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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. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations.

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First published in 2018 by Except where otherwise noted, This report documents Amnesty Amnesty International Ltd content in 00:01this document is International’s work and concerns Peter Benenson House, licensed under a through 2017. 1, Easton Street, CreativeCommons (attribution, The absence of an entry in this London WC1X 0DW non-commercial, no derivatives, report on a particular country or United Kingdom international 4.0) licence. territory does not imply that no https://creativecommons.org/ © Amnesty International 2018 human rights violations of licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode concern to Amnesty International Index: POL 10/6700/2018 For more information please visit have taken place there during the STRICTLYISBN: 978-0-86210-499-3 the permissions page on our year. Nor is the length of a website: www.amnesty.org country entry any basis for a A catalogue record for this book comparison of the extent and is available from the British amnesty.org depth of Amnesty International’s Library. UNTIL concerns in a country. Original language: English THURSDAY ii Amnesty International Report 2017/18 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2017/18 GMT 2018 THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S HUMAN RIGHTS 05:01 /

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STRICTLY UNTIL THURSDAY iv Amnesty International Report 2017/18 CONTENTS ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

Abbreviations vii Cuba 140 Preface ix Cyprus 142 Foreword 12 Czech Republic 143 Spotlight 15 Democratic Republic of the Africa Regional Overview 18 Congo 144 Americas Regional Overview 27 Denmark 147 Asia-Pacific Regional Overview 36 Dominican Republic 148 Europe and Central Asia Regional Ecuador 150 Overview 46 Egypt 151 Middle East and North Africa El Salvador 156GMT 2018 Regional Overview 55 Equatorial Guinea 158 Afghanistan 66 Eritrea 159 Albania 69 Estonia 161 Algeria 71 Ethiopia 162 Angola 73 Fiji 164 Argentina 76 Finland 165 Armenia 78 France 166 Australia 79 Gabon 168 Austria 80 05:01Gambia 169 Azerbaijan 82 Georgia 171 Bahrain 84 / Germany 173 Bangladesh 87 Ghana 176 Belarus 89 Greece 177 Belgium 91 Guatemala 180 Benin 92 ET Guinea 182 Bolivia 94 EMBARGOED Haiti 183FEBRUARY Bosnia and Herzegovina 95 Honduras 185 Botswana 96 Hungary 187 Brazil 98 India 189 Brunei Darussalam 102 22Indonesia 193 Bulgaria 103 Iran 197 Burkina Faso 105 Iraq 202 Burundi 107 Ireland 205 Cambodia 110 00:01 Israel and the Occupied Cameroon 112 Palestinian Territories 207 Canada 115 Italy 211 Central African Republic 118 Jamaica 214 Chad 121 Japan 216 Chile 123 Jordan 217 STRICTLYChina 125 Kazakhstan 220 Colombia 130 Kenya 222 Congo (Republic of the) 135 Korea (Democratic People’s Côte d’Ivoire 136UNTIL Republic of) 225 Croatia 138 Korea (Republic of) 227 THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 v Kuwait 229 Sierra Leone 325 Kyrgyzstan 231 Singapore 327 Laos 233 Slovakia 328 Latvia 234 Slovenia 329 Lebanon 234 Somalia 331 Lesotho 237 South Africa 332 Liberia 239 South Sudan 335 Libya 240 Spain 339 Lithuania 244 Sri Lanka 342 Macedonia 244 Sudan 344 Madagascar 246 Swaziland 346 Malawi 248 Sweden 347 Malaysia 249 Switzerland 348 Maldives 250 Syria 349 Mali 252 Taiwan 353 Malta 254 Tajikistan 354 GMT 2018 Mauritania 254 Tanzania 357 Mexico 256 Thailand 358 Moldova 261 Timor-Leste 361 Mongolia 262 Togo 362 Montenegro 263 Tunisia 364 Morocco/Western Sahara 265 Turkey 367 Mozambique 268 Turkmenistan 372 Myanmar 269 Uganda 373 Namibia 273 05:01Ukraine 376 Nauru 274 United Arab Emirates 379 Nepal 275 / United Kingdom 381 Netherlands 277 United States of America 384 New Zealand 278 Uruguay 389 Nicaragua 279 Uzbekistan 390 Niger 280 ET Venezuela 393 Nigeria 282 EMBARGOED Viet NamFEBRUARY 397 Norway 286 Yemen 400 Oman 287 Zambia 403 Pakistan 288 Zimbabwe 405 Palestine (State of) 292 22 Papua New Guinea 295 Paraguay 296 Peru 297 Philippines 299 00:01 Poland 301 Portugal 303 Puerto Rico 305 Qatar 306 Romania 308 STRICTLYRussian Federation 310 Rwanda 315 Saudi Arabia 317 Senegal 321 UNTIL Serbia 322 THURSDAY vi Amnesty International Report 2017/18 ABBREVIATIONS ICCPR ASEAN International Covenant on Civil and Political Association of Southeast Asian Nations Rights

AU ICESCR African Union International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights CEDAW UN Convention on the Elimination of All ICRC Forms of Discrimination against Women International Committee of the Red Cross

CEDAW Committee ILO UN Committee on the Elimination of International Labour OrganizationGMT 2018 Discrimination against Women International Convention against Enforced CERD Disappearance International Convention on the Elimination of International Convention for the Protection of All Forms of Racial Discrimination All Persons from Enforced Disappearance

CERD Committee LGBTI UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Discrimination intersex 05:01

CIA NATO/ US Central Intelligence Agency North Atlantic Treaty Organization

ECOWAS NGO Economic Community of WestEMBARGOED African States ETnon-governmental FEBRUARY organization EU OAS European Union Organization of American States European Committee for the Prevention of OSCE 22 Torture Organization for Security and Co-operation in European Committee for the Prevention of Europe Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 00:01 UK United Kingdom European Convention on Human Rights (European) Convention for the Protection of UN Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms United Nations STRICTLYICC UN Convention against Torture International Criminal Court Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or UNTIL Punishment THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 vii UN Refugee Convention Convention relating to the Status of Refugees

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 GMT 2018 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 05:01 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees /

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund ET UPR EMBARGOED FEBRUARY UN Universal Periodic Review

USA United States of America 22 WHO World Health Organization 00:01

STRICTLY UNTIL THURSDAY viii Amnesty International Report 2017/18 PREFACE

The Amnesty International Report 2017/18 shines a light on the state of the world’s human rights during 2017. The foreword, five regional overviews and a survey of 159 countries and territories from all regions document the struggle of many people to claim their rights, and the failures of governments to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. Yet there are also glimpses of hard-won progress, demonstrating that the defence of human rights does yield positive developments. This report pays tribute to the human rights defenders who continue to fight for change, sometimes risking their own lives in the process. In a year when austerity measures and natural disasters pushed many into deeper poverty and insecurity, this year’s report also shines a spotlight on GMT 2018 economic, social and cultural rights. While every attempt is made to ensure accuracy, information may be subject to change without notice.

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STRICTLY UNTIL THURSDAY FOREWORD “As we enter the year in which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70, it is abundantly clear that none of us can take our human rights for granted.” SALIL SHETTY, SECRETARY GENERAL

Throughout 2017, millions across the world experienced the bitter fruits of a rising politics of demonization. Its ultimate consequences were laid bare in the horrific military campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in Myanmar. This caused an exodus of some 655,000 people into neighbouring Bangladesh in a matter of weeks, the fastest-growingGMT 2018 refugee crisis of 2017. At the end of the year, their prospects for the future remained very unclear, and the enduring failure of world leaders to provide real solutions for refugees left little reason for optimism. This episode will stand in history as yet another testament to the world’s catastrophic failure to address conditions that provide fertile ground for mass atrocity crimes. The warning signs in Myanmar had long been visible: massive discrimination and segregation had become normalized within a regime that amounted to apartheid, and for long years the Rohingya people were routinely demonized and stripped of the basic conditions needed to live in dignity. The transformation of discrimination and demonization into05:01 mass violence is tragically familiar, and its ruinous consequences cannot be easily undone. The appalling injustices meted out to the Rohingya may/ have been especially visible in 2017, but the trend of leaders and politicians demonizing whole groups of people based on their identity reverberated across the globe. The past year showed us once again what happens when the politics of demonization become mainstream, with grim consequences for human rights. ET As we enter 2018, the yearEMBARGOED in which the Universal Declaration of FEBRUARYHuman Rights turns 70, it is abundantly clear that none of us can take any of our human rights for granted. We certainly cannot take for granted that we will be free to gather together in protest or to criticize our governments. Neither can we take for granted that social security will be available when we are old or incapacitated; that our babies can grow up in cities 22with clean, breathable air; or that as young people we will leave school to find jobs that enable us to buy a home. The battle for human rights is never decisively won in any place or at any point in time. The frontiers shift continually, so there can never be room for complacency. In the history of human rights, this has perhaps never been00:01 clearer. Yet, faced with unprecedented challenges across the world, people have shown repeatedly that their thirst for justice, dignity and equality will not be extinguished; they continue to find new and bold ways of expressing this, while often paying a heavy price. In 2017, this global battle of values reached a new level of intensity. Assaults on the basic values underpinning human rights – which recognize the dignity and equality of all people – have assumed vast proportions. Conflicts, fuelled by the international STRICTLYarms trade, continue to exact a cataclysmic toll on civilians, often by design. Whether in the humanitarian catastrophe of Yemen, exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’s blockade, or government and international forces’ indiscriminate killing of civilians used as human shields by the armed group calling itselfUNTIL Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or crimes under international law driving a THURSDAY 12 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 huge outflow of refugees from South Sudan – at times, parties to the world’s numerous conflicts have abdicated even the pretence of respect for their obligations to protect civilians. Leaders of wealthy countries have continued to approach the global refugee crisis with a blend of evasion and outright callousness, regarding refugees not as human beings with rights but as problems to be deflected. The efforts of US President Donald Trump to ban entry to all citizens of several Muslim-majority countries based on their nationality was a transparently hateful move. Most European leaders have been unwilling to grapple with the big challenge of regulating migration safely and legally, and have decided that practically nothing is off limits in their efforts to keep refugees away from the continent’s shores. The inevitable consequences of this approach were evident in the shocking abuses suffered by refugees in Libya, with the full knowledge of European leaders. Across parts of Europe and Africa, the spectre of hatred and fear loomed throughout a succession of significant elections. In Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands, some candidates sought to transpose social and economic anxieties into fear and blame, especially against migrants, refugees and religious minorities. In Kenya, presidential elections in August and October were marred by intimidation and violence, including on the basisGMT of ethnic 2018 identity. However, 2017 also demonstrated the enduring willingness of people to stand up for their rights and for the values they want to see in the world. New and severe threats gave fresh oxygen to the spirit of protest. In Poland, serious threats to the independence of the judiciary brought large numbers of people onto the streets. In Zimbabwe, tens of thousands marched with determination in November, consummating their decades-long struggle against strongman politics and demanding a genuine election in 2018 – one in which the people’s will is freely expressed. In India, rising Islamophobia and a wave of lynchings of Muslims and Dalits provoked outrage and protest as people said: “Not in05:01 my name”. A vast International Women’s Day march, centred on the USA but with many offshoots around the world, became one of the largest protest events in history. And globally,/ the #MeToo phenomenon drew enormous attention to the appalling extent of sexual abuse and harassment. But the cost of speaking out against injustice continues to grow. In Turkey, the ruthless and arbitrary assault on civil society in the wake of the failed coup in 2016 continued at a furious pace, sweeping up the Chair and Director of AmnestyET International Turkey among thousands of others. China unleashedEMBARGOED unprecedented crackdowns on individuals FEBRUARY and organizations perceived to be critical of the government, in the name of “national security”. Following large, widespread protests in Russia, hundreds of peaceful protesters, bystanders and journalists were arrested; many faced ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and heavy fines following unfair trials. Across much of Africa, the intolerance of public protest22 was alarmingly apparent, from arbitrary bans in Angola and Chad, to heavy-handed crackdowns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda. In Venezuela, hundreds of people were arbitrarily detained and many more suffered the consequences of excessive and abusive force used by security forces in response00:01 to widespread public protests against rising inflation and shortages of food and medical supplies. In Egypt, authorities severely curbed the freedom to criticize the government by closing down or freezing the assets of NGOs, enacting draconian legislation that provided for five years’ imprisonment for publishing research without government permission, and sentencing journalists and hundreds of political opponents to prison terms. As the year drew to a close, a wave of anti-establishment demonstrations began STRICTLYin Iran, the like of which had not been seen since 2009. Reports emerged that security forces killed and injured unarmed protesters by using firearms and other excessive force. Hundreds were arrested and detained in jails notorious for torture and other ill-treatment. 2018 will markUNTIL 20 years since the UN adopted by consensus the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which provides for their protection and support and encourages everyone to THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 13 stand up for human rights. Yet two decades later, those who take up the mantle of defending human rights often face the gravest of consequences. In 2017, the tragic death of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo in China was emblematic of the contempt in which too many governments hold human rights defenders. He died in custody from liver cancer on 13 July, after the Chinese authorities refused to allow him to receive medical treatment abroad. Meanwhile, narratives of national security and counter-terrorism have continued to provide justification to governments seeking to reconfigure the balance between state powers and individual freedoms. States have a clear responsibility to protect people from acts of violence that are designed to terrorize; yet, increasingly, they have done so at the expense of rights rather than to protect rights. Europe has continued to slip towards a near-permanent state of securitization. France, for example, ended its state of emergency in November, but only after adopting a new anti-terror law, which embedded in ordinary law many of the provisions of the emergency regime. However, despite the gravity of these assaults on human rights, an understanding of the global struggle for the values of human dignity and equality demands that we resist any simple equation of repressive government versus principled people-power. Today’s GMTpublic spaces are 2018 contested between often-polarized extremes. While both Poland and the USA saw significant rallies calling for human rights protections not to be undermined, a large-scale nationalist march with xenophobic slogans in Warsaw and a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville called for policies that are profoundly antithetical to human rights. Abusive policies and practices that deny human rights to certain groups enjoyed popular support in many countries. Today, many of our most important public spaces exist online, where the tools for addressing emerging challenges have at times proved wholly inadequate to the task. The avalanche of online abuse, particularly against women, and the incitement of hatred against minorities, drew weak and inconsistent responses from social media companies05:01 and scant action from governments. The impact of “fake news” as a tool for manipulating public opinion was widely discussed throughout 2017. Technological capabilities to/ blur the distinction between reality and fiction are only likely to grow in future, raising significant questions about people’s access to information. These concerns are compounded by the extreme concentration of control in only a handful of companies over the information people view online, and by the huge power asymmetry between individuals and the companiesET and governments who control vast amounts of data. The capabilitiesEMBARGOED deriving from this to shape publicFEBRUARY attitudes are immense, including virtually unchecked potential for incitement to hatred and violence. As we approach the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 2018, the challenge ahead is clear. This is a moment to reclaim the essential idea of the equality and dignity of all people, to cherish those values,22 and demand that they become a foundation for policy-making and practice. The artificial boundaries erected by a politics of demonization lead us only towards conflict and brutality, a nightmarish vision of humanity governed by naked self-interest and blinded to the plight of others. Too many leaders in the world have allowed the exponents00:01 of vilification to set the agenda, and failed to articulate an alternative vision. It is time for this to change. We must refuse to accept narratives of demonization and build instead a culture of solidarity. We must hone our capacity for generosity towards others. We must assert the right of all people to participate in building the societies to which they belong. And we must seek constructive answers – rooted in human rights – to the frustrations, anger STRICTLYand alienation that provide a ready context for toxic political narratives of blame. The coming year provides a vital opportunity for a renewed commitment to the transformative idea of human rights, as we ask what kind of societies we want to live in. We must not squander it. UNTIL THURSDAY 14 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 SPOTLIGHT ON AUSTERITY “I feel alone, like I’ve been left in the dark without anywhere to get help… I’m scared about what that will mean for my kids.” – Sarah

When the UK government cut legal aid support in 2012, Sarah was left without the support she needed to fight a complex legal case regarding access to her children. She is one of countless millions affected worldwide by government austerity policies. Yet the sheer scale of austerity and the statistics surrounding it can blind us to the day-to-day toll it is having on the lives of individual people and families. GMT 2018 Since the financial crisis of 2008, austerity has become a familiar term and experience for millions of people. This phenomenon – in which a government seeks to reduce a deficit in public finances, typically to reduce public debt – usually involves cuts to government spending, sometimes coupled with tax rises which often hit the poorest hardest by raising prices of basic necessities such as food. Austerity is a human rights issue. It affects people’s access to education, health, housing, social security and other economic and social rights. It also leads to abuses of civil and political rights, as governments respond to protests and other dissent in draconian ways or cut services that affect access to justice, such as legal aid. All too05:01 often, governments dismiss these rights and make decisions that put the greatest burden on those living in poverty while threatening the welfare of society as a whole. Austerity is/ a global issue. In 2017, widespread austerity measures were applied in countries from every region, particularly restricting people’s economic and social rights. In Europe, people took to the streets to protest against the detrimental effects of austerity measures in Greece, Serbia, Spain and the UK.ET In the case of the latter, research in England linked roughly 120,000 deathsEMBARGOED to cuts to health and social care. FEBRUARY Amnesty International is researching the impact of austerity policies on the protection and realization of socio-economic rights in selected countries. The next piece of research, to be published in the first half of 2018, focuses on the impact of austerity measures on the right to health in Spain. A nurse working in the Spanish public health22 system told Amnesty International: “We have all suffered because of the cuts: nurses, doctors, patients, families, everyone.” In Sub-Saharan Africa, subsidies for the poor and social welfare have all been cut at a time when consumption taxes such 00:01as Value Added Tax (VAT) have been increased, often hitting hardest those living in poverty. Countries including Botswana, Burundi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Togo continued to be “advised” by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to keep on implementing austerity measures – despite the IMF’s own admission in 2012 that such an approach is not always warranted and can undermine the economic growth needed to pay for services. In North Africa, Algeria’s response to the fall in oil prices saw its STRICTLYgovernment implement deep spending cuts in its 2017 budget, combined with a rise in VAT from 2% to 19%. IMF lending policies also prompted the Egyptian government to raise the prices of essentialUNTIL goods and services. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 15 In Brazil, the unprecedented decision to impose a 20-year fiscal spending cap at the end of 2016 drew strong criticism from both inside and outside the country. In condemning the measure, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights stated: “Logic dictates that it is virtually inevitable that the progressive realization of economic and social rights [will] become impossible.” Economies in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions were similarly hamstrung by austerity measures. During 2017, Indonesia, Mongolia and Sri Lanka witnessed cuts to public spending. Even the budgets of resource-rich Qatar and Saudi Arabia shrank in moves to reduce state deficits, prioritizing economic efficiency over social protection. In the absence of appropriate social safety nets, such measures risk violating governments’ human rights obligations as well as commitments under the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Looking ahead, even in the short term some commentators are forecasting an “austerity apocalypse”. Regions such as Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are predicted to be particularly badly affected. One report forecasts that during the next three years more than two-thirds of all countries will be impacted by austerity, affecting more than GMT6 billion people 2018 and wiping 7% off global Gross Domestic Product. The human cost is estimated to include millions being put out of work, including 2.4 million people in low-income countries, with few prospects of alternative employment. How should governments respond and what do they have to do to fulfil their human rights obligations? These obligations do not prohibit austerity per se, but do require that other options also be considered by governments making economic and fiscal decisions. Above all, human rights underline the importance of governmental accountability when making such decisions. Rights holders should be asking key questions of their governments when confronted by austerity: What levels of scrutiny were employed? How participatory05:01 and transparent was the process? What potential impacts, particularly on the most socially and economically marginalized, were considered and what mitigation measures/ were put in place? Human rights standards require that measures are put in place to ensure that nobody is allowed to fall below the minimum safety net needed to guarantee a dignified life. Unfortunately, this is routinely being ignored in even the largest economies as we see ever- increasing numbers of homeless people and theET growth of food banks; charities and communities are respondingEMBARGOED to welfare cuts by stepping in to preventFEBRUARY people going hungry. There is no question that many national budgets are under strain. But are governments making the maximum use of all the potential resources at their disposal, as they are required to do under human rights law? The November 2017 release of the so-called “Paradise Papers” revealed the vast extent of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance22 around the world, demonstrating the systematic failure of governments to close loopholes and monitor and address abuses. It has been estimated that Brazil alone is losing up to USD80 billion a year as a result of tax evasion (which calls into question the need for a 20-year spending cap), while African countries could collectively00:01 claw back at least the same amount annually. In addition to the well-known tax havens, a 2017 study showed that countries including Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK are facilitating tax evasion by people in other countries. Globally it is estimated that the annual figure could be as high as USD10 trillion. Extraordinary times require the consideration of radical alternatives. A number of ideas have been gaining traction during 2017. They include the introduction of a universal basic income – STRICTLYalready being piloted in some countries – which would guarantee everyone enough money to live on, regardless of circumstances. Another proposal would involve the state paying for all key basic services rather than leaving it to the market. Of course such ideas have their critics: Where will theUNTIL money come from? Will it simply encourage people to live off the state, even if they are in a position to work? Nevertheless, proponents point to the potential longer-term THURSDAY 16 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 social and economic cost savings for societies, as well as the need to recognize that nobody should be left behind even in the most straitened of times. Governments should seriously consider these ideas as possible ways to meet their human rights obligations. As austerity continues to bite worldwide, individuals and communities are fighting back and defending human rights. Their voices and the alternative vision they articulate need to be heard.

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Africa’s human rights landscape was shaped by violent crackdowns against peaceful protesters and concerted attacks on political opponents, human rights defenders and civil society organizations. Meanwhile, relentless violence against civilians in long-standing conflicts was compounded by the stagnation of political efforts to resolve these crises. The cycle of impunity for human rights violations and abuses committed in conflicts – including crimes under international law – continued. Intolerance of peaceful dissent and an entrenched disregard for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly were increasingly the norm. From Lomé to Freetown, Khartoum to Kampala and Kinshasa to Luanda, there were mass arrests of peaceful protesters, as well as beatings, excessive use of force and, in some cases, killings. Political deadlock and failures by regional and international bodies to address long-standing conflicts and their underlying causes were also in danger of becoming normalized,GMT and leading 2018 to more violations, with impunity. These trends occurred within a context of slow and intermittent success in reducing poverty, and limited progress in human development. According to the Africa Sustainable Development Report, the rate of decline in extreme poverty was slow; women and young people bore the brunt of poverty. However, there were signs of hope and progress that rarely made global headlines: the courage of ordinary people and human rights defenders who stood up for justice, equality and dignity in the face of repression. Significant reforms emerged in a few countries. Gambia rescinded05:01 its decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), freed political prisoners and promised to abolish the death penalty. Burkina Faso’s draft Constitution included/ provisions to strengthen human rights protection. Notable too were landmark judicial decisions on human rights. Kenya’s High Court decision to block the government’s planned closure of Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, prevented the forcible return of more than a quarterET of a million refugees to Somalia, where they were at risk of seriousEMBARGOED abuses. In Nigeria, two judgments declaredFEBRUARY threats of forced evictions without the service of statutory notices to be illegal, and found that forced evictions and the threat of such evictions amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Angola’s Constitutional Court declared legislation designed to stifle the work of civil society organizations to be unconstitutional. 22 REPRESSION OF DISSENT CRACKDOWN ON PROTEST 00:01 In over 20 countries, people were denied their right to peaceful protest, including through unlawful bans, use of excessive force, harassment and arbitrary arrests. The right to freedom of assembly was the exception rather than the rule. In Angola, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Sudan, Togo and STRICTLYelsewhere, legal, administrative and other measures were used to impose unlawful restrictions and bans on peaceful protests. In Angola, authorities frequently prevented peaceful demonstrations, even though no prior authorization wasUNTIL required in law. In Chad, at least six peaceful assemblies were banned, and THURSDAY 18 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 many organizers and participants were arrested. In DRC, peaceful protests, particularly those related to the political crisis sparked by delayed elections, were banned and repressed. Civil society organizations, political opposition and Darfuri students in Sudan were prevented from holding events. Use of excessive force and other abuses to disperse peaceful protests resulted in deaths, injuries and unlawful arrests in many countries. In Angola, the few demonstrations that proceeded were met with arbitrary arrests, detention and ill-treatment by police and security forces. Cameroon’s security forces violently repressed demonstrations in Anglophone regions. Kenyan police used excessive force against opposition protesters following the general election – including with live ammunition and tear gas, leaving dozens dead, at least 33 of whom were shot by police, including two children. In Togo, at least 10 people, including three children and two members of the armed forces, were killed during a crackdown by security forces, who frequently beat and fired tear gas and live ammunition at protesters. Sierra Leone’s security forces opened fire on students demonstrating against a lecturers’ strike in the city of Bo, killing one and injuring others. Uganda’s government used raids, arrests, intimidation and harassment to stopGMT peaceful 2018 gatherings and silence opposition to an amendment to remove the presidential age limit from the Constitution. ATTACKS ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS, JOURNALISTS AND OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS Widespread repression of dissent also manifested itself through attacks on human rights defenders, civil society organizations, journalists and bloggers. In Cameroon, civil society activists, journalists, trade unionists and teachers were arbitrarily arrested, and some faced military court trials. The government05:01 banned the activities of political parties and civil society organizations. Many remained in detention on spurious charges relating to national security. / Chad’s authorities arrested and prosecuted human rights defenders, activists and journalists to silence criticism of the government, including in response to rising anger at the economic crisis. In Equatorial Guinea, police detained activists,ET highlighting the authorities’ willingness to abuse laws to intimidate andEMBARGOED silence dissent. FEBRUARY In Eritrea, thousands of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners were detained without charge or access to lawyers or family members, many having been held for over 10 years. In Ethiopia, arbitrary detentions continued under the state of emergency declaration, until it was lifted in June. The government ordered the release of 2210,000 of the 26,000 detained in 2016 under the declaration. Meanwhile, hundreds were detained under the draconian Anti- Terrorism Proclamation, often used to target government critics. In Mauritania, Mohamed Mkhaïtir, a blogger accused of apostasy, had his death sentence commuted but remained in detention00:01 even after he had served his sentence. Meanwhile two anti-slavery activists remained in jail. The authorities in Madagascar intimidated and harassed journalists and human rights defenders in an attempt to silence them. Those daring to speak out against illegal trafficking and exploitation of natural resources were increasingly targeted through the use of criminal charges. STRICTLYSudan’s government persisted in stifling dissent, with opposition political party members, trade union activists, human rights defenders and students increasingly targeted by the security forces; they faced arbitrary arrests and detention on trumped-up charges, and routine torture and otherUNTIL ill-treatment. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 19 In Zambia, the Public Order Act was used to repress the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, particularly against critical civil society activists and opposition political party leaders. Police used excessive force against peaceful protesters while ignoring violence by ruling party loyalists against civil society activists. In Zimbabwe, Pastor Evan Mawarire – founder of the #Thisflag movement – suffered political persecution and harassment, until he was acquitted following the change in government in November. Ugandan academic Stella Nyanzi was detained for over one month for Facebook posts criticizing the President and his wife, who was the Minister for Education. EMERGING REGRESSIVE LAWS AND SHRINKING POLITICAL SPACE Some governments moved to introduce new laws to restrict the activities of human rights defenders, journalists and opponents. Angola’s Parliament adopted five bills containing provisions restricting freedom of expression, establishing a media regulatory body with broad oversight powers. Legislation adopted in Côte d’Ivoire contained provisions curtailing the right to freedom of expression – including in relation to defamation, offending the President andGMT disseminating 2018 false news. A draft bill in Nigeria and draft amendments to Malawi’s NGO law introduced excessive, intrusive and arbitrary controls on the activities of NGOs, including human rights groups. MEDIA FREEDOM In at least 30 countries – more than half the countries monitored – media freedom was curtailed and journalists faced criminalization. Misuse of the justice system to silence dissent was common in Angola where the government used defamation laws, especially against journalists and academics. In Uganda, journalist Gertrude Uwitware was arrested for 05:01supporting Stella Nyanzi. In Botswana, journalists faced continued harassment and intimidation for their investigative journalism; three journalists were detained and threatened/ with death by security agents in plain clothes after they investigated the construction of President Ian Khama’s holiday home. Cameroon and Togo blocked the internet to prevent journalists from doing their jobs and closed media outlets. Activists including journalists and bloggers wereET detained in Ethiopia and many were convicted under the Anti-TerrorismEMBARGOED Proclamation which provided vagueFEBRUARY definitions of terrorist acts. A military court in Cameroon sentenced Radio France Internationale journalist Ahmed Abba to 10 years’ imprisonment after an unfair trial, for exercising his right to freedom of expression. He was released in December following a decision by an appellate22 tribunal which reduced his sentence to 24 months. POLITICAL REPRESSION AND VIOLATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF ELECTIONS Fear, intimidation and violence 00:01marred Kenya’s presidential elections. Police used excessive force against opposition protesters following the elections leaving dozens dead, including at least 33 shot by the police. Senior ruling party officials repeatedly threatened the independence of the judiciary after the Supreme Court annulled the election results. The NGOs Coordination Board threatened human rights and governance organizations with closure and other punitive measures after they criticized the electoral process. STRICTLYIn Rwanda’s August presidential election, incumbent Paul Kagame won a landslide victory, following constitutional changes that allowed him to contest a third term; the election took place in a climate of fear created by two decades of attacks on political opposition, independent mediaUNTIL and human rights defenders. Potential presidential candidates were also targeted, including by smear campaigns. THURSDAY 20 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 The run-up to Angola’s elections in August was marked by human rights abuses – journalists and human rights defenders were repeatedly intimidated for exposing corruption and human rights violations. Protesters faced arrest and excessive use of force by police. Political repression was rife in Burundi, with unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances across the country. ARMED CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE Although the nature and intensity of Africa’s conflicts varied, they were generally characterized by gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law – including acts constituting crimes under international law. Amid the paralysis of regional efforts to resolve the political deadlock, intense suffering and loss of life continued in South Sudan’s four-year armed conflict, which forced millions from their homes. In the Upper Nile region, tens of thousands of civilians were forcibly displaced as government forces burned, shelled and systematically looted homes; sexual violence continued unabated. A cessation of hostilities agreement was signed in DecemberGMT following 2018 the forum launched by the intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to revitalize the previous peace agreement. However, soon after, renewed fighting broke out in different parts of the country. In Sudan, the security and humanitarian situation in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan states remained dire, with widespread violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. There was renewed conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR), which led to large-scale human rights violations and abuses and crimes under international law. Outside the government-controlled capital, armed groups carried out a 05:01range of abuses, and reports of sexual exploitation and abuses by UN peacekeeping troops continued. In DRC, unprecedented violence in the Kasaï region left/ thousands dead and as of 25 September 1 million were internally displaced; over 35,000 people fled to neighbouring Angola. Congolese army soldiers used excessive force, killing scores of suspected members and sympathizers of the armed insurgent group Kamuena Nsapu, which, in turn, recruited children and carried out attacks on civilians andET government forces. The government proxy- militia group Bana Mura wasEMBARGOED responsible for dozens of ethnic-based FEBRUARY attacks including killings, rapes and destruction of civilian property. In response to threats by the armed group Boko Haram and its ongoing commission of war crimes, security forces in Cameroon and Nigeria continued to commit gross human rights violations and crimes under international law. These included22 extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, torture and other ill- treatment, which, in some cases, led to deaths in custody. People accused of supporting Boko Haram were sentenced to death in Cameroon following unfair trials in military courts, although none were executed during the00:01 year. In Nigeria, the military arbitrarily arrested and detained incommunicado thousands of women, men and children in harsh conditions. In Niger – where the government declared a state of emergency in the western areas bordering Mali and renewed the state of emergency in the Diffa region – more than 700 suspected Boko Haram members went on trial. STRICTLYABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS Armed groups including al-Shabaab and Boko Haram perpetrated abuses and attacks against civilians in countries including Cameroon, CAR, DRC, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia. In some cases, theUNTIL attacks constituted serious abuses of international humanitarian and human rights law. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 21 In the Lake Chad basin region, Boko Haram committed war crimes on a large scale. Boko Haram attacks targeted civilians, caused deaths and led to an increase in displacement of civilians. Resurgent attacks in Cameroon and Nigeria left hundreds of civilians dead. While 82 of the abducted schoolgirls from Chibok, northeast Nigeria, were released in May, thousands of abducted women, girls and young men were unaccounted for and faced horrific abuses, including rape. Across northeast Nigeria, 1.7 million people were displaced, bringing many to the brink of starvation. In Mali, attacks by armed groups on civilians and peacekeepers spread from the north to the centre, and a state of emergency was extended in October for another year. In October, al-Shabaab carried out the deadliest attack against civilians in recent times in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu; it left over 512 people dead. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Torture and other ill-treatment was reported in several countries including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Nigeria and Sudan. GMT 2018 Cameroon’s security forces perpetrated torture against people suspected – often without evidence – of supporting Boko Haram; these violations amounted to war crimes and the crimes were carried out with impunity. In Ethiopia, detainees accused of terrorism repeatedly complained to the courts that police tortured and ill-treated them during interrogations. Although, in some cases, judges ordered the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to investigate the allegations, the investigations failed to adhere to international human rights standards. On the positive side, the Anti-Torture Bill – intended to prohibit and criminalize the use of torture – was signed into law in Nigeria in December. 05:01 PEOPLE ON THE MOVE / Protracted conflicts, along with recurring humanitarian crises and persistent human rights violations, forced millions to flee their homes in search of protection. Refugees and migrants faced widespread abuses and violations. MillionsET of refugees hosted by African countries were inadequately supported byEMBARGOED the international community. FEBRUARY The ongoing conflict and drought in Somalia left half the country’s population in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Over a million people were internally displaced by conflict and drought during the year – adding to 1.1 million internally displaced people living in deplorable conditions in22 unsafe informal settlements. In Kenya, over 285,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Somalia remained in urgent need of protection. In February, a High Court ruling blocked the Kenyan government’s unilateral decision to shut Dadaab refugee camp, which – in violation of international law – had put more than 260,000 Somali refugees 00:01at risk of forcible return. Although Dadaab remained open, the Kenyan government continued to refuse to register new arrivals from Somalia. Over 74,000 refugees were repatriated from Dadaab to Somalia between December 2014 and November 2017 under the voluntary repatriation framework. The repatriations took place despite ongoing concerns about the “voluntary” nature of returns and despite concerns that the conditions to ensure returns in safety and dignity were not yet in place in Somalia, due to ongoing conflict STRICTLYand severe drought. Hundreds of thousands of people from CAR sought refuge from conflict in neighbouring countries or were internally displaced, living in makeshift camps. Military operationsUNTIL and the conflict with Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin region forced millions from their homes. In Nigeria, at least 1.7 million were internally displaced in the THURSDAY 22 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. UNHCR said that 5.2 million people in the northeast were in urgent need of food assistance and 450,000 children under five were in urgent need of nutrition. In Chad, over 408,000 refugees from CAR, DRC, Nigeria and Sudan lived in dire conditions in refugee camps. Botswana denied refugees freedom of movement, the right to work and local integration; asylum-seekers faced lengthy refugee status determination procedures and detention. Thousands continued to flee Eritrea, where the human rights situation and the imposition of indefinite military national service created major difficulties for many. They faced serious abuses in transit and in some destination countries, and many were subjected to arbitrary detention, abduction, sexual abuse and ill-treatment on their way to Europe. In August, Sudan forcibly returned more than 100 refugees to Eritrea, where they were at risk of serious human rights violations, in violation of international law. In South Sudan, around 340,000 fled an escalation of the fighting in the Equatoria region, which led to atrocities and starvation between January and October. Mainly government – but also opposition – forces in the southern region committed crimes under international law and other serious violations and abuses, including war crimes, against civilians. GMTMore than 3.9 2018 million people − approximately one third of the population − had been displaced since the beginning of the conflict in December 2013. Other states did little to help neighbouring countries hosting more than 2 million refugees from South Sudan. Uganda hosted over 1 million refugees, mostly children, and encountered difficulties in implementing its progressive and widely respected refugee policy, due to chronic underfunding by the international community. Consequently, the Ugandan government, UNHCR and NGOs struggled to meet refugees’ basic needs. IMPUNITY 05:01 Failure to ensure justice, redress and the holding of suspected/ perpetrators to account remained a key driver of human rights violations and abuses in a wide range of contexts and countries. In CAR, some progress was made towards operationalizing the Special Criminal Court, which was established to try individuals suspected of seriousET human rights violations and crimes under international law committedEMBARGOED during the country’s 14-year conflict.FEBRUARY The Court’s Special Prosecutor took office in May, but the Court was not yet operational and impunity remained the norm. In South Sudan, three transitional justice bodies provided for in the 2015 peace agreement had still not been established. In July, a joint roadmap for the22 establishment of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan was agreed between the African Union (AU) Commission and the government; discussions continued on the instruments for the establishment of the Court, but nothing was formally adopted. In Nigeria – amid concerns about00:01 independence and impartiality – a Special Board of Inquiry, established by the army to investigate allegations of gross human rights violations, cleared senior military officers of crimes under international law. Its report was not made public. In August, the acting President set up a presidential investigation panel to probe allegations of human rights violations carried out by the military; the panel held public hearings between September and November but there was no outcome by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the STRICTLYNigerian authorities held mass secret trials for Boko Haram suspects; 50 defendants were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment in a trial that took place over four days. In DRC, the killing of two UN experts and the disappearance of their Congolese interpreter and three of theirUNTIL drivers, in Kasaï Central Province in March, illustrated the urgent need to end violence in the region. The Congolese authorities’ investigation was not transparent or THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 23 credible. In June, the UN Human Rights Council decided to dispatch a team of international experts to DRC to help in investigations. In July, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights appointed a team of three experts whose findings were expected in June 2018. In Ethiopia, the police and army continued to enjoy impunity for violations committed in 2015 and 2016. The government rejected calls for independent and impartial investigations into violations committed in the context of protests in various regional states. The Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal upheld the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment of former Chadian President Hissène Habré for war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT Burundi became the first State Party to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the ICC in October. Despite this, in November, the Pre-Trial Chamber made public its decision to authorize the ICC Prosecutor to open an investigation regarding crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court allegedly committed in Burundi – or by nationals of Burundi outside the country – between April 2015 and October 2017. GMT 2018 However, developments in Africa suggested a tempering of the rhetoric calling for withdrawal from the ICC. The AU adopted a decision in January, which despite its misleading title, outlined plans for engagement with the ICC and other stakeholders. More encouragingly, member states – including Senegal, Nigeria, Cape Verde, Malawi, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Liberia – expressly stated their support for the ICC and rejected any notion of mass withdrawal. Gambia’s new government revoked its withdrawal from the Rome Statute, while Botswana’s Parliament passed a bill incorporating the Rome Statute into domestic law. In March, the South African government announced it would05:01 revoke its 2016 notice of intention to withdraw from the Rome Statue after the North Gauteng High Court decision held that withdrawal from the ICC without consulting Parliament/ was unconstitutional and invalid. However, a draft bill to repeal the Rome Statue Domestication Act was introduced to Parliament in early December 2017, signalling the government’s intention to pursue its decision to leave the ICC. Meanwhile, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber ruled ETthat South Africa should have executed the arrest warrant against SudaneseEMBARGOED President Omar Al-Bashir during hisFEBRUARY 2015 visit to the country. The ruling confirmed that President Al-Bashir did not have immunity from arrest and that any states party to the Rome Statute were obliged to arrest him if he entered their territory, and hand him over to the Court. In its December preliminary report, the Office of the Prosecutor22 of the ICC announced that it was continuing its analysis of the potential eight crimes it had previously identified as having been allegedly committed in Nigeria, as well as gathering evidence on new crimes, but was yet to reach a decision on whether00:01 to open an investigation. DISCRIMINATION AND MARGINALIZATION Discrimination, marginalization and abuse of women and girls – often arising from cultural traditions and institutionalized by unjust laws – continued in a number of countries. Women and girls were subjected to rape and other sexual violence, including in the context of conflicts STRICTLYand in countries with large numbers of refugee and internally displaced populations. Pregnant girls continued to be excluded from school in countries including Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea. In June, Tanzania’s President announced a ban on pregnant girls returning to public-fundedUNTIL schools – fuelling stigma and discrimination against girls and victims of sexual violence. THURSDAY 24 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Gender-based violence against women and girls was prevalent in several countries including Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland. In countries including Burkina Faso, lack of medical equipment, medication and staffing in hospitals left pregnant women and infants at serious risk of birth complications, infection and death. Female genital mutilation rates decreased; however, despite being outlawed, the practice remained widespread. Unsafe abortions contributed to one of Africa’s highest rates of maternal death and injury in Liberia, where affordable and accessible abortion services were largely unavailable to rape survivors. Despite its progressive abortion laws, women and girls faced substantial barriers to legal abortion services in South Africa and faced serious risks to health, and even death, from unsafe abortions. The government failed to address the refusal of health care professionals to provide abortions. In Angola, the government proposed an amendment to the Penal Code, which would decriminalize abortion in certain limited cases, but Parliament rejected the proposal. After a public outcry, the parliamentary vote on the legislation was postponed indefinitely.GMT 2018 PEOPLE WITH ALBINISM Superstitions about the magical powers of people with albinism fuelled a surge of attacks against them; in Malawi and Mozambique, they were abducted and killed for their body parts. In Mozambique, a seven-year-old boy was murdered when unidentified men abducted him from his home. Despite public outcry, the government took little action. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE LGBTI people faced discrimination, prosecution, harassment05:01 and violence, including in Senegal, Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria. In Ghana, the parliamentary Speaker called for a constitutional amendment to make homosexuality illegal/ and punishable by law. In Liberia, a man arrested in 2016 and charged with “voluntary sodomy” under the Penal Code, remained in detention awaiting trial. In Nigeria, arrest, public shaming, extortion of and discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation were reported. In a landmark decision in Botswana, a High CourtET ordered the government to change the gender marker in the identityEMBARGOED document of a transgender woman, rulingFEBRUARY that its refusal to do so was unreasonable and in violation of her rights. RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED EVICTIONS22 Amid increasing urbanization, unemployment, poverty and inequality, many countries failed to ensure accessible, affordable and habitable housing. A landslide at a vast rubbish dump on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital caused 115 deaths. Most of the victims lived next to00:01 the site and supported themselves by recycling rubbish. At least 10 people, including two children, were also killed in a landslide at a rubbish dump in Guinea. In Lagos state in Nigeria, authorities forcibly evicted at least 5,000 people from the Otodo- Gbame and Ilubirin waterfront neighbourhoods, while security services fired tear gas and live bullets to clear the area. The forced evictions were in violation of a High Court order restraining STRICTLYauthorities from carrying out demolitions in these communities. On the other hand, a High Court ruling in Nigeria declared the planned demolition of Mpape settlement in Abuja illegal, thereby offering relief to hundreds of thousands of residents. The Court ruled thatUNTIL the authorities were obliged to refrain from forced evictions and should develop policies to implement the right to adequate housing. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 25 BUSINESS AND CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY In DRC, children and adults risked their lives and health working in cobalt mines for a dollar a day. In South Africa, Lonmin Plc, a UK-based platinum mining giant, allowed its workforce to live in squalor in Marikana, in spite of making legally binding commitments to build 5,500 new houses over 10 years before. No one was held to account for the killing in 2012 of 34 people protesting against poor conditions at the mine. At the same time, there were growing signs of public pressure, action and demands for corporate accountability in various countries. In June, a landmark civil case was launched against Shell in the Netherlands – accusing it of complicity in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of the Ogoni nine, hanged by Nigeria’s military government in 1995. International organizations called for Shell to be investigated for its part in these serious human rights violations committed by the Nigerian security forces in Ogoniland in the 1990s. Some governments took positive steps. The DRC government committed to end child labour in the mining sector by 2025, in what could be a significant step towards eradicatingGMT the use 2018 of children as young as seven in dangerous mining work. Ghana ratified the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury, which aims to protect workers from toxic liquid metal by reducing mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining and to protect children from exposure. LOOKING AHEAD While 2017 saw protracted and, in some cases, deepening challenges to the state of human rights in Africa, it also offered hope and opportunities for change. A key source of hope lay in the countless people across the region who stood up for human05:01 rights, justice and dignity – often risking their lives and freedoms. Africa’s regional bodies remained key to the realization/ of positive change; they too are presented with many opportunities. During the year, the AU endorsed an ambitious plan to realize its commitment to “silence the guns” by 2020. It embarked on a major institutional reform agenda, which includes mobilizing significant resources for its operations and for peace and security interventions. This holistic approachET and the AU’s ambition to address the root causes of conflict offer realEMBARGOED opportunities to mobilize an effective regionalFEBRUARY response for better protection of civilians, respect for human rights and tackling the entrenched culture of impunity. The year also marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which – despite many challenges22 – made significant contributions towards the promotion and protection of human rights, including by formulating an impressive list of instruments and standards. In 2017 alone, the Commission adopted at least 13 such instruments; these gave specific content to the broad provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’00:01 Rights and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. The Commission should build on these successes and work towards refining and strengthening its processes and mechanisms; it needs to develop a single set of consolidated state reporting guidelines and to apply consistently the Commission’s procedure for following STRICTLYup the implementation of its decisions and recommendations to states. UNTIL THURSDAY 26 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 AMERICAS REGIONAL OVERVIEW

Discrimination and inequality continued to be the norm across the continent. High levels of violence continued to ravage the region, with waves of killings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions. Human rights defenders experienced increasing levels of violence. Impunity remained pervasive. Politics of demonization and division increased. Indigenous Peoples faced discrimination and continued to be denied their economic, social and cultural rights, including their rights to land and to free, prior and informed consent on projects affecting them. Governments made little headway in protecting the rights of women and girls, and of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. Huge numbers of people across the Americas region faced a deepening human rights crisis, fuelled by the downgrading of human rights in law, policy and practice, together with increasing use of the politics of demonization and division. Such regression risked becoming endemic in many countries. It exacerbated a lack of trust in the authorities –GMT manifested in low 2018 levels of participation in elections and referendums – and in institutions such as national justice systems. Rather than using human rights as a way to secure a more just and sustainable future, many governments fell back on tactics of repression – misusing their security forces and justice systems to silence dissent and criticism; allowing widespread torture and other ill-treatment to go unpunished; and presiding over rampant inequality, poverty and discrimination sustained by corruption and failures in accountability and justice. Major regression in human rights was also driven by a series of executive orders issued by US President Donald Trump, including what became known05:01 as the “Muslim ban” and plans to build a wall along the US border with Mexico. Extreme and persistent violence was commonplace in /countries including Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela. Violence across the region was frequently driven by the proliferation of illicit small arms and the growth of organized crime. Violence against LGBTI people, women and girls, and Indigenous Peoples was widespread. According to a UN report, Latin America and theET Caribbean remained the most violent region in the world for women, despiteEMBARGOED strict laws aimed at addressing theFEBRUARY crisis. The region had the world’s highest rate of non-intimate partner violence against women, and the second highest rate of intimate partner violence. Mexico witnessed a wave of killings of journalists and human rights defenders. Venezuela faced its worst human rights crisis in modern history. Killings22 of Indigenous people and Afro- descendant leaders in Colombia exposed shortcomings in the implementation of the country’s peace process. Land rights activists were targeted with violence and other abuses in many countries. The region continued to suffer from00:01 an alarming rise in the number of threats and attacks against human rights defenders, community leaders and journalists, including through misuse of the justice system. Huge numbers of people fled their homes to escape repression, violence, discrimination and poverty. Many suffered further abuses while in transit or upon reaching other countries in the region. STRICTLYThe pardon granted to Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori, who in 2009 was sentenced for crimes against humanity, sent a worrying signal about Peru’s willingness to confront impunity and UNTILrespect the rights of victims. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 27 States’ failure to uphold human rights increased the space for non-state actors to commit crimes under international law and other abuses. These included organized criminal entities, which in some cases controlled entire territories, often with the complicity or acquiescence of security forces. National and transnational corporations sought to take control of the land and territory of groups including Indigenous Peoples and – in countries like Peru and Nicaragua – peasant farmers. Failures to uphold economic, social and cultural rights caused widespread suffering. A reversal of political rhetoric by the USA under President Trump reduced the chances of the US Congress passing legislation to lift the economic embargo on Cuba – and so perpetuated the embargo’s adverse impacts on Cubans. Paraguay’s authorities failed to ensure the right to adequate housing following forced evictions. There were thousands of new cases of cholera in Haiti. Tens of thousands of people were displaced from their homes and struggled with badly damaged infrastructure in countries in the Caribbean, including in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, following two major hurricanes, among other natural disasters. In Mexico, two devastating earthquakes that cost hundreds of lives compromised people’s rightsGMT to adequate 2018 housing and education. At the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly, held in Cancún, Mexico, in June, there was a clear lack of political leadership to address some of the region’s most pressing human rights issues. A group of countries tried to condemn the crisis in Venezuela, without acknowledging their own failures to respect and protect human rights. After the previous year’s financial crisis, the OAS took a step forward by doubling the budget allocation for the Inter-American human rights system – although the funding was to be allocated under certain conditions, which could limit the ability of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to hold05:01 states accountable for human rights violations. In the USA, President Trump wasted little time in putting/ his anti-rights rhetoric of discrimination and xenophobia into action, threatening a major rollback on justice and freedoms – including by signing a series of repressive executive orders that threatened the human rights of millions, at home and abroad. This included abusive USA-Mexico border enforcementET practices such as the increased detention of asylum-seekersEMBARGOED and their families; extreme restrictions FEBRUARY on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health services in the USA and elsewhere; repeal of protections for LGBTI workers and transgender students; and permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to be completed – threatening the water source of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Indigenous Peoples, as well as violating their22 right to free, prior and informed consent. Yet growing disenfranchisement did not equate to disengagement. Emerging social discontent inspired people to take to the streets, stand up for their rights and demand an end to repression, marginalization and00:01 injustice. Examples included the massive demonstrations in support of activist Santiago Maldonado, who was found dead after going missing in the context of a demonstration marred by police violence in a Mapuche community in Argentina, and the massive social movement of “Ni Una Menos” (“not one less woman”) – denouncing femicide and violence against women and girls – in various countries in the region. Massive grassroots and political opposition in the USA resisted some of the policies and STRICTLYdecisions by the Trump administration that undermined human rights, including attempts to ban people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the USA and to reduce the number of refugees eligible for admission; threats to increase the number of detainees at the US detention centreUNTIL in Guantánamo Bay; and an attempt to take away health care coverage from millions in the USA. THURSDAY 28 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 PUBLIC SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS VENEZUELA CRISIS Venezuela faced one of the worst human rights crises in its recent history, fuelled by an escalation of government-sponsored violence. There were growing protests due to rising inflation and a humanitarian crisis caused by shortages of food and medical supplies. Rather than address the food and health crisis, the authorities instituted a premeditated policy of violent repression of any form of dissent. The security forces used abusive and excessive force against protesters, including by throwing tear gas and firing rubber bullets, leading to more than 120 deaths. Thousands of people were arbitrarily detained and there were many reports of torture and other ill-treatment. The judicial system was used to silence dissent, including through the use of military courts to prosecute civilians, and to target and harass human rights defenders. VIOLENCE AND IMPUNITY IN MEXICO GMT 2018 Mexico’s human rights crisis continued, exacerbated by increases in violence and homicides, including a record number of killings of journalists. Arbitrary arrests and detentions remained widespread – often leading to further human rights violations, most of which were not properly investigated. More than 34,000 people remained subject to enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial executions were rife. Torture and other ill-treatment continued to be widespread and were committed with impunity by the security forces, with people routinely forced to sign false “confessions”. However, the Senate’s approval of a new law on enforced disappearances – following a national public outcry over the case of 43 forcibly disappeared students whose fate and whereabouts remained undisclosed – was a potential05:01 step forward, although its eventual implementation will require serious political commitment to ensure justice, truth and reparations. Congress also finally passed a new general/ law on torture. More concerning was the enactment of a law on interior security that would enable the prolonged presence of the armed forces in regular policing functions, a strategy that has been linked to an increase in human rights violations. ET UNLAWFUL KILLINGS EMBARGOED FEBRUARY Authorities in Brazil ignored a deepening human rights crisis of their own making. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, a spike in violence saw a surge in unlawful killings by the police, with soaring rates of killings and other human rights violations elsewhere in the country. Little was done to reduce the number of homicides, to control the use of force22 by the police or to guarantee Indigenous Peoples’ rights. The chaotic, overcrowded and dangerous state of Brazil’s prisons resulted in more than 120 deaths of inmates during riots reported in January. Despite the homicide rate falling in Honduras, there were serious concerns about high levels of violence and insecurity; prevalent00:01 impunity undermined public trust in the authorities and the justice system. Massive protests took place throughout the country – denouncing the lack of transparency around the presidential election held in November – and were violently repressed by security forces, leading to at least 31 people being killed, dozens arbitrarily detained and others injured. Dozens of unlawful killings by the security forces were reported in the Dominican Republic, STRICTLYwhich endured a persistently high homicide rate. Jamaica’s police continued to commit unlawful killings – some potentially amounting to extrajudicial executions – with impunity. UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 29 PROTESTS Protests were met with unnecessary and excessive use of force by the authorities in countries including Colombia, Paraguay and Puerto Rico. In Paraguay, protests erupted after a secret attempt by senators to amend the Constitution to allow presidential re-elections was exposed. The Congress building was set on fire by some protesters, and opposition activist Rodrigo Quintana was killed by police. Dozens of people were injured, more than 200 were detained, and local organizations reported torture and other ill-treatment by security forces. In Nicaragua, police officers prevented rural communities and Indigenous Peoples from participating in peaceful demonstrations against the construction of the Grand Interoceanic Canal. In Argentina, more than 30 people were arbitrarily detained by police in the capital, Buenos Aires, for taking part in a demonstration following the death of activist Santiago Maldonado. In December, excessive force was used against protesters in Buenos Aires taking part in massive demonstrations against governmental reforms. GMT 2018 ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND THE FIGHT TO END IMPUNITY Impunity remained pervasive and a key driver of human rights violations and abuses in many countries. Ongoing impunity and corruption in Guatemala eroded public trust in the authorities and hampered access to justice. There were large protests in August and September and the country faced a political crisis when members of the government resigned in response to President Jimmy Morales’ attempt to expel the head of the 05:01International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, an independent body established by the government and the UN in 2006 to strengthen the rule of law post-conflict. / Impunity for past and present human rights violations remained a concern in Chile. The closure by the authorities of an investigation into the alleged abduction and torture reported by Mapuche leader Víctor Queipul Hueiquil sent a chilling message to human rights defenders across the country, while it appeared that no comprehensiveET and impartial investigation was carried out. Indigenous leaderEMBARGOED Machi Francisca Linconao and 10 otherFEBRUARY Mapuche people were acquitted of terrorism charges, due to a lack of evidence to implicate them in the deaths of two people in January 2013. However, in December the Court of Appeals declared the judgment null. A new trial was due to start in 2018. 22 CONFRONTING PAST HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Efforts to address unresolved human rights violations often remained slow and sluggish, hampered by a lack of political 00:01will. In Peru, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted a medical pardon and grace to former president Alberto Fujimori, who had been sentenced in 2009 to 25 years’ imprisonment for his responsibility for crimes against humanity committed by his subordinates, and was still facing other charges for his alleged responsibility for other human rights violations that could constitute crimes against humanity. Thousands took to the streets to protest against the STRICTLYdecision. In Uruguay, human rights defenders investigating human rights violations that took place during the military regime (1973-1985) reported receiving death threats, the sources of which were not investigated.UNTIL In November the Supreme Court found that crimes committed during THURSDAY 30 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 the regime did not amount to crimes against humanity and were, therefore, subject to statutes of limitations. Yet there was some progress. In Argentina, 29 people were sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed during the 1976-1983 military regime, and a federal court issued a historic decision under which four former members of the judiciary were sentenced to life in prison for contributing to the commission of crimes against humanity during those years. In Bolivia a Truth Commission was established to investigate serious human rights violations committed under military governments from 1964 to 1982. There was progress in prosecuting some crimes against humanity committed during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict (1960-1996), with five former members of the military sent to trial on charges of crimes against humanity, rape and enforced disappearance. After several failed attempts since 2015, the trials of former military head of state José Efraín Ríos Montt and former intelligence chief José Rodríguez Sánchez finally resumed in October. 2018 REFUGEES, MIGRANTS AND STATELESS PEOPLEGMT DENIAL OF PROTECTION BY THE USA Amid a global refugee crisis in which more than 21 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to war and persecution, the USA took extreme steps to deny protection to people in need. In the first few weeks of his administration, President Trump issued executive orders to suspend the country’s refugee resettlement programme for 120 days, impose an indefinite ban on the resettlement of refugees from Syria, and reduce the annual refugee admission cap to 50,000. 05:01 President Trump also signed an executive order vowing to build a wall along the USA-Mexico border. His order, which pledged to put in place 5,000 additional/ border patrol agents, carried the risk that more migrants – including many in need of international protection – would be unlawfully pushed back at the border or deported to places where their lives are at risk. The injustice of President Trump’s actions was emphasized by Central America’s ongoing refugee crisis, and by the appalling situation in Venezuela,ET which led to an increase in the number of Venezuelans seeking asylumEMBARGOED abroad. As conditions for refugees andFEBRUARY migrants in the USA deteriorated, there was a significant increase in numbers of asylum-seekers irregularly crossing the border from the USA into Canada. REFUGEE CRISIS 22 According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, more than 57,000 people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador sought asylum in other countries. Many were forced back home, where a lack of an effective system to protect them meant they faced the same dangers and conditions from which they had00:01 fled. Thousands of families and unaccompanied children from those countries migrated to the USA through Mexico and were apprehended at the US border. Mexico received a record number of asylum applications, mostly from nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Venezuela, but repeatedly failed to provide protection to those who needed it – instead pushing people back to highly dangerous and even life- threatening situations. STRICTLYArgentina’s reception system for asylum-seekers remained slow and insufficient, and there was no integration plan in place to help asylum-seekers and refugees access basic rights such as education, work and health care. Cubans continuedUNTIL to leave the country in large numbers, pushed by low wages and undue restrictions on freedom of expression. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 31 STATELESS AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE The Dominican Republic’s statelessness crisis continued to affect tens of thousands of people of Haitian descent who were born in the country but were left stateless after being retroactively and arbitrarily deprived of their Dominican nationality in 2013. Those affected were denied a range of human rights and were prevented from accessing higher education, formal employment or adequate health care. In Haiti, almost 38,000 people remained internally displaced because of the 2010 earthquake. There was a reported increase in deportation cases at the Dominican-Haitian border. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Indigenous Peoples’ rights continued to be violated in countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru. VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES GMT 2018 Indigenous Peoples continued to be criminalized and discriminated against in Argentina, where the authorities used legal proceedings to harass them; there were reports of police attacks, including beatings and intimidation. Rafael Nahuel of the Mapuche community was killed in November during an eviction conducted by security forces. In Colombia, a wave of killings of Indigenous people from communities historically affected by the armed conflict highlighted shortcomings in the implementation of the peace agreement. The killing of Gerson Acosta – leader of the Kite Kiwe Indigenous council in Timbío, Cauca, who was shot repeatedly while leaving a community meeting – was a tragic example of the ineffectiveness of the authorities’ measures to safeguard the05:01 lives and safety of community leaders and other Indigenous people. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights documented/ the different forms of discrimination faced by Indigenous women in the Americas and highlighted how their political, social and economic marginalization contributed to permanent structural discrimination, leaving them at increased risk of violence. ET LAND RIGHTS EMBARGOED FEBRUARY In Peru, new laws weakened the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights related to land and territory and undermined their right to free, prior and informed consent. The government neglected the right to health of hundreds of Indigenous Peoples whose only water sources were contaminated with toxic metals, and who lacked access22 to adequate health care. In Ecuador, the right to free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples continued to be violated, including after intrusions of the state into their territories for future oil extraction. Indigenous Peoples in Paraguay also continued to be denied their rights to land and to free, prior and informed consent on 00:01projects affecting them. Despite rulings from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the government failed to provide the Yakye Axa community access to their lands, or to resolve a case regarding the ownership of land expropriated from the Sawhoyamaxa community. Guatemala’s Supreme Court recognized the lack of prior consultation with the Xinca Indigenous People of Santa Rosa and Jalapa, who were negatively affected by mining STRICTLYactivities. In Brazil, conflicts over land, and invasion by illegal loggers and mine workers into Indigenous Peoples’ territory,UNTIL resulted in violent attacks against Indigenous communities. THURSDAY 32 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND JOURNALISTS The extreme risks and dangers of defending human rights were apparent in numerous countries in the region, with human rights defenders facing threats, harassment and attacks including in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Paraguay. KILLINGS AND HARASSMENT IN MEXICO In Mexico, human rights defenders were threatened, attacked and killed, with digital attacks and surveillance especially common. During the year, at least 12 journalists were killed – the largest number recorded since 2000 – many in public places in daylight, with the authorities making no notable progress in investigating and prosecuting those responsible. Victims included prize-winning journalist Javier Valdez, who was killed in May near the office of the newspaper Ríodoce, which he founded. It became apparent that a network of people was using the internet to harass and threaten journalists throughout Mexico. Evidence also emerged of surveillance against journalists and human rights defenders, using software that the government was known to have purchased. GMT 2018 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AT RISK IN HONDURAS Honduras remained one of the region’s most dangerous countries for human rights defenders – especially those working to protect land, territory and the environment. They were targeted by both state and non-state actors, subjected to smear campaigns to discredit their work, and regularly faced intimidation, threats and attacks. Most attacks registered against human rights defenders went unpunished. There was little progress in the investigation into the March 2016 killing of Indigenous environmental defender Berta Cáceres. Since her murder, several other Honduran environmental and human rights activists have been05:01 harassed and threatened. INCREASED ATTACKS IN COLOMBIA / There was an increase in the number of attacks against human rights defenders in Colombia, especially community leaders, defenders of land, territory and the environment, and those campaigning in favour of the peace agreement. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, almost 100 humanET rights defenders were killed during the year. Many death threats againstEMBARGOED activists were attributed to paramilitary FEBRUARY groups, but in most cases the authorities failed to identify who was responsible for the killings that resulted from the threats. ARBITRARY DETENTIONS, THREATS AND HARASSMENT22 In Cuba, large numbers of human rights defenders and political activists continued to be harassed, intimidated, dismissed from state employment and arbitrarily detained to silence criticism. Online and offline censorship undermined advances in education. Prisoners of conscience included the leader00:01 of the pro-democracy Christian Liberation Movement, Eduardo Cardet Concepción, who was jailed for three years for publicly criticizing former president Fidel Castro. Human rights defenders in Guatemala, especially those working on land, territorial and environmental issues, faced ongoing threats and attacks, and were subjected to smear campaigns. The justice system was also frequently misused to target, harass and silence STRICTLYhuman rights defenders. A ruling by Peru’s Supreme Court confirming the acquittal of human rights defender Máxima Acuña Atalaya after five years of unfounded criminal proceedings for land seizure was a landmark decisionUNTIL for environmental defenders. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 33 RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS Women and girls across the region continued to be subjected to a wide range of violations and abuses, including gender-based violence and discrimination and violations of sexual and reproductive rights. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Violence against women and girls remained prevalent. Impunity for crimes such as rape, killings and threats was widespread and entrenched, often underpinned by weak political will, limited resources to investigate and bring perpetrators to justice, and an unchallenged patriarchal culture. Ongoing gender-based violence in the Dominican Republic resulted in an increase in the number of killings of women and girls. Gender-based violence against women and girls was also a major concern in Mexico and worsened in Nicaragua. In Jamaica, women’s movements and survivors of gender-based and sexual violence took to the streets to protest against impunity for such crimes. GMT 2018 There was an increase in the number of killings of women in leadership roles in Colombia, and no clear progress in ensuring access to justice for women survivors of sexual violence. However, women’s organizations ensured that the Peace Agreement established that people suspected of having committed crimes of sexual violence would be required to appear before transitional justice tribunals. In Cuba, The Ladies in White – a group of female relatives of prisoners detained on politically motivated grounds – remained a key target of repression by the authorities. Canada’s federal government released a strategy to combat gender-based violence, and committed to placing women’s rights, gender equality and sexual05:01 and reproductive rights at the core of its foreign policy. A law to combat violence against women entered into force in Paraguay in December, although it remained unclear how/ it would be funded. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVEET RIGHTS THE USA’S “GLOBAL GAGEMBARGOED RULE” FEBRUARY In January, two days after massive worldwide demonstrations for equality and against discrimination, US President Trump put at risk the lives and health of millions of women and girls around the world by reinstating the so-called “global gag rule”. This blocked US financial assistance to any hospitals or organizations that provide abortion22 information about, or access to, safe and legal abortion care, or that advocate the decriminalization of abortion or the expansion of abortion services. In Latin America alone – where experts estimate that 760,000 women are treated annually from complications of unsafe abortion00:01 – President Trump’s stance put many more lives at risk. CRIMINALIZATION OF ABORTION A ruling by Chile’s Constitutional Tribunal to support the decriminalization of abortion in certain cases left just seven countries worldwide persisting with a total ban on abortion, even when the life or health of the woman or girl is at risk. Six of those countries were in the Americas region: STRICTLYthe Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname. In El Salvador, 19-year-old Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz was jailed for 30 years on charges of aggravated homicide, after suffering obstetric complications resulting in a miscarriage. In December, a courtUNTIL confirmed the 30-year sentence of Teodora, a woman who suffered a stillbirth in 2007. THURSDAY 34 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 The Dominican Republic’s Senate voted against a proposal that would have decriminalized abortion in certain circumstances. In Honduras, Congress also maintained the ban on abortion in all circumstances in the new Criminal Code. In Argentina, women and girls faced obstacles in accessing legal abortion when the pregnancy posed a risk to their health or resulted from rape; full decriminalization of abortion was pending in Parliament. In Uruguay, sexual and reproductive health services were difficult to access in rural areas, and objectors to providing abortion continued to obstruct access to legal abortions. In October, the Ministry of Education and Science of Paraguay issued a resolution banning the inclusion in educational materials of basic information about human rights, sexual and reproductive health education and diversity, among other subjects. In Bolivia – where unsafe abortions were one of the main causes of maternal mortality – the Criminal Code was amended to significantly expand access to legal abortion. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDERGMT AND 2018 INTERSEX PEOPLE LGBTI people faced persistent discrimination, harassment and violence in the region, including in Haiti, Honduras and Jamaica. In Bolivia the Constitutional Court invalidated part of a law which granted civil marriage rights to transgender people who had changed their gender on their identity documents. The country’s Ombudsman proposed an amendment to the Criminal Code to make hate crimes against LGBTI people a criminal offence. In the Dominican Republic the body of a transgender woman,05:01 Jessica Rubi Mori, was found dismembered in wasteland. By the end of the year, no one had been brought to justice for her killing. / In Uruguay there remained no comprehensive anti-discrimination policy protecting LGBTI people from violence in schools and public spaces, or ensuring their access to health services. ARMED CONFLICTEMBARGOEDET FEBRUARY Despite the opportunities presented by the Peace Agreement in Colombia, legislation remained unimplemented on most of its points, and there were serious concerns around impunity for crimes committed during the conflict. Ongoing human rights violations and abuses also demonstrated22 that the internal conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the security forces was far from over, and in some areas it appeared to intensify. Civilian populations continued to be the main victims of the conflict – especially Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant and peasant farmer communities, and human00:01 rights defenders. A spike in the number of human rights activists killed at the beginning of the year highlighted the dangers faced by those exposing ongoing abuses in Colombia. STRICTLY UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 35 ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL OVERVIEW

The human rights landscape of the Asia-Pacific region was mostly characterized by government failures. However, these frequently contrasted with an inspiring and growing movement of human rights defenders and activists. Many countries saw a shrinking space for civil society. Human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and others found themselves the target of state repression – from an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression in China to sweeping intolerance of dissent in Cambodia and Thailand and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Impunity was widespread – breeding and sustaining violations including unlawful killings and torture, denying justice and reparation to millions, and fuelling crimes against humanity or war crimes in countries such as Myanmar and Afghanistan. The global refugee crisis worsened. Hundreds of thousands in the regionGMT were forced to 2018 flee their homes and faced uncertain, often violent, futures. Their numbers were swelled by the Myanmar military’s crimes against humanity in northern Rakhine State where the army burned entire Rohingya villages, killed adults and children, and raped women and girls. The mass violations forced more than 655,000 Rohingya to escape persecution by fleeing to Bangladesh. Those who remained continued to live under a systematically discriminatory system amounting to apartheid which severely restricted virtually every aspect of their lives and segregated them from the rest of society. ASEAN, chaired by the Philippines during 2017, marked its 50th anniversary. ASEAN governments and institutions remained silent over the massive05:01 violations in the Philippines, Myanmar and elsewhere in the region. Against this backdrop, growing calls to respect and protect/ human rights in Asia-Pacific, increasingly by young people, delivered some progress and hope. There were advances in policing in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and positive court rulings on corporate accountability in South Korea; on marriage equality in Australia and Taiwan; and on the right to privacy in India. EMBARGOEDET FEBRUARY EAST ASIA The authorities in Japan, Mongolia and South Korea all failed to adequately protect human rights defenders. Human rights defenders were specifically22 targeted and persecuted in China. A notable shrinking of space for civil society was especially apparent in China, and was of increasing concern in Hong Kong and Japan. Human rights protection was diluted in Japan where parliament adopted an overly broad law targeting “terrorism” and other 00:01serious crimes, despite harsh criticism from civil society and academics. This law gave the authorities broad surveillance powers that could be misused to curtail human rights. Following a change of government in South Korea, the national police accepted recommendations for a change in the overall approach of policing in order to allow the full and free exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. Also in South Korea, while hundreds STRICTLYof conscientious objectors were imprisoned, an increasing number of lower courts handed down decisions recognizing the right to conscientious objection, and court rulings acknowledged the responsibility of multinational corporations for work-related death or illness of employees.UNTIL THURSDAY 36 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 The consecration of President Xi Jinping as China’s most powerful leader for many years took place against the backdrop of a stifling of freedom of expression and information. Authorities increasingly used “national security” as justification for restriction of human rights and detention of activists; the tactic escalated significantly in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) where, under the leadership of new regional Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, authorities put new emphasis on “social stability” and increased technological surveillance, armed street patrols and security checkpoints and implemented an array of intrusive policies violating human rights. Authorities set up detention facilities within the XUAR, variously called “counter extremism centres”, “political study centres” or “education and transformation centres”, in which people were arbitrarily detained for unspecified periods and forced to study Chinese laws and policies. Citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) continued to face a series of grave human rights violations, some of which amounted to crimes against humanity. The rights to freedom of expression and movement were severely restricted, and up to 120,000 people continued to be arbitrarily detained in political prison camps, where they were subjected to forced labour, torture and other ill-treatment. GMT 2018 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS The Chinese authorities continued their unprecedented crackdown on dissent with a ruthless campaign of arbitrary arrests, detention, imprisonment and torture and other ill-treatment of human rights lawyers and activists. The authorities persisted in the use of “residential surveillance in a designated location”, a form of secret incommunicado detention that allowed the police to hold individuals for up to six months outside the formal detention system, without access to legal counsel of their choice, their families or others, and placed suspects at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. This form of detention was used05:01 to curb the activities of human rights defenders, including lawyers, activists and religious practitioners. The government also continued to imprison those trying/ to commemorate peacefully the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 3-4 June 1989 in the capital, Beijing, in which hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters were killed or injured after the People’s Liberation Army opened fire on unarmed civilians. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiabo died in custody in July. In Hong Kong, the repeated use of vague chargesET against prominent pro-democracy movement figures appearedEMBARGOED to be an orchestrated and retaliatory campaignFEBRUARY by the authorities to punish and intimidate those advocating democracy or challenging the authorities. PEOPLE ON THE MOVE In Japan, while asylum applications continued to increase,22 the government reported in February that it had approved 28 out of 10,901 claims in 2016, which was a 44% increase in claims from the previous year. Meanwhile, to address the country’s labour shortage, Japan began to accept the first of 10,000 Vietnamese nationals to be admitted over three years under a labour migration programme 00:01harshly criticized by human rights advocates for facilitating a wide range of abuses. In South Korea, deaths of migrant workers raised concerns about safety in the workplace. North Korean authorities continued to dispatch workers to other countries, including China and Russia, although some countries stopped renewing or issuing additional work visas to North Koreans in order to comply with the new UN sanctions on North Korea’s economic STRICTLYactivities abroad in response to the country’s missile tests. DISCRIMINATION In China, religiousUNTIL repression remained particularly severe in the XUAR and in Tibetan- populated areas. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 37 Discrimination against LGBTI people remained prevalent in public life in South Korea. Gay men faced violence, bullying and verbal abuse during compulsory military service. A serving soldier was convicted of same-sex sexual activity. Although pervasive discrimination based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity continued in Japan, there was some progress in local municipalities. For the first time in the city of Osaka, the authorities approved a same-sex couple as foster parents, and two other municipalities took positive steps towards recognizing same-sex partnerships. A landmark ruling by its highest court saw Taiwan close to becoming the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage, in a major step forward for LGBTI rights. The judges ruled the country’s marriage law unconstitutional as it discriminated against same-sex couples, and gave lawmakers two years to amend or enact relevant laws. A bill on same-sex marriage was being considered by Taiwan’s legislature. DEATH PENALTY China remained the world’s leading executioner, although capital punishment statistics continued to be classified as state secrets. GMT 2018 Taiwan’s Supreme Court rejected the Prosecutor General’s extraordinary appeal for the retrial of the longest-serving death row inmate in Taiwan’s modern history; Chiou Ho-shun, on death row since 1989, claimed that he was tortured and forced to “confess” during police interrogations. In July, Mongolia became the 105th country worldwide to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, yet in November the President proposed its reintroduction to the Ministry of Justice in response to two violent rape and murder cases. SOUTH ASIA 05:01 Across South Asia, governments invoked law and order,/ national security and religion as they engaged in attacks against religious minorities, criminalization of freedom of expression, enforced disappearances, prolific use of the death penalty, and assaults on refugee rights. Impunity was widespread. Freedom of expression was under attack acrossET South Asia. Using vague concepts such as “the national interest” as EMBARGOEDan excuse to silence people, governments FEBRUARY targeted journalists, human rights defenders and others for peacefully expressing their beliefs. A new trend involved criminalizing online freedom of expression. In Pakistan, five bloggers critical of the government were subjected to enforced disappearance. Other bloggers were arrested for comments criticizing the military or allegedly expressing22 remarks deemed “anti- Islamic”. Criticism of the Bangladesh government or the family of the Prime Minister also triggered criminal cases. The government proposed a new Digital Security Act, which would place even greater restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and impose heavier penalties. In Afghanistan, where00:01 internet penetration is among the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region, a new Cyber Crime Law was passed criminalizing freedom of expression. Failures to uphold economic, cultural and social rights had major impacts. As a result of Pakistan failing to bring its laws into line with international standards, the population suffered widespread discrimination, curtailed workers’ rights, and meagre social security. India ratified two ILO core conventions on child labour, but activists remained critical of amendments to the STRICTLYcountry’s child labour laws that allowed children to work in family enterprises. Two years after a massive earthquake shook Nepal, the government was still failing thousands of marginalized earthquake survivors who languished in flimsy temporary shelters. In October, PakistanUNTIL was elected to the UN Human Rights Council, pledging commitment to human rights. Yet it failed to address directly Pakistan’s serious human rights issues, including THURSDAY 38 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 enforced disappearances; the death penalty; blasphemy laws; the use of military courts to try civilians; women’s rights; and threats to the work of human rights defenders. Killings, abductions and other abuses were committed by armed groups in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, among others. Civilian casualties, particularly of religious minorities, continued to be high in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, armed groups targeted Shi’a Muslims, including by bombing a Shi’a mosque in Quetta, killing at least 18 people. Violations around Nepal’s historic local elections included arbitrary arrests and detention, and the security forces opening fire on protesters at an election rally. In the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, security forces killed eight people following protests during a by-election for a parliamentary seat; one voter was beaten by army personnel, strapped to the front of an army jeep and driven around for over five hours, seemingly as a warning to other protesters. The security forces also persisted in their use of inherently inaccurate pellet-firing shotguns during protests – blinding and otherwise injuring several people. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS GMT 2018 In India, the authorities were openly critical of human rights defenders, contributing to a climate of hostility and violence against them. Repressive laws were used to stifle freedom of expression, and journalists and press freedom came under increasing attack. Human rights defenders in Afghanistan faced constant threats to their life and security from armed groups and state actors, and journalists faced violence and censorship. Pakistan authorities failed to protect journalists, bloggers, and civil society and activists who faced constant harassment, intimidation, threats, smear campaigns and attacks from non-state actors. Instead, the authorities increased restrictions on the work of scores of NGOs, and subjected many activists to attacks, including torture and05:01 enforced disappearances. In Bangladesh, the government intensified its crackdown on public debate and criticism. Media workers were harassed and prosecuted under draconian/ laws. The government failed to hold accountable armed groups that carried out a high-profile spate of killings of secular bloggers. Activists regularly received death threats, forcing some to leave the country. In Maldives, restrictions on public debate intensified. The authorities harassed journalists, activists and media outlets. The government wasET apparently behind a relentless assault on the rule of law that compromisedEMBARGOED the judiciary’s independence. FEBRUARY IMPUNITY Impunity was widespread and entrenched across South Asia. However, in Nepal, a district court sentenced three army officers to life imprisonment for22 the murder in 2004 of Maina Sunuwar, a 15-year-old girl; she died after being tortured in army custody during the decade- long armed conflict between Maoists and government forces that ended in 2006. The convictions were an important development in the justice system’s ability to deal with grave conflict-era abuses, and offered00:01 the first sign of justice for victims. In India, the Supreme Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate more than 80 alleged extrajudicial executions by police and security force personnel in the state of Manipur between 1979 and 2012, ruling that cases should not go uninvestigated merely because of the passage of time. STRICTLYENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Enforced disappearances continued in Pakistan; the victims were at considerable risk of torture and other ill-treatment, and even death. No perpetrators were known to have been brought to justiceUNTIL for the hundreds or thousands of cases reported across the country in recent years. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 39 Despite the Sri Lankan government’s 2015 pledge to deliver truth, justice and reparation to victims of the armed conflict in the country, and to deliver reforms to prevent violations, progress was slow. Impunity for enforced disappearances remained. The government stalled on its commitment to repeal the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act that enabled incommunicado and secret detention. However, the parliament passed an amended Office on Missing Persons Act, intended to assist families of the disappeared seek missing relatives. Enforced disappearances were committed in Bangladesh; the victims often belonged to opposition political parties. PEOPLE ON THE MOVE In different parts of South Asia, refugees and migrants were denied their rights. Bangladesh had opened its borders to more than 655,000 members of the Rohingya community fleeing a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. However, if the Rohingya refugees were forced to return to Myanmar, they would be at the mercy of the same military that drove them out and would continue to face the entrenched system of discrimination and segregation amounting to apartheid that made them so vulnerable in the firstGMT place. 2018 The number of internally displaced people in Afghanistan rose to more than 2 million, while about 2.6 million Afghan refugees lived outside the country. DISCRIMINATION Across South Asia, dissenting voices and members of religious minorities were increasingly vulnerable to attacks from mobs. In India, several cases of lynching of Muslims were reported, sparking outrage against the wave of rising Islamophobia under the Hindu nationalist government. Demonstrations against attacks on Muslims were held in several cities, but the government did little to show that it disapproved of the violence.05:01 Indigenous Adivasi communities in India continued to be displaced by industrial projects. In Bangladesh, attacks against religious minorities were/ met with near-indifference by the government. Those who sought help from the authorities after they received threats were often turned away. Sri Lanka saw a rise in Buddhist nationalist sentiment, including attacks against Christians and Muslims. The Maldives government used religionET to cloak its repressive practices, including attacks against EMBARGOEDmembers of the opposition and plans to reintroduceFEBRUARY the death penalty. Marginalized communities in Pakistan faced discrimination in law, policy and practice because of their gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or gender identity. Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which carry a mandatory death penalty for22 “blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad”, remained incompatible with a range of rights. The frequently misused laws were disproportionately applied to religious minorities and others targeted with accusations that were often false and violated international human rights law. A man was sentenced to death for allegedly posting content on Facebook00:01 deemed “blasphemous” – the harshest sentence handed down to date in Pakistan for a cyber crime-related offence. GENDER-BASED DISCRIMINATION Although India’s Supreme Court banned the practice of triple talaq (Islamic instant divorce), other court rulings undermined women’s autonomy. The Supreme Court weakened a law STRICTLYenacted to protect women from violence in marriage. Several rape survivors, including girls, approached the courts for permission to terminate pregnancies over 20 weeks, as required under Indian law; although courts approved some abortions, they refused others. The central government instructedUNTIL states to set up permanent medical boards to decide such cases promptly. THURSDAY 40 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In Pakistan, the rape of a teenage girl ordered by a so-called village council in “revenge” for a rape allegedly committed by her brother was one in a long series of horrific cases. Although people from the council were arrested for ordering the rape, the authorities failed to end impunity for sexual violence and abolish so-called village councils that prescribed crimes of sexual violence as revenge. Pakistan also continued to criminalize same-sex consensual relationships. Violence against women and girls persisted in Afghanistan, where an increase was reported in the number of women publicly punished in the name of Shari’a law by armed groups. DEATH PENALTY Against the backdrop of a worsening political crisis, the authorities in Maldives announced that executions would resume after more than 60 years. None had been carried out by the end of the year. Pakistan had executed hundreds of people since it lifted an informal moratorium on executions in 2014, often with serious additional concerns that those executed were denied the right to a fair trial. In violation of international law, courts imposed the deathGMT penalty on 2018 people with mental disabilities, individuals aged below 18 when the crime was committed, and those whose convictions were based on “confessions” extracted through torture or other ill- treatment. ARMED CONFLICT The situation in Afghanistan continued to deteriorate, with the number of civilian casualties remaining high, a growing internal displacement crisis, and the Taliban controlling more territory than at any point since 2001. Since 2014, tens of thousands of Afghan refugees have been returned against their will from Pakistan, Iran and05:01 EU countries. The Afghanistan government and the international community showed too little concern for the plight of civilians. When crowds protested against violence/ and insecurity following one of the deadliest attacks – a bombing in Kabul on 31 May that claimed the lives of more than 150 people and injured hundreds – the security forces opened fire on the crowds, killing several protesters. In a welcome development, the Prosecutor of ETthe International Criminal Court requested that a preliminary investigationEMBARGOED be opened into crimes alleged to have beenFEBRUARY committed by all parties to the ongoing armed conflict in Afghanistan. The decision was an important step towards ensuring accountability for crimes under international law committed since 2003, and providing truth, justice and reparation for the victims. 22 SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC Many of those taking action to demand respect for human rights and accountability for violations were demonized and00:01 criminalized, leading to shrinking civic space. Police and security forces persecuted human rights defenders. Extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill- treatment, and enforced disappearances persisted with impunity. The Myanmar security forces’ campaign of violence against the Rohingya people in northern Rakhine State, which amounted to crimes against humanity, created a human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country and in neighbouring Bangladesh. STRICTLYLawlessness and violence increased further in the Philippines. The President’s contempt for human rights in the “war on drugs” was characterized by mass killings, mostly of people from poor and marginalized groups, including children. The scope of the killings and rampant impunity led toUNTIL growing calls for an investigation at the international level. The extension of martial law in the island of Mindanao in December led to concerns that military rule could be THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 41 used to justify further human rights abuses. The government attempted to reintroduce the death penalty. In Indonesia, police killings of suspected drug dealers rose sharply. Australia continued to pay lip service to human rights while subjecting asylum-seekers and refugees to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Governments in Southeast Asia and the Pacific failed to uphold economic, social and cultural rights. Villagers in Laos were forced to relocate due to development projects; the right to adequate housing in Cambodia was undermined by land grabbing; and housing conditions for foreign workers in Singapore were criticized as poor by NGOs. National elections were held in Papua New Guinea, amid allegations of corruption and heavy- handed actions by the authorities, including violence and arbitrary arrests. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Human rights defenders, peaceful political activists and religious followers were subjected to violations including arbitrary detention; they faced vaguely worded charges; and they were tried in trials that did not meet internationally defined standards of fairness. GMTPrisoners of 2018 conscience were tortured and otherwise ill-treated. In Cambodia, the government’s relentless crackdown on civil society and political activists intensified ahead of a general election scheduled for 2018. Human rights defenders were monitored, arrested and imprisoned; media outlets were shut; harassment of civil society through misuse of the criminal justice system escalated; and an amendment to existing legislation provided the authorities with additional powers over political parties. The judiciary was used as a political tool to silence dissent, and in a blatant act of political repression the Supreme Court ruled to dissolve the main opposition party ahead of the election. Thailand’s military government continued its systematic suppression05:01 of dissent, preventing people from speaking or assembling peacefully, and criminalizing and targeting civil society. Dozens of human rights defenders, pro-democracy activists/ and others faced investigation and prosecution under draconian laws and decrees, many facing lengthy, unfair proceedings before military courts. An ongoing crackdown on civil and political rights by Malaysia’s government included harassment, detention and prosecution of criticsET through the use of restrictive laws; an increase in open-ended, arbitraryEMBARGOED travel bans that violated human rightsFEBRUARY defenders’ freedom of movement; and the arrest and investigation of Indigenous rights activists and journalists for peacefully demonstrating against abuses. Fiji’s government used restrictive legislation to stifle the media and curtail freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Charges against staff members22 of the Fiji Times were changed to sedition, in a politically motivated move designed to silence one of the country’s few remaining independent media outlets. Amendments to Singapore’s Public Order Act gave the authorities greater powers to restrict or ban public assemblies, and 00:01human rights defenders were investigated by police for taking part in peaceful protests. Charges were brought against lawyers and academics who criticized the judiciary, and restrictions placed on media freedom. In Laos, the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly remained severely curtailed and criminal code provisions were used to imprison peaceful activists. A crackdown on dissent in Viet Nam intensified, forcing numerous activists to flee the STRICTLYcountry. Erosion of the space for a free press increased in Myanmar, where journalists and other media workers faced intimidation and at times arrest, detention and prosecution in connection with their work.UNTIL THURSDAY 42 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 IMPUNITY Impunity for deaths in custody and unnecessary or excessive use of force and firearms persisted in Malaysia. There were several deaths in custody, including that of S. Balamurugan who was reportedly beaten by police during interrogation. In Indonesia’s Papua province there was a lack of accountability for unnecessary or excessive use of force during mass protests or other security operations. Fiji’s government failed to ensure accountability for torture and other ill-treatment of detainees by the security forces. In Timor-Leste, victims of serious human rights violations committed during the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999) continued to demand justice and reparations. MYANMAR’S CAMPAIGN OF VIOLENCE AGAINST THE ROHINGYA The security forces launched a targeted campaign of ethnic cleansing, including unlawful killings, rape and burning of villages – amounting to crimes against humanity – against the Rohingya people in northern Rakhine State. The atrocities – an unlawful and disproportionate response to attacks on security posts by an armed Rohingya group in August – created the worst refugee crisis in decades in Southeast Asia. Severe restrictions imposedGMT by Myanmar on 2018 aid groups working in Rakhine State worsened the suffering. More than 655,000 Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh. By the end of the year, nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees were scattered across Bangladesh's Cox’s Bazar District, including those who had fled earlier waves of violence. Those who remained in Myanmar continued to live under a regime amounting to apartheid in which their rights, including to equality before the law and freedom of movement, as well as access to health, education and work, were severely restricted. The Myanmar security forces were primarily responsible for the violence against the Rohingya. However, the civilian administration led by Aung 05:01San Suu Kyi failed to speak out or intervene. Instead it maligned humanitarian workers, accusing them of aiding “terrorists” while denying the violations. / Despite mounting evidence of atrocities in Myanmar, the international community, including the UN Security Council, failed to take effective action or send a clear message that there would be accountability for the military’s crimesET against humanity. PEOPLE ON THE MOVEEMBARGOED FEBRUARY Australia maintained its hardline policies of confining hundreds of people seeking asylum in offshore processing centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, and turning back those attempting to reach Australia by boat – failing in its international obligation to protect them. Refugees and asylum-seekers remained trapped on Nauru,22 forcibly sent there by the Australian government – most more than four years previously – despite widespread reports of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Several hundred people living in the offshore processing facility, including dozens of children, faced humiliation, abuse, neglect and poor physical and mental health care.00:01 More than 800 others living in the community faced serious security risks as well as inadequate access to health care, education and employment opportunities. The Australian government withdrew services from its facility on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea at the end of October in order to force refugees to move closer to town where refugees and asylum-seekers had well-founded fears for their safety. Refugees were forcibly moved to STRICTLYnew but unfinished facilities in November. They continued to face challenges with inadequate health care, violence in the community and no clear plans for their future. Fiji forcibly returned people to countries where they might be at risk of serious violations. Cambodia rejectedUNTIL 29 applications for refugee status by Montagnard asylum-seekers, forcibly returning them to Viet Nam where they faced possible persecution. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 43 DISCRIMINATION Australia’s justice system continued to fail Indigenous people, especially children – with high rates of incarceration and reports of abuse and deaths in custody. Ill-treatment of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory, including tear gassing, choking, restraints and solitary confinement, was exposed by leaked footage. LGBTI people suffered discrimination in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. Reports of hate speech against members of Australia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning (LGBTIQ) community increased, despite newly introduced penalties. In Indonesia’s Aceh province two men were publicly caned 83 times each for consensual same-sex sexual activity. Numerous women defending human rights faced harassment, threats, imprisonment and violence. Papua New Guinea remained one of the world’s most dangerous countries to be a woman, with increased reports of violence against women or girls, sometimes following sorcery accusations. There were convictions under Indonesia’s blasphemy laws of people belongingGMT to minority 2018 religious communities who had been peacefully practising their beliefs. The Australian Parliament passed legislation to create marriage equality in December. The postal survey process chosen by the government failed to acknowledge that marriage equality is a human right and generated divisive and damaging public debate. DEATH PENALTY At least four executions took place in Malaysia. In Singapore execution by hanging continued to be carried out for murder and drug trafficking; among those executed was Malaysian national Prabagaran Srivijayan whose execution was carried05:01 out despite an appeal pending in Malaysia. / ARMED CONFLICT Although receiving less international attention than the situation in Rakhine State, there were similar patterns of violations by Myanmar’s military in northern Myanmar. War crimes and human rights violations were committed againstET civilians in Kachin and northern Shan States, including extrajudicial executions,EMBARGOED enforced disappearances, torture,FEBRUARY indiscriminate shelling, forced labour, and restrictions on humanitarian access. Ethnic armed groups committed abuses including abductions and forced recruitment. Both the army and armed groups used landmine-like weapons that harmed civilians. In the Philippines, a five-month battle in Marawi between22 the military and an alliance of militants aligned with the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS), caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, dozens of civilian deaths, and widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure. The militants targeted Christian civilians for extrajudicial killings and mass hostage-taking,00:01 and the armed forces detained and ill-treated fleeing civilians. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY Communities living close to the giant Letpadaung copper mine in Myanmar continued to call for a halt to its operations. Thousands of families living near the mine were at risk of being STRICTLYforcibly evicted from their homes or farmland, and the authorities used repressive laws to harass activists and villagers. In Indonesia there was labour exploitation on plantations owned by suppliers and subsidiaries of Wilmar International,UNTIL the world’s largest palm oil trader. Abuses included women being forced to work long hours under threat of having their already meagre pay cut, children as THURSDAY 44 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 young as eight doing hazardous physical work, and workers injured by toxic chemicals. Wilmar International’s subsequent campaign to cover up the abuses, including by intimidating staff into denying the allegations, was aided by the Indonesian government’s failure to investigate claims against the company.

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STRICTLY UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 45 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA REGIONAL OVERVIEW

The space for civil society continued to shrink across Europe and Central Asia region. In Eastern Europe and in Central Asia, a discourse hostile to human rights remained prevalent. Human rights defenders, activists, the media and political opposition were frequently targeted by authorities. Across the region, the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of opinion and expression came under attack. Public protests were met with a range of restrictive measures and excessive use of force by police. Governments continued to implement a range of counter-terrorism measures disproportionately restricting people’s rights in the name of security. Millions of people faced an erosion of their economic, social and cultural rights, which led to diminished social protection, increased inequality and systemic discrimination.GMT States 2018 repeatedly failed to meet their protection responsibilities towards refugees and migrants. Women and girls continued to experience systemic human rights violations and abuses, including torture and other ill-treatment, and faced widespread gender-based violence. Discrimination and stigmatization of minorities remained common with groups facing harassment and violence. Some prisoners of conscience were released. In 2017, for the first time in Amnesty International’s almost 60 years of existence, both the chair and director of an Amnesty International section became prisoners of conscience themselves. In June, Taner Kılıç, Chair of Amnesty International Turkey, was arrested. In July, 10 other human rights defenders, known as the “Istanbul 10”,05:01 including Idil Eser, Director of Amnesty International Turkey, were detained while attending a routine workshop in Istanbul. The Istanbul 10 and Taner Kılıç were later put on trial for/ terrorism-related offences, their arrests falling into a broader pattern of repression against civil society following the failed coup attempt of July 2016. By the end of the year, the Istanbul 10 had been released pending trial, but Taner Kılıç remained in detention. Although the prosecutor failed to provide any incriminating evidence against them, they remainedET at serious risk, facing an ongoing trial on absurd charges carrying upEMBARGOED to 15 years’ imprisonment. FEBRUARY The crackdown on dissenting voices in Turkey was part of a broader trend of shrinking space for civil society across Europe and Central Asia. Human rights defenders faced huge challenges, and the rights to freedom of association and assembly in particular came under attack. 22 In the east, a discourse hostile to human rights remained prevalent, frequently leading to the repression of human rights defenders, political opposition, protest movements, anti-corruption campaigners and sexual minorities. This hostile discourse also inched westward and found its first legislative expression in Hungary00:01 with the adoption of a law effectively stigmatizing NGOs that received foreign funding. Violent attacks caused deaths and injuries, including in Barcelona, Brussels, London, Manchester, Paris, Stockholm, St Petersburg and multiple locations across Turkey. In response, governments continued to implement a range of counter-terrorism measures disproportionately restricting people’s rights in the name of security. STRICTLYMillions of people faced an erosion of their economic, social and cultural rights. This led to diminished social protection, exacerbated inequality and systemic discrimination in many countries. ThoseUNTIL most affected by higher levels of poverty included women, children, young or THURSDAY 46 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 low-paid workers, people with disabilities, migrants and asylum-seekers, ethnic minorities, and retired and single people. Across the region, governments repeatedly failed to meet their responsibilities towards refugees and migrants. The number of irregular arrivals of refugees and migrants in the EU dropped significantly in the second half of the year, largely as a result of co-operation agreements with Libyan authorities that turned a blind eye and even contributed to the abuses faced by those trapped in the country. Those who did make it to the EU faced an increased risk of forcible return to countries such as Afghanistan, where their life or liberty were at risk. At the UN Security Council, Russia used its veto for the ninth time to shield the Syrian government from the consequences of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Russia’s routine use of its veto had become the equivalent of acquiescence in war crimes, allowing all parties in Syria’s conflict to act with impunity, with civilians paying the ultimate price. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Across Eastern Europe and across Central Asia, civil society faced a range ofGMT harassment and 2018 restrictions. Dozens of individuals were jailed for their peaceful activism and became prisoners of conscience in Belarus and Russia, amid ongoing legislative restrictions on media, NGOs and public assemblies. The deterioration of the respect for freedom of opinion and expression in Tajikistan became further entrenched with the authorities imposing sweeping restrictions to silence critical voices. The police and security services intimidated and harassed journalists. Human rights lawyers endured arbitrary arrests, politically motivated prosecutions, harsh prison sentences and harassment. In Kazakhstan, journalists and activists faced politically motivated05:01 prosecutions and attacks. Having all but strangled independent media already, the authorities used increasingly elaborate and aggressive methods to stamp out dissenting/ voices on the internet and social media. A targeted cyber campaign was being waged against critical voices in Azerbaijan. The Uzbekistani government used unlawful surveillance on its citizens at home and abroad – reinforcing a hostile environment for journalists and activists, and fostering a climate of fear for Uzbekistani nationals in Europe. Human rights ETdefenders and journalists continued to be summoned for questioningEMBARGOED at police stations, placed under house FEBRUARYarrest and beaten by the authorities. In Crimea, the de facto authorities continued to suppress dissenting opinion. Leaders of the Crimean Tatar community who spoke out against the Russian occupation and illegal annexation of the peninsula faced exile or prison. 22 Turkey continued to detain tens of thousands of perceived government critics in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt. Criticism of the government largely disappeared from mainstream media. More than 100 journalists languished in jail – more than in any other country – many for months on 00:01end, on spurious charges. The primary positive developments in Eastern Europe and in Central Asia involved releases of prisoners of conscience and other long-term prisoners, notably in Uzbekistan. In Azerbaijan, some prisoners of conscience were released; however, new ones took their places in the never- ending policy of repression. In Russia, prisoner of conscience Ildar Dadin – the first and so far only person imprisoned under a recent law criminalizing repeated violation of Russia’s STRICTLYdraconian restrictions on public assembly – was released and cleared of conviction following a Constitutional Court ruling. UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 47 RESTRICTIVE LAWS Across Europe and Central Asia, restrictive laws were passed. Drawing inspiration from similar legislation adopted in Russia in 2012, Hungary adopted a law on the transparency of organizations funded from abroad, which forced NGOs receiving more than EUR24,000 direct or indirect funding from abroad to re-register as a “civic organization funded from abroad” and to put this label on every publication. The move was accompanied by highly stigmatizing government rhetoric. Similar legislation was tabled in Ukraine and in Moldova, but was withdrawn in Moldova due to objections from civil society and international organizations. In November, there were protests throughout Poland when MPs voted on two legislative amendments threatening the independence of the judiciary and placing the right to a fair trial and other rights at risk. President Andrzej Duda vetoed the amendments in July, but subsequently redrafted and submitted them to Parliament in September. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY GMT 2018 In Eastern Europe and in Central Asia, the authorities clamped down on peaceful protesters. In Russia, during mass anti-corruption protests across the country in March, police used excessive force and arrested hundreds of overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators in the capital, Moscow, and well over a thousand across the country, including opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. Hundreds of people were again detained and ill-treated during anti-corruption protests across the country in June, and on 7 October, President Vladimir Putin’s birthday. In Kazakhstan, organizing or participating in a peaceful demonstration without the authorities’ prior authorization remained an offence. Police in Kyrgyzstan disrupted a peaceful demonstration in the capital, Bishkek, organized to protest 05:01against deterioration of freedom of expression, and arrested several participants. The Belarusian authorities violently suppressed mass demonstrations against a tax on the unemployed./ A discriminatory amendment to a law in Poland led to bans of certain demonstrations and favoured pro-government assemblies. People participating in demonstrations against the government policies were prosecuted, harassed by law enforcement officials and political opponents, and prevented from exercising theirET right to freedom of peaceful assembly. In several countries of WesternEMBARGOED Europe, public protests were met FEBRUARYwith a range of restrictive measures and abuses. In Germany, France, Poland and Spain, governments’ response to public assemblies against restrictive policies or human rights abuses included sealing off public spaces, excessive use of force by police, containment of peaceful protesters or “kettling”, surveillance, and threats of administrative and criminal22 sanctions. France’s government continued to resort to emergency measures to ban public assemblies and to restrict freedom of movement to prevent individuals from participating in demonstrations. In October, Spanish security forces that were ordered to prevent the holding of the Catalan independence referendum used00:01 unnecessary and disproportionate force against demonstrators, injuring hundreds of them. This included evidence of police beating peaceful demonstrators. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY STRICTLYIn Western Europe, a raft of disproportionate and discriminatory counter-terrorism laws continued to be rushed through. The adoption of the EU Directive on Combating Terrorism in March looked set to lead to a proliferation of such measures in 2018, as states were to transpose the UNTILDirective into domestic law. THURSDAY 48 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Broad definitions of terrorism in the law, and the misapplication of counter-terrorism laws to a wide group of people – human rights defenders, environmental activists, refugees, migrants, and journalists – continued, notably in Turkey but also throughout Western Europe. Vague laws punishing “glorification” or “apology” of terrorism were used to prosecute activists and civil society groups for opinions expressed on the internet and social media, including in France, Spain and the UK. France’s state of emergency ended in November, having lasted almost two years. In October, France adopted a new counter-terrorism law embedding in ordinary law many of the measures permitted under the emergency regime. Instead of investigating and prosecuting suspected perpetrators of violent attacks, many states implemented administrative control measures limiting everyone’s rights and often applied these based on vague grounds, often connected to religious belief or associations. Detention without charge or trial was proposed in several countries, including France, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and introduced in Bavaria, Germany. Many EU member states also attempted to draw links between the refugee crisis and terrorism-related threats. Although a Hungarian court’s conviction on spuriousGMT terrorism 2018 charges of “Ahmed H”, a Syrian resident in Cyprus, was annulled, Ahmed H remained in detention while his new trial unfolded. The trial was ongoing at the end of the year. He had been convicted of an “act of terror” for throwing stones and speaking to a crowd through a megaphone during clashes with border police. A number of states in Europe and in Central Asia intensified their focus on online activity as a perceived potential driver for terrorism-related or “extremist” activity. The UK proposed criminalizing repeated viewing of “terrorism-related” content online with a maximum 15-year prison sentence. Similar measures already existed, and were deemed unconstitutional, in France. 05:01 In Eastern Europe and in Central Asia, government responses to the real and perceived threats posed by terrorism and extremism followed an all-too-familiar/ pattern. Extraditions and renditions of suspects to destinations where they were at risk of torture and other ill-treatment were frequent and swift, individuals being forcibly returned, in contravention of international law. In Russia’s North Caucasus, enforced disappearances, unlawful detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, and extrajudicialET executions were reported in the context of security operations. In Russia-occupiedEMBARGOED Crimea, the de facto authoritiesFEBRUARY pursued all forms of dissent and continued to arbitrarily target the Crimean Tatar community under anti-extremism and counter-terrorism legislation. REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS 22 During 2017, 171,332 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe by sea, compared to 362,753 in 2016. The decrease was mainly due to EU states’ co-operation with Libya and Turkey. At least 3,119 people died attempting00:01 to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. EU states intensified their efforts to prevent irregular entry and increased returns, including through policies that exposed migrants and those in need of protection to ill-treatment, torture and other abuses in countries of transit and origin. By using aid, trade and other leverage, European governments encouraged and supported transit countries – even those where widespread and systematic violations against refugees STRICTLYand migrants were documented – to implement stricter border control measures, without adequate human rights guarantees. This trapped thousands of refugees and migrants in countries where they lacked adequate protection and where they were exposed to serious human rights UNTILviolations. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 49 NGOs, which performed more rescues in the central Mediterranean in the first half of 2017 than any others, were discredited and attacked by public commentators and politicians, and faced restrictions on their activities by a new code of conduct imposed by the Italian authorities. Russia continued to return asylum-seekers and refugees to countries where they were at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, as did other countries in Europe and Central Asia. EUROPEAN COLLABORATION WITH LIBYA With most refugees and migrants crossing the sea into Europe embarking from Libya, the EU and European governments, with Italy at the forefront, sought to close down this route by co- operating with the Libyan coastguard and other actors in the country. They entered into a string of co-operation agreements with Libyan authorities responsible for grave human rights violations, in particular the Libyan Coast Guard and Libya’s General Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM). Italy and other governments failed to include key human rights guarantees in these agreements and turned a blind eye to the abuses, including torture and extortion,GMT against 2018 refugees and migrants by the very institutions they were co-operating with. The actions of European countries were leading to increasing numbers of people being stopped or intercepted. In so doing, European governments, and Italy in particular, were breaching their own international obligations and becoming complicit in the violations committed by the Libyan authorities they were sponsoring and co-operating with. EU-TURKEY MIGRATION DEAL, CONDITIONS IN GREECE The March 2016 EU-Turkey migration deal remained in place and continued to restrict access to territory and asylum in the EU. The deal aimed at returning05:01 asylum-seekers to Turkey, on the pretence of it being a “safe country” of transit. European leaders maintained the fiction that Turkey provided protection equivalent to that of the/ EU, even though Turkey had become even more unsafe for refugees since the 2016 coup attempt. The removal of procedural safeguards under Turkey’s state of emergency put refugees there at heightened risk of refoulement, the forcible return to countries where they were at risk of facing serious human rights violations. ET Throughout 2017, the dealEMBARGOED left thousands exposed to overcrowded, FEBRUARY squalid and unsafe conditions on Greek islands that were transformed into de facto holding pens and condemned them to extended asylum procedures. Some suffered violent hate crimes. Compared to 2016, arrivals on the Greek islands dropped sharply, mainly due to the deal,but a relative increase in arrivals during the summer stretched the islands’ already insufficient22 reception capacity once again. In December, around 13,000 asylum-seekers remained in limbo, stranded on the islands. Reception conditions both on the islands and in mainland Greece, meanwhile, continued to be inadequate, with many still forced00:01 to sleep in tents unfit for winter and women and girls particularly vulnerable in unsafe camp facilities. In September, Greece’s highest administrative court paved the way for forcible returns of Syrian asylum-seekers under the EU-Turkey migration deal by endorsing decisions by the Greek asylum authorities that deemed Turkey safe for two Syrian nationals. STRICTLYRELOCATION SCHEMES Solidarity with frontline countries receiving the majority of arrivals continued to be in short supply. European countries failed to relocate their committed numbers of asylum-seekers from Greece and ItalyUNTIL under the emergency relocation scheme adopted in September 2015. As of November, European states had fulfilled just 32% of their legal commitment. At the end of THURSDAY 50 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 2017, 21,703 asylum-seekers out of 66,400 had been relocated from Greece, and 11,464 out of around 35,000 from Italy. Among the worst offenders were Poland and Hungary, both having refused to accept a single asylum-seeker from Italy and Greece by the year’s end. The European Court of Justice rejected Slovakia’s and Hungary’s complaint against the mandatory refugee relocation scheme. The European Commission also opened infringement proceedings against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for failing to comply with their relocation obligations. CURTAILING ACCESS TO ASYLUM AND PUSHBACKS Hungary reached a new low by passing legislation allowing pushbacks of all people found in an irregular situation in the country and by introducing the automatic detention of asylum- seekers, in blatant breach of EU law. The authorities locked up in containers asylum-seekers arriving at its borders. Hungary’s systematic flouting of the rights of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants also included severely restricting access by limiting admission to two operational border “transit zones” in which only 10 new asylum applications could be submittedGMT each 2018 working day. This left thousands of people in substandard camps in Serbia, at risk of homelessness and forcible return further south to Macedonia and Bulgaria. Abuses and pushbacks continued at the EU external borders, from Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, and Poland. Poland’s government proposed legislation to legalize pushbacks, a regular practice at a crossing between Poland and Belarus. In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Spain for breaching the prohibition of collective expulsions and for violating the right to an effective remedy in the case of two migrants who were summarily returned from the Spanish enclave of Melilla to Morocco. Slovenia adopted legislative amendments under which it could05:01 deny entry to people arriving at its borders and automatically expel migrants and refugees who entered irregularly, without assessing their asylum claims. / FORCED RETURNS EU member states also continued to put pressure on other governments to accept readmissions – in some cases without includingET adequate guarantees against refoulement. At a time when civilian casualtiesEMBARGOED in Afghanistan were at some of FEBRUARYtheir highest levels on record, European governments forced increasing numbers of Afghan asylum-seekers back to the dangers from which they fled in Afghanistan. Forced returns to Afghanistan were made from countries including Austria, the Netherlands and Norway.22 IMPUNITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA 00:01 The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia delivered its final judgment on 29 November 2017, bringing to a close its largely successful 23-year effort to hold perpetrators of war crimes to account. Also in November, it sentenced Bosnian Serb war leader Ratko Mladić to life imprisonment for crimes under international law, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. STRICTLYAt the national level, with the exception of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which some modest progress was made, impunity remained the norm, with courts continuing to have limited capacity and resources, and facing undue political pressure. Prosecutors across the region lacked the supportUNTIL of the executive and their work was compromised by a climate of nationalist rhetoric and lack of political commitment to sustained regional co-operation. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 51 By the end of the year, the authorities had made no progress in establishing the fate of over 11,500 people disappeared during the armed conflicts in the Balkans. Victims of enforced disappearance and their families continued to be denied access to justice, truth and reparation. Nominal improvements in the laws regulating reparation for victims of wartime sexual violence continued to be made in several countries. DISCRIMINATION THE “TRADITIONAL VALUES” PRETENCE IN EASTERN EUROPE AND IN CENTRAL ASIA Governments across Eastern Europe and across Central Asia continued to prop up repression and discrimination by promoting and increasingly invoking the rhetoric of a discriminatory interpretation of so-called “traditional values”. The “traditional values” referred to were selective xenophobic, misogynistic and homophobic interpretations of cultural values. In Tajikistan, this discourse and its application was used to punish LGBTI communitiesGMT for 2018 “amoral” behaviours and enforce “norms” for dress code, language and religion primarily against women and religious minorities, including through new legislation. In Kazakhstan and Russia, there was an increasing number of criminal prosecutions and other harassment of religious minorities, on arbitrary grounds, under “anti-extremism” legislation. The said interpretation assertion of “traditional values” reached a terrifying dimension with the secret torture and killing of gay men in Chechnya by authorities. WOMEN’S RIGHTS 05:01 Following sexual harassment allegations against US Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and others in the show business industry, millions of women/ worldwide used the online hashtag #MeToo to break the silence about their experiences as survivors of sexual violence. This became a rallying cry for challenging victim blaming and holding offenders to account. The year also saw the women’s and feminist movements mobilizing thousands – including during January’s Women’s Marches across Europe, andET Black Monday protests in Poland that successfully pushed the governmentEMBARGOED not to further restrict access toFEBRUARY safe and legal abortion. Yet, throughout Europe and Central Asia, women and girls continued to experience systemic human rights violations and abuses, including torture and other ill-treatment, denial of the right to health and bodily autonomy, inequality of opportunity, and widespread gender-based violence. 22 Access to abortion remained criminalized in most circumstances in Ireland and Northern Ireland and severely restricted in practice. In Poland, there were systemic barriers in accessing safe and legal abortion. Abortion remained criminalized in all circumstances in Malta. The EU and Moldova signed the00:01 Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). It was ratified by Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Norway and Switzerland – bringing to 28 the number of states to have done so. Ukraine signed it in 2011 but failed to ratify the Convention. Despite increasingly strong legislative protections, gender-based violence against women remained pervasive, including in Albania, Croatia and Romania. In Russia, under the cover of STRICTLYthe so-called “traditional values” narrative, and encountering little public criticism, the Parliament adopted legislation decriminalizing some forms of domestic violence which President Putin signed into law. In Norway and Sweden, gender-based violence, including sexualUNTIL violence, remained a serious problem with inadequate state response. THURSDAY 52 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 MINORITY RIGHTS Discrimination and stigmatization of minorities remained pervasive across Europe and Central Asia with several groups facing harassment, violence, and obstacles to meaningful participation in society. Discrimination against Roma remained widespread in Slovakia. The European Commission continued an infringement procedure against Slovakia and Hungary for systematic discrimination and segregation of Roma children in schools. Segregated camps, discrimination in access to social housing and forced evictions remained a daily reality for thousands of the 170,000 Roma estimated to be living across Italy, around 40,000 of them in camps in squalid conditions. The European Commission still failed to take effective action towards ending discrimination against Roma. Muslims faced discrimination, particularly when looking for work, at work, and when accessing public or private services such as education and health care. In Austria, a new law banned any kind of full-face covering in public spaces, disproportionately restricting the rights to freedom of expression and of religionGMT or belief. 2018 Tajikistan’s authorities forced thousands of women to remove their Islamic headscarves (hijabs) in public places to comply with the law on traditions. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE LGBTI people faced growing abuse and discrimination across the east, including violence, arbitrary arrests and detention. In Azerbaijan, over 100 LGBTI05:01 people were arbitrarily arrested on one day in the capital Baku. In Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, consensual sex among men remained a crime punishable by prison. Georgia’s new /Constitution restricted the definition of marriage to exclude same-sex couples. Lithuania’s Parliament adopted legislation discriminating against LGBTI people. In Russia, the “gay propaganda law” continued to be used, despite being ruled discriminatory by the European Court of Human Rights. Reports emerged in April that the Chechen authoritiesET were secretly and arbitrarily detaining, torturing and killing gay men.EMBARGOED In response to the international outcry,FEBRUARY the authorities claimed that gay men did not exist in Chechnya, while the federal authorities failed to carry out an effective investigation. There were also positive developments and examples of human courage and solidarity. The Russian LGBT Network organized a hotline and facilitated 22the evacuation to safety of LGBTI people from Chechnya and elsewhere in the North Caucasus. The biggest-ever Pride rally in Ukraine was held. Malta’s parliament approved same-sex marriage legislation and extended full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Germany granted marriage rights to all, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation,00:01 and equal rights to adoption for married people. TRANSGENDER PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WITH VARIATIONS OF SEX CHARACTERISTICS Transgender people in Europe and Central Asia faced hurdles seeking legal recognition of their gender identity. Children and adults with variations in sex characteristics continued to face human rights violations, perpetrated in the course of non-emergency, invasive and irreversible STRICTLYmedical interventions which often had harmful consequences on physical and psychological health, especially for children. In 18 European countries, transgender people were required to undergo sterilization, and in 35 countries they had to receive a mental health diagnosis in order to changeUNTIL their gender. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 53 There was progress in Belgium and Greece; they were the latest European countries to abolish sterilization and mental health diagnosis requirements, although legal gender recognition reforms in both countries still fell short of establishing a quick, transparent and accessible administrative procedure.

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Journalists and human rights defenders were targeted in government crackdowns, and online expression was heavily controlled in several countries. Civil society activists managed to halt further tightening of restrictions on free expression in some places. Freedom of religion and belief came under attack from armed groups and governments alike. The struggle of women’s rights movements successfully led to the amendment of laws that had entrenched discrimination and violence against women in some countries. However, systematic discrimination remained in law and practice across the region and women were still inadequately protected against gender-based violence. Authorities arrested and prosecuted people for their real or perceived sexual orientation in some countries, and consensual same-sex sexual relations were still criminalizedGMT in many, in a 2018 handful of cases punishable by death. There were severe restrictions on trade unions in some countries, and migrant workers continued to face exploitation and abuse. However, reforms in a couple of countries gave migrant workers greater employment protections. Armed conflicts took a heavy toll on beleaguered civilians and were characterized by serious violations, including the use of banned weapons, unlawful sieges, and direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Death sentences were imposed in a number of countries across the region, and hundreds of executions were carried out. Impunity persisted for historical and recent crimes; however, some progress was made towards securing truth and justice for victims. 05:01 / FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY Governments across the Middle East and NorthET Africa repressed civil society both offline and online in an attempt to preventEMBARGOED or punish reporting on human rightsFEBRUARY violations or other criticism directed at them or their allies, often on the pretext that they were combating threats to national security or corruption. They also used excessive force in an attempt to quell protest movements that had taken to the streets. 22 CRACKDOWNS IN EGYPT AND SAUDI ARABIA In some countries, increased clampdowns accompanied a global trend that saw political strongmen attempting to establish their credentials in the eyes of the international community. In President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s00:01 Egypt, the authorities continued to curb the work of human rights defenders in an unprecedented manner, shutting down or freezing the assets of NGOs; they enacted a draconian new law that gave them broad powers to dissolve NGOs and provided for five years’ imprisonment for publishing research without government permission. The Egyptian authorities also sentenced at least 15 journalists to prison terms on charges related solely to their writing, including publication of what the authorities deemed “false STRICTLYinformation”; they blocked more than 400 websites, including those of independent newspapers and human rights organizations. Meanwhile, security forces arrested hundreds of individuals based on their membership or perceived membership of the Muslim Brotherhood. To punish politicalUNTIL dissidents, the authorities used prolonged pre-trial detention, often for THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 55 periods of more than two years, placed those imprisoned in indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement, and subjected many of those released to probation periods in which they were forced to spend up to 12 hours per day in a police station, amounting to arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Saudi Arabia witnessed the promotion of Mohammed bin Salman to the role of Crown Prince in June as part of a broader re-engineering of the political landscape. In the months that followed, the authorities intensified their crackdown on freedom of expression, detaining more than 20 prominent religious figures, writers, journalists, academics and activists in one week in September. They also put human rights defenders on trial on charges related to their peaceful activism before the Specialized Criminal Court, a tribunal set up to try terrorism-related cases. At the end of the year, despite the image the palace wished to portray of a more tolerant country, the majority of Saudi Arabia’s human rights defenders were either in prison or facing grossly unfair trials. ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Elsewhere, human rights advocacy and journalistic reporting, as well as criticismGMT of official 2018 institutions, led to prosecution and imprisonment and, in some cases, smear campaigns orchestrated by the government or its supporters. In Iran, the authorities jailed scores of peaceful critics including women’s rights activists, minority rights and environmental activists, trade unionists, lawyers, and those seeking truth, justice and reparation for the mass executions of the 1980s. In Bahrain, the government arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and government critics and subjected others to travel bans or the stripping of their nationality, dissolved the independent al-Wasat newspaper and the opposition political group Waad, maintained a ban on demonstrations in the capital, Manama, and used unnecessary05:01 and excessive force to disperse protests elsewhere. In Morocco and Western Sahara, the authorities prosecuted/ and imprisoned a number of journalists, bloggers and activists who criticized officials or reported on human rights violations, corruption or popular protests, such as those that took place in the northern Rif region, where security forces conducted mass arrests of largely peaceful protesters, including children, and sometimes used excessive or unnecessary force.ET The Kuwaiti authorities imprisonedEMBARGOED several government critics andFEBRUARY online activists under legal provisions that criminalized comments deemed offensive to the Emir or damaging to relations with neighbouring states. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, a number of journalists and online activists were subjected to arbitrary arrest, death threats and smear campaigns, a pattern22 that escalated in the run-up to an independence referendum in September called by the region’s president. In Yemen, the Huthi armed group arbitrarily arrested and detained critics, journalists and human rights defenders in the capital, Sana’a, and other areas they controlled. Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities00:01 banned entry into Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories to individuals supporting or working for organizations that had issued or promoted a statement which the authorities deemed to be a call to boycott Israel or Israeli entities, including settlements, targeted both Palestinian and Israeli human rights NGOs through harassment and campaigns to undermine their work, and deployed forces that used rubber- coated metal bullets and live ammunition against Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and STRICTLYGaza Strip, killing at least 20 and injuring thousands. ONLINE REPRESSION Governments UNTILother than Egypt also made efforts to increase their control of expression on the internet. The State of Palestine adopted the Electronic Crimes Law in July, permitting the THURSDAY 56 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 arbitrary detention of journalists, whistle-blowers and others who criticize the authorities online. The law allowed for prison sentences and up to 25 years’ hard labour for anyone deemed to have disturbed “public order”, “national unity” or “social peace”. Several Palestinian journalists and human rights defenders were charged under the law. Jordan continued to block access to certain websites, including online forums. Oman blocked the online publication of Mowaten newspaper, and the effect of trials against Azamn newspaper and some of its journalists continued to reverberate following its publication in 2016 of allegations of corruption in the government and the judiciary. In Iran, judicial officials attempted to block the popular messaging application Telegram, but failed because of opposition from the government; other popular social media websites including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were still blocked. GULF POLITICAL CRISIS The political crisis in the Gulf triggered in June, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed relations with Qatar and accused it of financing and harbouring terrorists and interfering in the domestic affairs of its neighbours,GMT had an impact 2018 beyond the paralysis of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced that they would treat criticism of the measures taken against Qatar, or sympathy with Qatar or its people, as a criminal offence, punishable by a prison term. CIVIL SOCIETY FIGHT-BACK Civil society did, however, make significant efforts to stem the tide of measures attempting to restrict freedom of expression. In Tunisia, activists put the brakes on a new bill that could bolster impunity for security forces by criminalizing criticism of police conduct and granting officers immunity from prosecution for unnecessary use of 05:01lethal force. In Palestine, the authorities agreed to amend the Electronic Crimes Law following huge pressure from civil society. / FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND ETBELIEF ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPSEMBARGOED FEBRUARY Armed groups targeted religious minorities in several countries. The armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) and other armed groups killed and injured scores of civilians across Iraq and Syria in suicide bombings and other deadly attacks that targeted Shi’a religious shrines and other public spaces in predominantly Shi’a neighbourhoods.22 The UN reported in January that nearly 2,000 Yazidi women and children remained in IS captivity in Iraq and Syria. They were enslaved and subjected to rape, beatings and other torture. In Egypt, IS claimed responsibility for the bombing of two churches which left at least 44 dead in April, and unidentified militants launched a bomb and gun attack00:01 at a mosque in North Sinai during Friday prayers in November, killing more than 300 Sufi Muslim worshippers – the deadliest attack by an armed group in Egypt since 2011. In Yemen, the Huthis and their allies subjected members of the Baha’i community to arbitrary arrest and detention. STRICTLYRESTRICTIONS BY GOVERNMENTS In Algeria, the authorities were engaged in a new clampdown against the Ahmadi religious movement; during the year more than 280 Ahmadis were prosecuted because of their religious beliefsUNTIL and practices. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 57 Elsewhere, government restrictions followed a familiar pattern. In Saudi Arabia, the authorities discriminated against members of the Shi’a Muslim minority because of their faith, limiting their right to religious expression and their access to justice, and arbitrarily restricting their right to work and access to state services. Shi’a activists continued to face arrest, imprisonment and – in some cases – the death penalty following unfair trials. In Iran, freedom of religion and belief was systematically violated, in law and practice. Widespread and systematic attacks continued to be carried out against the Baha’i religious minority. These included arbitrary arrests, lengthy imprisonment, torture and other ill- treatment, forcible closure of Baha’i-owned businesses, confiscation of Baha’i properties, bans on employment in the public sector and denial of access to universities. Other religious minorities not recognized under the Constitution, such as Yaresan (Ahl-e Haq), also faced systematic discrimination, including in education and employment, and were persecuted for practising their faith. The right to change or renounce religious beliefs continued to be violated. A number of Christian converts received prison sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years. 2018 WOMEN’S RIGHTS GMT Long-term struggles by women’s rights movements resulted in some positive developments during the year. Laws were amended in Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia to stop rapists escaping prosecution (or benefiting from reduced penalties) if they married their victim. However, legislation in many other countries retained such a loophole. Jordan also struck out a provision that allowed reduced sentences for men found guilty of killing a female relative in a “fit of rage caused by an unlawful or dangerous act on the part of the victim”, but kept one that granted leniency for “honour” killings of female relatives found in an “adulterous05:01 situation”. Tunisia’s parliament adopted the Law on Eliminating Violence against Women, which brought in several guarantees for the protection of women and girls from gender-based/ violence, and its president repealed a decree prohibiting marriage between a Tunisian woman and a non-Muslim man. In Qatar, a draft law was approved to provide permanent residency rights for the children of Qatari women married to non-Qataris, but discrimination persisted, with women unable to pass on their nationality and citizenship to their children.ET In Saudi Arabia, a royal orderEMBARGOED was issued in September allowing womenFEBRUARY to drive from mid-2018, although there were questions about how it would be implemented in practice. In April, another royal order had instructed all government agencies that women should not be denied access to government services if they did not have a male guardian’s consent, unless existing regulations required it. However, the order appeared22 to keep in place regulations that explicitly require a guardian’s approval, such as for women to travel abroad, obtain a passport, or marry. Despite the positive developments, entrenched discrimination against women in law and in practice, notably in matters of marriage00:01 and divorce, inheritance and child custody, remained in these and many other countries in the region. Women were inadequately protected against sexual and other gender-based violence, as well as forced and early marriage. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND STRICTLYINTERSEX PEOPLE While sexual orientation and gender identity issues were increasingly on the agendas of mainstream humanUNTIL rights movements in the region, governments continued to heavily limit the enjoyment of the rights of LGBTI people in law and practice. THURSDAY 58 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In Egypt, in the worst crackdown in over a decade, the authorities rounded up and prosecuted people for their perceived sexual orientation after a rainbow flag was displayed at a concert in Cairo in September performed by Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila, who had been banned from playing in Jordan earlier in the year. Security forces arrested at least 76 people and subjected at least five to anal examinations, a practice which amounts to torture. Courts sentenced at least 48 people to prison terms of between three months and six years on charges that included “habitual debauchery”. In October, parliamentarians proposed a deeply discriminatory law explicitly criminalizing same-sex sexual relations and any public promotion of LGBTI gatherings, symbols or flags. Countries including Morocco and Tunisia continued to arrest people and sentence them to terms of imprisonment under laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual relations. In Tunisia, while the police subjected men accused of such relations to forced anal examinations, the government accepted a recommendation under the UN Universal Periodic Review process in September to end their use. Elsewhere, in countries including Iran and Saudi Arabia, some consensual same-sex sexual conduct remained punishable by death. GMT 2018 RIGHT TO WORK TRADE UNIONS Some governments heavily curtailed trade union rights. In Egypt, the authorities subjected dozens of workers and trade unionists to arrest, military trial, dismissal and a range of disciplinary measures solely for exercising their rights to strike and to form independent trade unions. In December, parliament passed a law tripling the number of members (from 50 to 150) that independent trade05:01 unions need to obtain legal recognition. In Algeria, the authorities continued to deny registration/ to the independent, cross-sector General Autonomous Confederation for Algerian Workers – it first filed its application in 2013 – and banned the National Autonomous Electricity and Gas Trade Union by withdrawing its recognition. ET MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTSEMBARGOED FEBRUARY Across the Gulf and in other countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, migrant workers, including those in the domestic, construction and other sectors, continued to face exploitation and abuse. However, there were some positive developments. In Qatar, the government passed two new laws in August. One established a labour dispute22 mechanism, which could address some of the barriers to migrant workers accessing justice. The other provided legal protections for domestic workers’ labour rights for the first time, including paid holidays and a limit to working hours. However, the law was open to abuse of a provision allowing domestic workers to work beyond the legal00:01 limit if they “agreed”. In October, the Qatari government announced new reform plans, including a minimum wage and a fund to pay unpaid workers, and the International Labour Organization published details of a package it had agreed with Qatar to reform the kafala sponsorship system, which prevents migrant workers from changing jobs or leaving the country without their employers’ permission. In the UAE, a law came into effect in September limiting working hours and providing paid STRICTLYleave and the right to retain personal documents. UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 59 RIGHTS TO HOUSING, WATER AND HEALTH ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES The year marked the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the 10th anniversary of its illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities intensified the expansion of settlements and related infrastructure across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and carried out a large number of demolitions of Palestinian property, forcibly evicting more than 660 people. Many of these demolitions were in Bedouin and herding communities that the Israeli authorities planned to forcibly transfer. Israel’s air, land and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip continued the long-standing restrictions on the movement of people and goods, collectively punishing Gaza’s entire population of approximately 2 million inhabitants. Combined with Egypt’s almost total closure of the Rafah border crossing, and the West Bank authorities’ punitive measures, Israel’s blockade triggered a humanitarian crisis with power cuts, reducing access to electricity to a few hours per day, affecting the supply of clean water and sanitation and reducing access to healthGMT services. 2018 Elsewhere in the region, Palestinian refugees, including many long-term residents, remained subject to discriminatory laws. In Lebanon, they continued to be excluded from many types of work, owning or inheriting property and from accessing public education and health services. WATER, SANITATION AND HEALTH Civil society raised a number of cases before the Lebanese judiciary related to violations of the rights to health and clean water, including cases related to the sale of expired drugs in public hospitals and to waste mismanagement. In Tunisia, water shortages became acute. The government05:01 admitted it did not have a national strategy for water distribution, thereby making it impossible to ensure equitable access. Marginalized regions were disproportionately affected/ by water cuts, leading to local protests throughout the year. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITYET Serious human rights violationsEMBARGOED accompanied counter-terrorism measuresFEBRUARY in several countries. In Egypt, where more than 100 members of the security forces were killed in attacks by armed groups, mostly in North Sinai, the National Security Agency continued to forcibly disappear and extrajudicially execute individuals suspected of political violence. The Ministry of the Interior claimed that more than 100 individuals were22 shot dead in exchanges of fire with security forces throughout the year. However, in many of these cases the people killed were already in state custody after having been forcibly disappeared. Torture and other ill-treatment remained routine in official places of detention and was systematic in detention centres run by the National Security Agency. Hundreds00:01 were sentenced, including to death, after grossly unfair mass trials. In Iraq, suspects prosecuted on terrorism-related charges were routinely denied the rights to adequate time and facilities to prepare a defence, to not incriminate themselves or confess guilt, and to question prosecution witnesses. Courts continued to admit into evidence “confessions” that were extracted under torture. Many of those convicted after these unfair STRICTLYand hasty trials were sentenced to death. Iraqi and Kurdish government forces and militias also carried out extrajudicial executions of men and boys suspected of being affiliated with IS. Complaints of torture in custody against defendants accused of national security-related offences wereUNTIL reported in countries including Bahrain, Israel and Kuwait. In general, the allegations were not investigated. Saudi Arabia introduced a new counter-terrorism law that THURSDAY 60 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 allowed for the death penalty for some crimes. In Tunisia, the government continued to restrict freedom of movement through arbitrary and indefinite orders that confined hundreds to their governorate of residence, justifying this as a measure to prevent Tunisians from travelling to join armed groups. DEATH PENALTY Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia remained among the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty, carrying out hundreds of executions between them, many after unfair trials. In Iran, Amnesty International was able to confirm the execution of four individuals who were under 18 at the time the crime was committed, but several executions of other juvenile offenders were postponed at the last minute because of public campaigning. The Iranian authorities continued to describe peaceful campaigning against the death penalty as “un-Islamic”, and harassed and imprisoned anti-death penalty activists. In Saudi Arabia, courts continued to impose death sentences for drugs offences and for conduct that under international standards should not be criminalized, such as “sorcery” and “adultery”. In Iraq, the deathGMT penalty 2018 continued to be used as a tool of retribution in response to public outrage after attacks claimed by IS. Bahrain and Kuwait both resumed executions in January, the first since 2010 and 2013 respectively; the death sentences had been imposed for murder. Egypt, Jordan, Libya and the Hamas de facto administration in the Gaza Strip also carried out executions. Except for Israel and Oman, all other countries in the region continued a long-standing practice of imposing death sentences but not implementing them. ARMED CONFLICT 05:01 Fuelled by the international arms trade, conflict in the region/ continued to blight the lives of millions of individuals, particularly in Yemen, Libya, Syria and Iraq. In each conflict, multiple parties committed war crimes and other serious violations of international law, including indiscriminate attacks that killed and injured civilians, direct attacks against civilians or civilian infrastructure. In Syria and Yemen, governmentET and allied forces used internationally banned weapons such as cluster munitionsEMBARGOED and, in the case of Syria, chemicalFEBRUARY weapons. YEMEN CONFLICT The situation in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East and North Africa even before the outbreak of conflict in March 2015, became the world’s22 worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, with three quarters of its population of 28 million in need of help. The country faced the biggest cholera epidemic in modern times, exacerbated by a lack of fuel for water-pumping stations, and was on the verge of the world’s most severe famine for decades. The conflict has shattered the water,00:01 education and health systems. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition supporting the internationally recognized Yemeni government held up shipments of food, fuel and medicine. In November it cut off Yemen’s northern ports completely for more than two weeks. The coalition’s air strikes hit funeral gatherings, schools, markets, residential areas and civilian boats. Huthi rebel forces, allied with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh until splits between them led to his killing in December, indiscriminately STRICTLYshelled civilian residential areas in Ta’iz city and fired artillery indiscriminately across the border into Saudi Arabia, killing and injuring civilians. UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 61 INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO ISLAMIC STATE In both Syria and Iraq, a US-led international coalition refocused its attention on combating IS, which was responsible for gross abuses. Hundreds of civilians were killed as a result. In Mosul, Iraq’s second city, IS forcibly displaced thousands of civilians into zones of active hostilities in an attempt to shield their own fighters, and deliberately killed civilians fleeing the fighting and hung their bodies in public areas as a warning to others. In the battle to drive IS out of west Mosul, Iraqi and coalition forces launched a series of disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks to devastating effect; hundreds of civilians were killed. Iraqi forces consistently used explosive weapons which affected a large area, such as improvised rocket- assisted munitions, which cannot be precisely targeted at military objectives or used lawfully in densely populated civilian areas. In Syria, IS lost control of Raqqa governorate following a military campaign by the Syrian Democratic Forces, consisting of Syrian-Kurdish and Arab armed groups, and the US-led coalition. IS prevented residents from fleeing and used civilians as human shields, as well as carrying out direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring civilians. The coalition’s air strikes also caused hundreds of civilian casualties. SyrianGMT government 2018 forces, supported by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters on the ground and Russian air power, captured other areas previously held by IS and other armed groups. In doing so, they killed and injured civilians in indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including homes, hospitals and medical facilities. SIEGES AND DISPLACEMENT OF CIVILIANS IN SYRIA The Syrian government continued to maintain lengthy sieges of predominantly civilian areas, depriving some 400,000 people of access to medical care, other basic goods and services and humanitarian assistance, while subjecting them to repeated05:01 air strikes, artillery shelling and other attacks. Armed opposition groups were also responsible for besieging thousands of civilians and carrying out indiscriminate rocket and mortar/ attacks on government-controlled neighbourhoods, killing and injuring civilians. Thousands of civilians experienced the harsh impact of forced displacement following “reconciliation” agreements in the second half of 2016 and early 2017. They were only some of the 6.5 million people displaced within Syria between 2011 and 2017. More than half a millionET people fled Syria during the year, taking the total number of Syrian refugeesEMBARGOED to more than 5 million. FEBRUARY KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ Government forces responded to the referendum on independence for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by launching an operation that quickly retook the disputed22 city of Kirkuk, as well as most of the territory captured by Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the fight against IS. In October, tens of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes after fierce clashes erupted between Iraqi government forces, supported by affiliated militias, and Peshmerga forces in the multi- ethnic city of Tuz Khurmatu; at00:01 least 11 civilians were killed in indiscriminate attacks. LAWLESSNESS IN LIBYA Three rival governments and hundreds of militias and armed groups continued to compete for power and control over territory, lucrative trade routes and strategic military locations in Libya. Militias and armed groups carried out indiscriminate attacks in heavily populated areas leading STRICTLYto deaths of civilians; executed captured fighters from rival groups; and abducted and unlawfully detained hundreds of people, including political and human rights activists, because of their origin, opinions, perceived political affiliations or perceived wealth. Up to 20,000 refugeesUNTIL and migrants were held arbitrarily and indefinitely in overcrowded, unsanitary detention centres and exposed to torture, forced labour, extortion and unlawful killings at the THURSDAY 62 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 hands of the authorities and militias who ran the centres. The assistance provided by EU member states, particularly Italy, to the Libyan Coast Guard and migrant detention centres made them complicit in the abuses. IMPUNITY Impunity for grave violations of the past remained a live concern. Victims of crimes committed in recent and ongoing conflicts generally faced entrenched impunity at a national level. In Iraq, the authorities announced investigations in response to some allegations of serious violations committed by Iraqi forces and pro-government militias – such as torture, extrajudicial execution and enforced disappearance. However, they consistently failed to make any findings public. In Libya, the judicial system was hamstrung by its own dysfunctionality, with magistrates often failing to pursue accountability for abuses because of fears of reprisal. In Syria, the judicial system lacked independence, and failed to investigate and prosecute crimes by state forces. In Yemen, the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights, established by the government,GMT failed to 2018 conduct investigations consistent with international standards into alleged violations committed by all parties to the conflict in Yemen. SLOW PROGRESS The region’s only ongoing national transitional justice mechanism, Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission – mandated to address human rights violations committed between July 1955 and December 2013 – held 11 public sessions during which victims and perpetrators testified on a range of violations including election fraud, enforced disappearance and torture. However, there was no progress on an agreement to refer cases05:01 to specialized judicial chambers, and security agencies continued to fail to provide the Commission with the information it requested for its investigations. / At the international level, some significant initiatives continued but moved slowly. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court continued its preliminary examination of alleged crimes under international law committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 13 June 2014, including during the 2014 Gaza-IsraelET conflict. In Libya, it broadened its investigations from politicalEMBARGOED and military leaders to consider the widerFEBRUARY systematic mistreatment of migrants. Other initiatives had positive aspects, but were tarnished or undermined. The UN Security Council passed a resolution in September that was aimed at ensuring accountability for war crimes and human rights abuses committed by IS in Iraq, 22but crucially failed to include any provisions to ensure accountability for crimes committed by Iraqi forces, militias and the US- led coalition. The Joint Investigative Mechanism of the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons made progress on determining accountability for chemical weapons use in Syria, but an extension00:01 of its mandate was vetoed by Russia at the Security Council. Two developments raised particular hope in the longer term for truth and justice for victims of violations in two seemingly intractable ongoing conflicts. The International Impartial and Independent Mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of the most serious crimes under international law committed in Syria since March 2011 took shape during the STRICTLYyear after its formal establishment in December 2016 by the UN General Assembly. And the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution in September to establish a panel of experts to investigate abuses by all parties in Yemen. Both developments followed concerted advocacy by human rights UNTILorganizations. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 63 GMT 2018

