drone strikes lead to the unlawful killing of Sindh in June. His body was recovered a civilians.

282 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 The Pakistan Army launched its first drone USA in March to attend a conference strike on 7 September, claiming it killed three organized by Sindhi and Baloch activists. leaders of armed groups in North Waziristan. They were detained at Karachi airport for a Armed conflict continued in areas of North few hours, accused of engaging in terrorism Waziristan, with allegations by human rights and anti-state activities. No charges were groups that civilians were killed and injured brought against them. as result of indiscriminate military operations. In October, a new policy was announced requiring all international NGOs to register FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION and obtain permission from the Ministry of Some journalists and media channels Interior for carrying out activities. The policy exercised self-censorship for fear of reprisals also empowered the government to monitor from the Pakistan Army and armed groups. their funds and operations and to close them Following coverage of Pakistan’s response to down on the basis of activities considered to the intervention of Saudi Arabia in Yemen in be against the interests of Pakistan. May, and the stampede in September at the In September, the National Assembly annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca where more Standing Committee on Information than 2,000 pilgrims died, the state-run Technology and Telecommunication Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory approved the proposed Prevention of Authority (PEMRA) issued warnings to the Electronic Crimes Bill which allows the media against airing reports deemed critical government to censor online content and of Saudi Arabia. In both instances PEMRA access internet users’ data. Activists raised invoked Article 19 of the Constitution, which concerns about provisions which threatened provides for exemptions to the right to privacy and freedom of expression and freedom of expression in cases of criticism of imposed heavy punishments. The Bill was the military, judiciary and Pakistan's relations awaiting final approval by the National with “friendly countries”. Assembly at the end of the year. At least two media workers were killed and six injured in connection with their work. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Zaman Mehsud was killed on 3 November in Women and girls continued to face violence Tank. The TTP claimed responsibility for the and threats. At least 4,308 cases of violence attack saying it was for his writings against against women and girls were reported for the them. TTP factions threatened journalists with first six months of 2015. The figure included severe consequences if they did not provide 709 cases of murder; 596 of rape and gang them with coverage. The Prime Minister’s rape; 36 of sexual assault; 186 of so-called promise of March 2014 to appoint Special “honour” crimes; and 1,020 of kidnapping. Prosecutors to try cases involving attacks on Despite the enactment of the Acid Control journalists had not been fulfilled by the end of and Acid Crime Prevention Act in 2011, at the year. least 40 acid attack cases were recorded In April, human rights activist Sabeen between January and June. Mahmud was killed after hosting a discussion In Sahiwal a number of knife attacks were on Balochistan at her cafe in Karachi. Her reported against women seen outside their driver, a key witness, subsequently was shot homes without a male companion. Up to six dead, despite the Sindh Witness Protection cases were reported in one week in Act 2013 that was passed to protect September. witnesses. Tabassum Adnan, the founder of Khwendo Three Baloch activists, including Abdul Jirga, Pakistan’s first all-women jirga (informal Qadeer Baloch, Vice Chairman of the judicial court), received the US State organization Voice for Baloch Missing Department's 2015 International Women of Persons, were banned from travelling to the Courage Award in KPK. Following the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 283 publicity received through the award, she BACKGROUND faced anonymous threats via phone and text Negotiations between Israel and the messages that forced her to relocate to Palestinian government and institutions under another city. Mahmoud Abbas remained stalled throughout Despite efforts in recent years to enact the year. Continuing tensions between Fatah legislation protecting women from violence, and Hamas undermined the Palestinian laws remained in force under which female national unity government formed in June rape victims can be convicted for adultery. 2014. Hamas continued to exercise de facto Women continued to be denied equality and authority in Gaza, where it announced a new protection in law, a situation exacerbated by security force in July after President Abbas factors including the absence of legislation made changes to the cabinet of the unity against incest and a gender-insensitive government. Reports that Hamas engaged in criminal justice system. indirect negotiations with Israel regarding a possible ceasefire and lifting of Israel’s air, sea and land blockade of Gaza further PALESTINE heightened tensions between Fatah and Hamas. In January, the State of Palestine (STATE OF) applied to join the ICC; Israel opposed Palestine’s application and withheld tax State of Palestine revenue payments due to the Palestinian Head of state: Mahmoud Abbas authorities until April. Palestine formally Head of government: Rami Hamdallah joined the ICC in April. In September, President Abbas told the UN General The Palestinian authorities in the West Bank Assembly that the Palestine Liberation and the Hamas de facto administration in Organization would no longer abide by the Gaza Strip both restricted freedom of commitments it made under the Oslo expression, including by arresting and Accords, the 1990s peace agreements it detaining critics and political opponents. signed with Israel, while the Israeli authorities They also restricted the right to peaceful continued to violate them; however, security assembly and used excessive force to co-operation between Palestinian security disperse some protests. Torture and other forces in the West Bank and Israel continued. ill-treatment of detainees remained common Gaza remained under an Israeli air, sea in both Gaza and the West Bank. Unfair and land blockade, in force continuously trials of civilians before military courts since June 2007. The continuing restrictions continued in Gaza; detainees were held on imports of construction materials under without charge or trial in the West Bank. the blockade contributed to severe delays in Women and girls faced discrimination and reconstruction of homes and other violence; some were victims of so-called infrastructure damaged or destroyed in recent “honour” killings by male relatives. Courts in armed conflicts and widespread both Gaza and the West Bank imposed impoverishment among Gaza’s 1.8 million death sentences; no executions were inhabitants. The Egyptian authorities tightly reported. Neither the Palestinian authorities restricted movement through Gaza’s only in the West Bank nor the Hamas authorities other access to the outside world, closing the in Gaza took steps to investigate and ensure Rafah Crossing for almost the entire year, and accountability for war crimes and other destroying hundreds of tunnels used for serious abuses, including summary killings, smuggling between Gaza and Egypt. Within committed during the 2014 conflict with Gaza, there were sporadic clashes between Israel and previous conflicts. Hamas forces and supporters of Salafist and other Palestinian armed groups, some of

284 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 whom occasionally fired indiscriminate Independent Commission for Human Rights, rockets towards and into Israel from Gaza. Palestine’s national human rights institution, The West Bank saw rising tension between reported receiving a total of 613 allegations of Palestinians and Israelis, particularly from torture and other ill-treatment of detainees September, when Israel further curtailed between January and November, 179 from Palestinian access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the West Bank and 434 from Gaza, with the Jerusalem, heightening protests and clashes majority of complaints in both areas against between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police. Neither the Palestine national unity forces. The last three months of the year saw government nor the Hamas de facto a surge in Palestinian protests against the administration in Gaza independently Israeli occupation and in attacks by investigated torture allegations or held Palestinians on Israeli forces and civilians, to perpetrators to account. which Israeli troops and police responded with lethal force. Seventeen Israeli civilians FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, were killed by Palestinian attackers during ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY this period, mostly acting alone and not The national unity government and Hamas affiliated with armed groups, while Israeli severely curtailed the rights to freedom of forces killed more than 130 Palestinians in expression, association and peaceful the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and inside Israel. assembly in the West Bank and Gaza respectively. In both areas, security forces ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS arrested and detained critics or supporters of Security authorities in the West Bank, rival political organizations; in the West Bank, including Preventative Security and General security forces detained Hamas supporters, Intelligence, and those in Gaza, particularly while in Gaza, Hamas security forces Internal Security, arbitrarily arrested and detained supporters of Fatah. Security forces detained their critics, including supporters of in both areas dispersed opposition protests, rival political organizations. sometimes using excessive force, and assaulted journalists reporting on protests, UNFAIR TRIALS damaged their equipment and harassed them In both the West Bank and Gaza, political and and social media activists, including by judicial authorities failed to ensure adherence repeatedly summoning them for questioning. to basic due process rights, such as prompt In the West Bank, Preventative Security access to legal counsel and to charge or officers detained Birzeit University student release. Palestinian security forces in the Bara’ al-Qadi for 13 days after arresting him West Bank held detainees for long periods in January for criticizing a government official without trial on orders of regional governors, in comments he posted on the website and delayed or failed to comply with court Facebook. Preventative Security officers also orders for the release of detainees in dozens detained and questioned other student of cases. In Gaza, Hamas military courts activists, some of whom filed complaints continued to convict defendants in unfair alleging ill-treatment, after a Hamas-affiliated trials, sentencing some to death. student group won Birzeit University’s student council elections in April. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE remained common and was committed with Security forces were accused of using impunity by Palestinian police and other excessive force to disperse protests and when security forces in the West Bank, and Hamas attempting to make arrests in both the West police and other security forces in Gaza. In Bank and Gaza. both areas, the victims included children. The In the West Bank in March, police and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 285 other security agents used force to break up a IMPUNITY peaceful sit-in protest in Ramallah by relatives A climate of impunity continued to prevail. of political detainees held by the authorities, The authorities again failed to investigate kicking protesters and hitting them with gun unlawful killings, including summary butts. In June, police raids on homes in executions, and the firing of indiscriminate Balata, the West Bank’s largest refugee weapons and other alleged war crimes camp, sparked violent confrontations. At least committed by the military wing of Hamas and one camp resident was wounded by gunfire. other Palestinian armed groups during armed Some camp residents who were arrested and conflicts with Israel in 2014 and previously. later released said they had been tortured in Nor did they conduct independent detention. investigations or hold to account officials In Gaza, police beat demonstrators in responsible for torturing and ill-treating Khuza’a, near the city of Khan Younis, who detainees or using excessive force against were protesting against recurrent power cuts protesters. in March; several protesters were injured and some were arrested. In September, police WOMEN’S RIGHTS forcibly dispersed renewed protests against Women and girls continued to face power shortages in the city of Rafah, beating discrimination in law and in practice, and demonstrators and seizing film and were inadequately protected against sexual equipment from journalists covering the and other violence, including so-called protests. “honour” killings. At least 18 women and girls On 2 June, Gaza security forces killed were reported to be victims of such killings Yunis Sa'id al-Hunnar, an Islamist activist and during the year. Hamas opponent, during a raid on his home in the Sheikh Redwan area of Gaza City. The DEATH PENALTY Gaza Ministry of the Interior said security The death penalty remained in force for forces shot him dead after he refused to murder and other crimes. Courts in the West surrender and opened fire on them; however, Bank handed down three death sentences; the authorities failed to conduct an courts in Gaza issued at least 10. There were independent investigation. On 8 July, Gaza no executions. police officers killed one man and wounded two other people during a disturbance following a funeral. PANAMA

ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS Republic of Panama Palestinian armed groups in Gaza Head of state and government: Juan Carlos Varela occasionally fired indiscriminate rockets into Israel; no deaths resulted. While the Hamas The trial of former President Manuel authorities prevented rocket firing much of Noriega relating to the enforced the time, they failed to prosecute those disappearance in 1970 of Heliodoro responsible. Portugal was suspended. An Indigenous While most of the Palestinian attackers community held protests against a responsible for stabbing, shooting and hydroelectricity project that they said had carrying out other attacks on Israelis in the not received their free, prior and informed West Bank and Israel, which killed 21 Israeli consent. Civil society organizations civilians and a US national during the year, denounced poor conditions at a naval were not members of Palestinian armed prison. groups, these groups frequently praised the attacks.

286 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 BACKGROUND Convention against enforced disappearance The Supreme Court approved new in 2011, it had not recognized the investigations against former President competence of the Committee on Enforced Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) for corruption Disappearances to receive and consider and the illegal wiretapping and electronic communications from or on behalf of victims surveillance of political opponents, journalists, or from other states parties. union leaders and other prominent members In June, Ecuadoran national Jesús Vélez of society. Ricardo Martinelli, who left the Loor travelled to Panama to appear before a country, denied the allegations against him prosecutor and answer questions about his and said he was the victim of political detention and torture by Panamanian persecution. authorities between 2002 and 2003. The Inter-American Court held a hearing in INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS February with representatives of the In February, Panama’s National government to discuss Panama’s failure to Environmental Authority temporarily fully comply with a 2010 judgment regarding suspended the construction of the Barro his case, which ruled that Panama must Blanco hydroelectric dam, which had been at investigate the human rights violations the centre of a land dispute with the Ngöbe- committed against him and improve Buglé Indigenous community, for failings in treatment towards migrants. its environmental impact assessment. However, the government later said that PRISON CONDITIONS construction of the nearly completed dam will Local civil society organizations, the UN continue. The Ngöbe-Buglé community had Special Rapporteur on torture and the head of protested against the dam for several years, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention saying they were not properly consulted called on the authorities to halt the transfer of beforehand and that the dam will flood their prisoners to a maximum security prison land. located at the naval base on Punta Coco Island. The UN experts said the prison IMPUNITY operated outside of the official penitentiary The trial of former President Manuel Noriega system, had unsanitary conditions, and for the enforced disappearance of union prisoners were being moved there without leader and activist Heliodoro Portugal in 1970 proper notification to their lawyers and was suspended shortly before it was due to families. The director of the penitentiary begin in May. The suspension came after system, Gabriel Pinzón, denied that the Manuel Noriega’s lawyer appealed, arguing prisoners’ human rights were being violated that the trial would violate the terms of his but said the government would establish a extradition from France in 2011. It was sub-commission to investigate. unclear when the court would rule on the appeal or if the trial would proceed. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights had ruled in 2008 that Panama was responsible for Heliodoro Portugal’s enforced disappearance as well as the failure to investigate the crime. The Inter-American Court ruled that the government must carry out an effective investigation and ensure the perpetrators are punished, as well as make reparations to the family. Although Panama ratified the International

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 287 on issues such as sexual and gender-based PAPUA NEW violence. GUINEA EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE Many incidents of excessive use of force by Independent State of Papua New Guinea police were reported throughout the year. In Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by January police in the capital, Port Moresby, Governor General Michael Ogio fired indiscriminately into a market after a Head of government: Peter Charles Paire O’Neill dispute between vendors and local council officials, killing two vendors. No arrests had The government took little action to address been made by the end of the year. violence against women or sorcery-related In November, two policemen in Papua New violence. Guinea's East New Britain were charged with Reports of unnecessary or excessive use murder over the death of a man in a police of force by police and military persisted. cell. Hundreds of men remained in detention at Another officer was suspended pending an the Australia-run immigration detention investigation into the sexual assault of a centre on Manus Island. female inmate in a Kokopo police cell after she was arrested over the death of her VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS husband. Sexual and gender-based violence remained In Enga province police and Papua New pervasive. Legal reforms in recent years, Guinea Defence Force soldiers reportedly including the repeal of the Sorcery Act and pointed guns at two shop owners and allowed introduction of the 2013 Family Protection people to steal their goods. Act, were not followed up by effective action, In December the Papua New Guinea Police such as improving social services, access to Commissioner said he will review the Royal health care, counselling and women’s PNG Constabulary rules of engagement to shelters. The police force remained ensure that officers used firearms understaffed and under-resourced to deal responsibly. with the high volume of family violence reports, preventing many women from LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY accessing justice. Lack of government While some attempts were made to improve services in remote areas disproportionately accountability in individual cases, many affected women in rural locations from police abuses such as torture including rape, accessing health care and other services. and unlawful detention, went unpunished. Reports continued of women and children Marginalized groups, including sex workers being subjected to violence, sometimes and LGBTI people, were particularly resulting in death, following accusations of vulnerable to abuses by the police while in sorcery. In May a woman was hacked to custody. death by a group of men after being accused of sorcery. A video showing four women being DEATH PENALTY tortured as suspected sorcerers surfaced in The death penalty was retained in law; the October. Although it had not been verified last execution was carried out in 1954. In independently by the end of the year, there May, the Prime Minister announced that the remained concerns about the continued high government would review its 2013 decision to level of incidents of sorcery-related violence. resume executions following a global outcry A climate of intimidation and threats by against the implementation of death police and non-state actors continued against sentences in Indonesia. Thirteen prisoners human rights defenders who sought justice are reported to remain on death row. Officials

288 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 in the Attorney General's Office confirmed in October that the government was considering PARAGUAY a different approach and that an official announcement would be made at a later Republic of Paraguay date. Head of state and government: Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS As of 30 November, 926 adult men were Indigenous Peoples continued to be denied detained at the Australia-run immigration access to their traditional lands. Sexual and detention centre on Manus Island. Despite reproductive rights were not guaranteed and some improvements to conditions at the abortion continued to be criminalized in centre, concerns remained about prolonged most cases. and arbitrary detention, as well as safety and security following an attack on the centre in BACKGROUND February 2014. Plans regarding long-term In October, the Special Rapporteur on the resettlement were uncertain. A number of right of everyone to the enjoyment of the human rights restrictions applied to those highest attainable standard of physical and who were moved to a more “open” facility in mental health highlighted that the Lorengau. Concerns remained around criminalization of abortion contributes to high refoulement. rates of early pregnancy and unsafe A two-week hunger strike involving more abortions, and that widespread discrimination than 700 detainees took place in January. and deep inequalities threaten the right to Concerns were raised about how the security health. services dealt with this incident and its No progress was made in passing aftermath.1 legislation on non-discrimination. A bill had In October, the Australian and Papua New been rejected by the Senate at the end of Guinean governments announced that 2014 due to a lack of agreement to include all decisions regarding refugee status would prohibited grounds. In November, two new finally be made for remaining detainees and draft bills to tackle discrimination were that successful applicants would be resettled introduced to the Congress. across Papua New Guinea by the end of 2015. While around 40 men had previously INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS been released into alternative accommodation Indigenous Peoples faced delays in acquiring on Manus Island, their movements and right titles and access to their ancestral lands. to work were severely restricted. Refugees In June, a second attempt by a landowner were granted only a one-year temporary visa, to nullify the 2014 expropriation law – passed as the necessary political and legislative to return their land to the Sawhoyamaxa processes to create a new visa class for community – was rejected by the Supreme refugees had not been completed. Court. A resolution to a complaint filed by the The trial of those charged with the killing of community against the occupation of their Manus Island detainee Reza Berati in land by the landowner’s employees was still February 2014 began in March 2015. Three pending at the end of the year. other suspects, including nationals of New The Yakye Axa community was still unable Zealand and Australia, were also being to resettle on their land – despite an sought. agreement between the authorities and the landowne having been finalized in January 2012 – due to incomplete road works. No 1. Australian and PNG authorities must respect asylum-seekers’ right to government funds were made available for protest (News story, 19 January) the Xákmok Kásek community to buy their

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 289 land back from the company owning it, in The trial of three suspects in the deaths of spite of a 2014 agreement. two adolescents in April 2014 at the Itauguá The Ayoreo Totobiegosode community Educational Centre juvenile detention facility denounced the invasion and deforestation of was announced in June. their traditional territory by cattle companies, and the risks to those living in voluntary WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS isolation.1 Legislation that was submitted in March to the The Ayoreo Atetadiegosode community Deputy Chamber to prevent and punish denounced the deforestation, attacks by violence against women was still being private security guards and delay in the discussed at the end of the year. In June, a regularization of their traditional territory.2 public hearing in which civil society organizations commented on the project took IMPUNITY AND JUSTICE SYSTEM place. In May, a bill to prevent and punish Judicial proceedings against 13 campesinos sexual violence and establish integral support (peasant farmers) continued for their alleged for victims of sexual abuse was presented to involvement in the killings of six police officers the Deputy Chamber, and was still under and other related crimes in the context of a debate at the end of the year. 2012 land dispute in the Curuguaty district. Abortion was only permitted when the life No one was charged for the deaths of 11 of the woman or girl was at grave risk, and peasant farmers who also died during the remained criminalized in all other clashes, raising concerns over the circumstances, including when the investigation’s impartiality.3 pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or In July, 12 of the 13 accused campesinos when the foetus would be unable to survive requested to change their lawyers. The legal outside the womb.4 representatives faced an administrative National and international outrage was measure started in 2014 for allegedly generated by the case of a 10-year-old girl delaying the process. The procedure was still who was pregnant after being raped – ongoing at the end of the year. allegedly by her stepfather – and was denied In October, the campesinos’ trial was the possibility of having an abortion in April.5 suspended for the ninth time, after the A year earlier, the mother had reported the defence sought a recusal of the magistrate sexual abuse to the Prosecutor’s Office, but court, arguing lack of impartiality. The the case was dismissed. The pregnancy went defence’s allegations were dismissed and the undetected after visits to several public health trial continued at the end of the year. centres. After the girl gave birth in August, In July, the appeal court confirmed that her family denounced the lack of medical, there was insufficient evidence to prove Lucía educational and financial support that had Sandoval’s involvement in the killing of her been promised by the authorities. husband in 2011. She filed a complaint for Investigations into the supposed responsibility the abuse she suffered at the hands of her of the imprisoned stepfather were ongoing at husband before his death. By the end of the the end of the year. The mother also faced an year she had not yet recovered the custody of investigation for breaching her duty of care; her children. the charges were dismissed in November.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Investigations into allegations of torture of Lawyers who represented the rights of campesinos during the 2012 clashes in the Indigenous communities and campesinos Curuguaty district were ongoing. The defence faced administrative measures in carrying out denounced delays and a lack of investigative their work.6 measures from the Prosecutor’s Office. In December, a lawyer representing the

290 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Sawhoyamaxa and Yakye Axa Indigenous Alto Huallaga, San Martín region, declared 30 communities was given a warning by the years previously due to actions by the armed Supreme Court following an administrative opposition group Shining Path, was lifted. investigation for criticizing a judge’s ruling on an expropriation law that benefited the FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND community. An appeal to the warning was ASSEMBLY pending at the end of the year. Critics of extractive industry projects were subjected to intimidation, excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests by the security 1. Indigenous group in voluntary isolation at risk (AMR 45/2041/2015) forces. 2. Paraguay: Security guards threatening Indigenous group (AMR Máxima Acuña Atalaya and her family, 45/2700/2015) subsistence farmers in a longstanding land 3. Paraguay: Continúa la impunidad a tres años de las muertes en dispute with the Yanacocha mining company, Curuguaty, 15 June 2015 (News story, 15 June) continued to face harassment by the security 4. Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review, June 2015 (AMR forces in attempts to drive them from where 45/2142/2015) they lived in Tragadero Grande, Cajamarca 5. Paraguay: Life of a pregnant 10-year-old girl at risk (AMR region. In February, police demolished a 45/1554/2015); Paraguay: Raped 10-year-old must be allowed an structure she was building to make her house abortion (Press release, 29 April) weatherproof. 6. Administrative inquiry against human rights defender in Paraguay is In May, Ramón Colque was shot dead disproportionate (AMR 45/1476/2015) when police opened fire against residents attempting to block the Southern Pan- American Highway during protests against the PERU planned Tía María copper mining project in the Tambo Valley, Islay province, Arequipa Republic of Peru department. They claimed the project would Head of state and government: Ollanta Moisés Humala affect their access to clean water. Three other Tasso men were killed, including a police officer, and scores were ill-treated and arbitrarily Government critics were attacked. Excessive arrested. At the end of the year all detainees force by security personnel was reported. had been released but many were still facing Indigenous Peoples continued to be denied charges. Community leaders were their full rights. There was some progress in intimidated.1 tackling impunity. Sexual and reproductive In September, four civilians died and rights were not guaranteed. scores of people were injured, including police officers, during protests against the BACKGROUND copper mining project in Las Bambas and In December, the President ratified a national Apurímac regions. A state of emergency was mechanism for the prevention of torture, declared in Apurímac and Cusco regions for approved by Congress in 2014. A draft law to four weeks at the end of September. search for those who disappeared during the internal armed conflict had not been INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS submitted to Congress despite agreement Indigenous Peoples continued to be denied between the authorities and victims’ relatives their right to free, prior and informed consent in 2014. Challapalca prison, situated over in relation to proposals affecting their 4,600m above sea level in Tacna region, livelihoods. remained open amid concerns that conditions In May, the authorities passed legislation constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading which allowed expropriation of land and treatment. In June, the state of emergency in reduced the requirement to approve

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 291 environmental impact assessments for major Excessive use of force development projects, amid concerns that the The vast majority of deaths during protests as law could affect Indigenous Peoples’ rights a result of excessive use of force by security and territories. forces remained unresolved. At the end of the year, the trial was still In April, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said ongoing of 53 people, including Indigenous that only two investigations had been opened people and some of their leaders, who stood into deaths allegedly caused by excessive use accused of killing 12 police officers during of force by police during protests. At least 50 clashes with security forces in a 2009 cases had been documented by human rights operation to disperse a road blockade led by organizations since 2012. Indigenous people in Bagua, Amazon region. A total of 33 people died in the clashes, SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS including 23 police officers, and over 200 Women and girls continued to have limited people were injured. No security personnel access to contraception. Free distribution of have been held accountable. emergency contraceptives, including in cases of sexual abuse, continued to be banned. IMPUNITY According to figures from the National Statistics Institute in July, teenage pregnancy Internal armed conflict increased to nearly 15% of girls and women Some progress was made in the investigation aged between 15 and 19 in 2014. of human rights violations during the internal In November, the Congress’ Constitutional armed conflict (1980-2000). Commission rejected a draft law to legalize In March, 10 military personnel were abortion for victims of rape. charged with crimes against humanity for In May, the Public Prosecutor’s Office sexual violence, including rape, inflicted on reopened and extended the investigation into scores of women from Manta and Vilca, the case of over 2,000 Indigenous and Huancavelica province. This was the first women farmers who were allegedly forcibly case to have reached the courts of sexual sterilized. Over 200,000 women were violence committed during the internal armed sterilized in the 1990s under a family conflict. According to the register of victims planning programme, many without their established in 2005, over 4,400 women and consent. girls reported being raped or sexually abused In November, a decree law establishing a by the military during that period. register of victims of forced sterilization was In May, retired Lieutenant-Colonel José issued as a first step to guarantee the right to Luis Israel Chávez Velásquez was arrested in justice and adequate reparation. connection with the disappearance of seven people in Huancapi, Ayacucho region, in RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 1991. The arrest warrant was issued 11 years TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE before his arrest. In March, the Commission of Justice and In September, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights rejected a law granting equal Human Rights ruled that Peru was rights to same-sex couples. responsible for the of 15 people, including seven children, from the peasant community of Santa Bárbara, in 1. Peru: Urgently investigate two deaths amid anti-mining protests Huancavelica, in 1991, and ordered Peru to (News story, 6 May) prosecute those responsible, offer reparation to the relatives and exhume and identify the remains of the victims.

292 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 convicted under the Act by the end of 2015. PHILIPPINES Several criminal investigations and prosecutions were ongoing. Republic of the Philippines The national Commission on Human Rights Head of state and government: Benigno S. Aquino III recorded 51 cases of torture in 2014, involving 59 individuals. From January to Torture and other ill-treatment by police September, it recorded 47 more cases continued in a climate of impunity for involving 65 victims. human rights violations. There were no In May, the chief of police of Carmona, convictions under laws criminalizing torture Cavite province, appeared in a video hitting a and enforced disappearances. Journalists, male detainee suspected of theft with a thick judges, lawyers and Indigenous Peoples piece of wood. The incident was shown on were targeted and killed by unidentified national television, prompting the Philippine gunmen and suspected militia. Progress National Police (PNP) to dismiss him from his towards realizing women’s sexual and post. reproductive rights was halting. Tens of After a year-long administrative thousands of victims of past human rights investigation, the PNP found two police violations sought redress. officers liable for the torture of Alfreda Disbarro in 2013 and demoted them by one BACKGROUND rank. Despite the 2014 peace accord between the The PNP initiated administrative government and the armed group Moro investigations against police officers accused Islamic Liberation Front, an encounter of torturing Jerryme Corre in 2012. There between police forces and rebel groups in were continuing criminal prosecutions for Maguindanao in January resulted in the torture in his case, as well as that of Darius deaths of 44 elite police officers and 23 Evangelista, tortured in 2010. rebels. This stalled efforts to pass a landmark Cases arising from the 2014 discovery of a law creating an autonomous Bangsamoro secret detention facility in Laguna province, in region in the southern Philippines. which police officers apparently used a The Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board “roulette wheel” to decide which torture received 75,000 applications for method to use on detainees, remained at the compensation from victims of Martial Law, in preliminary investigation stage by the end of force from 1972 to 1981 under the rule of the year. President Ferdinand Marcos. In July, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES displaced persons raised a range of concerns Three years after the enactment of the Anti- following his visit, including on Indigenous Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Law in Peoples displaced due to economic December 2012, there have been no development activities. convictions under the law. Hearings continued in the trial of retired TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT army General Jovito Palparan, charged with The Senate conducted its first hearing on kidnapping and illegally detaining two women police torture in January and a second in university students in 2006. General Palparan December;1 the inquiry into the issue had was arrested in 2014 and remanded in been opened in December 2014. custody. In October, his attempt to Reports of torture continued, mostly citing temporarily leave his detention cell to register police officers as perpetrators. Despite the and run for the Senate was denied by the criminalization of torture under the 2009 Anti- court. Torture Act, no perpetrators had been

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 293 IMPUNITY shot near her house in Balanga City in Hearings continued in the case of the 2009 January. In February, radio anchor Maurito Maguindanao massacre, in which 58 people, Lim was shot outside a radio station in including 32 media workers, were killed by Tagbilaran City and newspaper reporter state-armed militias allegedly led by Melinda Magsino was shot in the head near government officials. It was feared that the her apartment in Batangas City in April. trial would not conclude before the end of In August, three journalists were killed in President Aquino’s term in June 2016. The two weeks. Newspaper publisher Gregorio case continued, despite efforts by the Ybanez was shot in front of his house in Supreme Court to expedite proceedings. Tagum City. Radio anchor Teodoro Escanilla Witnesses and their relatives remained at risk was also shot in front of his house in of being killed or intimidated, although 175 Sorsogon. Radio presenter Cosme Maestrado witnesses had testified and more than 100 of was shot by four gunmen in Ozamiz City. In the 200 suspects had been arrested. At least October, another radio reporter, Jose eight witnesses and their family members Bernardo, was shot at close range by two were killed since November 2009, but no one unidentified gunmen. was held accountable. According to the Center for Media Freedom In August, assailants killed four men and Responsibility, if the killings were found accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old to be work-related, this would bring to 150 girl in Marawi City. The suspects had been the number of journalists killed in the line of arrested but were released after no charges duty since 1986, when restrictions on were filed. A local government official was freedom of expression were lifted after the quoted as saying the families of the suspects end of the former President Marcos regime. and of the victims agreed to the execution- Only 15 people had been convicted in style killing in order to avoid rido, or a family connection with the killings of journalists by feud. the end of 2015. In September and November, three judges In September, the primary suspects in the were shot dead in broad daylight. Erwin Alaba 2011 killing of broadcaster and environmental was killed outside his courtroom in Aurora advocate Gerardo Ortega were arrested in while Wilfredo Nieves was killed inside his car Thailand and extradited to the Philippines. in Bulacan on the way home. Reynaldo Espinar was killed in a cockpit in Northern ABUSES BY ARMED MILITIAS Samar. Three lawyers were also shot dead in In September, three leaders of the Lumad, a the second half of the year. Amelie Ocanada- group of Indigenous Peoples in southern Alegre was killed in August in Mandaue City Philippines, were killed in Surigao del Sur. while Ramon Eduardo Elesteria was shot in Dionel Campos and his cousin Aurelio Sinzo Bayawan City. Another lawyer, Pepito Suello, were shot; Emerito Samarca, a school was killed in Bukidnon in October on his way director, was hogtied and stabbed to death. to a hearing. According to the Indigenous people’s party According to the International Association KATRIBU, 13 Lumads were killed and 4,000 of People’s Lawyers, at least 25 judges and evacuated in 2015 due to armed attacks by more than 80 lawyers have been murdered suspected militia, including the three killed in since 1999. While investigations have been Surigao del Sur. The group recorded a total of conducted, no charges were reported to have 53 extrajudicial killings of Lumads during been brought. President Aquino’s administration since 2010. Human rights groups accused an FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION armed militia allegedly trained by the military Seven journalists were killed in 2015. of being behind the killings. Newspaper reporter Nerlita Ledesma was UN Special Rapporteurs on the rights of

294 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 indigenous peoples and on the situation of LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR human rights defenders condemned the INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS killings. Charges were filed against several As of November, the Polish Ombudsman, suspects following an investigation by the national NGOs, the National Council of the Department of Justice. Judiciary and other authorities expressed concerns regarding respect for the rule of law. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS They referred to the President’s refusal to Authorities implemented the Reproductive swear in five constitutional judges who had Health Law in November, three years after it been elected by the previous Parliament was passed into law. However, a year after (Sejm) and to the amendments of the Law on the Supreme Court upheld the the Constitutional Court adopted by the newly constitutionality of the Reproductive Health elected Parliament. In December, the Law, which provides certain Constitutional Court confirmed the election of sexual/reproductive rights to women, it issued three out of five replacement judges. in June a temporary restraining order President Duda continued to uphold his stopping the Department of Health from position that the replacement judges were procuring, distributing and promoting elected “illegally”. President Duda also signed contraceptive implants. into law the constitutional tribunal bill, which In May, the UN Committee on the said the court must approve rulings with a Elimination of Discrimination against Women two-thirds majority, rather than the previous found that the Philippines violated women’s simple majority, and required 13 of the human rights by denying them access to a court’s 15 judges to be present for the most full range of reproductive health services, contentious cases, instead of the previous including universal and affordable nine. A new law on media giving the contraceptives. government direct control over management positions in public service broadcasters was widely criticized. A number of laws were 1. Philippines: Senate hearing should be first step to tackling endemic rapidly adopted by Parliament without public torture (News story, 12 January) consultation and debate. POLAND DISCRIMINATION Hate crimes Republic of Poland In March, the European Commission against Head of state: Andrzej Duda (replaced Bronislaw Racism and Intolerance recommended Komorowski in August) extending the scope of provisions on racist Head of government: Beata Szydło (replaced Ewa and xenophobic crimes to crimes perpetrated Kopacz in November) with a homophobic or transphobic motive. Parliament continued to discuss three joint Parliament failed to reform hate crime bills aimed at providing protection against legislation. The government committed to hate crime perpetrated on grounds such as relocate 5,000 refugees from Italy and sexual orientation, gender identity or Greece, amid a climate of intolerance and disability. However, it failed to pass them discriminatory speech, fuelled by some before parliamentary elections in October. public officials. The domestic criminal investigation into the co-operation with the Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and CIA and the hosting of a secret detention intersex people site was still pending. On 26 May and 5 August, Parliament rejected two bills on civil partnerships, including for

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 295 same-sex couples, without initiating a debate cases. These included earlier actions in May, on the bills. paying compensation, and the submission to In September, Parliament approved the US authorities of a diplomatic note requesting Gender Accordance Act, which established a that the death penalty not be imposed or framework for legal gender recognition of applied to Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in military transgender people. On 2 October, President commissions proceedings at the US detention Duda vetoed the Act. Parliament failed to hold facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. a vote on the presidential veto before parliamentary elections. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS The debates regarding relocation and Roma resettlement of refugees took place in a On 22 July, 10 Romani women, men and climate of mounting discriminatory speech, children were forcibly evicted from an fuelled by some public officials throughout informal settlement in the city of Wrocław. the year. They were given no notice by municipal In July, the government announced the authorities and their houses and belongings resettlement of 900 Syrian refugees from were destroyed while they were at work. Lebanon and 1,100 refugees currently in Italy and Greece within its relocation programme. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY In September, the government supported the After the December 2014 release of a US EU plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from Senate report documenting the torture of other European countries. On the basis of the detainees secretly held by the US CIA from agreed quotas, about 5,000 refugees would 2002-2006, former President Aleksander be relocated from Greece and Italy to Poland Kwasniewski and former Prime Minister in the next two years. Following the Leszek Miller acknowledged their co- parliamentary elections, the new operation with the CIA and agreement to host government backtracked from the a secret site. commitments under the EU resettlement and The former President subsequently stated relocation scheme. publicly that he took steps to end the activity At the end of the year, integration at the site, amid pressure from other Polish measures remained insufficient and the officials who were concerned that coerced authorities did not adopt a comprehensive interrogations were being conducted there. integration strategy. The Polish criminal investigation into the Authorities continued to use detention secret site allegations, launched in 2008, disproportionately for migrants and asylum- continued and was criticized for severe seekers. In September, the European Court of delays. Human Rights communicated the case In February, the European Court of Human Bistieva v. Poland to the government. The Rights confirmed as final the July 2014 applicant argued that the authorities’ decision decisions in the cases of Zayn al-Abidin to detain her and her three children, while Muhammed Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) and waiting for the decision regarding their asylum Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The Court had ruled claims, had violated their rights to private life against the Polish government for co- and to liberty and security. operating with the CIA in the enforced disappearance of the two men, their illegal WOMEN’S RIGHTS transfer, secret detention and torture. In April, Poland ratified the Council of Europe Poland submitted an action plan to the Convention on preventing and combating Council of Europe in August detailing the violence against women and domestic measures it had taken or would take to violence. However, at the end of the year, implement the final judgments in the men’s authorities had not yet adopted a

296 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 comprehensive plan to implement the TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Convention. There were reports of unnecessary or excessive use of force by police and prison Sexual and reproductive rights conditions remained inadequate. In September, Parliament rejected a draft bill In May, a police officer was filmed beating which aimed at banning abortion in all a man in front of his two children and father instances and removing any reference to outside the Guimarães football stadium. The prenatal diagnosis as well as the woman’s footage shows a police officer pushing a right to information and testing. seemingly peaceful football fan to the ground On 7 October, the Constitutional Court and hitting him several times with a baton ruled that the legal duty imposed on objecting while his children are restrained. The same doctors to refer women to an alternative officer can also be seen punching the man's facility or practitioners, in order for them to father in the face twice as he intervenes to access legal abortion, was unconstitutional. stop the beating. According to the Ministry of This was in spite of the European Court of Internal Affairs, the officer was given a 90-day Human Rights’ earlier ruling that the right of suspension from duty, pending disciplinary conscientious objections must not result in proceedings. barriers for women to access legal abortion services in Poland. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS Only 39 of the 44 refugees previously FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION selected for resettlement in Portugal in 2014, In October the Constitutional Court ruled that and none of those selected for resettlement in the provision which criminalizes “offending 2015, had arrived in the country by the end religious feelings” was constitutional. of the year. Portugal further committed to receive 4,574 asylum-seekers to be relocated from Italy and Greece under the EU relocation PORTUGAL programme within the following two years. However, only 24 people had been relocated Portuguese Republic by the end of the year. Head of state: Aníbal António Cavaco Silva According to the Portuguese Refugee Head of government: António Costa (replaced Pedro Council, the reception centre for refugees in Manuel Mamede PassosCoelho in November) the capital Lisbon remained overcrowded.

Roma and people of African descent DISCRIMINATION continued to face discrimination. There were further reports of excessive use of force Roma by police and prison conditions remained Discrimination against Roma continued to be inadequate. reported in several municipalities. In July, the Mayor of Estremoz barred BACKGROUND Roma living in the Quintinhas neighbourhood Following a visit in January, the UN Special from using municipal swimming pools Rapporteur on the independence of judges following reported acts of vandalism by a and lawyers expressed concern that rising number of its residents. The decision was court and legal fees were obstructing access challenged by the Commission for Equality to justice for more people living in poverty as and against Racial Discrimination and a ruling a result of the economic crisis. The was pending at the end of the year. Constitutional Court ruled that some austerity measures affecting economic and social People of African descent rights were unconstitutional. Racially motivated abuse and unnecessary

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 297 use of force by police against people of excessive use of force by law enforcement African descent continued to be reported. officials continued. In February, five young men of African descent reported having been beaten and BACKGROUND subjected to racist comments by police In May, the Governor submitted a draft law to officers in the Alfragide police station, after Congress to create the office of human rights complaining about excessive use of force Ombudsman and unify several functions during an arrest in the Alto da Cova da Moura currently carried out by different authorities. neighbourhood earlier the same day. They The government proposed austerity received medical treatment for injuries measures in September, raising concerns sustained and were charged with resistance about their potentially negative impact on the and coercion of an officer. Investigations into most marginalized and disadvantaged groups their allegations of ill-treatment were ongoing and on labour rights. at the end of the year. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Transgender people continued to face In December, new legislation was adopted difficulties in accessing gender reassignment giving same-sex couples the right to adopt treatment because of a lack of adequate children. protocols and legal gender recognition, and health insurance providers’ refusal to cover VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS treatment costs. Although in August the According to data provided by the NGO Governor issued instructions allowing for UMAR, as of 20 November, 27 women had gender to be changed on driving licences, been killed, and there were also 33 attempted there were no provisions for changing gender murders, particularly by people with in other identity documents. whom the women maintained intimate In June, the Governor issued instructions to relationships. comply within 15 days with the landmark US In July, a study by the New University of federal Supreme Court’s decision affirming Lisbon estimated that 1,830 girls residing in the right of same-sex couples to marry legally. Portugal had been subjected to, or were at In July, the Secretary of the Family issued a risk of, female genital mutilation (FGM). New directive instructing officials to ensure equal legislation entered into force in September, treatment for LGBTI couples wishing to adopt introducing FGM as a specific crime in the a child and to use the “best interest of the Penal Code. child” as the only criterion in deciding on adoptions. In December, a court authorized the first adoption of a child by a same-sex PUERTO RICO couple.

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES Head of state: Barack Obama Puerto Rican human rights organizations Head of government: Alejandro García Padilla continued to report incidents of excessive use of force, discrimination by the police towards The right of same-sex couples to marry Afro-descendants and Dominican legally was recognized. However, lesbian, communities and a failure to investigate gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex reports of gender-based violence. In its June (LGBTI) people continued to face periodic report, the technical advisor discrimination. The 2013 reform of the monitoring the implementation of police police had limited impact and incidents of reforms reported allegations of human rights

298 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 violations by the police in the context of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION counter-narcotic operations. The authorities continued to restrict freedom Reforms of the Puerto Rico Police Force, of expression. Qatari poet Mohammed al- agreed between the government of Puerto Ajami (also known as Ibn-Dheeb) remained a Rico and the US Department of Justice in prisoner of conscience. He had received a 2013, had limited impact. They focused 15-year prison sentence in 2012 for writing primarily on acquiring new equipment and and reciting poems deemed by the authorities amending internal policies and regulations. to be offensive to the Emir and the state. In Civil society organizations provided comments February, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and suggestions to the policy reviews, denied that Mohammed al-Ajami was jailed including on the use of force and the for his peaceful opinions.1 investigation of domestic violence, but it was In May, security authorities detained four unclear to what extent their comments were media workers, including British journalist taken into account. Mark Lobel, although they had official A bill submitted to the Senate by the Puerto authorization to visit Qatar to report on Rican branch of the American Civil Liberties conditions of migrant workers. They were Union proposing the creation of an released without charge after two days and independent board to oversee the work of the were allowed to remain in Qatar. police was rejected in May on the grounds that police oversight was already carried out JUSTICE SYSTEM by the Federal Department of Justice. In March, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers reported on her 2014 visit to Qatar. She concluded QATAR that there were serious shortcomings that negatively affected the enjoyment of human State of Qatar rights in Qatar and the independence and Head of state: Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al impartiality of those working in the justice Thani system. Head of government: Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin The Court of Appeal in the capital Doha Khalifa Al Thani confirmed the conviction of Filipino national Ronaldo Lopez Ulep, who received a The authorities arbitrarily restricted the sentence of life imprisonment in 2014 for rights to freedom of expression, association espionage. His conviction was largely based and peaceful assembly. A prisoner of on a pre-trial “confession” that he said conscience was serving a lengthy sentence security officers had forced him to make for writing and reciting poems. Migrant under torture. The Court of Appeal reduced workers, including domestic workers and his sentence to 15 years’ imprisonment, while those employed in high-profile construction also confirming the convictions and reducing projects, continued to face exploitation and the sentences of two other Filipinos tried abuse. Discrimination against women alongside Ronaldo Ulep. remained entrenched in both law and practice. The death penalty remained in MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS force; no executions were reported. Migrant workers, who numbered more than 1.6 million according to the authorities and BACKGROUND made up more than 90% of Qatar’s In March, Qatar joined the Saudi Arabia-led workforce, continued to face exploitation and international coalition that engaged in the abuse. The Emir and the Minister for Foreign armed conflict in Yemen (see Yemen entry). Affairs both committed to addressing exploitation of migrant workers in the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 299 recruitment chain during official visits to India ended. Without this support, few could afford and Nepal respectively, from where many of to return. Of those who did return to Nepal, Qatar’s migrant workers originate. In October many complained that their employers in the Emir approved changes to the kafala Qatar withheld pay due to them. sponsorship system, creating a new system for migrant workers to appeal a sponsor’s WOMEN’S RIGHTS decision to refuse them an exit permit to leave Women faced discrimination in law and in the country and increasing the state’s practice, and were inadequately protected oversight of the process by which workers against violence within the family. Personal seek to change jobs or leave Qatar. However, status laws continued to discriminate against migrant workers were still required to obtain women in relation to marriage, divorce, their sponsor’s approval to change jobs or inheritance, child custody, nationality and leave the country. The new regime would not freedom of movement. be enforceable until at least the end of 2016. In February the Emir approved the DEATH PENALTY introduction of an electronic Wage Protection The Court of Appeal confirmed at least one System that sought to regularize the payment death sentence. No executions were reported. of salaries by requiring all businesses to pay workers by bank transfer. Migrant workers commonly had their 1. Qatar: Release the poet, Mohammed al-Ajami (MDE 22/2760/2015) passports confiscated by their employers, in breach of Qatari law, exposing them to forced labour and other abuses. Thousands of ROMANIA workers in construction and related industries continued to live in dirty, overcrowded and Romania often unsafe conditions. The government said Head of state: Klaus Iohannis it would build new facilities to house up to Head of government: Dacian Cioloş (replaced Victor 258,000 workers by the end of 2016, and Ponta in November) announced in August that it had completed the construction of housing for 50,000 Roma continued to experience workers. discrimination, forced evictions and other Thousands of domestic workers, most of human rights violations. Following the whom were women, and other migrant release of the US Senate report on the CIA workers employed by small companies or in secret detention programme, a new informal work arrangements continued to face investigation into Romania’s co-operation the greatest risk of abuse, including forced was opened. In April, the UN Committee labour and human trafficking. Workers against Torture reviewed Romania for the employed by large companies also first time in 18 years. complained of chronic labour abuse such as inadequate housing, low pay and late BACKGROUND payment of wages, poor working conditions, In November, Prime Minister Ponta resigned and of being prevented from changing jobs or following protests across the country that leaving the country under the kafala system. were prompted by the deaths of 63 people in Following the devastating earthquakes in a nightclub in the capital Bucharest on 30 Nepal in April and May, many Nepalese October. A technocratic government headed migrant workers complained that employers by Dacian Cioloş was appointed until the denied them exit permits to leave Qatar or December 2016 parliamentary elections. refused to pay their return airfares, a legal requirement for those whose contracts had

300 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 DISCRIMINATION – ROMA the Pirita settlement in Baia Mare. Local Roma continued to face systemic authorities stated that the demolition was discrimination and were targeted with hate carried out under a policy to identify and crimes, including excessive use of force by demolish buildings that were illegally law enforcement officials. Anti-Roma constructed on public land in Craica, Pirita, sentiment continued to be frequently Ferneziu and Gării – all informal settlements expressed in public and political discourse. A inhabited mainly by Roma. report by the Superior Council of Magistracy on access to justice for Roma and other Police and security forces vulnerable groups concluded that the In May, the UN Committee against Torture judiciary was insufficiently sensitive to expressed concern over persistent reports of discrimination and that legal aid rules failed to racist crimes against Roma, including the ensure the affordability of legal representation excessive use of force by police resulting in to vulnerable groups, particularly Roma. The deaths in custody. In January, the European UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty Court of Human Rights ruled that the and human rights highlighted the “official authorities violated the right to life and the state of denial” regarding anti-Roma right not to be subjected to inhuman discrimination and raised concerns over a treatment and to discrimination of the Romani pattern of housing rights violations against community of Apalina, in Mureş county, Roma, following his visit to the country in during a law enforcement operation in 2006 November. A new Strategy for the which resulted in 21 people suffering injuries, Inclusion of the Romanian Citizens of Roma including gunshot wounds. Ethnicity for 2015-2020 was adopted in January. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY After the release in December 2014 of the US Housing rights – forced evictions Senate report on the CIA detention and In April, a demolition order issued by the interrogation programme, Ioan Talpeş, former municipality of Cluj-Napoca against 300 national security adviser to then President Ion Roma living in the centre of the city in Iliescu, admitted that Romania allowed the December 2010 was ruled unlawful by the CIA to operate “one or two” secret sites in the Cluj-Napoca District Court. The residents country. Talpeş stated that people were were forcibly evicted within 24 hours and “probably” detained and ill-treated in resettled near a waste dump. The Court ruled Romania in 2003-2006, and that he had that the order was insufficiently reasoned, informed the then president of the CIA and was executed without prior consultation activities.2 The Prosecutor General claimed in with affected residents and the offer of January 2015 that an investigation into the adequate alternative accommodation. It also allegations had been initiated. failed to allow sufficient time for its legality to The case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a be verified by the Prefect. Saudi Arabian national currently detained at About 30 Roma, half of them children, the US detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, living in the town of Eforie Sud, in Constanţa Cuba, remains pending at the European Court county, remained at risk of forced eviction at of Human Rights. He lodged a complaint the end of the year. They had been ordered to against Romania, alleging that he had been vacate the publicly owned property they had held and tortured in a secret site in Bucharest been occupying since October 2013 following between 2004 and 2006. their earlier forced eviction from a long- In September, a European Parliament standing informal settlement.1 delegation called on the government to In July, 22 Roma, including five children, conduct an effective investigation into reports were forcibly evicted by local authorities from of a secret site on its territory, after being

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 301 denied access to a building in Bucharest that report (News story, 20 January); Europe: Breaking the conspiracy of allegedly hosted such a site. silence: USA’s European “partners in crime” must act after Senate torture report (EUR 01/002/2015); USA: Crimes and impunity: Full TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Senate Committee report on CIA secret detentions must be released, In May, the UN Committee against Torture and accountability for crimes under international law ensured (AMR criticized the treatment and living conditions 51/1432/2015) of people with mental disabilities in psychiatric facilities, and the lack of investigation into thousands of deaths in RUSSIAN these institutions over the last decade. There are still around 25,000 children in 717 FEDERATION institutions across the country, despite long- standing commitments to reduce the number Russian Federation of people with mental and physical disabilities Head of state: Vladimir Putin in psychiatric institutions. Head of government: Dmitry Medvedev The Committee also expressed concern over the inadequacy of police detention Freedoms of expression and peaceful facilities, the low number of prosecutions and assembly remained severely restricted. The convictions in cases of ill-treatment and authorities dominated the print and torture and the lack of an independent broadcast media, and further extended their complaints mechanism for violations by law control over the internet. NGOs faced enforcement officials. further harassment and reprisals under the “foreign agents” law, while their access to REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS foreign funding was further restricted by a Asylum-seekers continued to face obstacles new law banning “undesirable” in accessing asylum proceedings. Rejected organizations. Growing numbers of asylum seekers and Dublin returnees – individuals were arrested and criminally asylum-seekers due to be transferred from charged for criticizing state policy and one EU state to another, under the Dublin III publicly displaying or possessing materials regulation – continued to be detained deemed extremist or otherwise unlawful unnecessarily. Recognized refugees faced under vague national security legislation. obstacles in accessing education, housing Four people faced prosecution under the and health care. 2014 law that made repeated violations of Around 900 people applied for asylum the law on public assemblies a criminal between January and September 2015, offence. Deep flaws in the judicial system compared to around 1,150 people in the were further exposed through several high- same period in 2014. Romania opposed the profile cases; a new law gave the mandatory quotas for the relocation of people Constitutional Court the authority to overrule in need of international protection from decisions by the European Court of Human Greece, Italy and other EU member states. Rights. Refugees faced numerous obstacles Following the adoption of the scheme in in accessing international protection. September, Romania was earmarked to Serious human rights violations continued in receive 6,351 refugees over a period of two the North Caucasus, and human rights years. defenders reporting from the region faced harassment.

1. Romania: Eforie municipality threatens to evict Roma families third BACKGROUND time in two years (EUR 39/1560/2015) In the face of Russia’s growing international 2. Europe: Complicit governments must act in wake of US Senate torture isolation and mounting economic problems,

302 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 the authorities sought to consolidate public Roskomnadzor. Those targeted in violation of opinion around the notions of unity and the right to freedom of expression included patriotism, “traditional values” and fear of the political satire, information shared by lesbian, country’s purported enemies abroad and gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex within. Opinion polls showed a consistently (LGBTI) activists, information on public high level of support for President Putin’s protests and religious texts. A growing, but leadership. Government critics were smeared still small, number of individuals faced as “unpatriotic” and “anti-Russian state” in criminal prosecution for online postings, the mainstream media, and were occasionally usually on charges under anti-extremism assaulted. On 27 February, one of Russia’s legislation; most of them received fines. most prominent opposition activists, Boris Yekaterina Vologzheninova, a shop Nemtsov, was shot dead within sight of the assistant from Yekaterinburg, was put on trial Kremlin. Mourners wishing to commemorate on 27 October for her satirical posts on social him at the site of his death were harassed by media in 2014 which criticized Russia’s city authorities and pro-government annexation of Crimea and its military supporters. involvement in eastern Ukraine. The The government continued to dismiss prosecution alleged that she had incited mounting evidence of Russia’s military violence and “promoted hatred and enmity involvement in Ukraine, while President Putin towards the Russian government officials, decreed in May that human losses among the Russian volunteers fighting in eastern Ukraine military during “special operations” in and the specific ethnic group, the Russians”. peacetime were a state secret.1 Her trial was ongoing at the end of the year.2 The authorities estimated that as of Harassment of independent media outlets November, 2,700 Russian citizens had joined and journalists continued. Past incidents of the armed group Islamic State (IS) in Syria violence against independent journalists were and Iraq, the majority of them from the North rarely effectively investigated. Two men were Caucasus. Independent experts gave higher arrested in connection with the beating of estimates. journalist Oleg Kashin in November 2010, On 30 September, Russia began air strikes and a third put on a wanted list. One suspect in Syria with the stated aim of targeting IS, but claimed he had proof that the beating had also frequently targeted other groups opposed been ordered by the Governor of Pskov to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. region, which tallied with Kashin’s suspicions, Numerous civilian casualties were reported, but the authorities declined to investigate the which Russia denied. On 24 November, allegation further. Turkey shot down a Russian military jet for , a journalist from the allegedly entering its airspace, leading to independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, mutual recriminations and a diplomatic reported that a 17-year-old Chechen girl was stand-off between the two countries. being forcibly married to a senior police officer three times her age and reportedly FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION already married. The story was widely Media freedom remained severely restricted, reported and caused a public outcry. through direct state control and self- Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov publicly censorship. The editorial policy of most media supported the senior police officer and outlets faithfully reproduced official views on accused Milashina of lying and interfering in key domestic and international events. the private lives of the Chechen people. On The authorities extended their control over 19 May, the Chechen government-owned the internet. Thousands of websites and online news agency Grozny-Inform published pages were blocked by internet providers on an article containing thinly veiled death orders from the media regulator threats against Milashina.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 303 The clampdown on freedom of expression of the May Day march, was disallowed for the extended beyond journalists and bloggers. first time since 2005. Its organizer, Artem Natalya Sharina, director of the state-run Loskutov, was arrested and sentenced to 10 Library of Ukrainian Literature in the capital days’ detention for violating the law on Moscow, was detained on 28 October under assemblies after he and several other extremism-related charges. The investigators “monstrators” joined the official May Day claimed that works by Ukrainian nationalist march instead. Dmitry Korchinsky had been found at the For the first time, a peaceful street library, in a pile of literature that had not yet protester was convicted under the 2014 law been catalogued. She was detained at a which criminalized repeated participation in police station without bedding, food or drink unauthorized assemblies. until 30 October when she was placed under On 7 December, a Moscow court house arrest, pending possible charges.3 sentenced Ildar Dadin to three years in a On 15 September, Rafis Kashapov, an prison colony for his repeated participation in activist from Naberezhnye Chelny, Republic “unauthorized” assemblies between August of Tatarstan, was convicted of inciting inter- and December 2014. He had been placed ethnic hatred and threatening the territorial under house arrest on 30 January, after integrity of the Russian Federation; he was serving a 15-day detention for joining a sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. He peaceful protest in Moscow against the had been under arrest since 28 December politically motivated conviction of Oleg 2014 in connection with posts on social Navalny, the brother of anti-graft campaigner media that criticized Russia’s role in the and opposition leader Alex Navalny. conflict in eastern Ukraine and the treatment Two other peaceful protesters from of in Russian-occupied Moscow, Mark Galperin and Irina Kalmykova, Crimea. also faced criminal prosecution under the On 10 November, the Kirsanovski District same law at the end of the year. Court ruled that the environmentalist Yevgeny Prisoners of conscience Stepan Zimin, Vitishko should be released. He had served Aleksei Polikhovich and Denis Lutskevich, over half of his sentence following his who had been detained in 2012 in conviction on trumped-up charges in the run- connection with the Bolotnaya Square up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. protests, were released during the year, However, on 20 November, a day before the having completed their prison sentences. court’s decision came into force, the Another prisoner of conscience, Sergey Prosecutor’s Office appealed against the Krivov, remained in prison; the authorities decision; Vitishko was finally released on 22 brought criminal proceedings against at least December after an appeal hearing. two further individuals in connection with the Bolotnaya protests. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY The right to freedom of peaceful assembly FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION remained severely curtailed. Protests were Freedom of association was further restricted. infrequent, their number having declined By the end of the year, the Ministry of following restrictions introduced in earlier Justice’s register of NGOs considered “foreign years. Organizers were regularly refused agents” contained 111 entries, requiring the permission to hold street rallies or only NGOs concerned to put this stigmatizing label allowed to hold them in non-central locations. on all their publications and observe onerous Those who defied the ban or the rules were reporting requirements. NGOs that defied penalized through fines and detention. these requirements faced hefty fines. Not a Monstration, a humorous annual street single NGO succeeded in challenging their event in Novosibirsk mocking the pomposity inclusion on the register in court. Seven were

304 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 struck off the register after giving up all region, fined Klimova Rub 50,000 (US$830) foreign funding, and a further 14 NGOs for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual included on the register chose to close down. relations among minors”. On 2 October, a The Human Rights Centre (HRC) Memorial court in St Petersburg ruled that the page was fined Rub 600,000 (US$8,800) in should be unblocked. September after its sister organization, the The authorities continued to violate LGBTI Historical and Educational Centre Memorial – individuals’ right to peaceful assembly. In which was not on the register – did not mark May, LGBTI activist Nikolay Alekseev its publications with the label “foreign agent”. attempted to hold an unauthorized Pride The HRC Memorial lost its court appeal march in Moscow. It resulted in clashes with against the decision. Following a regular anti-LGBTI protesters and 10 days’ detention inspection of the HRC Memorial in for three LGBTI activists, including Nikolay November, the Ministry of Justice concluded Alekseev. In St Petersburg, LGBTI activists that criticism by its members of the Bolotnaya were able to conduct some public activities Square trials and of Russian policies in without interference from police. Ukraine “undermined the foundations of the constitutional system” and amounted to “calls JUSTICE SYSTEM for the overthrow of the current government Several high-profile trials exposed deep- and change of the political regime”. The rooted and widespread flaws in Russia’s Ministry submitted its “findings” to the criminal justice system, including the lack of Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation. equality of arms, the use of torture and other In May, a law was passed authorizing the ill-treatment in the course of investigations as Prosecutor’s Office to designate any foreign well as the failure to exclude torture-tainted organization as “undesirable” on the grounds evidence in court, the use of secret witnesses of posing a “threat to the country’s and other secret evidence which the defence constitutional order, defence or state could not challenge, and the denial of the security”, with the immediate effect of right to be represented by a lawyer of one’s rendering its presence, and any activity on its choice. Less than 0.5% of trials resulted in behalf, unlawful. In July, the US-based acquittals. National Endowment for Democracy was Svetlana Davydova was one of the growing declared “undesirable”. Three more donor number of cases of alleged high treason and organizations, the Open Society Foundation, espionage, under vague offences introduced the Open Society Institute Assistance in 2012. She was arrested on 21 January for Foundation and the US Russia Foundation for a phone call she had made to the Ukrainian Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law, Embassy eight months earlier, to share her were declared “undesirable” in November suspicions that soldiers from her town and December. Vyazma, Smolensk region, were being sent to fight in eastern Ukraine. Her state-appointed RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, lawyer told the media that she had TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE “confessed to everything” and declined to LGBTI activists continued to operate in an appeal against her detention because “all extremely hostile environment. Discrimination these hearings and the fuss in the media against LGBTI individuals continued to be [create] unnecessary psychological trauma widely reported. for her children”. On 1 February, two new On 25 March, a court in St Petersburg lawyers took up her case. She complained ruled that the Children-404 group – an online that her initial lawyer had convinced her to community set up by journalist Elena Klimova plead guilty to reduce her likely sentence to support LGBTI teenagers – be blocked. In from 20 to 12 years. On 3 February, she was July, a court in Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk released; on 13 March, in marked contrast to

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 305 all other treason cases, criminal proceedings NORTH CAUCASUS against her were terminated. Fewer attacks by armed groups were reported In September, the trial of Nadezhda in the North Caucasus than in previous years. Savchenko, a Ukrainian citizen and member Law enforcement agencies continued to of the Aidar volunteer battalion, began. She rely on security operations as their preferred was accused of deliberately directing artillery method of combating armed groups, and fire to kill two Russian journalists during the continued to be suspected of resorting to conflict in Ukraine in June 2014. She insisted enforced disappearances, unlawful detention, that the case against her was fabricated and as well as torture and other ill-treatment of the testimonies against her, including by detainees. several secret witnesses, were false. Her trial Human rights reporting from the region was marred by myriad procedural flaws. visibly declined, due to a severe clampdown On 15 December, President Putin signed a on human rights defenders and independent new law under which the Constitutional Court journalists, who regularly faced harassment, can pronounce the European Court of Human threats and violence, including from law Rights’ and other international courts’ enforcement officials and pro-government decisions “unimplementable” if they “violate” groups. the Russian Constitution’s “supremacy”. On 3 June, an aggressive mob surrounded the office building of the human rights group REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Joint Mobile Group in Chechnya’s capital According to official figures, in the first nine Grozny. Masked men forced their way into the months of the year, 130,297 people were office, destroying its contents and forcing staff given temporary asylum, 129,506 of them to evacuate.4 No suspects had been identified from Ukraine and 482 from Syria. Only 96 of by the end of the year. the 1,079 applications for permanent refugee On 6 November, the office and residence status were granted, none of them to Syrian in the Republic of Ingushetia of human rights nationals. NGOs reported numerous defender Magomed Mutsolgov were searched obstacles, including corruption and deliberate by armed law enforcement officers, who misinformation, intended to discourage those seized documents and IT equipment. seeking international protection from applying According to Mutsolgov, the warrant for permanent or temporary asylum. authorizing the search stated that he was A family of six refugees from Syria, “acting in the interests of the USA, Georgia, including four children, were stranded in the Ukraine and the Syrian opposition”. international transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for over two months. On 10 September, border officials denied them 1. Russian Federation: Making troop deaths a secret "attacks freedom of entry claiming their travel documents were expression" (News story, 28 May) fake. On 19 November, Khimki City Court 2. Russian Federation: Prosecuted for criticizing government: Yekaterina fined them Rub 10,000 (US$150) for trying to Vologzheninova (EUR 46/2682/2015) enter the country under forged documents; 3. Russian Federation: Natalya Sharina. Librarian detained for holding the following day, they were registered as "extremist books" (EUR/2900/2015) asylum-seekers and relocated to Tver region, 4. Russian Federation: Joint Mobile Group office ransacked by mob (EUR with help from the NGO Civic Assistance 46/1802/2015) Committee. There were regular reports of forcible return of individuals to Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries, where they risked being subjected to torture and other serious human rights violations.

306 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 an NGO, continued to face difficulties. RWANDA LIPRODHOR members were electing a new executive committee on 5 September when Republic of Rwanda police arrived and interrupted the meeting. Head of state: Paul Kagame On 21 November, a different new executive Head of government: Anastase Murekezi committee was elected. On 12 October, the executive secretary of While economic progress and development the regional NGO Human Rights League of continued, freedom of expression was the Great Lakes Region, headquartered in further restricted. Journalists, human rights Rwanda, was taken in for questioning by the defenders and members of the opposition immigration services. Seven members of the faced a repressive environment. Rwanda’s newly elected executive council and oversight human rights record was examined under committee were also taken for questioning by the UPR mechanism in November. police the next day. This took place in the context of a dispute over leadership of the BACKGROUND organization. Political debate was dominated by discussion of planned amendments to presidential term POLITICAL PRISONERS limits in the Constitution. More than 3.7 Former prisoner of conscience Charles million people petitioned Parliament to lift the Ntakirutinka, who was released in March two-term presidential term limit to allow 2012 after 10 years in detention, continued to President Kagame to stand for a third term in wait for a response to his request for a 2017, although there were reports of pressure passport submitted in April 2012. Other to sign the petition. On 8 October, the former political prisoners and opposition Supreme Court rejected a petition brought by political figures also continued to report the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda difficulties obtaining travel documents. challenging the legality of amending the Constitution. The Chamber of Deputies and FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION the Senate voted in favour of reducing the The Secretary-General of the opposition presidential term from a seven to five-year political party United Democratic Forces , term renewable once, as well as a provision Sylvain Sibomana, and another party that would allow the President in place at the member, Anselme Mutuyimana, remained in time of the amendment to stand for an detention for inciting insurrection or trouble additional seven-year term. The revised among the population after organizing a Constitution was adopted in a referendum on meeting in September 2012. The party 18 December, and Paul Kagame confirmed complained about conditions of detention, that he would seek re-election in 2017. reporting that Sylvain Sibomana was denied his medically prescribed diet from August and HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS that party president Victoire Ingabire was Human rights defenders worked in an temporarily refused access to her lawyer. The increasingly challenging environment, facing party vice-president Boniface Twagirimana intimidation and administrative interference. was arrested on 4 December, and released In January, two former police officers were the next day. sentenced by Rubavu High Court to 20 years There was no progress in the case of Jean in prison for the murder of Gustave Damascène Munyeshyaka, national Makonene, Transparency International’s organizing secretary of the Democratic Green Rubavu co-ordinator, who was killed in 2013. Party of Rwanda, who went missing on 27 The Rwandan League for the Promotion June 2014. and Defense of Human Rights (LIPRODHOR),

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 307 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION detention. Tom Byabagamba and Frank Journalists continued to work in a difficult Rusagara were relatives of David Himbara, a environment, with some employing self- former presidential adviser now in exile. censorship to avoid harassment. Retired captain David Kabuye, who was On 29 May, the BBC Kinyarwanda services arrested by Rwandan military intelligence in were indefinitely suspended by the Rwanda August 2014, completed a six-month jail term Utilities Regulatory Authority following the in March 2015 for illegal possession of recommendation of a committee of inquiry firearms. He was rearrested and later led by the former Prosecutor-General, Martin acquitted on new charges of inciting Ngoga. BBC services were originally insurrection or trouble among the population suspended in Rwanda in October 2014 in and defamation. Just days before his response to the broadcast of the documentary acquittal, David Kabuye appeared as a Rwanda’s Untold Story, on the grounds that it prosecution witness in the case against Frank violated Rwandan laws on genocide denial, Rusagara. The trials were believed to be revisionism, inciting hatred and divisionism. politically motivated. Fred Muvunyi, chair of the Rwanda Media Commission, the media’s self-regulatory body, INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE resigned in May and left the country, Trials of individuals suspected of involvement reportedly following a dispute over the in the 1994 genocide continued in courts handling of the BBC case, as well as outside Rwanda. The International Criminal criticisms contained in the Commission’s Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) officially closed (unpublished) report on the state of the on 31 December. media in Rwanda. Rwanda’s intelligence chief, General Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, was arrested in UNFAIR TRIALS the UK in June, on a warrant issued by the The singer Kizito Mihigo was found guilty on Spanish authorities in connection to the 2008 27 February of plotting against the war crimes indictment brought against 40 government, forming a criminal group and Rwandan officials by Judge Andreu Merelles, conspiracy to commit an assassination. under the principle of universal jurisdiction. A Evidence presented by the prosecution UK court dismissed the extradition request in included WhatsApp and Skype messages. August, and the Spanish Supreme Court Having previously pleaded guilty and asked ruled on 10 September to revoke the arrest for pardon, Kizito Mihigo was sentenced to 10 warrants and close the case. years in prison. His co-accused Cassien After hearings in April, the ICTR Appeal Ntamuhanga, a journalist, and Jean Paul Chamber ruled in Nyiramasuhuko et al on Dukuzumuremyi, a demobilized soldier, were 14 December that the six appellants’ right to sentenced to 25 and 30 years respectively. be tried without undue delay had been Agnes Niyibizi, an accountant, accused of violated, and reduced the length of their being a treasurer for the Rwanda National sentences. This was the last appeal judgment Congress (a group of political dissidents in before the ICTR. The six accused were exile), was acquitted. variously convicted in 2011 of crimes of The military court trial of Colonel Tom genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, Byabagamba, retired General Frank Rusagara incitement to commit genocide, crimes and retired Sergeant François Kabayiza against humanity and war crimes. Pauline accused, among other charges, of inciting Nyiramasuhuko was the former Minister of insurrection or trouble among the population Family and Women’s Development. and illegal possession of firearms, continued Jean Uwinkindi, whose case was the first to throughout the year. François Kabayiza be transferred from the ICTR to a national claimed in court that he was tortured in jurisdiction, was sentenced to life

308 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 imprisonment by the Rwandan High Court on 30 December. ICTR indictee Ladislas SAUDI ARABIA Ntaganzwa was arrested on 9 December in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Prosecutor of the UN Mechanism for Head of state and government: King Salman bin Abdul International Criminal Tribunals urged his Aziz Al Saud (replaced King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al swift transfer for trial in Rwanda. Saud in January) In September, a Swedish court started trial proceedings against Claver Berinkindi, The government continued to severely accused of being one of the leaders of attacks restrict freedoms of expression, association on a municipal building and school in Muyira and assembly. The authorities arrested, during the genocide. He faces charges of prosecuted and imprisoned human rights murder, incitement to murder, attempted defenders and government critics, including murder and abduction, and was previously under the 2014 anti-terror law, often after found guilty in his absence by a Rwandan unfair trials. Some of those detained were court. prisoners of conscience. Torture and other A French court controversially dropped the ill-treatment of detainees remained case against genocide suspect Wenceslas common. Unfair trials continued before the Munyeshyaka in October, citing a lack of Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), a special evidence. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka was a court for hearing terrorism-related cases, priest in the capital Kigali and was accused of with some trials resulting in death taking part in killings and rapes during the sentences. Discrimination against the Shi’a genocide, as well as helping the Interahamwe minority remained entrenched; some Shi’a militia to identify Tutsi to be killed and raped. activists were on death row awaiting execution. Women faced discrimination in REFUGEES law and in practice and were inadequately In April, President Kagame confirmed to protected against sexual and other violence. media that Rwanda was in discussion with Thousands of migrants were summarily Israel to finalize a deal to receive failed expelled, many to countries where they were Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers who at risk of serious human rights violations. “voluntarily leave” Israel. The NGO The authorities used the death penalty International Refugee Rights Initiative extensively and carried out more than 150 reported in September that those sent to executions. Rwanda had their travel documents taken away and were given the option of being BACKGROUND “transferred” to Uganda within days of Crown Prince Salman became King on 23 arriving or remaining in Rwanda January, following the death of King Abdullah. undocumented. They were not given the He appointed his nephew, Minister of the opportunity to claim asylum in Rwanda. Interior Prince Mohamed bin Nayef, as Crown At the end of the year, over 70,000 Prince, and his son, Prince Mohamed bin refugees were living in Rwanda after fleeing Salman, as Minister of Defence and second in the crisis in neighbouring Burundi. line to the throne. On 29 January, King Salman issued a royal pardon which the authorities said resulted in an unprecedented number of prisoner releases. It excluded those held for “crimes related to state security”, although these are not defined or codified under Saudi Arabian law. No prisoners of conscience were among

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 309 those pardoned. blockade that caused worsening In January, the flogging of blogger Raif humanitarian conditions for Yemen’s civilians. Badawi provoked strong international The US, UK and French governments condemnation and strained relations between signed agreements to supply arms worth Saudi Arabia and several European states. billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia despite Sweden announced that it would not renew a mounting evidence that the Saudi Arabia-led deal to supply arms; in response, the coalition had used arms of a similar nature to government temporarily withdrew Saudi commit war crimes and other serious Arabia’s ambassador to Sweden and ceased violations of international law in Yemen. issuing business visas to Swedes. Huthi forces and their allies also committed The government faced further international violations of international humanitarian law, criticism in September following news that the including possible war crimes, by repeatedly Supreme Court had upheld the death carrying out indiscriminate shelling into sentences of Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr, Najran and other civilian-populated areas of nephew of a prominent Saudi Arabian Shi’a Saudi Arabia near its southern border with cleric who was also on death row, and two Yemen. other activists, Dawood Hussein al-Marhoon and Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher. All three men FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, were under 18 when they were arrested; they ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY said they were tortured into “confessing”. The authorities continued to arrest, prosecute Militants affiliated to the armed group and imprison government critics, including Islamic State (IS) carried out bomb attacks bloggers and other online commentators, that mostly targeted the minority Shi’a political activists, members of the Shi’a community. The deadliest attacks hit Shi’a minority, and human rights activists and mosques in the towns of al-Qudaih and al- defenders, including women’s rights Dammam on 22 and 29 May, killing at least defenders. 25 people and injuring several others. Blogger and prisoner of conscience Raif In December, the Deputy Crown Prince Badawi continued to serve a 10-year prison announced that Saudi Arabia had formed an sentence following his conviction in 2014 for “Islamic anti-terror coalition”, comprising 34 “insulting Islam” and violating the cybercrime Muslim states but excluding others including law, including through the creation and Iran and Iraq, to combat “terrorist management of the Free Saudi Liberal organizations”. Network website. He was also sentenced to be flogged (see below). ARMED CONFLICT IN YEMEN Writer and government critic Dr Zuhair On 25 March, a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of Kutbi was taken from his home in Mecca on nine states began a campaign of air strikes 15 July by security officials, who beat him against the Huthi armed group which had with rifle butts and detained him at three gained control of large areas of Yemen, different locations before taking him to including the capital Sana’a, ousting the Mecca’s General Prison. Three weeks before government, which relocated to Saudi Arabia. his arrest, Zuhair Kutbi had appeared on the In the subsequent months, coalition aircraft Fi al-Samim TV talk show, where he criticized and other forces carried out numerous political repression in Saudi Arabia and called attacks, killing and injuring thousands, many for reforms. The authorities ordered Fi al- of them civilians. Some coalition air strikes Samim to be cancelled. In December, the violated international humanitarian law, SCC convicted him of “inciting public possibly amounting to war crimes. The opinion”, “sowing discord” and “reducing coalition also deployed ground troops in people’s respect of the law” through his Yemen and mounted an air, land and sea writings and talks, and sentenced him to four

310 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 years in prison, followed by a five-year foreign and one had served his sentence but was yet travel ban. He was also fined and banned to be released. from writing for publication for 15 years. In January, the SCC appeal court in the The government did not permit the capital Riyadh confirmed the 15-year prison existence of political parties, trade unions or sentence imposed on prominent lawyer and independent human rights groups, and the human rights defender Waleed Abu al-Khai, authorities continued to arrest, prosecute and with the judge ordering that he serve the full imprison those who set up or participated in 15-year term for refusing to apologize for his unlicensed organizations. In November, “offences”. The court that first sentenced him however, the cabinet approved a law of had said he should serve only 10 years of his associations based partly on a draft approved 15-year sentence. by the Shura Council years earlier, but the In October, the SCC sentenced Dr government did not indicate when it will take Abdulrahman al-Hamid and Dr Abdulkareem effect. The authorities also continued to deny al-Khoder, both founding members of Amnesty International access to Saudi Arabia ACPRA, to eight and 10-year prison terms and took punitive measures against activists respectively, followed by foreign travel bans, and family members of victims who contacted after convicting them on terrorism-related Amnesty International. charges. A criminal court had previously All public gatherings, including peaceful sentenced Dr al-Khoder to eight years in demonstrations, remained prohibited under prison, which an appeal court overturned an order issued by the Ministry of the Interior before his case was referred to the SCC. in 2011. Those who sought to defy the ban faced arrest, prosecution and imprisonment COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY on charges such as “inciting people against The authorities used the 2014 anti-terrorism the authorities”. In March, the government law to arrest and prosecute peaceful activists warned that it would arrest and prosecute and human rights defenders, as well as anyone who publicly criticized Saudi Arabia’s people accused of violent opposition to the military actions in Yemen; in November, the government. Waleed Abu al-Khair was the Ministry of Justice was reported to have said it first human rights defender to receive a would sue anyone who compared Saudi prison sentence under the law and to have it Arabia’s justice system to that operated by IS. confirmed on appeal. Women’s rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysaa al-Amoudi HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS were charged with offences regulated by the The authorities continued to imprison human law after they were arrested in late 2014 for rights defenders, arresting and prosecuting defying the ban on women driving cars. They them under anti-terrorism legislation and were detained for several weeks before their other laws. Those detained, on trial or serving release on 12 February. It was unclear prison sentences included members and whether their trial would go ahead. activists of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights The authorities publicly deterred citizens Association (ACPRA), a group founded in from joining or contributing funds or other 2009, which the authorities never licensed support to militant Sunni armed groups in and then banned in 2013. At the end of the Syria and Iraq, and arrested suspected year, seven members of ACPRA, which members of armed groups. On 18 July, the campaigned for the release or fair trial of Ministry of the Interior said that during “the long-term political detainees, were serving past few weeks”, the authorities had arrested prison sentences of up to 15 years imposed 431 people suspected of belonging to IS but on vague, overly broad charges. Two were provided few details about any specific free pending the outcome of their trial, one charges or offences or under what law they was still detained without any charge or trial, were detained.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 311 ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS access to state services and employment. Security authorities carried out arbitrary Shi’a leaders and activists faced arrest, arrests and continued to hold detainees imprisonment and in some cases the death without charge or trial for long periods, with penalty, following unfair trials. scores of people held for more than six In January, the SCC appeal court months without being referred to a competent confirmed an eight-year prison term and court, in breach of Saudi Arabia’s Law of subsequent 10-year foreign travel ban Criminal Procedures and its obligations under imposed in August 2014 on prominent Shi’a international law. Detainees were frequently cleric Sheikh Tawfiq Jaber Ibrahim al-‘Amr for held incommunicado during interrogation and delivering religious sermons and speeches denied access to lawyers, in violation of deemed to incite sectarianism, defame the international fair trial standards. ruling system, ridicule religious leaders, show disobedience to the ruler, and advocate TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT change. Torture and other ill-treatment remained In September, families of Ali Mohammed common and widespread, according to Baqir al-Nimr, Dawood Hussein al-Marhoon former detainees, trial defendants and others. and Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher learned that There was impunity for past cases. In a both the SCC appeal court and the Supreme number of cases, courts did not exclude Court had upheld their death sentences. The statements elicited by torture, ill-treatment or three men were convicted of committing coercion and convicted defendants solely on offences that included demonstrating against the basis of pre-trial “confessions” without the government, possessing weapons and investigating their allegations that the attacking the security forces, when they were confessions had been obtained through under 18 years of age. They denied the torture, in some cases sentencing the charges and alleged that interrogators forced defendants to death. them to “confess” under torture; however, the Some prisoners sentenced on political trial court failed to investigate their grounds in previous years were reportedly ill- allegations. Ali al-Nimr’s uncle, Sheikh Nimr treated in prison. Imprisoned ACPRA activist Baqir al-Nimr, a Shi’a cleric from al-Qatif and Issa al-Nukheifi, sentenced to a three-year vocal critic of the government, and three prison term in 2013, accused prison other Shi’a activists, were also on death row. authorities of verbally abusing and subjecting The SCC continued to try other Shi’a him to frequent strip-searches, and of activists for their alleged participation in provoking and/or coercing other inmates to protests in 2011 and 2012. threaten and attack him. In April, prisoner of conscience Waleed WOMEN’S RIGHTS Abu al-Khair was assaulted in Riyadh’s al- Women and girls remained subject to Ha’ir Prison by another inmate after he discrimination in law and in practice. Women complained to prison authorities about poor had subordinate status to men under the law, conditions, including corruption and particularly in relation to family matters such inadequate food within the prison. He lodged as marriage, divorce, child custody and a formal complaint about the assault, after inheritance, and they were inadequately which guards raided his prison cell, damaging protected against sexual and other violence. some of his belongings. Domestic violence remained endemic, despite a government awareness-raising DISCRIMINATION – SHI’A MINORITY campaign launched in 2013. A law The Shi’a minority, who mostly live in Saudi criminalizing domestic violence which was Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province, faced adopted in 2013 remained unimplemented in entrenched discrimination that limited their practice.