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STRICTLY UNTIL THURSDAY By the end of June, UNAMA had AFGHANISTAN documented 12 incidents of cross-border shelling from Pakistan into Afghanistan, in Islamic Republic of Afghanistan which at least 10 civilians were killed and 24 Head of state and government: Muhammad Ashraf injured. This was a substantial increase on Ghani the same period in 2016. The government made amendments to the The civilian population suffered widespread Penal Code. Some provisions of the Rome human rights abuses as a result of the Statute of the ICC were incorporated into law continuing conflict. Conflict-related and some offences which previously carried violence led to deaths, injuries and the death penalty became punishable by life displacement. Civilian casualties continued imprisonment. to be high; the majority were killed or injured by armed insurgent groups, but a ARMED CONFLICT significant minority by pro-government The non-international armed conflict between forces. The number of people internally “anti-government elements”GMT and pro- 2018 displaced by conflict rose to more than 2 government forces continued. The Taliban million; about 2.6 million Afghan refugees and the armed group Islamic State (IS) were lived outside the country. Gender-based among the “anti-government elements” but violence against women and girls persisted more than 20 armed groups operated inside by state and non-state actors. An increase the country. The Taliban and other armed in public punishments of women by armed opposition groups were responsible for the groups applying Shari’a law was reported. majority of civilian casualties (64%) in the Human rights defenders received threats first nine months of the year, according to from both state and non-state actors; UNAMA. 05:01 journalists faced violence and censorship. By the end of September, UNAMA had Death sentences continued to be imposed; documented/ 8,019 civilian casualties (2,640 five people were executed in November. killed and 5,379 injured), a small overall Members of the Hazara minority group and decrease compared to the same period in Shi’a continued to face harassment and 2016, although there was a 13% increase in increased attacks, mainly by armed ETthe number of women killed or injured. About insurgent groups. EMBARGOED20% of the casualtiesFEBRUARY were attributed to pro- government forces, including Afghan national BACKGROUND security forces, the Afghan Local Police, pro- In March, the UN Security Council renewed government armed groups and international the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in military forces.22 Afghanistan (UNAMA) for another year, While acknowledging that Afghan under the leadership of Tadamichi government forces made some efforts to Yamamoto. mitigate civilian casualties, especially during Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader00:01 of the ground engagement, UNAMA also noted that country’s second largest insurgent group, the number of civilians killed or injured in Hezb-i-Islami, joined the Afghan government. aerial attacks increased by some 50% over On 4 May, after two years of negotiations, the 2016; about two-thirds of these were women draft peace agreement signed in September and children. 2016 between the government and ABUSES BY PRO-GOVERNMENT FORCES STRICTLYGulbuddin Hekmatyar was finalized, granting In January, according to UNAMA, Afghan him amnesty for past offences, including war National Border Police in Paktika province crimes, and permitting the release of certain sexually abused a 13-year-old boy, then shot Hezb-i-Islami UNTILprisoners. him; the boy died from his injuries. Those suspected of criminal responsibility were THURSDAY 66 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 prosecuted by the Afghan National Police, On 25 August, a Shi’a mosque in Kabul was convicted of murder and sentenced to six attacked by IS, killing at least 28 people and years‘ imprisonment. injuring dozens more. On 20 October, similar According to UNAMA, more than a dozen attacks were carried out against two more civilians were shot at checkpoints. In one Shi’a mosques – one in western Kabul and such incident on 16 March, Afghan Local the other in Ghor province – leaving more Police at a checkpoint in Jawzjan province than 60 people dead and dozens injured. shot and injured a man and his mother after mistaking them for insurgents. In April, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Afghan National Police shot a 65-year-old The Ministry of Women’s Affairs of man returning from feeding his cows; he later Afghanistan (MoWA) reported an increase in died in hospital. In May, an Afghan National cases of gender-based violence against Army soldier shot dead a 13-year-old boy as women, especially in areas under Taliban he collected grass close to a checkpoint in control. Badghis province. In the first half of the year, the Afghanistan In June, according to UNAMA, three young Independent Human RightsGMT Commission 2018 children in Saydebad district were killed in reported thousands of cases of violence their home by a mortar round fired by the against women and girls across the country, Afghan National Army. The same month, pro- including beatings, killings and acid attacks. government forces on patrol shot dead a Against the backdrop of impunity for such father and his two young sons (aged five and crimes and a failure to investigate, cases of 12) outside the brick factory where they violence against women remained grossly worked; there was no known military activity under-reported due to traditional practices, in the area at the time. UNAMA requested stigmatization and fear of the consequences updates on any investigation or follow-up for the victims.05:01 action on these cases, but by July had Armed groups perpetrated gender-based received no information from the Ministry of violence,/ torture and other ill-treatment and the Interior. other human rights abuses, imposing During the first six months of the year, corporal punishments on women for having according to UNAMA, 95 civilians, half of sex outside of marriage or engaging in sex them children, were killed in air strikes. ETwork. In one instance, according to UNAMA, ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS EMBARGOEDmen severely beatFEBRUARY a woman in her home in In January, in Badakhshan province, five Darah-i-Suf Payin district, Samangan armed men dragged a pregnant woman from province, after accusing her of having sex her home and shot her dead in front of her outside of marriage and engaging in sex husband and six children; witnesses said her work. 22 attackers accused her of being a government UNAMA also noted that armed groups tried supporter. On 8 March, armed men entered to restrict girls’ access to education. In an Afghan National Army military hospital in February, threats forced the closure of girls’ central Kabul and killed at least00:01 49 people, schools in several villages in Farah province, including patients. In August, armed groups temporarily denying education to more than attacked the village of Mirza Olang, in Sar-e- 3,500 girls. When the schools reopened 10 Pul province, killing at least 36 people, days later, the vast majority of the girls were including civilians. initially afraid to return. Suicide attacks by armed groups in civilian The head of the women’s affairs department STRICTLYareas caused at least 382 deaths and 1,202 in Badakhshan reported that in March the injuries. In one such attack in December, at Taliban stoned a woman to death and least 41 people, including children, were whipped a man on charges of having sex killed in a suicideUNTIL bomb attack on a Shi’a outside of marriage in Wardoj district, cultural organization in Kabul. northeastern Badakhshan province. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 67 In August, a woman named Azadeh was more than 150 people. No investigations shot dead by Taliban members in Jawzjan appeared to have been conducted into the province. According to the governor’s police shootings. Relatives of the victims spokesman, the woman had fled some subsequently staged a sit-in for several weeks months earlier to a safe house in Sheberghan in Kabul, which the police broke up by force. city due to domestic violence. She returned One person was killed and at least five others after local mediation, but was then dragged were reported to have been arbitrarily from her house and shot by Taliban detained in a private house and questioned members. by plain-clothes officers before being released the next day. In July, the REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY government proposed amendments to the DISPLACED PEOPLE laws on associations, strikes and Some 2.6 million Afghan refugees were living demonstrations, which would limit the rights in more than 70 countries around the world to freedom of association and expression by during 2017. Around 95% were hosted in introducing new restrictions on the just two countries, Iran and Pakistan, where organization of demonstrationsGMT and strikes. 2018 they faced discrimination, racial attacks, lack The proposed amendments would also give of basic amenities and the risk of mass police enhanced authority to stop or prevent deportation. demonstrations or strikes, further Between 2002 and 2017, more than 5.8 undermining the right to peaceful assembly. million Afghans were returned home, many of Women human rights defenders continued them involuntarily by other governments. to face threats and intimidation by both state The UN Office for the Coordination of and non-state actors across Afghanistan. Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that some Most cases were not reported to police 437,907 people were displaced by the because of05:01 lack of trust in the security conflict in 2017 alone, bringing the total agencies, which consistently failed to number of internally displaced people (IDPs) investigate/ and address these threats. Some to more than 2 million. Despite the promises who did report threats were not given support made by successive Afghan governments, or protection. IDPs continued to lack adequate housing, food, water, health care and opportunities to ETFREEDOM OF EXPRESSION pursue education and employment.EMBARGOED Most A string of violent FEBRUARY attacks and intimidation were forced to make long daily trips to fetch against journalists, including killings, further water and struggled to obtain one daily meal. underlined the steady erosion of freedom of Most IDPs lacked access to basic health care expression. facilities. Private health care was Media freedom22 watchdog Nai reported more unaffordable for most IDPs, and mobile than 150 attacks against journalists, media clinics, operated by NGOs or the government, workers and media offices during the year. were only available sporadically. These included killings, beatings, detention, IDPs also faced repeated threats00:01 of forced arson, attacks, threats and other forms of eviction from both government and private violence by both state and non-state actors. actors. In March, a reporter working for Ariana TV in Sar-e-Pul province was beaten by police HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS after trying to report on excessive use of force Human rights defenders faced constant against civilians. Officers seized the reporter’s STRICTLYthreats to their life and security. In June, at camera and other equipment; he sought least four people were killed when police refuge in the governor’s office. opened fire on demonstrators protesting In August, a prominent reporter from Zabul deteriorating securityUNTIL conditions in Kabul province received death threats from Taliban following a 31 May truck bombing that killed members, followed by attempts on his life. THURSDAY 68 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Security officials made little effort to protect DEATH PENALTY him after he reported the incidents, and he In a revision to the Penal Code, life left the province for his safety. imprisonment replaced the death penalty for In November, IS fighters attacked some offences. Shamshad TV’s station in Kabul; one staff Five executions were carried out in member was killed and others wounded. November at Pul-e-Charki prison in Kabul. Nai reported that in 2016 it had submitted The Ministry of the Interior said that the five to the authorities at least 240 cases of had been convicted in 2016 of murder and violence against media workers, including kidnapping, and that they had been executed reporters and journalists. One year later the despite their sentences being under review government had taken no action in response by three appeal courts. and no one had been brought to justice. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Afghans across the country remained at risk ALBANIA of torture and other ill-treatment, with little Republic of Albania GMT 2018 progress towards curbing impunity. The UN Head of state: Ilir Meta (replaced Bujar Nishani in July) Committee against Torture found Head of government: Edi Rama “widespread acceptance and legitimation of torture in Afghan society”. Impunity persisted for past killings and Many of those suspected of criminal enforced disappearances. Measures responsibility continued to hold official protecting women from domestic violence executive positions, including in government. were inadequately implemented. Women The Committee also found that detainees and children were trafficked for forced held by the National Directorate of Security, prostitution05:01 and labour. Albania’s path to the Afghan National Police and the Afghan EU membership was hindered by slow Local Police were subject to “beatings, progress/ in combating corruption and electric shocks, suspensions, threats, sexual organized crime. abuse, and other forms of mental and physical abuse”. UNAMA and OHCHR BACKGROUND investigators who had interviewed 469 ETA political crisis preceded elections in June. detainees said that 39% ofEMBARGOED them gave The opposition DemocraticFEBRUARY Party, which credible accounts of torture and other ill- organized street protests in February, treatment during their arrest and boycotted the election process until May, interrogation. when an EU and US-supported agreement In March the government enacted an Anti- promised22 them representation in government Torture Law, which criminalized torture but and state agencies. The ruling Socialist Party did not provide for restitution or was returned with an increased majority. compensation to victims. International observers reported incidents of Armed groups including the Taliban00:01 voter intimidation and alleged vote-buying. continued to commit crimes under Under a new mechanism established in international law, including killings, torture January, by August 183 people, including and other abuses as punishment for author Ismail Kadare, applied to access perceived crimes or offences. The executions secret police files held on them during the and severe punishments imposed by the Communist period. In September, the STRICTLYparallel justice system amounted to criminal International Commission on Missing Persons acts under the law, and in some agreed to assist with the identification of circumstances could amount to war crimes. bodies recovered from mass graves from the UNTIL same period. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 69 JUSTICE SYSTEM RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Measures to ensure judicial independence TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE were partially implemented. In June, two In February two NGOs filed a complaint with judicial associations appealed to the the European Court of Human Rights, Constitutional Court against a vetting law, requesting an amendment to the Family which sought to ensure judges’ and Code which prohibits cohabitation rights for prosecutors’ independence from organized same-sex couples. An August survey found crime. widespread discrimination in employment in both the public and private sectors. IMPUNITY In a case brought before the European Court MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS of Human Rights, in April the government In May, a UK court found that hundreds of agreed to reopen proceedings in the case of lesbian and gay people, trafficking victims four protesters killed during January 2011 and domestic violence survivors may have demonstrations. A total payment of just over been wrongly deported to Albania since 2011 EUR100,000 as a form of compensation was because UK courts had reliedGMT on incorrect 2018 divided between relatives of two of the guidance. Some 4,421 Albanian asylum- victims. seekers voluntarily returned from EU countries; 2,500 rejected asylum-seekers ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES were deported from Germany. No measures were taken to locate the body Unaccompanied minors and families with of Remzi Hoxha, a Macedonian Albanian who children were sometimes detained in the was forcibly disappeared by National Irregular Foreigners Centre at Karreç, a Intelligence Service officials in 1995. No closed centre for irregular migrants due for progress was reported towards the deportation.05:01 exhumation of the remains of around 6,000 people who had disappeared between 1945 ECONOMIC,/ SOCIAL AND CULTURAL and 1991. RIGHTS In September, 20 children’s NGOs protested FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION − against the abolition of the Labour and Social JOURNALISTS ETWelfare Ministry, which threatened to put Physical attacks against investigativeEMBARGOED social services at FEBRUARYrisk. journalists were perpetrated by organized The Ministry of Urban Development criminals, or owners of private companies. In reconstructed 300 Roma and Egyptian March, journalist Elvi Fundo was beaten in houses, and improved sanitation. However, the capital, Tirana, by assailants believed to most Roma22 lacked clean water and many be associated with organized crime. In June, were at risk of forced evictions. TV channel owner Erven Hyseni was shot dead in Vlora, along with a government VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS official. 00:01 Reports of domestic violence increased; 420 In July, journalists claimed that defamation immediate protection orders had been issued proceedings brought against two media by 1 June. In August, Judge Fildeze Hafizi outlets by High Court Judge Gjin Gjoni and was shot and killed in her car by her former his wife, businesswoman Elona Caushi, husband. She had been granted a protection aimed to intimidate investigative journalists order in 2015 after he had beaten her. He STRICTLYand encourage self-censorship. was convicted and imprisoned in April 2016, but released in early 2017 under a general UNTIL amnesty. THURSDAY 70 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ALGERIA ASSEMBLY The authorities continued to arrest and People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria prosecute peaceful activists, including those Head of state: Abdelaziz BouteflikaHead of protesting about unemployment and public government: Ahmed Ouyahia (replaced Abdelmadjid services. Those protesting in solidarity with Tebboune in August, who replaced Abdelmalek Sellal in detained activists, as well as journalists and May) bloggers covering protests on social media, were also detained. The authorities continued to arbitrarily In January, police arrested renowned detain peaceful demonstrators, human blogger Merzoug Touati in Bejaia, Kabylia rights defenders, activists and journalists. region, following anti-austerity protests in Associations continued to face undue Kabylia. The authorities kept him in detention restrictions, and legislation that restricted while investigating him for interviewing an the right to form trade unions remained in Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman place. Members of the Ahmadi Muslim on his blog, and for posts aboutGMT the protests. 2018 religious minority group were unjustly In June, police arrested journalist Said prosecuted. Impunity for past abuses Chitour on suspicion of espionage and selling prevailed. Migrants faced mass expulsions. classified documents to foreign diplomats. In Courts handed down death sentences; no November his case was transferred to the executions were carried out. Penal Court. The authorities maintained a protest ban in BACKGROUND Algiers under a decree from 2001. In January, new austerity measures announced by the government triggered FREEDOM05:01 OF ASSOCIATION protests and strikes, particularly in the The authorities kept many associations, northern Kabylia and Chaouia regions. In including/ Amnesty International Algeria and February, a presidential decree established other human rights groups, in legal limbo by Algeria’s new national human rights failing to respond to registration applications institution, the National Human Rights under the highly restrictive Associations Law. Council, replacing the National Consultative ETLocal authorities denied authorization to the Commission for the PromotionEMBARGOED and Protection Algerian League forFEBRUARY the Defence of Human of Human Rights. In May, Algeria was Rights (LADDH) to hold a human rights examined under the UN UPR process for the meeting in October and a public event third time.1 Also in May, legislative elections celebrating the Universal Declaration of characterized by low participation brought Human Rights22 in December. The government limited change to party representation in had yet to produce a new draft law respecting parliament and Abdelmadjid Tebboune briefly freedom of association, as required by the became Prime Minister after a government constitutional amendments of 2016. reshuffle, before Ahmed Ouyahia00:01 replaced him in August. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Low-level sporadic clashes took place Human rights defender Hassan Bouras was between security forces and armed released in January after a court reduced his opposition groups in several areas. In August, one-year prison term to a six-month a suicide bomber killed himself and two suspended sentence. Police had arrested STRICTLYpolicemen in an attack on a police station in him for posting a video on the YouTube Tiaret, west of the capital Algiers, which was channel of the El Bayadh branch of LADDH later claimed by both the armed group alleging corruption among high-ranking Islamic State (IS)UNTIL and al-Qa’ida in the Islamic officials in the city of El Bayadh. Maghreb (AQIM). THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 71 In March, a court in Ghardaia referred practices during the year.3 From April human rights lawyer Salah Dabouz of LADDH onwards, courts released 16 Ahmadis after to trial in relation to comments he made on reducing or suspending their sentences, television about unrest in Ghardaia and for while dozens of others remained under allegedly carrying a computer and camera investigation or on trial and five remained in during a visit to detained activists. The court detention. In August, authorities rearrested had kept him under judicial supervision from Mohamed Fali, head of the Ahmadi July 2016 until March 2017, forcing him to community in Algeria, in Ain Safra, Naama travel more than 600km twice a week to province, before trying him before the Ain report to the court in Ghardaia from his home Tedles Court of First Instance for collecting in Algiers. donations without a licence, “denigrating In April, the investigative judge at a court in Islamic dogma”, and “membership of an Medea transferred a case against human unauthorized association”. By the end of the rights lawyer Noureddine Ahmine of the year, he faced six cases pending before Network of Lawyers for the Defence of different courts arising from the peaceful Human Rights (RADDH) to a court in practice of his faith. GMT 2018 Ghardaia for trial on charges of “insulting a public institution” and “falsely” reporting an IMPUNITY offence. The charges related to a complaint The authorities took no steps to open of torture that he had filed, apparently on investigations and counter the impunity for behalf of someone else, in 2014. grave human rights abuses and possible crimes against humanity, including unlawful UNFAIR TRIALS killings, enforced disappearances, rape and In May, a court in Medea unfairly convicted other forms of torture committed by security the founder of the Movement for the forces and05:01 armed groups in the 1990s during Autonomy of the Mzab (MAM), Kamaleddine Algeria’s internal conflict, which left an Fekhar, and 21 of his 41 co-defendants of estimated/ 200,000 people killed or forcibly murder, terrorism and other serious offences, disappeared. for their alleged role in communal violence in In January, the Swiss judiciary shelved a Ghardaia province between 2013 and 2015 war crimes investigation against retired which left an estimated 25 people dead.2 ETAlgerian Minister of Defence Khaled Nezzar They were sentenced to prisonEMBARGOED terms of for events between FEBRUARY 1992 and 1994 in between three and five years, partially Algeria, citing inadmissibility due to the suspended. All were then released between absence of armed conflict in Algeria at the May and July 2017 after having served their time. sentence. Among the 41 defendants, 37 had In February,22 the UN Human Rights been in pre-trial detention, many since 2015. Committee found that the Algerian authorities In July, the Spanish authorities detained had violated the right to remedy, the right to MAM activists Salah Abbouna and Khodir life, and the prohibition against torture with Sekkouti after Algerian authorities00:01 filed an regard to Mohamed Belamrania, who was extradition request against them, citing their forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially criticism of Algerian authorities on Facebook. executed in 1995. Days after the UN finding In October the Spanish authorities released was published, police detained his son, Rafik both activists on bail awaiting the National Belamrania, and charged him with High Court’s decision on extradition. “advocating terrorism on Facebook”. He had STRICTLY filed his father’s case before the UN body FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF and documented other cases of enforced More than 280 members of the minority disappearance, arbitrary detention and Ahmadi religiousUNTIL movement were prosecuted extrajudicial executions by Algeria’s security in relation to their religious beliefs and forces against suspected supporters of the THURSDAY 72 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party during the DEATH PENALTY 1990s. In November he was sentenced to Courts continued to impose death sentences. five years’ imprisonment and fined 100,000 No executions have been carried out since Algerian dinars (around USD870). 1993. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS 1. Human Rights Council adopts Universal Periodic Review outcome on From April to June, a group of 25 Syrian Algeria (MDE 28/7152/2017) refugees, including 10 children, were 2. Algeria: Ensure fair trial for minority rights activists (News story, 29 stranded in the buffer zone of Morocco’s May) 4 desert border area with Algeria. In June, the 3. Algeria: Wave of arrests and prosecutions of hundreds of Ahmadis Algerian authorities announced they would (News story, 19 June) permit them to enter Algeria and would allow 4. Morocco: Syrian refugees trapped in desert on Moroccan border with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to provide Algeria in dire need of assistance (News story, 7 June) them with assistance. However, the Algerian 5. Algeria: Mass racial profiling used to deport more than 2,000 sub- authorities later refused to let them in Saharan migrants (News story, 23 October) through an unofficial crossing point. The GMT 2018 refugees remained stranded in the desert until Morocco granted them protection. ANGOLA Between August and December the authorities arbitrary arrested and forcibly Republic of Angola expelled more than 6,500 sub-Saharan Head of state and government: João Manuel Gonçalves African migrants to neighbouring Niger and Lourenço (replaced José Eduardo dos Santos in Mali on the basis of racial profiling.5 September) In February, a court in Annaba convicted 27 people, including Algerians, for irregular exit Agri-business05:01 mega projects displaced from Algeria after they attempted to leave the communities from their land. Although the country by boat. They were fined 20,000 restrictive/ NGO law was repealed, the space Algerian dinars (about USD180) each. for individuals to exercise their civil and political rights continued to shrink. WORKERS’ RIGHTS Peaceful protesters were met with violent The Labour Code continued to unduly restrict ETrepression; government critics faced the right to form trade unionsEMBARGOED by limiting criminal defamation FEBRUARY suits. Attempts by trade union federations and confederations to Parliament to criminalize abortion in all single occupational sectors; allowing only circumstances were defeated. Algerian-born people or those who had held Algerian nationality for a minimum of 10 BACKGROUND22 years to create trade union organizations; and Historic elections were held on 23 August. imposing restrictions on foreign funding for João Lourenço of the ruling People’s trade unions. Authorities continued to deny Movement for the Liberation of Angola registration to the independent,00:01 cross-sector (MPLA) became President. According to the General Autonomous Confederation for Electoral Commission, the MPLA obtained Algerian Workers, since it first filed its 61% of the vote, down from 81% in 2012. application in 2013. Opposition parties – National Union for the In May, the Ministry of Labour banned the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), National Autonomous Electricity and Gas Broad Convergence for the Salvation of STRICTLYTrade Union by withdrawing its recognition. A Angola-Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE), and government official publicly denied the ban National Front for the Liberation of Angola during an International Labour Conference (FNLA) − contended that the election results session in June.UNTIL were illegitimate, but took their seats in Parliament. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 73 The continuing economic crisis precipitated and hindrance of the free flow of ideas and popular discontent with the MPLA. Because opinions. of the economic crisis, the government The majority of the regulatory body’s adopted a development model for agri- members were nominated by MPLA, the business mega projects, large-scale land party with the most seats in the National acquisition, and dispossession of rural Assembly, which caused concerns as to the communities, which put community body’s independence and impartiality. livelihoods at risk. On 20 June, Rafael Marques de Morais, Political intolerance was increasingly investigative journalist and editor of the online normalized due, in part, to government publication Maka Angola, and Mariano Brás indifference to sectarian violence in Monte Lourenço, journalist and editor for O Crime Belo in Benguela province. Following the newspaper, were charged with “defamation signing in 2002 of the peace agreement of a public authority” and causing “outrage to between the government and UNITA, the a sovereign body” in relation to an article they area became an enclave of political conflict published questioning the acquisition of with increasing polarization of and violence public land by the GeneralGMT Public Prosecutor. 2018 between MPLA and UNITA supporters. Monte Belo residents continued to suffer FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY persecution, violence, death threats, The authorities frequently refused to allow intimidation and looting on grounds of peaceful demonstrations to take place, even suspected allegiance to one or other of the though prior authorization was not required in political parties. Despite public objections law. When demonstrations did take place, from civil society, the government allowed a police often arbitrarily arrested, detained and culture of impunity and violent political ill-treated peaceful protesters. However, no intolerance to develop. investigations05:01 were initiated into the police actions. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION On 24/ February, police violently repressed To silence critics, particularly journalists and two peaceful protests by the Angolan academics, the authorities used defamation Revolutionary Movement taking place laws among others, restricting freedom of simultaneously in Luanda, the capital, and expression and access to information. The ETBenguela. The protesters demanded the misuse of the justice systemEMBARGOED and other state resignation of BornitoFEBRUARY de Sousa, Minister of institutions in order to silence critics Territorial Administration, who was in charge remained commonplace. The “Press Law of electoral registration for the August Pack” of five bills was passed by Parliament election and was also the MPLA’s vice- in January; it included Press Law, Journalist’s presidential22 candidate; these roles were seen Statute, Radio Broadcasting Law, Television as amounting to a conflict of interests and to Law and Social Communications Regulatory a violation of the electoral law. After Body Law. handcuffing and forcing the protesters to lie The laws contained provisions00:01 that down, the police beat them with batons. restricted freedom of expression, particularly On 24 June, security forces violently press freedoms, through a series of dispersed a peaceful demonstration prohibitive regulations on social organized by the Lunda-Tchokwe communication and by establishing a Protectorate Movement, which campaigned communications regulatory body with for autonomy for the eastern and STRICTLYoversight competencies, including the power southeastern regions in Lunda Norte to determine whether or not a given province. Security forces used live communication met good journalistic ammunition against demonstrators, killing a practices; thisUNTIL amounted to prior censorship bystander, and injuring 13 protesters. They arrested 70 people; on 28 June, they were THURSDAY 74 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 sentenced each to 45 days’ imprisonment SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS and a fine of 22,000 kwanzas (USD135). In March, the government proposed an Those who paid the fines had their sentences amendment to legislation under the Penal suspended and were released immediately Code which would de-criminalize abortion in while the others served their full prison terms. cases where a woman’s pregnancy was the The protesters were calling for, among other result of rape, or when the pregnant woman’s things, an end to persecution and arbitrary health was at risk. Parliament rejected the imprisonment of their members, and for the proposal. The final parliamentary vote on the release of political prisoners in Kakanda legislation was scheduled for later the same Prison in Lunda Norte. month, but was postponed indefinitely following a public outcry against Parliament’s FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION rejection of the government’s proposal to Repression of the right to freedom of liberalize the abortion laws. association persisted. The space in which human rights defenders, political activists, LAND DISPUTES journalists, broadcasters and civil society Ongoing land acquisition forGMT business, mainly 2018 organizations could exercise their civil and in southern Cunene and Huíla provinces, political rights was increasingly restricted. On continued to devastate local communities 11 July, however, the Constitutional Court who relied on the land for their livelihoods. struck down the NGO law which had In April and May, the government of Huíla been passed by presidential decree No. presented its Transhumance Project, which 74/15 in 2015. The law had restricted the included plans to appropriate a water legal framework within which NGOs could fountain used by the community of Capela de operate, and empowered the Public Santo António in the Kahila area of Gambos Prosecutor’s Office to suspend national and municipality.05:01 Capela de Santo António is international NGO activities on suspicion of home to 600 families who depended on the money laundering, or illegal or harmful acts fountain/ for drinking water, and for their against “Angola’s sovereignty and integrity”. livestock and irrigation. The community was The decree imposed burdens on civil society not consulted over the plans and the organizations, including excessive authorities did not conduct an environmental requirements and unwieldly procedures for ETimpact assessment. The government of Huíla NGO registration; excessiveEMBARGOED control over NGO remained determined FEBRUARY to evict the community activities; funding restrictions and sanctions. in violation of the Constitution and laws including the Land Law and the UNFAIR TRIALS Environmental Law. On 25 September, six people, five of whom In June,22 it came to light that the Angolan had been held in prolonged pre-trial government had authorized the Agro- detention for one year, were brought to trial Industrial Horizonte 2020 mega project to before Luanda Provincial Court on charges of appropriate 76,000 hectares of fertile land “organizing terrorism”. However,00:01 the trial was without the free, prior and informed consent adjourned the same day when the Public of the affected communities. The land is in Prosecutor failed to appear in court alleging the west of Ombadja municipality and the health reasons. The Court granted the south of Curoca municipality, both in Cunene substitute prosecutor’s plea to be allowed province. It is home to 39 communities of more time so that he could familiarize himself 2,129 families with 10,675 children who live STRICTLYwith the case. Five of the accused remained by the Cunene River. They have historically in detention while a sixth, the wife of one of relied on agriculture and livestock for their the detained, remained under house arrest at livelihoods. By the end of the year, vegetation the end of theUNTIL year. on 15,000 hectares had been destroyed, including trees used for food and firewood, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 75 grass for cattle grazing, and burial sites; 19 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS families had been expelled from the land and The majority of Indigenous communities still forced into vagrancy with diminishing access lacked legal recognition of their land rights, to food and water. despite the Constitution recognizing their right to ancestral lands and natural resources. In January, local police and members of the ARGENTINA Argentine National Gendarmerie (GNA) – a Argentine Republic militarized federal police – closed off all Head of state and government: Mauricio Macri access points to the Indigenous land inhabited by the Mapuche community Pu Lof Women and girls faced obstacles in en Resistencia in Chubut province. The accessing legal abortions. Indigenous community reported attacks by the police, Peoples continued to be criminalized and including beatings and intimidation of discriminated against. Migrants’ rights children.1 At least 10 community members suffered significant setbacks. and their supporters were GMTarrested. In August 2018 the GNA conducted an illegal raid in the BACKGROUND same community, during which Santiago Argentina’s human rights situation was Maldonado – a non-Indigenous supporter of reviewed under the UN UPR process and by the Mapuche community – disappeared. In the UN Committee against Torture. The UN October his body was found in a river in the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention territory. The judicial investigation into his (WGAD), the UN Independent Expert on death was ongoing at the end of the year. sexual orientation and gender identity and The Neuquén provincial government, oil the Rapporteur on Argentina for the Inter- unions and05:01 industry created an investment American Commission on Human Rights plan for the Vaca Muerta oilfield, located visited Argentina during the year. partly /on the land of the Lof Campo Maripe In November, Congress approved the Indigenous community, without the national law on gender parity. community’s participation. Authorities used legal proceedings to SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ETintimidate Indigenous Peoples, including Women and girls continuedEMBARGOED to encounter accusations of sedition,FEBRUARY resisting authority, barriers to accessing legal abortion when the theft, attempted assaults and killings. Agustín pregnancy posed a risk to their health, or Santillán, an Indigenous leader of the Wichí when it resulted from rape. Full people in Formosa province, spent 190 days decriminalization of abortion was pending in in pre-trial22 detention from April to October parliament. with more than 28 criminal proceedings against him. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN According to civil society information,00:01 at least REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS 254 femicides occurred between January Bypassing parliamentary debate, the and November. The National Women's government modified the 2004 Migration Act, Institute and the National Plan of Action for limiting entry and residency rights and the Prevention, Assistance and Eradication of potentially hastening deportations. Violence against Women for 2017-2019 The Asylum Act had not yet been fully STRICTLYappeared to lack the necessary resources to implemented, 11 years after its adoption, and be fully implemented. the National Committee for Refugees had no specific budget. The reception system for UNTIL asylum-seekers remained slow and insufficient and there was no integration plan THURSDAY 76 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 in place to help asylum-seekers and refugees police; some said they were forced to access basic rights such as education, work, undress completely. health care and language training. In April, teachers were violently repressed Despite Argentina’s commitment in 2016 to while demonstrating for fair wages. receive 3,000 Syrian refugees, no Participants reported that police used tear resettlement programme had been created. gas and beat them while the military stood Fewer than 400 Syrian refugees had by. At least four teachers were arrested. benefited from a private sponsorship and In September, 31 people were violently humanitarian visa scheme. detained and held at several police stations in the capital, Buenos Aires, for more than 48 IMPUNITY hours for participating in a mass Trials before ordinary civilian courts demonstration following the disappearance of continued to be held for crimes against Santiago Maldonado. Those detained humanity during the 1976-1983 military reported that they were beaten and some regime. Between 2006 and May 2017, 182 women were forced to undress. rulings were issued, bringing the total In December, many protestersGMT took to the 2018 number of convictions to 756 and acquittals streets in Buenos Aires to express their to 74. disagreement with a legislative reform In July, the Federal Court of Mendoza proposed by the government. The police issued a historic decision under which four used excessive force and there were reports former members of the judiciary were of arbitrary detentions during the sentenced to life in prison and barred from demonstrations.3 holding public office for contributing to the The call by WGAD to national authorities to commission of crimes against humanity immediately release social leader and activist during the military regime. Milagro Sala05:01 was not implemented. In The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Luis August, the Inter-American Commission on Muiña – who was found guilty of crimes Human/ Rights requested that Argentina offer against humanity – that one day served in Milagro Sala house arrest or other alternatives pre-trial detention must be considered as to prison. This request was only partially two, if the person has been detained without implemented since its conditions did not sentence for more than two years. Congress ETcomply with domestic and international then passed a law clarifyingEMBARGOED that the so-called standards. FEBRUARY “2x1 formula” may not be applied to crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes.2 1. Argentina: Violent repression of Mapuche Peoples (AMR Public hearings continued in the case of the 13/5477/2017) cover-up of the investigation into the 1994 2. Argentina:22 Amnistía Internacional repudia la aplicación del 2x1 a attack on the Jewish Mutual Association of delitos de lesa humanidad y estará presente en Plaza de Mayo (News Argentina building. A government decree story, 9 May) issued in April 2017 transferred classified 3. Argentina: Autoridades deben garantizar protesta pacífica e documents from the Prosecution00:01 Unit to the investigar violaciones a derechos humanos tras represión frente al Congreso de la Nación (News story, 15 December) Ministry of Justice, compromising the independence of the investigation and restricting complainants’ access to evidence. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND STRICTLYASSEMBLY Indiscriminate detentions took place during an International Women’s Day demonstration on 8 March. ManyUNTIL women reported that they were mistreated, detained and humiliated by THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 77 UNFAIR TRIALS ARMENIA Members of the opposition group that occupied a police station in the run-up to the Republic of Armenia 2016 protests stood trial on charges of a Head of state: Serzh Sargsyan range of violent crimes, including hostage- Head of government: Karen Karapetyan taking and killing of police officers. Several defendants reported being beaten in Lack of accountability continued for the use detention, while their defence lawyers of unnecessary and excessive force by reported that they themselves were subjected police during protests in the capital, to pressure and harassment to obstruct their Yerevan, in 2016. The trials of opposition work. members accused of hostage-taking and Arayik Papikyan, Mushegh Shushanyan, other violent crimes violated the right to a Nina Karapetyants and other defence lawyers fair trial. A human rights defender faced in the case complained that the detention criminal charges. The parliamentary and facility’s administration prevented them from Yerevan city council elections were visiting the accused men andGMT holding 2018 accompanied by incidents of violence. confidential meetings with them, and unlawfully confiscated and destroyed some of BACKGROUND the case-related materials they were carrying. On 2 April, the ruling Republican Party won a Several lawyers also reported being subjected parliamentary majority, in the first elections to lengthy and intrusive security searches since the 2015 constitutional referendum when arriving at court. Lawyers who refused approved the transition from a presidential to to undergo searches were denied entry to the a parliamentary republic. Monitors from the courtrooms and subjected to disciplinary OSCE reported that the elections were proceedings05:01 by the Bar Association. “tainted by credible information about vote- The lawyers also reported that, on 28 June, buying, and pressure on civil servants and five defendants/ were forcibly removed from employees of private companies” to vote for the courtroom, taken to the basement and the ruling party. beaten by several police officers while the In November, Armenia and the EU signed a court was in session. The defendants showed Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership ETsigns of ill-treatment, including bruises and Agreement, a looser form EMBARGOEDof co-operation scratches on theirFEBRUARY faces and legs, than the Association Agreement which documented by prison medical staff. The Armenia rejected in 2013 in favour of joining police claimed these injuries were self- the Russian-led customs union. inflicted when the defendants deliberately hit their heads22 and feet against walls and fences IMPUNITY in protest. At the end of the year, There was limited accountability for the investigations were ongoing into the unnecessary and excessive use of force by allegations of the beatings and the police against largely peaceful anti-00:01 harassment of the lawyers. government protesters in Yerevan in July 2016, when hundreds of individuals were HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS injured and arbitrarily arrested. Dozens of In January, court hearings commenced in the protesters faced criminal charges for case against Marina Poghosyan, a human allegedly violating public order and other rights defender and director of the NGO STRICTLYoffences. The criminal investigation into Veles, known for exposing government allegations of abuse of power by police corruption and providing legal aid to victims officers did not lead to any criminal charges. of human rights violations. She had been UNTIL charged with extortion in 2015 after she alleged that former government officials were THURSDAY 78 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 running a money laundering scheme. Local human rights defenders linked the trial to her AUSTRALIA work exposing corruption. On 30 April, Marina Poghosyan reported that a fake Australia Facebook profile had been created under her Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Peter name and used to send sexually explicit Cosgrove photos and videos to her contacts to smear Head of government: Malcolm Turnbull her reputation. The justice system continued to fail FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Indigenous people, particularly children, The parliamentary and Yerevan city council with high rates of incarceration, reports of elections, in April and May respectively, and abuse and deaths in custody. Australia the preceding electoral campaigns were maintained hardline policies by confining accompanied by isolated incidents of people seeking asylum in offshore violence against journalists and others processing centres in Papua New Guinea attempting to expose violations of the and Nauru, and turning backGMT those 2018 electoral process. attempting to reach Australia by boat. In On 2 April, two journalists were attacked in October, Australia was elected to the UN Yerevan’s Kond neighbourhood while Human Rights Council, attracting calls for investigating allegations of vote-buying at the improvement of its human rights record, local Republican Party’s campaign office. including cutting all ties to the Myanmar Supporters of the Party took away one military. reporter’s video equipment as she was filming people leaving the campaign office. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS An investigation into the incident was ongoing Indigenous05:01 children were 25 times more at the end of the year. likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous children./ ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Leaked footage exposed abuses of children RIGHTS in prison in the Northern Territory, including The CERD Committee raised concerns over tear gassing, restraints, choking and solitary the absence of data on the enjoyment of ETconfinement. In response, a Royal economic, social and culturalEMBARGOED rights by Commission into FEBRUARYthe Protection and minority groups, refugees and asylum- Detention of Children in the Northern seekers. It also raised concern over the lack Territory was established and reported on 17 of information available on small minority November. ethnic groups – such as the Lom (also known An independent22 review of youth detention as Bosha) and the Molokans – and requested centres in Queensland released in April that the authorities collect data on economic found abuses including solitary confinement, and social indicators disaggregated by use of dogs to intimidate, missing CCTV ethnicity, nationality and country00:01 of origin. footage, and children at risk of self-harm being sedated and hogtied. Further alleged abuses emerged in Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia. Indigenous adults were 15 times more likely STRICTLY to be jailed than non-Indigenous adults. At least eight Indigenous people died in police custody. UNTIL The government did not adopt a national plan to ensure Australia meets its obligations THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 79 in protecting the rights of Indigenous Lankan nationals in March; five Chinese children. However, on 15 December, it nationals who landed in northern Australia in ratified the Optional Protocol to the August; and a boat containing 29 Sri Lankan Convention against Torture (OPCAT), which nationals in December. mandates that youth detention centres and Australia continued its policy of mandatory police lockups are subject to independent indefinite detention of people arriving by oversight and monitoring. plane without a visa. As of 30 November, there were 1,301 people in immigration REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS detention onshore (including on Christmas On 9 April, the government announced that Island). Of these, 19.8% had been detained the Australian-run facility on Manus Island, for over 730 days. Papua New Guinea (PNG), would be closed Australia’s resettlement and humanitarian by 31 October following the PNG Supreme intake was 16,250 for its financial year Court ruling in 2016 that the centre was beginning in June. This decreased from “illegal” and “unconstitutional”. On 14 April, almost 22,000 for the previous financial year, PNG Defence Force personnel fired into the with an additional intake ofGMT Syrian and Iraqi 2018 centre injuring nine people. refugees ending. The men in detention were forcibly moved into “transit” centres on Manus Island on 24 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, November. By the end of the year there was TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE no clear plan for the settlement of refugees in Following an overwhelming vote in favour of a safe country. same-sex marriage, Parliament passed As of December there were approximately legislation to create marriage equality in 800 adult males in detention on Manus December. The postal survey process chosen Island (see Papua New Guinea entry). by the government05:01 failed to acknowledge that The Australian government was forced to marriage equality is a human right and pay a settlement in June to nearly 2,000 generated/ divisive and damaging public refugees and asylum-seekers held on Manus debate. Island, for illegally detaining them in horrific conditions between 2012 and 2016. As of 30 November, there were 339 people ETAUSTRIA living in the offshore processingEMBARGOED facility on FEBRUARY Nauru, including 36 children. They were Republic of Austria subjected to humiliation, neglect, abuse and Head of state: Alexander Van der Bellen (replaced poor physical and mental health care. At Heinz Fischer in January) least 820 additional refugees lived in the Head of government:22 Sebastian Kurz (replaced community on Nauru; these people faced Christian Kern in December) serious security risks and inadequate access to health care, education and employment. The number of asylum-seekers continued to Approximately 435 people transferred00:01 to fall. Authorities continued to deport Australia for medical treatment remained at rejected asylum-seekers to Afghanistan risk of return to either Nauru or Manus despite the security situation in the country. Island. Amendments to the law on public Australia continued its “turnback” policy. In assemblies increased the potential for May the government reported that since restrictions on the right to peaceful STRICTLY2013, 30 boats had been returned either to assembly. Indonesia or to their country of departure. During 2017 people were directly returned to their country ofUNTIL nationality on three known occasions: from a boat containing 25 Sri THURSDAY 80 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS – far-reaching amendments to the law, FORCIBLE RETURN including fines and other administrative Between January and August, 17,095 people measures against organizers not complying requested asylum; the number fell by nearly with the law, and a cap on the number of half compared to 32,114 people for the same public assemblies taking place in shopping period in 2016. streets. There were no steps to further amend In October, Parliament amended the asylum the law at the end of the year. law to automatically add a return order to any decision concerning the revocation of asylum COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY or subsidiary protection status, for example In July, the government tabled an upon conviction for a criminal offence, amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code increasing the risk of refoulement – forcible that would introduce several new far-reaching return of an individual to a country where surveillance methods. The amendment gave they would risk serious human rights rise to concern regarding the right to privacy. violations. The methods included software to access The authorities continued to deport rejected data from smartphones andGMT techniques to 2018 asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants intercept mobile phone traffic. The authorities to Afghanistan despite the deterioration of the would be able to use many of those security situation in the country. In the first techniques without seeking prior judicial half of the year, 67 people were forcibly authorization. returned there. In September, the Minister of the Interior DISCRIMINATION announced the non-renewal of the In October, a new law entered into force Humanitarian Admission Programme banning any kind of full-face covering in pointing to the large number of asylum cases public spaces.05:01 Despite its purpose of that were still pending. Since 2013, 1,900 “promoting active participation in society”, vulnerable refugees had been successfully the law/ disproportionately restricted the rights resettled through the Programme. to freedom of expression and of religion or During the year, asylum-seekers brought six belief. individual complaints before the UN Human In June, the Austrian National Council Rights Committee alleging that their return ETrejected a motion that would open a under the Dublin III RegulationEMBARGOED (an EU law discussion on equalFEBRUARY marriage irrespective of that establishes the criteria and mechanisms sexual orientation and gender identity. Same- for determining the EU member state sex couples could enter a civil partnership responsible for examining an asylum but were not allowed to marry. In December, application) to Bulgaria and Italy would the Constitutional22 Court repealed violate their human rights. In March the discriminatory passages of the Marriage Act authorities deported a Syrian family to and the Registered Partnership Act. The Bulgaria and in June a Somalian woman to repeal was to take effect from 1 January Italy, despite the Human Rights00:01 Committee 2019, thus enabling same-sex couples to requesting Austria to refrain from doing so. marry and heterosexual couples to enter registered partnerships. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY In June, Parliament amended the law on public assemblies, which gave the authorities STRICTLYnew vaguely formulated grounds to prohibit public assemblies, including where an assembly is “against a foreign policy interest”. ShortlyUNTIL after, the Minister of the Interior suggested the introduction of further THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 81 Mammadov to immediately release him; he AZERBAIJAN had been arbitrarily detained since 2013. The EU and Azerbaijan proceeded with Republic of Azerbaijan negotiations over a new strategic partnership Head of state: Ilham Aliyev agreement to deepen their economic Head of government: Artur Rasizade relationship. In October, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Authorities intensified the crackdown on the approved a USD500 million loan for the right to freedom of expression, particularly construction of a government-owned gas following revelations of large-scale political pipeline. This was despite Azerbaijan’s corruption. Independent news outlets were suspension from the EBRD-endorsed blocked and their owners arrested. Critics of international oil and gas transparency the government continued to face politically initiative in March 2017, due to its repression motivated prosecution and imprisonment of civil society. following unfair trials. LGBTI individuals were arbitrarily arrested and ill-treated. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATIONGMT 2018 Suspicious deaths in custody were still not Leading human rights organizations effectively investigated. remained unable to resume their work. The authorities continued using restrictive BACKGROUND regulations and arbitrary prosecution to close In July, renewed hostilities in the breakaway down the few remaining critical organizations. region of Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in the On 2 May, Aziz Orujev, head of the death of at least two ethnic Azerbaijani independent online TV channel Kanal 13, civilians, including a minor, following shelling was arrested by a police officer who claimed by the Armenian-backed forces. he looked05:01 like a wanted fugitive and Azerbaijan received international attention remanded him to 30 days of administrative following a report by the Organized Crime detention/ for purportedly disobeying police and Corruption Reporting Project, published orders. On the day of his release, Aziz Orujev in September, which accused members of was remanded on fabricated charges of Azerbaijan’s political elite of operating a large illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of office, international money laundering scheme. Part ETand ordered to pre-trial detention. On 15 of the money was allegedlyEMBARGOED used to pay December Baku CourtFEBRUARY on Grave Crimes European politicians to help whitewash sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment. Azerbaijan’s human rights reputation, among In August, the prosecution opened an other things. On 11 October, the investigation into Azerbaijan’s only remaining Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of independent22 news agency, Turan, and Europe (PACE) adopted two critical arrested its director, Mehman Aliyev, on resolutions on Azerbaijan following allegations fabricated charges of illegal that some members of the PACE had entrepreneurship. Following international benefited from the money laundering00:01 pressure, Mehman Aliyev was transferred to scheme. house arrest on 11 September. On 2 On 5 December, the Committee of Ministers November, the prosecution dropped the of the Council of Europe triggered charges against him and closed the infringement proceedings against Azerbaijan investigation against Turan. under Article 46.4 of the European STRICTLYConvention on Human Rights. This followed FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION its repeated failure to implement the decision All mainstream media remained under of the European Court of Human Rights effective government control, with (ECtHR) in theUNTIL case of opposition leader Ilgar independent media outlets facing undue restrictions and media workers facing THURSDAY 82 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 harassment. Access to opposition newspaper across the border by security services, who websites was blocked. accused him of a range of offences including Radio Azadliq (Radio Free Europe/Radio smuggling. He remained in detention and his Liberty Azerbaijani service), Meydan TV, and trial was ongoing at the end of the year. Azerbaycan SAATI, remained blocked Russian-Israeli-Ukrainian blogger Aleksandr following a claim by the prosecutor’s office Lapshin, who published critical posts on the that they posed a threat to national security. situation in Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno- On 12 May, a court in the capital, Baku, Karabakh region, was arrested in Belarus, ruled in favour of keeping the websites and extradited to Azerbaijan in February. In blocked. July, a court in Baku sentenced him to three PROSECUTION OF CRITICS years in prison for entering the breakaway The authorities continued to arbitrarily arrest region illegally. He was released on 11 and detain independent journalists and September after a presidential pardon. bloggers. According to Azerbaijani human rights defenders more than 150 people RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, remained in prison on politically motivated TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEXGMT PEOPLE 2018 charges, and the number of such cases On 22 September, more than 100 LGBTI continued to grow. individuals were rounded up by the police in On 9 January, police officers detained and public spaces and detained. Some were held blogger Mehman Huseynov overnight in released, but at least 48 were sentenced to incommunicado detention. He reported that administrative detention, ranging from 10 to he was beaten by the police and subjected to 20 days. They were accused of “resisting electric shocks while in custody. On 3 March, police’s legitimate orders”, and found guilty a court in Baku sentenced him to two years on the basis of police officers’ allegations, in prison for “defaming” police officers. without any05:01 further evidence. The summary On 12 January, Afgan Sadygov, a journalist hearings fell short of international trial and blogger from Jalilabad District, was standards./ The detainees said they had been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. beaten by the police and subjected to other He was prosecuted under hooliganism ill-treatment while in custody. All were charges, after writing about government released on 2 October. corruption and refusing to remove his articles ET from the internet. EMBARGOEDUNFAIR TRIALS FEBRUARY On 14 June, Fikret Faramazoglu, editor of Unfair trials were commonplace, particularly the independent news website Journalistic in politically motivated proceedings, during Research Centre, was sentenced to seven which suspects were typically detained and years in prison and banned from his charged without22 access to a lawyer of their profession for a further two years. He had choice. Police continued using torture and been detained on 30 June 2016 for allegedly other ill-treatment to extract forced extorting money from a restaurant owner, confessions which were later used by judges charges that he denied. 00:01 as incriminating evidence. Allegations of FORCIBLE RETURNS torture and other ill-treatment were not The authorities intensified their clampdown effectively investigated. on critics who had fled the country, and On 25 January, the Baku Serious Crimes unlawfully transferred many of them back to Court sentenced 18 men associated with the Azerbaijan and harassed their families. Shi’ite Muslim Unity Movement (MUM) in STRICTLYInvestigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was Nardaran to lengthy prison terms. Their trial abducted in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, on did not meet international standards of 29 May, and reappeared in the custody of fairness and was marred by numerous torture Azerbaijani borderUNTIL police the following day. allegations. During the trial, the defendants He said he had been abducted and trafficked complained of having been tortured into THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 83 signing confessions. Witnesses called by the prosecution also said that they had been BAHRAIN threatened by police into incriminating MUM defendants. The forced testimonies were Kingdom of Bahrain admitted by court and used by the Head of state: King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa prosecution throughout the trial. Head of government: Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman al- Elgiz Garhaman, a NIDA Youth movement Khalifa activist, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on fabricated drug-related The government launched a large-scale charges following an unfair trial. He was campaign to clamp down on all forms of denied access to lawyers of his choice, and dissent by repressing the rights to freedom kept incommunicado for a week following his of expression and association of human detention. During the trial, he told the judge rights defenders and government critics. the police had beaten, threatened and This campaign was marked by travel bans; humiliated him into signing a confession. The the arrest, interrogation and arbitrary judge refused to order an investigation into detention of human rightsGMT defenders; the 2018 his allegations, dismissing them as dissolution of the opposition group Waad groundless. and the closure of the newspaper al-Wasat; On 1 December, the amendments to the as well as the continued imprisonment of Code of Civil and Administrative Procedure opposition leaders. Scores of people were excluded lawyers without Bar Association sentenced to long prison terms after unfair (Collegium of Lawyers) membership from trials. Authorities stripped at least 150 court proceedings. people of their Bahraini nationality, rendering the majority stateless. Mass DEATHS IN CUSTODY protests were05:01 met with excessive force, The authorities repeatedly failed to promptly resulting in the deaths of five men and one and effectively investigate reported deaths in child and/ the injury of hundreds. custody. Executions resumed after a hiatus of nearly On 4 May, the ECtHR ruled that the seven years. Azerbaijani government violated the right to life of Mahir Mustafayev for its failure to ETBACKGROUND protect his life while in custodyEMBARGOED and to Bahrain joined SaudiFEBRUARY Arabia, the UAE and conduct an effective investigation into the Egypt in severing ties with Qatar. Bahrain circumstances of his death. Mahir remained part of the Saudi Arabia-led Mustafayev died from his burns caused by a coalition engaged in armed conflict in Yemen fire in his cell in December 2006. (see Yemen22 entry). On 28 April, activist and blogger Mehman In January, Decree 1 of 2017 authorized the Qalandarov was found hanged in his prison National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct cell in Kurdakhani. Police arrested him on arrests and interrogations in cases linked to drug-related charges for his Facebook00:01 posts “terrorist crimes”, reversing a Bahrain in support of two other activists who had Independent Commission of Inquiry been arrested for spraying political graffiti. recommendation. In April, the King reversed According to local human rights defenders, another such recommendation by ratifying a Mehman Qalandarov had been tortured and constitutional amendment that re-enabled was buried in secret to conceal the evidence. military courts to try civilians. In December, STRICTLYThe prison administration announced his six men were sentenced to death in the first death on 29 April, and an investigation was trial of civilians by a military court, which ongoing at the end of the year. had begun in October. In June, Bahrain’s UNTIL lower house approved a decree ending retirement rights and benefits of those who THURSDAY 84 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 had their citizenship revoked, or who lost or Morocco. In May, journalist Nazeeha Saeed were granted foreign citizenship without was convicted for working without renewing permission. her press licence, issued by the Information In March, the US administration approved Affairs Authority, and fined 1,000BD the sale to Bahrain of new F-16 fighter jets (USD2,650). The court of appeal upheld the and upgrades for older jets, which under the fine in July. previous US administration had been conditional on the improvement of human FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION rights in Bahrain. The authorities maintained undue restrictions International NGOs, including Amnesty on freedom of association. Leaders of al- International, and journalists critical of Wefaq and other opposition parties remained Bahrain, were denied access to Bahrain in detention and political activists and throughout the year. members of opposition parties were harassed. Several political activists and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION members of opposition parties reported that Freedom of expression remained severely they were threatened, torturedGMT or otherwise 2018 restricted throughout the year. The authorities ill-treated by NSA agents in May. arrested, detained, interrogated and In February, the dissolution of al-Wefaq was prosecuted human rights defenders, political upheld by the Court of Cassation. In March, activists and Shi’a clerics who expressed the Minister of Justice filed a lawsuit against criticism of government policies, or criticism the secular opposition group Waad for of Saudi Arabia or the Saudi-led coalition in violating the Law on Political Associations. In Yemen. The government announced that it May, the High Administrative Court ordered would be illegal to express sympathy with the dissolution of Waad and the liquidation of Qatar following the severance of ties in June, its assets.05:01 In October the Appeal Court and arrested and detained one lawyer on that upheld the verdict. basis. Human rights defenders and Opposition/ leaders and prisoners of opposition leaders arbitrarily detained in conscience Sheikh Ali Salman and Fadhel previous years for their peaceful opposition Abbas Mahdi Mohamed remained arbitrarily remained held as prisoners of conscience. detained. In April, Sheikh Ali Salman’s prison In May, human rights defender Ebtisam al- ETsentence was reduced to four years; in Saegh was arrested and interrogatedEMBARGOED in NSA November he wasFEBRUARY charged with spying for custody, during which she said she was Qatar in 2011, which he denied, and at the tortured, including by being sexually end of the year his trial was ongoing. In assaulted. She was arrested again in July and March, former Secretary General of Waad, remanded in custody for a further six months Ebrahim 22Sharif, was charged over a series of pending completion of the investigation. She posts on Twitter, including an Amnesty was released in October without knowing the International graphic and a tweet criticizing legal status of the case against her. In July, the lack of democracy in Bahrain. human rights defender Nabeel 00:01Rajab was sentenced to two years in prison for FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY “spreading false information and rumours Protests remained banned in the capital, with the aim of discrediting the state”. The Manama, and the authorities used sentence was upheld on appeal in unnecessary and excessive force to disperse November. protests. Peaceful protesters continued to be STRICTLYThe media continued to be restricted and arrested and detained on charges of “illegal journalists were targeted. The only gathering”. In January, mostly peaceful mass independent newspaper in Bahrain, al- protests took place in 20 villages following the Wasat, was temporarilyUNTIL suspended and then execution of three men. In Duraz, security shut down after it reported on protests in forces used live ammunition and semi- THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 85 automatic rifles, injuring hundreds, including DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY Mustapha Hamdan, who later died of his Authorities obtained court orders to strip at wounds. In February, hundreds of protesters least 150 people of their Bahraini nationality. again took to the streets in several villages The majority were effectively rendered when the authorities refused to allow the stateless as they had no other nationality. No funeral of three men who were killed by forced expulsions took place. coastguard forces after escaping from Jaw prison a month earlier. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The authorities continued to restrict access There continued to be reports of torture and to Duraz village until May, where a peaceful other ill-treatment in custody, in particular of daily sit-in continued outside the home of those interrogated about terrorism-related Sheikh Isa Qassem, the spiritual leader of al- offences. In May alone, eight human rights Wefaq. On 23 May, security forces entered defenders and political activists in NSA Duraz with hundreds of armoured vehicles, custody were reportedly tortured or otherwise beating protesters, firing tear gas from ill-treated. Unfair trials continued and courts armoured vehicles or helicopters and firing relied on allegedly coercedGMT “confessions” to 2018 birdshot. Four men and a 17-year-old child convict defendants on terrorism-related were killed. charges. In February, human rights defender Nader Reports of ill-treatment in Dry Dock prison Abdulemam was arrested to serve a six- and Jaw prison continued, including the use month sentence for participating in an “illegal of prolonged solitary confinement and lack of gathering” and having called on people on adequate medical care. After the escape of Twitter to join a protest in Manama in January 10 prisoners from Jaw prison in January, new 2013. He was held as a prisoner of arbitrary regulations were introduced, conscience until his release in June. including 05:01that prisoners must remain locked In May, the Court of Appeal reduced Dr in their cells for most of the day. Prisoners’ Taha Derazi’s six-month prison sentence to legs and/ ankles were shackled whenever they three months for taking part in an “illegal left their cells, including to go to the medical gathering” in Duraz in July 2016. He was clinic. Eleven opposition activists who held as a prisoner of conscience until his remained in prison, including Abdulhadi al- release in August. ETKhawaja, refused to attend medical EMBARGOEDappointments to protestFEBRUARY the mandatory prison FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT uniform, shackles and full body strip search The authorities maintained administrative required to attend the appointment. In travel bans that prevented scores of human March, the prison administration also rights defenders and other critics from reduced 22the length of family visits from one travelling abroad, including to attend hour to 30 minutes and separated prisoners meetings of the UN Human Rights Council. from visitors by a glass barrier. In April, days ahead of the UN UPR of Student Ali Mohamed Hakeem al-Arab Bahrain, 32 activists were summoned00:01 by the reported that he was tortured throughout 26 Public Prosecution. The majority were days of interrogation in February and March, charged with “illegal gathering” and banned including by having his toenails pulled out, from travelling. Most bans were lifted in July, being subjected to electric shocks and after the UPR had been conducted. Similar beatings, and being forced to sign a tactics were used in September ahead of the “confession”. In May, Ebtisam al-Saegh and STRICTLYUN Human Rights Council session in which seven other peaceful critics reported that the outcome of the UPR on Bahrain was they were tortured and otherwise ill-treated in adopted. NSA custody. (See above, Freedom of UNTIL expression.) THURSDAY 86 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 IMPUNITY FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION A climate of impunity persisted. The Attacks against journalists continued, with a authorities continued to fail to hold senior number of physical assaults on journalists officials accountable for torture and other reported, including the killing of Abdul Hakim human rights violations committed during Shimul. and since the 2011 protests. No investigation The government continued to use or prosecution was known to have taken repressive laws to unduly restrict the right to place into the deaths of six people, including freedom of expression, and to target and one child, killed by security forces in Duraz harass journalists and human rights between January and May 2017. defenders. Key punitive provisions of the Information and Communications Technology WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT (ICT) Act remained intact, despite repeated WORKERS calls by human rights mechanisms to repeal Migrant workers continued to face its abusive clauses. The government exploitation. In March and June, migrant reiterated its intention to introduce the Digital workers participated in marches to peacefully Security Act, which would GMTrestrict further the 2018 protest against unpaid salaries. right to freedom of expression online. Investigations into killings during 2015 and DEATH PENALTY 2016, which were claimed by the armed Bahrain resumed executions after a hiatus of group Ansar al-Islam and targeted secular nearly seven years, executing three Bahrainis activists, were still ongoing. The group was in January. The courts continued to hand banned in March 2017 but ongoing delays in down death sentences for offences including criminal prosecutions continued to have a murder and terrorism-related charges. chilling impact05:01 on civil society. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER/ AND INTERSEX PEOPLE BANGLADESH LGBTI activists continued to be routinely People’s Republic of Bangladesh harassed and subject to arbitrary detention Head of state: Abdul Hamid by state and non-state actors. The killings of Head of government: Sheikh Hasina ETactivists in 2016 by Ansar al-Islam intensified EMBARGOEDexisting fears of theFEBRUARY LGBTI community; many Bangladesh received more than 655,000 activists remained in hiding. In May, 28 men Rohingya refugees who were forced out of believed to have been targeted for their Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Members of the perceived sexual orientation were arrested in opposition Jamaat-e-Islami were arbitrarily Keraniganj,22 a neighbourhood of the capital, arrested. Human rights defenders were Dhaka, and charged with violating the harassed and intimidated. The rights to Narcotics Control Act 1990. The arrests were freedom of peaceful assembly and made at a regular gathering known to be association remained restricted.00:01 Enforced frequented by gay men. disappearances persisted. The strategy to No one was brought to justice for the 2016 combat violence by armed groups continued killing of LGBTI activists Xulhaz Mannan, to be marked by human rights violations. Mahbub Rabbi Tanoy, Avijit Roy and Niladry LGBTI people continued to be harassed and Niloy, although at least one arrest was made arrested. Security forces in the Chittagong in 2017. STRICTLYHill Tracts failed to protect Indigenous people from violence. On a positive note, a FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY decade of steady economic growth helped The right to freedom of peaceful to reduce extremeUNTIL poverty. assembly continued to be severely restricted. Political opponents were denied the right to THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 87 organize campaign meetings and political that indicated executive interference following rallies.The activities of NGOs continued to be the 16th Amendment decision. restricted through the Foreign Donation (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS An acute humanitarian crisis began in August ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES when more than 655,000 of Myanmar’s Enforced disappearances were routinely mainly Muslim Rohingya fled to the district of carried out by security forces, mainly Cox’s Bazar after fleeing violence inflicted by targeting supporters of the opposition. Some the Myanmar military in northern Rakhine of the disappeared were subsequently found State. The Myanmar military’s campaign of dead. In a statement to the authorities in ethnic cleansing amounted to crimes against February, the UN Working Group on Enforced humanity under international law (see or Involuntary Disappearances said that the Myanmar entry). Cox’s Bazar already hosted number of enforced disappearances had approximately 400,000 Rohingya refugees risen considerably in recent years. Reports who had fled earlier episodes of violence and suggested that more than 80 people were persecution at the hands ofGMT the Myanmar 2018 forcibly disappeared during the year. military. In March, Hummam Quader Chowdhury, Bangladesh continued to refuse to formally son of an executed leader of the opposition recognize Rohingya as refugees. Reports of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was released severe malnutrition were rife; children after six months’ incommunicado detention. comprised 61% of the new arrivals and were Concerns increased for the safety of Mir particularly affected. Ahmad Bin Quasem and Abdullahil Amaan Rohingya women and girls were at Azmi, also sons of executed opposition heightened risk of sexual and gender-based leaders; they disappeared in August 2016 violence and05:01 human trafficking, both by the and their whereabouts remained unknown at local population and other refugees. Risk the end of 2017. In April, Swedish Radio factors/ included inadequate protection or published an interview – recorded camp management mechanisms, poor living undercover – in which a senior member of conditions, lack of a civil administration and the Rapid Action Battalion described how the police presence, as well as lack of access to unit carried out enforced disappearances and ETthe formal justice system and other services. extrajudicial executions. InEMBARGOED October, Newly arrived RohingyaFEBRUARY lived in squalid academic Mubashar Hasan was conditions and were not permitted to leave allegedly abducted by members of military the camp. intelligence; he returned home after 44 days. In November, the governments of Bangladesh22 and Myanmar signed a JUSTICE SYSTEM repatriation agreement to facilitate the return Concerns increased about the growing of newly arrived Rohingya to Myanmar. The interference by the government in the conditions of the agreement could violate judiciary. In July, the Chief Justice00:01 presided international standards on voluntary over a ruling overturning a controversial repatriation and the international legal constitutional amendment (16th principle of non-refoulement, paving the way Amendment) which allowed parliament to for forcible return of hundreds of thousands impeach judges if charges against them of of Rohingya to Myanmar where they were at misconduct or incapability were upheld. The serious risk of human rights violations. STRICTLYPrime Minister criticized the Chief Justice after the ruling. Subsequently in November, TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Chief Justice Sinha resigned from his post Torture and other ill-treatment in custody and left the countryUNTIL under circumstances remained widespread and complaints were rarely investigated. The 2013 Torture and THURSDAY 88 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Custodial Death (Prevention) Act continued to be inadequately enforced due to a lack of BELARUS political will and awareness among law enforcement agencies. Republic of Belarus Head of state: Alyaksandr Lukashenka DEATH PENALTY Head of government: Andrey Kabyakou Scores of people were sentenced to death and executions took place. Between February and April, the authorities In April, two people were sentenced to violently cracked down on peaceful death after being convicted of crimes against protests. The government continued to humanity by the International Crimes refuse to accept the mandate of the UN Tribunal, a Bangladeshi court established to Special Rapporteur on human rights in investigate the events of the 1971 Belarus. Several individuals seeking independence war. The Tribunal also international protection were returned to concluded the hearing of arguments in the countries where they were at risk of torture trial of six alleged war criminals in Gaibandha and other ill-treatment. HeavyGMT legislative 2018 for mass killings, abductions, looting and restrictions on media, NGOs, political arson during the 1971 war. The trial parties and public assemblies remained in remained ongoing. Serious concerns place. One person was executed and four regarding the fairness of the trial were raised were sentenced to death. about the Tribunal proceedings, such as denial of adequate time for defence lawyers BACKGROUND to prepare their cases and arbitrary limitation After several years with no large protests, of the number of witnesses. mass demonstrations took place in February and March05:01 against a tax on the unemployed, CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS introduced by a Presidential Decree in 2015. In June, at least one person was killed and The authorities/ clamped down on the hundreds of homes were burned during a protests. In March, they accused 35 men of mob attack on Indigenous people in the town plotting mass disturbances supported with of Langadu, Rangamati Hill District. Police foreign funding, and hinted that these were and soldiers reportedly failed to protect ETlinked to the demonstrations. The arrests Indigenous villagers. ThoseEMBARGOED made homeless were widely televised;FEBRUARY by July, all men had had not been rehoused by the end of the been released. year. A video posted on social media The rapprochement between Belarus and appeared to show soldiers using excessive its western neighbours continued. In July, the force against students peacefully protesting OSCE Parliamentary22 Assembly was held in against the violence and the 1996 Minsk, the capital. disappearance of Indigenous rights activist Kalpana Chakma. Mithun Chakma, an DEATH PENALTY Indigenous rights campaigner, 00:01denounced a In April, Siarhei Vostrykau, who had been on “situation of suffocation” in which he was death row since May 2016, was executed. forced to attend court up to eight times a Homel Regional Court received confirmation month to answer criminal charges relating to of his execution on 29 April. The last letter 11 separate cases, some of which were his mother received from him was dated 13 under the ICT Act and concerned articles he April. STRICTLYhad posted on social media about human Five men remained on death row. They rights violations, thus preventing him from included Aliaksei Mikhalenya, whose carrying out his work as a human rights sentence on 17 March was upheld by the defender. UNTIL Supreme Court on 30 June; Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy, both sentenced on THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 89 21 July and whose appeals were rejected by or detained for five to 25 days. All but one the Supreme Court on 20 December, and arrested individual were found guilty in Viktar Liotau who was sentenced on 22 summary trials; courts uniformly accepted September. Kiryl Kazachok, who was police reports as evidence against them sentenced on 28 December 2016, chose not without any questioning. to appeal. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE Heavy restrictions on NGOs remained in Dozens of protesters were sentenced for their place. Under Article 193.1 of the Criminal peaceful activism. On 7 April, Zavodski Code, the founding, or participation in, the District Court in Minsk changed Dzmitry activities of an unregistered organization Paliyenka’s conditional sentence from 2016 remained a crime punishable by up to two to two years’ imprisonment after he received years’ imprisonment. two administrative penalties. His first On 25 March, masked police officers raided administrative penalty on 10 March 2017 – a the office of human rights group Vyasna and seven-day detention for “minor hooliganism” arrested all 57 people present.GMT Among them 2018 and “disobedience to lawful police demands” were local and international human rights – was imposed after he vocally criticized the defenders and journalists who were attending verdict at a trial he was observing. His training on how to monitor demonstrations. second administrative penalty on 20 March They were held for three hours at the local 2017 – a 15-day detention for “organizing or police station and released without charge or participating in unsanctioned mass events” – explanation. One detainee was hospitalized was imposed for his peaceful protest on 25 for head injuries sustained during the arrest. February against the construction of a building in central Minsk. Dzmitry Paliyenka FREEDOM05:01 OF EXPRESSION received the two-year suspended sentence Official accreditation remained compulsory for purportedly assaulting a police officer for anyone/ working for a foreign media outlet during a peaceful cyclists’ protest in Minsk in and continued to be routinely and arbitrarily April 2016. denied. More than 100 print, radio and TV journalists and bloggers were arrested for not FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY EThaving obtained accreditation, some In February and March, thousandsEMBARGOED of people repeatedly, leadingFEBRUARY to fines. In at least eight attended a series of peaceful rallies across cases, journalists reporting from protests the country to protest against the tax on the were arrested as participants and sentenced unemployed. Some of the organizers and to administrative detention of between five participants reported harassment by the and 15 days.22 police, including brief detentions and police Journalist Larysa Schyryakova, from the city summons for questioning. On 25 March, Homel in southeastern Belarus, was arrested police prevented peaceful protesters from and fined repeatedly for reporting on assembling in central Minsk and00:01 arrested protests. She reported that police warned her hundreds; some arrests were made using that she could be found “socially excessive force. Some protesters were irresponsible” if she committed further severely beaten by law enforcement officials administrative offences and that her 11-year- during arrest and in police custody. old son might be placed in a children’s home. Between February and April, over 900 STRICTLYpeople were arrested in connection with the LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR protests, including political activists who were INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS prevented from attending the protests and The tax on the unemployed remained in journalists. At UNTILleast 177 were found guilty of place; failure to comply continued to incur purported administrative offences and fined administrative fines and compulsory THURSDAY 90 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 community service. In March, after the protests against the tax, the President BELGIUM mandated the government to suspend the tax collection until 2018; in August, he promised Kingdom of Belgium to waive the tax for “people with many Head of state: King Philippe children, the sick and invalids”. Respective Head of government: Charles Michel changes were introduced in October. Prison conditions remained poor; hundreds REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS of offenders with mental health problems or Belarus lacked a functioning asylum system mental disabilities continued to be detained and repeatedly handed over individuals in inadequate prison wards. Several laws on seeking international protection to authorities professional secrecy introduced of countries where they were at real risk of requirements for social workers to share torture or other ill-treatment. private information regarding potential FORCIBLE RETURN suspects of terrorism-related offences. Ethnic Chechen Imran Salamov, who claimed Parliament introduced a numberGMT of 2018 to have been repeatedly tortured in restrictions to asylum and migration laws. A Chechnya, was forcibly returned to Russia on new law on legal gender recognition 5 September. He was in the process of improved the rights of transgender people. appealing against his rejected asylum application. On 11 September, the Chechen COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY authorities confirmed that he was in police In July, Parliament adopted a new law custody in Grozny, capital of Chechnya. Since establishing a special status and that date, he had had no contact with his compensation system for victims of terrorism- lawyer or family and his whereabouts related offences.05:01 However, the law failed to remained undisclosed at the end of the year. ensure swift and full compensation. Victims Following his forcible return, the Belarusian could /access state compensation only after a authorities opened an investigation which burdensome and lengthy process. concluded that there had been a violation of In May, Parliament passed a law requiring Belarusian law and that Imran Salamov had employees of welfare institutions to report to been prematurely expelled from Belarus. ETprosecutors, or provide upon their request, Disciplinary action was takenEMBARGOED against a information on peopleFEBRUARY who could be involved number of officials linked to his case and was in the perpetration of terrorism-related ongoing at the end of the year. offences. In June a new law passed that Russian-Ukrainian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr allowed the sharing of confidential Lapshin was detained in Belarus in information22 previously protected by December 2016 on request from Azerbaijan, professional secrecy obligations to prevent and extradited to Azerbaijan in February the commission of terrorism-related offences. where he was detained arbitrarily and In October, Parliament amended the prosecuted in connection with 00:01his blog posts Constitution to increase the maximum criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities. duration of pre-charge detention from 24 to Aleksandr Lapshin was sentenced to three 48 hours. The provision applies to suspects years’ imprisonment and released under a of any crime, although the initial proposed presidential pardon on 11 September (see scope was restricted to suspects of terrorism- Azerbaijan entry). related offences. STRICTLY Authorities failed to effectively monitor the human rights impact of measures against UNTIL terrorism and radicalization. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 91 DETENTION in the context of this operation. In December, Prisons continued to be overcrowded, testimonies surfaced of returnees who stated facilities dilapidated and there was that upon return they had been detained by insufficient access to basic services. Several Sudanese government agents, interrogated hundred offenders with mental health and subjected to ill-treatment or torture. The problems or mental disabilities remained in government announced an investigation into detention in regular prisons with insufficient the allegations. health care and treatment. In May, the European Court of Human DISCRIMINATION Rights (ECtHR) found that the conditions of On 14 March, the Court of Justice of the EU detention of two detainees in two different failed to uphold Muslim women’s right to prisons amounted to inhuman or degrading non-discrimination by ruling that a private treatment. Belgian employer had not breached EU anti- In July, the European Committee for the discrimination law in dismissing a woman for Prevention of Torture raised concerns wearing a headscarf. regarding the consequences of the repeated GMT 2018 strikes by prison officials in recent years RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, which worsened the poor detention TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE conditions. On 24 May, Parliament adopted a law In September, the ECtHR ruled that allowing transgender people to seek legal Belgium had violated the right to life of gender recognition without imposing on them Michael Tekin, an offender with a mental any psychiatric assessment or sterilization health problem who died in custody in a requirements. regular section of Jamioulx prison on 8 August 2009. The Court found that the ARMS TRADE05:01 restraining technique used by three prison The Walloon regional government continued officers was unnecessary and to license/ weapon transfers to parties of the disproportionate. Saudi-Arabia-led coalition in Yemen. In June, the Flemish regional Parliament improved the REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS compliance of its legislation with the Arms The authorities resumed the transfers of ETTrade Treaty by, among other things, asylum-seekers to GreeceEMBARGOED under the Dublin amending the legalFEBRUARY definition of transit. III Regulation – EU law that determines the However, it failed to address the control of EU member state responsible for examining the end-use of parts and components that an application for asylum. could be used to produce arms. In November, laws were adopted widening 22 the scope for detention of asylum-seekers and curtailing the right to appeal negative asylum decisions. BENIN In September, the government00:01 invited a Republic of Benin delegation of Sudanese government officials Head of state and government: Patrice Athanase to identify dozens of undocumented Guillaume Talon Sudanese nationals with the intention of returning them to Sudan. Several judicial The authorities continued to restrict the proceedings were started challenging forcible rights to freedom of expression and STRICTLYreturns on the basis of the principle of non- peaceful assembly. Fourteen prisoners refoulement – the forcible return of remained on death row although the death individuals to countries where they risk penalty had been abolished. Civil society serious humanUNTIL rights violations. Ten groups’ access to prisons was restricted. Sudanese nationals were reportedly returned THURSDAY 92 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Benin joined the AU campaign to end child as many detainees as its intended capacity, marriage. and Kandi Civil Prison held twice as many. Around 4,500 of the country’s 7,179 BACKGROUND detainees awaited trial. In April, the National Assembly rejected a In April, the Ministry of Justice issued an presidential bill which aimed to amend the order restricting the access of NGOs, Constitution. It contained provisions which religious and civil society groups to detention limited the President’s tenure to one six-year centres. Authorization for group visits was non-renewable term and provided immunity issued for periods of three months. from police custody or pre-trial detention for Authorization could not be renewed without the President and members of the groups presenting a report of their activities government. for sign-off by the prison director who could In November, Benin’s human rights record make observations for the Minister of was examined under the UN UPR process. Justice’s attention, or even refuse to sign the The government accepted 191 report. recommendations and made note of seven GMT 2018 others including calls to strengthen efforts to DEATH PENALTY prevent the use of arbitrary detention, The government failed to adopt laws to extrajudicial executions and the excessive remove the death penalty from legislation use of force by security forces; and to ensure despite its abolition by the Constitutional that all national legislation complied with Court in 2016. However, it accepted a international standards on the rights to recommendation made under the UN UPR freedom of expression and media freedom, process to commute all death sentences and and to take steps to prevent the arbitrary expedite the adoption of provisions under the suspension of media outlets. new Criminal05:01 Code to abolish the death penalty. Fourteen prisoners remained on FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND death /row at the end of the year. Their ASSEMBLY detention conditions improved slightly during In January, Radio Soleil FM, E-Tele and Eden the year when restrictions on outdoor TV reopened. They were three of the seven activities were relaxed.1 media outlets which the High Authority of ET Audiovisual CommunicationEMBARGOED (HAAC) closed CHILDREN’S RIGHTSFEBRUARY in November 2016. Four other outlets which In June, Benin became the 20th country to broadcast from abroad – Sikka TV, la join the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage. Chrétienne TV, Unafrica TV and La Béninoise The campaign’s objectives included – remained closed. In May, the Court of First educating22 communities about the negative Instance in Cotonou fined HAAC President effects of child marriage. Despite legislation 50 million CFA francs (around USD89,648) prohibiting marriage before the age of 18, for closing Sikka TV. 32% of girls continued to marry under 18 On 17 February police used tear00:01 gas to years, and 9% married before the age of 15. disperse hundreds of University of Abomey- In November, the government accepted a Calavi students. They had gathered at a hotel recommendation under the UN UPR process in Abomey-Calavi, a suburb of Cotonou, for a to fast-track the implementation of legislation general assembly and press conference, and which would address harmful practices to peacefully protest against the October against children, including in relation to STRICTLY2016 ban on all student union activities. forced early and child marriages. DETENTION 1. Living in limbo: Benin’s last death row prisoners (ACT 50/4980/2017) Prisons remainedUNTIL overcrowded; Abomey Civil Prison in the de Zou district held three times THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 93 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS BOLIVIA In August, the President promulgated Law 969, allowing the construction of a road that will cut across the Isiboro Sécure National  Plurinational State of Bolivia Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS), one Head of state and government: President Evo Morales of the country’s main water reserves and Ayma home to approximately 14,000 people, mainly from Indigenous communities. This A Truth Commission was created to Law repealed legislation under which the investigate serious human rights violations TIPNIS was a protected area, raising committed under military governments concerns about possible development of (1964-1982). Progress was made in other infrastructure and extractive projects in protecting the rights of transgender people. the area. Concerns remained regarding threats against and harassment of human rights RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, organizations, and Indigenous Peoples’ TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEXGMT PEOPLE 2018 rights. In June, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal granted civil marriage rights to people who BACKGROUND had legally changed their gender. In November, the Constitutional Court ruled Nevertheless, same-sex marriage remained to lift the limits on candidates standing in officially unrecognized. In the same month, presidential re-elections thereby allowing the Ombudsman proposed an amendment to President Morales to stand for a fourth the Criminal Code to make hate crimes consecutive term in 2019. against LGBTI people a criminal offence. In The country office of the UN High the past decade,05:01 the authorities had failed to Commissioner for Human Rights closed hold perpetrators accountable for the killings down on 31 December after the government of LGBTI/ people. decided not to renew its mandate. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IMPUNITY Unsafe abortions continued to be one of the In August, a Truth Commission was ETmain causes of maternal mortality. established to investigate EMBARGOEDserious human FEBRUARY rights violations committed under the military HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS governments between 1964 and1982. It is On 6 February, leaders of the Federation of due to submit a report in two years. The Bolivian Mineworkers took over the armed forces created a working group Permanent22 Human Rights Assembly for composed of military officers to provide several hours in the capital, La Paz, and support for the Commission, including by demanded the removal of its president. granting access to their archives. Meanwhile, human rights organizations and 00:01 Indigenous leaders held a press conference PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES at the Assembly, where they announced that In August, the Plurinational Legislative the Inter-American Commission on Human Assembly passed a law to facilitate the Rights had asked the government to provide inclusion in the labour market of people with information on their request for precautionary disabilities and the provision of financial measures. The organizations had submitted STRICTLYassistance for people with severe disabilities. the request on behalf of Indigenous Peoples For years, disability rights activists have in voluntary isolation whose survival they called for a monthly disability allowance alleged would be at risk due to proposed oil which has yet UNTILto be granted. extraction in their territories. THURSDAY 94 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In March, the Bolivian Documentation and after the Council of Ministers removed a Information Centre (CEDIB), an NGO based portion of its funding for the second at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón, a consecutive year. public university in Cochabamba, reported Police failures to thoroughly investigate acts that the Dean of the university had harassed of violence and discrimination against LGBTI them and threatened them with eviction. people continued. No indictments were Despite the CEDIB director’s request that issued against those suspected of criminal safety guarantees be provided to his staff and responsibility for the 2014 attack on the archives, he received no response from the organizers of the Merlinka Queer Film authorities. In November, CEDIB reported Festival, or the 2016 incident in Sarajevo, the that its bank accounts were frozen as a result capital, in which a group of young men of a judicial administrative procedure which harassed and physically threatened visitors of had been filed by the Dean. a café and cinema popular with the LGBTI community. In May, a planned public gathering to mark the International Day against Homophobia and TransphobiaGMT could 2018 BOSNIA AND not take place as Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Traffic failed to provide the necessary permits HERZEGOVINA in time, although it received a formal application in advance. Bosnia and Herzegovina People with disabilities, in particular women Head of state: Rotating presidency – Bakir Izetbegović, and children, continued to face systemic Dragan Čović, Mladen Ivanić Head of government: Denis Zvizdić social exclusion, including severely limited access to health services and mainstream Minorities continued to face widespread education.05:01 According to legislation, people discrimination. Threats and attacks against with disabilities whose impairment was not a journalists and media freedom persisted. consequence/ of war were treated differently Access to justice and reparations for civilian and received lower allowances and social victims of war remained limited. benefits than war veterans and civilian victims of war. DISCRIMINATION ETThe 2009 judgment of the European Court Social exclusion and discriminationEMBARGOED – in of Human Rights FEBRUARYin Sejdić-Finci v. Bosnia particular of Roma; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and Herzegovina which found the power- transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people; sharing arrangements set out in the and of people with disabilities – remained Constitution to be discriminatory, remained widespread, despite the adoption of a unimplemented.22 Under the arrangements, progressive Law on Prevention of citizens who would not declare themselves as Discrimination in 2016. belonging to one of the three main Efforts continued to reduce the number of constituent peoples of the country (Bosniaks, Roma without identity documents00:01 and to Croats and Serbs) were still excluded from increase the number of Roma children running for legislative and executive office. enrolled in primary schools. However, Roma continued to face systemic barriers to FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION education, housing, health services and The pattern of threats, political pressure and employment. In July, the Council of Ministers attacks against journalists continued. In July STRICTLYadopted a new three-year Action Plan for and August, Dragan Bursać, a journalist with Roma Integration specifically aimed at Al Jazeera Balkans, received a series of improving employment opportunities and death threats after publishing a piece in easing accessUNTIL to housing and health services. which he condemned public gatherings in The Plan’s implementation was hampered Banja Luka city in support of a charged war THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 95 criminal. Local journalist associations year. The Law would guarantee a specific set documented nearly 40 cases of direct of rights and entitlement for victims of war on pressure, verbal threats and physical attacks the whole territory of Bosnia and against journalists by the end of the year. Herzegovina. Criminal courts continued the recent CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW practice of granting financial compensation to In November, the International Criminal victims of wartime rape, bringing the number Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of final judgments awarding financial issued the first-instance verdict in the case of reparation for war crimes in criminal former Bosnian Serb leader, General Ratko proceedings to four. However, the Mladić. The ICTY found him guilty of compensations had not been paid by the end genocide, war crimes, and crimes against of the year. The convicted perpetrators humanity committed during the 1992-1995 lacked funds and there was no alternative conflict and sentenced him to life mechanism to compensate survivors of imprisonment. criminal acts in cases where convicted Also in November, the ICTY confirmed perpetrators were not ableGMT to pay damages. 2018 earlier sentences against six former Bosnian Most victims continued to be required to Croat political and military leaders. This was pursue compensation claims in separate civil the final verdict passed by the tribunal prior proceedings, where they had to reveal their to permanently shutting down in December, identity and incur additional costs. The 2016 after 23 years of operation. Constitutional Court ruling that the statute of The domestic prosecution of war crimes limitations applied to reparation claims remained slow, with a backlog of several directed against the perpetrators and not the hundred cases pending before various courts state – even in war crimes cases – resulted in at the end of the year. Despite recent widespread05:01 dismissal of claims in 2017, progress, the prosecutions continued to further limiting victims’ ability to claim suffer from lack of capacity and resources, compensation/ and leaving them liable for ineffective case-management and persistent high court fees. political obstruction. A revision of the 2008 Although over 75% of missing persons from National War Crimes Strategy to address key the war had been exhumed and identified, institutional deficiencies and to establish new ETthere were still 8,000 people missing in deadlines for the completionEMBARGOED of cases was connection with theFEBRUARY conflict. The process of under way at the end of the year. exhumations continued to encounter Some progress was made in harmonizing significant challenges, including reduced entity laws regulating the rights of civilian funding and limited expertise. The Law on victims of war, including victims of wartime Missing Persons22 remained unimplemented, sexual violence. However, public aid for with the Fund for Families of the Missing still victims of wartime sexual violence remained awaiting dedicated resources. fragmented and dependent on residency; victims residing in Republika Srpska00:01 (RS) were excluded from the system of social benefits for civilian victims of war. The Draft BOTSWANA Law on Protection of Victims of Wartime Republic of Botswana Torture in RS, intended to recognize victims’ Head of state and government: Seretse Khama Ian rights, was adopted by the government in Khama STRICTLYDecember, but it included provisions which could potentially discriminate against non- The right to freedom of expression Serb victims. There was no progress in the continued to be restricted. Asylum-seekers adoption of theUNTIL Law on Protection of Victims whose asylum claims were rejected of Torture at the state level by the end of the continued to face detention. A landmark THURSDAY 96 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 ruling in the Lobatse High Court upheld the determination procedures and asylum- rights of transgender people. Two men were seekers – with both pending and denied sentenced to death. applications – continued to be detained in the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION The duration of detention averaged between Journalists continued to be intimidated and six months and five years, far beyond the harassed by the authorities. On 8 March, detention period stipulated in the Refugee three journalists from the INK Centre for Act. Investigative Journalism were briefly detained On 13 April, the High Court ordered the and threatened by plain-clothes security release of two Somali asylum-seekers from agents in the village of Mosu. The journalists the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants. had tried to access the area where the new They had been detained in the Centre since home of President Khama was allegedly being denied refugee status in October 2015, being constructed amid allegations of having arrived separately in Botswana in corruption. The security agents told them that June 2014. On 15 April, following their the building site was a “restricted area” and release, they were taken intoGMT custody at the 2018 that they would be shot on sight if they tried Tlokweng police station after attempting to to return. enter the Dukwe Refugee Camp, Botswana’s On 19 April, the Court of Appeal upheld an only refugee camp. On 25 April, President earlier decision by the High Court and turned Khama declared them to be prohibited down the application of a teacher who had immigrants; they were subsequently detained challenged his dismissal from employment at the first offenders prison in Gaborone, the on the grounds that it violated his capital, and have allegedly since been constitutional right to freedom of expression. deported. The teacher was dismissed after he On 23 November,05:01 the Court of Appeal set published an opinion piece in a newspaper in aside the High Court ruling that the detention May 2011 on the country’s political situation, of 165/ asylum-seekers and their relatives was following a national strike by public sector illegal. As a result, the asylum-seekers sought employees. In February 2012, a disciplinary refuge in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South hearing had found the teacher guilty of Africa. Members of the group had arrived in contravening section 34(a) of the Public ETBotswana between January 2014 and Service Act. EMBARGOEDOctober 2016 and,FEBRUARY after their asylum Outsa Mokone, editor of the Sunday applications were denied, they had remained Standard, continued to face a criminal in detention in the Francistown Centre for sedition charge following his arrest in 2014 Illegal Immigrants. The Attorney General after publishing articles alleging President made an 22appeal on 4 August. Khama’s involvement in a road accident. In December 2016, he was released on bail and RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, asked to appear at the magistrate’s court TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE every two months and to seek permission00:01 In a landmark decision on 29 September, the before leaving the country. His legal case Lobatse High Court ruled that the challenging the constitutionality of the government’s refusal to change the gender sedition law was still pending at the end of marker in the identity document of a the year. transgender man was unreasonable and in violation of his rights, including the right to STRICTLYREFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS dignity, freedom of expression and freedom Botswana’s restrictive encampment policy from discrimination, and ordered the continued, denying refugees freedom of government to change the gender marker. movement, workUNTIL and local integration. On 12 December, the Gaborone High Court Asylum-seekers faced lengthy refugee status ruled in favour of Tshepo Ricki Kgositau, a THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 97 transgender woman who successfully retrogressive measures, proposals were challenged the government’s refusal to introduced to reduce the age at which change her gender from male to female in children can be tried as adults to below 18; her identity document as unconstitutional. change or revoke the Disarmament Bill, Tshepo Ricki Kgositau had unsuccessfully facilitating licensing and purchasing of applied to the Civil and National Registration firearms; restrict the right to peaceful Office in Gaborone to change her gender assembly and to criminalize social protests; identity. The Office advised her to seek a impose a full ban on abortion, violating the court order after denying her application. sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls; change the land demarcation process INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE and requirements for free, prior and informed On 17 July, Parliament passed a bill which consent of Indigenous Peoples and Afro- incorporated the Rome Statute of the descendant communities; and reduce the International Criminal Court into domestic protection of labour rights and access to law, including the offences of genocide, social security. crimes against humanity and war crimes. Law 13.491/2017, signedGMT by President 2018 This followed Botswana’s ratification of the Temer on 13 October, provided that human Rome Statute in 2000. rights violations, including murder or attempted murder, committed by military DEATH PENALTY personnel against civilians would be tried by Tshiamo Kgalalelo and Mmika Mpe were military courts.1 The Law violated the right to sentenced to death on 13 December; they a fair trial, as military courts in Brazil did not were convicted of murder and other charges, guarantee judicial independence. including theft and abduction, in the Lobatse Despite these setbacks, in May a new High Court in May. migration 05:01law (Law 13.445/2017) came into effect, representing improvements to migrants’/ rights. BRAZIL INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY Federative Republic of Brazil Brazil’s human rights record was examined Head of state and government: Michel Temer ETfor the third time under the UN EMBARGOEDUPR process. 2 BrazilFEBRUARY received 246 A number of proposals which threatened recommendations, including on Indigenous human rights and represented huge Peoples’ rights to land; killings by the police; setbacks to existing law and policy made torture and degrading conditions in prisons; their way through the legislative process. and protection22 of human rights defenders. Violence and killings increased, mostly Brazil accepted all but four affecting young black males. Conflicts over recommendations; however, there remained land and natural resources resulted in concerns about their implementation in the dozens of killings. Human rights00:01 defenders context of the retrogressive laws and policies were not effectively protected. Police adopted during the year. responded to most protests with In May the Inter-American Court of Human unnecessary and excessive force. Rights issued a ruling against Brazil for its failure to grant justice for the killing by police LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR of 26 people in Favela Nova Brasília, in STRICTLYINSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS Complexo do Alemão, city of Rio de Janeiro, Up to 200 different proposals for in October 1994 and May 1995. constitutional amendments, new laws and changes to existingUNTIL legislation threatened a range of human rights. Among other THURSDAY 98 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES methodologies; however, official numbers The deployment of the armed forces for indicated that such killings increased across policing and law and order increased. Brazil. Official figures showed that on-duty The authorities failed to adopt measures to police officers killed 494 people in São Paulo reduce the homicide rate, which remained state between January and September and, high for young black males. The number of between January and November, 1,035 in homicides increased in major cities, Rio de Janeiro state and 148 in Ceará state. especially in the northeast. National data On 13 February, four people were killed and compiled and published during the year by others injured by military police during a the Brazilian Public Security Forum revealed police intervention in the favela of Chapadão, that 61,619 people were killed during 2016, Rio de Janeiro city. of which 4,657 were women. Public security In February, a 21-day strike by the military policies continued to rely on highly militarized police in Espírito Santo state resulted in police interventions, motivated mainly by the chaos. Armed forces and national security so-called “war on drugs”. forces were called in to police the state. In January the Ministry of Justice On 12 July, a homeless manGMT was killed by a 2018 announced a Public Security National Plan military police officer in the neighbourhood of which was to focus on reducing homicides, Pinheiros, city of São Paulo. tackling drug trafficking and conducting a In August, at least seven people were killed review of the prison system. A detailed and by the police during police interventions that comprehensive plan was never presented or continued for several days in the favela implemented and the public security Jacarezinho, Rio de Janeiro city. Residents situation deteriorated during the year. reported that police officers were violent and Instances of “multiple homicides” (single committed a number of abuses, such as events with more than three victims) and assaults, unlawful05:01 raids on homes, and “chacinas” (multiple killings characteristic of unlawful killings. The police interventions executions) increased in several cities; the may have/ been in retaliation for a police authorities often failed to properly investigate. officer being killed in the area. On 5 January, eight men were killed by a On 3 September, 10 men were killed by civil group of armed men in Porto Seguro, Bahia police officers during a police intervention state. On 3 June, six men were killed inside a ETattempting to prevent an armed robbery in house by armed hooded menEMBARGOED in Porto das the neighbourhood FEBRUARY of Morumbi, São Paulo Dunas in Fortaleza, Ceará state. On 6 June, city. four men and a woman were killed and nine Early in the year, military police from the other people were injured by a group of 10 Pacification Police Unit raided several houses hooded gunmen in a bar in Belem, Pará in the favela22 Complexo do Alemão, Rio de state. On 22 September, six young men aged Janeiro city. These unlawful actions by police between 16 and 23 were killed in Grande continued even after a court ruled that the Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state. In Bom police should leave the area. Those Jardim neighbourhood in Fortaleza,00:01 Ceará denouncing the police violations were state, five people were killed and three others threatened and intimidated. After months of injured on 20 February, and four young mobilization, the Public Prosecutor’s Office males aged between 14 and 20 were killed brought charges against two police officers inside a house on 8 October. In most cases, who were in command of the operation and the perpetrators were unidentified. responsible for the area. STRICTLYPolice interventions in favelas and On 11 November, seven men were killed marginalized areas often resulted in intensive during a joint security operation of the Civil shoot-outs and deaths. Data about people Police and the Army in São Gonçalo, Rio de killed by the policeUNTIL remained inaccurate as Janeiro state. Civilian authorities said they states kept poor records using different had no competence to investigate the killings THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 99 after a new law expanded the jurisdiction of FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY military courts to try crimes committed by On 31 March, thousands of people protested military personnel. The military denied using in major cities against proposed reforms to firearms, and did not announce whether it labour laws and social security policies. On had opened an investigation into the killings. 28 April, social movements, students and trade unions called for a “general strike” and DETENTION tens of thousands of people protested The prison system remained overcrowded throughout the country after the labour and prisoners suffered inhuman and reforms were approved. In many areas, degrading conditions. The prison population including Rio de Janeiro city, the police used reached 727,000 people, 55% of whom were unnecessary and excessive force against aged between 18 and 29 and 64% of whom peaceful protesters. were Afro-descendant, according to the On 24 May at least 49 people were injured, Ministry of Justice. A significant proportion – including eight military police officers and 40% nationally – of those imprisoned were in one man who was shot with a firearm, after pre-trial detention, where detainees often police used excessive forceGMT against protesters 2018 waited several months to face trial. in the capital, Brasilia. Tens of thousands of In January, riots took place in prisons in people protested against President Temer in several states resulting in at least 123 deaths: a demonstration that ended in clashes with 64 in Amazonas state; 31 in Roraima; 26 in the police and damage to public buildings. Rio Grande do Norte; and two in Paraíba.3 The federal government called in the military In May, 32 people escaped from Pedrinhas to police the area in the following days. prison in Maranhão state; two escapees were killed by prison guards. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS As a result of extreme overcrowding in Human rights05:01 defenders, especially those in prisons in Rio Grande do Sul state, some rural areas, continued to be threatened, people detained by police were held for more attacked/ and killed. The states of Pará and than 48 hours in unsuitable areas in police Maranhão were among those where stations and cars, while waiting for space in defenders were at the highest risk. According the prison system. to the civil society coalition Brazilian In October, a man died after being detained ETCommittee for Human Rights Defenders, 62 for a day and a night in anEMBARGOED outdoor cage-like defenders were killedFEBRUARY between January and cell in a police station in Barra do Corda, September, an increase from the previous Maranhão state. The cell had no protection year. Most were killed in conflicts over land from the sun or extremely high temperatures, and natural resources. Budget cuts and lack leaving detainees at risk of dehydration and of political22 will to prioritize the protection of other dangerous consequences of exposure. human rights defenders resulted in the In Rio de Janeiro state, inhumane prison dismantling of the National Programme of conditions were further degraded by the Protection, leaving hundreds exposed to a financial crisis, putting at risk the00:01 supply of higher risk of attacks. food, water and medicines for more than 50,800 prisoners. Tuberculosis and skin LAND DISPUTES diseases reached epidemic levels inside the On 20 April at least nine men were killed and state’s prisons. others injured in Colniza, Mato Grosso state, The 25th anniversary of the Carandiru after gunmen attacked rural workers in the STRICTLYmassacre, in which 111 people were killed by settlement of Taquaruçu do Norte. The the police in Carandiru prison, São Paulo, decade-long trend of frequent, violent attacks was on 2 October. Those responsible for the by gunmen hired by large-scale farmers and massacre hadUNTIL yet to be held accountable. illegal loggers in the area continued. THURSDAY 100 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 On 24 May, 10 rural workers who were society organizations and governmental camping in the margins of Santa Lucia farm technical bodies working for Indigenous in Pau D’Arco, Pará state, were shot dead Peoples’ rights. Budget cuts to FUNAI during a joint operation between military and impacted negatively on its work for the civil police officers. On 7 July, one of the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. leaders of the group of rural workers, Indigenous people from Vale do Javari, Rosenildo Pereira de Almeida, was shot Amazonas state, reported that members of dead. Survivors of the massacre continued to isolated Indigenous groups in the area were fear for their lives following the killings. killed during the year. The killings were not In September a group of armed mine investigated. Demarcated Indigenous land in workers threatened smallholders in the rural Vale do Javari was subjected to invasions by settlement of Montanha e Mangabal, in the miners. Tapajós river region, municipality of Itaituba, Pará state. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS According to Bahia Gay Group,GMT 277 LGBTI 2018 Conflicts over land and invasion by illegal people were killed in Brazil between 1 loggers and mine workers into Indigenous January and 20 September, the highest Peoples’ territory continued, resulting in number since the group began compiling several episodes of violence against data in 1980. Indigenous people. The government and On 15 February, transgender woman courts undermined the institutional Dandara dos Santos was beaten to death in framework and national policies, introducing Bom Jardim neighbourhood in Fortaleza city. further delays in the already slow land According to investigators, at least 12 people demarcation process, aggravating conflicts were involved05:01 in her killing. Two men were over land in Indigenous territories. Data arrested in connection with her killing during published by the Indigenous Missionary the year./ Council during the year revealed that at least In September, a Federal District judge 118 Indigenous people were killed in 2016. authorized psychologists to use unethical and In January, the Ministry of Justice issued a harmful so-called “conversion therapies” in decree changing the land demarcation ETan attempt to alter individuals’ sexual process, making it even slowerEMBARGOED and more orientation. The decisionFEBRUARY flouted a resolution vulnerable to pressure from landlords. of the Federal Psychology Council confirming In April, at least 22 Indigenous Gamela that psychologists cannot take any action that people were attacked by gunmen in Viana, would “pathologize homosexuality”. The Maranhão state; some were shot at, others judge’s decision22 contributed to increasing beaten, and two had their hands cut off. stigma and violence against LGBTI people. The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry A number of proposals at city, state and into the National Indigenous Foundation national level sought to prohibit gender and (FUNAI) and the National Institute00:01 for sexual orientation-related issues from being Colonization and Agrarian Reform, two included in educational materials. independent institutions set up by the government to protect Indigenous Peoples’ FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF rights and promote access to land, presented Throughout the year, religious centres its final report, which was approved by the (terreiros) of the Afro-descendant religions STRICTLYHouse of Representatives in May. The report Umbanda and Candomblé in Rio de Janeiro was a clear attack on Indigenous Peoples’ state suffered several attacks by private rights and had a direct intent to criminalize individuals, criminal gangs and members of (including by requestingUNTIL criminal indictment other religions. In August and September, at of dozens of people) Indigenous leaders, civil least eight centres were attacked and THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 101 destroyed, most of them in Rio de Janeiro city and surrounding municipalities in the BRUNEI Baixada Fluminense region. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS DARUSSALAM Juvenile detention facilities remained Brunei Darussalam overcrowded and detainees suffered Head of state and government: Sultan Hassanal inhuman and degrading conditions. Bolkiah In Ceará state, torture by state officials was recurrent inside juvenile detention facilities. Lack of transparency made independent During the year, there were at least 20 riots monitoring of the human rights situation and 37 escapes from units in Ceará. Out of difficult. Phased amendments to the 200 formal reports of torture of adolescents Shari’a Penal Code, if implemented, would inside juvenile detention units in Ceará provide for the death penalty and corporal between 2016 and September 2017, only punishment, such as caning and stoning two reports resulted in a formal inquiry by the which amount to torture andGMT other ill- 2018 state for further investigation. Reports of the treatment, for a range of offences. The chaotic state of the juvenile justice system in amendments would further restrict the Ceará resulted in a formal visit by Brazil’s rights to freedom of thought, conscience National Human Rights Council in and religion and discriminate against September. women. Early in the year, Espirito Santo state held 1,198 juvenile detainees in a system with BACKGROUND capacity for only 754, a rate of overcrowding Several amendments to the Shari’a Penal of more than 39%. Of the state’s 13 detention Code remained05:01 pending and were subject to facilities, only four were operating within their phased implementation. Brunei completed intended capacity. phase/ one of the amendments which dealt On 3 June, seven boys aged between 15 with crimes punishable by prison sentences and 17 were killed by other teenage and fines. If implemented, phase two will detainees during a riot in a juvenile detention cover crimes punishable by amputation; facility in Lagoa Seca, Paraíba state. ETwhile phase three will deal with crimes On 13 November, four youngEMBARGOED boys were carrying the penaltyFEBRUARY of stoning to death. killed by hooded men who entered a juvenile justice system facility where the boys were FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION detained. On 27 July, government employee Shahiran Sheriffudin22 bin Shahrani Muhammad was removed from his post and charged under 1. Brazil: Law leading to military impunity sanctioned (AMR 19/7340/2017) Section 4(1)(c) of the Sedition Act for posting 2. Brazil: Police killings, impunity and attacks on defenders: Amnesty comments on Facebook deemed “offensive” International submission for the UN Universal00:01 Periodic Review – 27th to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Journalists session of the UPR working group, May 2017 (AMR 19/5467/2016) and online activists continued to self-censor 3. Brazil: Over 90 men killed in Brazilian prison riots (AMR for fear of prosecution. 19/5444/2017) WOMEN’S RIGHTS Shari’a Penal Code amendments included STRICTLY provisions which, if implemented, would further discriminate against women, including by criminalizing pregnancy outside UNTIL marriage and forcing unmarried Muslim women to live in their guardian’s home. THURSDAY 102 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 DEATH PENALTY Although abolitionist in practice, death by BULGARIA hanging was maintained as punishment for several offences including murder, terrorism Republic of Bulgaria and drug-related crimes. Penal Code Head of state: Rumen Radev (replaced Rosen amendments, if implemented during phase Plevneliev in January) three, would impose death by stoning as Head of government: Boyko Borisov punishment for offences including “adultery”, “sodomy” and rape. Stoning to death or 100 Summary detentions, pushbacks and lashes, depending on the offender’s marital abuses at the border continued. The status, would be imposed on Muslims and necessary services were not provided to non-Muslims who commit “adultery” with a migrants and refugees, including to Muslim. unaccompanied children. A climate of xenophobia and intolerance sharply RIGHT TO EDUCATION intensified. Roma continued to be at risk of Stateless children and children who were not pervasive discrimination. GMT 2018 citizens of Brunei faced barriers to basic rights, including education. While primary REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS education was free and accessible to citizens, The number of refugees and migrants stateless and non-citizen children had to entering Bulgaria declined, but reports of apply for permission to enrol and were often frequent pushbacks, excessive use of force required to pay monthly fees. and theft by border police continued. Irregular border crossing remained RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, criminalized resulting in administrative TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE detention 05:01of migrants and refugees, including Consensual same-sex sexual relations unaccompanied children, who arrived in remained a criminal offence with “intercourse greater/ numbers. Human rights organizations against the order of nature” punishable by up documented numerous allegations of ill- to 10 years’ imprisonment under Article 377 treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers of the Penal Code. Amendments to the Penal and substandard conditions in detention Code would, if implemented, allow a ETfacilities. mandatory punishment ofEMBARGOED death by stoning In February, localFEBRUARY authorities in the town of for consensual same-sex activity (see above). Elin Pelin refused to receive a Syrian family that had been granted humanitarian status in COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY Bulgaria. The Mayor publicly warned that Suspects were detained without trial under “Muslims22 from Syria [were] not welcome” the Internal Security Act. In February, four and refused to register the family or issue Indonesian nationals were detained under them with identity documents. Other the law for alleged links with the armed group municipalities expressed a similar Islamic State (IS) and subsequently00:01 deported. unwillingness to accommodate refugees. In July, the government adopted the Regulation on Integration of Refugees; however, this fell short of providing an effective mechanism for integration. According to UNHCR, the UN refugee STRICTLY agency, the Regulation failed to address the persistent problem of unco-operative municipalities or to propose measures to UNTIL create more favourable conditions for integration in local communities. It also failed THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 103 to address the gaps in refugees’ access to Directorate in all proceedings involving social housing, family benefits for children or unaccompanied children who had not language training, which limited their applied for international protection. The enjoyment of social and economic rights. amendments, however, proposed repealing The government issued an order restricting the requirement for an individual assessment freedom of movement for registered asylum- of the best interests of the child before seekers. Adopted in September, it imposed placing children in short-term immigration territorial limits for asylum-seekers in refugee detention. Human rights organizations centres, prohibiting them from moving out of warned that the proposals would legitimize prescribed areas. the practice of “attaching” unaccompanied Although Bulgaria committed to accept children to often unrelated adults travelling in 1,302 asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy the same group in order to avoid the under the EU emergency relocation scheme, prohibition of detention of children. it had only resettled 50 people from Greece by the end of the year. It did not receive any DISCRIMINATION Syrian refugees from Turkey under the EU- Hate speech and hate crimesGMT continued, 2018 Turkey “one-for-one” resettlement deal directed at minority groups, including Turks although it had originally committed to accept and Roma; refugees, asylum-seekers and 100 people under the scheme. migrants remained vulnerable to violence and harassment. Discriminatory or xenophobic CHILDREN’S RIGHTS statements were made during the campaign Reception conditions for unaccompanied for parliamentary elections held in March, by refugee and migrant children remained candidates and political parties as well as by inadequate. Children were routinely denied the coalition of far-right parties, the Patriotic adequate access to legal representation, Front, which05:01 gained enough seats to enter translation, health services and psychosocial the government. support. Basic education was not available in Marginalization/ and widespread the centres and most children were not discrimination against Roma persisted. They enrolled in local schools. Limited social and faced systemic obstacles in all aspects of life, educational activities were available several including education, health care, housing days a week and organized exclusively by ETand employment. Roma children were NGOs and humanitarian organizations.EMBARGOEDenrolled in specialFEBRUARY schools and denied The authorities lacked developed systems access to mainstream education. High for early identification, assessment and numbers of Roma lacked health insurance referral mechanisms for unaccompanied and faced persistent barriers to adequate children. Children often did not have access health care22 and services. The authorities to qualified legal guardians and legal continued the practice of forced evictions representation. In February, mayors and without the provision of adequate alternative residents of several towns refused to housing, leaving many families homeless. accommodate two unaccompanied00:01 refugee Human rights organizations documented children in facilities in their communities. The numerous cases involving ill-treatment and boys were moved several times and finally physical abuse of Roma by police. Roma separated, causing the younger boy to remained over-represented in places of abscond. detention. In July, mass anti-Roma In September, the National Assembly demonstrations organized by the Patriotic STRICTLYadopted, in the first reading, amendments to Front took place in the towns of Asenovgrad the Law on Foreigners. They included an and Byala, following a violent incident obligation to provide legal representation for between a sports youth team and several all unaccompaniedUNTIL children and to increase Roma. the authority of the Social Assistance THURSDAY 104 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 People with disabilities, particularly LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR children, continued to face discrimination INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS and systemic social exclusion, including In December, a draft Constitution was limited access to education, health services submitted to the President for approval, and employment. Those with intellectual following which it will either be approved by disabilities and psychosocial problems were referendum or adopted by Parliament. It deprived of their legal capacity and the right included provisions to strengthen human to independent living and were frequently rights protection, including economic, social placed under guardianship or social care and cultural rights, gender equality, institutions without their consent. protection for women and girls from violence, Despite numerous threats and simultaneous abolition of the death penalty, and to increase counter-demonstrations organized by far-right the independence of the judiciary. groups, Sofia Gay Pride took place in June In June, the National Assembly adopted a under heavy police presence. law to protect human rights defenders. In July, legislation was adopted which would FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION give the High Court of JusticeGMT jurisdiction to 2018 JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA try members of the government for crimes A pattern of threats, political pressure and committed in the course of, or in connection attacks against journalists continued; a with, their duties. In the same month, the significant portion of the media remained government adopted a law allowing the under the tight control of political parties and military prosecutor to initiate public local oligarchs. In October, Deputy Prime prosecutions against civilians in proceedings Minister Valeriy Simeonov and MP Anton which would operate independently of the Todorov publicly threatened TV journalist High Council of Magistrates which, among Victor Nikolaev that he would be fired unless other things,05:01 was responsible for overseeing he stopped investigating the government’s the independence of the judiciary. purchase of a fighter aircraft. The incident / was widely condemned by civil society, but TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT no action was taken against the public There were complaints at the main prison of officials. Ouagadougou, the capital: detainees at Bulgaria remained the lowest ranking EU ETMACO prison (Maison d’Arrêt et de member state on the WorldEMBARGOED Press Freedom Correction de Ouagadougou)FEBRUARY complained of Index. The NGO Reporters without Borders torture and other ill-treatment, mainly during ranked Bulgaria 109th out of 180 countries arrest or in police custody, often in order to in terms of press freedom. extract “confessions”. Several prisoners said they were22 held in custody for over two weeks without charge. Four prisoners said that courts took no action when they reported that BURKINA FASO they had been tortured. Head of state: Roch Marc Christian Kaboré00:01 Several soldiers who were tried in April for Head of government: Paul Kaba Thiéba conspiracy to raid an arms depot in Yimdi in January complained in a military court in The draft Constitution included provisions Ouagadougou that they were tortured during which, if implemented, would strengthen detention in custody either at the human rights protection. There were reports gendarmerie or at MACO prison. STRICTLYof torture and other ill-treatment and prison conditions remained poor. Rates of DETENTION maternal mortality as well as early and Many prisons remained overcrowded: 1,900 forced marriageUNTIL remained high. Armed detainees were held in MACO prison which groups committed human rights abuses. has a capacity for 600. Conditions remained THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 105 poor, with inadequate food and medical infection and death. There were at least 100 provisions. In June, however, Ministry of maternal deaths in the first half of the year at Justice representatives said that they were one of the two main public hospitals in developing a strategic plan to improve prison Ouagadougou. In one hospital, overworked conditions. midwives carried out up to 25 caesarean sections a day, while shortages forced women IMPUNITY patients to sleep on the floor, sometimes The trial of former President Blaise Compaoré without bedding. and 32 former ministers before the High No progress was made towards Court of Justice was repeatedly delayed; in implementing the government’s pledge in June it was temporarily suspended by the 2016 to increase the legal marriage age of Constitutional Council. Blaise Compaoré was girls and women. Over 50% of girls between charged with acts of wilful assault, complicity 15 and 17 were married in the Sahel region in assault, assassination and complicity in in the north of the country. Rates of female assassination in relation to the October 2014 genital mutilation continued to lessen uprising. An international arrest warrant for although it remained widespreadGMT despite 2018 him and his former Chief of Security, being outlawed. Hyacinthe Kafando, remained in place. In May, an international arrest warrant was ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS issued against Blaise Compaoré’s brother, The self-defence militia called “Kogleweogo”, François Compaoré, in relation to the murder mainly comprising farmers and cattle of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo in breeders, continued to commit human rights December 1998. François Compaoré was abuses including beatings and abductions, placed under court supervision in France, despite the Justice Minister’s pledge in where he was living, pending a decision on December05:01 2016 to regulate the militia’s his extradition to Burkina Faso. activities. Fourteen people awaited trial in connection Justice/ Ministry officials said that with the murder of former President Thomas Kogleweogo members beat a man to death in Sankara, three of whom remained in the town of Tapoa in January over an alleged detention. chicken theft. In May, six people died, The findings of an investigation into the ETincluding four Kogleweogo members, in attempted coup in SeptemberEMBARGOED 2015 were clashes between FEBRUARYlocals and Kogleweogo in referred to the Indictments Division for a Goundi. In the same month, the regional decision in October. At least 106 people − governor banned “self-defence groups” in including 40 civilians, one of whom was a Boulkiemdé and Sanguié. foreign national – were charged, including There were22 reports that trials were with threatening state security, crimes against postponed when Kogleweogo held humanity and murder during the coup demonstrations in order to protect their attempt. More than 20 of them remained in members from prosecution in Fada detention at the end of the year00:01 while N’Gourma and Koupela. another, General Djibril Bassolé, remained Armed groups carried out attacks close to under house arrest having been transferred the Mali and Niger border, killing dozens of from detention in October. In December the civilians. They also attacked police and UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention military personnel. Repeated attacks in the called for his release. Sahel region led to public officials temporarily STRICTLY vacating the region. WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS In late January, armed men went to several Lack of medical equipment, medication and schools in the north and threatened teachers staffing in hospitalsUNTIL left women and newborn to make them adopt Islamic teaching. babies at serious risk of birth complications, THURSDAY 106 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Consequently, hundreds of schools closed, assistance to the EAC’s political dialogue including in Soum, Oudalan and Loroum. efforts. Ansaroul Islam claimed responsibility for The government declared a malaria attacking police stations in Baraoulé and epidemic in March. Between January and Tongomaël on 27 and 28 February. mid-November, 6.89 million cases and 3,017 On 3 March, an armed group killed a school deaths were recorded. principal and another local person in Kourfayel, a village in Soum. UNLAWFUL KILLINGS In August, at least 19 people were killed Unlawful killings continued. Bodies were and more than 22 injured in an attack regularly discovered in the streets of the against a restaurant in Ouagadougou. No capital, Bujumbura, and throughout the group claimed responsibility. country. Several Burundians who were living On two occasions in September and as refugees in neighbouring countries said November, armed groups carried out attacks that they left Burundi after their relatives were in Soum, killing at least nine people. killed, primarily by the Imbonerakure – the increasingly militarized youthGMT wing of the 2018 ruling National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of BURUNDI Democracy. Others witnessed the killings of Republic of Burundi their family members by the Imbonerakure as Head of state and government: President Pierre they tried to flee the country. Nkurunziza ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Restrictions on the rights to freedom of Reports of enforced disappearances expression and assembly continued. The continued,05:01 and cases from 2015 and 2016 security forces, among others, carried out remained unresolved. The UN Commission of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, Inquiry/ on Burundi highlighted several cases torture and other-ill-treatment, arbitrary where there were reasonable grounds to arrests and detention. believe or to fear that people had been forcibly disappeared. Pacifique Birikumana, BACKGROUND ETdriver for the Ngozi diocese, was believed to In October, the Council ofEMBARGOED Ministers approved have been forciblyFEBRUARY disappeared on 8 April revisions of the Constitution. The proposed after he returned from driving a group of constitutional amendments would allow soldiers to Gitega province. The Commission President Nkurunziza to stand for at least two received information that he may have been more seven-year terms, and reduce the size arrested by22 the National Intelligence Services of the majority required to pass legislation in (SNR); his whereabouts remained unknown. Parliament. In December, the President of Former senator and businessman Oscar the National Independent Electoral Ntasano went missing with two of his Commission announced that a 00:01referendum employees on 20 April after meeting a man on the constitutional amendments was said to work for the SNR. Witnesses told the planned for May 2018. Commission that Oscar Ntasano received Efforts by the East African Community threats from state officials in connection with (EAC) to find a mediated solution to the a contract he was negotiating with the UN to political crisis sparked by the President’s rent office space. One state official was said STRICTLYdecision in 2015 to stand for a third term to have threatened him with death if he continued to stall. Michel Kafando, former refused to split the proceeds. President of Burkina Faso, was appointed as UN Secretary-GeneralUNTIL Special Envoy to Burundi in May. His role included providing THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 107 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT them were arrested and six student leaders Reports of torture and other ill-treatment by, were charged with rebellion. among others, the SNR, police and the army, On 4 April, Joseph Nsabiyabandi, editor-in- of detainees suspected of opposing the chief of Radio Isanganiro, was summoned for government continued. Torture methods questioning by the SNR, and accused of included beating men with cables, iron collaborating with two radio stations set up by reinforcing bars (rebar) and batons, as well Burundian journalists in exile. as hanging heavy weights from genitals. On 9 June, the Mayor of Bujumbura refused Imbonerakure members were frequently to allow Amizero y’Abarundi, the accused of beating detainees during arrest. parliamentary opposition coalition, composed Impunity for such violations continued. of representatives from the National Burundi had not yet established a National Liberation Forces and Union for National Preventive Mechanism against torture as set Progress, to hold a press conference on the out in the Optional Protocol to the UN grounds that the coalition did not have “legal Convention against Torture. personality”. GMT 2018 SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS The Commission of Inquiry interviewed 49 In January, the Bujumbura Court of Appeal survivors of sexual violence that took place overturned a decision by the Bar between 2015 and 2017. Most of the cases Association’s president not to disbar four involved rape of women and girls by police, lawyers following a request to do so by a often while arresting a male family member. prosecutor in 2016. Three of the lawyers The Commission also documented sexual were, therefore, disbarred while another was violence against men in detention. It suspended for one year. The prosecutor had concluded that sexual violence appeared to called for 05:01them to be struck off after they be used as a way to assert dominance over contributed to a report to the UN Committee people linked to opposition parties or against/ Torture. movements. Germain Rukuki was arrested on 13 July; he was president of the community ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS organization Njabutsa Tujane, an employee of Arbitrary arrests and detentions continued, ETthe Burundian Catholic Lawyers Association including during police searchesEMBARGOED in the so- and a former memberFEBRUARY of ACAT-Burundi called opposition neighbourhoods of (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Bujumbura. People were often arrested Torture, ACAT). The SNR held and without warrants and only later informed of interrogated him without a lawyer present, the accusations against them. Police and before transferring22 him to prison in Ngozi city Imbonerakure sometimes used excessive on 26 July. On 1 August, he was charged force during arrests and attempted arrests. with “undermining state security” and Former detainees said that they or their “rebellion”, for collaborating with ACAT- family had to pay vast sums of 00:01money to Burundi, which was banned in October members of the SNR, police or Imbonerakure 2016. The Public Prosecutor presented as in exchange for their release. evidence against him an email exchange from a period when ACAT-Burundi was legally FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND registered in Burundi. Germain Rukuki was ASSEMBLY denied bail and remained in detention at the STRICTLYRestrictions on freedom of expression and end of the year. peaceful assembly continued at all levels. Nestor Nibitanga, former member of the University students in Bujumbura went on deregistered Association for the Protection of strike in MarchUNTIL to protest against a new Human Rights and Detained Persons student loan and grant system; several of (APRODH), was arrested in Gitega on 21 THURSDAY 108 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 November. He was charged with INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE undermining state security and rebellion. The International Organization for Migration This appeared to be in retaliation for his said that 187,626 people were internally human rights activities. Following a hearing displaced as of November; 19% were on 28 December, the Mukaza court in displaced in 2017. Two thirds of the total session at Rumonge decided to keep Nestor were displaced by natural disasters and one Nibitanga in provisional detention. He third as a result of the socio-political remained in detention at the Murembwe situation. central prison in Rumonge at the end of the year. RIGHT TO PRIVACY Couples cohabiting without being married REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS risked prosecution under a 2016 law which People trying to flee the country reported banned “free unions” or cohabitation and abuses including rape, killings, beatings and carried a prison sentence of one to three extortion by members of the Imbonerakure. months, and a fine of up to 200,000 francs Many tried to leave by informal routes, as (USD114). In May, followingGMT President 2018 they did not have official travel documents; Nkurunziza’s call for a nationwide they were afraid of being accused of joining “moralization” campaign, the Interior ministry the rebellion, being refused permission to spokesperson gave cohabiting couples until leave or being arrested at the border for 31 December to “regularize” their situation. trying to leave. The number of Burundian refugees in ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL relation to the current crisis reached over RIGHTS 418,000 in September but fell to 391,111 by In October, the Minister of Justice presented the end of 2017. Most of them were hosted proposed 05:01amendments to the Penal Code by Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic which were unanimously adopted by the of the Congo (see Democratic Republic of the National/ Assembly and the Senate. The Congo entry) and Uganda. In an operation amendments would criminalize begging and led by the Tanzanian government and “vagrancy”. Able-bodied people found guilty supported by UNHCR, the UN refugee of begging would face a prison sentence of agency, organized returns began in ETbetween two weeks and two months, and/or a September with 8,836 refugeesEMBARGOED assisted to fine of up to 10,000FEBRUARY francs (USD6). The return to Burundi by 20 November. Many same sentence was proposed for “vagrancy”. refugees cited harsh conditions in their Burundian refugees living outside the countries of asylum as their main reason for country claimed that increased local taxation return. In August, the World Food was affecting22 their livelihoods. The extent to Programme warned that without urgent which fees were formally imposed or were funding from donors, insufficient food rations simply acts of extortion was not always clear to refugees in Tanzania would be further especially where they were collected by reduced. The UNHCR-led Burundi00:01 Regional members of the Imbonerakure. Refugee Response received only 20% of the funding required for 2017. INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY In January, Tanzania stopped automatically On 4 September, the Commission of Inquiry recognizing Burundian asylum-seekers as report concluded that there were reasonable refugees. Uganda followed suit in June. On grounds to believe that crimes against STRICTLY20 July 2017, President Nkurunziza visited humanity had been committed since April Tanzania in an attempt to convince 2015. On 28 September, the UN Human Burundian refugees that it was safe to return. Rights Council adopted a resolution UNTIL mandating a team of three experts “to collect and preserve information […] in cooperation THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 109 with the Government of Burundi”, and “to Sam Rainsy stood down as leader of the make recommendations for technical opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party assistance and capacity building”. On 29 (CNRP) to avoid party dissolution because of September, the Council also renewed the his 2016 conviction on criminal charges. The Commission of Inquiry’s mandate for another lead-up to the June 2017 commune elections year. Discussions between the UN and the was marked by threatening rhetoric from the government on the reopening of the UN Prime Minister and other senior government Office of the High Commissioner for Human and military officials. The ruling Cambodian Rights in Burundi had not reached a People’s Party (CPP) won control of 70% of conclusion by the end of the year. communes. In September, the UN Human Burundi’s withdrawal from the ICC came Rights Council extended the mandate of the into effect on 27 October. Two days earlier, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human the Pre-Trial Chamber authorized an rights in Cambodia for a further two years. On investigation into the situation in Burundi, a 16 November, the CNRP was dissolved amid decision made public in November. allegations of being part of a purported US- The AU Peace and Security Council did not funded “colour revolution”GMT to topple the 2018 meet to discuss Burundi in 2017, despite the current regime. continued presence of AU human rights observers and military experts in the country FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND at the Council’s request. ASSOCIATION Harassment of the political opposition and civil society through misuse of the criminal justice system escalated in an apparent CAMBODIA attempt to hamper activities ahead of the 1 Kingdom of Cambodia 2018 general05:01 election. Amendments to the Head of state: King Norodom Sihamoni Law on Political Parties in February and July Head of government: Hun Sen gave the/ Ministry of Interior and courts new powers over political parties and barred The crackdown on human rights defenders, individuals convicted of a criminal offence media, civil society and the political from holding leadership positions. opposition intensified ahead of elections ETIn March, Sam Rainsy was convicted of scheduled for July 2018.EMBARGOED The authorities’ “defamation and FEBRUARYincitement to commit a misuse of the justice system continued. felony” for claiming on social media that the New criminal charges were brought against July 2016 murder of political commentator serving and former leaders of the main Kem Ley was an act of “state-sponsored opposition party. The authorities increased terrorism”.22 Political commentator Kim Sok pressure on civil society including by was convicted on the same charges in conducting surveillance of human rights August for allegedly linking the government to workers and restricting or shutting down the murder in a radio interview. Following the organizations monitoring elections.00:01 Media commune elections, the Ministry of Interior freedom and diversity were dramatically ordered a local election monitoring coalition reduced. Human rights defenders continued to cease its activities. to be monitored, threatened, arrested and In August, the US-based National imprisoned. Montagnard asylum-seekers Democratic Institute was expelled from faced forcible return to Viet Nam. Cambodia for alleged regulatory violations. STRICTLY Also in August, more than 30 FM radio BACKGROUND frequencies were silenced. Radio stations The prospect of a close general election in were alleged to have violated their contracts 2018 led to an unstableUNTIL political environment with the government by “overselling” air time and threats to human rights. In February, to broadcasting programmes from the US- THURSDAY 110 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 based Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of December, the Supreme Court upheld a six- America, as well as Cambodian radio month prison sentence against Tep Vanny programme Voice of Democracy. In and two other community members September, the long-running English stemming from a protest in 2011. Human language newspaper The Cambodia Daily rights defenders Am Sam Ath and Chan shut down after the authorities gave its Puthisak were investigated in February for publishers 30 days to pay a USD6.3 million allegedly instigating violence at an October tax bill, a move widely viewed as arbitrary. 2016 demonstration in Phnom Penh. They The same month, RFA ceased operations in were beaten by para-police during the Cambodia, citing the restrictive media demonstration; however, their formal environment. In November, two former RFA complaint of assault appeared to have been reporters were arrested on trumped-up ignored. charges of “espionage” and faced up to 15 In June, five serving and former staff years in jail. members of the Cambodian Human Rights On 3 September, new CNRP leader Kem and Development Association (ADHOC) were Sokha was arrested at his home in the released on bail after beingGMT held for more 2018 capital, Phnom Penh, and later charged with than a year in pre-trial detention on charges “conspiracy with a foreign power” in relation of bribing a witness. Three of the five − Ny to a 2013 speech in which he discussed Sokha, Nay Vanda and Yi Soksan − were international advice he had received arbitrarily denied access to medical care for regarding democratic change. CPP two months prior to their release. The lawmakers later voted to strip him of the charges remained pending at the end of the parliamentary immunity he had been granted year. under the Constitution. In September, two activists from the The Ministry of Interior ordered local land environmental05:01 organization Mother Nature rights organization Equitable Cambodia (EC) were arrested while filming sand-dredging to suspend its activities for 30 days for boats /off the coast of Koh Kong in an attempt alleged regulatory violations. Although the to highlight alleged illegal smuggling. They suspension lapsed on 15 November, EC was were charged with incitement to commit a not allowed to resume activities. At least three felony and making an unauthorized individuals were arrested throughout the year ETrecording. for posting comments on EMBARGOEDFacebook that were FEBRUARY regarded by authorities as insulting to the UNLAWFUL KILLINGS Prime Minister. On 26 November, the On 23 March Oeuth Ang was sentenced to Cambodian Centre for Human Rights was life imprisonment after being convicted by threatened by the Prime Minister with the Phnom22 Penh Municipal Court of the closure; it was allowed to remain open after 2016 murder of prominent political investigation by the Ministry of Interior and an commentator Kem Ley. The trial lasted only announcement by the Prime Minister on 2 half a day. The authorities did not respond to December. 00:01 calls for an independent, impartial and effective investigation into the killing of Kem HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Ley. Human rights defenders were harassed and prosecuted for their peaceful human rights WOMEN’S RIGHTS work. In February, Tep Vanny, a prominent Cambodia failed to submit its report, due in STRICTLYland rights activist from the Boeung Kak Lake October, on implementation of the community, was convicted of “intentional recommendations of the 2013 UN CEDAW violence with aggravating circumstances” in Committee, or to follow up with requested relation to a 2013UNTIL protest, and sentenced to information regarding sexual and gender- two years and six months’ imprisonment. In based violence – in particular redress and THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 111 protection for victims. Women continued to different charges. They faced charges of be under-represented in politics. Although crimes against humanity, genocide and grave the number of women commune chiefs breaches of the Geneva Conventions. elected during the 2017 commune elections increased, the total number of women 1. Cambodia: Courts of injustice − suppressing activism through the councillors decreased. criminal justice system (ASA 23/6059/2017) RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED EVICTIONS Land grabbing, land concessions granted to CAMEROON private stakeholders for agri-industrial use, Republic of Cameroon and major development projects continued to Head of state: Paul Biya impact the right to adequate housing for Head of government: Philémon Yang communities around the country. A report released in January by the Land The armed group Boko Haram continued to Management Ministry showed an increase in commit serious human rightsGMT abuses and 2018 land dispute complaints received in 2016 violations of international humanitarian law compared to the previous year. Work on the in the Far North region, including looting Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in the and destroying properties and killing and northeast province of Stung Treng abducting civilians. In response, the progressed; Indigenous people who refused authorities and security forces committed to leave their ancestral lands faced forcible human rights violations and crimes under relocation. Those who accepted relocation international law, including arbitrary arrests, were moved to substandard and flooding- incommunicado detentions, torture and affected resettlement sites. deaths in 05:01custody. As a result of the conflict, around 240,000 people in the Far REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS North /region had fled their homes between The government rejected 29 applications for 2014 and the end of 2017. Freedoms of refugee status by Montagnard asylum- expression, association and peaceful seekers from Viet Nam, who faced possible assembly continued to be restricted refoulement. UNHCR, the UN refugee ETthroughout the country. Security forces agency, stated that they hadEMBARGOED legitimate violently repressed FEBRUARY demonstrations in grounds. They remained in Cambodia at the Anglophone regions in January and end of the year. September. Civil society activists, journalists, trade unionists and teachers INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE were arrested22 and some faced trial before In February, the Co-Investigating Judges military courts. issued a joint closing order dismissing the case against Im Chaem in Case 004/1 at the ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS Extraordinary Chambers in the 00:01Courts of The armed group Boko Haram committed Cambodia (ECCC). She was found not to fall crimes under international law and human within the ECCC’s personal jurisdiction of rights abuses, including suicide bombings in being a senior leader or one of the most civilian areas, summary executions, responsible officials during the Khmer Rouge abductions, recruitment of child soldiers, and regime. looting and destruction of public and private STRICTLYIn June, closing statements were made in a property. During the year, the group carried second trial of Nuon Chea and Khieu out at least 150 attacks, including 48 suicide Samphan in Case 002. The case against bombings, killing at least 250 civilians. The them had beenUNTIL severed by the Trial Chamber crimes were part of a widespread and of the ECCC in 2011, resulting in two trials on systematic attack on the civilian population THURSDAY 112 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 across the Lake Chad basin. Boko Haram authorities to clarify whether investigations deliberately targeted civilians in attacks on were being carried out. markets, mosques, commercial areas and other public places. On 12 July a female FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, suicide bomber detonated explosives in a ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY crowded video-game shop in the town of Human rights defenders, including civil Waza, killing at least 16 civilians and injuring society activists, journalists, trade unionists, more than 30. On 5 August, a suicide lawyers and teachers continued to be bomber in the village of Ouro Kessoum, near intimidated, harassed and threatened. Amchide, killed eight children and injured On 17 January, following protests in the four more. English-speaking regions of the country, the Minister of Territorial Administration banned TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the activities of the political party Southern Security forces continued to arbitrarily arrest Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and the individuals accused of supporting Boko Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Haram, often with little or no evidence and Consortium (CACSC).2 TheGMT same day, the 2018 sometimes using unnecessary or excessive president of the CACSC, barrister Nkongho force. Those arrested were frequently Felix Agbor-Balla, and its Secretary General, detained in inhumane, life-threatening Dr Fontem Aforteka’a Neba, were arrested conditions. At least 101 people were detained after signing a statement calling for non- incommunicado between March 2013 and violent protests. Held incommunicado at the March 2017 in a series of military bases run State Defence Secretariat, they were charged by the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) and under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, without facilities run by the intelligence agency. They any basis. They were transferred to the were subjected to torture and other ill- Prison Principale05:01 in the capital, Yaoundé, treatment.1 These routine and systematic before eventually being released following a practices continued throughout 2017, presidential/ decision on 30 August, along although at least 20 people were reported to with 53 other Anglophone protesters who had have been transferred from the BIR military been arrested between late October 2016 base in Salak to the central prison in Maroua and February 2017. in late August. ETBetween January and April, and in early It was highly likely that seniorEMBARGOED military October, telephone FEBRUARY and internet services officers based in Salak were aware of the were cut in the English-speaking regions, torture, but they did nothing to prevent it. US with no official explanation. military personnel also had a regular On 24 May, authorities shut down an presence at the BIR’s base at Salak and an Amnesty 22International press conference investigation was launched into their possible scheduled to take place in Yaoundé. Amnesty knowledge of human rights violations at the International staff had planned to present base; its outcomes were not published during more than 310,000 letters and petitions the year. 00:01 asking President Biya to release three No investigations were known to have been students imprisoned for 10 years for sharing conducted by the Cameroonian authorities a joke by text message about Boko Haram. into the allegations of incommunicado No written administrative justification was detention, torture and other ill-treatment, nor provided for the prohibition of the press efforts made to prevent such occurrences or conference. STRICTLYto prosecute and punish the perpetrators. More than 20 protesters were shot by In December the UN Committee against security forces in the Anglophone regions Torture expressed deep concern about the between 1 and 2 October, and more than use of torture UNTILand incommunicado detention, 500 arrested. Others wounded in the protests and criticized the failure by Cameroonian were forced to flee hospitals where they THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 113 sought life-saving treatment out of fear of having already served this sentence. Their arrest. In addition, dozens of members of the trial was marred by irregularities. During their security forces, including soldiers and initial period of detention, the two men had gendarmes, were killed in attacks perpetrated been held incommunicado for more than 40 by Anglophone insurgents in the South and days in an illegal facility run by the General North West regions during the year. Directorate of External Relations and subjected to torture. UNFAIR TRIALS Unfair trials continued before military courts, DETENTION which were often marred by irregularities. Prison conditions remained poor, marked by On 10 April, Radio France Internationale chronic overcrowding, inadequate food, correspondent Ahmed Abba was sentenced limited medical care, and deplorable hygiene to 10 years’ imprisonment, convicted by the and sanitation. Maroua prison housed around Yaoundé Military Court of “complicity with 1,500 detainees, more than four times its and non-denunciation of terrorist acts”. The intended capacity. The population of the trial was marred by irregularities, including central prison in Yaoundé GMTwas approximately 2018 documents not being disclosed to defence 4,400, despite a maximum capacity of 1,500. lawyers. Ahmed Abba had been arrested in The main factors contributing to Maroua in July 2015 and was tortured while overcrowding included the mass arrests since held incommunicado for three months at a 2014 of people accused of supporting Boko facility run by the General Directorate of Haram, the large number of detainees held External Research. On 21 December the without charge, and the ineffective judicial Appeal Court of the Yaoundé Military Court system. The government finalized the ordered his initial sentence to be reduced to construction of at least 10 new cells for the 24 months, which he had already served. prison in Maroua.05:01 The Court upheld the charge of “non- denunciation of terrorism”. REFUGEES/ AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS The appeal of Fomusoh Ivo Feh, who was At least 250,000 refugees from the Central arrested in December 2014 for forwarding a African Republic lived in harsh conditions in sarcastic text message about Boko Haram crowded camps or with host families along and sentenced to 10 years in prison, had not ETborder areas of southeastern Cameroon. begun at the end of the year.EMBARGOED Scheduled to Some 60,000 refugeesFEBRUARY from Nigeria lived in begin in December 2016, his hearings had the UN-run Minawao camp in the Far North been adjourned at least seven times. region; around 30,000 others struggled to On 30 October, journalists Rodrigue Tongué, cope outside the camp, facing food Felix Ebole Bola and Baba Wamé were insecurity,22 lack of access to basic services, acquitted by the Yaoundé Military Court, harassment by the security forces and the having been initially charged in October 2014 risk of refoulement as they were perceived to with “non-denunciation of information and be supporters of Boko Haram. sources”. Facing trial alongside00:01 the On 2 March, Cameroon, Nigeria and journalists were opposition party leader UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, signed a Aboubakary Siddiki, and Abdoulaye “Tripartite Agreement for the Voluntary Harissou, a well-known notary detained since Repatriation of Nigerian Refugees Living in August 2014. The Yaoundé Military Court Cameroon”. However, between January and sentenced Aboubakary Siddiki to 25 years’ September, Cameroon forcibly returned at STRICTLYimprisonment on charges including hostility least 4,400 Nigerians. These forced returns against the homeland, revolution, and were part of a larger deportation operation contempt of the President. Abdoulaye carried out by Cameroon. Human Rights Harissou was UNTILsentenced to three years’ Watch estimated that, since 2015, imprisonment, and subsequently released Cameroonian authorities and security forces THURSDAY 114 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 had summarily deported more than 100,000 DEATH PENALTY Nigerians living in areas located along the People accused of supporting Boko Haram Cameroon-Nigeria border, often with continued to be sentenced to death following unnecessary and excessive use of force. unfair trials in military courts; none were Some of those forcibly returned, including executed during the year. The cases were all children, weakened by living for months or prosecuted under the deeply flawed 2014 years with limited or no access to food and anti-terrorism law. health care, died during the deportations. In December, UNHCR reported having 1. Cameroon’s secret torture chambers: Human rights violations and registered more than 5,000 Cameroonians, war crimes in the fight against Boko Haram (AFR 17/6536/2017) mainly women and children, who had fled 2. Cameroon: Arrests and civil society bans risk inflaming tensions in the Anglophone areas of Cameroon to English-speaking regions (Press release, 20 January) Nigeria. RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF LIVING CANADA GMT 2018 The conflict with Boko Haram led to the Canada internal displacement of around 240,000 Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Julie people in the Far North region and Payette (replaced David Johnston in October) exacerbated the hardships experienced by Head of government: Justin Trudeau communities, limiting their access to basic social services, and disrupting trade, farming Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples and pastoralism. In December, almost 3.3 continued, in particular the failure to million people, of whom 61% were in the Far protect their rights to lands and resources. North region, were in need of humanitarian Urgent measures05:01 were required to ensure assistance, including food and medical care. the safety of Indigenous women and girls Humanitarian access continued to be while /a national inquiry was under way. restricted by the ongoing conflict. There was a substantial increase in numbers of asylum-seekers crossing the RIGHT TO EDUCATION border from the USA irregularly. Dozens of schools were closed in the English- ET speaking regions betweenEMBARGOED November 2016 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’FEBRUARY RIGHTS and September 2017, following strikes and Government commitments to respect and boycotts called for by trade unions and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples were members of civil society. Extreme elements contradicted by the failure to address within Anglophone pro-secession groups violations22 of treaty-protected Indigenous carried out attacks on education facilities that hunting and fishing rights by the planned “breached the boycott”. flooding of the Peace River Valley in the Between January and September 2017, province of British Columbia for the Site C more than 30 schools were burned00:01 and dam. severely damaged. In the Far North region, The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal 139 primary schools in the departments of issued three non-compliance orders against Logone and Chari, Mayo Sava and Mayo the federal government for discrimination in Tsanaga remained closed because of services for First Nations children and insecurity and at least eight were occupied by families. STRICTLYsecurity forces, affecting almost 40,000 The Public Inquiry Commission on Relations children. between Indigenous Peoples and Certain Public Services in Québec held hearings UNTIL throughout the year. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 115 In June the province of Ontario agreed to number of relatives of missing and murdered fund the clean-up of a river system women and girls expressed frustration about contaminated with mercury. In November the the Inquiry’s slow progress and poor federal government agreed to provide communication, and several staff and one of specialized medical care for mercury five Commissioners resigned. Community poisoning as long sought by members of the hearings commenced in June and an interim Grassy Narrows First Nation. report was issued in November. In July the Supreme Court of Canada, in a In October, Quebec passed the Act to Foster case brought by the Inuit hamlet of Clyde Adherence to State Religious Neutrality River, ruled that the government has an requiring everyone, including Muslim women obligation to intervene when regulatory wearing a niqab, to uncover their faces to use agencies fail to protect Indigenous rights. or provide government services, including on In August the UN CERD Committee public transit and in libraries. A court ruling expressed concern about Indigenous land in December suspended application of the rights violations and Canada’s failure to Act until a constitutional challenge is heard. respect the right of free, prior and informed GMT 2018 consent. The Committee asked Canada to RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, report back within one year on measures to TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE address the impacts of the Site C dam. In In June, Parliament passed legislation adding December the provincial government in gender identity and expression as prohibited British Columbia announced that grounds for discrimination in Canada’s construction of the Site C dam would Human Rights Act and Criminal Code. continue, despite the objections of affected First Nations. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY In November the government announced In January,05:01 six worshippers were killed and support for a bill to develop a legislative 19 others injured when a gunman opened framework for implementing the UN fire in /a mosque in Quebec City. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous In March, parliament adopted a motion Peoples. calling for a committee study to develop a In November, the Supreme Court rejected a new approach for addressing Islamophobia potentially groundbreaking legal challenge by ETand religious discrimination. the Ktunaxa Nation in BritishEMBARGOED Columbia which In March, CanadianFEBRUARY citizens Abdullah sought to apply constitutional protection of Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed religious freedom to the preservation of Nureddin received compensation and an Indigenous Peoples’ sacred sites. apology for the role of Canadian officials in their unlawful22 arrest, imprisonment and WOMEN’S RIGHTS torture in Syria and Egypt between 2001 and In June, the federal government launched a 2004. Feminist International Assistance Policy and In June, national security legal reforms were committed to placing women’s 00:01rights, gender proposed, including improved review and equality and sexual and reproductive rights at oversight of national security agencies. the core of its foreign policy. In November the Continuing concerns included insufficient government released its second National information-sharing safeguards, inadequate Action Plan on women, peace and security. appeal provisions for people named on “no- In June, the federal government released a fly lists”, and expanded mass surveillance STRICTLYstrategy to combat gender-based violence, and data-mining powers. but without a national action plan. In June, legislation was passed reversing The National Inquiry into Missing and 2014 Citizenship Act reforms which had Murdered IndigenousUNTIL Women and Girls allowed dual nationals convicted of terrorism proceeded throughout the year. A growing THURSDAY 116 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 and other offences to be stripped of regardless of immigration status. New Canadian citizenship. guidelines released in November required In July, Canadian citizen Omar Khadr that minors only be held in immigration received compensation and an apology for detention in “extremely limited the role of Canadian officials in violations circumstances”. against him at the US detention facility at Annual government refugee resettlement Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for 10 years from targets declined to pre-2016 levels of 7,500, 2002. following an increase to 25,000 in 2016 as In September, revised guidelines part of the government’s Syrian refugee strengthened safeguards against complicity resettlement programme. in torture in intelligence sharing with other governments, but failed to absolutely prohibit CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY the use of information obtained through The British Columbia Conservation Officer torture by other governments. Service concluded its investigation into the 2014 Mount Polley Mining Corporation JUSTICE SYSTEM (MPMC) tailings pond collapse,GMT without 2018 In June, federal legislation was tabled bringing charges. A federal level investigation proposing to establish a 20-day limit on for violations of the Fisheries Act was solitary confinement, to be reduced to 15 ongoing. In April, against the wishes of days once the law has been in force for 18 Indigenous and other communities, British months. The draft law did not prohibit Columbia authorities approved MPMC’s plan holding people suffering from mental illness to discharge mine waste water that does not in solitary confinement. A court ruling in meet provincial drinking water guidelines into December declared existing solitary Quesnel Lake. In June the UN Working confinement provisions to be unconstitutional Group on 05:01Business and Human Rights because of inadequate safeguards and supported British Columbia Auditor General’s provided the government with one year to recommendation/ to establish a compliance adopt new standards. and enforcement unit independent of the In October the Journalistic Source Ministry of Energy and Mines. In August, a Protection Act was passed, establishing a private prosecution was filed against MPMC. “shield law” to protect journalists and their ETAlso in August, the CERD Committee called sources. EMBARGOEDon Canada to reportFEBRUARY within one year on action to address the 2014 disaster. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS In January the British Columbia Court of More than 18,000 asylum-seekers irregularly Appeal ruled that a lawsuit against Tahoe crossed from the USA into Canada during the Resources22 regarding the shooting of year, as conditions for refugees and migrants protesters outside its mine in Guatemala in the USA deteriorated. Asylum-seekers could be heard in Canada. In November the crossed irregularly to avoid the ban on Court upheld a lower court ruling that a making claims at official border00:01 posts, lawsuit against Nevsun Resources for pursuant to the 2004 Canada-US Safe Third complicity in forced labour at its mine in Country Agreement. A legal challenge to the Eritrea could proceed. Agreement was launched jointly by civil In December, the government announced society groups and individual asylum-seekers plans to establish, in early 2018, a human in July. rights Ombudsperson for Canadian STRICTLYIn August, the CERD Committee pressed extractives companies operating abroad. Canada to set a maximum time frame for Negotiations to revise the North American immigration detention, end the immigration Free Trade Agreement between Canada, detention of minorsUNTIL and provide access to Mexico and the USA, including Canadian essential health care for all people in Canada, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 117 proposals on gender equality and Indigenous BACKGROUND Peoples, were under way. There was a resurgence of violence mainly in Talks regarding a potential free trade deal and around the Ouaka, Basse-Kotto and with China continued, amid concerns over Haute-Kotto prefectures (districts). Ex-Seleka possible implications for human rights and Anti-balaka armed groups controlled protection in China. much of the country. The mandate of the UN Multidimensional LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS African Republic (MINUSCA) was renewed In June the government tabled legislation to until 15 November 2018. Its forces were accede to the UN Arms Trade Treaty, but strengthened following criticism of its without it applying to arms transfers to the capacity to protect civilians and respond to USA, the primary market for Canadian arms attacks. In June, the UN agreed to reduce sales. the MINUSCA budget by USD18.8 million, In October the Justice for Victims of Corrupt and the budgets of 14 peacekeeping Foreign Officials Act was passed, missions. GMT 2018 strengthening redress and sanctions in US and Ugandan troops, deployed under designated cases of serious human rights the African Union-led Regional Task Force to violations. eliminate the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), In December, federal, provincial and withdrew from the country between April and territorial ministers responsible for human May. rights met for the first time since 1988 and In May, the national assembly presented a committed to establish a “senior level peace roadmap, which included a national mechanism” to more effectively co-ordinate committee of victims and excluded amnesties implementation of Canada’s international for war crimes,05:01 to the government. human rights obligations. In June, the government and 13 of the 14 armed/ groups signed a peace agreement which included an immediate ceasefire, political representation for armed groups and CENTRAL AFRICAN the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation ETCommission. It also incorporated the REPUBLIC EMBARGOEDpotential for pardons.FEBRUARY In July, the AU produced the Roadmap for Central African Republic Peace and Reconciliation in the Central Head of state: Faustin-Archange Touadéra African Republic, which launched a joint Head of government: Simplice Sarandji mediation.22 The government had minimal control outside the capital, Bangui. Armed groups ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS AND continued to fight for territorial control, and CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW targeted civilians, humanitarian00:01 workers and Armed groups were responsible for killings, peacekeepers. Widespread impunity further torture and other ill-treatment, sexual fuelled instability and conflict. Increasing assaults, abductions, arrests, extortion and numbers sought refuge in neighbouring looting, recruitment and exploitation of countries or were internally displaced, in children and attacks on humanitarian dire conditions. At least 2.4 million people workers and premises; they also prevented STRICTLYdepended on humanitarian assistance and access to humanitarian assistance. 1.4 million remained food insecure. The International NGO Safety Organisation reported that over 390 security incidents UNTIL targeted relief agencies and at least 15 local humanitarian workers were killed. THURSDAY 118 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Between 20 and 21 March, at least 20 civilian deaths and over 24,000 people people, including civilians, were killed in displaced. clashes between ex-Seleka and Anti-balaka In August, clashes between Anti-balaka and in the towns of Bakouma and Nzako, UPC in the town of Gambo, near Bangassou, Mbomou prefecture. resulted in at least 36 civilian deaths In April, 11 civilians were killed in fighting including six national Red Cross workers. between Anti-balaka and the Union for Peace In September, clashes between rival FPRC in the Central African Republic (UPC) in factions left 10 people dead in Bria. loose alliance with herders along the Hundreds of Muslims returned home in the Bangassou-Rafai road. southwest but continued to be persecuted; On 2 May, Return, Reclamation and fear of attacks forced them to restrict their Rehabilitation (3R) killed 12 people in Niem- movements and, in some cases, hide their Yelewa and occupied the town for 12 days. religion. Between 7 and 25 May, UPC’s attacks killed In the southeast, international NGOs hundreds of civilians and displaced reported 113 attacks by the LRA and at least thousands in the southeast including in the 12 civilian casualties and 362GMT kidnappings. 2018 towns of Alindao, Nzangba and Mobaye. At On 10 October, at least 25 people were least 130 civilians died in Alindao; women killed in a mosque when Anti-balaka attacked were systematically raped. Kembe town, in the Basse-Kotto province. On Between 12 and 13 May, Anti-balaka 18 October, clashes between Anti-balaka and attacked the predominantly Muslim UPC fighters in Pombolo, in Mbomou neighbourhood of Tokoyo in Bangassou, province, led to at least 26 deaths. Mbomou prefecture, and the MINUSCA In November, four people were killed when base. The UN estimated that at least 72 unidentified assailants threw a grenade at a people were killed, 76 injured and 4,400 concert in05:01 Bangui. displaced, while the national Red Cross estimated at least 115 deaths. VIOLATIONS/ BY PEACEKEEPING FORCES From 16 to 18 May, at least 17 civilians Reports of sexual exploitation and abuses were killed in clashes between ex-Seleka and (“SEA”) by UN peacekeeping troops Anti-balaka in the town of Bria, and some continued. In January, the UN Secretary- 15,000 displaced. ETGeneral announced a new task force to On 6 June, at least 18 civiliansEMBARGOED were killed prevent and respondFEBRUARY to SEA. However, the when Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central UN registered 21 SEA cases, including African Republic (FPRC) elements attacked against six children, involving peacekeepers. Anti-balaka positions in Nzako. In June, the Republic of the Congo withdrew From 20 to 23 June, over 80 civilians died nearly 65022 troops in light of sexual abuse and during fights between Anti-balaka and FPRC misconduct allegations. in Bria. On 30 September, at least one Mauritanian Between 27 and 30 June, at least 22 people peacekeeper allegedly drugged and raped a were killed when Anti-balaka attacked00:01 woman in the town of Bambari. MINUSCA Muslim neighbourhoods in Zemio town, and rapidly deployed investigators and committed the local population retaliated. to pursuing the issue. On 1 July, at least 10 people were killed in Several SEA complaints involving French fighting between the Central African Patriotic forces, deployed under Operation Sangaris, Movement (MPC) and Anti-balaka in Kaga- were dismissed following investigations. In STRICTLYBandoro, Nana-Gribizi province. March, the Paris Prosecutor requested the Between 29 July and 1 August, clashes dismissal of a rape case which allegedly between ex-Seleka and Anti-balaka in the occurred between 2013 and 2014 at an town of BatangafoUNTIL resulted in at least 14 internally displaced people’s settlement in M’Poko in Bangui. At least 14 Operation THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 119 Sangaris soldiers and five soldiers of the Abdoulaye Hissène, a leading FPRC member, African-led International Support Mission to and Maxime Mokom, an Anti-balaka leader. the Central African Republic (MISCA), AU In June, Chad announced that it had frozen troops, and peacekeepers, were allegedly Abdoulaye Hissène’s assets and banned him involved. The Prosecutor’s decision was that from crossing the Chadian borders. the victims’ testimonies did not sufficiently establish the facts. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE Progress was made in operationalizing the REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY Special Criminal Court (SCC) which will try DISPLACED PEOPLE individuals suspected of serious human The number of people seeking refuge in rights violations and crimes under neighbouring countries increased due to an international law committed since 2003. The escalation of violence in April and May. By SCC Special Prosecutor took office in May the end of the year, at least 538,000 people after which five national magistrates and two had fled the country for neighbouring international magistrates were nominated, countries Chad, Cameroon, DRC and and a committee to select GMTjudicial police 2018 Republic of the Congo; while 601,000 were officers was created. internally displaced, living in poor conditions The ICC investigations on the “Central in makeshift camps with inadequate access African Republic II situation” continued but to food, water, health care and sanitation. no arrest warrants were issued. In March, the ICC increased Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo’s IMPUNITY 18-year prison sentence to 19 years after he Many suspected perpetrators of human rights and his legal team were convicted of abuses and violations, including armed attempting to bribe witnesses in 2016. groups and security forces, were not 05:01 investigated or tried. Impunity was NATURAL RESOURCES exacerbated by the collapse of the national On 20/ July, the General Court of the justice system and its slow reconstruction. European Union upheld the asset freeze On 26 February, MINUSCA arrested six against the Belgium-based diamond FPRC and MPC members. Central African companies BADICA and KARDIAM, which authorities detained them from 1 March and EThad procured diamonds from the Central opened investigations. SuspectsEMBARGOED had not African Republic FEBRUARYdespite a ban. been brought to trial by the end of the year. Between November and December, eight RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF Anti-balaka members were sentenced in four LIVING cases, in a court in the western town of The UN reported22 that nearly half the Bouar, to up to 20 years’ imprisonment for population (2.4 million) needed humanitarian crimes including criminal association, assistance, and 1.4 million were food unlawful possession of homemade arms, insecure. murder and theft. Others were 00:01sentenced in The health system collapsed due to the their absence. conflict and the population depended almost The Central African authorities failed to entirely on humanitarian organizations for implement an asset freeze which was basic services. Escalating violence led extended by the UN Security Council on 27 humanitarian organizations to temporarily January until 31 January 2018 along with an withdraw staff from cities and villages. STRICTLYarms embargo and travel ban. Several listed The UN said that about a third of the individuals continued to collect their state population had access to safe drinking water salaries. and adequate sanitation facilities. Between AprilUNTIL and December, the US imposed financial sanctions including against THURSDAY 120 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 On 30 May a woman was abducted by Boko CHAD Haram about 4km from Kaiga Kindjiria. Similar attacks were reported in May and Republic of Chad June in other areas including Bodou-Doloum Head of state: Idriss Déby Itno in the Baga Sola sub-prefecture, which Head of government: Albert Pahimi Padacké resulted in the killing of three people and the abduction of three others. The armed group Boko Haram continued to commit abuses around Lake Chad. Chadian FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY authorities repeatedly banned peaceful During the year, the authorities banned at assemblies and arrested and prosecuted least six peaceful assemblies, and those human rights defenders, activists and organizing and participating in protests were journalists, some of whom became arrested. prisoners of conscience. The right to On 6 and 15 April respectively, Nadjo Kaina freedom of association was violated with and Bertrand Solloh, leaders of the citizen unlawful restrictions on the right to organize movement IYINA (“We areGMT tired”), were 2018 freely, including the criminalization of arrested by ANS agents for calling on citizens certain citizens’ associations. More than to wear red on the anniversary of the 2016 408,000 refugees continued to live in dire presidential election as a protest against conditions in camps including in Baga Sola. corruption and impunity. They were detained by the ANS without access to their families or BACKGROUND lawyers, before being handed over to the Revisions to the Criminal Code were judicial police. They were charged with promulgated by President Déby, repealing attempted conspiracy and organizing an the death penalty except for “terrorism”, and unauthorized05:01 gathering and given a six- increasing the minimum age for marriage to month suspended sentence. The two men 18 years. reported/ being tortured while in detention, New powers, including the power to arrest, including by being suffocated with plastic were provided to the National Security bags containing chili. Agency (ANS). On 12 April, Dingamnayal Nely Versinis, A severe economic crisis, following a sharp ETpresident of the organization Collectif drop in the price of petrolEMBARGOED in recent years, led Tchadien Contre laFEBRUARY Vie Chère, was arrested to austerity measures, public discontent and by ANS agents at the city hall in the capital, strikes in sectors including health, education N’Djamena. He had called on traders at the and justice. N’Djamena Millet Market to strike in protest at an increase22 in market fees. He was ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS detained without access to his family or The armed group Boko Haram continued to lawyer and charged with fraud and using a kill, abduct and injure civilians, and to false identity, before being released on 27 destroy property. 00:01 April by the Public Prosecutor on the grounds On 5 May, Boko Haram members killed at that he had committed no offence. least four civilians and burned 50 houses in Kaiga Kindjiria. On the night of 25 May, a FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION Boko Haram attack on Kirnatchoulma village, Certain social movements and civil society in the west of Kaiga Kinjiria, resulted in at platforms were banned and the right to strike STRICTLYleast three people being killed and three was restricted in contravention of wounded. On 26 and 27 May, Boko Haram international law. carried out several attacks on the villages of The citizens’ movement IYINA remained Konguia, WanguiUNTIL and Kagrerom, in the area banned and, on 6 January, the Minister of of Tchoukoutalia. Territorial Administration banned the activities THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 121 of the National Movement of Citizen conflict between herders and farmers in Awakening (MECI), a movement bringing Doba. He was released the following day and together civil society organizations, trade the prefect who ordered his arrest was unions and political parties, describing it as removed from office. “unnatural” and “without any legal basis”. On 27 May the police interrupted and banned PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE MECI’s General Assembly. The authorities continued to arrest and detain The rights of trade unions were violated in journalists for doing their work and activists response to the strike action they initiated and human rights defenders for exercising from September 2016 to January 2017. They their freedoms of expression and opinion. remained subject to a decree introduced in Online activist Tadjadine Mahamat Babouri 2016 limiting the right to strike, and their (also known as Mahadine), who was arrested requests to protest were rejected. on 30 September 2016, remained in In January the authorities interfered in the detention. He was arrested by ANS agents internal affairs of the trade union after posting several videos on Facebook representing researchers and university criticizing the government’sGMT alleged 2018 teachers, SYNECS, to force the removal of its mismanagement of public funds. He was president and end its strike. The same later charged with undermining the month, visas were denied to representatives constitutional order, threatening territorial of the General Confederation of Labour, an integrity and national security, and international partner of Chadian trade unions. collaborating with an insurrectional movement. He reported that, while detained FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION by the ANS, he was deprived of food and Journalists critical of the government water for three days, electrocuted and received threats and were subject to beaten. 05:01 surveillance, while defamation and contempt On 5 May, Maoundoe Decladore, laws continued to be used in an attempt to spokesperson/ of the organization Ça doit silence them. changer (“It must change”), was arrested at Between 22 and 24 February, Eric night by four armed men in plain clothes in Kokinagué, the Director of Publication of the Moundou. He was detained for 25 days newspaper Tribune Info, received more than ETwithout any access to his family or lawyer, in a dozen anonymous, threateningEMBARGOED calls from what he believes FEBRUARYwas an ANS facility. He was different numbers after he published an transferred to the judicial police on 30 May article heavily critical of President Déby. On and charged with public disorder. Maoundoe 25 February, the columnist who wrote the Decladore was released on bail due to his article, Daniel Ngadjadoum, was abducted by deteriorating22 health and was awaiting trial at armed men, detained for up to 24 hours in the end of the year. what he believes was an ANS facility, and On 20 June, Sylver Beindé Bassandé, a forced to write a letter of apology to the journalist and director of community radio Al President. 00:01 Nada FM in Moundou, was sentenced to two In June, Déli Sainzoumi Nestor, editor of the years in prison and fined XAF100,000 bi-monthly newspaper Eclairages, was (USD180) by the High Court of Moundou for charged with defamation after Daoussa Déby complicity in contempt of court and Itno, former minister and brother of President undermining judicial authority. He had been Déby, filed a complaint about an article charged after airing a radio interview with a STRICTLYalleging his involvement in fraud in the sugar municipal councillor, who had criticized industry. judges after having been convicted with two On 4 September, radio journalist Mbairaba other councillors in a separate proceeding. Jean Paul wasUNTIL arrested and accused of Sylver Beindé Bassandé lodged an appeal defamation after he reported on a communal and was released on bail on 19 July. On 26 THURSDAY 122 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 September, the Court of Appeal overruled the against Mapuche Indigenous Peoples. The decision by the High Court of Moundou, Anti-Terrorism Law was used against sentencing Sylver Beindé Bassandé to Mapuche people, despite violating complicity in defamation and fined him international standards on due process XAF100,000 (USD180). He appealed to the guarantees. A law decriminalizing abortion Supreme Court. in three specific circumstances entered into force; abortion continued to be otherwise REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY criminalized. DISPLACED PEOPLE More than 408,000 refugees from the Central BACKGROUND African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Presidential and congressional elections were the Congo, Nigeria and Sudan continued to held between November and December, and live in poor conditions in refugee camps. Sebastián Piñera Echenique was elected Insecurity caused by Boko Haram attacks President. The President-elect and new and military operations resulted in the members of Congress were due to begin their displacement of more than 174,000 people mandates in March 2018.GMT 2018 including at least 25,000 in 2017 alone. In June, nearly 5,000 people fled a wave of REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Boko Haram attacks on villages around Kaiga Congress considered a bill proposed by the Kindjiria and Tchoukoutalia, creating two new executive for a new immigration law. sites for internally displaced people: Kengua The first 14 Syrian families (66 people) (Kiskra canton, Fouli department) and Kane arrived in October under a resettlement Ngouboua (Diameron). Since July, around programme announced in 2014. 6,700 people arrived in Baga Sola from Niger after the withdrawal of Chadian troops from POLICE AND05:01 SECURITY FORCES the country and in fear of attacks from Boko There were continuing reports of excessive Haram. use of/ force by the police. In June, police used tear gas in close RIGHT TO FOOD proximity to a school in the Temucuicui The Chadian military continued to impose Mapuche community where young children restrictions on the movement of people and ETwere attending class. The action was deemed goods along the shores ofEMBARGOED Lake Chad, “proportionate” byFEBRUARY the Supreme Court. hampering the livelihoods of communities In November, a judge in Collipulli, Malleco and heightening the risk of food insecurity. Province, opened an investigation against a According to the UN, severe acute police officer for shooting 17-year-old malnutrition increased from 2.1% to 3.4% in Brandon 22Hernández in December 2016; he the region during the year. Countrywide, the received more than 100 pellet wounds in his UN estimated that 2.8 million people were back. The hearing was rescheduled three food insecure, including more than 380,000 times because the accused police officer did people at crisis or emergency level.00:01 not appear in court. The Supreme Court reopened the case of Alex Lemún, who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ercilla, Malleco Province in CHILE 2002. A military court had closed the case in Republic of Chile 2004 without finding anyone responsible. Head of state and government: Michelle Bachelet Jeria STRICTLY IMPUNITY Impunity for past and present human rights Victims of human rights violations during violations remainedUNTIL a concern. Police Chile’s military regime continued to demand continued to use excessive force, especially truth, justice and reparation. Although courts THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 123 had heard hundreds of cases, most of those acquittal were declared null and void. The convicted did not serve prison sentences, trial was due to be repeated in 2018. and many victims continued to lack access to The government and Attorney General’s institutional mechanisms to demand Office also brought “terrorism” charges reparation. against four Mapuche men for a fire that Congress discussed a bill to make destroyed a church in the city of Padre las information gathered by former truth Casas in June 2016. No one was hurt in the commissions available to prosecutors and fire. The men were arrested, detained and parties to relevant judicial proceedings. indicted on the day of the incident and In May the government filed a bill before continued to be held in pre-trial detention at Congress to establish a National Mechanism the end of 2017. After the four accused held for the Prevention of Torture. a prolonged hunger strike, the government filed a request for reclassification of the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS crime. However, the prosecution decided to In June the government announced the Plan continue pursuing terrorism charges. for the Recognition and Development of In September the governmentGMT implemented 2018 Araucanía to promote Indigenous Peoples’ “Operation Hurricane”, arresting and participation, economic development and charging eight people with conspiracy to protection of victims of violence. commit terrorist acts in connection with President Bachelet extended a formal burning and planning to burn dozens of apology to the Mapuche People for “errors cargo vehicles. No one was hurt in these and horrors” perpetrated by the state against incidents. The eight accused were held in them. A bill was under discussion to create a pre-trial detention until October when the Ministry of Indigenous Issues. Supreme Court declared their detention As part of the process of developing a new unlawful and05:01 ordered their release, since the Constitution, scheduled to be completed in judge had not sufficiently justified the need 2018, a consultation was conducted with for pre-trial/ detention. Investigation of the Indigenous Peoples’ representatives. The alleged crimes was ongoing. process was criticized by some representatives for excluding some key issues HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS brought forth by Indigenous Peoples. ETIn April, Rodrigo Mundaca and other leaders The Attorney General’s OfficeEMBARGOED and the of the Movement FEBRUARYfor the Defence of Water, government continued to misuse the Anti- Land and the Environment (MODATIMA) in Terrorism Law to prosecute Mapuche people the province of Petorca received death in violation of due process guarantees. In threats. An investigation was ongoing into the 2014, similar applications of the Anti- harassment22 and intimidation that Terrorism Law against Mapuche activists MODATIMA’s leaders had been subjected to were found by the Inter-American Court of for a number of years. Human Rights − in Norín Catrimán et al v. In May the Temuco Public Prosecutor’s Chile − to be in violation of the 00:01American Office announced the closure of the Convention on Human Rights. investigation into the abduction and torture of In October, 11 Mapuche people, including Víctor Queipul Hueiquil, a Mapuche lonko Machi Francisca Linconao, who had been (traditional community authority) in the charged with “terrorism” for a fire that killed Autonomous Community of Temucuicui in landowners Werner Luchsinger and Vivian June 2016. He had been threatened with STRICTLYMackay in January 2013, were acquitted. death if he continued his work as a leader The 11 defendants had been held in pre-trial and supporter of the Mapuche People. The detention or under house arrest for 18 Public Prosecutor said that the investigation months. UponUNTIL appeal by the Attorney could not proceed because Víctor Queipul General’s Office in December, the trial and did not collaborate with the investigation. In THURSDAY 124 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 May, the National Human Rights Institute filed a new lawsuit relating to the torture of CHINA Víctor Queipul; the investigation for the second case was ongoing. People’s Republic of China Head of state: Xi Jinping SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Head of government: Li Keqiang In September a law entered into force decriminalizing abortion in three The government continued to draft and circumstances: when the pregnancy poses a enact new laws under the guise of “national risk to the life of the pregnant woman or girl; security” that presented serious threats to when the foetus is not viable; or when human rights. Nobel Peace Prize laureate pregnancy is a result of rape. It also Liu Xiaobo died in custody. Activists and established the right to conscientious human rights defenders were detained, objection for medical professionals and prosecuted and sentenced on the basis of institutions who choose not to perform vague and overbroad charges such as abortions even in those circumstances. “subverting state power” andGMT “picking 2018 Guidelines for the implementation of the law quarrels and provoking trouble”. Police were approved in December. Abortion detained human rights defenders outside continued to be criminalized in all other formal detention facilities, sometimes circumstances. incommunicado, for long periods, which posed additional risk of torture and other ill- RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, treatment to the detainees. Controls on the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE internet were strengthened. Repression of In August a criminal case filed against a religious activities outside state-sanctioned judge for allowing the change of name and churches 05:01increased. Repression conducted gender markers for a transgender girl was under “anti-separatism” or “counter- closed with all charges dropped. terrorism”/ campaigns remained particularly In June the Senate approved the Gender severe in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Identity Bill, which established the right of Region and Tibetan-populated areas. people over the age of 18 to have their Freedom of expression in Hong Kong came gender identity legally recognized by ETunder attack as the government used vague changing their name and EMBARGOEDgender markers on and overbroad chargesFEBRUARY to prosecute pro- official documents through an administrative democracy activists. process, without requiring gender reassignment surgery or medical certification. LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR The bill was pending before Congress at the INSTITUTIONAL22 DEVELOPMENTS end of the year. Sweeping national security-related laws and In August the government filed a bill in the regulations continued to be drafted and Senate establishing marriage and adoption enacted, giving greater powers to the rights for same-sex couples in equality00:01 with authorities to silence dissent, censor different-sex couples. information and harass and prosecute human rights defenders. On 1 January the foreign NGO management law, whose provisions impeded independent operations of registered NGOs, came into STRICTLY effect. Foreign NGOs that had not yet registered and continued to operate in China could face a freeze on bank accounts, UNTIL sealing of venues, confiscation of assets, suspension of activities and detention of staff. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 125 In June, the National Intelligence Law was In November, writer and government critic adopted and entered into force. These laws Yang Tongyan, who had spent nearly half his were part of a national security legal life in detention, died shortly after his release architecture introduced in 2014 − which also on medical parole. included the Anti-espionage Law, Criminal Among the nearly 250 targeted individuals Law Amendment (9), National Security Law, who were questioned or detained by state Anti-terrorism Law and Cyber Security Law − security agents following the unprecedented and presented serious threats to the government crackdown on human rights protection of human rights. The National lawyers and other activists that started in July Intelligence Law used similarly vague and 2015, nine were convicted of “subverting overbroad concepts of national security, and state power”, “inciting subversion of state granted effectively unchecked powers to power” or “picking quarrels and provoking national intelligence institutions with unclear trouble”. Three people were given suspended roles and responsibilities. All lacked sentences and one “exempted from criminal safeguards to protect against arbitrary punishment” while remaining under detention and to protect the right to privacy, surveillance and five remainedGMT imprisoned. In 2018 freedom of expression and other human April, Beijing lawyer Li Heping, detained rights.1 since the beginning of the crackdown, was The draft Supervision Law, which opened given a three-year suspended prison for consultation in November, would, if sentence for “subverting state power”. He enacted as is, legalize a new form of arbitrary claimed that he was tortured during pre-trial detention, named liuzhi, and create an detention, including being force-fed extrajudicial system with far-reaching powers medicine. Yin Xu’an was sentenced in May to with significant potential to infringe human three and a half years’ imprisonment. Wang rights.2 Fang was 05:01sentenced in July to three years’ The authorities continued to use “residential imprisonment. Beijing lawyer Jiang Tianyong, surveillance in a designated location”, a form who went/ missing in November 2016 and of secret incommunicado detention that “confessed” at a trial in August to fabricating allowed the police to hold individuals for up the torture account of lawyer Xie Yang by to six months outside the formal detention Chinese police and attending overseas system, without access to legal counsel of ETworkshops to discuss changing China’s their choice, their familiesEMBARGOED or others, and political system, wasFEBRUARY sentenced in November placed suspects at risk of torture and other to two years’ imprisonment for “inciting ill-treatment. This form of detention was used subversion of state power”. Hu Shigen and to curb the activities of human rights Zhou Shifeng, convicted in 2016, remained defenders, including lawyers, activists and imprisoned.22 Beijing human rights lawyer religious practitioners. Wang Quanzhang, held in incommunicado detention since the beginning of the HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS crackdown, was still awaiting trial at the end On 13 July, Nobel Peace Prize 00:01laureate Liu of the year, charged with “subverting state Xiaobo died in custody from liver cancer. The power”. In January, an interview transcript authorities had refused a request from Liu with Xie Yang was published in which he said Xiaobo and his family that he travel abroad to he faced torture and other ill-treatment receive medical treatment.3 At the end of the during detention. Xie Yang was released on year, his wife Liu Xia remained under bail without a verdict in May after his trial. On STRICTLYsurveillance and illegal “house arrest” which 26 December, the court announced his had continued since Liu Xiaobo was awarded conviction on the charge of “inciting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. At least 10 subversion of state power” but ruled that he activists were UNTILdetained for holding memorials was “exempt from criminal punishment”. He for him. remained under surveillance. THURSDAY 126 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In July, Beijing lawyer Wang Yu, whose Lawyer Li Yuhan was detained in October detention on 9 July 2015 marked the and claimed she was tortured and ill-treated beginning of the crackdown, wrote in an during detention. article published online that she was ill- treated during detention. She was released WORKERS’ RIGHTS on bail in mid-2016 but remained under In May, labour activists Hua Haifeng, Li Zhao close surveillance. Lawyers Li Shuyun, Ren and Su Heng were detained in Jiangxi Quanniu and Li Chunfu, and activist Gou province while investigating work conditions Hongguo, reported that they were drugged at Huajian shoe factories. The activists were during detention.4 released on bail in June but remained under In addition to the 250 targeted individuals, close surveillance. activist Wu Gan, who worked in a law firm In July, a Guangzhou court sentenced later targeted by the authorities in the labour activist Liu Shaoming to four and a crackdown, was tried in August in a closed half years’ imprisonment for publishing his hearing for “subverting state power” after reflections about joining the pro-democracy nearly 27 months’ pre-trial detention. On 26 movement and becoming GMTa member of 2018 December, he was sentenced to eight years’ China’s first independent trade union in imprisonment. 1989, and experiences during the 1989 In March, Guangdong activist Su Changlan Tiananmen crackdown. was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power” for FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – INTERNET her online criticism of the Chinese Thousands of websites and social media Communist Party and the Chinese socialist services remained blocked, including system. She was detained in 2014 after Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On 1 June, expressing support for Hong Kong’s 2014 the Cybersecurity05:01 Law came into effect, pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. She making it obligatory for internet companies was released in October after serving the full operating/ in China to censor users’ content. sentence but with health concerns In August, the Cyberspace Administration of aggravated by poor conditions in detention. China and the Guangdong Provincial On 19 March, Lee Ming-Cheh, manager of a Cyberspace Administration launched an Taiwan NGO, was detained by state security ETinvestigation into internet service providers officers when he entered EMBARGOEDmainland China Tencent’s WeChat, FEBRUARY Sina Weibo and Baidu’s from Macao. In September, he was tried in Tieba because their platforms contained user Hunan Province for “subverting state power” accounts which “spread information that and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in endangers national security, public security November.5 and social22 order, including violence and At least 11 activists were detained in June terror, false information and rumours and for commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen pornography”. In September, China’s crackdown; most were accused of “picking dominant messaging service WeChat quarrels and provoking trouble”.00:01 Li Xiaoling introduced new terms of service to collect a and Shi Tingfu remained in detention, and wide range of personal information, and Ding Yajun was sentenced to three years’ made data on its over 900 million users imprisonment in September. available to the government. In August, lawyer Gao Zhisheng went Huang Qi, co-founder of 64tianwang.com, a missing from an isolated village in Shaanxi website that reports on and documents STRICTLYprovince, where he had lived under tight protests in China, was accused of “leaking surveillance since his release from prison in state secrets”. He was allowed to meet his 2014. The family later learned he was in lawyer only eight months after he was authorities’ custodyUNTIL but his location and detained and claimed that he was ill-treated condition remained unknown. in detention. At the end of 2017, 10 THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 127 journalists of 64tianwang.com were in prison: DEATH PENALTY Wang Jing, Zhang Jixin, Li Min, Sun Enwei, Li In March, the President of the Supreme Chunhua, Wei Wenyuan, Xiao Jianfang, Li People’s Court announced that over the last Zhaoxiu, Chen Mingyan and Wang Shurong. 10 years, since the Court regained the Liu Feiyue, founder of human rights website authority to review and approve all death Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, was sentences, capital punishment “had been detained in late 2016 and charged with strictly controlled and applied prudently” and “inciting subversion of state power”. His only applied “to an extremely small number lawyer said that the charge was mostly of criminals for extremely severe offences”. related to opinions he had expressed publicly However, the government continued to and posted on the website. conceal the true extent of the use of the In August, Lu Yuyu, who documented death penalty, despite more than four protests in China on Twitter and in a blog, decades of requests from UN bodies and the was convicted of “picking quarrels and international community for more provoking trouble” and sentenced to four information, and despite the Chinese years’ imprisonment. authorities’ own pledges toGMT bring about 2018 In September, Zhen Jianghua, executive greater openness in the criminal justice director of online platform Human Rights system.7 Campaign in China, was criminally detained on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION AND power” and later placed under residential TIBETAN-POPULATED AREAS IN OTHER surveillance at a designated location. Police PROVINCES confiscated numerous documents related to ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS his website which contained reports from In June, in his report of a 2016 visit to China, grassroots rights activists. the UN Special05:01 Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights stated that while FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF achievements/ towards alleviating poverty In June, the State Council passed the revised were generally “impressive”, the situation of Regulations on Religious Affairs, to come into Tibetans and Uighurs was deeply effect on 1 February 2018. It codified far- problematic, and “that most ethnic minorities reaching state control over every aspect of ETin China are exposed to serious human rights religious practice, and extendedEMBARGOED power to challenges, includingFEBRUARY significantly higher authorities at all levels of the government to poverty rates, ethnic discrimination and monitor, control and potentially punish forced relocation”. religious practice. The revised law, which Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan education emphasized national security with a goal of advocate,22 remained in detention awaiting trial curbing “infiltration and extremism”, could at the end of the year, without access to his be used to further suppress the right to family. He was taken away in early 2016 for freedom of religion and belief, especially for giving an interview to the New York Times in Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims00:01 and which he expressed fears about the gradual unrecognized churches.6 extinction of the Tibetan language and Falun Gong practitioners continued to be culture. subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION unfair trials and torture and other ill- Ethnic Tibetans continued to face treatment. Chen Huixia remained detained discrimination and restrictions on their rights STRICTLYsince 2016 for suspicion of “using an evil cult to freedom of religion and belief, of opinion to undermine law enforcement”. In May, her and expression, of peaceful assembly and of trial was adjourned after her lawyer requested association. the court excludeUNTIL evidence extracted through At least six people set themselves on fire in torture. Tibetan-populated areas during the year THURSDAY 128 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 in protest against repressive policies, bringing Islamic in origin, and required all children the known number of self-immolations since under 16 with these names to change them. February 2009 to 152. On 18 March, Pema In May, there were media reports that the Gyaltsen set himself on fire in Ganzi (Tibetan: Chinese authorities in the XUAR had initiated Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in a policy to compel all Uighurs studying Sichuan Province. Tibetan sources said that abroad to return to China. Six Uighurs who he was believed to be alive when he was had studied in Turkey but had returned to taken away by the police. His relatives were the XUAR were given prison sentences detained and beaten when they approached ranging from 5 to 12 years on undefined the authorities asking for his whereabouts. charges. In April, Chinese authorities Tibetan NGOs abroad said that Lobsang detained relatives of several students in Egypt Kunchok, a Tibetan monk detained after to coerce them to return home by May. surviving a self-immolation attempt in 2011, Reports were received that some who was released from prison in March.8 On 26 returned were tortured and imprisoned. In December, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup July, the Egyptian authorities began a Wangchen was reunited with his family in the massive round-up of hundredsGMT of Chinese 2018 USA, almost 10 years after he was first nationals in Egypt, mainly Uighurs. Of these, detained in China for making an independent at least 22 Uighurs were forcibly returned to documentary about the views of ordinary China. Tibetans ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Buzainafu Abudourexiti, a Uighur woman who returned to China in 2015 after studying XINJIANG UIGHUR AUTONOMOUS for two years in Egypt, was detained in March REGION and sentenced in June to seven years’ Under the leadership of new regional imprisonment after a secret trial.9 Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, In August,05:01 international media reported that the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region education authorities had issued an order in (XUAR) authorities put new emphasis on June in/ the largely Uighur-populated Hotan “social stability” and increased security. Prefecture to ban the use of the Uighur Media reports indicated that numerous language in schools, including for “collective detention facilities were set up within the activities, public activities and management XUAR, variously called “counter extremism ETwork of the education system”. Media reports centres”, “political study centres”,EMBARGOED or stated that familiesFEBRUARY across the region were “education and transformation centres”, in required to hand copies of the Qur’an and which people were arbitrarily detained for any other religious items to the authorities or unspecified periods and forced to study risk punishment. Chinese laws and policies. 22 In March, the XUAR enacted the “De- HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE extremification Regulation” that prohibits a REGION wide range of behaviours labelled A series of actions taken throughout the year “extremist”, such as spreading00:01 “extremist by the Hong Kong authorities increased thought”, denigrating or refusing to watch concerns about whether freedom of public radio and TV programmes, wearing expression and freedom of peaceful burkas, having an “abnormal” beard, assembly were at risk. resisting national policies, and publishing, In March, the founders of the Occupy downloading, storing or reading articles, Central campaign – Benny Tai, Chan Kin- STRICTLYpublications or audio-visual materials man and Rev Chu Yiu-Ming – were charged containing “extremist content”. with “public nuisance”-related offences, In April, the government published a list of carrying a maximum penalty of seven years’ prohibited names,UNTIL most of which were imprisonment, for their involvement in the Umbrella Movement. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 129 In July, the High Court disqualified four MACAO SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE elected pro-democracy legislators − Nathan REGION Law, Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai and Yiu In August, the Macao government stopped Chung-yim − for failing to meet the four Hong Kong journalists from entering requirements specified in the National Macao to report on the destruction and People’s Congress Standing Committee’s clean-up work of Typhoon Hato, which media interpretation of the Hong Kong Basic Law reported caused 10 deaths. In December, when they took their oaths of office in Macao’s legislature voted to suspend pro- October 2016. democracy lawmaker Sulu Sou and to In August, the Court of Appeal sentenced remove his legislative immunity. He was Joshua Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law to elected in September and charged in six, seven and eight months’ imprisonment November for taking part in a May 2016 respectively for their part in a student-led peaceful protest against Macao’s Chief demonstration in September 2014 which Executive. triggered the Umbrella Movement. Joshua Wong and Alex Chow had been found guilty GMT 2018 1. China: Submission on the draft “National Intelligence Law” (ASA in 2016 of “taking part in an unlawful 17/6412/2017) assembly” and Nathan Law of “inciting 2. China: Submission on the draft “Supervision Law” (ASA others to take part in an unlawful assembly”. 17/7553/2017) A magistrates’ court originally ordered 3. Liu Xiaobo: A giant of human rights who leaves a lasting legacy for community service or suspended sentences China and the world (Press release, 13 July) but prosecutors successfully appealed, 4. Further information: China − lawyer on bail remains under tight seeking harsher penalties.10 Joshua Wong surveillance: Xie Yang (ASA 17/6307/2017) and Nathan Law were released on bail in 5. China: Taiwanese activist sentenced to five years in jail (Press October and Alex Chow in November release) 05:01 pending their appeals. 6. Why China must scrap new laws that tighten the authorities’ grip on The District Court sentenced seven police religious/ practice (News story, 31 August) officers to two years’ imprisonment in 7. China’s deadly secrets (ASA 17/5849/2017) February for assaulting protester Ken Tsang 8. China: Disclose the whereabouts of two Tibetans who attempted self- during the Umbrella Movement protests. immolation (ASA 17/6098/2017) After the sentencing, China’s state ET9. China: Uighur woman incommunicado after secret trial – Buzainafu mouthpieces initiated an orchestratedEMBARGOED Abudourexiti ( ASA 17/7168/2017FEBRUARY) campaign attacking Hong Kong’s judiciary. 10. Hong Kong: Freedom of expression under attack as scores of peaceful Appeals were pending at year end. protesters face “chilling” prosecutions (News story, 26 September) RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE 22 In April, the Court of First Instance ruled that COLOMBIA the government’s refusal to extend work benefits to the same-sex husband of a civil Republic of Colombia servant was discrimination based00:01 on sexual Head of state and government: Juan Manuel Santos orientation. Calderón In September, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Immigration Department’s refusal to grant The civilian population, especially a dependant visa to the same-sex civil Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant and partner of a foreign professional on a work peasant farmer communities, and human STRICTLYvisa was discriminatory. The government rights defenders, continued to be the main appealed against the decisions in both cases. victims of the ongoing armed conflict. Although official figures indicated that UNTIL there was a decrease in the number of civilians killed in military actions involving THURSDAY 130 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 the Revolutionary Armed Forces of UN Monitoring and Verification Mission in Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian Colombia established by UN Security Council security forces from the start of the resolution 2261 (2016). The process to verify negotiations to signing of the Peace FARC disarmament, which was due to be Agreement in 2016, the armed conflict completed in 180 days, began on 1 March. persisted in 2017 and in some parts of the On 27 June, the process of surrendering of country it seemed to have intensified. weapons by individuals ended, and on 15 Concerns remained about impunity for August the process of removing arms and crimes committed during the armed munitions from the 26 FARC camps was conflict. Security forces used excessive completed. In accordance with the Peace force, sometimes causing civilian deaths. Agreement, the UN Security Council adopted Violence against women, particularly sexual resolution 2377 (2017) approving a second violence, persisted. verification mission on the political, economic and social reintegration of FARC members, INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT which commenced on 26 September. PEACE PROCESS Despite the stipulations inGMT the “Ethnic 2018 On 11 October, the Constitutional Court gave Chapter” of the Peace Agreement, there were backing to the Peace Agreement signed by complaints about the lack of guarantees for the Colombian government and the FARC the effective participation of Indigenous guerrilla group on 24 November 2016. Peoples and Afro-descendant communities in However, at the end of 2017 legislation had the implementation of the Agreement. On 21 yet to be implemented for most of the points September, members of the Permanent in the Peace Agreement. Bureau for Co-ordination with Indigenous During separate negotiations in Quito, Peoples and Organizations declared Ecuador, between the National Liberation themselves05:01 to be in a state of emergency and Army (ELN) guerrilla group and the permanent assembly to demand that the Colombian government, the parties declared provisions/ of the Peace Agreement be fully on 4 September that a bilateral ceasefire complied with. would take effect from 1 October until early CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF THE ARMED CONFLICT 2018. The ceasefire was declared in principle The Unit for the Victims’ Assistance and for a period of four months, after which the ETReparation, created in 2011 by Law 1148, Colombian government andEMBARGOED the ELN would recorded a total 8,532,636FEBRUARY victims for the begin to discuss a possible peace agreement. five-decade duration of the armed conflict. However, from October there were various This included 363,374 victims of threats, reports of ELN attacks against civilians in 22,915 victims of sexual offences, 167,809 contradiction of the ceasefire agreement. victims of22 enforced disappearance, ELN acknowledged one such attack: the 7,265,072 victims of forced displacement killing of Aulio Isaramá Forastero, an and 11,140 victims of anti-personnel mines. Indigenous leader from Chocó, by ELN Crimes against 31,047 victims of the armed members on 24 October. Civil society00:01 conflict were recorded for the first time organizations in the Department of Chocó between January and October 2017. issued a call for a “Humanitarian Agreement In the departments of Chocó, Cauca, Now”, directed at the national government Antioquia and Norte de Santander, among and the ELN guerrillas, in order to implement others, crimes under international law and concrete humanitarian actions to stop ethnic human rights violations persisted, including STRICTLYcommunities in Chocó continuing to be put at targeted killings of members of Afro- risk by confrontations in their territories. descendant communities and Indigenous Between 28 January and 18 February, Peoples, collective forced displacements, the 6,803 FARC guerrillasUNTIL moved into 26 forced confinement of communities within demobilization zones with the support of the their territories (limiting their freedom of THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 131 movement and access to essential services Dios, in the Cacarica River Basin, department and food), the forced recruitment of children, of Chocó, searching for several people said to sexual violence, and the use of anti- be on a “death list”.2 On 6 March, a personnel mines. paramilitary incursion was reported in the Despite the signing of the Peace town of Peña Azul, municipality of Alto Agreement, the armed conflict intensified in Baudó, Chocó, which resulted in the large- some areas of Colombia as a result of armed scale displacement of families and the forced confrontations between ELN guerrillas, confinement of many people within their paramilitary groups and state forces seeking communities near Peña Azul.3 On 18 April, to fill the power vacuum left by the residents of Puerto Lleras in the Jiguamiandó demobilized FARC guerrillas. On 27 collective territory, Chocó, reported that they November, 13 people were killed as a result had received threats and that there had been of a confrontation between FARC dissidents a paramilitary incursion into the and ELN members in Magüí Payán Nariño Humanitarian Zone of Pueblo Nuevo that put department. There were complaints about all the inhabitants at risk.4 the weak state presence in areas that were Indigenous Peoples and Afro-ColombianGMT 2018 historically controlled by the FARC, which communities continued to be at risk from facilitated incursions and control by other anti-personnel mines on their territory; the illegal armed groups, putting Afro- laying of such mines is a grave violation of descendant and peasant farmer communities international humanitarian law. On 11 July, and Indigenous Peoples at risk. Sebastián Carpio Maheche, from the Paramilitary structures continued to operate Wounaan Indigenous community of Juuin in various parts of the country, despite their Duur in the Embera Wounaan Katio de supposed demobilization under the terms of Quiparadó Reserve in the municipality of Law 975, passed in 2005. There were reports Riosucio, 05:01Chocó, was injured by an exploding of paramilitary attacks and threats against anti-personnel mine.5 leaders of the Peace Community of San José Clashes/ between ELN guerrillas, the security de Apartadó in the department of Antioquia.1 forces and paramilitary groups put On 29 December, armed men attempted to Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian kill Germán Graciano Posso, the legal communities at serious risk.6 According to the representative of the community. Other ETNational Indigenous Organization of community members disarmedEMBARGOED them, but Colombia, between FEBRUARY 1 November 2016 and were injured in the process. The Peace 31 July 2017, 3,490 Indigenous people were Community had sought to distance itself from victims of mass forced displacements, 827 the armed conflict by formally refusing to were subjected to forced confinement, 115 allow state security forces, guerrilla groups or received 22threats and 30 were killed, including paramilitary groups to enter their territory. community leaders. Despite their efforts to remain neutral, people The ELN abducted two Dutch journalists on living in San José de Apartadó continued to 19 June in the area of El Tarra, Norte de be victims of attacks, torture, sexual00:01 abuse Santander. Both were released on 24 June. and forced displacement at the hands of all According to the Office of the parties to the conflict. Ombudsperson, hostage-taking by ELN There were reports of paramilitary guerrillas continued. incursions in the department of Chocó, in REPARATION FOR VICTIMS northwestern Colombia, particularly affecting Point 5 of the Peace Agreement created the STRICTLYAfro-descendant communities and “Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non- Indigenous Peoples. On 8 February, a group repetition System”, which included the of paramilitaries belonging to the Gaitanista Special Jurisdiction for Peace and judicial Self-Defence ForcesUNTIL entered the mechanisms such as a unit for investigating Humanitarian Zone of Nueva Esperanza en and dismantling the criminal organizations THURSDAY 132 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 that succeeded paramilitarism. Point 5 also with the FARC. Police, army and navy officers defined the position regarding reparations for were present in the area. Protesters reported the victims of the armed conflict. In this that tear gas was used against peaceful context, victims of the armed conflict demonstrators. The Ombudsperson reported demanded guarantees of access to justice, as that approximately 205 children as well as 10 well as guarantees of the right to truth and pregnant women and 19 elderly people reparation and, especially, of non-repetition suffered health complications as a result. In of abuses such as forced displacement and total, health problems as a result of exposure sexual violence, for Indigenous, Afro- to tear gas were reported by 313 people, and descendant and peasant farmer communities 16 people sustained gunshot injuries or at risk. These demands had yet to be met, trauma from blunt objects. The “Civic Strike” and the long-term viability of the Peace ended on 7 June. Agreement was threatened due to the One Indigenous man, Felipe Castro Basto, perpetrators of crimes under international was reported to have died in the municipality law, including war crimes, crimes against of Corinto, in the North of Cauca, when humanity and human rights abuses not being ESMAD opened fire on a demonstrationGMT by 2018 brought to justice. 200 Indigenous people. In April Legislative Act No.1 of 2017 was The Association of Community Councils adopted, to ensure Congress would pass Mira, Nulpe and Mataje (Asominuma) legislation implementing Point 5 of the Peace reported that, on 5 October, security forces Agreement. One of its provisions provided for killed nine peasant farmers by the separate – and privileged – treatment of indiscriminately firing at a peaceful state agents before the law, to the detriment demonstration in Tumaco (Nariño). of the rights of victims of crimes by the state in the context of the armed conflict. The law HUMAN RIGHTS05:01 DEFENDERS also provided for the possibility that the state Human rights defenders continued to be the would not pursue criminal prosecutions in victims/ of threats and targeted killings. The certain cases – although how this would be Office of the UN High Commissioner for implemented was not clear – potentially Human Rights reported that at least 105 breaching the obligation of the state to human rights defenders were killed in investigate, prosecute and punish grave ETColombia during the year. There was violations of human rights,EMBARGOED undermining the continuing concernFEBRUARY over the increase in the rights of victims to truth and full reparation. number of attacks against defenders, On 27 November, Congress approved the especially community leaders; defenders of Special Jurisdiction for Peace. land, territory and the environment; and those campaigning22 in favour of the signing of POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES the Final Agreement with the FARC. There There were allegations of deliberate killings continued to be an alarming rate of attacks by state forces and allegations of excessive against defenders of the rights of Indigenous use of force by the Mobile Anti-Riot00:01 Squad and Afro-descendant people, peasant (ESMAD) during protests in Chocó, Valle del farmers and women, calling into question the Cauca, Cauca and Catatumbo. implementation of the Peace Agreement. Inhabitants of Buenaventura on the Pacific According to the organization Somos coast reported police repression of peaceful Defensores, the number of killings of demonstrations which were part of the “Civic defenders increased by 31% in the first half STRICTLYStrike” declared on 16 May to demand that of the year compared to the same period in the Colombian government guarantee 2016. The killings of women exercising any economic, social and cultural rights and the kind of leadership role increased compared right of the city’sUNTIL inhabitants to participate in to 2016, with seven such killings occurring in the implementation of the Peace Agreement the first six months of 2017. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 133 There were reports of killings of Afro- by women’s organizations of serious cases of descendant leaders. On 8 June, Afro- sexual violence perpetrated during the year. descendant human rights defender Bernardo According to the organization Sisma Mujer, Cuero Bravo of the National Association of between 1 January 2016 and 31 July 2017, Displaced Afro-Colombians in Malambo, the Ombudsperson issued 51 statements Atlántico, was killed. He had been threatened warning of the risk of sexual violence, and attacked many times on account of his including six reports and notes associated work for the community and as a defender of with women defenders/leaders, in which he those who had been forcibly displaced. highlighted the extraordinary risks faced by Despite his repeated requests, he had not women leaders and human rights defenders. been granted any protection measures by the Due to weak protection mechanisms, there National Protection Unit. was a heightened risk of gender-based In November and December, two land violence, particularly domestic violence claimant leaders from collective Afro- against women, in the context of the descendant territories were killed by transition towards peace. Official figures paramilitaries from the Gaitanistas Self- recognized that following theGMT demobilization 2018 Defence Forces of Colombia. There were of the United Self-Defence Forces of reports of at least 25 other leaders being Colombia (AUC) in 2005 there was a 28% threatened by paramilitaries in these areas increase in cases of sexual violence in the during the year. communities where ex-combatants from the Many death threats against human rights AUC were reintegrated. However, the defenders and other activists were attributed government had yet to implement to paramilitary groups, but in most cases of mechanisms for prevention and for ensuring killings it was difficult to identify which groups care, assistance, protection and access to were responsible. However, the nature of the justice for05:01 women survivors of sexual work carried out by the victims, many of violence, notably in communities where whom were community leaders or land and FARC /guerillas were to be reintegrated during environmental rights activists, suggested that the year. There were also weaknesses in several of them may have been killed mechanisms to ensure that survivors of because of their human rights work. sexual violence are heard and can participate Moreover, it appeared that denouncing ETequally in all bodies responsible for abuses was perceived as EMBARGOEDa threat by regional implementing theFEBRUARY Peace Agreement. and local economic and political interests, as well as by various armed groups, including 1. Colombia: Paramilitary build-up in peace community (AMR 7 paramilitaries. 23/5614/2017); Colombia: Spike in attacks against peace community shows conflict22 still alive (News story, 21 March) VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS 2. Colombia: Paramilitary incursion in humanitarian zone (AMR The efforts of women’s organizations ensured 23/5685/2017) that the Peace Agreement established that 3. Colombia: Over 300 displaced due to paramilitary incursion (AMR people suspected of committing00:01 crimes of 23/5826/2017) sexual violence would be required to appear 4. Colombia: Further information: Continued paramilitary presence in before transitional justice tribunals. In Chocó (AMR 23/6082/2017) addition, the Agreement confirmed that such 5. Colombia: Wounaan Indigenous community in danger (AMR crimes would not be subject to amnesties or 23/6774/2017) pardons, although human rights groups had 6. Colombia: Recent collective displacements and violence indicate the lack of non-repetition guarantees for Chocó’s Indigenous Peoples and serious reservations as to whether this STRICTLY Afro-Colombian communities (AMR 23/6946/2017) provision would be genuinely implemented. 7. The human rights situation in Colombia – Amnesty International’s Official statistics showed no progress in written statement to the 34th Session of the UN Human Rights access to justiceUNTIL for women survivors of Council (27 February-24 March 2017) (AMR 23/5573/2017) sexual violence, despite repeated allegations THURSDAY 134 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Conditions, and the United Forces for CONGO (REPUBLIC Freedom and Democracy. The organizations had intended, during the demonstration, to give the Prime Minister a letter raising OF THE) concerns about the human rights situation. The right to freedom of expression was Republic of the Congo Head of state: Denis Sassou Nguesso restricted. On 11 January, Ghys Fortuné Head of government: Clément Mouamba Dombé Bemba, editor of the Talassa newspaper, was summoned by the judicial Dozens of political opponents remained in police in connection with charges of detention; some were prisoners of “complicity in undermining state security”. conscience. There were no investigations This followed his publishing a statement by into allegations of torture and other ill- Reverend Ntumi, leader of the “Ninjas”, an treatment by security forces and prison armed group operating in the Pool guards. Armed conflict between security department. forces and armed groups continued in Pool; PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE GMT 2018 around 81,000 internally displaced people In November Paulin Makaya completed a (IDPs) from the area continued to live in two-year prison sentence for participating in appalling conditions; and the rate of acute an unauthorized protest. However, he malnutrition reached alarming levels. remained in prison at the end of the year as a result of additional charges brought against BACKGROUND him on 6 January 2017 which included The government conducted military “undermining national security, complicity in operations, including air strikes, in the a plan to escape from detention, and southeastern department of Pool. complicity05:01 in the unlawful possession of arms Government restrictions and the continuing and munitions of war”. The charges related armed conflict limited access to the area. to a shooting/ in Brazzaville central prison in The Congolese Labour Party won 90 of the December 2016 in which, according to 151 National Assembly seats in legislative witnesses, he played no part. elections in July while elections in Pool had POLITICAL PRISONERS been postponed indefinitely due to the ETLittle progress was made in judicial conflict. On 23 December,EMBARGOED the government proceedings involvingFEBRUARY opposition leaders and and armed groups led by Frédéric Bintsamou members detained since 2015 for opposing (also known as Reverend Ntumi) signed up changes to the Constitution, or the to a ceasefire in Pool. presidential election results. On 31 March, the Republic of the Congo The opposition22 Initiative for Democracy in ratified the International Convention on the the Republic of Congo – Republican Front for Protection of the Rights of All Migrant the Respect of Constitutional Order and Workers and Members of Their Families. Democratic Change (FROCAD-IDC) – said 00:01 that over 100 political prisoners remained in FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND detention in Brazzaville central prison at the EXPRESSION end of the year. Local human rights The authorities used restrictive legislation, organizations compiled a list of names of 90 relating to public gatherings and assemblies, political prisoners held during the year. They to curtail the right to freedom of assembly. On included opposition leaders Okouya Rigobert STRICTLY23 March, the Prefect of Brazzaville, the of the Convention for Action, Democracy and capital, rejected a request to hold a peaceful Development (CADD); Jean-Marie Michel demonstration from the Congolese Mokoko, a presidential candidate and retired Observatory ofUNTIL Human Rights, the army general; and Jean Ngouabi, a member Association for Human Rights and Prison of the latter’s campaign team. In January, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 135 André Okombi Salissa, former member of the grounds, in public buildings, or in National Assembly and president of CADD, overcrowded makeshift sites. was arrested and detained at the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance after REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS spending almost a year in hiding. The refugee status of around 10,000 Also in January, Noël Mienanzambi Boyi, Rwandan refugees expired on 31 December, president of the Association for the Culture of under the Cessation Clause for Rwandan Peace and Non-Violence and a broadcaster refugees, on the grounds that Rwanda was a for a community radio station, was arrested in safe country. Some of the refugees may be Kinkala, the main town in Pool. The permitted to choose between voluntary authorities claimed that he was transporting repatriation and residency in their host medicine and food to Reverend Ntumi, and countries, or otherwise retain their refugee charged him with “complicity in undermining status if they fulfill certain criteria. state security”. Local NGOs said that he was arrested after he agreed to organize RIGHT TO FOOD mediation between the authorities and According to the UN, 138,000GMT people in Pool 2018 Reverend Ntumi on the government’s required humanitarian assistance, and over request. They also alleged that he was 50% of families were food insecure. tortured in various detention centres before Global Acute Malnutrition − the being transferred to Brazzaville central prison measurement of the nutritional status of in June where he remained at the end of the those in long-term refugee situations – year. affected between 17.3 and 20.4% of IDP children aged under five who fled from Pool. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Several cases of torture and other ill- 05:01 treatment by security services were reported. CÔTE D’IVOIRE No investigations or judicial proceedings into / these allegations were conducted by the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire authorities. Head of state: Alassane Dramane Ouattara On 24 January, Modeste Boukadia, Head of government: Amadou Gon Coulibaly (replaced president of the opposition Congolese Circle ETDaniel Kablan Duncan in January) of Democrats and Republicans,EMBARGOED was admitted FEBRUARY to Clinique Guénin in Pointe Noire city as a Around 200 detainees, loyal to former result of injuries he sustained when prison President Laurent Gbagbo, awaited trial in guards beat him at Pointe Noire prison in connection with post-electoral violence in November 2016. The beating resulted in two 2010 and22 2011. Killings in the context of fractured bones, and caused him to have mutinies and clashes between demobilized high blood pressure and a heart condition. soldiers and security forces were uninvestigated. The rights to freedom of INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE00:01 expression, association and peaceful Following fighting between government forces assembly were restricted; some protests and the Ninjas armed group, around a third were prohibited. Simone Gbagbo, wife of of residents in Pool fled their homes. An former President Gbagbo, was acquitted of estimated 81,000 people were IDPs; 59,000 crimes against humanity and war crimes. of them were registered displaced in 2017. The ICC tried Laurent Gbagbo and Charles STRICTLYIDPs were in dire need of shelter, food, water, Blé Goudé. basic health services and adequate sanitation. They were forced to live with BACKGROUND families in hostUNTIL communities, on church The UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) concluded its mission in June, 13 years after THURSDAY 136 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 its establishment by the UN Security Council. One student said the police arrested her with The UN Independent Expert praised Côte her friends in her room, and beat her. Some d’Ivoire’s gradual progress towards national of those arrested had thrown stones at the reconciliation and stability which, he warned, police, but others were peaceful. All were was fragile given the unrest in January. charged with disruption of public order and The government launched an investigation, provisionally released after 20 days. supported by UN investigators, into the discovery of an arms cache in a house owned IMPUNITY by a close aide of the President of the People suspected of supporting former National Assembly. President Gbagbo were tried for human rights In July, there were several attacks by armed violations committed during and after the groups. Three soldiers were killed when 2010 election. In contrast, none of President armed men attacked a military camp in Ouattara’s supporters were arrested or tried Korhogo in the north. in connection with human rights violations. In May Simone Gbagbo was acquitted of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION crimes against humanity andGMT war crimes by 2018 Legislation which contained provisions that the Assize Court of Abidjan. Victims of curtailed the right to freedom of expression, human rights violations were denied their including in relation to defamation, offending legal right to participate in the hearing. New the President and disseminating false news, lawyers, appointed by the head of the bar was adopted. after her lawyers withdrew in 2016, also In February, six journalists were detained for pulled out in March saying the Court was two days in the city of Abidjan, accused of irregularly constituted because a judge was divulging false information on army mutinies. appointed after the trial had begun. They were not charged but continued to be Around 20005:01 supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, summoned by authorities for questioning. arrested since 2011 for crimes allegedly In August, two Le Quotidien journalists were committed/ during the post-electoral violence, arrested over an article they wrote about the were still detained awaiting trial. Two of them National Assembly President’s finances. − Assi Jean Kouatchi and Bonfils Todé – died in custody in 2017. FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND ETSome detainees were provisionally released ASSEMBLY EMBARGOEDand awaited trial.FEBRUARY They included Antoinette In February, the police used tear gas and Meho, a member of civil society organization rubber bullets to repress a peaceful protest Solidarité Wé, released in May. She was by cocoa planters and National Agricultural charged with undermining state security. In Union members in Abidjan. December22 Hubert Oulaye, a former minister In July, demobilized soldiers held peaceful who was provisionally released in June, and protests in Bouaké city calling on the Maurice Djire, were sentenced to 20 years in government to deliver on promises made prison for the murder of, and complicity in after protests in May (see below).00:01 Amadou the murder of, UN soldiers in 2012. Despite Ouattara, Mégbè Diomandé and Lassina defence lawyers’ requests, the court did not Doumbia, members of “Cellule 39” (an provide testimonies from two prosecution association of demobilized soldiers), were witnesses during their trial. arrested and charged with public disorder In July, Adou Assoa, another former and organizing an unauthorized protest. minister was sentenced to four years’ STRICTLYAt least 40 students were arrested in imprisonment for public disorder but cleared September after FESCI (Fédération of charges of undermining state security. estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire) David Samba, opposition activist and organized protestsUNTIL across the country against president of the NGO Coalition des Indignés police violence and increased university fees. de Côte d’Ivoire, completed his six-month THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 137 sentence for public disorder in March 2016. where 540,000 litres of toxic waste were Prior to completing that sentence, he was dumped in Abidjan in 2006. The waste had charged with a new offence of undermining been produced by the company Trafigura. state security in relation to an attempted The authorities had still not assessed the uprising in Dabou in 2015 and was held long-term health risks to individuals of pending trial at the end of the year. exposure to the chemicals in the waste or MUTINIES monitored victims’ health. Compensation At least 10 people were killed and dozens claims against the company continued wounded in mutinies and clashes between although many had not received payments. the security forces and demobilized soldiers. Four people were killed between 12 and 14 May during a mutiny in Bouaké which spread to other cities. It was led by soldiers who had CROATIA been integrated into the army in 2011 and Republic of Croatia were demanding the payment of bonuses. On Head of state: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović 13 May a group of mutineers went to the Head of government: Andrej PlenkovićGMT 2018 office of “Cellule 39” and shot at them, in response to “Cellule 39” condemning the Discrimination against ethnic and sexual munity. Issoufou Diawara was killed after he minorities persisted. Refugees and migrants was shot in the back, and several were entering irregularly were returned without wounded. The violence ended when the access to an effective asylum process. government agreed to meet the mutineers’ Croatia accepted less than a 10th of the payment demands. refugees and asylum-seekers it had On 22 May, four demobilized soldiers were committed to relocate and resettle under killed in clashes with police when they held EU schemes.05:01 Access to abortion remained protests calling for an agreement equivalent restricted. to the one obtained by the mutineers. They / said they were unarmed when police fired on CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW them. (The demobilized soldiers were former Of the over 6,000 people who went missing members of armed groups who fought on the during the 1991-1995 war, the fate and side of President Ouattara during the ETwhereabouts of more than 1,500 remained 2010-2011 election violence.)EMBARGOEDunclarified. The InternationalFEBRUARY Commission on There was no indication that suspected Missing Persons reported that Croatia failed perpetrators, including security forces, would to make significant steps towards fulfilling the be brought to justice for human rights rights to truth, justice and reparation for violations by the end of the year. victims, including22 by failing to account for over 900 unidentified mortal remains in its INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE mortuaries. The ICC trial of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé for crimes against humanity,00:01 DISCRIMINATION including murder and rape during the post- Discrimination against ethnic and sexual electoral violence, continued. In July, the ICC minorities remained widespread. Appeals Chamber ordered the Trial Chamber Civil society organizations criticized new to review its ruling to deny Laurent Gbagbo’s government proposals for a national strategy provisional release. and action plan to fight discrimination that STRICTLY were presented in March. The policies CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY subsequently adopted by the government in The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) December failed to reflect and adequately delayed until 2018UNTIL the publication of its address human rights violations faced by assessment of lasting pollution at the 18 sites Serbs, Roma and sexual minorities. THURSDAY 138 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In February, the European Court of Human Unaccompanied minors represented a Rights found in Škorjanec v. Croatia that the quarter of all asylum-seekers in the country. authorities had failed to guarantee the By the end of the year, fewer than 200 applicant’s right to be free from torture and asylum-seekers had been granted other inhuman or degrading treatment by international protection. failing to adequately investigate and Croatia committed to accept 1,600 refugees prosecute the racist motives of the assailants and asylum-seekers under the EU who violently attacked and beat the applicant resettlement and relocation schemes by the and her partner, who is Roma, in 2013. end of the year; by mid-November, fewer than 100 people had been relocated, and REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS none had been resettled. Croatia continued to return to Serbia refugees In June, amendments introduced to the Law and migrants who entered the country on Foreigners forbade the provision of irregularly, without granting them access to assistance in accessing basic needs, such as an effective asylum process. These push- housing, health, sanitation or food, to foreign backs by police, sometimes from deep inside nationals irregularly residingGMT in Croatia, 2018 Croatian territory, routinely involved coercion, except in cases of medical and humanitarian intimidation, confiscation or destruction of emergencies or life-threatening situations. private valuables and the disproportionate use of force by the police. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS In July, the Court of Justice of the European The criminal justice system continued to fail Union ruled that Croatia had acted against many victims of domestic abuse by routinely the rules of the Dublin Regulation (which treating abuse as a minor offence. defines which EU member state has the In June, the European Court of Human obligation to evaluate the asylum claims) by Rights found05:01 in Ž.B. v. Croatia that the allowing transit for refugees and migrants authorities violated the right to respect for through the country in 2015 without private/ and family life of a victim of multiple examining applications for international instances of domestic violence. The protection. authorities had failed to criminally prosecute The NGO Centre for Peace Studies the alleged perpetrator and establish the documented that between January and April, ETfacts, suggesting that the victim should have at least 30 asylum applicationsEMBARGOED – including acted by herself asFEBRUARY a subsidiary prosecutor those from families with children – had been and pursued private prosecution. dismissed on the grounds of “security Croatia had yet to ratify the Council of concerns” during a routine security check Europe Convention on preventing and carried out by the Security and Intelligence combating22 violence against women and Agency as part of the asylum process. The domestic violence. notes of these applications were marked as “classified” and could not be seen and thus RIGHT TO HEALTH could not be rebutted or challenged00:01 on In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on the appeal by those seeking asylum or their legal right of everyone to the enjoyment of the representatives. Cases with classified notes highest attainable standard of physical and led to an automatic rejection by the Ministry mental health noted with concern the of Interior. Subsequently, the failed asylum- renewed and pending revision of the 1978 seekers were at risk of expulsion from the Act on Health Care Measures for Exercising STRICTLYcountry and at heightened risk of refoulement the Right to a Free Decision on Giving Birth, – a measure forcing an individual to return to which could potentially restrict access to a country where they would risk serious abortion. Individual doctors, and in some human rights UNTILviolations. cases health care institutions, continued to refuse abortions on grounds of conscience, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 139 forcing women to undergo clandestine and economic embargo on Cuba, which unsafe abortions. In March, the Constitutional continued to undermine economic, social Court ruled against a challenge seeking the and cultural rights. 1978 Act to be declared unconstitutional and At least 12 lawyers from the human rights called on the national assembly to refrain organization Cubalex received asylum in the from adopting any laws which would USA after being harassed, intimidated and effectively ban abortions. In pharmacies, threatened with imprisonment for their women and girls continued to be assessed peaceful human rights work. against a questionnaire for which they had to Cuba had not ratified the ICCPR or the reveal personal information about their sexual ICESCR, both of which it signed in February behaviour and reproductive health as a 2008, nor the Rome Statute of the ICC. condition of accessing emergency In December the government announced contraceptives that were available without that President Raúl Castro would step down prescription, in violation of their right to in April 2018. privacy. Roma children and women continued to be ARBITRARY ARRESTS ANDGMT DETENTIONS 2018 disadvantaged in accessing health care, and Human rights and political activists continued one fifth of this group lacked access to it to be harassed, intimidated and arbitrarily altogether. detained in high numbers. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a Cuban NGO not officially recognized by the state, recorded 5,155 CUBA arbitrary detentions in 2017, compared to Republic of Cuba 9,940 in 2016. Head of state and government: Raúl Castro Ruz The Ladies05:01 in White, a group of female relatives of prisoners detained on politically Arbitrary detentions, discriminatory motivated/ grounds, remained one of the dismissals from state jobs, and harassment primary targets of repression by the in self-employment continued to be used to authorities. During detention, the women silence criticism. Advances in education were often beaten by law enforcement were undermined by ongoing online and ETofficials and state security agents dressed as offline censorship. Cuba EMBARGOEDremained mostly civilians. FEBRUARY closed to independent human rights In January, Danilo Maldonado Machado, monitors. known as El Sexto, was released from a maximum security prison. He had been BACKGROUND arrested in22 November 2016, hours after the Lifting of travel restrictions on Cubans in announcement of Fidel Castro’s death, for 2013, removal of limits on receiving having written Se fue (“He’s gone”) on a wall remittances, and the draw of visa-free in the capital, Havana.1 countries continued to be important00:01 push In August, Yulier Perez, a graffiti artist factors for emigration. Cubans continued to known for painting dilapidated walls in leave in large numbers, despite the country’s Havana, was arbitrarily detained after months changing international diplomacy, pushed by of intimidation and harassment from the exceptionally low salaries and a tight web of authorities for freely expressing himself control on freedom of expression. through his art.2 STRICTLYIn June, the administration of US President Donald Trump made an almost complete PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE reversal of the USA’s political rhetoric towards The leader of the pro-democracy Christian Cuba. This reducedUNTIL the chance of US Liberation Movement, Dr Eduardo Cardet Congress passing legislation to lift the Concepción, remained in prison having been THURSDAY 140 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 handed a three-year sentence in March for lawyers limited effective recourse through the publicly criticizing Fidel Castro.3 courts. A family of four human rights defenders were detained in Holguín, southeast Cuba, RIGHT TO EDUCATION for allegedly leaving their house during the Undue restrictions in access to information period of state mourning for Fidel Castro in and freedom of expression online followed 2016. The three siblings were given one-year decades of offline censorship, undermining prison sentences for “defamation of Cuba’s advances in education. institutions, organizations and heroes and Between May and mid-June, the Open martyrs of the Republic of Cuba” and “public Observatory of Network Interference disorder”.4 Their mother was sentenced to conducted testing on a sample of websites in house arrest. On 2 April, after a prolonged Cuba and found 41 sites blocked by the hunger strike, the three siblings were freed authorities. All the blocked sites expressed under conditional release, but they continued criticism of the Cuban government, reported to be intimidated by the authorities. on human rights issues, or discussed Jorge Cervantes, a member of the political techniques to bypass censorship.GMT 2018 opposition group Patriotic Union of Cuba While the government continued to expand (UNPACU), was detained for approximately access to the internet, it prioritized access to three months between May and August. the highly censored, government-curated Weeks before, UNPACU had published on its national intranet. Access to the global YouTube channel a video called “Horrors in internet remained prohibitively expensive for jail” in which Jorge Cervantes interviewed a most Cubans.7 man who had allegedly been ill-treated in a Cuban prison, and a series of videos which INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY alleged corruption by public officials.5 In April, the05:01 UN Special Rapporteur on The authorities continued to present trafficking in persons conducted a visit to trumped-up charges for common crimes as a Cuba, /and in July the country received the way to harass and detain political opponents, UN independent expert on human rights and meaning there were likely many more international solidarity. prisoners of conscience than documented. Most independent human rights ETorganizations continued to be denied access WORKERS’ RIGHTS EMBARGOEDto the country andFEBRUARY to its prisons. Cuba The state continued to use its control – as the remained the only country in the Americas biggest employer in the country, and as a region to deny access to Amnesty regulator of the private sector – as a way to International. stifle even the most subtle criticism of the 22 government.6 Politically motivated and 1. Cuban graffiti artist released (AMR 25/5545/2017) discriminatory dismissals continued to be 2. Urban artist at risk in Cuba (AMR 25/7000/2017) used against those who criticized the government’s economic or political00:01 model. 3. Cuba: Activist sentenced to three years in jail after criticizing Fidel Castro (News story, 21 March) Workers pushed out of employment in the public sector for freely expressing themselves 4. Cuba: Prisoners of conscience on hunger strike (AMR 25/6001/2017) were often further harassed after entering the 5. Cuba: Opposition activist in maximum security prison (AMR 25/6671/2017) emerging but highly regulated self- employment sector. 6. Cuba: “Your mind is in prison” – Cuba’s web of control over free expression and its chilling effect on everyday life (AMR STRICTLYThe de facto prohibition on independent 25/7299/2017) trade unions limited workers’ ability to 7. Cuba’s internet paradox: How controlled and censored internet risks independently organize and appeal against Cuba’s achievements in education (News story, 29 August) discriminatoryUNTIL dismissals. The executive’s strong influence over the judiciary and THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 141 In September, the NGO Future Worlds CYPRUS Center warned of the need for a contingency reception plan, especially in case of an Republic of Cyprus increase in refugees arriving by boat. Head of state and government: Nicos Anastasiades According to the UN Migration Agency, 851 people arrived by boat on Cyprus between UN-backed peace talks for the reunification January and November 2017 in comparison of the island collapsed in early July. to 345 in the previous year. Reception conditions for asylum-seekers remained a cause of concern. ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Between January and the end of December, BACKGROUND the Committee of Missing Persons in Cyprus After intense negotiations, high-level peace exhumed the remains of 46 people, bringing talks for the reunification of Cyprus failed to the total number of exhumations since 2006 reach an agreement in early July. The Greek- to 1,217. Between 2007 and 31 December Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot leaders could not 2017, the remains of 855 GMTmissing individuals 2018 agree on security, including the withdrawal of (645 Greek Cypriots and 210 Turkish Turkish troops, and property issues. Cypriots) were identified. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS DISCRIMINATION – PEOPLE WITH In February, the Supreme Court rejected an DISABILITIES application challenging the detention and In May, the UN Committee on the Rights of extradition of Seif el-Din Mostafa, an Egyptian Persons with Disabilities expressed concerns national accused of hijacking an EgyptAir about the insufficient access to health care plane in March 2016. Despite concerns he by people05:01 with disabilities, the high level of would be at real risk of torture or other ill- unemployment among them and the treatment if returned to Egypt, the Supreme insufficient/ measures to promote their access Court decided not to accept additional to employment in an open labour market. evidence regarding the risk of torture. The Court held that the applicant could be TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT extradited regardless of his not having had a ETIn April, the European Court of Human Rights final decision in his asylumEMBARGOED claim. In found that the CypriotFEBRUARY Ombudsperson and November, the Supreme Court also rejected the national police complaints mechanism an appeal lodged against its previous had failed to investigate effectively the alleged decision. However, on the same day the ill-treatment of a Kenyan national during his European Court of Human Rights halted Seif deportation22 in March 2007 (Thuo v. Cyprus). el-Din Mostafa’s extradition to Egypt. The Court also held that the applicant’s In May, the CERD Committee expressed detention conditions in Nicosia Central Prison concerns about the limited employment amounted to degrading treatment. options for asylum-seekers living00:01 on the At the end of August, a 60-year-old Turkish island, the insufficient amount of social national claimed to have been ill-treated by a assistance they received and the limited police officer outside and inside a police reception facilities. The Committee also station near a designated crossing point of raised concern about the insufficient access the UN Buffer Zone. The incident was being to services for those asylum-seekers staying investigated by the national police complaints STRICTLYat the Kofinou Reception and mechanism at the end of the year. Accommodation Center for Applicants for International Protection, the only official centre hostingUNTIL asylum-seekers on the island. THURSDAY 142 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 affect new tenants or those who move to or CZECH REPUBLIC within these zones. NGOs raised concerns that the new regulation would Czech Republic disproportionately affect Roma and poor Head of state: Miloš Zeman people. Head of government: Andrej Babiš (replaced Bohuslav Sobotka in December) REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS The Czech Republic accepted only 12 The government refused to participate in asylum-seekers out of the 2,691 it had been the EU mandatory refugee relocation assigned under the 2015 EU Emergency quotas. Despite reforms, Roma pupils Relocation Scheme – which aimed to relocate continued to be segregated in schools. An refugees from EU member states such as amendment allowing municipalities to Greece and Italy – by the end of the year. In declare zones of “socially pathological June, the European Commission started behaviour” with restricted access to housing infringement procedures against the Czech benefits entered into force. Republic, as well as PolandGMT and Hungary, for 2018 refusing to participate in the scheme. In July, DISCRIMINATION – ROMA the government stated it would not accept RIGHT TO EDUCATION any further asylum-seekers. In December, One year after the reform of the primary the European Commission decided to step up education system that aimed to facilitate the the action against all three countries and inclusion of pupils from disadvantaged referred them to the Court of Justice of the backgrounds into mainstream schools, Roma European Union over their refusal to accept children continued to face discrimination in the asylum-seekers under the scheme. access to education. In July, the government There were05:01 974 applications made for published data which showed that over 24% international protection by the end of the of Roma pupils continued to be educated in year. Thirteen/ people were successful in their ethnically segregated schools. applications; 79 applications were rejected. In March, a district court ordered a primary Sixteen asylum-seekers from Afghanistan school in the city of Ostrava to apologize to were refused an extension to their temporary two Roma pupils. The school had refused to ETprotection. The government continued to register the pupils in 2014,EMBARGOED claiming that it base such asylum FEBRUARY decisions on its arbitrary had reached full capacity. Legal guardians of designation of certain areas in Afghanistan as the pupils complained that the director “safe”, despite evidence to the contrary and justified his decision by claiming that non- with violence continuing to escalate in Roma parents could start removing their Afghanistan22 during the year. children from the school as there were already nine Roma pupils registered in that RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA grade. The court held that a fear of “white High-level government officials, including the flight” could not justify the treatment00:01 of pupils President, made xenophobic statements on the basis their ethnicity. about refugees and migrants. During the pre- RIGHT TO HOUSING election campaign, the Minister of Interior In July, an amendment to the law on welfare presented as a success the restrictive policies benefits entered into force and dozens of that led refugees to avoid the Czech municipalities announced that they would Republic. STRICTLYrestrict access to housing allowances. The In February, the police discontinued their amendment allows municipalities to declare investigation into the 2016 death of a Roma zones of “socially pathological behaviour” man at a pizzeria in Žatec, determining that where residentsUNTIL would be barred from no crime had been committed. The man died claiming some housing allowances. This will after he was restrained by municipal police THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 143 officers and some customers as a result of his allegedly aggressive behaviour. The DEMOCRATIC victim’s family had filed a complaint against the police in January, alleging that the investigation was not thorough; their lawyer REPUBLIC OF THE criticized the police for failing to secure the scene and evidence. CONGO In May, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights urged the Democratic Republic of the Congo Czech authorities to remove a pig farm from Head of state: Joseph Kabila Head of government: Bruno Tshibala Nzenze (replaced the site of a former Nazi concentration camp, Samy Badibanga Ntita in April) where most of the victims were Roma, in the village of Lety u Písku. While appreciating the The human rights situation further government’s efforts to buy the land, the deteriorated. Violence in the Kasaï region Commissioner was concerned over the length left thousands dead, at least 1 million of the process, and the government’s internally displaced, and GMTcaused more than 2018 repeated failure to remove the pig farm and 35,000 people to flee for neighbouring create a memorial as a measure of reparation Angola. In the east, armed groups and for the Roma who suffered and died there government forces continued to target during the Second World War. In November, civilians and engage in illegal exploitation the government signed a contract to buy off of natural resources with impunity. Police, the land from the owner of the pig farm and intelligence services and courts continued made a commitment to build a memorial on to crack down on the rights to freedom of the site. expression, association and peaceful assembly.05:01 Human rights defenders and SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS journalists were harassed, intimidated, The Czech Republic continued to export arbitrarily/ arrested, expelled or killed. arms to countries where there was a substantial risk that such arms could be used BACKGROUND to commit or facilitate serious human rights President Kabila remained in post although violations, including the unlawful use of force EThis second constitutional term ended on 19 against protesters or oppositionEMBARGOED groups. In December 2016. FEBRUARYA political agreement was May, during an arms fair in the city of Brno, signed in December 2016 by the ruling the President stated that the Czech arms coalition, the opposition and some civil industry needed to “export globally”, denying society organizations. It provided that that the country had responsibility to prevent President22 Kabila would remain in power, and the re-export of its equipment to countries a government of national unity would be which are “not safe”. appointed, led by a Prime Minister designated by the Rassemblement, the main 00:01 opposition, with the task of organizing the elections by December 2017. The agreement established the National Council for the Implementation of the Accord and the Electoral Process (CNSA) to monitor progress, led by Rassemblement leader STRICTLY Etienne Tshisekedi. The agreement included a commitment by President Kabila to adhere to the constitutional two-term limit and not UNTIL undertake a revision or change of the Constitution. Implementation of the THURSDAY 144 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 agreement stalled over the appointment and Congolese and foreign journalists were distribution of political posts to the intimidated, harassed and arbitrarily arrested transitional institutions. In February Etienne and detained while carrying out their work. In Tshisekedi died. In April, President Kabila many cases, their equipment was confiscated unilaterally appointed Bruno Tshibala as or they had to erase recorded data. The Prime Minister; the Rassemblement refused Minister of Communication issued a decree to recognize the appointment. In July, Joseph in July introducing new rules requiring Olenghankoy was also unilaterally appointed foreign correspondents to obtain as chairman of the CNSA. The main authorization from the Minister to travel opposition leaders, the Catholic Church and outside the capital, Kinshasa. the international community denounced In August, the day before a two-day protest, these appointments as violating the organized by the opposition, calling on agreement. people across the country to stay at home to Voter registration in the run-up to the encourage the publication of an electoral elections was significantly delayed. In July, calendar, the Post and Telecommunications the president of the Independent National Regulatory Authority orderedGMT 2018 Electoral Commission announced that telecommunication companies to strictly limit elections could not be held in December all social media activity and communication. 2017, on grounds including the security situation in the Kasaï region. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Violence that erupted in 2016 over the Authorities continued to ban and repress killing of Chief Kamuena Nsapu spread to five public dissent and peaceful assemblies provinces, triggering an unprecedented organized by civil society organizations and humanitarian crisis. In the east, several the opposition, especially protests concerning armed groups stepped up their attacks to the political05:01 crisis and elections. Opposition expel President Kabila. Both the Democratic peaceful protesters were intimidated, Republic of the Congo (DRC) security forces harassed/ and arrested by security forces; and the UN Organization Stabilization government supporters’ demonstrations took Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) were unable place without interference from the to tackle the insecurity and neutralize more authorities. than 40 local or foreign armed groups that ETOn 31 July, more than 100 people, remained active. EMBARGOEDincluding 11 CongoleseFEBRUARY and foreign The annual inflation rate increased by journalists, were arrested during country-wide around 50% in 2017, contributing to demonstrations organized by the Struggle for deepening levels of poverty. Strikes were held Change (LUCHA), to demand the publication demanding salary increases for teachers, of the electoral22 calendar. A journalist was university professors, doctors, nurses and charged in connection with the protest and civil servants. A cholera epidemic affected at remained in detention in Lubumbashi; four least 24,000 people; over 500 died between demonstrators received prison sentences. January and September. 00:01 The others were released without charge the same or following day. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Press freedom and the right to information EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE were restricted. The granting of visas and Protests other than those organized by accreditations to foreign correspondents was government supporters were often met with STRICTLYdrastically limited. At least one journalist, a excessive and sometimes lethal force. Belgian national, was expelled in September; On 15 September, in Kamanyola, the army a French national and a US national were and police fired at a crowd of Burundian unable to renewUNTIL accreditation in June and refugees protesting the detention and August respectively. On at least 15 occasions, deportation of four refugees by DRC THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 145 intelligence services; 39 protesters were people; 62 were children, 30 of them aged killed, including at least eight women and five under 8. children, and at least 100 were injured. No VIOLATIONS BY SECURITY FORCES legal action was known to have been taken The Congolese police and army carried out against the perpetrators by the end of the hundreds of extrajudicial killings, rapes, year. arbitrary arrests and acts of extortion. Between February and April, internet videos HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS showed soldiers executing alleged Kamuena Human rights defenders and youth activists Nsapu followers, including young children. were targeted by security forces and armed The victims were armed with sticks or groups for their work; they included Alex defective rifles, or were simply wearing red Tsongo Sikuliwako and Alphonse Kaliyamba, headbands. The government initially killed in North Kivu. dismissed the accusations, saying they were In May, the Senate passed a bill purporting “fabricated” to discredit the army. However, to strengthen protection for human rights in February it acknowledged that “excesses” defenders. However, the bill contained a had taken place and pledgedGMT to prosecute 2018 restrictive definition of what constituted a those suspected of serious human rights human rights defender. It strengthened the violations and abuses in the region, including state’s control over human rights its security forces. organizations, and threatened to curtail their LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY activities. It could result in the non- On 6 July, seven army soldiers were given recognition of human rights organizations. sentences of between one year and life imprisonment in connection with extrajudicial CONFLICT IN THE KASAÏ REGION executions in Mwanza-Lomba, a village in Violence in the region, which erupted in Kasaï Oriental05:01 province. The sentences 2016, spread to five provinces and left followed a trial in which the victims were not thousands dead, and by 25 September, 1 identified/ and nor were their relatives given million were internally displaced; there was the opportunity to testify before the court or widespread destruction of social seek reparations. infrastructure and villages. Militias emerged, On 12 March, Swedish national Zaida which increasingly attacked people on the ETCatalan and US national Michael Sharp, both basis of their ethnicity, namelyEMBARGOED those members of the UNFEBRUARY Security Council DRC perceived to support the Kamuena Nsapu Sanctions Committee’s Group of Experts, uprising. were executed during an investigative Followers of Kamuena Nsapu were mission in the Kasaï Central province. Their suspected of human rights abuses in the bodies were22 found 16 days later, near region, including recruitment of child Bunkonde village. Zaida Catalan had been soldiers, rapes, killings, destruction of over beheaded. Three of their drivers and an 300 schools and of markets, churches, police interpreter who accompanied them stations and government buildings.00:01 disappeared and had not been found by the The Bana Mura militia was formed around end of the year. In April, the authorities March by individuals from the Tshokwe, showed diplomats and journalists in Kinshasa Pende and Tetela ethnic groups with the a video of the execution of the two experts; support of local traditional leaders and the origins of the video remained unknown. security officials. It launched attacks against The video, which claimed that Kamuena STRICTLYthe Luba and Lulua communities whom it Nsapu “terrorists” were the perpetrators, was accused of supporting the Kamuena Nsapu shared on the internet and admitted as uprising. Between March and June, there evidence in the ongoing military court trial of were reports thatUNTIL in Kamonia territory, the the people accused of the killings. The trial Bana Mura and the army killed around 251 began on 5 June in the city of Kananga. THURSDAY 146 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In June, the UN Human Rights Council Bundu dia Congore, resulted in the escape of established an independent international over 4,000 prisoners. On 11 June, 930 inquiry, which was opposed by the prisoners escaped from the Kangbayi central government, to investigate serious human prison in Beni city, including dozens rights violations in the Kasaï province. In July, convicted a few months earlier for killing the UN High Commissioner for Human civilians in the Beni area. Hundreds of other Rights announced the appointment of an detainees escaped from prisons and police international team of experts, which in detention centres in Bandundu-ville, September began investigating the incidents Kasangulu, Kalemie, Matete (Kinshasa), and is expected to issue its findings in Walikale, Dungu, Bukavu, Kabinda, Uvira, June 2018. Bunia, Mwenga and Pweto. Prisons were overcrowded, and conditions CONFLICT IN EASTERN DRC remained dire, with inadequate food and Chronic instability and conflict continued to drinking water, and poor health care. Dozens contribute to grave human rights violations of prisoners died of starvation and disease. and abuses. In the Beni region, civilians were GMT 2018 targeted and killed. On 7 October, 22 people CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY were killed on the Mbau-Kamango road by In August, the Ministry of Mines validated a unidentified armed men. National Strategy to Combat Child Labour in Kidnappings increased in North Kivu; at Mining. National and international civil least 100 cases were recorded in Goma city. society groups were given the opportunity to In North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, dozens of provide feedback. The government armed groups and security forces continued announced that it would “progressively” to commit murder, rape, extortion, and to implement many of their recommendations engage in illegal exploitation of natural and eradicate05:01 child labour by 2025. resources. The conflict between the Hutu and Nande in North Kivu resulted in deaths, / displacement and destruction, especially in the Rutshuru and Lubero areas. DENMARK In the Tanganyika and Haut-Katanga Kingdom of Denmark provinces, communal violence between the ETHead of state: Queen Margrethe II Twa and the Luba continued.EMBARGOED In Tanganyika Head of government: FEBRUARY Lars Løkke Rasmussen the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) reached 500,000. Between January The government annulled an agreement and September, over 5,700 Congolese fled to with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to Zambia to escape the conflict. accept refugees for22 resettlement. The Despite the security situation, the authorities classification of transgender identities as a continued to close IDP camps around the “mental disorder” was ended. town of Kalemie, forcing displaced people to return to their villages or to live 00:01in even worse REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS conditions. Denmark failed to accept any refugees for resettlement. The government annulled its DETENTION standing agreement with UNHCR to receive There was an unprecedented number of 500 refugees annually for resettlement. From prison breakouts across the country; January 2018, the government, not STRICTLYthousands escaped, and dozens died. On 17 Parliament, will decide each year if Denmark May, an attack was carried out on Makala is to accept refugees for resettlement. Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Centre, Individuals granted subsidiary temporary Kinshasa’s mainUNTIL prison. The attack, which protection status had to wait three years the authorities blamed on the political group before being eligible to apply for family THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 147 reunification. In May, the High Court of RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Eastern Denmark ruled that the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE postponement of family reunification of a In January, Parliament’s landmark 2016 Syrian refugee with his wife was not in resolution to end the pathologization of violation of the right to family life under the transgender identities was implemented. European Convention on Human Rights. In However, existing procedural rules on access November, the Supreme Court confirmed this to hormone treatment and gender-affirming ruling. surgery continued to unreasonably prolong In January, the Supreme Court ruled that the gender recognition process for the compulsory overnight stay and twice daily transgender people. reporting regime at a centre for individuals on No national guidelines from the Danish “tolerated stay” (those excluded from Health Authority outlined how doctors should protection but who could not be deported), treat children with variations of sex constituted a disproportionate measure characteristics and the approach was not amounting to custody when extended beyond human rights-based. This allowed non- a period of four years. The government emergency invasive and irreversibleGMT medical 2018 implemented the ruling, but also decided that procedures to be carried out on children, any person leaving the centre to live with typically under the age of 10, in violation of their family would lose their right to health the UN Convention on the Rights of the care and financial assistance for food. Child. These procedures can be carried out In March, the Parliamentary Ombudsman despite the lack of medical research to concluded that government policy to separate support the need for surgical intervention, asylum-seeking couples when one partner and despite documentation of the risk of was under the age of 18 was a violation of the lifelong harmful effects.1 In October the UN Danish Act on Public Administration and Committee05:01 on the Rights of the Child raised possibly a violation of the right to family life. concerns regarding surgical interventions on The policy did not provide for a process to intersex/ children. determine whether the separation was in the interest of the younger spouse and did not 1. Europe: First, do no harm − ensuring the rights of children with consider their opinion. variations of sex characteristics in Denmark and Germany (EUR ET01/6086/2017 ) VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMENEMBARGOED FEBRUARY In April, a proposal by the opposition to introduce a consent-based definition of rape, DOMINICAN in line with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence 22 against Women and Domestic Violence REPUBLIC (Istanbul Convention) ratified by Denmark in Dominican Republic 2014, was rejected in Parliament. In Head of state and government: Danilo Medina Sánchez November, the Council of Europe's00:01 Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Limited progress was made in solving the Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) statelessness crisis. Abortion remained encouraged the Danish authorities to change criminalized in all circumstances. Excessive the current sexual violence legislation and use of force by the police and gender-based base it on the notion of freely given consent violence continued. as required by the Istanbul Convention. STRICTLY BACKGROUND The Dominican Republic suffered from a UNTIL series of natural disasters that hit the Caribbean during the year, including two THURSDAY 148 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 major hurricanes in September. This, along The naturalization plan established by Law with previous flooding earlier in the year, left 169-14 for people in “Group B” (those whose tens of thousands of people temporarily birth was never registered in the Dominican displaced and badly damaged infrastructure. Civil Registry) had made little or no progress Like many small, developing island states, during the year. Of the 8,755 individuals who the Dominican Republic remained very were able to register under the new plan vulnerable to climate change, which (16% of the estimated 53,000 people in scientists linked to the increasingly extreme Group B, according to the government), it weather. On 21 September, the Dominican was believed that as few as 6,545 had had Republic ratified the UN Paris Agreement on their files approved by the authorities by the climate change. end of the year. The law required a two-year Allegations that several Dominican officials waiting period after the approval of the were bribed by the Brazilian construction registration for them to be able to formally company Odebrecht triggered massive request their naturalization as Dominicans. country-wide demonstrations against By the end of the year no one was known to corruption under the Green March have been naturalized underGMT the new plan. 2018 movement. In September, the Inter-American Most of the individuals affected remained Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held stateless in the absence of another a public hearing on the issue of “human nationality. rights and reports of impunity and corruption During the year, the authorities failed to in the Dominican Republic”. discuss, design or implement new solutions In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on the to guarantee the right to nationality for the sale and sexual exploitation of children visited tens of thousands of Dominican-born people the country. She urged the government to put who could not benefit from Law 169-14, in child protection at the core of any tourism particular 05:01the remaining 84% of those in strategy. Group B, and all those who were left out of the scope/ of the 2014 legislation. DISCRIMINATION – STATELESS Responding to this situation, in April the PERSONS IACHR incorporated the Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic continued to fail to in Chapter IV.B of its annual report that uphold its international human rights ETincluded countries in need of special human obligations with respect toEMBARGOED the large number rights attention. FEBRUARY of stateless people born in the country who By the end of the year, no public official had were retroactively and arbitrarily deprived of been held accountable for discriminatory their Dominican nationality in practices in granting registration and identity September 2013.1 documents,22 including for the 2013 mass Law 169-14, adopted in May 2014 to arbitrary deprivation of nationality. Affected address the statelessness crisis, continued to people continued to be denied a range of be poorly implemented. According to official human rights and were prevented from statistics, only 13,500 people of00:01 the so-called accessing higher education, formal “Group A” created by the law (out of an employment or adequate health care, among official estimate of 61,000 individuals) were other things. able to access some sort of Dominican identity document proving their Dominican POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES nationality. In the meantime, many had their The Office of the Prosecutor General reported STRICTLYoriginal birth certificates nullified and their 110 killings by security forces between new ones transferred to a separate civil January and October. The circumstances registry without the necessary measures in around many of the killings suggested that place to avoidUNTIL further discrimination. they may have been unlawful. The homicide THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 149 rate remained high, at nearly 16 per 100,000 of killings of women and girls, compared with inhabitants during the first half of the year. the same period in 2016. The media reported allegations of the repeated use of unnecessary and excessive RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, force by the police during social protests. TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE The Dominican Republic continued to lack REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS legislation to combat hate crimes. In June, The authorities remained unable to process the body of a transgender woman, Rubi Mori, most of the cases of irregular migrants that was found dismembered in wasteland.4 By they received during the National the end of the year, no one had been brought Regularization Plan for Foreigners with to justice for her killing. Irregular Migration Status that operated between 2014 and 2015. As a result, in July 1. Dominican Republic: What does it take to solve a statelessness the authorities renewed for a further year the crisis? (News story, 23 May) temporary “regularization carnets” issued to 2. Dominican Republic: Vote against decriminalization of abortion, a registered individuals, allowing them to stay betrayal to women (Press release, 1 June)GMT 2018 in the country. 3. República Dominicana: Amnistía Internacional y Oxfam llaman a Cámara de Diputados a garantizar derechos de las mujeres (AMR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 27/6605/2017); Dominican Republic: Further information - Congress rejects regressive abortion reform (AMR 27/6724/2017); Dominican The Dominican Republic remained one of the Republic: Further information: Abortion vote pending after President’s few countries worldwide that criminalized veto (AMR 27/5478/2017) abortion without exception. 4. Dominican Republic: Horrifying killing of transgender woman In May the Senate voted against a proposal, highlights need for protection against discrimination (News story, 6 supported by President Medina, to June) decriminalize abortion.2 On 11 July the 05:01 Senate’s vote was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies, providing the possibility of future ECUADOR/ reforms that would protect the rights of women and girls.3 Republic of Ecuador In August, a petition was presented to the Head of state and government: Lenín Boltaire Moreno IACHR seeking justice and reparation for the ETGarcés (replaced Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado death in 2012 of 16-year-old RosauraEMBARGOED in May) FEBRUARY Almonte Hernández, publicly known as “Esperancita”. Because of the country’s Indigenous leaders, human rights defenders restrictive legislation on abortion, Rosaura and staff of NGOs faced persecution and Almonte Hernández, who was seven weeks harassment22 amid continuing restrictions on pregnant, was denied life-saving treatment the rights to freedom of expression and for leukaemia for several days and died association. The right to free, prior and shortly after. informed consent of Indigenous Peoples An investigation published in 00:01August by continued to be restricted. The Bill to the NGO Women’s Link Worldwide found that Prevent and Eliminate Violence against one woman died every two days in the Women was pending revision by the Dominican Republic during the first half of National Assembly. 2017 from pregnancy-related causes due to the lack of access to quality maternal health BACKGROUND STRICTLYservices. On 24 May, Lenín Moreno Garcés became President. Shortly afterwards he called for a VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS referendum and a popular consultation, to be According to officialUNTIL statistics, the first half of held in February 2018, for Ecuadorians to the year saw a 21% increase in the number decide on matters including the amendment THURSDAY 150 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 of the Constitution to eliminate indefinite re- were pending revision by the National election of authorities, the banning of mining Assembly at the end of the year. in protected areas, and reducing the area of oil exploitation in the Yasuní National Park. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS In July, Indigenous and human rights INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY organizations denounced before the IACHR In May, Ecuador’s human rights record was intrusions of the state into the territory of the examined under the UN UPR process. Sápara People for future oil extraction. They Ecuador accepted recommendations to adopt also denounced government bids for oil a national action plan on business and extraction in the territory of the Kichwa human rights, create an effective consultation People of Sarayaku without obtaining their mechanism for Indigenous Peoples, align free, prior and informed consent, despite the national laws on freedoms of expression and Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling assembly with international standards, that the Kichwa People must be consulted. ensure the protection of journalists and In April, Shuar Indigenous leader Agustín human rights defenders, and guarantee Wachapá was released on GMTparole after four 2018 protection from discrimination based on months in pre-trial detention on charges of sexual orientation and gender identity. inciting violence in Morona Santiago in 2016. Ecuador pledged to lead on creating an The Shuar People continued to face a international legally binding instrument on dispute over the development of two copper transnational corporations and human rights. mines in their territory. Ecuador received a total of 182 recommendations of which it accepted 159, HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS noted 19, and left four for further review. NGOs denounced before the IACHR the lack In July, the Inter-American Commission on of an adequate05:01 protection system or Human Rights (IACHR) held hearings on specialized institution responsible for violence and harassment against human investigating/ attacks against and rights defenders, and on extractive industries criminalization of human rights defenders. and the right to cultural identity of Indigenous They also denounced the frequent misuse of Peoples in Ecuador. The IACHR expressed the charge of attacking or resisting authority concern over the absence of state ETto prosecute human rights defenders. representatives at both hearings.EMBARGOED FEBRUARY ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND The UN Committee on Enforced ASSOCIATION Disappearances noted in March that no In January, the Ministry for the Environment criminal responsibility22 had been established rejected a complaint filed by the Ministry of for 17 cases of enforced disappearances the Interior aimed at shutting down the NGO from 1984 to 2008 identified by the Truth Ecological Action Corporation, based on a Commission, and that the whereabouts of 12 lack of evidence linking the NGO00:01 to violence of those victims remained undisclosed. that occurred in 2016 in Morona Santiago province. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS EGYPT In November the National Assembly Arab Republic of Egypt STRICTLYapproved a Bill to Prevent and Eliminate Head of state: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Violence against Women. In December, Head of government: Sherif Ismail President Moreno partially vetoed the Bill and proposed a seriesUNTIL of modifications, which Egypt’s human rights crisis continued unabated. The authorities used torture and THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 151 other ill-treatment and enforced Willayet Sinai, affiliated to the armed group disappearance against hundreds of people, Islamic State (IS), claimed responsibility for and dozens were extrajudicially executed most of the attacks across the country, with with impunity. The crackdown on civil smaller attacks claimed by other armed society escalated with NGO staff being groups, such as Hasm, Liwaa al-Thawra and subjected to additional interrogations, travel Ansar al-Islam. In April, IS claimed bans and asset freezes. Arbitrary arrests and responsibility for the bombing of two detentions followed by grossly unfair trials churches in Tanta and Alexandria which left of government critics, peaceful protesters, at least 44 dead. In October, at least 16 journalists and human rights defenders officials from the Ministry of the Interior were were routine. Mass unfair trials continued killed in an ambush in the western desert, a before civilian and military courts, with rare attack on the mainland. In a significant dozens sentenced to death. Women shift in targeting by armed groups, a continued to be subjected to sexual and November attack on a mosque in North Sinai gender-based violence and were during Friday prayers killed at least 300 discriminated against in law and practice. people. GMT 2018 The authorities brought criminal charges for defamation of religion and “habitual HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS debauchery” on the basis of people’s real or The authorities continued to curb the work of perceived sexual orientation. human rights defenders in an unprecedented manner as part of their relentless efforts to BACKGROUND silence all critical voices. In February the In June, President al-Sisi ceded sovereignty authorities shut down the El-Nadeem Center, over two uninhabited Red Sea islands to an NGO offering support to survivors of Saudi Arabia, leading to widespread public torture and05:01 violence. The criminal criticism. In July, EU-Egypt Association investigations into so-called “Case 173” council meetings resumed for the first time against/ human rights defenders and NGOs since 2011 and the priorities of the were ongoing; investigative judges Association were finalized. summoned at least 28 additional human In February a member of parliament rights defenders and NGO staff for proposed a constitutional amendment to ETinterrogation during the year, bringing the extend the presidential termEMBARGOED from four to six total to 66 people FEBRUARY summoned or investigated years. In April, President al-Sisi passed a new in the case since 2013. They were set of legislative amendments weakening fair questioned in relation to charges that trial guarantees and facilitating arbitrary included “receiving foreign funding to harm arrests, indefinite pre-trial detention, Egyptian 22national security” under Article 78 enforced disappearances and the passing of of the Penal Code, which carries a sentence more sentences. The amendments also of up to 25 years’ imprisonment. The allowed criminal courts to list people and investigative judges also ordered three entities on “terrorism lists” based00:01 solely on additional travel bans, bringing to 25 the police information. Also in April, President al- number of human rights defenders banned Sisi approved the Judicial Bodies Law 13 of from travelling outside Egypt. In January a 2017, granting him the authority to appoint court ordered the freezing of the assets of the the heads of judicial bodies, including the NGOs Nazra for Feminist Studies and the Court of Cassation and the State Council, two Arab Organization for Penal Reform and their STRICTLYcourts that had hitherto been regarded as the directors. most independent judicial bodies in holding In May, President al-Sisi signed a draconian the executive to account.1 new law giving the authorities broad powers At least 111 UNTILsecurity agents were killed, to deny NGOs registration, dissolve NGOs mostly in North Sinai. The armed group and dismiss their boards of administration. THURSDAY 152 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 The law also provided for five years’ ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS imprisonment for publishing research without Security forces continued to arrest hundreds government permission.2 The government of people based on their membership or had not issued the executive regulations to perceived membership of the Muslim enable it to start implementing the law by the Brotherhood, rounding them up from their end of the year. homes or places of work or, in one case, from a holiday resort. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND The authorities used prolonged pre-trial ASSEMBLY detention, often for periods of more than two Between January and May, courts sentenced years, as means to punish dissidents. In at least 15 journalists to prison terms ranging October a judge renewed the pre-trial from three months to five years on charges detention of human rights defender Hisham related solely to their writing, including Gaafar, despite him having been detained for defamation and the publication of what the more than the two-year limit under Egyptian authorities deemed “false information”. On law. Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, 25 September a court sentenced former known as Shawkan, had alreadyGMT spent two 2018 presidential candidate and prominent human years in pre-trial detention when his trial rights lawyer Khaled Ali to three months’ started in August 2015. Throughout 2017 he imprisonment on charges of “violating public remained in detention alongside 738 co- decency” in relation to a photograph showing defendants as their trial continued. him celebrating a court ruling ordering a halt Upon release, political activists were often to the handover of two islands to Saudi required to serve probation periods of up to Arabia.3 From May onwards, the authorities 12 hours a day in a local police station, blocked at least 434 websites, including amounting to arbitrary deprivation of liberty. those of independent newspapers such as 05:01 Mada Masr and human rights organizations EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND such as the Arab Network for Human Rights ENFORCED/ DISAPPEARANCES Information. In March the Minister of Justice Forces of the Ministry of the Interior referred two judges, Hisham Raouf and continued to subject to enforced Assem Abdelgabar, to a disciplinary hearing disappearance and extrajudicially execute for participating in a workshop organized by ETpeople suspected of engaging in political an Egyptian human rightsEMBARGOED group to draft a law violence. According FEBRUARY to the Egyptian against torture. Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Security forces arrested at least 240 political security forces subjected at least 165 people activists and protesters between April and to enforced disappearance between January September on charges relating to online and August22 for periods ranging from seven to posts the authorities considered “insulting” to 30 days. the President or for participating in The Ministry of the Interior claimed that unauthorized protests. In April, a criminal more than 120 people were shot dead in an court sentenced lawyer and activist00:01 exchange of fire with security forces during Mohamed Ramadan to 10 years’ the year. However, in many of these cases the imprisonment in his absence under the people killed were already in state custody draconian Counter-terrorism Law.4 In after having been subjected to enforced December, an Alexandrian court sentenced disappearance. In May the Ministry human rights lawyer Mahinour El-Masry to announced the death of schoolteacher STRICTLYtwo years’ imprisonment for her peaceful Mohamed Abdelsatar “in an exchange of fire participation in a protest. with the police”. However, his colleagues had witnessed his arrest a month earlier from his UNTIL workplace. In April, a leaked video showed military forces in North Sinai extrajudicially THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 153 executing six unarmed men and a 17-year- heavily on reports of the National Security old boy. Agency and unsound evidence, including confessions obtained under torture, in their DETENTION sentencing. Civilians continued to face unfair Torture and other ill-treatment remained trials before military courts; at least 384 routine in official places of detention and was civilians were referred to military trials during systematic in detention centres run by the the year. National Security Agency. In July, a Coptic man was arrested and detained in Manshyet DEATH PENALTY Nasir police station in the capital, Cairo, in Ordinary and military courts continued to relation to a minor offence; 15 hours later, he hand down death sentences following grossly was dead. Family members stated that they unfair mass trials. In June the Court of saw bruises on the upper part of his body, Cassation upheld the death sentences of and the official autopsy report stated that his seven men in two different cases after grossly death was the result of a “suspected criminal unfair trials. At least six of the men had been act”. subjected to enforced disappearanceGMT and 2018 Prison authorities, including in Tora tortured to force them to “confess” and the Maximum Security Prison and Wadi el- court relied heavily on these coerced Natrun Prison, punished prisoners detained confessions in its verdict and sentencing. for politically motivated reasons by placing Also in June, the Military High Court upheld them in indefinite and prolonged solitary death sentences against four men following confinement. In February the Ministry of the grossly unfair trials in which the court relied Interior amended the prison regulations to on “confessions” obtained under torture allow solitary confinement to be increased up during 93 days of incommunicado to six months; a practice that can amount to detention.05:015 On 26 December the authorities torture or other ill-treatment. Political activist executed 15 men who had been convicted by Ahmed Douma spent his third year in solitary a military/ court of killing nine military confinement in Tora Prison, confined to his personnel in North Sinai in 2013. cell for at least 22 hours a day. Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Hadad WOMEN’S RIGHTS remained indefinitely detained in solitary ETWomen and girls continued to face confinement in Al Aqrab maximumEMBARGOED security inadequate protectionFEBRUARY from sexual and prison since his arrest on 17 September gender-based violence, as well as gender 2013. discrimination in law and practice. The Other forms of ill-treatment and medical absence of measures to ensure privacy and negligence in prisons continued; dozens of protection22 of women reporting sexual and prisoners died, often due to prison authorities gender-based violence continued to be a key refusing to transfer them to hospital for factor preventing many women and girls from medical treatment. In September, former reporting such offences. Many who did report Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed00:01 Mahdi offences faced harassment and retaliation Akef died in prison from pancreatic cancer. from the perpetrators or their families. In some cases, state officials and members of UNFAIR TRIALS parliament blamed victims of sexual violence Hundreds were sentenced, some to death, and attributed the incidents to their after grossly unfair mass trials. In September “revealing clothing”. In March a young STRICTLYa Cairo criminal court sentenced 442 people student was attacked and sexually assaulted in the case of the August 2013 al-Fateh by a mob in Zagazig city, al-Sharkia mosque protests to prison terms of between governorate. Instead of arresting the five and 25 yearsUNTIL after a grossly unfair trial of perpetrators and bringing them to justice, the 494 defendants. Courts continued to rely Security Directorate in al-Sharkia governorate THURSDAY 154 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 issued a statement mentioning that by people to prison terms of between three “wearing a short dress” the victim had months and six years on charges that “caused the mob attack”. included “habitual debauchery”. The other Women continued to face discrimination in people arrested remained in detention facing the judiciary. A number of women who questioning by prosecutors. attempted to apply to the State Council for In late October, a group of parliamentarians appointment as judges were not given the proposed a deeply discriminatory law papers needed to process their requests. One explicitly criminalizing same-sex sexual woman filed a suit against the State Council relations and any public promotion of LGBTI on grounds of discrimination. gatherings, symbols or flags. The proposed law carried penalties of up to five years’ REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS imprisonment, or 15 years’ imprisonment for Asylum-seekers and refugees continued to a person convicted of multiple charges. face arrest, detention and deportation for entering or exiting the country irregularly. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF Between January and April, immigration The authorities continued GMTto violate the right 2018 officials deported at least 50 asylum-seekers to freedom of religion by discriminating from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan, including against Christians. In August, security forces young children, to their countries of origin prevented dozens of Coptic Christians from without giving them access to legal praying in a house in Alforn village in Minya representation or to UNHCR, the UN refugee governorate, citing reasons of security. There agency. The forced return of Eritrean asylum- was continued impunity for sectarian attacks seekers, as well as Ethiopian and Sudanese on Christian communities, and the authorities nationals with a well-founded fear of continued to rely on customary reconciliation persecution, constituted refoulement. In July and settlements05:01 agreed by local authorities the authorities rounded up Chinese students, and religious leaders. Amid this impunity, mostly of the Uighur ethnic minority, arresting violence/ by non-state actors against at least 200 and deporting at least 21 men Christians increased significantly. Armed and one woman to China, in violation of groups in North Sinai killed seven Coptic Egypt’s non-refoulement obligations. Christians between 30 January and 23 ETFebruary, prompting an unprecedented RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY,EMBARGOED BISEXUAL, internal displacement FEBRUARY of at least 150 Coptic TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE families living in North Sinai.6 The authorities In the worst crackdown in over a decade, the failed to offer them the necessary protection authorities across Egypt rounded up and or appropriate compensation. In December, prosecuted people on the grounds of their IS claimed22 responsibility for the shooting of perceived sexual orientation after a rainbow 10 people in an attack on a church in flag was displayed at a concert in Cairo on 22 Helwan in southern Cairo. September. These prosecutions provoked a In November, an attack on a mosque in public outcry. Security forces arrested00:01 at least North Sinai during Friday prayers killed at 76 people and carried out at least five anal least 300 worshippers. No group claimed examinations, a practice which amounts to responsibility for the attack. torture. Those arrested included a man and a woman who were detained for three months WORKERS’ RIGHTS for carrying the rainbow flag at the concert, The authorities subjected dozens of workers STRICTLYas well as people who made online and trade unionists to arrest, military trial, expressions of support for the raising of the dismissal and a range of disciplinary flag. Many of those arrested were entrapped measures, solely for exercising their right to by security forcesUNTIL through online dating strike and form independent trade unions. In applications. Courts sentenced at least 48 June a Cairo Misdemeanours Appeal Court THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 155 sentenced 32 workers from the privately 4. Egypt: 10-year prison term for insulting President an outrageous owned Tora Cement Company to two months’ assault on freedom of expression (Press release, 13 April) imprisonment after they were convicted of 5. Egypt: Seven men facing imminent execution after being tortured in custody (Press release, 16 June); Egypt: Four men facing imminent participating in an unauthorized protest and executions after grossly unfair military trial (MDE 12/6590/2017) “assaulting security forces”, despite the 6. Egypt: Government must protect Coptic Christians targeted in string peaceful nature of their 55-day sit-in to of deadly attacks in North Sinai (Press release, 1 March) protest at their dismissal. In December, the 7. Egypt: On Labour Day – relentless assault on labour rights (MDE Military Court in Alexandria resumed the trial 12/6154/2017) of 25 workers from the military-run 8. Egypt: Release 24 Nubian activists detained after protest calling for Alexandria Shipyard Company. The trial respect of their cultural rights (Press release, 12 September) started in May 2016 on charges that included “inciting the workers to strike”. The government and the official Egypt Trade Union Federation sought to deprive EL SALVADOR independent unions of the de facto Republic of El Salvador recognition they had obtained in 2011 Head of state and government: SalvadorGMT Sánchez 2018 through a declaration issued by the then Cerén Minster of Manpower. The authorities continued to deny their legal recognition and El Salvador’s high rate of gender-based hinder their ability to function freely through a violence continued to make it one of the range of measures.7 On 5 December most dangerous countries to be a woman. A parliament passed a new trade union law, total ban on abortion persisted, and women replacing Law 35 of 1976, creating excessive were convicted of aggravated homicide after requirements for unions to have at least 150 suffering miscarriages or other obstetric members to obtain legal recognition or face emergencies.05:01 To combat violence, the automatic dissolution. government implemented a series of security/ measures, which did not comply INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS with human rights standards. Measures Despite an explicit constitutional provision were taken to address impunity for recognizing the Nubian Indigenous people’s historical abuses; however, the executive right to return to their traditional lands, the ETand legislative branches of government government continued to EMBARGOEDdeny displaced admitted being inFEBRUARY contempt of a 2016 Nubians the right to access their traditional Supreme Court judgment that declared the lands, posing a threat to the preservation of 1993 Amnesty Law unconstitutional. their cultural, historical and linguistic identity. On 3 September, Nubian activists held a BACKGROUND22 protest calling on the authorities to repeal a El Salvador continued to have one of the 2014 presidential decree that classified 16 world’s highest murder rates, although the villages on traditional Nubian lands as number of homicides fell from 5,280 in 2016 military zones and prohibited residents00:01 from to 3,605 in 2017. The figure for 2017 living there. The police arrested 25 activists included 429 femicides. and detained them for three months.8 WOMEN’S RIGHTS Abortion continued to be prohibited in all 1. New legislation threatens judicial independence in Egypt (Press release, 27 April) circumstances, and carried criminal penalties for women and health care providers. Women STRICTLY2. Egypt: NGO law threatens to annihilate human rights groups (Press release, 30 May) from poor backgrounds were 3. Egypt: Former presidential candidate given jail term in bid to stop disproportionately affected. him running in 2018UNTIL election (Press release , 25 September) In March, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) admitted a THURSDAY 156 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 petition in the case of Manuela, a woman threats, and being the victim of extortion by convicted of homicide after having a criminal gangs. Between January and miscarriage, and who died from cancer in September, the Association for prison while serving her sentence. Communicating and Training Trans Women in On 5 July, Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz El Salvador (COMCAVIS TRANS) reported 28 was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment serious attacks, most of them murders, after being convicted on charges of perpetrated against LGBTI people.1 aggravated homicide after suffering obstetric complications resulting in a miscarriage. On EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS 13 December, a court denied the release of In September the Human Rights Institute of Teodora del Carmen Vásquez; she had José Simeón Cañas Central American suffered a stillbirth in 2007 and was later University and the NGO Passionist Social sentenced to 30 years for aggravated Service reported before the IACHR that the homicide. armed forces and National Civilian Police In August a parliamentarian for the were responsible for carrying out extrajudicial opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance executions. GMT 2018 presented a new proposal to decriminalize abortion in two circumstances: when a POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES woman’s life is at risk or when the pregnancy In November the UN High Commissioner for is a consequence of rape of a minor. The Human Rights urged El Salvador to end the proposal remained pending in Parliament. extraordinary security measures adopted This followed previous, unsuccessful since 2016 to combat gang violence and attempts at partial decriminalization of organized crime, which failed to comply with abortion in 2016. international human rights standards. The In August, Congress approved a law measures05:01 included prolonged and isolated banning child marriage, without exceptions. detention under inhuman conditions, and In November, the IACHR admitted a petition prolonged/ suspension of family visits to on the case of “Beatriz”, a woman who in prisoners. 2013 was denied an abortion despite her life being put at risk by the pregnancy, and the INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE foetus being diagnosed with fatal impairment, ETOn 6 and 13 October, for the first time, the which would not have allowedEMBARGOED its survival Constitutional ChamberFEBRUARY of the Supreme Court after birth. of Justice issued two injunctions (amparo) to protect internally displaced people. The HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS injunctions included protective measures for In June the home of human rights defender a family that22 had been forcibly internally Sonia Sánchez Pérez was illegally searched displaced due to rape, threats, beatings and by National Civilian Police officers. In 2015 harassment by a gang. The decision was the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman welcomed by the IACHR and the UN Special had granted her precautionary 00:01measures for Rapporteur on the human rights of internally her environmental protection work. displaced persons. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, IMPUNITY TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Measures were adopted nationally and In October, Karla Avelar, a human rights internationally to redress crimes under STRICTLYdefender and founder of the first association international law and punish perpetrators of of trans people in El Salvador, announced human rights violations committed during El that she would claim asylum in Europe Salvador’s armed conflict from 1980 to 1992. because of a lackUNTIL of protection by the In May, a court ordered the reopening of the authorities, despite several security incidents, case of Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero y THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 157 Galdámez, Archbishop of San Salvador, who corruption and money laundering while he was murdered in 1980 by a death squad was Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. while celebrating mass. In November’s legislative and municipal Following a judgment by the Supreme Court elections, the ruling Democratic Party of in 2016 in which the 1993 Amnesty Law was Equatorial Guinea won 99 of 100 seats in the ruled to be unconstitutional, the Court held a Chamber of Deputies, all elected seats in the hearing in July to determine what steps the Senate, and all but one seat in the municipal government had taken to comply with the elections. Opposition parties denounced ruling. In that hearing, both the executive and electoral irregularities and intimidation. legislative branches of government admitted Internet access was severely disrupted for at to being in contempt of the ruling. least five days. In September the government created a commission to search for people who were HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS subjected to enforced disappearance during The authorities continued to harass, the armed conflict. intimidate and arbitrarily detain human rights In November, the Supreme Court of the defenders. GMT 2018 USA cleared the way for Colonel Inocente On 17 April, Enrique Asumu and Alfredo Orlando Montano Morales to be tried in Spain Okenve, leaders of the Centre for on charges that he conspired in the killing of Development Studies and Initiatives, were six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her detained in the capital, Malabo, after they daughter in El Salvador in 1989. objected to the authorities’ decision to prevent Enrique Asumu from boarding a plane to Bata city the previous day. Enrique 1. Americas: “No safe place” – Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans seeking asylum in Mexico based on their sexual Asumu was released eight days later on orientation and/or gender identity (AMR 01/7258/2017) health grounds05:01 after paying a fine of CFA francs 2 million (USD3,500). Alfredo Okenve was released/ on 4 May after paying the same EQUATORIAL fine. The Ministry of Interior had suspended the Centre’s activities in 2016. On 16 September, state security agents GUINEA ETarrested and detained Ramón Esono Ebalé, a cartoonist and critic of the government, and Republic of Equatorial Guinea EMBARGOED FEBRUARY two Spanish nationals as they left a Head of state and government: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo restaurant in Malabo. They were handcuffed, their mobile phones confiscated, and taken Harassment, intimidation and arbitrary to the Office22 against Terrorism and detention of human rights defenders Dangerous Activities where Ramón Esono continued. The rights to freedom of Ebalé was questioned about his cartoons. association and assembly were curtailed; The Spanish nationals were released the people attending peaceful gatherings00:01 were same day. Ramón Esono Ebalé was arbitrarily detained and beaten. Pregnant transferred three days later to the Black girls were barred from attending school. Beach prison in Malabo. National TV reported that he was accused of heading an BACKGROUND organization involved in money laundering On 27 October, Vice-President Teodoro and counterfeiting money. On 27 November STRICTLYNguema Obiang Mangue, the President’s he was charged with counterfeiting money son, was given a three-year suspended and remained in detention at the end of the prison sentence, and a suspended EUR30 year. million fine byUNTIL a court in Paris, France, for THURSDAY 158 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND DEATH PENALTY ASSOCIATION Death sentences continued to be handed On 8 March, police arrested 47 women, four down. On 16 September Raimundo Nfube children and at least 12 men at an Onva and Fausto Luis Nve Adugu were International Women’s Day training session in sentenced to death for a ritual killing Mbini city, southwest of Bata, in the office of committed in 2016. the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy party. The police threatened to arrest Epifania Avomo, the party’s executive women’s officer, but when other women ERITREA protested they were all arrested and taken to State of Eritrea Mbini police station. Some of them were Head of state and government: Isaias Afwerki beaten at the police station, after which they were all released the same day. Thousands continued to flee Eritrea while In May, taxi drivers’ organizations called for the authorities severely restricted the right a three-day strike in Malabo to protest at the to leave the country. IndefiniteGMT mandatory 2018 high prices of permits and papers. Security national service continued to be imposed. forces arbitrarily arrested at least 17 people Restrictions on the rights to freedom of and beat some of those believed to be expression and of religion remained. participating in the strike, leaving several of Arbitrary detention without charge or trial them in need of medical assistance. They continued to be the norm for thousands of were released without charge about one week prisoners of conscience. Thousands were later. denied the right to an adequate standard of On 27 May, security forces arbitrarily living. arrested rapper Benjamín Ndong, also known 05:01 as “Jamin Dogg”, in Malabo, for releasing two BACKGROUND weeks ealier a song supporting the striking Skirmishes/ broke out between the Eritrean taxi drivers and denouncing government and Ethiopian military periodically. Military intimidation. He was released the same day hostilities with Djibouti escalated over without charge. ownership of the disputed territory of Ras ETDoumeira. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL ANDEMBARGOED FEBRUARY CULTURAL RIGHTS REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS In June, the NGO Human Rights Watch Thousands of Eritreans continued to flee the issued a report highlighting the lack of country. They faced serious human rights investment in health and education despite abuses while22 in transit and in destination the increase, over two decades, of the per countries. Sudan remained a key transit for capita GDP which arose mainly from oil Eritrean refugees. In one case in August, revenues. The government continued to Sudanese courts deported 104 refugees to focus spending on large infrastructure00:01 Eritrea where they were at risk of serious projects, from which some government human rights violations. In a context where officials profited, at the expense of health and little is known about the fate of those education sectors. deported across the border with Sudan, there Pregnant girls continued to be banned from were reports that 30 of them were deported school following a 2016 order issued by the from Kassala city, eastern Sudan, after being STRICTLYMinistry of Education as a means to reduce charged with illegal entry. Eritreans also adolescent pregnancies. risked arbitrary detention, abduction, sexual abuse and ill-treatment on their way to UNTIL Europe. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 159 Attempts to address the causes of migration calls from the international community on the from Eritrea continued at an international government to limit conscription to 18 level. Following the High Level Dialogues on months. Significant numbers of conscripts migration under the EU-Horn of Africa remained in open-ended conscription, some Migration Route Initiative (Khartoum for as long as 20 years. Despite a minimum Process), which involves the EU and African legal conscription age of 18, children states and aims to address migration flows, continued to be subjected to military training the European Commission apportioned over under the requirement that they undergo EUR13 million for Eritrea in order to support grade 12 of secondary school at Sawa employment opportunities and skills National Service training camp, where they development in the country as a means of faced harsh living conditions, military-style reducing migration. The EU channelled discipline and weapons training. Women, in EUR100 million to Sudan through the particular, faced harsh treatment in the camp European Union Emergency Trust Fund for including sexual enslavement, torture and Africa for use in addressing the root causes other sexual abuse. of migration and displacement in the region. Men of up to 67 years of GMTage were 2018 conscripted into the “People’s Army”, where FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT they were given a weapon and assigned The imposition of indefinite military national duties under threat of punitive repercussions, service, along with the general human rights such as detention, fines or hard labour. situation, created severe difficulties for many Eritreans. The right of people to leave the ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS country was severely restricted. The Arbitrary detention and enforced authorities continued to prohibit those aged disappearances continued, for which security between five and 50 from travelling abroad, forces were05:01 not held accountable. Thousands and anyone attempting to leave was subject of prisoners of conscience and political to arbitrary detention. People seeking to leave prisoners,/ including former politicians, to avoid indefinite national service and other journalists and practitioners of unauthorized human rights violations, or for family reunion religions, continued to be detained without with relatives abroad, had to travel by foot charge or trial and lacked access to lawyers and use unofficial border crossings in order ETor family members. Many had been detained to take flights from other countries.EMBARGOED If caught for well over a decade.FEBRUARY by the military, they were detained without charge until they paid exorbitant fines. The FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF amount payable depended on factors such Bans on religious faiths, other than Islam, as the commanding officer making the arrest Orthodox22 Christianity, Protestant Lutheranism and the time of the year. People caught and Catholicism, remained in place. Many during national holidays to commemorate Evangelical Christians practised their religion independence were subject to higher fines. in secret to avoid imprisonment. The amount was greater for those00:01 attempting Patriarch Antonios, head of the Eritrean to cross the border with Ethiopia. A “shoot-to- Orthodox Church, was reported to have been kill” policy remained in place for anyone seen attending mass in the capital, Asmara, evading capture and attempting to cross the in July. He had last been seen in public 10 border into Ethiopia. Children close to years earlier just before he was sentenced to conscription age caught trying to leave were house arrest for objecting to government STRICTLYsent to Sawa National Service training camp. interference in church affairs. FORCED LABOUR AND SLAVERY The mandatoryUNTIL national service continued to be extended indefinitely despite repeated THURSDAY 160 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF In accordance with the November 2016 LIVING decision of the Tallinn Appeal Court, which UNICEF said that malnutrition rates had ruled against the blanket application of the increased over the past few years in four out “safe third country” concept for applications of six regions of Eritrea, and cited research from asylum-seekers entering from the which projected that 22,700 children Russian Federation, the merits of eight under five would be affected by severe acute individual asylum requests were assessed. malnutrition during the year. It also noted These cases were pending at the end of the national data indicating that half of all year. children had stunted growth. In her June In May, the government presented a draft report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the amendment to the Asylum Act. The draft situation of human rights in Eritrea cited extended the exceptions under which UNICEF’s report. She further highlighted refoulement – the forcible return of people to accounts from Eritreans living countries where they are at real risk of abroad describing their relatives at home as persecution – was allowed in situations where “struggling to meet their basic needs”. Many refugees have been sentencedGMT to 2018 of them could not afford “adequate and imprisonment for certain types of crimes. sufficient basic supplies” and were dealing UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, raised with “acute water shortages, especially in concerns that the proposed amendment was Asmara”. Reports suggested that more and not compliant with the UN Refugee more people were leaving “drought-affected Convention. In particular, it recommended regions in search of better living conditions.” that the government clarify the term “danger She noted that the government’s draconian to the community of Estonia”, which was regulations that limited cash withdrawals included among the grounds for removal of a from individuals’ bank accounts prevented refugee from05:01 the country. people from buying adequate food and other A number of refugees faced legal basic items. uncertainty/ and difficulty in accessing services as a consequence of the March 2016 Supreme Court decision which held ESTONIA that asylum-seekers who received a negative ETdecision on their application immediately lose Republic of Estonia EMBARGOEDtheir status. The NGOFEBRUARY Estonian Human Head of state: Kersti Kaljulaid Rights Centre raised concern over access to Head of government: Jüri Ratas legal aid for asylum-seekers held in detention centres. This lack of access particularly A draft amendment to the Asylum Act affected asylum-seekers22 who entered the would increase the risk of refoulement for country via its border with Russia. refugees sentenced to imprisonment for The lack of thorough investigations into certain types of crimes. The Supreme Court racially motivated crimes against refugees ruled that the Family Law does00:01 not prohibit and migrants persisted. recognition of same-sex marriages registered in other countries. DISCRIMINATION – ETHNIC MINORITIES 80,000 people resident in Estonia remained REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS stateless – almost 7% of the population, most By the end of the year, Estonia had of them Russian speakers. Roma continued STRICTLYrelocated 141 asylum-seekers from Italy and to suffer discrimination across a range of Greece under the EU Emergency Relocation social and economic rights. Scheme; however, of these, 71 people had left the countryUNTIL by the end of the year. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 161 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, credible investigation into the cause and TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE scale of the deaths. In June, the Supreme Court held that although the Family Law does not provide for TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT marriage of same-sex couples, it does not Reports of torture and other ill-treatment of preclude recognition of same-sex marriages people accused of terrorism persisted. registered in other countries. The decision Detainees repeatedly complained to the involved an Estonian-US lesbian couple courts that police tortured and ill-treated initially forced to leave Estonia after the them during interrogations. Although, in authorities had refused to provide one of the some cases, judges ordered the Ethiopian partners with a residence permit. Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to investigate the allegations, the investigations did not adhere to international human rights standards. Angaw Tegeny and Agbaw Seteny ETHIOPIA were tried under the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Proclamation (ATP) along withGMT 35 others, in 2018 Head of state: Mulatu Teshome Wirtu connection with a fire at Qilinto prison on the Head of government: Hailemariam Desalegn outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa. The two men complained that the police suspended a The government lifted the state of water bottle from their scrotums and flogged emergency in June. In August protests them on the soles of their feet. However, an resumed in Oromia against income tax EHRC report to the Federal High Court did increases and calling for the release of not refer to their torture complaints. Beqele Gerba, Merera Gudina and other political prisoners. In February, 10,000 ARBITRARY05:01 ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS people who had been arbitrarily detained Arbitrary detention continued under the state were released. Reports of torture and other of emergency/ declaration which was lifted in ill-treatment, unfair trials and violations of June. On 2 February, the government the rights to freedom of expression and of ordered the release of 10,000 of the 26,000 association continued. people arbitrarily detained and arrested, ETunder the declaration, in 2016. BACKGROUND EMBARGOEDHundreds of peopleFEBRUARY were detained under The authorities failed to implement the the ATP, which includes overly broad and reforms they had promised to address vague definitions of terrorist acts punishable grievances raised during protests in 2015 by up to 20 years’ imprisonment. Detainees and 2016 in Amhara and Oromia. The were held22 in excess of four months, the demonstrators had been protesting against maximum period allowed under the law for the forced eviction of farmers from their lands pre-trial detention. Seven Oromo artists, for in Oromia in the past 20 years; arbitrary example, were detained for more than six arrests and detention of opposition00:01 political months when the prosecutor finally charged party leaders; and severe restrictions on the them on 29 June. rights to freedom of expression and of association. Instead, the government UNFAIR TRIALS declared a state of emergency in October Hundreds of political activists, dissenters and 2016 after mobs torched farms and peaceful protesters faced unfair trials on STRICTLYbusinesses in Oromia and Amhara following a charges brought under the ATP law. The trials stampede during the Oromo Thanksgiving were marked by prolonged pre-trial Ceremony (Irrecha) in which at least 55 detention, undue delays and persistent people were killed.UNTIL The Ethiopian authorities complaints of torture and other ill-treatment. have yet to conduct an independent and THURSDAY 162 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Prominent leaders of opposition political provided rehabilitation for victims and their parties such as Merera Gudina, Chairman of families by the end of the year. the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), and Beqele Gerba, Deputy Chairman of the OFC, EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS were tried on charges under the ATP for their The Ethiopian Somali Liyu Police (Liyu alleged role in organizing the November 2015 Police), a special force in Somali Regional Oromia protest. Beqele Gerba’s trial was State in eastern Ethiopia, and local Ethiopian repeatedly adjourned. Finally the court militia, extrajudicially executed hundreds of dismissed the terrorism charges against him. Oromos living in the Somali Region. Among However, it ruled that his trial should proceed those killed were infants as young as six on charges of provocation and preparation for months. The Liyu Police also evicted at least outrages against the Constitution or the 50,000 Oromos living in the Somali Region Constitutional Order as per the Criminal between September and October. It attacked Code. the neighbouring Oromia Regional Districts and displaced thousands of residents in FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION February, March, August, SeptemberGMT and 2018 The Federal High Court convicted journalists, October. bloggers and other activists on terrorism charges and handed down prison sentences. ABDUCTION OF CHILDREN Yonatan Tesfaye was convicted of The authorities failed to adequately protect encouraging terrorism in his Facebook posts people in Gambella Regional State from and sentenced to six-and-a-half years in repeated attacks by armed members of the prison. Getachew Shiferaw was sentenced to Murle ethnic group based in neighbouring 18 months in prison for sending emails to South Sudan. The Murle gunmen crossed the leaders of a banned opposition political party border to 05:01Ethiopia on 12 March and based abroad. The court convicted him on abducted 22 children from the Anuwa charges including expressing appreciation community./ The authorities were not known of someone who, in 2012, publicly to have taken steps to ensure the return of denounced the late Prime Minister Meles the abducted children to their families. Zenawi. ETIMPUNITY ECONOMIC, SOCIAL ANDEMBARGOED The police and armyFEBRUARY continued to enjoy CULTURAL RIGHTS impunity for human rights violations On 11 March, 115 people were killed as a committed in 2015 and 2016. During the result of a landslide at the Koshe rubbish year, the government rejected calls for dump, the largest dump in Ethiopia, located independent22 and impartial investigations into on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, in an area human rights violations committed in the inhabited by hundreds of people. Most of the context of protests in various regional states. victims lived next to the site and supported In the few cases where the EHRC conducted themselves by recycling rubbish.00:01 The investigations and found that human rights authorities had been aware that the landfill violations had taken place, the government was full to capacity, and the residents had no did not investigate or bring to justice option but to live and work there because the suspected perpetrators. government failed to protect their right to adequate housing and decent work. More STRICTLYthan 80 million birr (around USD3 million) was fundraised for rehabilitation of the victims. Although the municipal government managed the UNTILfund, the authorities had not THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 163 posting anti-government graffiti in public FIJI places in 2011. On 26 June, Jope Koroisavou, a youth Republic of Fiji leader from the opposition Social Democratic Head of state: Jioji Konousi Konrote Liberal Party, was arrested and detained for Head of government: Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama 48 hours after he carried placards in the capital, Suva, calling for justice in torture The government failed to ensure cases. accountability for the torture and other ill- treatment of detainees by security forces. In TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT two incidents, individuals were forcibly Police and military officers charged in 2015 returned without due process to countries in connection with the torture of Iowane where they may be at risk of serious human Benedito had not been brought to trial by the rights violations. The increasing use of end of the year. sedition charges, and the arrest of a lone peaceful protester on the International Day DEATHS IN CUSTODY GMT 2018 in Support of Victims of Torture highlighted Vikrant Nand, aged 18, died in police the continuing restrictions on the rights to custody in February. The police promptly freedom of expression and peaceful announced an investigation into his death but assembly. by the end of the year it remained unclear what steps had been taken since the autopsy. BACKGROUND In June, the UN Special Rapporteur on REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS racism published a report from his December On two occasions, people were forcibly 2016 mission to Fiji. The government had not returned to05:01 countries where they may be at implemented several of the report’s risk of serious human rights violations. In recommendations by the end of the year, January,/ Iranian refugee Loghman Sawari including calls to combat hate speech while fled Papua New Guinea for Fiji to seek protecting the right to freedom of expression, asylum. On his way to meet Fiji’s Director of to facilitate meaningful dialogue to address Immigration, police intercepted his vehicle, past injustices and current inequalities and to ETarrested him and separated him from his strengthen the Human RightsEMBARGOED and Anti- lawyer. He said theFEBRUARY police officers punched Discrimination Commission to ensure it and attacked him with pepper spray. He was complies with the Paris Principles. returned to Papua New Guinea without due process (see Papua New Guinea entry). FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND In August,22 77 Chinese nationals PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY were returned to China in co-operation with The authorities used restrictive legislation to the Chinese authorities. The Fijian authorities stifle the media and curtail the rights to claimed that they had committed “computer freedom of expression and peaceful00:01 crimes” and breached the terms of their assembly, including by imposing sedition visas, charges which they were not given the charges. In March, three senior staff at the opportunity to contest. They were Fiji Times and the author of a letter to its not permitted to seek legal advice or appeal editor were charged with sedition, which their forcible return. carries a maximum prison sentence of seven STRICTLYyears. In May, opposition MP Mosese Bulitavu and Fiji United Freedom Party leader Jagarth Karunaratne went on trial on sedition chargesUNTIL for their alleged role in THURSDAY 164 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, FINLAND TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Legislation on legal gender recognition Republic of Finland continued to violate the rights of transgender Head of state: Sauli Niinistö people. They could obtain legal gender Head of government: Juha Sipilä recognition only if they agreed to sterilization, were diagnosed with a mental disorder, and Changes to the asylum procedure continued were aged over 18. Despite an April decision to affect asylum-seekers negatively. Support by the European Court of Human Rights services for women who experienced condemning sterilization, the government did domestic violence remained inadequate. not consider amending the law. Legislation on legal gender recognition continued to violate the rights of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS transgender people. Draft legislative NGOs and state institutions working to changes limiting the right to privacy were combat violence against women and girls proposed. remained systematically under-resourced.GMT 2018 Neither adequate and accessible walk-in REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS services nor long-term support services for Many changes in the law introduced in 2016, survivors of violence were in place. Existing including restrictions of the right to free legal legislation did not sufficiently protect representation and reduced time frames for institutionalized or hospitalized individuals appeals, continued to affect refugees’ and from sexual violence. asylum-seekers’ rights. The likelihood of In May, the first Sexual Assault Support asylum-seekers being forcibly returned to Centre was opened at the Women’s Hospital countries where they might be at risk of in the capital,05:01 Helsinki. Finland still lacked a human rights violations (refoulement) was nationwide, accessible service network for increased. The government had not victims/ of all forms of sexual violence, which evaluated the combined impact of these could also provide long-term support. changes by the end of the year. In January, an Administrative Committee on Family reunification remained difficult for Coordination on violence against women, as most refugees due to both legislative and ETrequired by the Istanbul Convention, started practical obstacles, includingEMBARGOED high income its work to enhance FEBRUARY the implementation of requirements. the Convention and facilitate work to prevent Despite international NGOs raising concern, violence against women. However, neither Finland continued to forcibly return asylum- women’s nor victims’ support organizations seekers whose applications were rejected to were represented22 in the Committee and it Afghanistan. was also inadequately resourced. Contrary to international standards, the authorities continued to detain RIGHT TO PRIVACY unaccompanied children, and 00:01families with In April, draft civilian and military intelligence children, based on their immigration status. legislation was published. It enabled the There was no time limit on detaining families acquisition of information on threats to with children. In February, “directed national security by giving military and civilian residence” was introduced as a new form of intelligence agencies permission to conduct deprivation of liberty for asylum-seekers and communications surveillance without any STRICTLYmigrants. It meant that asylum-seekers had requirement for a link to a specific criminal to report to a reception centre up to four offence. times a day. UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 165 CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS The law required prefects to seek a judicial Conscientious objectors to military service authorization only in respect of searches. continued to be punished for refusing to The UN Special Rapporteur on the undertake alternative civilian service, which promotion and protection of human rights remained punitive and discriminatory in and fundamental freedoms while countering length. The duration of alternative civilian terrorism had in September expressed service was 347 days, more than double the concern that the bill included a vague shortest military service period of 165 days. definition of what constituted a threat to national security and had the effect of transposing emergency measures into FRANCE ordinary law.

French Republic FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Head of state: Emmanuel Macron (replaced François Prefects continued to resort to emergency Hollande in May) measures to restrict the right to freedom of Head of government: Édouard Philippe (replaced peaceful assembly. In particular,GMT they 2018 Bernard Cazeneuve in May) adopted dozens of measures restricting the freedom of movement of individuals to The state of emergency, introduced in prevent them from attending public 2015, was eventually lifted. A new law assemblies. Authorities imposed these increased the government’s powers to measures on vague grounds and against impose counter-terrorism measures on individuals with no apparent connection with vague grounds and without full judicial any terrorism-related offence. Prefects scrutiny. Authorities continued to return imposed 17 measures to prevent individuals Afghan nationals to Afghanistan in violation from participating05:01 in the public assemblies of the principle of non-refoulement. A new calling for police accountability after a young vigilance law imposing obligations on large man reported/ he had been raped by a police companies entered into force. officer on 2 February. The Paris Prefect of Police imposed 10 measures to prevent COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY protesters from attending the public In July, Parliament approved the ETassembly scheduled for International government’s proposal to EMBARGOEDextend the state of Workers’ Day on 1FEBRUARY May. emergency until 1 November and then to end On 5 January, a police officer was indicted it. It had been in force since the attacks for firing a sting-ball grenade that blinded carried out in the capital, Paris, on 13 protester Laurent Théron in one eye. The trial November 2015. of the police22 officer was ongoing at the end of In October, Parliament adopted a the year. The investigation into the alleged governmental bill to introduce new counter- excessive use of force by police against terrorism measures into ordinary law. The law dozens of protesters who had attended the increased the powers of the Minister00:01 of the public assemblies organized in 2016 against Interior and the prefects to impose the reform of labour laws was still ongoing at administrative measures on individuals, in the end of the year. cases where there was not sufficient In March, a new law on the use of force and evidence to open a criminal investigation. weapons by law enforcement officials entered The measures included restrictions on into force. The law permitted the use of some STRICTLYfreedom of movement, house searches, weapons, including kinetic impact projectiles, closure of places of worship, and the in instances that did not fully comply with establishment of security zones where law international standards. enforcement officialsUNTIL were permitted to In June, the Constitutional Court ruled that exercise enhanced stop-and-search powers. the emergency measure that had allowed THURSDAY 166 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 prefects to restrict freedom of movement was Municipal authorities refused to fully comply unconstitutional. However, in July Parliament with the ruling and only allowed the included the same measure in the law that distribution of one meal a day. In June, the extended the state of emergency. Prefects Public Defender of Rights (Ombudsperson) imposed 37 such measures between 16 July expressed concerns about the human rights and 30 October. violations experienced by migrants and asylum-seekers in Calais and called on REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS authorities to ensure the respect of their Between January and July, the prefectural social and economic rights, in particular authorities of Alpes-Maritimes department access to water and to adequate housing, stopped 28,000 refugees and migrants who and to provide them with effective had crossed the border from Italy. The opportunities to seek asylum in France. authorities sent 95% of them back to Italy, Authorities continued to prosecute and including unaccompanied minors, without convict individuals who supported migrants providing them with the right to seek asylum and refugees in entering or staying in France in France. irregularly, for example by GMTproviding food or 2018 Between January and August, authorities shelter. In August, an appeal court convicted placed more than 1,600 Afghan nationals in Cédric Herrou, a farmer living close to the detention centres in view of returning them to French-Italian border, and sentenced him to other European countries under the Dublin III a suspended sentence of four months’ Regulation – a mechanism for allocating imprisonment for helping migrants and responsibility for the examination of asylum refugees to cross the border into France and claims among EU member states − or to for sheltering them. Afghanistan. In the same period, according to civil society organizations, authorities DISCRIMINATION05:01 returned about 300 Afghan nationals to other In January, a law extending the moratorium EU countries and expelled at least 10 of them on evictions/ of informal settlements during to Afghanistan. Authorities returned 640 winter entered into force. Authorities individuals to Afghanistan in 2016. All returns continued to forcibly evict people from to Afghanistan constituted a violation of the informal settlements, many of them Roma principle of non-refoulement − the principle ETmigrants. Civil society organizations reported according to which statesEMBARGOED are obliged not to that authorities hadFEBRUARY evicted 2,689 individuals return any person to a country where they in the first half of the year. would risk human rights violations − given On 14 March, the Court of Justice of the EU the volatile security and human rights failed to uphold Muslim women’s rights to situation in Afghanistan. non-discrimination22 by ruling that a private In the aftermath of the eviction of the French employer had not breached EU anti- informal settlement near Calais, known as discrimination law in dismissing a woman for “The Jungle”, in November 2016, authorities wearing a headscarf. put in place punitive measures00:01 against the hundreds of migrants and refugees who had CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY subsequently returned to Calais. They In March, a law imposing a “duty of enhanced police stop-and-search operations, vigilance” on large companies entered into which raised concerns over ethnic profiling. force. The law required companies to In March, municipal authorities prohibited establish and implement a “vigilance plan” to STRICTLYhumanitarian organizations from distributing prevent serious human rights abuses and meals to migrants and asylum-seekers in the environmental damage resulting directly or town. At the end of March, a court ruled that indirectly from their own activities and those the decision constitutedUNTIL an inhumane and of subsidiaries and other business partners. degrading treatment and suspended it. Victims of human rights abuses resulting THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 167 from a company’s failure to comply with the FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, law could seek compensation before a ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY French court. In January, the new Communications Code came into force. The Code was criticized by ARMS TRADE journalists for its vague and overly broad The government continued to license weapon provisions, including prohibitions on transfers to governments that were likely to Gabonese nationals working for local media use them to commit serious violations of outlets outside the country, and international human rights law and provisions banning the use of pseudonyms, humanitarian law. The government continued holding printers and distributors jointly to license weapon transfers to members of responsible for any infractions, and an the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen and obligation for media to “contribute to the to Egypt. country’s image and national cohesion”. In May, the Senate recommended the use On 17 March, the authorities suspended the of armed remotely piloted vehicles (drones) activities of CONASYSED, the main teachers’ for the armed forces to improve their union, citing “disturbance GMTof public order” 2018 effectiveness in military operations. The caused by strikes that began in October Minister of Defence confirmed concrete plans 2016. The Minister of Education also ordered to use armed drones from 2019, but the the suspension of the payment of salaries to authorities were yet to articulate and over 800 teachers in order to end the strike. implement clear policies on their use and In June 2017 the National Council of transfer. Communication banned Les Echos du Nord, a newspaper considered to be close to the political opposition, for statements deemed defamatory05:01 against President Bongo and GABON Prime Minister Issoze-Ngondet. The outlet Gabonese Republic reopened/ in August. Head of state: Ali Bongo Ondimba Head of government: Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS On 14 April, Alain Djally, an assistant to The new Communications Code was ETopposition leader Jean Ping, was arrested criticized by journalists forEMBARGOED its vague and without a warrant FEBRUARY in the capital, Libreville. He overly broad provisions, and a newspaper was blindfolded and ill-treated by men in was suspended. Prominent opposition plain clothes, but allowed to see his lawyer supporters were arbitrarily arrested. The the day after his arrest. After that he was activities of the teachers’ unions were denied access.22 He was detained at the severely restricted. Representatives of the Direction Générale de la Recherche, a facility ICC conducted a two-day visit. run by the Gabonese intelligence services, before being transferred to the central prison BACKGROUND 00:01 in Libreville, where he was kept in solitary Presidential candidate Jean Ping continued confinement for the entire period of his to contest the results of the August 2016 detention. He was charged with presidential elections, and in September impersonating an active service member and 2017 he was temporarily denied the right to illegal possession of firearms, for retaining his leave the country. Legislative elections were old military ID card and possessing a blank- STRICTLYpostponed until April 2018. In November, the firing gun. His lawyer claimed such a weapon report submitted by Gabon and parallel did not require a permit, and that the charges reports submitted by civil society were politically motivated. He was organizations UNTILwere examined under the UN provisionally released on 23 June. UPR process. THURSDAY 168 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 On 15 June, Marcel Libama, an adviser for reforming the security forces. Steps were CONASYSED and the union confederation taken to begin a transitional justice process. Dynamique Unitaire, was arrested in Tchibanga city after discussing the case of a BACKGROUND detained colleague, Cyprien Moungouli, Following mediation by regional leaders and during a Radio Massanga show. He was held the threat of a military intervention by for three days at a police station, and on 20 ECOWAS,1 former President Yahya Jammeh June transferred to the local prison. He was accepted the results of the December 2016 charged with insulting a magistrate, presidential elections and departed Gambia obstruction of justice and defamation. On 17 on 21 January for Equatorial Guinea.2 June, Juldas Biviga, a journalist from Radio ECOWAS had a coalition force stationed in Massanga, was also arrested for refusing to Gambia scheduled to withdraw in mid-2018. delete recordings of archived interviews, Adama Barrow was inaugurated in Senegal’s among other things. On 13 July, both Marcel capital, Dakar, on 19 January during the Libama and Juldas Biviga were severely impasse. beaten by their prison guards. Suffering GMT 2018 injuries to his ankles, ribs and ears, Juldas LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Biviga was transferred to hospital. They both INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS received sentences of 184 days in prison and On 10 February, the government cancelled a EUR450 fine. the planned withdrawal from the Rome On 27 August, security forces arrested Statute of the ICC which had been introduced Hervé Mombo Kinga, an activist and under President Jammeh’s rule.3 prominent supporter of Jean Ping. He had On 21 September, Gambia signed the publicly projected videos next to his internet Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, in an café, and was charged with “instigating apparent step05:01 towards abolishing the death violence” and “insulting the Head of State”, penalty. and spent one and a half months in solitary Plans/ were initiated to begin a constitutional confinement. He remained in detention at the reform process and to reform other end of the year. repressive laws implemented under the previous President. IMPUNITY ETBills on the Constitutional Review The ICC continued its preliminaryEMBARGOED Commission and FEBRUARYHuman Rights Commission examination into whether alleged crimes were passed by the National Assembly on 13 committed after May 2016, including in the December. context of the 2016 presidential elections, could amount to crimes under the Rome POLITICAL22 PRISONERS Statute, and whether the criteria for opening Between December 2016 and January 2017, an investigation were met. In June, dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of representatives of the ICC conducted a two- conscience were released, including day visit. 00:01 prisoners of conscience Amadou Sanneh and Ousainou Darboe. On 30 January, President Barrow pardoned Ousainou Darboe and dozens of others arrested for taking part in a GAMBIA peaceful protest in April 2016. Republic of the Gambia STRICTLYHead of state and government: Adama DETENTION Barrow (replaced Yahya Jammeh in January) Prison conditions did not meet international standards due to inadequate sanitation, food The new governmentUNTIL committed to and access to medical care. In February, 174 reforming several repressive laws and prisoners were released to commemorate THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 169 independence celebrations and a further 84 against electricity and water shortages, but were released in March in order to reduce permission was denied on 11 November. The prison overcrowding. Legal aid provision was protest was dispersed on 12 November by limited, especially outside of the capital, riot police. Banjul. New judges were appointed, in order to address the need for a more independent POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES judiciary. In February the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), which practised torture and arbitrary FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION detention under the previous government, The government committed to reforming was renamed the State Intelligence Services several repressive media laws. A number of and its powers of detention ended through a journalists returned to the country, having government policy decision. However, the fled into exile due to harassment or threat of changes were not supported by new imprisonment under the previous legislation. During the following months, the government. heads of the police, prison, intelligence On 19 February, a woman was arrested and agency and military were replaced.GMT However, 2018 detained for breach of the peace after she there had not been systemic reform of these allegedly insulted President Barrow. She was institutions, or any vetting of people who had granted bail on 2 March, and the case was committed serious human rights abuses. Civil dismissed by the Brikama Magistrates Court society groups expressed concern that the on 3 April. government had not taken steps to preserve In November, at a symposium marking the documentary and physical evidence of International Day to End Impunity for Crimes abuses by the security forces, particularly the against Journalists, the government NIA. announced that it would comply with In July, 1205:01 soldiers were arrested on judgments by the ECOWAS Community Court allegations connected to “mutinous and of Justice on state involvement in human seditious”/ posts on social media in support of rights violations against three journalists – former President Jammeh. They were held Deyda Hydara, Chief Ebrima Manneh and without charge in military detention until Musa Saidykhan. This would include being brought to court on 17 November, in negotiating compensation payments with ETviolation of detention time limits set in the victims’ families. EMBARGOEDConstitution. On 27FEBRUARY November, 10 were charged with treason and mutiny and two FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY with negligent interference of lawful custody. Restrictive laws on freedom of peaceful assembly had not yet been amended. On 23 TRANSITIONAL22 JUSTICE November, Gambia’s Supreme Court ruled Ten soldiers were arrested and detained in that Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1961, January, accused of involvement in enforced requiring police permission for peaceful disappearances and killings, but were not assembly, did not violate the Constitution.00:01 charged and remained in detention at the On 2 June, one person died and at least six end of the year. were injured when the ECOWAS coalition In February, criminal proceedings began force fired live ammunition to disperse against nine NIA officers, including the demonstrators near Yahya Jammeh’s former former director, accused of murdering residence in the village of Kanilai. The opposition activist Solo Sandeng in April STRICTLYgovernment committed to holding an 2016. investigation, but no information had been In October, victims of human rights abuses, made public by the end of the year. civil society organizations and international The Occupy UNTILWestfield movement was human rights groups formed a coalition to initially authorized to peacefully protest campaign for Yahya Jammeh and others who THURSDAY 170 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 committed serious human rights abuses Abortion remained a criminal offence, during his rule to be brought to justice. except in cases where the pregnant woman’s Ousmane Sonko, Minister of Interior from life was at risk. 2006 until he fled the country in September 2016, faced investigation in Switzerland for 1. Gambia: Adama Barrow must not forget his big promises (News story, crimes against humanity committed during 19 January); Gambia: State of Emergency no licence for repression President Jammeh’s rule. (News story, 18 January) On 13 December, the Truth, Reconciliation 2. Gambia: Response to the departure of Yahya Jammeh (News story, 22 and Reparation Commission (TRRC) bill to January) examine events during President Jammeh’s 3. Gambia: Progress in first 100 days of Barrow government requires rule, was passed by the National Assembly, major reform to break with brutal past (News story, 27 April) following consultation on the bill with national and international actors. On 10 August, a Commission of Inquiry was GEORGIA set up to investigate Yahya Jammeh’s alleged mismanagement of public finances and Georgia GMT 2018 abuse of office. The government also froze Head of state: Giorgi Margvelashvili assets believed to belong to him. Head of government: Giorgi Kvirikashvili A Panel on Missing Persons, a specialized police unit investigating enforced Continued impunity for human rights disappearances during President Jammeh’s abuses committed by law enforcement rule, was created in February. In March, the officials emphasized the need for an bodies of four people, possible victims of independent investigation mechanism. A enforced disappearance, were exhumed, legal dispute over a pro-opposition TV including that of Solo Sandeng. It is expected channel caused05:01 concern about judicial to submit the list of missing people to be independence and media freedom. The investigated by the TRRC. fencing/ of the de facto border between the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Ossetia continued to have a negative impact TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE on local residents’ economic and social Same-sex relations remained criminalized. A ETrights. law approved in October 2014,EMBARGOED for example, FEBRUARY imposed sentences of up to life imprisonment BACKGROUND for “aggravated homosexuality” offences. The Parliament – under the majority ruling LGBTI people continued to suffer party Georgian Dream – adopted a new discrimination and threats from non-state Constitution22 in October. It deferred until actors. 2024 the introduction of a fully proportional electoral system, which the opposition had SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS long been seeking, and ensured that from In November, the government and00:01 2024 mandates won by political parties that development partners launched the fail to reach the election threshold are Comprehensive Sexuality Education assigned to the winning party. Under the new programme to be delivered in schools. rules, electoral blocs will no longer be allowed Despite laws criminalizing female genital from 2020, and the president will no longer mutilation (FGM), it remained widespread. be elected by direct popular vote after 2018. STRICTLYThe government and development partners In December, Parliament started the developed a communication strategy to process of changing the Constitution again to further educate communities about the accommodate some of the opposition’s harms of FGM.UNTIL demands which were excluded from the new Constitution. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 171 Far-right movements organized xenophobic evidence. The prosecution appealed against and homophobic marches in the capital the Court’s decision. Tbilisi. The national currency, Lari, continued to LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY devalue, adversely affecting living standards. On 29 May, Azerbaijani investigative In February, Georgian nationals were journalist Afghan Mukhtarli – who was exiled granted visa-free travel to the Schengen Area in Georgia – vanished from Tbilisi, and after the government implemented several reappeared the following day in Azerbaijan in key institutional and legislative reforms official custody, falsely accused of illegal demanded as a precondition by the EU. border crossing and money smuggling. He told his lawyer that he had been abducted by Georgian-speaking men, some wearing IMPUNITY Georgian criminal police uniforms, and Impunity for human rights abuses committed trafficked across the border. The authorities by law enforcement officers persisted, while denied the involvement of Georgian forces, the government continued to promise, but and started an investigationGMT into Afghan 2018 failed to deliver, an independent investigation Mukhtarli’s allegations. The investigation was mechanism. In June, instead of an not known to have produced substantial independent investigation mechanism, the results; he remained in detention in government proposed a new department Azerbaijan at the end of the year. within the Prosecutor’s Office with a mandate to investigate alleged abuses by law JUSTICE SYSTEM enforcement officers. The litigation over the ownership of Rustavi 2 In June, two members of the rap group Birja Broadcasting Company, a pro-opposition TV Mafia were arrested for alleged drug channel, continued.05:01 On 2 March, the possession, and demonstrations erupted in Supreme Court ruled to transfer the their support. The arrested musicians said ownership/ of Rustavi 2 TV to its former co- police had planted drugs on them in revenge owners – known to be government supporters for a YouTube video satirizing a police officer, – upholding previous rulings by the court of and cited earlier threats from police first instance and the Court of Appeals. Local demanding that they remove the video. The ETNGOs raised concerns about possible protests resulted in their releaseEMBARGOED on bail government interferenceFEBRUARY in the judicial pending trial. An investigation was launched process and called the trial unfair. In March, into the musicians’ allegations of police the European Court of Human Rights abuse and was ongoing at the end of the requested that enforcement of the Supreme year. Court’s decision22 be suspended until it had In June, the first instance court in Kutaisi considered the case. acquitted the police officer charged with “exceeding official capacity”. The alleged FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT victim, Demur Sturua, a 22-year-old00:01 resident Russian forces and de facto authorities in the of Dapnari, western Georgia, committed breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South suicide on 8 August 2016. The prosecution’s Ossetia continued to restrict movement evidence included Demur Sturua’s note across the de facto border, briefly detaining blaming the police officer for his suicide, a and fining dozens of people for “illegal” postmortem examination confirming signs of border crossing. The increased fencing along STRICTLYill-treatment, video footage showing the the administrative boundary lines continued officer picking up Demur Sturua with his car to adversely affect the rights of local on the day of the suicide, and phone call residents, including the rights to work, food logs. NGOs criticizedUNTIL the court’s decision, and an adequate standard of living, owing to calling it unsubstantiated in light of the THURSDAY 172 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 the loss of access to their orchards, pasture and farm land. GERMANY