312 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 In December, women were allowed to vote DEATH PENALTY and to stand as candidates in municipal Courts continued to impose death sentences elections for the first time, although not to for a range of crimes, including non-violent publicly campaign with male voters. Women drugs offences, often after unfair trials in were elected to 21 of the 2,106 directly which they failed to adequately investigate elected municipal council seats. defendants’ claims that interrogators tortured, coerced or misled them into making false MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS confessions in pre-trial detention. The authorities continued to crack down on In November, the General Court in Abha irregular migrants, arresting, detaining and sentenced Palestinian artist and poet Ashraf deporting hundreds of thousands of foreign Fayadh to death after convicting him of workers. In March, the authorities announced apostasy. Earlier, an appeal court had that they had arrested and deported 300,000 overturned his original sentence of four years’ irregular migrants in the previous five months. imprisonment and 800 lashes, imposed after The authorities deported thousands of he was convicted of breaching Article 6 of the migrants to Somalia and other states where cybercrime law. they were at risk of human rights violations, in The surge in executions that began in contravention of the principle of non- August 2014 continued throughout 2015. By refoulement, but ceased deportations to the end of June, Saudi Arabia had executed Yemen in March due to the armed conflict. at least 102 people, more than in the whole of Many migrants reported that prior to 2014, and by the end of the year the total had deportation they were packed into severely risen to more than 150. Many executions overcrowded makeshift detention facilities were carried out for offences that did not where they received little food and water and meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” were abused by guards. and should therefore not incur the death penalty according to international law. Many CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING executions were carried out publicly by PUNISHMENT beheading. Courts continued to impose cruel and inhuman punishments, such as flogging, as discretionary additional punishments for SENEGAL many offences, including slander, insult and sexual harassment. Republic of Senegal Blogger Raif Badawi received a 50-lash Head of state: Macky Sall public flogging in Jeddah on 9 January, Head of government: Mohammed Dionne provoking an international outcry. In 2014 he had received a sentence of 1,000 lashes; the The authorities continued to restrict authorities did not subject him to further freedom of peaceful assembly and to use floggings in 2015. excessive force against protesters. Men and In November, an appeal court confirmed women faced arrest because of their real or the 2014 conviction of human rights defender perceived sexual orientation. Senegal came Mikhlif bin Daham al-Shammari on charges under international scrutiny for the unfair that included “stirring public opinion by trial of Karim Wade. The conflict in sitting with the Shi’a” and “violating Casamance continued at low intensity. instructions by the rulers by holding a private Impunity was endemic for human rights gathering and tweeting”. The court confirmed violations committed by security forces. The his sentence of two years’ imprisonment and trial of former Chadian President Hissène a flogging of 200 lashes. Habré opened at the Extraordinary African Chambers in Dakar, the capital, in July.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 313 BACKGROUND wealth. Seven co-defendants were also found In April, the African Commission on Human guilty of complicity for the same crime. The and Peoples’ Rights reviewed the human CREI provides no right to appeal, contrary to rights situation in Senegal. The Commission regional or international standards. In April, raised concerns, including on the authorities’ the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention failure to protect freedom of expression and found the pre-trial detention of Karim Wade to on arbitrary arrests and detentions.1 be arbitrary, including because of delays in Security forces arrested at least seven court proceedings and differential treatment. people, including two male imams and two In August, the Supreme Court upheld the women, on terrorism-related charges. convictions. In February, the Dakar Assize Court EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE sentenced two men to 20 years of forced Security forces continued to use excessive labour in relation to the death of a young force. auxiliary police officer, Fodé Ndiaye, despite In July, Matar Ndiaye died after being shot their statements being obtained under torture. in the leg during a police operation in Dakar. A policeman allegedly fired without warning at INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT a group of men he was pursuing, and Matar In April, the army exchanged fire with the Ndiaye was caught in the line of fire. The Movement of Democratic Forces in the Criminal Investigation Division of the National Casamance (MFDC) in the department of Police was in charge of the subsequent Oussouye, with the media reporting casualties investigation, raising concerns about its on both sides. In July, an unidentified armed independence and impartiality. group abducted 12 men in the region of Sédhiou and released them after four days, in FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY exchange for a ransom. Authorities continued to ban demonstrations Civilians continued to suffer from the organized by political parties and human impact of ongoing conflict. At least one man rights defenders, and to prosecute peaceful was killed by a landmine close to the Basse demonstrators. Casamance National Park. In September, the Regional Tribunal of Kolda sentenced 12 men to 21 days’ IMPUNITY imprisonment for taking part in an Although the authorities claimed they were unauthorized assembly. About 100 people investigating killings by law enforcement demonstrated peacefully in the commune of officers in the context of demonstrations, or Diana Malary on 27 August to call on the torture and other ill-treatment, few authorities to supply electricity. The investigations were completed or alleged demonstration was dispersed with tear gas perpetrators tried. Of the 27 cases of torture and shots in the air, leading to documented by Amnesty International since clashes between demonstrators and the 2007, only six led to prosecutions resulting in gendarmerie. a sentence, with light sentences being handed down each time. Of the seven cases UNFAIR TRIALS of people killed by law enforcement agencies In March, the Court for the Repression of during demonstrations, none led to Illicit Acquisition of Wealth (CREI) sentenced successful prosecutions. Karim Wade, a former minister and son of In January, the Regional Tribunal of Kolda former President Abdoulaye Wade, to six found two policemen guilty of acts of violence years’ imprisonment and a fine of and assault on Dominique Lopy, who died in 138,239,086,396 CFA francs custody in 2007. The tribunal handed down a (€210,744,000) for illicit acquisition of sentence of six months’ imprisonment and

314 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 ordered the policemen to pay 100,000 CFA francs (€152) in damages to his family. SERBIA

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Republic of Serbia, including Kosovo TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Head of state: Tomislav Nikolić At least 22 people, including three women, Head of government: Aleksandar Vučić were arrested in relation to their perceived sexual orientation. In August, the Tribunal of Over 600,000 refugees and migrants Dakar convicted seven men of committing travelled through Serbia on their way to the “acts against nature” and sentenced them to EU. Prosecutions of war crimes continued to six months’ imprisonment and 18-month be slow. In Kosovo, opposition parties suspended sentences. They were arrested in delayed the establishment of a Special War July after the police raided an apartment Crimes Court and the implementation of an without presenting a warrant. Several EU-brokered agreement with Serbia. newspapers revealed the men’s identities and published homophobic and defamatory BACKGROUND remarks. Six of them were transferred to a Although Serbia’s formal recognition of prison in Diourbel, far from their families and Kosovo was not explicitly required by the their support networks providing them with European Commission for accession to the food and medicine. EU, the opening of negotiations was delayed In July, in a separate case, another man by slow progress in the implementation of the was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment EU-facilitated “normalization agreement” using the same law. Three women were also between Serbia and Kosovo. Accession talks arrested in Grand Yoff on 25 November. formally opened in December with chapter On 24 December, the police arrested 11 35, on the formalization of relations with men in Kaolack, who were detained for five Kosovo. days and subjected to ill-treatment, including insults and beatings, before being released. CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW Few proceedings were concluded at the INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE Special War Crimes Court in Belgrade, the The trial against former Chadian President capital. Seven defendants were acquitted of Hissène Habré opened in July. He was rape as a war crime in Bijelina (one charged with crimes against humanity, torture defendant) and Skočić (six defendants), in and war crimes committed during his tenure Bosnia and Herzegovina, following appeals. between 1982 and 1990. This was the first The Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor time a court in an African state had tried the issued only three indictments; in September, former leader of another state (see Chad eight former Bosnian Serb police officers were entry). indicted for war crimes (rather than genocide) for their part in the murder of over 1,000 Bosniak civilians in Kravica, Srebrenica, in 1. Senegal: Failing to live up to its promises : Recommendations on the July 1995. Another 23 cases – involving over eve of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights’ Review 200 suspects – remained under investigation. of Senegal (AFR 49/1464/2015) A draft war crimes strategy to address the backlog of cases was published in December. On 16 December, proceedings were reopened against former Serbian state security officers Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović, after the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 315 Yugoslavia had overturned their 2013 numbers arriving, and insufficient care was acquittal. They were both accused of being provided to vulnerable individuals. Most part of a criminal enterprise which aimed to refugees travelled directly to the Hungarian forcibly and permanently remove non-Serbs border until September, when Hungary from areas of Croatia and Bosnia and introduced restrictions on asylum for those Herzegovina in 1991-1995. entering from Serbia, which it considered a safe country of transit. Refugees then headed ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES for the EU through Croatia. Police continued In February, the UN Committee on Enforced to ill-treat and financially exploit refugees and Disappearances urged Serbia to bring to migrants. In November, the authorities justice all those – including senior officials – allowed only Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian suspected of criminal responsibility for nationals to enter the country; others enforced disappearances during the 1990s arbitrarily identified as economic migrants armed conflicts, and to guarantee reparation were denied entry. and legal status to relatives of the disappeared. In November, a proposed bill on FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION the rights of war veterans and civilian victims Thirty-four independent journalists were of war failed to recognize the right to attacked or received threats which were not reparation for victims of enforced effectively investigated. The government disappearance and war crimes of sexual interfered in media freedom through selective violence; a December amendment was not media subsidies and advertising. In made public. November, the Prime Minister accused three In March, five suspects were indicted for investigative media outlets of working for the abduction of 20 passengers from a train foreign governments to destabilize the at Štrpci station in 1993; proceedings against country. 10 other suspects continued in Bosnia and Proceedings continued against Radomir Herzegovina. Those suspected of the Marković, former head of state security, and disappearance of the Bytyqi brothers in 1999 three former security service officers for the remained at large, despite promises made to murder in April 1999 of journalist Slavko their relatives by the War Crimes Prosecutor Ćuruvija. and the Prime Minister. Ljubiša Diković, Chief of Military Staff, sued Natasa Kandić, former executive director of REFUGEES, ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND the NGO Humanitarian Law Center, for MIGRANTS defamation after the NGO published evidence Over 600,000 refugees and migrants travelled in 2012 of war crimes in Kosovo, allegedly through Serbia, the majority of whom aimed committed by personnel under Ljubiša to seek asylum in the EU. Despite some Diković’s command. improvements in implementing the Asylum Law, the authorities failed to provide effective FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY access to international protection. Of 485,169 A new Law on Public Gatherings had not registrations, only 656 applications for asylum been adopted by October, when an April were submitted, and mostly discontinued; of decision by the Constitutional Court that the 81 refugees interviewed by the end of previous Law was unconstitutional entered November, 16 were granted refugee status into force. Consequently, assemblies could and 14 subsidiary protection. In July, as not take place, nor could they be prohibited. thousands of refugees entered the country daily, a registration centre was opened at DISCRIMINATION – ROMA Preševo, near the Macedonian border. In July, the forced eviction of Roma from the Reception conditions were inadequate for the Grmeč settlement in Belgrade was stopped

316 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 after an application for interim measures was Following a request by Kosovo President made to the European Court of Human Atifete Jahjag , the Constitutional Court ruled Rights. A draft law prohibiting forced evictions in December that the agreement was from informal settlements, which broadly met constitutional. In the interim, opposition MPs international standards, was proposed in continued to disrupt the Assembly. Mass November. protests followed the first arrest of an Roma households that were forcibly evicted opposition MP for using tear gas. In from Belvil and other informal settlements in November, at least 50 activists were injured 2012 were resettled in new apartments in when Kosovo police used excessive force January, July and September. Twenty-seven upon entering the Vetëvendosje offices to apartments were funded by the European arrest party leader Albin Kurti. Commission and 50 by the European Inter-ethnic tensions were also heightened Investment Bank; one resettlement location by Kosovo’s unsuccessful application for was racially segregated. Two families were UNESCO membership (and thus the custody resettled to village houses. Concerns of Serbian cultural monuments). remained about access to employment. No A Stabilization and Association Agreement housing solutions were identified for the signed with the European Commission in resettlement of 51 families, who mostly October paved the way for Kosovo’s EU continued to live in containers. membership, but Kosovo was again denied In July, the German government visa liberalization. announced plans for the deportation of 90,000 Serbian people whose asylum Crimes under international law application had been rejected or who had an Measures to establish a special court to irregular status, 90% of whom were Roma. prosecute former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were repeatedly RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, delayed in the Kosovo Assembly. The TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE measures followed an EU-led investigation The Belgrade Pride took place without into the abduction and transfer of Kosovo incident in September; the first Trans Pride Serbs and other prisoners to Albania in 1999, was held on the same day. A week later, three where they were subsequently tortured and members of a lesbian football team and a murdered. Under international pressure, campaigner against homophobia in sport legislation establishing the special court was were violently assaulted by men believed to finally approved in August. Kosovo as well as be football fans. Hate crimes against LGBTI the host country, the Netherlands, had yet to people were seldom effectively investigated, complete the remaining agreements for the and legislation on hate crime was not practical establishment of the court. implemented. In May, two former members of the KLA “Drenica group” were convicted of war crimes KOSOVO against the civilian population, including EU-brokered talks between Isa Mustafa, murder and torture respectively. Three other Prime Minister of Kosovo, and the Serbian members were convicted of torture, and six of Prime Minister concluded in August with beating prisoners at the Likovc/Likovac agreements, including on the creation of an detention centre in 1998-1999. Association of Serbian Municipalities, Proceedings continued against a Kosovo providing some autonomy for Kosovo Serbs. Serb politician, Oliver Ivanović, indicted for After vociferous opposition led by the ordering the murder of ethnic Albanians in Vetëvendosje party, including the discharge of Mitrovica/Mitrovicë in April 1999 and inciting tear gas in the Assembly, the government unrest in February 2000, when 10 Albanians suspended the agreement in October. were killed.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 317 The National Council for Survivors of Kosovo citizens applied for asylum in the EU. Wartime Sexual Violence, led by President In Hungary, over 99% of applicants were Jahjaga, made progress towards establishing refused asylum in accelerated procedures a verification commission to process and deported. In 29,801 asylum decisions in reparation claims. In November, an action Germany, which deemed Kosovo a safe plan to ensure their access to justice was country of origin, only 0.4% of Kosovo citizens finalized; in December, a regulation on were granted asylum. Reintegration measures victims of sexual violence in conflict was for those deported to Kosovo remained adopted. grossly inadequate. By the end of November, 16,867 people – Enforced disappearances predominantly Albanians and Kosovo Serbs – 1,650 people remained missing in the remained displaced after the armed conflict, aftermath of the armed conflict; no further and only 741 members of minority grave sites were identified in Serbia or Kosovo communities had voluntarily returned to despite exhumations at potential mass graves. Kosovo. In Krushe e Vogel, where 68 men were missing, the EU Rule of Law Mission in Discrimination Kosovo exhumed bodies – believed to have Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians continued to been misidentified – from the cemetery, suffer institutional discrimination, including in without adequately notifying the men’s access to social and economic rights. An relatives. estimated 7,500-10,000 Roma, Ashkali and The UN Interim Administration Mission in Egyptians made up a disproportionate share Kosovo (UNMIK) failed to provide reparation of those who left Kosovo to seek asylum in the to the families of missing Kosovo Serbs, EU. The authorities failed to investigate hate whose abductions had not been effectively crimes, including physical attacks against investigated by UNMIK police. The EU-led LGBTI individuals. police and justice mission, having failed to investigate these and other cases, proposed Freedom of expression to transfer them to the Kosovo authorities. Government interference in freedom of the media continued. By September, 22 Inter-ethnic violence journalists had been threatened or attacked. In January, 80 people, including 50 police The Association of Journalists of Kosovo, officers, were injured in protests calling for supported by the OSCE, established a the dismissal of Aleksandar Jablanović, confidential free hotline for journalists to Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. He had report attacks. called ethnic Albanians “savages” for stopping a bus carrying Kosovo Serbs to a monastery on Orthodox Christmas. SIERRA LEONE Kosovo Serbs were subject to threats, robberies and attacks, including attempted Republic of Sierra Leone arson, in Goraždevac/Gorazhdec and Head of state and government: Ernest Bai Koroma Klina/Klinë in May and in July, when the vehicles of Serbian families were shot at. In At least 3,955 people died during the Ebola December, the property of two families in epidemic, during which exploitation and Goraždevac/Gorazhdec was damaged by violence against women and girls increased. gunfire. State of emergency powers were used to curtail the right to peaceful assembly of Refugees and internally displaced people political opponents. Police accountability Between January and March, at least 48,900 was limited. Visibly pregnant girls were

318 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 discriminated against and prevented from detention; they were discharged and released attending school and taking their exams. in December.1 Criminal libel and other laws were used to On 6 August, 13 members of the armed stifle freedom of expression. forces were acquitted after a two-year detention, including eight months BACKGROUND incommunicado, for plotting to mutiny at the An Ebola epidemic began in May 2014 and Tekoh barracks in Makeni. was declared over on 7 November 2015. A review of Sierra Leone’s Constitution was POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES launched on 30 July 2013 and is still Police accountability remained weak. Despite ongoing, with progress delayed due to the the recommendations of three independent Ebola crisis. inquiries into allegations of unlawful killings since 2007, no police officer was prosecuted. EBOLA OUTBREAK There was minimal investigation into two Sierra Leone was severely affected by the other allegations of unlawful killings by the Ebola epidemic that spread across West police in Kono in 2014. There were also Africa starting in March 2014, with at least allegations of unlawful killings in the 14,122 confirmed cases. More than 300 capital, Freetown, in 2015, where in one case health workers were infected and the police officers were dismissed following an epidemic weakened an already fragile health internal disciplinary proceeding and charged care system, particularly for provision of with manslaughter. In October, an maternal care. Concerns were raised about Independent Police Complaints Board was the lack of safe equipment and the working launched. conditions for health workers. The state of emergency was extended in August 2015 for WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS a year; some restrictions, such as the ban on Exploitation and violence against women and public gatherings, were lifted. At the end of girls increased during the Ebola outbreak. the outbreak, the President stated he would The Sexual Offences Act 2012 was still not discuss ending the state of emergency with implemented properly by the police. There Parliament. was limited access to legal aid, shelter and rehabilitation services for victims of sexual ARBITRARY DETENTIONS and domestic violence. Health care services Numerous people were arbitrarily detained for victims of sexual violence were also and prosecuted under the Public Emergency inaccessible due to legal and cost barriers. Regulations 2014 and by-laws, such as for The Gender Equality Bill, which provides public gathering or trading after hours. Pre- for a minimum 30% representation of women trial detention regularly exceeded in Parliament and local councils and constitutional time limits and a high number ministries, departments and agencies, was of people remained in pre-trial detention, still not enacted. including juveniles. In July 2015, Sierra Leone ratified the On 21 April, 11 men were charged under Protocol to the African Charter on Human and the Public Order Act 1965 and Public Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Emergency Regulations 2014, in connection Africa. Steps need to be taken to domesticate with a riot about a suspected Ebola patient. its provisions. Six of the men were arrested in October In December, Parliament passed the Safe 2014, and the remaining five in February and Abortion Act. However, the President sent it March 2015, under an executive order issued back to Parliament in January 2016 after by President Koroma. The detainees had no concerns by religious leaders. warrants or documentation supporting their

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 319 Education ahead of a by-election. He was granted bail In March, the Ministry of Education banned after four days in detention; his trial was pregnant girls from attending school and ongoing at the end of the year. sitting exams, in violation of their rights to education and non-discrimination. The policy seemed to be based on discriminatory views 1. Sierra Leone must release eight people arbitrarily detained after Ebola and negative stereotypes of pregnant girls and riot (Press release, 29 January); Two women released, 11 men charged stigmatized an estimated 10,000 girls. The (AFR 51/1603/2015) ban was enforced in some schools through 2. Shamed and blamed: Pregnant girls’ rights at risk in Sierra Leone humiliating and degrading treatment of girls.2 (AFR 51/2695/2015) 3. Sierra Leone: Ebola regulations and other laws must not be used to FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND curtail freedom of expression and assembly (News story, 4 May) ASSEMBLY In February 2015, Mamoud Tim Kargbo was charged with five counts of defamatory libel SINGAPORE under the Public Order Act 1965 for forwarding a WhatsApp message he received, Republic of Singapore said to be defamatory to the President. He Head of state: Tony Tan Keng Yam was detained for 52 days, released on bail Head of government: Lee Hsien Loong during the trial, and eventually discharged on 28 July. The People’s Action Party, whose founder, There were disproportionate restrictions on former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, died freedoms of expression and assembly during in March, continued to penalize government the state of emergency. Following the removal critics for exercising their right to freedom of former Vice President Samuel Sam- of expression. The media and human rights Sumana on 18 March 2015, there was an defenders were tightly controlled through increase in arrests of opposition members, revocation of licences and criminal charges. bans on peaceful protests and a crackdown Judicial caning and the death penalty were on dissent.3 retained. On 27 April, 15 members of Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), the main opposition FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION party, and a senior officer from the Human Amos Yee, a 16-year-old blogger, was Rights Commission were arrested in the town sentenced to four weeks’ imprisonment for of Kenema following a protest at the SLPP “uttering words with deliberate intent to office. They are currently on trial. There are wound the religious or racial feelings of any concerns about excessive use of force during person” and “transmitting obscene arrests by the police. materials”, after he uploaded a video and In August, Monologue, a radio programme cartoon criticizing Lee Kuan Yew online.1 The hosted by journalist David Tam Baryoh, was UN Office of the High Commissioner for suspended by the Independent Media Human Rights urged Singapore to consider Commission (IMC) due to allegations that the the case in light of its obligations under the show infringed national security, and incited UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. violence and public disorder. In October, he In May, the Media Development Authority was fined 500,000 SLL (around US$100), suspended the licences permitting editors and is challenging the decision in court. Yang Kaiheng and Ai Takagi to operate the In December, Jonathan Leigh, managing news website, social media accounts and editor of the Independent Observer, was mobile applications of The Real Singapore arrested on accusations of publishing false newspaper after it published articles that information about reports of political violence allegedly “sought to incite anti-foreigner

320 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 sentiments in Singapore”. The two faced but was released from custody in June with a seven counts of sedition and a charge under two-year Restriction Order. the Penal Code for failure to produce documents required by the police. Human rights lawyer M Ravi, who handled 1. Singapore: Amos Yee sentence a dark day for freedom of expression cases involving the death penalty; freedom of (News story, 6 July) expression; lesbian, gay, bisexual, 2. Singapore: Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review 24th transgender and intersex (LGBTI) workers’ session, January-February 2016 (ASA 36/2664/2015) rights; and the rights of foreign workers facing deportation, was temporarily suspended from his practice in February, ostensibly on health SLOVAKIA grounds. There were concerns this may have been politically motivated. Slovak Republic Head of state: Andrej Kiska DEATH PENALTY Head of government: Robert Fico Death sentences continued to be imposed, including as mandatory punishment for Discrimination against Roma remained murder and drug trafficking. Muhammad bin widespread. The European Commission Kadar was executed at Changi Prison initiated infringement proceedings against Complex in April. He had been found guilty of Slovakia for the discrimination against “intentional murder”, which continues to Romani pupils in education. Anti- carry a mandatory death sentence. Reports immigration rallies were held across the indicated that a further two people were country, and Slovakia voted against executed during the year, but there was no mandatory relocation quotas of refugees official announcement. In November, from other EU member states. Malaysian national Kho Jabing, convicted of murder, was granted a stay of execution DISCRIMINATION – ROMA pending a review of his case. At least 26 people remained on death row at the end of Police and security forces the year.2 Slovak NGOs reported new cases of excessive use of force by police against Roma, and CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING raised concerns over the lack of effective PUNISHMENT investigation in past cases. In September, the Caning continued to be used as punishment UN Committee against Torture criticized the for a range of crimes by males aged 16 to 50. absence of an independent mechanism to It remained mandatory for cases such as drug investigate such reports as the existing body – trafficking and immigration offences. The the Department of Control and Inspection Supreme Court in March ruled that caning Service (SKIS) – remained subordinate to the was not unconstitutional. Ministry of Interior. The investigation by the SKIS into the COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY alleged excessive use of force by police M Arifil Azim Putra Norja’i and an unnamed during an operation in the Roma settlement of 17-year-old, both deemed to have “self- Vrbnica on 2 April was still pending.1 radicalized”, were arrested on terrorism- Nineteen Romani residents reported injuries related charges under the Internal Security and damages to their houses, and 17 criminal Act. M Arifil Azim Putra Norja’i was detained complaints were filed against police. No administratively for planning to join the armed police misconduct was acknowledged by the group Islamic State (IS) abroad. The 17-year- authorities. The Public Defender of Rights old was arrested and detained in early May, criticized the police operation and called on

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 321 the Public Prosecutor and the Ministry of amendment to the Schools Act that contains Interior to ensure that the allegations were provisions on the education of children from adequately investigated, including by socially disadvantaged backgrounds. While unearthing any potential racial motivation. the amendment prioritizes integration in The UN Committee against Torture noted mainstream schools and provides financial that no charges were brought against the incentives for schools educating pupils from police officers who participated in an disadvantaged backgrounds, it does not operation in the Roma settlement of Moldava contain any provisions for eliminating ethnic nad Bodvou on 19 June 2013 that resulted in discrimination against Roma. injuries to over 30 individuals, including children. Enforced sterilization of Romani women The Committee also expressed concerns The UN Committee against Torture called for over the decision of the District Court to an independent and effective investigation acquit 10 policemen accused of ill-treatment into all cases of forced sterilization of Romani of six Roma boys at a police station in 2009 in women and girls performed in the early Košice. The Public Prosecutor appealed 2000s, and for the introduction of an against the acquittal; the case remained adequate compensation scheme for those pending at the end of the year.2 harmed.

Right to education RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Romani children continued to be over- TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE represented in “special” schools and classes In February, Slovakia held a referendum on a for children with mild mental disabilities, and proposal to define marriage exclusively as a placed in ethnically segregated mainstream union between a man and a woman, to ban schools and classes. The segregation of adoption by same-sex couples and to require Romani children was reinforced by the parental consent for the participation of continued investment in so-called “container children in classes on sexual education and schools” in Romani settlements, instead of euthanasia.6 The referendum was void as it ensuring the integration of Romani students did not meet the 50% turnout requirement. in ethnically mixed mainstream schools.3 In Slovakia does not legally recognize same-sex its Annual Report, the Public Defender of partnerships and the Constitution already Rights criticized the diagnostic procedures for defines marriage exclusively as a union placements in “special” schools and classes, between a man and a woman. calling them discriminatory. In April, the European Commission initiated COUNTER-TERROR infringement proceedings against Slovakia for In June, riot police units raided the apartment breaching the prohibition of discrimination set of a Tunisian national and former detainee at out in the EU Racial Equality Directive in Guantánamo Bay who resettled to Slovakia in relation to the access to education of Roma.4 November 2014. The SKIS reportedly feared The authorities justified the disproportionate for his life as he had not been seen or heard number of Roma in “special” schools and of for two days. Following the intervention with classes by alleging there is a higher rubber bullets, he required medical attention prevalence of genetically determined for injuries which left him unable to work for disorders among Slovak Roma due to seven days. The SKIS dismissed his inbreeding.5 The government presented new complaint on the grounds that the raid was measures to the European Commission in lawful and the coercive measures August, aimed at reducing discriminatory bias proportionate, and alleged that he had in diagnostic procedures. reacted aggressively. In June, Parliament adopted an In December, Parliament rushed through

322 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 the adoption of new anti-terrorism measures, including the extension of the maximum SLOVENIA period of pre-charge detention to 96 hours for individuals suspected of terrorism-related Republic of Slovenia offences. Head of state: Borut Pahor Head of government: Miro Cerar REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS Anti-immigration rallies were held across Slovenia struggled to provide adequate Slovakia. In June, at least 140 people were reception conditions to the large number of arrested after police clashed with refugees and migrants that arrived in the demonstrators reportedly throwing stones and country. The authorities failed to restore the smoke bombs at a rally in Bratislava. The rally status of the “erased” or provide adequate was attended by thousands of people redress, perpetuating the long-standing protesting against mandatory EU quotas for violations of their rights. Discrimination the relocation of refugees from other EU against Roma remained widespread. member states. In August, the Minister of Interior REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS announced that the country would admit 200 More than 375,000 refugees and migrants Syrian refugees, on condition that they be arrived in Slovenia through the Western Christians. Slovakia voted against mandatory Balkans route, a 250-fold increase on the relocation quotas at a meeting of EU Interior previous year. From September, hundreds of Ministers in September, but was obliged to people were detained for entering the country receive 802 refugees over a period of two irregularly, among them refugees from Syria. years following the proposal’s adoption by Others were transported to reception and qualified majority. accommodation centres, some of which did not provide adequate shelter and care. The overwhelming majority were able to transit 1. Slovakia must urgently investigate allegations of arbitrary use of through the country and exit towards Austria; force by police against Roma in the village of Vrbnica (EUR 141 people submitted an asylum application. 72/1403/2015) At least 20 refugees and migrants were 2. Slovakia: Justice still pending for Romani boys abused at police expelled to Croatia, which refused the station in 2009 (EUR 72/1158/2015) attempted return of hundreds of others. 3. Slovakia’s “container schools” worsen segregation of Roma children from society (News story, 13 March) DISCRIMINATION 4. Slovakia is the second member state to be subjected to an Slovenia’s anti-discrimination framework infringement procedure for breach of EU Anti-Discrimination Law remained flawed as institutions created to (EUR 72/1777/2015) combat discrimination and consider 5. Slovakia: Racist stereotyping should not determine education policy – complaints – such as the Human Rights International NGOs criticize Slovak Government (EUR 72/1834/2015) Ombudsman and the Advocate of the 6. Slovakia: Referendum on marriage panders to homophobic Principle of Equality – continued to be discrimination (News story, 2 February) undermined by weak mandates and inadequate resources.

The “erased” The authorities failed to provide redress for the human rights violations committed against former permanent residents of Slovenia originating from other former Yugoslav republics, known as the “erased”, whose

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 323 legal status was unlawfully revoked in 1992. married couples, including to adoption. A No new options had been offered to the referendum challenging the amendments was remaining “erased” to restore their legal called by opponents and subsequently status and related rights since the expiry of referred to the Constitutional Court, the Legal Status Act in 2013. Less than half of preventing the amendments from entering the 25,671 “erased” persons had their status into force. The Constitutional Court ruled in restored. October that the referendum could be held. In June, the Constitutional Court ruled that On 20 December, 36% of the voting-age compensation claims made by “erased” population cast their vote and rejected the persons should not be subject to a statute of marriage equality law by majority, limitations, and courts should take into perpetuating the unequal treatment of same- account the claimants’ special status. sex couples.

Roma FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – The majority of Slovenia’s 10,000 Roma JOURNALISTS continued to face discrimination and social In April, the prosecution withdrew charges exclusion. Many lived in isolated, segregated against journalist Anuška Delić, who had settlements, lacking security of tenure and been indicted for publishing classified access to basic services such as water, information of public interest, although it electricity, sanitation and public transport. maintained that she acted wrongfully. Three Discrimination prevented Roma families from other journalists remained under investigation accessing housing outside Roma-populated for similar alleged crimes but proceedings areas. were halted before charges were filed. The Over 200 Roma living in the Dobruška vas Criminal Code was amended in July to add a settlement in the Škocjan Municipality public interest defence for the publication of remained without security of tenure. Following state secrets. the relocation of two Roma families in 2014, no new proposals were presented to residents at risk of forced eviction as a result of SOMALIA redevelopment plans. In December, one individual took the proceeding regarding his Federal Republic of Somalia house to the Administrative court. Residents Head of state: Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of the informal settlements in Loke and Rimš Head of government: Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke in the neighbouring Municipality of Krško (replaced Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed in December 2014) faced similar risks in the face of Head of Republic: Ahmed Mohamed redevelopment plans that failed to put in Mahamoud Silyano place safeguards against forced eviction or provide adequate alternative housing. Armed conflict continued between Somali The government announced in August that Federal Government (SFG) forces, African it would prepare changes to the Roma Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Community Act. However, a draft submitted peacekeepers and the armed group al- by the opposition was rejected by Parliament Shabaab in central and southern Somalia. in November without an alternative proposal. SFG and AMISOM forces expanded the areas under their control by pushing al- RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Shabaab out of key towns in the South-West TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE and Jubbaland regions. Over 500 people The law on marriage and family relations was were killed or injured by armed conflict and amended in March in order to legalize same- generalized violence, and at least 50,000 sex marriage and ensure equal rights to people were displaced. All parties to the

324 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 conflict were responsible for crimes under UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) international law and human rights was extended by the UN Security Council violations, which remained unpunished. until 30 March 2016. Armed groups continued to conscript Al-Shabaab faced internal fissures over children, and abduct, torture and unlawfully whether to remain aligned with al-Qa’ida or to kill civilians. Rape and other forms of sexual align with the armed group Islamic State (IS). violence were widespread. Continued The situation remained tense in the town of conflict, insecurity and restrictions imposed Jilib, 97km north of Kismayo, after al- by the warring parties hampered aid Shabaab deputy leader Mahad Karate agencies’ access to some regions. Three pressured the leader, Abu Ubaidah, to switch journalists were killed; others were attacked, allegiance to IS. In October, al-Shabaab harassed or fined heavy penalties in courts. leaders leaning towards al-Qa’ida arrested 30 people in Jubbaland who were presumed to BACKGROUND be aligned with IS. The SFG and AMISOM remained in control of Mogadishu, the capital, and expanded areas ABUSES BY GOVERNMENT FORCES AND under their control by establishing federal ARMED GROUPS administrations in the Galmudug, South-West and Jubbaland States. A joint offensive by Indiscriminate attacks AMISOM and the Somali National Armed Civilians continued to be indiscriminately Forces (SNAF) pushed al-Shabaab out of killed and wounded in crossfire during armed towns in the Hiraan, Bay, Bakool, Gedo and clashes, whether by suicide attacks, Lower Shabelle regions, although the armed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or group maintained control of many rural areas. grenade attacks. Al-Shabaab retained the The offensive displaced more people, while ability to stage lethal attacks in the most armed clashes and al-Shabaab attacks heavily guarded parts of Mogadishu and other against civilians continued, particularly in towns, killing or injuring hundreds of civilians. villages with changing control. High-profile targets remained vulnerable to International support for government such attacks. In September, a car explosion security forces, allied militias and AMISOM at the gate of the presidential palace killed at continued. The humanitarian situation least six people. In February, al-Shabaab remained dire: by 9 October, over 3.2 million carried out a mortar attack on the presidential people were in need of assistance, and over palace. In July, a suicide attack at the Jazeera 855,000 were food insecure. Among the most Hotel, which houses several embassies, killed vulnerable were internally displaced persons at least 10 people. The number of civilians (IDPs), who comprised 76% of those facing killed in various attacks was difficult to food insecurity. establish due to the absence of a reliable In August, the country faced a political civilian casualty tracking system. The crisis after MPs submitted a motion of no government and AMISOM offensive resulted confidence in President Hassan Sheikh in abuses by all parties to the conflict. Mohamud. In July, the Speaker of the Federal Parliament, Mohamed Osman Jawari, Direct targeting of civilians announced that the 2016 elections would not Civilians remained at risk of being directly be held by universal suffrage, although this targeted in attacks. In July, reports indicated had been enshrined in the New Deal that AMISOM had directly targeted civilians Compact for Somalia. Opposition MPs and killed at least 10 people in Marka. In protested the decision as a ploy to extend the August, AMISOM revised the figure to seven President’s term. The human rights people, issued an apology and announced monitoring and reporting mandate within the that three soldiers had been charged with the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 325 killings. Extrajudicial killings, extortion, not implement the two Action Plans it signed arbitrary arrests, rape and other forms of in 2012 to end the recruitment and use of gender-based violence continued to be child soldiers, as well as the killing and carried out by government forces and aligned maiming of children. militia, partly as a result of poor discipline and weak command control. On 20 August, a INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE, SNAF soldier shot and wounded a mentally ill REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS person in the town of Baidoa, after an More than 1.3 million Somalis were internally argument. In September, Jubbaland soldiers displaced in 2015. The SNAF and AMISOM executed at least four people, including a offensive disrupted trade routes. Similarly, al- woman, near the town of Doolow, Gedo, Shabaab blocked supply routes after being suspecting that they were al-Shabaab pushed out of towns by AMISOM, disrupting militants. Al-Shabaab continued to torture humanitarian access. Continued conflict and and extrajudicially kill people they accused of El Niño rains starting in October threatened to spying or of not conforming to their further negatively impact the humanitarian interpretation of Islamic law. The group situation. carried out public killings and punishments In January and February, state security such as stoning to death, amputations and forces evicted over 25,700 people without floggings, particularly in areas where AMISOM due process from public and private land in had withdrawn. On 23 April, al-Shabaab killed Mogadishu. They evicted an additional a man by firing squad in the town of Jamame, 21,000 in March. The majority of those who Lower Juba, for “insulting” the Prophet were evicted moved to the outskirts of Muhammad. On 25 July, al-Shabaab killed Mogadishu, particularly to the Sarakusta and MP Abdulahi Hussein Mohamud and his Tabelaha areas, in deplorable living guard in Mogadishu by spraying their car with conditions. Forced evictions by the interim gunfire. On 6 September, al-Shabaab Jubbaland administration also occurred in the beheaded a man in Qahira village, near the towns of Kismayu and Luuq following an Toosweyne settlement, Bay, after accusing attack on a police post near an IDP him of spying for Ethiopian peacekeepers. On settlement. By the end of the year, the federal 1 October, al-Shabaab militants shot and government had not yet adopted an IDP killed several people in the village of policy, although a draft framework was Kunyabarow, near the town of Barawe in prepared in April 2014. Lower Shabelle, for refusing to obey their Over 1.1 million Somali refugees remained orders. in neighbouring countries and the diaspora. In April, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, CHILD SOLDIERS and the governments of Kenya and Somalia Children continued to suffer abuses by all formed a commission to supervise the parties to the armed conflict. As of 5 June, voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees from the UN documented 819 cases of Kenya, as agreed in the September 2013 recruitment and use of child soldiers by al- Tripartite Agreement. On 20 September, the Shabaab, the national army and allied militia, UNHCR announced it had repatriated 4,108 Ahla Sunna W’Jama’a, and other armed Somali refugees from the Dadaab refugee groups. Somalia ratified the UN Convention camp in northeast Kenya to Somalia. In on the Rights of the Child on 1 October, with January, there were 237,271 Somali refugees the reservation that it did not consider itself in Yemen. By August, however, over 28,000 bound by Articles 14, 20, 21 of the Somalis had returned to Somalia to escape Convention and any other of its provisions the escalating armed conflict in Yemen. that are contrary to the general principles of Meanwhile, other states hosting Somali Islamic Sharia. The federal government did asylum-seekers and refugees, including Saudi

326 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Arabia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, for opposing the postponement of presidential the UK and Denmark, continued to pressurize elections to March 2017. Bihi was released Somalis to return to Somalia, alleging that and Cune spent 12 days in custody without security there had improved. charge. The government also restricted the opposition’s freedom of assembly. On 11 FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND May, security forces denied the main ASSEMBLY opposition party, WADANI, permission to hold Journalists and media workers continued to a peaceful demonstration against the be intimidated, harassed, attacked and killed. extension of the President’s term by 22 In May, journalist Daud Ali Omar and his wife months. The party’s leaders were arrested Hawo Abdi Aden were shot dead by gunmen and held for several hours after police who broke into their house in the Bardaale violently broke up peaceful marches in the neighbourhood of Baidoa. On 26 July, cities of Hargeisa, Berbera and Burao, and journalists Abdihakin Mohamed Omar of the the party’s offices were temporarily taken over Somali Broadcasting Corporation and by government security forces. Abdikarim Moallim Adam of Universal TV were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a DEATH PENALTY hotel in Mogadishu, in which 13 people died. Somalia continued to use the death penalty Salman Jamal, a reporter for Universal TV, despite its support for the UN General was seriously injured in the attack. Assembly resolution on a moratorium on the Media freedom continued to be curtailed, death penalty. Members of Somali armed journalists were arrested and media houses opposition groups such as al-Shabaab, closed down. In May, the government ordered government soldiers and people convicted of all Somali media houses to use the acronym murder were executed by firing squad. UGUS (“the group that massacres Somali Military Court processes fell short of people”) when referring to al-Shabaab. The international fair trial standards, while Somali Independent Media Houses executions were often carried out in haste. In Association (SIMHA) called the order a threat September, seven soldiers were executed in to journalists’ work. On 2 October, the the city of Kismayo, Jubbaland, after they National Intelligence and Security Agency were convicted by a military court of killing (NISA) arrested Awil Dahir Salad and Abdilahi civilians. In April, a military tribunal in Hirsi Kulmiye, two journalists working for Mogadishu sentenced to death two men Universal TV, and held them for six days accused of killing two members of the Federal without charge in Mogadishu. NISA officers Parliament and three intelligence officers. also raided and shut down the broadcaster’s In Somaliland, civilian courts sentenced offices on the same day. Al-Shabaab people to death – at least 70 people were on continued to suppress the media and death row in February. In July, a civilian court retained a ban on the internet in areas under in Sool sentenced a mentally ill man to death its control. after he was convicted of killing his friend. In Somaliland, the government curtailed The government announced in February its the freedom of expression of those who decision to resume executions after a nine- criticized its policies. Somaliland does not year moratorium. In April, six prisoners who have a media law to protect journalists. Guleid were on death row at the Mandera maximum- Ahmed Jama, a prominent human rights security complex were executed by firing lawyer, was arrested after he questioned the squad. execution of six prisoners on death row in an interview with the BBC Somali Service. Other human rights activists, Otto Bihi and Suldaan Mohamed Muuse Cune, were also arrested

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 327 EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE SOUTH AFRICA On 25 June, President Zuma released the report and recommendations of the Marikana Republic of South Africa Commission of Inquiry into the deaths of 44 Head of state and government: Jacob G. Zuma people at the Lonmin Marikana mine in North West Province in August 2012. The Torture and other ill-treatment and Commission found that the “decisive cause” excessive use of force by police continued, of events on 16 August was the unlawful although some measure of accountability decision by senior police officials the night was obtained. Targeted violence against before to disarm and disperse strikers, refugees and asylum-seekers resulting in forcibly if necessary, by the end of the next deaths, displacement and property day. The Commission found all officials destruction also continued. Access to present at the meeting responsible for the medical treatment for people living with HIV decision, and found that they had obstructed continued to expand but was marred by and delayed the Commission by attempting to shortages in many areas. Progress was made conceal evidence and fabricating a version of in addressing hate crimes based on people’s events to justify the deaths. real or perceived sexual orientation or The Commission also found that at the first gender identity. Human rights defenders scene, where police shot dead 17 people, faced intimidation and threats from ruling there was no objective evidence that the party and state officials. dispersing strikers intended to attack the police, and that deaths and injuries could BACKGROUND have been avoided if the police had deployed The government came under increasing minimum force methods more effectively. The pressure from opposition political parties, civil Commission concluded that some of the society and communities over alleged officers might have exceeded the bounds of corruption and poor service delivery, among reasonable self or private defence. other issues. Parliamentary processes were The Commission found that the police undermined by irregular responses to presented no plausible justification for the repeated challenges to the ruling African fatal shooting of 17 other strikers at the National Congress (ANC) party by opposition second scene and that there was a complete parties. Frustration with the slow pace of loss of command and control. It reform to address the legacy of apartheid recommended the establishment of an expert resulted in protests across the country in team, under the authority of the Director of different sectors, including tertiary education Public Prosecutions, to conduct a criminal institutions. Continuing high levels of investigation into the killings. It also inequality led to widespread protests about recommended an investigation into the service delivery in multiple communities conduct of a senior police officer who failed to across the country. deploy medical units under his control to the Criminal justice institutions, including the first scene, which led to the deaths of injured police oversight body and the prosecuting strikers. Preliminary steps had been taken to authority, were destabilized by scandals and implement these recommendations by the internal tensions, affecting their credibility. end of the year. Tension between the government and the The President did respond to other judiciary increased. recommendations of the Commission, In January, South Africa ratified the including the establishment of a Board of ICESCR. Inquiry into the fitness of the national commissioner of police, General Riah Phiyega, to hold office, and ordered her

328 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 suspension. The prosecution service also TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT reinstituted criminal charges against some of AND DEATHS IN CUSTODY the workers involved in the strike in IPID reported 244 deaths in custody in connection with the deaths of two Lonmin 2014-2015. They also reported 145 cases of security guards and three non-striking torture, 34 cases of rape and 3,711 cases of workers. assault by police officers in the same period. In August, IPID referred the case of EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS Zinakile Fica to the Director of Public The Independent Police Investigative Prosecutions for a decision on prosecution Directorate (IPID) reported 396 deaths as a following their investigation into his death in result of police action in 2014/2015, six more police custody in March 2014. He had been than the previous year. arrested at Glebelands hostel along with In the Durban High Court, the trial of 27 others and died during interrogation at police officers, the majority of them members Prospecton police station. The results of an of the now disbanded Cato Manor Organized independent post mortem examination and Crime Unit, on 28 counts of murder and other witness testimony indicated that he had died charges, was further delayed until February from suffocation torture during police 2016. The officers were facing criminal interrogation. charges in connection with the death of, On 11 November, eight police officers were among others, Bongani Mkhize, a taxi each sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment company owner who was killed in February after being convicted in August of the murder 2009, three months after he obtained a High of Mido Macia in February 2013. The police Court order constraining the police from had shackled the arrested man to the back of killing him. their vehicle, dragging him behind it for about In November, four police officers from 200m before unlawfully detaining him in a Krugersdorp near Johannesburg were police station cell. The High Court in Pretoria arrested and appeared in court in connection also found that seven of the accused had with the fatal shooting of a crime suspect, assaulted Mido Macia in the cell where he Khulekani Mpanza, on 19 October. They were died. charged with murder and defeating the ends of justice. The arrests followed the media’s INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE publication of CCTV footage of the incident. In June, the Southern African Litigation The acting National Commissioner of Police Centre took the government to court in an ordered the suspension of the Krugersdorp attempt to force it to implement an ICC arrest police station commander. warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, Sipho Ndovela, a witness to the murder of who was in South Africa for an AU summit. one of the victims of the ongoing violence at The North Gauteng High Court issued an Durban’s Glebelands hostel, was shot dead interim order on 14 June preventing on 18 May in the precinct of Umlazi President Bashir from leaving the country Magistrate’s Court. He was due to provide pending the finalization of the matter. On 15 testimony identifying and implicating a key June, North Gauteng High Court ordered the figure behind the violence at the hostel state respondents, who included the Ministers complex. From March 2014 more than 50 of Justice and Police, to arrest and detain people had died in targeted killings. Official President Bashir for his subsequent transfer investigations were undermined by the to the ICC. authorities’ failure to protect individuals at risk On 15 June, South African authorities and prevent violations of the rights of allowed President Bashir to leave South Africa suspects detained for questioning by police. in direct contravention of the interim court order. The North Gauteng High Court

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 329 requested that the state submit an affidavit In January, local residents looted 440 small explaining how President Bashir was allowed businesses run by refugees and migrants in to leave the country. The state submitted its 15 different areas in Soweto, Gauteng explanatory affidavit and filed for leave to Province. Four people died, including locals appeal against the High Court judgment. On caught up in the violence. Nearly 1,400 16 September, the North Gauteng High Court refugees and migrants were displaced. denied the state leave to appeal, indicating In April, a new wave of attacks, primarily in that the issue was moot, and that there were the greater Durban area, led to at least four no prospects of success on appeal. The state deaths, many others seriously injured, and petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal in looting. At least 5,000 refugees and migrants October. Subsequently, South Africa stated it fled their homes and small businesses to was considering withdrawing from the ICC. three temporary official camps, or to informal shelters. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY The scale of the violence in the Durban In October, attorneys on behalf of 56 area had little precedent and appeared to representative applicants petitioned the South have been triggered by the widely reported Gauteng High Court, in Nkala and others v. statement by traditional leader King Goodwill Harmony Gold and others, to certify their case Zwelithini that government must ensure all as a class action. The applicants were “foreigners” leave South Africa. A preliminary seeking compensation from 32 gold mining finding of an inquiry by the South African companies on behalf of thousands of Human Rights Commission into these alleged mineworkers, former mineworkers and the comments noted the harmful nature of his dependants of deceased mineworkers, for remarks but absolved the King of inciting what they allege was a failure to adequately violence. The government condemned the prevent specific illnesses, namely silicosis violence and established an inter-ministerial and tuberculosis, caused by exposure to silica committee to co-ordinate responses dust underground. Judgment was reserved in nationally. In KwaZulu-Natal Province, the the matter. provincial government appointed the former The Marikana Commission of Inquiry made UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, several findings against Lonmin Plc in its Navi Pillay, to lead an inquiry into the report. The Commission concluded that violence. It had not been completed by the Lonmin did not use its best endeavours to end of the year. resolve the labour disputes that led to the In October, in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape killings in August 2012 and that it failed to Province, a verified 138 out of a possible 300 employ sufficient safeguards to ensure refugee- and migrant-run shops were employee safety. The Commission also found attacked. The police later acknowledged their Lonmin deficient in its undertakings with failure to act on earlier warnings from civil regard to its social and labour plans, society organizations and conducted nearly particularly in relation to its housing 90 arrests of suspected perpetrators of the obligations. The Commission dismissed violence, who appeared in court in late Lonmin’s argument that it could not afford to October. implement its housing obligations and found Hundreds of refugees and asylum-seekers that its failure to comply created an unsafe were detained unlawfully and risked environment. deportation during an apparent national-level anti-crime initiative, Operation Fiela, launched REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS on 27 April. The police, backed by the During the year there were numerous military, conducted raids and arrests in inner incidents involving violence against refugees, city areas, including Johannesburg. After asylum-seekers and migrants. raids and large-scale arrests on 8 May at the