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Federal Republic of Germany TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Head of state: Frank-Walter Steinmeier (replaced The new Constitution restricted the definition Joachim Gauck in March) of marriage from “a voluntary union based on Head of government: Angela Merkel equality between the spouses” to “a union between a man and a woman”. Same-sex Parliament passed a law granting same-sex couples were not legally recognized. couples the right to marry. The authorities On 25 August, police arrested two LGBTI continued to deport to Afghanistan asylum- activists after a violent incident at a nightclub seekers whose applications had failed in Batumi, the second largest city. The despite the worsening security situation in activists questioned why they, the targets of the country. The federal Parliament violence, were arrested and charged with extended police powers to conduct “disorderly conduct” and not their assailants, surveillance measures andGMT to impose 2018 and complained of beating and verbal abuse administrative measures on individuals by police. An investigation was opened into identified as “potential attackers”. their complaint and was ongoing at the end of the year. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE In March, September and November, 22 REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS Syrian nationals residing in Germany On 24 May, Mustafa Çabuk – a Turkish submitted four criminal complaints to the national resident in Georgia since 2002 – was office of the Federal Prosecutor General detained under an extradition request from against 2705:01 Syrian officials working for the Turkey which claimed that he was military police and different intelligence “supporting terrorism” and had links with the services/ for their alleged involvement in Fethullah Gülen movement. Mustafa Çabuk torture as a war crime and a crime against was at real risk of torture and other ill- humanity. The alleged crimes were treatment if returned to Turkey. His committed in Saydnaya and other military application for refugee status in Georgia was ETprisons and in prisons of the Air Force rejected. Appeals were madeEMBARGOED against the Intelligence in DamascusFEBRUARY and other places in decision; Mustafa Çabuk continued to be Syria. In May, the Federal Prosecutor General held in pre-extradition detention at the end of carried out hearings with Syrian witnesses. the year. Investigations were ongoing at the end of the year. WORKERS’ RIGHTS 22 Throughout the year, more than a dozen COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY cases of fatal occupational accidents In April, the federal Parliament passed an were reported, particularly among00:01 miners and amendment that expanded the control construction workers. The need for stricter powers of the Federal Criminal Police to regulations and their effective monitoring by impose administrative measures for an independent labour standards regulatory “potential attackers”, such as electronic authority remained. ankle tagging, assigned residency and telecommunication surveillance. These STRICTLY “potential attackers” were vaguely defined as “individuals who could be involved in committing a terrorism-related offence in the UNTIL future”. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 173 In May, the federal Parliament passed a law Despite the worsening security situation in that facilitated the detention of people Afghanistan, authorities continued to forcibly representing a “significant security threat” to return Afghan nationals whose asylum claims society, pending their deportation. The law had been rejected, in violation of the also granted the Federal Office for Migration principle of non-refoulement. By the end of and Refugees the power to seize the the year, 121 Afghan nationals had been electronic devices of asylum-seekers who do forcibly returned. not possess identity documents. In March, the Federal Council rejected a In July, the state of Bavaria increased the draft law from the government that sought to period of administrative police detention classify Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as without charge for “potential attackers” from “safe” countries of origin and to establish a 14 days to up to three months. fast-track procedure to determine the refugee status of applicants from those countries. RIGHT TO PRIVACY Germany had relocated around 9,100 In June, the federal Parliament passed a law asylum-seekers who had arrived via Italy and granting police authorities the power to use Greece by the end of December.GMT Germany 2018 new surveillance techniques, including by also resettled almost 280 refugees from Egypt installing surveillance software on computers and Lebanon, and around 2,700 Syrian and phones. refugees from Turkey as part of the EU- Also in June, a Higher Administrative Court Turkey deal. ruled in an urgent procedure that the indiscriminate retention of data prescribed by DISCRIMINATION – HATE CRIMES a law that was due to enter into full force in In June, the second Committee of Inquiry – July, was not in compliance with EU law. The established by Parliament in 2015 to address law was not enforced pending the final ruling. the authorities’05:01 failure to investigate the racist Also in June, a parliamentary committee of crimes perpetrated by the far-right group inquiry – established in 2013 following Nationalist/ Social Underground (NSU) Edward Snowden’s revelations regarding the between 2000 and 2007 – concluded that USA’s surveillance of its allies, including the authorities had to establish clear rules for Germany – concluded that the Federal infiltrating “far-right extremist” movements, Intelligence Service had resorted to an overly ETprovide long-term funding to civil society broad interpretation of surveillanceEMBARGOED laws and initiatives against FEBRUARYracism and assist victims of had implemented surveillance measures, racist crimes. The authorities continued to fail such as mass surveillance of foreign-to- to launch an official investigation into the foreign communications, without sufficient potential role of institutional racism behind legal basis and oversight. Germany’s22 failure to investigate the crimes committed by the NSU. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS In the first nine months, the Interior Ministry There were 222,683 asylum applications reported 1,212 criminal offences against made, a drop by 70.1% compared00:01 to 2016, refugees and asylum-seekers, and 210 and the decisions on 68,245 claims were offences against asylum-seekers’ pending. accommodations. Federal and state The right to family reunification for authorities continued to fail to implement a beneficiaries of subsidiary protection comprehensive assessment strategy to remained suspended throughout the year. identify the risks of attacks against asylum STRICTLYThis had a particularly negative impact on shelters, in order to provide adequate police Syrian refugees who were increasingly protection if necessary. granted subsidiary protection instead of full In June, following a comprehensive refugee status,UNTIL providing them with fewer consultation with civil society organizations, rights. the federal government adopted a National THURSDAY 174 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Action Plan against racism and other forms of The federal government continued to discrimination, including homophobia and license the export of arms and other related transphobia. military equipment to countries, such as India and Turkey, where there was a risk that TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT such arms could be used to commit or Authorities at both the federal and the state facilitate serious human rights violations. levels continued to fail to establish any independent complaints mechanism to CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY investigate ill-treatment by police. In March, Parliament passed a law Civil society organizations continued to implementing the 2014 EU Directive on non- report discriminatory identity checks by financial reporting, which required certain police on members of ethnic and religious large companies to report on the human minorities. rights impacts of their global operations. In November, the central investigation unit However, the law was more limited than the in Hamburg was investigating complaints Directive, requiring companies to report only filed against 109 police officers for the on risks that were “very likelyGMT to cause severe 2018 alleged unlawful use of force during protests negative consequences” on human rights against the G20 summit in Hamburg in July. and only to the extent necessary for an In eight federal states, police officers understanding of their business operations. remained under no legal obligation to wear There continued to be a lack of a binding identification badges. In October, the newly mechanism requiring business enterprises to elected Parliament in North-Rhine exercise due diligence to ensure that they Westphalia repealed the recently introduced respect human rights throughout their requirement for law enforcement officials in operations and supply chain. Access to the the federal state to wear identification justice system05:01 for victims of human rights badges. abuses by or involving business enterprises In October, prosecutorial authorities closed remained/ burdensome. the new investigations opened in May into the death in custody of Oury Jalloh, a Sierra RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Leonean national who died in a fire in a cell TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE of a police station in Dessau in 2005. In ETIn July, the federal Parliament passed a law November, media reports EMBARGOEDrevealed that granting same-sex FEBRUARY couples the right to marry months before the investigations were closed, and to access adoption. fire experts meeting in February had Children and adults with variations of sex unanimously excluded the possibility of Oury characteristics continued to suffer human Jalloh setting fire to himself. In December, rights violations.22 Invasive and irreversible the Minister of Justice of Saxony-Anhalt medical procedures carried out on children newly assigned the investigations to the with variations of sex characteristics Prosecutor General of Naumburg. continued and had lifelong harmful effects. 00:01 Guidelines drawn up by intersex activists and ARMS TRADE medical professionals for treatment of The selective post-shipment control system to individuals with variations of sex improve the monitoring of German small characteristics had not been widely arms exports to ensure compliance with end- implemented. use certificates entered its pilot phase. In In November, the Federal Constitutional STRICTLYMay, a first control mission on the Court ruled that individuals should be allowed whereabouts of exported sniper rifles in India to choose a legal gender other than male and was conducted in agreement with the Indian female by the end of 2018. authorities. UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 175 arrests. No official report concerning the GHANA death had been released by the end of the year. Republic of Ghana Head of state and government: Nana Addo Dankwa CHILDREN’S RIGHTS Akufo-Addo (replaced John Dramani Mahama in In May the Minister for Gender, Children and January) Social Protection launched a strategy for 2017-2026 to address the issue of child Concerns were raised around unfair trials marriage. Some regions were and poor prison conditions for people on disproportionately affected by child marriage; death row, as well as the shackling of 34% of girls in northern Ghana were married people with psychosocial disabilities. LGBTI before the age of 18. The strategy included people continued to face discrimination, accelerating access to quality education and violence and police harassment. sexual and reproductive health information and services, as well as enforcing the existing BACKGROUND legal and policy frameworksGMT in relation to 2018 Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New child marriage. Patriotic Party was inaugurated as President in January, following presidential and DEATH PENALTY parliamentary elections in December 2016. Scores of people on death row, including six officially considered to have mental and LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR intellectual disabilities, faced poor prison INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS conditions. Inmates experienced In July, Ghana signed the AU Convention on overcrowding and lack of access to health Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, care and educational05:01 and recreational and the Protocol to the African Charter on facilities. Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Many/ death row inmates reported that they Older Persons in Africa. had not received adequate legal representation at their trials. Fewer than one WORKERS’ RIGHTS in four death row inmates interviewed by On 23 March, Ghana ratified the UN ETAmnesty International had been able to Minamata Convention on EMBARGOEDMercury, which appeal against theirFEBRUARY conviction or sentence. aims to protect workers from toxic liquid Few inmates interviewed were aware of how metal by reducing mercury use in artisanal to appeal or access legal aid, while most were and small-scale gold mining and protecting unable to pay for private lawyers. The Ghana children from exposure. About 1 million Prison Service22 reported that only 12 death people were working in Ghana’s gold mines, row inmates had filed appeals since 2006 – and nearby communities were often directly half of which were successful.1 Proposals exposed to mercury. In April, the government made by the Constitutional Review began a campaign to end illegal00:01 small-scale Implementation Committee to abolish the gold mining (known as “galamsey”), the death penalty continued to be stalled as a negative impacts of which include increased result of delays in the constitutional review crime, lost revenues and environmental process. damage as well as encouraging hazardous child labour. The government launched a JUSTICE SYSTEM STRICTLYfive-year project to provide illegal miners with Access to justice remained limited, especially alternative livelihoods in the legal mining for people from low income or marginalized sector. More than 300 people were arrested backgrounds. The Ghana Legal Aid Scheme on suspicion ofUNTIL illegal gold mining; one suffered from funding shortages; just 23 person was shot dead by police during the lawyers offering legal aid were available to the THURSDAY 176 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 country’s population of more than 28 million people. 1. Locked up and forgotten: The need to abolish the death penalty in Ghana (ACT 50/6268/2017) RIGHT TO HEALTH Shackling of people with psychosocial disabilities remained common, particularly in GREECE private “prayer camps” across the country. The practice involved restraining a person Hellenic Republic Head of state: Prokopis Pavlopoulos using chains or ropes and locking them in a Head of government: Alexis Tsipras confined space such as a room, shed or cage. In June the Mental Health Thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants Authority of Ghana released 16 people, remained trapped on the Greek islands in including two girls, held in shackles at appalling conditions. The European Court of Nyakumasi Prayer Camp, a “spiritual healing Human Rights found that Greece failed to centre” in the Central Region. Those freed, prevent human trafficking in the case of 42 some of whom had mental health conditions, migrant workers from Bangladesh.GMT New 2018 were taken to nearby Ankaful Psychiatric legislation reforming legal recognition of Hospital. A coalition of civil society gender identity was adopted. organizations called on the government to adopt and enforce a ban on shackling and to BACKGROUND invest in appropriate community-based Unemployment rates dropped but remained services to support people with mental health high, particularly for the 15-24 age group. In conditions. They also called on the July, the unemployment rate was 20.5% and government to fully implement the Mental youth unemployment was at 39.5%. Also in Health Act 2012, which, among other things, July, Greece05:01 returned to the international required the establishment of regional mental bond market after a three-year hiatus. health committees responsible for monitoring According/ to the 2017 Gender Equality mental health facilities across the country. Index, Greece ranked last among EU states Funding for mental health services remained in terms of overall gender equality. In lacking. November, the Ministry of Justice presented ETa bill on the ratification of the Council of RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY,EMBARGOED BISEXUAL, Europe Convention FEBRUARY on Preventing and TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Combating Violence against Women and Consensual same-sex sexual relations Domestic Violence. between men remained a criminal offence. LGBTI people continued to face REFUGEES’22 AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS discrimination, violence and police Nearly 47,000 asylum-seekers remained harassment as well as extortion attempts by trapped in Greece due to the closure of the members of the public. In February the Balkans migration route and the Speaker of Parliament stated in00:01 the media implementation of the EU-Turkey deal in that the Constitution should be amended to March 2016. By the end of the year, 29,716 make homosexuality completely illegal and people had arrived by sea from Turkey in punishable by law. In July he also stated in comparison with 173,450 in 2016. However, the media that Ghana would not Greece continued to be one of the main entry decriminalize homosexuality as this could points for refugees and migrants into Europe. STRICTLYlead to bestiality and incest becoming THE EU-TURKEY MIGRATION DEAL legalized. The expectation that everyone arriving irregularly on the Greek islands, including UNTIL asylum-seekers, would be returned to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal of March 2016 THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 177 continued to condemn many to extended In June, the three refugee camps in the asylum procedures while being stranded in Elliniko area in the capital Athens – which appalling reception conditions on the islands. housed around 1,000 refugees and migrants, In September, the Greek Council of State, including many children – were evacuated. the highest administrative court in the The majority of refugees and migrants were country, rejected the final appeals of two transferred to alternative camps. The Syrian refugees, against previous decisions conditions in the Elliniko camps, which declaring their asylum claims inadmissible on occupied two former Olympic sites and the the basis that Turkey was a safe third country. arrivals terminal of an unused airport, had This decision could result in the first forcible been appalling and unsafe. NGOs had raised returns of Syrian asylum-seekers under the serious concern regarding security in Elliniko, EU-Turkey deal. especially for women and girls. Many women By the end of the year, 684 individuals were reported verbal harassment and being at risk returned to Turkey from the Greek islands of sexual and gender-based violence. (1,485 in total since the EU-Turkey deal In January, three men died within one week became effective). Out of those, five were in Moria camp on the islandGMT of Lesvos. Their 2018 Syrian nationals in detention who did not deaths were suspected to be linked to carbon challenge their return after their claims were monoxide poisoning from makeshift heaters found inadmissible at second instance. used to heat their tents. By the end of the In October, NGOs, including Amnesty year, the investigation into the deaths had not International, documented instances in which been concluded. Syrian asylum-seekers were automatically Following these deaths, the Greek detained upon arrival as the authorities authorities transferred thousands of expected them to be shortly returned to vulnerable asylum-seekers from the islands Turkey, under the EU-Turkey deal. to the mainland.05:01 However, in August, rising Greek authorities discriminated against numbers of people arrived on the islands and asylum-seekers of certain nationalities. Due reception/ facilities returned to being to the EU-Turkey deal, many of those with overcrowded. The authorities had not been nationalities of countries prejudged to be able to provide reception conditions on the producing “economic migrants” rather than islands that met minimum standards under “refugees” were automatically detained and ETEU law by the end of the year. expected to be returned toEMBARGOED Turkey. The use of urbanFEBRUARY accommodation for EU RELOCATION SCHEME asylum-seekers, largely flats, increased. By The EU relocation scheme continued to be the end of the year, there were around one of very few formal options available, for 18,000 asylum-seekers and refugees staying those eligible, to safely leave Greece and in flats and22 other urban accommodation move elsewhere in Europe. However, asylum- rather than in camps. The majority of those seekers who arrived in Greece since the EU- living in the urban accommodation were in Turkey deal came into effect, were arbitrarily mainland Greece; there were fewer than excluded from the scheme. A total00:01 of 21,703 1,000 asylum-seekers living in flats on the asylum-seekers had been relocated from islands. Greece to other European countries, out of UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN the 66,400 that were foreseen to be relocated In September, the Council of Europe under the scheme. Committee for the Prevention of Torture RECEPTION CONDITIONS criticized the continued and routine detention STRICTLYSecurity continued to be a main concern in of unaccompanied migrant and refugee many of the remaining refugee camps, in children. As of 15 December, there were particular in overcrowded “hotspots” on the 2,256 unaccompanied children waiting to be islands. UNTIL placed in shelters, including 74 detained in police stations. THURSDAY 178 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 FORCED LABOUR AND SLAVERY RACISM In March, in Chowdury and Others v. Greece, Numerous hate-motivated attacks were in a landmark judgment, the European Court reported during the year. Between August of Human Rights found that 42 migrant 2016 and the end of 2017, over 50 attacks workers from Bangladesh had been reportedly took place in the town of subjected to forced labour and human Aspropyrgos where groups of young locals trafficking while working at a strawberry farm attacked migrant workers from Pakistan. In in the village of Manolada. The Court also June, representatives of national NGOs filed a found that Greece had failed to prevent complaint and authorities launched a human trafficking and to conduct an effective criminal investigation. In October, police investigation into the offences committed. arrested three young men suspected of being linked to one of the violent attacks. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS Sixty-nine individuals linked to the far-right Conscientious objectors continued to be party Golden Dawn, including the party’s arrested, repeatedly prosecuted, tried in leader and MPs, were put on trial in 2015 for military courts and fined. In June, a 53-year- the murder of anti-fascist singerGMT Pavlos 2018 old conscientious objector who was Fyssas in 2013 and for participation in a prosecuted for having refused to enlist in criminal organization. In October, the Athens 1990, was tried in a military court, but was Court of Appeal completed hearing evidence acquitted. from all prosecution witnesses called to testify According to the 2016 submissions of the in the trial. Greek National Commission for Human Rights and the European Bureau for RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Conscientious Objection, the duration of TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE alternative civilian service for certain Refugees 05:01and migrants stranded on the categories of conscientious objectors was still Aegean islands were also subjected to hate- not conforming with the European Social motivated/ crimes. Some of the victims were Charter. In July, the European Committee of transgender women and gay men. Social Rights asked Greece to provide further In October, amid transphobic reactions information. inside and outside Parliament, the ETgovernment passed a new law reforming legal TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENTEMBARGOEDrecognition of genderFEBRUARY identity. Law Allegations of ill-treatment and excessive use 4491/2017 expressly stated that transgender of force by law enforcement officials people could change their identity persisted. The majority of victims of the documents without the requirements of reported incidents were refugees and medical interventions,22 tests and psychiatric migrants trapped on the Aegean islands as a assessments. However, the new legislation result of the EU-Turkey deal. also contained several flaws, including a There were allegations that police used single status requirement and the validation excessive force against asylum-seekers00:01 of gender recognition by a local court. While during an operation to arrest protesters who the procedure was open to individuals above were clashing with the police in the Moria the age of 15, blanket age restrictions camp, on Lesvos, on 18 July. Police also remained and 15- to 16-year-old children allegedly ill-treated some of those arrested seeking legal gender recognition faced the and detained in the island’s main police additional barrier of a psycho-medical STRICTLYstation following the clashes. In July, a local assessment. prosecutor ordered a criminal investigation into the allegations. The investigation was FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION ongoing at theUNTIL end of the year. In October, Parliament adopted a legislative amendment seeking to implement three THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 179 European Court of Human Rights judgments. military, including the former head of the The judgments were regarding the violation of High Command of the Guatemalan Army, the right to freedom of association in relation were sent to trial charged with crimes against to the authorities’ refusal to register humanity and rape against Emma Guadalupe associations of Greece’s national minorities in Molina Theissen, and the enforced 2007, 2008 and 2015. The new provision disappearance of her younger brother, Marco amended the Code of Civil Procedure to allow Antonio Molina Theissen. the possibility of reopening proceedings in Criminal proceedings remained stalled these cases. However, the NGO Greek against former members of the military on Helsinki Monitor expressed concern over the charges related to multiple cases of enforced limitations placed by the law in relation to the disappearances and unlawful killings carried reopening of such proceedings, including on out in a military base, now known as grounds of national security and public order. Creompaz, in the northern Alta Verapaz region. Appeals filed against decisions affecting the victims’ rights were pending and several officers remained atGMT large. In both 2018 GUATEMALA cases, victims and human rights defenders Republic of Guatemala were intimidated and harassed inside or Head of state and government: Jimmy Morales Cabrera outside the court and online. After several failed attempts since 2015, the trials of Thousands continued to flee the country to former military head of state José Efraín Ríos escape high levels of inequality and Montt and former intelligence chief violence. Human rights defenders, in Rodríguez Sánchez resumed in October. particular those working on land, territorial and environmental issues, were at great risk IMPUNITY05:01 and faced smear campaigns. Impunity and Judges and prosecutors continued to face corruption persisted, undermining public intimidation/ and pressure. Efforts to fight trust in local authorities and hindering impunity were at great risk of setbacks due to access to justice. Recent progress to increased resistance from certain political consolidate the criminal justice system and actors. A constitutional reform introduced in the rule of law was challenged. High-profile ETCongress in November 2016, aimed at cases of past crimes underEMBARGOED international law consolidating effortsFEBRUARY towards justice and remained stalled. accountability and strengthening the independence of the judiciary, had not been LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR approved at the end of the year. Mass INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS protests took22 place in August and September In August, Augusto Jordan Rodas took up and the country faced a political crisis when office as Ombudsperson for Human Rights. several members of the government resigned In November, the last criminal provisions in September, in reaction to President referring to the death penalty were00:01 declared Morales’ attempt to expel the head of the unconstitutional. International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (an independent body established TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE by the UN and the Guatemalan government Despite progress in the prosecution of some in 2006 to strengthen the rule of law post- crimes against humanity committed during conflict). STRICTLYthe internal armed conflict (1960-1996), efforts towards truth, justice and reparations HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS remained halted, and the vast majority of Human rights defenders faced continuous cases continuedUNTIL to suffer setbacks and threats, stigmatization, intimidation and undue delays. Five former members of the attacks. THURSDAY 180 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 The Guatemalan NGO Unit for the 400 people, including children and elderly Protection of Human Rights Defenders in people, who were stranded at the northern Guatemala said that defenders working on border with Mexico from early June in poor rights related to land, territory and the sanitary conditions. They had abandoned environment faced the highest number of their community situated in Laguna Larga attacks. In January, Sebastián Alonso Juan hours before a massive eviction was carried was killed during a peaceful protest against out. By the end of the year the authorities the construction of hydroelectric projects in had not facilitated their return. the Ixquisis region of San Mateo Ixtatán. In addition, human rights defenders were REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS constantly subjected to smear campaigns to Thousands of Guatemalans migrated to the stigmatize and discredit them and their work USA through Mexico in an effort to escape in an attempt to force them to stop their the high levels of inequality and violence legitimate activities. From the end of June, affecting marginalized groups. UNHCR, the members of the Centre for Environmental, UN refugee agency, said that between Social and Legal Action were targeted with January and October 18,764GMT Guatemalans 2018 smear campaigns after they challenged the sought asylum in other countries. licence of Minera San Rafael mining Unaccompanied children from Guatemala company in San Rafael Las Flores. The comprised the biggest group of arrivals justice system was regularly misused to target apprehended at the US border. Although and harass human rights defenders in an large numbers of people continued to be attempt to break up movements and forcibly returned to Guatemala, there was no organizations, and silence human rights comprehensive mechanism or protocol in defenders. place to address the needs of returnees who A General Instruction by the Public were sent 05:01back to the same conditions and Prosecutor’s Office containing guidelines to danger that they had fled. effectively investigate attacks against human / rights defenders was under review pending CHILDREN’S RIGHTS its approval for several months. Despite some In March, 41 girls died in a fire in the Virgen progress, the process to create, in de la Asunción government-run shelter in consultation with civil society, a ETSan José Pinula municipality while locked comprehensive public policyEMBARGOED for the inside a classroom. FEBRUARY The deaths revealed the protection of human rights defenders had not lack of sufficient and adequate measures to concluded by the end of the year. protect children’s rights in Guatemala. A number of public officials were charged, but LAND DISPUTES delays in 22the investigation were reported. In September the Supreme Court recognized High levels of child pregnancy remained a the lack of prior consultation with the Xinca particular concern. The Observatory on Indigenous People of Santa Rosa and Jalapa, Sexual and Reproductive Health registered who had been negatively affected00:01 by the 69,445 births by girls and young women activities of the mine of San Rafael Las aged from 10 to 19 between January and Flores. The Court ordered the Ministry of September. Energy and Mines to carry out a consultation, but it also allowed the company to continue mining operations. As a result, an appeal was STRICTLYfiled before the Constitutional Court, which remained pending. In September the Inter-American Commission onUNTIL Human Rights ordered Guatemala to protect the rights of around THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 181 neighbourhood, and taken to a gendarmerie GUINEA detention centre. He was charged with “participating in an unlawful assembly” and Republic of Guinea was detained without trial at the Maison Head of state: Alpha Condé centrale, Conakry’s main prison, until his Head of government: Mamady Youla release on bail on 21 December.

The security forces continued to use FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION excessive force against demonstrators. Journalists, human rights defenders and Journalists, human rights defenders and others expressing dissent were beaten and others expressing dissent were arbitrarily arbitrarily detained. At least 20 people were arrested. Impunity was widespread. The arrested solely for exercising their right to right to adequate housing was not fulfilled. freedom of expression and 20 others were subjected to police violence. BACKGROUND In February, Radio Lynx FM reporter The postponement of local elections until Mariam Kouyaté was arrestedGMT by security 2018 February 2018, along with speculation about agents as she investigated health services at whether President Condé would run for a the Ignace Deen Hospital in Conakry. She third term, led to social and political tensions. was questioned at a police station after refusing to hand over her press badge and FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY recording equipment, and released the same At least 18 people were killed and dozens day without charge. In May, Gangan TV were injured during demonstrations. In journalist Aboubacar Camara was beaten by February, seven people were killed in the gendarmes as he filmed a land dispute in a capital, Conakry, during protests connected Conakry suburb05:01 where he believed the to a strike over the authorities’ decision to security forces were using excessive force. review teachers’ terms and conditions, and to The officers/ forced him into their car, took school closures. The security forces him to the gendarmerie and released him dispersed the demonstrators with tear gas, later the same day after deleting his batons and live ammunition. recordings. On 20 February, the police arrested seven ETIn June, the High Authority of human rights defenders ofEMBARGOED the Voice of the Communication suspendedFEBRUARY Espace FM radio People movement who had organized a sit-in presenter Mohamed Mara for one month on in Conakry calling for schools to reopen. They grounds that he had used “insulting” faced charges of “disturbing public order”, language during a radio debate on polygamy. later amended to “participating in an In November,22 the Authority ordered that the unlawful assembly”, and were released the radio station be taken off air for one week same evening. Three days after his release, after the station discussed under-resourcing national television journalist Hassan Sylla − in the army which the authorities claimed one of the seven − was suspended00:01 from his could undermine national security and job for six months for gross misconduct; no morale among the armed forces. In July, explanation was given. National Television suspended Alia Camara, Security forces used live ammunition during one of their journalists, for criticizing the low violent protests against poor living standards pass rate in baccalaureate examinations. in the Boké region in April, May and On 27 June, gendarmes arrested STRICTLYSeptember. At least four people died from guinéematin.com journalist Amadou Sadio gunshot wounds. Diallo in Lélouma for “disturbing public On 22 August, former soldier and trade order” after he published what the authorities unionist Jean UNTILDougou Guilavogui was described as “false news” about a possible arrested by gendarmes in Matoto, a Conakry THURSDAY 182 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 cholera outbreak. He was released the none of the suspected perpetrators had following day. been brought to trial by the end of the year. On 30 October, four Gangan TV journalists In September, a group of victims filed a were arrested by gendarmes in Matam, a lawsuit against Sékouba Konaté, who served neighbourhood of Conakry, and charged with as Minister of Defence in 2009, as well as publishing false information and offending transitional President between 2009 the head of state by spreading rumours of and 2010.1 President Condé’s death. Three of them were There was no progress in the judicial released hours later and one was released proceedings against security force members the following day. At least 18 journalists who for the human rights violations committed gathered in solidarity with the arrested during demonstrations in Conakry between journalists at the Matam gendarmerie were 2011 and 2017, in Zogota in 2012 and beaten and had their equipment broken by during the occupation by the security forces security forces. of the village of Womey in 2014. LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS RIGHT TO HOUSING GMT 2018 In June, the National Assembly adopted a In August, at least 10 people, including two new Military Code of Justice, which if children, were killed in a landslide at a promulgated would effectively abolish the rubbish dump site at Dar-Es-Salam, a death penalty. The Code also contained neighbourhood of Conakry. In September, the provisions that could undermine the rights to government spokesperson acknowledged a fair trial and justice, including by allowing the failure in the sanitation services. The National trials of civilians before military courts. Director of Humanitarian Actions at the Ministry of Territorial Administration said that IMPUNITY the remaining05:01 inhabitants should be evicted In February, an Anti-Crime Brigade captain in immediately. Kipé, a neighbourhood of Conakry, was / arrested and charged with torturing a man in 1. Guinea: 8 years later, justice for massacre needed (Press release, 27 police custody in March 2016. At least 10 September) other gendarmerie and police officers were suspended over the incident, but were not ET brought to justice. EMBARGOED FEBRUARY There was progress in the trial proceedings HAITI relating to the killing of over 150 peaceful Republic of Haiti demonstrators and the rape of at least 100 Head of state: Jovenel Moïse (replaced Jocelerme women in the Conakry Stadium in 2009. In Privert in February)22 March, Aboubacar Sidiki Diakité was Head of government: Jack Guy Lafontant (replaced extradited to Guinea from Senegal after being Enex Jean-Charles in March) at large for several years, and faced charges in connection with the Stadium00:01 event. He Violence against women and girls, was the former aide to Moussa Dadis Camara particularly sexual violence, continued. (leader of the military junta in 2009). Several Legislators sought to approve openly people charged in connection with the discriminatory laws against LGBTI people. killings and rapes retained influential positions, including Mathurin Bangoura, BACKGROUND STRICTLYMoussa Tiégboro Camara and Claude Pivi In February, Jovenel Moïse assumed the who were senior officials in the military junta presidency after being elected in November at the time. In November, the investigating 2016 following an electoral crisis; a new judges announcedUNTIL that the judicial Prime Minister was appointed. investigation had been completed; however, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 183 In March, prompted by the Haitian nationals was due to expire in January 2018 government, the mandate of the UN with a delayed effective date of 18 months Independent Expert on the situation of which, according to the Department, would human rights in Haiti ended. “allow for an orderly transition before the In October, UN Security Council resolution designation terminates on 22 July, 2019”. 2350 ended the mandate of the UN TPS is granted to nationals from particular Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) countries on the grounds that they cannot after 13 years. Peacekeepers left following return safely to their country due to years of controversy over their alleged conditions there. responsibility for the cholera outbreak of 2010, and numerous reports of sexual RIGHT TO HEALTH – CHOLERA violence. It was replaced by the UN Mission EPIDEMIC for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), Between January and June, there were 7,623 mandated to strengthen the rule of law. new cases of suspected cholera and 70 The authorities took steps to re-establish the related deaths, a decrease of more than 60% army which had been dissolved in 1995. It in comparison with the sameGMT period in 2016. 2018 was unclear what vetting processes would be Since the 2010 outbreak, more than 800,000 established to recruit soldiers following the people had been infected and nearly 10,000 widespread allegations of human rights had died, according to the authorities. violations committed by previous forces. The UN’s “new approach to cholera in Haiti”, presented in 2016, was severely INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE underfunded. There were no consultations The International Organization for Migration with cholera survivors, as planned. Individual reported that by June, 37,867 people were assistance was consequently suspended. internally displaced because of the 2010 Victims’ advocates05:01 objected to this on earthquake; most of them lived in makeshift the grounds that it was inconsistent with the camps. right to/ remedy. According to the government, almost 70% DISCRIMINATION − STATELESS of the Haitian population did not have access PERSONS to health services. In March, Parliament voted to accede to the ET 1954 and 1961 UN ConventionsEMBARGOED on VIOLENCE AGAINSTFEBRUARY WOMEN AND GIRLS Statelessness, following recommendations Sexual violence and violence against women made during Haiti’s examination under the and girls was prevalent although under- UN UPR process in 2016.1 Haiti had not reported. signed or ratified the Conventions by the end In April,22 the government tabled of 2017. comprehensive reforms of the Criminal Code in Parliament. It contained new provisions to REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS tackle sexual violence, including criminalizing In July, the UN Office for the Coordination00:01 of rape in marriage. In July, the NGO Doctors Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported an Without Borders found that 77% of survivors increase in deportation cases at the of sexual and gender-based violence who Dominican-Haitian border. were treated in its specialized clinic in the Despite a request in October from the capital, Port-au-Prince, between May 2015 Haitian government for a further extension, and March 2017, were under the age of 25; STRICTLYthe US Department of Homeland Security 53% were under 18. announced, in November, its decision to terminate the temporary protected status (TPS) for nearlyUNTIL 60,000 Haitians at risk of deportation from the USA. TPS for Haitian THURSDAY 184 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 1. Following political crisis Haiti must urgently advance human rights TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE agenda (AMR 36/5899/2017) The Senate supported bills which 2. Haiti: Human rights defenders’ lives in danger (AMR 36/6045/2017) discriminated against LGBTI people; they were pending approval by the Chamber of 3. Haiti: Women’s rights defender threatened with death: Sanièce Petit Phat (AMR 36/7598/2017) Deputies at the end of the year. In July, the Senate voted for certificates to be issued which would vouch for an individual’s “good moral” standing and from which anyone HONDURAS deemed to be “homosexual” would be excluded. In August, it approved a law Republic of Honduras making same-sex marriage and public Head of state and government: Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado support or advocacy for “homosexuality” illegal. The level of insecurity and violence HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS remained high. WidespreadGMT impunity 2018 Human rights defenders David Boniface and continued to undermine public trust in the Juders Ysemé reported fearing for their lives authorities and the justice system. Protests following the sudden death in March of their in the aftermath of the presidential election colleague Nissage Martyr. He died a day after were brutally repressed by security forces. the three men filed a lawsuit in the USA Honduras remained one of the most against Jean Morose Viliena − former Mayor dangerous countries in the Americas region of Les Irois, their hometown in Haiti − for for human rights defenders, especially for grave human rights violations. Jean Morose those working to protect land, territory and Viliena had fled to the USA from Haiti in the environment.05:01 The government 2009. The men said that they had announced the creation of a Ministry for been subjected to repeated death threats and Human/ Rights and Justice, to become to violent attacks by or on behalf of the operational in 2018. former Mayor since 2007. However, the authorities did not implement adequate EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE protection measures, although the Inter- ETMass protests, which began on 29 November American Commission onEMBARGOED Human Rights around the countryFEBRUARY to denounce the lack of granted them precautionary measures to transparency around the presidential ensure their safety in 2015.2 election, were brutally repressed by security Sanièce Petit Phat reported that she forces. Hundreds of people were arrested or had received death threats because of her detained 22and a 10-day curfew was work in defence of the rights of women and implemented in December. Security forces girls.3 used excessive force against protesters, including with lethal weapons. At least 31 RIGHT TO EDUCATION 00:01 people were killed, and multiple cases of In June, the UN Economic and Social people being injured by firearms or brutally Council Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti beaten by security forces were also reported, criticized inefficiency in the education sector. as well as cases that could amount to torture It noted that most schools were privately and other cruel, inhuman and degrading managed, “making education an expensive, treatment. STRICTLYprofit-based system” too expensive for many Haitian families. Illiteracy among over-15s HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS was over 50%. Human rights defenders, particularly UNTIL environmental and land activists, continued to be at risk of human rights abuses. They THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 185 were subjected to smear campaigns by both INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS state and non-state actors to discredit their Several Indigenous Peoples continued to work, and were regularly targeted with claim that their rights to consultation and to intimidation, threats, and attacks. In June, free, prior and informed consent were three members of the Civic Council of violated in the context of projects to explore Popular and Indigenous Organizations of and exploit natural resources in their Honduras (COPINH) were attacked by armed territories. Killings, aggressions and cases of assailants while they were in a car, returning misuse of the justice system against those from a meeting. Local NGOs said that the defending Indigenous Peoples were reported. justice system continued to be misused to The Draft Framework Law on Free, Prior harass and discourage human rights and Informed Consultation of Indigenous defenders. Unnecessary and excessive use of Peoples faced criticism, including of the force by security forces during peaceful insufficient participation of Indigenous and protests was also reported. Garifuna (Afro-descendant) communities in The vast majority of attacks registered the process. against human rights defenders remained Reparation measures orderedGMT in 2015 by 2018 unpunished, as a result of multiple obstacles the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in hindering investigations and trials. There was two cases where Honduras had violated the little progress in the investigation into the collective land rights of the Garifuna killing in March 2016 of Berta Cáceres, the communities had yet to be implemented. Indigenous environmental defender and co- founder of COPINH. The public hearings of LAND DISPUTES eight suspects detained in relation to the Conflicts persisted due to the lack of secure case were postponed on multiple occasions. land tenure. High levels of violence were Independent experts revealed a lack of due reported in05:01 the Aguán Valley where long- diligence in the investigations, including a standing land disputes remained unresolved. lack of prosecution of other individuals According/ to the Unified Campesino potentially involved in the crime. There was Movement of the Aguán, precautionary no information about any progress made by measures granted by the Inter-American the Public Prosecutor in identifying those Commission on Human Rights to protect the responsible for planning her killing. ETlife and integrity of leaders in the Aguán Although some progressEMBARGOED was made to Valley were not adequatelyFEBRUARY implemented. protect human rights defenders through the National Mechanism to Protect Human GENDER-RELATED VIOLENCE Rights Defenders, Journalists, Social Women, girls and LGBTI people continued to Commentators and Justice Officials, efforts to face high22 levels of gender-related violence. ensure their comprehensive protection Between January and October, 236 violent remained insufficient. deaths of women were registered by the New provisions of the Criminal Code on Centre for Women’s Rights. According to the terrorism and related criminal offences00:01 Lesbian Cattrachas Network, killings of LGBTI approved by Congress in February and people also increased, with a total of 35 September were defined in an overly broad people killed. Impunity remained high in and vague manner, contrary to the principle these cases, as authorities lacked sufficient of legality. The provisions could lead to the capacity and resources to investigate, arbitrary and inadequate application of the prosecute and punish those responsible. STRICTLYCode against peaceful protesters and human rights defenders, which could further SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS criminalize their work and obstruct social The failure to protect women’s and girls’ movements. UNTIL rights and guarantee access to safe and legal abortion in any circumstances continued. THURSDAY 186 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Despite recommendations from international REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS human rights bodies and mechanisms, in Hungary continued to severely restrict access April Congress decided to maintain the to the country for refugees and asylum- prohibition of abortion in all circumstances in seekers, limiting admission to its two the new Criminal Code. operational border “transit zones” in which only 10 new asylum applications could be REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS submitted per working day. Consequently, Widespread violence across Honduras between 6,000 and 8,000 people were left in remained a key factor of forced migration inadequate conditions in Serbia, in from the country. According to UNHCR, the substandard camps and at risk of UN refugee agency, between January and homelessness and of refoulement further October, 14,735 Hondurans sought asylum south to Macedonia and Bulgaria. worldwide, mostly in Mexico and the USA. In March, the European Court of Human However, large numbers of Hondurans also Rights ruled in Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary continued to be forcibly returned from these that the confinement of asylum-seekers in countries to the same life-threatening “transit zones”, essentiallyGMT heavily guarded 2018 situations which initially pushed them to container camps at Hungary’s external land escape. To date, there was no comprehensive borders, amounted to arbitrary deprivation of mechanism or protocol to detect and address liberty. The Court also found that, due to the in a systematic manner the protection needs poor conditions in which asylum-seekers of deportees. were held for weeks and the lack of judicial remedies available against this form of detention, Hungary had failed to provide HUNGARY adequate protection against a real risk of inhuman and05:01 degrading treatment. Hungary The same month, a package of Head of state: János Áder amendments/ to five laws on migration and Head of government: Viktor Orbán asylum was passed in the National Assembly, enabling the automatic detention, without The systematic crackdown on the rights of judicial review, of all asylum-seekers in refugees and migrants continued. Foreign- ETborder “transit zones”, including funded universities and NGOsEMBARGOED faced unaccompanied minorsFEBRUARY of 14-18 years of restrictions under new legislation. age. These amendments also allowed for the detention of asylum-seekers for the whole BACKGROUND duration of their asylum processes, including The government faced domestic protests and any appeals,22 and for the summary expulsion increased international scrutiny for its of all irregular migrants found on Hungarian continued rollback on human rights and non- territory to the external side of Hungary’s compliance with EU law. The European extensive border fences. Commission launched and moved00:01 forward Consequently, most asylum-seekers in with four formal infringement proceedings Hungary either absconded from the following the introduction of legislation procedure or were detained in the border deemed incompatible with EU freedoms, and “transit zones” indefinitely. By the end of the in May the European Parliament adopted a year, almost 500 asylum-seekers were comprehensive resolution expressing alarm unlawfully detained at the border. The STRICTLYat the situation of human rights in the Hungarian authorities denied or provided country. More than a quarter of the extremely limited access to human rights population remained at risk of poverty and monitors and NGOs providing legal aid. social exclusionUNTIL and 16% were severely These draconian measures were originally materially deprived. supposed to apply during a “crisis situation THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 187 caused by mass immigration”. However, a Commission took legal action against “crisis situation” had been continuously Hungary by launching infringement invoked since September 2015 and was proceedings. In the Commission’s extended in August until March 2018, assessment, the law was not compatible with despite the lack of a factual or legal basis for fundamental EU freedoms, including the its prolongation. freedom to provide services, the freedom of Hungary further enhanced its border fences establishment, and academic freedom. In and police presence at its southern borders. October, the National Assembly voted to More than 20,000 people were summarily extend the deadlines by which the new and sometimes violently returned to Serbia or requirements had to be met by one calendar otherwise prevented from entering Hungary year. By the end of the year the government without access to fair and efficient asylum had failed to strike an agreement with the processes and an examination of their State of New York that would allow for the protection needs. In March, the newspaper continued operations of the CEU. Magyar Nemzet revealed that, contrary to the In June, the National Assembly passed a government’s statements refuting allegations law effectively stigmatizingGMT NGOs that 2018 of abuse, more than 40 investigations had received foreign funding. Under the law on been launched into instances of excessive the transparency of organizations funded use of force by police at the border over a from abroad, NGOs receiving more than period of 18 months; most of the EUR24,000 direct or indirect funding from investigations were closed without further abroad had to re-register as a “civic action. organization funded from abroad” and to put In September, Hungary lost a case at the this label on every publication. Additionally, Court of Justice of the European Union, the law required NGOs to reveal the identity which ruled that it could not absolve itself of of their funders05:01 and supporters above a participation in the EU Emergency Relocation threshold of around EUR1,650. The law was Scheme for the relocation of asylum-seekers adopted/ amid a government-sponsored from Greece and Italy to other EU member communication campaign discrediting NGOs states. Hungary continued to refuse to and accusing several of undermining national relocate any of its minimum quota of 1,294 sovereignty and security. By only covering asylum-seekers, or to participate in other ETcertain types of civil society organizations, the regional solidarity mechanisms.EMBARGOED By the end of law directly discriminatedFEBRUARY against these the year, it had not resettled or relocated organizations and imposed limitations on anyone. their right to association, including the right to seek, receive and utilize resources. In mid- FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION July, the 22European Commission notified In April, the adoption in an emergency Hungary of another infringement procedure, procedure of amendments to the National based on an assessment that this law Higher Education Law prompted widespread imposed measures at odds with the right to protests and criticism from academic00:01 experts freedom of association and unjustified and and the general public. The law, widely disproportionate restrictions on the free interpreted as targeting the operations of a movement of capital, and raised concerns in particular educational institution, the Central relation to the obligation of protecting private European University (CEU), introduced new life and personal data. requirements for foreign universities In August, a coalition of more than 20 NGOs STRICTLYoperating in Hungary under an extremely submitted a complaint to the Constitutional tight deadline – including the requirement of Court requesting that the law be annulled. a bilateral state-level agreement – putting at risk the continuedUNTIL functioning of those institutions. The same month, the European THURSDAY 188 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY cow protection groups. Press freedom and In June, an appeals court in the southern free speech in universities came under town of Szeged annulled the conviction of attack. India failed to respect its human Ahmed H, a Syrian man sentenced to 10 rights commitments made before the UN years’ imprisonment for allegedly committing Human Rights Council. The Supreme Court “acts of terror” while participating in a riot by and High Courts delivered several refugees and migrants at the Serbia-Hungary progressive judgments, but some rulings border in September 2015. On appeal, the undermined human rights. Impunity for court found that available evidence had not human rights abuses persisted. been properly assessed and ordered a retrial. In August, the Prosecutor General appealed ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS against this decision to the Curia (the highest In January, three road construction workers court in Hungary). In November, the Curia were killed in an attack on a military camp by ruled that the appeals court should have suspected members of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa delivered a binding judgment instead of armed group in Akhnoor, in the state of ordering a retrial; this, however, did not affect Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).GMT The United 2018 ongoing proceedings. Ahmed H’s case was Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) pending before a newly appointed court of claimed responsibility for detonating seven first instance at the end of the year. bombs across Assam state on 26 January; no casualties were reported. In July, suspected VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba armed By October, allegations of abuse committed group attacked a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims by men holding positions of power sparked a in Botengoo, J&K, killing eight people and national debate on the recognition and injuring 17. prosecution of rape and other forms of sexual Suspected05:01 armed group members in J&K violence. Hungary had yet to ratify the threatened and attacked political workers and Council of Europe Convention on preventing ransacked/ the homes of state police and combating violence against women and personnel. Armed groups in northeastern domestic violence, and prosecutions of these states were suspected of carrying out crimes remained limited. abductions and unlawful killings. The ETCommunist Party of India (Maoist) armed EMBARGOEDgroup was suspected FEBRUARY of killing suspected INDIA police “informants” in several states.

Republic of India CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION AND Head of state: Ram Nath Kovind (replaced Pranab VIOLENCE22 Mukherjee in July) Official statistics released in November stated Head of government: Narendra Modi that more than 40,000 crimes against Scheduled Castes were reported in 2016. Religious minority groups, particularly00:01 Several incidents were reported of members Muslims, faced increasing demonization by of dominant castes attacking Dalits for hardline Hindu groups, pro-government accessing public and social spaces or for media and some state officials. Adivasi perceived caste transgressions. communities continued to be displaced by In May, two Dalit men were killed, several industrial projects, and hate crimes against injured, and dozens of Dalit homes burned STRICTLYDalits remained widespread. Authorities by dominant caste men in Saharanpur, Uttar were openly critical of human rights Pradesh, following a clash between members defenders and organizations, contributing to of the communities. In August, S. Anitha, a a climate of hostilityUNTIL against them. Mob 17-year-old Dalit girl who had campaigned violence intensified, including by vigilante against the introduction of a uniform national THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 189 exam for admission to medical colleges, Rajasthan police cleared six men suspected committed suicide, sparking protests in Tamil of killing Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer who had Nadu. Protesters said the exam would named the suspects before he died. Some disadvantage students from marginalized BJP officials made statements which backgrounds. appeared to justify the attacks. In September, Activists said that at least 90 Dalits the Supreme Court said that state employed as manual scavengers died during governments were obligated to compensate the year while cleaning sewers, despite the victims of cow vigilante violence. practice being prohibited. Many of those A special investigation team set up in 2015 killed were illegally employed by government to reinvestigate closed cases related to the agencies. In August, the Delhi state 1984 Sikh massacre closed 241 cases and government said that people who employed filed charges in 12 others. In August, the manual scavengers would be prosecuted for Supreme Court set up a panel comprising manslaughter. In November, the UN Special two former judges to examine the decisions Rapporteur on safe drinking water and to close the cases. sanitation expressed concern that the In March, mobs carried outGMT with impunity a 2018 government’s emphasis on building new string of racist attacks against black African toilets as part of its Clean India Mission could students in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In prolong manual scavenging. June, three people were killed in Darjeeling, West Bengal, in violent clashes between CHILDREN’S RIGHTS police and protesters demanding a separate In November, statistics were published state of Gorkhaland. stating that over 106,000 cases of violence against children were reported in 2016. In FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION June, India ratified two key ILO conventions Journalists05:01 and press freedom came under on child labour. Activists remained critical of increasing attack. In September, journalist amendments to child labour laws which Gauri /Lankesh, an outspoken critic of Hindu allowed children to work in family enterprises. nationalism and the caste system, was shot According to national survey data released dead outside her home in Bengaluru by in March, nearly 36% of children aged below unidentified gunmen. The same month, five were underweight, and more than 38% ETjournalist Shantanu Bhowmick was beaten to were short for their age. InEMBARGOED September, 70 death near AgartalaFEBRUARY while covering violent children died at a hospital in Gorakhpur, political clashes. In September, Uttar Pradesh, allegedly because of photojournalist Kamran Yousuf was arrested disruption to the oxygen supply. The share of in J&K for allegedly instigating people to public spending on health remained low at throw stones22 at security forces, under a law 1.2% of GDP. Spending on government which does not meet international human programmes to provide nutrition and pre- rights standards. In November, journalist school education to children under six Sudip Datta Bhowmik was shot dead, remained inadequate. 00:01 allegedly by a paramilitary force member, at a paramilitary camp near Agartala. In COMMUNAL AND ETHNIC VIOLENCE December, a French film-maker conducting Dozens of hate crimes against Muslims took research for a documentary on the Kashmir place across the country. At least 10 Muslim conflict was detained for three days in J&K, men were lynched and many injured by allegedly for violating visa regulations. STRICTLYvigilante cow protection groups, many of Journalists continued to face criminal which seemed to operate with the support of defamation cases filed by politicians and members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party companies. In June, the Karnataka (BJP). Some arrestsUNTIL were made, but no legislature sentenced two journalists to one convictions were reported. In September, year’s imprisonment each for allegedly writing THURSDAY 190 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 defamatory articles about members of the pamphlets and videos, and used the state assembly. provisions of the Unlawful Activities Repressive laws were used to stifle freedom Prevention Act, a law which does not meet of expression. In June, 20 people were international human rights standards. arrested for sedition in Madhya Pradesh and The same month, Jailal Rathia, an Adivasi Rajasthan, following complaints that they had activist, died in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, after cheered the Pakistan cricket team’s victory allegedly being poisoned by members of a over India. In July, 31 Dalit activists were land mafia he was campaigning against. In arrested and detained for a day in Lucknow April, Varsha Dongre, an official at Raipur for organizing a press conference about Central Jail in Chhattisgarh, was transferred caste-based violence. State governments after she posted on Facebook that she had banned books, and the central film seen police torturing Adivasi girls. certification board denied the theatrical In May, four men were arrested in Chennai release of certain films, on vague and overly and held in administrative detention for more broad grounds. In November, five state than three months for attempting to stage a governments banned the release of memorial for Tamils killed GMTin the civil war in 2018 Padmaavat, a Hindi period film, on the Sri Lanka. The same month, the Odisha state grounds that it would “hurt community police arrested Kuni Sikaka, an Adivasi sentiments”. activist opposing bauxite mining in the Freedom of expression in universities Niyamgiri hills, and released her only after remained under threat. The student body of presenting her to journalists as a surrendered the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Maoist. Swayamsevak Sangh used threats and In August, activist Medha Patkar and three violence to block events and talks at some others protesting against inadequate universities. In June, eight Lucknow rehabilitation05:01 for families affected by the University students were arrested and Sardar Sarovar dam project (see below) were detained for 20 days for protesting against arrested/ on fabricated charges and detained the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. In for more than two weeks. September, Uttar Pradesh police personnel baton-charged students, mostly women, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS protesting against sexual assault at Banaras ETIn November, statistics were published Hindu University. EMBARGOEDstating that over 6,500FEBRUARY crimes were In August, India’s Supreme Court ruled in a committed against Scheduled Tribes in 2016. landmark judgment that the right to privacy Indigenous Adivasi communities continued to was part of the constitutional right to life and face displacement by industrial projects. The personal liberty. government22 acquired land for coal mining under a special law without seeking the free, HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS prior and informed consent of Adivasis. In In January, the Home Ministry said that it had July, an Environment Ministry panel said that refused to renew the foreign funding00:01 licence coal mines seeking to increase production of the NGO known as People’s Watch capacity by up to 40% did not have to because it had allegedly portrayed India’s consult affected communities. human rights record in a “negative light” In September, activists protested against the internationally. inauguration of the Sardar Sarovar dam in In March, GN Saibaba, an activist and Gujarat, saying that some 40,000 displaced STRICTLYacademic, was convicted with four others families, including many Adivasi families, had and sentenced to life imprisonment by a not received adequate reparation. In June, Maharashtra court for being a member of 98 Adivasis in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, tried to and supportingUNTIL a banned Maoist group. The file criminal cases under the Scheduled conviction was based primarily on letters, Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 191 Atrocities) Act, alleging that they had been POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES forced into selling their land to agents of In January, four Adivasi women in Dhar, private companies, following intimidation and Madhya Pradesh, said they had been gang- coercion. The police accepted the complaints raped by police personnel. In March, Adivasi but refused to register criminal cases. villagers in Sukma, Chhattisgarh, accused security force personnel of gang-raping a 14- JAMMU AND KASHMIR year-old Adivasi girl. In September, two In April, eight people were killed by security paramilitary personnel were arrested on forces, some of them by the use of excessive suspicion of killing a woman and raping and force, following protests during a by-election throwing acid on her friend in Mizoram in for a parliamentary seat. One voter, Farooq July. Ahmad Dar, was beaten by army personnel, In April, a senior officer of the paramilitary strapped to the front of an army jeep and Central Reserve Police Force alleged in driven around for over five hours, seemingly writing to his commanding authorities that as a warning to protesters. In May, the officer multiple security agencies had killed two suspected of being responsible received an suspected armed group membersGMT in an 2018 army commendation for his work in counter- extrajudicial execution in Assam. The officer insurgency operations. In July, the J&K State was transferred. In July, the Supreme Court Human Rights Commission directed the state directed the Central Bureau of Investigation government to pay Farooq Dar 100,000 INR to investigate more than 80 alleged (around USD1,500) as compensation. In extrajudicial executions by police and November, the state government refused to security force personnel in Manipur between pay. 1979 and 2012. The court ruled that cases Impunity for human rights abuses persisted. should not go uninvestigated merely because In June, a military court set up under the of the passage05:01 of time. paramilitary Border Security Force acquitted In June, the Madhya Pradesh police shot two soldiers of killing 16-year-old Zahid dead five/ farmers who were among protesters Farooq Sheikh in 2010. The force had in Mandsaur demanding better prices for successfully prevented the case from being crops. In August, at least 38 people were prosecuted in a civilian court. In July, the killed, some of them by the use of excessive Supreme Court refused to reopen 215 cases ETforce, when they were fired on by police in which over 700 membersEMBARGOED of the Kashmiri during protests inFEBRUARY Haryana following the Pandit community were killed in J&K in conviction for rape of a self-styled “godman”, 1989, citing the passage of time. The same or guru. month, an appellate military court suspended the life sentences of five army personnel REFUGEES’22 AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS convicted by a court-martial of the An estimated 40,000 Rohingya people in extrajudicial executions of three men in India were at risk of mass expulsion. They Machil in 2010. In November, the State included more than 16,000 who were Human Rights Commission repeated00:01 a recognized as refugees by UNHCR, the UN directive issued to the state government in refugee agency. In August, the Home 2011 to investigate over 2,000 unmarked Ministry wrote to state governments asking graves. them to identify “illegal immigrants”, Security forces continued to use inherently including Rohingya. In September, the inaccurate pellet-firing shotguns during Ministry said that all Rohingya in India were STRICTLYprotests, blinding and injuring several people. “illegal immigrants”, and claimed to have Authorities frequently shut down internet evidence that some Rohingya had ties to services, citing public order concerns. terrorist organizations. In October, in UNTIL response to a petition filed by two Rohingya THURSDAY 192 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 refugees, the Supreme Court temporarily court rulings undermined women’s deferred expulsions. autonomy. In August, the Supreme Court In September, the Home Ministry said that it weakened a law enacted to protect women would grant citizenship to about 100,000 from violence in their marriages, by requiring Chakma and Hajong refugees who had fled that complaints be initially assessed by civil to India from Bangladesh in the 1960s. society “family welfare committees”. In October, the Supreme Court suggested that it TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT would review its judgment. The same month, Between January and August, 894 deaths in it ruled that sexual intercourse by a man with judicial custody and 74 deaths in police his wife, if she was under 18, would amount custody were recorded. In February, Uma to rape. Bharti, a central government minister, said Several rape survivors, including girls, she had ordered rape suspects to be tortured approached courts for permission to when she was Chief Minister of Madhya terminate pregnancies over 20 weeks, as Pradesh. In August, Manjula Shetye, a required under Indian law. Courts approved woman prisoner at the Byculla jail in some abortions, but refusedGMT others. In 2018 Mumbai, died after being allegedly beaten August, the central government instructed and sexually assaulted by officials for states to set up permanent medical boards to complaining about food in the prison. A team decide such cases promptly. of parliamentarians that visited Byculla jail reported that prisoners were routinely beaten. In November, a committee set up by the Delhi High Court said that 18 prisoners in INDONESIA Tihar jail in New Delhi had been beaten after Republic of Indonesia they had objected to their pillow covers being Head of state05:01 and government: Joko Widodo taken. In September, during India’s UN UPR Indonesia/ failed to address past human process before the UN Human Rights rights violations. The rights to freedom of Council, the government accepted for the expression, of peaceful assembly and of third time recommendations to ratify the UN association continued to be arbitrarily Convention against Torture, which it signed in ETrestricted. Blasphemy provisions were used 1997. India’s Law CommissionEMBARGOED released a to imprison thoseFEBRUARY who peacefully exercised report in October recommending that the their rights to freedom of religion and government ratify the Convention and enact a belief. At least 30 prisoners of conscience law criminalizing torture. remained in detention for peacefully exercising22 their rights to freedom of WOMEN’S RIGHTS expression or of religion and belief. The In November, statistics were published security forces carried out unlawful killings showing that over 338,000 crimes against and used excessive force during protests women were registered in 2016,00:01 including and security operations. Two men were over 110,000 cases of violence by husbands caned in public in Aceh after being and relatives. Responding to petitions in convicted by a local Shari’a court of same- courts seeking to criminalize marital rape, the sex consensual sexual relations. central government stated that doing so would “destabilize the institution of BACKGROUND STRICTLYmarriage”. Indonesia’s human rights record was In July, the Supreme Court banned the examined in May under the UN UPR practice of triple talaq (Islamic instant process. Although Indonesia accepted 167 divorce), declaringUNTIL that it was arbitrary and out of 225 recommendations, it rejected, unconstitutional. However, in other cases, among other things, calls to investigate past THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 193 human rights violations and to repeal In August Novel Baswedan, an investigator blasphemy provisions in laws and for the Corruption Eradication Commission, regulations. These included several was reported to the police by the provisions of the Criminal Code and Law No. Commission’s director of investigation under 1/PNPS/1965, which imposed restrictions on Article 27(3) of the Electronic Information freedoms of expression and of religion and and Transactions (ITE) Law, which concerns belief.1 online defamation. The defamation report related to an email he had sent in his IMPUNITY capacity as representative of the Despite commitments made by the Commission’s workers’ union, criticizing the President, Indonesia failed to address past director’s leadership. Novel Baswedan human rights violations. In February, the suffered an acid attack in Jakarta on 11 April Administrative Court in the capital, Jakarta, that severely damaged his corneas. At the overturned a decision by the Public time of the attack he was leading an ongoing Information Commission ordering the investigation into misappropriation by high- government to publish a report on the 2004 ranking government officialsGMT of funds for an 2018 murder of human rights defender Munir Said electronic ID cards project. Thalib, which reportedly implicated senior On 10 July President Widodo signed intelligence officers. The Court made the Government Regulation in Lieu of Law decision on the grounds that the current (Perppu) No. 2/2017, amending the 2013 government had not received the report from Law on Mass Organizations to remove judicial the previous government. In August, the safeguards over the process of banning Supreme Court upheld the Administrative NGOs and other organizations. The new Court’s decision. legislation, enacted by Parliament in October, During the UPR, Indonesia promised that would impose05:01 restrictions on the rights to the Attorney General would finalize a criminal freedom of association, expression, religion investigation into alleged gross human rights and belief,/ which were even more extensive violations in Wasior in 2001 and Wamena in than those currently set out in the Law on 2003, both in Papua region, and forward the Mass Organizations. The Law already stifled case to the Human Rights Court established the work of human rights defenders and under Law No. 26/2000. However, this had ETreflected discriminatory attitudes towards not happened by the end EMBARGOEDof the year. certain groups. 2 FEBRUARY Security forces and vigilante groups broke FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY, ASSOCIATION up closed-door discussions and public events AND EXPRESSION relating to serious human rights violations The authorities continued to prosecute those committed22 in 1965. On 1 August, the local participating in peaceful political activities, police and military from East Jakarta particularly in areas with a history of pro- disrupted a workshop in Jakarta concerning independence movements such as Papua. the findings of the International Peoples Prisoner of conscience Oktovianus00:01 Warnares Tribunal 1965, a civil society initiative to raise remained in detention because he refused to international awareness about the mass sign a document declaring his allegiance to human rights violations that occurred that the state of Indonesia, despite having served year. two thirds of his prison sentence and being On 16 September the police banned a eligible for release on parole. He had been closed-door seminar at the office of the STRICTLYconvicted of “rebellion” (makar) in 2013 after Indonesian and Jakarta Legal Aid Institute taking part in activities peacefully marking featuring a discussion by survivors of the the 50th anniversary of the handover of 1965 violations. On the night of 17 Papua to the IndonesianUNTIL government by the September, a crowd of around 1,000 UN Temporary Executive Authority. claiming to be “anti-communists” THURSDAY 194 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 surrounded the office, trapping scores of teachings. The Mayor also said that it was artists and activists attending an event necessary to protect the Ahmadiyya concerning the recent crackdown on the community in Depok from violent attacks by rights to freedom of expression and peaceful other groups in the area. assembly. Early the following morning, the crowd threw rocks at the office and destroyed POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES the fence surrounding the building. Human rights groups reported unlawful Hundreds of police officers used tear gas to killings and other serious human rights disperse the crowd.3 violations by security forces, primarily in the context of excessive use of force during mass FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF protests or during security operations. No Blasphemy provisions in Articles 156 and perpetrators were known to have been held 156(a) of the Criminal Code and Article 28(2) to account, particularly for numerous of the ITE Law were used to imprison those incidents in Papua. who peacefully exercised their rights to EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE freedom of religion and belief. At least 11 Between September 2016GMT and January 2018 people were convicted under blasphemy 2017, joint police and military forces carried laws. Individuals belonging to minority out security operations in Dogiyai, Papua religions or faiths or holding minority beliefs province, during the run-up to the 2017 local were often targeted for prosecution. On 9 elections. On 10 January police officers May, Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja arbitrarily arrested Otis Pekei when he Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian known refused to hand over a knife at a police as Ahok, was sentenced to two years’ checkpoint, and detained him at the imprisonment for “insulting Islam” in a video Moanemani sub-district police station. Later posted on the internet. Ahok was the first that day, police05:01 delivered Otis Pekei’s body to high-ranking government official to be the home of his family; the family accused convicted of blasphemy.4 the police/ of torturing him during detention. On 7 March, Ahmad Mushaddeq, Mahful No investigation was known to have been Muis Tumanurung and Andry Cahya, leaders conducted. of the disbanded Fajar Nusantara religious On 1 August in Deiyai, Papua province, movement known as Gafatar, were convicted ETpolice officers arbitrarily opened fire into a of blasphemy by the East EMBARGOEDJakarta District crowd of protesters FEBRUARY without warning, Court. The conviction was upheld by the wounding at least 10 people, including Jakarta High Court on 3 July. children. Nine police officers were subjected At the end of the year, at least 30 prisoners to disciplinary action; no criminal of conscience remained in detention for proceedings22 were known to have been peacefully exercising their right to freedom of opened. expression or of religion and belief. UNLAWFUL KILLINGS On 4 June, the local government in Depok, The number of killings by police of suspected West Java, sealed a mosque belonging00:01 to the drug dealers increased sharply, from 18 in Ahmadiyya religious minority, considered by 2016 to at least 98 in 2017. Some of the many Islamic groups to be “deviant and officers involved in the incidents were outside of Islam”. Authorities prevented the seconded to the National Narcotics Agency. Ahmadis from using the mosque during Police claimed that all the killings were in Ramadan. The Depok Mayor argued that the self-defence or because suspects tried to flee STRICTLYlegal basis for the closure of the mosque was the scene. No independent investigations a ministerial decree and a provincial were known to have been conducted into regulation, both forbidding Ahmadiyya these killings. The number of deaths community membersUNTIL from promoting their escalated after several high-ranking activities and spreading their religious Indonesian officials, including the President, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 195 advocated during the year for tougher next day the police released 126 men, but measures to address drug-related crime, charged 10 of them with providing including calling for the application of “pornography service” under Law No. unrestrained lethal force against suspected 44/2008 on Pornography. On 6 October, 51 traffickers. people, including seven foreign nationals, were arrested in a Central Jakarta sauna. DEATHS IN CUSTODY Most of the customers were released the Deaths in custody and torture by police following day; five employees remained in personnel were reported by human rights detention at the end of the year. The police organizations. charged six people with providing On 27 August Rifzal Riandi Siregar was pornography and prostitution services.6 arrested in Batang Toru precinct in North With the exception of Aceh, consensual Sumatra province after he was involved in a same-sex relations were not treated as crimes fight with a police officer. When his relatives under the Indonesian Criminal Code. visited him at the Batang Toru police station, he told them that he had been badly beaten ECONOMIC, SOCIAL ANDGMT CULTURAL 2018 at the station by four police officers, including RIGHTS – RIGHT TO WATER the one with whom he had had the On 10 October, the Supreme Court ordered altercation. On 3 September, Rifzal Riandi the government to terminate a water Siregar was found dead in the police station. privatization scheme in Jakarta. The Court At the request of his family, the police approved an appeal filed by the Coalition of transferred his body to a police hospital in Jakarta Residents Opposing Water Medan, where an autopsy was conducted. Privatization that the private provider had The police promised to give the autopsy “failed to protect the right to water” of the report to the family within a week. They had residents.05:01 The Court ordered the government not received it by the end of the year. to immediately revoke its contracts with two private/ water utilities. CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING PUNISHMENT 1. Indonesia: Human Rights Council must ensure strong At least 317 people were caned in Aceh recommendations at human rights review (ASA 21/6156/2017) during the year for offences such as adultery, ET2. Indonesia: Amendments to the mass organizations law expand gambling and drinking alcohol,EMBARGOED as well as threats to freedom of associationFEBRUARY (ASA 21/6722/2017) same-sex consensual sexual relations. 3. Indonesia: Offices of human rights defenders attacked (ASA In May, two men were each caned 83 times 21/7113/2017) in public after being convicted by the Banda 4. Indonesia: Blasphemy conviction demonstrates intolerance - Basuki Aceh Shari’a Court of consensual same-sex Tjahaja Purnama22 (Ahok) (ASA 21/6213/2017) sexual relations (liwath) under the Aceh 5. Indonesia: Revoke conviction and caning sentence for gay men in Islamic Criminal Code. Although Shari’a by- Aceh (ASA 21/6279/2017) laws have been in force in Aceh since the 6. Indonesia: Arrest of 51 people fuels hostile environment for LGBTI enactment of the province’s Special00:01 people (ASA 21/7289/2017) Autonomy Law in 2001, and are enforced by Islamic courts, this was the first time that gay men had been caned under Shari’a law in the province.5 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, STRICTLYTRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE On 25 May, 141 men were arrested in North Jakarta by localUNTIL police after attending what police described as a “gay sex party”. The THURSDAY 196 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Switzerland also started bilateral human IRAN rights dialogues with Iran. At the end of December, thousands of Islamic Republic of Iran Iranians took to the streets to protest against Head of state: Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei (Supreme poverty, corruption and political repression, in Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran) the first anti-establishment demonstrations Head of government: Hassan Rouhani (President) on such a scale since 2009.

The authorities heavily suppressed the FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, rights to freedom of expression, association ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY and peaceful assembly, as well as freedom The authorities continued to crack down of religion and belief, and imprisoned heavily on the rights to freedom of scores of individuals who voiced dissent. expression, association and peaceful Trials were systematically unfair. Torture assembly, jailing scores of peaceful critics on and other ill-treatment was widespread and spurious national security charges. Among committed with impunity. Floggings, those targeted were peacefulGMT political 2018 amputations and other cruel punishments dissidents, journalists, online media workers, were carried out. The authorities endorsed students, filmmakers, musicians and writers, pervasive discrimination and violence based as well as human rights defenders including on gender, political opinion, religious belief, women’s rights activists, minority rights and ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and environmental activists, trade unionists, anti- gender identity. Hundreds of people were death penalty campaigners, lawyers, and executed, some in public, and thousands those seeking truth, justice and reparation for remained on death row. They included the mass executions and enforced people who were under the age of 18 at the disappearances05:01 of the 1980s. time of the crime. Many prisoners of conscience undertook hunger/ strikes to protest against their unjust BACKGROUND imprisonment. In March the UN Human Rights Council The authorities arrested hundreds of renewed the mandate of the UN Special protesters following anti-establishment Rapporteur on the situation of human rights ETdemonstrations that began across the in Iran; the Iranian authoritiesEMBARGOED continued to country at the endFEBRUARY of December. Reports deny her and other UN experts entry to the emerged that security forces killed and country. injured unarmed protesters by using firearms In May, President Rouhani was elected to a and other excessive force. On 31 December second term in office, following an electoral the Minister22 of Information and process that discriminated against hundreds Communications Technology blocked access of candidates by disqualifying them on the to Instagram and the popular messaging basis of gender, religious belief and political application Telegram, used by activists to opinion. The appointment of individuals00:01 promote and support the protests. allegedly involved in grave human rights Earlier in the year, judicial officials had violations to ministerial posts attracted public exerted persistent pressure on the Ministry of criticism. Information and Communications Technology The EU and Iran worked towards renewing to request that Telegram relocate its servers a bilateral human rights dialogue while to Iran and close tens of thousands of STRICTLYseveral human rights defenders served prison Telegram channels, which according to the sentences imposed for communicating with judiciary “threatened national security” or EU and UN officials. Several governments “insulted religious values”. Telegram said it including thoseUNTIL of Australia, Sweden and rejected both requests. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 197 Other popular social media sites including TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Facebook, Twitter and YouTube remained Torture and other ill-treatment remained blocked. common, especially during interrogations. Journalists and online media workers faced Detainees held by the Ministry of Intelligence a renewed wave of harsh interrogations and and the Revolutionary Guards were routinely arbitrary arrests and detentions before the subjected to prolonged solitary confinement presidential election in May. Those using amounting to torture. Telegram were particularly targeted for harsh Failure to investigate allegations of torture prison sentences, some exceeding a decade. and exclude “confessions” obtained under Freedom of musical expression remained torture as evidence against suspects curtailed. Women were banned from singing remained systematic. in public and the authorities continued to The authorities continued to deprive forcibly cancel many concerts. In August, prisoners detained for political reasons of several hundred artists called on President adequate medical care. In many cases, this Rouhani to end such restrictions. was done as a deliberate punishment or to The authorities continued their violent raids extract “confessions”, andGMT amounted to 2018 on private mixed-gender parties, arresting torture. hundreds of young people and sentencing Prisoners endured cruel and inhuman many to flogging. conditions of detention, including Censorship of all forms of media and overcrowding, limited hot water, inadequate jamming of foreign satellite television food, insufficient beds, poor ventilation and channels continued. The judicial authorities insect infestations. intensified their harassment of journalists More than a dozen political prisoners at working with the Persian BBC service, Karaj’s Raja’i Shahr prison waged a freezing the assets of 152 former or current prolonged05:01 hunger strike between July and BBC journalists and banning them from September in protest at their dire detention conducting financial transactions. conditions./ Some faced denial of medical The Association of Journalists remained care, solitary confinement and fresh criminal suspended. charges in reprisal. Scores of students continued to be barred CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING PUNISHMENT from higher education in reprisal for their ETJudicial authorities continued to impose and peaceful activism, despiteEMBARGOED President carry out, at timesFEBRUARY in public, cruel and Rouhani’s election promise to lift the ban. inhuman punishments amounting to torture. Bans on independent trade unions Scores of individuals, including children, persisted and several trade unionists were faced up to 100 lashes for theft and assault unjustly imprisoned. Security forces as well as22 for acts that, under international continued to violently suppress peaceful law, must not be criminalized − including protests by workers, including on extra-marital relationships, attending mixed International Workers’ Day. gender parties, eating in public during Dozens of environmental activists00:01 were Ramadan or attending peaceful protests. summoned for interrogation, detained and In January, journalist Hossein Movahedi was prosecuted for participating in peaceful lashed 40 times in Najaf Abad, Esfahan protests against air pollution, disappearing province, after a court found him guilty of lakes, river diversion projects and dumping inaccurately reporting the number of practices. motorcycles confiscated by police in the city. STRICTLYOpposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir In August, a criminal court in Markazi Hossein Mousavi and the latter’s wife, Zahra province sentenced trade unionist Shapour Rahnavard, remained under house arrest Ehsanirad to 30 lashes and six months’ without chargeUNTIL or trial since 2011. imprisonment for participating in a protest against unjust work conditions. THURSDAY 198 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In February, the Supreme Court upheld a the Judiciary, even though no official list had blinding sentence issued by a criminal court been made public. in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province Trials, particularly those before against a woman in retribution for blinding Revolutionary Courts, remained closed and another woman. extremely brief, sometimes lasting just a few Dozens of amputation sentences were minutes. imposed and subsequently upheld by the Foreign nationals and Iranians with dual Supreme Court. In April, judicial authorities in nationality continued to face arbitrary arrest Shiraz, Fars province, amputated the hand of and detention, grossly unfair trials and Hamid Moinee and executed him 10 days lengthy imprisonment. The authorities later. He had been convicted of murder and claimed that they were countering foreign- robbery. At least four other amputation orchestrated “infiltration projects”. In reality, sentences were carried out for robbery. such individuals were often charged with The authorities also carried out degrading vague national security offences in punishments. In April, three men accused of connection with the peaceful exercise of their kidnapping and other crimes were paraded rights to freedom of expressionGMT and 2018 around Dehloran, Ilam province, with their association. hands tied and watering cans used for lavatory washing hung around their necks. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF Eight men were similarly humiliated in Freedom of religion and belief was Pakdasht, Tehran province, in July. systematically violated, in law and practice. In May, a woman arrested for having an The authorities continued to impose codes of intimate extramarital relationship was public conduct rooted in a strict sentenced by a criminal court in the capital, interpretation of Shi’a Islam on individuals of Tehran, to two years of washing corpses and all faiths. Non-Shi’a05:01 Muslims were not 74 lashes. The man was sentenced to 99 allowed to stand as presidential candidates or lashes. hold key/ political offices. Widespread and systematic attacks UNFAIR TRIALS continued to be carried out against the Baha’i Trials, including those resulting in death minority. These included arbitrary arrests, sentences, were systematically unfair. There ETlengthy imprisonment, torture and other ill- were no independent mechanismsEMBARGOED for treatment, forcible FEBRUARY closure of Baha’i-owned ensuring accountability within the judiciary. businesses, confiscation of Baha’i properties, Serious concerns remained that judges, bans on employment in the public sector and particularly those presiding over denial of access to universities. The Revolutionary Courts, were appointed on the authorities22 regularly incited hatred and basis of their political opinions and affiliation violence, vilifying Baha’is as “heretical” and with intelligence bodies, and lacked legal “filthy”. There were renewed concerns that qualifications. hate crimes could be committed with Fair trial provisions of the 201500:01 Code of impunity after two men who had admitted to Criminal Procedure, including those killing Farang Amiri because of his Baha’i guaranteeing access to a lawyer from the faith were released on bail in June. time of arrest and during investigations, were Other religious minorities not recognized routinely flouted. The authorities continued to under the Constitution, such as Yaresan (Ahl- invoke Article 48 of the Code of Criminal e Haq), also faced systematic discrimination, STRICTLYProcedure to prevent those detained for including in education and employment, and political reasons from accessing lawyers of were persecuted for practising their faith. their own choosing. Lawyers were told they The right to change or renounce religious were not on theUNTIL list approved by the Head of beliefs continued to be violated. Christian converts received harsh prison sentences, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 199 which ranged from 10 to 15 years in several Members of minorities who spoke out cases. Raids on house churches continued. against violations of their rights faced Gonabadi dervishes faced imprisonment arbitrary arrest, torture and other ill- and attacks on their places of worship. A treatment, grossly unfair trials, imprisonment number were arbitrarily dismissed from and the death penalty. Intelligence and employment or denied enrolment in security bodies frequently accused minority universities. rights activists of supporting “separatist Those who professed atheism remained at currents” threatening Iran’s territorial risk of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture integrity. and other ill-treatment and the death penalty Iran’s border guards continued to unlawfully for “apostasy”. shoot and kill, with full impunity, scores of Sunni Muslims continued to report unarmed Kurdish men known as Kulbars discrimination, including restrictions on who work as cross-border porters between holding separate prayers for Eid al- Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan. In September, Fitr celebrations and exclusion from high- security forces violently suppressed protests ranking positions. in Baneh and Sanandaj overGMT the fatal 2018 In a departure from Iranian law, the Court of shootings of two Kulbars, and detained more Administrative Justice suspended the than a dozen people. membership of Sepanta Niknam, a There was a heavy police presence across Zoroastrian man, from Yazd’s City Council in Kurdistan province in September when October, based on an opinion from the head members of Iran’s Kurdish minority held of Iran’s Guardian Council who said it was rallies in support of the independence against Shari’a law to allow the governance of referendum in the Kurdish region of northern non-Muslims over Muslims. Iraq. More than a dozen people were At least two people were sentenced to death reportedly05:01 arrested. for the peaceful exercise of their rights to In June, security forces were deployed in freedom of religion and belief (see below). Ahvaz/ in advance of the Eid al-Fitr holiday to prevent gatherings planned in solidarity with DISCRIMINATION – ETHNIC MINORITIES families of Ahwazi Arabs imprisoned or Ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, executed for political reasons. More than a Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and ETdozen people were arbitrarily detained and Turkmen, remained subjectEMBARGOED to entrenched many more were FEBRUARYsummoned for discrimination, curtailing their access to interrogation. Ahwazi Arab human rights education, employment, adequate housing defender Mohammad Ali Amouri remained and political office. on death row. Continued economic neglect of minority- 22 populated regions further entrenched poverty DISCRIMINATION – WOMEN AND GIRLS and marginalization. In Sistan-Baluchistan Women remained subject to entrenched province, residents of many villages reported discrimination in law and practice, including a lack of access to water, electricity,00:01 schools in access to divorce, employment, equal and health facilities. The impoverished inheritance and political office, and in family province retained high rates of illiteracy and criminal law. among girls and of infant mortality. Acts of violence against women and girls, The Persian language remained the sole including domestic violence and early and medium of instruction during primary and forced marriage, were widespread and STRICTLYsecondary education, contributing to higher committed with impunity. The authorities drop-out rates in minority-populated areas. failed to criminalize gender-based violence; a There was ongoing criticism of the absence draft bill remained pending since 2012. The of measures ensuringUNTIL minority self- legal age of marriage for girls remained at 13, government. and fathers and grandfathers could obtain THURSDAY 200 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 permission from courts for their daughters to with disabilities and non-consensual medical be married at an even younger age. treatments against people perceived to have All 137 women who registered as a disability, including on the grounds of presidential candidates were disqualified by gender identity and sexual orientation. In the Guardian Council. President Rouhani December, parliament passed a proposed included no woman ministers in his cabinet, law on the Protection of the Rights of People despite civil society demands. with Disabilities which, if implemented fully, Compulsory veiling (hijab) allowed police would enhance accessibility and access to and paramilitary forces to harass and detain education, housing, health care and women for showing strands of hair under employment. their headscarves or for wearing heavy make- In August the Ministry of Education adopted up or tight clothing. State-sanctioned smear discriminatory criteria for disqualifying campaigns were conducted against women candidates for teaching positions. This who campaigned against the compulsory included illnesses, crossed eyes, facial hijab. moles, short height and heavy weight. Iran’s Civil Code continued to deny Iranian Following public outrage, theGMT Ministry 2018 women married to non-Iranian men the right promised revisions but said that people living to pass their nationality on to their children, a with HIV would still be barred as they lacked right enjoyed by Iranian men married to “moral qualifications”. foreign spouses. Authorities defied ongoing public pressure DEATH PENALTY to open football stadiums to women The authorities continued to execute spectators. hundreds of people after unfair trials. Some Women experienced reduced access to executions were conducted in public. affordable modern contraception as the The authorities05:01 continued to describe authorities failed to restore the budget for peaceful campaigning against the death state family planning programmes cut in penalty/ as “un-Islamic”, and harassed and 2012. Parliament passed a law in October imprisoned anti-death penalty activists. imposing severe restrictions on imparting The majority of executions were for non- information about contraception. lethal drug-related offences. A new law The authorities continued to monitor and ETadopted in October increased the quantities restrict foreign travel of women’sEMBARGOED rights of drugs required FEBRUARY for imposing the death activists. Alieh Motalebzadeh was sentenced penalty but retained mandatory death to three years’ imprisonment in August for sentences for a wide range of drug-related attending a workshop in Georgia on offences. While the new law provided for “Women’s empowerment and elections”. retroactive22 applicability, it remained unclear how the authorities intended to implement it DISCRIMINATION – PERSONS WITH to commute the death sentences of those DISABILITIES AND PEOPLE LIVING WITH already on death row. HIV 00:01 It was possible to confirm the execution of The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons four individuals who were under 18 at the with Disabilities reviewed Iran’s human rights time of the crime and the cases of 92 other record in March. The Committee condemned juvenile offenders who remained on death state discrimination and violence against row. The real numbers were likely to be much people with physical and intellectual higher. Several executions were scheduled STRICTLYdisabilities; poor implementation of and postponed at the last minute because of accessibility standards; and denial of public campaigning. Retrials of juvenile reasonable accommodation at the workplace. offenders pursuant to Article 91 of the 2013 The CommitteeUNTIL also expressed alarm at Islamic Penal Code continued to result in reports of forced institutionalization of people renewed death sentences following arbitrary THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 201 assessments of their “maturity” at the time of government authorities arbitrarily detained, the crime. forcibly disappeared and tortured civilians The death penalty was maintained for suspected of being affiliated with IS. Courts vaguely worded offences such as “insulting subjected IS suspects and other individuals the Prophet”, “enmity against God” and suspected of terrorism-related offences to “spreading corruption on earth”. unfair trials and sentenced them to death In August, spiritual teacher and prisoner of on the basis of “confessions” extracted conscience Mohammad Ali Taheri was under torture. Executions continued at an sentenced to death for the second time for alarming rate. “spreading corruption on earth” through establishing the spiritual group Erfan-e BACKGROUND Halgheh; in October the Supreme Court By December, the Iraqi government, Kurdish quashed the death sentence. He remained in forces, paramilitary militias and US-led solitary confinement. coalition forces had recaptured the territory Prisoner of conscience Marjan Davari was and population centres held by IS, including sentenced to death in March for “spreading east Mosul in January, westGMT Mosul in July, Tel 2018 corruption on earth” in connection with her Afar in August and Hawija in October. By membership of the religious group Eckankar November, more than 987,648 people in and for translating their materials. The Nineveh governorate had been internally Supreme Court subsequently quashed the displaced as a result of the military operation death sentence and sent the case back to the to recapture Mosul and surrounding areas. Revolutionary Court in Tehran for retrial. More than 3 million people remained The Islamic Penal Code continued to internally displaced across Iraq. provide for stoning as a method of execution. On 25 September the Kurdish Regional Some consensual same-sex sexual conduct Government05:01 (KRG) held a referendum on remained punishable by death. independence in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I)/ as well as in the “disputed areas” of Iraq, including areas in the governorates of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din and Diyala. IRAQ Preliminary results showed that Republic of Iraq ETapproximately 93% of votes were cast in Head of state: Fuad Masum EMBARGOEDfavour of independence. FEBRUARY The government of Head of government: Haider al-Abadi Iraq declared the referendum illegal and unconstitutional. Following the referendum, Iraqi and Kurdish forces, paramilitary Iraqi government forces and pro-government militias, coalition forces and the armed forces including22 the Popular Mobilization group Islamic State (IS) committed Units (PMU) retook control of Kirkuk violations of international humanitarian law, governorate as well as areas of Nineveh, war crimes and gross human rights abuses Salah al-Din and Diyala governorates. in the armed conflict. IS fighters00:01 forcibly displaced thousands of civilians into active ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS conflict, used them as human shields on a IS committed gross human rights abuses and mass scale, deliberately killed civilians serious violations of international fleeing the fighting, and recruited and humanitarian law, some of which amounted deployed child soldiers. Iraqi and Kurdish to war crimes. It forcibly displaced thousands STRICTLYforces and paramilitary militias of civilians into zones of active hostilities in an extrajudicially executed captured fighters attempt to shield their own fighters. IS and civilians fleeing the conflict and deliberately killed civilians who were trying to destroyed homesUNTIL and other civilian property. flee the fighting and hanged their bodies in Iraqi and Kurdish forces as well as public areas as a warning to others who were THURSDAY 202 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 contemplating escape. It carried out In west Mosul, Iraqi forces consistently used execution-style killings which targeted explosive weapons with wide-area effects, opponents, and recruited and deployed child such as improvised rocket-assisted munitions soldiers. In Mosul, IS regularly denied (IRAMs), which cannot be precisely targeted medical care to civilians, and its fighters at military objectives or used lawfully in occupied several medical buildings and populated civilian areas. In east Mosul, hospitals to avoid being targeted by Iraqi and hundreds of civilians were killed in air strikes coalition forces. launched by the coalition and Iraqi forces on IS killed and injured civilians across Iraq in their homes or places where they sought suicide bombings and other deadly attacks refuge as they followed Iraqi government that deliberately targeted civilians in markets, instructions not to leave during the battle. Shi’a religious shrines and other public Iraqi and Kurdish government forces and spaces. On 2 January, bombings by IS in the paramilitary militias carried out extrajudicial predominantly Shi’a neighbourhood of Sadr executions of men and boys suspected of City in the capital, Baghdad, killed at least 35 being affiliated with IS. In the final weeks of people and injured more than 60. Suicide the Mosul battle between MayGMT and July, 2018 attacks on 30 May outside an ice-cream consistent reports emerged that Iraqi forces, parlour and a government building in including the Emergency Response Division, Baghdad killed at least 27 people and Federal Police and the Iraqi Security Forces, wounded at least 50. An IS attack on a had detained, tortured and extrajudicially restaurant frequented by Shi’a pilgrims in executed men and boys who were fleeing the Nasiriya on 14 September killed at least 84 fighting. people and injured 93. The UN reported in October that as many ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS as 1,563 Yazidi women and children Thousands05:01 of men and boys considered to remained in IS captivity in Iraq and Syria. be of fighting age (roughly 15 to 65) fleeing They were subjected to rape and other territories/ controlled by IS were subjected to torture, assault and enslavement. Those who security screenings by Iraqi security forces, managed to escape or were freed after their Kurdish forces and paramilitary militias at relatives paid ransoms did not receive temporary reception sites or in makeshift adequate remedies, including the necessary ETdetention facilities. Men suspected of care and support requiredEMBARGOED to help rebuild affiliation with IS wereFEBRUARY held for days or their lives. The UN stated in August that at months, often in harsh conditions, or least 74 mass graves had been discovered in transferred onward. Iraqi forces, Kurdish areas previously controlled by IS in Iraq. forces and paramilitary militias, including the PMU, arrested22 thousands more alleged ARMED CONFLICT – VIOLATIONS BY “terrorism” suspects without judicial warrant GOVERNMENT FORCES, COALITION from their homes, checkpoints and camps for FORCES AND MILITIAS internally displaced people (IDPs). Government forces, paramilitary00:01 militias and TORTURE AND ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES coalition forces committed repeated violations Men and boys suspected of being members of international humanitarian law, some of of IS were subjected to enforced which may amount to war crimes. In west disappearance – cut off from their families Mosul, Iraqi and coalition forces launched a and the outside world – in facilities controlled series of disproportionate or otherwise by the Iraqi Ministries of the Interior and STRICTLYindiscriminate attacks. In one such attack, on Defence, the KRG and in secret detention 17 March in Mosul al-Jadida neighbourhood, centres. Detainees were interrogated by at least 105 civilians were killed by a US air security officers without lawyers present and strike targetingUNTIL two IS snipers. were routinely tortured. Common forms of torture included beatings on the head and THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 203 body with metal rods and cables, suspension and from their tents. Families were separated in stress positions by the arms or legs, for days or months due to screening electric shocks, and threats of rape of female procedures carried out at temporary relatives. Detainees faced limited access to reception centres. Women heads of medical care, which led to deaths in custody households who sheltered in IDP camps – and amputations. They also endured harsh particularly those whose male relatives were conditions, including severe overcrowding, suspected of affiliation with IS – reported poor ventilation and lack of access to being subjected to rape and other sexual showers or toilets. abuse and exploitation and systematic discrimination, including having inadequate UNFAIR TRIALS and unequal access to food, water and other The criminal justice system in Iraq remained basic supplies. deeply flawed. Defendants, in particular FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND DESTRUCTION OF “terrorism” suspects, were routinely denied PROPERTY the rights to adequate time and facilities to In the context of the armed conflict involving prepare a defence, to not incriminate oneself IS, Iraqi government forcesGMT and paramilitary 2018 or confess guilt, and to question prosecution militias forcibly displaced civilians and witnesses. Courts continued to admit destroyed their homes on a mass scale. For “confessions” that were extracted under example, early in the year Sunni tribal militias torture as evidence. Many of those convicted within the PMU known as the Hashad al- after these unfair and hasty trials were Ashari, alongside Iraqi government forces, sentenced to death. forcibly displaced at least 125 families from Between July and August, the Iraqi Salah al-Din governorate perceived to be authorities issued arrest warrants for at least affiliated with IS, following a decree issued by 15 lawyers who were defending suspected IS local authorities05:01 authorizing their members, accusing the lawyers of being displacement. The families were then held affiliated with IS. These arrests caused against/ their will in an IDP camp functioning concern among other lawyers that they could as a detention centre near Tikrit. be arrested simply for defending IS suspects. ARMS TRADE INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE ETFactions of the PMU, which had committed More than 3 million peopleEMBARGOED remained war crimes and otherFEBRUARY serious violations internally displaced across Iraq. The across central and northern Iraq since 2014, displaced sheltered in host communities, IDP benefited from transfers of arms from a range camps, informal settlements and buildings of countries, including the USA, Russia and under construction. By November, more than Iran. The22 transferred weapons included 987,648 people in Nineveh governorate had armoured vehicles and artillery as well as a been displaced as a result of the Mosul wide range of small arms. Poor management military operation. Humanitarian agencies of weapons stocks and a thriving in-country reported significant shortfalls in00:01 international and cross-border illicit trade led to the arming funding. of militia groups, further undermining Civilians in IDP camps experienced security. shortages of food, water, medicine and other basic needs. Freedom of movement in IDP FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – camps was severely limited, and camp KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ STRICTLYresidents reported that civilians, including Journalists and online activists in the KR-I children, were recruited from camps by were subject to arbitrary arrest, beatings, paramilitary militias – sometimes forcibly – surveillance, death threats, and smear and that familyUNTIL members had been forcibly campaigns intended to damage their disappeared from public areas in the camps reputations or the reputations of their family THURSDAY 204 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 members. This trend of interference in the for grave violations of international law, freedom of expression of journalists and including war crimes, during the conflict. online activists appeared to escalate in the run-up to the independence referendum in DEATH PENALTY the KR-I; Amnesty International documented Iraq remained one of the world’s most prolific 12 cases of arbitrary arrests, beatings and users of the death penalty. Scores of people intimidation of journalists and online activists were sentenced to death by courts after between June and September. unfair trials and executed by hanging. The On 14 March, security forces, including death penalty continued to be used as a tool anti-riot police belonging to the KR-I and of retribution in response to public outrage Syrian fighters under the command of the after attacks claimed by IS. In January, KRG (“Rojava Peshmerga”), used tear gas dozens of men were hanged for their alleged canisters and fired live ammunition to role in the killing of 1,700 Shi’a cadets at disperse Yazidi protesters. The protesters Speicher military camp near Tikrit in 2014. were calling for the Rojava Peshmerga forces The men, whose “confessions” were to leave the area, following clashes between extracted under credible allegationsGMT of 2018 members of the Rojava Peshmerga and torture, were convicted following deeply Sinjar Resistance Unit earlier that month. flawed and hasty trials. These mass Protesters and witnesses reported that Nazeh executions followed a similar mass execution Nayef Qawal, a Yazidi woman, was killed in August 2016, also in relation to the during the violent dispersal of protesters. Speicher massacre. On 25 September, dozens of men were executed on “terrorism” IMPUNITY charges. This mass execution took place 11 In response to allegations of serious violations days after an IS suicide attack in Nasiriya on of international humanitarian law and war 14 September05:01 that killed at least 84 people. crimes committed by Iraqi forces and pro- government militias – such as torture, / extrajudicial execution and enforced disappearance – the Iraqi authorities IRELAND established committees to evaluate the Ireland available evidence and launch investigations. ETHead of state: Michael D. Higgins Such committees consistentlyEMBARGOED failed to Head of government: FEBRUARY Leo Varadkar (replaced Enda release any findings publicly or to Kenny in June) communicate their findings to international or national NGOs. More than a year since 643 Historical abuses against women and girls men and boys from Saqlawiya in the Anbar were not 22adequately addressed. Access to governorate were abducted and forcibly and information about abortion remained disappeared by PMU militias, a committee severely restricted and criminalized. established by the Office of the Prime Concerns remained about “direct provision” Minister on 5 June 2016 had failed00:01 to accommodation provided to asylum-seekers. publicly release any findings. On 21 September the UN Security Council WOMEN’S RIGHTS passed a unanimous resolution aimed at In March, the CEDAW Committee published ensuring accountability for war crimes and its concluding observations on Ireland’s sixth human rights abuses committed by IS. and seventh reports. It expressed concern at STRICTLYHowever, the resolution crucially failed to Ireland’s abortion laws, measures to combat include any provisions to ensure violence against women, including funding accountability for crimes committed by Iraqi cuts to non-governmental support services, forces, paramilitaryUNTIL militias such as the PMU, and the impact of austerity measures on the the US-led coalition and others responsible funding for women’s NGOs. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 205 The Committee criticized the state’s failure abortion services. The government to establish an independent, thorough and committed to holding a referendum on the effective investigation into all alleged human Eighth Amendment in early 2018. rights abuses against women and girls in the “Magdalene Laundries”, children’s REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS institutions and mother and baby homes Concerns remained about poor living which operated with state funding and conditions in “direct provision” oversight between the 1930s and 1996. This accommodation centres for asylum-seekers, concern was echoed by the UN Committee in particular limited living space and privacy, against Torture in its concluding observations lack of recreational facilities especially for on Ireland’s second periodic report, children, and little personal spending money. published in August. In November, the In May, the Supreme Court ruled that the Ombudsman published a report criticizing state’s prohibition on employment during the the exclusion of some women from the asylum procedure, irrespective of its Magdalene Laundries redress scheme. duration, was unconstitutional; it gave the The CEDAW Committee also noted legislature six months to addressGMT its decision. 2018 numerous recommendations by other UN The Ombudsman and Ombudsman for human rights mechanisms on the unresolved Children were given statutory powers to issue of historical abuses of women and girls, consider complaints from “direct provision” including in respect of symphysiotomies residents. performed on women without their consent. In September, the government announced its commitment to developing a community SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS sponsorship programme for resettling In June, the UN Human Rights Committee refugees. found in Whelan v. Ireland that Ireland’s 05:01 abortion law violated the applicant’s rights to RIGHT TO HOUSING be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading A growing/ number of people were treatment, as well as her rights to privacy and experiencing homelessness, many as a result non-discrimination in forcing her to travel of reduced availability of affordable rental abroad for an abortion. In its August properties. The number of homeless families concluding observations, the UN Committee ETincreased by 31% between October 2016 against Torture stated thatEMBARGOED Ireland’s abortion and October 2017,FEBRUARY with many children living law causes women and girls “severe physical in unsuitable hostel-type accommodation. In and mental anguish and distress”. October, the European Committee of Social In June, the Citizens’ Assembly, established Rights published a decision finding Ireland in by the government to make violation of22 the Revised European Social recommendations on possible constitutional Charter. The decision related to conditions in reform, recommended the removal of the some local authority housing. Eighth Amendment to Ireland’s Constitution, which placed the right to life of00:01 the foetus on SEX WORKERS a par with that of the pregnant woman. It In February, the Criminal Law (Sexual recommended that access to abortion be Offences) Act 2017 was enacted which, provided without restriction in early among other provisions, criminalized the pregnancy, and in a broad range of purchase of sex. While the Act removed circumstances thereafter. Its criminal penalties from sex workers for STRICTLYrecommendations were considered and soliciting and loitering, several aspects of sex supported by a specially convened work remained criminalized, despite parliamentary committee, which also international evidence that this can place sex recommendedUNTIL decriminalizing women and workers at high risk of stigmatization, medical professionals accessing or providing THURSDAY 206 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 isolation, violence and other human rights humanitarian crisis. The Israeli authorities abuses. intensified expansion of settlements and The Council of Europe Group of Experts on related infrastructure across the West Bank, Action against Trafficking in Human Beings including East Jerusalem, and severely noted reports of possible negative impacts of restricted the freedom of movement of the criminalization of the purchase of sex on Palestinians. Israeli forces unlawfully killed victims of trafficking. It urged Ireland to Palestinian civilians, including children, analyse such impacts on the identification, and unlawfully detained within Israel protection and assistance of trafficking thousands of Palestinians from the victims, and the prosecution of traffickers. Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), holding hundreds in administrative DISCRIMINATION – TRAVELLERS detention without charge or trial. Torture In March, the government granted formal and other ill-treatment of detainees, recognition to the Traveller community as a including children, remained pervasive and distinct ethnic group within Ireland, following was committed with impunity. Israel years of campaigning by Traveller groups. continued to demolish PalestinianGMT homes in 2018 This was seen as a symbolic but significant the West Bank and in Palestinian villages step towards recognizing and countering the inside Israel, forcibly evicting residents. long-standing discrimination experienced by Conscientious objectors to military service Travellers in Ireland. were imprisoned. Thousands of African asylum-seekers were threatened with FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION deportation. Concerns emerged about the growing impact on civil society groups of the Electoral Act BACKGROUND 1997, a law which regulates political funding. Israeli authorities05:01 intensified settlement The Act, as amended in 2001, prohibits expansion and land appropriation in the OPT. overseas donations, or domestic donations US and/ international efforts to revive over EUR2,500, to “third party” organizations negotiations failed, and Israeli-Palestinian for vaguely defined “political purposes”. relations remained tense. In January, Israeli authorities passed the so-called ET“regularization law” that retroactively EMBARGOEDlegalized the settlerFEBRUARY takeover of thousands of ISRAEL AND THE hectares of privately owned Palestinian land and an estimated 4,500 settler homes. In OCCUPIED addition, Israeli authorities announced and issued tenders22 for tens of thousands of new PALESTINIAN settlement units in East Jerusalem and across the rest of the West Bank. TERRITORIES Palestinians carried out stabbings, car- 00:01 rammings, shootings and other attacks State of Israel against Israelis in the West Bank and in Head of government: Benjamin Netanyahu Israel. The attacks, mostly carried out by Head of state: Reuven Rivlin individuals unaffiliated to armed groups, killed 14 Israelis and one foreign national. June marked 50 years since Israel’s Israeli forces killed 76 Palestinians and one STRICTLYoccupation of the Palestinian Territories and foreign national. Some were unlawfully killed the start of the 11th year of its illegal while posing no threat to life. blockade of the Gaza Strip, subjecting In March, the UN Economic and Social approximatelyUNTIL 2 million inhabitants to Commission for Western Asia issued, then collective punishment and a growing withdrew, a report determining Israel to be THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 207 “guilty of the crime of apartheid” against unable to access treatment outside Gaza due Palestinians. In May, a UNESCO resolution to Israeli restrictions and delays by West reaffirmed the occupied status of East Bank authorities in processing referrals. Jerusalem and criticized Israel’s conduct in Israeli forces maintained a “buffer zone” the city. Following the killing of two Israeli inside Gaza’s border with Israel and used live policemen by Palestinians, in July Israel ammunition against Palestinians who entered installed metal detectors to screen Muslim or approached it, wounding farmers working worshippers entering the Temple Mount/ in the area. Israeli forces also fired at Haram al-Sharif. The new security measures Palestinian fishermen in or near the led to heightened tensions and mass protests “exclusion zone” along Gaza’s coastline, by Palestinians, including collective prayers, killing at least one and injuring others. across the West Bank. The prayer protests, In the West Bank, Israel maintained an often met with excessive force, ended once array of military checkpoints, bypass roads the metal detectors were removed. and military and firing zones, restricting In September, the Hamas de facto Palestinian access and travel. Israel administration in Gaza and the “national established new checkpointsGMT and barriers, 2018 consensus” government in the West Bank especially in East Jerusalem. In response to embarked on a reconciliation process, which Palestinian attacks on Israelis, the military was rejected by Israel. authorities imposed collective punishment; In December, US President Donald Trump they revoked the work permits of attackers’ recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in family members and closed off villages and violation of international law, sparking entire areas including Silwad, Deir Abu widespread protests across the OPT and Mishal and Beit Surik. globally. In Hebron, long-standing prohibitions limiting Palestinian05:01 presence, tightened in FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT – GAZA October 2015, remained in force. In Hebron’s BLOCKADE AND WEST BANK Tel Rumeida/ neighbourhood, a “closed RESTRICTIONS military zone”, Israeli forces subjected Israel’s illegal air, land and sea blockade of Palestinian residents to oppressive searches the Gaza Strip entered its 11th year, and prevented the entry of other Palestinians continuing the long-standing restrictions on ETwhile allowing free movement for Israeli the movement of people andEMBARGOED goods into and settlers. In May, IsraelFEBRUARY erected a new from the area, collectively punishing Gaza’s checkpoint and a new fence barrier within entire population. Combined with Egypt’s Hebron’s H2 area, arbitrarily confining the almost total closure of the Rafah border Palestinian Gheith neighbourhood and crossing, and the West Bank authorities’ segregating22 a street alongside the area. punitive measures, Israel’s blockade triggered a humanitarian crisis with electricity cuts ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS reducing access to electricity from an Israel detained or continued to imprison average of eight hours per day 00:01down to as thousands of Palestinians from the OPT, little as two to four hours, affecting clean mostly in prisons in Israel, in violation of water and sanitation and diminishing health international law. Many detainees’ families, service access, and rendering Gaza particularly those in Gaza, were not permitted increasingly “unlivable” according to the UN. entry to Israel to visit their relatives. Gaza’s economy deteriorated further and The authorities continued to substitute STRICTLYpost-conflict reconstruction of civilian administrative detention for criminal infrastructure remained severely hindered; prosecution, holding hundreds of some 23,500 Palestinians remained Palestinians, including children, civil society displaced sinceUNTIL the 2014 conflict. Many leaders and NGO workers, without charge or patients with life-threatening illnesses were trial under renewable orders, based on THURSDAY 208 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 information withheld from detainees and their detainees, including children, to torture and lawyers. More than 6,100 Palestinians, other ill-treatment with impunity, particularly including 441 administrative detainees, were during arrest and interrogation. Reported held in Israeli prisons at the end of the year. methods included beatings, slapping, painful Israeli authorities also placed six Palestinian shackling, sleep deprivation, use of stress citizens of Israel under administrative positions and threats. No criminal detention. investigations were opened into more than In April around 1,500 Palestinian prisoners 1,000 complaints filed since 2001. and detainees launched a 41-day hunger- Complaints of torture and other ill-treatment strike to demand better conditions, family by the Israeli police against asylum-seekers visits, an end to solitary confinement and and members of the Ethiopian community administrative detention, and access to remained common. education. The Israeli Prison Service In December the Israeli High Court of punished hunger-striking detainees, using Justice accepted the Attorney General’s solitary confinement, fines, and denial of decision not to open a criminal investigation family visits. into Asad Abu Ghosh’s tortureGMT claims despite 2018 Palestinians from the West Bank charged credible evidence, thus condoning the with protest-related and other offences faced continued use of stress positions and sleep unfair military trials, while Israeli civilian deprivation against Palestinian detainees by courts trying Palestinians from East Israeli interrogators. Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip issued harsh sentences even for minor offences. UNLAWFUL KILLINGS In April the Israeli High Court of Justice Israeli soldiers, police and security guards issued a decision to reduce excessive killed at least 75 Palestinians from the OPT, sentencing of Palestinians under the military including 05:01East Jerusalem, and five judicial system and ordered that legislation Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. Some of be amended to apply shorter sentences as of those /killed were shot while attacking Israelis May 2018. Despite the ruling, the sentences or suspected of intending an attack. Many, would remain harsher than those in the including children, were shot and unlawfully Israeli civilian judicial system. killed while posing no immediate threat to Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian ETlife. Some killings, such as that of Yacoub Legislative Council and boardEMBARGOED member of the Abu al-Qi’an, shotFEBRUARY in his car by police in NGO Addameer, and Addameer staff Umm al-Hiran in January, appeared to have member Salah Hammouri, remained in been extrajudicial executions. administrative detention at the end of the year. EXCESSIVE22 USE OF FORCE The trial of Mohammed al-Halabi, a Gaza- Israeli forces, including undercover units, based humanitarian worker, began at Beer used excessive and sometimes lethal force Sheva District Court on charges of when they used rubber-coated metal bullets embezzlement from the NGO World00:01 Vision to and live ammunition against Palestinian fund Hamas. Neither an Australian protesters in the OPT, killing at least 20, and government review of World Vision Gaza nor injuring thousands. Many protesters threw an internal World Vision audit found any rocks or other projectiles but were posing no evidence to support the charges. Mohammed threat to the lives of well-protected Israeli al-Halabi stated in court that he was tortured soldiers when they were shot. In July, in STRICTLYduring interrogation and detention. response to the tensions over Temple Mount/ Haram al-Sharif, the authorities killed 10 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Palestinians and injured more than 1,000 Israeli soldiersUNTIL and police and Israel Security during the dispersal of demonstrations, and Agency officers subjected Palestinian conducted at least two violent raids on al- THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 209 Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem. In Palestinian human rights NGOs, including December, wheelchair user Ibrahim Abu Al-Haq, Al Mezan and Addameer, Thuraya was shot in the head by an Israeli encountered increased levels of harassment soldier as he was sitting with a group of by Israeli authorities. Israeli authorities protesters near the fence separating Gaza initiated tax investigations against Omar from Israel. Barghouti, a prominent advocate of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, in what appeared to be an effort to silence his ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY work. The authorities used a range of measures, Several Israeli human rights organizations, both in Israel and the OPT, to target human including Breaking the Silence, Gisha, rights defenders who criticized Israel’s B’tselem and Amnesty International Israel continuing occupation. were also targeted by government campaigns In March the Knesset (parliament) passed to undermine their work, and faced smears, an amendment to the Entry into Israel Law stigmatization and threats. banning entry into Israel or the OPT to GMT 2018 anyone supporting or working for an RIGHT TO HOUSING – FORCED organization that has issued or promoted a EVICTIONS AND DEMOLITIONS call to boycott Israel or Israeli entities, In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including settlements. The authorities the Israeli authorities carried out a large continued to obstruct human rights workers’ number of demolitions of Palestinian attempts to document the situation by property, including 423 homes and denying them entry into the OPT, including structures built without Israeli permits that the UN Special Rapporteur on the human remained virtually impossible for Palestinians rights situation in the OPT. An Amnesty to obtain, 05:01forcibly evicting more than 660 International staff member was denied entry people. Many of these demolitions were in after he was questioned about the Bedouin/ and herding communities that the organization’s work on settlements. Israeli authorities planned to forcibly transfer. Using public order laws in East Jerusalem, The authorities also collectively punished the and military orders in the rest of the West families of Palestinians who had carried out Bank, Israeli authorities prohibited and ETattacks on Israelis, by demolishing or making suppressed protests by Palestinians,EMBARGOED and uninhabitable theirFEBRUARY family homes, forcibly arrested and prosecuted protesters and evicting approximately 50 people. human rights defenders. In July, the military Israeli authorities forcibly evicted eight trials of Palestinian human rights defenders members of the Shamasneh family from their Issa Amro and Farid al-Atrash began on home in Sheikh22 Jarrah, East Jerusalem, charges related to their role in organizing allowing Jewish settlers to move in. The peaceful protests against Israel’s settlement authorities also demolished dozens of policies. Israeli authorities continued to Palestinian homes inside Israel that they said harass other Hebron-based human00:01 rights were built without permits, including in activists, including Badi Dweik and Imad Abu Palestinian towns and villages in the Triangle, Shamsiya, and failed to protect them from the Galilee, and in “unrecognized” Bedouin settler attacks. villages in the Negev/Naqab region. In From May to August, the Israeli authorities January the Israeli police forcibly demolished detained prisoner of conscience and writer the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, to STRICTLYAhmad Qatamesh under a three-month begin building a Jewish town in its place. The administrative detention order solely on Knesset passed a law in April that raised the account of his non-violent political activities fines for building without permits, charging and writing. UNTIL punitive costs for the demolition to those whose homes have been demolished, and THURSDAY 210 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 limited recourse to the courts for those Zayoud, who was stripped of his citizenship challenging demolition or eviction orders. In and rendered stateless by the Minister of the August, the authorities demolished al-Araqib Interior following a conviction for attempted village in the Negev/Naqab for the 116th murder. An appeal against the decision was time. Residents were ordered to compensate pending before the Supreme Court at the end the state 362,000 new shekels of the year. The authorities also revoked the (approximately USD100,000) for the cost of citizenship of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin demolition and lawyers’ fees. residents of the Negev/Naqab region without process or appeal, leaving them as stateless IMPUNITY residents. More than three years after the end of the 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict, in which some REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS 1,460 Palestinian civilians were killed, many The authorities continued to deny asylum- in evidently unlawful attacks including war seekers, more than 90% of whom were from crimes, the authorities had previously Eritrea or Sudan, access to a fair or prompt indicted only three soldiers for looting and refugee status determinationGMT process. More 2018 obstructing an investigation. than 1,200 asylum-seekers were held at the In a rare move, in January an Israeli military Holot detention facility and at Saharonim court convicted Elor Azaria, a soldier whose Prison in the Negev/Naqab desert at the end apparent extrajudicial execution of a of the year. According to activists, there were wounded Palestinian in Hebron was filmed, more than 35,000 asylum-seekers in Israel; of manslaughter. His conviction and 18- 8,588 asylum claims remained pending. In month prison sentence, which was confirmed December, the Knesset passed an on appeal but reduced by four months by amendment to the anti-infiltration law that Israel’s military Chief of Staff in September, would force05:01 asylum-seekers and refugees to failed to reflect the gravity of the crime. Israeli accept relocation to countries in Africa or authorities failed to investigate, or closed face imprisonment./ Tens of thousands were investigations into, cases of alleged unlawful at risk of deportation. killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces in both Israel and the OPT. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS The Prosecutor of the ICC continued her ETAt least six Israeli conscientious objectors to preliminary examination ofEMBARGOED alleged crimes military service wereFEBRUARY imprisoned, including under international law committed in the OPT Tamar Zeevi, Atalia Ben-Abba, Noa Gur since 13 June 2014. Golan, Hadas Tal, Mattan Helman and Ofir Averbukh. Israeli authorities recognized VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Tamar Zeevi22 as a conscientious objector and There were new reports of violence against released her from conscription after she women; Palestinian communities in Israel served a total of 100 days in prison. were particularly affected. In June, the Special Rapporteur on violence00:01 against women issued recommendations urging Israeli authorities to carry out law and policy ITALY reforms by integrating CEDAW standards; to Italian Republic combat and prevent violence against women Head of state: Sergio Mattarella in Israel and the OPT; and to investigate Head of government: Paolo Gentiloni STRICTLYreported abuses. Italy co-operated with the Libyan authorities DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY and non-state actors to restrict irregular On 6 August theUNTIL Haifa District Court migration through the central confirmed the citizenship revocation of Alaa Mediterranean. This resulted in refugees THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 211 and migrants being disembarked and CO-OPERATION WITH LIBYA TO CONTROL MIGRATION trapped in Libya, where they faced human In February, to reduce arrivals, Italy signed a rights violations and abuse. Roma Memorandum of Understanding with Libya, continued to be forcibly evicted and committing to provide support to Libyan segregated in camps with sub-standard authorities responsible for official immigration living conditions. The European detention centres. Torture and other ill- Commission failed to take decisive action treatment remained widespread in these against Italy for discrimination against centres. Italy continued to implement Roma in access to adequate housing. measures to increase the Libyan coastguard’s Legislation criminalizing torture was capacity to intercept refugees and migrants introduced; however, the new law did not and take them back to Libya. This was done meet all the requirements of the Convention amidst growing evidence of the Libyan against Torture. coastguard’s violent and reckless conduct during interceptions of boats and of its REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS involvement in human rights violations. In Over 2,800 refugees and migrants were May, Italy provided the LibyanGMT coastguard 2018 estimated to have died at sea while with four patrolling speedboats. Italy also attempting to reach Italy from Libya on continued to train Libyan coastguard and unseaworthy and overcrowded vessels. The navy officials as part of the EU Naval Force numbers were down from more than 4,500 Mediterranean (EUNAVFOR Med) operation. deaths registered in 2016. Over 119,000 In July, following a request from the Libyan people survived the crossing and reached government, Italy deployed a naval mission to Italy, compared to 181,000 arrivals in 2016. Libyan territorial waters to combat irregular In May, the Italian magazine L’Espresso migration and the smuggling of refugees and published new information regarding the 11 migrants. 05:01 October 2013 shipwreck in the Maltese In November, a Libyan coastguard vessel search and rescue region of the central interfered/ in an ongoing rescue operation in Mediterranean. Over 260 people died, mostly international waters. Several people drowned. Syrian refugees, among them about 60 The Libyan coastguard’s vessel – one of those children. According to recorded phone donated by Italy – was recorded on video conversations obtained by the magazine, in ETdeparting at high speed, ignoring people in the period preceding the capsizingEMBARGOED of the the water, and withFEBRUARY a man still holding on to refugees’ boat, Italian navy and coastguard ropes the Libyan officials had thrown off the officials were reluctant to deploy the Italian vessel. warship Libra which was the closest to the Between August and December, Italy’s co- boat in distress, despite repeated requests by operation22 with Libyan authorities was Maltese authorities to do so. In November, a criticized by various UN experts and bodies, judge of the Rome tribunal ordered that including the UN High Commissioner for charges be brought against two high-ranking Human Rights as well as the Council of officials of the Italian navy and 00:01coastguard Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. respectively and that further investigations be The Committee against Torture expressed carried out into the conduct of the Libra’s concern over the lack of assurances that co- captain. The charges against four other navy operation with the Libyan coastguard or other and coastguard officials were dismissed. The Libyan security actors would be reviewed in trial was pending at the end of the year. light of human rights violations. STRICTLYThe government continued to fail to adopt NGOS’ SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS the decrees required to abolish the crime of Many of those who reached Italy by sea – “illegal entry and stay”, despite being over 45,400 – were rescued by NGOs. In instructed to doUNTIL so by parliament in April July, Italy, with support from the EU, imposed 2014. a code of conduct on NGOs operating at sea, THURSDAY 212 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 limiting their capacity to rescue people and statements and abuse of power, included disembark them in Italy. During the year, three high-ranking police officers and the rescue NGOs were targeted by some officials, judge who validated the expulsion. claiming that they encouraged departures UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN from Libya. Criminal investigations were Nearly 16,000 unaccompanied children opened and were ongoing at the end of the reached Italy by sea. A new law to strengthen year against some NGOs for abetting irregular their protection was introduced in April. It migration. covered access to services and introduced ASYLUM PROCEDURES safeguards against expulsions. However, the By the end of the year, nearly 130,000 authorities continued to struggle to ensure people sought asylum in Italy, a 6% increase their reception in accordance with over the nearly 122,000 in 2016. Throughout international standards. the year, over 40% of applicants received RELOCATION AND RESETTLEMENT SCHEMES some form of protection in the first instance. Of the around 35,000 asylum-seekers who In April, legislation was introduced to speed were to be transferred to other EU countries up asylum procedures and counter irregular under the EU relocation scheme,GMT only 11,464 2018 migration, including by reducing procedural had left Italy by the end of the year, while a safeguards in appeals against rejected further 698 were about to be transferred. asylum applications. The new law failed to Italy continued to grant humanitarian adequately clarify the nature and function of access to people transferred through a the hotspots set up by the EU and the scheme funded by the faith-based NGOs government following agreements in 2015. Comunità di Sant’Egidio, Federation of Hotspots are facilities set up for the initial Evangelical Churches and Tavola Valdese. reception, identification and registration of Over 1,000 people were received under the asylum-seekers and migrants coming to the scheme since05:01 its beginning in 2016. EU by sea. In its May report, the National At the end of December, Italy also granted Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture access/ to 162 vulnerable refugees evacuated highlighted the continued lack of a legal basis from Libya to Italy by UNHCR, the UN and applicable norms regulating the refugee agency. detention of people in hotspots. Also in May, the UN Human Rights ETRIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED Committee criticized the prolongedEMBARGOED detention EVICTIONS FEBRUARY of refugees and migrants at hotspots. It also Roma continued to experience systemic criticized the lack of safeguards against the discrimination in access to adequate incorrect classification of asylum-seekers as housing. The European Commission still economic migrants, and the lack of failed to take22 decisive action against Italy for investigations into reports of excessive use of breach of EU law for discrimination in its force during identification procedures. In denial of the right to housing, including the December, the UN Committee against Torture lack of safeguards against forced evictions expressed concern about the lack00:01 of and the continued segregation of Roma in safeguards against the forcible return of camps. people to countries where they could be at In April, hundreds of Roma living in the risk of human rights violations. informal settlement of Gianturco in Naples In September, the criminal trial started in were forcibly evicted after authorities failed to Perugia against seven officials implicated in carry out any meaningful consultation with STRICTLYthe illegal expulsion to Kazakhstan of Alma the affected families. The only alternative the Shalabayeva and Alua Ablyazova, the wife authorities offered was the rehousing of 130 and daughter of Kazakhstani opposition people in a new authorized segregated camp. politician MukhtarUNTIL Ablyazov, in May 2013. The remaining adults and children were The accused, charged with kidnapping, false rendered homeless. Around 200 of them THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 213 settled in a former market area in Naples and batons. The trial was pending at the end of remained at risk of being forcibly evicted. the year. In August, the authorities forcibly evicted hundreds of people, including many children, DEATHS IN CUSTODY from a building in the centre of Rome. Many In July, following a second police of them were recognized refugees who had investigation which started in 2016, five been living and working in the area for police officers were charged in relation to the several years. The authorities failed to provide death in custody of Stefano Cucchi in 2009. adequate housing alternatives, leaving scores Three officers were charged with of people to sleep in the open for days, manslaughter and two with slander and before they were violently removed by police making false statements. The trial was in riot gear. Several people were hurt by pending at the end of the year. police using water cannons and batons. Some families were eventually rehoused temporarily outside Rome. JAMAICA GMT 2018 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Jamaica In July, Italy finally introduced legislation Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by criminalizing torture, having ratified the Patrick Linton Allen Convention against Torture in 1989. However, Head of government: Andrew Michael Holness in December, the Committee against Torture noted that the definition of torture in the new Unlawful killings – some of which may law was not in line with the Convention. The amount to extrajudicial executions – new law also failed to provide for the continued to be carried out by the police implementation of other key provisions, with impunity.05:01 A review of national including the reviewing of interrogation legislation related to sexual offences, policies and provision of redress to victims. domestic/ violence, child care and child In September, the Council of Europe protection was underway. NGOs raised Committee for the Prevention of Torture concerns over the right to privacy after (CPT) published the report of its visit to Italy proposals to introduce national identity in April 2016. The CPT received allegations ETcards. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and of ill-treatment, including EMBARGOEDunnecessary and transgender peopleFEBRUARY continued to face excessive use of force by law enforcement discrimination in law and in practice. Gay officials and prison officers in virtually all and bisexual prisoners continued to be at detention facilities it visited. The CPT noted heightened risk for HIV. that overcrowding persisted, despite recent 22 reforms. BACKGROUND In October, the European Court of Human Despite committing to the establishment of a Rights found that the treatment of 59 people national human rights institution, Jamaica by police and medical staff during00:01 their had not established the mechanism by the detention, following the protests against the end of the year. 2001 Genoa G8 summit, amounted to Jamaica continued to have one of the torture. highest homicide rates in the Americas. Also in October, 37 police officers, serving Between January and June, homicides in the Lunigiana area in northern Tuscany, increased by 19% compared with the same STRICTLYwere charged in relation to numerous cases period in 2016, according to police data. of personal injury and other abuses. Many of these abuses were against foreign nationals, POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES on two occasionsUNTIL involving the use of electric Between January and March, the police oversight mechanism, the Independent THURSDAY 214 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) RIGHT TO PRIVACY received 73 new complaints of assault and The NGO Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) raised documented 42 killings by law enforcement concerns that the National Identification and officials. During the year, 168 people were Registration Authority Act could undermine killed by law enforcement officials, compared the right to privacy and that Article 41 with 111 people in 2016. specifically could limit access to public goods Female relatives of those allegedly killed by and services. the police continued to battle an underfunded, sluggish court system in their CHILDREN’S RIGHTS fight for justice, truth and reparation.1 JFJ made a series of recommendations to the More than a year after a Commission of Parliamentary Joint Select Committee to Enquiry published its findings into the events strengthen the Child Care and Protection Act. that took place in Western Kingston during Among other things, JFJ recommended the 2010 state of emergency that left at least expanding the list of authorities to which 69 people dead, the government had still not members of the public can make a legally officially responded on how it planned to mandated report of child abuse,GMT to make 2018 implement the recommendations, or made a reporting easier. public apology. In June, the Jamaica Constabulary Force completed an internal RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL administrative review into the conduct of AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE officers named in the Commissioners’ report. There remained no legal protection against However, it found no misconduct or discrimination based on real or perceived responsibility for human rights violations sexual orientation or gender identity. As a during the state of emergency. result, LGBT people continued to face In June, legislation was passed to create harassment05:01 and violence. “zones of special operations” as part of a Consensual sex between men remained crime prevention plan. criminalized,/ and there was limited protection INDECOM hosted a Caribbean Use of Force against intimate-partner violence for Conference to develop a region-wide Use of people in same-sex relationships. NGOs Force Policy consistent with best practice in recommended that laws be amended to human rights. Law enforcement officials from ETensure that rape is treated as a gender- across the region participatedEMBARGOED in the forum, neutral offence. FEBRUARY along with experts in policing and human As transgender people continued to be rights. unable to change their legal name and gender, LGBTI organizations were concerned VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS that the proposed22 national identification In March, women’s movements and survivors system could undermine the privacy of of gender-based and sexual violence took to transgender people and expose them to the streets in the capital, Kingston, to protest stigma and discrimination, including from against impunity for sexual violence.00:01 potential employers. Jamaican NGOs made a series of Jamaica’s third annual Pride event took recommendations to the Joint Select place in August and continued to increase Committee of Parliament tasked with visibility for the LGBTI community and create reviewing national legislation related to sexual opportunities for engagement with wider offences, domestic violence, child care and society. STRICTLYchild protection. These included, among other things, repealing marital rape RIGHT TO HEALTH exceptions under the Sexual Offences Act to In June, the NGO Stand up for Jamaica protect womenUNTIL against rape, irrespective of released Barriers Behind Bars, a report their marital status. which analysed the high risk of sexual THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 215 violence, human rights violations, and abused, authorities in the city of Osaka consequently HIV, faced by gay and bisexual approved a gay couple as foster parents. The men in Kingston’s General Penitentiary, in couple had been looking after a teenage boy which gay and bisexual men are segregated since February. This was the first case of a from the general prison population. The same-sex couple becoming foster parents report aimed to generate discussion about and being considered as a single household best practices for reducing HIV in prisons. by the city. Sapporo City and Minato Ward advanced towards recognizing same-sex INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE partnerships, following the practices of five Jamaica again failed to ratify the Rome other municipalities in 2015 and 2016. Statute of the ICC, which it signed in September 2000, nor had it adhered to the FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION UN Convention against Torture or the In June, the Diet (parliament) adopted an International Convention for the Protection of overly broad law targeting alleged All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. conspiracies to commit “terrorism” and other serious crimes. The law gaveGMT authorities 2018 broad surveillance powers that could be 1. Jamaica: A thank you from Shackelia Jackson (News story, 15 December 2017) misused to curtail the rights to freedom of expression, association and privacy, without sufficient safeguards. The law also presented a threat to the JAPAN legitimate work of independent NGOs, as the definition of “organized crime group” was Japan Head of government: Shinzo Abe vague and overly broad and not clearly limited to 05:01activities that would constitute Despite harsh criticism from civil society organized crime or pose a genuine threat to and academics expressing fears that human national/ security. Protests were held in rights would be weakened, parliament multiple locations against the law’s potentially passed a controversial law targeting adverse effect on civil society. conspiracies to commit “terrorism” and other serious crimes. Authorities in Osaka ETFREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY city approved a same-sexEMBARGOED couple as foster Prominent peaceFEBRUARY activist Hiroji Yamashiro parents, and two municipalities moved was arrested and detained for five months towards recognizing same-sex partnerships. from late 2016 until March 2017, under Detention of a prominent peace activist restrictive conditions and without access to raised fair trial concerns. A District Court his family,22 for his role in protests against new supported tuition waivers for a Korean US military construction projects on school that was excluded due to their Okinawa.2 The protracted detention of one of alleged ties to the Democratic People’s the most vocal opponents of the US military Republic of Korea (North Korea).00:01 construction on Okinawa, without respecting Executions continued to be carried out. the presumption of release pending trial, had a chilling effect on others exercising their RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, right to peaceful assembly. Some activists TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE hesitated to join protests for fear of reprisals. While pervasive discrimination based on real STRICTLYor perceived sexual orientation and gender DISCRIMINATION – ETHNIC MINORITIES identity continued, some progress was made In July the Osaka District Court ruled as in local municipalities.1 Under the foster care illegal the government’s exclusion of Osaka scheme providingUNTIL support to children without Korean High School from its high school guardians or children who are neglected or education tuition waiver programme. The THURSDAY 216 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Court found that this hindered the right to education of children of Korean origin. This 1. Japan: Human rights law and discrimination against LGBT people (ASA 22/5955/2017) was the first ruling in a number of similar 2. Japan: Prominent peace activist detained without bail - Hiroji lawsuits on the eligibility of such schools for Yamashiro (ASA 22/5552/2017) the programme. Although public high schools had been exempt from tuition fees under the programme since 2010, the government excluded Korean schools due to concerns JORDAN that the subsidies may be misused because Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan of the schools’ historical ties to North Korea. Head of state: King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT Head of government: Hani Al-Mulki WORKERS Parliament approved several reforms In November, the government began to including the repeal of a law which allowed accept the first of 10,000 Vietnamese rapists to escape prosecution if they nationals to be admitted over three years married their victims. WomenGMT continued to 2018 under the Technical Intern Training Program be discriminated against in law and in to meet Japan’s labour shortage. The scheme practice. Parliament passed a law that had been harshly criticized by human rights would guarantee certain rights for pre-trial advocates for causing a wide range of human detainees and reduce the length of rights abuses. Critics feared that expanding custodial sentences. Local governors the scheme without addressing its problems continued to issue orders to hold would result in increased incidents of sexual individuals in prolonged detention without abuse, work-related deaths and working charge. The rights to freedom of expression conditions amounting to forced labour. and of association05:01 continued to be restricted. Migrant workers were REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS inadequately/ protected from exploitation While the number of asylum applications and abuse. Around 50,000 refugees from continued to increase dramatically, the Syria remained trapped in the desert on the government reported in February that it had border with Syria in appalling conditions. approved 28 out of 10,901 claims in 2016, ETDeath sentences were imposed and which was a 44% increaseEMBARGOED in claims from the executions carriedFEBRUARY out. previous year. BACKGROUND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Jordan remained part of the US-led military President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of coalition 22fighting in Iraq and Syria against the Korea (South Korea) made a statement in armed group Islamic State (IS) (see Iraq and December that the 2015 agreement between Syria entries), and of the Saudi Arabia-led Japan and South Korea on Japan’s Military coalition engaged in the armed conflict in Sexual Slavery System failed to00:01 solve the Yemen (see Yemen entry). issue, following the findings of the task force In August, local elections were held which, appointed in July to review the deal. The for the first time, included local governorate- agreement had been criticized by civil society level councils in accordance with the 2015 organizations as well as historians for its Decentralization Law. failure to provide a fully victim-centred In February, the government adopted STRICTLYapproach and to provide an official, several measures to address the economic unequivocal recognition of responsibility by crisis amid public protests driven mainly by Japan for serious human rights violations rising unemployment and low wages. They committed by UNTILits military against women and included subsidy cuts, and tax hikes on fuel girls before and during World War II. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 217 and commodities as well as terrorism, espionage, treason, drugs and telecommunication services. counterfeiting. In May, the national Law on the Rights of The NGO Sisterhood Is Global Institute in Persons with Disabilities came into force; its Jordan reported that women who were provisions were largely in line with the UN victims of domestic violence or at risk of so- Convention on the Rights of Persons with called honour crimes were held under Disabilities, which Jordan ratified in 2008. administrative detention for their protection. In July, Parliament held ordinary and More than 1,700 such women were held in exceptional sessions to discuss a 16-bill administrative detention, which represented a package of draft laws and by-laws proposed 16% decrease since 2015. by the Royal Committee for Developing the Judiciary and Enhancing the Rule of Law, FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION which was established by the King in In August, the Companies Control October 2016. Department notified the Attorney General that the Center for Defending Freedom of DETENTION Journalists (CDFJ) violatedGMT the 1997 Law on 2018 In April, the National Centre for Human Companies by receiving foreign funding while Rights published a report that detailed registered as a “civil company” instead of a ongoing human rights violations by security “non-profit company”. CDFJ received a copy forces during arrest, including late-night of the notification which ordered it to stop security raids where excessive force was receiving foreign or domestic funding and used, and in pre-trial detention in temporary calling itself a non-profit company. detention facilities. Detainees were denied Prior to this, CDFJ had not received an access to a lawyer during interrogations, and official warning about its funding although it faced torture and other ill-treatment. The had been 05:01active for 19 years with the stated report also documented poor detention mission to protect media freedoms, address conditions and the lack of a classification violations/ of journalists’ rights, and to reform system to protect detainees’ safety, including legislation to protect press freedoms. by holding incompatible categories of detainees in the same cell. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION In mid-2017, Parliament enacted laws that ETThe Audiovisual Commission continued to guaranteed suspects the rightEMBARGOED of access to a block access to severalFEBRUARY websites and online lawyer on arrest, created a legal aid fund, platforms under Article 49 of the Press and and limited the use of pre-trial detention as Publications Law, which required any an “exceptional measure” for specific “electronic publication that engages in purposes. The new laws set a maximum publication22 of news, investigations, articles, three-month period for those charged with or comments, which have to do with the minor offences, and up to 18 months for internal or external affairs of the Kingdom” to serious charges. The legislation also obtain a licence, and granted executive introduced alternatives to pre-trial00:01 detention, authorities the power to close unlicensed such as electronic monitoring, travel bans sites. and house arrest but did not cover detention under the General Intelligence Directorate. WOMEN’S RIGHTS ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION In February, the CEDAW Committee noted The authorities continued to detain suspects Jordan’s efforts to address discrimination STRICTLYunder the 1954 Crime Prevention Law that against women in marriage and the family, allowed detentions of up to one year without but remained concerned about the continued charge or trial or any means of legal remedy. application of discriminatory provisions in the It was used particularlyUNTIL in cases related to Personal Status Act, particularly in relation to the guardianship of women. It also raised THURSDAY 218 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 concerns about the persistence of child such as the issuing of unified standard marriage in accordance with legislation that contracts, protection under Labour Code allows Shari’a courts and legal guardians the provisions, regulation of employment discretion to allow marriage, in certain agencies, and the adoption of a law which circumstances, of girls aged 15 and over. The criminalized trafficking in people. It remained Committee further noted the continued concerned, however, that the measures were discrimination in inheritance law, and the insufficient due to the lack of shelters, tendency of Shari’a courts to rule in favour of restricted access to justice, the largely husbands in divorce, alimony and child ineffective application of the Labour Code custody proceedings. and lack of regular inspection visits to the In July, Parliament abolished Article 98 of workplace. the Penal Code which was invoked in so- called honour killing cases and allowed a REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS man to receive a reduced sentence if he Jordan hosted about 655,000 Syrian killed a woman relative and the act was refugees registered by UNHCR, the UN deemed to have been committed in a “fit of refugee agency, in additionGMT to over 13,000 2018 rage caused by an unlawful or dangerous act Palestinian refugees from Syria, and over 2 on the part of the victim”. However, Article million long-term Palestinian refugees, 340 remained; it allowed for a reduced among others. sentence on grounds of mitigating Some 50,000 refugees from Syria remained circumstances in cases where a man trapped at Rukban in the “berm”, a desert murdered his wife or any woman relative after area between Jordan and Syria, with finding her in an “adulterous situation”. humanitarian access effectively blocked Although this applied to both men and since June 2016, apart from in June 2017 women, men remained less likely to face when the 05:01authorities permitted one round of adultery charges in a polygamous system. aid distribution. Refugees were trapped in In August, Parliament repealed Article 308, appalling/ humanitarian conditions: food, which allowed rapists to escape prosecution medical assistance and shelter were if they married their victims. extremely limited, and they had sporadic access to water. WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT ETIn October, Jordan ended even limited WORKERS EMBARGOEDcross-border aid andFEBRUARY said that aid could only The NGO Tamkeen Fields for Aid said that be delivered from Syria. The international almost 1.2 million migrant workers resided in community and Jordan failed to agree to a Jordan although only 315,016 had work long-term solution for the stranded refugees permits. Migrant workers continued to face who were22 denied access to asylum exploitation and abuse, including confiscation procedures or opportunities for resettlement of their passports by employers, poor working to third countries. and living conditions, the denial of their right According to humanitarian agencies, by to change employment, forced 00:01labour, and September the authorities had forcibly human trafficking. returned more than 2,330 refugees to Syria. Migrant women domestic workers continued to be denied their annual leave entitlement, INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE and were subject to ill-defined working hours, In December, the ICC ruled that Jordan failed verbal, physical and sexual abuse, to comply with its obligations as a state party STRICTLYconfinement to their employers’ home and to the Rome Statute of the ICC after it did not unpaid wages. execute the Court’s request for the arrest of In February, the CEDAW Committee Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The welcomed measuresUNTIL adopted to protect Court decided to refer Jordan’s non- women migrant domestic workers’ rights, compliance to the Assembly of States Parties THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 219 of the Rome Statute and to the UN Security property and sentenced to two years’ Council. Jordanian authorities failed to arrest imprisonment, and on 25 July, Larisa President al-Bashir when he visited the Kharkova was sentenced for abuse of power country in March for the Arab League and given a sentence of four years of summit. The ICC has issued two arrest restricted freedom by a court in Shymkent. In warrants against him on charges of genocide, the period 19-24 January, 63 oil workers war crimes and crimes against humanity in were prosecuted and fined for their Darfur, Sudan. participation in the hunger strike. In June, the Committee on the Application of DEATH PENALTY Standards of the ILO expressed concern Courts continued to hand down death about the “grave issue” of the dissolution of sentences and several people were executed. the KNPRK and called on the authorities to ensure that the KNPRK and its affiliates “are able to fully exercise their trade union rights”. KAZAKHSTAN PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCEGMT 2018 Republic of Kazakhstan On 20 January, the Atyrau Regional Court in Head of state: Nursultan Nazarbayev western Kazakhstan upheld the sentence of Head of government: Bakytzhan Sagintayev human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience Maks Bokaev and Talgat Ayan to Leading or participating in an unregistered five years’ imprisonment for their involvement organization continued to be an offence. in organizing peaceful demonstrations and Trade unions and NGOs faced undue for their posts on social media against the restrictions. Torture and other ill-treatment Land Code. At the end of January, they were in detention facilities persisted. Journalists transferred05:01 to a penal colony in were subjected to politically motivated Petropavlovsk, northern Kazakhstan, prosecutions and attacks. Women and 1,500km/ from their home city. Maks Bokaev people with disabilities continued to face and Talgat Ayan were not informed in discrimination. advance of their transfer and did not have adequate clothing for the winter weather WORKERS’ RIGHTS ETconditions in northern Kazakhstan. On 13 Independent trade unionsEMBARGOED faced restrictive April, the Supreme FEBRUARY Court rejected Maks laws and closure. Trade unionists were Bokaev’s and Talgat Ayan’s appeals. On 22 prosecuted on fabricated charges of inciting August, following his lawyer’s successful illegal strikes or embezzlement. petition, Talgat Ayan was transferred to a On 4 January, a court ordered the penal colony22 in Aktobe, in northwestern dissolution of the Confederation of Kazakhstan, closer to his young children. Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan (KNPRK), and two affiliates, the National TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Healthcare Workers' Union and00:01 National Following its second periodic report to the Domestic Workers’ Union, on the grounds UN Human Rights Committee, in April that they failed to meet a registration Kazakhstan reported that the Prosecutor deadline. On 5 January, hundreds of oil General’s office received 700 allegations of workers began a hunger strike to protest torture in detention facilities in 2016, and against the dissolution, and three union that over the past five years 158 officials had STRICTLYleaders were arrested. On 7 April, Nurbek been convicted of torture. Kushakbaev was sentenced to two and a half In June, the UN Committee against Torture years’ imprisonment. On 16 May, Amin found that Aleksei Ushenin had been Yeleusinov wasUNTIL charged with subjected to torture and other ill-treatment misappropriation or embezzlement of and that the authorities failed to conduct a THURSDAY 220 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 prompt, impartial and effective investigation Tribuna, which is critical of the authorities, into his complaint. Aleksei Ushenin claimed was sentenced to three years of restricted that he was beaten for two days in August freedom for money laundering. He claimed 2011 to force him to confess to a robbery. that the charges were politically motivated. Police officers put a plastic bag over his head Zhanbolat Mamai had been detained since until he lost consciousness, stubbed out February. On 14 May, Ramazan Yesergepov, cigarettes on his body, and repeatedly journalist and chairman of the NGO inserted a rubber baton into his anus. Journalists in Trouble, was stabbed while travelling by train to the capital Astana to IMPUNITY discuss Zhanbolat Mamai’s case with foreign The authorities had not fully and effectively diplomats and international experts. He investigated allegations of human rights believed that the attack was linked to his violations committed in connection with the critical reporting and interest in Zhanbolat violent clashes between police and Mamai’s case. demonstrating oil workers in Zhanaozen in December 2011, during which at least 15 FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLYGMT 2018 people were killed and over 100 were Organizing or participating in a peaceful seriously injured when the police reportedly demonstration without the authorities’ prior used excessive force against demonstrators. authorization remained an offence under both the Administrative Offences Code and FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION the Criminal Code, punishable by heavy fines NGOs faced undue restrictions, stringent or up to 75 days’ detention. reporting requirements under legislation On 13 July, the UN Human Rights introduced at the end of 2015, and frequent Committee found that Andrei Sviridov’s right tax inspections. Failure to regularly supply to freedom05:01 of peaceful assembly had been accurate information for the central database violated in 2009 when he was prosecuted for of NGOs led to fines or a temporary ban on holding/ a one-man picket to protest activities. against the prosecution of human rights The NGOs International Legal Initiative (ILI) defender Yevgeny Zhovtis. He was found and Liberty Foundation faced punitive fines guilty of conducting a demonstration without for allegedly failing to pay tax. On 6 April, the ETprior authorization and fined 12,960 tenge Special Inter-District EconomicEMBARGOED Court of (EUR33). FEBRUARY Almaty upheld the decision of the Tax On 1 August, peaceful protesters Askhat Directorate that ILI should pay corporate Bersalimov and Khalilkhan Ybrahamuly were income tax on grants received from foreign detained and sentenced to five and three donors, although not-for-profit organizations days’ administrative22 detention respectively for were exempt from paying tax. On 31 May, the taking part in an unauthorized Special Inter-District Economic Court of demonstration. They were part of a group of a Almaty rejected Liberty Foundation’s appeal dozen people who gathered in Mahatma against the Tax Directorate’s decision.00:01 The Ghandi Park in the city of Almaty on 29 July, organizations paid fines of 1,300,000 tenge walked to the main post office and sent and 3,000,000 tenge (EUR4,000 and 8,300) appeals to foreign governments and respectively. international organizations on behalf of Zhanbolat Mamai and other prisoners. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION STRICTLYIndependent journalists critical of the WOMEN’S RIGHTS authorities were subjected to politically The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that motivated prosecutions and attacks. during the first half of the year, 35,253 In September,UNTIL Zhanbolat Mamai, editor of protection orders were applied in cases of the independent newspaper Sayasi Kalam domestic violence. However, NGOs reported THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 221 that violence against women was under- reported and that there was a low rate of KENYA prosecution of cases of violence against women as well as in sexual harassment Republic of Kenya cases. Head of state and government: Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta The authorities continued to refuse to acknowledge that Anna Belousova had been Police used excessive force against a victim of sexual harassment despite the opposition protesters following the CEDAW Committee ruling in 2015 that elections, leaving dozens dead. The ruling recommended that Kazakhstan provide her party made statements threatening the with adequate compensation. In March, the independence of the judiciary after the Supreme Court upheld a ruling by a court in Supreme Court annulled the election Kostanai that she was not due compensation. results. The NGOs Coordination Board In July, the Saryarkinsk District Court refused threatened organizations working on human a claim for compensation against the Ministry rights and governance with closure and of Finance. Anna Belousova had been other punitive measures afterGMT they criticized 2018 employed at a primary school in Pertsevka the electoral process. Prolonged strikes by since 1999. In January 2011, the school’s medical workers had an impact on access to new director threatened to dismiss her unless public health care, disproportionately she engaged in sexual relations with him. She affecting the poor. refused and her employment was terminated in March 2011. BACKGROUND The general election held on 8 August was INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY contested by the ruling Jubilee Party, led by In April, the NGO Coalition for the Defence of incumbent05:01 President Kenyatta, and the Human Rights Defenders and Activists sent a opposition coalition, the National Super petition to the President. It called for the Alliance/ (NASA), led by former Prime adoption of legislation to allow for the Minister Raila Odinga. On 11 August, the implementation of decisions by UN treaty Independent Electoral and Boundaries bodies relating to Kazakhstan. The Coalition Commission declared that President Kenyatta stated that of 25 decisions taken in favour of EThad won 54% of the vote and Raila Odinga applicants from KazakhstanEMBARGOED since 2011, 44%. NASA rejectedFEBRUARY the presidential results none had been implemented due to the citing irregularities in the counting process, absence of necessary legislation. and the way the results were transmitted. It In September, the UN Special Rapporteur filed a petition against the results with the on the rights of persons with disabilities Supreme22 Court on 18 August. visited the country. The Special Rapporteur On 1 September, the Court ruled that the called on Kazakhstan to bring its national election results should be annulled because legislation on legal capacity and mental they were “invalid, null and void”, and health in line with international 00:01human rights ordered a new presidential election to take law and standards. She highlighted the fact place. NASA said they would not participate that under current legislation people with unless their demands were met including, disabilities may be institutionalized and among other things, the appointment of new subjected to medical interventions without returning officers in all 291 constituencies, their free and informed consent. and the engagement of independent STRICTLY international experts to monitor the electoral information and communication technology system. On 10 October Raila Odinga UNTIL announced his withdrawal from the contest THURSDAY 222 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 because the Commission had not made the permitted to demonstrate without necessary reforms. interference. The election re-run was planned for 26 On 19 September, Jubilee Party supporters October. On 30 October, the Commission protested outside the Supreme Court in declared that Uhuru Kenyatta had won with Nairobi against its decision to annul the 98% of the vote from a turnout of under 40% election; they accused the Court of “stealing” − less than half the turnout recorded in their victory. August. On 31 October, Raila Odinga called They blocked a main highway and burned for a “national resistance movement” and the tyres. There were similar demonstrations in formation of a “people's assembly” to bring the towns of Nakuru, Kikuyu, Nyeri and civil society groups together to “restore Eldoret. The demonstrators, mostly young democracy”. people, accused the judges of making an illegal judgment. JUSTICE SYSTEM On 28 September, University of Nairobi High-ranking members of the Jubilee Party students clashed with General Service Unit verbally attacked the Supreme Court after its police during a protest outsideGMT the university 2018 1 September ruling annulling President premises against the arrest of MP and former Kenyatta’s August election victory. On 2 student leader Paul Ongili. Paul Ongili was September, President Kenyatta announced arrested the same day for abusive remarks that there was a problem with the judiciary. A he allegedly made about President Kenyatta record of telephone calls by one Court judge in connection with the election. Following the appeared in the media, prompting him to protest, the police raided the university pursue legal action on defamation grounds buildings and beat students with batons, against the Senior Director of Innovation, injuring 27 of them. The Inspector General of Digital and Diaspora Communication in the Police said05:01 the university administration had Office of the President. invited the police to enter after the protesting On 24 October, an unidentified gunman students/ stoned motorists. The university shot and injured the Court Deputy Chief Senate then closed the university on 3 Justice’s driver in the capital, Nairobi. The October; it had not reopened by the end of incident happened a day before the Court’s the year. ruling that there would be an election re-run ETFollowing the 26 October election, there on 26 October. EMBARGOEDwere further killingsFEBRUARY when police fired live ammunition at protesters. The real number of EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE deaths during this period was unknown; In the run-up to the 8 August election, the relatives of victims did not report the killings police classified opposition stronghold areas for fear of22 reprisals from the police. of Nairobi, including Mathare, as likely “hotspots” for election-related violence. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION In the period following the August election The authorities continued to use legal and and the Supreme Court’s decision00:01 to annul it, administrative measures to restrict the supporters of both parties took to the streets activities of civil society organizations working in protest. on human rights and governance. In May the The police used excessive force to disperse Nairobi High Court ruled that the government protesters who supported the opposition should publish the Public Benefit party and demonstrated against the electoral Organization (PBO) Act 2013. If STRICTLYprocess, including with live ammunition and implemented, the law could improve the tear gas. Dozens died in the violence, working environment for civil society including at least 33 people who were shot by organizations and NGOs. It contains police and of whomUNTIL two were children. provisions, in line with the Constitution, Meanwhile, pro-government protesters were guaranteeing the right to freedom of THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 223 association. However, the authorities of the Constitution and Kenya’s obligations continued to use the Non-Governmental under international law with regard to the Organization (NGO) Law, which restricted the principle of non-refoulement and the full realization of these rights. prohibition of discrimination on grounds of Between 14 and 16 August, the NGOs race or ethnicity. Thus, Dadaab refugee Coordination Board (within the Ministry of camp remained open. The ruling also stated Interior and Co-ordination of National that the government’s move to revoke the Government) accused two human rights assumed refugee status of Somalis who had organizations – the Kenya Human Rights fled to Kenya was unconstitutional and Commission and the Africa Centre for Open violated rights guaranteed in national and Governance (AfriCOG) – of financial and international instruments. regulatory impropriety. It called upon the The authorities continued the voluntary Kenya Revenue Authority, the Directorate of repatriation of Somali refugees, initiated in Criminal Investigations and the Central Bank 2014 under the Tripartite Agreement of Kenya to take action against them, framework. Between May 2016 and including by freezing their accounts and September 2017, over 70,000GMT refugees were 2018 arresting and prosecuting AfriCOG’s directors repatriated from Dadaab to Somalia. and board members.1 On 16 August, the On 17 February, the Court of Appeal upheld NGOs Coordination Board threatened to a 2013 High Court ruling which quashed arrest the heads of both organizations, as well government directives to round up all as a former UN Special Rapporteur on the refugees living in urban areas and relocate rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of them to refugee camps, as part of a plan to association, who also served on AfriCOG’s repatriate them. board of directors. The same day, Kenya On 25 April, a High Court in Garissa ordered Revenue Authority officials, accompanied by the deportation05:01 of 29 Somali asylum-seekers police, attempted to raid AfriCOG’s offices to Somalia. The group had been arrested in with irregular search warrants. They stopped Mwingi/ in March and charged before a the raid on the orders of an official in the Magistrate Court with being in Kenya Ministry of Interior and Coordination of unlawfully. The magistrate ordered that they National Government who also suspended be taken to Dadaab refugee camp and the closure threat for 90 days. AfriCOG and ETregistered by the Refugee Affairs Secretariat the Commission had beenEMBARGOED at the forefront of (RAS); however, theFEBRUARY RAS officer refused to those exposing the electoral irregularities. register them. The magistrate’s order was ultimately quashed by the High Court and all REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS 29, including 10 children, were deported to Kenya continued to host almost 500,000 Somalia on22 4 May 2017. refugees, most of whom resided in Dadaab refugee camp in Garissa County, and INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana County. Elias Kimaiyo, Indigenous Sengwer Other refugees were located in 00:01Nairobi. The community leader and human rights majority of refugees in Dadaab were from defender, suffered a broken collar bone when Somalia; the majority of refugees in Kakuma he was beaten and shot at by a Kenya Forest were from South Sudan. By September, Service guard in Embobut Forest on 5 April. appeals for international support from He was attacked when he photographed UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, for the guards burning Sengwer huts in violation of a STRICTLYregional refugee crisis had secured only 27% 2013 injunction issued by the High Court of of the necessary funding. Eldoret to stop arrests and evictions of the In February, the High Court declared the Sengwer people. 2016 governmentUNTIL directive to close Dadaab On 26 May, the AU African Court on Human refugee camp by May 2017 to be in violation and Peoples’ Rights ruled that the THURSDAY 224 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 government had illegally evicted Ogiek detained in political prison camps, where Indigenous People from the Mau Forest, and conditions fell far short of international failed to substantiate its claim that the standards. Restrictions on the rights to eviction would serve to conserve the forest. freedom of expression and freedom of movement remained severe. Workers sent RIGHT TO HEALTH abroad suffered harsh working conditions. The strike by doctors in public hospitals which began in December 2016 ended in BACKGROUND March 2017. The strike followed the The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea breakdown, after several years, of (North Korea) conducted a nuclear test on 3 negotiations between the government and the September, the sixth in its history, and carried Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists out numerous medium- and long-range and Dentist Union regarding the Collective missile tests throughout the year. The military Bargaining Agreement signed in 2013. The provocations resulted in the UN issuing strike took place against a background of unprecedentedly stringent sanctions on the alleged massive financial corruption at the country. Exchange of militaryGMT and political 2018 Ministry of Health. It was followed in June threats between authorities of North Korea by a strike by public hospital nurses which and the USA further escalated tensions. lasted until November, when the government Concerns over the safety risks of nuclear and the nurses’ union signed the 2013 tests increased after media reports of Agreement. landslides near a nuclear test site, and The strikes adversely affected public health people who had previously lived near sites services across the country, and showing signs of possible radiation exposure. disproportionately impeded access to health The killing of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of care for people who could not afford private leader Kim05:01 Jong-un, in Malaysia on 13 medical insurance cover, particularly those February by two women allegedly using living in informal settlements. chemical/ agents raised questions about the possible involvement of North Korean state agents. 1. Kenya: Attempts to shut down human rights groups unlawful and irresponsible (News story, 15 August) ETARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS EMBARGOEDSystematic, widespreadFEBRUARY and gross human rights violations continued as up to 120,000 KOREA people remained in detention in the four known political prison camps, and were (DEMOCRATIC subjected22 to forced labour as well as torture and other ill-treatment. Some of the violations PEOPLE’S amounted to crimes against humanity; no action to ensure accountability was known to 00:01 have been taken during the year. Many of REPUBLIC OF) those living in the camps had not been Democratic People’s Republic of Korea convicted of any internationally recognized Head of state: Kim Jong-un criminal offence; they were detained Head of government: Pak Pong-ju arbitrarily for being related to individuals deemed threatening to the state, or for “guilt- STRICTLYAlthough the government took some positive by-association”. steps to engage with international human Foreign nationals continued to be arrested rights mechanisms, the situation on the and detained for extended periods. Tony Kim ground failed UNTILto show real progress. Up to and Kim Hak-song, both US nationals and 120,000 people continued to be arbitrarily academics at the foreign-funded Pyongyang THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 225 University of Science and Technology, were reported cases of North Koreans dying while arrested on 22 April and 6 May respectively working in Russia, which hosted at least for “hostile acts against the country”. A US 20,000 North Koreans. In May, two diplomat was allowed to meet them in June. construction workers died in the Russian North Korean authorities said that they were capital Moscow after complaining of investigating their alleged crimes, and breathing problems; they were believed to verdicts and sentences were pending in the have suffered acute heart failure. A courts. The two men remained in detention at subcontractor of a World Cup stadium project the end of the year. in St Petersburg, where a worker died from US national Otto Warmbier, imprisoned in heart failure in November 2016, said in a 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster, died media interview that many workers suffered on 19 June, six days after he was returned to from severe fatigue due to working long hours the USA in a coma. North Korean authorities continuously for months without rest days. failed to adequately explain the cause of his poor state of health. A coroner’s report FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT released on 27 September in his home state During the year, 1,127 NorthGMT Koreans left the 2018 of Ohio noted no evidence of torture or other country and resettled in South Korea (the ill-treatment, but also did not rule out its Republic of Korea), the lowest number since possibility. 2002. Tightened security on both sides of the Lim Hyeon-soo, a Canadian pastor who was Chinese-North Korean border could be a sentenced in 2015 to life imprisonment with possible reason for the change. Some North hard labour, was released on 9 August for Korean women were able to leave the country “humanitarian reasons”, after more than two through deals with human traffickers, only to years of detention during which adequate find themselves subjected to physical and medical treatment was not provided.1 sexual abuse05:01 or exploitative work conditions once on the Chinese side of the border. WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT The year/ saw larger numbers of North WORKERS Koreans being detained in China or forcibly The authorities continued to dispatch workers returned to North Korea, where they were at to other countries, including China and risk of forced labour or torture and other ill- Russia. The number of workers deployed was ETtreatment. 2 Media also reported that the hard to estimate and believedEMBARGOED to be in North Korean governmentFEBRUARY was actively decline, as some countries, such as China, requesting that China repatriate individuals Kuwait, Poland, Qatar and Sri Lanka, stopped suspected of leaving North Korea without renewing or issuing additional work visas to prior approval. North Koreans in order to comply with the A number22 of sources, including the UN new UN sanctions on North Korea’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human economic activities abroad. North Korea rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of derived part of its state revenue from these Korea, reported cases of North Koreans who workers, who did not receive their00:01 wages had left the country, but returned or directly from their employers, but from their expressed a wish to return after arriving in government after significant deductions. The South Korea. Some individuals who returned North Korean authorities maintained tight appeared in state media testifying about the control on the workers’ communications and hardships they faced outside North Korea. As movement, and deprived them of information the procedures for these people to re-enter STRICTLYabout workers’ rights in the host countries. North Korea remained unclear, their Workers remaining in their host countries appearance led to speculations about continued to be subjected to excessive whether they had returned voluntarily or were working hoursUNTIL and were vulnerable in terms abducted back to the country, and whether of occupational health and safety. The media they had been persuaded by the North THURSDAY 226 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Korean authorities to give fabricated for some children to perform extensive testimonies. amounts of strenuous labour. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 1. North Korea: Pastor Lim Hyeon-soo released after more than two years The government continued to exercise severe of imprisonment (ASA 24/6921/2017) restrictions over information exchange 2. China: Eight North Koreans at risk of forcible return (ASA between North Koreans and the rest of the 17/6652/2017) world. All telecommunications, postal and 3. North Korea: Amnesty International's submission to the United broadcasting services remained state-owned, Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (ASA 24/6500/2017) and there were no independent newspapers, other media or civil society organizations. Apart from a select few in the ruling elite, the population had no access to the internet and KOREA (REPUBLIC international mobile phone services. Despite the risk of arrest and detention, OF) people close to the Chinese border continued 2018 Republic of Korea GMT to contact individuals abroad by connecting Head of state and government: Moon Jae-in (replaced with the Chinese mobile network using acting President Hwang Kyo-an in May, who replaced smuggled mobile phones. Media reports said Park Geun-hye in March) the authorities further strengthened efforts to trace mobile phone activity on Chinese Large protest rallies took place in response networks and jam the signals through the to a corruption scandal involving former installation of new radar detectors in the President Park Geun-hye. She was removed border areas. from office in March. Following the change of government,05:01 the Korean National Police INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY Agency accepted recommendations for Following the state’s ratification of the UN comprehensive/ reform that called for a Convention on the Rights of Persons with change in the overall approach to policing Disabilities in December 2016, the Special assemblies so as to better respect freedom Rapporteur on the rights of persons with of peaceful assembly, although their full disabilities conducted an official visit to North ETimplementation remained pending at the Korea between 3 and 8 May.EMBARGOED This was the end of the year. AnFEBRUARY increasing number of first visit to North Korea by an independent lower courts handed down decisions expert designated by the UN Human Rights recognizing the right to conscientious Council. objection. Discrimination against The CEDAW Committee and the UN LGBTI people22 remained prevalent in public Committee on the Rights of the Child life, especially in the military. Arbitrary reviewed North Korea’s human rights record detention based on the vaguely worded in 2017. North Korea submitted state party’s National Security Law continued. A series reports to the Committees, after00:01 an interval of of deaths of migrant workers raised 14 and nine years respectively, and concerns about safety in the workplace. responded to questions at the sessions. In its review, the Committee on the Rights of the BACKGROUND Child noted the inability of North Korean Moon Jae-in, a former human rights lawyer children to regularly communicate with their and leader of the Democratic Party, was STRICTLYparents and family members who live in a elected President in May, following the different country.3 They also noted the decision by the Constitutional Court in March exclusion of children aged 16 and 17 under to uphold a parliamentary vote impeaching the current domesticUNTIL Act for the Protection of then President Park. Charges against her the Rights of the Child, and the requirement included bribery and abuse of power.1 THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 227 FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY courts ruled in favour of men who refused Han Sang-gyun, president of the Korean military service for reasons of conscience. Confederation of Trade Unions, was held They included at least 44 District Court criminally responsible for sporadic clashes decisions during the year. between protesters and police, and for his In May and December, the Seoul role in organizing a series of largely peaceful Administrative Court ordered suspension of anti-government protests in 2014 and 2015. the practice of publicly disclosing personal In May, the Supreme Court rejected his final information about conscientious objectors, appeal against a three-year jail sentence, including name, age and address, until it had despite an opinion by the UN Working Group made its final rulings on two cases brought on Arbitrary Detention that the charges against the Military Manpower Administration against Han Sang-gyun violated his rights to for issuing the lists. The Administrative Court freedom of expression and of peaceful noted the irrevocable damage to assembly, and that his detention was conscientious objectors caused by this public arbitrary. The Working Group called for his disclosure. immediate release. Calls to introduce an alternativeGMT to military 2018 In June, Lee Cheol-seong, commissioner service increased. In May, two additional bills general of the Korean National Police Agency to amend the Military Service Act by (KNPA), offered an apology to the family of introducing an alternative service were Baek Nam-gi, an activist farmer who died in submitted to the National Assembly. In June, 2016 as a result of injuries sustained when the National Human Rights Commission of police used water cannons during protests Korea again issued a recommendation to the against the government’s agricultural policies. Ministry of National Defense to introduce an The family and civic groups criticized the alternative to military service. belated apology that lacked a clear 05:01 acknowledgement by police of their RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, responsibility. TRANSGENDER/ AND INTERSEX PEOPLE In September, following calls by civil society Gay men faced considerable difficulties in organizations, the KNPA accepted fulfilling compulsory military service free from recommendations by the newly established violence, bullying or verbal abuse. In May, a Police Reform Committee.2 These included a ETgay soldier was found guilty of violating presumption that assembliesEMBARGOED would be Article 92-6 of theFEBRUARY Military Criminal Act that peaceful and that spontaneous and other prohibits military personnel from engaging in urgent peaceful assemblies would be same-sex consensual sexual activity. Dozens protected, marking a shift in the previous of others were charged under the same overall approach to policing. While the Article. 22 decision was an important step forward, the The advocacy group Center for Military measures fell short in other regards, Human Rights Korea published screen shots including not lifting the blanket ban on of dating app conversations that the group outdoor assemblies taking place00:01 at specific said resulted from military pressure on times and places. In addition, the adopted targeted men to identify other supposedly gay measures still needed to be firmly enshrined men. The group said that military in law to bring them into line with investigators had confiscated mobile phones international human rights law and belonging to up to 50 soldiers suspected of standards. being gay and insisted that they identify other STRICTLY gay men on their contact lists and gay dating CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS apps. At the same time as the Constitutional Court In September, the National Assembly was examiningUNTIL the legality of conscientious rejected Kim Yi-su as chief justice of the objection, an increasing number of lower Constitutional Court despite his nomination THURSDAY 228 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 by President Moon Jae-in. He had been Commission had claimed that the site questioned during the National Assembly’s breached the NSL, which had been used in public hearing about his support for LGBTI the past to imprison people for “praising” or rights and there were active campaigns by expressing sympathy for North Korea. some religious groups opposing his candidacy. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY Courts handed down decisions WORKERS’ RIGHTS − MIGRANT acknowledging the responsibility of WORKERS multinational corporations for the work- Migrant workers continued to be vulnerable related death or illness of former or current to exploitation under the Employment Permit employees. These included a Supreme Court System, including having to work long hours judgment in August against Samsung with little or no rest time, low and irregularly Electronics that a former factory worker paid wages, and dangerous working should be recognized as suffering from an conditions. occupational disease. The Supreme Court In May, two Nepalese migrant workers died returned the case to the HighGMT Court, noting 2018 from suffocation while cleaning a septic tank that the lack of evidence resulting from the at a pig farm in North Gyeongsang Province. company’s refusal to provide information and Two weeks later, two migrant workers from an inadequate investigation by the China and Thailand died after losing government should not be held against the consciousness while cleaning excrement at a worker. different pig farm in Gyeonggi Province. In August, a Nepalese migrant worker in 1. South Korea: 8-point human rights agenda for presidential North Chungcheong Province committed candidates (ASA 25/5785/2017) suicide in a factory dormitory. He left a note 05:01 2. Mission failed: Policing assemblies in South Korea (ASA stating that his employer had refused to allow 25/7119/2017) him to either change his workplace or return / to Nepal to receive treatment for severe insomnia. KUWAIT ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS ETState of Kuwait Arbitrary detention of individualsEMBARGOED based on Head of state: SheikhFEBRUARY Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al- the vaguely worded National Security Law Sabah (NSL) continued. Lee Jin-young, owner of Head of government: Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al- online library “Labour Books”, was brought to Hamad al-Sabah court for alleged violations of the NSL after 22 distributing online materials deemed to The authorities continued to unduly restrict “benefit” the Democratic People’s Republic freedom of expression, including by of Korea (North Korea). A District Court prosecuting and imprisoning government acquitted him in July, but an appeal00:01 by the critics and banning certain publications. government to the High Court remained Members of the Bidun minority continued pending. to face discrimination and were denied citizenship rights. Migrant workers FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION remained inadequately protected against In April, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled exploitation and abuse. Courts continued to STRICTLYas unlawful the decision by the Korea hand down death sentences and executions Communications Standards Commission, resumed after a hiatus of four years. which censors internet content, to ban a blog entitled “NorthUNTIL Korea Tech” covering IT development in North Korea. The THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 229 BACKGROUND “confess” to offences he did not commit. He On 6 April, Parliament reversed a 2015 remained on trial on other similar charges. amendment to the Juvenile Law, once again Former MP Musallam al-Barrak was raising the age of minors from 16 to 18 years. released in April after serving a two-year As such, those arrested below 18 years of prison term for criticizing the government. He age could be protected from life-term prison continued to face separate trials on other sentences and the death penalty. charges. In July the authorities reinstated mandatory Bidun activist Abdulhakim al-Fadhli was military service, imposing punitive measures released on 1 August after serving a one-year for those failing to register for military service prison sentence in relation to a peaceful within 60 days of reaching the age of 18. demonstration in 2012, after which he had Kuwait led mediation efforts seeking to been due to be expelled from Kuwait. In resolve the Gulf crisis that erupted in early February, the Cassation Court had overturned June, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab his acquittal along with 25 other Bidun men Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain severed for their participation in peaceful relations with Qatar. Kuwait remained part of demonstrations in Taima. TheGMT court 2018 the Saudi Arabia-led coalition engaged in reinstated their two-year prison sentence, as armed conflict in Yemen (see Yemen entry). well as a bail of 500 Kuwaiti dinars (about USD1,660) to halt the implementation of the FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION prison sentence on condition that they signed The authorities continued to unduly restrict a pledge to no longer take part in the right to freedom of expression, demonstrations. Abdulhakim al-Fadhli signed prosecuting and imprisoning government the pledge which, in his case, also annulled critics and online activists under penal code his expulsion order. provisions that criminalized comments In August05:01 the Public Prosecutor ordered a deemed offensive to the Emir or damaging to ban on publications in connection with relations with neighbouring states. reporting/ on ongoing state security cases In March, UK-based writer and blogger before the courts. The ban was despite the Rania al-Saad was sentenced on appeal and Cassation Court establishing in May that in her absence to three years in prison on there were no provisions in the law charges of “insulting Saudi Arabia” on ETcriminalizing the breach of “confidentiality” Twitter. The Appeal Court EMBARGOEDreversed her earlier or prohibiting theFEBRUARY publication of such acquittal rendering this verdict final. information. In May the Cassation Court upheld an Appeal Court verdict in the “al-Fintas group” COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY case of 13 men charged in connection with On 18 July,22 the Cassation Court issued its WhatsApp discussions about video footage verdict in the case against 26 defendants on that appeared to show government members charges that included “spying for Iran and advocating the Emir’s removal from power. Hizbullah”. The court upheld the death Six were acquitted and seven were00:01 sentenced sentence of one defendant in his absence to between one and 10 years’ imprisonment, and commuted that of another to life some in their absence. The trial was marred imprisonment. Thirteen men had their by irregularities. acquittals overturned and were sentenced to In July the Cassation Court upheld a 10- between five and 15 years in prison. During year prison sentence against blogger Waleed the trial, some of the 26 defendants reported STRICTLYHayes on vaguely worded charges that that they had been tortured in pre-trial included “defaming” the Emir and the detention; their allegations were not judiciary. During his trial, Waleed Hayes investigated. In August the authorities re- claimed he wasUNTIL tortured to make him arrested 14 men who had been acquitted and released on appeal. THURSDAY 230 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY DEATH PENALTY In March the Emir ordered that the nationality Executions were carried out on 25 January, of some government critics and their families the first since 2013. Courts continued to be reinstated. hand down death sentences for offences On 2 January the Court of Cassation including murder, drugs offences and suspended the Appeal Court’s decision to terrorism-related charges. restore the nationality of Ahmad Jabr al- Shamari and his family until it issued its verdict. In early March, Ahmad Jabr al- Shamari withdrew his appeal against the KYRGYZSTAN 2014 government decision to strip him of his Kyrgyz Republic nationality and in April the Cassation Court Head of state: Sooronbai Jeenbekov (replaced closed the case, declaring the dispute Almazbek Atambaev in October) resolved. Head of government: Sapar Isakov (replaced Sooronbai Jeenbekov in August) DISCRIMINATION – BIDUN GMT 2018 More than 100,000 Bidun residents of The authorities restricted the rights to Kuwait remained stateless. In May 2016, freedom of expression and peaceful Parliament had approved a draft law that assembly, particularly in the run-up to the would grant Kuwaiti citizenship to up to presidential elections. LGBTI people 4,000 Bidun, but it had not been enacted by continued to face discrimination and the end of 2017. In September the UN violence from state and non-state actors. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Vulnerable groups, including people with Discrimination recommended that all Bidun disabilities, faced additional difficulties should be guaranteed access to adequate accessing05:01 health care. The life sentence of social services and education on an equal prisoner of conscience Azimjan Askarov was footing with Kuwaiti nationals, and that in its upheld/ following his retrial. next periodic report Kuwait should provide information on access to education for Bidun. PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE On 24 January, the Chui Regional Court WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT ETcompleted the retrial of prisoner of WORKERS EMBARGOEDconscience AzimjanFEBRUARY Askarov, an ethnic Migrant workers, including those in the Uzbek human rights defender, and upheld domestic, construction and other sectors, his conviction and life sentence for continued to face exploitation and abuse “participating in ethnic violence and the under the official kafala sponsorship system, murder of22 a police officer” in 2010. In March which prevents them from changing jobs or 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee leaving the country without their employers’ recommended that Azimjan Askarov be permission. released immediately, recognizing that he 00:01 had been tortured, denied the right to a fair WOMEN’S RIGHTS trial and detained arbitrarily and under In May, the UN Working Group on the issue inhumane conditions. Following the 24 of discrimination against women in law and in January decision, the UN Office of the High practice recognized improvements, including Commissioner for Human Rights stated that women’s rights to vote, to stand for elections the Court’s decision highlighted “serious STRICTLYand to receive equal pay to men. shortcomings” in the country’s judicial Discrimination against women continued, system. however, with regard to laws on inheritance, In September, a court in the town of Bazar- marriage, childUNTIL custody, nationality rights and Korgan overturned the 2010 court decision to domestic violence. confiscate Azimjan Askarov’s family home. If THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 231 approved, the confiscation order would have FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND rendered his wife, Khadicha Askarova, ASSEMBLY homeless. The authorities imposed restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, assembly, particularly in the run-up to the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE October presidential elections. Independent LGBTI people continued to face journalists, media outlets, human rights discrimination and violence from state and defenders and political activists faced non-state actors. Labrys, an LGBTI rights intimidation and harassment, including group, continued its efforts to bring to justice prosecution on charges of spreading false the suspected perpetrators of a violent attack information and destabilizing the country. in 2015 on its office and on a private event to Between March and April, the General mark the International Day against Prosecutor’s Office initiated a number of civil Homophobia and Transphobia. Criminal trials court proceedings for defamation against against the members of a nationalist youth online media outlet Zanoza.kg, its co- group behind the attacks collapsed when the founders and independentGMT journalists 2018 victims named in the court documents Narynbek Idinov and Dina Maslova, and “reconciled” with the perpetrators. human rights defender Cholpon Dzhakupova. This was in connection with media articles SEX WORKERS critical of the President. In June, the court Sex work was not criminalized but continued ruled in favour of the plaintiff in two trials and to be highly stigmatized, and sex workers ordered Zanoza.kg as well as the other three faced discrimination and violence. Police defendants to pay 3 million soms operations targeting sex workers through (USD44,000) each in moral damages. The arbitrary arrests for “petty hooliganism” and Supreme 05:01Court upheld the rulings in other purported administrative offences November. continued throughout the year. Police officers On 18/ March, police disrupted a peaceful regularly extorted money from sex workers. demonstration in the capital Bishkek and arrested a number of participants. Human RIGHT TO HEALTH rights defenders, journalists, and other Marginalized groups, including people living ETactivists had organized the march to protest in rural areas, people livingEMBARGOED in poverty, and against the deteriorationFEBRUARY of freedom of people with disabilities, continued to face expression. The route had been previously barriers to accessing adequate health care. agreed with the relevant authorities. Five Although they were entitled to free or demonstrators were charged and sentenced subsidized health care, they were routinely to five days’22 administrative detention for denied access to quality health care facilities, disrupting traffic. The hearing was closed, specialist treatment and medications. including to the defendants’ lawyers who Informal payments to medical personnel, who were denied access to the courtroom. were affected by low salaries, were00:01 In July, a court in Bishkek accepted a commonplace. request by the Mayor’s Office for a blanket ban on all public demonstrations at key LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR locations until after the presidential elections. INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS The ban, however, did not apply to official Kyrgyzstan signed the UN Convention on the events organized by the authorities. STRICTLYRights of Persons with Disabilities in 2011, but had not ratified it, citing Kyrgyzstan’s economic difficultiesUNTIL as the primary reason. THURSDAY 232 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSEMBLY LAOS AND ASSOCIATION Various criminal code provisions and Lao People’s Democratic Republic restrictive decrees were used to imprison Head of state: Bounnhang Vorachith activists and to suppress the rights to Head of government: Thongloun Sisoulith freedom of expression and assembly. Broadcast media, print media and civil The rights to freedom of expression, society activity remained under stringent association and peaceful assembly state control. Political parties other than the remained severely restricted, and the state ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party exercised strict control over media and civil remained banned. society. Three activists were convicted in a After a secret trial held in April, activists trial concerning their participation in Soukan Chaithad, Somphone Phimmasone protests in Thailand and comments made and Lodkham Thammavong were convicted on social media. There was no progress on on charges relating to co-operating with investigations into a number of enforced foreign entities to undermineGMT the state, 2018 disappearances. distributing propaganda, and organizing protests to cause “turmoil”. They were BACKGROUND sentenced to between 12 and 20 years in Laos submitted state party reports to the UN prison. The three had been arrested the Human Rights Committee, as well as to the previous year after returning from Thailand to CEDAW Committee and the UN Committee renew their passports. They had previously on the Rights of the Child. participated in a protest outside the Lao embassy in the Thai capital, Bangkok, and ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES posted a number05:01 of messages on Facebook Despite signing the International Convention criticizing the Lao government. In August, the for the Protection of All Persons from UN Working/ Group on Arbitrary Detention Enforced Disappearance in 2008, Laos had declared that their detention was arbitrary. yet to ratify the treaty. Also in August, the government passed a The government failed to establish the fate Decree on Associations that imposed onerous or whereabouts of Sombath Somphone, a ETregistration requirements and restrictions on prominent civil society memberEMBARGOED who was NGOs and other civicFEBRUARY groups and stipulated abducted in 2012 outside a police post in the harsh criminal penalties for failure to comply. capital, Vientiane. CCTV cameras captured him being stopped by police and driven ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL away. Authorities also failed to establish the RIGHTS22 fate or whereabouts of Kha Yang, a Lao Villagers affected by development projects, ethnic Hmong arrested after his forced return including the construction of dams and a from Thailand in 2011, and of Sompawn Laos-China railway, were forced to relocate. Khantisouk, an entrepreneur who00:01 was active They claimed that they had not been on conservation issues and abducted in 2007 adequately consulted or compensated. In by men believed to be police. April, the Prime Minister acknowledged In July, Ko Tee, a Thai political activist problems with implementing land concession sought by the Thai government, disappeared regulations. Activists expressed concerns in Laos. The Lao government made no about damage to livelihoods and the STRICTLYapparent efforts to investigate his environment caused by the construction of disappearance. hydropower dams. UNTIL THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 233 Council of Europe Commissioner for Human LATVIA Rights described the fine as disproportionate and raised concerns about the harmful effect Republic of Latvia of such a measure on the right to freedom of Head of state: Raimonds Vējonis expression in the country. Head of government: Māris Kučinskis DISCRIMINATION Ill-treatment of detainees by law In August, the government put forward draft enforcement officials continued to be legislation which effectively prohibits wearing reported and prison conditions remained the full-face veil in public. The Justice poor. A disproportionate fine imposed on a Ministry argued that the measure would news portal for defamation gave rise to protect people’s welfare and morality, and concerns about the right to freedom of facilitate the integration of immigrants. Critics expression. The government put forward called the legislation discriminatory and draft legislation that would discriminate disproportionate. against women wearing full-face veils in GMT 2018 public places. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS Latvia continued to build a fence along its UNFAIR TRIALS border with Russia, expected to be In January, the European Court of Human completed in 2019 and to cover a 90km Rights found that Latvia had violated the area, with the stated aim of preventing an European Convention on Human Rights, “influx of migrants”. including in relation to Article 6 because Under the EU relocation and resettlement proceedings had exceeded a reasonable time schemes, Latvia pledged to relocate 481 in the case of a man seeking compensation asylum-seekers05:01 from Greece and Italy. By for injuries inflicted on him by a police officer May it had relocated 308. upon his arrest in 1995. The man alleged he / had lost his sight as a result of being beaten WOMEN’S RIGHTS and kicked by the officer. Although the In March, the Minister of Welfare announced perpetrator was convicted of ill-treatment in that the government would ratify the Council 2003, the complainant had not received ETof Europe Convention on preventing and adequate reparations. EMBARGOEDcombating violenceFEBRUARY against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) by DETENTION the end of 2018. In June, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture called on the authorities 22 to address inter-prisoner violence and improve prisoners’ access to health care. It LEBANON also expressed concerns about allegations of Lebanese Republic excessive use of force by police00:01 officers Head of state: Michel Aoun during the apprehension and questioning of Head of government: Saad Hariri suspects in the absence of their lawyers. Lebanon hosted more than 1 million FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION refugees from Syria, in addition to several In January, the Riga Higher Court ordered the hundred thousand long-term Palestinian STRICTLYnews portal Tvnet to pay a EUR50,000 fine refugees and more than 20,000 refugees for damaging the reputation of the Latvian from other countries. The authorities National Opera and Ballet. Tvnet had maintained restrictions that effectively published an articleUNTIL criticizing it for becoming closed Lebanon’s borders to people fleeing a “public house of Putin’s court”. The Syria. Parliament repealed a law allowing THURSDAY 234 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 people accused of rape to escape agency, from registering newly arrived punishment by marrying their victim, and refugees. passed a new law criminalizing torture. Syrian refugees faced financial and Access to essential services remained administrative difficulties in obtaining or curtailed by the economic crisis. Authorities renewing residency permits, exposing them handed down death sentences; there were to a constant risk of arbitrary arrest, detention no executions. and forcible return to Syria. In February the authorities introduced a waiver of the BACKGROUND 300,000 Lebanese pound (USD200) The economic crisis continued. Access to residency fee for Syrian refugees registered basic services, including electricity and water, with UNHCR, excluding those who had remained severely curtailed across the entered Lebanon after January 2015 or who country. Public protests and strikes had renewed their residency through work or continued throughout the year, including by a private sponsor, as well as Palestinian judges, public sector staff, parents and refugees from Syria. The waiver was not workers, as well as residents living near sites applied consistently by governmentGMT officials, 2018 of unprocessed waste. Waste and many refugees were not able to renew mismanagement, which had prompted the their residency permits. largest protests in years, remained Refugees from Syria continued to face unresolved. severe economic hardship. According to the On 4 November, Prime Minister Hariri UN, 76% of Syrian refugee households lived announced his resignation in a speech below the poverty line and more than half delivered from the Saudi Arabian capital, lived in substandard conditions in Riyadh, under circumstances that remained overcrowded buildings and densely unclear. President Aoun did not accept his populated05:01 neighbourhoods. Refugees faced resignation. restrictions to finding official work and were The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the subjected/ to curfews and other restrictions on armed group Hezbollah launched two military their movement in a number of operations in the northern border town of municipalities. Several municipalities served Arsal against the armed groups Jabhat Al- refugees with eviction notices, forcing them Nusra and Islamic State (IS), in July and ETto seek alternative places to live in an August respectively. By theEMBARGOED end of August, increasingly hostileFEBRUARY and xenophobic the LAF had regained control of Arsal and the environment. In March the LAF issued surrounding area, and retrieved the bodies of eviction notices to refugees living in camps in 10 Lebanese soldiers taken hostage by IS the vicinity of Riyak Airbase in the Bekaa in 2014. region, affecting22 around 12,665 individuals. In the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el- The UN humanitarian appeal for Syrian Helweh, in the southern city of Saida, clashes refugees in Lebanon was only 56% funded erupted between IS and IS-affiliated groups by the end of the year and resettlement on the one hand, and Palestinian00:01 armed places in other countries remained groups and the LAF. inadequate. In June, the Parliament approved a new On 30 June the LAF conducted raids on two electoral law and scheduled the twice- informal tented settlements accommodating postponed parliamentary elections for May Syrian refugees in Arsal. At least 350 men 2018, the first to take place since 2009. were arrested during the raids. Most were STRICTLY subsequently released but there were reports REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS that some detainees were tortured and A government decision from May 2015 otherwise ill-treated by soldiers and four men continued to barUNTIL UNHCR, the UN refugee died while in custody. The authorities did not THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 235 publish any findings from their investigations Committee on the Rights of the Child also into these deaths. included this recommendation in its Between June and August, thousands of concluding observations on Lebanon, in Syrians returned from Arsal to Syria, mostly addition to calling on Lebanon to ensure that following agreements negotiated by citizenship would be conferred to children Hezbollah with armed groups in Syria. who would otherwise be stateless. Palestinian refugees, including many long- Women migrant workers continued to suffer term residents in Lebanon, remained subject discriminatory laws and practices, restricting to discriminatory laws excluding them from their rights to freedom of movement, owning or inheriting property, accessing education and health, including sexual and public education and health services, or reproductive health. working in at least 36 professions. At least 3,000 Palestinian refugees who did not hold RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, official identity documents faced further TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE restrictions denying them the right to register The Internal Security Forces (ISF) continued births, marriages and deaths. to arrest people and press GMTcharges under 2018 Lebanon had not yet ratified the 1951 UN Article 534 of the Penal Code, which Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. criminalized “sexual intercourses which contradict the laws of nature” and was used TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT to prosecute LGBTI people. In May, Lebanon made its first appearance In May the ISF banned several activities that before the UN Committee against Torture, had been planned across the country to mark following ratification of the UN Convention International Day against Homophobia and against Torture and its Optional Protocol in Transphobia, citing security concerns 2000 and 2008, respectively. A new anti- following threats05:01 made by radical Islamist torture law came into effect on 26 October. groups. The law was largely aligned with Lebanon’s / international obligations but failed to FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION incorporate the Committee’s observations The ISF Cybercrime and Intellectual Property with regards to the statute of limitations and Bureau continued to interrogate, arrest and penalties for committing the crime of torture. EThold in pre-trial detention peaceful activists Moreover, the law failed toEMBARGOED provide that army for posting commentsFEBRUARY on social media. The officers accused of torture would be tried Public Prosecution issued at least four arrest before civilian courts. orders on charges that included “insulting the President… the flag or the national WOMEN’S RIGHTS emblem”,22 “defamation” and “libel and In August, the Parliament repealed Article slander”. During their pre-trial detention, 522 of the Penal Code which allowed a which lasted several days, most of the person convicted of kidnapping or rape, activists were denied access to their lawyers including statutory rape, to escape00:01 and families. prosecution if they proposed to marry the victim. Civil society organizations continued RIGHT TO HEALTH to call for the repeal of Articles 505 and 518, In August the governmental General which allowed for marriage with minors aged Disciplinary Council confirmed that expired between 15 and 18 as a way to escape and fake drugs were being used to treat STRICTLYprosecution. cancer at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Women’s rights groups continued to Hospital, the capital’s largest public hospital, advocate for the right of women married to and took disciplinary action against the head foreign nationalsUNTIL to pass their nationality to of the hospital pharmacy. their husband and children. The UN THURSDAY 236 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Civil society raised a number of cases Police Commissioner said that a criminal before the judiciary related to violations of the investigation into the case was ongoing. rights to health and clean water, including In August the High Court ruled in favour of a cases related to the sale of expired drugs in habeas corpus application brought by the public hospitals and to waste family of Mokalekale Khetheng who mismanagement; these efforts were disappeared on 26 March 2016 after arrest unsuccessful, either as a result of delayed on unspecified charges by four LMPS officers court rulings or failure to implement rulings. in Leribe District. In August, the police officers were arrested in connection with his DEATH PENALTY murder; Mokalekale Khetheng’s body was Courts continued to hand down death exhumed. The former Minister of Defence sentences; no executions were carried out. was then arrested in connection with the murder. He and the officers were also charged with conspiracy to cause a LESOTHO disappearance. The former Minister was released on bail in September.GMT The former 2018 Kingdom of Lesotho National Police Commissioner, who remained Head of state: King Letsie III abroad throughout the year, was apparently Head of government: Thomas Motsoahae Thabane implicated in the case although he was not (replaced Pakalitha Mosisili in June) charged. On 5 September, Lesotho Defence Force The continued political and security crisis (LDF) Commander Khoantle Motsomotso was led to a sharp increase in human rights shot dead in his office at the LDF violations. Allegations of torture and other headquarters in the capital, Maseru. Two ill-treatment continued. The right to suspects in05:01 the killing, LDF members freedom of expression remained severely Brigadier Bulane Sechele and Colonel Tefo restricted. There were unlawful killings. Hashatsi,/ also died in retaliatory fire. The Prime Minister announced an investigation BACKGROUND into the incident. No further information On 1 March, after months of unrest, about the progress of the investigation had Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in ETbeen received by the end of the year. then Prime Minister PakalithaEMBARGOED Mosisili. On 7 FEBRUARY March, King Letsie announced Parliament’s IMPUNITY dissolution and elections were held on 3 On 14 June, Lipolelo Thabane, the estranged June. A coalition government, led by Thomas wife of Prime Minister Thabane, was killed on Thabane of the All Basotho Convention party, the eve of22 his inauguration. The National was formed. Police Commissioner said that a criminal investigation into the case was ongoing. UNLAWFUL KILLINGS In August, the Southern Africa Development On 28 April, Tumelo Mohlomi, 00:01a student from Community (SADC) extended the tenure of the University of Lesotho was killed when she an oversight committee, established in 2016 was shot in the back of the head by a to ensure implementation of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) recommendations made by its Commission of officer while she was in a restaurant outside Inquiry. The Commission was set up in the the campus. A police officer was arrested light of heightened political instability in 2015 STRICTLYafter the killing and apparently released on and, among other things, investigated the bail. The victim’s family brought a civil case killing by LDF soldiers of former army chief of murder against the LMPS, which sought Lieutenant-General Maaparankoe Mahao. an out-of-courtUNTIL settlement. The National The Commission found that he was deliberately killed and recommended a THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 237 criminal investigation. In June his widow FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION instituted a case for damages against the The right to freedom of expression continued LDF’s Commander, the Minister of Defence to be threatened. Nkoale Oetsi Tsoana, a and National Security and the Attorney journalist with Moeletsi Oa Basotho, received General. On 1 December, eight LDF death threats from Lesotho Congress for members appeared before the Maseru Democracy (LCD) supporters in August while Magistrates Court on charges connected to he covered the Directorate on Corruption and his killing. Economic Offences’ investigation into corruption allegations against LCD leader and UNFAIR TRIALS former Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa In August, the Prime Minister postponed Metsing. The same day, Palo Mohlotsane, a indefinitely the court-martial of 23 LDF PC-FM radio journalist, received threats from officers accused of mutiny. Sixteen officers the Deputy Leader and members of the LCD were released from prison in 2016; the after he covered the same story. remaining seven were released on 1 March Nthakoana Ngatane, South African 2017. All 23 were under “open arrest”, a Broadcasting Corporation correspondent,GMT 2018 form of military bail,1 for most of the year. In received repeated online death threats from August, 22 of the officers had signed a June after she reported on possible motives petition to the government raising concerns for the killing of Lipolelo Thabane. On 16 that the deferred court-martial could June crowds gathered outside MoAfrika FM undermine their rights to redress and radio station’s offices and threatened the requesting that due process be followed and owner, Sebonomoea Ramainoane, after the that their open arrest be cancelled. In station implicated Prime Minister Thabane in November, the High Court ordered the court- the killing of his wife. On 8 September the martial against one of them to be Maseru Magistrate05:01 Court ordered discontinued. On 18 December, a court- Sebonomoea Ramainoane, also the station’s martial hearing found the remaining 22 editor-in-chief,/ to release to the LMPS the soldiers not guilty on all charges. station’s audio recordings of interviews aired between 28 August and 6 September. On 13 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT September, the authorities closed the station Thato Makara said that he was tortured and ETfor 72 hours and on 15 September detained otherwise ill-treated after heEMBARGOED reported to the Sebonomoea RamainoaneFEBRUARY for several hours. Maseru police headquarters in April; he had On 25 September, the Lesotho High Court been summoned in connection with a cancelled the Magistrate Court’s order. murder case. He attended the police station On 29 August, exiled investigative journalist with his employer, Thuso Litjobo, president of Keiso Mohloboli22 received online death threats the Alliance for Democrats Youth League, for comments she posted on social media who was released the same evening. Thato about human rights violations in Lesotho. She Makara said that he was taken to Ha Matela had received similar threats on 10 June. police holding cell in the Maseru00:01 area, and On 13 December, five members of the LDF then to Lekhalo La Baroa where he was went on trial for the attempted murder of the subjected to torture including waterboarding, Lesotho Times editor Lloyd Mutungamiri in rubber gloves tied over his mouth and nose, July 2016. He suffered near fatal gunshot and beatings. After a habeas corpus wounds after being attacked outside his application, Thato Makara appeared in court home in Maseru. The shooting followed his STRICTLYwhere he testified about his torture; he was newspaper’s publication of an article claiming released on 18 April. He was charged with that the outgoing LDF head was to receive an murder the next day in connection with a exit package of USD3.5 million. death at a politicalUNTIL rally. He was bailed on 20 April. THURSDAY 238 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 crimes committed by Alieu Kosiah and 1. Lesotho: A human rights agenda for the new Lesotho government Martina Johnson – commanders in rebel (AFR 33/6468/2017) groups − who were arrested in Switzerland and Belgium respectively, in 2014. LIBERIA DETENTION Prisons continued to be overcrowded, partly Republic of Liberia because hundreds of people were held in Head of state and government: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf prolonged pre-trial detention. Detainees had inadequate access to medical care and Domestic violence, and sexual violence recreational facilities. In June, an inmate against women and girls remained became pregnant by a male prisoner at widespread. Impunity for human rights Tubmanburg Central Prison after she was violations persisted. Prison conditions did coerced into sex. The incident was facilitated not meet international standards and by prison officers who then took her to have individuals were frequently held in an abortion without her consent.GMT Following an 2018 prolonged pre-trial detention. investigation, several prison officers were dismissed; however, none of them were BACKGROUND known to have been prosecuted. Presidential and legislative elections began in October. George Weah, of the Congress for FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Democratic Change party, was elected as A bill was introduced in the House of President on 26 December and was expected Representatives to decriminalize press to take up his position in January 2018. offences, particularly related to libel. It The practice of placing government schools remained 05:01pending at the end of the year. under the control of a private company limited children’s access to adequate RIGHT/ TO EDUCATION education, a concern raised in 2016 by the In August, 174 national and international UN Special Rapporteur on the right to organizations called on investors to stop education. supporting Bridge International Academies, a ETprivate company that runs 25 schools in IMPUNITY EMBARGOEDLiberia and other FEBRUARYAfrican countries. Earlier, in Most of the 2009 recommendations of the March, the Coalition for Transparency and Truth and Reconciliation Commission were Accountability in Education highlighted yet to be implemented, including a concerns about the company’s practices recommendation to establish a criminal such as capping22 classroom numbers in tribunal to prosecute crimes under government schools, a practice that left international law, and measures aimed at children without access to a local school. The obtaining accountability and reparation for running of these schools had been victims. The Commission was established00:01 outsourced to the Bridge International following human rights violations and abuses Academies in 2016. carried out during the 14-year civil war which ended in 2003. WOMEN’S RIGHTS No one had been prosecuted in Liberia for Domestic violence, rape and other forms of human rights violations committed during the sexual violence against women and girls, STRICTLYcivil war. However, Mohammed Jabbateh was including practices such as female genital convicted of perjury and immigration fraud in mutilation and early marriage remained the USA, in relation to his role in alleged war widespread. Impunity for rape and other crimes. InvestigationsUNTIL also continued in forms of violence against women remained Switzerland and Belgium into alleged war prevalent. However, a domestic violence bill THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 239 was passed by the legislature in July and was groups abducted, arbitrarily arrested and awaiting the President’s signature at the end indefinitely detained thousands of people. of the year. The government, the UN and Torture and other ill-treatment was development partners continued to invest in widespread in prisons under the control of sexual and gender-based violence units, armed groups, militias and state officials. located in police stations and government Migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers were ministries to investigate sexual abuse and subjected to widespread and systematic violence, as well as a specialized court to serious human rights violations and abuses deal with such crimes in Montserrado County at the hands of state officials, smugglers in the northwest. The authorities continued to and armed groups. Women faced run 12 one-stop centres in seven counties discrimination, including arbitrary which offered medical and support services restrictions on their right to travel. The to survivors of sexual violence. death penalty remained in force; no Affordable and accessible abortion services executions were reported. continued to be largely unavailable to rape survivors, despite legislation allowing for BACKGROUND GMT 2018 abortion in sexual violence cases where the Three rival governments and hundreds of attack is recorded with the police and militias and armed groups continued to authorization given by two medical compete for power and control over territory, professionals. Unsafe abortions continued to lucrative trade routes and strategic military contribute to Liberia having one of highest locations. The UN-backed Government of rates of maternal deaths and injuries in National Accord (GNA) continued to reinforce Africa. its positions in the capital, Tripoli, gradually gaining territory through strategic alliances RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, and often 05:01after armed clashes. In May, the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade and the Abu LGBTI people experienced discrimination, Salim /Brigade, both affiliated to the GNA’s harassment and threats. The Penal Code Ministry of the Interior, removed the coalition criminalized consensual sexual activity of militias supporting the Government of between same-sex adults. A man arrested in National Salvation (GNS) from their key June 2012 on allegations of “voluntary ETpositions in Tripoli. These included the site of sodomy” remained in detentionEMBARGOED at the Hadba prison whereFEBRUARY former senior officials Monrovia Central Prison at the end of the from the rule of Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi were year. detained, and Tripoli International Airport, where they took control of key strategic areas, including22 the airport road. The self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), LIBYA led by Khalifa Haftar, consolidated its power State of Libya and made significant gains in eastern Libya Head of state: Disputed 00:01 after defeating the Shura Council of Benghazi Head of government: Fayez Serraj Revolutionaries (SCBR) in Benghazi and evicting the Benghazi Defence Brigades Forces affiliated to three rival governments, (BDB) from Benghazi, the oil port of Ras as well as armed groups and militias, Lanuf and the desert military base of al-Jufra. committed serious violations of In May, the Misrata 3rd force aided by the STRICTLYinternational law and abuses of human BDB attacked the Brak al-Shati air base, rights with impunity. All sides to the resulting in the deaths of 141 people conflict carried out indiscriminate attacks including LNA soldiers. The LNA regained in heavily populatedUNTIL areas leading to deaths control of the air base, aided by air strikes of civilians and unlawful killings. Armed from the Egyptian air force. THURSDAY 240 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In July the Constitutional Drafting Assembly Ganfouda area of Benghazi by launching an approved the new draft Constitution, an attack to drive the BDB forces out of one of initiative that had begun in 2014. No date their last strongholds in the city. The two- was set for the referendum on the month siege had cut off all supplies to the Constitution. area, including food and water, and had In September and November, the USA trapped civilians and wounded fighters carried out several strikes by remotely piloted without access to medical care and other vehicles (drones) in Libya including south of basic services. The attack on Ganfouda was Sirte, targeting the armed group Islamic State indiscriminate and resulted in the deaths of (IS). In May, the armed group Ansar al- at least five civilians. LNA fighters posed for Shari’a in Libya announced its own photos with the bodies, including the dissolution. exhumed body of a BDB commander who In September, the UN Security Council had been killed in air strikes and buried in extended the mandate of the UN Support the days prior to the ground attack. Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) until 15 In July the LNA tightened its siege on the September 2018. Ghassan Salamé, the UN’s city of Derna in its fight againstGMT the Derna 2018 newly appointed Special Representative for Mujahideen Shora Council, hindering access Libya, outlined his action plan, which to food, petrol and medical supplies, resulting included amending the UN-brokered Libyan in a rapid deterioration of the humanitarian Political Agreement (LPA), convening a situation in the city. A series of air strikes on national congress, and holding legislative and Derna killed scores of civilians and injured presidential elections in 2018. In December, others, including children. the UN Security Council reiterated its commitment to the LPA as the only viable UNLAWFUL KILLINGS framework for the transition period. In March,05:01 LNA-affiliated fighters were filmed killing captured SCBR fighters, a serious INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT violation/ of international humanitarian law Armed clashes between rival forces and a war crime. In August, the ICC issued a continued to take place sporadically warrant for the arrest of Mahmoud el-Werfelli throughout the country, with armed groups for alleged war crimes committed while he and militias carrying out indiscriminate ETwas field commander of the Special Forces attacks in heavily populatedEMBARGOED areas leading to Brigade (Al-Saiqa) FEBRUARY affiliated to the LNA, the deaths of civilians. In February, clashes including for involvement in the March between militias in the Abu Salim area of killings. Tripoli resulted in two civilians being killed A number of mass graves were uncovered and three injured, including a child who was in Benghazi22 between February and October. shot in the head by a stray bullet. In July, On at least four occasions, groups of bodies clashes broke out between two militias near were found in different parts of the city with Mitiga airport in Tripoli over the control of a their hands bound behind their backs, and in local beach resort. The militias 00:01used some cases blindfolded with signs of torture explosive weapons with wide-area effects, and execution-style killing. In August, the including rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), bodies of six unidentified men were found in in densely populated civilian areas. In one a rubbish bin in the eastern Benghazi case, RPGs hit a nearby beach, killing five neighbourhood of Shabneh. The bodies civilians – two women and three children – showed signs of torture and had bullet STRICTLYfrom the same family. A forensic doctor in wounds in the head and chest. On 26 Tripoli confirmed that the deaths were caused October, the bodies of 36 men were found on by shrapnel from an RPG. a deserted road south of the town of al-Abyar, In March, LNAUNTIL forces broke the siege they including a 71-year-old Sufi sheikh who had had imposed on an apartment complex in the THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 241 been abducted in August, and a medical armed group in Bayda abducted cameraman student. Musa Khamees Ardia and transferred him to Grenada prison in the east. He was released FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION without charge on 3 November. AND ASSOCIATION Armed groups and militias abducted and Journalists, activists and human rights unlawfully detained hundreds of people defenders were particularly vulnerable to because of their opinions, origin, perceived harassment, attacks and enforced political affiliations or perceived wealth. disappearance by armed groups and militias Those abducted included political activists, aligned with various authorities of rival lawyers, human rights activists and other governments. civilians. Militias carried out abductions with In the west, Special Deterrence (Radaa) the aim of extracting ransoms from families, forces operating under the Ministry of the to negotiate an exchange of detainees, or to Interior of the GNA carried out a series of silence criticism. In April a militia abducted a arrests, targeting people for peacefully university professor in Sayyad on the outskirts exercising their right to freedom of of Tripoli. He was held for 47GMT days in an 2018 association and other rights. In September, undisclosed location with little access to food, an imam in Tripoli was arbitrarily arrested by water and medication. In August, unidentified Radaa on suspicion of using his mosque to militiamen abducted former Prime Minister incite violence. He remained in detention at Ali Zeidan from a hotel in Tripoli. He was the end of the year. In November, Radaa released after eight days. forces raided a comic-book convention in Tripoli and arrested 20 people, including the JUSTICE SYSTEM organizers and some attendees. They were An environment of impunity continued to released at the end of November. prevail, leaving05:01 perpetrators of serious abuses In the east, forces associated with the LNA emboldened and without fear of targeted journalists and others deemed to accountability,/ which in turn threatened have criticized Khalifa Haftar and LNA forces. prospects of political stability. Courts and Armed groups composed of adherents of the prosecutors’ offices were dysfunctional and Madkhali doctrine, a strand of Salafism often feared reprisals for their work. The post inspired by the Saudi Arabian sheikh Rabee ETof Public Prosecutor remained vacant. In al-Madkhali, burned booksEMBARGOED and abducted September, seniorFEBRUARY prosecutor Sadik Essour student members of a university group who announced that 800 arrest warrants had had organized an Earth Day event on their been issued and 250 people had been campus in Benghazi. Those abducted referred to court for their involvement in included photographer Abdullah Duma, who political violence.22 In October, just hours was later released. In September a radio host before one of these trials was due to start, a from the city of al-Marj was detained for gun and suicide-bomb attack on a court in nearly three weeks for openly criticizing a GNA-controlled Misrata killed four people - decision made by Abdelraziq al-Nathouri,00:01 the two civilians and two security personnel - and LNA’s military governor of eastern Libya. injured at least 40. IS claimed responsibility for the attack. ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS Torture was widespread in prisons, where Militias, armed groups and security forces thousands were held without charge. Many affiliated to rival governments continued to detainees had been held since 2011 with no STRICTLYarbitrarily arrest and indefinitely detain judicial oversight or means to challenge the thousands of people. In the east, militias legality of their detention. operating as security forces associated with None of the parties to the conflict the LNA abductedUNTIL people and imprisoned implemented any of the human rights them without charge or trial. In June, an provisions in the UN-brokered Libya Political THURSDAY 242 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Agreement of December 2015, including organization CNN showing the apparent sale those obliging them to release detainees held of migrants into slavery caused international without legal basis. outrage. Libyan law continued to criminalize the irregular entry, stay or exit of foreign INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE nationals, and still lacked a legal framework Some 40,000 former residents of the town of for asylum. In November, UNHCR, the UN Tawargha, near Misrata, remained displaced refugee agency, announced that it had for a sixth year. In June a political agreement reached an agreement with the Libyan was signed by the mayor of Misrata, the authorities to temporarily accommodate Tawargha local council and the Misrata- people from a transit centre who were in Tawargha Reconciliation Committee need of international protection. However, chairman, in the presence of Prime Minister there was no progress on a Memorandum of Serraj, ostensibly to allow the displaced Understanding that would formally recognize former residents to return to Tawargha. UNHCR’s operations in Libya. The However, the agreement made no mention of International Organization for Migration accountability for past crimes. Three days calculated that there were GMT416,556 migrants 2018 later, a group of Tawargha families attempted in Libya at the end of September. UNHCR to return but were threatened and intimidated stated that 44,306 people in Libya were at a checkpoint manned by residents of registered as refugees or asylum-seekers as Misrata and forced to return to Tripoli. By the of 1 December, but the actual number of end of the year there had been no progress refugees was likely to be higher. The on the return of the Tawargha people or the International Organization for Migration implementation of the agreement. continued to assist in the “voluntary return” of 19,370 nationals to their home countries MIGRANTS, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM- during the05:01 year, often from detention centres. SEEKERS In a significant development, UNHCR began Migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers were evacuating/ refugees and asylum-seekers, subjected to widespread and systematic taking 25 people to Niger for resettlement in serious human rights violations and abuses at France in November and 162 people to Italy the hands of detention centre officials, the in December. Libyan Coast Guard, smugglers and armed ET groups. Some were detainedEMBARGOED after being WOMEN’S RIGHTSFEBRUARY intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard at sea Women were particularly affected by the trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. ongoing conflict, which disproportionately It was estimated that up to 20,000 people affected their right to move freely and to were held in detention centres in Libya run participate22 in political and public life. by the Directorate for Combating Illegal In February the military in eastern Libya Migration (DCIM), a division of the Ministry of issued Decree No. 6 of 2017, restricting the Interior of the GNA. They were held in Libyan women under the age of 60 from horrific conditions of extreme overcrowding,00:01 travelling abroad without a legal male lacking access to medical care and adequate guardian. Following a public outcry and calls nutrition, and systematically subjected to from civil society for its removal, Decree No. torture and other ill-treatment, including 6 was replaced on 23 February with Decree sexual violence, severe beatings and No. 7, which stipulated that no Libyan male extortion. While the DCIM formally controlled or female between the ages of 18 and 45 STRICTLYbetween 17 and 36 centres, armed groups could travel abroad without prior “security and criminal gangs ran thousands of illicit approval”. The Decree failed to specify the holding sites throughout the country as part procedure required to obtain such approval of a lucrative people-smugglingUNTIL business. In or the criteria that would be used to grant or November, a video released by US media deny it. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 243 In the face of intimidation and targeting, RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, high-profile women activists continued to be TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE forced to retreat from public and political In April, the Vilnius City District Court ordered engagement. the Civil Registry Office to change the identity documents of a transgender individual who had applied for legal gender recognition, without them having to undergo gender LITHUANIA reassignment surgery. In May, the Court ruled Republic of Lithuania that the Civil Registry Office should change Head of state: Dalia Grybauskaitė the gender marker and personal identity Head of government: Saulius Skvernelis number of another transgender applicant. In July, the President signed an amendment The President signed legislation which to the Law on Equal Opportunities which discriminated against lesbian, gay and defines family members as “spouses or direct bisexual people. Parliament considered a descendants”, effectively excluding law which would severely restrict access to unmarried partners and therebyGMT preventing – 2018 abortion. Lithuania offered visas to two gay among others – same-sex couples from being men from the Russian republic of Chechnya legally considered as family members. who feared for their safety. In two separate cases, a district court ruled in favour of two SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS transgender people seeking to change their In October, Parliament considered a draft law identity documents without undergoing initiated by the Electoral Action of Poles in gender reassignment surgery. Lithuania, a political party. If implemented, it would restrict women’s access to abortion in INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY cases where05:01 the pregnancy poses a risk to The case of Abu Zubaydah v. Lithuania the woman’s life or health, or when it is the remained pending before the European Court result /of rape. of Human Rights. Abu Zubaydah alleged he had been forcibly disappeared and tortured at a secret CIA detention centre in Antaviliai, MACEDONIA a neighbourhood of Vilnius, Lithuania’s ET capital, between 2005 andEMBARGOED 2006. In The former Yugoslav FEBRUARYRepublic of Macedonia September, the UN Committee on Enforced Head of state: Gjorge Ivanov Disappearances urged Lithuania to Head of government: Zoran Zaev (replaced Emil investigate its involvement in US-led rendition Dimitriev in May) and secret detention programmes; hold those 22 responsible to account; and provide victims Impunity for war crimes persisted. Asylum- with appropriate redress and reparation. seekers and migrants were unlawfully detained. A court’s judgment provided for REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS00:01 legal gender recognition for transgender In May, Lithuania offered visas to two people. Chechen men who were seeking international protection outside of Russia for fear of BACKGROUND persecution based on their sexual orientation. Following elections in December 2016, the This followed allegations of abductions, Internal Macedonian Revolutionary STRICTLYtorture and other ill-treatment and in some Organization - Democratic Party for cases even the killing of men suspected of Macedonian National Unity gained over half being gay in Chechnya (see Russian the seats, but could not form a government. Federation entry).UNTIL The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) agreed to form a coalition with ethnic THURSDAY 244 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Albanian parties and formed a government in June 2014 of the killing of five Macedonians May 2017 following a violent invasion of at Easter 2012. The retrial was called on the Parliament by former government supporters. grounds that the 2014 trial had not met In November, a former police chief and international standards for fair trial. several MPs were arrested for their part in the disruption. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS The election followed a political crisis Asylum seekers and migrants, including triggered by the publication by SDSM in 2015 unaccompanied children, were unlawfully of audio recordings revealing unlawful detained at the Reception Centre for surveillance and widespread corruption Foreigners as witnesses in criminal within the government. proceedings against smugglers, for an The European Commission asked average of two weeks, after which they were Macedonia to implement measures including released. Most applied for asylum, but left ensuring the rule of law, the right to privacy, the country shortly afterwards. freedom of expression, an independent The European Court of Human Rights judiciary and an end to government (ECtHR) considered the caseGMT of eight 2018 corruption. refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who were among 1,500 refugees and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION migrants forcibly returned to Greece in March Until May, media freedom was seriously 2016 by the Macedonian authorities, who compromised by government interference in failed to examine their individual print and other media, including through the circumstances or provide an effective control of advertising and other revenues, remedy. resulting in widespread self-censorship and little investigative journalism. In March, 122 RIGHTS OF05:01 LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, NGOs issued a statement protesting against TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE the government’s apparent campaign to In September,/ the Administrative Court ruled undermine their work. that a transgender person could change their gender marker in the official registry, IMPUNITY providing for the legal recognition of gender The Special Prosecution Office, established ETidentity. to investigate crimes arisingEMBARGOED from the audio FEBRUARY recordings, opened an investigation into the SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 2011 murder of Martin Neshkovski and the A court in Skopje, the capital, determined in subsequent government cover-up. In June, July that the termination of a woman’s the Office indicted 94 former government employment22 contract, because she was officials, including former Prime Minister pregnant for a second time, constituted direct Gruevski and the former head of Security and discrimination. Counter Intelligence. Also in July, a local antenatal clinic in Suto Impunity for war crimes, including00:01 enforced Orizari, a predominatly Roma suburb of disappearances and abductions, persisted. Skopje, was reopened after eight years. In September, four newborn babies died within JUSTICE SYSTEM two days in the Clinic of Gynaecology and Following votes by the Council of Public Obstetrics in Skopje. A subsequent Prosecutors and the Parliament, Public inspection found a shortage of medical staff, STRICTLYProsecutor Marko Zvrlevski was removed babies sharing intensive care incubators, from office in August for his lack of faulty ventilation and a leaking roof. Between independence. In October, provisional Public January and October, 127 babies died. Prosecutor LiljanaUNTIL Spasovska called for the retrial of six ethnic Albanians, convicted in THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 245 DEATHS IN CUSTODY BACKGROUND In March, the European Roma Rights Centre An outbreak of pneumonic plague, first highlighted the deaths in custody of young reported in August, continued throughout the Romani men from overdoses of methadone year in rural and urban areas. Of 2,348 only available to prison guards, and the death reported cases between 1 August and 22 of a Romani woman, allegedly after she had November, 202 resulted in deaths. been ill-treated. In October the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY raised concerns about the failure since 2006 In July, the UN Human Rights Committee to improve the management of, and expressed concern about human rights conditions in, Idrizovo Prison in Skopje, violations including the excessive use of force where nine prisoners died in 2016. by police against alleged cattle rustlers (dahalos); and revenge attacks by members COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY of the security forces after two police officers In December, the Committee of Ministers were killed by villagers, in the northern town reviewed implementation of the judgment of of Antsakabary. GMT 2018 the ECtHR in 2012 in the case of German The Committee called on Madagascar to national Khaled el-Masri, expressing concern immediately provide the National Human at the failure to make a public apology and Rights Commission with an independent and requesting information on any progress in sufficient budget to enable it to carry out its implementing the judgment. The Court held mandate. It also recommended that the Macedonia liable for Khaled el-Masri's government expedite the establishment of the detention, enforced disappearance, torture High Council for the Defence of Democracy and other ill-treatment in 2003, and and the Rule of Law, whose mission included subsequent handover to the CIA which the promotion05:01 and protection of human transferred him to a secret detention site in rights, and provide it with financial autonomy. Afghanistan. / In November, 37 ethnic Albanian JUSTICE SYSTEM defendants were convicted of terrorism for The criminal justice system remained their participation or assistance in a seriously flawed and failed to guarantee due gun battle with police in Kumanovo in 2015, ETprocess. The excessive use of pre-trial in which 18 people were killed.EMBARGOEDdetention continued FEBRUARY despite provisions in the Constitution and the Code of Penal Procedure that limited its use as an MADAGASCAR exceptional measure for specific reasons; 60% of prison22 inmates were awaiting trial. Republic of Madagascar Despite constitutional provisions Head of state: Hery Rajaonarimampianina guaranteeing the right to legal defence at all Head of government: Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana stages of the process, where lack of 00:01 resources should not be an obstacle, lawyers There was widespread poverty; access to reported that they were not paid for legal aid food, water, health care and education was work, including trial attendance, and were restricted. Prison conditions remained prevented from fulfilling their duties. In harsh; the excessive use of pre-trial practice, pre-trial legal aid was not available. detention persisted. The criminal justice STRICTLYsystem continued to be used to harass and DETENTION intimidate human rights defenders and The government allowed international NGOs, journalists, and restrict their freedom of as well as the National Human Rights expression, particularlyUNTIL those working on Commission, to visit detention centres. environmental and corruption issues. THURSDAY 246 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Prisons were severely overcrowded and In July, police stopped a protest planned by conditions were inhumane. Food and the Movement for Freedom of Expression to medical care were inadequate. Toilets and mark the first anniversary of the passing of showers did not work properly, and some the new Code of Media Communication law prisons had open sewers putting inmates at which imposes heavy fines for offences such risk of disease. Most of the country’s prisons as contempt, defamation or insult against a had not been adequately renovated for more government official. than 60 years. Infrastructure was dilapidated and, in some instances, put prisoners’ lives at HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS risk. In July, four detainees were killed after a Human rights defenders who opposed wall collapsed in the Antsohihy prison in the projects to exploit natural resources, or who north. made allegations of corruption against Families of inmates reported being forced to government officials were particularly at risk pay bribes to visit their relatives and of harassment, arrests on trumped-up detainees relied on their families for food. charges, or other abuses under the criminal Antanimora prison in the capital, justice system. In June, afterGMT 10 months’ pre- 2018 Antananarivo, held around 2,850 detainees, trial detention on charges of organizing a the highest number of inmates in the country, protest which became violent, environmental and three times its intended capacity. activist Clovis Razafimalala was released from Overcrowding was mainly due to the large Tamatave prison. In July, the Tamatave number of pre-trial detainees, the ineffective Tribunal sentenced him to a five-year judicial system and lengthy trial delays. Some suspended prison sentence.1 On 27 detainees had been held for up to five years September, environmental activist Raleva was before being brought to trial. detained in Mananjary police station, in the In contravention of international standards, southeast,05:01 after he questioned the legality of convicted prisoners and pre-trial detainees a Chinese mining company in the Mananjary were held together. As of July, Tsiafahy region./2 He was later transferred to maximum security prison near Antananarivo Mananjary prison. On 26 October, the hosted 396 pre-trial detainees alongside Mananjary court found him guilty of using the sentenced prisoners, in inhumane false title of “Head of District”, and gave him conditions, despite National Law 2006-015 ETa two-year suspended sentence. stipulating that it should houseEMBARGOED only prisoners FEBRUARY serving life sentences or those considered to SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS be dangerous. The need to separate children Abortion remained criminalized in all cases from adults was not respected in all prisons. under Article 317 of the Penal Code. Anyone providing22 or attempting to provide an abortion FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY was subject to a heavy fine and Peaceful protests were repressed. Civil imprisonment of up to 10 years. Medical society organizations claimed that the personnel providing information on obtaining authorities banned protests on 00:01the grounds an abortion were subject to, in addition to that they were likely to be a “high risk of imprisonment and fines, suspension from public disorder”. In June, civil society practice for between five years and life. movements Wake-Up Madagascar and Women who sought or had abortions were SEFAFI, which works to improve democratic also subject to a heavy fine and up to two processes in the country, criticized a one- years’ imprisonment. Several women were STRICTLYmonth ban on public protests which the sent to prison for abortion-related offences government said was necessary to protect during the year. public order during National Day celebrations In July, the government stated that it was on 26 June. UNTIL working on a bill which would make abortion a minor offence. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 247 Later in July, the UN Human Rights violence. The Ministry of Gender, Children, Committee considered Madagascar’s fourth Disability and Social Welfare publicly periodic report. The Committee called for the expressed its concerns about the killings. decriminalization of abortion, and for greater One of the protesters, Beatrice Mateyo, was efforts to make sexual and reproductive arrested and charged with carrying a placard health services more accessible to women. bearing “offensive and obscene words”. She was charged with “insulting the modesty of a woman” under section 137(3) of the Penal 1. Madagascar: A Damocles sword on environmental activist’s head (AFR 35/6841/2017) Code and released on bail the same day. If 2. Madagascar: Environmental rights defender falsely accused − convicted she faced up to one year’s Raleva (AFR 35/7248/2017) imprisonment. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE MALAWI Harassment of and attacks against LGBTI Republic of Malawi people continued. In JanuaryGMT the People’s 2018 Head of State and Government: Arthur Peter Mutharika Party spokesman, Kenneth Msonda, publicly said that “gays are worse than dogs and must Two people were killed as attacks against be killed”. Activists brought a case against people with albinism resumed. Gender- him for inciting violence against gay and based violence increased. Lesbian, gay, lesbian people. The Constitutional Court was bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) considering whether charges should be people continued to live in fear of brought against him at the end of the year. harassment and attacks. Draft legislation In August, a 12-year-old boy stopped going threatened to silence NGOs and civil society to school after05:01 he faced repeated harassment organizations working on governance and and attacks, such as people throwing stones human rights issues. at him/ and urinating on him. He and his family lived in fear that he might be killed. DISCRIMINATION – PEOPLE WITH Same-sex sexual relations between ALBINISM consenting adults remained illegal. However, Attacks against people with albinism ETthe solicitor general intervened in April after resumed in January after EMBARGOEDan interval of seven political and churchFEBRUARY leaders held a protest months. Two people were killed. On 10 against LGBTI people. The Malawi Human January, Madalitso Pensulo, a teenage boy, Rights Commission indicated it would hold was killed in Mlonda village in the Tyolo public consultations on whether to reform the District. In February, Mercy Zainabu Banda law. 22 was found murdered in Lilongwe with her wrist, right breast and hair removed. In HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS March, two brothers were stabbed in Nsanje. Draft amendments to the NGO law remained As of 30 August, 20 murders of00:01 people with before Parliament. The amendments, which albinism which have taken place since 2014 introduced broad, excessive, intrusive and remained unresolved. arbitrary controls on the activities of NGOs, could silence critics including human rights VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS groups. If implemented, the law would Gender-based violence continued; seven establish an NGO Board under the Ministry of STRICTLYwomen were reported to have been Gender, Children, Disability and Social murdered in August and September alone. Welfare with wide discretionary powers, On 14 September, around 150 women including to approve NGOs’ funding participated inUNTIL a national march to protest applications to donor agencies; and to against the alarming levels of gender-based demand that such applications fall in line THURSDAY 248 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 with government policies and be designed to authorities also barred several human rights “advance the public interest”. NGOs would defenders from entering Malaysia; they be forced to register with the NGO Board included Bangladeshi activist Adilur Rahman which would have power to deregister them. Khan2 and Singaporean activist Han Hui Hui, They would also be required to sign who were deported after attempting to attend Memorandums of Understanding with local human rights conferences. Bans were government before operating in the secretive, arbitrary and not subject to appeal. community. No prior notice was given. FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY MALAYSIA Human rights defenders and opposition Malaysia parliamentarians continued to stand trial for Head of state: King Muhammad V participating in peaceful protests. In July, the Head of government: Najib Tun Razak Kota Kinabalu High Court reversed an earlier acquittal by the Magistrate’sGMT Court of activist 2018 Civic space shrank further as a crackdown Jannie Lasimbang who had been charged on civil and political rights continued. There under Section 9 of the Peaceful Assembly was a rise in the use of open-ended and Act 2012. Her trial was ongoing at the end of arbitrary travel bans to restrict and threaten the year. Parliamentarians and activists were the freedom of movement of human rights charged after joining the peaceful defenders. Indigenous rights activists and #KitaLawan (We Fight) protest rally; they journalists were arrested and investigated included MP Sim Tze Tzin, Maria Chin for campaigning against and reporting Abdullah, Mandeep Singh and Adam Adli. human rights abuses. Charges against05:01 Maria Chin Abdullah, Mandeep Singh and Sim Tze Tzin were FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION initially/ dismissed by the courts, but brought The government continued to harass, detain again in October. Adam Adli was acquitted of and prosecute critics through the use of his charges by the Magistrate’s Court in restrictive laws such as the Sedition Act and November. the Communications and Multimedia Act. ET More than 60 individuals EMBARGOEDwere arrested, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’FEBRUARY RIGHTS charged or imprisoned under various pieces In January, following peaceful protests of legislation. Four individuals were charged, against logging licences granted by local and another convicted, under Section 233 of authorities, 21 Indigenous human rights the Communications and Multimedia Act defenders22 from the Temiar people in the which criminalizes, among other things, the northern state of Kelantan were detained. “misuse of network facilities” for criticizing Two journalists were also arrested.3 They the government or for government-related were released within 48 hours, but the rights satire. 00:01 of the Temiar to their customary lands remained under threat because logging FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT activities continued without the free, prior In July, the Court of Appeal ruled that the and informed consent of the communities. In government has absolute discretion to bar August, 11 Indigenous human rights any citizen from travelling abroad without defenders in Perak were arrested by police STRICTLYneeding to provide a reason. 1 This ruling when peacefully protesting against a logging facilitated continued violations of the right to company. freedom of movement and the work of human rights UNTILdefenders, including cartoonist Zunar and activist Hishamuddin Rais. The THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 249 ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS drug trafficking activities”. The provision Preventive detention laws such as the included a mandatory 15 whip lashes. Prevention of Terrorism Act and Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, continued to be used to detain, prosecute TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE and imprison people alleged to have Discrimination against LGBTI people committed security offences. The maximum continued both in law and practice. Section detention period of 28 days under the 377A of the Penal Code criminalizes SOSMA was set to remain in force for five consensual sexual relations between adult years from 31 July, following a parliamentary men. In June, the Health Ministry received vote. local and international criticism for its On 26 April, the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision to launch a video competition for sentenced Siti Noor Aishah to five years’ teenagers on how to “prevent gender imprisonment for possession of 12 books, confusion” which included “gay, lesbian, under a sweeping provision of the SOSMA transgender, transvestite and tomboy”. The prohibiting the possession, custody or control wording was subsequentlyGMT removed. 2018 of any item associated with any terrorist group or the commission of a terrorist act.4 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The books owned by Siti Noor Aishah had not In July, Kelantan state assembly passed been banned, which raised further concerns amendments to the Syariah Criminal about the arbitrary nature of the law and the Procedure Enactment 2002 which would way it was applied. allow caning of criminals to be carried out in public. Torture is not adequately defined or POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES prohibited in the state Syariah Criminal Code Impunity for deaths in custody and excessive or the Malaysian05:01 Penal Code. use of force and firearms persisted. There were at least five deaths in custody during / 1. Malaysia: Open-ended travel bans violate the rights of human rights the year. They included S. Balamurugan defenders (ASA 28/6697/2017) who, according to cellmates, was beaten by 2. Malaysia: Bangladeshi human rights activist detained (News story, police during interrogation. A magistrate had 20 July) earlier ordered that he be released and given ET3. Malaysia: End harassment of Indigenous rights defenders (ASA medical attention. No policeEMBARGOED investigation into 28/5549/2017) FEBRUARY his death was known to have been carried 4. Malaysia: Student convicted for possession of ‘illegal’ book − Siti out. Noor Aishah (ASA 28/6136/2017) 5. Malaysia: Stop execution of prisoners due to be hanged on Friday DEATH PENALTY (News story22, 23 March) The death penalty continued to be retained as the mandatory punishment for offences including drug trafficking, murder and MALDIVES discharge of firearms with intent00:01 to kill or harm in certain circumstances. Executions Republic of Maldives continued to be carried out during the year Head of state and government: Abdulla Yameen Abdul and there remained no established Gayoom procedure for notification of scheduled executions.5 In November, Parliament The crackdown on the rights to freedom of STRICTLYamended the Dangerous Drugs Act, expression and peaceful assembly providing the judiciary with discretion on the continued. Authorities used the criminal mandatory death penalty in the event the justice system to silence political accused is a drugUNTIL courier and has co- opponents, as well as human rights operated with law enforcement in “disrupting defenders, journalists and civil society. The THURSDAY 250 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 lack of independence of the judiciary prosecutions of perpetrators, and were remained a concern. The President marred by political interference. reaffirmed that executions would resume In March, journalists from Raajje TV after more than 60 years. reported to the Maldives Police Service that they had received threats of death if they sent JUSTICE SYSTEM journalists to Faafu Atoll to cover a visit by the Political turmoil persisted as the President King of Saudi Arabia. No additional security used the military and the judiciary to stifle the was granted by police. Around the same opposition. In July, the opposition initiated a time, two journalists from the newspaper no confidence motion to impeach the Maldives Independent were taken into Speaker of Parliament, but proceedings were “protective custody” by police after receiving halted with the suspension of four opposition threats from members of the ruling party. The MPs. On 24 July, parliamentarians were journalists claimed that the police read their denied entry into the Parliament and the notes and treated them like suspects. President directed the military to use pepper In July, seven journalists from Sangu TV and spray and tear gas to disperse them. MPs Raajje TV were arrested whileGMT covering a 2018 Faris Maumoon and Qasim Ibrahim were protest marking Independence Day. They arrested arbitrarily for allegedly bribing were detained for several hours accused of law makers to unseat the Speaker of obstructing police. Parliament.1 FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY UNFAIR TRIALS Arbitrary restrictions on peaceful protesters The authorities ignored constitutional and human rights defenders continued. On provisions safeguarding the right to a fair trial, 24 July, the military used pepper spray and as evidenced by a string of criminal cases tear gas to05:01 disperse parliamentarians trying to against political opponents. On 18 July, MP enter the Parliament building. On 8 August, a Faris Maumoon was arrested during a raid on march/ led by relatives and friends of Ahmed his house for allegedly bribing law makers to Rilwan to mark the third anniversary of his sign the motion of no confidence against the disappearance was blocked by Specialist Speaker. He was seeking to cancel the Operations police officers who used pepper charges, claiming that the evidence was ETspray, snatched banners, tore up placards obtained unlawfully. EMBARGOEDand briefly detainedFEBRUARY nine people. Several In April, Qasim Ibrahim, leader of the days later, Ahmed Rilwan’s nephew and Jumhooree Party, was sentenced to 38 Yameen Rasheed’s sister were dismissed months’ imprisonment after being convicted from their posts as civil support staff at on charges including plotting to overthrow the Maldives 22Police Service for joining the government. After repeated requests for protest. medical attention, in September the court granted him permission to travel abroad for DEATH PENALTY treatment. 00:01 The government stated that the death penalty was to be implemented “by the end of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION September”. Executions would be the first to In April, popular political blogger and social be carried out in over 60 years. Three men – media activist Yameen Rasheed was stabbed Hussain Humaam Ahmed, Ahmed Murrath to death in his apartment building in the and Mohamed Nabeel – remained at risk of STRICTLYcapital, Malé.2 The year marked three years imminent execution despite serious concerns since the disappearance of journalist Ahmed about the fairness of the legal proceedings. Rilwan. By the end of the year, neither of the These included the use of an apparently investigations UNTILhad resulted in successful coerced “confession” by Hussain Humaam Ahmed, which he later retracted. The UN THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 251 Human Rights Committee made repeated cases included 21 instances of extrajudicial requests to the government to stay the executions and deliberate and arbitrary executions of the three men during 2016 and killings, 12 cases of enforced disappearance 2017, in accordance with Maldives’ and 31 cases of torture and other ill- commitments under the Optional Protocol to treatment. the ICCPR.3 Of the 17 prisoners on death The French authorities opened an inquiry row, at least five were sentenced to death for into the death of a child during the November crimes committed when they were below 18 2016 Operation Barkhane involving French years of age.4 soldiers. The results had not been made public by the end of 2017. In December the spokesman for the French Army said that the 1. Maldives: Opposition MP must get a fair trial (News story, 22 September) internal inquiry did not reveal any individual 2. Maldives: Killing of popular blogger an attack on freedom of or collective responsibility. expression (News story, 23 April) 3. Maldives: Halt first execution in more than 60 years (News story, 20 ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS July) Attacks in the central regionsGMT of Mopti and 2018 4. Maldives to resume executions by September (ASA 29/7007/2017) Ségou increased during the year. A rise in the presence of armed groups and in local recruitment aggravated tensions between different ethnic groups. In February, 20 MALI people were killed and 18 others injured when unidentified assailants attacked Republic of Mali Head of state: Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta members of the Fulani community. The Head of government: Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga attack followed the killing of a well-known (replaced Abdoulaye Idrissa Maïga in December, who opponent 05:01of radical influences in Ségou replaced Modibo Keïta in April) region. Between/ January and September, A bill for the protection of human rights MINUSMA recorded at least 155 attacks defenders was adopted by the National against its own peacekeeping forces, the Assembly in December. The government Malian security forces and French soldiers postponed the revision of the Constitution ETinvolved in Operation Barkhane. Throughout following protests. Full implementationEMBARGOED of the year, more thanFEBRUARY 30 MINUSMA-related the 2015 Algiers peace agreement personnel, including civilians and remained delayed. Joint operations between contractors, were killed by armed groups. the Malian army and some armed groups Most attacks were claimed by the Group for began in Gao under the Operational the Support22 of Islam and Muslims. Victims Coordination Mechanism. included eight children. In June, five people were killed and 10 INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY wounded during an attack by an armed The UN Independent Expert on00:01 the situation group on a hotel on the outskirts of the of human rights in Mali and the UN capital, Bamako. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization In July, armed men beat 10 women who Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) raised concerns were part of a wedding party. In August, 12 about serious security threats in the northern women who were not wearing a veil were and central regions, which put civilians at risk flogged in Mopti. STRICTLYand hampered their access to basic social At the end of the year at least eight people services. During the year MINUSMA remained held hostage by armed groups documented 252 cases of human rights following their abductions in Mali, Burkina violations by securityUNTIL forces and armed Faso and Niger over the last three years. The groups involving more than 650 victims. The eight included three women – Beatrice THURSDAY 252 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Stockly, a Swiss missionary, Gloria Cecilia violations, had not been implemented by the Agoti Narvaez, a Colombian missionary, and end of the year. Sophie Petronin (French) – as well as Julian In August, the former head of the police unit Ghergut (Romanian); Jeffery Woundke (US); of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in Ken Eliott (Australian); and Malian nationals West Africa, Aliou Mahamane Touré, was Mamadou Diawara and Soungalo. convicted of “violation of internal security, illegal possession of weapons of war, criminal FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION conspiracy and aggravated assault” by the Freedom of speech was under threat in the Bamako Assizes Court and sentenced to 10 run-up to a referendum on amendments to years’ imprisonment. the Constitution. The trial of General Amadou Haya Sanogo In June, at least eight people were injured in relation to the abduction and murder of 21 when protesters against the constitutional soldiers in April 2012 had not recommenced changes clashed with police using tear gas after it was postponed in December 2016. and batons. The postponement followed a ruling that DNA Physical and verbal threats against tests were held inadmissibleGMT because the 2018 opponents of the referendum were reported correct legal procedure had not in July. Also in July, Maliba FM radio been followed. journalist Mohamed Youssouf Bathily, known as Ras Bath, was sentenced to one year’s RIGHT TO EDUCATION imprisonment for “incitement to military The UN Independent Expert on the situation disobedience” following criticisms of the of human rights in Mali expressed concern army in 2016. In November, he was about the high number of schools closed due acquitted by the Bamako Court of Appeal. to insecurity in central and northern parts of the country,05:01 depriving more than 150,000 DETENTION children of their right to education. Prisons remained overcrowded and Throughout/ the year, more than 500 conditions were poor. At the end of the year, schools in Gao, Kidal, Ségou, Mopti and the Bamako Central Prison housed 1,947 Timbuktu remained closed. Many schools, detainees despite a capacity of 400. Of those notably in Niono, Macina and Tenenkou, held, 581 had been convicted and 1,366 ETwere threatened with attack by armed groups were awaiting trial. DetaineesEMBARGOED held since if they did not eitherFEBRUARY close or convert to 2013 on terrorism charges were not Qur’anic teaching. In May, an armed group permitted to leave their cramped and poorly burned down a school in Mopti, threatening ventilated prison cells, even for exercise. further attacks against non-Qur’anic schools. Detainees continued to be held at an Despite 22Article 39 of the peace agreement unofficial detention centre known as the committing all signatories to pay particular “Sécurité d’Etat”. attention to education for all, armed groups continued to occupy some schools. IMPUNITY 00:01 Efforts to tackle impunity faltered as several INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE high-profile trials related to abuses In August, the International Criminal Court committed in northern Mali during the held Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi liable for €2.7 2012-2013 occupation failed to make million in individual and collective significant progress. The 2015 peace reparations. He was convicted in 2016 of the STRICTLYagreement, which recommended the war crime of intentionally directing attacks establishment of an international commission against religious and historic buildings in of inquiry to investigate crimes under Timbuktu, and sentenced to nine years’ international lawUNTIL including war crimes, imprisonment. ICC investigations into alleged crimes against humanity and human rights THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 253 war crimes committed since January 2012 in showed that Italian navy and coastguard Mali were ongoing. officials were reluctant to deploy the Italian warship Libra which was the closest to the boat in distress, notwithstanding repeated requests by Maltese authorities to do so. MALTA Criminal proceedings and investigations Republic of Malta against some of the Italian navy and Head of state: Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca coastguard officials involved were ongoing in Head of government: Joseph Muscat Italy at the end of the year. No investigation was known to have been initiated by the New information emerged regarding the Maltese authorities into the incident. 2013 shipwreck in which many Syrian In August, Maltese authorities denied refugees died. It exposed Italy’s reluctance authorization to disembark three Libyan to assist Maltese authorities in rescuing the asylum-seekers from the rescue boat Golfo boat in distress. Malta denied three Libyan Azzurro, operated by the NGO Proactiva asylum-seekers who were rescued within its Open Arms. The three menGMT had been 2018 search and rescue region permission to rescued within Malta’s search and rescue disembark. The authorities admitted 168 region in the central Mediterranean. After asylum-seekers under the EU relocation three days of negotiations between Malta and programme, a higher number than they had Italy over which country should take the committed to. Marriage rights were asylum-seekers, Italy accepted the request extended to same-sex couples. Abortion and the three men were taken to Sicily. remained prohibited in all circumstances. Malta received 168 refugees and asylum- seekers from Greece and Italy, more than the BACKGROUND 131 it legally05:01 committed to accept under the In October, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia EU relocation programme, which closed on was killed in a car bomb explosion. She had 26 September./ been critical of the government and investigated organized crime, corruption RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, including against politicians, and the Maltese TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE chapter of the so-called “Panama Papers” – ETIn July, marriage equality legislation was leaked files from an offshoreEMBARGOED law firm approved by Parliament.FEBRUARY The new law regarding tax havens and their users. The extended full marriage rights to same-sex government was under pressure from the EU couples. and others to ensure a thorough and independent investigation into Daphne SEXUAL 22AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Caruana Galizia’s death. In December, three Abortion remained prohibited in all men were charged with her murder and circumstances. Women were denied access remanded in custody. to abortion even when the life of the pregnant 00:01 woman was at risk. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS In May, the Italian magazine L’Espresso published new information regarding the shipwreck that occurred on 11 October 2013 MAURITANIA in the Maltese search and rescue region of Islamic Republic of Mauritania STRICTLYthe central Mediterranean. Over 260 people Head of state: Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz died, mostly Syrian refugees, many of them Head of government: Yahya Ould Hademine children. The magazine reported that phone conversations UNTILheld in the period immediately Human rights defenders, bloggers, anti- preceding the capsizing of the refugees’ boat slavery activists and other opponents of the THURSDAY 254 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 government were intimidated, attacked and One of them was released without charge prosecuted for their peaceful activities. after three days; the others were charged Freedoms of expression, association and with belonging to an unauthorized peaceful assembly were restricted. organization and released six days later. International human rights activists were Ahead of the August referendum, the Office refused entry to the country. Torture and of the UN High Commissioner for Human other ill-treatment in custody was common. Rights expressed concern about the Haratine and Afro-Mauritanian people faced authorities’ apparent suppression of dissent systematic discrimination. Slavery practices and the reported use of excessive force persist. against protest leaders. Five days after the referendum, Senator BACKGROUND Mohamed Ould Ghadda, who opposed the In March, the Senate rejected a proposal to vote, was arrested and charged with amend the 1991 Constitution. The authorities corruption. He remained in detention without called a referendum for August; the majority trial at the end of the year. Three weeks later, voted to abolish the Senate. 12 Senators and four journalistsGMT were 2018 questioned by a judge regarding allegations FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, that they received financial support from a ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY businessman. They were required to sign Security forces continued to intimidate and weekly at the police station while the police attack bloggers, human rights defenders and were investigating the allegations. others who criticized the government. In November, the Appeal Court of Anti-slavery activists, among them prisoners Nouadhibou commuted the death sentence of conscience, were detained. Abdallahi of blogger Mohamed Mkhaïtir to two years’ Abdou Diop was released in January after imprisonment.05:01 He was convicted in serving a six-month prison sentence. December 2014 of apostasy for writing a blog Abdallahi Maatalla Seck and Moussa Biram critical/ of those who used Islam to foster remained in Bir Moghrein prison, more than discrimination against Moulamines 1,000km from their homes, since July 2016. (blacksmiths) and had been held since The three prisoners of conscience were January 2014. Although he was scheduled convicted on charges including participating ETfor release at the end of the year, he in an unauthorized gatheringEMBARGOED and remained in custody;FEBRUARY his family and his membership of an unauthorized association. lawyers were not able to visit him or confirm In April, the security forces used tear gas his whereabouts. and batons to repress a peaceful protest in In November, 15 human rights defenders the capital, Nouakchott, that was organized were arrested22 in the southern town of Kaédi by youth groups calling for policies to address by plain clothes men who identified youth unemployment and to support young themselves as members of the Battalion for people. At least 26 people were arrested. Presidential Security. They had been Most of them were released the00:01 same day, distributing leaflets and holding banners but 10 were detained for four days, charged calling for justice for their relatives who had with participating in an unauthorized been unlawfully killed between 1989 and gathering. The court in Nouakchott gave one 1991. They were taken to a military base and woman a three-month suspended prison questioned about their activities. Ten were sentence, which was overturned on appeal. released the same day and five were STRICTLYThe others were acquitted. transferred to a police station and detained On 23 April, police arrested seven people, for six days, without access to a lawyer, of whom four were foreign nationals and two before being released without charge. were children,UNTIL in connection with their International human rights activists and attending a religious service in Nouakchott. NGOs were refused access to Mauritania THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 255 throughout the year. In May, a foreign lawyer without adequate access to food, education, and journalist carrying out research into water, sanitation and health care. The Special slavery were asked to leave the country. In Rapporteur stressed that despite Mauritania’s September, US anti-slavery activists were obligations under international human rights denied entry visas when they arrived at treaties, there was a complete absence of Nouakchott International Airport. In prenatal and postnatal care in rural areas. He November, the authorities refused an also highlighted that Haratines and Afro- Amnesty International delegation access to Mauritanians, who constituted an estimated the country. two thirds of the population, were excluded from many areas of economic and social life. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT In addition, the fact that the government had Detainees reported that they were tortured not collected statistics on the numbers of during pre-trial detention in order to extract Haratine and Afro-Mauritanian people in the confessions and to intimidate them. People country, served to render their needs and held in police stations including the rights invisible. Commissariat in Nouakchott were routinely GMT 2018 placed in prolonged solitary confinement − a REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS type of detention condemned by the UN In his March report, the UN Special Human Rights Committee as a violation of Rapporteur on torture expressed concerns the prohibition of torture or other cruel, about the collective expulsion of irregular inhuman or degrading treatment. migrants and refugees who were often In his March report, the UN Special abandoned on the southern border with Rapporteur on torture acknowledged that Senegal which could contravene the principle while torture and other ill-treatment was no of non-refoulement. During a visit to a site longer “rampant”, it occurred frequently. He where irregular05:01 migrants were held in expressed concern that the “culture of Nouakchott, he said that the 20 to 30 torture” persisted in police and gendarmerie detainees/ had no toilet facilities and had units, and that torture continued to be used insufficient room to lie or even sit down to to extract confessions. The Special sleep. Rapporteur noted that the practice of detaining terrorism suspects for up to 45 ET days without access to legalEMBARGOED representation FEBRUARY was excessive; oversight mechanisms for the MEXICO investigation of allegations of torture and United Mexican States other ill-treatment lacked due diligence and Head of state and government: Enrique Peña Nieto were slow; existing laws and safeguards 22 needed to be expanded and implemented; Violence increased throughout Mexico. The and that there was no significant armed forces continued to undertake improvement in detention conditions, such as regular policing functions. Human rights overcrowding, poor sanitation and00:01 inadequate defenders and journalists were threatened, nutrition. attacked and killed; digital attacks and surveillance were particularly common. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Widespread arbitrary detentions continued RIGHTS to lead to torture and other ill-treatment, In his report in March the UN Special enforced disappearances and extrajudicial STRICTLYRapporteur on extreme poverty and human executions. Impunity persisted for human rights concluded that while the government rights violations and crimes under had made progress in alleviating poverty in international law. Mexico received a record recent years, aUNTIL large proportion of the number of asylum claims, mostly from population continued to live in poverty nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, THURSDAY 256 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Guatemala and Venezuela. Violence against the year. In August, civil society organizations women remained a major concern; new data and opinion leaders presented a proposal for showed that two thirds of women had the design of this institution. experienced gender-based violence during In October, the acting Attorney General their lives. The rights to housing and removed the Special Prosecutor for Electoral education were compromised by two major Crimes, regarded as independent by different earthquakes. political forces, after he publicly reported being subjected to political pressure to BACKGROUND disregard a high-profile corruption case. Early in the year an increase in gas prices caused social unrest, including road POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES blockages, lootings and protests throughout There was a marked increase in the number the country, leading to hundreds of arrests of homicides, with 42,583 recorded and some fatalities. Throughout the year, nationally, the highest annual number of security forces carried out a number of homicides registered by authorities since the operations to crack down on a spate of start of the presidential termGMT in December 2018 clandestine robberies of petroleum. At least 2012. The real number may be higher, with one of these security operations resulted in a some crimes not being reported to police, likely extrajudicial execution by the army in and not all of those reported triggering official May. The National Human Rights action. Commission raised concerns over deficient In December, Congress passed a Law on security measures in prisons that affected the Interior Security enabling the prolonged rights of people deprived of their liberty. presence of the armed forces in regular There were riots in prisons including in the policing functions without any effective states of Nuevo León and Guerrero, and a provisions05:01 for transparency, accountability or hunger strike in the federal maximum civilian oversight. security prison at Puente Grande, Jalisco / state. ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS The new adversarial criminal justice system, Arbitrary arrests and detentions remained fully operational since June 2016, continued widespread, and often led to further human to replicate problems from the old ETrights violations including torture and other inquisitorial system, includingEMBARGOED violations of ill-treatment, enforcedFEBRUARY disappearances and the presumption of innocence and the use of extrajudicial executions. Arbitrary arrests evidence collected in violation of human often included the planting of evidence, rights and other illicit evidence. Bills were commonly guns and illicit drugs, by law introduced in Congress that would weaken enforcement22 officials. Authorities appeared to fair trial guarantees and expand the scope of especially target those who had historically mandatory pre-trial detention without a case- faced discrimination, in particular young men by-case assessment by a judge. living in poverty. Congress approved long-overdue00:01 laws The police routinely disregarded their against torture and other ill-treatment and obligations during and following an arrest. against enforced disappearance by state They usually did not inform the persons of actors and disappearances committed by the reasons for the arrest or of their rights, non-state actors. Legal reforms allowed the such as the right to legal counsel and to use of cannabis for medical purposes. communicate with their families. Unjustified STRICTLYSustained public debates over the delays in bringing the detainee before the transformation of the federal Attorney relevant authorities were common and often General’s Office, responsible for law enabled other human rights violations. Police enforcement andUNTIL prosecution, into an reports of arrests often contained significant independent body were conducted during errors, fabricated information and other THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 257 serious flaws, including inaccuracies in almost absolute impunity. The official recording date and time of arrest. National Register of Missing and Disappeared The reasons for arbitrary arrests were Persons indicated that the fate or varied, but included: to extort money from whereabouts of 34,656 people (25,682 men detainees; to detain a particular individual in and 8,974 women) remained unclarified. The return for payment from a third party; for actual numbers were higher because the politically motivated reasons; and to official figure excluded federal pre-2014 investigate detainees in connection with cases and cases classified as other criminal another crime by detaining them for a offences such as hostage-taking or human misdemeanour that they usually had not trafficking. committed. Investigations into cases of missing persons There was no unified and accessible continued to be flawed and authorities register of detention, consistent with generally failed to immediately initiate international human rights law and searches for the victims. Impunity for these standards, in which every detention by law crimes continued, including in the case of 43 enforcement officials is recorded in real students from the AyotzinapaGMT teacher training 2018 time.1 college who were forcibly disappeared in Guerrero state in 2014. The investigations TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT into the case made little progress during the In February, the UN Special Rapporteur on year. In March, in a hearing before the Inter- torture issued a follow-up report to a previous American Commission on Human Rights, visit to Mexico in 2014; the report concluded state representatives reasserted the that torture and other ill-treatment remained government’s version of events that the widespread, including the alarming use of students had been killed and burned in a sexual violence as a frequent method of local rubbish05:01 dump − a theory that was torture. proved to be scientifically impossible by the In June, a new general law on torture came Interdisciplinary/ Group of Independent into force, replacing existing state and federal Experts appointed by the Commission. laws with nationwide application. Civil society In October, Congress passed a general law organizations welcomed it as an advance that on disappearances that defined the crime in better incorporated international standards ETaccordance with international law and compared to the previousEMBARGOED legislation. The provided tools to FEBRUARYprevent and prosecute it. Special Unit on Torture of the Federal The implementation of the law was expected Attorney General’s Office reported 4,390 to require a sufficient budget allocation in the cases of torture under revision at the federal following years. level and commenced 777 investigations 22 under the new adversarial justice system. EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS Federal authorities did not announce any Cases of extrajudicial executions were not new criminal charges against public officials, properly investigated and perpetrators nor provide any information on 00:01arrests made continued to enjoy impunity. For the fourth for the crime of torture. In Quintana Roo consecutive year, the authorities failed to state, a federal judge sentenced a former publish the number of people killed or policeman to five years’ imprisonment for the wounded in clashes with the police and crime of torture. military forces. No information was made available regarding criminal charges in the STRICTLYENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES cases of Tlatlaya, Mexico state, where Enforced disappearances with the soldiers killed 22 people in 2014; involvement of the state and disappearances Apatzingán, Michoacán state, where federal committed by UNTILnon-state actors continued to police and other security forces killed at least be common and those responsible enjoyed 16 people in 2015; and Tanhuato, THURSDAY 258 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Michoacán state, where the security forces The Unit for the Investigation of Crimes killed 43 people during a security operation against Migrants of the Attorney General’s in 2015. Office marked two years in operation, yet On 3 May, military personnel carried out remained marred by institutional challenges public security operations in Palmarito in its operation and problems in co-ordinating Tochapan town, Puebla state, and reported with other authorities. These problems limited that seven people died, including four advances in criminal investigations, including soldiers. Days later, video footage from into massacres of migrants, that remained security cameras installed at the location shrouded by impunity. were published on the internet. One of the In August, a citizen consultative body videos clearly showed a person in military published research demonstrating the uniform shooting dead a man lying on the involvement of the National Migration floor. Amnesty International independently Institute in a number of human rights verified the video and concluded that there violations against those deprived of liberty in was sufficient reason to believe that an migration detention centres run by the extrajudicial execution took place.2 Institute. Violations includedGMT overcrowding, 2018 lack of access to adequate medical services, REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS solitary confinement used as punishment, A total of 8,703 asylum claims were lodged allegations of torture and other ill-treatment. between January and August, a similar The authorities denied allegations of torture number as for the whole of 2016. The committed by the Institute, despite the percentage of claims that resulted in the National Human Rights Commission having granting of refugee status decreased from also confirmed evidence of torture on prior 35% in 2016 to 12% in 2017. The majority of occasions. asylum claims came from Honduran and 05:01 Venezuelan nationals, the latter surpassing HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS for the first time the number of refugees and AND JOURNALISTS/ asylum-seekers from El Salvador and Human rights defenders and journalists Guatemala. continued to be threatened, harassed, Between January and November, 88,741 attacked and killed. irregular migrants were detained and 74,604 ETAt least 12 journalists were killed, the deported, in most cases withoutEMBARGOED the highest number recordedFEBRUARY in one year since opportunity to challenge their deportation. Of 2000. They included prize-winning journalist those deported, 94% were from Honduras, Javier Valdez, founder of the newspaper Guatemala and El Salvador, countries which Ríodoce, who was killed on 15 May in Sinaloa have registered some of the highest homicide state. Many22 of the killings of journalists rates in the world in recent years, and 20% of occurred in daylight in public places. The those deported to these countries were authorities made no significant advances into children. In February, Mexico’s Foreign the investigations of these killings. The Minister announced that Mexico00:01 would not Special Prosecutor’s Unit for Attention to receive foreign nationals turned back from Crimes against Freedom of Expression failed the USA under the US Border Control to investigate the journalists’ work as a Executive Order announced by US President possible motive in the majority of cases of Donald Trump on 25 January. attacks. The federal Mechanism to Protect In June, the government met with North Human Rights Defenders and Journalists left STRICTLYAmerican and Central American human rights defenders and journalists governments, ostensibly to tackle the root inadequately protected. causes of the regional refugee crisis; they did Former Goldman Prize winner Isidro not publish anyUNTIL agreements reached. Baldenegro López and Juan Ontiveros Ramos, two Indigenous human rights THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 259 defenders of the Raramuri (Tarahumara) violence against women and girls. By the end Indigenous People, were killed in January of the year, the Alerts mechanisms were not and February respectively. In May, Miriam shown to have reduced gender-based Rodríguez, a human rights defender leading violence against women and girls. the search for her daughter and other disappeared persons in Tamaulipas, was RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, killed. In July, Mario Luna Romero, leader of TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE the Indigenous Yaqui People in Sonora state Same-sex couples were able to marry in and beneficiary of protection measures from Mexico City and 11 states without recourse to the federal protection mechanism, was judicial proceedings. Couples in states where subjected to an intrusion in his house by laws or administrative practice did not allow unidentified assailants who set fire to his for same-sex marriage had to file a partner’s car. constitutional complaint (amparo) before In January, it became known that a network federal tribunals to have their case reviewed of people was using the internet to harass and their rights recognized. and threaten human rights defenders and Supreme Court rulings continuedGMT to uphold 2018 journalists throughout Mexico.3 In June, same-sex couples’ rights to marry and to evidence emerged of surveillance against adopt children without being discriminated journalists and human rights defenders using against on the basis of sexual orientation and software that the government was known to gender identity. In March, the Supreme Court have purchased. The federal Mechanism to ruled unconstitutional the Law of the Institute Protect Human Rights Defenders and of Security and Social Services for State Journalists provided no strategy to respond to Workers because it protected only different- digital attacks and unlawful surveillance for sex couples’ rights. those who have been granted protection 05:01 measures. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS/ VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Two earthquakes in September had a serious Gender-based violence against women and impact on vast areas, mostly in central and girls was widespread. Most of the cases were southern Mexico. More than 360 people inadequately investigated and perpetrators ETdied; in Mexico City the majority of fatalities enjoyed impunity. SufficientEMBARGOED and current data were women. AccordingFEBRUARY to official figures, on gender-based killings was not available. more than 150,000 households were affected However, official data for 2016 was published and at least 250,000 people were made indicating that 2,668 women were homeless. considered to be victims of homicide, The government22 implemented survivor pending further investigations. rescue and emergency care actions with the In August, the National Institute of Statistics participation of both civil and military and Geography published a survey estimating personnel and with the support of the that 66.1% of girls and women00:01 aged 15 or international community. However, several above had experienced gender-based reports emerged of inadequate co-ordination violence at least once in their lives, and that among authorities, inaccurate and untimely 43.5% of women had experienced gender- information on the rescue and recovery of based violence committed by their partners. bodies, illegal commandeering of food and Mechanisms known as “Alerts of gender- other essential services meant for survivors, STRICTLYbased violence against women” were active and insufficient aid deliveries to many in 12 states. Established by the General Law devastated areas, especially in small, on Women’s Access to a Life Free from impoverished communities. Violence, the AlertUNTIL mechanisms relied on co- Expert preliminary assessments published ordinated efforts to confront and eradicate in the media suggested that some of the THURSDAY 260 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 collapsed structures might have been in changes were widely seen as benefiting the breach of building regulations. There was no two biggest parties in Parliament, the ruling comprehensive strategy to guarantee that Democratic Party of Moldova and the people made homeless were provided with opposition Socialist Party of Moldova. On 19 safe and adequate housing options. On 6 June, the Venice Commission of the Council October, President Peña Nieto called on of Europe issued a highly critical opinion on affected families to organize themselves to the amendments. Most of the mainstream rebuild their houses. media remained effectively controlled by and Educational services, including many biased towards the Democratic Party of primary schools, were disrupted for weeks or Moldova. months while safety checks and reconstruction of schools were underway. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION Thousands of national monuments and other A draft law on NGOs was agreed by a culturally significant public buildings were Working Group which included destroyed or damaged by the earthquakes. representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the UN High CommissionerGMT for 2018 Human Rights, and several NGOs. The law 1. False suspicions: Arbitrary detentions by police in Mexico (AMR 41/5340/2017) was widely welcomed by civil society. 2. Mexico: Open letter to the President on a possible extrajudicial However, in July, the Ministry of Justice execution by the military (AMR 41/6347/2017) unexpectedly introduced three articles into 3. Mexico’s misinformation wars: How organized troll networks attack the draft without consulting the Working and harass journalists and activists in Mexico (News story, 24 Group. These articles would compel NGOs January) involved in broadly defined “political activities” to publish financial reports and disclose the05:01 origin and use of their funding, MOLDOVA among other requirements. Non-compliance would /incur severe penalties, including hefty Republic of Moldova fines, exclusion from the government-run Head of state: Igor Dodon financial mechanism that facilitates and Head of government: Pavel Filip encourages voluntary donations to NGOs by ETtaxpayers, and potential closure of the NGO. The government recalledEMBARGOED a draft law on The amendments FEBRUARY met strong opposition from NGOs which contained undue restrictions civil society and international organizations for organizations that receive foreign who regarded them as undue restrictions on funding. Nine activists were convicted of NGOs receiving foreign funding. Critics attempting to organize mass disturbances in foresaw a22 stigmatizing effect on human rights 2015 and given conditional prison defenders and civil society, particularly for sentences in an unfair trial. In May, the those critical of the authorities. In September, LGBTI Pride in the capital Chișinău was the government recalled the draft law. stopped by police due to alleged00:01 security concerns, while President Igor Dodon made UNFAIR TRIALS homophobic statements. Public spending In June, the former leader of the “Our Home on health, education and social protection – Moldova” political party, Grigore Petrenco, continued to fall; discrimination against and eight fellow political activists were Roma persisted. convicted of attempting to organize mass STRICTLY disturbances on 6 September 2015, received BACKGROUND conditional prison sentences and were In July, the Parliament adopted controversial prohibited from attending public events. The changes to theUNTIL Electoral Law despite public sentences ranged from three to protests and international condemnation. The four and a half years. On the day of the THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 261 alleged offence, they had attempted to ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL forcibly enter a government building during RIGHTS an otherwise peaceful rally. Their trial faced Moldova’s third periodic report on its multiple delays and procedural implementation of the International Covenant infringements. on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was Grigore Petrenco’s lawyers, Ana Ursachi considered by the UN Committee on and Eduard Rudenco, who also defended Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in other high-profile clients in politically September. Particular concerns raised during sensitive cases, continued to be subjected to the review included the continually falling smear campaigns in pro-government media, rate of public spending on health, education and reported harassment by the authorities in and social protection, and the persistent connection with their work. discrimination and marginalization of Roma. The Committee described the situation of TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Roma as a “glaring problem” and “the failure Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in many aspects” of the National Action Plan in places of detention and in the criminal on Roma for 2011-2015 asGMT “a serious cause 2018 justice system continued to be reported. for concern”. On the night of 26 August, Andrei Braguta, a driver who had been arrested for speeding, died in police custody. The authorities claimed that he had died of pneumonia and MONGOLIA later admitted that Andrei Braguta had been Mongolia beaten up by two fellow cell mates. Three Head of state: Khaltmaa Battulga (replaced Tsakhia police officers who were on duty that night Elbegdorj in July) and the two cell mates were arrested as Head of government:05:01 Ukhnaa Khurelsukh (replaced criminal suspects in the case. One of the Jargaltulga Erdenebat in September) cell mates claimed that Andrei Braguta had / already been severely beaten when placed in The death penalty was abolished as the new the cell, and protested his and the other Criminal Code and Code of Criminal cell mate’s innocence. The criminal Procedure came into force. Impunity for investigation was ongoing at the end of the ETtorture and other ill-treatment of detainees year. EMBARGOEDand attacks againstFEBRUARY human rights defenders continued. The economic, social and RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, cultural rights of people living in rural areas TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE affected by mining activities, and in ger The police cut short the 21 May Pride march areas − areas22 without adequate access to after the demonstrators had walked just a few essential services − were at risk of being hundred metres, stating that they were violated. unable to guarantee their security in the event of violent attacks by counter-00:01 DEATH PENALTY demonstrators. The death penalty was abolished for all The President publicly criticized the LGBTI crimes when the new Criminal Code came community, described the Pride march as into force on 1 July, after its adoption in being contrary to the country’s “traditional December 2015.1 However, in November, the values”, and participated in a parallel newly elected President proposed STRICTLYdemonstration named the “Traditional Family reinstatement to the Ministry of Justice in Festival”. response to two violent rape and murder UNTIL cases. THURSDAY 262 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS livestock and people. Media workers filmed Human rights defenders continued to report mining company representatives intimidating physical attacks and harassment by law journalists and herders. Following his visit to enforcement authorities and private Mongolia in September, the UN Special corporations. These human rights defenders Rapporteur on human rights and the included students with disabilities acting as environment called for consultation with local whistleblowers exposing discrimination and communities before mining permits were sexual abuse in a school, and journalists issued, and for improved standards to ensure trying to report human rights issues such as safe operation. gender-based violence. Existing laws failed to protect them from harassment and RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED unjustified interference with their privacy. EVICTIONS Residents in the ger areas of the capital, TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Ulaanbaatar, continued to live with the Impunity and under-reporting of torture and possibility of forced eviction due to urban other ill-treatment of individuals in detention, redevelopment, without updatedGMT information 2018 including people with disabilities and foreign on redevelopment plans, genuine nationals, continued in the absence of an consultation or adequate compensation. independent, dedicated investigation Residents complained that the new local mechanism. The new Criminal Procedure government elected in June 2016 had failed Code becoming effective in July did not re- to implement redevelopment plans agreed establish the previously disbanded with the previous government; the new independent investigation unit, despite government claimed it lacked funds. These advocacy efforts by civil society. plans included the provision of essential components05:01 of adequate housing such as FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION safe drinking water, sanitation and energy. On 1 July, a new Administrative Offence Act / came into effect, allowing for increased 1. Mongolia: Death penalty confined to history as new criminal code administrative fines including when false comes into effect (ACT 50/6646/2017) information was published that could damage the reputation of individuals or business ET entities. A media professionals’EMBARGOED organization FEBRUARY criticized the law for being vague and overly MONTENEGRO broad, and feared it could be excessively Montenegro used to suppress freedom of expression. Head of state: Filip Vujanović Media companies staged a media blackout Head of government:22 Duško Marković on 26 April to protest against the law, which was subsequently passed with reduced fines. Past murders and attacks on journalists and media workers were not resolved. The ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL00:01 Constitutional Court found that RIGHTS investigations into alleged torture and ill- Authorities failed to protect traditional herders treatment failed to meet international from the operations of mining companies that standards. The funding of NGOs was negatively affected their livelihoods, threatened and human rights defenders traditional culture, and access to land and were subjected to smear campaigns by STRICTLYclean water. The influx of mining companies media supportive of the government. and transporting trucks in the Dalanjargalan subdivision of Dornogovi province caused BACKGROUND heavy dust whichUNTIL severely degraded pastures Montenegro joined NATO in June. Serious and threatened the health and safety of concerns continued about criminal THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 263 proceedings against 14 men, including alleging his membership of a drug-trafficking Russian intelligence officers and opposition gang that he had been investigating – leaders, who were indicted in May for “violent continued at the end of the year. overthrow of the government” and In October, the Constitutional Court awarded “preventing NATO accession” on election day journalist Tufik Softić EUR7,000 in in October 2016. compensation for the ineffective investigation into the 2007 attack on his life, continued LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY threats and his fear of another attempt on his The State Prosecutor’s Office reportedly life. reviewed seven war crimes cases, in which all but four defendants had been acquitted, RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, to determine whether grounds existed to TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE reopen proceedings. In September, the In April, activists proposed a model law on government reported it would pay the victims gender identity. In August, members of the EUR1.35 million in compensation. NGO LGBT Forum Progress were attacked; Proceedings opened in September against one was hospitalized. GMT 2018 Vlado Zmajević, who was arrested in Montenegro in 2016 and indicted – originally ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND by Serbia – for war crimes in Kosovo. CULTURAL RIGHTS In January, the government cut by 25% a TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT lifetime benefit, provided under the 2016 Law In June and again in July, the Constitutional on Social and Child Protection, to mothers Court found that the State Prosecutor’s Office with three or more children who gave up had failed to conduct effective investigations employment. Protests followed, including a into the alleged torture and ill-treatment 14-day hungerstrike05:01 in March. In June, the during demonstrations in November 2015 of government abolished the benefit completely. Branimir Vukčević and Momčilo Baranin, and Although/ the law was potentially Milorad Martinović, respectively. discriminatory, beneficiaries feared that, with Proceedings against prison officers indicted insufficient support to enable them to return in 2016 for abusing prisoners continued to to work, the lost benefit would have a drastic be delayed by their lawyers, with no verdict ETimpact on their family income. by December. EMBARGOED FEBRUARY REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Almost 1,000 Roma and Egyptian refugees In June, the government proposed to amend who fled Kosovo in 1999 remained at Konik the Law on Gatherings to prohibit protests in camp outside22 the capital, Podgorica, awaiting front of Parliament. NGOs feared that resettlement into adequate EU-funded amended legislation on sources of NGO apartments, 120 of which were completed in income would potentially reduce their November. funding, and allow the government00:01 to decide Around 800 Roma and Egyptians remained whether new NGOs could be registered. at risk of statelessness, their applications for JOURNALISTS regular status pending. Some 379 had only Civil society members of a commission three years’ temporary residence. In May, the charged with monitoring investigations into government withdrew a procedure to violence against journalists continued to be determine statelessness from a draft Law on STRICTLYdenied security clearance to classified Foreigners. documents. Four men convicted in May of grave Investigative journalist Jovo Martinović, offences against general safety, for detained in 2015,UNTIL was released in February overloading a boat in 1999, resulting in the after international appeals, but proceedings – deaths of 35 Roma refugees, were sentenced THURSDAY 264 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 in December to between six and eight years' protests. In the second half of the year, imprisonment. prosecutors investigated at least one protester for “false reporting” after he claimed that the police had tortured him. Courts also convicted and imprisoned MOROCCO/ journalists and activists on vague and overly broad state security and terrorism offences in what amounted to punishment for their WESTERN SAHARA criticism of the authorities. Kingdom of Morocco Between May and August, security forces Head of state: King Mohammed VI arrested and detained eight journalists and Head of government: Saad-Eddine El bloggers over critical coverage or online Othmani (replaced Abdelilah Benkirane in March) commentary of the protests in Rif. Prosecutors charged them with protest- Journalists and protesters calling for social related, state security offences. Hamid El justice and political rights were imprisoned, Mahdaoui was convicted ofGMT inciting others to 2018 often following unfair trials. Judicial take part in an unauthorized protest and authorities did not adequately investigate sentenced to three months’ imprisonment reports of torture in detention. Impunity and a fine of 20,000 dirhams (around persisted for past human rights violations. USD2,100), increased to one year’s Migrants continued to face excessive force imprisonment on appeal. and detention. Courts imposed death Seven people, including journalists, activists sentences; there were no executions. and the academic Maati Monjib, remained on trial on charges including “threatening state BACKGROUND security” for05:01 promoting a mobile application Significant and sustained social justice for citizen journalism that protected users’ protests took place in Morocco’s northern Rif privacy./ Journalist Ali Anouzla remained on region. In January, Morocco rejoined the trial on trumped-up charges of “advocating, African Union. In February, Morocco supporting and inciting terrorism” for an submitted a request to join ECOWAS. In article he had published on the website March, King Mohammed VI appointed Saad- ETlakome.com in 2013. Eddine El Othmani as headEMBARGOED of government The authorities imposedFEBRUARY restrictions on following a government reshuffle. In April, the some organizations in Morocco and Western UN Security Council extended the mandate Sahara perceived to be critical of the of the UN Mission for the Referendum in authorities. Restrictions included continuing Western Sahara (MINURSO) for another year obstruction22 of the registration of associations, without human rights monitoring.1 In banning the activities of associations, and September, the UN Human Rights Council expelling foreign nationals invited by such adopted recommendations following a review associations. of Morocco’s human rights record00:01 under the UN UPR process.2 FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Authorities tried and imprisoned hundreds of FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND activists involved in social or environmental ASSOCIATION justice protests on assembly-related charges. The authorities used Penal Code provisions Courts also used trumped-up criminal STRICTLYon insult and on incitement to protest or charges for offences under ordinary law and rebellion to prosecute and imprison charges under vaguely defined state security journalists, bloggers and activists who and terrorism provisions to try protesters. criticized officialsUNTIL or reported on human In February, gendarmes violently arrested rights violations, corruption or popular peaceful environmental protesters including THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 265 Mohamed Akkad, causing significant sight and unnecessary force to disperse peaceful loss in his right eye. He and 13 other people protests in Western Saharan cities including who had protested peacefully against a stone Laayoune, Smara, Boujdour and Dakhla, quarry near their village in Beni Oukil were particularly against those demanding Sahrawi convicted by a court in Oujda city of self-determination and calling for the release “obstructing public officials” and sentenced of Sahrawi prisoners. Several protesters, to a one-month suspended prison term and bloggers and activists were imprisoned, often fines which totalled 10,000 dirhams (around after unfair trials on trumped-up charges. USD1,050). In a separate protest, gendarmes In September, Sahrawi blogger Walid El arrested environmental activist Batal was released from prison in Smara after Abderrahmane Akhidir from Imider in the serving a 10-month sentence and receiving a Atlas Mountains. In March, a court convicted fine of 1,000 dirhams (around USD105) on him on trumped-up charges of assault and trumped-up charges of insulting and theft and sentenced him to a four-month assaulting public officers, damaging public prison term. property and taking part in an armed In April, gendarmes arrested human rights gathering. GMT 2018 defenders Mahjoub El Mahfoud, Miloud In July, a court in Laayoune convicted Salim and Saif Saifeddine after they Sahrawi activist Hamza El Ansari on participated in a protest organized by Zohra trumped-up charges of assaulting and El Bouzidi, who self-immolated to protest insulting public officers and criminal damage against her forced eviction from her home in for his participation in a protest in February, the town of Sidi Hajjaj. Gendarmes also and sentenced him to one year’s arrested Zohra El Bouzidi’s sister, Khadija El imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 Bouzidi. A court convicted the four of dirhams (around USD1,050). The court failed assaulting and insulting public officers and to investigate05:01 his allegation that police had ill- sentenced the three men to two-year prison treated him and forced him to sign a terms reduced on appeal to four months, and statement/ while blindfolded. He was released Khadija El Bouzidi to 10 months’ after his sentence was reduced to three imprisonment, reduced on appeal to two months on appeal in September. months, as well as fines of 500 dirhams (around USD50) each. Zohra El Bouzidi died ETTORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT from her injuries in October.EMBARGOEDIn October, the UNFEBRUARY Subcommittee on From May onward, the authorities deployed Prevention of Torture visited Morocco. security forces on a scale unmatched in Morocco had yet to establish a National recent years to prevent protests in the Rif Preventive Mechanism against torture. region, and conducted mass arrests of largely Courts continued22 to rely on statements peaceful protesters, including children.3 On made in custody in the absence of a lawyer some occasions, security forces used to convict defendants, without adequately excessive or unnecessary force. Judicial investigating allegations that statements were authorities failed to conduct adequate00:01 forcibly obtained through torture and other ill- investigations into the circumstances of the treatment. deaths in August of two protesters, Imad El Between July and November, courts in Al Attabi and Abdelhafid Haddad. Hoceima and Casablanca tried and convicted Between July and November, courts many Rif protesters, drawing on statements convicted many protesters in relation to that defendants claimed were coerced, STRICTLYprotests in Rif, sentencing them to terms of without adequately investigating their up to 20 years’ imprisonment on charges allegations that they were tortured and ranging from unauthorized protest to plotting otherwise ill-treated in custody.4 to undermine UNTILstate security. Throughout the In July, a civilian court convicted 23 Sahrawi year, the authorities routinely used excessive activists in connection with deadly clashes in THURSDAY 266 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Gdim Izik, Western Sahara, in 2010, and REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS handed down heavy sentences, including Morocco did not adopt a law on asylum but some of life imprisonment, following their maintained its policy of allowing refugees grossly unfair trial by a military court in access to basic rights and services, including 2013.5 The civilian court failed to adequately education. The authorities issued asylum- investigate allegations that they were tortured seekers and refugees registered by UNHCR, in custody and did not exclude information the UN refugee agency, with documents tainted by torture as evidence from the protecting them against refoulement − proceedings.6 From September, at least 10 of forcible return of individuals to a country the 19 Sahrawi activists who remained where they risk serious human rights imprisoned went on hunger strike against violations − without taking a decision on their prison conditions after being separated into definitive status. different prisons in Morocco. The authorities left a group of 25 Syrian Detainees reported torture and other ill- refugees stranded in the buffer zone of the treatment in police custody both in Morocco border area with Algeria for three months and in Western Sahara. Judicial authorities before giving them protectionGMT in July.8 2018 failed to adequately investigate these Security forces continued to participate in allegations and hold those responsible to the summary expulsion of migrants and account. asylum-seekers from the Spanish enclaves of Authorities kept several detainees in Ceuta and Melilla to Morocco, and to use prolonged solitary confinement, which excessive or unnecessary force against them. constitutes torture or other ill-treatment. Courts imprisoned migrants for unlawful Prisoner Ali Aarrass was held in isolation for entry, stay or exit from Moroccan territory, more than one year.7 including some who had applied to regularize their status,05:01 and on some occasions put them IMPUNITY on trial without access to a lawyer. The authorities failed to take any steps In September,/ two Burkina Faso nationals towards addressing impunity for grave died after Moroccan security forces used tear violations including systematic torture, gas against migrants attempting to enter the enforced disappearances and extrajudicial Spanish enclave of Melilla. executions in Morocco and Western Sahara ET between 1956 and 1999,EMBARGOED despite DEATH PENALTY FEBRUARY recommendations by the Equity and Courts continued to hand down death Reconciliation Commission transitional justice sentences. No executions had been carried body. out since 1993. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, POLISARIO22 CAMPS TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE The Polisario Front again failed to hold to Courts continued to imprison men under account those responsible for committing Article 489 of the Penal Code that00:01 human rights abuses in camps under its criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual control during the 1970s and 1980s. relations. At least two men were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment under Article 489. 1. UN peacekeeping force in Western Sahara must urgently monitor Victims of homophobic attacks reported human rights (News story, 18 April) being afraid to approach the police to file 2. Human Rights Council adopts Universal Periodic Review outcome on STRICTLYcomplaints because of the risk of arrest Morocco (MDE 29/7141/2017) under Article 489. 3. Morocco: Rif protesters punished with wave of mass arrests (News story, 2 June) UNTIL 4. Morocco: Dozens arrested over mass protests in Rif report torture in custody (News story, 11 August) THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 267 5. Morocco/Western Sahara: Verdict in Sahrawi trial marred by failure to The December 2016 truce reached adequately investigate torture claims (News story, 19 July) between the government, led by the 6. Morocco/Western Sahara: Grant Sahrawi defendants a fair trial (MDE Mozambique Liberation Front, and the main 29/5753/2017) opposition party, Mozambique National 7. Morocco: Further information: Health risks for detainee in isolation for Resistance (RENAMO), continued to hold in 232 days − Ali Aarrass (MDE 29/6303/2017) 2017, after three years of violent clashes. 8. Syrian refugees trapped in desert on Moroccan border with Algeria in dire need of assistance (News story, 7 June) Peace negotiations continued on decentralization of government powers. The relationship between the two leaders remained tense; RENAMO leader Afonso MOZAMBIQUE Dhlakama accused President Nyusi of failing to withdraw government troops from the Republic of Mozambique Gorongosa region by the agreed time. Head of state and government: Filipe Jacinto Nyusi The government’s hidden borrowing plunged LAND DISPUTES the country into economic crisis. Food Mining companies acquiredGMT land used by 2018 insecurity deepened because of large-scale residents, exacerbating already existing food land acquisition for mining which pushed insecurity which affected over 60% of people people off land on which they depended for in rural areas who depended on the land for subsistence. People expressing dissenting their livelihoods, and for food and water. or critical views continued to face attacks Coal mining company Vale Mozambique and intimidation by unidentified individuals began in 2013 to fence off land used by local or security forces. An estimated 30,000 residents to graze their livestock and collect people with albinism faced discrimination firewood, including in the Nhanchere area in and feared for their lives, and at least 13 the Moatize05:01 district of Tete province. On 13 were killed. Violence against women and June 2017, Hussen António Laitone was shot girls remained widespread. dead by/ police in Nhanchere during the community’s peaceful protest against land BACKGROUND acquisition for mining; he had not The Administrative Tribunal and the participated in the protest. Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the ET Situation of the Public DebtEMBARGOED stated in 2016 FREEDOMS OF FEBRUARYEXPRESSION AND that the guarantees on the undisclosed ASSOCIATION borrowing by the government of USD2.2 Intimidation and harassment of and attacks billion for use in security and defence against people who expressed dissenting or spending was illegal and unconstitutional. critical views22 continued. The undisclosed loans were revealed in April Journalist and human rights activist 2016; it was projected that they would drive Armando Nenane was severely beaten on 17 the public debt to 135% of GDP during May in the capital, Maputo, by riot police. He 2017. Local currency lost value00:01 and prices was attacked for his views on the so-called increased substantially, a situation which was G40, a group allegedly created under the compounded by the country’s dependence government of former President Guebuza to on imports. discredit opponents in favour of the Senior government officials obstructed a government. Prior to the beating, Armando forensic audit of the loans which had been Nenane received anonymous death threats STRICTLYdemanded by international donors in order to by telephone. No one had been held restore trust and to resume aid support. accountable for the attack by the end of the Consequently, donors withheld aid pending year. the government’sUNTIL co-operation and its full On 4 October, Mahamudo Amurane, Mayor disclosure. of the northern city of Nampula, was shot THURSDAY 268 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 dead in front of his house by an unidentified VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS gunman. Following disagreements with the There were high rates of women murdered, leadership of the Mozambique Democratic often by men intimately known, or related, to Movement (MDM), Mahamudo Amurane had them. In several cases, the perpetrators announced his intention to leave the party to attempted to justify their actions by claiming form his own party and seek re-election in the victim used witchcraft against them. October 2018 municipal elections. On 10 January, a 31-year-old man stabbed On 2 December, a gunman threatened to his 27-year-old wife to death with a kitchen kill Aunício da Silva, an investigative journalist knife in Inhagoia neighbourhood on the and editor of Ikweli, a weekly publication, in outskirts of Maputo. In February, in Vanduzi Nampula. The gunman accused him of district, Manica province, a 27-year-old man publishing articles that tarnished the image of decapitated his mother with a machete Carlos Saíde, the MDM mayoral candidate for saying she had refused to serve him food. In Nampula. May, a man killed his mother in Guru district, Manica province, claiming she cast a spell of DISCRIMINATION – PEOPLE WITH sexual impotence on him. GMTIn August, two 2018 ALBINISM brothers killed their 70-year-old grandmother An estimated 30,000 people with albinism in the Messano locality, Bilene district, Gaza experienced discrimination and were province, after accusing her of casting a bad ostracized; many lived in fear of their lives. luck spell on them. In September, in the Incidents of persecution increased; at least Centro Hípico neighbourhood located on the 13 people with albinism were known to have outskirts of Chimoio, Manica province, a man been killed although figures are likely to have killed his 80-year-old mother with an iron bar been greater. The killings were fuelled by after accusing her of bewitching him. superstition or myths about the magical Although,05:01 in all these cases, the suspected powers of people with albinism. Most killings perpetrators admitted that they carried out took place in the central and northern the killings,/ the authorities failed to develop, provinces, the country’s poorest regions. resource and implement an effective strategy A seven-year-old boy with albinism was to combat violence against women. murdered on 31 January by four unidentified men who broke into his house and abducted ET him while the family slept,EMBARGOED in Ngaúma FEBRUARY district, Niassa province. On 28 May, a group MYANMAR of unidentified assailants abducted a three- Republic of the Union of Myanmar year-old boy from his mother in Angónia Head of state and government: Htin Kyaw district, Tete province. On 13 September, a 22 17-year-old youth was killed for his body The human rights situation deteriorated parts and organs in Benga area, Moatize dramatically. Hundreds of thousands of district, in Tete province. The attackers Rohingya fled crimes against humanity in removed his brain, hair, and arm00:01 bones. Rakhine State to neighbouring Bangladesh; None of those responsible for the killings those who remained continued to live under were arrested or brought to justice by the end a system amounting to apartheid. The army of the year. committed extensive violations of Despite public outcry, the government did international humanitarian law. Authorities little to address the problem. A strategy was continued to restrict humanitarian access STRICTLYdesigned to stop the killings; however, this across the country. Restrictions on freedom was not implemented, allegedly because of a of expression remained. There was lack of resources. increased religious intolerance and anti- UNTIL Muslim sentiment. Impunity persisted for past and ongoing human rights violations. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 269 BACKGROUND Rohingya who remained in Rakhine State The civilian-led administration, headed de continued to live under a system amounting facto by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, to apartheid, which severely restricted completed its first year in office in March. virtually every aspect of their lives and Economic reforms stagnated, while the peace segregated them from the rest of society.2 process – aimed at bringing an end to Their rights to nationality, freedom of decades of internal armed conflicts – stalled. movement, the highest attainable standard of The military retained significant political health, education, work, food, freedom of power and remained independent of civilian religion and belief, and to participate in oversight. On 6 October, Myanmar ratified the public life were routinely and systematically ICESCR, due to come into force in the violated on a discriminatory basis. country on 6 January 2018. The government dismissed allegations of human rights violations and ignored calls for CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW – investigations and accountability. It signed a CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY deal with Bangladesh to repatriate refugees Rakhine State was plunged into crisis when subject to a verification process,GMT and 2018 security forces unleashed a campaign of announced that it would work to implement violence against the predominantly Muslim Kofi Annan’s recommendations and bring Rohingya ethnic minority in the northern part development to Rakhine State. of the state, following co-ordinated attacks in late August by the armed group Arakan INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Fighting between the Myanmar Army and approximately 30 security posts. The attacks ethnic armed groups intensified in northern took place just hours after a commission Myanmar. The Army committed wide-ranging headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi human rights05:01 violations against ethnic Annan presented its recommendations to minority civilians, including extrajudicial “prevent violence, maintain peace and foster executions/ and other unlawful killings, reconciliation” in the state. enforced disappearances, arbitrary The military, often working with Border detentions, torture and other ill-treatment and Guard Police and local vigilantes, killed an forced labour. The Army regularly fired undetermined number of Rohingya women, ETmortar and artillery shells when fighting men and children; torturedEMBARGOED and otherwise ill- ethnic armed groups,FEBRUARY which often landed in treated Rohingya women and girls, including civilian areas. In May, an 81-year-old woman with rape and other forms of sexual violence; was killed when a mortar exploded near her laid landmines; and burned hundreds of home in Namhkan township, northern Shan Rohingya villages in what the UN High State.3 Several22 of these violations were likely Commissioner for Human Rights described to amount to war crimes. as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Ethnic armed groups committed violations The conduct of the security forces amounted of international humanitarian law, including to crimes against humanity.1 00:01 enforced disappearances, forcible More than 655,000 Rohingya fled to recruitment and extortion. Both the Myanmar Bangladesh as a result of the violence. Other Army and ethnic armed groups laid anti- ethnic minority communities were also personnel landmines or landmine-like affected, with an estimated 30,000 people weapons. Many displaced people were afraid temporarily displaced to other parts of to return to their homes as a result. STRICTLYRakhine State. There were reports of abuses, including killings of informants and the LACK OF HUMANITARIAN ACCESS enforced disappearance of ethnic Rakhine Both the civilian government and the military and Mro villagersUNTIL by ARSA. continued to severely and arbitrarily restrict THURSDAY 270 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 humanitarian access, placing hundreds of ongoing instability, militarization in ethnic thousands of people at risk. areas and lack of access to essential In Rakhine State, authorities restricted aid services. access in the wake of the August ARSA attacks, suspending it entirely in the north of PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE the state. The authorities later allowed the Despite prisoner amnesties in April and May, Red Cross Movement and the World Food prisoners of conscience remained in Programme to operate in the area. However, detention. The authorities continued to use a their access was limited and insufficient to range of vaguely worded laws that restricted meet needs. In other parts of Rakhine State, the rights to freedom of expression, access was further impaired by local tensions association and peaceful assembly to arrest and hostility towards international aid and imprison people solely for peacefully groups.4 exercising their rights. The authorities further restricted access to Prisoner of conscience Lahpai Gam, an displaced populations in northern Myanmar, ethnic Kachin farmer, remained in prison, especially to people living in territory that was suffering from serious healthGMT conditions. He 2018 not under government control. In February, was tortured at the time of his arrest in 2012. the Myanmar Army prevented the delivery of The government failed to provide restitution 200 UN-stamped “dignity kits” – which to former prisoners of conscience and their included basic sanitary supplies – for women families, such as compensation, assistance in and girls displaced in areas controlled by the gaining access to education and employment Kachin Independence Organization. opportunities, and other forms of reparation. REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, DISPLACED PEOPLE ASSOCIATION05:01 AND ASSEMBLY Civilians were displaced as a result of The rights to freedom of expression, conflict, violence and natural disasters. More association/ and peaceful assembly remained than 106,000 people remained internally subject to severe restrictions. There was a displaced by the conflicts in northern surge in the number of people charged with Myanmar. Some 120,000 people, mostly “online defamation” under Section 66(d) of Rohingya, continued to live in squalid ETthe 2013 Telecommunications Act.5 Following displacement camps in RakhineEMBARGOED State where national and internationalFEBRUARY pressure, they have been confined for five years Parliament adopted minor amendments to following violence in 2012. the law. However, “online defamation” By the end of the year more than 655,000 remained a criminal offence. Rohingya refugees had fled to Bangladesh Human 22rights defenders, lawyers and following unlawful and disproportionate journalists – in particular those speaking out military operations in northern Rakhine State. about the situation of the Rohingya, religious In November, Myanmar and Bangladesh intolerance and violations by the military – signed an agreement to repatriate00:01 refugees to faced surveillance, intimidation and attacks. Myanmar even as people continued to flee On 29 January, Ko Ni, a lawyer, was shot across the border. The entrenched and dead at Yangon International Airport while ongoing regime amounting to apartheid in returning from an interfaith conference in Rakhine State ensured that any returns Indonesia. At the end of the year, the trial of would not be safe or dignified. four alleged perpetrators was still ongoing; a STRICTLYSome 100,000 additional refugees from fifth suspect remained at large. In November, Myanmar continued to live in camps in ethnic Kachin pastor Dumdaw Nawng Lat Thailand, where they faced decreasing and his assistant Langjaw Gam were humanitarian UNTILassistance. Many expressed imprisoned for providing assistance to concerns about returning to Myanmar, citing journalists reporting on military air strikes THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 271 near the town of Monekoe in late 2016. Both CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY men were sentenced to two years’ Thousands of families living near the imprisonment under the Unlawful Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing region Associations Act. Dumdaw Nawng Lat was remained at risk of losing their homes and sentenced to an additional two years for farmland under plans to expand the project.7 “defamation”. Villagers living close to the mine continued to The operations of independent media protest against the project. In March, at least outlets were increasingly restricted, and in 10 people were injured after police fired some cases journalists were subjected to rubber bullets at a group of villagers criminal prosecution for carrying out their protesting about the impact of trucks work. In June, three media workers were transporting materials to the mine. According arrested and charged with contacting an to local authorities, six police officers were “unlawful association” after returning from an wounded by protesters using catapults.8 area controlled by an armed ethnic group In August, the Ministry of Defence rejected operating in northern Myanmar. They were a proposal to relocate a factory producing released after charges against them were sulphuric acid to supply theGMT mine. Severe 2018 dropped in August.6 In December, two risks were posed to the health of the Reuters reporters were detained under the community living nearby. Environmental and Official Secrets Act in connection with their human rights concerns related to the project work reporting on the situation in Rakhine had not been addressed by the end of the State. Both were held incommunicado for two year. weeks and remained in detention at the end of the year. DEATH PENALTY Courts continued to impose death sentences FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF under legal05:01 provisions allowing for the There was a sharp rise in religious imposition of the death penalty. No intolerance and anti-Muslim sentiment in the executions/ were carried out. wake of the August attacks in Rakhine State. The government exacerbated the situation by LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY both allowing and directly producing hate A persistent culture of impunity remained for speech inciting discrimination and violence in EThuman rights violations committed by the print and online. State mediaEMBARGOED published security forces. MostFEBRUARY perpetrators of past and derogatory anti-Rohingya articles; current human rights violations, including government officials published inflammatory crimes under international law, had not been posts on social media. held accountable for their actions. Throughout the year religious minorities, in The government22 failed to adequately particular Muslims, continued to face investigate and hold to account perpetrators discrimination. In April, two madrassas of serious human rights violations in Rakhine (religious schools) in Yangon were closed by State, including crimes against humanity. In local authorities and police following00:01 pressure August, an Investigation Commission from a mob of Buddhist hardline nationalists. established by the President to probe the In September, the Kayin State authorities October 2016 attacks and their aftermath issued an order requiring all Muslims in the published a summary of its findings in which state to report to local authorities before it acknowledged casualties, destruction of travelling. Although the Kayin State Chief buildings, loss of property and displacement. STRICTLYMinister later said that the order was an However, it failed to establish responsibility “administrative error”, travel restrictions for these acts, or to state whether any action reportedly remained in place at the end of had been taken to prosecute perpetrators. the year. UNTIL The investigation lacked independence.9 In November, a military investigation concluded THURSDAY 272 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 that no human rights violations had been 7. Mountain of trouble: Human rights abuses continue at Myanmar’s committed in Rakhine State following the 25 Letpadaung mine (ASA 16/5564/2017) August ARSA attacks and subsequent 8. Myanmar: Investigate police use of force against protesters at troubled mine (ASA 16/5983/2017) military campaign. 9. Myanmar: National efforts to investigate Rakhine State violence are INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY inadequate (ASA 16/5758/2017) In March the UN Human Rights Council established an independent, international Fact-Finding Mission to “establish the facts NAMIBIA and circumstances” about human rights violations and abuses, in particular in Republic of Namibia Head of state and government: Hage Gottfried Geingob Rakhine State. The Council requested the Mission to present its findings in September 2018. The move was met with strong The right to adequate housing was opposition by the government, which restricted and the situation was exacerbated disassociated itself from the investigation and by high levels of unemployment,GMT poverty 2018 refused to allow the team into the country. and inequality. Eight prisoners of A significant increase in international conscience in the long-running Caprivi trial attention was focused on Myanmar and the were held 14 years after their arrest, on crisis in Rakhine State following the August treason and sedition charges. attacks. On 6 November, the UN Security Council issued a presidential statement RIGHT TO HOUSING calling for an end to the violence and for the Housing remained inadequate; the restrictions on humanitarian aid to be lifted. government failed to ensure accessible, Also in November, the UN General Assembly affordable05:01 and habitable housing. Over adopted a resolution on the situation of 500,000 people lived in shacks or makeshift human rights in Myanmar. In December, the settlements/ in urban areas while only 10% of Human Rights Council held a special session the population could afford to buy a house on the situation of the Rohingya and other which cost on average 800,000 Namibian minorities. The EU and the USA suspended dollars (USD58,474) per household. Rural to invitations to senior military officials. ETurban migration, high unemployment levels, The UN Special RapporteurEMBARGOED on the situation low salaries, highFEBRUARY rents and lack of available of human rights in Myanmar faced increasing and affordable land plots with residential restrictions on her access, and by the end of services led to inadequate housing the year had been barred from the country particularly in the capital, Windhoek. On 28 for the remainder of her tenure. She had March, 1522 families were rendered homeless previously raised concerns about the when Windhoek City Police arbitrarily evicted deteriorating situation in the country. them, without an eviction notice, from their informal settlements in Agste Laan, Windhoek. Although the residents took their 1. “My world is finished”: Rohingya targeted by crimes00:01 against humanity in Myanmar (ASA 16/7288/2017) case to the High Court seeking to be allowed 2. “Caged without a roof”: Apartheid in Myanmar’s Rakhine State (ASA to stay in the settlement and have their 16/7484/2017) shacks rebuilt while their case was finalized, 3. “All the civilians suffer”: Conflict, displacement and abuse in the Court ruled against them on grounds that northern Myanmar (ASA 16/6429/2017) they were not legally resident on the site. STRICTLY4. Myanmar: Restrictions on international aid putting thousands at risk The inadequate housing in informal (News story, 4 September) settlements was highlighted between 25 and 5. Myanmar: Repeal Section 66(d) of the 2013 Telecommunications Law 31 August when five children in the Erongo (ASA 16/6617/2017UNTIL) and Oshikoto regions died in their homes in 6. Myanmar: Release journalists immediately (News story, 26 June) THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 273 separate fires after their parents left them committee found that the main contributing alone in corrugated shacks. factors were a harmful living environment, The UN Independent Expert on the uncertainty about the future, an inadequate enjoyment of all human rights by older regulatory framework (including child persons noted that, while housing conditions protection policies), a lack of transparency in for older people in rural areas had improved operations affecting refugees, and a failure to since the country gained independence in hold authorities accountable for abuses. By 1990, it had worsened in urban areas the end of the year, neither the Australian nor because of the growth of informal settlements the Nauruan authorities had taken steps to where access to essential services like remedy the situation. sanitation facilities and water and electricity Reports emerged during the year that the supplies were inadequate. Spanish multinational company Ferrovial and its Australian subsidiary Broadspectrum were CAPRIVI DETAINEES complicit in the abuse of refugees on Nauru, The trial of eight prisoners of conscience, and that they reaped vast profits from accused in the long-running Caprivi case, Australia’s refugee policies.GMT Ferrovial stated 2018 resumed in May. Progress Kenyoka Munuma, that it would not renew its contract when it Shine Samulandela, Manuel Manepelo expired in October.1 Makendano, Alex Sinjabata Mushakwa, In August, a medical professional reported Diamond Samunzala Salufu, Hoster Simasiku that four refugee women were being denied Ntombo, Fredderick Ntamilwa and John transfer to Australia to have abortions, which Mazila Tembwe were charged and convicted are illegal on Nauru. of treason and sedition in 2007. In 2013, the In November, a refugee died after a Supreme Court set aside their convictions motorcycle accident; a police investigation and sentences ranging from 30 to 32 years was under way.05:01 Later in the same month, and ordered a retrial. However, they another refugee received head injuries in a remained in detention pending trial, in motorcycle/ accident. violation of international fair trial standards, at the end of the year. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ASSEMBLY ETIn May, three suspended parliamentarians, EMBARGOEDwho were charged FEBRUARY and convicted for peaceful NAURU protests in 2015, had their prison sentences Republic of Nauru substantially increased on appeal: from three Head of state and government: Baron Waqa months to 22 months for two defendants, and to 1422 months for the third defendant. Refugees and asylum-seekers remained Their lawyer announced the intention of the trapped on Nauru. They had been forcibly three defendants to appeal their conviction sent there by the Australian government, and sentences to the High Court of Australia, despite widespread reports of 00:01physical, which is the ultimate court of appeal under psychological and sexual abuse. In Nauru’s legal system. September, 27 refugees were sent to the Journalists seeking to visit Nauru remained USA; over 1,000 remained on the island. subject to a non-refundable visa fee of USD6,089. This severely restricted media REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS freedom and hampered independent scrutiny STRICTLYIn April, an Australian Senate Committee of Nauru’s policies and practices. report described numerous allegations of physical and sexual abuse, self-harm and 1. Treasure i$land – how companies are profiting from Australia’s neglect of refugeesUNTIL and asylum-seekers in abuse of refugees on Nauru (ASA 12/5942/2017) Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The THURSDAY 274 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In August, a vast area of the southern Tarai NEPAL was flooded by monsoon rains that killed 143 people and affected 1.7 million others. More Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal than 400,000 people were forced out of their Head of state: Bidhya Devi Bhandari homes, with more than 1,000 homes being Head of government: Sher Bahadur Deuba (replaced completely destroyed. Victims were given Pushpa Kamal Dahal in June) inadequate assistance by the government, which blocked attempts to distribute aid Nearly 70% of people made homeless by privately. Many continued to live in the 2015 earthquake remained in inadequate housing and poor conditions. temporary shelters. Thousands of people affected by monsoon floods in the Tarai EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE region were not provided with adequate Security forces continued to use unnecessary assistance, including housing. Concerns by or excessive force in response to protests in Indigenous and Madhesi people about the Tarai, particularly over grievances relating clauses they viewed as discriminatory in the to the Constitution. In March,GMT five protesters 2018 2015 Constitution remained unaddressed. were killed and 16 others injured when police No effective investigations took place into used firearms to disperse Madhesi protesters the use of excessive force against protesters in Saptari district. in the Tarai. Efforts toward ensuring truth, justice and reparations for thousands of WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT victims of human rights violations WORKERS committed during the decade-long armed The government failed to deliver effective conflict were inadequate. Nepali migrant protection for migrant workers and end the workers continued to be subjected to culture of 05:01impunity for unlawful and criminal extortion, fraud and bonded labour, and recruitment practices. Migrant workers were were put at risk of further human rights systematically/ subjected to unlawful and abuse in employment abroad. criminal conduct by recruitment businesses and agents. Recruiters routinely charged BACKGROUND migrant workers illegal and excessive fees; Local elections were held for the first time in ETdeceived them about the terms and more than two decades. ParliamentaryEMBARGOED and conditions of theirFEBRUARY work abroad; and provincial elections took place in November manipulated their consent to overseas work and December. In October, Nepal was through the accumulation of recruitment elected to the UN Human Rights Council. debts. Some recruiters were directly involved in labour 22trafficking, which is punishable RIGHT TO HOUSING under Nepal’s Human Trafficking and Hundreds of thousands of survivors from the Transportation (Control) Act. 2015 earthquake (nearly 70% of those Migrants trapped in forced-labour situations affected) were still living in temporary00:01 abroad faced extreme difficulty in accessing shelters. The government stipulated proof of support from Nepalese embassies in order to land ownership as a condition for receiving a return home. Recruiters rarely provided rebuilding grant. However, since up to 25% repatriation assistance to workers when they of the population were considered not to have encountered problems abroad despite their met this criterion, tens of thousands of the obligations under the Foreign Employment STRICTLYearthquake survivors were ineligible for these Act. The authorities failed to investigate – grants. The situation primarily affected including through autopsies – the high marginalized and disadvantaged groups, number of migrant worker deaths during including women,UNTIL Dalits and other caste- foreign employment. based and ethnic minorities. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 275 No improvements were made in the Commission and the Commission of implementation of the government’s “Free Investigation on Enforced Disappeared visa, free ticket” policy, which was intended Persons – had respectively collected over to curtail recruitment charges by agencies. 60,000 and 3,000 complaints of human Although the government made repeated rights violations, such as murder, torture and public commitments to reduce migration enforced disappearances committed by state costs for workers and to protect them from security forces and Maoists during the incurring debt, it increased the burden on conflict from 1996 to 2006. Effective migrants by raising pre-departure costs. In investigations did not take place. An acute July, the Foreign Employment Promotion shortage of resources and capacity adversely Board increased the amount migrant workers affected the ability of the two bodies to deliver were required to contribute to the truth, justice and reparation. government-administered welfare fund. Fewer than 100 recruitment agencies were IMPUNITY fined or referred to the Foreign Employment Impunity remained entrenched. Political Tribunal for violations of Nepal’s foreign parties resisted amending GMTtransitional justice 2018 employment laws, even though more than laws in what was widely perceived as a 8,000 migrant workers filed cases against prioritization of reconciliation and monetary recruitment agents. The Foreign Employment compensation over truth, justice and Act 2007 stipulates that victims must file other reparations, including guarantees of their complaints with the Department of non-repetition. No effective investigations had Foreign Employment and restricts police from taken place into the hundreds of killings of actively investigating recruitment businesses demonstrators by security forces since 1990 for their violations of Nepal’s criminal in various parts of the country, including the legislation. Recruitment businesses Tarai. 05:01 continued to use their political influence to prevent investigation, prosecution and DISCRIMINATION/ redress for their routine abuse and Discrimination persisted on the bases of exploitation of migrants. gender, caste, class, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and religion. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT ETConstitutional amendments did not fully The criminal investigationEMBARGOED system remained guarantee equal rightsFEBRUARY to citizenship for archaic and draconian. Torture and other ill- women, nor provide protection from treatment was widespread in pre-trial discrimination to marginalized communities detention to extract “confessions”. including Dalits and other caste-based and The new Criminal Code passed by ethnic minorities,22 and lesbian, gay, bisexual, Parliament in August contained transgender and intersex people. provisions criminalizing torture and other ill- The provisions for punishment and treatment, with a maximum of five years’ the statutory limitations relating to rape in the imprisonment. A separate anti-torture00:01 bill, new Criminal Code were still far short of which remained pending in Parliament, fell international law and standards. Gender- far short of international legal requirements. based discrimination continued to undermine women’s and girls’ ability to control their TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE sexuality and make informed choices related The government did not amend the to reproduction; to challenge early and forced STRICTLYInvestigation of the Disappeared Persons, marriages; and enjoy adequate antenatal and Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act maternal health care. 2014 as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2014 and 2015.UNTIL By the end of the year, two bodies – the Truth and Reconciliation THURSDAY 276 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY NETHERLANDS In March, two anti-terrorism laws came into force for individuals suspected of being a Kingdom of the Netherlands threat to national security. The first allowed Head of state: King Willem-Alexander for administrative control measures on Head of government: Mark Rutte individuals, including travel bans and restrictions on movement and contact with Undocumented migrants continued to be certain persons, without providing sufficient deprived of their rights. New security safeguards against arbitrary and legislation threatened to undermine human discriminatory use. The second rights and the rule of law. Ethnic profiling administrative law enabled the revocation of by police continued to be a pressing Dutch nationality of dual citizens who are concern, as was the use of Tasers in day-to- suspected of having travelled abroad to join day policing. an armed group. The laws did not provide for a meaningful and effective appeal. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS In July, the law on the IntelligenceGMT and 2018 The number of people in immigration Security Services was adopted. It gave detention increased, after years of decline. sweeping surveillance powers to intelligence Insufficient attention was given by the and security services, threatening the rights authorities to alternatives to detention, while to privacy, freedom of expression and non- the necessity and proportionality of an discrimination. Safeguards against abuse of individual’s (continued) detention were also these powers were insufficient. Serious insufficiently assessed. A draft law on concerns remained about the possibility of amending immigration detention rules was information-sharing with intelligence agencies pending at the end of the year. Although the in countries05:01 that might use such information bill offered minor improvements, the to target human rights defenders and detention regime would remain “prison-like” government/ opponents. in terms of facilities, detention conditions and Any person suspected or convicted of the use of disciplinary measures, including terrorism-related offences continued to be isolation cells and use of handcuffs. automatically placed in a specialized high- Despite a deteriorating security situation in ETsecurity prison where they were subjected to Afghanistan, the NetherlandsEMBARGOED continued to inhuman and degradingFEBRUARY treatment. forcibly return asylum-seekers whose claims were rejected to Afghanistan, including POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES families with children, in breach of the In order to address ongoing ethnic profiling, principle of non-refoulement. the police22 introduced a professional standard and a training module to promote the fair and RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF effective use of their stop-and-search powers. LIVING However, the impact of this remained The authorities remained unwilling00:01 to unclear, as there was no systematic implement a recommendation by the UN monitoring and recording of how these stop- Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural and-search powers were executed in Rights to put in place a comprehensive practice. strategy to ensure that everyone, including In February, the police began piloting the undocumented migrants, enjoys the use of Taser X2 electro-shock weapons. STRICTLYminimum essential levels of all Covenant Police records between February and August rights (such as the rights to food, housing, showed that Tasers were used in situations health, water and sanitation) and ensure this where there was no imminent threat of death is supported byUNTIL adequate funding. or serious injury. In almost half of the cases, persons were tasered in direct contact mode, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 277 including when already handcuffed, inside a and/or waist restraints in at-risk units was police cell or vehicle, and in a separation cell found to amount to cruel, inhuman or in a psychiatric hospital. This usage is degrading treatment or punishment. The inconsistent with international human rights separation of children and young people in standards. “secure care” units in “care and protection” residences was found to be inappropriate. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF A government proposal for a ban on face- REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS coverings in certain public spaces was The government announced the framework pending before the Senate at the end of the for its pilot community sponsorship year. The ban would restrict the rights to programme for refugee resettlement, to begin freedom of religion and of expression, at the end of the year. The new refugee particularly of Muslim women. category allows community groups to sponsor 25 refugees to enter New Zealand. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS GMT 2018 NEW ZEALAND A UNICEF report raised concern over the New Zealand health and wellbeing of children in New Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Zealand, due to the high rates of teen Patricia Lee Reddy pregnancy, neonatal mortality and the high Head of government: Jacinda Ardern (replaced Bill teen suicide rate. The UN Committee on the English in October) Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended the establishment of an New Zealand received criticism about its independent inquiry into abuse suffered by mental health services, detention facilities, children, the05:01 vast majority Māori, in state care high rates of Indigenous Māori between the 1950s and 1990s. representation in the criminal justice / system, and about poor health and INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE wellbeing among children. The authorities declined to hold an independent inquiry into allegations that the JUSTICE SYSTEM ETNew Zealand Defence Force committed The Waitangi Tribunal, a permanentEMBARGOED crimes under internationalFEBRUARY law during a raid commission of inquiry, found that the in Afghanistan in 2010, resulting in civilian government had failed to prioritize the deaths. Lawyers filed a civil lawsuit calling for reduction of the high rate of recidivism a judicial review on behalf of the alleged among Māori and had breached its Treaty of Afghan victims.22 Waitangi obligations. The commission called for urgent practical action to reduce the RIGHT TO HEALTH number. The National Preventive Mechanism The Auditor-General found that problems found that Māori were disproportionally00:01 with access to housing, rehabilitation and represented in all detention centres. Mental other services led to patients being kept in health and disability in detention continued to mental health units for years. be a concern. Separate reviews by the Ombudsman and an independent expert commissioned by the Human Rights STRICTLYCommission highlighted the high use of prolonged solitary confinement and restraint practices in places of detention and the over- representationUNTIL of ethnic minority groups in these incidents. The use of “tie-down beds” THURSDAY 278 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS NICARAGUA Impunity persisted for crimes such as killings, rapes, kidnappings, enforced Republic of Nicaragua disappearances, death threats and forced Head of state and government: Daniel Ortega Saavedra displacement of Indigenous Peoples in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, even Gender-based killings became increasingly though both the Inter-American Commission brutal. Attacks against human rights on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter- defenders persisted. A total ban on abortion American Court of Human Rights had remained in place. Impunity persisted for ordered Nicaragua in 2015 to adopt all perpetrators of violence against Indigenous necessary measures to investigate those Peoples. The authorities continued to deny crimes. a genuine and effective consultation process for communities likely to be HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS affected by the construction of the Grand Attacks against women human rights Interoceanic Canal. defenders continued, as reportedGMT at a public 2018 hearing before the IACHR in September. BACKGROUND Women’s civil society organizations reported In January, Daniel Ortega assumed office as receiving death threats as well as being President for a third consecutive term. arbitrarily detained and attacked with the Rosario Murillo, his wife, assumed office as complicity or acquiescence of state officials. Vice-President for the first time. In March, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in Acosta WOMEN’S RIGHTS et al. v. Nicaragua; it found the state Between January and December, there were responsible05:01 for having violated the rights to 55 gender-based killings of women, access to justice, truth and physical integrity according to the NGO Catholics for the Right of human/ rights defender María Luisa Acosta, to Decide. The NGO found that the killings following the murder of her husband were more brutal than in previous years and Francisco García Valle.1 The authorities had tended to be committed by perpetrators yet to take steps to comply with the acting in groups. ETjudgment, in particular to put an end to the In June 2017, the NationalEMBARGOED Assembly impunity in the caseFEBRUARY and ensure the rights to approved an amendment to the justice and truth of María Luisa Acosta. Comprehensive Law on Violence against In August the IACHR granted precautionary Women; the amendment reduced the scope measures to Francisca Ramírez and her of the definition of femicide to the private family after22 they were victims of death sphere, limiting the crime to relations threats, harassment and attacks in retaliation between spouses and partners. Critics said for her activism in opposition to the the new definition denied the reality of construction of the Grand Interoceanic Canal. femicides, which were also committed00:01 in public places. GRAND INTEROCEANIC CANAL Abortion remained banned in all There continued to be no genuine and circumstances. Nicaragua continued to have effective consultation process for those who one of the highest teenage pregnancy and would be affected by the construction of the maternal mortality rates in the Americas Grand Interoceanic Canal, in violation of STRICTLYregion, according to the UN Population Fund international human rights principles.2 (UNFPA). According to the Centre for Legal Assistance for Indigenous Peoples, the right to free, prior UNTIL and informed consent of the Indigenous and Afro-descendant Rama Kriol people relating THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 279 to the project had not been guaranteed, suspected Boko Haram members went on despite several appeals lodged with the trial. Hundreds of people, including courts. Civil society organizations noted that prisoners of conscience, were arrested and the scale of the project, which would include prosecuted for exercising their rights to an oil pipeline and two ports, among other freedom of expression and association. infrastructure, would affect hundreds of Security forces used excessive force against thousands of people and would put them at protesters. The rights of refugees and risk of eviction. migrants were violated. Human rights organizations and peasant farmer communities continued to call for the BACKGROUND repeal of Law 840, the law regulating the In March, the government declared a state of Canal, due to its insufficient safeguards to emergency in the western areas bordering protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Their Mali and extended the security forces’ demands continued to be rejected and the powers after attacks by armed groups in authorities had yet to open a meaningful Tillabéry and Tahoua. It renewed the state of dialogue with the communities likely to be emergency in the Diffa region,GMT where attacks 2018 affected by the construction of the Canal. by armed groups continued. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY ASSOCIATION In November, municipal elections took place Hundreds of people, including prisoners of in a context of violence, with at least five conscience, were arbitrarily arrested and people reported to have been killed and 30 prosecuted for exercising their rights to wounded in six municipalities. freedom of expression and association. There were also reports of unnecessary and In May, Insar05:01 Abdourahmane, a member of excessive use of force by the police against the Association of Action for Democracy and people peacefully protesting against the Human/ Rights, was arrested and detained for construction of the Canal, as well as reports more than 20 days in Agadez town for of arbitrary detention of protesters. Human criticizing the authorities on Facebook. He rights defenders were also reported to have was given a six-month suspended prison been harassed and intimidated for their ETsentence for inciting violence. opposition to the project. EMBARGOEDIn April, security FEBRUARY forces used excessive force to repress a student protest in Niamey, the capital, against the suspension of bursary 1. Nicaragua: The state must uphold, without delay, the judgment issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (AMR payments and new age restrictions on welfare 43/6173/2017) payments.22 One student, Mala Bagallé, was 2. Danger: Rights for sale − the Interoceanic Grand Canal project in killed after being shot in the back with a tear Nicaragua and the erosion of human rights (AMR 43/6515/2017) gas canister, and dozens were wounded. In May, a commission of inquiry found that the 00:01 gendarmerie was responsible for the killing; NIGER and a judicial investigation was opened. At least 300 students, including board The Republic of Niger members of the Niger Union of Students, Head of state: Mahamadou Issoufou were arrested throughout the country, Head of government: Brigi Rafini detained for a few days and released without STRICTLY charge for participating in a protest and Armed conflict continued and armed groups blocking traffic. carried out at least 70 attacks, killing tens In May, Amadou Ali Djibo, leader of the of civilians. TheUNTIL humanitarian situation opposition coalition Front for the Restoration continued to deteriorate. Over 700 of Democracy and the Defence of the THURSDAY 280 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Republic, was convicted of inciting revolt Abada on the Nigeria border, when they were and, after 11 days’ detention, was given a 90- mistaken for members of an armed group. day conditional suspended sentence. An investigation was launched into the In April, Baba Alpha, an outspoken killings. journalist working for private television channel Bonferey, and his father, who was ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL born in Mali, were arrested and charged with RIGHTS forgery and illegal status. In July they were The UN CEDAW Committee expressed sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for concern that 82% of the population lived in forgery. extreme poverty. Women were particularly In June, Ibrahim Bana, a member of affected by food insecurity in rural areas, a opposition party Moden Fa Lumana, and fact linked to, among other things, their Gamatié Mahamadou Yansambou, Secretary socioeconomic status and the impact of General of the Union of Taxi Drivers, were climate change and extractive industries. The arrested and charged for attempting to Committee also expressed concern that influence a judicial investigation after they temporary measures to achieveGMT greater 2018 denounced, on social media, corruption in gender equality were inadequately applied, the judicial system. In July, Ibrahim Bana including in employment, education and was sentenced to three months’ health. imprisonment, including two months As the humanitarian situation deteriorated suspended, and Mahamadou Yansambou due to conflict, the UN estimated that 2.2 was released after more than 15 days. million people, including 408,000 in Diffa, In July, 43 members of the teachers’ union were in need of humanitarian assistance; 1.8 SYNACEB were convicted of disrupting million were estimated to be severely food public safety and inciting a riot, after they insecure. 05:01Over 73% of children under five boycotted substitute teacher evaluations. and almost 46% of women of reproductive They spent more than 15 days in detention age suffered/ from anaemia. and were sentenced to suspended prison terms of between one and three months. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Over 60,000 refugees and migrants transited ARMED CONFLICT ETNiger on the way to Libya and Algeria where Armed groups including BokoEMBARGOED Haram carried many suffered seriousFEBRUARY abuses including rape, out at least 70 attacks on soldiers and unlawful detention in harsh conditions, ill- villages in the Diffa, Mainé-Soroa, Tillabéry treatment and extortion, and unknown and Bosso regions. At least 30 people, numbers died. Operations to arrest including civilians, were killed and others perpetrators22 pushed smugglers to use more wounded; over 60 people were abducted. In dangerous routes to Libya or Algeria. June, suspected Boko Haram members In May, eight migrants from Niger, including killed nine people and abducted 37 women five children, died of thirst after they were in the region of Nguigmi. 00:01 abandoned on the way to Algeria; and 92 The trial of 700 people accused of migrants were found close to death by the supporting Boko Haram began on 2 March. Niger Army after being beaten and Most had been arrested in the Diffa region abandoned by their driver in the desert near since 2013, although some had been Bilma in the north. In June, 44 migrants, detained since 2012. Among them were including babies, were found dead in the STRICTLYNigerians, including refugees from areas desert near Agadez, central Niger, after their affected by Boko Haram. vehicle broke down on the way to Libya. In July, 13 people, including two Niger nationals and UNTIL11 Nigerian nationals, were killed by Niger soldiers in a village near THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 281 of Kala Balge local government, in Borno NIGERIA state, killing at least 167 civilians, including many children. The military said the bombing Federal Republic of Nigeria was an accident as Rann was not identified Head of state and government: Muhammadu Buhari as a humanitarian camp.