330 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Central Methodist Church and a nearby medicines across the country risked residential building, police and immigration undermining progress. The country continued officials blocked legal access over four days to to battle an increased incidence of as many as 400 refugees and asylum-seekers tuberculosis (TB) and multi-drug-resistant TB held at Johannesburg Central Police Station, cases, a serious health risk for people living despite emergency court orders for access. with HIV and AIDS. On 12 May, the High Court ruled that officials Medical research reports continued to must provide the court with a full list of all indicate that young women, aged between 15 detainees and prohibited the authorities from and 24, bear the burden of new HIV deporting any for two weeks, pending proper infections. Women in this age group were up legal consultations, which were allowed to to eight times more at risk of HIV infection proceed. due to both biological and social factors. Data In March, the Supreme Court of Appeal collated from health districts reflected high ordered the Department of Home Affairs pregnancy rates among girls under 18, (DHA) to re-open the Port Elizabeth Refugee accounting for “one in 14 deliveries in the Reception Office. The Constitutional Court country” in 2014-2015. The report noted with dismissed the DHA appeal against the March concern that birth rates in this age group ruling. However, non-discriminatory access to were highest in the poorest districts and that asylum determination procedures came the gap between the poorest and wealthiest under a new threat from sweeping socioeconomic quintiles was increasing. government-proposed amendments to the Significant progress for adolescent sexual Refugee Act, including restrictions on access and reproductive rights was ensured with the to livelihood for asylum-seekers. The draft passing of the Sexual Offences Amendment legislation was still under consideration at the Act (Act no. 5) of 2015, which gave effect to end of the year. the Constitutional Court’s judgment in the case of Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused WOMEN’S RIGHTS Children v. the Minister of Justice and HIV remained the main cause of maternal Constitutional Development and Others deaths. Nearly one third of pregnant women (2013) to protect the rights to dignity and were living with HIV but improved access to privacy and the best interest of the child free anti-retroviral treatment for pregnant principle. The revised Act decriminalized women since 2011 had contributed to the consensual sexual activity between significant decline, by almost a quarter, in the adolescents aged 12-16. institutional maternal mortality ratio (related only to deaths taking place in health RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, facilities). Despite this progress, shortages of TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE doctors and nurses, the lack of appropriately Progress was made in addressing hate crimes resourced health facilities and shortages of based on people’s real or perceived sexual emergency transport continued to hamper orientation or gender identity with the efforts to reduce the high rate of maternal extension of government-led processes from deaths. Poor management of the Department national to provincial level. Provincial Task of Health at the provincial level was Teams were established in at least five emphasized by both the South African provinces to ensure a more effective flow of Human Rights Commission and by a civil information to the National Task Team, which society-led People’s Commission of Inquiry comprised civil society and government into the Free State Healthcare System. officials. The expansion of free anti-retroviral drugs The Rapid Response Team continued to through the public health system continued make progress with the resolution of but persistent stock shortages of essential previously unresolved cases of targeted

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 331 violence against LGBTI people. In May, the High Court. Potchefstroom High Court convicted a man of Surveillance by crime intelligence or state the August 2014 rape and murder of a security officers against human rights lesbian woman, Disebo Gift Makau, and defenders, including journalists and sentenced him to two life terms and 15 years community activists, continued to be for robbery. The judge acknowledged that the reported. victim was targeted because of her sexual There was some measure of support for the orientation. In July, the Pretoria North High office of the Public Protector in the courts. In Court convicted a man for the September October, in response to her investigation into 2014 rape and murder of a lesbian woman, the chief operating officer of the state Thembelihle Sokhela, sentencing him to 22 broadcaster, the Supreme Court of Appeal years in prison. The judge in the case did not ruled that the Public Protector’s rulings, take the victim’s sexual orientation into findings and remedial actions could not be account in his ruling. ignored without a legal review. Civil society monitors continued to express The trial of a police officer for the October concern at limitations in the police 2013 shooting and killing of 17-year-old investigation into the murder of David Olyn, a housing rights activist Nqobile Nzuza during a gay man, who was beaten and burned to protest in Cato Crest, Durban, was postponed death in March 2014 in Western Cape to February 2016. In March, two ruling party Province. A trial began in October. councillors were arrested with another co- accused for the September 2013 murder of HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS housing rights activist Thulisile Ndlovu in Harassment of human rights defenders and KwaNdengezi, Durban. The case was organizations and undermining of oversight continuing. bodies by ruling party and state officials remained a major concern. ANC members in Free State Province SOUTH SUDAN targeted activists from the health rights group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), because Republic of South Sudan of their campaign to improve health services Head of state and government: Salva Kiir Mayardit in that province. In February, the ANC Youth League used inflammatory language to In August, after more than 20 months of mobilize a march against TAC offices in intermittent negotiations, South Sudan’s Bloemfontein and in July ANC members warring parties finally agreed to the terms of interrupted a public meeting of TAC. a wide-ranging peace agreement. However, The Regulation of Gatherings Act continued despite the peace agreement and a to be used by the authorities to limit the right subsequent ceasefire declaration, conflict to protest. In October, 94 community health continued in several parts of the country, workers and TAC activists who had been although at a lower intensity than arrested during a peaceful vigil at the offices previously. All parties flouted international of the Free State Department of Health in July human rights and international 2014 were found guilty of attending a humanitarian law during the fighting, but no gathering for which no notice was given. The one was held accountable for crimes under ruling by the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court international law committed in the context implied that any gathering of more than 15 of the internal armed conflict. About 1.6 people without notification to the police was a million people continued to be displaced “prohibited” gathering and therefore unlawful from their homes within the country, and and subject to a prison sentence. The some 600,000 sought refuge in defendants were planning to appeal to the neighbouring countries. At least 4 million

332 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 people faced food shortages. The The Uganda People’s Defence Force, who government failed to take steps to realize were fighting alongside South Sudan’s the right to health. Security agents government, started withdrawing their troops repressed independent and critical voices in October in accordance with the peace from the opposition, media and civil society. agreement. On 3 November, the government and the BACKGROUND SPLA/M-IO signed an agreement on a The armed conflict, which erupted in permanent ceasefire and transitional security December 2013, pitted forces loyal to arrangements that committed both sides to President Salva Kiir against those loyal to demilitarizing the capital city, Juba, and other former Vice-President Riek Machar. Armed key towns. In December the SPLA/M-IO sent militia groups allied to each side participated a delegation of members to Juba as part of in the fighting, which continued throughout the advance team to prepare for the 2015, but was more sporadic than previously. implementation of the peace agreement. The Intergovernmental Authority on The mandate of the UN Mission in South Development (IGAD), an eight-country East Sudan (UNMISS) was renewed in December African organization, began mediating to include protection of civilians, monitoring between the government of South Sudan and and investigating human rights, ensuring the the Sudan People’s Liberation delivery of humanitarian aid and supporting Army/Movement in Opposition (SPLA/M-IO) in the implementation of the peace agreement. January 2014. Despite numerous ceasefire agreements, fighting continued throughout INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT 2014 and into 2015. Conflict was concentrated in the northeast of On 3 March, the UN Security Council the country in parts of Jonglei, Unity and established a sanctions regime of travel bans Upper Nile states. It was marked by periods and asset freezes against South Sudan, of calm and others of intense violence. Both targeting individuals suspected of committing sides continued to engage in clashes despite crimes under international law and human the August peace agreement, the permanent rights abuses or threatening the peace, ceasefire declarations and the November security or stability of the country. security arrangements agreement. More than On 12 March, IGAD unveiled a new 20 different armed forces were involved, mechanism to exert more concerted pressure including government forces backed by on the warring parties to resolve the conflict. Ugandan soldiers on one side and a range of It included the three IGAD mediators, plus rebel factions on the other. Armed youth five AU representatives (Algeria, Chad, clashed regularly with government forces in Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa), the UN, parts of Western Equatoria state. the EU, China, the IGAD Partners Forum and Both government and opposition forces the Troika (Norway, the UK and the USA). disregarded international human rights and On 27 August, President Kiir signed a international humanitarian law. Both sides peace agreement that had been signed 10 deliberately attacked civilians, often based on days earlier by opposition leader and former their ethnicity or assumed political affiliations. Vice-President Riek Machar. The peace They attacked civilians sheltering in hospitals agreement provided a framework for parties and places of worship; executed captured to end hostilities and addressed a wide range fighters; abducted and arbitrarily detained of issues including power sharing, security civilians; burned down homes; damaged and arrangements, humanitarian assistance, destroyed medical facilities; looted public and economic arrangements, justice and private property as well as food stores and reconciliation and the parameters of a humanitarian aid; and recruited children to permanent Constitution.1 serve in their armed forces. Parties to the

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 333 conflict also regularly attacked, detained, were also hindered by the absence of victim harassed and threatened humanitarian aid support and witness protection programmes. workers and UNMISS staff. The justice system failed to guarantee due Violence in Unity state, which had process and fair trial rights. Common subsided, escalated from April. Government violations included arbitrary arrest and and allied youth groups led an offensive in 28 detention, torture and other ill-treatment, villages in Rubkona, Guit, Leer and Koch prolonged pre-trial detention and denial of the counties of Unity state in late April and early right to legal counsel. May. They set entire villages on fire, beat and The internal armed conflict exacerbated killed civilians, looted livestock and other pre-existing challenges in the justice system, property, burned people alive, committed acts particularly in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile of sexual violence and abducted women and states. Militarization and the defection of children. In October, clashes in southern and many police officers severely undermined law central Unity state intensified with grave enforcement capacities. consequences for civilians. Thousands of people were forced to flee in search of safety, LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY protection and assistance, of whom about The authorities failed to hold anyone to 6,000 arrived in the UNMISS Protection of account for crimes under international law Civilians site in Bentiu. Other people fled to committed during the armed conflict or to Nyal and Ganyiel in southern Unity state, conduct thorough and impartial investigations taking shelter in swamps and forests. into these crimes. Although 1,755 child soldiers were The August peace agreement provided for released by the Cobra Faction armed group in the establishment of three mechanisms: a the Greater Pibor Administrative Area in Commission on Truth, Reconciliation and March, abductions of children continued Healing; a Compensation and Reparations throughout the year. For example, scores of Authority; and a Hybrid Court for South children, some as young as 13, were Sudan. The Commission on Truth, abducted from Malakal in February and Reconciliation and Healing mandate covers hundreds were reportedly seized from the the peace-building process, and includes northern villages of Kodok and Wau Shilluk in gender-based crimes and sexual violence. early June. The UN Children’s Fund The Compensation and Reparations Authority (UNICEF) estimated in November that as mandate is to compensate for property losses many as 16,000 children were associated incurred during the conflict. The Hybrid Court with armed forces or groups. would have jurisdiction over crimes under Conflict-related sexual and gender-based international law and crimes established by violence was widespread. This included cases relevant laws of South Sudan. of sexual slavery and incidents of gang rape In 2014, the AU Peace and Security of girls as young as eight years old. There Council (PSC) set up an AU Commission of were also cases of men and boys being Inquiry on South Sudan (AUCISS), chaired by castrated. former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, to investigate human rights JUSTICE SYSTEM violations and abuses committed during the The criminal justice system was grossly armed conflict in South Sudan. Its mandate under-resourced and lacked capacity in included recommending measures to ensure critical areas such as investigations and accountability and reconciliation. Amnesty forensics. It was further hampered by International was among organizations which interference or lack of co-operation on the campaigned throughout 2015 for the PSC to part of security organs and the executive publish the inquiry report.2 branch. Cases involving human rights abuses On 27 October, the PSC published the

334 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 report. It found evidence of systematic During the year, only one public hospital in violations of human rights and crimes under the country provided psychiatric care, with its international law by both warring parties, inpatient ward having only 12 beds. People often committed with extreme brutality. The with serious mental health issues were report found compelling evidence of routinely incarcerated in prisons. With little or extrajudicial killings, including ethnically no medical care, mentally ill inmates were motivated killings. Testimonies to the AUCISS often held chained, naked or in solitary consistently indicated that some 15,000 to confinement. 20,000 ethnic Nuer were killed during the first three days of conflict (15-18 December FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 2013). The report also found evidence of The space for journalists, human rights torture and mutilation of bodies; abductions; defenders and civil society to do their work enforced disappearances; looting and without intimidation continued to shrink, as it pillaging; forcing victims to engage in had since the start of the conflict. The cannibalistic acts; and forcing victims to jump authorities, especially the National Security into fires. Strong evidence was found Service (NSS), harassed and intimidated supporting allegations of systematic sexual journalists, summoning them for questioning violence, which was a common feature of the and arbitrarily arresting and detaining them. atrocities committed by both sides. The Reporter Peter Julius Moi was shot dead in AUCISS concluded that there was a high Juba on 19 August, days after President Kiir likelihood that rape was used as a weapon of threatened to kill reporters working against war. the country, a statement that was later said to The AUCISS recommended that those with have been quoted out of context. Two other the greatest responsibility for atrocities be journalists were killed in the course of their prosecuted and that the needs of victims, work, one in May and one in December. including reparations, be addressed. It called George Livio, a journalist with Radio Miraya, for the establishment of an ad hoc African was held in detention without charge or trial legal mechanism under the leadership of the throughout the year; he had been arrested in AU and other mechanisms for transitional August 2014, accused of collaborating with justice similar to the provisions of the August rebels. peace agreement. It also recommended the The print version of the Nation Mirror was reform of civil and criminal and military closed down in January 2015 after a photo of justice systems so as to contribute towards former Vice-President Machar was placed ensuring accountability. above one of President Kiir. In August, the NSS closed down The Citizen, a daily English RIGHT TO HEALTH – MENTAL HEALTH language paper, and the daily The massive abuses of human rights suffered newspaper Al Rai. Several newspapers had and witnessed in South Sudan have had issues seized, some held temporarily, some severe repercussions on the mental health of confiscated entirely. The NSS also closed many people, as has the widespread down two radio stations. incidence of forced displacement, A senior lecturer at the University of Juba bereavement, destruction or loss of livelihood, had to leave the country because of security loss of family and community and inadequate concerns after hosting and moderating a food and shelter. Recent studies found discussion about a controversial presidential extremely high levels of post-traumatic stress decree issued in October establishing 28 disorder and depression among South states. Sudanese populations. Despite this The security forces continued to carry out overwhelming need, mental health services enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests are almost non-existent. and prolonged detentions, and torture and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 335 other ill-treatment. Since the start of the of crisis (News story, 23 July) conflict, the NSS, Military Intelligence and members of the police force have cracked down on perceived political dissidents, many SPAIN of whom were detained in violation of international law. Kingdom of Spain Head of State: King Felipe VI de Borbón LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS Head of government : Mariano Rajoy In April, South Sudan became a party to the UN Convention against Torture and its Freedom of assembly was curtailed by new Optional Protocol; the UN Convention on the legislation. New cases of ill-treatment and Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol excessive use of force by police officials on the sale of children, child prostitution and were reported. Security forces also carried child pornography; and CEDAW and its out collective expulsions and used excessive Optional Protocol. By the end of the year, force against individuals who attempted to South Sudan had still not deposited enter irregularly from Morocco into the instruments of ratification for the African Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Impunity remained a serious concern. the AU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, even BACKGROUND though Parliament voted for their ratification In December, national elections led to a in 2014. fragmented parliament. The Popular Party, In March, the Minister for Justice led by the incumbent Prime Minister Mariano announced that the National Security Service Rajoy, came first but without sufficient seats Bill had become law as the President had to form a new government on its own. exceeded the 30-day time period set out in There were fewer demonstrations against the Constitution to assent to or return the the government’s austerity measures than in legislation following Parliament’s approval of it previous years, although the measures in October 2014. There was domestic and continued, having a detrimental effect on international opposition to the passage of this human rights. law, and the President did not sign it. The law granted the NSS sweeping powers, including FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND powers of arrest, detention and seizure, ASSEMBLY without adequate independent oversight or Reforms to the Law on Public Security and safeguards against abuse. the Criminal Code entered into force in July. President Kiir returned the Non- Both provide for offences which may Governmental Organizations Bill back to disproportionately limit the legitimate exercise Parliament, after it received Parliament’s of the rights to freedom of expression and approval in late May. The version of the Bill peaceful assembly. The Law on Public passed by Parliament contained a number of Security imposed limitations on where and restrictive provisions. It would make when demonstrations could take place, registration compulsory and criminalize providing for additional penalties on those voluntary work without a registration holding spontaneous demonstrations in front certificate. of certain public buildings. Police officers were given broad discretion to fine people who show a “lack of respect” towards them. 1. South Sudan: Warring parties must fully commit to ensuring The Law on Public Security included an accountability for atrocities (News story, 26 August) offence of disseminating images of police 2. South Sudan: Release of AU Inquiry Report a vital step for resolution officers in certain cases. Concern at the

336 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 impact of such legislation was expressed in attempts to cross the fences separating July by the UN Human Rights Committee. Melilla from Morocco decreased after February, when several makeshift camps in TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the north of Morocco were dismantled by In May, the UN Committee against Torture Moroccan authorities. expressed concern over the continuation of In May, the UN Committee against Torture the incommunicado detention regime. It expressed concern at the “practice of ‘hot recommended that Spain amend the expulsion’ from the autonomous cities of definition of torture in its domestic law, and Ceuta and Melilla, where rejections at the conduct effective investigations into all border prevented access to asylum allegations of torture and other ill-treatment. procedures. Cases of ill-treatment by law enforcement In July, the UN Human Rights Committee officials were reported at the border and in called on Spain to comply with the principle places of detention. Concerns arose regarding of non-refoulement and provide access to delays and the effectiveness of relevant effective asylum procedures. investigations. Many cases had been closed In August, investigations in Melilla into the without prosecutions taking place, including beating by Civil Guard officers of a migrant some where it was impossible to identify who had tried to cross the border between police officers involved due to the lack of Morocco and Melilla and had been summarily identification tags on their uniforms. returned to Morocco in October 2014 were A criminal trial against two law enforcement closed. The court could not gather witness officers for causing serious bodily harm to statements from other migrants, as they too Ester Quintana, who lost an eye as a result of had been collectively expelled in the course of being hit by a rubber projectile fired by police the same police operation. The man was during a November 2012 protest in beaten by Civil Guards and then carried Barcelona, had not commenced by the end of unconscious to the Moroccan side of the the year. In September, the Catalonian border. In spite of film evidence, the Ministry government agreed to pay €260,000 as an of Interior alleged that it was impossible to out-of-court settlement to Ester Quintana. identify the officers involved. An appeal against the decision to close the investigation REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS was pending at the end of the year. On 3 February, six individuals from sub- In October, the investigation into the Saharan Africa were summarily returned from excessive use of force by the Civil Guard at Ceuta to Morocco. Similar collective the Tarajal beach in February 2014 was expulsions, in which Civil Guard officers closed without bringing any charges. Civil forcibly returned to Morocco groups of Guard officers had used rubber projectiles individuals who were within their control, and smoke canisters to stop around 200 without any individualized assessment of their people trying to swim from the Moroccan to situation and without affording them an the Spanish side of the beach; 23 people opportunity to claim asylum, had been were unlawfully pushed back to Morocco and frequently reported in previous years, at least 14 people died at sea. particularly in Melilla. Restriction on asylum-seekers’ freedom of In March, the Aliens Law was amended to movement continued as asylum-seekers in legalize the automatic and collective Ceuta and Melilla were still required to obtain expulsion of migrants and refugees from the police authorization to leave the enclaves for borders of the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and the mainland. This breaches Spain’s national Melilla. This provision paved the way for laws and had been ruled unlawful by several further collective expulsions, which are courts in Spain. prohibited by international law. However, The Centre for the Temporary

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 337 Accommodation of Migrants in Melilla was DISCRIMINATION severely overcrowded. Asylum-seekers The new Law on Public Security stipulated usually waited at least two months in Melilla, that identity checks should be carried out by or even several months in some cases, before police without discriminating on ethnic and being transferred to the mainland. The other grounds. waiting period in Ceuta was longer. In May, an Observatory on discrimination As of the end of November, 12,500 asylum for reasons of gender or sexual orientation applications were filed in Spain. In October, was established by the government. The Spain agreed to relocate 14,931 asylum- Observatory was created to receive seekers by 2016 under the European complaints from victims and witnesses and relocation scheme. It offered only 130 provide a rapid response to acts of resettlement places in 2015. discrimination on these grounds. Almost 750,000 undocumented migrants were living in Spain without adequate access VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN to health care. Several UN bodies According to the Ministry of Health, Social recommended that Spain guarantee universal Policy and Equality, 56 women were killed by access to health care. their partners or former partners as of mid- December. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY In July, the CEDAW Committee urged Spain In October, amendments to the Procedural to ensure that women victims of gender- Criminal Law failed to remove the use of based violence have access to redress and incommunicado detention, despite the protection, that officials dealing with them are concerns of international human rights bodies adequately trained, and that perpetrators are that such detention violated Spain’s prosecuted. international obligations. Improvements were At the end of the year, the government was limited to excluding the application of still refusing to provide reparation to Ángela incommunicado detention to children González Carreño. She had been a victim of under 16. gender-based violence and her daughter had In July, the Human Rights Committee been killed by her ex-partner in 2003, having recommended again that Spain provide Ali received no adequate protection despite Aarrass with an effective remedy for the reporting previous instances of domestic torture and ill-treatment he suffered in violence. Morocco. Ali Aarrass was extradited by Spain to Morocco in 2010, despite fears that he IMPUNITY would be at risk of torture there and despite The definitions of enforced disappearance interim measures requested by the and torture in Spanish legislation continued to Committee that he not be expelled while they be inconsistent with international human examined the case. rights law. Restrictions on the exercise of In July, sections of the Criminal Code universal jurisdiction led to the closure of related to terrorist acts were amended, major international cases. In particular, the including a broad definition of what Audiencia Nacional Court decided in July to constitutes an act of terrorism. The UN halt its investigation into torture and other ill- Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression treatment at the US detention centre in noted that the amendments could criminalize Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. This was despite the behaviours that would not otherwise submission in May of documents indicating constitute terrorism and could result in that Spanish agents had been implicated in disproportionate restrictions on the lawful interrogations of detainees at the detention exercise of freedom of expression, among facility. An appeal was pending at the end of other limitations. the year.

338 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Also in July, a military court closed right to housing may have been infringed. investigations into the torture of two prisoners In June, the UN Committee on Economic, committed by five Spanish soldiers at a Social and Cultural Rights asked Spain to Spanish military base in Iraq in 2004, on the ensure access to legal remedies for people basis that it had not been able to identify who face foreclosure proceedings. either the perpetrators or the victims. Questions remained on the thoroughness of the investigation by the military court. SRI LANKA The rights to truth, justice and reparation continued to be denied to victims of crimes Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka committed during the Civil War and the Head of state and government: Maithripala Sirisena Franco era (1936-1975), as Spanish (replaced Mahinda Rajapaksa in January) authorities failed to adequately co-operate with the Argentine judiciary investigating such A new government in January brought crimes. In March, the government rejected a constitutional reforms and promises of request by the Argentine courts for the improved human rights protection. Many extradition of 17 people. Subsequently, a human rights challenges remained, group of UN experts urged Spain to comply including persistent use of arbitrary arrest with its obligations to extradite or prosecute and detention, torture and other ill- those responsible for grave human rights treatment, enforced disappearances and violations. deaths in custody, and a long-standing climate of impunity for these and other SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS violations. Legislation adopted in September required girls under 18 and women with mental BACKGROUND disabilities to obtain parental or guardian An investigation by the UN Office of the High consent before they can access safe and legal Commissioner for Human Rights into alleged abortion services. Both the CEDAW abuses during the final seven years of the Committee and the UN Working Group on the armed conflict and its immediate aftermath issue of discrimination against women in law concluded in September that enforced and in practice called on Spain to refrain from disappearances, unlawful killings, torture and restricting women’s and girls’ access to safe other ill-treatment, sexual violence, forced and legal abortion. The UN Human Rights recruitment and child recruitment, direct Committee also recommended Spain to military attacks on civilians, denial of ensure that no legal barriers force women to humanitarian relief and systematic resort to clandestine abortion, putting their deprivation of liberty of displaced people on lives and health at risk. the basis of ethnicity could amount to war crimes and/or crimes against humanity. It HOUSING RIGHTS recommended legal and procedural According to statistics published in March by reforms to address ongoing violations, and the the General Council of the Judiciary, 578,546 establishment of a hybrid special court, foreclosure procedures were initiated in Spain integrating international investigators, judges, between 2008 and 2014. In the first nine prosecutors and lawyers to try those accused months of 2015, 52,350 new foreclosure of alleged war crimes and crimes against procedures were initiated. humanity. The government signalled its Measures adopted by the government in agreement with the conclusions by co- previous years to improve the situation for sponsoring a UN Human Rights Council people at risk of losing their home were failing resolution in September calling for to ensure an effective remedy for those whose implementation of the report’s

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 339 recommendations, including ensuring responsible would be investigated and effective witness protection and consulting punished. with victims and families in the design of truth and justice mechanisms. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE Complaints of excessive force in the policing ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS of demonstrations persisted, and impunity Tamils suspected of links to the Liberation remained for past incidents. Findings of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were arrested military investigations into the army’s killing of and detained under the Prevention of unarmed demonstrators demanding clean Terrorism Act (PTA) which permits extended water in August 2013 were not made public administrative detention, and shifts the and no one had been prosecuted by the end burden of proof onto a detainee alleging of 2015. A magisterial inquiry was ongoing. torture or other ill-treatment. In September the government pledged to repeal the PTA DEATHS IN CUSTODY and replace it with anti-terrorism legislation Suspicious deaths in police custody that complied with international standards. It continued to be reported. Detainees died of also pledged to review detention records and injuries consistent with torture and other ill- claimed to have released at least 45 treatment, including beatings or asphyxiation. detainees after “rehabilitation”. Some Police claimed suspects committed suicide or detainees were held for many years while in one case drowned while trying to escape. waiting for charges to be filed or cases to conclude. Opposition leader Rajavarothiam ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Sampanthan told Parliament in December Court testimony by a Criminal Investigation that 217 people remained detained under the Department (CID) official in connection with PTA; most had not been tried. The habeas corpus petitions by families of five number did not include those sent for youths who disappeared in 2008 from a “rehabilitation”, another form of arbitrary suburb of the capital, Colombo, confirmed detention. earlier reports by a former detainee that the Navy had operated secret detention camps in TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Colombo and Trincomalee where detainees Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees – were allegedly tortured and killed. including sexual violence – continued to be The Presidential Commission to Investigate reported and impunity persisted for earlier into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons cases. In October, the Inspector General of received 18,586 reports of missing civilians, Police ordered an inquiry into the alleged but made little progress in clarifying their fate abuse of a 17-year-old boy and a man who or whereabouts or bringing perpetrators of were arrested in September in connection enforced disappearance to justice. In October with the rape and murder of a five-year-old the government, noting a widespread lack of girl in Kotadeniyawa. Their lawyer said the two confidence in the Commission, announced were beaten, stripped naked and that they were replacing it with another body. photographed by police in order to obtain In December, it signed and promised to ratify false confessions. Both were released without the International Convention for the Protection charge. Shortly before the incidents the of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance government had promised the UN Human and to criminalize enforced disappearances. Rights Council that it would issue clear instructions to all branches of the security IMPUNITY forces that torture and other ill-treatment, Impunity persisted for alleged crimes under including sexual violence, and other human international law committed during the armed rights violations are prohibited, and that those conflict, including enforced disappearances,

340 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 extrajudicial executions and the intentional details of meetings they participated in, as shelling of civilians and protected areas such well as anonymous threats after signing a as hospitals. Impunity also remained for many statement calling for an independent other human rights violations, including: the international investigation into alleged war January 2006 extrajudicial executions of five crimes. students in Trincomalee by security Balendran Jeyakumari, an activist against personnel; the killing of 17 aid workers with enforced disappearances, was released on Action contre la Faim in Muttur in August bail in March after nearly a year in detention 2006; the January 2009 murder of without charge under the PTA. She was newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge; rearrested and detained for several days in and the disappearances of political activists September. On 30 June, the Colombo Lalith Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan in Magistrate’s Court lifted a travel restriction on Jaffna in 2011. Army personnel and affiliates Ruki Fernando which had been imposed in were questioned about the 2010 March 2014 on the request of the Terrorist disappearance of dissident cartoonist Investigation Division (TID) after he and a Prageeth Eknaligoda. The investigation was Catholic priest, Praveen Mahesan, were ongoing at the end of the year. arrested under the PTA following their The report of a 2006 Commission of Inquiry attempts to investigate the arrest of Balendran that investigated the Trincomalee and Muttur Jeyakumari. Ruki Fernando remained banned killings was finally released in October. It from speaking about the ongoing TID criticized original police investigations as investigation and his confiscated electronic lacking professionalism. The report of an equipment was not returned. investigation into civilian deaths during the armed conflict, also released in October, FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSEMBLY called for new legislation recognizing AND ASSOCIATION command responsibility and an independent President Sirisena declared 19 May, the judicial inquiry into credible allegations that anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s long members of the armed forces may have armed conflict, to be Remembrance Day, and committed war crimes. stressed that it was a day to commemorate all war dead. This move suggested that earlier HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS restrictions on public commemorations by In January, severed heads of dogs were left northern Tamils would be lifted. Although outside the homes of Brito Fernando and memorial events were permitted in most Prasanga Fernando of the human rights areas, a heavy police presence was reported organization Right to Life. They and colleague at such gatherings in the north and east, and Phillip Dissanayake also received anonymous ceremonies were reportedly prohibited by the threatening phone calls alluding to their security forces in Mullaitivu, the site of the activism against police allegedly involved in final offensive. enforced disappearances. Complaints persisted of harassment and Human rights defenders in the north and surveillance by security forces of people east continued to report police and military attending gatherings and engaged in activism, surveillance and questioning around their particularly in the north and east. participation in local NGOs and political meetings, demonstrations, campaigns for JUSTICE SYSTEM human rights accountability and key The new government reinstated Chief Justice international events such as the Shirani Bandaranayake, who was impeached UN Human Rights Council sessions. Activists in 2013 for political reasons. She immediately from eastern Sri Lanka reportedly announced her retirement and was received anonymous phone calls asking for succeeded by Kanagasabapathy Sripavan.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 341 The new government enacted the 19th was widely seen as a small victory against the amendment to the Constitution which placed pervasive climate of impunity. checks on the powers of the executive presidency, including ending direct presidential appointment and dismissal of SUDAN senior judges and members of key institutions, including the Judicial Service Republic of the Sudan Commission, and transferring those powers to Head of state and government : Omar Hassan Ahmed a Constitutional Council. al-Bashir

DISCRIMINATION – RELIGIOUS The authorities repressed the media, civil MINORITIES society organizations and opposition Muslims and Christians continued to report political parties, severely curtailing incidents of harassment by police, members freedoms of expression, association and of the public and politicians, particularly in assembly. Armed conflict in Darfur, South the context of political campaigning by Kordofan and Blue Nile states continued to hardline Buddhist political parties in the lead- cause mass displacement and civilian up to parliamentary elections in August. casualties; human rights abuses were Earlier incidents of violence and intimidation perpetrated by all parties to these conflicts. against religious minorities were not Government forces destroyed civilian investigated. Deaths, injuries and property buildings, including schools, hospitals and loss sustained by Muslim residents of clinics in conflict areas, and obstructed Aluthgama Dharga Town and Beruwala in humanitarian access to civilians needing riots in June 2014 went unpunished. support because of the ongoing hostilities.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS BACKGROUND In May, the rape and murder of 17-year-old Parliament approved controversial Sivayoganathan Vidhya on the island of amendments to the 2005 National Interim Pungudutivu prompted large demonstrations Constitution in January 2015. These demanding justice for cases of violence increased the powers of the National against women and girls. Local police were Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and criticized for refusing to search for the granted the President greater powers to missing teenager, reportedly telling her family appoint and remove senior officials, including that she probably ran off with a lover. In state governors and other senior September, the rape and murder of a five- constitutional, judicial, military, police and year-old girl in Kotadeniyawa led to calls for security posts. The constitutional amendment the death penalty to be reinstated, even after to Article 151 transformed the NISS from an it became known that police had tortured two intelligence agency focused on information suspects in an attempt to force false gathering, analysis and advice to a fully confessions. fledged security agency exercising functions Evidence continued to mount that sexual usually carried out by the armed forces or law violence may have been used systematically enforcement agencies. against Tamils (detainees, surrendered LTTE In April, presidential and parliamentary members and civilians) during and in the elections took place. President Omar al- immediate aftermath of the conflict, Bashir was re-elected for five years amid strengthening calls for a justice mechanism to reports of low voter turnout, fraud and vote- address war crimes. The 7 October conviction rigging. The main political opposition parties of four soldiers for the 2010 gang-rape of a boycotted the elections. In the run-up to woman in a Kilinochchi resettlement camp April’s presidential election, the government

342 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 restricted freedoms of expression, association the entire print run of 14 newspapers from and peaceful assembly and arrested dozens the printers, without explanation. Some of the of political opponents.1 newspapers were directly or indirectly funded The climate of impunity fostered by lack of and supported by the ruling political party, accountability for crimes under international the National Congress Party (NCP). On 25 law and other serious human rights violations May, NISS agents confiscated the entire print remained prevalent in conflict areas. The UN run of nine newspapers in Khartoum. High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in August that, during 2014, there FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION had been at least 411 violent incidents in The suppression of civil society increased Darfur in which 980 individuals had been during the year. In January, the NISS shut injured or killed. These included abductions, down three civil society organizations on the physical assaults and armed attacks against basis that they were violating their registration civilians, particularly the internally displaced. licences. They were the Mahmoud Mohamed Few of these cases were investigated or Taha Cultural Centre, the National Civic resulted in arrests. In South Kordofan and Forum and the Sudanese Writers’ Union. In Blue Nile states, the conflicts continued with June, the Sudanese Consumer Protection devastating impacts on civilians and limited Society was shut down and two of its prospects of peaceful solutions.2 Fighting members were arrested and interrogated by began in mid-2011 and the last direct peace the NISS. They were released without charge talks between the government of Sudan and after seven days. The Confederation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement- Sudanese Civil Society Organizations reported North (SPLM-N), under the auspices of the in July that, since the beginning of 2015, AU High-Level Implementation Panel more than 40 registered organizations had (AUHIP), were suspended in November failed to renew their licence due to 2015. cumbersome legal procedures or obstruction by the government’s regulatory body, the FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Humanitarian Aid Commission. The NISS intensified its harassment and censorship of newspapers which regularly FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY faced arbitrary confiscation of their The police and NISS agents repeatedly publications. At least 21 different newspapers repressed freedom of assembly before and had editions confiscated by the NISS on 56 during the elections held from 13-17 April. different occasions. Newspapers also faced Opposition political parties were repeatedly arbitrary requirements imposed by the NISS. prevented from organizing public events For example, they were forbidden from during the pre-election campaign period from reporting critically on the conduct of the 24 February to 10 April. On 28 February, the security services, the armed forces, the police police forcibly dispersed a meeting of and the President. Further, they were banned opposition political parties in Dongola, capital from reporting corruption cases, human rights of Northern state, seriously injuring many violations and the situation in conflict areas. participants . On 12 March, the police in Al Midan newspaper, affiliated with the North Kordofan forcibly prevented members Sudanese Communist Party, was prevented of the National Umma Party from organizing a from publishing in January and February. Its public event. Police arrested 50 party editor, Madeeha Abdallah , faced several members and closed the party’s office. On 2 charges under the 1991 Criminal Act April, local authorities in Al Nihoud in West including undermining the constitutional Kordofan state prohibited a public event order, which carries the death penalty. arranged by the Sudanese Congress Party to On 16 February, NISS agents confiscated publicize its boycott of the election.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 343 In August, the NISS prohibited a political convicted three members of the opposition symposium of the Sudanese Congress Party SCP including its political secretary, Mastour (SCP) and arrested three senior members. Ahmed Mohamed. They were convicted of Also in August, the Minister of Justice disturbing the public peace and each dissolved one of the oldest trade unions in the subjected to 20 lashes. country, the Sudanese Farmers’ Union, which had been in existence since 1954. On 5 ARMED CONFLICT September, the authorities shut down the Armed conflicts persisted in Darfur, Blue Nile Republican Party’s offices in Omdurman. and South Kordofan, with devastating impacts on civilians across Sudan, ranging from loss ARBITRARY ARRESTS, TORTURE AND of life to denial of humanitarian assistance OTHER ILL-TREATMENT and lack of access to basic social services The NISS carried out arbitrary arrests and such as education and health care. The UN detentions, a number of which were politically Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian motivated. Some detainees were released Affairs was targeting support to an estimated without charge. None appear to have received 5.4 million people affected by conflict in compensation and no security officers Sudan in 2015. appeared to have been held to account. Farouk Abu Issa, leader of the opposition South Kordofan and Blue Nile alliance National Consensus Forces (NCF), Dr Government forces continued to attack rebel- Amin Maki Madani, head of the Alliance of held areas of the Nuba Mountains in South Sudanese Civil Society Organizations, and Kordofan and Blue Nile using ground troops Farah Al-Aggar, former senior member of the and indiscriminate aerial attacks. NCP in Blue Nile state, were released on 9 Amnesty International visited South April, after spending 124 days in detention. Kordofan in early May and documented They had been arrested in December 2014.3 serious violations of international They were arrested after signing a document humanitarian law and human rights, calling for democratic transformation, including aerial and ground attacks targeted dismantling of the de facto one-party state against civilians and civilian objects and the and an end to conflict in Sudan. Both Dr denial of humanitarian access. Lack of Amin Maki Madani and Farouk Abu Issa had humanitarian access perpetuated other been charged with capital offences under the human rights violations, including violations of 1991 Penal Code including “undermining the the rights to health, education, food, safe constitutional system”. water and adequate housing. Amnesty In total, at least 30 political activists were International concluded that the Sudanese arrested across the country during the government was committing war crimes in election period. In North Darfur, students at South Kordofan.4 Al Fasher University organized peaceful Amnesty International obtained evidence protests on 14 April calling for a boycott of the suggesting that government aircraft presidential elections and a change of deliberately bombed hospitals and other government. The police and NISS arrested 20 humanitarian facilities, and dropped cluster students and charged them with various bombs on civilian areas of South Kordofan’s offences under the Criminal Act, including Nuba Mountains in February, March and establishing a “criminal and terrorist June 2015. Between January and April, the organization”, rioting and causing a public air force dropped 374 bombs in 60 locations nuisance. They were subjected to torture and across South Kordofan. Since 2011, the air other ill-treatment while in detention. They force has bombed 26 health facilities were all released pending trial. (hospitals, clinics and health units). By 2015 On 6 July, a court in Khartoum tried and there were only two hospitals operating to

344 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 serve a population of 1.2 million people. 2015 report, the UN Panel of Experts on the A Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital Sudan characterized the government strategy was bombed in January: a Sudan Air Force in Darfur as one of “collective punishment of fighter jet dropped 13 bombs, of which two villages and communities from which the landed inside the hospital compound and the armed opposition groups are believed to others just outside the hospital fence. come or operate” and “induced or forced The aerial bombardments also had a displacement of those communities”, with debilitating impact on the right to education in “direct engagement, including aerial South Kordofan. There were six secondary bombardment, of [armed rebel] groups when schools in SPLM-N-controlled areas when the their location can be identified". conflict began, of which only three were still Gender-based and sexual violence operational in 2015. The number of children remained widespread in Darfur. After her visit in secondary schools in SPLM-N-controlled to Sudan in May, the UN Special Rapporteur areas fell from 3,000 to about 300-500, while on violence against women urged the 30 primary schools were closed with government to set up a Commission of Inquiry enrolment numbers dropping by 23,000 to investigate allegations of mass rape, since 2011. including allegations that more than 200 The use of aerial bombardment and flights women and girls were raped in late 2014 in over civilian villages and communities has the village of Thabit. been a consistent practice of the Sudan Air Force since 2011 and had a profound psychological impact over the course of the 1. Sudan: Entrenched repression: Freedom of expression and association conflict. Aerial bombardments in May and under unprecedented attack (AFR 54/1364/2015) June 2015 disrupted cultivation activities 2. Sudan: Don’t we matter? Four years of unrelenting attacks against before the rainy season. civilians in Sudan’s South Kordofan state (AFR 54/2162/2015) Fighting continued intermittently in Blue 3. Health fears for detained opposition leaders (AFR 54/002/2015) Nile state between SPLM-N and government 4. Sudan: Don't we matter? Four years of unrelenting attacks against armed forces, resulting in the displacement of civilians in Sudan's South Kordofan state (AFR 54/2162/2015) an estimated 60,000 civilians. In May, armed clashes in Blue Nile led to the deaths of 22 civilians and the displacement of 19,000. SWAZILAND

Darfur Kingdom of Swaziland The armed conflict in Darfur entered its 12th Head of state: King Mswati III year. Although large-scale fighting between Head of government : Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini the government and armed groups had subsided, there were sporadic clashes, acts Some prisoners of conscience and political of banditry and incidents of intercommunal prisoners were released but repressive violence. Restrictions on freedom of legislation continued to be used to suppress movement and political liberties persisted dissent. Freedoms of expression, association throughout Darfur. An estimated 223,000 and peaceful assembly continued to be people were displaced from their homes by restricted. conflict during the year, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons in BACKGROUND Darfur to 2.5 million. The USA ended Swaziland’s preferential trade In December 2014, the government re- agreement under the African Growth and launched Operation Decisive Summer, Opportunity Act (AGOA) in January, citing the attacking villages in Jebel Marra and East country’s failure to implement promised Jebel Marra by air and land. In its January human rights reforms. The loss of preferential

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 345 access to the US market for textiles led to were assisting the prosecution in the case factory closures and job losses. Following against Sibusiso Shongwe, who was arrested international pressure, the government for a second time, in August, on further responded by releasing a number of charges of corruption. He was again released prisoners, including prisoners of conscience. on bail. The government flagrantly violated the The suspension and dismissal of the Chief basic constitutional rights of unions and their Justice meant that the Supreme Court leaders, teachers, political parties and civil postponed hearing appeals from May to July. society, but largely escaped sustained A number of Swazi judicial officers were criticism in international media. This was appointed to the Supreme Court in late June, partly because, on the surface, Swazi society fulfilling requirements under the 2006 appeared close-knit and relatively Constitution. homogenous. UNFAIR TRIALS LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS Politically motivated trials and laws that violate A rule of law crisis that started in 2011 the principle of legality continued to be used persisted and took a new turn in April with the to suppress dissent. There were some signs arrest of several judicial officers. It resulted in of improvement with the release of prisoners the suspension and subsequent dismissal of of conscience and political prisoners, but Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi, a Lesotho these gains remained fragile without national, for “serious misbehaviour”. fundamental legislative reform and full On 17 April, the High Court issued an commitment to human rights standards. arrest warrant against Chief Justice Editor Bheki Makhubu and human rights Ramodibedi and High Court Judge Mpendulo lawyer Thulani Maseko were released on Simelane on 23 charges brought by the Anti- 30 June following an appeal hearing before Corruption Commission, including defeating the Supreme Court. The Crown Prosecutor the ends of justice and abuse of power. The conceded that the state had no case against Chief Justice evaded arrest by refusing to them. The two men had been arrested in leave his home. On 7 May, the government March 2014 and convicted of contempt of suspended Chief Justice Ramodibedi, court after a blatantly unfair trial. They were replacing him with an acting Chief Justice, arrested after publishing articles in The Bheki Maphalala. Following an inquiry by the Nation magazine, questioning judicial Judicial Services Commission into three independence and political accountability in charges of abuse of office, King Mswati III Swaziland. The fine imposed on the magazine dismissed Michael Ramodibedi on 17 June. was also overturned. On 20 April, Judge Mpendulo Simelane The authorities continued to use the 2008 and the Minister of Justice, Sibusiso Suppression of Terrorism Act and the 1938 Shongwe, were arrested on charges including Sedition and Subversive Activities Act to limit abuse of power and defeating the course of freedoms of expression, association and justice. High Court Judge Jacobus Annandale peaceful assembly by arresting or threatening and High Court Registrar Fikile Nhlabatsi to arrest human rights defenders and political were also arrested on charges of defeating the activists exercising their rights. Pre-trial ends of justice after they tried to overturn the proceedings continued in five separate cases arrest warrant against Chief Justice of 13 people charged under these laws after Ramodibedi. They were all later released on arrests dating back to 2009. All the accused bail. Sibusiso Shongwe was dismissed as were out on bail but appeared in court on Minister of Justice by King Mswati III on remand. Ten were charged under both laws 21 April. Charges against Jacobus Annandale for acts such as shouting slogans in support and Fikile Nhlabatsi were dropped. The two of the proscribed opposition party, the

346 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 People’s United Democratic Movement June, a Mozambican national, Luciano (PUDEMO), possessing PUDEMO leaflets, Reginaldo Zavale, died in police custody after wearing PUDEMO t-shirts or calling for a being arrested for possession of a stolen boycott of elections in 2013. All trials were laptop. Independent forensic evidence postponed pending the outcome of a indicated that he did not die of natural constitutional challenge to the two laws. The causes. An inquest into his death started in High Court began hearing the application in September. September but postponed the matter to February 2016. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Among those charged were several people Torture in police custody also persisted. In involved in PUDEMO, including Secretary March, while in custody at Big Bend Prison, General Mlungisi Makhanya, president Mario lawyer Thulani Maseko was held in solitary Masuku and youth leader Maxwell Dlamini. confinement for three weeks as punishment Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini were for an alleged breach of prison rules. He had arrested on 1 May 2014 and remanded in no access to legal counsel during the custody in connection with slogans they disciplinary proceedings and the length of his allegedly shouted at a Workers’ Day rally. confinement can be regarded as a form of They were released on bail on 14 July 2015 torture and other ill-treatment.1 by the Supreme Court. They had PUDEMO president Mario Masuku was unsuccessfully applied for bail twice in 2014, denied access to adequate and independent and had appealed the High Court’s refusal to medical care for complications relating to release them to the Supreme Court. diabetes throughout his 14 months in pre-trial detention at Zakhele Remand Centre and FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION Matsapha Central Prison. Police prevented members of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) WOMEN’S RIGHTS from meeting in February and March. The Despite high levels of gender-based violence, Secretary General of the Swaziland National the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Association of Teachers (SNAT), Muzi Bill had not been enacted by the end of the Mhlanga, was assaulted by police during an year. The Bill had been under discussion by attempt by TUCOSWA to hold a meeting at Parliament since 2006. The original the SNAT offices in Manzini on 14 March. progressive draft has been diluted and the Bill After effectively being banned for over three now contains a narrow definition of rape and years, TUCOSWA was finally registered by the excludes marital rape, among other concerns. Swaziland Ministry of Labour and Social Security on 12 May. DEATH PENALTY One person remained under sentence of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION death. No death sentences were imposed Human rights defenders, political activists, during the year. Two death sentences were religious leaders and trade union officials commuted to life imprisonment by the King. were threatened with violence by police, arrest or other forms of pressure as a consequence of their advocacy of human 1. Swaziland: Amnesty International condemns repression of rights, respect for the rule of law or political fundamental freedoms (AFR 55/1345/2015). reforms.