The armed group Boko Haram continued to ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS carry out attacks, resulting in hundreds of The military arbitrarily arrested and held deaths. Reports continued of extrajudicial thousands of young men, women and executions, enforced disappearances, and children in detention centres around the torture and other ill-treatment, which, in country. Detainees were denied access to some cases, led to deaths in custody. lawyers and family members. The army Conditions in military detention conditions released 593 detainees in April and 760 in were harsh. Communal violence occurred October. across the country. Thousands of people By April, the military detention facility at were forcibly evicted from their homes. Giwa barracks, Maiduguri,GMT held more than 2018 4,900 people in extremely overcrowded cells. ARMED CONFLICT Disease, dehydration and starvation were rife BOKO HARAM and at least 340 detainees died. At least 200 Boko Haram carried out at least 65 attacks children, as young as four, were detained in causing 411 civilian deaths, and abducted at an overcrowded and unhygienic children’s least 73 people. Sixteen women, including 10 cell. Some children were born in detention. policewomen, were abducted in June when The military detained hundreds of women Boko Haram ambushed an army-escorted unlawfully, without charge, some because convoy on the Maiduguri-Damboa road. In they were 05:01believed to be related to Boko July, Boko Haram ambushed a team of oil Haram members. Among them were women prospectors in a village in Magumeri. Three and girls/ who said they had been victims of oil workers were abducted and at least 40 Boko Haram. Women reported inhuman other people were killed, including soldiers detention conditions, including a lack of and members of the Civilian Joint Task Force. health care for women giving birth in cells. On 6 May, 82 Chibok schoolgirls, abducted in ETOn 24 September, the Minister of Justice 2014, were released by BokoEMBARGOED Haram fighters announced that theFEBRUARY mass trial of Boko Haram in an exchange deal; 113 girls remained in suspects held in different detention centres captivity. In November, six farmers in Dimge had commenced. The first phase of trials was village in Mafa were abducted and beheaded. handled by four judges in secret, between 9 and 12 October.22 Fifty defendants were INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. There remained at least 1.7 million internally An interim report of the Director of Public displaced people (IDPs) in the northeastern Prosecutions showed that 468 suspects were states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa;00:01 39% discharged and the trial for the remainder lived in camps or similar settings and 61% in was adjourned to January 2018. host communities. The UN said that 5.2 million people in the northeast remained in LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY urgent need of food assistance; 450,000 In June, the Special Board of Inquiry to children under five were in urgent need of investigate allegations of gross violations of STRICTLYnutrition. In July, Doctors without Borders human rights, established by the Chief of reported that 240 children had died from Army Staff, found that Giwa barracks was malnutrition in Borno state. extremely overcrowded, with poor sanitation On 17 January,UNTIL the Nigerian Air Force and insufficient ventilation, factors which bombed an IDP camp in Rann, headquarters resulted in detainees’ deaths. It cleared THURSDAY 282 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 senior military officers, alleged to have UNLAWFUL KILLINGS committed crimes under international law, of At least 10 IPOB members were killed and wrongdoing. 12 others wounded by soldiers in Umuahia, In August, acting President Yemi Osinbajo Abia state on 14 September. The military set up a presidential investigation panel to claimed that they were killed when they tried probe allegations of human rights violations to resist the arrest of leader Nnamdi Kanu at carried out by the military. Between 11 his home. Witnesses say that, in addition to September and 8 November, the panel sat in those killed, at least 10 IPOB members were the capital, Abuja, and in the cities of shot and taken away by soldiers. The Maiduguri, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Lagos and government subsequently banned the IPOB. Kaduna. On 9 March, a court in Abuja sentenced two In its December preliminary report, the police officers to death for their part in the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC extrajudicial execution of six traders in Apo, announced that it would continue to assess Abuja, in 2005. Three other police officers the admissibility of the eight potential crimes including the leader of the police team were it had previously identified as having been acquitted. In 2005, a JudicialGMT Commission of 2018 allegedly committed in Nigeria. Inquiry had indicted six police officers for the murders and recommended their trial as well TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT as compensation for the victims’ families. Torture and other ill-treatment and unlawful One of them allegedly escaped from custody detention by the police and the State Security in 2015. Service (SSS) continued. In February, Nonso In September, the High Court in Port Diobu and eight other men were arrested and Harcourt convicted five SARS policemen for detained by Special Anti-Robbery Squad the extrajudicial executions of Michael Akor (SARS) officers in Awkuzu, Anambra state. and Michael05:01 Igwe in 2009. The court also They were tortured and all, except Nonso awarded 50 million naira (USD143,000) in Diobu, died in custody. Nonso Diobu was compensation/ to the victims’ families. charged with robbery and released four In December, after huge pressure on social months after arrest. media, the Inspector General of Police In May, a high court ordered the SSS to agreed to reform SARS. release Bright Chimezie, a member of the ET Indigenous People of BiafraEMBARGOED (IPOB). Instead, COMMUNAL VIOLENCEFEBRUARY the SSS included his name in another case. Inter-communal violence linked to lingering Bright Chimezie had not been brought to clashes between herdsmen and farming court by the end of the year; the SSS had communities resulted in more than 549 held him in incommunicado detention for deaths and22 the displacement of thousands in more than one year. 12 states. In February, 21 villagers were Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic killed in an attack by suspected herdsmen in Movement of Nigeria (IMN), and his wife three communities in the Atakad district of remained in incommunicado detention00:01 Kaura, Kaduna state. Witnesses said the without trial since their arrest in December herdsmen killed, looted, and burned the 2015 despite a court ordering their release villagers’ houses. In June, a communal clash and compensation. in the Mambilla Plateau of Taraba state left In September, the Nigerian police launched scores of people dead, mostly herdsmen and Force Order 20 which sought to reduce the their families. In September, at least 20 STRICTLYexcessive use of pre-trial detention by people were killed when suspected providing free legal advice to suspects at herdsmen invaded Ancha village in the police stations. In December, the Anti-Torture Miango district of Jos, Plateau state, after a Bill – intendedUNTIL to prohibit and criminalize the misunderstanding between villagers and use of torture – was signed into law. herdsmen residing in the community. In THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 283 October, 27 people were killed by suspected On 2 February, a High Court in Abuja herdsmen in a classroom where they were declared threats of forced evictions without sheltering after three days of attacks in the the service of statutory notices illegal. It urged Nkyie-Doghwro community of Bassa, Plateau state authorities to take measures to confer state. In December, herdsmen attacked at security of tenure on affected residents. The least five villages in Demsa LGA in Adamawa judgment prevented the Abuja authorities state to avenge the massacre of up to 57 from forcibly evicting hundreds of thousands people, mostly children, in November in of residents in Mpape community. On 21 nearby Kikan community. Residents June, a Lagos State High Court found that described being attacked by a fighter jet and forced evictions and their threat were a military helicopter as they attempted to flee. unconstitutional and amounted to cruel, At least 86 people were killed by the inhuman or degrading treatment. herdsmen and air force bombing. WOMEN’S RIGHTS RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED Nigeria’s federal Parliament and Adamawa EVICTIONS and Gombe states continuedGMT to debate the 2018 Authorities in Lagos, Imo and Rivers states Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill. In continued to forcibly evict thousands of October, ECOWAS Court held that Nigeria residents, without adequate notice, violated the right to dignity of three women by compensation, or the provision of alternative wrongly accusing them of being sex workers, accommodation and resettlement. and unlawfully arresting and verbally abusing In Lagos state, at least 5,000 people were them. forcibly evicted from Otodo-Gbame and IDP women and girls reported gender-based Ilubirin waterfront communities between violence including rape and sexual March and April, in violation of previous exploitation,05:01 often in exchange for food and Lagos State High Court orders. The orders other necessities, by military officers and restrained state authorities from demolishing members/ of the Civilian Joint Task Force in the homes of affected communities the northeast. Households headed by women consisting of at least 300,000 residents, and reported discrimination in access to food ordered them to consult with residents. In assistance and livelihood opportunities in March, the Lagos state government pulled ETsome locations. out of the consultations sayingEMBARGOED the A group of womenFEBRUARY who were previously communities’ demand for resettlement was confined to Bama IDP camp campaigned for unreasonable. the release of their husbands from military During the forced eviction of Otodo-Gbame detention, and for justice for rape and other community on 9 April, at least two people abuses they22 suffered while in the camp were shot, one fatally, as the police fired at between 2015 and 2016. The Chief of Army unarmed residents. There were no Staff was reported to have ordered an investigations into the shootings. On 13 June, investigation in June into misconduct by Lagos state authorities forcibly 00:01evicted soldiers in the camp. hundreds of people from Ijora-Badia community. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS On 15 June, Rivers state authorities forcibly Human rights defenders continued to face evicted hundreds of people from Ayagologo intimidation for their work. Parliament waterfront community in Port Harcourt. debated a bill to regulate and restrict the STRICTLYOn 15 November, police in Lagos arrested work of NGOs. If passed, it would establish and detained 158 residents, including six an NGO Regulatory Commission to keep a women one of whom was pregnant, who were register of all NGOs, co-ordinate their protesting against forcedUNTIL evictions in the activities, and monitor their budgets and state. THURSDAY 284 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 funding. A public hearing on the bill took FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND place in December. ASSOCIATION On 19 July, police arrested and detained The security forces disrupted, in some cases Maurice Fangnon for six days for calling for violently and with excessive force, peaceful investigations into alleged killings and protests and assemblies. assaults of residents in Otodo-Gbame The police continued to deny IMN, which community. He was rearrested on 12 was banned by the Kaduna state government December with Bamidele Friday; they were in 2016, the right to peaceful protest. On 25 released on bail on 22 December. Raymond January, the Abuja police arrested nine IMN Gold faced criminal charges carrying a members in connection with a peaceful maximum three-year prison sentence for protest demanding the release of Ibrahim El- demanding that an oil company conduct an Zakzaky. Environmental Impact Assessment on On 25 July, police in Kano city prevented a activities which harmed the environment. On group of women from protesting against the 6 June, police officers harassed, beat and persistent rape of women and children in the injured Justus Ijeoma at Onitsha Area state. On 8 August, police GMTviolently dispersed 2018 Command. In October, he received a written peaceful protesters who demanded the apology from the Area Command. return of President Buhari who was in the UK for medical treatment. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Journalists were harassed, intimidated and CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY arrested. On 19 January, police raided the In June, the widows of four men from the offices of Premium Times and arrested Ogoni region in the Niger Delta who were publisher Dapo Olorunyomi and executed following an unfair trial in 1995, correspondent Evelyn Okakwu for several filed a lawsuit05:01 in the Netherlands against hours, after the Chief of Army Staff accused Shell, demanding compensation and a public the newspaper of offensive publications. apology./ They accused Shell of complicity in On 19 April, Kaduna state police arrested the unlawful arrest and detention of their and detained Midat Joseph, a journalist with husbands during a brutal crackdown by the Leadership newspaper, for a WhatsApp then military authorities on the Movement for comment. He was taken to court the next day ETthe Survival of the Ogoni People. International on charges of criminal conspiracy,EMBARGOED inciting organizations calledFEBRUARY for Shell to be disturbance and injurious falsehood. On 31 investigated for involvement in these crimes. July, the court dismissed the case on Environmental pollution linked to the oil grounds of lack of diligent prosecution. industry continued to undermine the On 19 September, the Katsina state police economic,22 social and cultural rights of the arrested three bloggers, Jamil Mabai, Bashir Niger Delta communities. Dauda and Umar Faruq, for criticizing the The government took limited steps to Governor. Bashir Dauda and Umar Faruq address pollution in the Ogoni region of the were released after one week and00:01 Jamil Niger Delta, as recommended by the UN Mabai was detained for 22 days. Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2011. On 27 October, Audu Maikori, who was However, local communities expressed arrested for publishing false information frustration at the slow progress of the online, was awarded 40 million naira initiative and because operations on the (USD112,700) in compensation for unlawful ground had not begun. Shell failed to comply STRICTLYarrest and detention. with some of UNEP’s key recommendations. In September, operations to clean up the pollution caused by two large oil spills in UNTIL 2008 began in the Bodo community in the Ogoni region. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 285 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE There was a dramatic decrease in the Arrest, public shaming, extortion of and number of people claiming asylum. By discrimination against individuals based on November, only 3,378 people had claimed their sexual orientation were reported in asylum, compared to 31,145 in 2015, several parts of the country. In April, the according to government statistics. Nigerian police arraigned 53 men in a The government continued to take initiatives magistrate court in Zaria, Kaduna state, for to restrict the rights of asylum-seekers and conspiracy and unlawful assembly and for refugees. The practice of “Dublin” returns – belonging to an unlawful society. They were requiring any asylum claim to be processed accused of attending a gay wedding and by the country in which the applicant first granted bail. arrived – to Italy continued, and restarted to In August, about 42 men and boys between Greece. 12 and 28 years old were arrested at a hotel Afghan nationals represented the fifth in Lagos while attending an HIV intervention biggest group of people who claimed asylum programme organized by an NGO. They were by the end of November. TheyGMT continued to 2018 charged with “engaging in gay activities”. The face obstacles in accessing asylum and police paraded the victims to the media. forced return to Afghanistan. According to Eurostat, there was a dramatic drop in DEATH PENALTY asylum recognition rates for Afghan nationals, Death sentences continued to be imposed; down to 24% by August; Norway had the no executions were recorded. In July, at the highest number of persons being forcibly National Economic Council, state governors returned to Afghanistan. agreed to either sign execution warrants or commute death sentences as a way of VIOLENCE05:01 AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS addressing overcrowding in prisons. Death Gender-based violence, including rape and row prisoners reported that execution gallows sexual/ violence, remained a serious concern. were being prepared for executions in Benin The Norwegian Penal Code was still not in and Lagos prisons. accordance with international human rights In August, the Ogun state government standards as the definition of rape was not announced that it would no longer maintain ETbased on consent. The number of rape cases an informal commitment toEMBARGOED refrain from reported to the policeFEBRUARY had been increasing authorizing executions. steadily over the years. In 2016, 1,663 cases In September, the Senate passed a bill of rape were reported to the police, an prescribing the death penalty for kidnapping. increase of nearly 21.9% since 2015. Shortcomings22 in police investigations contributed to the low level of rape prosecutions. In April, the Director of Public NORWAY Prosecutions reviewed the quality of Kingdom of Norway 00:01 investigations in 275 nationally reported rape Head of state: King Harald V cases. The review concluded that there was Head of government: Erna Solberg considerable room for improvement in the quality of police investigations, and pointed Serious concerns remained about the especially at weaknesses in the initial phase, prevalence of, and inadequate state where the necessary steps to secure STRICTLYresponse to, rape and other violence against evidence were not always taken. women. The rights of refugees and asylum- Following the consideration of Norway’s seekers continued to be restricted; Afghan ninth periodic report, the Committee on the asylum-seekersUNTIL faced forced returns to Elimination of Discrimination against Women Afghanistan. expressed concerns about the high level of THURSDAY 286 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 gender-based violence against women, and Women remained subject to discrimination recommended a number of measures in law. Migrant workers were exposed to including the adoption of a legal definition of exploitation and abuse. The death penalty rape in the Penal Code that places lack of remained in force; no executions were free consent at its centre. In addition, the reported. Committee expressed concern at the consequences of the criminalization of the BACKGROUND purchase of sexual services from adults. The Oman maintained a neutral stance in the committee recommended a white paper on regional crisis in which Saudi Arabia, the prostitution with a comprehensive framework UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed relations which ensured that women who engage in with Qatar, as well as in relation to the Saudi sex work are not prosecuted for the selling of Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen since sexual services, including for acts that 2015. currently amount to criminal acts of There was a marked decline in coverage of “promotion of prostitution”. human rights issues in the country. Oman’s economy continued to be impactedGMT by: lower 2018 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, oil prices, Oman’s main source of income; a TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE relatively high deficit; the removal of The Penal Code still did not classify violence subsidies, notably on petroleum; a rise in motivated by discriminatory attitudes towards fees for some government services; and a transgender people as a hate crime. temporary hiring freeze for public sector positions. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE On 1 March, a 44-year-old Rwandan national FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION accused of complicity in the 1994 genocide The government05:01 continued to unduly restrict in Rwanda was released after four years in freedom of expression. In January the custody. The Ministry of Justice had authorities/ ordered the dismissal of a previously concluded that he could be journalist who was reporting on sex trafficking extradited to Rwanda. The investigation into in the country, and revoked the licence of an allegation by his defence lawyer – that two another journalist who was covering reports witnesses were pressured into giving false ETthat Oman had sought financial support from testimonies to the prosecutorsEMBARGOED – led to the its neighbours. InFEBRUARY February, the annual conclusion that their testimonies were not Muscat International Book Fair suspended sufficiently credible. the participation of two writers, apparently in connection with their criticism of the government.22 In April, the authorities arrested at least two people in connection with OMAN Facebook posts; they were subsequently Sultanate of Oman released. In May, the government blocked Head of state and government: Sultan00:01 Qaboos bin Said the online publication of the Mowaten Al Said newspaper; it remained blocked at the end of the year. The authorities curtailed the rights to The chilling effect of the trials against freedom of expression and association, Azamn newspaper and its journalists using flawed legal procedures to suspend continued to reverberate following Azamn’s STRICTLYnewspapers and to arrest, prosecute and publication in 2016 of two reports detailing convict journalists on criminal and allegations of corruption in the government administrative grounds. Family members of and the judiciary. The government renewed a human rights UNTILdefenders faced harassment rolling, temporary suspension of the and intimidation from the authorities. newspaper, despite a court ruling overturning THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 287 the suspension. In January the Public custody, inheritance, and passing their Prosecutor appealed against the December nationality on to their children. 2016 acquittal of Azamn journalist Zaher al-‘Abri. He was released on bail in August. WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT Editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Maamari and WORKERS deputy editor-in-chief Youssef al-Haj were Migrant workers continued to face released in April and October respectively exploitation and abuse. Domestic workers, after completing their prison sentences. In mainly women from Asia and Africa, June, Azamn staff members approached the complained that employers to whom they government for financial support following its were tied under the official kafala closure. sponsorship system confiscated their In January the High Court in the capital, passports, forced them to work excessive Muscat, overturned a three-year prison hours without time off, and denied them their sentence on journalist Hassan al-Basham, full wages and adequate food and living partly because of his ill-health, and ordered conditions. The kafala system did not provide the case back to the Appeal Court. In domestic workers with the GMTprotections 2018 November the initial three-year prison available under the Labour Law. sentence was upheld. In June 2016 the Court of Appeal in Sohar had upheld the DEATH PENALTY verdict, which was based on charges of The death penalty remained in force for a “insult” to God and the Sultan. range of crimes. No convictions or executions In January a Muscat Appeal Court were reported. overturned the three-year prison sentence and fine of 1,000 Omani Riyals (about USD2,600) handed down in October 2016 to 05:01 writer Hamoud al-Shukaily, a member of the PAKISTAN Omani Society for Writers and Authors, on Islamic/ Republic of Pakistan charges of incitement to protest or disturbing Head of state: Mamnoon Hussain public order relating to a 2016 Facebook Head of government: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (replaced post. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in August) The Appeal Court verdict in the case of ET writer and film critic AbdullahEMBARGOED Habib was The crackdown onFEBRUARY freedom of expression postponed several times. In November 2016 intensified. The Prevention of Electronic he had been sentenced to three years’ Crimes Act, 2016 was used to intimidate, imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 Omani harass and arbitrarily detain human rights Riyals (about USD5,200). defenders22 for online comments. Enforced On 23 May a lower instance court disappearances were widespread; impunity sentenced writer and researcher Mansour al- was prevalent. Blasphemy-related violence Mahrazi to three years’ imprisonment and a claimed the life of a student, triggering rare fine on charges of “undermining00:01 the state” condemnation from the government. Large and violating publication laws by writing and demonstrations took place in support of publishing a book in Lebanon without blasphemy laws, which were used to convict permission. He was appealing the case at the people expressing opinions online. end of the year. Journalists were attacked by unidentified assailants. Minorities continued to face STRICTLYWOMEN’S RIGHTS discrimination in the enjoyment of Women faced discrimination in criminal law economic and social rights. Attempts to and in personal status or family law, in restrict child marriage were blocked relation to mattersUNTIL including divorce, child by Parliament. Killings of women continued THURSDAY 288 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 in so-called “honour” crimes, despite the military intelligence custody; the fifth 2016 law criminalizing the practice. remained disappeared. The draconian Prevention of Electronic Crimes BACKGROUND Act of 2016 was used to carry out a number The Supreme Court disqualified Prime of arrests throughout the year including, in Minister Nawaz Sharif from office in July for June, the arrest of journalist Zafarullah failing to disclose a source of foreign income. Achakzai, a reporter for the newspaper Daily Following his resignation, the government’s Qudrat. Over subsequent weeks, supporters authority progressively weakened as of different political parties were arrested for members of the Sharif family and ministers in social media posts critical of the authorities. the government became the subject of fresh No action was taken against social media corruption probes. The Minister for Law and accounts belonging to armed groups that Justice resigned in November after weeks of incited discrimination and violence. protests in which he was accused of People were prosecuted after being blasphemy. The military took an increasing accused, particularly over social media, for lead on foreign policy, national security and alleged breaches of vague and broadGMT 2018 daily governance ahead of elections due by blasphemy laws, which criminalized peaceful August 2018. expression if deemed to offend religious Tensions endured between India and sensibilities. In June, Taimoor Raza was Pakistan against the backdrop of firing from sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court both sides across the Line of Control that in Punjab, southern province, for allegedly divides the disputed territory of Kashmir. blasphemous posts on Facebook. In Relations with Afghanistan deteriorated as September, Nadeem James, a Christian, was the two countries accused each other of sentenced to death by a court in Gujrat city using their territory as a launching pad for for sharing05:01 a “blasphemous” poem over armed attacks. Under its new South Asia WhatsApp. policy, the USA singled out Pakistan as a Accusations/ of committing blasphemy source of instability in Afghanistan, raising triggered the execution-style killing of Mashal the prospect of a rupture in relations. Turning Khan, a university student, in Mardan city. In away from the West, Pakistan drew closer to April, a mob of students stormed his hostel, China with the expansion of the China- ETstripped him naked and beat him repeatedly Pakistan Economic Corridor,EMBARGOED a multi-billion before shooting him.FEBRUARY Then Prime Minister dollar infrastructure project. Nawaz Sharif vowed to take action against those who “misuse” the blasphemy laws. Six Pakistan was elected to the UN Human days later, a “faith healer” accused of Rights Council in October. Pakistan’s human blasphemy22 was similarly killed by three rights record was examined by UN bodies attackers inside his home in Sialkot city. Two during the year: the Committee on Economic, days after that, a mob in Chitral city attacked Social and Cultural Rights, the Human Rights a man accused of blasphemy, injuring police Committee and under the UPR00:01 process. officers trying to protect him. In May, a 10- year-old boy was killed and five others were FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION injured as a mob in Hub town in Balochistan Attacks on freedom of expression continued, tried to attack Prakash Kumar, a Hindu, for particularly against those posting comments allegedly posting an offensive image online. online. In January, five bloggers who made Senior government officials exacerbated STRICTLYanonymous online comments said to be tensions around blasphemy-related offences. critical of the military were subject to In March, then Interior Minister Nisar Ali enforced disappearances. Four of the Khan deemed so-called blasphemers bloggers wereUNTIL later released; two of them “enemies of humanity”. In February and later said they had been tortured while in March, the Islamabad High Court ordered the THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 289 removal of allegedly blasphemous content whereabouts remained unknown at the end online and directed the government to initiate of the year. In October and November, proceedings against people responsible for dozens of Sindhi and Baloch defenders were uploading them. subjected to enforced disappearances by Pakistani security forces. Some returned to HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS their homes days later, but others remained Bloggers, journalists, lawyers, activists and missing at the end of the year. other human rights defenders faced Space for civil society continued to shrink as harassment, intimidation, threats, the Interior Ministry used broad powers to violence and enforced disappearance. The undermine the ability of human rights five bloggers who were forcibly disappeared defenders and NGOs to work and activists who campaigned for their independently. In November, the Ministry of release were subject to a smear campaign the Interior ordered 29 international NGOs to accusing them of being “blasphemers”, halt their operations and leave the country “anti-Pakistan”, “anti-Army” and “anti- within days. Islam”. Human rights defenders criticized on GMT 2018 television and on social media faced death ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL threats, forcing some to self-censor and to RIGHTS seek protection for their physical safety. Around 58% of households were food In May, Rana Tanveer, a journalist covering insecure, according to the National Nutrition abuses against religious minorities, found Survey, and an estimated 44% of children death threats sprayed on his home in Lahore remained underdeveloped or short for their city. A few weeks later, he was knocked off age. The percentage was significantly higher his motorbike and severely injured after a car in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and deliberately crashed into him. In September, Balochistan.05:01 Matiullah Jan, a journalist who had regularly The government failed to take action against been critical of the military’s interference in those /who held people in bonded labour in politics, was attacked by men on motorbikes rural areas. The 1992 Bonded Labour who hurled a large piece of concrete at the Abolition Act was still not car in which he was travelling with his adequately enforced; reasons included a lack children, shattering the windscreen. In ETof clarity regarding the law on the part of October, Ahmad Noorani,EMBARGOED an outspoken lower court judgesFEBRUARY and lack of action political journalist, was attacked by men on by police when complaints were filed. motorbikes who stopped his car and beat In its 2017 review, the UN Committee on him, including with iron rods. At the end of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted the year no one was known to have been that more22 than 73% of workers, a majority of held accountable for any of these attacks. them women, were in the informal economy Defenders continued to be subjected to with no labour or social protection. The enforced disappearances, but some also Committee called on Pakistan to address the reappeared. Raza Khan, a Lahore-based00:01 gender pay gap, which rose from 34% in peace activist, was subjected to an enforced 2008 to 39% in 2015. The Committee also disappearance in December. Punhal Sario, a noted an urgent need to increase spending in campaigner against enforced disappearances the social sector, especially for health and in Sindh province, went missing in August. education. It further stated that adequate He returned home in October. Zeenat steps must be taken to reduce the gap STRICTLYShahzadi, the first female journalist to be between girls and boys in enrolment for forcibly disappeared, was found near the education. Afghanistan border in October, 26 months after she wentUNTIL missing in Lahore. She disappeared again in November; her THURSDAY 290 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, electric shocks. The couple had been TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE sentenced to death by a jirga (tribal council). In an historic advance for LGBTI rights, the In September, a man in Peshawar city killed government recognized those who wished to his two daughters because he suspected they register as a “third gender” on national had boyfriends. identity cards. Transgender people were The 2016 law, which brought the penalties recognized for the first time in the national for so-called “honour” crimes in line with census, on the orders of the Lahore High murder, proved ineffective. The law, which Court. provides for the death penalty, allows the Despite this symbolic victory, transgender judge to decide whether the crime was people continued to suffer harassment and “honour-based”. In some cases in 2017, the violent attacks. In August, a 25-year-old accused successfully claimed another motive transgender woman called Chanda was shot and was pardoned by the victim’s family dead in Karachi. In September, five men under qisas and diyat laws, which allow for broke into a house rented by a group of “blood money” and forgiveness instead of transgender women in Karachi city and punishment. GMT 2018 subjected them to sexual violence, including the gang rape of two of the women. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS The expulsion of Afghan refugees WOMEN’S RIGHTS continued, albeit at a far slower rate. Key legislation to protect women’s rights According to UNHCR, the UN refugee failed to be passed and existing legislation agency, 59,020 registered Afghan refugees was not enforced. The draft Sindh Criminal were involuntarily returned to Afghanistan, Law (Protection of Minorities) that compared to more than 380,000 in criminalized forced conversions of women 2016 (the05:01 mass deportations triggered by from religious minority groups remained escalating tensions between the Pakistani unratified. A bill that would have equalized and Afghan/ governments). More than 2 the age of consent to marriage for men and million Afghans remained at risk of being women by raising the minimum age of forcibly returned as their legal residency marriage for girls from 16 to 18 was blocked status was due to expire at the end of the by the upper house of Parliament.EMBARGOEDETyear. FEBRUARY VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES Violence continued against women and girls, The mandate of military courts to try civilian including killings by relatives committed in “terrorism” suspects was extended for a the name of so-called “honour”. In Khyber further two22 years. Reports continued that Pakhtunkhwa northwest province, 94 women security forces were involved in human rights were murdered by close family members. In violations, including torture and other ill- several cases, there was a failure to conduct treatment, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial investigations and hold the perpetrators00:01 executions and enforced disappearances. accountable. Impunity remained in the absence of Parallel and informal justice systems independent, impartial mechanisms to continued to undermine the rule of law and investigate and bring perpetrators to to issue unjust “verdicts” that punished justice. While the number of attacks by women and girls. In July, a village council in armed groups fell in 2017, scores of people STRICTLYMultan district ordered and carried out the died in bombings that targeted the security rape of a teenage girl in “revenge” for a crime forces, religious minorities and others. allegedly committed by her brother. In August, the bodiesUNTIL of a teenage couple in Karachi were exhumed to reveal evidence of THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 291 Hamas announced its readiness to dismantle PALESTINE (STATE its committee administering Gaza, and called for legislative and presidential elections to be held in the West Bank and Gaza. Later that OF) month, the two rival political parties Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation agreement State of Palestine Head of state: Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo, Egypt, aimed at ending the decade- Head of government: Rami Hamdallah long split between the West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza. In November, the “national The Palestinian authorities in the West consensus” government took over control of Bank and the Hamas de facto the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, administration in the Gaza Strip escalated and checkpoints near crossings with Israel. their restrictions on freedom of expression. In both areas, security forces tortured and FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND otherwise ill-treated detainees with ASSEMBLY impunity. The authorities in the West Bank As political in-fighting continued,GMT authorities 2018 took punitive actions against the Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza used threats and administration that further restricted the intimidation against activists and journalists civilian population’s access to vital services, to suppress peaceful expression, including exacerbating the humanitarian crisis reporting and criticism. According to the resulting from Israel’s military blockade of NGO Palestinian Centre for Development and Gaza. Women in both areas continued to Media Freedoms, the Palestinian authorities face discrimination and violence. Courts in in the West Bank were responsible for 147 Gaza handed down death sentences and attacks on media freedom during the year. Hamas carried out public executions; no These included05:01 arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment executions were carried out in the West during interrogations, confiscation of Bank. equipment,/ physical assaults, bans on reporting and the banning of 29 websites BACKGROUND critical of the West Bank authorities. Hamas Gaza remained under an Israeli air, sea and authorities in Gaza were responsible for 35 land blockade, in force since June 2007. ETsuch attacks. Continuing restrictions onEMBARGOED exports crippled In January, securityFEBRUARY forces in Gaza violently the economy and exacerbated widespread dispersed a protest in Jabalia refugee camp impoverishment among Gaza’s 2 million against Hamas’ mismanagement of the inhabitants. Egypt continued to enforce an electricity crisis (see below). Activists and almost total closure of the Rafah border organizers22 were detained, threatened and in crossing with Gaza, compounding the impact some cases tortured for organizing the of the Israeli blockade. demonstrations. Activist Mohammad al- Divisions between the Ramallah-based Talowli was arrested on three occasions “national consensus” government00:01 and the throughout the year for his role in organizing Hamas de facto administration in Gaza the protests, and received death threats. persisted for much of the year. In an Journalists working with media affiliated apparent effort to regain control of the Gaza with the West Bank authorities were barred Strip, the Palestinian authorities introduced a from working freely in Gaza. Palestine TV series of punitive measures against Hamas, correspondent Fouad Jaradeh was arrested STRICTLYwhich remained in place at the end of the by Hamas Internal Security Forces on 6 June year. and tried before a military court for In October, the “national consensus” “collaborating with Ramallah”. He was government heldUNTIL a cabinet meeting in Gaza, released in August. mediated by the Egyptian authorities, after THURSDAY 292 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 The Electronic Crimes Law (Law 16 of mismanagement of the electricity crisis said 2017) was adopted in July. It permitted the that Hamas’ internal security forces tortured arbitrary detention of journalists, whistle- him in custody. He reported being beaten blowers and others who criticize the with a plastic pipe, blindfolded, and forced to authorities online. The law allowed for prison sit in strenuous positions with his hands sentences and up to 25 years’ hard labour for cuffed for around four days. Others reported anyone deemed to have disturbed “public ill-treatment. order”, “national unity” or “social peace”. An amended draft proposed removing several EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE repressive provisions, but left in place others Security forces used excessive force to that allowed arbitrary restrictions on the rights disperse protests in the West Bank and Gaza. to freedom of expression, privacy and On 12 March, Palestinian security forces protection of data. The draft had not been used excessive force to violently suppress a made public by the end of the year. peaceful protest outside the Ramallah District Six Palestinian journalists were charged Court in the West Bank. At least 13 men and under the Electronic Crimes Law in August. eight women were injured;GMT among them were 2018 In June and July, at least 10 journalists were four journalists covering the protest. summoned for interrogation by Preventative Seventeen people were hospitalized. Those Security Forces for publicly criticizing the law. injured suffered bruises from heavy beatings Human rights defenders were subjected to with wooden batons or after being struck by interrogation, harassment and threats in tear gas canisters. Farid al-Atrash, a lawyer, relation to their human rights work, including human rights defender and the head of criticism of the Electronic Crimes Law. ICHR’s Bethlehem office, reported being Prominent human rights defender Issa beaten to the ground by police using wooden Amro was detained for a week in September batons. 05:01 and charged with several offences under the A Fact-Finding Commission established by Electronic Crimes Law and the 1960 Prime /Minister Hamdallah to investigate the Jordanian Penal code, which remained in incident found that the use of force to force in the West Bank. disperse the protest violated government regulations. It made a series of TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT ETrecommendations, including reparation and Torture and other ill-treatmentEMBARGOED of detainees accountability measures.FEBRUARY Despite the Prime remained common and was committed with Minister’s stated commitment to uphold the impunity by Palestinian police and security recommendations, these remained forces in the West Bank, and by Hamas unimplemented, and none of the officers police and security forces in Gaza. The responsible22 for the violence were brought to Independent Commission for Human Rights justice. (ICHR), Palestine’s national human rights institution, received hundreds of allegations WOMEN’S RIGHTS of torture and other ill-treatment00:01 of detainees Women and girls continued to face held in the West Bank and Gaza. discrimination in law and in practice, and In September, a 16-year-old boy and were inadequately protected against sexual another detainee died in unclear and other gender-based violence, including circumstances in Hamas-controlled detention so-called “honour” killings. At least 28 centres in Gaza City. The Public Prosecution women and girls were reported to have been STRICTLYin Gaza announced that it would carry out an killed by male relatives in “honour” killings, investigation; this had not been concluded by according to civil society. the end of the year. Under provisions of the Jordanian Penal At least one activistUNTIL detained in relation to Code, judges were able to use stereotypes of his role leading the protests against Hamas’ women’s sexuality to justify minimizing the THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 293 sentences of those convicted of “honour” patients’ long-term health. Hamas authorities killings. reported a shortage of baby formula, blaming Article 308 of the Jordanian Penal Code, West Bank authorities. which allows for those who commit rape or sexual assault to escape punishment by DEATH PENALTY marrying the victim, remained in force. The death penalty was applied in Gaza. Six More than three years after the State of people were executed after civil and military Palestine acceded to CEDAW, national courts sentenced them to death after legislation had not been amended in line with convicting them of “collaboration with Israel” CEDAW. The applicable Jordanian Personal or other offences. Status law continued to discriminate against In May, Hamas executed three men in Gaza women with regard to marriage, inheritance, for allegedly assassinating a senior Hamas divorce, guardianship and property rights. commander. They were sentenced to death in a trial that lasted one week and consisted ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL of four brief sessions only. The sentences RIGHTS were carried out in a publicGMT square in Gaza 2018 The Palestinian government based in City; two men were hanged and one executed Ramallah imposed several punitive measures by firing squad. The executions were shown against Gaza in a bid to pressure the Hamas live on social media. administration to give up control of Gaza. No one was sentenced to death or executed These measures impeded the civilian in the West Bank. population’s access to medical care, essential services including water and electricity, and IMPUNITY education. This contributed to violations of Impunity for human rights abuses including the rights to health, an adequate standard of unlawful killings05:01 and torture in the West Bank living, and education. and Gaza persisted. No criminal In May, the West Bank authorities informed investigations/ were launched into the Israel that they would cover only 70% of the apparent extrajudicial executions of Fares monthly cost of Israeli electricity supplies to Halawa and Khaled al-Aghbar by Palestinian Gaza due to Hamas’ failure to reimburse security forces in Nablus in August 2016, nor them. As a result, access to electricity in ETwas anyone brought to justice for the death of Gaza was reduced from anEMBARGOED average of eight Ahmad Izzat HalawaFEBRUARY under torture in Jneid hours per day to between two to four hours prison in the same month. per day. In Gaza, Hamas authorities took no steps to The West Bank authorities cut the salaries prosecute members of its forces and Hamas’ of some 60,000 civil servants in Gaza by military wing,22 the ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam 30%, undermining their right to an adequate Brigades, for extrajudicial executions they standard of living and prompting mass carried out in 2014 and 2016. protests. According to the UN Office for00:01 the Co- ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in March the West Bank authorities suspended the payments for transfers of people in need of medical treatment outside Gaza, delaying the referrals of some 1,400 patients. NGOs STRICTLYreported that procedural delays resulted in the deaths of several patients, including babies. The UN reported delays in the transfer of essentialUNTIL medicines and medical supplies to hospitals in Gaza, affecting THURSDAY 294 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Hillside Haus and West Lorengau Haus were PAPUA NEW inadequate, with frequent water and power cuts. Refugees were subject to threats and GUINEA attacks following the transfers. POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES Independent State of Papua New Guinea Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by In April, PNG navy officers fired shots at the Robert Dadae (replaced Michael Ogio in February) Manus Island refugee centre at Lombrum Head of government: Peter Charles Paire O’Neill after a dispute about use of a nearby football field. Initial reports by PNG and Australia Violence by security forces remained suggested that only one shot was fired into endemic; prisoners, refugees and women the air and was not a serious security breach. were the most frequent victims. Disputes However, after forensic evidence established about elections led to violent clashes and that multiple shots had been fired directly deaths in some parts of the country. More into the centre, putting the lives of refugees, than 800 refugees and asylum-seekers immigration officials and privateGMT contractors 2018 remained trapped in Papua New Guinea at risk, Australia confirmed that nine people after being forcibly sent there by the were injured, including three refugees. No Australian authorities. Two refugees with investigation had taken place by the end of serious mental health issues died, raising the year. concerns about inadequate health care. In May, PNG security forces shot and killed 17 detainees during an escape attempt from REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS a prison in Lae city. The prison had Australia’s policy of detaining and processing previously been noted for poor conditions, refugees on Manus Island, Papua New lack of sanitation05:01 and overcrowding. The Guinea (PNG), resulted in the systematic authorities stated that investigations would be violation of the rights of hundreds of conducted/ into the incident but no further individuals. In February, Iranian refugee information was received by the end of the Loghman Sawari was detained and charged year. Around half of those detained at the after he was forcibly returned to PNG from facility were being held on remand and many Fiji, where he had fled to seek asylum. Papua EThad waited years for their trials. New Guinea claimed he hadEMBARGOED provided false FEBRUARY information to obtain a passport. However, by ELECTION-RELATED VIOLENCE September all charges against him had been National elections were held from late June to dismissed by the courts for lack of evidence. August. Allegations of corruption, Two refugees died (in August and October) mismanagement,22 widespread exclusion of in suspected suicides. The circumstances of voters and a heavy-handed response by the the deaths were being investigated by the authorities led to a tense atmosphere, in PNG Coroner. some cases involving violence or arrests. In September, around 25 refugees00:01 were By mid-August, violence over disputed seats transferred to the USA. The vast majority of following the election resulted in the deaths refugees and asylum-seekers remained of at least 20 people and the burning down of trapped on Manus Island. some 120 houses in Enga and Southern On 23 and 24 October, refugees were Highlands provinces. forcibly removed from the Lombrum refugee STRICTLYcentre by PNG immigration and police GENDER-RELATED VIOLENCE officers armed with metal poles and Gender-related violence continued to be a transferred to Hillside Haus, West Lorengau major issue. On 14 October, prominent Haus or the EastUNTIL Lorengau Transit Centre; journalist Rosalyn Albaniel Evara died. Family some sustained minor injuries. Facilities at members and close friends claimed she was THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 295 a victim of domestic violence. No charges of the government’s reaction to the protests had been brought by the end of the year. also reported being harassed by the In November, a six-year-old girl was cut and authorities. burned following accusations of sorcery in On 1 April, opposition activist Rodrigo Enga. Her mother, Kepari Leniata, had been Quintana was killed by police in the context publicly burned to death in Mount Hagen in of the protests. Dozens of people were 2013; no perpetrators have been brought to injured, more than 200 were detained, and justice. Authorities often failed to adequately local organizations reported allegations of investigate or prosecute cases of violence torture and other ill-treatment by security following sorcery accusations because of the forces. deeply held customary beliefs of police In June, in response to allegations that 23 officers and the community. journalists had been attacked by police In November, the PNG government during the protests in March, National Police announced 25 million Kina (USD7.8m) in adopted a security protocol for journalists at funding to end violence against women, set risk. up child protection, and to address violence GMT 2018 following sorcery accusations. INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY In September, the UN Committee against Torture issued concluding observations and recommendations on Paraguay, including to PARAGUAY ensure that all persons deprived of their Republic of Paraguay liberty enjoy all legal safeguards from the Head of state and government: Horacio Manuel Cartes beginning of the detention, including the Jara rights to access a lawyer of their choice, to be promptly examined05:01 by a doctor respecting Indigenous Peoples continued to be denied their confidentiality and privacy, and to be their rights to land and to free, prior and given access/ to an independent medical informed consent on projects affecting practitioner if they so request. them. A bill to eliminate all forms of The Committee also recommended prompt, discrimination was pending approval at the impartial and effective investigations into all end of the year. There were reports that ETallegations of excessive use of force, arbitrary human rights defenders andEMBARGOED journalists detention and actsFEBRUARY of torture and other ill- were persecuted amid violations of the right treatment by law enforcement officials, to freedom of expression, and that police including those reported during the used excessive force to repress demonstrations of 31 March and 1 April, and demonstrations. to ensure22 that the perpetrators are prosecuted and the victims receive adequate FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND reparation. ASSEMBLY In addition, the Committee recommended In March, journalists Menchi Barriocanal00:01 and that an independent, effective, exhaustive Oscar Acosta reported on a secret attempt by and impartial investigation be conducted into senators to amend the Constitution to allow allegations of disproportionate use of lethal presidential re-elections. In response, force, torture and other ill-treatment during protests erupted on 31 March and 1 April, the confrontation in Curuguaty in 2012, as with some protesters setting fire to the well as alleged violations of due process STRICTLYCongress building. during the judicial proceedings against 11 President Cartes and ruling party campesinos (peasant farmers) related to this representatives publicly accused the two case. journalists of incitingUNTIL violence and threatened On 16 August, Congress approved a law to them with arrest. Other media workers critical implement the Rome Statute of the THURSDAY 296 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 International Criminal Court (ICC) and ensure fire, and 12 others were injured. The National co-operation with the ICC. On 23 August the Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture had Executive sent to Congress for ratification the reported in 2016 the lack of fire protection Kampala Amendments on the crime of and evacuation protocols in the centre. aggression and on Article 8 of the Rome Statute. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS In July, President Cartes vetoed Bill No. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS 5833/2017, which aimed to establish a civil Negotiations began between the government registry record of “deaths of conceived and representatives of the Ayoreo unborn children”. In August, the Chamber of Totobiegosode Indigenous Peoples living in Deputies and the Senate rejected the veto voluntary isolation, with a view to and approved the bill, which was implementing the precautionary measures promulgated by the President at the end of granted by the Inter-American Commission the year. The bill was denounced by human on Human Rights (IACHR) to protect these rights organizations as introducing an almost communities from third parties seeking to absolute protection of the foetus,GMT which could 2018 access their ancestral land, and to reach a potentially take precedence over the rights to friendly settlement in a case pending before life, physical integrity and health of women the IACHR for the violation of their rights. and girls. The Yakye Axa community remained In October, the Ministry of Education and without access to their lands despite a ruling Science passed a resolution banning public from the Inter-American Court of Human education materials on “gender theory”, Rights ordering the government to construct which in practice restricted materials related an access route. The case regarding the to gender equality, reproductive rights, ownership of land expropriated from the sexuality and05:01 non-discrimination. Sawhoyamaxa community, which has a similar ruling from the Inter-American Court / in their favour, had also not been resolved by the government. PERU Republic of Peru RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED ETHead of state and government: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski EVICTIONS EMBARGOEDGodard FEBRUARY In September, the Chamber of Deputies upheld the Executive’s veto of a bill that Land and territory-related rights continued would have expropriated 900 hectares of to be threatened by the adoption of laws land from its current occupants to return it to weakening22 the protection framework for the the Guahory campesino community, who rights of Indigenous Peoples and were forcibly evicted in 2016. undermining the right to free, prior and In October, human rights organizations informed consent. Violence against women reported that one year after the00:01 forced and the rate of pregnancy among girls eviction of the Avá Guaraní de Sauce continued to increase without an effective community in connection with the Itaipu response from the state. A presidential hydroelectric dam, no progress had been pardon and grace granted to former made regarding the restitution of their lands. Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori on As a result, the community withdrew from humanitarian grounds raised serious STRICTLYdialogue with the authorities. concerns regarding impunity and the respect of due process guarantees. DETENTION In September,UNTIL two boys held at a juvenile detention centre in Ciudad del Este died in a THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 297 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS 2009, had been serving a 25-year sentence Both state and non-state actors continued to for crimes against humanity. The decision threaten and harass human rights defenders, was seriously flawed by lack of transparency, particularly those working on issues related to impartiality, respect for due process and land, territory and the environment, in the participation of the victims and their families, absence of policies for their effective notably given the severity of the crimes under protection or public recognition of the international law. importance of their work. Human rights In June, the Supreme Court of Chile defenders were criminalized and harassed confirmed the extension of Alberto Fujimori's through judicial proceedings with high extradition request to include the killing of six penalties, and they usually lacked financial residents of Pativilca district in the resources for adequate legal representation. department of Lima in January 1992. In July, In May, the Supreme Court confirmed the the Third National Criminal Prosecutor's acquittal of Máxima Acuña, putting an end to Office of Peru accused Alberto Fujimori of an unfounded criminal proceeding for land responsibility for this crime, committed by his seizure that had lasted for more than five subordinates in complicityGMT with others. 2018 years. Máxima Acuña and her family Nevertheless, the grace granted to him on 24 continued to report acts of intimidation, while December lifted any criminal proceedings the ownership of the lands on which they against him, therefore raising concerns of lived was still pending judicial resolution. impunity in the Pativilca case. In August, military officers were sentenced INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS for the torture, enforced disappearance and The issuance of a series of regulations extrajudicial execution of 53 people in Los lowering environmental standards and Cabitos military barracks in Ayacucho in procedures for access to land aimed at 1983. 05:01 promoting extractive or infrastructure projects In September, the trial began of former navy continued to conflict with the protection personnel/ charged with killing more than 100 framework for Indigenous Peoples’ rights. people during a riot in El Frontón prison in Indigenous Peoples of the Cuninico 1986, a charge which could amount to a community in Loreto region and the crime against humanity. communities of Espinar in Cusco region were ET still suffering a health crisisEMBARGOED due to their only VIOLENCE AGAINSTFEBRUARY WOMEN AND GIRLS water sources being contaminated with toxic Between January and September the metals, while the government failed to Attorney General’s Office registered 17,182 undertake necessary actions to provide them complaints of “crimes against sexual with specialized medical attention or access freedom”,22 which include rape and other to clean and safe water. forms of sexual violence. Only 2,008 (11%) No substantial progress was made in the of the complaints were followed up by the case of four Asháninka Indigenous leaders judiciary. The registry of complaints did not who were killed in Ucayali region00:01 in 2014 list the gender of complainants. after reporting death threats from illegal In the same period, the Ministry for Women loggers to the authorities. reported 94 cases of femicide. There were no concrete advances in policy IMPUNITY or legislation to combat violence against One year after its approval, the National Plan women and girls. STRICTLYfor the Search for Disappeared Persons was still not implemented. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS On 24 December, President Kuczynski Pregnancy rates among girls remained high. granted a humanitarianUNTIL pardon and grace to Official records showed that at least 12 girls former president Alberto Fujimori who, since aged 11 and under, and 6,516 girls aged THURSDAY 298 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 between 12 and 17, gave birth between penalty stalled at the Senate after a bill was January and March. passed by the House of Representatives. Abortion continued to be criminalized in all circumstances except when the health or life EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND of the pregnant woman or girl is at risk. The SUMMARY KILLINGS debate on a bill for decriminalization of The deliberate, unlawful and widespread abortion in cases of rape was pending before killings of thousands of alleged drug Congress. offenders appeared to be systematic, More than 5,000 women had been included planned, organized and encouraged by the in the Registry of Victims of Forced authorities, and may have constituted crimes Sterilization. Despite this, there was no against humanity. Most of those killed were progress in obtaining justice and providing from poor urban communities.1 Despite reparation. evidence that police and gunmen with links to the police killed or paid others to kill RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, alleged drug offenders in a wave of TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE extrajudicial executions, authoritiesGMT continued 2018 Peru continued to lack specific legislation to deny any unlawful deaths. In January, the recognizing and protecting the rights of President suspended the violent anti-drugs LGBTI people, who continued to face campaign for one month following the killing discrimination and violence based on their in police custody of a Republic of Korea sexual orientation or gender identity. national. In March, the unlawful killings of In May, Congress partially repealed suspected drug offenders in police operations Legislative Decree 1323, including the resumed, as did drug-related killings by other section which established “sexual orientation armed individuals. The number of killings on and gender identity” as aggravating grounds a single day05:01 in police anti-drug operations for certain crimes and as elements of the reached 32 in August. Police continued to crime of discrimination. rely on/ unverified lists of people allegedly Transgender people continued to lack social using or selling drugs. In September, the and legal recognition of their gender identity, killings of three teenagers within a few weeks and were deprived of their rights to freedom sparked a national outcry. CCTV footage and of movement, health, work, housing and ETwitness statements contradicted police education, among others.EMBARGOEDaccounts of the killingFEBRUARY of one of the three, 17- year-old Kian delos Santos, who according to forensic experts and witnesses appeared to PHILIPPINES have been extrajudicially executed.2 In October,22 President Duterte announced Republic of the Philippines that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Head of state and government: Rodrigo Roa Duterte would take over the anti-drugs campaign from the Philippine National Police. However, Thousands of unlawful killings00:01 by police it was announced less than two months later and other armed individuals continued as that police might rejoin anti-drug operations, part of the government’s anti-drugs despite unresolved issues. Meaningful campaign. Human rights defenders critical investigations into killings of alleged drugs of the campaign were singled out and offenders failed to take place; no police targeted by the President and his allies. A officers were known to have been held to STRICTLYstate of martial law was declared and account. Relatives of victims continued to be extended twice on the island of Mindanao, fearful of reprisals if they filed complaints raising fears of further human rights against police. abuses. AttemptsUNTIL to reintroduce the death THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 299 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION the Philippines’ international obligations and Human rights defenders, in particular those in particular as a state party to the Second critical of the government, faced threats and Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the intimidation. Journalists worked in dangerous abolition of the death penalty. A draft law to and at times deadly environments. In August, reintroduce the punishment was adopted by radio broadcaster Rudy Alicaway and the House of Representatives in March but columnist Leodoro Diaz were shot dead in the stalled in the Senate after facing opposition. provinces of Zamboanga del Sur and Sultan Kudarat respectively. Radio broadcaster INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT Christopher Iban Lozada was killed by President Duterte declared martial law in the unidentified gunmen in Surigao del Sur in island of Mindanao on 23 May. Fighting had October. erupted in the city of Marawi between government forces and an alliance of HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS militants, including the Maute group, which Attacks against human rights defenders pledged allegiance to the armed group increased, as the President encouraged Islamic State (IS). The conflictGMT ended in 2018 police to “shoot” human rights defenders October when the military killed several who were “obstructing justice”. In February, militant leaders.4 Militants allied with IS Senator Leila de Lima, former justice targeted Christian civilians, committing at secretary and former chair of the Philippines least 25 extrajudicial killings and carrying out Commission on Human Rights, was arrested mass hostage-taking and extensive looting of on charges of drug trafficking. At the end of civilian property, which may have amounted the year she remained in detention at the to war crimes. Philippine armed forces Philippine National Police headquarters in detained and ill-treated fleeing civilians, and the capital, Manila, and faced between 12 also engaged05:01 in looting. Their extensive years’ and life imprisonment if convicted. It bombing of militant-held areas of Marawi city was believed that the charges were politically wiped /out entire neighbourhoods and killed motivated and that she had been deliberately civilians, which highlighted the need for an targeted by the government since emerging investigation into their compliance with as the most prominent critic of the “war on international humanitarian law. In response, drugs”.3 Attacks against the Commission on ETthe Philippine armed forces said they would Human Rights also intensified,EMBARGOED as lawmakers probe allegations FEBRUARYof war crimes. Martial law accused it of “siding with suspected was extended for a second time in criminals” in the anti-drugs campaign and December, amid concerns that military rule caused uproar by approving a budget of just could allow for further human rights abuses. USD20, before the decision was overturned 22 in the Senate. Human rights groups TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT expressed concern at reports of increased In April a secret detention cell was found in a numbers of arbitrary arrests and detention, police station in Manila. The Philippines and extrajudicial executions of 00:01political Commission on Human Rights referred the activists and individuals aligned with the left, discovery, along with allegations of torture following a declaration of martial law in the and other ill-treatment, to the Office of the island of Mindanao, and as peace talks Ombudsman for investigation. between communist rebels, the New People’s Security forces were accused of torture and Army and the government broke down. extrajudicial executions of those rounded up STRICTLY during five months of fighting between the DEATH PENALTY Philippine armed forces and the Maute group International groups called on the in Marawi. government toUNTIL abandon its plan, proposed in A bill to establish a National Preventative 2016, to reintroduce the death penalty, citing Mechanism in accordance with the THURSDAY 300 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Philippines’ obligations under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against POLAND Torture had not been adopted by the end of the year. Republic of Poland Head of state: Andrzej Duda CHILDREN’S RIGHTS Head of government: Mateusz Morawiecki (replaced President Duterte pledged to lower the Beata Szydło in December) minimum age of criminal responsibility, generating wide condemnation from The government continued its efforts to children’s rights organizations and the UN. A exert political control over the judiciary, bill to amend the Juvenile Justice and NGOs and the media. Hundreds of Welfare Act, which was adopted on 23 May protesters faced criminal sanctions for by the Sub-Committee on Correctional participating in peaceful assemblies. Reforms, retained the minimum age of Women and girls continued to face systemic criminal responsibility as 15, but introduced barriers in accessing safe and legal provisions that placed children as young as abortion. GMT 2018 nine in crowded and often unsanitary short- term institutions for rehabilitation or as they LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR awaited court disposition. An additional bill INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS by a lawmaker was filed later in the year, In July, the European Commission stated that seeking to lower the minimum age of criminal the independence of the Constitutional responsibility to 12, but remained pending. Tribunal had been “seriously undermined” and raised concerns that the constitutionality RIGHT TO HEALTH of Polish laws “could not be effectively The nationwide anti-drugs campaign guaranteed”.05:01 The government also attempted undermined people’s right to the enjoyment to extend its influence over other branches of of the highest attainable standard of physical the judiciary,/ including the Supreme Court, and mental health. Many drug users were the National Council of the Judiciary and forced into compulsory and inadequate Common Courts. treatment and rehabilitation initiatives, which Between May and July, Parliament adopted prevented them from accessing essential ETfour laws on the reform of the judiciary. health services and harm EMBARGOEDreduction These provoked aFEBRUARY strong response from the programmes. public, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs which expressed alarm over the SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS waning independence of the judiciary and In January, President Duterte signed an rule of law.22 The changes would have given executive order to strengthen the the Minister of Justice control over the implementation of the Reproductive Health Supreme Court and would have also Act of 2012 which promised to provide undermined the independence of the greater access to family planning00:01 and birth National Council of Judiciary, a self-regulating control services. body of judges. On 24 July, the President vetoed two of the adopted laws, the amendment of the Law on the National 1. ‘If you are poor, you are killed’: Extrajudicial executions in the Philippines‘ war on drugs (ASA 35/5517/2017) Council of Judiciary and of the Law on the 2. Philippines: State hearing highlights deadly consequences for Supreme Court. STRICTLYchildren in ‚ war on drugs‘ (News story , 24 August) The President did, however, sign the 3. Philippines: Impending arrest of Senator politically motivated (ASA amendment to the Law on Common Courts, 35/5772/2017) which entered into force in August. The 4. ‘Battle of Marawi’:UNTIL Death and destruction in the Philippines (ASA amendment empowered the Minister of 35/7427/2017) Justice to appoint and dismiss presidents THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 301 and vice-presidents of courts. In response, to provide identification; used threats of the European Commission started sanctions; and, for some, the pursuit of infringement proceedings against Poland for criminal charges and prosecutions. Dozens of breaching EU law on the grounds that the protesters faced proceedings in court under law, which introduced different retirement the Code of Petty Offences and in some ages for men and women judges, was cases also under the Criminal Code; discriminatory. The proceedings were proceedings were still pending at the end of pending at the end of the year. The the year. Hundreds of others were Commission stated that it would also trigger summoned to police stations in relation to proceedings under Article 7(1), which could their participation in protests. result in sanctions if any law giving the In April, an amendment to the Law on Minister of Justice control over the Supreme Assemblies that prioritized “cyclical” Court were adopted. assemblies in central Warsaw, entered into In October, the daily Gazeta Wyborcza force. The law had been used to ban reported that six prosecutors faced alternative or counter-demonstrations in disciplinary proceedings for criticizing a 2016 favour of monthly pro-governmentGMT assemblies 2018 reform that merged the functions of the and to grant a pro-government group regular national Prosecutor General and the Minister access to the public space near the of Justice, giving the Minister undue Presidential Palace. influence over judicial proceedings. In December, the Parliament adopted FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – amendments to the Law on the National JOURNALISTS Council of Judiciary and of the Law on the Using new powers conferred by the 2015 Supreme Court which subjected the judiciary media law, the Minister of Treasury dismissed to the political control of the government. On a number05:01 of directors and supervisory 20 December, the European Commission, in councils of public TV and radio stations. The an unprecedented move, triggered Article 7.1 Minister/ appointed new directors without of the EU Treaty against Poland. The process consulting the independent National could lead to sanctions for undermining Broadcasting Council, resulting in human rights and the rule of law in Poland. government control over all public media EToutlets. By October, over 234 journalists FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLYEMBARGOEDworking in public FEBRUARY broadcasting, including Public protests continued throughout 2017 in trade union leaders, had been demoted, opposition to government policies and dismissed, or forced to resign. legislation on the judiciary, the right to Investigative journalist Tomasz Piątek was at peaceful assembly, the functioning of NGOs, risk of criminal22 charges for his book media freedom, sexual and reproductive published in June that alleged a link between rights, and the right to housing. The largest the Minister of National Defence and the demonstrations occurred in July, when Russian intelligence services. In late June, thousands of people in over 10000:01 cities took to the Minister filed a criminal complaint against the streets to protest against the reform of the Tomasz Piątek, alleging a violation of the laws judiciary. Law enforcement officials on “using violence or unlawful threat [which] responded with heavy-handed security affects a government authority performing its measures in the area around Parliament and duty” and “insulting a public official in the at the Presidential Palace, inhibiting the course and in connection with the STRICTLYdemonstrators’ ability to protest. The police performance of [their] duties”. On 26 June, contained groups of peaceful protesters; the complaint was forwarded to the Regional used constant and varied forms of monitoring Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw. In October, the and surveillanceUNTIL at the protests by Minister publicly accused the journalist of surveillance teams that also asked protesters aiming to prevent the reform of Poland’s army THURSDAY 302 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 and that the allegations presented in the asylum application alleging that he book were “an integral part of the hybrid war represented a “threat to national security”. against Poland”. No charges against Tomasz The evidence against him, collected by the Piątek had been formally pressed by the end Internal Security Agency, was not made of the year. available to his legal representatives. The NGO Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS argued that the denial of access to the case In October, the President expressed support files had effectively prevented the applicant for a legislative proposal drafted by anti- from knowing the detailed grounds for the choice groups which would prohibit abortion rejection of his asylum claim. In August, the in cases of severe or fatal fetal impairment. Foundation appealed against the decision. In June, Parliament adopted an amendment to the Law on State Funded Health Services REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS under which emergency contraception There were ongoing reports of push-backs of became accessible only on prescription, asylum-seekers at a border crossing with contrary to international recommendations on Belarus. The European CourtGMT of Human 2018 emergency contraception. Rights requested information from Poland regarding four cases in which the applicants FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION claimed that they were repeatedly denied On 4 October, one day after a national protest entry to seek international protection and that against restrictive policies on abortion, the this put them at risk of refoulement – forcible police simultaneously raided four offices of return to a country where they were at real women’s rights NGOs in different cities that risk of persecution. In late August, the NGO had supported the action. The police Human Constanta, which is based in confiscated hard drives and computer data, Belarus, filed05:01 another case against Poland including databases with information on with the UN Human Rights Committee for the individuals and medical reports of victims of breach/ of the non-refoulement principle. The domestic violence. The authorities claimed cases remained pending at the end of the that the action was part of an investigation of year. former staff members of the Ministry of In June, the European Commission started Justice for alleged maladministration of ETinfringement procedures against Poland, as funds. EMBARGOEDwell as the CzechFEBRUARY Republic and Hungary, for In October, Parliament adopted the Law on refusing to participate in the refugee the National Freedom Institute, a body that relocation scheme from EU member states will decide on state funding to NGOs. Civil such as Greece and Italy. In December, the society groups raised serious concerns that European22 Commission decided to step up the the law provided for the Institute to be under action against all three countries and referred the effective control of the government, which them to the Court of Justice of the European would potentially undermine the ability of Union. organizations that were critical 00:01of the government to access such funds. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY PORTUGAL The Council of Europe Commissioner for Portuguese Republic Human Rights and NGOs raised concerns Head of state: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa STRICTLYover the lack of due process in cases of Head of government: António Costa deportations where national security grounds were invoked. Housing conditions for Roma and people of In April, an IraqiUNTIL student was deported to African descent remained inadequate. Iraq after the Refugee Board rejected his Portugal relocated fewer asylum-seekers THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 303 than it was required to under the EU DETENTION Relocation Programme. The government The publication of the Council of Europe proposed legislation to strengthen the Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s protection of transgender and intersex report of its visit to Portugal in September- people’s rights. Parliament extended October 2016 was pending at the end of the protection against hate speech and year. The visit focused on the application of discrimination. safeguards against torture and other ill- treatment of persons in custody; conditions of RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED detention in prison and on remand; and the EVICTIONS situation of patients in forensic psychiatric In February, in her report of a December units. 2016 visit to Lisbon, the capital, and Porto, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS adequate housing noted that many Roma Portugal relocated 1,518 asylum-seekers and people of African descent were living in from Greece and Italy, leaving over 1,400 substandard conditions and often faced places to fill according to theGMT legal 2018 discrimination in accessing adequate commitment it had made under the EU housing. She urged the authorities, among Relocation Programme. However, the other things, to address inadequate housing authorities reported that of those relocated, in informal settlements as a priority and to over 720 persons had left the country by the ensure that evictions and demolitions did not end of the year. result in homelessness and were carried out in compliance with international standards. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, In March, the Council of Europe TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Commissioner for Human Rights visited In April, a05:01 government-sponsored bill aiming Lisbon and Torres Vedras; he also expressed to bring the protection of LGBTI people’s concern about the substandard and often rights /in line with international standards was segregated Roma settlements and called for presented to Parliament. The bill was being new social housing programmes for all considered at the end of the year. The bill vulnerable groups to be developed. proposed removing the requirement for Residents of the informal settlement of ETpsychological assessments and introduced Bairro 6 de Maio in the AmadoraEMBARGOED the requirement forFEBRUARY expressed consent to any municipality, near Lisbon, feared their houses medical treatment aimed at determining the could be demolished and they could be gender for intersex people, including forcibly evicted without access to adequate children. processes. Many of the residents were of 22 African and Roma descent. DISCRIMINATION In August, Parliament approved legislation TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT strengthening protection against In July, the Public Prosecutor of00:01 the Amadora discrimination. The criminal code was municipality charged 18 police officers for amended to include descent and physical the ill-treatment of six men of African descent and mental disability among the grounds for in February 2015 (the charges against one criminal liability for discriminatory conduct. A officer were struck out in December). The separate offence of incitement to hatred and officers were accused of torture, unlawful violence based on discriminatory motives was STRICTLYimprisonment, grave abuse of power and also introduced. other offences aggravated by racism. In September, the investigating judge rejected VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN the Public Prosecutor’sUNTIL request that the In October, the Porto Court of Appeal upheld officers be suspended pending trial. the suspended sentence of two men THURSDAY 304 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 convicted in 2015 of assaulting a woman. December, the Inter-American Commission The woman’s former partner abducted her on Human Rights expressed concern over and her former husband beat her with a nail- the emergency and reconstruction efforts. spiked bat. The judges justified their decision by referring to religious beliefs and gender RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, stereotypes, stating that “the adultery of the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE woman was a very serious attack on the In February, the Department of Education honour and dignity of a man.” In December, eliminated the curriculum for gender the Superior Council of the Judiciary opened perspective in public schools, which was disciplinary proceedings, which were pending established by the previous administration to at the end of the year, against the two judges ensure equality between genders in responsible for the ruling. education and in all Department of Education projects; the new curriculum would only have a binary conception of gender. The PUERTO RICO Department also removed guidelines allowing public-school students to wearGMT school 2018 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico uniform according to their gender identity. Head of state: Donald Trump (replaced Barack Obama Protections for transgender people suffered in January) a further setback when the President of the Head of government: Ricardo Rosselló Nevares Senate signed an administrative order eliminating protective measures that Hurricane Maria caused deaths and previously allowed employees of the widespread damage to infrastructure, legislative branch to dress and use housing and essential services. Protections bathrooms according to their gender identity. for transgender people and of freedoms of In July, Governor05:01 Rosselló signed an expression and association suffered executive order for the creation of an LGBTI setbacks. Austerity measures put human advisory/ council to promote and implement rights at risk. Police used excessive force to initiatives for LGBTI people across quell protests on International Workers’ Day. governmental departments and in collaboration with civil society. BACKGROUND ET On 20 September, HurricaneEMBARGOED Maria caused FREEDOMS OF FEBRUARYEXPRESSION AND the largest natural disaster on the island in ASSEMBLY modern history. According to the authorities, On 19 May, Governor Rosselló signed into at least 64 people died, but due to law several amendments to the Criminal uncertainties regarding the actual number, Code, making22 illegal certain conduct such as the Governor announced that a new blocking entry to construction sites or investigation would be carried out. The educational institutions − tactics traditionally hurricane destroyed infrastructure and used by peaceful protesters − thus potentially buildings, leaving many people00:01 without undermining the rights to freedom of housing and access to potable water, food, expression and peaceful assembly. The and essential services including medical amendments were rushed through treatment and education. The slow response Parliament with limited consultation with civil of the local and federal government resulted society and entered into force immediately in a deepening of the humanitarian crisis after their approval, without the usual 90-day STRICTLYcaused by the hurricane. In October, UN waiting period. The amendments appeared to human rights experts noted that the lack of be a direct attempt by the government to an effective emergency response came in the discourage peaceful protests. context of an “existingUNTIL dire situation caused by debt and austerity measures”. In THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 305 ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DEATH PENALTY RIGHTS Although the death penalty was abolished in Puerto Rico continued to face a serious Puerto Rico in 1929, it can still be imposed financial crisis as a result of crippling external for crimes under US federal law that are debt of more than USD70 billion, according punishable by death penalty. In February, the to figures from the authorities. Office of the US Attorney for the District of The Financial Oversight and Management Puerto Rico announced that it would again Board, established by US authorities in 2016, seek the death penalty against Alexis implemented several austerity measures Candelario-Santana at his retrial, due to during the year. These measures could have begin on 1 August 2018. In 2013 he had negative consequences on human rights, in been sentenced to life imprisonment. particular access to health care, housing, education and work. On 9 January, the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights publicly expressed concerns QATAR over the adverse effects that further austerity State of Qatar GMT 2018 measures would have on the enjoyment of Head of state: Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al economic, social and cultural rights. The Thani government of Puerto Rico continued to Head of government: Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin refuse to conduct a thorough audit of its debt Khalifa Al Thani despite calls from local civil society organizations. Severance of relations with Qatar by several In December, the UN Special Rapporteur of its regional neighbours imposed arbitrary on extreme poverty and human rights visited restrictions on Qatar that resulted in human Puerto Rico. He expressed concern regarding rights violations.05:01 The government continued the lack of consideration given to social to unduly restrict freedom of expression. protections in the projected austerity Steps /were taken to improve access to measures. compensation for abused migrant workers. The government committed to revise its EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE laws and reform the sponsorship system, as Excessive and unnecessary use of force by ETpart of an agreement with the ILO. After police was reported duringEMBARGOED protests related to years of delays, migrantFEBRUARY domestic workers’ the fiscal crisis. On 1 May, International labour rights were protected for the first Workers’ Day, the American Civil Liberties time, though the new law contained flaws. Union documented the indiscriminate use of Discrimination against women remained tear gas against protesters without prior entrenched22 in both law and practice. The dispersal orders, contrary to international law courts imposed death sentences; no and standards. Observers collected canisters executions were reported. which revealed that expired tear gas had been used. Additionally, video evidence00:01 BACKGROUND showed the use of rubber bullets against On 5 June, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and largely peaceful protesters. Other concerns Egypt severed relations with Qatar, accusing were raised concerning police officers not it of financing and harbouring “terrorists” and being properly identifiable during the interfering in the domestic affairs of its protests, and undercover police infiltrating neighbours. Saudi Arabia closed Qatar’s only STRICTLYprotests and making arrests without land border while the four countries closed identifying themselves. their airspace to flights to Qatar. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE arbitrarily banned UNTIL their nationals from visiting or living in Qatar, and ordered Qataris to leave within 14 days, THURSDAY 306 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 threatening fines or other unspecified February 2017. On 24 May he was travelling consequences for non-compliance. Despite with his wife to Norway, where he had been statements in response to international granted asylum, when Qatari officials outcry, it was unclear what practical steps the detained him at Doha airport. three states had taken to mitigate negative Filipino national Ronaldo Lopez Ulep, whose impacts on families and those in education or conviction on espionage charges was upheld undergoing medical treatment. As a result of in 2016, continued to be detained despite an the dispute, Qatari forces were expelled from unfair trial and allegations of torture. the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen (see Yemen entry) and a UN mission to Djibouti, WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT while the government accelerated efforts to WORKERS increase its military capacity, including In January, the Emir signed an amendment through military co-operation with Turkey and to Qatar’s new sponsorship law, which had other states. In July, the Emir issued a decree come into effect in December 2016. Law No. amending some provisions of the 2004 Law 1 of 2017 confirmed that migrant workers on Combating Terrorism, which included would continue to require GMTthe permission of 2018 redefining some terms and enabling their employer to leave the country, by individuals and groups accused of “terrorist requiring workers to “notify” their employer. activities” to appeal before the courts. In In October the cabinet reportedly approved a November the Emir announced that the first new amendment to the exit permit; it was not ever legislative elections would be held in published during the year. 2018 and appointed four women to the The ILO complaint against Qatar was closed Consultative Council (Shura Council). on 8 November after the government committed to revising its laws in line with FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, international05:01 labour standards and the ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY guidance of ILO experts. If implemented in The authorities maintained restrictions to the full, the/ agreement would enhance the rights to freedom of expression, association protection of migrant workers’ rights. and peaceful assembly that were not in On 18 August, the Emir approved the conformity with international law and establishment of a new, judge-led Labour standards. The authorities did not permit the ETDispute Resolution Committee (Law No.13 of existence of independent EMBARGOEDpolitical parties, 2017) to settle labourFEBRUARY disputes within three and workers’ associations were only weeks of a worker filing a complaint. If permitted for Qatari citizens if they met strict operated fairly and effectively, the new criteria. Laws criminalizing expression committee could address some of the deemed offensive to the Emir were barriers to22 migrant workers accessing justice. maintained. At the end of the year the dispute resolution In January, the government arbitrarily courts had not yet begun operating. imposed a travel ban on human rights lawyer A new law providing legal protections for Najeeb al-Nuaimi, who was initially00:01 informed domestic workers’ labour rights was passed by text message. The ban remained in place for the first time. Law No.15 of 2017 included at the end of the year, limiting the lawyer’s a limit to working hours per day, at least 24 right to free movement. consecutive hours off every week and three weeks’ paid leave per year. However, the law TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT failed to provide adequate safeguards to STRICTLYOn 25 May, although he was at risk of torture, restrict the abuse of a provision allowing the government forcibly returned Saudi domestic workers to work beyond the legal Arabian human rights activist Mohammad al- limit if they “agreed”. Otaibi to SaudiUNTIL Arabia, where he faced trial. Third-party auditors highlighted some Mohammad al-Otaibi had arrived in Qatar in progress on projects for the football World THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 307 Cup in 2022, but identified abuses of migrant DEATH PENALTY workers at all 10 of the contractors they The courts reportedly imposed at least two investigated. new death sentences that were upheld by the The dispute with neighbouring countries Court of Cassation, Qatar’s highest court. No affected some migrant workers. Low-paid executions were reported. workers were disproportionately impacted by increases in food prices. Workers in the hospitality and tourism sectors reported being forced to take extended leave without pay. ROMANIA Some foreign workers had annual leave Romania cancelled and exit permits revoked. Head of state: Klaus Iohannis Head of government: Mihai Tudose (replaced Sorin WOMEN’S RIGHTS Grindeanu in June) Women continued to face discrimination in law and practice. Personal status laws Laws extending pardons and amnesties for continued to discriminate against women in corruption and official misconductGMT were put 2018 relation to marriage, divorce, inheritance, forward, sparking protests across the child custody, nationality and freedom of country. European and international movement. institutions criticized overcrowding in In June, the UN Committee on the Rights of prisons and inadequate detention the Child (CRC) urged the authorities to conditions. Amendments were proposed to investigate crimes related to gender-based the law regulating civil society organizations violence and to bring perpetrators to justice. and foundations. Roma continued to face The Committee called on the authorities to discrimination. amend the Nationality Act in order to allow 05:01 women to confer nationality to their children BACKGROUND on an equal basis with Qatari men. Despite In January,/ tens of thousands of people the approval of a draft law providing protested against two emergency ordinances permanent residency rights for the children adopted without substantial discussion by the of Qatari women married to non-Qataris, then recently formed government. The bills discrimination persisted with women unable ETextended a pardon of persons sentenced for to pass on nationality andEMBARGOED citizenship to their certain corruption FEBRUARY offences and children. decriminalized official misconduct. National institutions, some foreign embassies and the CHILDREN’S RIGHTS European Commission criticized the laws In June, the CRC expressed concern over which were22 then repealed in February. In gender discrimination of children, violence April, a new draft law – granting an amnesty against children in schools and at home, and for sentences of less than five years, laws limiting the right to nationality of including for corruption – was put forward, children born in Qatar. The Committee00:01 called sparking more protests throughout the for the enactment of measures to end these country during the year. The bill had not practices. It also called for ending child been adopted by the end of the year. marriage and raising the age of criminal responsibility, which remained at seven years LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR of age in contravention of international INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS STRICTLYstandards. The Committee reiterated Amendments were proposed to the law concerns about discrimination against the regulating NGOs and foundations introducing children of migrant workers and additional administrative and financial recommendedUNTIL the abolition of the kafala obligations. National NGOs criticized the new sponsorship system “without delay”. measures as arbitrary, unnecessary and THURSDAY 308 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 vague. The Conference of international NGOs 2010 by local authorities. The legal case of the CoE highlighted in December brought by the community against the shortcomings regarding compliance with municipality challenging the forced eviction international standards and best practices. remained pending in national courts at the The proposals, adopted by the Senate in end of the year. November, remained pending before the RIGHT TO EDUCATION Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies at the end New legislation aiming to prevent, combat of the year. and prohibit segregation in primary and The proposal for a new National Strategy for secondary education entered into force after Housing remained pending. its adoption in December 2016 by the In March, the Senate rejected a draft law Ministry of National Education and Scientific calling for the repeal of part of the Anti- Research. Two ministerial orders established discrimination Law that instituted the national a public policy against segregation in schools equality body. The draft law was proposed by on a wide range of grounds, including ethnic a former MP who was fined by the body in origin, disability and socio-economic status of 2016 for homophobic statements. families, and a related actionGMT plan scheduled 2018 to be implemented by October. DETENTION In April, the European Court for Human RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Rights (ECtHR) advanced recommendations TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE aimed at reducing overcrowding in prisons in The Senate’s decision on a national a “pilot judgment” issued against Romania. It referendum on the possible restriction of the imposed an obligation on the state to resolve constitutional definition of “family” from the highlighted structural dysfunctionalities or “marriage between spouses” to “marriage risk sanctions. between a05:01 man and a woman” remained pending at the end of the year. The Coalition DISCRIMINATION – ROMA for Family/ – a group of some 30 associations In February, the European Commission and foundations – has been promoting such stated that the risk of living in poverty was restriction since 2016. almost three times higher for Roma than for The case of the same-sex couple seeking the rest of the population. ETrecognition of their marriage officiated in RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCEDEMBARGOED EVICTIONS Belgium remained FEBRUARY under examination by the In September, according to NGOs, around 30 Constitutional Court. The Court had sought a Roma, half of them children, living in the preliminary ruling from the European Court of town of Eforie Sud in Constanta county, were Justice on the harmonic interpretation of EU verbally threatened by local authorities with legislation22 on freedom of movement and eviction from a publicly owned property. They residence for same-sex couples. had occupied the building since October 2013 when they had been repeatedly forcibly COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY evicted by local authorities from00:01 a long- The case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi standing settlement and rendered homeless. Arabian national currently held in the US In May, around 35 of the Roma families detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, from the Pata Rat informal settlements – remained pending before the ECtHR. The located on the outskirts of Cluj-Napoca, near case was lodged against Romania in 2012 for a waste and chemical dump – received new allegations of the enforced disappearance STRICTLYhomes across the city’s neighbourhoods and and torture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri at a nearby villages as part of a multi-stakeholder secret CIA detention facility in Bucharest, the desegregation project. This included around capital, between 2004 and 2006. 20 families fromUNTIL the former Coastei Street community, forcibly evicted in December THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 309 DISCRIMINATION – PEOPLE human rights violations continued in the WITH DISABILITIES North Caucasus. Russia used its veto to Living conditions in social care and block UN Security Council resolutions on psychiatric institutions for people with Syria. Migrants and refugees were denied disabilities remained extremely precarious. protection of their rights. Some forms of The monitoring mechanism required by the domestic violence were decriminalized. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with LGBTI people continued to face Disabilities, ratified by Romania in 2011, was discrimination and violence; gay men in not fully operational at the end of the year. Chechnya were targeted through a co- ordinated campaign of abduction, torture VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS and killings by the Chechen authorities. In July, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR recommended broadening existing legislation INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS to address all forms of gender-based On 10 February, the Constitutional Court violence, strengthening women’s access to ruled that the mere fact of GMTholding an 2018 justice and remedies, disaggregated data “unauthorized” peaceful gathering did not collection, and improved access to sexual constitute a criminal offence under Article and reproductive health and rights. 212.1 of the Criminal Code, which made In May, the ECtHR noted that despite repeated violation of protest rules a crime.1 existing legislation and a national strategy On 22 February, activist Ildar Dadin, who had there was insufficient commitment from the received a prison sentence for his peaceful government to take appropriate action to protest, had his sentence under Article 212.1 prevent and combat domestic violence. The reviewed; the Supreme Court ordered his ECtHR also criticized the limited number of release. 05:01 shelters for women victims of domestic In July, provisions were enacted allowing the violence available across the country. authorities/ to deprive of Russian citizenship individuals who had acquired it while “intending” to “threaten the foundations of RUSSIAN [Russia’s] constitutional order”. NGOs ETcriticized the language of the law, which they FEDERATIONEMBARGOEDsaid was open to FEBRUARYarbitrary application. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Russian Federation In February, a law was enacted Head of state: Vladimir Putin decriminalizing domestic violence committed Head of government: Dmitry Medvedev 22 by “close relatives” that caused pain but no There were further restrictions to the rights injury or loss of ability to work. This prompted to freedom of expression, association and an increase in violent incidents mainly peaceful assembly. Harassment00:01 and targeting women in several regions. intimidation of human rights defenders and independent NGOs continued. Cultural FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY rights were reduced, including through Across the country, the biggest protests in reprisals and self-censorship. Religious years took place. Hundreds of peaceful minorities continued to face harassment protesters, bystanders and journalists were STRICTLYand persecution. The right to a fair trial was arrested; many were subjected to cruel, frequently violated. Torture and other ill- inhuman or degrading treatment, prolonged treatment persisted; the work of arbitrary detention, and unfair trials resulting independent monitoringUNTIL bodies for places of in heavy fines and “administrative detention” detention was further eroded. Serious for several days. THURSDAY 310 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In March, anti-corruption rallies took place dozen organizations were removed from the in at least 97 cities and towns. In many list following their closure or after their foreign places, police dispersed peaceful protesters funding or their “political activity”, as defined using unnecessary and excessive force. More by the “foreign agents” law, ceased, bringing than 1,600 people were arrested, including at the number of organizations that remained in least 14 journalists covering the protests. the list to 85 at the end of the year. However, Many of those arrested faced unfair trials on NGOs affected by the “foreign agents” law, politically motivated charges and hundreds among them leading human rights groups, were detained solely for peacefully exercising did not perceive this as an improvement. their rights to freedom of expression and In March, the ECtHR combined and assembly. Fourteen employees and communicated the complaints of 61 Russian volunteers of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, NGOs against the “foreign agents” law; and who had organized a widely watched live Russian authorities filed their comments in internet broadcast of the protests, were September. The case was pending before the arbitrarily arrested at their office in Moscow, Court at the end of the year. the capital. On 27 and 28 March, 12 of them On 19 June, the charge ofGMT “malicious 2018 were sentenced to “administrative evasion” of obligations arising from the detention”.2 “foreign agents” law – in the first and only Since 26 March, criminal convictions were such criminal case – against human rights pressed against at least eight protesters for defender Valentina Cherevatenko was violent offences allegedly committed while dropped due to the absence of elements of a trying to protect themselves or others from crime. police violence in Moscow, Petrozavodsk and Four more foreign organizations were Volgograd. Criminal proceedings were declared “undesirable”, making them and initiated against more protesters; some of working for05:01 or supporting them, illegal in them faced further questionable charges. Russia. There were 11 “undesirable” Many who took part in the largest protests organizations/ at the end of the year. were teenagers and young students. The Between September and November, authorities put pressure on them through administrative proceedings were initiated schools and universities, using informal against the NGO SOVA Centre, Andrey Rylkov warnings and expulsions, and in some cases ETFoundation for Health and Social Justice, the threatened to challenge custodialEMBARGOED rights of Centre for Independent FEBRUARY Social Research, and parents of under-age protesters. the Centre for Social Partnership, for On 7 February, the European Court of allegedly distributing materials of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in Lashmankin “undesirable” organizations. The NGOs did and Others v. Russia − a case concerning 23 not remove22 old mentions of “undesirable” applicants from different regions. The ECtHR organizations and hyperlinks to their found that the restrictions on location, time websites. Administrative proceedings against and manner of conduct of street protests SOVA Centre were terminated because of the violated their right to freedom of00:01 assembly, expiration of the statute of limitations. Other without effective remedy being available to NGOs were fined 50,000 roubles (USD871) them. The applications concerned events of each. 2009-2012 when restrictions on protests were less strict than in 2017. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Most of the media remained under effective STRICTLYFREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION state control and were used by the authorities NGOs were affected by the law on “foreign to smear human rights defenders, political agents”. Thirteen NGOs receiving foreign opponents and other dissenting voices. funding were addedUNTIL to the Ministry of Throughout the country, protest leaders and Justice’s list of “foreign agents”. Several political activists supporting critical voices THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 311 faced harassment, administrative and publications on the Federal List of Extremist criminal proceedings and physical violence Materials. by pro-government activists and On 20 April, the Supreme Court banned the “unidentified” individuals, believed to be Jehovah’s Witnesses’ central organization and security officials or others acting in collusion all its affiliates in Russia, ruling that the group with them. comprising 395 local organizations and over In a further crackdown on freedom of 170,000 followers was “extremist”. Jehovah’s expression online, the authorities banned Witnesses who continued to manifest their anonymizers and virtual private networks, beliefs risked being criminally prosecuted among other new restrictive measures. In and faced up to 12 years’ imprisonment. May, the President approved the Strategy for Restrictions on missionary activities the Development of the Information Society introduced in 2016 were indiscriminately for 2017-2030 which stated “priority of applied, ranging from the attempted traditional Russian spiritual-ethical values” in prosecution of a yoga instructor in St the use of information and communication Petersburg in January for giving a public technologies. lecture to the confiscation GMTof copies of the 2018 Anti-extremism legislation was further Salvation Army’s Bible in Vladivostok as they extended and used arbitrarily against did not feature the prescribed official marking protected speech. In August, the UN CERD of the distributing organization. Committee expressed concern over its use to On 11 May, a court in Yekaterinburg silence individuals belonging to groups imposed on blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky a vulnerable to discrimination and reiterated its three-and-a-half-year conditional prison recommendations that the legislation contain sentence, reduced to two years and three a clear legal definition of extremism and months on appeal, for “inciting hatred” and abandon the Federal List of Extremist “offending05:01 believers’ feelings” by posting a Materials. video in which he played the reality game Artistic expression was restricted on Pokémon/ Go in a cathedral. occasions under pressure from conservative groups that regarded specific artistic RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, productions as an offence to their religious TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE belief. Performances were cancelled and ETState-sponsored discrimination and individuals associated withEMBARGOED them faced persecution of LGBTIFEBRUARY people continued harassment and violence. Criminal unabated, and the homophobic “propaganda proceedings were initiated against a number law” was actively enforced. On 18 October, of prominent theatre workers in Moscow and activist Evdokia Romanova was found guilty were widely condemned by their devotees as of the administrative22 offence of “propaganda politically motivated. of non-traditional sexual relationships among In November, a law was enacted allowing minors using the Internet”. She was fined authorities to recognize as “foreign agents” 50,000 roubles (USD871) by a court in media outlets that were both registered00:01 Samara, for the links to the international abroad and foreign-funded, which Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive stigmatized them and imposed restrictive Rights website she had shared on social reporting requirements. At the end of the media in 2015 and 2016.3 year, nine mass media outlets were In April, independent Novaya Gazeta recognized as “foreign agents”. newspaper reported that over 100 men in STRICTLY Chechnya who were believed to be gay were FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF abducted, tortured and otherwise ill-treated Religious minority groups continued to be in secret prisons, and that some were killed. harassed, includingUNTIL by banning, blocking of Escaped survivors reported a campaign of their websites, and the inclusion of their violence co-ordinated by the authorities. THURSDAY 312 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Eyewitnesses stated that a number of reports as sole evidence. The trials resulted captives were killed, and some handed over in lengthy detentions and hefty fines. Trails to their families for “honour killings” under were often swift; after the 26 March protest, local “traditions”. Tverskoi District Court in Moscow considered The federal investigative authorities were 476 cases in 17 working days. slow to respond to these reports. They On 22 August, Aleksandr Eivazov, former refused to open a formal investigation after a Secretary of the October District Court in St protracted pre-investigation failed to Petersburg and also a whistle-blower, was recognize the allegations as well founded, arrested for purportedly “interfering in the despite the efforts by the federal work of the court”, on account of his refusal Ombudsperson to establish and check the to sign and backdate records of a court relevant facts. No investigation was known to hearing that someone else compiled. He was have been initiated by the end of the year. a witness to numerous violations of court procedures, judicial ethics and workers’ NORTH CAUCASUS rights in the court, and had sent complaints Reports continued of serious human rights about all violations to the authoritiesGMT and 2018 violations, including enforced disappearance, shared this information on social media. unlawful detention, torture and other ill- Aleksandr Eivazov’s complaints were not treatment of detainees, and extrajudicial known to be addressed. He remained in executions in the North Caucasus. The detention despite his asthma at the end of situation in Chechnya was further the year.6 deteriorating. Impunity remained for past violent incidents against human rights TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT defenders in Chechnya. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment in In January, Magomed Daudov, speaker of prisons and05:01 detention centres across Russia the Chechen Parliament, issued personal persisted. The conditions during prisoner threats through his Instagram account transports/ amounted to torture and other ill- against Grigory Shvedov, editor-in-chief of the treatment, and in many instances, to independent online news project Caucasian enforced disappearance.7 Some prisoners Knot.4 In April, Novaya Gazeta journalists faced journeys lasting a month or more, while received threats from Chechnya for their ETbeing transferred in overcrowded train coverage of the anti-gay campaignEMBARGOED in carriages and vans,FEBRUARY and spending weeks in Chechnya. Radio Ekho Moskvy journalists transit cells at various stages on their way to also received such threats for expressing remote prison colonies. Their families and solidarity with Novaya Gazeta journalists.5 lawyers had no information about their fate Novaya Gazeta reported the unlawful and whereabouts.22 detention of dozens of people, starting in Prisoner of conscience Ildar Dadin was December 2016, and secret execution of at forcibly disappeared for a month while being least 27 captives by the security forces on transferred to another prison; his 26 January. No one was known00:01 to have been whereabouts became known in January. He investigated or held accountable for these made allegations of torture in Segezha prison incidents by the end of the year. colony in October 2016 and as a consequence the authorities transferred him UNFAIR TRIALS to another prison colony. During his transfer, Independent trial monitors reported the authorities refused to provide any STRICTLYsystematic violations of the right to a fair trial information on his whereabouts to his family at criminal and administrative hearings, and lawyers until after his arrival at the including in the cases brought against colony. peaceful protesters.UNTIL Most administrative trials In May, the ECtHR ruled on the cases of relied heavily on widely disputed police eight applicants from Russia, that the THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 313 condition of their transport by the penitentiary Khudoberdi Nurmatov fled Uzbekistan years service amounted to inhuman and degrading earlier to avoid persecution by security treatment. This included the cases of Anna services for refusing to act as a secret Lozinskaya and Valery Tokarev who were informer. He would also be subject to repeatedly transported in single-person van prosecution under Uzbekistani law which compartments measuring 0.3m2. criminalized homosexuality. Following the The role and effectiveness of Public ECtHR’s decision granting Khudoberdi Oversight Commissions, an independent Nurmatov urgent interim measures, the monitoring mechanism for places of Moscow City Court on 8 August stayed his detention, was further eroded, including deportation but remanded him in a detention through continued under-funding. The rules centre for foreign nationals, where he governing the nomination of their members remained at the end of the year. In by Public Chambers − consultative bodies December, the ECtHR communicated his consisting of state-appointed members of complaint. civil society organizations − were changed. Registration with local police at the place of This led to a reduction in the membership of residence remained a preconditionGMT for labour 2018 some of the Commissions, which in some and other migrants to access health care and cases had an impact on their independence education. But the registration was routinely by effectively precluding certain human rights refused by many landlords who were defenders from becoming members. required to consent to it. There were reports of independent In September, human rights defender monitors, including members of Public Tatiana Kotlyar was convicted of fictitiously Oversight Commissions and of the registering 167 migrants at her address to Presidential Human Rights Council, being enable them to comply with immigration arbitrarily denied access to prison colonies by regulations05:01 and to be able to access essential prison administrations. services. The court sentenced Tatiana Kotlyar to a fine/ of 150,000 roubles (USD2,619). The ARMED CONFLICT – SYRIA fine was waived on account of the expiration Russia five times used its veto in the UN of the statute of limitations for this crime. Security Council to block resolutions that would have imposed sanctions for the ET1. Russia: Court offers “chink of light” in case brought by jailed production and use of chemicalEMBARGOED weapons in protester Ildar Dadin (NewsFEBRUARY story, 10 February) Syria, condemned the reported chemical 2. Russian Federation: Detained members of corruption watchdog are weapons attack on the town Khan Shaykhun, prisoners of conscience and should be freed immediately (EUR called on the Syrian government to grant 46/5998/2017) access to and the right to inspect any sites, 3. Russia: Homophobic22 legislation used to persecute activist who and renewed the mandate of the Joint shared LGBTI articles on Facebook (News story, 18 October) Investigative Mechanism, formed to 4. Russian Federation: Journalist threatened by Chechen official − determine the perpetrators of chemical- Grigory Shvedov (EUR 46/5442/2017) weapons attacks. 00:01 5. Russian Federation: Newspaper threatened for reports on abductions (EUR 46/6075/2017) REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS 6. Russian Federation: Whistle-blower detained on spurious charges − Aleksandr Eivazov (EUR 46/7200/2017) Russia continued to return asylum-seekers and refugees to countries where they were at 7. Prison transportation in Russia − travelling into the unknown (EUR 46/6878/2017) risk of torture and other ill-treatment. STRICTLYOn 1 August, a court in Moscow ruled that Uzbekistani national and journalist Khudoberdi Nurmatov (also known as Ali Feruz) was violatingUNTIL Russia’s immigration laws and should be deported to Uzbekistan. THURSDAY 314 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 leaving their house. On 30 August, the police RWANDA confirmed that an investigation was under way and that the family was not in Republic of Rwanda detention. For several weeks the family was Head of state: Paul Kagame questioned by police and their movement Head of government: Edouard Ngirente (replaced restricted; they were unable to communicate Anastase Murekezi in August) freely. On 23 September, the police arrested Diane Rwigara, her mother Adeline and sister The clampdown on political opponents Anne. On 3 October, the Public Prosecutor continued before and after presidential confirmed that they were being charged with elections, with cases of severe restrictions “inciting insurrection or trouble among the on freedoms of expression and association, population”, that Diane Rwigara would be as well as unlawful killings and unresolved charged with using counterfeit documents disappearance cases. and her mother charged with discrimination and sectarian practices. Anne Rwigara was BACKGROUND granted bail on 23 October;GMT Diane and 2018 Presidential elections were held in August. Adeline Rwigara were remanded in custody President Kagame was re-elected with and remained in detention awaiting trial at 98.79% of the vote. The Democratic Green the end of the year. Party of Rwanda won 0.48% of the vote and On 26 September, eight leaders and the independent candidate 0.73%. members of the unregistered United The National Electoral Commission (NEC) Democratic Forces-Inkingi (FDU-Inkingi) decided that three aspiring independent party were charged with forming an irregular candidates did not fulfil the eligibility armed group and with offences against the requirements. One of them, Diane Rwigara, President.05:01 Théophile Ntirutwa, the party’s was accused of submitting forged signatures. Kigali representative, was detained on 6 On 14 July, she launched a new activist September/ and held incommunicado until group, the People Salvation Movement. 23 September. He was later charged with Several diplomatic missions and civil society supporting an armed group. observers found that the electoral process Those arrested in September included FDU- had been peaceful; however, they raised ETInkingi’s assistant treasurer Léonille concerns about irregularitiesEMBARGOED including in the Gasengayire. SheFEBRUARY had been arrested in counting of ballots and vote tabulation. March 2016 and remained in police detention for several days; she was rearrested FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION in August 2016 and prosecuted on charges AND ASSEMBLY of “inciting22 insurrection or trouble among the Opposition political parties and independent population”. On 23 March 2017, she was candidates faced challenges in the lead-up to acquitted and released. and following the August elections. Shortly after Diane Rwigara announced00:01 her FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION candidacy in May, nude photos allegedly of In April, the NEC issued election regulations her appeared on social media. She requiring presidential candidates to submit complained to the police and the NEC that campaign materials to be published on social her representatives were intimidated as they media networks for approval 48 hours in travelled the country collecting the signatures advance, leading to considerable debate in STRICTLYneeded to stand as an independent May. The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory candidate. Authority announced on 31 May that the NEC Police interrogated Diane Rwigara and her “has no mandate to regulate or interrupt the relatives at theirUNTIL home in Kigali, the capital, use of social media by citizens”. The next on 29 August and prevented them from day, the NEC announced that it would adjust THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 315 the regulations based on public feedback. The genocide trial of Ladislas Ntaganzwa, This requirement was not implemented. whose case was transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES (ICTR), continued at the Rwandan High Possible enforced disappearances were Court’s Chamber of International Crimes. In reported. Several cases of disappearances December, the Chamber found Emmanuel remained unresolved, and may potentially Mbarushimana, extradited from Denmark in have amounted to enforced disappearances. 2014, guilty on genocide charges and There was no news on the fate or sentenced him to life imprisonment. whereabouts of FDU-Inkingi member Bernard Munyagishari, whose case was Illuminée Iragena, who went missing in transferred from the ICTR to Rwanda in March 2016 in Kigali. 2013, was convicted in April and sentenced Violette Uwamahoro, a British national and to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes wife of a member of the outlawed Rwanda against humanity. National Congress (RNC) opposition group, Henri Jean-Claude Seyoboka, who was went missing as she arrived by bus in Kigali deported from Canada in 2016GMT accused of 2018 on 14 February. She had travelled from the involvement in the genocide, was denied bail UK to attend her father’s funeral in Rwanda. by the Military High Court in February. The authorities initially denied knowledge of Enoch Ruhigira, who was arrested in her whereabouts. However, she was held in Germany in 2016 on genocide charges, was incommunicado detention until 3 March released in March. The German General when the police announced that she was in Prosecutor's Office cancelled the arrest their custody. She and her cousin, Jean warrant after a submission from the Ministry Pierre Shumbusho, a police officer, were of Foreign Affairs stating that the Rwandan charged with revelation of state secrets, prosecution05:01 of Enoch Ruhigira was likely to formation of an irregular armed group and be politically influenced. offences against the established government / or President. She denied all charges; she was WOMEN’S RIGHTS provisionally released on 27 March, after a Rwanda was reviewed by the CEDAW judge ruled that there was insufficient Committee in February. The Committee evidence against her. She was allowed to ETwelcomed anti-discrimination legislation; return to the UK on 12 April.EMBARGOEDhowever, it was concernedFEBRUARY that certain discriminatory legal provisions remained. For CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW example, while rape convictions ordinarily Léopold Munyakazi, a university professor carry a prison sentence of at least five years, deported from the USA to Rwanda in 2016, the punishment22 for marital rape is only two to was found guilty of genocide charges in July. six months’ imprisonment and a fine. The The Intermediate Court of Muhanga Committee also expressed concern that sentenced him to life imprisonment in solitary maternal mortality was exacerbated by confinement − a detention practice00:01 unsafe abortions. Abortion was allowed only condemned by the UN Human Rights in exceptional cases, requiring a court order Committee as a violation of the prohibition of in cases of rape, incest or forced marriage torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading and the authorization of two doctors, if the treatment. health of the pregnant woman or the fetus is Jean Twagiramungu, a former teacher, was in danger. Proposed amendments to the STRICTLYextradited to Rwanda from Germany in Penal Code would end the requirement for a August to stand trial. He was accused of court order. planning and committing genocide in Gikongoro PrefectureUNTIL (now in Southern Province). THURSDAY 316 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS The same month, King Salman reshuffled Rwanda continued to receive and host the security and political landscape, refugees from Burundi, with numbers considerably reducing the Ministry of reaching 89,146 at the end of the year. Interior’s powers. On 17 June the King stripped the Ministry of its powers to INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY investigate and prosecute crimes, transferring The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of these powers to the Public Prosecution, Torture suspended its visit to Rwanda in which he placed under his direct authority. In October citing obstructions by the authorities, July, the Ministry’s mandate was further including limitations on access to places of reduced when a royal decree established the detention and confidentiality of some Presidency of State Security, mandated to interviews. The head of delegation reported address all state security matters including that many of those interviewed expressed “terrorism”, and reporting directly to the fear of reprisals. The Subcommittee King. A number of changes in senior suspended visits to only three countries in positions also took place during this time, but the past 10 years. the most significant changeGMT happened on 21 2018 June, when King Salman named his son Mohammed bin Salman as Crown Prince, unseating his nephew Mohammed bin Naif SAUDI ARABIA Al Saud. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on Head of state and government: King Salman bin Abdul human rights and counter-terrorism Aziz Al Saud concluded that Saudi Arabia’s anti-terrorism law did not comply with international The authorities severely restricted freedoms standards,05:01 and urged the government “to of expression, association and assembly. end the prosecution of people including Many human rights defenders and critics human/ rights defenders, writers and bloggers were detained and some were sentenced to simply for expressing non-violent views”. lengthy prison terms after unfair trials. US President Donald Trump visited Saudi Several Shi’a activists were executed, and Arabia in May to participate in the Riyadh many more were sentenced to death ETsummit, attended by representatives of more following grossly unfair trialsEMBARGOED before the than 55 mostly ArabFEBRUARY or Muslim-majority Specialized Criminal Court (SCC). Torture states. A USD300 billion arms deal between and other ill-treatment of detainees the USA and Saudi Arabia was announced remained common. Despite limited reforms, during the visit. women faced systemic discrimination in law The Saudi22 Arabia-led military coalition and practice and were inadequately supporting the internationally recognized protected against sexual and other violence. government in Yemen continued to bomb The authorities used the death penalty areas controlled or contested by Huthi forces extensively, carrying out scores00:01 of and their allies, killing and injuring civilians. executions. The Saudi-led coalition Some attacks amounted to war crimes. A UN continued to commit serious violations of report, released in September, found that the international law in Yemen. Saudi-led coalition continued to be the leading cause of civilian casualties in the BACKGROUND conflict (see Yemen entry). In October, the STRICTLYIn June, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and UN Secretary-General listed the Saudi the United Arab Emirates severed relations Arabia-led coalition in his annual Children with Qatar, negatively affecting thousands of and Armed Conflict report, creating a new nationals and UNTILmigrant workers. category specifically designed to limit condemnation of the coalition. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 317 DISCRIMINATION – SHI’A MINORITY 38 Shi’a men remained at risk of execution, Members of the Shi’a Muslim minority including four who were sentenced to death continued to face discrimination because of for participating in protests in 2012 when their faith, limiting their right to express they were under the age of 18. religious beliefs and their access to justice, and arbitrarily restricting other rights, FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, including the rights to work and to state ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY services. Shi’a activists continued to face The authorities continued to repress peaceful arrest, imprisonment and in some cases the activists and dissidents, harassing writers, death penalty following unfair trials. Four online commentators and others who Shi’a men sentenced to death for protest- exercised their right to freedom of expression related offences were executed in July. by expressing views against government Between May and August, security forces policies. began evacuating al-Masoura district, in the Following the announced decision to sever town of al-Awamiyah in the Eastern Province ties with Qatar, the Saudi authorities warned where Shi’a form the majority of the people against expressing GMTsympathy towards 2018 population, in order to build development Qatar or criticizing government actions, projects. Armed clashes, marked by the use stating that this would be considered an of heavy artillery and shelling, erupted offence punishable under Article 6 of the between security forces and armed men who Anti-Cyber Crime Law. All public gatherings, refused to leave the area, leading to the including peaceful demonstrations, remained deaths and injury of scores of residents and prohibited under a 2011 order by the significant damage to the town. The Ministry of the Interior. authorities accused the men of “terrorism HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS activities” and other criminal offences, Two years05:01 after the law on association was vowing to crack down on them. Residents passed, no new independent human rights reported that the authorities banned organizations/ had been established under its ambulances and medical aid from entering provisions. Independent human rights the area, and many families who remained organizations that were forcibly shut down, lacked food, water, medical treatment and including the Saudi Civil and Political Rights other basic goods. Scores of people were ETAssociation (ACPRA), the Union for Human reportedly arrested and detainedEMBARGOED during this Rights, the AdalaFEBRUARY Center for Human Rights, operation, including activists. and the Monitor for Human Rights in Saudi For example, human rights defender Ali Arabia, remained inactive. Almost all their Shaaban was arrested on 15 May following members were convicted and sentenced, fled Facebook posts expressing solidarity with al- the country,22 or were brought to trial before Awamiyah’s residents. He remained in the SCC. detention at the end of the year. In October, the authorities passed a new In July, families of 15 Shi’a men accused of Counter-Terrorism Law replacing the spying for Iran and sentenced to00:01 death after a February 2014 law, introducing specific grossly unfair mass trial learned that the penalties for “terrorist” crimes, including the SCC’s court of appeal had upheld their death penalty. The law continued the use of a sentences. In December, some relatives were vague and overly broad definition of acts of told that the sentences were upheld following terrorism, allowing it to be used as a tool to the Supreme Court’s review, leaving the men further suppress freedom of expression and STRICTLYat risk of imminent execution. human rights defenders. The SCC continued to try Shi’a activists for The authorities continued to arrest, their alleged participation in protests in 2011 prosecute and sentence human rights and 2012. TheUNTIL death sentence continued to defenders on vaguely worded charges that be used against political dissenters. At least extensively drew on the Counter-Terrorism THURSDAY 318 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Law of February 2014. For instance, all 11 prosecuted and sentenced on the basis of founding members of ACPRA, which the laws enacted two years after their arrest, authorities closed down in 2013, were contrary to international law. sentenced to prison terms. In September, the authorities carried out a In September Abdulaziz al-Shubaily, a wave of arrests detaining more than 20 human rights defender and founding prominent religious figures, writers, member ACPRA, was detained to begin journalists and academics. serving his sentence of eight years’ In November, the authorities detained imprisonment to be followed by an eight-year hundreds of current and former officials and travel ban and a ban from writing on social businessmen without disclosing details about media, after his sentence was upheld by the any charges that had been brought against court of appeal. He was convicted of, among them. Some were later freed, reportedly after other charges, “insulting the integrity of the making financial settlements. judicial system and the judges” and “violating Article 6 of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law” by TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT “inciting public opinion against the rulers of Torture and other ill-treatmentGMT of detainees 2018 this country and signing statements that were remained common and widespread. Courts published online that call on people to continued to convict people and uphold demonstrate”. death sentences on the basis of contested In early January, computer engineer and pre-trial “confessions”. Security officials human rights activist Essam Koshak was continued to torture and otherwise ill-treat summoned for interrogation and repeatedly detainees with complete impunity. questioned about his Twitter account. On 21 In July, the families of 14 men sentenced to August his trial began before the SCC. He death for protest-related charges learned by faced several charges related to his online telephone05:01 that their relatives’ sentences had activism. been upheld. Court documents showed that On 21 August, human rights defender Issa the 14/ men were subjected to prolonged pre- al-Nukheifi’s trial began before the SCC. He trial detention and that they reported having faced several charges relating to his Twitter been tortured and ill-treated during posts. He had been arrested on 18 interrogation in order to extract “confessions” December 2016 and remained in detention ETfrom them. In sentencing, the SCC appeared in Mecca General Prison atEMBARGOED the end of 2017. to have relied mostlyFEBRUARY on the “confessions” for evidence against the men and failed to ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS investigate their allegations of torture. Security authorities continued to carry out arbitrary arrests and detentions without WOMEN’S22 RIGHTS charge or trial for prolonged periods without Women and girls continued to face referrals to a competent court, in breach of discrimination in law and practice, despite the Code of Criminal Procedures. Detainees the government’s promised reforms. Women were frequently held incommunicado00:01 during were required to have permission from a interrogation and denied access to lawyers, in male guardian – their father, husband, violation of international fair trial standards. In brother or son – to enrol in higher education, February, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary seek employment, travel or marry. They also Detention found that Ali al-Nimr, Abdullah al- remained inadequately protected against Zaher and Dawood al-Marhoon, three young sexual and other forms of violence. STRICTLYmen arrested on protest-related charges and In April, King Salman issued a royal decree at risk of imminent execution, were detained calling on government entities to refrain from arbitrarily. The Working Group stated that the requesting the authorization of a male men had beenUNTIL deprived of their liberty guardian for any services unless stipulated in without any legal basis, as they were the regulations. The decree also ordered THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 319 government entities to review their existing regularize their status or leave the country regulations and to prepare a list of without penalties. procedures that would require a guardian’s permission. The decree could improve DEATH PENALTY women’s freedom to control their own lives; Courts continued to impose death sentences however, it had not been implemented by the for a range of crimes, including drug offences end of the year. The same month, Saudi or for conduct that under international Arabia was elected as a member of the UN standards should not be criminalized, such Commission on the Status of Women. as “sorcery” and “adultery”. Many In September, the King issued another royal defendants were sentenced to death after decree allowing women to drive, due to enter unfair trials by courts that convicted them into force after 23 June 2018. The decree without adequately investigating allegations of stated that it would be implemented coerced “confessions”, including under according to “established legal regulations”, torture. The authorities routinely failed to without providing clarification, which raised inform families of their relatives’ imminent questions about how it would be execution, or failed to informGMT them 2018 implemented in practice. Following this immediately after executions had been announcement, women’s rights activists who carried out. had campaigned against the driving ban On 11 July, father-of-two Yussuf Ali al- reported receiving telephone calls warning Mushaikhass was executed along with three them against publicly commenting on the other men for terror-related offences in development or risk facing interrogations. connection with anti-government protests in Maryam al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old activist who the Eastern Province between 2011 and had actively participated in the campaign to 2012. His family only found out about the end the male guardianship system, was execution 05:01after it had happened when they arrested and detained in the capital, Riyadh, saw a government announcement on on 19 April after fleeing an abusive home television./ The court appeared to have based environment in al-Qassim. She was the conviction largely on “confessions” which interrogated after her father – also her legal Yussuf al-Mushaikhass told the court had guardian – filed a complaint against her for been obtained under torture and other ill- leaving the family home. On 30 July, she was ETtreatment. released on bail. At the endEMBARGOED of the year her Said al-Sai’ari wasFEBRUARY executed on case was ongoing in court and she was at 13 September. He had been sentenced to risk of being detained again. death by the General Court in Najran in Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent human 2013, although the court concluded that rights defender who had been detained for there was22 insufficient evidence to convict defying the driving ban, was rearrested and him. In passing its verdict, the court relied on detained on 4 June upon arrival at Dammam the sworn statements of the victim’s father, airport. She was questioned about her who believed that Said al-Sai’ari was activism and released four days00:01 later. The responsible for the murder of his son, even conditions of her release remained unclear. though the victim’s father was not present at the crime scene. WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT WORKERS The authorities continued to crack down on STRICTLYmigrant workers with irregular status, arresting, detaining and deporting thousands. In March, the Ministry of Interior launched a campaign calledUNTIL “A Nation without Violations”, giving migrant workers 90 days to THURSDAY 320 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 “public disorder” after they held peaceful SENEGAL demonstrations in Dakar calling for Khalifa Sall’s release. All but one were released the Republic of Senegal same day. Head of state: Macky Sall In July, the security forces used tear gas Head of government: Mahammed Dionne and batons to repress a peaceful demonstration organized by former President The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade. The and of expression were restricted. authorities stopped the protest under a 2011 Conditions of detention remained harsh. decree banning all assemblies in city centre Children were forced into begging on the areas. street. Impunity for human rights violations was not addressed. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Journalists, artists, social media users and UNFAIR TRIALS others who expressed dissent were arbitrarily Khalifa Sall, opposition leader and Mayor of arrested. GMT 2018 Dakar, the capital, was detained on 7 March, On 30 June, journalist Ouleye Mané and on charges including criminal conspiracy, three others were arrested for “publishing forgery and falsification of records, pictures which offended morality” and misappropriation of public funds, fraud and “criminal conspiracy” after sharing money laundering. He was denied bail on photographs of the President on WhatsApp. several occasions. In July, while in detention, They were released on bail on 11 August. he was elected to Parliament. In November, Ami Collé Dieng, a singer, was arrested in the National Assembly lifted his Dakar on 8 August and charged with parliamentary immunity at the Public "offending05:01 the head of state” and "spreading Prosecutor’s request. His lawyers and false news", after she sent an audio-recording opposition and civil society groups expressed criticizing/ the President on WhatsApp. She concerns that the judiciary showed a lack of was released on bail on 14 August. independence in his case. Seven others were In August, the Public Prosecutor issued a charged in the same case, five of whom formal warning to anyone posting “offensive” remained, along with Khalifa Sall, in ETcomments or images on the internet, as well detention without trial in RebeussEMBARGOED prison in as to site administrators, FEBRUARY that they faced Dakar. prosecution for cybercrimes under the Criminal Code. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY The new Press Code, adopted by the The authorities banned peaceful National 22Assembly in June, was vaguely demonstrations and arrested protesters, worded and provided for custodial sentences particularly in the run-up to the July for press offences. It allowed the Ministers of elections. Interior and of Communication to ban foreign In June, security forces shot and00:01 injured two newspapers and periodicals, and provided for women, and beat several others, during a prison terms and fines for anyone defying the protest in the city of Touba against the ill- ban. Article 192 empowered administrative treatment of a 14-year-old boy by members authorities to order the seizure of property of a religious association, often described as used to publish or broadcast information, to the “religious police”. The police denied suspend or stop a television or radio STRICTLYopening fire on the protesters but opened an programme, and to provisionally close a investigation into the incident. media outlet on national security or territorial About 20 members of the “collective of integrity grounds, among other things. It 1,000 youth forUNTIL the release of Khalifa Sall” provided for prison sentences for offences were arrested in June and November for including “offending” the head of state, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 321 defamation, insults, the transmission or IMPUNITY distribution of images contrary to morality, In April the UN Committee on Enforced and spreading false news. It criminalized Disappearances issued its concluding various techniques used by whistleblowers, observations on Senegal. It recommended for which prison terms would be imposed. that criminal legislation and investigation Article 227 allowed for restriction of access to procedures be brought in line with the online content deemed to be “contrary to International Convention for the Protection of morality”, to “degrade honour” or to be All Persons from Enforced Disappearance “patently unlawful”, in certain cases. and that the Senegalese Human Rights Committee be strengthened in line with the DETENTION AND DEATHS IN CUSTODY Principles relating to the Status of National Prison conditions remained harsh and Institutions (Paris Principles). overcrowded. At least four people died in custody, including two who were believed to INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE have hanged themselves. In April, the Extraordinary African Chambers Dozens remained in prolonged pre-trial in Senegal upheld the convictionGMT and 2018 detention on terrorism-related charges. Imam sentence of life imprisonment of former Ndao had been detained for over two years Chadian President Hissène Habré for war on charges including “acts of terrorism” and crimes, crimes against humanity and torture “glorifying terrorism” before being brought to committed in Chad between 1982 and 1990. trial on 27 December. He was denied adequate medical treatment for his deteriorating health. SERBIA