DEATHS IN CUSTODY Deaths in police custody under suspicious circumstances remained a concern. On 12

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 347 process in rape cases, and reviewing the SWEDEN penal provisions relating to the offence of rape, including by considering a requirement Kingdom of Sweden for genuine consent to the sexual act. Head of state: King Carl XVI Gustaf In October, the current affairs television Head of government: Stefan Löfven programme Kalla Fakta (Hard Facts) broadcast an investigation which showed A police database of Romani individuals doctors in three private clinics offering to received strong criticism from the perform “virginity tests” on teenage girls, Parliamentary Ombudsman. The work of a against the girls’ will and at the request of commission tasked with reviewing and parents or older relatives. The programme recommending improvements to the alleged that doctors engaged in the practice criminal justice system’s investigation and were failing to report such cases to social prosecution of rape remained ongoing. welfare authorities. All three clinics were reported to the Health and Social Care DISCRIMINATION Inspectorate (IVO). The investigations of the On 17 March, the Parliamentary Ombudsman IVO, a government agency for overseeing issued a decision strongly criticizing the health care and social services, were ongoing maintenance of a database of Romani at the end of the year. The National Board of individuals by the Skåne police department, Health and Welfare was assessing the need to which had come to light following a improve awareness of or issue further September 2013 investigatory journalism guidance on consent and forced or intrusive exposé.1 The database registered the names physical examinations in the health care of more than 4,000 people, the majority of system. whom had no recorded criminal convictions. The Ombudsman placed ultimate TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT responsibility on the Skåne County Police In August, a senior judge tasked by the Commissioner, but also apportioned government to assist the Ministry of Justice responsibility to the Chief of the Criminal issued a memorandum proposing that torture Intelligence Unit and police staff working on be defined and specified as a crime in the database. The Ombudsman’s report – domestic law. This was in response to unlike earlier reviews by the Commission on longstanding criticism by human rights Security and Integrity Protection and a organizations and the UN Committee against prosecutor – found that, in practice, the Torture, including in its concluding database ended up being based on ethnicity, observations of December 2014 on Sweden’s in this case of an already marginalized ethnic periodic report. group.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS 1. Sweden: Sharp criticism by Parliamentary Ombudsman of Skåne The work of a parliamentary commission police database of Romanis (EUR 42/1249/2015) established by the government in 2014 to examine how rape investigations and prosecutions are dealt with by the criminal SWITZERLAND justice system remained ongoing. The commission, set up following an initiative by Swiss Confederation the Parliamentary Committee on Justice, was Head of state and government: Simonetta Sommaruga tasked with analyzing high rates of attrition in investigating and prosecuting reported rapes, Sweeping new surveillance legislation was recommending improvements to the legal passed. Concerns remained about excessive

348 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 use of force by police, including during NCPT also reiterated concerns about a lack of deportations, and inadequate police uniformity in deportation practices by police accountability mechanisms. Victims of forces in different cantons (administrative trafficking in human beings and foreign regions). nationals who were victims of domestic violence faced obstacles to accessing REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS protection. Administrative detention LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Civil society organizations and the UN INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS Committee against Torture expressed concern In March, the Swiss People’s Party, which about the excessive use of detention for ended the year as the largest single party in irregular migrants in some cantons, the Federal Assembly, launched a popular particularly in relation to the return of asylum- initiative seeking to place the Swiss seekers to EU countries under the Dublin constitution above any international law regulation. The Committee criticized obligations. The so-called “self-determination Switzerland for permitting the detention for up initiative would require a public referendum in to one year of asylum-seeking children aged order to be passed; the surrounding debate, between 15 and 18. however, contributed to a climate of hostility towards international human rights treaties Trafficking in human beings including the European Convention on Civil society organizations criticized a federal Human Rights. directive issued to cantons in July concerning victims of trafficking. The new measures TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT made victims’ access to humanitarian In August, the UN Committee against Torture protection contingent on being willing to criticized Switzerland’s ongoing failure to testify in criminal proceedings against incorporate the crime of torture into the Penal traffickers. Victims of trafficking already in an Code. The Committee expressed concerns asylum procedure were excluded from about inadequate resourcing of the National humanitarian protection measures. Commission for the Prevention of Torture (NCPT), the national preventive mechanism. Domestic violence The Committee also called on the Swiss In August, the UN Committee against Torture authorities to establish an effective criticized the authorities for maintaining a independent police complaints mechanism; “severity” threshold to assess domestic to amend legislation and improve training of violence suffered by foreign nationals. Under judiciary and law enforcement officials to the Foreigners Law, violence must meet a increase the rate of prosecutions for violence certain threshold in order for survivors to be against women; and to integrate the Istanbul able to separate from their violent partner Protocol into training for law enforcement without fear of losing their residence permits. officials. RIGHT TO PRIVACY POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES In September, Parliament adopted a new In July, the NCPT issued a report raising surveillance law which granted sweeping concerns about the inappropriate use of powers to the Federal Intelligence Service restraints by police and security forces during including the interception of data on internet deportation. The report documented cases of cables entering or leaving Switzerland, to the total immobilization of vulnerable people access metadata, internet histories and and the use of restraints against people who content of emails, and to use government offered no resistance to deportation. The spyware (Trojans).

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 349 areas controlled by armed opposition groups SYRIA and on IS targets, in which hundreds of civilians were killed. By the end of the year, Syrian Arab Republic the UN estimated that the conflict had Head of state: Bashar al-Assad caused the deaths of 250,000 people, Head of government: Wael Nader al-Halqi forced 7.6 million people to become internally displaced and led 4.6 million Government forces and non-state armed people to become refugees abroad. groups committed war crimes, other violations of international humanitarian law BACKGROUND and gross human rights abuses with Syria’s internal armed conflict, which began impunity in the internal armed conflict. after anti-government protests in 2011, raged Government forces carried out throughout the year. Government forces and indiscriminate attacks and attacks that their allies, including Lebanese Hizbullah and directly targeted civilians, including Iranian fighters, controlled the centre of the bombardment of civilian residential areas capital Damascus and much of western Syria, and medical facilities with artillery, mortars, while an array of non-state armed groups barrel bombs and, reportedly, chemical controlled or contested other areas, agents, unlawfully killing civilians. sometimes fighting each other. They included Government forces also enforced lengthy groups primarily fighting government forces, sieges, trapping civilians and depriving such as those affiliated to the Free Syrian them of food, medical care and other Army and others including Ahrar al-Sham; necessities. Security forces arbitrarily Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al- arrested and continued to detain thousands, Qa’ida; IS; and forces of the Autonomous including peaceful activists, human rights Administration established in predominantly defenders, media and humanitarian workers, Kurdish enclaves of northern Syria. and children. Some were subjected to Divisions within the UN Security Council enforced disappearance and others to impeded efforts to pursue peace, but the prolonged detention or unfair trials. Security Council adopted several resolutions on Syria. forces systematically tortured and otherwise In February, Resolution 2199 called on states ill-treated detainees with impunity; to prevent the transfer of arms and funds to thousands of detainees died as a result of IS and Jabhat al-Nusra. In March, Resolution torture and other ill-treatment between 2209 condemned the use of chlorine as a 2011 and 2015. Non-state armed groups weapon of war and said that those that controlled some areas and contested responsible for its use should be held others indiscriminately shelled and besieged accountable, while supporting the use of predominantly civilian areas. The armed military action, economic sanctions or other group Islamic State (IS) besieged civilians means against those who did not comply. In in government-controlled areas, carried out August, Resolution 2235 called for a Joint direct attacks on civilians and Investigative Mechanism to determine indiscriminate attacks including suicide responsibility for the use of chemical weapons bombings, alleged chemical attacks and in Syria. other bombardment of civilian areas, and Efforts by the UN to broker peace, perpetrated numerous unlawful killings, incrementally via a ceasefire in Aleppo or including of captives. US-led forces carried through other multi-party talks, were out air strikes on IS and other targets, in unsuccessful. International negotiations which scores of civilians were killed. In known as the “Vienna Process” were September, Russia commenced air strikes set to lead to direct talks between the Syrian and sea-launched cruise missile attacks on government and opposition forces

350 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 in January 2016. Ghanem market in Duma on 16 August killed The independent international Commission around 100 civilians and wounded hundreds. of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, Aerial bombing accounted for half of all established by the UN Human Rights Council civilian fatalities, according to the Violations in 2011, continued to monitor and report on Documentation Center, a Syrian NGO. violations of international law committed by Government forces also carried out dozens the parties to the conflict, although it of suspected chlorine gas attacks in areas remained barred by the government from controlled by non-state armed groups, entering Syria. particularly in Idleb governorate, causing A US-led international coalition of states civilian casualties. In one attack on 16 March, continued to carry out air strikes against IS government helicopters reportedly dropped and certain other armed groups in northern barrels containing chlorine on and around and eastern Syria. The attacks, which began Sermin, Idleb governorate, killing a family of in September 2014, reportedly killed scores five and injuring around 100 civilians. of civilians. Russia began air strikes in support of the Syrian government on 30 Sieges and denial of humanitarian access September, nominally against IS but mostly Government forces maintained prolonged attacking armed groups fighting both the sieges of predominantly civilian areas in and government and IS and in October fired around Damascus, including Eastern Ghouta, cruise missiles at targets in Syria. The Daraya and Yarmouk, exposing the residents Russian attacks reportedly killed hundreds of to starvation and denying them access to civilians. medical care and other basic services, while Several suspected attacks by Israel inside subjecting them to repeated air strikes, Syria targeted Hizbullah, Syrian government artillery shelling and other attacks. positions and other fighters. Government forces, including Lebanese Hizbullah fighters, began besieging Zabadani INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT – and nearby towns and villages in VIOLATIONS BY GOVERNMENT FORCES southwestern Syria in July, forcibly displacing thousands of civilians to Madaya, which Indiscriminate and direct attacks on civilians government forces also besieged and Government and allied forces continued to bombarded indiscriminately, causing civilian commit war crimes and other serious casualties. violations of international law, including direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate Attacks on medical facilities and workers attacks. Government forces repeatedly Government forces continued to target health attacked areas controlled or contested by facilities and medical workers in areas armed opposition groups, killing and injuring controlled by armed opposition groups. They civilians and damaging civilian objects in repeatedly bombed hospitals and other unlawful attacks. They carried out medical facilities, barred or restricted the indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on inclusion of medical supplies in humanitarian civilian residential areas, including artillery aid deliveries to besieged and hard-to-reach shelling and air strikes, often using unguided, areas, and disrupted or prevented health care high-explosive barrel bombs dropped from provision in these areas by detaining medical helicopters. The attacks caused numerous workers and volunteers. The NGO Physicians civilian deaths and injuries, including of for Human Rights accused government forces children. For example, a barrel bomb attack of systematically attacking the health care on Baideen, Aleppo governorate, on 5 system in areas controlled by armed February killed at least 24 civilians and opposition groups and of responsibility for the injured 80. An air strike on the Sahat al- deaths of the vast majority of the 697 medical

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 351 workers killed in Syria between April 2011 Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and four days and November 2015. later burned to death captured Jordanian Air Force pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh. On 3 March, INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT – ABUSES IS members reportedly threw a man from a BY ARMED GROUPS tower in Tabqa, al-Raqqa governorate, and Non-state armed groups committed war then stoned him to death because of his real crimes, other violations of international or perceived sexual orientation humanitarian law and serious human rights On 5 July in al-Raqqa, IS summarily killed abuses. Faisal Hussein al-Habib and Bashir Abd al- Ladhim al-Salem, two peaceful activists who Use of indiscriminate weapons and direct had reportedly documented IS abuses. attacks on civilians On 5 July, IS released a video that showed IS forces carried out direct attacks on civilians some of its child soldiers apparently shooting as well as indiscriminate attacks. IS reportedly dead captured government soldiers in front of also launched chemical attacks using a crowd in an amphitheatre in Palmyra. IS chlorine and mustard agents. The Syrian forces deliberately destroyed ancient temples American Medical Society said that its staff and other cultural artefacts at Palmyra, a treated more than 50 civilians with symptoms UNESCO World Heritage site, after capturing indicating exposure to chemicals after IS it in May. In August, IS decapitated Khaled al- forces fired mortar and artillery shells into Asaad, the head of antiquities at Palmyra, Marea, a town in Aleppo governorate, on 21 having detained him since May. August. One baby died from the exposure. Other armed groups also committed IS forces repeatedly attacked Kurdish- unlawful killings. In June, Jabhat al-Nusra controlled areas. At least 262 civilians were reportedly shot dead 20 civilians of the Druze killed in direct attacks by IS on civilians in the faith at Kalb Loze, Idleb. Jaysh al-Islam town of Kobani on 25 June. summarily killed alleged IS members they IS and other armed groups used imprecise had captured, according to images released explosive weapons including mortars and from 25 June. In September, Jaysh al-Fateh artillery shells in attacks on residential areas, fighters led by Jabhat al-Nusra summarily killing and injuring civilians. In August, armed killed 56 captured government soldiers after groups reportedly fired hundreds of mortar seizing the Abu al-Dhuhr Air Base in Idleb on shells into Fu’ah and Kefraya, two 9 September. predominantly Shi’a villages, and killed 18 civilians in indiscriminate attacks on Deraa Sieges and denial of humanitarian access city. IS forces besieged some 228,000 people in government-controlled western Unlawful killings neighbourhoods of Deyr al-Zur city. Local IS forces summarily killed captured activists said five civilians died in July from government soldiers, members of rival armed lack of food and medical care. IS closed groups, and media workers and other health facilities and reportedly barred women captured civilians. In areas of al-Raqqa, Deyr medical workers from working in areas it al-Zur and eastern Aleppo which it controlled, controlled, curtailing civilians’ access to IS enforced its strict interpretation of Islamic medical care. law, carrying out frequent public execution- For most of the year non-state armed style killings, including of people they groups also besieged some 26,000 people in accused of apostasy, adultery or theft, or Zahraa and Nobel, northwest of Aleppo. because of their real or perceived sexual orientation. Abductions On 30 January, IS decapitated abducted Several non-state armed groups including IS

352 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 engaged in abductions and hostage-taking. 30 April, coalition air strikes on suspected IS On 23 February, IS forces abducted some targets in Bir Mahli, Aleppo governorate, 253 civilians from mostly Assyrian villages reportedly killed 64 civilians. along the Khabur river in al-Hasakeh. Some 48 were later released but there were fears for ATTACKS BY RUSSIAN FORCES the fate of those still missing, particularly after Russia intervened in the conflict in support of IS released a video about the abductees in the Syrian government, beginning a campaign October showing three unidentified bodies. of air strikes on 30 September primarily There was no news of the fate or against armed opposition groups. The same whereabouts of human rights defender Razan day, Russian air strikes on Talbiseh, Zafraneh Zaitouneh, her husband Wa’el Hamada, and Rastan in Homs governorate reportedly Nazem Hamadi or Samira Khalil. The four killed at least 43 civilians. were abducted by unidentified armed men on On 7 October, Russian forces fired cruise 9 December 2013. They were taken from the missiles into Syria from ships in the Caspian office of the Violations Documentation Center Sea. One missile strike killed five civilians and and Local Development and Small Projects destroyed at least 12 homes in Darat Izza, Support Office in Duma, an area controlled by Aleppo governorate. On 20 October, two Jaysh al-Islam and other armed groups. suspected Russian air strikes hit the immediate vicinity of Sermin field hospital in INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT – ABUSES Idleb governorate, killing 13 civilians and BY THE PYD-LED AUTONOMOUS putting the hospital out of action. On 29 ADMINISTRATION November, a suspected Russian war plane In northern Syria, an Autonomous fired three missiles into a busy market in Administration led by the Democratic Union Ariha, Idleb governorate, killing 49 civilians. Party (PYD) controlled the predominantly Altogether, the Russian attacks reportedly Kurdish Afrin, Kobani (also known as Ayn al- killed at least 600 civilians and struck at least Arab) and Jazeera enclaves. The 12 medical facilities in areas controlled or Administration’s security forces and police contested by non-state armed groups. forcibly displaced people from 10 villages and towns, including Husseiniya in February, and REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED prevented displaced residents from returning PEOPLE to their homes in Suluk, a town in al-Raqqa The continuing conflict caused massive governorate, in July after forcing IS to population displacement. Some 4.6 million withdraw from the area. They also carried out people fled Syria between 2011 and the end arbitrary arrests, detentions and unfair trials of 2015, including 1 million who became of suspected supporters of armed groups and refugees during 2015, according to UNHCR, others. The Administration’s security forces the UN refugee agency. Some 7.6 million, reportedly used child soldiers. according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, were ATTACKS BY INTERNATIONAL COALITION internally displaced within Syria. Half of those FORCES displaced were children. Turkey, Lebanon The US-led international coalition continued and Jordan, the countries hosting the most its air strikes against IS and certain other refugees from Syria, restricted access to armed groups in northern and eastern Syria, refugees fleeing the continuing conflict, which it had begun in September 2014. exposing them to further attacks and Some attacks resulted in civilian casualties. deprivation in Syria. Lebanon and Jordan The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights continued to block the entry of Palestinian reported that 243 civilians were killed in refugees from Syria, rendering them coalition attacks in Syria during the year. On especially vulnerable. At least 500,000 Syrian

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 353 refugees crossed by water or land into Europe Court or Military Field Courts. but many European countries and other Bassel Khartabil, a peaceful online freedom countries in the region failed to accommodate of expression activist, remained arbitrarily a fair share of those fleeing. detained since his arrest in March 2012. He was taken before a Military Field Court very ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES briefly in late 2012 but was not told the Government forces held thousands of outcome of the hearing. On 3 October 2015 detainees without trial, often in conditions that he was moved from Adra Prison to an amounted to enforced disappearance. Tens undisclosed location. of thousands of people remained subjected to The authorities released human rights enforced disappearance, some since the defender Mazen Darwish, head of the Syrian outbreak of the conflict in 2011. They Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, included peaceful critics and opponents of on 10 August, and Hani al-Zitani and Hussein the government as well as family members Gharir, two members of the Centre, in July. detained in place of relatives wanted by the All three had been held since February 2012 authorities. and were on trial before the Anti-Terrorism Those who remained forcibly disappeared Court. The charges against them were later since 2012 included Abd al-Aziz al-Khayyir, dropped. Iyad Ayash and Maher Tahan, members of the National Co-ordination Body for DEATH PENALTY Democratic Change, who were arrested at an The death penalty remained in force for many Air Force Intelligence checkpoint on 20 offences but few details emerged of death September 2012. sentences passed, and there was no information on executions. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The Anti-Terrorism Court reportedly Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees by sentenced to death 20 detainees held at government security and intelligence Hama central prison for engaging in peaceful agencies and in state prisons remained protests after grossly unfair trials in May and systematic and widespread. Torture and other June. ill-treatment continued to result in a high incidence of detainee deaths. Salaheddin al-Tabbaa, a 22-year-old TAIWAN student and Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer, died in detention in April according Taiwan to a death certificate the authorities gave to Head of state: Ma Ying-jeou his family in July. The certificate said he died Head of government: Mao Chi-kuo of a heart attack. He was in good health when government security forces detained him in Freedom of peaceful assembly continued to September 2014. The authorities did not be curtailed. Executions were carried out return his body to his family, saying it had and death sentences imposed. been buried. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS On 10 February, the Taipei District Tens of thousands of civilians, including Prosecutors Office indicted 119 people in peaceful activists, were detained by connection with a protest movement against government security forces. Many were held the adoption of a trade and services deal with in prolonged pre-trial detention, where they China. The so-called “Sunflower Movement” were tortured and otherwise ill-treated. Others had organized protests that took place from received unfair trials before the Anti-Terrorism 18 March to 10 April 2014 at the Legislative

354 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Yuan (Parliament), as well as the occupation out unrelated executions even though in of the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) and other some instances the appeals process had not similar protests that year. The charges been exhausted. The Minister of Justice included instigating others to commit a crime, denied that the executions were carried out to trespassing, obstruction of officers assuage public sentiment and stated they had discharging their duty and violating the been planned well in advance. Assembly and Parade Act. On 5 May, a The High Court rejected a motion for a further 39 people were indicted on the charge retrial in the case of Chiou Ho-shun, the of trespassing, in relation to the occupation of longest-serving death row inmate in Taiwan, the Executive Yuan. Of the 39 people who had been sentenced to death in 1989 for indicted, 24 had filed private criminal lawsuits robbery, kidnapping and murder. Chiou Ho- against former Premier Jiang Yi-huah and shun’s lawyers had requested a retrial after other high-ranking officials, seeking justice two police officers said they were willing to and accountability for injuries sustained in the testify that Chiou Ho-shun had told them at clearing of the Executive Yuan complex. the time that he had been tortured and forced Courts continued to reject the private to “confess”. criminal lawsuits against the former Premier In September, the High Court overturned and other high-ranking officials, but in August the conviction of Hsu Tzu-chiang, who had lawyer Lin Ming-hui won NT$300,000 been on death row for 20 years for (approximately US$9,200) in an kidnapping and murder. Hsu Tzu-chiang was administrative lawsuit seeking state found not guilty due to discrepancies in the compensation for a head injury sustained in testimony of witnesses against him, and lack the Executive Yuan incident. The Taipei City of forensic evidence. In the same month the government chose not to appeal. Another 30 High Prosecutors Office appealed the people subsequently filed lawsuits seeking decision to the Supreme Court, which was state compensation. pending at the end of the year. By the end of the year no thorough, independent and impartial investigation had taken place into the police use of excessive TAJIKISTAN force during the removal of protesters from the Executive Yuan and surrounding areas on Republic of Tajikistan 23/24 March 2014, or into actions of the Head of state: Emomali Rahmon authorities during the “Sunflower Movement” Head of government: Qokhir Rasulzoda protests as a whole. On 23 July, three journalists who were Authorities continued to impose sweeping covering a demonstration at the Ministry of restrictions on freedom of expression. Education were arrested on charges of Several prominent human rights NGOs were trespassing when they followed a splinter targeted for “inspections” by various group of protesters who had climbed over a authorities, and some were “advised” to fence and entered the Ministry building. After close down. Members of opposition groups the journalists refused to pay bail, they were faced increasing harassment, violence and released without charge. On the following day even death, both in Tajikistan and in exile. the Mayor of Taipei apologized for the Some political opposition activists and those “violation of freedom of reporting” that had accused of religious extremism were occurred. abducted and forcibly returned from several former Soviet countries. Lawyers DEATH PENALTY representing opposition activists or those Amid public anger at the murder of an eight- charged with anti-state offences were year-old girl in Taipei, the authorities carried themselves at risk of harassment,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 355 intimidation and punitive arrest. Torture and providers to block access to certain news or other ill-treatment remained widespread, social media sites, but evidence to the and lawyers were repeatedly denied access contrary continued to emerge. Various media to their clients. and social media sites were blocked in May, after a video was posted by a former high- BACKGROUND ranking police official announcing that he had The country faced increasing economic joined the armed group Islamic State (IS) in difficulties. Due to the recession in Russia Syria. and other traditional destinations for labour migrants, foreign remittances (the equivalent FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION of half the country’s GDP) fell by 40-60% in Amendments to the Law on Public US dollar terms according to different Associations, enacted in August, oblige NGOs estimates, and many of the labour migrants – registered as public associations with the reportedly over a million in Russia alone – Ministry of Justice to notify it about any were expected to start returning to Tajikistan. foreign funding they receive. In June, the Parliamentary elections were held on Ministry proposed a new law requiring that all 1 March in an atmosphere of increasing non-profit organizations, including NGOs, reprisals against any political dissent, with register with it. NGOs in Tajikistan feared that, only pro-government parties gaining seats in if passed, the law would give the government the newly elected legislature. the means to deny them registration and thus The government reported attacks by armed prevent them from operating legally. groups against police on 4 September in and Several prominent NGOs were subjected to near Dushanbe, the capital, with at least 26 “inspections” by various government bodies, people killed, including nine police officers. including the Ministry of Justice, the Tax Little independent information on the incident Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office, emerged, due to the government’s control of and the State Committee on National the media. The authorities blamed the Security, under the pretext of “national violence on former Deputy Minister of security considerations”. Some NGOs were Defence Abdukhalim Nazarzoda, who informally “advised” to close down. In June, escaped the scene but was killed in a security the Tax Committee initiated liquidation operation on 16 September. proceedings against the public foundation Nota Bene. In August, the Bureau on Human FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Rights and Rule of Law was issued a fine of Freedom of expression remained severely TJS 42,639 (over US$6,000) for purported restricted and access to information was tax violations that were never explained. increasingly controlled by the authorities. Independent media outlets and journalists REPRESSION OF DISSENT who were critical of the authorities faced Members of opposition groups, including intimidation and harassment, including Group 24 (banned by the Supreme Court as personal attacks in pro-government media, “extremist” in October 2014) and the Islamic particularly ahead of the parliamentary Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), faced elections. Regulations were introduced in increasing harassment and violence. June requiring state agencies to submit all The leader of the political movement Youth public communications to Khovar, the state for Tajikistan Revival, Maksud Ibragimov, who information agency, and mandating media held Russian citizenship and lived in Moscow, outlets to report on official events exclusively Russia, where he survived an assassination based on information vetted by Khovar. attempt in November 2014, was put on The government’s Communications Service Tajikistan’s list of wanted individuals in denied that it had ordered internet service October 2014. According to his family, on

356 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 20 January five men claiming to be Russian TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT immigration officials took him from his flat to Torture and other ill-treatment remained an unknown location. On 30 January, widespread despite the adoption in 2013 of Tajikistani authorities reported that Maksud an Action Plan to implement Ibragimov was in pre-trial detention in recommendations by the UN Committee Dushanbe on charges of “extremism”. In against Torture. By mid-August, the NGO June, he was sentenced to 17 years’ Coalition against Torture registered 25 new imprisonment. cases of torture. In most cases, relatives and On 5 March, Umarali Kuvvatov, an exiled victims declined to file complaints for fear of founding member of Group 24, was shot reprisals, and many more cases of torture dead by unknown men in Istanbul, Turkey.1 were likely to have gone unreported. Criminal He had earlier expressed concerns that the prosecutions against law enforcement officials authorities had ordered his assassination. suspected of torture were rare, and frequently Following months of harassment of its terminated or suspended before completion. members, the IRPT lost its two remaining Lawyers were repeatedly denied access to seats in Parliament in the March elections. their clients in detention, often for several On 28 August, the Ministry of Justice ordered days at a time. Individuals perceived to be the IRPT to cease its activities by 7 threats to national security, including September, claiming it lacked sufficient members of religious movements and Islamist popular support to qualify as a registered groups or parties, were at particular risk of party. In September, 13 high-ranking arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, members of the IRPT were arrested on torture and other ill-treatment. Shortly before charges of involvement in “criminal groups” his own arrest, lawyer Buzurgmekhr Yorov and linking them to the violence on told the media that Umarali Khisainov (also 4 September, which the party’s exiled leader, known as Saidumar Khusaini), one of his Mukhiddin Kabiri, refuted. On 29 September, IRPT clients who was arrested on the IRPT was designated a “terrorist 13 September, had complained about organization” by the Prosecutor General, on beatings and other ill-treatment in police the grounds that several of its members had custody. been involved in groups promoting On 9 April, Shamsiddin Zaydulloev was “extremism”, and that the party had used its arrested without a warrant at his family’s flat newspaper, Salvation, and other media to in Dushanbe, and taken to the Drug Control spread “extremist ideas” and promote Agency building. His mother was able to see religious hatred.2 The designation was later him in detention the same day, where he confirmed by the Supreme Court. confirmed that he had been beaten. After On 13 January, human rights lawyer subsequently being denied access to Shukhrat Kudratov was sentenced to nine Shamsiddin Zaydulloev, his mother hired a years in prison on charges of fraud and lawyer who was not allowed to visit his client bribery. He claimed the charges were without the written permission of the politically motivated and linked to his work for investigator in charge of the case. On the defence of opposition activist and former 13 April, his parents learned that he had died Minister of Energy and Industry Zaid Saidov in police custody and noticed multiple bruises (sentenced in 2013 to 26 years in prison). On on his body in the morgue. They took 28 September, police arrested Buzurgmekhr photographs, hired a new lawyer and Yorov, a lawyer representing detained IRPT demanded a forensic medical examination, members, on unrelated charges of fraud and which concluded that Shamsiddin Zaydulloev forgery, and seized documents relating to the had died of pneumonia. The family contested IRPT cases in violation of Tajikistan’s the findings and the Prosecutor General’s own laws. Office ordered a second forensic examination,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 357 which found on 3 August that Shamsiddin from CCM and joined Ukwana, the opposition Zaydulloev had suffered serious injuries, coalition, as its presidential nominee. Both including five broken ribs and a fractured parties allowed public assemblies to take skull, which may have caused his death. An place, although widespread concern was additional forensic examination was ordered raised about the efficacy of the new biometric to finally establish the cause of his death, and voter registration system, with reports that its outcome was still pending at the end of large constituencies had been unable to the year. register.

DISCRIMINATION 1. Tajikistani dissenters at grave risk after an opposition leader shot Over 50 people were killed on the basis of dead in Turkey (Press release,6 March) witchcraft beliefs between January and June, 2. Opposition party leaders arrested, risk torture (EUR 60/2465/2015); while over 350 were killed in documented Opposition members’ lawyer at risk of torture (EUR 60/2567/2015) incidents of mob violence. There have been no meaningful investigations into these killings. Reports indicated the particular TANZANIA vulnerability of older women in rural areas, as well as of children. United Republic of Tanzania There was one report of a young child with Head of state: John Magufuli (replaced Jakaya Mrisho albinism being killed for body parts in Kikwete in November) February 2015 in the Geita region. A further Head of government: Kassim Majaliwa (replaced three cases were reported across the country Mizengo Peter Pinda in November) in the first half of the year, involving Head of Zanzibar government: Ali Mohamed Shein abduction, mutilation and dismemberment of bodies. The government failed to institute The year was taken up by preparations for adequate safety measures for people living the presidential and parliamentary elections, with albinism. which took place in October. Inefficiencies were reported in the biometric voter FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION registration process, leading to concerns In January, the regional East African that citizens would be prevented from newspaper was banned from circulation in voting. Legislative restrictions on freedom of Tanzania. Through the first half of 2015, expression were introduced. Human rights several journalists were arrested, harassed, violations, including killing and torture, beaten and intimidated on the basis of their against marginalized and minority work. populations continued with impunity. In 2015, four bills were introduced to Parliament that collectively codified BACKGROUND unwarranted and disproportionate restrictions In April, the long-promised referendum on the on the right to freedom of expression. The new Constitution was delayed indefinitely, bills were introduced under a “certificate of following delays in voter registration. A new urgency”, limiting normally available channels referendum date has not yet been clarified. for public consultation. With some laws not Presidential and parliamentary elections being published, there was considerable took place in October. President Kikwete was confusion about their status and contents constitutionally unable to run for a third term. throughout the year. In July, John Magufuli was chosen as the Of particular concern, the Cyber Crimes Act ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party’s 2015 (adopted in April) contains overly vague presidential nominee. Also in July, former provisions, which purport to criminalize the Prime Minister Edward Lowassa defected sharing of “false or misleading” information

358 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 online. The Statistics Act 2015, passed by authorities continued to enjoy wide-ranging Parliament in March, criminalizes and powers and impunity for violations under introduces disproportionate custodial Article 44 of the Interim Constitution and sentences for the publication of “false or further expanded military involvement in the misleading” statistics. administration of justice. At the same time as lifting martial law in most areas of the country on 1 April, authorities issued a series of THAILAND orders, including National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Order 3/2015, which Kingdom of Thailand retained and expanded restrictive excessive Head of state: King Bhumibol Adulyadej powers previously granted by martial law. Head of government: Prayuth Chan-ocha These included limiting redress for individuals whose rights were violated. The government Military authorities extended their powers to further delayed implementation of its excessively restrict rights and silence roadmap to elections following the National dissent in the name of security. Political Reform Council’s rejection in September of transition plans were delayed and repression the draft Constitution. deepened. The numbers of people harassed, The ongoing implementation of other NCPO prosecuted, imprisoned and arbitrarily decrees, including orders on forest detained solely for the peaceful exercise of conservation, led to violations such as forced their rights escalated sharply. Arrests and evictions and crop destruction. prosecutions under the lese-majesty law A bomb attack in August targeting continued to increase. Internal armed worshippers and visitors at the Erawan Shrine conflict continued. in the capital, Bangkok, killed 20 people and injured 125 others. BACKGROUND In January, authorities impeached former INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT Prime Minister Shinawatra and filed charges Armed conflict continued in the southern against her for dereliction of duty related to provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and her government’s rice subsidy scheme for parts of Songkhla. Civilians were also targets farmers. of attacks which were suspected to have been In March, the European Parliament carried out by armed groups. announced it would impose a ban on fish Two paramilitary rangers charged with the imports from Thailand to the EU unless the killings of three boys in Bacho, Narathiwat, in government took sufficient measures to February 2014 were acquitted in January. address human trafficking and forced labour Impunity prevailed for grave human rights of migrant workers in the fishing industry. In violations. June, Thailand remained on Tier 3 of the US Department of State Annual Report on TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Trafficking in Persons for failing to adequately A draft bill criminalizing torture and enforced address persistent and widespread trafficking disappearance was put before Parliament but of individuals for forced labour and sexual had made no further progress by the end of exploitation. In October, the European the year. Parliament issued a non-binding resolution Reports of torture and other ill-treatment by raising concerns about ongoing repression of police and armed forces continued rights. throughout the year.1 Individuals held by the Despite international calls for the lifting of army in incommunicado detention without restrictions – announced as temporary safeguards in unofficial places of detention measures after the May 2014 coup – were at greater risk of torture. In September,

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 359 a temporary military detention facility was increased authority for a committee to take opened for civilian detainees; two detainees cyber security measures that could result in died in custody there in October and the military’s excessive discretion to conduct November. cyber surveillance activities and restrict Those seeking redress for torture continued freedom of expression remained in draft form to face obstacles. In March, Bangkok at the end of the year. Remand Prison officials denied a National Throughout the year, authorities made Human Rights Commissioner access to public comments intimidating the media and document injuries inflicted on political activist calling on them to actively censor “negative” Sansern Sriounren. He said that he was commentary. Military officers actively tortured during incommunicado military conducted surveillance on and harassed detention, including through beatings and public commentators, including academics more than 40 electric shocks. and members of the media; they blocked In several cases of deaths in custody as a websites and enforced bans on media and result of torture, limited steps were taken online criticism.5 towards accountability. However, impunity for Dozens of individuals were charged and perpetrators of these and other instances of prosecuted under Article 116 of the Penal torture prevailed. Code relating to sedition for peaceful acts of dissent, including pro-democracy protests REPRESSION OF DISSENT expressing peaceful opposition to military Peaceful critics of the authorities were at risk rule. The authorities charged and detained 14 of arbitrary detention2 and imprisonment. members of the New Democracy Movement, Many faced arrest, charges and prosecution and several activists from the Resistant throughout the year for a range of activities Citizen group, who carried out separate including staging plays, posting Facebook peaceful public protests in February, March, comments and displaying graffiti.3 May and June. Supporters of both groups In violation of the right to fair trial, civilians were charged, including Baramee Chairat, an were brought before military courts and NGO chairperson and Amnesty International charged with offences against “internal board member; and a retired teacher who security”, “the security of the monarchy” and handed flowers to Resistant Citizen activists infringements of NCPO orders. Detainees during their protest.6 were denied the right to judicial appeal The authorities prioritized enforcement of against judgments for acts committed during Article 112 of the Penal Code – the lese- martial law. The Bangkok Military Court majesty law – and continued to treat criticism summarily dismissed a number of legal of the monarchy as a security offence.7 The petitions questioning its jurisdiction over judicial process for such offences was civilians and seeking a ruling on the marked by secrecy, closed trials and denial of incompatibility of the use of military courts the right to bail. Military courts handed down with Thailand’s international human rights more and longer sentences than in previous obligations. years, including up to 60 years’ NCPO Order 3/2015 authorized military imprisonment. Military courts also increased officers to arbitrarily detain individuals and sentences handed down for lese-majesty censor a variety of media, and criminalized offences by ordering prison terms for separate public political meetings of more than five offences to be served consecutively. people.4 Legislation requiring prior notification Dozens of former parliamentarians, for assemblies and criminalizing unapproved journalists, academics and activists were exercise of the right to peaceful assembly and detained by the military under powers granted protests near government buildings came into by NCPO Order 3/2015 to detain people force in August. Legislation providing for without charge or trial in unofficial places of

360 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 detention for up to one week without any REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS safeguards such as access to lawyers or In May, the Prime Minister ordered a 10-day families. The government justified these crackdown on human trafficking and detentions as a means to control freedom of smuggling camps following the discovery of expression and prevent or punish public shallow graves at sites on the Thai-Malay criticism. border, believed to be abandoned camps Hundreds of people who had been used by traffickers. The senior police arbitrarily detained since the coup continued investigator into the crimes sought political to be subject to restrictions on their rights asylum in Australia, citing fears for his life and imposed as conditions for release. Some were official interference in the investigation. A subjected to surveillance, intimidation and human rights and humanitarian crisis repeated short-term arrests. developed as smugglers responded to the crackdown by abandoning overcrowded boats HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS at sea. Thai authorities prevented abandoned An unidentified gunman shot and killed land Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar and rights activist Chai Bunthonglek of the Bangladeshi passengers from landing in Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand in Thailand and were slow to set up search and Chaiburi, Surat Thani Province, in February. rescue operations for boats in distress. Other members of the group reported ongoing In the absence of legal protection of the harassment and intimidation in connection right to asylum, refugees and asylum-seekers with their support for a community involved in remained vulnerable to harassment, detention a land dispute with an oil palm company. and refoulement. In August and November, Court proceedings were initiated in October authorities deported 109 people of Turkic against at least one military officer for a origin to China, where they were at risk of violent attack in May 2014 on activists of the violations,8 as well as two people with Khon Rak Ban Ked group in Loei Province in UNHCR-recognized refugee status.9 the northeast. The group continued to report Authorities arrested and detained scores of acts of harassment and intimidation by the asylum-seekers throughout the year, military. One member, Surapan Rujichaiwat, including from Pakistan and Somalia. was on trial on defamation charges for a social media post calling for an investigation DEATH PENALTY into the activities of the mining company Death sentences were handed down during Tung Khum. the year. No executions were reported. Two journalists from the online news site Legislation was enacted expanding the scope Phuketwan were acquitted of defamation of crimes for which the death penalty is charges for reproducing a Reuters article applicable. Following a ruling by the Supreme exposing official involvement in human Administrative Court in July, prisoners on trafficking. The Supreme Court also issued an death row may be held in shackles order not to prosecute the NGO Cross Cultural permanently. Foundation and its director, after an army officer had pressed charges against the NGO for raising public concern about allegations of 1. Thailand: Martial law detainees at risk of torture (ASA 39/1266/2015) torture. The Court dismissed charges of 2. Thailand: Post-coup violations continue: is a “temporary situation” criminal defamation against Andy Hall, a UK becoming chronic? (ASA 39/1042/2015) national, but he still faced prosecution and a 3. Thailand: Military’s shutdown of event highlights free speech civil suit and possibly million-dollar fines for crackdown (News story, 4 June) reporting on labour abuses by a pineapple 4. Thailand: Post-coup violations concerns abide one year on and a wholesaler. “temporary situation” is becoming permanent (ASA 39/1811/2015) 5. Thailand: Inter-Parliamentary Union must urge Thailand to stop

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 361 persecution of dissenting former parliamentarians (ASA Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF). 39/2666/2015) In September, a follow-up report by the UN 6. Thailand: Students charged for peaceful protest (ASA 39/1977/2015) Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary 7. Thailand: Lese-majesty convictions assault on freedom (News story, Disappearances noted regret that Timor-Leste 23 February) had yet to debate a draft law on the 8. Thailand must not send Uighurs to Chinese torture (News story, 9 July) establishment of a Public Memory Institute, 9. Thailand/China: Shameful collusion between China and Thailand in intended to implement the CAVR and CTF targeting freedom of expression and ignoring refugee rights must end recommendations. (ASA 39/2914/2015) JUSTICE SYSTEM Torture and other ill-treatment and TIMOR-LESTE unnecessary or excessive use of force by security forces continued to be reported. Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Accountability mechanisms remained weak. Head of state: Taur Matan Ruak Dozens of individuals were arbitrarily Head of government: Rui Maria de Araújo (replaced arrested and tortured or otherwise ill-treated Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão in February) by security forces as part of joint security operations in Baucau district between March Impunity persisted for gross human rights and August. These operations were launched violations committed during the Indonesian in response to attacks allegedly carried out by occupation (1975-1999). Security forces Mauk Moruk (Paulino Gama) and his banned were accused of arbitrary arrests and Maubere Revolutionary Council (KRM) unnecessary or excessive use of force during against police in Laga and Baguia security operations in Baucau district. subdistricts. Local human rights organizations Levels of domestic violence remained high. documented dozens of cases of beatings by security officials who also destroyed property BACKGROUND of suspected KRM members.1 In August, In February, Rui Maria de Araújo, leader of Mauk Moruk was shot and killed. The the Revolutionary Front for an Independent findings of investigations by the Provedor East Timor (FRETILIN) was sworn in as Prime (Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice) Minister. The new government included a were issued in November. coalition of most political parties, including The justice system remained hampered by Xanana Gusmão’s National Congress for a lack of access to courts and due process. Timorese Reconstruction. In September, The expulsion of all international judicial Timor-Leste was reviewed by the UN officers employed as judges, lawyers and Committee on the Rights of the Child. investigators in October 2014 continued to throw into question pending trials, including IMPUNITY those addressing crimes against humanity. Little progress was made in addressing crimes against humanity and other human WOMEN’S RIGHTS rights violations committed by Indonesian The 2010 Law mandating compulsory security forces and their auxiliaries from 1975 prosecution in domestic violence cases to 1999. Many suspected perpetrators continued to be used although challenges remained at large in Indonesia. remained. NGOs raised concerns on access No progress by the authorities was reported to justice, limited protection for witnesses and in implementing recommendations victims, and a backlog of cases causing few addressing impunity from the Commission for women to actively file reports. Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) In November, the CEDAW Committee and the bilateral Indonesia-Timor-Leste recommended that Timor-Leste adopt laws to

362 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 ensure comprehensive reparation for November. One policeman was killed on 26 survivors of rape and other forms of sexual November in clashes with protesters who violence that occurred during the Indonesian resorted to violence after security forces occupation and 1999 referendum, and that opened fire on peaceful demonstrators.1 there would be no impunity for sexual Gendarmes and the military fired live bullets violence committed during the occupation. at protesters on 25 March at a rally in the city of Glei, 160km north of Lomé, the capital. At least 30 people, including a woman and a 1. Dozens arrested and tortured in Timor-Leste (ASA 57/1639/2015) child, were wounded. Gendarmes and soldiers charged at a crowd of 100 students, shooting real bullets and hitting them with TOGO batons. Students had gathered spontaneously to protest against exams being held despite Togolese Republic the academic curriculum having been Head of state: Faure Gnassingbé disrupted by social movements throughout Head of government: Komi Sélom Klassou (replaced the year. The gendarmes and soldiers who Kwesi Ahoomey-Zunu in June) used excessive force have not been brought to justice. The authorities continued to restrict the freedom of peaceful assembly by banning FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY demonstrations. The security forces used The government continued to restrict freedom excessive force against peaceful of peaceful assembly by arbitrarily banning demonstrators. Restrictions on the right to demonstrations and detaining peaceful freedom of expression and arbitrary arrests demonstrators. On 20 August, in Lomé, the and detentions persisted. A new Criminal security forces used tear gas to disperse a Code was enacted. It criminalized torture peaceful demonstration of 100 people but maintained homophobic provisions and protesting against the rise of the cost of living. introduced the charge of publishing, The gendarmerie arbitrarily arrested the three disseminating or reproducng false news protest organizers, including Kao Atcholi, a which could be used to target journalists, human rights defender leading the human rights defenders and anyone Association of Victims of Torture in Togo. expressing dissent. They were detained for a day and released without charge. BACKGROUND President Gnassingbé was re-elected for a FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION third term in April with 58.8% of the vote. The On 29 July, the Criminal Court of Lomé found opposition contested the results of the French national Sébastian Alzerreca guilty of election. disrupting public order on the basis of In July, the National Assembly adopted “misleading publications” he posted on social laws to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to media commenting on the results of the the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the presidential elections. He received a two-year death penalty, and the Arms Trade Treaty. suspended prison sentence and was banned from Togo for five years. The cultural centre EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE Mytro Nunya, which he founded, was shut The security forces killed seven people and down. Sébastian Alzerreca left Togo in wounded at least 117 others, including August. pregnant women and children, in Mango in Zeus Aziadouvo, a journalist who produced northern Togo, during demonstrations against a documentary on prison conditions in Lomé, the creation of a nature reserve in the area in and Luc Abaki, director of private TV station

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 363 La Chaîne du Futur which broadcast the LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR documentary, were repeatedly summoned for INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS questioning and asked to reveal their sources, On 2 November, the National Assembly including at the headquarters of the Research adopted a new Criminal Code. While the Code and Investigation Services and at the High contains a number of positive human rights Authority for Audiovisual and developments, including the criminalization of Communications on 18 and 26 August torture in line with international standards, respectively. certain provisions undermine freedoms of Local media organizations reported expression and assembly. The Code websites, including social media sites, being maintains homophobic provisions blocked by internet providers in Togo shortly criminalizing sexual relations between before and after the publication of the results consenting adults of the same sex. It of the presidential election. criminalizes defamation and publishing false news, with these offences carrying prison ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS terms. It reverses the requirement for On 25 April, the Community Court of Justice peaceful assemblies from prior notification to of ECOWAS ruled that Togo subjected Pascal prior authorization. Bodjona, a Togolese politician and former member of the government, to arbitrary detention. It ordered Togo to try Pascal 1. Togo: Les forces de sécurité ont tiré à bout portant sur des Bodjona in a court of law and to pay him a manifestants non armés à Mango (News story, 11 December) compensation of 18 million CFA franc 2. Togo: One decade of impunity: Five steps to end impunity (AFR (approximately €27,440). Pascal Bodjona was 15/1508/2015) arrested on 1 September 2012 and charged with fraud and complicity in fraud. He was released on bail on 9 April 2013, rearrested TRINIDAD AND on 21 August 2014 on the same charges and has been in detention without trial since then. TOBAGO Seven out of 10 men convicted in September 2011 of participating in a 2009 Republic of Trinidad and Tobago coup plot, including Kpatcha Gnassingbé, Head of state: Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona half-brother of the President, remained in Head of government: Keith Rowley (replaced Kamla detention throughout 2015. In November Persad-Bissessar in September) 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that their detention was Violence and discrimination continued arbitrary and requested their immediate towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender release. and intersex (LGBTI) people, and women and girls. Abuse of children was a concern. IMPUNITY Trinidad retained the mandatory death The climate of impunity for human rights penalty for murder. violations persisted. Ten years after nearly 500 people died in political violence during BACKGROUND the presidential election of 24 April 2005, the General elections took place in September authorities have taken no steps to identify resulting in a new administration. Violent those responsible for the deaths. Of the 72 crimes remained a key concern with 329 complaints filed by the victims’ families with murders reported by the police between the Atakpamé, Amlamé and Lomé courts, January and September 2015, a similar rate none are known to have been fully to the same period in 2014. investigated.2

364 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE orientation” be included as a protected Serious concerns remained about excessive ground in the Equal Opportunities Act. use of force by the police. The Police A transgender woman ran as an Complaints Authority lacked staff and independent candidate in the elections – the sufficient powers to effectively investigate all first known transgender candidate to run for alleged misconduct by police officers. public office.

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS High levels of sexual and other physical High levels of gender-based violence, abuse of children remained a serious including domestic violence, continued. concern. A new Children’s Act came into force in May, increasing penalties for abuse of DEATH PENALTY children and raising the age of consent for Mandatory death sentences continued to be sexual relations to 18. A Children’s Authority imposed for murder. The Judicial Committee was established and received 1,500 reports of of the Privy Council substituted a conviction child abuse within its first three months. for murder with one for manslaughter in the Despite progress in this area, civil society case of a man with a mental disability, and groups reported that insufficient action had reduced his death sentence to a term of been taken by the authorities to prevent child imprisonment. abuse and cases were still poorly investigated and handled. Activists raised concern that the Children’s TUNISIA Act decriminalized sex between children of the opposite sex (unless exploitative), yet Republic of Tunisia criminalized consensual same-sex sexual Head of state: Beji Caid Essebsi activity for those aged under 21 with a Head of government: Habib Essid (replaced Mehdi potential penalty of life imprisonment, in Jomaa in January) contravention of the rights of the child. The authorities tightened restrictions on RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, freedoms of expression and assembly, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE including by banning demonstrations in Consensual same-sex sexual activity some instances. There were new reports of remained a crime. Local civil society groups torture and other ill-treatment. Women, continued to receive reports of violence and girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender discrimination towards LGBTI people. Some and intersex (LGBTI) people faced LGBTI people did not report these crimes or discrimination in law and in practice. Courts seek access to justice, for fear of further continued to pass death sentences; there victimization from law enforcement officials or were no executions. exposure of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Some youths reported being pushed BACKGROUND out of their homes or experiencing domestic Militants apparently affiliated to armed violence due to discrimination based on their Islamist groups carried out gun attacks at the sexual orientation or gender identity. Social Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis in March services and shelters were not equipped to and at a Sousse beach resort in June, killing respond to the needs of homeless LGBTI 61 people, mostly foreign tourists, and people, according to local NGOs. injuring many more. In November, an attack Parliament failed to act on a 2014 in central Tunis on a Presidential Guard bus recommendation from the Equal killed 12 people. Clashes between the Opportunities Commission that “sexual security forces and armed militants occurred

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 365 along Tunisia’s borders with Algeria December ruled a revised version of the law and Libya. unconstitutional as well. The government declared a nationwide In October, the Tunisian National Dialogue state of emergency in early July, following the Quartet, a coalition of trade union, human Sousse attack, renewing it at the end of July rights and other civil society groups formed in and lifting it in early October. On 24 2013 to promote peace, democracy and November, following the second Tunis attack, human rights in Tunisia’s transition, was the authorities again declared a state of awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. emergency that remained in force at the end of the year, imposed a curfew in Greater COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY Tunis until 12 December, and closed The government proposed a new law on Tunisia’s border with Libya for two weeks. Repression of Attacks against Armed Forces The Truth and Dignity Commission, created in March, following the Bardo Museum to address political, social and economic killings and attacks on the security forces by crimes and investigate human rights armed groups. If enacted, it would put violations committed since 1 July 1955, journalists, human rights defenders and began hearing testimonies in May; in others who criticize the security forces and December it said it had received more than army at risk of criminal prosecution and 22,600 cases and extended the deadline for would give security forces excessive powers to the submission of cases by six months. use lethal force. The draft law had not been However, its work was overshadowed by the enacted by the end of the year. resignations of some of its members, Parliament adopted a new counter- allegations of corruption against its head, and terrorism law in July, following the Sousse media criticism. In July, President Essebsi killings and what the authorities said was a announced a new draft law on special foiled terrorist attack in Gafsa. The new law, provisions for reconciliation in the economic which replaced a 2003 law used by the Ben and financial sectors. This would offer an Ali government to repress political opposition, amnesty and immunity from further further eroded basic rights. It defined prosecution to officials and business terrorism in vague and broad terms, gave executives accused of corruption and security forces wide monitoring and embezzlement under the former surveillance powers, and extended the period administration of President Ben Ali, if they during which security forces can hold returned the stolen funds. If enacted, the terrorism suspects incommunicado for draft law would hamper future investigations interrogation from six to 15 days, increasing by the Truth and Dignity Commission. The the risk of torture and other ill-treatment. It proposal sparked protests across the country also imposed the death penalty for rape and by the Manich Msamah (“I will not forgive”) for terrorist acts resulting in death, weakened movement, several of which the security fair trial guarantees by allowing courts to forces dispersed using excessive force. The conduct closed trials and withhold the identity draft law was awaiting enactment at the end of witnesses, and criminalized expression of the year. deemed to be “praising terrorism”. By In May, a new law was passed to create a December, the government said the courts Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to oversee had handed down 28 sentences in trials on the judicial system and increase its terrorism charges, including one in which independence from the executive. Although three defendants received death sentences. an improvement, the law contained serious In July, the authorities said they had flaws relating to the composition of the SJC. arrested over 1,000 terrorism suspects since In June, the temporary constitutional court the Bardo Museum attack in March and ruled the new law unconstitutional and in banned 15,000 other suspects from leaving

366 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Tunisia. The government also announced its criminalizing defamation of public figures. intention to construct a security wall along The state of emergency in force from 4 July Tunisia’s border with Libya. Following the to 2 October gave the government powers to November attack in Tunis, the authorities suspend all strikes and demonstrations, ban carried out thousands of raids, hundreds of and disperse all gatherings deemed to arrests and placed at least 138 people under threaten public order, and control and censor house arrest, amid reports of security officials’ print, broadcast and other media and harassment of families of terrorist suspects. publications. In some instances, security forces used excessive force to disperse and TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT detain peaceful protesters who defied the There were new reports of torture and other ban. On 8 September, the Minister of the ill-treatment of detainees, mostly during Interior declared that even peaceful protests interrogation in the first days after arrest. were contrary to the emergency law and Five men arrested as terrorist suspects on banned a demonstration planned for 27 July alleged that interrogators beat and 12 September. tortured them by waterboarding. They filed Police arrested teacher Abdelfattah Said in formal complaints after they were released on July after he posted a video on the Facebook 4 August. Counter-terrorism police rearrested website accusing security officials of being them the same day and returned them to behind the attack that killed 38 people in their previous place of detention. On Sousse. He was charged with complicity in 5 August, they were taken for forensic terrorism under the 2003 anti-terrorism law. medical examinations. They were He was also charged with defaming a public provisionally released on 10 August. A special servant and broadcasting false news under parliamentary committee was appointed to Articles 128 and 306 of the Penal Code for investigate their torture allegations but no posting a caricature of Prime Minister Essid. findings had been made public by the end of In November, the terrorism charges were the year. dropped and he was fined and sentenced to a Thousands of torture cases dating from the one-year prison term on the false news Ben Ali administration were registered with charge; he was cleared of defamation. the Truth and Dignity Commission. While in most cases those bringing the allegations WOMEN’S RIGHTS were men, a number of women spoke of Women and girls continued to face being beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted discrimination in law and in practice, and in detention. It remained unclear how the were inadequately protected against sexual Commission would refer cases to prosecution and other violence. Survivors of sexual and and whether such referrals would be to gender-based violence continued to suffer specialized chambers or to the Public from a lack of proper access to health and Prosecutor. support services and to judicial remedies. The National Body for the Prevention of Penal Code articles criminalized sexual Torture, created under a 2013 law, remained violence as an assault on personal decency inoperative as its members had still to be rather than a violation of the victim’s bodily appointed. integrity. The Penal Code also allowed men accused of raping a girl or woman aged FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND between 15 and 20 to escape prosecution by ASSEMBLY marrying their victim. The authorities curtailed freedom of A comprehensive draft law to combat expression using laws enacted during the Ben violence against women, which contained Ali administration, including the 2003 anti- provisions increasing protection to survivors of terrorism law and Penal Code articles sexual and gender-based violence and which

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 367 had been leaked in December 2014, he admitted that he had had sex with the remained under consideration at the end of man after police officers slapped him and the year. In August, the Council of Ministers threatened to rape him and press murder approved a draft law which would remove charges if he did not “confess”. He was existing discrimination between men and released on bail in November and his women in giving to or withdrawing from their sentence was reduced to two months on children travel documents and authorization appeal in December, which he had already to travel. The law was approved by Parliament served. in November. In December, six students received maximum three-year prison terms after a RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, court in Kairouan convicted them on charges TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE of “sodomy”. The six, who were subjected to LGBTI people faced discrimination in law and anal examinations after their arrest, were also in practice, and were inadequately protected sentenced to be banished from Kairouan for against violence based on their sexual five years after they complete their prison orientation or gender identity. Article 230 of sentences. the Penal Code criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations, punishing REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS “sodomy and lesbianism” with up to three The authorities generally allowed Libyan years’ imprisonment. Transgender individuals nationals fleeing armed conflict in Libya to were at particular risk of arrest and enter Tunisia. Other foreign nationals, prosecution on the charge of offending public including refugees and migrants, were only morals. The authorities failed to conduct allowed entry if they possessed valid entry meaningful investigations into homophobic documents, and were required to depart from and transphobic crimes. Tunisia after a short transit stay. A lesbian woman sought asylum abroad The navy and coastguard rescued after she was subjected to four separate hundreds of refugees, asylum-seekers and assaults during the year by men who attacked migrants from boats in distress in the her on the street, beating her with their hands Mediterranean, including many that had and feet and with broken bottles and on one departed from Zuwara in Libya. The occasion cutting her neck with a knife. She authorities took most of those they rescued to had been subjected to at least eight the southern governorate of Medenine where homophobic assaults over a period of nine they were housed in temporary shelters. years. She reported the latest assaults to There, some returned to their home countries police but they failed to identify and arrest her while others remained in a situation of attackers and warned her that, as a lesbian uncertainty. woman, she could face prosecution and Although signatory to the UN Refugee imprisonment. Convention and its Protocol, Tunisia did not A male student was sentenced to one year have a comprehensive asylum law, which in prison in September for engaging in contributed to the vulnerability of refugees, “sodomy”. At the court’s request, he was asylum-seekers and migrants. subjected to an anal examination, in violation In August, the authorities arrested 10 of the prohibition of torture and other ill- Sudanese, Nigerian, Kenyan and Liberian treatment. The examination was conducted nationals who mounted a protest in Tunis by the forensics department in Farhat asking for resettlement, took them to the Hached Hospital in Sousse, supposedly to Ouardia refugee detention centre and sought establish “proof” of anal sex. The student had to force them to cross the border from Tunisia initially been questioned by the police about to Algeria, before eventually allowing them his relationship to a murdered man. He said back into Tunisia and eventually releasing

368 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 them. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, had transfers of judges and prosecutors continued rejected the refugee applications of the 10 throughout the year, wreaking havoc on a individuals in 2012 but they had remained in judiciary already lacking independence and the Choucha camp established by UNHCR, impartiality. Criminal Courts of Peace – with despite its official closure in 2013. The jurisdiction over the conduct of criminal individuals had all worked in Libya prior to the investigations, such as pre-charge detention conflict there. and pre-trial detention decisions, seizure of property and appeals against these decisions DEATH PENALTY – came under increasing government control. The death penalty remained in force for In April, commemorations were held to murder and other crimes; the new anti- mark the 100th anniversary of the 1915 terrorism law provided for the death penalty massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey for some offences. Courts handed down 11 with peaceful demonstrations across the death sentences; no executions have been country. No progress was made towards fully carried out since 1991. recognizing the crimes committed. At the general election in June, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), in TURKEY power since 2002, failed to secure an overall parliamentary majority. It regained its majority Republic of Turkey after a rerun of the elections in November, Head of state: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan securing nearly 50% of the vote. Head of government: Ahmet Davutoğlu A fragile peace process in place since 2013 between the PKK and the state disintegrated The human rights situation deteriorated in July. State forces launched attacks on PKK markedly following parliamentary elections bases in Turkey and northern Iraq, while the in June and the outbreak of violence PKK launched deadly attacks on police and between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) army targets. Armed clashes between the and the Turkish armed forces in July. The youth wing of the PKK (YDG-H) and the media faced unprecedented pressure from police and army in urban centres took a the government; free expression online and particularly heavy toll on the lives of ordinary offline suffered significantly. The right to residents. The mass deployment of security freedom of peaceful assembly continued to forces to the southeastern provinces in mid- be violated. Cases of excessive use of force December resulted in an intensification of by police and ill-treatment in detention clashes and, according to local lawyers and increased. Impunity for human rights activists, the killings of scores of unarmed abuses persisted. The independence of the residents. The Minister of the Interior stated judiciary was further eroded. Separate that over 3,000 “terrorists” had been killed suicide bombings attributed to the armed since the end of the ceasefire. group Islamic State (IS) targeting left-wing Following deadly PKK attacks in and pro-Kurdish activists and demonstrators September, nationalist mob attacks swept killed 139 people. An estimated 2.5 million Turkey, mainly targeting Kurds and their refugees and asylum-seekers were property as well as offices of the Kurdish- accommodated in Turkey but individuals rooted, left-wing Peoples’ Democratic Party increasingly faced arbitrary detention and (HDP). The Ministry of the Interior reported deportation as the government negotiated a on the deaths of two members of the public, migration deal with the EU. injuries to 51, and damage to 69 political party buildings and 30 homes and BACKGROUND businesses. The HDP reported that over 400 Politically motivated appointments and attacks had taken place, including 126

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 369 attacks on their offices. in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Mass prosecutions under vague and broad In March, Taraf newspaper journalist anti-terrorism laws continued. In March, all Mehmet Baransu was remanded in pre-trial 236 military officers accused of the detention, charged with obtaining secret state “Sledgehammer” coup plot to overthrow the documents which he wrote about in 2010 AK Party government were acquitted after a and then passed to prosecutors, forming the retrial. Proceedings continued on appeal in basis of the “Sledgehammer” coup plot the “Ergenekon” case of civilians accused of prosecution. He remained in pre-trial plotting to overthrow the government. detention at the end of the year. Prosecutions targeting Kurdish political In the six months to March, the Minister of activists for alleged membership of the PKK- Justice gave permission for 105 criminal linked Kurdistan Communities Union prosecutions for insulting President Erdoğan remained pending, following the 2014 under Article 299 of the Penal Code. Eight abolition of the anti-terrorism and organized people were remanded in pre-trial detention. crime courts with special powers. Waves of Prosecutions under the provision, which detentions took place after the eruption of carries a sentence of up to four years’ violence between the PKK and state forces in imprisonment, continued throughout the year. July. By late August it was estimated that In September, a 17-year-old student was more than 2,000 people had been detained convicted of “insult” for calling the President for alleged links to the PKK, while over 260 “the thieving owner of the illegal palace”. He were remanded in pre-trial detention. received a suspended sentence of 11 months Prosecutions were commenced of individuals and 20 days by a children’s court in the accused of membership of the “Fethullah central Anatolian city of Konya. Gülen Terrorist Organization”, including US- In November, the first hearing took place in based cleric and former AK Party ally the trial of Cumhuriyet newspaper journalist Fethullah Gülen. Canan Coşkun, accused of insulting 10 state prosecutors when she alleged they obtained FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION discounted property because of their status Respect for freedom of expression as prosecutors. She faced up to 23 years and deteriorated. Countless unfair criminal four months in prison. In November, the prosecutions, including under criminal newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dündar and defamation and anti-terrorism laws, targeted its Ankara representative, Erdem Gül, were political activists, journalists and others charged with espionage, revealing state critical of public officials or government secrets and assisting a terrorist organization policy. Ordinary citizens were frequently after a story in the newspaper alleged that the brought before the courts for social media intelligence services had transferred weapons posts. to an armed group in Syria in 2014. The then The government exerted immense pressure Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had on the media, targeting media companies and previously claimed that the trucks were digital distribution networks, and singling out delivering humanitarian aid. The two men critical journalists, who were then threatened were remanded in pre-trial detention and and physically attacked by often unidentified remained there at the end of the year. They assailants. Mainstream journalists were fired faced up to life imprisonment if convicted. after criticizing the government. News Diyarbakır-based Dutch journalist Frederike websites, including large swathes of the Geerdink was acquitted of “making Kurdish press, were blocked on unclear propaganda for the PKK” in April, but grounds by administrative orders aided by a detained and deported after covering a story compliant judiciary. Journalists were harassed in the southeastern province of Yüksekova in and assaulted by police while covering stories September. In August, three Vice News

370 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 journalists were questioned by police after FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY covering clashes between the PKK and The right to peaceful assembly continued to security forces, then charged with “assisting a be limited in law and denied in practice, terrorist organization” and remanded in pre- depending on the issue being protested and trial detention. British citizens Jake Hanrahan participants’ profiles. The practice of arbitrary and Philip Pendlebury were released and detentions at assemblies was given legal basis deported after eight days; Mohammed by legislative amendments in March in the Rasool, an Iraqi Kurdish journalist, remained Domestic Security Package, providing police in pre-trial detention at the end of the year. with powers to detain without judicial Unprecedented steps were taken to silence supervision. Peaceful demonstrators media linked to investigations of the continued to be prosecuted and convicted. “Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization”. In Traditional May Day demonstrations in October, Digiturk, a private digital platform, Taksim Square in Istanbul were denied removed seven channels from its service. permission to proceed for the third year Four days ahead of the 1 November election, running. The same grounds of an unspecified police accompanied a court-appointed security threat and disruption to traffic and government trustee and forcibly entered the tourism were offered by the authorities, who head offices of the Koza İpek conglomerate, instead proposed locations outside of the city cutting live broadcasts by two news channels, centre. Tens of thousands of police closed off Bugün and Kanaltürk, and blocking the the entire Taksim district and surrounding printing of the Millet and Bugün newspapers. areas to demonstrators, traffic and tourists The fiercely opposition news outlets were re- alike. opened as staunchly pro-government. In For the first time in its 12-year history, the November, the state-owned Turkish Satellite authorities violently broke up the annual Communications Company (Türksat) removed national Pride march in Istanbul in June, 13 television and radio channels owned by citing a lack of formal notification and the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group. Hidayet information about counter-demonstrators. Karaca, the head of the group, remained in Discussions between representatives of the pre-trial detention during the entire year. Pride and the authorities leading up to the In November, the head of the Diyarbakır event offered no indication that it would be Bar Association and renowned human rights banned. Police used excessive force defender Tahir Elçi was shot dead after including tear gas, water cannon and pepper- making a press statement in Diyarbakır. The ball projectiles against marchers during the perpetrator remained unidentified by the end day and Pride partygoers in the evening. In of the year amid concerns over the November, the Governor of Istanbul denied impartiality and effectiveness of the permission for a criminal investigation into the investigation. He had faced death threats conduct of the police at the Pride march to be after being charged the previous month with opened. “making propaganda for a terrorist Prosecutions on trumped-up charges organization”, for saying on live national against Gezi Park protesters continued. In television that the PKK was “not a terrorist April, an Istanbul court acquitted members of organization but an armed political movement Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella organization with considerable support”. He faced over opposing the redevelopment of Taksim seven years’ imprisonment. The news Square and Gezi Park, including five who had channel CNN Türk was also fined 700,000 been accused of “founding a criminal liras (€230,000) for broadcasting the organization”. Most trials ended in acquittal remarks. but 244 were convicted at a trial of 255 people in Istanbul, on various charges including under the Law on Meetings and

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 371 Demonstrations. Two doctors were convicted Ceylanpınar said they had been severely of “denigrating a place of worship” after beaten in police custody in July and August, giving emergency treatment to injured first when they were being transferred to demonstrators in a mosque. A further case Osmaniye No. 1 T-type prison in Adana against 94 people for participating in Gezi province and then at the prison itself. They Park protests in Izmir was opened in remained in pre-trial detention at the end of September. the year. Images circulated on the internet, EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE apparently taken by special operations police Allegations of excessive use of force at officers, appearing to show the naked and demonstrations dramatically increased. Lethal disfigured body of female PKK member force was used by security forces during anti- Kevser Eltürk (Ekin Wan) being paraded in terrorism operations, many involving armed the streets of Varto in the eastern province of clashes with the YDG-H. In many cases, Muş, after clashes with state forces in August. conflicting accounts and the absence of Another photograph showed the body of Hacı effective investigations prevented the facts Lokman Birlik being dragged behind an from being established. In March, legislative armoured police vehicle in the southeastern amendments in the Domestic Security province of Şırnak in October. The reported Package conflicted with international autopsy indicated that the man had been shot standards on the use of force. 28 times. The authorities said that In January, 12-year-old Nihat Kazanhan investigations into both incidents were was shot dead by a police officer in the continuing. southeastern city of Cizre. The authorities first denied the involvement of police, but video IMPUNITY evidence emerged showing Nihat Kazanhan Impunity persisted for human rights abuses and other children throwing stones at police committed by public officials. Investigations officers and, in separate footage, showing a were hampered by police withholding crucial police officer firing a rifle towards the evidence, such as lists of officers on duty and children. Nihat Kazanhan was killed by a CCTV footage, and the passivity of single bullet to the head. The trial of five prosecutors faced with this obstructiveness. police officers continued. Without a long-promised Independent Police Local authorities imposed extended round- Complaints Commission, there was little the-clock curfews during police operations prospect of improvement. Where they took targeting the YDG-H in cities in the southeast. place, prosecutions were often flawed. During the curfews, a total ban on residents There was a resounding failure to secure leaving their homes was imposed, water, accountability for police abuses during the electricity and communications were cut and 2013 Gezi Park protests. In January, police outside observers banned from entering. officers and civilians were convicted for their Curfews imposed on Sur on 11 December, as part in the beating to death of protester Ali well as Cizre and Silopi on 14 December, Ismail Korkmaz in the city of Eskişehir. In were still in place at the end of the year. June, an Istanbul court convicted a police officer who used pepper spray on a peaceful TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT demonstrator, known as “the woman in red”. Reported cases of ill-treatment in detention A trial of a police officer for the killing of and other inhuman or degrading treatment in Abdullah Cömert and a retrial for the killing of the context of police or military operations Ethem Sarısülük, both protesters, continued. against the PKK increased. No prosecution was brought for the killing Four men accused of murdering two of 14-year-old Berkin Elvan or in hundreds of policemen in the southeastern city of other cases where people were injured by

372 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 police. These included the case of Hakan hostage by the armed group Revolutionary Yaman, who was filmed being beaten, burned People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). and left for dead by police officers in Istanbul. The two hostage-takers were killed in a police He lost an eye but survived the attack. Two operation at the courthouse. and a half years on, the police officers in the PKK attacks resulted in the deaths of video had not been identified. civilians, including physician Abdullah Biroğul Two prosecutions were brought following when his car was shot at in the southeastern Kobani protests in southeastern Turkey in province of Diyarbakır. October 2014, which left over 40 people dead. One, in March, was against allegedly REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS pro-PKK youths, for the killing of four people Around 2.3 million registered Syrian refugees in Diyarbakır. The other, in June, was against and 250,000 refugees and asylum-seekers 10 private security guards and family from other countries including Afghanistan members of the AK Party mayor for the fatal and Iraq were accommodated in Turkey. shooting of three protesters in Kurtalan, Siirt Some 260,000 Syrian refugees were province. However, investigations in many accommodated in well-resourced, other cases had not progressed, including in government-run camps, but most refugees cases of individuals who were believed to and asylum-seekers outside camps received have been shot dead by police officers using little or no assistance and were not granted excessive force during police operations in the right to work. In many cases they the southeast. The lack of ballistic reports, struggled to survive, getting by through crime scene investigations and the taking of exploitative and underpaid irregular work and witness statements by prosecutors offered the charity of neighbours. Asylum little hope that the circumstances of the applications for non-Syrians were rarely deaths would be revealed. processed in practice. The government In November, all eight defendants, signed an agreement with the EU in October, including former district Gendarmerie aimed at preventing irregular migration from commander Cemal Temizöz, were acquitted Turkey to the EU. in the landmark case brought for the In September, at least 200 refugees – disappearances and killings of 21 people in mostly Syrian – attempting to travel irregularly Cizre between 1993 and 1995, following a to Greece were kept in incommunicado or deeply flawed trial. even secret detention at various locations in Turkey. Many were pressured into agreeing to ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS “voluntarily” return to Syria and Iraq, in a Three suicide bomb attacks blamed on IS flagrant breach of international law. caused major casualties. In June, four people were killed when explosions targeted an HDP rally days before the June elections. In July, a TURKMENISTAN bomb killed 33 young activists in the southeastern city of Suruç as they made a Turkmenistan press statement about their mission to deliver Head of state and government: Gurbanguly humanitarian aid to the neighbouring, Berdimuhamedov predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani in Syria. In October, twin explosions in the capital No improvement in the human rights Ankara targeting a peace rally organized by situation was visible in 2015, and the trade unions, civil society organizations and country remained closed to independent left-wing parties killed 102 people. human rights monitors. In January, the In March, Istanbul Prosecutor Mehmet government announced plans to introduce a Selim Kiraz was killed after being taken human rights Ombudsman. It remained

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 373 impossible for independent civil society FREEDOM OF RELIGION organizations to operate freely. Freedoms of Religious practices were tightly controlled, expression and association were heavily particularly those of religious minorities such restricted, and many people faced limits on as the Armenian Apostolic Christians, their freedom of movement. Forced Catholics, Protestants and Jehovah’s evictions were reported. Sex between men Witnesses. Under the Code of Administrative remained a criminal offence. Offences, religious groups must register with the state, and if refused registration they must FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION publicize that they are banned. Forum 18, a Although the principles of media Norwegian human rights organization that independence and prohibition of state monitors freedom of religion, thought, interference in media activities were conscience and belief, reported that a enshrined in law in 2013, in practice the Jehovah’s Witness had been convicted of media remained subject to extensive state “inciting religious hatred” and sentenced to censorship and no independent newspapers four years in prison. He was arrested during a or other media outlets were able to operate. meeting for worship that he had organized in The authorities continued to use harassment, his home. intimidation and, in at least one case, imprisonment to attempt to silence TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT journalists. Freelance journalist Saparmamed Ongoing reports indicated that people were Nepeskuliev, who had reported on corruption still being tortured or otherwise ill-treated by for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) members of law enforcement agencies to and the Alternative Turkmenistan News extract “confessions” and incriminate others. service, was detained on 7 July and held Activist Mansur Mingelov remained in prison, incommunicado for over a month. Although following his conviction in an unfair trial for unofficial sources told his family he was drug offences. He had publicized information sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on that members of the Baloch ethnic drug-related offences on 31 August, it was community were tortured and ill-treated in widely believed he was targeted for his Mary province in 2012. journalism work.1 Correspondents for RFE/RL continued to be denied accreditation; they ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES were frequently harassed, intimidated and The whereabouts of prisoners who were even threatened with imprisonment. subjected to enforced disappearance after an Access to foreign media and other alleged assassination attempt against then information sources outside the country was President Saparmurat Niyazov in 2002 further restricted. During the first half of the remained unknown. The authorities did not year, residents in the capital, Ashgabat, and respond to a request made in June during the in other towns and cities were forced by local EU-Turkmenistan Human Rights Dialogue to housing authorities as part of an official provide relevant information. For 13 years, campaign to remove and destroy privately the families of those detained have not installed satellite dishes, blocking their access received any information about their to foreign media outlets. Access to the whereabouts or wellbeing. internet was monitored and restricted, with social networking sites frequently blocked. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT People who attempted to protest against The requirement for citizens to obtain “exit forced evictions near Ashgabat were visas” to leave the country was abolished in intimidated, threatened and, in some cases, 2006, but arbitrary restrictions on the right to detained. travel abroad still remained in practice. In numerous cases, individuals discovered they

374 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 were subject to a travel ban at the point when compensation, alternative accommodation they tried to leave the country. In July, the or land.3 daughter of exiled parliamentarian Pirimkuli Tanrykuliev was prevented from travelling to Turkey with her two children; passport control 1. Turkmenistan: Freelance journalist’s whereabouts unknown: officials stamped their passports with a Saparmamed Nepeskuliev (EUR 61/2229/2015) statement saying they were banned from 2. Turkmenistan: Hundreds of families facing forced evictions (EUR leaving the country. 61/1521/2015) After numerous attempts over several 3. Deprived of homes, deprived of rights: Uncovering evidence of mass years, former prisoner Geldy Kyarizov was forced evictions and house demolitions in Turkmenistan (EUR allowed to travel to Russia for specialist 61/2693/2015) medical treatment and to join his wife, as were other members of his family. Since his release from prison in 2007, Geldy Kyarizov UGANDA had been repeatedly prevented from doing so. Members of his family accompanying him Republic of Uganda on these occasions were subject to Head of state and government: Yoweri Kaguta intimidation and physical violence, including Museveni a suspicious car accident in August – similar to a previous incident involving his daughter Police brutality and restrictions of the right in early 2014 – which authorities refused to to freedom of peaceful assembly increased. investigate. Attacks against activists, journalists and other media workers continued with HOUSING RIGHTS – FORCED EVICTIONS impunity. Opposition politicians seeking to Thousands of people lost their homes in participate in the national elections forced evictions and demolitions in and scheduled for early 2016 were arrested and around Ashgabat. Houses were demolished, detained, along with their supporters. reportedly to make way for building works linked to the forthcoming 5th Asian Indoor BACKGROUND and Martial Arts Games, due to take place in The year was dominated politically by 2017, and as part of wider city redevelopment preparations for the national elections, programmes.2 scheduled for early 2016. High-level splits Estimates indicated that around 50,000 within the ruling National Resistance people were forcibly evicted in the worst Movement (NRM) resulted in former Prime affected area, Choganly neighbourhood, north Minister Amama Mbabazi announcing his of Ashgabat. Analysis of high-resolution intention to run for presidential office as an satellite imagery confirmed that nearly half of independent candidate. Police brutality, the 10,000 houses and other residential arbitrary arrests, torture and the unlawful structures in Choganly had been demolished disruption of numerous public assemblies all by 28 April; later reports indicated that by subsequently increased. Opposition political September the entire neighbourhood had parties and their supporters were harassed, been demolished. Residents were neither arrested and detained. consulted about alternatives to eviction nor Discrimination, harassment and violence provided with different or temporary against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender accommodation. The government claimed and intersex (LGBTI) people continued with that because some houses in Choganly were impunity. The authorities’ hostility towards intended as holiday homes (dachas) and civil society organizations and human rights other houses were built illegally, their owners defenders continued. Parliamentary debates or occupiers were not entitled to took place around the new Non-

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 375 Governmental Organizations Bill, which was and unprofessional trends such as lack of passed by Parliament in November. balance, sensationalism, incitement, abusive language and relying on unauthorized and POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES unreliable sources of information”. Many The government oversaw the recruitment and media observers saw this directive as an training of many thousands of “Crime attack on freedom of expression in the run-up Preventers”, a militarized network of to the 2016 elections. community policing volunteers, believed to be On 14 October, journalist Alfred Ochwo was linked to serious human rights violations arrested and subsequently assaulted by across the country. police officers after reporting on the arrest of Kyadondo East MP Ssemujju Ibrahim TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Nganda. On 16 July, Vincent Kaggwa, a 25-year-old In July, disclosures by WikiLeaks revealed spokesperson of the NRM “Poor Youth” was commercial discussions between the Office of arrested at his home in Wandegeya, Kampala, the President and surveillance firm Hacking by security officers. He was detained for four Team. In October, Privacy International days, during which he was tortured and reported on the sale and use of the intrusion questioned about his political support for malware software to the Ugandan military to former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi. target real or perceived political opponents. On 14 September, Amama Mbabazi’s head Privacy International also reported on the of security, Christopher Aine, was arrested in installation of FinFisher “access points” in Kampala. He was blindfolded, driven to an Parliament, key government institutions and unidentified “safe house”, and tortured before major hotels. The government denied these being released on 17 September. Iron bars claims. and canes were used to beat him on several parts of his body. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Reports indicated at least 10 separate Throughout the year, numerous public cases of assault, possible torture and unlawful assemblies organized by opposition political arrest by “Crime Preventers” from September parties were disrupted or prevented from 2014 to August 2015. taking place by the Uganda Police Force. The Public Order Management Act 2013 was FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION routinely used as the justification, with Journalists and other media workers organizers often being placed under continued to face attacks from the police as “preventive arrest”. well as harassment and intimidation in the On 9 July, Amama Mbabazi and former course of their work, particularly in rural President of the Forum for Democratic areas. Change (FDC) Kizza Besigye were separately On 12 January, cameraman Andrew arrested and prevented from participating in Lwanga was assaulted by police while filming planned political events. Both were placed a gathering of youth activists, the Jobless under “preventive arrest”. Over the course of Brotherhood. He sustained severe injuries, the following days, 14 youth activists were requiring hospital admission. A criminal trial arrested and detained, including seven against the alleged perpetrator was ongoing. arrested at the conclusion of a peaceful press On 23 January, radio journalists Gerald conference. Kankya and Simon Amanyire were attacked On 9 September, the police were deployed by a mob in Fort Portal, Western Region. in Soroti, Eastern Region, in large numbers, On 8 July, the Uganda Communications ahead of a public gathering organized by Commission issued a document to all Amama Mbabazi. Eyewitnesses and others broadcasters, cautioning against “negative reported that police used tear gas and rubber

376 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 bullets against participants. programmes. On 10 September, Amama Mbabazi was On 17 October, the offices of Soroti forced to abandon a consultative meeting Development Association and NGOs Network planned in Jinja, Eastern Region, after police were broken into. used excessive force to block his route and escorted him back to Kampala. Prior to his VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS planned arrival, police used rubber bullets In May, Ugandan singer Jemimah Kansiime and tear gas to disperse several hundred of was arrested and jailed after releasing a his supporters. Tear gas canisters were fired music video that reportedly violated provisions into a primary school yard. of the Anti-Pornography Act 2014. A On 10 October, Kizza Besigye attempted to Constitutional Court challenge against the law travel with a convoy of his political team to remained pending. Rukungiri. The Uganda Police Force prevented the planned public assembly from RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, taking place. Kizza Besigye, along with TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE members of his entourage, was arrested and Attacks against persons on the basis of their detained. On the same day, FDC activist real or perceived sexual orientation or gender Fatuma Zainab was arrested and undressed identity continued throughout the year, with by three police officers, prompting national an increase in reported cases in the latter half outrage. On 15 October, Kizza Besigye was of the year. again arrested and placed under preventive A draft of the Prohibition of Promotion of arrest. Unnatural Sexual Practices Bill made available in 2014 had yet to be debated by HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Parliament. The draft law constituted a On 27 November, Parliament passed the continuation of the discriminatory ethos of the Non-Governmental Organizations Act 2015. nullified Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) 2014. The new law, not yet assented to by President The new bill would create criminal sanctions Museveni, imposes criminal and civil for “promoting” so-called “unnatural sexual penalties on organizations for engaging in practices” which included consensual same- activities that are “prejudicial to the interests sex conduct between adults. Like the AHA, of Uganda or the dignity of the people of the Bill would criminalize advocacy, Uganda”. The law fails to conform to regional education and health care for the LGBTI and international human rights standards, community. including the right to freedom of association guaranteed under the Constitution. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE Throughout the year, the offices of several On 6 January, Dominic Ongwen, a senior human rights NGOs were broken into or commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army otherwise targeted. On 30 June, the offices of (LRA) was taken into custody by US forces in Human Rights Network for Journalists- the Central African Republic, and Uganda were broken into. The organization subsequently transferred to the custody of the lost several computers, laptops and ICC. Dominic Ongwen was indicted by the documents. On 17 July, the offices of Uganda ICC in 2005 for crimes committed in Gulu, Land Alliance were broken into, on the Northern Region, in 2004. He faced three outskirts of Kampala. A security guard was counts of crimes against humanity and four killed in the course of the attack. counts of war crimes. On 10 September, the In July, the Uganda Registration Services ICC pre-trial chamber recommended to the Bureau began investigations into the Great ICC Presidency that Dominic Ongwen’s Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies for confirmation of charges hearing be heard in allegedly “de-campaigning” government Uganda.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 377 ICC arrest warrants for Joseph Kony, the Donbass, as Russian-backed separatists in LRA leader, and two other LRA commanders Donetsk and Luhansk sought to advance and remained in force. The men were still at large straighten their frontline. Amid heavy military at the end of the year. losses, Ukrainian forces ceded control over On 30 March, Joan Kagezi, head of the Donetsk airport and the area around the town Directorate of Public Prosecutions Anti- of Debaltseve. More evidence emerged of Terrorism and War Crimes Division, was shot Russia heavily backing separatist fighters with dead by undisclosed gunmen in Kampala. manpower and military weaponry, although it continued to deny direct military involvement. In February, an internationally mediated UKRAINE agreement was reached between the Ukrainian government and the de facto Ukraine authorities of the Luhansk and Donetsk Head of state: Petro Poroshenko People’s Republics; a fragile ceasefire Head of government: Arseniy Yatsenyuk ensued. In September, both sides pulled back heavy weaponry, but mortar and small The year began with intense fighting in the gunfire exchanges were still occurring at the east of the country between separatist pro- end of the year, resulting in further casualties. Russian and Ukrainian forces and ended According to UN figures, the death toll with sporadic fire interrupting a precarious exceeded 9,000 by the end of the year, ceasefire. Impunity prevailed for war crimes including approximately 2,000 civilians. Over committed by both sides. Little progress was 2.5 million people were displaced, including made in investigating violations and abuses 1.1 million outside Ukraine. related to the 2013-2014 pro-European On 8 September, Ukraine referred the demonstrations in the capital Kyiv situation in Donbass to the ICC, when it (“EuroMaydan”) and in bringing perpetrators lodged a declaration accepting the Court’s to justice. The adoption of a law creating a jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed on State Investigation Bureau was a welcome its territory from 20 February 2014. However, step towards creating an effective Parliament failed to ratify the Rome Statute. mechanism for investigating abuses by law Right-wing groups, which had received enforcement officials. Independent and negligible electoral support following the critical media and activists were unable to EuroMaydan protests in 2014, were operate freely in the self-styled People’s implicated in a series of violent incidents. In Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as well July, armed paramilitaries from the nationalist as in Crimea. In government-controlled organization Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) were areas, media outlets and individuals involved in a shoot-out with police in the perceived to express pro-Russian or pro- Zakarpattya region, resulting in three deaths. separatist views faced harassment. In June, In August, during a protest organized by the a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and non-parliamentary right-wing Svoboda party intersex (LGBTI) Pride march in Kyiv was in front of Parliament, four National Guard marred by violence despite police officers were killed by a grenade. Several protection. In November, amendments to Svoboda activists were arrested. labour laws were introduced, expressly Local elections were held in October and prohibiting discrimination against LGBTI November in government-controlled territory. people. However, voting was postponed until later in the year in the city of Mariupol, and was not BACKGROUND held in several towns and villages across In January and February, heavy fighting eastern and southern Ukraine due to security resumed in Ukraine’s eastern region of concerns.