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, Republic of 05:01Serbia, including Kosovo TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Head of state: Aleksandar Vučić (replaced Tomislav The Criminal Code continued to criminalize Nikolić /in May) consensual same-sex sexual relations Head of government: Ana Brnabić (replaced between adults. LGBTI people faced Aleksandar Vučić in June) discrimination, particularly in accessing health services and justice. ETImpunity continued for crimes under EMBARGOEDinternational law.FEBRUARY Slurs by officials and CHILDREN’S RIGHTS media close to the government created a In July, Human Rights Watch reported that toxic environment for transitional justice over 1,000 of the approximately 1,500 activists and independent media. children taken off the streets between July 22 2016 and March 2017 had returned to their BACKGROUND traditional Qur’anic boarding schools. They Mass demonstrations, protesting against were taken out of the schools under a 2016 electoral corruption and media bias, followed government initiative to protect00:01 them from the presidential elections won by the ruling forced begging and other abuses by Qur’anic party in April. Former Serbian military leaders schoolteachers. Official inspections were not released after serving sentences handed conducted in most of these schools, and down by the International Criminal Tribunal many children were forced to beg on the for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) were streets again. Few investigations into or increasingly afforded influential positions. In STRICTLYprosecutions of those responsible for the December, despite a UN Committee against abuses were carried out. Torture ruling against his extradition, Serbia returned a Kurdish activist, Cevdet Ayaz, to UNTIL certain imprisonment in Turkey. THURSDAY 322 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) In November, Ratko Mladić, former office, and messages accusing the NGO of Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, being “foreign mercenaries”. Also in January, was convicted and sentenced to life YIHR activists were physically attacked at a imprisonment by the ICTY for genocide, ruling party meeting where Veselin crimes against humanity and war crimes in Šljivančanin, convicted for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In August, Croatia, was speaking. the Appeal Court acquitted 10 people indicted for concealing Ratko Mladić, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – arrested in Serbia in 2011. JOURNALISTS In May, Snežana Stanojković was elected Investigative journalists were subjected to Chief War Crimes Prosecutor. Only three smear campaigns by ministers and media prosecutions, all resulting in acquittals, were close to the government. The ruling party’s concluded at the Special War Crimes private security staff physically attacked six Chamber. The retrial continued of former journalists reporting on demonstrations held soldiers indicted for war crimes in Kosovo, during the presidential inaugurationGMT on 31 2018 including the first indictment for rape. May. In July, journalists working for the In July, the trial of eight former Bosnian Network for Investigating Crime and Serb special police – accused of killing 1,313 Corruption (KRIK) received death threats, Bosniak civilians near Srebrenica in July and the flat of investigative reporter Dragana 1995 – was halted because the 2016 Pećo was broken into. In September, the indictment had been filed in the absence of a Defence Minister’s political party accused Chief Prosecutor. On appeal, the indictment KRIK editor-in-chief, Stevan Dojčinović, of was reinstated; proceedings started afresh in being a drug addict and paid by foreigners. November. In October, the Appeals Court This followed05:01 KRIK’s investigation into the similarly dismissed charges against five minister’s property. former Bosnian Serb paramilitaries indicted / for the February 1993 abduction of 20 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, people from a train at Štrpci station in BiH TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE and their murder. The appointment of Ana Brnabić, a lesbian, ETas Prime Minister, and her presence at the ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCESEMBARGOEDBelgrade Pride inFEBRUARY the capital in September Relatives of the disappeared were denied was welcomed by some as progress. recognition as civilian victims of war, if their However, the authorities failed to protect missing family member had died outside LGBTI individuals and organizations from Serbia. discrimination,22 threats and physical attacks. In May, relatives of missing Kosovo Serbs In April, the UN Human Rights Committee called on the government to make progress urged Serbia to implement hate crime in recovering their bodies. There was no legislation effectively, and to introduce a progress towards the prosecution00:01 of those procedure for legal gender recognition responsible for the transfer and subsequent compatible with international standards. burial of bodies of Kosovo Albanians in Serbia in 1999. DISCRIMINATION – ROMA Roma families in Belgrade continued to live HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS in informal settlements. They were denied STRICTLYTransitional justice NGOs were attacked by access to social and economic rights, senior government officials, including including health, education, water and Aleksandar Vučić, by media supportive of the sanitation, and were at risk of forced eviction. government andUNTIL on social media. In January, Some 44 of over 100 Roma families forcibly intruders left bags of fake bank notes at the evicted in 2012 were still living in containers THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 323 awaiting resettlement; planned apartments KOSOVO for 22 families were not due to be completed CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW until February 2019; by November, two of the Under 2014 legislation, the competencies of remaining families due to be moved to the EU-led Police and Justice Mission villages north of Belgrade had been (EULEX) for the prosecution of crimes under rehoused. international law were limited, although some Roma continued to face ill-treatment by prosecutions continued. The absence of any police. In April, a Roma couple, who reported agreement on mutual legal assistance that their car had been stolen, were detained between Kosovo and Serbia hampered the by the police for 13 hours, denied access to a prosecution of Serbs suspected of crimes lawyer, severely ill-treated, and threatened under international law during the 1998-99 that their children would be taken to an armed conflicts, including conflict-related orphanage. sexual violence (CRSV). Hundreds of unresolved case files were due REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS to be transferred by June 2018 to Kosovo’s Refugees and migrants were trapped in the Special Prosecution Office.GMT Prosecutors, 2018 country; those trying to enter the EU via NGOs and survivors of CRSV were concerned Hungary and Croatia were repeatedly and that testimonies, known to have been violently returned to Serbia. gathered after the armed conflict by the UN In January, up to 1,800 refugees and Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), had not been migrants were still living in abandoned promptly or adequately investigated. In June, warehouses, often in sub-zero temperatures. former president Atifete Jahjaga was denied By May, they had all been evicted and entry to Serbia, where she was due to present transferred to government-run centres, where a book of testimonies from survivors of CRSV. conditions were inadequate and REPARATION05:01 overcrowded. There were continued Progress was made in implementing obstacles and delays in registering, legislation/ introduced in 2014, which interviewing and providing identification for provided some reparation for survivors of asylum-seekers. By August, out of 151 CRSV. A commission was appointed to asylum applications that were received, two consider applications from survivors, who were accepted and 28 rejected; 121 asylum ETwere due to be able to apply for monthly applications were being processed.EMBARGOEDcompensation paymentsFEBRUARY from January 2018. The EU negotiated an agreement with Other reparation measures did not meet Serbia, enabling the European Border and international standards, failing to provide Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) to operate survivors with free health care or adequate within Serbia. rehabilitation.22 Stigma associated with war- time rape continued to overshadow survivors. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES In May, Serbia adopted 18 May as Little progress was made in locating people Remembrance Day for women 00:01killed by their still missing from the armed conflict and its husbands or partners. In July, women’s aftermath. Of the few remains recovered, the organizations protested at the authorities’ body of a man buried by Albanian villagers, failure to protect two women and one of their who had found him in a river flowing from children, who were killed by their former Kosovo, was exhumed in September. Some husbands in two separate incidents at the 1,658 people were still missing. STRICTLYBelgrade Centre for Social Work. In The Kosovo Specialist Chambers opened in November, Serbia ratified the Istanbul The Hague on 28 June. It had been Convention on preventing and combating established to investigate the alleged violence againstUNTIL women. abduction, torture and murder of Kosovo Serbs and some Kosovo Albanians, THURSDAY 324 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 transferred to Albania by members of the May, the Law on Compensation for Crime Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during and Victims was extended to victims of domestic after the war. In December, MPs failed to violence, trafficking, rape and child sexual revoke the law governing the Specialist abuse. However, few received adequate Chambers, which they considered protection from the authorities. discriminated against the KLA. DETENTION In May, the Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims, authorized to monitor the SIERRA LEONE treatment of the people in detention, was Republic of Sierra Leone refused access to prison hospitals after these Head of state and government: Ernest Bai Koroma had been transferred to the Ministry of Health. Some detainees were held for long Restrictions were imposed on the rights to periods before and during trial; one freedom of expression, of peaceful defendant was detained for over 31 months, assembly and of association. Hundreds of in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code. people died and thousandsGMT were left 2018 The Ministry of Justice failed to provide an homeless following a mudslide. Prison explanation for the death in detention of Astrit conditions fell far below international Dehari, a member of the Vetëvendosje standards. Pregnant girls were excluded opposition party, in November 2016. from school. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION In October, the first Pride took place with FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION government support. Hate crimes Abdul Fatoma of the Campaign for Human investigations were opened after a speaker on Rights and Development International was transgender rights subsequently received arrested in05:01 the capital, Freetown, on 31 serious threats. January after he participated in a radio The Association of Kosovo Journalists discussion/ in which he criticized the reported an increase in attacks, especially on government and Anti-Corruption Commission investigative journalists. for their lack of accountability. He was RIGHT TO HEALTH released on bail on 1 February but his In May, the UN Secretary-General agreed to ETpassport was withheld for 45 days.1 set up a voluntary trust fund,EMBARGOED but refused to Three journalists FEBRUARY from the Salone Times and pay compensation, apologize or accept New Age newspapers were summoned to responsibility – as recommended in 2016 by court on 22 September to respond to various the UNMIK Human Rights Advisory Panel – charges of seditious libel under the Public for the lead poisoning of 138 Roma, Order Act22 1965, after they published stories Egyptians and Ashkali who were relocated by criticizing plans by the National UNMIK to an internally displaced persons Telecommunications Commission to increase camps in northern Kosovo in 1999. The telecommunications prices. Their preliminary Panel found that the right to life,00:01 health and hearing was adjourned twice and they had non-discrimination of the 138 internally not been summoned to appear in court by displaced people had been violated. They the end of the year. had suffered from lead poisoning and other health conditions, including seizures, kidney FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY disease, and memory loss, after they had On 23 March, security forces killed a teenage STRICTLYbeen placed in the camps on land known to boy of around 16 and seriously injured two be contaminated. students when they opened fire on a Njala VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS University student protest in Bo, southern In April, a NationalUNTIL Strategy for Protection region. The students were protesting against from Domestic Violence was launched. In a lecturers’ strike during which time the THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 325 university was closed for several months. people dead and around 3,000 homeless. Police said that the students did not obtain a Most of the victims had been living in permit to protest, and that they burned tyres informal settlements. Poor planning, and a and blocked roads. Seven students were failure to implement relevant legislation or arrested but released without charge after provide adequate housing exacerbated the being detained for two days. The scale of the disaster.2 The authorities Independent Police Complaints Board provided immediate support and temporary launched an investigation into allegations that shelter for survivors but closed these camps police used excessive force. in mid-November. Households were given On the same day, police fired tear gas to cash and other benefits to help them disperse students protesting against the relocate. No public enquiry had been strike in front of the President’s residence in established into the incident by the end of Freetown. Fourteen students were arrested the year. and charged with riotous conduct, and fined In August, the UN Special Rapporteur on and released by the Magistrate Court. Two human rights and hazardous substances and other students were arrested that day at State wastes visited Sierra Leone.GMT He raised 2018 House and charged with conspiracy and concerns about the human rights impact of possession of an offensive weapon. They hazardous substances and waste, and called were released on bail and their case was on the government to adopt and enforce laws ongoing at the end of the year. and policies related to waste reduction and On 21 September, police prevented the labour inspection requirements. Malen Land Owners and Users Association (MALOA) from holding a peaceful assembly CHILDREN’S RIGHTS in Pujeheun town. The gathering had been In October, civil society organizations organized to coincide with a meeting between reiterated 05:01calls on the government to allow MALOA members and the District Security pregnant girls to attend mainstream schools Committee on the International Day against and sit/ exams. Part-time education schemes monoculture tree plantations. The police for pregnant girls, available three days a week blocked the road and prevented them from with a reduced curriculum, ended in July and joining the assembly, but allowed six were due to resume in January 2018. Many members to attend the meeting. ETgirls who had given birth were unable to In October, the District SecurityEMBARGOED Committee return to school dueFEBRUARY to costs such as child denied MALOA permission to hold a meeting care, school fees or other associated costs in Pujeheun on the grounds that the like uniforms. association was not registered in the Chiefdom. The Paramount Chief had refused DETENTION22 to register the group since 2013, even though Prisons remained overcrowded, largely due to they were registered with the Registrar prolonged pre-trial detention periods, and fell General in Freetown. far below international standards. Civil society 00:01 organizations raised concerns about delayed HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS access to health care for inmates; inadequate In February, the Human Rights Defenders food and basic items; poor conditions in Network submitted a draft bill to protect police cells, including inadequate sanitation; human rights defenders to the Attorney and extended detention periods which General’s office. violated detainees’ constitutional rights. STRICTLY In November, civil society organizations ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND called for the decriminalization of petty CULTURAL RIGHTS offences, such as fraudulent conversion On 14 August,UNTIL a mudslide in the Regent (criminalization of debt), and loitering, which community of Freetown left more than 400 were used disproportionately against women THURSDAY 326 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 and marginalized communities. They also contributed to prison overcrowding. SINGAPORE Legislation on these offences was vaguely worded and allowed for arbitrary arrests. Republic of Singapore In May, new bail and sentencing guidelines Head of state: Halimah Yacob (replaced Tony Tan Keng to reduce the use of pre-trial detention were Yam in September) approved by the Rules of Court Committee Head of government: Lee Hsien Loong and became binding on the courts. ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS Amendments to Singapore’s Public Order On 1 June, Mohamed Kamaraimba Act gave authorities greater powers to Manasary, leader of the Alliance Democratic restrict or ban public assemblies. Freedom Party, was arrested on allegations that he was of expression and assembly suffered in possession of a stun gun. He was charged another blow as charges were brought with possession of an offensive weapon and against those who participated in peaceful released on bail on 7 June. On 21 June, the protests. charges were dropped and a new charge was GMT 2018 brought of unlawful possession of small arms FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY under the Arms and Ammunition Act 2012 In April, amendments to the Public Order Act which does not specifically cover stun guns. to impose more regulations on organizers of His bail was revoked and he was detained for public events passed into law. The amended another week before being released on 28 law stipulated that organizers must apply for June. His trial was ongoing at the end of the a permit at least 28 days in advance of an year. He and his lawyers claimed that his event and inform the police of the estimated arrest was politically motivated. size of the gathering. Punishments laid down for breaches05:01 of the regulations included a DEATH PENALTY fine of up to S$20,000 (USD14,297), Death sentences continued to be handed imprisonment/ for up to a year, or both. down. In September, six police officers were Permit applications could be rejected if the sentenced to death by firing squad for gathering was for a political purpose or was conspiracy and robbery with aggravation. attended, organized or funded by foreign ETnationals. 1 LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONALEMBARGOED OR Human rights defendersFEBRUARY were investigated INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS by police for participating in peaceful public On 10 November, the government issued a assemblies. In June, nine activists who held a White Paper in response to the Constitutional silent protest were investigated for assembly Review Committee’s recommendations. It without a22 permit under the Public Order Act. rejected over 100 of the Committee’s 134 In September, 10 activists were investigated recommendations, including abolition of the for holding a peaceful vigil for Prabagaran death penalty, and constitutional provisions to Srivijayan on the eve of his execution in July.2 protect economic, social and cultural00:01 rights In November, activist Jolovan Wham faced and equal rights for women.3 seven charges for his role in several peaceful assemblies over a one year period, including the silent protest and vigil for 1. Sierra Leone: Anti-corruption activist’s detention an attempt to stifle 3 freedom of expression (News story, 1 February) Prabagaran Srivijayan. 2. Sierra Leone: Housing and environmental failures behind shocking STRICTLYscale of mudslide deaths (News story , 18 August) FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 3. Sierra Leone: Government rejection of important constitutional review In August, lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam was recommendations a missed opportunity to strengthen human rights fined S$7,000 (USD5,122) for contempt of protection (News storyUNTIL, 6 December) court after posting a poem about the execution of his client, Muhammed Ridzuan THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 327 Mohd Ali. Contempt of court proceedings were initiated against US-based academic Li SLOVAKIA Shengwu for a Facebook post suggesting Singapore’s courts were not independent. In Slovak Republic September, artist and activist Seelan Palay Head of state: Andrej Kiska was arrested under the Public Order Act for Head of government: Robert Fico performing a political art piece outside Parliament. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rejected Slovakia’s complaint DEATH PENALTY against mandatory refugee relocation Execution by hanging continued to be carried quotas. The discrimination of Roma out for murder and drug trafficking. On 14 remained widespread, and the European July, Malaysian national Prabagaran Commission continued an infringement Srivijayan was executed despite an appeal procedure against Slovakia for pending on his case in Malaysia.4 discrimination against Roma pupils in schools. GMT 2018 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE DISCRIMINATION – ROMA LGBTI people continued to suffer POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES discrimination. In July, organizers were In January, a new crime prevention strategy required by authorities to conduct identity was adopted aimed at strengthening policing checks at the annual Pink Dot LGBTI event. in Roma settlements; it triggered concern by Foreigners were officially banned from taking NGOs over ethnic profiling and part.5 discrimination. In September, the European Roma Rights05:01 Centre filed a civil complaint WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT against the Ministry of Interior for the breach WORKERS of anti-discrimination/ law for enhanced Housing conditions for foreign workers were policing in Roma settlements. criticized by NGOs and at least one In March, four Roma who had alleged the construction firm was fined for housing excessive use of force by police in April 2015 workers in unhygienic conditions. ETin the village of Vrbnica filed a complaint with EMBARGOEDthe Constitutional FEBRUARY Court with the support of COUNTER-TERRORISM AND SECURITY the NGO Centre for Civil and Human Rights. Arrests continued under the Internal Security The Department of Control and Inspection Act, which allows detention without charge or Service (SKIS) had pressed charges against trial for indefinitely renewable two-year the chief 22of the police operation in December periods. 2016, but failed to hold the individual police officers who had participated in the action to account. The complaint remained pending at 1. Singapore: Authorities given broad new powers to police protests (News story, 4 April) 00:01 the end of the year. 2. Singapore: Investigation into peaceful assembly is the latest effort to In May, the European Roma Rights Centre intimidate human rights defenders (ASA 36/7076/2017) published a video of police officers beating 3. Singapore: Activist faces seven charges for peaceful protest (ASA Roma residents with batons during a police 36/7516/2017) operation in the village of Zborov on 16 April. 4. Singapore: Malaysian man hanged in hurried, secretive manner (ASA The residents did not appear to resist or STRICTLY36/6740/2017) engage in violence. In May, the police 5. Singapore: Restrictions to LGBT gathering another attempt to president stated that a number of the suppress activism (ASA 36/6386/2017) operation’s aspects seemed inappropriate. In UNTIL July, the Ministry of Interior opened an investigation into the case. THURSDAY 328 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In May and August, the police opened schools. This potentially positive move was investigations targeting six victims of alleged undermined by the authorities failing to excessive use of force by the police in the provide sufficient support for Roma pupils, Roma settlement in the village of Moldava notably transport costs. In March, some non- nad Bodvou in June 2013. The police Roma parents at one of the schools protested accused the victims of having committed the against the transfer of Roma children to the criminal offence of falsely accusing the police school. of wrongdoing. In May, the District Court in Košice again REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS acquitted the police officers accused of the In September, the CJEU rejected the ill-treatment of six Roma boys at a police application submitted in 2015 by Slovakia station in 2009. The Court held that there and Hungary against the mandatory was insufficient evidence. The Prosecutor relocation scheme which aimed to relocate appealed against the decision. refugees from EU member states such as RIGHT TO EDUCATION Greece and Italy. The CJEU held that the EU The infringement proceeding launched in institutions can adopt the provisionalGMT 2018 2015 by the European Commission against measures necessary to respond effectively Slovakia for the systemic discrimination and and swiftly to an emergency situation segregation of Roma children in education characterized by a sudden inflow of remained open. In March, the Minister of displaced persons. By the end of 2017, Education stated that complex reform plans Slovakia had accepted only 16 asylum- were under way, but it was unclear what seekers of the 902 that it was assigned. these consisted of. The 2016 amendments to the School Act had limited impact since 1. Slovakia: A lesson in discrimination − segregation of Romani 1 entering into force. They failed to address children in primary05:01 education (EUR 72/5640/2017) the systemic over-representation of Roma children in special schools and classes for / children with mild disabilities. Mainstream primary schools lacked the human and SLOVENIA financial resources to tackle the segregation Republic of Slovenia of Roma pupils. ETHead of state: Borut Pahor In February, the NGOs eduRomaEMBARGOED and Head of government: FEBRUARY Miro Cerar European Roma Rights Centre criticized the results of the Ministry of Education’s 2016 Amendments to the Aliens Act undermined funding reforms for schools educating the rights of asylum-seekers. There was no students from socially disadvantaged progress 22in addressing the long-standing backgrounds. The responsibility for human rights violations against those known classifying students as having a “social as the “erased”. Roma continued facing disadvantage” was given to psychologists widespread discrimination and social rather than social services. There00:01 were cases exclusion, particularly regarding the right to of misclassifications of students and housing. consequently insufficient resources were allocated to schools. The Ministry temporarily REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS suspended the measure, and at the end of In January, the National Assembly adopted the year, pupils were assessed on the basis of amendments to the Aliens Act allowing STRICTLYtheir parents’ situation. special measures to be triggered after threats In September, following the 2016 closure of to public order and national security occur. the ethnically segregated Primary School Under these measures, Slovenia would be Hollého StreetUNTIL in the town of Žilina, Roma able to deny entry to people arriving at its pupils were transferred to a number of other borders and automatically expel migrants and THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 329 refugees who enter irregularly without THE ‘ERASED’ assessing their asylum claims. Such Long-standing human rights violations measures had not been invoked by the end continued to persist against the “erased”, an of the year. estimated 25,000 former permanent In July, the Court of Justice of the European residents of Slovenia mostly originating from Union ruled that two Afghan families and a other former Yugoslav republics. They were Syrian national who had sought asylum could removed from the official registry following be deported back from Austria and Slovenia the country’s independence. The authorities respectively to Croatia, the first EU country failed to offer new options to the remaining they had entered. The ruling upheld the “erased” in terms of restoring their legal requirement of the so-called 2013 Dublin status and related rights since the expiry of regulation which imposes that refugees seek the Legal Status Act in 2013. In September asylum in the first country they reach, even in and November, the European Court of exceptional circumstances. Slovenia’s Human Rights ruled as inadmissible Ministry of Interior stated its intention to complaints by some of those whose deport the Syrian asylum-seeker referred to applications for restoring legalGMT status had 2018 in the ruling; he had not been deported by been rejected under the Legal Status Act the end of the year. Refugees struggled to provisions. support themselves as a consequence of the 2016 amendments to the International ROMA Protection Act. The amendments ended the Roma continued to face widespread short-term financial assistance designed to discrimination and social exclusion. Many help refugees bridge the gap before they were living in segregated settlements in received social support, leaving many of inadequate housing, lacking security of them without funds in the first month after tenure and05:01 access to water, electricity, they were granted international protection. sanitation and public transport. The Slovenia had committed to accept 567 government/ had yet to adopt a asylum-seekers by September 2017 from comprehensive National Roma Strategy as Greece and Italy under the EU relocation recommended by the parliamentary scheme; by the end of the year it had commission for human rights in 2015. In resettled only 232 people. ETFebruary, approximately three quarters of the EMBARGOEDRoma political representation,FEBRUARY led by the DISCRIMINATION Forum of Roma council members, adopted a In September, the National Assembly platform of political demands, including amended the Ombudsman Act to provide it immediate access to basic services and with a broad mandate to combat infrastructure,22 and the strengthening of their discrimination, and to establish a National political participation. Other Roma Centre for Human Rights with capacity for organizations followed suit. In October, they research and education under the held the first Roma-organized public Ombudsman’s Office. Alongside00:01 the Advocate demonstrations echoing similar demands. for Equality, an independent anti- discrimination body established in 2016, these steps were welcomed by civil society. However, human rights organizations warned that the anti-discrimination framework as a STRICTLYwhole still lacked monitoring, policy-making and executive powers as well as adequate resources to beUNTIL fully effective. THURSDAY 330 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY SOMALIA Soon after he took office, President Mohamed declared that reform of the Federal Republic of Somalia security forces and the defeat of al-Shabaab Head of state: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (replaced would be among his main priorities. Attacks Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in February) on civilians by al-Shabaab intensified over the Head of government: Hassan Ali Khayre (replaced year; the most serious took place at a hotel in Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke in March) Mogadishu, the capital, on 14 October in Head of Somaliland Republic: Muse Bihi Abdi (replaced which, according to the government, over Ahmed Mohamed Mahamoud Silanyo in November) 512 people were killed. According to media reports, the US Drought led to mass displacement and government made secret changes to its rules emergency levels of food insecurity. Up to on the use of lethal force in counter-terror three civilians were reported to have been operations, and included Somalia as one of killed in US air and drone strikes. Kenya its designated areas for “active hostilities”. continued its voluntary repatriation scheme This effectively meant thatGMT US forces could 2018 for Somalis from Dadaab refugee camp and target those thought to be al-Shabaab fighters stopped registering new arrivals from wherever they were located, regardless of Somalia. The armed group al-Shabaab and whether they posed an imminent threat to the authorities severely restricted journalists life, and without obtaining high-level in their work. While women made small authorization. According to the Bureau of strides in the political sphere, sexual and Investigative Journalism, a UK-based NGO, gender-based violence remained prevalent. up to three civilians were killed in 31 US air strikes and strikes by remotely piloted BACKGROUND vehicles (drones)05:01 during the year. The Somali Parliament, which represented all regions of Somalia, including Somaliland and REFUGEES’/ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Puntland, elected Mohamed Abdullahi On 9 February, the High Court in Kenya Mohamed (also known as Farmajo) President declared that the Kenyan government’s 2016 in February. In February, President Mohamed directive to close Dadaab refugee camp in appointed Hassan Ali Khayre as Prime ETGarissa County was unconstitutional and in Minister. Some presidentialEMBARGOED candidates were violation of Kenya’sFEBRUARY obligations under accused of using millions of US dollars of international and national law (see Kenya campaign finances to bribe MPs to vote for entry). The majority of refugees housed at the them. MPs were elected according to a camp were from Somalia. From January to system that allowed male elders belonging to November22 2017, according to UNHCR, the the four main clans one vote per person while UN refugee agency, approximately 32,500 male elders from minority clans were allowed Somali refugees were voluntarily repatriated half a vote. This effectively denied young from Kenya to Kismayo, Baidoa, Mogadishu, people, women and men from 00:01minority clans Luuq, and Afmadow in south- central equal voting rights. Elections also took place Somalia under the Tripartite Agreement in Somaliland territory, where Muse Bihi Abdi between Kenya, Somalia and UNHCR. By the was elected President. end of the year, there were 229,592 Somalis The peacekeeping forces AMISOM (AU registered as refugees in Dadaab refugee Mission in Somalia) withdrew from key camp. However, Kenya continued not to STRICTLYlocations in Somalia throughout the year, register new arrivals from Somalia. after which al-Shabaab regained control over towns in conflict areas, including in El Buur, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Bardere and Lego,UNTIL located in southern and Al-Shabaab prohibited journalists from central Somalia. operating in areas under its control. The THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 331 group continued to detain, threaten and emergency levels in the southern and central harass media workers throughout the regions, primarily among displaced country. populations, but also among those directly In July, the Somali Cabinet passed a affected by the protracted conflict. In August, repressive law that established a statutory the UN Office for the Coordination of regulatory body − whose members were Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that appointed by the Minister of Information and 388,000 children were malnourished and which oversaw the content of print and 87,000 were in need of life-saving support. broadcast media. The law established a blanket prohibition on news deemed to be false and on the publication of “propaganda” without providing a clear definition of those SOUTH AFRICA terms. The legislation was vaguely worded Republic of South Africa and included broad restrictions on Head of state and government : Jacob G. Zuma journalists; and gave the authorities wide discretion to prosecute media workers. Profound inequalities continuedGMT to 2018 The Somaliland Journalist Association said undermine economic, social and cultural that more than 30 journalists were arrested rights, including in access to sexual and and detained by authorities in Somaliland for reproductive health services. Failures in the criticizing the government. criminal justice system obstructed access to justice for victims of hate crimes and WOMEN’S RIGHTS gender-based violence. Investigations into The Somali election quota system reserved police conduct following excessive use of 30% of seats for women. As a result, the level force during protests were ongoing. of women’s representation improved and 05:01 amounted to 24% of the lower house and BACKGROUND 22% of the upper house. Protests/ against corruption were widespread. Sexual and gender-based violence Political tension was heightened after continued to be widespread although it was President Zuma made substantial changes to under-reported. The Integrated Management members of government in March, including System of Somalia, a government agency, ETthe dismissal of Finance Minister Pravin documented at least 271 EMBARGOEDand 312 cases of Gordhan. FEBRUARY gender-based violence against displaced Despite increased public spending on women and girls in Somaliland and Puntland health, education and essential services, the respectively, and at least 400 cases in south- national statistical service reported that the central Somalia. The drought led to more country was22 unable to reduce poverty and women being separated from their families, inequality. which put them at greater risk of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly because EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE they were perceived as lacking 00:01“male The Independent Police Investigative protection”. Directorate reported an increase in abuse of power by the police, including 394 deaths as ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL a result of police action and 302 deaths in RIGHTS police custody in 2016-2017, both figures There was an unprecedented drought that higher than for the previous year. It also STRICTLYled to a significant increase in the numbers of reported 173 cases of torture, 112 of rape by internally displaced people, estimated to be police officers – including 35 cases 943,000 by the end of the year. Over 3 committed by officers on duty – and 3,827 of million peopleUNTIL experienced emergency levels assault by police. At the end of the year, it of food insecurity. Malnutrition reached concluded its investigation into the fatal THURSDAY 332 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 shooting by police officers of journalist 2012 had resulted in convictions, citing a Godknows Nare in April in Johannesburg, lack of resources and training for police and handed the case to the Director of Public officers, as well as failures to investigate the Prosecution. Godknows Nare was reported to crimes and gather forensic evidence. have been shot at by the officers, who In May, the Department of Justice published thought he had stolen a car, after he exited the South African Law Reform Commission his car with his arms raised. report on adult prostitution. The Commission On 23 May, 17-year-old Leonaldo Peterson recommended that the sale and purchase of was shot at his home by police officers with a sex remain criminalized, contradicting the rubber bullet at close range in Gauteng testimonies and recommendations of sex province, during a protest in the workers and activists, the South African neighbourhood. His wounded hand required Commission for Gender Equality, as well as multiple surgeries. human rights and public health experts. In On 27 May, Samuel Mabunda, a migrant June, Zwelethu Mthethwa was sentenced to from Mozambique, died as a result of injuries 18 years’ imprisonment for the murder of sex following beatings by the “Red Ants”, a worker Nokuphila Kumalo GMTin 2013. The case 2018 private security company hired by the police highlighted the delays faced by sex workers to carry out evictions in Ivory Park, in accessing justice. Johannesburg. A police investigation into the case was ongoing at the end of the year. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS On 12 September, 14-year-old Ona Dubula Gross inequalities in women’s access to was shot at by police officers at close range sexual and reproductive health services with rubber bullets in his face and ribs at an persisted, with less than 7% of the country’s informal settlement in Hout Bay town, 3,880 health facilities offering abortion Western Cape province, during protests over services. The05:01 government failed to address fishing licences; the injuries left him with health care professionals’ refusal to provide speaking difficulties. A Directorate abortion/ services as well as information on investigation into the incident was ongoing at the location of those services, contrary to the end of the year. international human rights standards. Lack of access to information on sexual and UNLAWFUL KILLINGS ETreproductive health and rights – including The Department of PoliceEMBARGOED said that killings of how and where toFEBRUARY access legal abortion local councillors persisted, as did murders services – and inequalities in access to those and attempted murders at Durban’s services for marginalized groups of women Glebelands hostel complex – leading to and girls exacerbated existing barriers to safe several arrests in relation to the crimes. A abortion.22 Commission of Inquiry into the root causes of political killings in KwaZulu-Natal province RIGHT TO HEALTH commenced its hearings in March and was Official statistics stated that almost one in extended until March 2018. 00:01 three boys and one in four girls suffered from stunting. GENDER-RELATED VIOLENCE Despite health policies aimed at reducing Violence against women and girls, including the spread of HIV, incidence rates remained gender-related killings, remained widespread. particularly high among women and girls, Over 39,000 cases of rape were reported to with an estimated 2,000 new HIV infections STRICTLYthe police between April 2016 and March occurring every week among young women 2017, although such cases were believed to and girls aged 15 to 24. be grossly under-reported. In September, the Reporting to Parliament in September, the Medical ResearchUNTIL Council stated that only Health Minster highlighted that the 8.6% of rape cases opened by the police in politicization of provincial health departments THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 333 and poor management had resulted in “a FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION shortage of medical staff, medicines, On 7 July, the South Gauteng High Court equipment and other medical necessities” in granted the South African National Editors’ public health facilities. The chairperson of the Forum (SANEF) and 11 journalists an Portfolio Committee on Public Service and interdict against Black First Land First (BLF), Administration was reported to have received a political party, and Andile Mngxitama, its death threats in March, following her leader, after journalists covering allegations of investigation into the poor performance of corruption involving President Zuma and the health facilities in Mpumalanga province. In Indian-born Gupta family reported threats June, the South African Human Rights and harassment. On 17 July, Micah Reddy, a Commission (SAHRC) found that the journalist at the amaBhungane Centre for Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal Investigative Journalism, said that he was province had violated cancer patients’ rights harassed by a group of BLF supporters and to life, health and human dignity, due to the members, following his participation in a lack of oncologists and functional equipment panel discussion with Andile Mngxitama at for screening and treating patients. the South African BroadcastingGMT Corporation. 2018 In October, an arbitration hearing began in On 27 July, amaBhungane organized a relation to the deaths of over 118 patients public event in Johannesburg to discuss the with mental illnesses who died after the “GuptaLeaks” emails, which exposed alleged Department of Health in Gauteng province corruption by the political elite. The meeting moved over 1,300 patients from the Life was disrupted by BLF members and a group Esidimeni health care facility to facilities of about 20 people believed to be from the managed by NGOs, because of resource MK Inkululeko Foundation, a veterans’ constraints. However, the SAHRC association. On 11 August, the South emphasized that “[all] of the 27 NGOs where Gauteng High05:01 Court found that BLF the patients were relocated were unlicensed, and Andile Mngxitama were in contempt of under-resourced and had no capacity to take the 7 July/ court order, following an on mentally ill people”. In February, the application by journalists Sam Sole, Ferial Health Ombudsman found that the relocation Haffajee and the SANEF. The Court also breached the rights of the patients and their ordered that the interdict be extended to families, including their rights to life and to ETcover all journalists. On 29 September, BLF human dignity. EMBARGOEDand Andile MngxitamaFEBRUARY launched an appeal, which SANEF and the journalists opposed. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE On 6 July, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber found RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, that South Africa should have executed the TRANSGENDER22 AND INTERSEX PEOPLE arrest warrant against Sudanese President LGBTI people continued to face harassment, Omar Al-Bashir when he visited the country discrimination and violence. in June 2015. South Africa’s Supreme Court On 4 April, the burned body of Matiisetso of Appeal ruled in March 201600:01 that the Alleta Smous, a lesbian woman, was government’s failure to arrest President Al- discovered in Kroonstad, Free State province. Bashir was unlawful.1 An eyewitness said she was raped, stabbed Following the conclusion of South Africa’s in the chest, and then burned to death. domestic legal processes, the Pre-Trial Three suspects were arrested on 5 April and Chamber convened a hearing in April 2017. released later that month due to insufficient STRICTLYA draft bill to repeal the Rome Statute evidence against them. An investigation into Domestication Act was introduced to the murder was ongoing at the end of the Parliament in early December, signalling the year. government’s UNTILintention to pursue its decision On 15 May, the body of Lerato Moloi, a to leave the ICC. lesbian woman, was found in a field in THURSDAY 334 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Soweto, Gauteng province. The postmortem while their applications were processed, examination showed that she had been raped and also limit their rights to work and and stabbed in the neck. Two suspects were movement while awaiting a decision on their arrested in May. The National Prosecuting application. It also proposed the Authority referred the case to the establishment of a Border Management Johannesburg High Court. Authority – a centralized border control body On 11 August, the Potchefstroom High – which would include police and customs. Court sentenced David Shomolekae to life The related Border Management Authority imprisonment for strangling Lesley Makousa, Bill was passed by the National Assembly on a 16-year-old gay student, to death in August 8 June and was before the National Council 2016. David Shomolekae was found guilty of of Provinces for consideration. murder, robbery and housebreaking. In July, the SAHRC strongly condemned The Prevention and Combating of Hate comments made by the Deputy Police Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, which included Minister as “irresponsible” and homophobic hate crimes, that was “xenophobic”, after he said that most foreign introduced in October 2016 had yet to be nationals in JohannesburgGMT were engaged in 2018 approved by members of the government various crimes. before going to the National Assembly. On 29 September, the Supreme Court of On 6 September, the Western Cape High Appeal declared the 2012 decision by the Court ruled that the refusal by the Department of Home Affairs to close the Department of Home Affairs to allow Cape Town Refugee Reception Office transgender people who had transitioned unlawful and ordered it to reopen the Office after they got married to change the gender by March 2018. markers on their official documents infringed On 30 November, the Refugee Amendment couples’ rights to equality and human dignity. Bill was passed05:01 by the National Assembly. It The Department of Home Affairs previously amended the Refugees Act 130 of 1998 and required transgender couples to get divorced restricts/ refugees’ right to seek and enjoy before their gender markers could be asylum from persecution. In December, changed on their official documents. President Zuma assented to the Refugee Amendment Act (11 of 2017). REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS ET Human rights violations and discrimination FEBRUARY EMBARGOED1. ICC rules against South Africa on shameful failure to arrest President against refugees, asylum-seekers and Al-Bashir (News story, 6 July) migrants continued. On 29 June, the Constitutional Court declared section 34(1)(b) and (d) of the 22 Immigration Act 13 of 2002 – including the SOUTH SUDAN provision to hold an “illegal foreigner” in Republic of South Sudan custody for up to 120 days without a court Head of state and government: Salva Kiir Mayardit hearing – inconsistent with sections00:01 12(1) and 35(2)(d) of the Constitution and The armed conflict expanded and new therefore invalid. The declaration was armed opposition groups emerged. Parties however suspended for two years to enable to the conflict continued to commit crimes Parliament to pass corrective legislation. under international law and human rights In July, the Department of Home Affairs violations and abuses with impunity. STRICTLYpublished a white paper on international Fighting between government and migration intended to update migration opposition forces had a devastating policy. The white paper proposed the creation humanitarian impact on the civilian of detention facilitiesUNTIL at South Africa’s population. Conflict and hunger displaced borders, which would house asylum-seekers hundreds of thousands of people. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 335 BACKGROUND forces on the west bank of the White Nile, The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/ throughout the year. They indiscriminately Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), the main attacked civilian towns and villages, including opposition group, remained split between Wau Shilluk, Lul, Fashoda, Kodok and those loyal to Riek Machar and those loyal to Aburoc, and were responsible for deliberate Taban Deng Gai. Taban Deng Gai had killings of civilians, looting of property, and replaced Riek Machar as first Vice-President the displacement of tens of thousands of in July 2016 after fighting between civilians.1 government and opposition forces in Juba, Fighting throughout the year in the the capital, forced Riek Machar to flee South Equatoria region also resulted in numerous Sudan. New opposition groups emerged civilian deaths. Cases of deliberate killings of including the National Salvation Front, led by civilians, sexual violence crimes, looting and General Thomas Cirillo Swaka, former deputy destruction of civilian property in Yei and Kajo chief of general staff who resigned from Keji counties, mostly by government forces, South Sudan military in February 2017. were documented. During the year, the legitimacy and SEXUAL VIOLENCE GMT 2018 relevance of the 2015 Agreement on the Sexual violence continued to be a common Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of feature of the conflict. All sides subjected South Sudan waned due its failure to improve women, girls, men and boys to rape, gang security. In June, the Intergovernmental rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation Authority on Development announced that it including castration, and forced nudity during would convene a high-level forum which attacks on villages, searches of residential would work to restore a permanent ceasefire areas, on roads and at checkpoints, and and the implementation of the Agreement. following abduction or during detention. Between August and November, the Government05:01 forces targeted women and girls Authority consulted with parties to the living in camps under the protection of the Agreement, other opposition groups, and key UN Mission/ in South Sudan (UNMISS) stakeholders including civil society, on the peacekeepers, when they went to buy or forum’s design and its expected outcomes. A search for basic necessities such as food and cessation of hostilities agreement was signed firewood. Survivors of sexual violence had in December but, soon afterwards, renewed ETlittle access to appropriate medical and fighting broke out in differentEMBARGOED parts of the psychological treatmentFEBRUARY because of limited country. availability or because they were unable to reach services. Perpetrators of crimes of INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT sexual violence were rarely held Hostilities between government and accountable.222 opposition forces under Riek Machar, as well LACK OF HUMANITARIAN ACCESS as other armed opposition groups, affected The hostile environment in which most of the country. Parties to the conflict humanitarian workers operated significantly committed violations and abuses00:01 of undermined their ability to address food, international human rights and humanitarian health care, education and emergency law, including targeted killings of civilians shelter needs. Parties to the conflict regularly often based on ethnicity or perceived political obstructed humanitarian access by allegiance; systematic looting and destruction threatening, harassing, detaining or of civilian property; abductions; and crimes of committing acts of violence against STRICTLYsexual violence. humanitarian workers; at least 25 aid workers In Upper Nile, for example, government were killed during the year, according to the forces, aided by ethnic Dinka Padang UN Office for the Coordination of militias, carriedUNTIL out repeated attacks on Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). On numerous territory held by opposition-aligned Shilluk occasions fighting between armed groups THURSDAY 336 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 forced humanitarian workers to relocate from Ethiopia, Uganda (see Uganda entry) and areas of operation and suspend services. Kenya (see Kenya entry), with approximately Humanitarian supplies were looted by parties 1 million refugees in Uganda. to the conflict, including, according to OCHA, more than 670 tons of food from ARBITRARY DETENTIONS AND TORTURE humanitarian compounds in June and July. AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT In March, President Kiir announced plans to RIGHT TO FOOD release all political detainees. At least 30 An estimated 4.8 million people, almost half detainees were released during the year; the population, were severely food insecure however, the National Security Service (NSS) as a result of obstructions to humanitarian and the Military Intelligence Directorate access, armed conflict, mass displacement, continued to conduct arbitrary arrests and and the economic crisis. In February, hold perceived government opponents in localized famine was declared in the Leer prolonged detention without charge or trial. and Mayendit counties in Unity state. By Individuals were denied the right to have their June, the situation had improved following a detention reviewed by a courtGMT and were often 2018 large-scale humanitarian response. subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. In the Equatoria region, formerly rich in Detention conditions were harsh; detainees food, government and opposition forces were regularly denied access to their family imposed restrictions on civilian access to members, adequate food and clean water. food as a way to control their movement or The conditions, including inadequate medical force them from their homes and land.3 care, contributed to the deaths of some Those who remained faced acute food detainees. shortages, and malnutrition levels increased. The NSS released 21 detainees without Across the country, displacement and the charge from05:01 prolonged arbitrary detention in threat of violence hampered agriculture and a prison in the NSS headquarters compound prevented civilians from tending livestock or in the /Jebel neighbourhood of Juba; one was receiving sustained and adequate food aid. released in January, two in March, one in The deteriorating economic situation also April, two in May, and 15 in August. Most exacerbated the food crisis. Government had been detained for between two and three revenues fell due to low oil prices and oil ETyears. At least five others remained in production. The depreciationEMBARGOED of local detention in the compound,FEBRUARY accused of currency and the shortage of imported communicating with or supporting the commodities caused food prices to soar. The opposition. A sixth man, James Gatdet, government repeatedly failed to pay former SPLM/A-IO spokesperson, detained in employees their salaries. the same22 facility, was charged with inciting violence, “treason” and “publishing or REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND communicating false statements prejudicial INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE to Southern Sudan”. He was detained after More than 3.9 million people −00:01 approximately he was forcibly returned from Kenya to South one third of the population − had been Sudan in November 2016.4 displaced since the beginning of the conflict Mike Tyson, Alison Mogga Tadeo, Richard in December 2013; 1.9 million of them were Otti, and Andria Baambe, also held without internally displaced, including over 200,000 charge for alleged links with the opposition, who lived on UN bases under the protection died in the same facility between February STRICTLYof UNMISS peacekeepers. and July as a result of harsh conditions of More than 640,000 fled the country during detention and inadequate access to medical the year, bringing the total number of care. They had been held since 2014. refugees fromUNTIL South Sudan to over 2 million. The government failed to investigate the use Most of them were hosted by neighbouring of arbitrary detention and related violations by THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 337 government security agencies, or to hold said that some crimes carried out by those suspected of criminal responsibility government soldiers against civilians were accountable, or provide victims with prosecuted before military courts. This reparation, such as financial compensation happened despite the provision under South and rehabilitation. Sudan’s SPLA Act requiring that if military personnel commit an offence against a ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES civilian, the civil court should assume The NSS and the Military Intelligence jurisdiction over the offence. In May, for Directorate subjected people believed to be example, the trial of 12 government soldiers opponents of the government to enforced accused of rape, murder and looting at the disappearance. Terrain hotel in Juba in 2016 commenced Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Idri, both before a special military tribunal. vocal critics of the government, went missing Three transitional justice bodies, provided on 23 and 24 January respectively in Nairobi, for in the Agreement on the Resolution of the Kenya. They were forcibly returned to South Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan in Sudan and taken to the prison facility at the 2015, had not been establishedGMT by the end of 2018 NSS headquarters in Juba. They were the year. In July, the AU Commission and the reported to have been removed from this government agreed on the content of a facility on 27 January. Their fate and statute and a memorandum of understanding whereabouts remain unknown.5 for the establishment of one of the bodies, the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, although FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION they were not formally approved or adopted. Journalists, human rights defenders, political A technical committee for the Commission for opposition members and others who spoke Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing began out about the conflict were subjected to consultations05:01 on the Commission’s design harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and legislative framework. and torture and other ill-treatment. This led to South/ Sudan’s legislative framework failed to their self-censorship and a political define or criminalize torture, enforced environment in which people could not work disappearance, or crimes against humanity. or speak freely. On 10 July, the NSS arrested Adil Faris ETLEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Mayat, director of the SouthEMBARGOED Sudan INSTITUTIONAL FEBRUARY DEVELOPMENTS Broadcasting Corporation, after he failed to The General Assembly of Justices and broadcast President Kiir’s Independence Day Judges went on strike in April, demanding speech. He was held without charge in a salary increases, improved working facility at the NSS headquarters in Juba for conditions,22 and the Chief Justice’s resignation nine days and subsequently dismissed from following poor leadership. President Kiir his job. On 17 July, the South Sudan National responded with a decree on 12 July removing Communication Authority blocked the 14 judges from office, and invoking a websites of four news outlets. According00:01 to constitutional provision that allowed for the media, the Information Minister said that judges to be removed for “misconduct”. On the websites had published information that 11 September, the judges ended their strike was “hostile” to the government. on grounds including a pledge from the President that he would deal with their LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY demands and reinstate the dismissed judges. STRICTLYThere were no credible investigations into The judges were not reinstated by the end of crimes under international law and human the year. In November, a Supreme Court rights violations or abuses, or prosecutions of judge resigned, citing lack of judicial those suspectedUNTIL of criminal responsibility in independence. fair trials before civilian courts. The military THURSDAY 338 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In October, the Transitional National others wounded. The armed group Islamic Legislative Assembly voted to ratify the State (IS) claimed responsibility. Six people Protocol to the African Charter on Human believed to be responsible were killed by and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women security forces, and four others were arrested in Africa (Maputo Protocol). and prosecuted for being implicated in the attacks and as members of the group that carried out the attacks. 1. South Sudan: “It was as if my village was swept by a flood”: Mass displacement of the Shilluk population from the West Bank of the On 1 October, the government of Catalonia, White Nile (AFR 65/6538/2017) an autonomous region in the northeast, held 2. “Do not remain silent”: Survivors of sexual violence in South Sudan a referendum on the region’s independence, call for justice and reparations (AFR 65/6469/2017) in defiance of several Constitutional Court 3. South Sudan: “If men are caught, they are killed. If women are rulings. On 17 October, the Constitutional caught, they are raped”: Atrocities in Equatoria Region turn country’s Court declared unconstitutional the regional breadbasket into a killing field (AFR 65/6612/2017) law on which the referendum was based and 4. South Sudan: Several men arbitrarily held in poor conditions (AFR confirmed its precautionary measure which it 65/6747/2017); South Sudan: Fifteen released, five still arbitrarily detained (AFR 65/7144/2017) had adopted on 7 September,GMT aimed at 2018 preventing the referendum. On 27 October, 5. South Sudan: Fate and whereabouts of two men unknown: Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Idri (AFR 65/6298/2017) the pro-independence political groups in the Catalonian regional parliament unilaterally declared the independence of Catalonia. On the same day, the Senate authorized the SPAIN Spanish government to adopt measures pursuant to Article 155 of the Spanish Kingdom of Spain Head of state: King Felipe VI de Borbón Constitution, effectively suspending the Head of government: Mariano Rajoy region’s autonomy.05:01 On 21 December, new regional elections in Catalonia took place. The rights to freedom of expression and The party/ which obtained more votes than peaceful assembly of Catalan independence any other single party was a non- supporters were disproportionally restricted. independence party, but overall the elections Dozens of people were prosecuted for delivered the majority in the regional “glorification of terrorism” and “humiliation ETparliament to the combined pro- of victims” on social media.EMBARGOED Law independence parties.FEBRUARY enforcement officials used excessive force against demonstrators peacefully resisting FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND the enforcement of the High Court of ASSEMBLY Justice of Catalonia's ruling stopping the Following22 the Constitutional Court decision of Catalan independence referendum. Spain 7 September aimed at preventing the relocated fewer asylum-seekers than it had referendum, some authorities pledged to under the EU relocation scheme, disproportionately restricted the rights to and resettled fewer refugees than00:01 it had freedom of expression and peaceful committed to. Thousands of people assembly. Courts in Madrid and Vitoria in the continued to face forced evictions. The Basque country prohibited two public authorities continued to close investigations assemblies aimed at supporting the into crimes under international law referendum. The municipality of Castelldefels committed during the Civil War and the in Catalonia adopted a blanket ban on the STRICTLYFranco regime. use of public spaces for assemblies aimed at supporting or protesting against the BACKGROUND referendum. Two violent attacksUNTIL took place in Catalonia in On 16 October, a High Court judge ordered August, leaving 16 people dead and several the pre-trial detention of Jordi Cuixart and THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 339 Jordi Sánchez, the presidents of two pro- case which was being investigated by the Catalan-independence organizations. They High Court. She appealed, arguing she had were detained and charged with sedition, a stepped back when told to and that her broadly defined offence, in connection with account could be substantiated by footage protests they organized in Barcelona on 20 from security cameras. The footage was not and 21 September to, according to a judge, admitted as evidence, and her appeal was oppose a lawful police operation. In pending at the end of the year. November, the Supreme Court took charge of the proceedings against Jordi Sánchez and TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Jordi Cuixart. The Supreme Court extended In September, the High Court dropped the the investigation against them to the offence request for the extradition from Switzerland of of rebellion. Nekane Txapartegi. The term for enforcing a Dozens of people were prosecuted for December 2009 conviction against her had “glorification of terrorism” and “humiliation of expired. In April, the Special Rapporteur on victims” on social media networks. In many torture had urged the Swiss authorities to instances, authorities pressed criminal oppose the extradition. NekaneGMT Txapartegi 2018 charges against people who had expressed said she was subjected to torture and other opinions that did not constitute incitement to ill-treatment when she was held a terrorism-related offence and fell within the incommunicado for five days in a police permissible forms of expression under station in Madrid in 1999. She had been international human rights law. Twenty people arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related were convicted in the course of the year. In offences and of being an ETA member. March, Cassandra Vera was convicted and Investigations into her torture allegations had given a suspended sentence of one year`s not been conducted thoroughly in the past. imprisonment for “humiliation of victims of In May, the05:01 Constitutional Court declared terrorism”. She had published jokes on admissible an appeal by the government Twitter about ETA´s 1973 killing of Carrero against/ a Basque Parliament law on the Blanco, a Prime Minister under the Franco recognition of and reparation for victims of regime. human rights violations in the Basque In January, the investigating judge Country. dismissed charges of incitement to hatred ET against Alfonso Lázaro deEMBARGOED la Fuente and Raúl EXCESSIVE USEFEBRUARY OF FORCE García Pérez, professional puppeteers who in Law enforcement officials policing protests on February 2016 were subjected to pre-trial 1 October in Catalonia used excessive force detention for five days on charges of against peaceful protesters who were “glorifying terrorism” and incitement to opposing22 a police operation. The police fired hatred. The charges of “glorifying terrorism” blank cartridges and rubber bullets, seriously were dismissed in 2016. injuring one person and causing him to lose Administrative penalties continued to be the sight in one eye. imposed on private individuals,00:01 human rights activists and journalists on the basis of the REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Law on Public Security, which could Spain failed to meet its commitment to constitute unlawful restrictions on the rights relocate 15,888 asylum-seekers under the to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly EU emergency relocation scheme; 1,328 and information. were relocated by the end of the year, of STRICTLYMercé Alcocer, a journalist at Catalunya which 592 were Syrian nationals. Spain also Radio, was fined EUR601 for disobeying a failed to meet its commitment to resettle police order. She crossed an unmarked 1,449 refugees from the Middle East and police line in herUNTIL attempt to interview a North Africa; 1,360 refugees were resettled, witness when she was covering a corruption THURSDAY 340 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 all Syrian nationals, except one refugee from RIGHT TO HOUSING Palestine, by 31 December. Thousands of people were forcibly evicted Between January and December, 25,853 without adequate judicial safeguards or asylum claims were submitted, and 34,655 provision of alternative accommodation by applications were still pending at the end of the state. These included 26,767 rental October. Asylum-seekers continued to face evictions and 16,992 mortgage evictions. delays in receiving decisions on their claims. Public spending on housing continued to For many, the period during which they were decrease, even though the demand for entitled to access government support affordable social housing remained high. pending the outcome of their asylum Single mothers and survivors of gender-based application expired long before the decision violence were particularly affected by the lack was reached. of affordable alternative housing. In July, the According to the EU border agency UN Committee on Economic, Social and FRONTEX, there were 21,663 irregular Cultural Rights upheld a complaint against border crossings via the Western Spain for not having provided an evicted Mediterranean route up to September, more family with alternative housing.GMT 2018 than double the figure for the same period in 2016. IMPUNITY In October, the European Court of Human Spanish authorities continued to close Rights held that the immediate return to investigations into crimes under international Morocco of sub-Saharan migrants who were law committed during the Civil War and the attempting to enter Spanish territory in Melilla Franco regime. They argued that it would not in 2014 amounted to a collective expulsion of be possible to investigate the crimes foreign nationals. reported, such as enforced disappearances and torture,05:01 in view of, among other things, COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY the Amnesty Act and the statute of Judicial authorities continued to use counter- limitations./ The authorities continued to fail to terrorism legislation disproportionately. Three take measures to locate and identify the of the seven people detained and charged remains of victims of enforced with terrorism-related offences for their disappearances and extrajudicial executions, alleged participation in an attack against two ETleaving families and organizations to off-duty civil guards and theirEMBARGOED partners in undertake exhumation FEBRUARY projects without state Alsasua (Navarra) in a pub in October 2016, support. were in pre-trial detention pending a hearing In February, Mexico’s Attorney General’s due in April 2018. Office started an investigation into the so- called “stolen22 babies” case, making Mexico VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN the second country to investigate crimes According to the Ministry of Health, Social under international law committed in Spain Services and Equality, 48 women (and eight during the Civil War and the Franco regime. children) were killed by their partners00:01 or The investigation about the case of a woman former partners. born in Spain in 1968 and handed over to a In September, Parliament approved a plan Mexican family, reportedly after having been to combat gender-based violence, abducted from her family. In September, the encompassing a review of legislation and UN Working Group on Enforced or other measures to meet the obligations Involuntary Disappearances stated that this STRICTLYenshrined in the Istanbul Convention on case constituted a new opportunity for Spain violence against women. to fully co-operate in the investigations carried out by other states into enforced UNTIL disappearances which occurred in Spain. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 341 The 2014 amendments to universal Constitution, and whether economic, social jurisdiction legislation were invoked by the and cultural rights would be included in the Spanish judiciary to not investigate crimes Bill of Rights. under international law, such as enforced disappearances and torture, committed in ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS Syria and Venezuela in 2017 against Spanish The authorities continued to detain Tamils nationals. suspected of links to the LTTE under the PTA, which permitted extended administrative detention and shifted the burden of proof to a detainee alleging torture or other ill- SRI LANKA treatment. During his visit to Sri Lanka in Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka July, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Head of state and government: Maithripala Sirisena promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering Sri Lanka continued to pursue its 2015 terrorism stated that over 100 unconvicted commitments to deliver justice, truth, prisoners (pre- and post-indictment)GMT 2018 reparation and guarantees of non- remained in detention under the PTA, some recurrence for alleged crimes under of whom had been held for over a decade. Sri international law, but progress slowed and Lanka failed to follow through on its 2015 there was evidence of backsliding. commitment to repeal the PTA and replace it Parliament passed an amended Office on with legislation that complied with Missing Persons Act, intended to assist international standards. families of the disappeared seeking missing relatives. The Prevention of Terrorism Act TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT (PTA) was not repealed; it was still used to Reports of05:01 torture and other ill-treatment in arrest and detain suspects. Torture and detention continued. In March, Sri Lanka’s other ill-treatment in police custody human/ rights record was examined under the continued. Threats against religious and UPR process; the Human Rights Commission ethnic minorities and human rights of Sri Lanka said that it had continued to defenders were reported. document widespread incidents of violence ETagainst detainees, including torture and other BACKGROUND EMBARGOEDill-treatment, whichFEBRUARY it described as “routine” Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial and practised throughout the country, mainly executions, torture and other serious human by police. The Special Rapporteur on the rights violations and abuses were committed promotion and protection of human rights with impunity before, during and in the and fundamental22 freedoms while countering aftermath of the armed conflict between terrorism found that 80% of those arrested government forces and the Liberation Tigers under the PTA in late 2016 had complained of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that ended in 2009. of torture and other ill-treatment. Commitments made by Sri Lanka00:01 in 2015 – through its co-sponsorship of UN Human EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE Rights Council resolution 30/1 – to establish Impunity persisted for excessive use of force truth, justice and reparation mechanisms and against protesters. Killings by the army of reforms aimed at non-recurrence of these unarmed demonstrators demanding clean crimes, had not been implemented by the water in August 2013 had yet to be STRICTLYend of the year. Sri Lanka’s constitutional prosecuted. In August, a Criminal reform process, initiated in 2016, also Investigation Department investigator told the faltered as lawmakers differed over issues Gampaha Chief Magistrate that all evidence such as the fateUNTIL of the executive presidency, related to the shootings had been the place of Buddhism in the new “destroyed” by previous investigators. THURSDAY 342 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES the disappeared, continued to report By the end of the year Sri Lanka had not surveillance and harassment by law passed legislation criminalizing enforced enforcement officials. Women human rights disappearance in domestic law, despite defenders in the north and east reported that ratifying the International Convention against interactions with police were often degrading Enforced Disappearance in 2016. A and sexualized. parliamentary debate on a bill criminalizing enforced disappearance scheduled for July FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSEMBLY was postponed without explanation. AND ASSOCIATION The amended Office on Missing Persons Attempts by families to arrange stones as Act was passed by Parliament in June; the memorials for lost relatives were stopped by amendments limited the Office’s power to security forces. Catholic priest Elil Rajendram seek outside assistance. It was signed by the was detained and other residents of President on 20 July but had not come into Mullaitivu were subjected to police operation by the end of the year. The Office harassment following their efforts to hold was proposed to help many thousands of memorials for family membersGMT who died 2018 families of the disappeared trace missing during the armed conflict. relatives. In June, President Sirisena promised LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR families of the disappeared that he would INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS order the release of lists of those who An expected parliamentary debate on the surrendered to, or were detained by, the proposed draft Constitution aimed at armed forces during and after the armed ensuring checks on executive power and conflict that ended in 2009. The lists were more equitable ethnic power sharing had not not made public by the end of the year. taken place05:01 by the end of the year. Despite repeated promises, Sri Lanka failed IMPUNITY to repeal/ the PTA and to pass legislation Impunity persisted for alleged crimes under criminalizing enforced disappearances. international law committed during the armed In December, Sri Lanka ratified the Optional conflict. Impunity also remained for many Protocol to the Convention Against Torture other human rights violations. These included ET(OPCAT). the January 2006 extrajudicialEMBARGOED executions of FEBRUARY five students in Trincomalee by security DISCRIMINATION personnel and the killing of 17 aid workers Law enforcement officials continued to with NGO Action Against Hunger in Muttur in subject members of the Tamil minority, August 2006; the December 2011 particularly22 former members of the LTTE, to disappearances of political activists Lalith ethnic profiling, surveillance and harassment. Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan; the Police failed to take action in response to 2010 disappearance of dissident cartoonist continued threats and physical violence Prageeth Eknaligoda; and the 200900:01 killing of against Christians and Muslims by members newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. of the public and supporters of a hardline Sinhala Buddhist political group. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS In March, the UN CEDAW Committee asked In June, the then Minister of Justice Sri Lanka to amend all personal laws to threatened to have human rights lawyer remove discriminatory provisions. The STRICTLYLakshan Dias disbarred if he did not Committee expressed particular concern apologize for speaking publicly about about the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act reported attacks against Christians. of 1951, which failed to specify a minimum Tamil humanUNTIL rights defenders and activist age for marriages and permited girls aged community members, including relatives of under 12 to marry with the permission of a THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 343 religious adjudicator (Qazi). The Act also widespread violations of international restricted women from serving on Qazi humanitarian and human rights law. Boards, and did not recognize marital rape unless the couple was legally separated; this BACKGROUND included statutory rape of a girl under 16 by In January, the US government partially lifted an adult spouse. economic sanctions imposed on Sudan since 1997, which included unfreezing assets and VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS banking, commercial and investment Impunity persisted for various forms of transactions. The US government agreed to violence against women and girls, including lift all economic sanctions in October, stating child marriage, domestic violence, human that Sudan’s government demonstrated its trafficking, rapes by military or law commitment to achieving progress in five key enforcement officers or assaults by private areas including: a marked reduction in actors. In a rare exception, the trial began on offensive military activity culminating in a 28 June in Jaffna’s High Court of nine men pledge to maintain a cessation of hostilities in accused of involvement in the May 2015 conflict areas in Sudan; andGMT improved 2018 gang rape and murder of Sivaloganathan humanitarian access throughout Sudan. Vidya, an 18-year-old school student, in On 15 January, the Council of Ministers Punkuduthivu. The trial was still ongoing at extended the unilateral ceasefire in Darfur, the end of the year. The nature of the crime Blue Nile, and South Kordofan for a further and police mishandling of the case sparked six months. The Sudanese Armed Forces and widespread protests in 2015. In July 2017 a the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement- serving Senior Deputy Inspector General of North (SPLM-N) exchanged accusations over Police was arrested for allegedly assisting one ceasefire violations in South Kordofan State of the suspects to evade arrest. on 21 February.05:01 In March, the SPLM-N split into two rival factions which threatened to DEATH PENALTY delay peace/ talks between the government Death sentences were imposed for murder, and the SPLM-N, trigger wider conflict and rape and drug trafficking. No executions have cause additional displacement in SPLM-N- been carried out since 1976. On 4 February, controlled areas in Blue Nile. However, in Sri Lankan Independence Day, President ETOctober the government extended the Sirisena commuted the sentencesEMBARGOED of 60 unilateral ceasefire FEBRUARY to 31 December which death row prisoners to life imprisonment. held at the end of the year. FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY22 SUDAN The activities of civil society organizations Republic of the Sudan and political opposition parties were Head of state and government: Omar Hassan Ahmed extensively restricted. The National al-Bashir 00:01 Intelligence Security Service (NISS) prevented many civil society organizations Security forces targeted opposition party and opposition parties from holding events. members, human rights defenders, students For example, on 17 February it banned a and political activists for arbitrary arrest, meeting of the Teachers Central Committee at detention and other abuses. The rights to the Umma National Party offices in STRICTLYfreedom of expression, association and Omdurman city. It prohibited the Umma peaceful assembly were arbitrarily National Party from holding a public meeting restricted. The security and humanitarian in Wad Madani in Al Jazeera State on 18 situation in Darfur,UNTIL Blue Nile and South March. In April, it prevented the committee Kordofan states remained dire, with for the Sudanese Dramatists from holding a THURSDAY 344 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 public event to address the impact on released at the end of April. They were Sudanese society of an absence of dramatic arrested because they supported the civil arts. Also in April, it stopped the opposition disobedience protests in November and Sudan Congress Party holding a memorial December 2016 against economic austerity service for one of its members; and an event measures.2 organized by the “No to women’s oppression” Dr Hassan Karar, former chairperson of the initiative at Al-Ahfad University without Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors providing a reason. In May, the NISS (CCSD), was rearrested on 20 April and cancelled a symposium on Sufism entitled detained for four days at the office of the “Current and Future Prospects” at the NISS Prosecutor of Crimes Against the State. Friendship Hall in the capital, Khartoum. In He was held for his role in supporting a June, the Humanitarian Aid Commission nationwide doctors’ strike to protest against (HAC) suspended the activities of Shari Al- the deteriorating health service. Dr Mohamed Hawadith, an organization providing medical Yasin Abdalla, also a former chairperson of support in Kassala State. the CCSD, was arrested and detained on 22 April in Khartoum at the officeGMT of the 2018 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Prosecutor of Crimes Against the State. He In the second half of the year, authorities was released without charge on 28 April. confiscated print-runs belonging to six Both were accused of, but not formally newspapers on 26 occasions. Restrictions on charged with, forming an illegal entity and freedom of expression continued with threatening the health system of the country. newspaper editors and journalists regularly In May, activists Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam instructed not to cover any subjects and his colleague Hafiz Idris Eldoma were considered a security threat. Twelve charged with six offences, two of which are journalists were repeatedly summoned and punishable05:01 by life imprisonment or death.3 investigated by the NISS, and two others They were arrested by the NISS along with a were convicted for reporting on issues said to third activist/ in 2016 in connection with their be a threat to security. For example, in May, work for the Sudan Social Development the Press and Publications Court in Organization-UK (SUDO-UK) which works on Khartoum convicted Madiha Abdala, former humanitarian and development projects Editor of Sudanese Communist Party ETacross the country. They were subjected to newspaper Al-Midan, of “disseminationEMBARGOED of ill-treatment on arrest.FEBRUARY Dr Mudawi Ibrahim false information” and fined her 10,000 Adam and Hafiz Idris Eldoma were released Sudanese pounds (around USD1,497), for on 29 August after eight months of wrongful publishing an article on the conflict in South imprisonment.4 Kordofan in 2015. Nabil Mohamed22 El-Niwari, a Sudanese In September, Hanadi Alsiddig, Editor-in- political activist and member of the Chief of Akhbar Alwatan newspaper, was opposition party Sudan Congress, was briefly arrested and beaten by NISS for arrested by the NISS in Khartoum on 5 covering land dispute issues. 00:01 September in connection with his political activities.5 ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS NISS officials and other security forces ARMED CONFLICT targeted opposition political party members, DARFUR human rights defenders, students and There was a reduction in armed conflict STRICTLYpolitical activists for arbitrary arrest, detention between the Sudanese Armed Forces and and other abuses.1 Three political opposition opposition armed groups at the beginning of activists were held in detention without the year. However, there were reports of charge followingUNTIL their arrests in January and renewed fighting in North Darfur on 28 May February by the NISS in Khartoum, and were between, on one side, the Sudan Liberation THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 345 Movement (SLM-MM), led by Minni Minawi, 3. Sudan: Human rights defender facing death penalty: Dr Mudawi and the SLM-Transitional Council against, on Ibrahim Adam (AFR 54/6300/2017) the other side, the Sudanese Armed Forces 4. Sudan: Dr Mudawi released after eight months of wrongful imprisonment (Press Release, 30 August) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). There was no clear progress in the peace process 5. Sudan: Detained opposition activist denied lawyer visits: Nabil Mohamed El-Niwari (AFR 54/7101/2017) or mechanisms to address the causes and consequences of the Darfur conflict. There were at least 87 incidents of unlawful killing of civilians, including of internally displaced SWAZILAND persons (IDPs), mainly by pro-government militia, and there were reports of widespread Kingdom of Swaziland Head of state: King Mswati III looting, rape and arbitrary arrests across Head of government: Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini Darfur. On 22 September, President al-Bashir announced a visit to Kalma IDP camp in Forced evictions continued to be carried South Darfur. Sudanese security forces used out. The Public Order Act and the live ammunition to break up protests by IDPs Suppression of Terrorism GMTAct (STA) severely 2018 against the visit. Five people were killed and limited the rights to freedom of expression, dozens wounded. In June, the UN Security association and peaceful assembly. A ban Council renewed the mandate of UNAMID on opposition parties continued. Gender- (UN Mission in Darfur) until 30 June 2018. related violence remained prevalent and The mandate also included the restructuring Parliament failed to enact the Sexual of the UNAMID presence into two six-month Offences and Domestic Violence Bill. phases, which had wider implications for the protection of civilians in Darfur. BACKGROUND SOUTH KORDOFAN AND BLUE NILE Student protests05:01 continued throughout the The Famine Early Warning Systems Network year following government cuts to state- (FEWS-NET) reported that the humanitarian funded/ tertiary scholarships in 2016. Ten situation in SPLM-N-controlled areas in South students were arrested in September in Kordofan was dire. The rate of chronic connection with the protests. malnutrition was estimated at 38.3% due to long-term food deprivation and recurrent ETRIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED illness. FEWS-NET estimatedEMBARGOED that 39% of EVICTIONS FEBRUARY households in Blue Nile were severely food Communities continued to be at risk of forced insecure. Meanwhile, the simmering evictions. Around 85 families in at least two leadership dispute within SPLM-N communities faced imminent evictions heightened tension among Sudanese without being22 provided with alternative refugees in Maban County in South Sudan housing or adequate compensation. Although and triggered violent ethnic clashes between the Constitution prohibited arbitrary the two rival SPLM-N factions in Blue Nile, deprivation of property without resulting in the displacement of00:01 thousands of compensation, in practice the lack of legal people from the SPLM-N-controlled area to security of tenure left people vulnerable to government-controlled areas in Sudan, and forced evictions. In a judgment in April, a to refugee camps in South Sudan and High Court ruled that the constitutional Ethiopia. provision of compensation to evicted residents was limited to evictions carried out by the state; residents affected by forced STRICTLY1. Courageous and resilient: Activists in Sudan speak out (AFR 54/7124/2017) evictions carried out by private actors were 2. Opposition activists arbitrarily held in Sudan (AFR 54/6000/2017) excluded from access to certain remedies. UNTIL In Madonsa in the Manzini region, at least 58 families were at risk of imminent eviction THURSDAY 346 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 after the Swazi National Provident Fund of expression, association and assembly, was (SNPF), a government parastatal, claimed due to be heard in October 2017. However, ownership of the land on which they resided. the government failed to submit its After a protracted seven-year legal process, arguments on time and the Court withdrew the High Court ordered in 2011 that the their appeal. families be evicted without compensation or alternative accommodation. They remained VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS on the land at the end of the year. The Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence In Mbondzela, in the Shiselweni region, 27 Bill, first introduced in Parliament in 2009, families threatened with eviction began was not passed, despite ongoing reports of proceedings against a private company which gender-related violence. In October, the sought to appropriate their land for the Deputy Prime Minister’s office introduced development of a game park. On 19 October, proposed amendments, which included the the Central Farm Dwellers Tribunal dismissed removal of clauses which criminalized incest, their case and allowed the eviction, ruling unlawful stalking, abduction and indecent that the private company should provide the exposure, on the grounds GMTthat these 2018 residents with building material to construct provisions compromised Swazi cultural homes elsewhere. practices. FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND IMPUNITY ASSOCIATION Under the Game Amendment Act of 1991, King Mswati approved the Public Order Act game rangers continued to enjoy immunity on 8 August, which curtailed the rights to from prosecution related to carrying out their freedom of assembly and association, duties, including in cases where they killed imposing far-reaching restrictions on alleged poachers.05:01 During the year police organizers of public gatherings. The Act also investigated at least six such killings by failed to provide mechanisms to hold law rangers;/ no one was known to have been enforcement officials accountable for using brought to justice. excessive force against protesters or public More than two years after the death in gatherings. police custody of Luciano Reginaldo Zavale, a The government continued to ban ETMozambican national, the authorities had still opposition parties. EMBARGOEDnot made public findingsFEBRUARY from an inquest into his death. LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS In August, the King approved the STA, which 22 amended the 2008 Act. The amendments SWEDEN limited the definitions of what constitutes a Kingdom of Sweden terrorist act although the wording was overly Head of state: King Carl XVI Gustaf broad and vague in relation to terrorism-00:01 Head of government: Stefan Löfven related acts. The law also contained provisions that undermined the rights to The authorities failed to adopt effective freedom of expression, association and strategies to prevent racist and xenophobic assembly. attacks. Rape and other forms of sexual An appeal by the government against a violence against women and girls remained STRICTLY2016 High Court ruling that found that the widespread but there were few convictions. original STA, as well as the Sedition and Roma people continued to face Subversive Activities Act, were invalid on the discrimination. Courts convicted individuals grounds that theyUNTIL infringed the for serious crimes under international law constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom committed in Syria and Rwanda. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 347 REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS widespread. In December, based on a Emergency temporary measures introduced proposal by the 2014 Sexual Offences in 2016 prevented asylum-seekers who had Committee, the government presented draft been granted subsidiary protection from legislation to the legal council which included having the right to family reunification. During a consent-based definition of rape and sexual his visit to Sweden in October, the Council of abuse. Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Serious concerns remained about rape recommended that Sweden lift the measures. attrition rates. The number of rapes reported to the police increased by 14% during the CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW first half of the year compared with the same In February, Svea Court of Appeal upheld the period in 2016 (from 2,999 to 3,430). sentence of life imprisonment of a Swedish Between January and June 2017, decisions citizen of Rwandan origin, convicted in to prosecute were taken in just 111 cases, Sweden of genocide and other crimes according to preliminary official statistics. committed in Rwanda in 1994. In May, Svea Court of Appeal confirmed the GMT 2018 sentence of life imprisonment of a Syrian citizen convicted in Sweden of war crimes for SWITZERLAND the extrajudicial execution of seven Syrian Swiss Confederation army soldiers. Head of state and government: Doris Leuthard In September a Syrian man who had served (replaced Johann Schneider-Ammann in January) in the Syrian army was convicted of war crimes by the Södertörn District Court and Migrants and asylum-seekers with rejected sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment for asylum claims were returned in violation of violating the dignity of five dead or severely the non-refoulement05:01 principle. Concerns injured persons by posing for a photograph remained regarding the use with his foot on one victim’s chest. of disproportionate/ force during the Sweden had yet to make torture a crime deportation of migrants. Government under national law. proposals for the creation of a National Human Rights Institution continued to be DISCRIMINATION ETcriticized for failing to guarantee the Roma citizens from RomaniaEMBARGOED and Bulgaria Institution’s independence.FEBRUARY supporting themselves through begging continued to be subjected to harassment and LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR denial of basic services including shelter, INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS water and sanitation, education and In August,22 the UN Human Rights Committee subsidized health care. In September, expressed concerns regarding the “Initiative Vellinge in southern Sweden became the first for auto-determination”, a referendum that Swedish municipality to ban begging, and was likely to be scheduled for 2018 and one of the main political parties00:01 declared its which would lead to supremacy of the intent to do the same nationally. The decision Federal Constitution over international in Vellinge was later declared non-conforming treaties. The Committee urged Switzerland to with the Law on Public Order; the matter was introduce a control mechanism to ensure that subject to appeal. Anti-Roma prejudice referendums comply with international towards Roma from other EU countries was human rights law before being presented for STRICTLYwidespread. a popular vote. The Council of Europe Commissioner for VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Rape and otherUNTIL forms of sexual violence Committee urged Switzerland in May and against women and girls remained June respectively to establish a fully THURSDAY 348 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 independent National Human Rights disaggregated data on the number of Institution with a sufficiently broad mandate complaints, investigations and convictions. It and adequate resources to comply with the also recommended the introduction of a Principles relating to the Status of National provision expressly prohibiting and Institutions (Paris Principles). NGOs raised criminalizing torture as a separate offence in concerns about the lack of full independence the Criminal Code. of the Human Rights Institution proposed by In July, while noting some improvements, the Federal Council (government) in June. the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture raised concerns about the REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS excessive use of force by police, in particular The authorities returned several asylum- in the context of deporting migrants. seekers to other Schengen Area Member States by applying the Dublin III Regulation DISCRIMINATION (EU law that determines the EU member In March, the Upper Chamber of the Federal state responsible to examine an application Parliament (Council of States) rejected a bill for asylum) but without duly taking into to ban full-face veils at theGMT national level. 2018 account their family ties in Switzerland. In August, the Human Rights Committee In April, the Federal Court ruled that the urged Switzerland to introduce detention of two Afghan parents with their comprehensive legislation against infant, and the placement of their three other discrimination. It also recommended that children in an orphanage in 2016, with the Switzerland not subject intersex children purpose of returning the whole family to without consent to medically unnecessary Norway, had disproportionately violated their interventions to determine their gender. right to family life. In October, the Council of Europe WOMEN’S05:01 RIGHTS Commissioner for Human Rights called on In August, the Human Rights Committee Switzerland to improve the identification and recommended/ that Switzerland continue to protection of the most vulnerable migrants combat domestic violence, female genital and asylum-seekers, and to apply a gender mutilation and forced marriages, to train and child-sensitive approach to all migration justice professionals to address cases of and asylum-related decisions and measures. ETdomestic violence, and to facilitate the stay of Child asylum-seekers in federalEMBARGOED reception migrant women whoFEBRUARY had suffered domestic centres continued to be denied access to violence. In December, Switzerland ratified education. the Council of Europe Convention on In several cases, the European Court of preventing and combating violence against Human Rights and the UN Committee women and22 domestic violence (Istanbul against Torture ruled that the return of people Convention). with failed asylum claims or undocumented migrants to Sri Lanka, Sudan and Turkey violated the principle of non-refoulement00:01 (forcible return of individuals to a country SYRIA where they risked serious human rights Syrian Arab Republic violations). Head of state: Bashar al-Assad Head of government: Imad Khamis POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES STRICTLYIn August, the UN Human Rights Committee Parties to the armed conflict committed war urged Switzerland to introduce an crimes and other grave violations of independent complaint mechanism to international humanitarian law and human examine allegationsUNTIL of unlawful use of force rights abuses with impunity. Government by police and to collect comprehensive and and allied forces, including Russia, carried THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 349 out indiscriminate attacks and direct in October. They were supported by a US-led attacks on civilians and civilian objects international coalition of states which carried using aerial and artillery bombing, including out air strikes against IS in northern and with chemical and other internationally eastern Syria, killing and injuring hundreds of banned weapons, killing and injuring civilians. Other armed opposition groups hundreds. Government forces maintained primarily fighting government forces, such as lengthy sieges on densely populated areas, Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement, Hay’at restricting access to humanitarian and Tahrir al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam, controlled medical aid to thousands of civilians. or contested areas in the governorates of Government forces and foreign governments Damascus Countryside, Idleb and Aleppo, negotiated local agreements which led to sometimes fighting each other. Several the forced displacement of thousands of suspected attacks by Israel inside Syria civilians following prolonged sieges and targeted Hezbollah, Syrian government unlawful attacks. Security forces arrested positions and other fighters. and continued to detain tens of thousands Russia continued to block efforts by the UN of people, including peaceful activists, Security Council to pursueGMT justice and 2018 humanitarian workers, lawyers and accountability. On 12 April, Russia vetoed a journalists, subjecting many to enforced resolution condemning the use of chemical disappearances, torture or other ill- weapons in Syria and calling for those treatment and causing deaths in detention. responsible to be held accountable. On 17 Armed opposition groups indiscriminately November, Russia vetoed a resolution to shelled civilian areas and subjected extend the mandate of the Organization for predominantly civilian areas to prolonged the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-UN sieges, restricting access to humanitarian Joint Investigative Mechanism established by and medical aid. The armed group Islamic the UN Security05:01 Council in 2015 to State (IS) unlawfully killed and shelled investigate chemical weapons attacks and civilians and used them as human shields. determine/ responsibility for the use of US-led coalition forces carried out attacks chemical weapons in Syria. on IS in which civilians were killed and Efforts by the UN to broker peace were injured, at times violating international unsuccessful as parties to the conflict and humanitarian law. By the end of the year, ETtheir allies shifted diplomatic discussions to the conflict had caused theEMBARGOED deaths of more Kazakhstan’s capital,FEBRUARY Astana. The diplomatic than 400,000 people and displaced more talks sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey than 11 million people within and outside aimed to strengthen the nationwide ceasefire Syria. agreement negotiated in December 2016 and enforce the22 “road map to peace” outlined in BACKGROUND UN resolution 2254 of 2015. In May 2017 The armed conflict in Syria entered its the Russian-brokered talks established four seventh year. Government forces and their de-escalation zones across Syria, including allies, including Iranian and Hezbollah00:01 the governorates of Idleb, Deraa, Homs and fighters, captured the majority of areas Damascus Countryside. previously held by IS and other armed groups The Independent International Commission in Homs and Deir el-Zour governorates and of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, other areas. They were supported by Russian established by the UN Human Rights Council armed forces, which carried out attacks on IS in 2011, continued to monitor and report on STRICTLYand other armed groups fighting the violations of international law committed by government, reportedly killing and injuring parties to the conflict, although it remained civilians. The Syrian Democratic Forces, barred by the government from entering consisting of Syrian-KurdishUNTIL and Arab armed Syria. groups, captured Raqqa governorate from IS THURSDAY 350 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In July, Catherine Marchi-Uhel was SIEGES AND DENIAL OF HUMANITARIAN ACCESS appointed head of the International Impartial The government continued to maintain and Independent Mechanism established in lengthy sieges of predominately civilian areas. December 2016 by the UN General The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Assembly to assist in the investigation and Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that, prosecution of the most serious crimes under out of a total of 419,920 people besieged in international law committed in Syria since Syria, almost 400,000 were besieged by March 2011. government forces in Eastern Ghouta. Government forces deprived residents in ARMED CONFLICT – VIOLATIONS BY besieged areas of access to medical care, SYRIAN GOVERNMENT FORCES AND other basic goods and services and ALLIES, INCLUDING IRAN AND RUSSIA humanitarian assistance, while subjecting INDISCRIMINATE ATTACKS AND DIRECT ATTACKS ON them to repeated air strikes, artillery shelling CIVILIANS AND CIVILIAN OBJECTS and other attacks. In October, UNICEF The Syrian government and allied forces announced that 232 children in Eastern continued to commit war crimes and other Ghouta suffered from severeGMT acute 2018 serious violations of international malnutrition. humanitarian law, including indiscriminate FORCED DISPLACEMENT OF CIVILIANS attacks and direct attacks on civilians and The government and armed opposition civilian objects including homes, hospitals groups negotiated four so-called and medical facilities. Government forces reconciliation agreements between August attacked areas controlled or contested by 2016 and March 2017 that led to the forced armed opposition groups, unlawfully killing displacement of thousands of residents from and injuring civilians and damaging civilian five besieged areas: Daraya, eastern Aleppo objects through aerial bombardment and city, al-Waer05:01 neighbourhood in the city of artillery shelling. Homs, and the towns of Kefraya and Foua. According to the NGO Physicians for The government,/ and to a lesser extent Human Rights, government forces carried armed opposition groups, subjected these out air strikes on three hospitals in Idleb densely populated areas to prolonged sieges governorate on 19 September, killing a staff and unlawful bombardment, compelling the member, destroying ambulances and ETarmed opposition groups to surrender and damaging the facilities. OnEMBARGOED 13 November, negotiate a deal resultingFEBRUARY in the evacuation of Syrian and Russian forces carried out air fighters and the mass displacement of strikes during the day on a large market in civilians. The unlawful sieges and Atareb, an opposition-held town in Aleppo bombardment leading to the forced governorate, killing at least 50 people, mostly displacement22 of civilians were part of a civilians. On 18 November, government systematic, widespread attack by the forces carried out air strikes and artillery government on civilians and amounted to attacks on civilians besieged in Eastern crimes against humanity. Ghouta in Damascus Countryside,00:01 killing at least 14. ARMED CONFLICT – ABUSES BY ARMED On 4 April, government warplanes carried GROUPS out an attack using internationally banned INDISCRIMINATE ATTACKS AND DIRECT ATTACKS ON chemical weapons on Khan Sheikhoun in CIVILIANS Idleb countryside, killing more than 70 IS forces carried out direct attacks on STRICTLYcivilians and injuring hundreds. On 30 June, civilians as well as indiscriminate attacks, the Organization for the Prohibition of killing and injuring civilians. During the Chemical Weapons concluded that people in operation launched mid-year by the Syrian Khan SheikhounUNTIL were exposed to sarin, a Democratic Forces and the US-led coalition banned nerve agent, in the attack. to recapture Raqqa city, IS forces prevented THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 351 residents from fleeing the city and used May, a series of US-coalition strikes on a farm civilians as human shields. northwest of Raqqa killed 14 members of a IS claimed responsibility for a series of family – eight women, one man and five suicide and other bomb attacks that directly children – and severely wounded two other targeted civilians, including one in February children. Also in May, an air strike that in Aleppo city that killed 50 people and one targeted houses in the northern outskirts of in October in the capital, Damascus, that Raqqa killed 31 people. In July, a coalition killed 17 civilians. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham attack on a residential building 100m from an claimed responsibility for two suicide IS target killed a family including three bombings near a Shi’a pilgrimage site in children. The coalition forces also struck Damascus on 11 March in which 44 civilians boats crossing the Euphrates River, south of were killed and 120 injured. Raqqa, killing dozens of civilians attempting In May, in-fighting between armed to flee the intense fighting in the city. The opposition groups erupted in Eastern Ghouta. coalition failed to adequately investigate It lasted several days, killing more than 100 reports of civilian casualties and allegations of civilians and fighters. Armed opposition violations of international humanitarianGMT law. 2018 groups in Eastern Ghouta also carried out indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on ARMED CONFLICT – ABUSES BY THE government-controlled neighbourhoods, PYD-LED AUTONOMOUS killing and injuring several people during the ADMINISTRATION year. In November, armed opposition groups The Autonomous Administration, led by the fired imprecise rockets into the government- Syrian-Kurdish Democratic Union Party held town of Nubul, Aleppo governorate, (PYD), continued to control most of the killing three civilians. predominantly Kurdish northern border UNLAWFUL KILLINGS regions. It05:01 arbitrarily arrested and detained a According to the Syrian Observatory for number of Syrian-Kurdish opposition Human Rights, IS summarily killed more than activists,/ including members of the Kurdish 100 civilians accused of collaborating with National Council in Syria. Many were held in the government in the town of al-Qaryatan, prolonged pre-trial detention in poor Homs governorate, before government forces conditions. recaptured the town. ET SIEGES AND DENIALS OF HUMANITARIANEMBARGOED ASSISTANCE REFUGEES ANDFEBRUARY INTERNALLY Armed opposition groups maintained lengthy DISPLACED PEOPLE sieges of predominantly civilian areas, Between 2011 and 2017, 6.5 million people restricting access to humanitarian and were displaced within Syria and more than 5 medical aid and other essential goods and million people22 sought refuge outside Syria, services. OCHA reported that Hay’at Tahrir al- including 511,000 people who became Sham and Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement refugees during 2017, according to UNHCR, besieged 8,000 people in the towns of the UN refugee agency, and OCHA. The Kefraya and Foua, Idleb governorate.00:01 authorities in the neighbouring states of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, which hosted ARMED CONFLICT – AIR STRIKES BY nearly all of the refugees (including US-LED FORCES Palestinians displaced from Syria), restricted The US-led coalition continued its campaign the entry of new refugees, exposing them to of air strikes against IS. The air strikes, some further attacks, violations and deprivation in STRICTLYof which violated international humanitarian Syria. The number of resettlement places and law, killed and injured civilians. In June, other safe and legal routes for refugees coalition forces unlawfully used white offered by European and other states fell far phosphorous munitionsUNTIL on civilian below the needs identified by UNHCR. neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Raqqa. In THURSDAY 352 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Some of the people displaced within Syria minimum international standards for a fair were living in makeshift camps with limited trial. access to aid, other basic necessities, or In August, the family of software developer opportunities to make a living. Bassel Khartabil learned that he had been killed in 2015 after being “tried” and ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES “sentenced to death” by the Military Field The Syrian security forces held thousands of Court in al-Qaboun. Bassel Khartabil had detainees without trial, often in conditions been arrested on 15 March 2012 by Syrian that amounted to enforced disappearance. Military Intelligence and held in Tens of thousands of people remained incommunicado detention for eight months subject to enforced disappearance, some before being moved to ‘Adra prison in since the outbreak of the conflict in 2011. Damascus in December 2012. He remained They included peaceful critics and opponents at ‘Adra until 3 October 2015, when he was of the government as well as family members transferred to an undisclosed location prior to detained in place of relatives wanted by the his execution. authorities. GMT 2018 DEATH PENALTY TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The death penalty remained in force for Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees by many offences. The authorities disclosed little government security and intelligence information about death sentences passed, agencies and in state prisons remained and no information on executions. systematic and widespread. Torture and other ill-treatment continued to result in a high incidence of detainee deaths. For example, TAIWAN large numbers of detainees at Saydnaya 05:01 Military Prison died after being repeatedly Taiwan tortured and systematically deprived of food, Head of/ state: Tsai Ing-wen water, ventilation, medicine and medical Head of government: William Lai Ching-te (replaced care. Their bodies were buried in mass Lin Chuan in September) graves. ETTaiwan’s Constitutional Court ruled that the EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONSEMBARGOEDcurrent marriage FEBRUARYlaw is unconstitutional as Government forces carried out unlawful it discriminates against same-sex couples. killings of detainees held in their custody in The government held its second review of Saydnaya Military Prison near Damascus. As the implementation of the ICCPR and the many as 13,000 prisoners from Saydnaya ICESCR 22and its first review regarding the Military Prison were extrajudicially executed Convention on the Rights of People with in night-time mass hangings between 2011 Disabilities (CRPD) and the Convention on and 2015. The victims were overwhelmingly the Rights of the Child (CRC). The Supreme civilians perceived to oppose the00:01 government Court rejected the Prosecutor-General’s and were executed after being held in extraordinary appeal for Chiou Ho-shun who conditions amounting to enforced remained on death row. From mid-February disappearance. Before they were hanged, the to early June when they were dispersed, victims were condemned to death at the Indigenous people and supporters staged a Military Field Court in the al-Qaboun 100-day sit-in near the Presidential Office STRICTLYneighbourhood of Damascus, in “trials” protesting against government guidelines, which lasted between one and three minutes. proposed by the cabinet-level Council of The Court was notorious for conducting Indigenous Peoples, on changing the closed proceedingsUNTIL that fell far short of the designation of traditional Indigenous THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 353 territory. Media reported that migrant to omit evidence from a coerced workers were sexually harassed at work. “confession”. Chiou Ho-shun claims he was tortured in custody and forced to “confess” RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, during police interrogations before being TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE found guilty of robbery, kidnapping and On 24 May, the Grand Council of Judges murder in 1989. (Constitutional Court) ruled that sections on The Taichung Branch of the Taiwan High marriage in the current Civil Code were Court held a retrial of the case of Cheng unconstitutional as they discriminated against Hsing-tse, who was released on bail in 2016. same-sex couples. It gave the authorities two The court cleared his name in October, years to revise the law in order to achieve overturning his convictions. He had served equal protection of freedom of marriage for 14 years in prison after he was convicted of same-sex couples. In late 2016, the the murder of a police officer during an Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s Parliament, exchange of gunfire at a karaoke parlour in had started discussion of a draft bill on Taichung in 2002. revising the Civil Code to allow same-sex GMT 2018 marriage but the bill had not progressed by REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS the end of 2017. If passed, Taiwan would By the end of the year there had been no become the first jurisdiction in Asia to legalize progress on the refugee bill since its second same-sex marriage. reading in July 2016. This was despite international experts concluding LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR recommendations in January, which urged INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS the speedy adoption of a refugee law to In January, the government convened include the principle of non-refoulement. independent international human rights 05:01 experts to conduct its second review of the 1. Taiwan: Government must act on human rights review (ASA implementation of the ICCPR and the 38/5531/2017/ ) ICESCR.1 The government initiated this parallel review process as Taiwan is not a member of the UN. The second review was TAJIKISTAN to examine progress since the last one in ET 2013. EMBARGOEDRepublic of Tajikistan FEBRUARY During the second review, the Taiwan Head of state: Emomali Rahmon government announced that it will establish a Head of government: Qokhir Rasulzoda national human rights institution meeting the standards set out in the Paris Principles. The authorities22 continued to impose In late October and November, the sweeping restrictions on the rights to government also convened international freedom of expression and of peaceful experts to conduct its first reviews of the assembly to silence critical voices. Police implementation of the CPRD and00:01 CRC and security services continued to respectively. persecute human rights lawyers and their families. A human rights lawyer was DEATH PENALTY tortured in detention and had his sentence The Supreme Court rejected the Prosecutor- extended to 28 years’ imprisonment General’s extraordinary appeal for Chiou Ho- following three unfair trials. Lesbian, gay, STRICTLYshun in July, a year after the application. bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Chiou Ho-shun, who has been on death row people were subjected to violence, arbitrary since 1989, is the longest-serving death row arrest and discrimination. The authorities inmate in modernUNTIL Taiwan history. The appeal forced thousands of women to remove their application cited the failure of previous courts hijabs to comply with the law on traditions. THURSDAY 354 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 BACKGROUND Dushanbe City Court had sentenced them to Public order and counter-terrorism concerns, 23 and 21 years’ imprisonment respectively real and perceived, dominated the political in October 2016, following a blatantly unfair agenda. The authorities relentlessly invoked trial. Both lawyers were found guilty of national security issues to justify ever harsher “arousing national, racial, local or religious restrictions on perceived dissent, on the hostility” and “public calls for violent change grounds that these measures ensured of the constitutional order of the Republic of stability and preserved cultural traditions. Tajikistan”, charges they consistently denied. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to The state media portrayed Buzurgmekhr freedom of opinion and expression noted in Yorov as a “terrorist sympathizer” and his June report that since his 2016 visit to therefore a “terrorist” himself. Tajikistan the “draconian restrictions on In February, Firdavs District Court in opposition voices and the squeezing of civil Dushanbe started hearings into a third society” had continued to worsen. He criminal case brought by the authorities concluded that “the Government is obligated against Buzurgmekhr Yorov on new fraud under human rights law to reconsider its charges, allegedly in responseGMT to complaints 2018 entire approach to restricting the opposition, made against him by members of the public. the media, the Internet, and civil society as a In March, in the second trial of whole.” Buzurgmekhr Yorov, the Supreme Court found him guilty of disrespecting the Court JUSTICE SYSTEM and insulting government officials in his final By December, less than half of the 2,000 statement to Dushanbe City Court in October lawyers registered nationwide had managed 2016. He was sentenced to an additional two to requalify and were licensed to practise. years’ imprisonment. The trial was opened in Amendments introduced in 2015 to the law December05:01 2016 when he was in the pre-trial on the legal profession increased government detention centre number 1 (SIZO) in control over the licensing of lawyers and Dushanbe./ significantly cut the total number of lawyers In April, Buzurgmekhr Yorov’s wife was licensed to practise, drastically reducing informed of a fourth criminal case brought citizens‘ access to justice. against her husband for allegedly insulting PERSECUTION OF DEFENCE LAWYERS ET“the leader of the Nation”. In August, he was Defence lawyers who tookEMBARGOED up politically sentenced to an additionalFEBRUARY three years’ sensitive cases, or cases related to national imprisonment on charges of fraud and of security and counter-terrorism, faced insulting “the leader of the Nation” in increasing harassment, intimidation and statements he made in court during his undue pressure in connection with their original trial22 in response to the fraud charges legitimate professional activities. Human brought against him. The total length of his rights lawyers faced arbitrary arrests, sentence was 28 years. The family could not prosecutions on politically motivated charges, find any lawyers willing to represent harsh prison sentences and the00:01 harassment Buzurgmekhr Yorov as they feared reprisals of their families and colleagues. Many human from the authorities after human rights lawyer rights lawyers fled the country for safety.1 Muazzamakhon Kadirova, who represented THE CASE OF BUZURGMEKHR YOROV him in 2016, had to seek protection abroad. In February, the Supreme Court in In September, the authorities allowed Dushanbe, the capital, turned down the Buzurgmekhr Yorov’s mother to visit him in STRICTLYappeals against the prison sentences of SIZO 1. He told her that the guards subjected human rights lawyers Buzurgmekhr Yorov him and other cellmates to regular beatings, and Nuriddin Makhkamov who had including to the head, using their legs, arms represented severalUNTIL members of the banned and batons while insulting, humiliating and Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan. threatening them. He spent several days in THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 355 the SIZO medical centre following one of the wearing the Islamic headscarf (hijab) in beatings. Buzurgmekhr Yorov was put in public places, ordered them to remove it solitary confinement at least four times as because it was against the law and asked punishment for what the SIZO Director them instead to wear a headscarf tied behind explained to the media were “violations of the the head in the “traditional Tajik way”. detention regime”. The SIZO Director denied Dozens of women were briefly detained, all allegations of torture and other ill- many had their hijabs forcibly removed. treatment of Buzurgmekhr Yorov. Women wearing western-style dress were not targeted. Government officials claimed that RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, the hijab was a form of “alien culture and TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE tradition” and a sign of “extremism”. Shops Consensual same-sex sexual relations were selling Islamic clothing were raided by not criminalized but continued to be highly security forces and many were forced to stigmatized. Since 2014, the Ministry of close. Internal Affairs (MIA) included “homosexuality and lesbianism” in its list of REPRESSION OF DISSENTGMT 2018 “amoral crimes, prostitution and Dozens of members and associates of procurement”. LGBTI people were targeted in banned opposition groups, such as Islamic two public campaigns to prevent and combat Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and Group “amoral behaviour” and crimes against 24, and their families sought protection “morality” launched in 2015 by the Office of abroad. Party and Group 24 activists in exile the Prosecutor General, MIA and the State reported that in retaliation for their actions Committee on Women’s Affairs and Family. abroad, such as conducting peaceful protests LGBTI individuals were subjected to violence, at international meetings and conferences, arbitrary arrests, detention and police and05:01 security services threatened, discrimination, including being forcibly detained, questioned and in some cases beat registered on MIA lists. In October, the family /members, including elderly relatives Minister of Internal Affairs announced that and children, in Tajikistan. Local authorities the names and personal details of 367 publicly shamed relatives branding them as individuals suspected of being LGBTI had “traitors” and “enemies of the state”. been entered on an MIA register ostensibly to ET protect them and to “preventEMBARGOED the FREEDOM OF EXPRESSIONFEBRUARY transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, The authorities continued to impose including HIV/AIDS”. The authorities accused sweeping restrictions on freedom of NGOs working with LGBTI people in the expression and the media and controlled context of sexual health of undermining virtually all22 forms of access to information. traditional cultural values. Journalists continued to be subjected to intimidation and harassment by police and DISCRIMINATION security services. Tens of journalists were In August, President Rahmon signed00:01 into law forced to flee the country fearing reprisals for amendments to the Law on Traditions their critical reporting. regulating the practice of cultural traditions In May, the authorities unblocked access to and celebrations. The amendments some social media sites and search compelled citizens to wear traditional dress at platforms, such as Facebook, Vkontakte and cultural celebrations or ceremonies, such as YouTube. However, access to media STRICTLYweddings and funerals. Women in particular platforms considered to be promoting were prohibited from wearing black at “extremism”, such as BBC, CNN and funerals. Ferghana.ru, continued to be blocked. In the same UNTILmonth, police and local officials In July, Parliament adopted new legislation approached over 8,000 women who were granting the police and security services new THURSDAY 356 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 powers to obtain information about internet decision to limit provision of certain health sites visited by individuals. The law was services for LGBTI people. The activists were proposed following claims, which were not released without charge on 27 October, after substantiated, by some officials that over a court found that there was insufficient 80% of internet users accessed sites with evidence for the prosecutor to sustain the “extremist” content. case. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 1. In the line of duty: Harassment, prosecution and imprisonment of lawyers in Tajikistan (EUR 60/6266/2017) Opposition MPs who were perceived as critical of the government faced harassment, intimidation and arrest. On 21 September, Zitto Kabwe, leader of the Alliance for Change TANZANIA and Transparency party, was arrested following comments he made on social United Republic of Tanzania Head of state: John Magufuli media. These concerned the House Head of government: Kassim Majaliwa Speaker’s handling of reportsGMT by two 2018 Head of Zanzibar government: Ali Mohamed Shein parliamentary committees formed to investigate tanzanite and diamond mining The authorities restricted the rights to before they were debated in Parliament. He freedom of expression and association, and appeared before the Parliamentary Privileges, failed to address discrimination on grounds Ethics and Powers Committee on 22 of gender and sexual orientation. Refugees September and was subsequently released. and asylum-seekers faced overcrowding, The Committee had not sent their report to insufficient rations, and bureaucratic the Speaker by the end of the year. obstacles put in place by the state On 31 October,05:01 Zitto Kabwe was again authorities. detained by police for allegedly issuing false statistics/ on the national economic growth RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, figures. According to Section 37(5) of the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Statistics Act of 2017, any agency or person The government continued its crackdown who publishes or communicates official against LGBTI people, closing down health ETstatistical information which may result in the centres and threatening toEMBARGOED deregister distortion of facts,FEBRUARY commits an offence. This organizations that provided services and can be punishable by a fine or imprisonment support to them. On 17 February, the Health of not less than three years, or both. Zitto Minister closed down 40 private health Kabwe was released on 31 October without centres, accusing them of promoting same- charge. 22 sex relations which is punishable by up to 30 Tundu Lissu, President of Tanganyika Law years’ imprisonment. On 25 June, the Home Society and an MP for the opposition Affairs Minister threatened to deport any Chadema party, was arrested on 21 October foreign national, or prosecute anyone,00:01 and charged with “hate speech” after he working to protect LGBTI rights. criticized President Magufuli. In a public In Zanzibar 12 women and eight men – speech on 17 July, he said that the were detained on 18 September while government was discriminating along family, receiving HIV/AIDS training at a hotel. The tribal and regional lines when employing government accused them of promoting government officials, and issuing work STRICTLYLGBTI rights. On 17 October the authorities permits along religious lines. He also referred arrested 13 health and human rights to the President as a dictator. He was activists, including two South Africans and released the same day after interrogation by one Ugandan,UNTIL during a consultative meeting the police. to discuss the Tanzanian government’s THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 357 Media freedom deteriorated significantly. challenged the President’s ban on schooling President Magufuli stated in January that the for pregnant girls and teenage mothers. days of newspapers viewed as “unethical" were numbered. From June to September, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS three newspapers – MwanaHalisi, Mawio and According to UNHCR, the UN refugee Raia Mwema – were either closed or agency, by the end of October, 359,494 temporarily banned from publishing because Burundian refugees resided in Tanzania (see of “unethical” reporting and inciting violence. Burundi entry). On 20 January, the Home On 15 June the Information, Sports and Affairs Ministry revoked prima facie refugee Culture Minister banned Mawio for two years status recognition of Burundian asylum- over articles it published linking two former seekers, and new arrivals had to undergo presidents with alleged improprieties in individual refugee status determination mining deals signed in the 1990s and early processes. UNHCR warned that the situation 2000s. On 19 September, the Information in Nduta camp in Tanzania, in particular, was Service Directorate issued a two-year ban on “alarming”. Originally designed to hold MwanaHalisi, after accusing it of insulting the 50,000 people, at the end GMTof 2017 it was 2018 President and publishing unethical stories. home to over 127,000. UNHCR and its This was the second time the newspaper had partners also lacked sufficient capacity to been suspended in three months. prevent, or respond adequately to, sexual On 17 March, Dar es Salaam’s Regional and gender-based violence. UNHCR raised Commissioner led a raid on Clouds Media concerns about risks to health and safety Group, allegedly for their decision not to caused by overcrowding. On 27 August, the broadcast a video aimed at undermining a World Food Programme warned that the popular local pastor. already insufficient food rations for refugees The Electronic and Postal Communications in Tanzania05:01 would have to be further reduced (Online Content) Regulations, 2017, passed unless there was urgent funding from donors. in September, curtailed online freedom. Regular/ food and water shortages in the According to the regulations, social media camps in Tanzania were seen by some users and online content producers are held refugees as an attempt to force them to liable for materials deemed “indecent, return home. This was particularly in the light obscene, hate speech, extreme violence or ETof comments made in July by President material that will offend orEMBARGOED incite others, Magufuli during aFEBRUARY visit by Burundian cause annoyance, threaten harm or evil, President Pierre Nkurunziza, encouraging encourage or incite crime, or lead to public refugees to return to Burundi. disorder". Those found guilty face a fine of 5 Tanzania operated a de facto encampment million Tanzanian shillings (USD2,300), a policy by 22which refugees who left the camps minimum of 12 months in jail, or both. without permission faced fines or arrest. RIGHT TO EDUCATION On 22 June, President Magufuli00:01 issued a statement banning pregnant girls from THAILAND returning to public-funded schools. He Kingdom of Thailand stated: “As long as I’m President, no Head of state: King Maha Vajiralongkorn pregnant students will be allowed to return to Bodindradebayavarangkun school.” He said that young mothers could Head of government: Prayut Chan-o-Cha STRICTLYopt for vocational training or become entrepreneurs, but should not be permitted Activists, journalists, politicians, human to pursue formal education in public schools. rights lawyers and human rights defenders On 25 June, theUNTIL Home Affairs Minister were arrested, detained and prosecuted for threatened to deregister organizations that peacefully expressing opinions about the THURSDAY 358 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 government and monarchy. The government association. Student activists, media maintained systematic and arbitrary workers, human rights lawyers, politicians restrictions on human rights, including the and others were prosecuted for peacefully rights to freedom of expression, peaceful exercising these rights, including in unfair assembly and association. It failed to fulfil trials in military courts. its promise to pass a law prohibiting torture Authorities initiated criminal proceedings and enforced disappearances. Refugees and against participants in peaceful public asylum-seekers continued to be denied protests, academic seminars and civil society formal legal status; they were vulnerable to activities under a 2015 decree providing for arrest, detention and deportation. criminal penalties for “political gatherings” of five or more people. In November authorities BACKGROUND initiated criminal proceedings against The country remained under the authority of protesters seeking to petition about the the military National Council for Peace and construction of a coal-fired power plant in Order (NCPO). A new Constitution, drafted by Songkhla, southern Thailand. a military-appointed body and approved in an Three opposition politiciansGMT and a journalist 2018 August 2016 national referendum, came into were among several individuals charged with effect in April. Authorities prosecuted former sedition under Article 116 of the Penal Code government officials for a rice subsidy for criticizing the government or voicing scheme. Former Prime Minister Yingluck support for opposition politicians, including in Shinawatra secretly left the country in comments made on social media. August; she was subsequently tried in her Activists, journalists and workers faced absence on charges of negligence and criminal defamation charges initiated by sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. King government officials and private companies Maha Vajiralongkorn for publicizing05:01 information about rights Bodindradebayavarangkun was crowned in violations, environmental concerns and December. official/ misconduct. In October, charges filed in 2016 against three human rights JUSTICE SYSTEM defenders − Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Throughout the year, the Head of the NCPO Somchai Homla-or and Anchana Heemmina continued to use extraordinary powers under ET− in relation to their reporting on torture by Article 44 of the interim ConstitutionEMBARGOED to military officers wereFEBRUARY formally withdrawn. The arbitrarily restrict peaceful political activities Supreme Court, overturning rulings by lower and the exercise of other human rights. courts, sentenced two opposition politicians Military officials exercised sweeping law to one year’s imprisonment for the criminal enforcement powers, including to detain defamation22 of former Prime Minister Abhisit individuals in unofficial places of detention Vejjajiva in two separate cases in April and without charge for a broad range of activities. July. A number were held incommunicado. Authorities continued to vigorously Hundreds of civilians continued00:01 to face prosecute cases under Article 112 of the lengthy and unfair trials before military courts Penal Code – lèse-majesté provision – which for violations of NCPO orders, offences penalized criticism of the monarchy. against “national security” and allegedly Individuals were charged or prosecuted insulting the monarchy. under Article 112 during the year, including some alleged to have offended past STRICTLYFREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSEMBLY monarchs. Trials for lèse-majesté were held AND ASSOCIATION behind closed doors. In June, the Bangkok The government continued to systematically Military Court sentenced a man to a record and arbitrarilyUNTIL restrict the rights to freedom of 35 years’ imprisonment − halved from 70 expression, peaceful assembly and years after he pleaded guilty − for a series of THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 359 Facebook posts allegedly concerning the deportation.2 In May, Thai authorities assisted monarchy.1 In August, student activist and in the extradition of Turkish national human rights defender Jatupat “Pai” Muhammet Furkan Sökmen from Myanmar Boonpattararaksa was sentenced to two and to Turkey via Bangkok, despite warnings from a half years’ imprisonment after being UN agencies that he was at risk of human convicted in a case concerning his sharing a rights violations if returned. At the end of the BBC profile of Thailand’s King on Facebook. year, hundreds of refugees and asylum- Authorities brought lèse-majesté charges seekers remained in immigration detention against a prominent academic for comments centres, where many had been held for he made about a battle fought by a 16th years. century Thai king. In January, the Cabinet authorized the Authorities pressured Facebook, Google and development of a system for screening YouTube to remove online content, including refugees and irregular migrants which, if material deemed critical of the monarchy. implemented in a fair and non-discriminatory The authorities also threatened to prosecute manner, could represent a major step internet service providers that did not remove towards advancing refugeeGMT rights. The 2018 content, as well as individuals system had not been finalized by the end of communicating with or sharing posts from the year. exiled government critics. Six people were subsequently arrested for sharing Facebook EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND posts concerning the removal of a plaque ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES commemorating events in 1932 that brought In March, Chaiyaphum Pasae, a 17-year-old an end to absolute monarchy. At the end of Indigenous Lahu youth activist, was shot the year they remained imprisoned, facing dead at a checkpoint staffed by soldiers and charges on multiple counts of violation of anti-narcotics05:01 officers, who claimed to have Article 112. acted in self-defence. By the end of the year, Authorities proposed cybersecurity an official/ investigation into his death had legislation and other measures that would made little progress; the authorities failed to allow for increased online surveillance and produce CCTV footage from cameras known censorship without prior judicial to have been present at the time of the authorization. ETincident. 3 EMBARGOEDThe government FEBRUARY failed to make progress in IMPUNITY resolving open cases of enforced In August, the Supreme Court dismissed disappearance. A Thai delegation told the UN murder charges against former Prime Human Rights Committee in March that it Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Deputy Prime was considering22 forwarding the cases of the Minister Suthep Thaugsuban. The charges enforced disappearances of Somchai related to the deaths of at least 90 people in Neelapaijit and Porlajee “Billy” 2010 during clashes between protesters and Rakchongcharoen to the Department of security forces. 00:01 Special Investigation, but had not done so by the end of the year.4 REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS In March, the National Legislative Assembly Thailand continued to host more than approved proceeding with the ratification of 100,000 refugees and asylum-seekers; they the International Convention for the included Myanmar nationals in camps along Protection of All Persons from Enforced STRICTLYthe Thailand-Myanmar border, and refugees Disappearance, which Thailand signed in in the capital, Bangkok, and other cities. 2012. However, by the end of the year Refugees and asylum-seekers had no formal Thailand had neither ratified the treaty nor legal status in UNTILThailand, leaving them provided a timeframe for doing so. vulnerable to arrest, detention and THURSDAY 360 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 ARMED CONFLICT 2. Between a rock and a hard place: Thailand’s refugee policies and There was little progress in government violations of the principle of non-refoulement (ASA 39/7031/2017) negotiations to resolve armed conflict with 3. Thailand: Ensure accountability for killing of 17-year-old Lahu activist (ASA 39/5915/2017) ethnic Malay separatists in southern Thailand. Insurgents carried out numerous 4. Thailand: Joint statement on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (ASA 39/7015/2017) attacks on military and civilian targets, 5. Thailand: Prioritize the amendment and passage of legislation on including execution-style killings and the use torture and enforced disappearances (ASA 39/5846/2017) of improvised explosive devices. 6. Thailand must follow through on commitments to prevent torture and Martial law and a 2005 Emergency Decree ill-treatment (ASA 39/6589/2017) remained in place in far south provinces. Individuals were arrested and detained in unofficial places of detention without judicial oversight. TIMOR-LESTE TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Head of state: Francisco Guterres (replaced Taur Matan Local organizations and community members Ruak in May) GMT 2018 reported that the military arbitrarily arrested, Head of government: Mari Alkatiri (replaced Rui Maria tortured and otherwise ill-treated Muslim men de Araújo in September) following attacks by militants in southern Thailand. Human rights defenders working Victims of serious human rights violations with victims of torture were harassed by committed during the Indonesian military authorities and threatened on social occupation (1975-1999) continued to media. demand justice and reparations. Security In February, the National Legislative forces were accused of ill-treatment. Assembly returned a draft Prevention and Journalists05:01 faced defamation charges for Suppression of Torture and Enforced carrying out their work. Disappearance Act to the Cabinet for “more / consultations”.5 The latest draft addressed BACKGROUND gaps in the current legal framework relating Presidential and parliamentary elections, held to torture and enforced disappearances. respectively in March and July, took place Further amendments were needed to bring ETwithout incident. In June, Timor-Leste the bill into line with Thailand’sEMBARGOED obligations accepted fully 146FEBRUARY out of 154 under international law.6 recommendations made under the UPR process and noted the eight remaining TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS recommendations. Those that were accepted In July, a criminal court convicted 62 included 22recommendations to address past individuals, including senior military, police human rights violations and ensure the and other government officials, for their delivery of reparations to victims. involvement in human trafficking operations. They were sentenced to between00:01 four and 94 IMPUNITY years’ imprisonment. Human rights groups A new government body, the Chega! National raised concerns that witnesses, translators Centre – From Memory to Hope (CNC), was and police investigators were threatened established through Decree Law No. during the investigation and trial, and that the 48/2016. The CNC’s purpose was to facilitate investigation had been terminated the implementation of recommendations STRICTLYprematurely. made by Timor-Leste’s truth commission (CAVR) in 2005 and the bilateral Timor-Leste and Indonesia Commission of Truth and 1. Thailand: Continuing crackdown on free online expression (ASA 39/6480/2017) UNTIL Friendship in 2008. The main planned activities of the CNC included THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 361 memorialization, education, solidarity with forces used excessive force against victims of past human rights violations, and demonstrators with at least 11 people killed outreach. However, the CNC did not have a during protests. Arbitrary arrests and mandate to address the CAVR’s detentions, torture and other ill-treatment, recommendations on justice and reparations and impunity for human rights violations for victims of serious human rights violations. persisted. POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY Timorese human rights groups continued to Togo accepted various recommendations that express concern over allegations of arose from the examination of its human unnecessary or excessive use of force and rights record under the UPR process, torture and other ill-treatment by security including to take steps to prevent torture and forces, and a lack of accountability. On 22 other human rights violations by the security April, it was reported that members of the forces, and to ensure adequate investigation Public Order Battalion (BOP) Unit of the and prosecution of anyone suspected of National Police beat and kicked a man in being responsible. It rejectedGMT 2018 Bobonaro District causing bleeding from the recommendations including to amend or nose, ear and mouth. At the end of the year, repeal laws used to crack down on journalists the alleged abuse was under investigation by and human rights defenders, including laws the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Suai criminalizing defamation; and to ensure the District. protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.1 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – JOURNALISTS EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE On 1 June, a court in the capital, Dili, cleared The security05:01 forces, including the army, journalists Raimundos Oki and Lourenco continued to suppress and disperse peaceful Vicente Martins of all charges against them. protests/ using excessive and lethal force. The charges had been filed by the Public They violently dispersed protests, beat Prosecutor on 17 May in a defamation opposition members and subjected lawsuit, following assertions made in January journalists to ill-treatment. 2016 by the then Prime Minister Araújo that ETOn 28 February, security forces used live the journalists had made EMBARGOEDfalse accusations or ammunition to disperseFEBRUARY a spontaneous a “slanderous denunciation” under Article protest against oil price rises in the capital, 285(1) of the Criminal Code. The charges Lomé, killing one person and wounding were in relation to an article in the Timor Post several others.2 newspaper alleging official interference In June,22 the security forces repressed during the tendering process for a demonstrations organized by a University of government IT project. Lomé student union which called for improved living conditions. Internet videos 00:01 showed security force members, armed with shotguns, battering students on the ground TOGO with batons. Some students threw rocks at Togolese Republic security forces. At least 19 students were Head of state: Faure Gnassingbé arrested, 10 of whom were released shortly Head of government: Komi Sélom Klassou after being brought before the prosecutor. On STRICTLY 19 June, seven were released after the The authorities continued to curtail the Tribunal of Lomé acquitted them of acts of rights to freedom of expression and of rebellion and destruction of property. On 26 assembly duringUNTIL mass demonstrations June, Foly Satchivi, President of the Togolese organized by opposition groups. Security League of Student Rights, and Marius THURSDAY 362 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Amagbégnon, received a 12-month from photographing an eviction in Lomé. He suspended prison sentence for aggravated was detained and his photographs deleted, disturbance of public order as the court before being released on the same day considered them to be the organizers of the without charge. He filed a complaint with the demonstration. After their release on 27 prosecution services in Lomé to which June, they appealed against their convictions. he said he had received no response by the Several students told the court that they were end of the year. On 22 February, the General beaten by security forces during arrest and Prosecutor issued a warning that anyone who transfer. reported on the attack on Robert Kossi Avotor Between August and December, the would risk criminal prosecution for political opposition held mass demonstrations “disseminating false news”. in major cities. The security forces dispersed Kombate Garimbité, a member of the them with tear gas, batons, water cannons opposition Alliance of Democrats for Integral and live ammunition and there were sporadic Development (ADDI), was arrested on 4 April violent clashes between opposition groups after he criticized a call made by the chief of and supporters of the ruling party. The the Yembour locality for students’GMT relatives to 2018 security forces raided houses and places of pay for damages caused during a protest in prayer, beating people, including those who March. The authorities accused him of had not participated in demonstrations. At organizing the March protest and he was least 10 people were killed, including two charged with aggravated disturbance of members of the armed forces and three public order. He claimed that he was not children aged between 11 and 14. Hundreds involved in the protests and was in Lomé, were injured, including members of the 630km away from Yembour, at the time. By security forces. More than 200 people were the end of the year, he remained in detention arrested, including the Secretary General of without trial.05:015 the opposition Pan African National Party Salomée T. Abalodo was arrested by (PNP). At least 60 people were sentenced to gendarmes/ in Pagouda, a town in the Kara prison terms of up to 60 months on charges region, on 13 April after she took pictures of including rebellion, wilful destruction, assault, wounded protesters and asked local violence against state officials, aggravated authorities to stop security forces using disruption of the public order and aggravated ETexcessive force against peaceful theft.3 EMBARGOEDdemonstrators. SheFEBRUARY was charged with “rebellion” and “participation in an FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION unauthorized protest”. She was released on The authorities continued to curtail the right 12 May when the Tribunal of Pagouda to freedom of expression. They arbitrarily dropped 22the charges. 6 closed media outlets and arrested community The authorities shut down the internet for and opposition leaders for expressing dissent. nine days in September amid opposition-led They cut off the internet to prevent activists protests, disrupting the organization of the and journalists from reporting violations.00:01 protest and impeding the work of human On 6 February, the High Authority for rights defenders and journalists who were Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) monitoring the protests. withdrew the frequencies of radio station CityFM and TV station La Chaîne du Futur for IMPUNITY breaching licensing rules. The HAAC statute The authorities continued to fail to take steps STRICTLYdid not provide any mechanism to appeal to identify those suspected of responsibility against the decision.4 for human rights violations, including the On 7 February, journalist Robert Kossi deaths of nearly 500 people, during the Avotor was beatenUNTIL with batons and violence surrounding the presidential election handcuffed by gendarmes to prevent him in 2005. Of the 72 complaints filed by the THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 363 victims’ families with the Atakpamé, Amlamé In May, Parliament adopted an amendment and Lomé courts, none are known to have to the Passport Law introducing positive been fully investigated. provisions requiring that people affected by a travel ban be informed of the decision promptly, and guaranteeing that they have 1. Amnesty International urges Togo to expressly commit to protecting 1 the rights to freedom of association, freedom of expression and the right to challenge the decision. peaceful assembly (AFR 57/5884/2017) In May, Tunisia’s human rights record was 2. Togo. Un mort par balle et plusieurs blessés lors d’une manifestation examined for the third time under the UN dispersée par l’armée (Press release, 1 March) UPR process. Recommendations to Tunisia 3. Togo. Les autorités doivent s’abstenir de tout recours injustifié ou were adopted by the UN Human Rights excessif à la force lors des manifestations de l’opposition (Press Council in September. release, 6 September); Togo. Un enfant de neuf ans tué par balle lors des manifestations (Press release, 20 September) Local municipal elections scheduled to take place in December were postponed to May 4. Togo. Le retrait des fréquences de deux médias est une attaque contre la liberté d’expression (Press release, 6 February) 2018 because of delays in making appointments to the National Independent 5. Togo. Un militant politique détenu pour ses opinions doit être libéré (Press release, 12 April) Elections Commission. ParliamentGMT failed to 2018 6. Togo: Detained community leader wrongly charged: Salomée T. elect its allotted quota of Constitutional Court Abalodo (AFR 57/6193/2017) members as required by law, thereby impeding the establishment of the Court. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY TUNISIA Emergency measures in place since Republic of Tunisia November 2015 continued to give the Head of state: Béji Caïd Essebsi Minister of the Interior broad additional Head of government: Youssef Chahed powers, including05:01 the ability to conduct house raids without judicial warrants and The authorities continued to renew the state impose/ restrictions on freedom of movement. of emergency and used it to justify The Ministry of the Interior continued to imposing arbitrary restrictions on freedom restrict freedom of movement through of movement. Torture and other ill- arbitrary and indefinite S17 orders that treatment of detainees continued in an ETconfined hundreds to their governorate of environment of impunity.EMBARGOED Police carried out residence, justifyingFEBRUARY this as a measure to arbitrary arrests and house raids without prevent Tunisians from travelling to join judicial warrants. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, armed groups. Human rights lawyers transgender and intersex people were reported instances of arbitrary arrest and arrested and prosecuted for consensual short-term22 detention of people subjected to same-sex sexual relations. Prosecutions of S17 border control measures. The Minister of peaceful protesters increased in several the Interior told Parliament in April that 134 regions. individuals had filed complaints with the 00:01 Administrative Court challenging S17 orders. BACKGROUND In April, the Minister announced that 537 The authorities renewed the nationwide state individuals were facing trial for “terrorism- of emergency five times during the year for related” activities. periods of one to three months. A major Family members of individuals suspected of cabinet reshuffle in September brought 13 joining or supporting armed groups faced STRICTLYnew ministers into government. harassment and intimidation by the police. Protests against unemployment, poor living The Malik family’s home in Tozeur was conditions and marginalizing development regularly raided by police because they policies continued,UNTIL particularly in suspected one member of the family of underdeveloped regions. affiliation to armed groups abroad. In May, THURSDAY 364 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 two members of the family, journalists Salam prosecuted under Article 230. In June, a and Salwa Malik, were prosecuted and judge in Sousse sentenced a 16-year-old boy sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, later in his absence to four months’ imprisonment reduced to a fine, after they criticized the under Article 230. conduct of police during a particularly violent LGBTI people also faced violence, raid on their home.2 exploitation and sexual and other abuse by Police harassed individuals on account of police, including when they tried to seek a their appearance, arresting and interrogating remedy for violations of their rights. In July, men with beards and men and women police officers in Sousse arbitrarily arrested dressed in what officials deemed to be and beat two men because of their perceived conservative religious clothing. sexual orientation. In August, police officers in Sidi Bousaid, near the capital, Tunis, TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT assaulted a transgender resident of Tunis Human rights lawyers continued to report when he went to the police station to file a cases of torture and other ill-treatment of complaint for harassment on the grounds of detainees, mostly during arrest and in pre- his gender. GMT 2018 charge detention in regular criminal cases The police continued to subject men and national security cases. In March and accused of same-sex sexual relations to April, the Parliamentary Committee on forced anal examinations, in violation of the Rights, Liberties and External Relations prohibition of torture. In September, Tunisia invited Amnesty International to brief them accepted a recommendation under the after the Prime Minister said that the UN UPR process to end the use of anal government would investigate claims made examinations. by Amnesty International regarding abuses by security forces, including torture.3 It FREEDOMS05:01 OF EXPRESSION, subsequently held four further sessions on ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY torture: one session each with Amnesty On 10/ May, President Essebsi announced the International, two Tunisian NGOs, and the deployment of the army to protect key Minister of the Interior. economic installations from disruption by The work of Tunisia’s National Preventive social and labour protests. In the following Mechanism (NPM) – the National Body for ETdays, police forces used excessive force the Prevention of Torture, EMBARGOEDwhich was including tear gasFEBRUARY against peaceful protesters established in 2013 as part of Tunisia’s in the southern city of Tataouine. A young obligations as a party to the Optional Protocol protester was killed when a National Guard to the UN Convention against Torture – vehicle ran him over in what the Ministry of continued to be hampered by a lack of co- Health said22 was an accident. On 18 operation from the Ministry of the Interior and September, a group of officers beat journalist inadequate financial support from the Hamdi Souissi with batons while he was government. In April, police at Tunis Carthage covering a sit-in in Sfax. Throughout the year, International Airport denied members00:01 of the courts increasingly prosecuted peaceful NPM access to monitor the handover of a protesters. In Gafsa alone, courts tried “terrorism” suspect deported from Germany. hundreds of individuals, at least 80 of them in their absence, on charges of “disrupting RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, the freedom of work” following social protests TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE related to unemployment. STRICTLYLGBTI people continued to be at risk of arrest Courts continued to use arbitrary Penal under Article 230 of the Penal Code, which Code provisions to prosecute people for criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual conduct protected by the right to freedom of relations. PoliceUNTIL arrested at least 44 expression. In May, the Court of First individuals who were later charged and Instance in Sousse sentenced two young THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 365 men to two months’ imprisonment for “public TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE indecency” for designing and wearing a T- The Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD), shirt with a slogan suggesting that police created in 2013 to address human rights officers are morally corrupt. In July, rap violations committed between July 1955 and singer Ahmed Ben Ahmed was assaulted by December 2013, held 11 public sessions a group of police officers who were supposed during the year. During these sessions, to be providing security for his concert, victims and perpetrators testified on a range because they were offended that his songs of violations including election fraud, were insulting to the police. A police union enforced disappearance and torture. There later filed a complaint before the Court of was no progress on the adoption of a First Instance in Mahdia against Ahmed Ben memorandum of understanding between the Ahmed for the Penal Code crime of “insulting IVD and the Ministry of Justice to allow for state officials”. the referral of cases to specialized judicial In June, the Court of First Instance in Bizert chambers. Government institutions including convicted at least five people of “public the Ministries of the Interior, Defence, and indecency” for publicly smoking during the Justice continued to fail toGMT provide the IVD 2018 day during Ramadan.4 with the information it requested for its On 8 September, the authorities arbitrarily investigations. The Military Justice system expelled Prince Hicham Al Alaoui, a cousin refused to hand over to the IVD the case files and vocal critic of Morocco’s King Mohamed of the trials of those accused of killing VI, from Tunisia as he arrived to attend a protesters during the 2011 uprising and of conference on democratic transitions. victims of police repression during Siliana protests in 2012. WOMEN’S RIGHTS In September, Parliament passed a In July, Parliament adopted the Law on controversial05:01 Administrative Reconciliation Eliminating Violence against Women which Law, first proposed by President Essebsi in brought several guarantees for the protection 2015. /The law had been long opposed by of women and girls from gender-based opposition political parties, civil society violence. It repealed Penal Code Article groups and the campaign group Manich 227 bis that had allowed men accused of Msameh (“I will not forgive”) because it offers raping a woman or girl under the age of 20 to ETimmunity to public servants involved in escape prosecution by marryingEMBARGOED her. corruption and misappropriationFEBRUARY of public In August, President Essebsi called on funds if they were obeying orders and had Parliament to reform the discriminatory derived no personal benefit. A group of MPs inheritance law and created a commission filed a challenge before the Provisional mandated to propose legal reforms to ensure Authority22 for the Examination of the gender equality. The commission had not Constitutionality of Draft Laws, arguing that delivered its report by the end of the year. In the law was unconstitutional; the Provisional September, the Ministry of Justice repealed Authority’s inability to reach a majority the 1973 directive prohibiting marriage00:01 decision resulted in the law being enacted. between a Tunisian woman and a non- Muslim man. RIGHT TO WATER In a cabinet reshuffle in September the The water shortage in Tunisia became more number of women ministers was decreased acute with water supplies to dams falling from four to three out of 28 ministerial posts, 42% below the annual average. In August, STRICTLYleaving women severely under-represented in the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources government. and Fisheries stated that the government did not have a national strategy for water UNTIL distribution, thereby making it impossible to ensure equitable access. THURSDAY 366 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Water shortages in recent years 2016. Any effective investigation of human disproportionately affected the distribution of rights violations by state officials was water and resulted in repeated water cuts in prevented by pervasive impunity. Abuses by marginalized regions leading to local protests armed groups continued, including two throughout 2017. In September, residents of attacks in January. However, there were no the small town of Deguech in Tozeur region further bombing attacks targeting members organized a protest in front of the local of the general population that had been authority’s office demanding a solution to the such a regular occurrence in previous years. regular cuts in running water that the region No resolution was found for the situation of had suffered throughout the summer. In July, people displaced within the southeast of some neighbourhoods of Redeyef in the the country. Turkey continued to host one of region of Gafsa suffered more than one the largest refugee populations in the world, month without running water, and towns with more than 3 million registered Syrian including Moulares had running water for refugees alone, but risks of forcible return only a few hours per day. In March, the NGO persisted. Tunisian Water Observatory announced that it GMT 2018 had registered 615 water cuts and 250 BACKGROUND protests related to access to water. The state of emergency, imposed following an attempted coup in July 2016, remained in DEATH PENALTY force throughout the year. It paved the way Courts handed down at least 25 death for unlawful restrictions on human rights and sentences following trials related to national allowed the government to pass laws beyond security. Defence lawyers appealed against the effective scrutiny of Parliament and the the sentences. No executions have been courts. carried out since 1991. After having05:01 been remanded in prison detention in 2016, nine parliamentarians from the/ Kurdish-rooted leftist Peoples’ 1. Tunisia: Changes to passport law will ease arbitrary restrictions on travel (News story, 26 May) Democracy Party (HDP), including the party’s 2. Tunisia: Journalists prosecuted for criticizing conduct of security two leaders, remained in prison during the forces (News story, 15 May) whole year. Sixty elected mayors of the 3. "We want an end to the fear": Abuses under Tunisia’s state of ETDemocratic Regions Party, the sister party of emergency (MDE 30/4911/2017) EMBARGOEDthe HDP, representing FEBRUARY constituencies in the 4. Tunisia: Fifth man facing jail term for breaking fast during Ramadan predominantly Kurdish east and southeast of (News story, 13 June) Turkey, also remained in prison. The unelected officials who replaced them continued22 in office throughout 2017. In TURKEY October, six elected mayors, including those representing the capital, Ankara, and Republic of Turkey Istanbul, were left with no option but to resign Head of state: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 00:01 after being requested to do so by the Head of government: Binali Yıldırım President. As a result, a third of Turkey’s population was not being represented by the An ongoing state of emergency set a people they had elected at the 2016 local backdrop for violations of human rights. elections. Dissent was ruthlessly suppressed, with Over 50,000 people were in pre-trial STRICTLYjournalists, political activists and human detention on charges linked to membership rights defenders among those targeted. of the “Fethullahist Terrorist Instances of torture continued to be Organization” (FETÖ), which the authorities reported, but UNTILin lower numbers than in the blamed for the 2016 coup attempt. A similar weeks following the coup attempt of July number were released on bail and were THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 367 subjected to reporting requirements. Only a Criticism of the government in the broadcast tiny minority of them were accused of taking and print media largely disappeared, with part in the actual events of the attempted dissent mainly confined to internet-based coup. The judiciary, itself decimated by the media. The government continued to use dismissal or detention of up to a third of administrative blocking orders, against which Turkey’s judges and prosecutors, remained there was no effective appeal, routinely, to under extreme political pressure. Arbitrary, censor internet content. In April, the Turkish lengthy and punitive pre-trial detention and authorities blocked all access to the online fair trial violations continued routinely. encyclopedia Wikipedia due to a page that Armed clashes continued between the cited news reports alleging links between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and state Turkish government and several armed security forces. Turkish armed forces also groups in Syria. Wikipedia refused to edit the carried out military operations against armed page. The website remained blocked at the groups within Syria and Iraq; in September, end of the year. the mandate to do so for another year was JOURNALISTS approved by Parliament. Among the more than 100GMT journalists and 2018 In April, constitutional amendments media workers in pre-trial detention at the granting extensive powers to the office of end of the year, three were from the secular President were passed by referendum. opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet; during the Opponents of the proposed amendments had course of the year eight of their colleagues complained that they had vastly less access who had been in pre-trial detention were to state media and were prevented from released pending the outcome of their trial. demonstrating their opposition in public. The Journalists from media outlets closed by state authorities dismissed allegations of of emergency decrees continued to face irregularities in the counting of votes. prosecution,05:01 conviction and imprisonment. Former Taraf editor Ahmet Altan and his FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION brother/ Mehmet Altan remained in pre-trial Civil society representatives, as well as the detention following their detention in July general population, widely practised self- 2016 on grounds of membership of the censorship, deleting social media posts and Gülen movement, as did 34 media workers refraining from making public comments for ETwho worked for Zaman group newspapers. fear of dismissal from theirEMBARGOED jobs, closure of Zehra Doğan, a journalistFEBRUARY for the Kurdish their organizations or criminal prosecution. women’s Jinha news agency, was imprisoned Thousands of criminal prosecutions were in June following her conviction and brought, including under laws prohibiting sentencing to two years, nine months and 22 defamation and on trumped-up terrorism- days for terrorist22 propaganda. İnan Kızılkaya, related charges, based on peoples’ peaceful editor of the Kurdish Özgür Gündem exercise of their right to freedom of newspaper, was released in October after expression. Arbitrary and punitive lengthy 440 days in pre-trial detention pending the pre-trial detention was routinely00:01 imposed. outcome of his trial for membership of the Confidential details of investigations were PKK. frequently leaked to government-linked Deniz Yücel, correspondent for the German media and splashed across the front pages of Die Welt newspaper, was arrested in February newspapers, while government spokespeople and at the end of the year was still in made prejudicial statements regarding cases detention without being indicted, much of it STRICTLYunder investigation. Prosecutions of in solitary confinement. Wall Street Journal journalists and political activists continued, journalist Ayla Albayrak was convicted of and prosecutions of human rights defenders terrorist propaganda and in October was sharply increased.UNTIL International journalists given a prison sentence of two years and one and media were also targeted. month for a 2015 article about armed THURSDAY 368 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 clashes between state forces and PKK- Five representatives of the Progressive affiliated youths. Lawyers Association (ÇHD), which took on HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS human rights cases and was closed by In July, police raided a human rights emergency decree in 2016, were remanded workshop on Büyükada Island near Istanbul, in pre-trial detention following police detaining all 10 human rights defenders operations across the country. They had been present, including two foreign nationals. accused of offences linked to the PKK or the Eight, including Amnesty International Turkey Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front Director İdil Eser, were held in pre-trial (DHKP-C), an armed group. In November, detention until a trial under trumped-up Selçuk Kozağaçlı, ÇHD’s national Chair, was charges for “membership of a terrorist detained. He remained in pre-trial detention organization” based on their work as human at the end of the year. rights defenders began in October. The court ACTIVISTS also decided to join the prosecution of Taner Activists were targeted for their criticism of Kılıç, Chair of Amnesty International Turkey. the authorities. Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Detained in June, Taner Kılıç stood accused Özakça were detained in MayGMT and remanded 2018 of “membership of FETÖ” on the grounds in custody on the basis of court orders citing that he had downloaded onto his phone the their peaceful protests; they had been on ByLock messaging application, said by the hunger strike since March in protest against authorities to be used for the group’s their arbitrary dismissal by a state of communications. Despite two independent emergency decree. Semih Özakça was forensic reports showing that he had not released in October, but Nuriye Gülmen downloaded the application, and without remained in detention until December when credible evidence being presented by the she was convicted of membership of the prosecution, he remained in pre-trial DHKP-C, 05:01pending the outcome of an appeal. detention at the end of the year. Semih Özakça was acquitted of the same In August, veteran human rights defender charge./ Police routinely detained protesters Murat Çelikkan was imprisoned following his demanding their release. conviction for terrorist propaganda; this Over 70 Academics for Peace were indicted related to the 2016 solidarity action with the for making PKK propaganda following their now closed Özgür Gündem newspaper. He ETJanuary 2016 petition calling for an end to was released on parole inEMBARGOED October after military operations FEBRUARY in the southeast of Turkey. serving two months of an 18-month prison The first trials began in December. sentence. A further 16 activists received Activist Barbaros Şansal was remanded in suspended sentences for taking part in the custody in January following posts he had action, while prosecutions were continuing made on 22social media criticizing the against 18. government. He was convicted in June of In October, civil society leader Osman “denigrating the Turkish Nation” under Kavala was detained and accused of Article 301 of the Penal Code and given a “attempting to overthrow the constitutional00:01 suspended sentence of six months and 20 order” in connection with the 2016 coup days. attempt. At the end of the year, he was still in pre-trial detention without being indicted. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY In November, Raci Bilici, Deputy Chair of Public demonstrations dwindled as provincial the national Human Rights Association (İHD) governors imposed arbitrary and blanket STRICTLYand Chair of its Diyarbak ır branch, went on bans, citing powers under the state of trial accused of membership of a terrorist emergency, and police used excessive force organization. More than 20 other İHD officials against the small number of individuals who were being prosecutedUNTIL for alleged terrorism- demonstrated despite the risks. The “Justice related offences. March” led by the main opposition THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 369 Republican People’s Party (CHP), which went In August, NGOs reported that soldiers and ahead peacefully, provided a notable police officers beat at least 30 people in the exception to this trend. Traditional May Day village of Altınsu/Şapatan in Şırnak province demonstrations in Istanbul were held outside in southeast Turkey following a clash with the the centre of the city, with the agreement of PKK in which two members of the security the major trade unions. forces died. Witnesses reported that villagers The annual Istanbul Pride march was were taken out of their homes, arbitrarily banned for a third successive year on detained and beaten in the village square, spurious security grounds. Police used and that 10 of them were taken into police unnecessary and excessive force, firing custody. Images of the villagers’ injuries rubber bullets, and made arbitrary arrests, resulting from their beatings were shared on targeting small groups of people attempting social media. A statement from the to celebrate Pride. In November, the Governor’s office denied the allegations of authorities in Ankara imposed an indefinite torture, and maintained that news reports ban on events organized by lesbian, gay, supporting the allegations were “terrorist bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) propaganda”. GMT 2018 solidarity organizations ahead of a planned LGBTI-themed film festival which was due to IMPUNITY take place in the city. Again, the authorities In the face of extreme political pressure, cited spurious security reasons. prosecutors and judges were even less In June and July, more than 200,000 inclined than in previous years to investigate people took part in a 400km “Justice March” alleged human rights violations by law between Ankara and Istanbul. The march enforcement officials or bring to justice those was announced following the conviction and responsible. Intimidation of lawyers, including sentencing to 25 years’ imprisonment of CHP detentions05:01 and the bringing of criminal cases parliamentarian Enis Berberoğlu; he had against them, further deterred lawyers from been charged with espionage after passing bringing/ criminal complaints. No progress on to journalists a video that purportedly was made to investigate pervasive allegations showed the transfer of weapons to Syria in of human rights violations during round-the- National Intelligence Organization trucks. In clock curfews in the southeast of Turkey October, his conviction was overturned on ETduring 2015 and 2016. More than five years appeal and a retrial ordered.EMBARGOEDafter Turkey’s ratificationFEBRUARY of the Istanbul Convention to Combat Violence against TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Women, its implementation remained flawed, Instances of torture and other ill-treatment, and reports of violence against women especially in police custody, continued to be continued22 to rise. reported, although at a markedly lower level In April, the trial of a police officer accused than in the weeks following the July 2016 of killing Berkin Elvan began in Istanbul. coup attempt. The Turkish authorities Berkin Elvan died of his injuries after being continued to deny permission for00:01 the hit by a tear gas canister at the scene of a European Committee for the Prevention of Gezi Park protest in June 2013. The Torture to publish its report on torture investigation had been severely delayed by allegations following the coup attempt. There the failure to obtain CCTV footage from the was no effective national preventive scene. mechanism with a mandate for monitoring More than two years after the fatal shooting STRICTLYplaces of detention. There were no available on 28 November 2015 of Tahir Elçi, human statistics regarding investigations into rights lawyer and Chair of the Diyarbakır Bar allegations of torture. There was no evidence Association, no suspects had been identified. that allegationsUNTIL of torture were being Delays or failure to obtain CCTV footage effectively investigated. continued to hamper the investigation. THURSDAY 370 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 In July, the government submitted than 100 of the reported 100,000 appeals information in regard to 34 cases brought to submitted to it. There was widespread the European Court of Human Rights; these criticism that the Commission lacked the cases involved alleged violations of the right necessary independence and capacity to to life, prohibition of torture and the right to carry out the task. In June, rejecting the liberty and security in the southeast of Turkey Köksal v. Turkey application as inadmissible, during the curfews in 2015 and 2016. the European Court of Human Rights ruled The organization We Will Stop Femicide that there was no reason to believe that the reported that murders of women were Commission would not be an effective increasing, while media attention to such remedy. The decision of the Court left the cases declined. It reported that 392 women door open to a future reassessment by the had been killed in the year up to 25 Court of the effectiveness of the Commission. November. INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS Many of the estimated 500,000 people Abuses by armed groups continued, although displaced from their homesGMT in areas under 2018 the number of indiscriminate attacks, and the curfews across the southeast of Turkey in attacks targeting the general population, was 2015 and 2016 lacked access to adequate lower than in recent years. housing and livelihoods. Many were unable to In January, 39 people were killed and over return to their homes that had been 70 injured after a gunman opened fire in a destroyed during or after military operations popular nightclub in Istanbul. The armed during which state security forces clashed group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility with armed individuals affiliated to the PKK. for the attack. The authorities lacked a comprehensive plan Also in January, two people were killed and as to how 05:01the residents would be able to 10 injured by attackers targeting the İzmir return to their homes. Courthouse. The Kurdistan Freedom In the/ Sur district of Diyarbakır, residents Falcons (TAK), an offshoot of the PKK, who had already been displaced from their claimed responsibility for the attack. homes during the curfew lost their homes a In June, the PKK claimed responsibility for second time when they were forcibly evicted the killing of Necmettin Yılmaz, a teacher, ETas part of a redevelopment scheme affecting after his kidnapping from EMBARGOEDthe province of the whole district. FEBRUARY In May, hundreds of Tunceli/Dersim in southeast Turkey. residents had their water and electricity supplies cut off in an apparent attempt to SUMMARY DISMISSALS force them out. Under emergency decrees, public sector 22 workers continued to face summary dismissal REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS for alleged unspecified links to terrorist Turkey continued to host one of the world’s groups. Nearly 20,000 workers were largest refugee populations, with over dismissed during the course of00:01 the year, 3,300,000 registered Syrian refugees alone. bringing the total number since July 2016 to Despite new initiatives to improve the 107,000. Many workers were effectively situation of refugees, many faced insufficient prevented from continuing their professions, access to livelihoods, housing, health care, and struggled to find other jobs after being and education for their children. Except for branded “terrorists” as a result of their Syrians, refugees did not have access to fair STRICTLYdismissal. In January, the authorities and efficient procedures for the announced a seven-person appeal determination of their status. There were Commission to assess the dismissals. The continued reports of forced returns of Commission wasUNTIL not established until July, refugees and asylum-seekers, including to and at the end of the year had ruled on fewer Syria. International humanitarian NGOs THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 371 working with refugees found their work in LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR Turkey was increasingly impeded as the INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS authorities placed restrictions on, and in In March, the Parliament elected the first some cases withdrew, permission for them to Human Rights Commissioner work in the country. (Ombudsperson) from a list provided by the Collective forced expulsions of Syrian and President, calling into question the Iraqi refugees and asylum-seekers to their independence of the institution and its respective countries of origin from the compliance with the UN Principles relating to Removal Centre in Van, eastern Turkey, were the Status of National Institutions. reported to have taken place during the final days of May and early June. According to FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION reports, around 200 Iraqis and around 300 There was no independent media and the Syrians were forcibly returned after officials few independent journalists – typically forced individuals to sign forms agreeing to working in secret for outlets based abroad – “voluntary return”. faced harassment and arrest. On 15 February, independentGMT journalist 2018 Khudayberdy Allashov and his mother Kurbantach Arazmedova were released, after TURKMENISTAN being given three-year conditional sentences Turkmenistan for possessing chewing tobacco. They had Head of state and government: Gurbanguly been in detention since 3 December 2016; Berdymukhamedov there were allegations that they had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. The right to freedom of expression remained In March, the EU and the OSCE called for severely restricted. Torture and other ill- the immediate05:01 release of freelance journalist treatment was committed in pre-trial Saparmamed Nepeskuliev who was detention and prisons, sometimes resulting sentenced/ to three years’ imprisonment in in death. There was no attempt to address 2015 on drug charges. He was believed to be enforced disappearances and suffering from life-threatening health incommunicado detention. The right to conditions. housing was widely violated. Consensual ETIn April, the UN Human Rights Committee same-sex relations betweenEMBARGOED men remained a expressed concern over, FEBRUARY among other things, criminal offence. the absence of an independent media, undue restrictions on access to the internet, BACKGROUND and the use of politically motivated charges In February, President Berdymukhamedov against journalists22 and others expressing was re-elected for a further seven-year term criticism of the government. with 98% of the vote; the OSCE Election Assessment Mission found “serious TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT irregularities”. The economic crisis00:01 in the In January, the UN Committee against country deepened, and in June the President Torture noted its concern at “consistent asked the Parliament to prepare an austerity allegations of widespread torture and ill- proposal to cut benefits, including free gas treatment, including severe beatings, of and electricity supplies. There were reports persons deprived of their liberty, especially at that employees in state-run enterprises were the moment of apprehension and during pre- STRICTLYnot receiving their salaries; and there were trial detention, mainly in order to extract shortages of cash. confessions”. In February, 18 men were convicted under UNTIL various articles of the Criminal Code and sentenced to between five and 12 years’ THURSDAY 372 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 imprisonment for their suspected links to RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED Turkmen-Turkish schools understood to have EVICTIONS been previously affiliated to Fethullah Gülen. Reports continued of mass house demolitions The men were allegedly tortured and held in and forced evictions in connection with inhumane conditions in pre-trial detention. A construction and development projects, 19th man detained at the same time was including those implemented in preparation thought to have died as a result of torture. for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games The trial held at the pre-trial detention centre that were held in September. On 21 February, in the town of Yashlyk, Ahal Province, a group of women gathered in Ashgabat to reportedly fell far short of international demand the alternative housing that they had standards of fairness. been denied due to the lack of documentation confirming ownership of their DEATHS IN CUSTODY demolished homes. The authorities had not Alternative Turkmenistan News reported that issued them with such documents because on 24 June the body of Aziz Gafurov was many of the women were not registered in delivered to his family in the village of Ashgabat. GMT 2018 Urgendzhi, near Turkmenabat. An eyewitness described the body as emaciated and RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, covered in bruises. Aziz Gafurov was one of TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE dozens of practising Muslims who were Consensual same-sex relations between men sentenced in recent years for conspiracy to remained a criminal offence punishable by overthrow the state, violent calls to overthrow up to two years’ imprisonment. LGBTI people the constitutional order, and incitement of were subjected to discrimination including social, national and religious enmity. violence, arbitrary05:01 arrests and detention. ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES The fate and whereabouts of at least 80 / prisoners subjected to enforced UGANDA disappearance after an alleged assassination Republic of Uganda attempt on then President Saparmurat Head of state and government: Yoweri Kaguta Niyazov in November 2002 remained ETMuseveni unclarified. EMBARGOED FEBRUARY The bodies of three former senior state The rights to freedom of expression, officials, who were forcibly disappeared association and assembly were restricted. following their arrest and criminal prosecution Journalists and others who criticized the in connection with the assassination attempt, President22 or his family were arrested, were delivered to their relatives in the course detained and harassed. There was a sharp of the year. Tirkish Tyrmyev reportedly died rise in the number of women killed, some of on 13 January; Bairam Khasanov died in whom were subjected to sexual violence. May; and on 18 August, the Russian00:01 NGO The government said it would investigate Human Rights Centre Memorial reported that and prosecute those responsible. Draft Akmurad Redzhepov had died on 10 August. constitutional amendments to the land laws On 26 January, the EU Delegation to the gave the government authority to International Organizations in Vienna expropriate private land. Uganda hosted the published a statement expressing concern largest number of refugees in the region, STRICTLYabout Tirkish Tyrmyev’s death and called on including over 1 million from South Sudan. Turkmenistan to immediately and effectively address and eradicate enforced FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION disappearances.UNTIL On 19 March, immigration officials at Entebbe International Airport prevented THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 373 academic Stella Nyanzi from boarding a flight charged in connection with these allegations to the Netherlands to attend a conference. under Section 27A of the Police Act. This followed her criticism of the President On 24 November, after Red Pepper and his wife, the Education Minister, for the published an article alleging that the government’s failure to fulfil a 2015 President was involved in a plot to overthrow commitment to provide sanitary towels in Rwanda’s President, the police searched the girls’ schools. newspaper’s office including computers and On 8 April, police arrested Stella Nyanzi for mobile phones, and closed it down. At the insulting President Museveni on social same time, they arrested Arinaitwe Rugyendo media. She was charged under the Computer and other members of staff Richard Kintu, Misuse Act of 2011 and detained for 33 days James Mujuni, Patrick Mugumya, Richard in Luzira Maximum Security Prison in the Tusiime, Johnson Musinguzi, Ben Byarabaha capital, Kampala, before being released on and Francis Tumusiime. They remained in bail. The charges against her were later detention at the end of the year. dropped. On 8 April, Nation TV journalist Gertrude FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATIONGMT 2018 Tumusiime Uwitware was abducted, On 2 and 20 September, approximately 20 blindfolded and interrogated by unknown police officers and security officials raided assailants for several hours, after she had ActionAid Uganda’s offices in Kansanga, an posted her support for Stella Nyanzi on social area of Kampala, preventing staff from media. The spokesperson for the Kampala leaving the premises for several hours. The Metropolitan Police promised to investigate police warrant stated that ActionAid was the incident but there was no further being investigated for “illicit transfers of funds information on its progress by the end of the to support unlawful activities”. The police year. removed documents05:01 and confiscated the On 27 September, the Ugandan organization’s laptops and mobile phones Communications Commission threatened to belonging/ to staff members. On 9 October, revoke or suspend licences of media outlets the Bank of Uganda froze ActionAid’s bank which broadcast live parliamentary debates accounts. On 13 October, the NGO Bureau, on a proposed constitutional amendment to under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, sent a remove the presidential age limit of 75 which ETletter to 25 development NGOs demanding was passed by ParliamentEMBARGOED in December and, their bank account FEBRUARY details. according to the government, became law in On 20 September, police raided the Great the same month. The Commission said that Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies offices such broadcasts promoted a “culture of with a warrant to search computers and violence”. The opposition viewed the mobile phones22 as well as financial and amendment as a means to enable President banking documents. The raid came after the Museveni to stand for re-election in 2021. He organization’s executive director, Godber had already been in power for 31 years. Tumushabe, spoke against the proposal to lift On 10 October, the police summoned00:01 the presidential age limit. editors Arinaitwe Rugyendo of the Red Pepper newspaper and the online Daily VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS Monitor, and Charles Bichachi of the Nation According to the police, 28 women were Media Group which owns the Daily Monitor, killed in Entebbe town in Wakiso District. The about stories they published on the age limit media reported that a man had confessed to STRICTLYdebate. Police questioned them after an MP, killing eight of the women on the orders of a who was leading on moves to remove the age local businessman. In a public statement on limit, filed a complaint claiming that the 3 September the police spokesperson said stories tarnishedUNTIL his reputation. They were that four categories of murder had been identified and that 13 people had been THURSDAY 374 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 arrested and charged in connection with the government said it would increase doctors’ 28 killings. Twelve of the victims had been salaries only after the outcome of a salary raped or sexually assaulted before they were review conducted by a commission set up by killed; four of them were killed by their the President to review salaries of all civil husbands or partners; one woman was killed servants. by her two brothers in what the police classified as a revenge killing; the other cases REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS were described as “ritual murders”. As of 10 November, Uganda hosted around The body of one of the victims, Rose 1,379,768 refugees and asylum-seekers. Nakimuli, was discovered on 24 July in a Some 1,037,359 were from South Sudan, banana plantation in Wakiso District. 348,782 having arrived between January and September; 61% of them were children, RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED mostly unaccompanied or separated from EVICTIONS their parents. Around 236,572 of the In July, the government tabled a bill to refugees were from the Democratic Republic amend Article 26(2) of the Constitution. This of the Congo (DRC); 39,041GMT were from 2018 would allow compulsory acquisition by the Burundi (see Burundi entry); 35,373 were government of private land for infrastructure from Somalia; and the rest were from various projects without providing prompt, prior and other countries. fair compensation to the owners, and Asylum-seekers from South Sudan and the potentially while negotiations on DRC were granted prima facie refugee status, compensation were pending. and those of other nationalities underwent an Under existing law, the government can individual refugee status determination acquire private land only after the payment of process conducted by the Refugee Eligibility “fair and adequate” compensation has been Committee.05:01 The government had revoked the made. If the owner disputes the automatic refugee status for Burundian compensation amount, a High Court can asylum-seekers/ in June. block the government from acquiring the Under the 2006 Refugee Act and the 2010 land until a resolution is reached. If passed, Refugee Regulations, refugees were allowed the new law would increase the risk of forced relative freedom of movement, equal access evictions and undermine the ability of those ETto basic services, such as primary education facing eviction to participateEMBARGOED in consultations and health care, andFEBRUARY the right to work and over acquisitions. It would also frustrate establish a business. transparent and fair negotiations on In May, the World Food Programme was compensation, and the possibility of appeal. forced to cut cereal rations by half for over Marginalized groups, including people living 800,000 22South Sudanese refugees. in poverty, and in rural areas, would be Appeals for funding from international particularly affected. donors to address the regional refugee crisis failed to secure adequate funds. This proved RIGHT TO HEALTH 00:01 to be the most significant challenge to On 10 October, the doctors’ union Uganda Uganda’s refugee response. In June, the Medical Association (UMA) declared an Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees had indefinite strike protesting against low salaries rallied for international support, but as of and shortages of essential supplies. However, November 2017, the South Sudan Refugee they continued to provide services to Response Plan (a joint government/UNHCR STRICTLYchildren, pregnant women and emergency initiative) secured only 68% of the funds accident victims. needed; and the Burundi Refugee Response President Museveni said the strike was Plan secured only 20%. illegal and orderedUNTIL the doctors to return to In October, there was a temporary 50% work or face disciplinary action. The reduction in food assistance to refugees due THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 375 to donors’ payment delays. The cuts led to a 2% growth for 2017, and urged further riots and protests by refugees in Nyumanzi reforms. On 14 June, the EU lifted its visa settlement in Adjumani district. requirements for Ukrainian citizens. The government adopted wide-ranging medical and educational reforms, which for the first time included human rights as part of the UKRAINE future school curriculum. Ukraine In eastern Ukraine, the separatist and Head of state: Petro Poroshenko government forces continued fighting, in Head of government: Volodymyr Hroysman violation of the 2015 ceasefire agreement. Casualties among the forces and civilians The investigation into the Security Service continued to grow, and according to the UN of Ukraine (SBU) for its alleged secret had reached 10,225 dead by 15 August, prisons failed to make any progress. Law including 2,505 civilians. On 27 December, enforcement officials continued to use the two sides exchanged prisoners, releasing torture and other ill-treatment. a total of 380 people. GMT 2018 The Ukrainian authorities increased According to the September report of the pressure on their critics and independent UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, NGOs, including journalists and anti- “increased levels of poverty and corruption activists. The authorities unemployment coupled with record-high food launched criminal investigations and prices have affected the lives of 3.8 million passed laws aimed at restricting the rights people in the conflict-affected zones, in to freedom of expression and freedom of addition to daily hardships caused by the association, among other things. armed hostilities and related policies imposed The de facto authorities in the separatist- by all sides.”05:01 Laws introduced in previous controlled territories continued to years further impeded access to social rights unlawfully detain and imprison their critics. and pensions/ for people living in the conflict- In November, the de facto Supreme Court affected areas. in Donetsk ordered a man to be put to Crimea remained under Russian death. In Russian-occupied Crimea, critics occupation. Russia continued to deny of the authorities faced intimidation, ETinternational human rights mechanisms harassment and criminalEMBARGOED prosecution. access to the peninsula.FEBRUARY The LGBTI Pride march was held in the capital Kyiv, under effective police TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT protection. The number of attacks on LGBTI Members of law enforcement agencies events rose across the country. The continued22 to use torture and other ill- government failed to adequately address treatment, and committed other human sexual and domestic violence. The rights violations; there was continued authorities announced that Ukraine was impunity for past and ongoing violations of freezing all arms supplies to South00:01 Sudan. international humanitarian law. On 15 August, the SBU apprehended Daria BACKGROUND Mastikasheva, a Ukrainian citizen resident in Social discontent continued to grow. Russia who was visiting her mother in Mounting economic problems, the slow pace Ukraine, and held her incommunicado for of reforms and pervasive corruption sparked two days. She was accused of treason and STRICTLYregular protests in Kyiv that occasionally illegal weapons possession. Photos taken by turned violent. Some of the protests brought her lawyer of her outside the court showed together several hundred people. In April, the signs of beatings and possible torture by SBU World Bank reportedUNTIL that the Ukrainian officers. Her lawyer also reported that she economy had stopped contracting, projected was issued with threats targeting her mother THURSDAY 376 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 and son, until she agreed to read out a self- Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) in eastern incriminating statement on camera. At the Ukraine. end of the year she was still in detention The de facto authorities in the DNR and awaiting trial. LNR continued to detain and imprison critics On 16 November, the head of the State and individuals suspected of supporting Investigation Bureau (SIB), a stand-alone Ukraine. On 4 May, a de facto court in agency created to undertake investigations Donetsk sentenced well-known academic independently of other law enforcement Ihor Kozlovsky to two years and eight months agencies, was finally appointed. However, the in prison under trumped-up charges of SIB was still not fully staffed and unable to weapons possession. Ihor Kozlovsky had begin its work by the end of the year. been in detention since January 2016 and CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE was released on 27 December 2017 in a In a report published in February, the UN prisoner exchange. Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine On 31 January, Russian activists and documented cases of conflict-related sexual performance artists Seroe Fioletovoe and violence, and criticized Ukraine’s justice Viktoriya Miroshnichenko wereGMT held in 2018 system for failing its survivors and highlighted incommunicado detention for two weeks after a lack of adequate care and counselling. The crossing into the DNR-controlled territory. majority of the documented cases concerned Following an international campaign for their sexual violence against men and women who release on 14 February, the de facto Ministry had been detained by government forces or of State Security (MGB) escorted them to the armed groups. Russian border and released them. On 2 June, freelance journalist Stanislav DETENTION Aseev, who had been reporting anonymously The Chief Military Prosecutor’s investigation from the DNR,05:01 was subjected to enforced into the allegations of secret detention by the disappearance in Donetsk. For weeks, the de SBU in eastern Ukraine was ineffective. facto authorities/ denied that they were Evidence published in 2016 by international holding him; on 16 July, a member of the NGOs showing the existence of this practice MGB told his mother that her son was in their was largely ignored by the authorities. custody and accused of espionage. Stanislav DETENTIONS OF CIVILIANS IN THE CONFLICT ZONE ETAseev remained in detention and under On 27 April, the UN SubcommitteeEMBARGOED on investigation at theFEBRUARY end of the year. Prevention of Torture (SPT) published its report on its 2016 visit to Ukraine. The report FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION noted that the SBU had obstructed the SPT’s Civil society activists and members of NGOs, mandate by denying it access to some particularly22 those working on corruption, were facilities, forcing it to suspend a visit in May regularly harassed and subjected to violence. 2016. When the SPT resumed the visit in These incidents were often not effectively September, it “was left with the clear investigated, and members of the authorities, impression that some rooms and00:01 spaces had including security services in some instances, been cleared in order to suggest that they were widely suspected to have instigated had not been used for detention”. The them. facilities in question, particularly in the city A law adopted in March obliged anti- Kharkiv, had allegedly been used as secret corruption activists, including members of prisons, and their inmates moved to another NGOs and journalists, to file annual income STRICTLYunofficial facility before it was opened to declarations – something that state officials visitors.1 The SPT was denied any access to have to do – or face criminal charges and detention facilities in the territories controlled imprisonment. by the self-proclaimed,UNTIL Russian-backed In July, the Presidential Administration Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and proposed two draft laws that sought to THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 377 impose onerous and intrusive public financial searched in a fraud investigation. Both news reporting on NGOs whose annual budget outlets were known for their critical reporting exceeded 300 times the so-called “living on the Ukrainian authorities and their policies minimum” – defined in law and regularly in the conflict-affected Donbass region. reviewed, as UAH1,700 (USD63) at the end In three separate instances in August, the of the year. NGOs were also required to SBU expelled four international journalists, publicly report on all payments made to two Spanish and two Russian, for “harming members of staff or consultants. Non- Ukraine’s national interests“ and barred them compliance carried severe penalties, from returning to Ukraine for three years. The including the loss of the non-profit status and SBU spokesperson Olena Gitlyanska accused freezing of accounts. The two draft laws were the Russian journalist Anna Kurbatova, under consideration in the Ukrainian expelled on 30 August, of producing material Parliament at the end of the year. “harmful to Ukraine’s national interest” and On 11 October, tax police raided the offices warned that this would happen to everyone of Patients of Ukraine, and the All-Ukrainian “who dares to disgrace Ukraine”. In October, Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS the SBU lifted the ban on theGMT Spanish 2018 (PLWH), two NGOs known for exposing journalists entering Ukraine. questionable schemes in the state medical Also in August, the SBU arrested freelance procurement system. The authorities alleged journalist Vasily Muravitsky from the city of that the NGOs had misused their Zhytomyr. He had contributed to a number of international funding – despite their having Russian media. The SBU accused him of passed independent financial audit – and, preparing and distributing “anti-Ukrainian” according to court documents, accused them materials on orders from Moscow. If of “supporting terrorism” by funding partner convicted, he could face up to 15 years in patient organizations in Crimea. jail. Vasily05:01 Muravitsky was in pre-trial detention at the end of the year. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION / The investigations into the killings of RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, journalists Oles Buzina in 2015, and Pavel TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Sheremet in 2016, had yielded no results. On 18 June, thousands joined the biggest The authorities continued their attempts to ETmarch yet of Equality, the annual LGBTI limit the right to freedom ofEMBARGOED expression by Pride demonstration, FEBRUARY in Kyiv, as well as instigating trumped-up criminal cases against several dozen counter-protests. Police journalists who criticized the government over provided effective protection from those its failure to implement reforms and its protesting against the march and no policies in eastern Ukraine. On 7 June, the incidents22 were reported during the rally. After Supreme Special Court of Ukraine overturned the march, members of far-right groups the July 2016 decision by a court of appeal to attacked and beat several participants. acquit prisoner of conscience Ruslan Overall, the number of violent attacks against Kotsaba, a journalist who had been00:01 LGBTI people rose in 2017. In September, a prosecuted for treason and harming group of right-wing protesters severely beat a Ukraine’s armed forces after he had criticized number of participants of an LGBTI festival in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. the city of Zapporizhhya. In June, the office of the online newspaper Strana.ua was searched as part of an VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS STRICTLYinvestigation into an alleged disclosure of Parliament had still not ratified the Council of state secrets, followed in August by searches Europe Convention on preventing and at the homes of its editor-in-chief Ihor Guzhva combating violence against women and and another journalist.UNTIL In July, the office of domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), the media holding company Vesti was which it signed in 2011. THURSDAY 378 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 CRIMEA ARMS TRADE The clampdown on the rights to freedom of On 28 September, the Secretary of the expression, association and assembly National Security and Defence Council, continued in Crimea. The authorities Oleksandr Turchinov, announced that continued to predominantly target ethnic Ukrainian state companies had decided to Crimean Tatars. The arbitrary ban on the freeze arms transfers to South Sudan. The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, a self- announcement came days after Amnesty governing body representing the ethnic International published a report which Crimean Tatars, continued. The Russian included contract documents and end-user Security Services raided dozens of Crimean certificates listing the Ukrainian state-owned Tatar homes, purportedly looking for illegal arms exporter Ukrinmash as the prospective weapons, drugs or “extremist” literature, as supplier of USD169 million worth of small part of their campaign to intimidate critics of arms and light weapons to the South the peninsula’s occupation. The few lawyers Sudanese Ministry of Defence.2 In response willing to take up cases in defence of critical to the report, the State Service of Export voices in Crimea faced harassment by the Control issued a statementGMT saying that the 2018 Russian authorities. contract in question had not been executed, On 26 January, lawyer Emil Kurbedinov was and that no weapons had been shipped from arrested and sentenced by a de facto court in Ukraine to South Sudan. In previous years, the Crimean capital, Simferopol, to 10 days of Ukraine had consistently reported exports of administrative detention. He was accused of small arms, light weapons and major violating Russian anti-extremist legislation weapons to the government of South Sudan. with a social media post predating the Ukraine had not yet ratified the Arms Trade Russian occupation of Crimea. In the post, Treaty, which it signed in September 2014. he had shared a video about a protest held 05:01 by the Muslim organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, 1. Put an end to impunity for detention-related abuses in the context of which is banned in Russia but not in the armed/ conflict in Ukraine (EUR 50/5558/2017) Ukraine. On 8 August, police in Simferopol 2. From London to Juba, a UK-registered company’s role in one of the used excessive force and arrested Server largest arms deals to South Sudan (ACT 30/7115/2017) Karametov for holding a placard outside the Crimean Supreme Court to protest at ET reprisals against Crimean EMBARGOEDTatars. He was FEBRUARY sentenced to 10 days in prison. On 22 UNITED ARAB September, Ukrainian journalist Mykola Semena was convicted for “threatening [the] EMIRATES territorial integrity of the Russian Federation” 22 in his publications and given a two-and-a- United Arab Emirates Head of state: Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan half-year conditional sentence and a three- Head of government: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al year ban on participating in “public Maktoum activities”. In September, Crimean00:01 Tatar leaders Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov The authorities continued to arbitrarily were given jail terms for their peaceful restrict freedoms of expression and activism. On 25 October, both were flown to association, using criminal defamation and Turkey and released, without an official anti-terrorism laws to detain, prosecute, explanation. Akhtem Chiygoz had spent 34 convict and imprison government critics STRICTLYmonths in detention, and Ilmi Umerov had and a prominent human rights defender. been forcibly held in a psychiatric institution Scores of people, including prisoners of since August or September 2016. Both were conscience, who were sentenced following prisoners of conscience.UNTIL unfair trials remained in prison. Authorities held detainees in conditions that could THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 379 amount to torture and failed to investigate In March, the government announced the allegations of torture made in previous creation of the Federal Public Prosecution for years. Women continued to face Information Technology Crimes, whose discrimination in law and in practice. mandate to investigate and prosecute crimes Migrant workers remained vulnerable to included peaceful expression. In August, exploitation and abuse. Courts continued to authorities in Dubai imposed a one-month hand down death sentences; there was one suspension of the news website Arabian execution. Business for publication of “false information” regarding unsuccessful real BACKGROUND estate projects. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) remained Also in March, leading human rights part of the Saudi Arabia-led international defender Ahmed Mansoor was arrested. He coalition engaged in armed conflict in Yemen. had had no access to a lawyer by the end of Along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE trained, the year. He was held in solitary confinement funded and supported forces in Yemen, and, except for two family visits, in some of which were under its direct report. incommunicado detention,GMT in violation of the 2018 These forces engaged in arbitrary and illegal prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. detention practices, including in Aden where Also in March, the Federal Appeal Court in they perpetrated a campaign of arbitrary the capital, Abu Dhabi, upheld the 10-year detention and enforced disappearances (see prison sentence of Dr Nasser Bin Ghaith, a Yemen entry). The UAE joined Saudi Arabia, prisoner of conscience. He was arbitrarily Bahrain and Egypt in severing ties with Qatar detained in 2015 and stated during his trial (see Qatar entry). that he had been tortured. In April, he went In September, the UN CERD Committee on hunger strike to protest against not being reiterated its call on the UAE to establish a permitted 05:01to see the verdict of the appeal national human rights institution, in line with court or meet with his lawyer. the Paris Principles. The authorities rejected In June,/ UAE’s Attorney General announced or took no action on statements and that anyone expressing sympathy with Qatar recommendations from UN human rights could face up to 15 years’ imprisonment and bodies, including those issued jointly by fines. In July, Ghanim Abdallah Matar was special procedures, the High Commissioner ETdetained for a video he posted online in for Human Rights and theEMBARGOED Working Group on which he expressed FEBRUARY sympathy towards the Arbitrary Detention. people of Qatar. In June, a Belgian court convicted in their The Federal Supreme Court upheld the absence eight women from Abu Dhabi’s three years’ imprisonment, a fine of ruling Al Nahyan family of trafficking in Dh500,00022 (USD136,135) and deportation persons and of the degrading treatment of up sentence against Jordanian journalist and to 23 women domestic workers. prisoner of conscience Tayseer al-Najjar. He had been detained since December 2015 for FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION00:01 AND Facebook posts deemed “damaging [to] the ASSOCIATION reputation and prestige of the Emirati state”. Authorities continued to arbitrarily restrict Human rights defender and prisoner of freedoms of expression and association, conscience Dr Mohammad al-Roken using the Penal Code and anti-terrorism and remained in prison, serving a 10-year cybercrime laws that criminalized peaceful sentence imposed after an unfair mass trial STRICTLYcriticism of state policies or officials. At least in 2013 (known as the “UAE 94” trial). In 13 people were arrested or tried on such May, he was awarded the Ludovic Trarieux grounds. In Dubai, two men were arrested for International Human Rights Prize. “dressing in aUNTIL feminine way”, in violation of their right to freedom of expression. THURSDAY 380 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT its terms, and stipulated that disputes would Reports of torture and other ill-treatment, be adjudicated by specialized tribunals as including denial of medical care to detainees, well as by courts. However, workers remained remained common. No independent vulnerable to employers accusing them of investigations were carried out into detainees’ overly broad and vague crimes such as allegations of torture. “failing to protect their employer’s secrets”, In May, detainees in al-Razeen Prison in which carry fines of up to Dh100,000 Abu Dhabi, including Imran al-Radwan, (USD27,225) or a six-month prison sentence. undertook a hunger strike to protest against In September the UN CERD Committee enforced strip searches, alleged sexual expressed concern over the lack of harassment and other ill-treatment by prison monitoring and enforcement of measures to guards. protect migrant workers, and over barriers faced by migrant workers in accessing JUSTICE SYSTEM justice, such as their unwillingness to submit The authorities refused to release at least five complaints for fear of adverse repercussions. prisoners on completion of their sentence, GMT 2018 including Osama al-Najjar, a prisoner of DEATH PENALTY conscience arrested in 2014. Prison Courts handed down death sentences; one authorities at al-Razeen Prison, where those execution was carried out on 23 November. convicted in the UAE 94 case were detained, routinely harassed family members and prevented them from visiting their imprisoned relatives. UNITED KINGDOM United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland WOMEN’S RIGHTS Head of state:05:01 Queen Elizabeth II Women remained subject to discrimination in Head of government: Theresa May law and in practice, notably in matters of / marriage and divorce, inheritance and child Women in Northern Ireland continued to custody. They were inadequately protected face significant restrictions on access to against sexual violence and violence within abortion. Counter-terrorism laws continued the family. ETto restrict rights. Full accountability for EMBARGOEDtorture allegations FEBRUARY against UK intelligence WORKER’S RIGHTS – MIGRANT agencies and armed forces remained WORKERS unrealized. Migrant workers, who comprised the vast majority of the private workforce, continued LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL22 OR to face exploitation and abuse. They INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS remained tied to employers under the kafala In March, the Prime Minister triggered Article sponsorship system and were denied 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, collective bargaining rights. Trade00:01 unions officially starting the withdrawal by the UK remained banned and migrant workers who from the EU (Brexit). In July, the EU engaged in strike action faced deportation (Withdrawal) Bill received its first reading in and a one-year ban on returning to the UAE. the House of Commons. The Bill threatened In September, Federal Law No.10 of 2017 to significantly reduce existing human rights came into effect, limiting working hours and protections. It excluded both the EU Charter STRICTLYproviding for weekly leave and 30 days’ paid of Fundamental Rights (in its entirety) and annual leave as well as the right to retain the right of action for violations of EU General personal documents. The law appeared to Principles from domestic law after the UK’s enable employeesUNTIL to end their contract of withdrawal. It also handed sweeping powers employment if the employer violated any of to ministers to alter legislation without THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 381 appropriate parliamentary scrutiny, placing imprisonment. Similar uplifts to discretionary current rights and equality laws at risk. sentences were also proposed to the offence of eliciting information about the armed JUSTICE SYSTEM forces. In January, the government committed itself In September, Muhammed Rabbani, to completing the post-implementation review Director of the advocacy group CAGE, was of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment convicted of “wilfully obstructing or seeking of Offenders Act 2012, by April 2018. Legal to frustrate an examination or search” under aid in civil cases had dropped drastically Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He since the Act was introduced. In October, an had refused to disclose the passwords for his internal post-legislative review memorandum laptop and phone to police at Heathrow was published and plans for completion of Airport in London. By June, police had the review proper were announced for stopped 17,501 people under Schedule 7 mid-2018. powers, which did not require any suspicion In July, Lady Hale was appointed the first of wrongdoing. woman president of the Supreme Court. GMT 2018 There was only one other woman Justice at TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT the Court, and just 28% of all court judges TORTURE IN NORTHERN IRELAND were women. Representation of ethnic The 2014 request by the Irish government to minorities among judges also remained a review the 1978 judgment in Ireland v. UK, concern; only 7% declared to be a member on torture techniques used in internment in of an ethnic minority. Northern Ireland in 1971-1972, remained pending before the European Court of COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY Human Rights (ECtHR). In October, the High Between March and June, 41 people were Court in Northern05:01 Ireland quashed a decision killed, including the attackers, and many by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to others injured in attacks in London, the end preliminary/ inquiries into torture of the capital, and Manchester. In June, the 14 “Hooded Men”, who were abused while in government announced that it would review detention in Northern Ireland by the British its counter-terrorism strategy and commission army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in an independent “assurance” of the internal ET1971. reviews conducted by theEMBARGOED Security Service RENDITION FEBRUARY (MI5) and the police around the attacks. In In January, the Supreme Court issued a June, plans for a “Commission for Countering judgment in the joined appeals in Belhaj and Extremism” were announced. Others v. Jack Straw and In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Others and 22Rahmatullah v. Ministry of rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of Defence and Another. It ruled that the association issued a report warning that the government could not rely on the legal government’s approach to “non-violent doctrines of “sovereign immunity” and extremism” risked violating both00:01 freedoms. “foreign act of state” to escape civil claims in In October, the government announced its the two cases alleging UK involvement in intention to propose amendments to Section human rights violations by foreign 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding the governments. The first case concerned collection, recording or possession of allegations by former Libyan opposition information likely to be useful to a person leader Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and his wife STRICTLYcommitting or preparing an act of terrorism. Fatima Boudchar that they had been The proposals sought to expand the scope of subjected to rendition, torture and other ill- the offence to include repeated viewing or treatment in 2004 by the US and Libyan streaming of onlineUNTIL material, and making governments, with the knowledge and co- such viewing punishable by up to 15 years’ operation of UK officials. The second case THURSDAY 382 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 was brought by Yunus Rahmatullah, detained having acknowledged previously that there by UK forces in Iraq in 2004 before being had been “collusion” in the case. handed over to US forces and allegedly tortured and imprisoned without charge for SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS over 10 years. Abortion remained criminalized in Northern ARMED FORCES Ireland in almost every circumstance. Allegations of war crimes committed by UK Abortion was permitted only where the life or armed forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2008 health of the woman or girl was at risk. remained under preliminary examination by Women faced criminal prosecution for taking the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. On 3 WHO-approved medication to induce December, the Office declared that there was abortions. To access abortions, 724 women a reasonable basis to believe that members from Northern Ireland travelled to England of the UK armed forces committed war and Wales in 2016. crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court In June, in the case of a 15-year-old girl against persons in their custody. An who travelled to England for an abortion, and admissibility assessment was ongoing. her mother, the Supreme CourtGMT ruled that 2018 In April, the House of Commons Defence women resident in Northern Ireland were not Select Committee issued a report in which it entitled to free abortions on the National proposed to introduce a Statute of Limitations Health Service. In September, the threat of with regard to alleged crimes committed by prosecution against medical professionals in British soldiers and other security forces Northern Ireland who made abortion referrals personnel in Northern Ireland before 1998. to Great Britain was lifted. The UK Supreme Court case challenging SURVEILLANCE Northern Ireland’s abortion law was ongoing. Proceedings brought by Amnesty The case 05:01considered whether the law International and other applicants were breached women’s rights by prohibiting pending before the ECtHR regarding the abortions/ in cases of rape or incest and legality of the pre-Investigatory Powers Act, serious/fatal foetal impairment. A ruling was mass surveillance regime and intelligence expected in early 2018. sharing practices. The judgment was pending Arrangements for women resident in at the end of the year. ETNorthern Ireland to access free abortion EMBARGOEDservices in EnglandFEBRUARY and Scotland were NORTHERN IRELAND – LEGACY ISSUES confirmed in October and November In January, the Historic Institutional Abuse respectively. Inquiry published findings from the investigation into 22 residential children’s DISCRIMINATION22 institutions in Northern Ireland, covering the In January, the Scottish government set up period from 1922 to 1995. It found an independent review into hate crime laws widespread and systemic failings by the UK in Scotland. and institutions in their duties towards00:01 the Northern Ireland remained the only part of children in their care. The government had the UK to deny same-sex couples the right to not implemented any of the marriage. In July, thousands of people took recommendations at the end of the year. part in a march in the city of Belfast calling The government continued to refuse for marriage equality. funding to implement plans by the Lord Chief In September, an independent review into STRICTLYJustice of Northern Ireland to address the ethnic minority individuals in the criminal backlog of “legacy” coroners’ inquests. justice system in England and Wales was The government continued to refuse to published. It found that ethnic minorities establish an independentUNTIL public inquiry into were disproportionately represented in the 1989 killing of Patrick Finucane, despite prisons, with 25% of prisoners (despite THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 383 making up 14% of the population in the to exclude basic safeguards on taking, counties reviewed), and that 40% of young holding and using personal data for the people in custody were from ethnic minority purpose of “effective immigration control”. backgrounds. In October, the High Court ruled that the In August, the UN Committee on the Rights Home Office’s “Adults at Risk” policy on the of Persons with Disabilities severely criticized detention of victims of torture was unlawful. the UK for failing to ensure the rights of people with disabilities with respect to, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS among other things, education, employment, In June, the Prime Minister announced plans and an adequate standard of living and social for adopting a new Domestic Violence and protection. Abuse Bill and appointing a Domestic Violence and Abuse Commissioner. The RIGHT TO LIFE government was yet to ratify the Council of During the night of 13-14 June, at least 71 Europe Convention on Violence against people died and dozens were injured in a fire Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul at the Grenfell Tower social housing block in Convention), which it signedGMT in 2012. 2018 London. In September, a public inquiry into Concerns remained about the impact of the cause of the fire, the emergency services’ austerity-led cuts on funding for specialist and authorities’ responses, the building’s services for women who had experienced construction and modifications, as well as the domestic violence or abuse. adequacy of the regulatory framework began. The fire raised questions concerning the ARMS TRADE authorities’ and private actors’ compliance The UK continued to supply arms to Saudi with their human rights obligations and Arabia despite ongoing serious violations of responsibilities including protection of the international05:01 humanitarian law by the Saudi right to life and guaranteeing an adequate Arabia-led coalition in Yemen. standard of living, including the right to / adequate housing. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS UNITED STATES OF The government continued to extend ET immigration-related controlsEMBARGOED across public AMERICA FEBRUARY and private life, collecting children’s United States of America nationality and country of birth data from Head of state and government: Donald Trump schools and widening nationality and (replaced Barack Obama in January) immigration checks on access to free health 22 care. Executive orders to suspend travel to the In July, the government ended its so-called USA from several Muslim-majority countries “Dubs Amendment” scheme under which sparked legal challenges, which continued 480 unaccompanied refugee children00:01 who through the year. There were major attacks were already in Europe were to be resettled in on the rights of women and girls. Eighteen the UK. No children were resettled in 2017, detainees were transferred from the US despite 280 local authority places available naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; 41 for them. A legal challenge to the detainees remained at the base and pre- government’s limited implementation of the trial military commission proceedings STRICTLYscheme, brought by the NGO Help Refugees, continued. Gun violence remained high. was unsuccessful before the High Court and Death sentences were handed down and an appeal was lodged. executions were carried out. In September,UNTIL the government introduced a Data Protection Bill that included a provision THURSDAY 384 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 BACKGROUND could be applied to refugees being supported On 20 January, Donald Trump was sworn in by resettlement agencies. as President, following an election campaign A second revision of the order, signed on 24 in which he made comments and promised September, indefinitely banned immigration policies that were discriminatory or otherwise into the USA by nationals of seven countries: contradicted international human rights Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, principles. Syria and Yemen. It also banned the issuance of certain types of non-immigrant visas to REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS nationals of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, A number of executive orders affecting Syria and Yemen, and specifically barred migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees were visas for Venezuelan officials from certain signed by President Trump during the year. government agencies and their families. On Two orders dated 25 January called for a wall 17 October, federal judges in Hawaii and to be built along the USA-Mexico border, Maryland again ruled against the measure, allowed for refoulement (forcible return) and blocking the government from enforcing it on the increased detention of asylum-seekers nationals from six of the countries.GMT On 13 2018 and their families, increased the functions November, a federal appeals court panel and number of immigration and customs allowed the third ban to take effect for people enforcement agents, prioritized deportation of with no legitimate ties to the USA. migrants, especially those suspected of On 24 October, President Trump issued an crimes, and cancelled funding for “sanctuary executive order to resume USRAP “with cities” that did not co-operate with federal enhanced vetting procedures”. On 4 authorities in apprehending irregular December the Supreme Court granted the migrants. administration’s request to temporarily allow A third executive order signed on 27 the latest 05:01so-called “Muslim ban” to take full January banned entry of foreign nationals effect as the case continued to be litigated. from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria On 16/ August, the federal Department of and Yemen for 90 days, suspended the US Homeland Security terminated the Central Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for American Minors programme. The 120 days, reduced the number of refugees programme had allowed those under 21 eligible for entry during the 2017 fiscal year ETyears of age fleeing violence in El Salvador, from 110,000 to 50,000, EMBARGOEDand imposed an Guatemala and Honduras,FEBRUARY whose parents indefinite ban on the resettlement of refugees had regular status in the USA, to apply for from Syria. The order immediately led to refugee resettlement interviews before chaos, protests and legal challenges on the travelling to the USA. Children from those basis of discrimination towards Muslims. A three countries22 who did not qualify for week later a federal judge issued a refugee status and had no other means of nationwide temporary injunction, which was reuniting with their parents had also been upheld on appeal. The government issued a able to apply for entry under the programme. revised version of the order on 00:016 March, On 5 September, the government again suspending USRAP for 120 days, announced that it would end the Deferred repeating the limit of 50,000 refugees, and Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) imposing a 90-day ban on entry into the USA programme in six months if Congress did not of nationals of six countries (the original find a legislative solution regarding the seven minus Iraq). Federal judges in the immigration status of those protected by the STRICTLYstates of Maryland and Hawaii issued programme, placing more than 800,000 nationwide injunctions temporarily blocking individuals at risk of deportation. DACA’s aim its implementation. On 26 June, the Supreme was to protect from deportation migrant youth Court allowed UNTILa limited version of the order to who came to the USA as children and met take effect. The Court also ruled that the ban certain eligibility criteria. Congress introduced THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 385 the DREAM Act to provide DACA discrimination against LGBTI people in state beneficiaries with a means to obtain regular and federal law. Further discriminatory migration status; it had not been passed into measures by the government against LGBTI law at the end of the year. people increased. The USA continued to lack More than 17,000 unaccompanied children federal protections banning discrimination on and 26,000 people travelling as families were the grounds of sexual orientation and gender apprehended after irregularly crossing the identity in the workplace, housing or health border with Mexico between January and care. Transgender people continued to be August. Families were detained for months, particularly marginalized. President Trump’s many without proper access to medical care administration overturned guidelines that and legal counsel, while pursuing claims to protected transgender students in public remain in the USA. schools who used facilities that corresponded with their gender identity. In August, WOMEN’S RIGHTS President Trump ordered a reversal in the Attacks on the rights of women and girls were policy announced in 2016 to allow openly broad and multi-faceted. President Trump’s transgender individuals to GMTenlist in the 2018 administration overturned policies that military, which had been due to take effect on required universities to investigate sexual 1 January 2018. On 30 October, a federal violence as gender discrimination and judge issued a preliminary injunction suspended equal pay initiatives that had blocking implementation of the directive. In helped women to identify whether they were December, a judge ruled that transgender being paid less than male colleagues. Attacks people would be allowed to enlist in the on women’s reproductive health and rights military from 1 January 2018, as legal cases were particularly virulent. There were proceeded. repeated efforts by the government and 05:01 Congress to withdraw funding from Planned COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY Parenthood − a health organization providing On 28/ November, a federal jury in vital reproductive and other health services, Washington DC convicted Libyan national particularly to women on low incomes. The Ahmed Abu Khatallah on terrorism charges government issued rules exempting relating to an attack on a US diplomatic employers from providing health insurance ETcompound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 in coverage for contraceptionEMBARGOED if it conflicted with which four US nationalsFEBRUARY were killed. The jury their religious or moral beliefs, putting acquitted him of murder. In August, the millions of women at risk of losing access to judge had ruled that any statements made by contraception. Gross inequalities remained Ahmed Abu Khatallah while held for Indigenous women in accessing care incommunicado22 for nearly two weeks on following rape, including access to board a US naval vessel after being seized by examinations, forensic evidence kits for use US forces in Libya could be admitted as by medical staff, and other essential health evidence. On 29 October, US forces seized care services. The government 00:01also another Libyan national, Mustafa al-Imam, in introduced the so-called “global gag rule”, Libya. He was flown to the USA and prohibiting any US financial assistance to any appeared in federal court on 3 November hospitals or organizations that provide after five days’ incommunicado detention. At information about, or access to, safe and the end of the year he was facing trial for legal abortion care. terrorism offences in relation to the Benghazi STRICTLY attack. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, After an attack in New York on 31 October TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE in which eight people died and 12 were Murders of LGBTIUNTIL people increased during injured, Uzbek national Sayfullo the year, against a background of continuing Habibullaevic Saipov was charged and due to THURSDAY 386 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 be tried in federal court, despite calls from senior government roles: Gina Haspel, two senior Senators for his transfer to military selected in February for the role of Deputy custody as an “enemy combatant” and Director of the CIA; Steven Bradbury, comments from President Trump that he nominated for General Counsel at the would consider sending him to Guantánamo Department of Transportation; and Steven Bay. President Trump flouted the Engel, nominated to head the Office of Legal presumption of innocence in a series of posts Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice. on Twitter in which he called for the death Gina Haspel was believed to have been CIA penalty for Sayfullo Saipov. Chief of Staff in Thailand in 2002 when the In January, under the administration of CIA ran a so-called “black site” in which at President Barack Obama, 18 detainees were least two detainees were subjected to torture transferred from Guantánamo Bay detention and enforced disappearance. She was later centre to Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Chief of Staff to the Director of the Arab Emirates. Most of the remaining 41 Counterterrorism Center, the branch of the Guantánamo Bay detainees were held CIA that ran the secret detention programme. without charge or trial. President Trump had As Acting Assistant AttorneyGMT General at the 2018 made a pre-election pledge to keep the OLC between 2005 and 2009, Steven detention facility open and increase the Bradbury authored a number of numbers of detainees held there; no further memorandums to the CIA giving legal detainee transfers were made into or out of approval to methods of interrogation and Guantánamo Bay during the year. conditions of detention that violated the Refusal in October by the Supreme Court to international prohibition of torture and other consider two jurisdictional challenges allowed ill-treatment. As Deputy Assistant Attorney military commission proceedings to continue General at the OLC in 2007, Steven Engel at Guantánamo Bay, in contravention of was also involved05:01 in the writing of one of international fair trial standards. those memorandums. On 7 November, the In October, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Senate/ confirmed his appointment by 51 Haza al-Darbi, a Saudi Arabian national, was votes to 47. On 14 November, by 50 votes to sentenced by military commission to 13 47, the Senate confirmed the appointment of years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty in Steven Bradbury. Gina Haspel’s appointment 2014 to conspiracy, terrorism and other ETdid not require Senate confirmation. offences. He had been arrestedEMBARGOED in Azerbaijan A civil jury trial ofFEBRUARY James Mitchell and John in June 2002 and handed over to US agents “Bruce” Jessen, two CIA-contracted two months later. psychologists who had leading involvement in its detention programme, was due to begin TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT on 5 September.22 However, in August an out- In an interview on 25 January, President of-court settlement was reached. Trump expressed his support for torture while On 19 June, the Supreme Court ruled in a stating that he would “rely” upon the case brought against former US officials by Secretary of Defense, the CIA Director00:01 and individuals of Arab or South Asian descent others in deciding whether the USA should who were among the hundreds of foreign use it. No action was taken to end impunity nationals taken into custody in the USA in the for the systematic human rights violations, wake of the attacks of 11 September 2001. including torture and enforced Following the attacks, detainees were held for disappearance, committed in a secret months in harsh conditions and reported a STRICTLYdetention programme operated by the CIA range of abuses. The Supreme Court stated after the attacks on 11 September 2001. that if the allegations were true, then what At least three people alleged to have been happened to the detainees “was tragic”, and involved in theUNTIL secret detention programme “nothing in this opinion should be read to were nominated by President Trump for condone the treatment to which they contend THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 387 they were subjected”. However, it ruled that military-grade equipment to law enforcement the case largely could not proceed, thus agencies. continuing a pattern of judicial remedies being blocked in cases involving human GUN VIOLENCE rights violations in the counter-terrorism In October a gunman used “bump stocks” – context since the 2001 attacks. accessories that modify firearms to allow rapid firing similar to that of fully automatic EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE firearms – against a crowd of concert-goers in The authorities continued to fail to track the Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 58 people. In exact number of people killed by law response to the massacre, Congress enforcement officials across the USA. Data considered legislation and regulations collected by The Washington Post newspaper banning such devices, but the measures put the total at 987 individuals killed during were not enacted. In November, Congress the year by law enforcement agents using introduced but failed to pass a separate piece firearms. According to the data, African of legislation aimed at preventing gun Americans – who comprised 13% of the violence. GMT 2018 population – represented nearly 23% of the Two pieces of federal legislation were victims in 2017. Of those killed, 24% were pending at the end of the year that would known to have mental health problems. A make it easier for people to obtain firearm proposal by the Department of Justice to silencers and carry concealed weapons. create a system to track these deaths under Legislation in place since 1996 continued to the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act was not deny funding to the Center for Disease compulsory for law enforcement agencies Control and Prevention to conduct or sponsor and therefore risked leading to under- research into the causes of gun violence and reporting. No information was released on ways to prevent05:01 it. whether the reporting process had been President Trump’s administration initiated during the year. considered/ relaxing restrictions on the export At least 40 people across 25 states died of small arms, including assault rifles and after police used projectile electro-shock ammunition, by shifting the responsibility for weapons on them, bringing the total number processing international non-military firearms of such deaths since 2001 to at least 802. ETsales from the Department of State to the Most of the victims were notEMBARGOED armed and did Department of Commerce.FEBRUARY The move would not appear to pose a threat of death or severely weaken oversight of arms sales and serious injury when the electro-shock weapon risked increasing the flow of firearms to was deployed. countries suffering high levels of armed In September, the acquittal of a former violence.22 police officer for shooting dead Anthony Lamar Smith in 2011 sparked weeks of DEATH PENALTY protests across the city of St Louis, Missouri, Twenty-three men were executed in eight and hundreds of arrests. There00:01 were states, bringing to 1,465 the total number of allegations by local civil rights organizations executions since the US Supreme Court that police unlawfully detained people and approved new capital laws in 1976. that their use of chemical irritants against Approximately 39 new death sentences were protesters amounted to excessive use of passed. Around 2,800 people remained on force. St Louis police used heavy-duty riot death row at the end of the year. STRICTLYgear and military-grade weapons and Arkansas conducted its first executions equipment to police the demonstrations. In since 2005. Ohio resumed executions after a August, President Trump annulled hiatus of more than three years. Florida restrictions putUNTIL in place by the previous conducted its first executions since January government that limited the transfer of some 2016, when the US Supreme Court ruled its THURSDAY 388 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 capital sentencing statute unconstitutional. overcrowding and access to health services The Florida Supreme Court’s decision that and education. the ruling applied only retroactively to about Pre-trial detention continued to be imposed half of those on death row allowed the state in the majority of cases and conditional to begin executing those deemed not to releases pending trial were often denied. benefit. During the year, the first death A proposed amendment to the Code on sentences were handed down under a new Children and Adolescents threatened to sentencing statute. increase the proportion of cases subject to During the year, four inmates were mandatory pre-trial detention and eliminate exonerated of the crimes for which they were time limits for such detentions, endangering originally sentenced to death in the states of the rights of young people in the juvenile Delaware, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana, penal system. bringing to 160 the number of such cases People with psychosocial disabilities since 1973. continued to be held against their will and in isolation in psychiatric institutions.GMT 2018 ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL URUGUAY RIGHTS Eastern Republic of Uruguay The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Head of state and government: Tabaré Vázquez Cultural Rights made several recommendations to Uruguay including Pre-trial detention continued to be imposed increasing the direct applicability of these widely. Impunity persisted for past crimes; rights in the judicial system; strengthening human rights defenders investigating such legislation against discrimination; adopting a crimes received death threats. Sexual and law on mental05:01 health in line with international reproductive health services were difficult standards; approving the comprehensive bill to access in rural areas and objectors to against/ gender-based violence; and ensuring providing abortion continued to obstruct the right to work for persons with disabilities. access to legal abortions. IMPUNITY BACKGROUND ETIn February, human rights defenders The Monitoring System forEMBARGOED investigating humanFEBRUARY rights violations that Recommendations (SIMORE), which since occurred during the military regime December 2016 has collected information on (1973-1985) reported receiving death Uruguay’s implementation of threats; the sources of these threats were not recommendations by international bodies, investigated.22 In May, human rights defenders still had no effective mechanism for civil denounced these threats at a hearing before society participation. There had yet to be full the Inter-American Commission on Human implementation of the Inter-institutional Rights, which the Uruguayan authorities did Network for the Elaboration of Reports00:01 and not attend. Monitoring of the Implementation of The national Working Group on Truth and Recommendations and Observations in the Justice, implemented in 2015, had not Field of Human Rights, also established in achieved concrete results regarding 2016. reparations for victims of past crimes under international law. STRICTLYDETENTION In October, the Supreme Court ruled that The National Human Rights Institute, through statutory limitations apply to crimes against the National Mechanism for the Prevention of humanity, hindering victims’ access to Torture, continuedUNTIL to document and report justice, and preventing the prosecution of human rights violations in prisons, including those suspected of criminal responsibility. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 389 RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, threat to national security. Local authorities TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE continued to draft thousands of medical There remained no comprehensive anti- personnel and teaching staff to work in the discrimination policy protecting LGBTI people cotton fields. Consensual sexual relations from violence in schools and public spaces between men remained a criminal offence. and ensuring their access to health services. BACKGROUND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS President Mirzioiev continued to introduce a There were 27 femicides between January number of wide-ranging political and and November, according to official data. The economic reform proposals, designed to end adoption and implementation of a past isolationist and repressive policies. An comprehensive law against gender-based action strategy on judicial reform was violence, as part of Uruguay’s 2016-2019 approved in February. It set out several Action Plan on gender-based violence, was priorities for systemic reform, including still pending. ensuring genuine judicial independence, increasing the effectivenessGMT and authority of 2018 SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS the judiciary, and ensuring robust judicial The lack of public policies to ensure access protection of the rights and freedoms of to health services in rural areas continued citizens. and access to sexual and reproductive health One of the legislative changes reduced the services in these areas remained limited. maximum time a person could be detained Obstacles to accessing abortions persisted before being brought before a judge from 72 due to a lack of regulation of conscientious to 48 hours. objection by physicians and other health In May, at the end of the first ever visit by personnel. the UN Office05:01 of the High Commissioner for High rates of child and adolescent Human Rights to Uzbekistan, the pregnancy continued, due in part to the Commissioner/ called on the President to absence of adequate sexual and reproductive translate his reform pledges into action for health services and information to prevent the effective protection of human rights. unplanned pregnancies. In November, the President issued a decree ETexplicitly prohibiting the use of torture to EMBARGOEDobtain confessions FEBRUARY and their admission as UZBEKISTAN evidence in court proceedings.