378 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 On 20 September, activists opposed to the in the city of Odessa on 2 May 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea established published two reports during 2015. On both checkpoints at the land border with Crimea, occasions, the Panel found that the halting the overland delivery of food and other investigations had “failed to satisfy the goods from mainland Ukraine. On requirements of the European Convention on 20 November, four electric power lines that Human Rights”. provided over 70% of electricity to Crimea On 12 November, Parliament adopted a were blown up by unknown individuals, law creating a State Investigation Bureau, causing a blackout across the peninsula. tasked with the investigation of alleged crimes Repair teams dispatched by the Ukrainian committed by law enforcement officials. The authorities to restore the line were blocked by law was pending presidential approval at the anti-occupation activists. On 8 December, the end of the year. blockade was lifted but power lines were not fully operational before the end of the year. ARMED CONFLICT Ukraine’s GDP contracted by over 12%; its During the escalation of fighting in Donbass in currency lost over half of its value in US dollar January and February, indiscriminate shelling terms, bringing further hardship to a majority of civilian areas continued, with both sides of Ukrainians. Living conditions in the blaming each other. Both sides committed separatist-controlled areas continued to war crimes, including torture and other ill- deteriorate markedly, with restrictions on the treatment of prisoners. There were also movement of people and goods tightened confirmed reports of the deliberate killing of further by the authorities in Kyiv. captives by separatist fighters. On 13 January, 12 passengers in a civilian TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT bus were killed near the city of Volnovakha by Two years after the EuroMaydan protests, a Grad rocket attack while waiting to pass little tangible progress was made in bringing through a checkpoint controlled by Ukrainian to justice law enforcement officials forces.1 On 22 January, 15 people died when responsible for the excessive, unnecessary a mortar hit a trolleybus in Donetsk.2 On and illegal use of force. In November, the 24 January, 29 civilians were killed and over Prosecutor General’s Office reported that 100 injured by missiles launched by investigations into more than 2,000 separatist forces into the densely populated EuroMaydan-related incidents were ongoing, Vostochny neighbourhood in Mariupol. with criminal proceedings instigated against Ihor Branovytsky was one of 12 Ukrainian 270 individuals. The trial of two former riot people defending Donetsk airport and taken police (Berkut) officers on charges of prisoner by the separatist Sparta battalion on manslaughter and abuse of authority began in 21 January. He was beaten unconscious connection with the killing of 39 protesters on during his interrogation and killed with a shot 20 February 2014. On 7 December, the in the head by the battalion’s commander, Obolon district court in Kyiv sentenced who later admitted in a phone interview to students Aziz Tagirov and Ramil Islamli to having killed 15 other captives.3 four years’ imprisonment and four years of Members of Ukrainian forces Andriy probation respectively for beating, kidnapping Kolesnyk, Albert Sarukhanyan and Serhiy and threatening to kill a protester on Slisarenko were last seen alive in footage 21 January 2014. No other convictions were showing them being taken captive in the handed down for EuroMaydan-related crimes village of Krasny Partizan on 22 January. in 2015. They all died shortly afterwards from gunshot The International Advisory Panel set up by wounds, shot at close range. the Council of Europe to monitor A former prisoner reported spending investigations into EuroMaydan and violence several weeks in captivity in a crowded

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 379 basement cell, in a building near the village of as interviews and reports from separatist- Velykomykhailivka that was used as a base by controlled areas, which featured local people Pravy Sektor paramilitaries. Prior to his who expressed support for the separatists. release in early 2015, he and at least 12 men Three consecutive warnings would result in and one woman had been imprisoned for their broadcasting licences being annulled. varying periods of time in the same cell, and Journalist Oles Buzina, who was well subjected to daily beatings and other ill- known for his pro-Russian views and followed treatment.4 Pravy Sektor’s spokesperson by over 25,000 people on Facebook, was shot confirmed the practice of imprisonment of dead by two masked gunmen in front of his suspected separatists by its members but house on 16 April. After two suspects were denied all allegations of ill-treatment. Another arrested on 18 June, the Interior Minister anonymous source corroborated the Arsen Avakov announced on Facebook that allegations. the case had been “solved”. Both men The Prosecutor General’s Office reported protested their innocence and complained of that at least three criminal cases were opened physical and psychological pressure by the into alleged abuses by members of Pravy investigators. Their trial was pending at the Sektor, including abduction, beatings and end of the year. extortion committed between August 2014 Four so-called “decommunization” laws and May 2015, as well as the ill-treatment were passed in May, banning the use of and disappearance of one man in November communist and Nazi symbols. In July, the 2014, allegedly involving volunteer Ministry of Justice instigated court cases paramilitaries and members of the Security seeking to ban the Communist Party of Service of Ukraine. All three investigations Ukraine (CPU) and two smaller parties that were ongoing at the end of the year. dubbed themselves “communist”. The latter two parties – both effectively defunct – were PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE banned on 1 October, while the CPU was Ruslan Kotsaba, a freelance journalist and banned on 16 December. It filed an appeal blogger from the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, was on 28 December. arrested on 7 February after posting a video Journalists with pro-Ukrainian views or on YouTube in which he demanded an reporting for Ukrainian media outlets were immediate end to fighting in Donbass and unable to operate openly in separatist- called on Ukrainian men to resist controlled areas. On 16 June, Russian conscription. He was remanded in custody journalist Pavel Kanygin was detained for and, on 31 March, charged with “state several hours by local security forces in treason” and “obstructing legitimate activities Donetsk and severely beaten before being of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. His trial was released. He had written several reports for ongoing at the end of the year. the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta about two Russian citizens taken prisoner by FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Ukrainian government forces in Donbass, in The media remained generally free in which he denounced an official Russian government-controlled areas. However, cover-up about them being active military against the backdrop of the Russian servicemen. occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing conflict in Donbass, media RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, outlets perceived as espousing pro-Russian or TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE pro-separatist views faced harassment. A Pride march was held in Kyiv on 6 June, Broadcasters 112 Ukraine and Inter TV following extensive negotiations between received formal warnings from the National organizers and the authorities. Before and Television and Radio Council for content such after the march, President Petro Poroshenko

380 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 spoke out strongly in support of LGBTI banned, Crimean Tatar-language media people’s right to freedom of assembly. outlets were forced to close down and their However, the police agreed to provide leaders were subjected to regular house protection just one day before the event. searches and faced criminal prosecution and Dozens of right-wing activists broke through detention on politically motivated charges. police lines and attacked the march. Ten The Crimean Tatar Mejlis, a representative participants and three policemen were body elected by members of the community, injured, and 25 attackers were arrested and faced further reprisals. Its current leader, later released. Pride organizers received Ahtem Chiygoz, was arrested on 29 January threatening messages on their mobiles and and accused of having organized “mass online. Four criminal cases against anti- disturbances” on 26 February 2014. The de LGBTI protesters were opened and were still facto authorities repeatedly warned that the ongoing at the end of the year. Mejlis could be designated as an extremist In August, a court in Odessa banned a group under Russian law. The two previous proposed Pride march, citing the “threat to Mejlis leaders, Mustafa Dzhemiliev and Refat public order” and participants’ safety. Chubarov, remained officially barred from Instead, the organizers held a smaller, indoor their homeland. On 28 October, the de facto LGBTI festival on 15 August, during which Prosecutor of Crimea announced that several masked men hurled firecrackers and Chubarov could return, after a court in the smoke bombs at the organizers’ office. city of Simferopol had ordered his arrest on On 12 November, Parliament introduced 6 October for “calls against the territorial amendments to labour laws, prohibiting integrity of the Russian Federation”. discrimination on grounds of sexual The Crimean Tatar-language TV channel orientation and gender identity. The move, ATR was forced to stop broadcasting on requested by the EU as part of the visa 1 April, when the deadline for its re- liberalization process with Ukraine, had long registration under Russian laws expired. It been resisted by the Ukrainian legislature. had applied for re-registration at least four The amendments were signed into law by the times and was consistently denied it President on 23 November. arbitrarily. ATR resumed broadcasting from mainland Ukraine, but its reporters were no CRIMEA longer able to work in Crimea openly. There was no effective investigation into six On 9 March, Aleksandr Kravchenko, cases of suspected enforced disappearances Leonid Kuzmin and Veldar Shukurdzhiev of Crimean Tatar activists in 2014 and one were arrested at a small street gathering in confirmed case of abduction, torture and Simferopol intended to celebrate the 201st killing. This was despite a plethora of anniversary of the birth of the Ukrainian poet evidence, including video footage, strongly Taras Shevchenko, at which they used suggesting that pro-Russian paramilitaries national symbols such as yellow and blue from the so-called “Crimean self-defence ribbons. They were taken to a police station, force” were responsible for at least some of released after three hours and sentenced to these crimes. 40 hours of community labour each, for Freedoms of expression, assembly and violating rules of public assembly. They association continued to be curtailed under subsequently faced harassment by members the de facto administration in Crimea, after its of the anti-extremism police unit, including occupation and annexation by Russia in arrests and informal interrogations. Kuzmin 2014. Those expressing pro-Ukrainian also lost his job as a history teacher. sympathies faced harsh reprisals. The Contrary to international humanitarian law, Crimean Tatar community was particularly Crimean anti-occupation activists Oleg affected: its public events were regularly Sentsov and Alexander Kolchenko were put

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 381 on trial outside Crimea. They were tried under joined the Saudi Arabia-led international Russian law in a military court in the city of coalition that engaged in the armed conflict in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, and Yemen (see Yemen entry). sentenced to 20 and 10 years’ imprisonment In May, the authorities denied entry to an respectively, under disproportionate Amnesty International representative who had terrorism-related charges. Their trials were been invited to speak at a construction unfair and based on testimony allegedly industry conference in Dubai. extracted under torture. The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court of the Russian FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Federation on 24 November. The authorities used provisions of the Penal Code, the 2012 cybercrime law and the 2014 anti-terrorism law to arrest, prosecute and 1. Eastern Ukraine: Investigate deadly artillery strike on civilian bus imprison critics. In July, the enactment of a (News story, 13 January) new law on combating discrimination and 2. Eastern Ukraine: Deadly attack on Donetsk trolleybus as ceasefire hatred further eroded rights to freedom of unravels (News story, 22 January) expression and association. The new law 3. New evidence of summary killings of Ukrainian soldiers must spark defines hate speech as “any speech or urgent investigations (News story, 9 April) conduct which may incite sedition, prejudicial 4. Ukraine: Breaking bodies: Torture and summary killings in eastern action or discrimination among individuals or Ukraine (EUR 50/1683/2015) groups”, punishable by a minimum of five years’ imprisonment. It also empowers the courts to order the disbandment of UNITED ARAB associations deemed to provoke such speech and imprison their founders for a minimum of EMIRATES 10 years. In February, state security officials arrested United Arab Emirates three sisters, Dr Alyaziyah, Asma and Mariam Head of state: Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Khalifa al-Suwaidi, after they posted Head of government: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al comments on Twitter relating to their brother, Maktoum a prisoner of conscience. The women were subjected to enforced disappearance for The authorities arbitrarily restricted freedom three months; they were released in May. of expression, arresting and prosecuting In May, the Dubai Criminal Court government critics. A new law on combating sentenced an Indian national to one year in discrimination and hatred imposed further prison, followed by deportation, after it limits on the rights to freedom of expression convicted him of blasphemy in relation to a and association. Security forces subjected Facebook post deemed to “insult” Islam and dozens of people to enforced disappearance. the Prophet Muhammad. Also in May, the Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees State Security Chamber of the Federal was common. Prisoners of conscience Supreme Court, which hears cases related to remained imprisoned following unfair trials. national security, sentenced Ahmed Abdulla Women faced discrimination in law and in al-Wahdi to 10 years’ imprisonment after practice. Migrant workers were inadequately convicting him of “creating and running a protected by law and faced exploitation and social media account that insults the UAE’s abuse. The death penalty remained in force leadership and the country’s institutions”, and there was one execution. based on comments he had posted on Twitter. BACKGROUND The same court handed down a three-year In March, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) prison sentence in June to Nasser al-Junaibi

382 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 after convicting him on charges of “insulting In August, a mass trial of 41 people was the royal family” and “spreading rumours and held before the State Security Chamber of the information that harmed the country”, partly Federal Supreme Court. Charges included on the basis of his Twitter comments “plotting to overthrow the government and criticizing as a “judicial farce” the 2013 mass replace it with an ISIL-like ‘caliphate’”. The trial of government critics and pro-reform defendants included at least 21 people whom advocates known as the UAE 94 trial. Many of the state security forces had subjected to 20 the UAE 94 remained in prison and were months of enforced disappearance since their prisoners of conscience, including human arrests in November and December 2013. rights lawyer Dr Mohammed al-Roken. WOMEN’S RIGHTS ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Women continued to face discrimination in State security forces arrested dozens of law and in practice. In July, a court people, including foreign nationals and sentenced an 18-year-old woman to nine peaceful government critics, and subjected months’ imprisonment for engaging in illicit them to enforced disappearance. They were relationships with men. She was 16 years old detained incommunicado in secret locations, when arrested and had been released on bail. in some cases for more than a year. In August, Dr Nasser bin Ghaith, an RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, academic, economist and former prisoner of TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE conscience, was subjected to enforced In February, two transgender women, both disappearance by state security officers after foreign nationals, were charged with being he criticized “Arab dictators” on Twitter. His disguised as women and entering a place whereabouts remained undisclosed at the restricted only to women. They were jailed end of the year. until they each paid a fine and were then deported. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Some of those who were formerly subjected to MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS enforced disappearance said security officials Migrant workers continued to face exploitation had tortured and otherwise ill-treated them in and abuse despite protective provisions detention. The authorities denied they had contained in the 1980 Labour Law and used torture, and failed to independently subsequent decrees. The kafala sponsorship investigate, ignoring the recommendation in system made workers vulnerable to abuse by May of the UN Special Rapporteur on the their employers. independence of judges and lawyers that the In April, an investigative report government should appoint an independent commissioned by a UAE government agency committee of experts to investigate allegations found that thousands of migrant construction of torture. workers employed at New York University’s campus in Abu Dhabi had been forced to pay UNFAIR TRIALS steep recruitment fees and had their The authorities used vague and overly broad passports confiscated, despite university provisions of the Penal Code, cybercrime law guidelines designed to ensure fair working and anti-terrorism law to prosecute dozens of and living conditions. Domestic workers, people before the State Security Chamber of overwhelmingly women, remained excluded the Federal Supreme Court, whose verdicts from the protections afforded to other migrant are not subject to appeal, in breach of workers and faced physical violence, international fair trial standards. One confinement to places of work, and other defendant sentenced to death by the Court abuses. Workers who engaged in strikes or was executed two weeks later (see below). other forms of collective action faced arrest

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 383 and deportation. restricting trade union rights. The authorities’ intolerance of criticism of their record on migrant workers was TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT underlined when, in March, they denied entry In August, the UN Human Rights Committee to Professor Andrew Ross, an expert on raised concerns about the adequacy of the labour issues at New York University. parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) as a mechanism to DEATH PENALTY investigate alleged UK complicity in the The death penalty remained in force for torture of detainees held in counter-terrorism murder and other offences, and courts operations overseas. Concerns about the continued to hand down death sentences. On ISC’s independence and the power of the 29 June, the State Security Chamber of the government to prevent the disclosure of Federal Supreme Court sentenced Alaa al- sensitive material led the UN Human Rights Hashemi to death on terrorism charges. The Committee to call on the government to authorities executed her on 13 July. She had consider initiating a full judicial investigation been denied the right of appeal. into the allegations. On 30 October, former UK resident Shaker Aamer was released from the US naval base UNITED KINGDOM at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and returned to the UK. Shaker Aamer had been detained United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland without charge or trial in Guantánamo since Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II February 2002. Head of government: David Cameron In November, hearings began in the Supreme Court concerning the civil claim of Plans to repeal the Human Rights Act were married couple Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and confirmed. The government continued its Fatima Boudchar, who alleged that they were opposition to participation in EU efforts to victims of rendition, torture and other ill- share responsibility for the increasing treatment in 2004 by the US and Libyan number of refugees arriving in Europe. governments, with the knowledge and co- Criticism of surveillance laws gained operation of UK officials. The UK government momentum. argued that the “act of state” doctrine should prevent the case from going ahead, because LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR UK courts should not judge the conduct of INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS foreign states (who were involved in the In May, the Conservative Party won the alleged rendition) for actions undertaken in general election and formed a majority their own jurisdictions. government. The new government confirmed its plans to repeal the Human Rights Act and COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY replace it with a British Bill of Rights. The UN Broad counter-terrorism powers continued to High Commissioner for Human Rights and raise concerns.2 In February, the Counter- the UN Human Rights Committee, among Terrorism and Security Act 2015 came into others, raised serious concerns that repealing force, introducing new powers, including the Human Rights Act could lead to the restrictions on the travel of people suspected weakening of human rights protections in the of involvement in terrorism-related activity UK.1 and exclusion from the UK of certain citizens In July, the government published a Trade or others with a right to live in the UK who Union Bill. If passed, the Bill would place reject government-imposed conditions on more legal hurdles in the way of unions their return home. It also introduced a organizing strike action, significantly statutory duty, known as the “prevent duty”,

384 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 on certain bodies, including schools and local On 6 February, the Investigatory Powers councils, to have “due regard to the need to Tribunal (IPT) ruled, in a case brought by prevent people from being drawn into Amnesty International and nine other NGOs terrorism”. NGOs and civil society raised from four continents, that the government’s concerns about the potentially discriminatory procedures for the “soliciting, receiving, impact of the duty. storing and transmitting by UK authorities of In October, the government introduced a private communications of individuals located new “counter-extremism strategy”. The in the UK, which have been obtained by US strategy included plans for an Extremism Bill authorities” violated the rights to privacy and that would introduce new powers to tackle freedom of expression.3 However, the IPT said what it characterizes as extremism, including such an intelligence-sharing regime was now bans on certain organizations, restrictions on lawful due to government disclosures made specifically identified individuals, and during the legal proceedings. restrictions on access to premises used for Following the findings of the IPT, Amnesty the support of extremism. The proposals International and the other nine claimant caused concern that these new powers could NGOs brought the case to the European Court lead to the violation of people’s rights to of Human Rights, arguing that the UK law freedom of assembly, association, speech governing various aspects of communications and privacy. surveillance violated the country’s human In September, the Prime Minister rights obligations, including in relation to the announced in Parliament that on 21 August a rights to privacy and freedom of expression.4 Royal Air Force (RAF) drone strike was In July, the IPT notified Amnesty carried out in the area of al-Raqqa in Syria, International that government agencies had killing three persons said to be members of spied on the organization by intercepting, the armed group Islamic State (IS), including accessing and storing its communications.5 two British citizens. The government resisted The IPT found a breach of Articles 8 and 10 calls from NGOs and parliamentarians to of the European Convention on Human make public the legal guidance on which the Rights, on account of the fact that the air strike was authorized. intercepted communications were retained for On 30 July, the Court of Appeal in Serdar a longer period of time than foreseen under Mohammed v. Secretary of State for Defence the Government Communications ruled unlawful the detention of an Afghan Headquarters (GCHQ) internal policies. The detainee by British armed forces for almost IPT also found a breach of internal policies in four months. The Court found that the respect of the South Africa-based Legal detention was arbitrary and therefore in Resources Centre. violation of this person’s right to liberty under On 17 July, the High Court ruled that Article 5 of the European Convention on Section 1 of the Data Retention and Human Rights, which also applies to overseas Investigatory Powers Act 2014 was unlawful detention. under EU law pertaining to the right to respect for private life and to protection of SURVEILLANCE personal data under the EU Charter of Criticism of the UK’s surveillance laws gained Fundamental Rights. momentum over the year, with the UN In November, the government published a Human Rights Committee, among others, draft Investigatory Powers Bill for expressing concerns and calling on the consultation. The Bill provides for wholesale government to ensure that the interception of reform of surveillance and data retention personal communications and retention of laws. NGOs raised concerns that the Bill did communications data are done in conformity not contain adequate human rights with human rights law. protections and provided for practices that

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 385 threaten human rights. termination of pregnancy in cases of fatal foetal impairment, rape or incest. NORTHERN IRELAND On 26 June, the Belfast High Court upheld as REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS lawful the government’s decision not to hold The government continued its opposition to an independent inquiry into the 1989 killing full participation in EU efforts to share of Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane. responsibility for the increasing number of The Northern Ireland Assembly failed to refugees arriving in Europe. It exercised its introduce marriage equality legislation, option not to participate in the EU’s relocation making it the only UK region that failed to do scheme of 160,000 Syrian, Eritrean and Iraqi so. Two court challenges to the ban on same- refugees present in Greece, Hungary and sex marriages were heard in the courts in Italy. However, in September, following Belfast in December. mounting public pressure, the Prime Minister The government, along with Northern announced that the country would expand its Ireland political parties and the Irish Syrian resettlement programme from a few government, failed to agree legislation that hundred over three years to up to 20,000 would have established new mechanisms to places over the next five years. With respect investigate deaths attributed to the conflict in to the situation in Calais, France, the Northern Ireland, as had been promised government maintained its position of under the Stormont House Agreement. contributing financial resources primarily to secure the perimeters of the port and SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Channel Tunnel, while declining to accept Access to abortion in Northern Ireland any of the Calais refugees and migrants into remained limited to exceptional cases where the UK asylum system [see France entry]. the life or health of the woman or girl was at In March, Parliament passed the Modern risk.6 In June, the Justice Minister was Slavery Act 2015, which increases reported to have submitted a draft paper to enforcement powers to monitor and tackle the Northern Ireland Executive on reforming slavery and human trafficking. The the law on abortion in Northern Ireland, to government was criticized by NGOs for its allow access to abortion in cases of fatal and earlier decision to remove protections in the severe foetal impairment. This followed a immigration rules that helped overseas consultation on legal reform which had domestic workers to escape situations of concluded in January. slavery in the UK. In response, it In August, the concluding observations of commissioned a review of the overseas the UN Human Rights Committee called on domestic worker visa which resulted in a the government to amend the country’s recommendation to reintroduce the option for legislation on abortion in Northern Ireland these workers to change employers. with a view to providing for additional In October, a new Immigration Bill was exceptions to the legal ban on abortion, published and included provisions to further including in cases of “rape, incest and fatal establish what the government characterized foetal abnormality”. The Committee also as a “hostile environment” for undocumented called for access to information on abortion, migrants. If passed by Parliament, it would contraception and sexual and reproductive permit the removal of support for families who health options. were refused asylum in a final decision and In November and December, the High remove local authorities’ duties to provide Court in Belfast ruled that the existing support to children leaving care at 18 on abortion law in Northern Ireland was grounds of immigration status; extend the incompatible with domestic and international range of people who despite retaining a right human rights law, as it prevents access to of appeal may be removed from the country

386 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 before the appeal has been heard; and violence services, the government announced transfer significant power from tribunals to the a £3.2 million domestic abuse fund in Home Office over decisions on whether to August. However, the extent of cuts to grant immigration bail and/or on what funding of specialist violence against women conditions. services remained a major concern. Independent inspectorates continued to highlight grave inadequacies in the use of immigration detention. In March, a report by 1. UN Human Rights Council: Oral Statement under Item 4 on the UK a cross-party parliamentary group found that Human Rights Act (IOR 40/1938/2015) immigration detention was used excessively. 2. United Kingdom: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee In July, the Minister for Immigration (EUR 45/1793/2015) suspended the Detained Fast Track – a 3. UK: "Historic" surveillance ruling finds intelligence-sharing illegal process whereby many asylum-seekers are (News story, 6 February) detained and have very little time to instruct 4. Amnesty International takes UK to European Court over mass lawyers or gather evidence to support their surveillance (News story, 10 April) claim – following a High Court ruling, 5. United Kingdom: British government surveillance programmes and confirmed by the Court of Appeal, that the interception of Amnesty International communication (EUR process was structurally unfair and therefore 45/2096/2015) unlawful. 6. United Kingdom: Northern Ireland: Barriers to accessing abortion services (EUR 45/1057/2015) VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women issued her report on UNITED STATES her visit to the UK. It concluded that while the government had declared violence against OF AMERICA women to be a national priority, and had a number of strategies and action plans at a United States of America national level, in most cases initiatives had Head of state and government: Barack Obama resulted in isolated pockets of good practice. The report indicated that this was due to the There was no accountability nor remedy for lack of a consistent and coherent human crimes under international law committed in rights-based approach in the government’s the secret detention programme operated by response to violence against women. the CIA. Scores of detainees remained in Amendments made to legislation through indefinite military detention at the US naval the Serious Crime Act 2015 included a new base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, while mandatory reporting duty for female genital military trial proceedings continued in a mutilation (FGM), which came into force on handful of cases. Concern about the use of 31 October, requiring regulated health and isolation in state and federal prisons and the social care professionals and teachers in use of force in policing continued. Twenty- England and Wales to report known cases of seven men and one woman were executed FGM on girls under 18 years of age to the during the year. police. On 29 December, a new domestic violence BACKGROUND offence of coercive and controlling behaviour In March, September and November came into force, carrying a maximum of five respectively, the USA provided its one-year years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. follow-up responses to the UN Human Rights In response to concerns raised by domestic Committee (HRC), the CERD Committee and violence organizations regarding cuts to the UN Committee against Torture on their funding for specialist women’s domestic 2014 priority recommendations after scrutiny

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 387 of the country’s compliance with the ICCPR, reportedly learned of a cache of some 14,000 the CERD and the UN Convention against photographs relating to CIA “black sites” in Torture. Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania, In May, the USA’s human rights record was Lithuania and possibly elsewhere, including examined under the UN Universal Periodic images of naked detainees being transported. Review (UPR) process. In September, the The photographs had not been made public USA accepted about three-quarters of the by the end of the year. 343 recommendations made under the UPR process. As in 2011, the USA said it COUNTER-TERROR – DETENTIONS supported calls for the closure of the Detainees held at the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay detention facility, the Guantánamo Bay continued to be denied ratification of the Convention on the Rights of their human rights under the USA’s flawed the Child and CEDAW, and for accountability “global war” framework and its views on the for torture. None had been implemented by non-applicability of international human rights the end of the year. law to the detentions. In its one-year follow-up response to the HRC’s call for administrative IMPUNITY detention and military commissions against In its one-year update to the HRC, the USA Guantánamo detainees to be ended, the USA said that it prohibited torture and other ill- reiterated its erroneous position on treatment, enforced disappearance and extraterritoriality that “obligations under the arbitrary detention of “any person in its Covenant apply only with respect to custody wherever they are held”, and that it individuals who are both within the territory of held “accountable any persons responsible a State Party and within its jurisdiction”. To for such acts”. Yet by the end of the year, no the CERD call to end Guantánamo detentions action had been taken to end the impunity for “without further delay”, the USA responded the systematic human rights violations that it did not agree that the “request bears committed in the secret detention programme directly on obligations under the Convention”. operated by the CIA, under authorization At the end of the year, 107 men were held granted by former President George W. Bush at Guantánamo. The majority were held after the attacks of 11 September 2001 without charge or trial. About half had been (9/11). approved for transfer for at least five years. The USA also told the HRC that it Twenty-one detainees were transferred out of “supports transparency” in relation to this the base during the year to Estonia, Morocco, issue. Yet by the end of the year, more than Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Oman, the United 12 months after the publication of the Arab Emirates and the UK. declassified summary of the report by the Hearings by the Periodic Review Board Senate Select Committee on Intelligence into (PRB) continued. These administrative review the CIA programme, the Committee’s full proceedings, undermining ordinary criminal 6,700-page report, containing details of the justice processes, apply to detainees who are treatment of each detainee, remained not facing military commissions and have not classified top secret. Most, if not all, of the been approved for transfer by other detainees were subjected to enforced administrative reviews. disappearance and to conditions of detention Pre-trial military commission proceedings and/or interrogation techniques which continued against five detainees accused of violated the prohibition of torture and other involvement in the 9/11 attacks and charged cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. under the Military Commissions Act (MCA) for Classification of the report continued to capital trial in 2012. The five – Khalid Sheikh facilitate impunity and the denial of remedy.1 Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al- During the year, military prosecutors Shibh, ‘Ali ‘Abd al-‘Aziz and Mustafa al

388 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 Hawsawi as well as ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE who was arraigned for capital trial in 2011 on At least 43 people across 25 states died after charges relating to the bombing of the USS police used Tasers on them, bringing the total Cole in Yemen in 2000 – were held number of Taser-related deaths since 2001 to incommunicado in secret US custody for up at least 670. Most of the victims were not to four years prior to their transfer to armed and did not appear to pose a threat of Guantánamo in 2006. Their trials had not death or serious injury when the Taser was begun by the end of the year. deployed. Pre-trial proceedings also continued in the The death of Freddie Gray in April and the case of Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, who was one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s reportedly arrested in Turkey in 2006 and death sparked protests in Baltimore, transferred to US custody, held in secret by Maryland and Ferguson, Missouri the CIA and transferred to Guantánamo in respectively. Similar protests against police 2007. He was formally charged on 18 June use of force occurred in cities including 2014. His trial was pending at the end of the Cleveland, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri, year. among others. The use of heavy-duty riot gear Majid Khan and Ahmed Mohammed al and military-grade weapons and equipment to Darbi were still awaiting sentencing after police the demonstrations served to intimidate pleading guilty in 2012 and 2014 respectively protesters who were exercising their right to while agreeing not to sue the USA for their peaceful assembly. prior treatment in custody. Ahmed Authorities failed to track the exact number Mohammed al Darbi was arrested by civilian of people killed by law enforcement officials authorities in Azerbaijan in June 2002 and each year – estimates range from 458 to over was transferred to US custody two months 1,000 individuals. According to the limited later. He has alleged that he was ill-treated. data available, black men are Majid Khan was held in the secret CIA disproportionately victims of police killings. detention programme from 2003 and State statutes on the use of lethal force are far subjected to enforced disappearance, torture too permissive; none limit the use of firearms and other ill-treatment before being to a last resort only after non-violent and less transferred to Guantánamo in 2006. Further harmful means are exhausted, and where the details of his treatment in CIA custody officer or others are faced with an imminent emerged during the year, including of rape, threat of death or serious injury. sexual assault, beatings, subjection to prolonged darkness and solitary confinement, TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT hanging for days from a wooden beam, and The City of Chicago, Illinois, passed an threats against him and his family. ordinance to provide reparations to over 100 In June, a three-judge panel of the US survivors of torture committed by members of Court of Appeals nullified the conviction by a the Chicago Police Department from 1972 to military commission of Guantánamo detainee 1991. The ordinance includes a US$5.5 Ali Hamza Suliman al Bahlul. The conviction million fund for survivors, a formal apology was for conspiracy to commit war crimes, but from the Chicago City Council, free college the Court threw it out on the grounds that the education for survivors and their families, an charge was not recognized under educational component in Chicago Public international law and could not be prosecuted Schools on the history of torture by the before a military tribunal. In September, the Chicago Police Department, a public authorities’ appeal to the Court to rehear the memorial to torture survivors and a case was accepted and oral arguments were counselling centre for torture survivors. held on 1 December, with the ruling pending at the end of the year.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 389 MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS eliminated prolonged and indefinite isolation More than 35,000 unaccompanied children in California’s Security Housing Units (SHUs). and 34,000 families were apprehended Under the terms of the settlement, the crossing the southern border during the year, overwhelming majority of prisoners held in many fleeing violence and insecurity in SHUs were due to be released to general Mexico and Central America. Families were prison population units. In recognition of the detained for months while pursuing claims to harmful effects of long-term solitary remain in the USA; many were held in confinement, prisoners who have been held facilities without proper access to medical for over 10 years in SHUs will be immediately care, sanitary food and water and legal transferred to a Restricted Custody General counsel. Transgender individuals were Population Unit, to begin a two-year routinely detained according to their gender programme to reintegrate them into the at birth, leaving them susceptible to abuse, or general prison population. held in solitary confinement and without The release in March of an “independent” access to hormone therapy. audit into the use of solitary confinement in Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities WOMEN’S RIGHTS reported a number of inadequacies in the Despite legislative gains in the reauthorized system, including in mental health provision Violence against Women Act, including and re-entry programmes for those held for provisions that address the high levels of long periods in isolation. Its recommendations violence against Indigenous women and did not go far enough to improve the harmful provide protection and services for survivors effects the isolation regime exerts on of domestic violence, Native American and prisoners’ physical and mental health, or to Alaska Native women who were raped bring the BOP in line with its international continued to lack access to basic care, obligations.2 including examinations and other essential health care services such as emergency DEATH PENALTY contraception. Native American and Alaska Twenty-seven men and one woman were Native women continued to experience executed in six states, bringing to 1,422 the disproportionate levels of violence; they were total number of executions since the 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976. assaulted than other women in the country. This was the lowest number of executions in a There were broad disparities in women’s year since 1991. Approximately 50 new death access to sexual and reproductive health sentences were passed. Almost 3,000 people care, including maternal health care. African- remained on death row at the end of the year. American women remained nearly four times The Nebraska legislature voted to abolish more likely to die of pregnancy-related the death penalty, overriding the State complications than white women. Over 230 Governor’s veto against the bill. However, the bills were introduced across multiple US repeal was on hold at the end of the year after states seeking to restrict access to safe and opponents gathered enough signatures to a legal abortion. petition to have the issue put to the popular vote in November 2016. Momentum against PRISON CONDITIONS the death penalty continued in February with Over 80,000 prisoners at any given time were the announcement of a moratorium on held in conditions of physical and social executions in Pennsylvania by the State deprivation in federal and state prisons Governor. Moratoriums also remained in force throughout the country. in Washington State and Oregon at the end of In September, a landmark settlement to a the year. class action lawsuit, Ashker v. Brown, virtually Warren Hill was executed in Georgia on 27

390 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 January. All the experts who assessed him, had been used in at least one execution, that including those retained by the state, agreed of Charles Warner in January. The State that he had an intellectual disability, Attorney General sought and obtained an rendering his execution unconstitutional. indefinite stay of executions and in October, Cecil Clayton, a 74-year-old man, was his office said that it would not seek any new executed in Missouri on 17 March. He had execution dates until at least 150 days after been diagnosed with dementia and a the completion of investigations into the psychotic disorder stemming from a serious execution protocol. brain injury. In October, the Ohio prison authorities The Governor of Missouri commuted the announced that 11 executions scheduled for death sentence of Kimber Edwards shortly 2016 were being rescheduled for 2017, 2018 before he was due to be put to death in and 2019 as the state continued to seek October. The man who shot the victim and is “legal means” to obtain lethal injection drugs. serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in During the year, six inmates were return for avoiding the death penalty had exonerated of the crimes for which they were signed a statement recanting his post-arrest originally sentenced to death, bringing to 156 statements implicating Kimber Edwards in the the number of such cases since 1973. murder. Kelly Gissendaner was executed in Georgia on 30 September for the murder of her 1. USA: Crimes and impunity (AMR 51/1432/2015) husband. The man who pleaded guilty to 2. USA: Entombed: Isolation in the US federal prison system (AMR shooting the victim and testified against his 51/040/2014) co-defendant is serving a life sentence. Numerous inmates and former correctional officials supported clemency for Kelly URUGUAY Gissendaner, pointing to her rehabilitation and her positive impact on prison life and Eastern Republic of Uruguay prisoners. Head of state and government: Tabaré Vázquez States continued to face litigation on lethal (replaced José Alberto Mujica Cordano in March) injection protocols and problems in acquiring execution drugs. On 29 June, in Glossip v. Little progress was made to ensure justice Gross, the US Supreme Court upheld the use for human rights violations committed of midazolam as the sedative drug in during the period of civil and military rule Oklahoma’s three-drug protocol. Two between 1973 and 1985. Gender inequality dissenting judges argued that the Court persisted, including in access to abortion should revisit the constitutionality of the death and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, penalty. Their dissent argued that the death transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. penalty was now “highly likely” unconstitutional, including on the grounds of BACKGROUND arbitrariness and unreliability. In March, Tabaré Vázquez took office After the ruling, Oklahoma scheduled the promising to implement a National Plan on execution of Richard Glossip, one of the Social Harmony and Human Rights, and to plaintiffs in the lethal injection challenge. strengthen anti-discrimination policy for Hours from execution on 16 September, and LGBTI people, as well as measures to then minutes before his rescheduled promote gender equality, among other execution on 30 September, the State commitments. Governor stopped the execution after it was In March, the UN Committee on the Rights revealed that the prison authorities had the of the Child urged Uruguay to take measures wrong drug. It was later found that this drug to prevent, prohibit and protect children from

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 391 all forms of torture or other cruel, inhuman or cases during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. degrading treatment in detention, including Decriminalization is extended to the 14th week by the police. The Committee also called on when the pregnancy is the result of rape, and the government to tackle high rates of child to the whole pregnancy when it either poses a poverty and improve access to quality health serious risk to the woman’s health or is a case services, particularly for children living in the of foetal malformation, incompatible with most disadvantaged and remote areas. extra-uterine life. In October, Uruguay was elected member of the UN Security Council for 2016-17, after RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 50 years of absence from it. TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE In June, the government announced that it Investigations into the killings of five would continue its programme of resettling transsexual women between 2011 and 2012 Syrian refugees. Five Syrian families arrived in showed little progress. Uruguay in 2014. IMPUNITY UZBEKISTAN In May, a presidential decree established the Truth and Justice Working Group to Republic of Uzbekistan investigate human rights violations that Head of state: Islam Karimov occurred between 1968 and 1985. The group Head of government: Shavkat Mirzioiev was to be formed of seven members having fulfilled autonomy and independence criteria The authorities used torture and other ill- throughout their careers, as well as the treatment to suppress dissent, combat President and Vice-President of Uruguay. actual or perceived security threats, repress A 2013 Supreme Court ruling remained an political opponents, extract confessions and obstacle to ensuring justice; the ruling had incriminating information, and intimidate or overturned key articles of Law 18.831, punish detainees and prisoners and their adopted in 2011, which established that families. Courts relied heavily on crimes committed during the period of civil confessions extracted under torture, duress and military rule between 1973 and 1985 or deception. Prison sentences of were crimes against humanity and that no individuals convicted of anti-state and statute of limitations could be applied. terrorism offences were arbitrarily extended.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS BACKGROUND In August, an administrative court upheld the In March, President Islam Karimov was re- right of medical professionals to refuse to elected for a fourth consecutive term in office, perform a legal abortion on grounds of in an election that lacked genuine political conscience. The ruling resulted from a competition. complaint lodged by a group of medical Economic growth slowed down, affected by professionals against several articles of a falling commodity prices in international decree regulating the 2012 legislation that markets. Remittances from Uzbekistani decriminalized abortion and guaranteed safe labour migrants abroad fell by over 45%. Over and legal access to it. The court’s ruling 2 million labour migrants were estimated to caused uncertainty over how the government work in Russia alone. would ensure the legislation’s effective The authorities claimed that the country implementation, depending on the number of was more vulnerable to attacks as a result of professionals refusing to perform abortions on the resurgence of armed groups such as the grounds of conscience. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), amid Abortion is decriminalized in Uruguay in all reports of a tactical alliance between the IMU

392 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 in Afghanistan and the armed group Islamic toenails. The judge failed to inquire further State (IS). The authorities intensified reprisals into the torture allegations, and admitted the against perceived extremists, particularly confessions as evidence. among returning labour migrants, many of At the UN Human Rights Committee whom they suspected of having travelled to examination of Uzbekistan’s fourth periodic Syria to fight for IS. report in July, Uzbekistan rejected allegations of the pervasive use of torture and other ill- TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT treatment by security forces and prison staff. Police and officers of the National Security Uzbekistan insisted that the constitutional Service (SNB) continued to routinely use prohibition of torture and single mention of it torture and other ill-treatment to coerce in the Criminal Procedure Code conformed to suspects and detainees, including women the state’s obligations under the ICCPR. In its and men charged with criminal offences such concluding observations, the Committee as theft, fraud or murder, into confessing to a urged the authorities to “ensure that the crime or incriminating others. Detainees prohibition of forced confessions and the charged with anti-state and terrorism-related inadmissibility of torture-tainted evidence are offences were particularly vulnerable to effectively enforced in practice by law torture. Detainees were often tortured by enforcement officers and judges”. people wearing masks. Police and SNB officers regularly used PRISON CONDITIONS convicted prisoners to commit torture and The practice of arbitrarily extending prison other ill-treatment on detainees in pre-trial terms even for minor alleged infractions of detention. Under the Criminal Code, prison rules under Article 221 of the Criminal prisoners, unlike officials, could not be held Code led to many prisoners, especially those responsible for torture but only for lesser convicted of anti-state offences, serving de crimes. A former detainee described facto life sentences. Azam Farmonov, a witnessing officers and prisoners torture men prisoner of conscience and human rights and women in interrogation rooms in an SNB defender who was convicted in 2006 largely pre-trial detention centre, as well as in on the basis of coerced witness testimony, bathrooms and showers, punishment cells was due to be released at the end of April and purpose-built torture rooms with padded after serving a nine-year sentence at Jaslyk rubber walls and sound-proofing. He Prison. However, in May, following a blatantly described SNB officers handcuffing detainees unfair and closed trial without legal to radiators and breaking their bones with representation, a court extended his sentence baseball bats.1 for another five years for breaking prison Courts continued to rely heavily on rules, in particular for verbally mocking other confessions obtained under torture to hand prisoners and not wearing appropriate down convictions. Judges routinely ignored or identification tags.2 He told his wife during a dismissed as unfounded defendants’ prison visit in July that the prison authorities allegations of torture or other ill-treatment, had kept him in a punishment cell for 10 even when presented with credible evidence. days in March. They had handcuffed him and Two men, who were sentenced in 2014 to repeatedly tied a bag over his head to 10 years in prison each for alleged suffocate him. He was forced to listen to the membership of a banned Islamist party, screams of prisoners being tortured in claimed in court that security forces had adjoining cells. tortured them to sign false confessions by Former parliamentarian Murad Dzhuraev, burning their hands and feet against a stove. who was arrested in 1994, sentenced to 12 One defendant told the judge that security years in prison on politically motivated forces had pulled out his fingernails and charges and had his sentence arbitrarily

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 393 extended four times, was finally released on which led to arrests and harassment, 12 November. including on the basis of planted evidence, as well as forced confessions. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY Police also compiled files on members of The authorities became increasingly unregistered religious communities, including suspicious of labour migrants returning from information on their family members. abroad who may have had access to information on Islam which is censored or FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – HUMAN banned in Uzbekistan, resulting in an RIGHTS DEFENDERS increased number of arrests and prosecutions Freedoms of expression and peaceful for “extremism”. The authorities claimed that assembly continued to be curtailed. In its migrant workers were targeted in Russia for concluding observations, the UN Human recruitment by the IMU, IS or other groups Rights Committee expressed concern about characterized as extremist. “consistent reports of harassment, In November, security forces detained surveillance, arbitrary arrests and detentions, dozens of labour migrants who had returned torture and ill-treatment by security forces from Russia and Turkey, in raids in the and prosecutions on trumped-up charges of capital Tashkent and several regions of the independent journalists, government critics, country, amid disputed claims that they were human rights defenders and other activists, in members of the banned Islamist party Hizb retaliation for their work”. ut-Tahrir and had links to IS members in Police officers detained Elena Urlaeva, Syria. Human rights defenders reported that head of the independent NGO Human Rights security forces used torture to extract Defenders’ Alliance of Uzbekistan, in the confessions from them. northeastern city of Chinaz on 31 May and subjected her to torture, including sexual Persecution of family members violence, to force her to surrender the The authorities routinely targeted relatives of memory card from her camera. The memory individuals charged with or convicted of anti- card contained photographic evidence of the state offences. In many cases, members of use of forced labour in cotton fields. Police the same family were arbitrarily detained, officers beat her, called her a traitor and tortured and otherwise ill-treated to force stripped her naked. Male police officers and a them to confess to fabricated charges, male paramedic held her by the arms and resulting in long prison sentences after unfair legs while a female doctor conducted trials. intrusive body cavity examinations to find the One woman reported how most of her male memory card. Police officers then took her to family members were serving long prison a local hospital to do X-rays. When she asked sentences after conviction of membership of to use the toilet, the officers forced her to a banned Islamist organization or had fled the urinate on the grass in front of the hospital. country in fear for their lives. All had been They filmed and photographed her, and tortured by security forces to “confess”. She threatened to post the pictures on the internet was regularly called to the local police station, if she complained about her treatment.3 She where she was detained and beaten to punish was released without charge. her for being a member of an “extremist family”, to reveal the whereabouts of male relatives or to incriminate them. 1. Secrets and lies: Forced confessions under torture in Uzbekistan (EUR Former detainees and relatives of prisoners 62/1086/2015) reported that mahalla (neighbourhood) committees compiled confidential lists of potential “suspects” for the security forces,

394 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 2. Uzbekistan: Five more years for "violating prison rules" (EUR to deny victims of human rights violations and 62/1709/2015) their relatives whose rights had not been 3. Uzbekistan: Defender subjected to sexual violence: Elena Urlaeva guaranteed in the national courts access to (EUR 62/1799/2015). justice. Interference in the judicial system by officials at the highest levels of the VENEZUELA administration called into question their commitment to the independence of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela judiciary and the rule of law. There was Head of state and government: Nicolás Maduro Moros concern that the temporary nature of positions held by more than 60% of judges Human rights defenders and journalists made them susceptible to political pressure. continued to face attacks and intimidation. Political opponents of the government faced FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION unfair trials and imprisonment. There were In June, the Inter-American Court of Human further reports of excessive use of force by Rights ordered Venezuela to reinstate the the police and security forces resulting in broadcasting licence of Radio Caracas dozens of deaths, some in circumstances Television, which had been withdrawn in suggesting that they were unlawful killings. 2007. The authorities had not complied with Most of those responsible for grave human the ruling by the end of the year. rights violations during the 2014 protests Owners of media outlets and journalists were not brought to justice and there were who were critical of the authorities faced concerns about the independence of the defamation charges, attacks and judiciary. Colombian refugees and asylum- intimidation.1 seekers were deported, forcibly evicted and ill-treated. Prison overcrowding and violence HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS continued. Survivors of gender-based Human rights defenders were attacked and violence faced significant obstacles in intimidated. getting access to justice. Both President Maduro and the President of the National Assembly, among others, BACKGROUND accused named defenders on national Parliamentary elections in December saw the television of damaging the country’s coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable gain reputation and undermining the government. two-thirds of seats. Several human rights defenders were In July, a draft National Human Rights Plan subsequently harassed. For example, in was issued for consultation with all sectors of March, Marco Antonio Ponce of the society. It included proposals to reform the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict and judiciary, prison system and security forces, another 11 human rights defenders returning as well as proposals to end discrimination and from presenting their concerns before the improve the rights of vulnerable groups such Inter-American Commission on Human as Indigenous Peoples, women, children, Rights were followed, photographed and Afro-descendant communities, domestic filmed by unidentified men in Caracas workers and lesbian, gay, bisexual, airport.2 transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. The In April, Carlos Lusverti, a human rights consultation was ongoing at the end of the defender and professor of human rights at the year. Andrés Bello Catholic University, was shot The decision in 2012 by Venezuela to and injured for the second time in 15 months, withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Inter- in an apparent robbery attempt. American Court of Human Rights continued In October, Marino Alvarado Betancourt of

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 395 the Venezuelan Programme for Education the year. and Action on Human Rights and his nine- In March, Emilio Baduel Cafarelli and year-old son were attacked and robbed by Alexander Tirado Lara were sentenced to three armed men in their home.3 eight years’ imprisonment. They had been In April, Víctor Martínez, a campaigner convicted of incitement, intimidation using against corruption and human rights explosives and conspiracy to commit a crime violations committed by Lara State Police, was during the 2014 protests. The Public threatened by two armed men outside his Prosecutor failed to provide evidence to home in Barquisimeto, Lara State. The threat substantiate the charges and the judge appeared linked to his criticism of the police; disregarded forensic evidence that showed at the time of the attack he was under police neither man had handled any explosives or protection, which he claimed was sporadic.4 inflammable substances.

EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS In January, the Ministry of Defence issued In August, nearly 2,000 Colombian citizens, Resolution 008610 allowing all sections of the including refugees and asylum-seekers, were armed forces to be deployed in public order deported in the course of a few days, without operations. It also allowed the use of firearms the opportunity to challenge their expulsion or to be authorized during the policing of public to gather their belongings. In some cases protests. The Resolution failed to send a clear children were separated from their parents. message that excessive use of force in such Scores were forcibly evicted or had their operations would not be tolerated. houses destroyed and some of those detained Excessive use of force by security forces were ill-treated.7 continued to be reported and resulted in the The deportations were in response to the death of 14-year-old Kluiberth Roa Núñez, deaths of three officers and a civilian in the who was hit by a rubber bullet fired by the context of security and anti-smuggling security forces in Táchira State as he was operations. At the end of the year, nine walking near a protest.5 municipalities in the border state of Táchira remained under a state of emergency and the ARBITRARY DETENTIONS border remained closed in the states of Zulia, In September, Leopoldo López, a prisoner of Táchira and Apure and in part of Amazonas. conscience and leader of the opposition Popular Will party, was convicted of POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES conspiracy to commit a crime, incitement, Although recent official data was not arson and causing damage to public property available, the Venezuelan Violence during the 2014 protests. He was sentenced Observatory reported that the country had the to 13 years and nine months in prison. There second highest homicide rate in the region. was no credible evidence to support the In July, Operation Liberation and Protection charges and public statements made before of the People was implemented by security his conviction by the authorities; the forces to tackle the high crime rate. Reports President called for his imprisonment, thus were received of possible extrajudicial seriously undermining his right to a fair trial.6 executions, excessive use of force, arbitrary In January, a judge ordered that Rosmit arrests and forced evictions of those Mantilla, an LGBTI rights activist and Popular suspected of having committed a crime as Will member, face trial on charges including well as their families. incitement, arson and conspiracy to commit a According to the Ministry of Justice, a crime during the 2014 protests, despite the month after the operation commenced, 52 lack of credible evidence against him. He civilians had died in armed clashes with the remained in pre-trial detention at the end of security forces. The high number of civilian

396 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 casualties, in contrast to the absence of any a concern. police injuries or fatalities, suggested that security forces may have used excessive force VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS or carried out extrajudicial executions. Implementation of the 2007 legislation According to human rights organizations, criminalizing gender-based violence remained 90% of the more than 4,000 people detained slow due to a lack of resources. Legal aid and during the first three months of the operation access to justice, as well as other effective were subsequently released without charge, protection measures such as shelters, had suggesting high numbers of arbitrary arrests. not materialized by the end of the year. In August, in a community south of Statistics from the Public Prosecutor’s Valencia, Carabobo State, security forces Office indicated that of the more than 70,000 allegedly detained all men over 15 years of complaints of gender-based violence received age and demolished all of the community’s during 2014, less than 1% went to trial. houses, leaving at least 200 families According to women’s rights organizations, homeless. 96% of the cases that did reach the courts did not result in convictions. IMPUNITY Progress was slow in bringing to justice those RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, responsible for the killing of 43 people, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE including security force personnel, and the ill- LGBTI organizations expressed concern at treatment of protesters during protests in entrenched discrimination. There were 2014. According to the Public Prosecutor’s continuing reports of violence against LGBTI Office, 238 investigations had been initiated people. Those responsible were rarely held to by February but charges were filed in only 13 account as complaints were not investigated cases. or prosecuted. No one had been brought to justice for the There was no specific provision in law killing of eight members of the Barrios family criminalizing hate crimes based on sexual or the threats and intimidation against other orientation, gender identity or expression. family members in Aragua State since 1998.8 SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS PRISON CONDITIONS Access to contraceptives, including Prisons remained seriously overcrowded emergency contraception, was limited and despite several reforms to the system since generally available only to those who could 2013. According to the Venezuelan Prisons afford it. Abortion was criminalized in all Observatory (OVP), prisons overall were cases except when the life of the woman or holding over three times the number of girl was at risk. prisoners they were designed to house. In this According to a 2015 report by the WHO, context, the prison authorities were unable to maternal mortality had increased to 110 per protect the rights of prisoners, such as the 100,000 live births. This was significantly rights to health and physical integrity. higher than the regional average of 63 per Uprisings and protests, including self- 100,000 live births. harming, to demand better prison conditions remained common. OVP reported over 1,200 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS incidents of self-harm in the first six months There was no legal provision to guarantee and of the year. In addition, it reported the deaths regulate consultation with Indigenous Peoples of 109 inmates and at least 30 injuries as a over matters affecting their livelihoods. Those result of violence in prison facilities, during defending Indigenous Peoples’ rights reported the same period. The large number of that the right to free, prior and informed weapons in detention facilities remained consent was not upheld by the authorities

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 397 when granting licences to extract natural harassment, surveillance and restrictions on resources in Indigenous territories. freedom of movement. A reduction in Concerns were raised at the slow progress criminal prosecutions of bloggers and of the process for the demarcation of activists coincided with an increase in Indigenous Peoples’ territories, which started harassment, short-term arbitrary detentions in 2011. By the end of the year, only 12% of and physical attacks by security officers. Indigenous territory was estimated to have Scores of Montagnard asylum-seekers fled been demarcated. to Cambodia and Thailand between October 2014 and December 2015. The death penalty was retained. 1. Venezuela: Journalist beaten and threatened: Horacio Giusti (AMR 53/1714/2015) BACKGROUND 2. Human rights in Venezuela before the United Nations Human Rights A major legislative reform programme Committee (AMR 53/1942/2015) continued. Several key laws were under 3. Venezuela: Armed assault against human rights defender must be review or being drafted. The amended Civil thoroughly investigated (News story, 2 October) Code, the Penal Code, the Law on Custody 4. Venezuela: Human rights defender attacked again: Víctor Martínez and Detention and the Criminal Procedure (AMR 53/1450/2015) Code were approved by the end of the year, 5. Venezuela: The faces of impunity: a year after the protests, victims but a Law on Associations, a Law on still await justice (AMR 53/1239/2015) Demonstrations, and a Law on Belief and 6. Venezuela: Opposition leader sentenced unjustly: Leopoldo López (AMR Religion were not finalized. Comments from 53/2449/2015) the general public were solicited. 7. Venezuela: Concerns over grave human rights violations on the border Independent civil society groups raised with Colombia (AMR 53/2329/2015) concerns that some of the laws were not in 8. Venezuela: Submission to the United Nations Human Rights accordance with Viet Nam’s international Committee 114th Session, 29 June-24 July 2015 (AMR 53/1769/2015) obligations, including those set out in the ICCPR, which Viet Nam has ratified. The UN Convention against Torture entered VIET NAM into force in February, but the needed wide- ranging legal reforms for compliance were still Socialist Republic of Viet Nam pending. Head of state: Truong Tan Sang More than 18,000 prisoners were released Head of government: Nguyen Tan Dung to mark the 70th anniversary of National Day in September; no prisoners of conscience Severe restrictions on freedoms of were included. expression, association and peaceful Scores of Montagnard asylum-seekers from assembly continued. The media and the the Central Highlands fled to Cambodia and judiciary, as well as political and religious Thailand between October 2014 and institutions, remained under state control. December 2015, mostly alleging religious At least 45 prisoners of conscience persecution and harassment. Dozens were remained imprisoned in harsh conditions forcibly returned to Viet Nam from Cambodia, after unfair trials. They included bloggers, with others voluntarily returning after the labour and land rights activists, political Cambodian authorities refused to register activists, religious followers, members of them and process their asylum claims. Their ethnic groups and advocates for human fate on return was not known (see Cambodia rights and social justice. Activists were entry). convicted in new trials. The authorities attempted to prevent the activities of REPRESSION OF DISSENT independent civil society groups through Members of independent activist groups

398 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 attempting to exercise their rights to freedom connection with the blogs Dân Quyền of expression, association and peaceful (Citizens’ Rights) and Chép sử Việt (Writing assembly faced regular harassment, including Vietnam’s History), both critical of surveillance, restrictions on movement, government policies and officials and since arbitrary short-term detention and physical closed down.1 attacks by police and unidentified men Prominent blogger and journalist Tạ Phong suspected of working in collusion with Tần was released in September and flown security forces. Dozens of activists were immediately into effective exile in the USA. attacked, many of them before or after visiting She had served four years of a 10-year prison released prisoners and victims of human term on charges of “conducting propaganda” rights violations, or when attending events against the state. or meetings. Reports of repression of religious activities In July, security forces harassed and outside state-approved churches continued, intimidated peaceful activists attempting to including against Hoa Hao Buddhists, participate in hunger strikes in four major Catholic practitioners and Christian ethnic cities in solidarity with prisoners of minorities. conscience. The action was organized by the “We Are One” campaign, launched in March FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT together with a letter to the UN Human Rights While the number of arrests and prosecutions Council on the human rights situation in Viet against human rights defenders and Nam, signed by 27 local civil society government critics decreased from previous organizations and 122 individuals. years, physical attacks and restrictions on The authorities continued to use vaguely movement increased. Several activists were worded offences to charge and convict confined to their homes. Some of those peaceful activists, mainly through Article 258 wishing to travel overseas to attend human (abusing democratic freedoms to infringe rights-related events had their passports upon the interests of the state, the legitimate confiscated; several others who managed to rights and interests of organizations and/or leave were arrested and interrogated by the citizens) of the 1999 Penal Code. Three pro- police on their return. democracy activists arrested in May 2014 Trần Thị Nga, a member of the while monitoring anti-China protests were independent Vietnamese Women for Human sentenced in February to between 12 and 18 Rights group was arrested by security officers months’ imprisonment under Article 258 in on her way to meet a foreign delegation to the Đồng Nai province. Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in the Prominent human rights lawyer and former capital Ha Noi in March. Security officers beat prisoner of conscience Nguyễn Văn Đài and her while she was being forcibly driven back his colleague, Lê Thu Hà, were arrested in to her home in Hà Nam province with her two December on charges of “conducting young children. propaganda” against the state under Article 88 of the Penal Code. The arrest took place DEATHS IN CUSTODY several days after Nguyễn Văn Đài and three In March, the National Assembly questioned colleagues were brutally assaulted by 20 men the credibility of a Ministry of Public Security in plain clothes shortly after delivering human announcement that of 226 deaths in police rights training in Nghệ An province. custody between October 2011 and Blogger Nguyễn Hữu Vinh and his September 2014, most were caused by associate Nguyễn Thị Minh Thúy remained illness or suicide. During 2015 at least seven held in pre-trial detention since their arrest in deaths in custody were reported with May 2014. They were charged under Article suspicions of possible police torture or other 258 of the Penal Code in February in ill-treatment.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 399 PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE that 684 prisoners were on death row. At least At least 45 prisoners of conscience remained 45 death sentences were reported in the in detention.2 The majority were convicted media. In January, the Supreme People’s under vaguely worded national security Procuracy was tasked with reviewing 16 provisions of the Penal Code: Article 79 death penalty cases in which the defendants (“overthrowing” the state) or Article 88 alleged they had been tortured during police (“conducting propaganda”). At least 17 were interrogation. In October, Lê Văn Mạnh’s released after completing their prison execution was postponed for further sentences but remained under house arrest investigation. He alleged he was tortured in for specified periods. Thích Quảng Độ, head police custody.5 of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, spent his 12th year under de facto house arrest, and Father Nguyễn Văn Lý, a 1. Viet Nam: Demand release of blogger and assistant (ASA pro-democracy Catholic priest, remained in 41/2801/2015) prison serving an eight-year sentence. 2. Viet Nam: All prisoners of conscience must be immediately and Some prisoners were pressed to “confess” unconditionally released (ASA 41/2360/2015) to charges in exchange for a reduction in 3. Viet Nam: Release Tran Huynh Duy Thuc (ASA 41/1731/2015) sentence.3 4. Viet Nam: Further information – prisoner of conscience Ta Phong Tan Conditions of detention and treatment of released (ASA 41/2600/2015) prisoners of conscience continued to be 5. Viet Nam: Halt imminent execution of Le Van Manh and order harsh. This included lack of physical exercise; investigation into allegations of torture (ASA 41/2737/2015) verbal and physical attacks; prolonged detention in hot cells with little natural light; denial of sanitary equipment; frequent prison YEMEN transfers; and detention far from homes and families, making family visits difficult. Several Republic of Yemen undertook hunger strikes in protest at the use Head of state: Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi of solitary confinement and abusive treatment Head of government: Khaled Bahah of prisoners, including Tạ Phong Tần (see above); Nguyễn Đặng Minh Mẫn, serving an The human rights situation seriously eight-year sentence; and Đinh Nguyên Kha, deteriorated amid the armed conflict, which serving a four-year sentence.4 Nguyễn Văn intensified in March and continued Duyệt, a Catholic social activist serving a throughout the year. All parties to the three-and-a-half-year sentence protested at conflict committed war crimes and other being denied a Bible; and social justice serious violations of international law with activist Hồ Thị Bích Khương, serving a five- impunity, including indiscriminate bombing year sentence, who protested when she was and shelling of civilian areas, killing and not allowed to take personal belongings when injuring thousands of civilians and forcibly transferred to another prison. displacing over 2.5 million people. The Huthi armed group and allied security forces DEATH PENALTY also arbitrarily restricted the rights to The National Assembly approved the freedom of expression, association and reduction in the number of capital offences assembly, arresting journalists, leaders of from 22 to 15, as well as abolition for alleged the al-Islah political party and others, offenders aged 75 and over. Death sentences forcing the closure of NGOs, using lethal for drug-related offences continued to be and other excessive force against peaceful imposed. Although official statistics remained protesters, and using torture. Women and classified as a state secret, the Justice girls remained subject to discrimination and Minister was reported to have said in October abuses including forced marriage and

400 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 female genital mutilation. Courts handed and their allies, including Sana’a and Sa’da down death sentences and executions were governorate, sent ground troops into southern carried out. Yemen and imposed a sea and air blockade. While many coalition attacks were directed at BACKGROUND military targets, others were indiscriminate, The political transition process was derailed disproportionate or directed against civilian as Yemen became enmeshed in armed homes and infrastructure, including hospitals, conflict. After entering the capital Sana’a in schools, markets and factories, as well as September 2014, the Huthi armed group, vehicles carrying civilians and humanitarian aided by units of the armed forces loyal to assistance, killing and injuring thousands of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, civilians. By the end of the year, the conflict extended their control over other areas in had caused the deaths of more than 2,700 early 2015. In January, Huthis attacked civilians, including hundreds of children, government buildings and military positions, according to the UN, and the forcible including the presidential compound, forcing displacement of more than 2.5 million people, President Hadi and his government to resign, creating a humanitarian crisis. and took effective control of Sana’a and other On 14 April, in Resolution 2216, the UN areas. Security Council demanded that Huthis On 6 February the Huthi armed group withdraw from Sana’a and other areas and dissolved Yemen’s Parliament and issued a surrender weapons seized from government constitutional declaration mandating the sources. It also called for all states to prevent creation of a transitional presidential council arms transfers to former President Saleh and to govern Yemen for an interim period of two the Huthi leader Abdul Malik al-Huthi, and years. On 15 February, the UN Security pressed all parties to the conflict to abide by Council adopted Resolution 2201, which previous agreements, including the outcomes strongly criticized the Huthis’ actions and of Yemen’s national dialogue and the Peace demanded that they refrain from further and National Partnership agreement of unilateral actions that could destabilize the September 2014. political transition and Yemen’s security. In July, forces opposed to the Huthis, President Hadi, having withdrawn his supported by ground troops from the United resignation, relocated with his government to Arab Emirates and coalition air strikes, the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, in late regained control of Aden. In September, March, when the advance of Huthis and their President Hadi’s government partly relocated allied forces into southern Yemen led to to Aden from Saudi Arabia. intensified armed confrontations between the UN-brokered peace talks took place in Huthis and their allied forces, and armed Geneva, Switzerland, from 15 to 20 groups that opposed them and army units December, accompanied by a temporary loyal to President Hadi. The fighting in ceasefire, but ended without any significant southern Yemen was marked by breakthrough. indiscriminate attacks in which both sides US forces continued to carry out drone repeatedly fired imprecise weapons at civilian strikes against the armed group al-Qa’ida in residential areas, causing civilian deaths and the Arabian Peninsula in central and injuries. southeastern Yemen, mainly in the On 25 March, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition governorates of Marib and Hadramawt. of nine states intervened in the Yemen conflict in support of President Hadi’s ARMED CONFLICT internationally recognized government. The The Huthi armed group, their allies and the coalition launched a campaign of air strikes various armed groups and pro-government on areas controlled or contested by Huthis forces that opposed them all committed

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 401 serious violations of international In late April, Aden’s al-Joumhouria Hospital humanitarian law, including some that was forced to suspend its medical activities amounted to war crimes, as well as human because of similar actions by fighters. rights abuses. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE AND TORTURE Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Huthi and anti-Huthi armed groups used The expansion of Huthi control sparked explosive weapons with wide-area effects, widespread protests in Ta’iz and other cities including mortars and artillery shells, when to which Huthi forces and the pro-Huthi attacking civilian residential areas controlled Central Security Forces responded with or contested by their opponents in southern excessive force, including the use of live Yemen, killing and injuring civilians. During ammunition, arrests and torture. fighting for control of Aden and Ta’iz, In the city of Ibb, Huthis and their allied Yemen’s two most populous cities after forces used live ammunition to fire at Sana’a, both sides repeatedly fired explosive peaceful protesters on 16 February, weapons with wide-area effects into densely wounding three protesters, and on populated civilian areas. They also conducted 21 February, killing protester Nasr al-Shuja’. military operations from civilian residential In Ta’iz, the pro-Huthi Central Security neighbourhoods, launching attacks from or Forces used excessive force, including tear near homes, schools and hospitals, exposing gas and live fire, to disperse peaceful local civilians to serious risk. The Huthi armed demonstrations from 22 to 25 March, killing group and their allies laid internationally at least eight protesters and wounding at least banned anti-personnel landmines that caused 30 others. Almost 300 protesters and civilian casualties; dozens of civilians were bystanders required treatment for tear gas killed or injured by landmines when returning inhalation. to their homes in the second half of the year In Sana’a, Huthis and their allied forces after fighting ended in Aden and the detained three protesters on 11 February and surrounding area. tortured them over the following four days; Huthis and their allies carried out cross- one, Salah ‘Awdh al-Bashri, died from injuries border attacks from northern Yemen that he sustained during hours of torture. could amount to war crimes, indiscriminately shelling Najran and other civilian-populated Unlawful killings areas in southern Saudi Arabia. Anti-Huthi forces summarily killed captured Huthi fighters and civilians suspected of Attacks on medical facilities and workers supporting the Huthis. They posted videos on The Huthi armed group and its allies, and the internet publicizing some of these killings their pro-government opponents, attacked in Aden and Ta’iz of those they alleged were medical facilities, workers and patients or “spies” or “Huthi supporters”. exposed them to serious risk by using medical facilities or their close vicinity as Abductions, arbitrary arrests and detention locations for firing positions or other military There was a surge in arbitrary arrests, activities, particularly during fighting in and detentions and abductions of government around Aden and Ta’iz. In Aden, unidentified supporters, journalists, human rights gunmen attacked the premises of the ICRC, defenders and others by Huthis and allied forcing their staff to relocate. Anti-Huthi forces loyal to former President Saleh. Many fighters fired assault rifles from inside Aden’s detainees were held in multiple, often al-Sadaqa hospital compound and launched unofficial, locations including private homes mortars next to the hospital, exposing patients without being informed of the reason for their and medics to the risk of retaliatory attacks. detention or given any opportunity to

402 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 challenge its legality. At least 25 men, Despite this, both the coalition authorities and including political activists, human rights President Hadi’s government failed to defenders and journalists, were detained by conduct investigations and to hold to account armed men in civilian clothes who said they those responsible for this or other unlawful belonged to Ansarullah, the political wing of attacks. the Huthi armed group, while attending a Coalition forces used imprecise munitions meeting at an Ibb hotel on 13 October. Most including large US- and UK-made bombs were later released, reportedly after being with a wide impact radius which cause tortured, but Antar al-Mabarazi, an engineer, casualties and destruction beyond their and Ameen al-Shafaq, a university professor, immediate strike location. In Sa’da and remained in incommunicado detention at the Hajjah, they also used US-made cluster end of the year. munitions, inherently indiscriminate weapons whose use is prohibited, and which scatter Freedom of association bomblets over a wide area and present an Huthi forces curtailed freedom of association, ongoing risk to civilians as they frequently fail closing down at least 27 NGOs in Sana’a and to detonate upon impact. threatening their directors and staff. Some coalition attacks targeted key infrastructure, such as bridges and highways. Abuses by Islamic State They included attacks in July that destroyed The armed group Islamic State (IS) claimed four bridges on a road linking the Sa’da responsibility for bomb attacks that mostly governorate to Sana’a. Other coalition air targeted mosques in Sana’a seen as pro- strikes damaged bridges on roads linking Huthi, killing and injuring civilians. The Sana’a to Hodeidah and Marib, and Ta’iz to deadliest attacks, on 20 March, hit the Aden. mosques of al-Badr and al-Hashoosh in Some coalition air strikes hit hospitals and Sana’a. They killed 142 people, mostly other medical facilities in Sa’da governorate, civilians, and injured 351. On 6 December, injuring patients and medical workers. On 26 an IS bomb attack killed the Governor of October, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition Aden and several of his aides. destroyed a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supported hospital in Hayden in Sa’da, Violations by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition injuring seven medical workers. MSF said that Beginning on 25 March, a Saudi Arabia-led another of its clinics in Ta’iz was struck by military coalition of nine states launched a coalition air strikes on 2 December, wounding campaign of air strikes across Yemen against nine people, including two MSF staff. On the Huthis and their allies. Some attacks 4 September, coalition aircraft reportedly targeted and destroyed military objectives; bombed al-Sh’ara hospital at Razih in Sa’da others were disproportionate, indiscriminate governorate. According to MSF personnel or appeared to be directly targeted against who visited the site soon after, there was no civilians and/or civilian objects, causing evidence that the hospital was used for numerous civilian deaths and injuries. Some military purposes. MSF said the attack killed of the attacks amounted to war crimes. six patients and injured others. The coalition forces’ air strikes destroyed a In order to deny supplies to Huthis and cluster of nine houses on 3 June in the village their allied forces, the coalition imposed a of al-‘Eram, northwest of Sa’da city, killing at partial aerial and naval blockade. This least 35 children, 11 women and nine men, severely curtailed the import and provision of and injuring nine other residents. Villagers fuel and other essentials, obstructing access said that the strikes had continued while to food, water, humanitarian assistance and search and rescue efforts were under way to medical supplies, exacerbating the worsening look for bodies and survivors in the rubble. humanitarian crisis.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 403 IMPUNITY the Patriotic Front. Electricity shortages led to All parties to the armed conflict committed lengthy blackouts of up to 14 hours daily, serious human rights abuses with impunity. forcing businesses and mines to scale down Yemeni authorities failed to hold thorough operations and lay off workers. The Zambian and independent investigations into past kwacha lost 80% against the US dollar during human rights violations, including unlawful the year, driving food prices up. The country’s killings and other serious abuses committed rising debt affected the provision of social by government forces in connection with services. mass popular protests in 2011. In September, President Hadi decreed the FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY establishment of a national commission of Police continued to implement the Public inquiry to investigate all violations committed Order Act (POA), arbitrarily restricting since the beginning of 2011. freedom of assembly for opposition parties and civil society. While Section 5(4) of the WOMEN’S RIGHTS POA provides for every person who intends to Women and girls continued to face assemble or convene a public meeting, discrimination in law and in practice and were procession or demonstration to give the police inadequately protected against sexual and seven days’ notice, police often interpreted other violence, including female genital this provision to mean police permission is mutilation, forced marriage and other abuses. required before any public assembly can proceed. DEATH PENALTY In May, police opened a docket against The death penalty remained in force for a opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema after wide range of crimes. Courts continued to he conducted a door-to-door campaign in impose death sentences and executions were Kamwala market in Lusaka, the capital. He carried out. Prisoners on death row reportedly was questioned by police in the presence of included dozens of juvenile offenders his lawyers for over an hour, and made to sentenced for crimes committed when they write a letter of undertaking to comply with were under 18 years of age. the provisions of the POA to be spared prosecution.

ZAMBIA FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – JOURNALISTS Republic of Zambia On 15 July, police arrested Fred M’membe, Head of state and government: Edgar Chagwa Lungu owner of The Post newspaper, and journalist (replaced Acting President Guy Scott in January) Mukosha Funga for an article they published in March. The article discussed the The Public Order Act continued to be used investigation by the Anti-Corruption to curtail freedom of assembly. Journalists Commission (ACC) of a presidential aide for were arrested for reporting on alleged soliciting a bribe from a Chinese businessman corruption, while the death sentences of to arrange an appointment with the President. 332 prisoners were commuted to life The Post had published a letter from the ACC imprisonment. to the President notifying the President about its investigation. In May, the presidential aide BACKGROUND reported the leak to the police, who Zambia held a presidential by-election on 20 questioned the journalists before releasing January, following the death of President them. However, on 15 July they were arrested Michael Sata on 28 October 2014. The and spent a night in custody before appearing election was narrowly won by Edgar Lungu of in court, charged with publishing classified

404 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 information. The journalists were released on Harare, resulting in clashes and arrests. The bail the next day, which was set at over slow pace of legal reform to bring legislation US$3,000 each. into line with the 2013 Constitution restricted access to rights guaranteed by the JUSTICE SYSTEM Constitution. A Supreme Court ruling in July In October, President Lungu pardoned Boris allowed government and private employers Muziba, Nayoto Mwenda and Wasilota to dismiss thousands of workers after only Sikwibele, three prisoners from the Western giving three months’ notice. No executions Province. The three men were jailed for three were carried out for the 10th successive year. years in August 2014 for “publication of false information with the intention of causing fear BACKGROUND and alarm to the general public”, under Tension between factions of President Section 67 of the Penal Code. The charges Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National stemmed from their activities as members of Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party a movement calling for the secession of the continued. Factional tension also continued Western Province from Zambia. Five other within the main opposition party, the men were remanded in custody since their Movement for Democratic Change, led by arrest in December 2014, following the former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announcement in August 2013 by one of (MDC-T). Factionalism in the two main them, Afumba Mombotwa, that they would political parties led to the dismissal of some set up a transitional government for members of parliament by party leaders, – a region which includes the forcing by-elections in over 20 constituencies. Western Province. On 14 November, a ZANU-PF district official axed to death two other district officials in DEATH PENALTY Chitungwiza following a dispute over a party On 16 July, President Lungu commuted the restructuring exercise. The alleged death sentences of 332 prisoners to life perpetrator died in suspicious circumstances imprisonment, after witnessing harsh prison in police custody within days of his arrest. conditions during a visit.1 In July, the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee reported that some 1.5 million people were in need of food aid 1. Zambia: Commuting death sentences a laudable first step (News during the 2015-2016 lean period leading up story, 16 July) to the next harvest. The rate of formal unemployment exceeded 80%, while 72% of the population was living below the national ZIMBABWE poverty line of US$1.25 per day.

Republic of Zimbabwe ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Head of state and government: Robert Gabriel Mugabe On 9 March, five men abducted journalist and pro-democracy activist Itai Dzamara. The enforced disappearance of prominent Despite a court ruling ordering state security pro-democracy activist Itai Dzamara in agents to investigate his disappearance, there March remained unresolved. Freedom of was no independent evidence to suggest the expression, association and assembly state had carried out an investigation with due continued to be restricted and a number of diligence by the end of the year. In 2014, Itai journalists were arrested. Forced evictions Dzamara founded the protest group Occupy continued throughout the year with Africa Unity Square (OAUS) which was critical thousands of informal traders being forcibly of President Mugabe’s rule.1 evicted by municipal police from Central

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 405 FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, Act with “participating in a gathering with ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY intent to promote public violence, breach of The rights to freedom of expression for peace, or bigotry.” He denied the charges. journalists and human rights defenders On 23 October, police in Rusape arrested continued to be restricted through arbitrary freelance journalist Sydney Saize, Bernard arrests, detentions and prosecutions for Chiketo of The Daily News and Kenneth peacefully exercising their rights.2 Nyangani, a correspondent for Newsday, At least 10 journalists from both the state- while the journalists were covering an MDC-T controlled and private media were arrested for protest outside Rusape Magistrate’s Court. writing articles critical of government officials They were released without charge after and faced charges including publishing police searched and interrogated them and “falsehoods” under the Criminal Law recorded their personal details. (Codification and Reform) Act. On 18 September, two journalists, Andrew On 2 November, the editor of the state- Kunambura from the Financial Gazette and controlled newspaper The Sunday Mail, freelance journalist Emison Haripindi, were Mabasa Sasa, and the paper’s investigations arrested by Harare municipal police while editor Brian Chitemba and journalist Tinashe taking photos of the municipal police Farawo, were arrested after implicating some arresting some informal traders. The senior police officers as being part of a group journalists were detained at Harare Central behind elephant killings in Hwange National Police Station for about four hours and Park. The three spent two nights in detention released without charge. at Harare Central Police Station and were On 11 December, Pastor Patrick Philip charged with “publishing falsehoods”. They Mugadza of the Remnant Church in Kariba were each granted US$100 bail by the court was arrested by police in the resort town of and released. They denied the charges and Victoria Falls after carrying out a one-person their trial date was set for 29 February 2016. peaceful demonstration. He carried a placard The assistant news editor of the state- which read: “Mr President the people are controlled Herald newspaper, Takunda suffering. Proverbs 21:13.” The Maodza, was arrested on 3 November in demonstration was held during the annual Harare while investigating a story alleging that conference of the ruling ZANU-PF party. The a Harare businessman was funding an pastor was charged with criminal nuisance opposition group known as People First under Section 46 of the Criminal Law composed of former ZANU-PF members. (Codification and Reform) Act. He was Police alleged that the journalist demanded a granted an unusually high bail of US$500 bribe from the businessman. However, fellow and remained in custody for more than two journalists reported that the journalist had weeks after failing to raise the money. He was refused to accept the money. He was charged released on 31 December after lawyers with attempted extortion under the Criminal successfully applied for the reduction of his Law (Codification and Reform) Act and bail to US$50. granted US$50 bail by the court. He denied On 30 November, five activists were the charges. The trial was due to continue in arrested by police outside the Rainbow 2016. Towers Hotel in Harare for staging a peaceful On 12 November freelance journalist protest against Vice-President Phelekezela Shadreck Andrison Manyere was arrested by Mphoko’s stay at the hotel for close to a year. police in Harare while filming clashes The five activists – Tendayi Mudehwe, Dirk between protesters and police in Central Frey, Irvin Takavada, Elvis Mugari and Harare. He was detained for more than four Tonderai Chigumbu – were released on 2 hours and charged under Section 37(1)(a) of December after spending two nights at the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Harare Central Police Station. They were

406 Amnesty International Report 2015/16 charged with criminal nuisance under Section lost their jobs within days of the Supreme 46 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Court ruling as employers used the ruling to Reform) Act. avoid going through a formal retrenchment On 25 July, six civil society activists from process as set out in the Labour Act. In the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Chitungwiza August, the government rushed amendments Residents Trust and the OAUS were arrested to the Labour Act through Parliament to at Harare Central Remand Prison. They were include setting up a minimum package for handed over to the police and charged under retrenched workers. Unions and employers Section 5(2) of the Protected Places and complained that they were not adequately Areas Act Chapter 11:12 with failing to consulted. Trade unions argued that the comply with a directive from an authorized package did not give adequate safeguards to officer regulating conduct and movement. employees. The six were among about 50 activists who had visited 16 informal traders held on FORCED EVICTIONS remand after being denied bail. On 2 Informal traders were forcibly evicted from October, Mfundo Mlilo and Nixon Nyikadzino central Harare and other town centres. In of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and Dirk Frey June, the government issued an ultimatum of OAUS were acquitted for lack of evidence. for the removal of informal traders from cities The trials of the remaining three, Edgar and towns with the support of the army. In Gweshe, Donald Makuwaza and Charles July, municipal police clashed with informal Chidhakwa, were continuing at the end of the traders in Central Harare in an attempt to year. remove them from the Central Business The government continued to impose District. Dozens of informal traders, including restrictions on activists campaigning for leaders of the National Vendors’ Union of community radio stations to be licensed. The Zimbabwe, were arrested and detained. authorities have failed to license a single Sixteen were charged with public violence. community radio station since enacting the They were released on bail and their trials Broadcasting Services Act in 2001. At least were continuing at the end of the year. 28 community-based initiatives were Across the country thousands of people campaigning to obtain broadcasting licences were forcibly evicted. Some turned to the in both rural and urban areas. Police blocked courts for protection. On 12 January, the High meetings under the Public Order and Security Court in Harare stopped the removal of some Act and security agents raided offices and 150 families settled at Arnold Farm in seized material and equipment belonging to Mazowe district. The families’ homes had the community-based organizations. Activists been indiscriminately demolished by police campaigning for community radio licences on 7 January, leaving people homeless, with were subjected to frequent interrogation by no cover from the elements in the midst of police and the Central Intelligence the rainy season. The forced evictions had Organization after meetings and other been carried out despite an earlier High Court activities aimed at setting up community radio order issued in August 2014 protecting the stations.3 Arnold Farm residents from arbitrary eviction under Section 74 of the Constitution. WORKERS’ RIGHTS In July, the Harare City Council ordered the A Supreme Court ruling on 17 July upheld an destruction of homes in areas it declared employer’s common law contractual right to “illegal settlements” without obtaining the terminate employment by giving three necessary court orders. Demolitions were months’ notice. The ruling triggered mass lay- carried out in the Warren Park and Westlea offs by the government and by state-owned suburbs. These were part of settlements and private companies. Thousands of workers established by housing co-operatives.

Amnesty International Report 2015/16 407 Demolitions also continued in December 2. Zimbabwe: Shooting the messengers (News story, 10 November) when 200 structures were destroyed by the 3. Beyond tokenism: The need to license community radio stations in City of Harare near Kambuzuma suburb. Zimbabwe (AFR 46/1613/2015)

LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS On 28 October, in an unprecedented development, the Constitutional Court ordered the Prosecutor-General, Johannes Tomana, to be committed to prison for 30 days for contravening Section 164(3) of the Constitution. He was accused of repeatedly disobeying orders issued by the High Court and Supreme Court to allow private parties to pursue prosecutions for fraud and rape in two high-profile cases. The Constitutional Court ruled that in the two cases the Prosecutor- General had a statutory duty to issue the certificates for private prosecutions under Section 16 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. The 30-day sentence was suspended for 10 days on condition that within the 10 days the Prosecutor-General complied with the earlier court orders. On 4 November, the Deputy Prosecutor-General, acting on behalf the Prosecutor-General, issued the certificates allowing the private prosecutions to proceed. The process of reviewing the country’s laws to bring them into line with the 2013 Constitution continued, but at a very slow pace. Consequently, the human rights guarantees afforded by the Constitution were compromised by the continued use of old laws by police and other government departments. For example, activists were arrested and charged under legal provisions that were clearly unconstitutional and some had to turn to the Constitutional Court for redress.

DEATH PENALTY In July, Zimbabwe reached 10 years without carrying out any known executions.

1. Zimbabwe: Open letter: Investigate and resolve the circumstances around the enforced disappearance of Itai Dzamara (AFR 46/2423/2015)

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