Republic of Uzbekistan FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – HUMAN Head of state : Shavkat Mirzioiev RIGHTS 22DEFENDERS AND JOURNALISTS Head of government : Abdulla Aripov The authorities eased some undue restrictions on the right to freedom of The authorities eased some undue expression. They allowed some critical restrictions on the media and 00:01the right to reporting by the media and released several freedom of expression. Several prisoners of prisoners convicted on politically motivated conscience and other prisoners serving long charges. However, the government retained sentences on politically motivated charges firm control of access to information. were released; their right to freedom of Independent and international media movement remained restricted. National platforms considered critical of the authorities STRICTLYSecurity Service (NSS) officers arbitrarily remained inaccessible. detained an independent journalist and In February, the authorities released tortured him to “confess” to anti-state Muhammad Bekzhanov, after he served 17 crimes. The authoritiesUNTIL continued to seek years in prison on politically motivated the return of people they considered a charges. He remained under curfew and THURSDAY 390 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 close police supervision. In July, Erkin accused his lawyer of misrepresenting the Musaev, a former military official and staff case to the public and forced Bobomurod member of the UN Development Programme, Abdullayev to dismiss him in favour of a was released early. He had been sentenced state-appointed one. to 20 years on fabricated espionage charges in 2006. Prisoners of conscience Azam FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT Farmonov and Salidzhon Abdurakhmonov, In August, the President announced that the human rights lawyer Agzam Turgunov and legal requirement for Uzbekistani nationals to two other human rights defenders were obtain permission to leave the country would released in October. All of them had been be abolished by 2019. Nevertheless, the tortured in detention. Prisoner of conscience authorities continued to impose travel Isroil Kholdorov remained in prison. restrictions on newly released prisoners who In July, during a visit to the EU, the Foreign had been convicted on politically motivated Minister extended invitations to international charges. Some former prisoners continued to NGOs and international media to visit be prevented from travelling abroad for Uzbekistan. The authorities granted limited urgent medical treatment.GMT 2018 access to some representatives of Human rights lawyer Polina Braunerg who international NGOs and media. used a wheelchair, died in May from a stroke Despite these positive developments, after being repeatedly refused permission to human rights defenders and independent travel abroad for medical treatment. journalists, both exiled and in Uzbekistan, as In October, Murad Dzhuraev, a former well as their families, continued to be Member of Parliament, who was released in subjected to smear campaigns online, on November 2015 after serving 20 years in national television and in the print media. prison on politically motivated charges, was Surveillance by the authorities in Uzbekistan finally allowed05:01 to travel to Germany for urgent and abroad reinforced the repressive medical treatment following mounting environment for human rights defenders, international/ pressure. On 4 December, he journalists and others. Technical and legal died suddenly before being able to leave the systems facilitated unlawful surveillance and country. failed to provide effective controls and On 22 February, journalist Muhammad remedies against abuse.1 ETBekzhanov was released after 17 years in On 27 September, NSS officersEMBARGOED detained prison. His sentenceFEBRUARY was handed down after independent journalist Bobomurod an unfair trial and torture, and arbitrarily Abdullayev as he was leaving his home in the extended. At the end of the year, he had not capital, Tashkent. He was held been granted permission to apply for an exit incommunicado for two weeks in an NSS visa to join22 his family abroad. He was not pre-trial detention facility, which is well allowed to travel to Tashkent for urgent known for the use of torture. The NSS medical treatment that he required as a accused him of using a pseudonym to consequence of the torture and other ill- publish online articles that called00:01 for the treatment he was subjected to. overthrow of the government and instigating unrest in Uzbekistan, crimes punishable by RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, up to 20 years in prison. NSS officers warned TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE his family not to contact human rights The authorities repeatedly stated that they organizations or the media, and allowed him had no intention of decriminalizing STRICTLYonly limited and supervised access to a consensual sexual relations between men, lawyer of his choice ten weeks after he was which constituted a crime punishable by a detained. In November, the authorities prison term of up to three years. extended his pre-trialUNTIL detention for another Same-sex consensual sexual relations three months. On 26 December, the NSS remained highly stigmatized, and LGBTI THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 391 people were regularly subjected to violence, “blacklist” of up to 18,000 people suspected arbitrary arrests, detention and discrimination of membership of banned or unregistered by state and non-state actors. religious movements and groups. However, security forces continued to detain FORCED LABOUR AND SLAVERY dozens of people accused of being members In August, a presidential decree formally of banned “extremist” groups, including banned the forcible recruitment of children, labour migrants returning from abroad. students, medical personnel and teaching Relatives and human rights activists reported staff to work in the cotton fields. During his that police and NSS officers tortured many of speech to the UN General Assembly in the people accused of illegal membership to September, President Mirzioiev “confess” to fabricated charges, and that acknowledged the use of forced labour in the judges continued to ignore credible cotton industry in Uzbekistan and pledged to allegations, even when confronted with end it. physical signs of torture in the court room, Nevertheless, human rights defenders and and admitted them as evidence. independent monitors detailed cases of In October, the UN SpecialGMT Rapporteur on 2018 hundreds of medical personnel and teaching freedom of religion or belief visited staff being forced to work in the cotton fields, Uzbekistan at the invitation of the authorities. in poor working conditions. In some regions, He was the first representative of the UN they documented children harvesting cotton, Special Procedures to be granted access to despite the August ban. The authorities Uzbekistan since 2002. In his preliminary threatened those who refused to work in the findings he noted that religious practice was cotton fields with large fines, dismissal or the “subject to excessive regulations that loss of social benefits. prioritize security over freedom”. Police and local authorities tried to stop 05:01 human rights activists from monitoring the COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY work in the cotton fields, in some cases using The authorities/ continued to secure forcible intimidation, force, and arbitrary detention. returns, including through extradition In March, police detained human rights proceedings, of Uzbekistani nationals they defender Elena Urlaeva and forcibly confined identified as threats to the “constitutional her in a psychiatric hospital for a month. This ETorder” or national security. was to prevent her from attendingEMBARGOED a NSS officers continuedFEBRUARY to abduct wanted scheduled meeting with visiting delegations individuals (so-called renditions) from from the World Bank and the ILO in Tashkent abroad. to discuss her findings of the common Those abducted or otherwise forcibly practice of forced labour in the cotton returned 22were placed in incommunicado industry. Between August and November, detention, often in undisclosed locations, and police repeatedly detained her for brief tortured or otherwise ill-treated to force them periods of time to stop her talking to medical to confess or incriminate others. In many and teaching staff in the cotton00:01 fields. cases, security forces pressured relatives not to seek support from human rights FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF organizations, and not to file complaints In August, the President publicly called for a about alleged human rights violations. review of the charges against people detained on suspicion of possessing banned religious 1. “We will find you, anywhere”: The global shadow of Uzbekistani STRICTLYor “extremist” materials. He also called for surveillance ( EUR 62/5974/2017) people who regretted joining unregistered Islamic movements, to be “rehabilitated”. The authoritiesUNTIL also announced that they had removed more than 15,000 names from a THURSDAY 392 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 Telecommunications Commission. Other VENEZUELA media outlets also faced the threat of closure, despite a 2015 ruling by the Inter-American Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Court of Human Rights declaring that such Head of state and government: Nicolás Maduro Moros closures violated freedom of expression. Anti-government protesters and some Venezuela remained in a state of opposition leaders were accused by the emergency, repeatedly extended since government of being a threat to national January 2016. A National Constituent security. Assembly was elected without the The government ordered the removal of participation of the opposition. The Attorney some foreign news channels including CNN, General was dismissed under irregular RCN and CARACOL from national television circumstances. Security forces continued to cable operators. In September, journalists use excessive and undue force to disperse from the online news and research portal protests. Hundreds of people were Armando.Info were threatened by arbitrarily detained. There were many unidentified actors for theirGMT investigations into 2018 reports of torture and other ill-treatment, cases of administrative corruption. including sexual violence against demonstrators. The judicial system FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY continued to be used to silence dissidents, Between April and July in particular, there including using military jurisdiction to were mass protests for and against the prosecute civilians. Human rights defenders government in various parts of the country. were harassed, intimidated and subject to The right to peaceful assembly was not raids. Conditions of detention were guaranteed. According to official data, at extremely harsh. The food and health crises least 120 05:01people were killed and more than continued to worsen, especially affecting 1,177 wounded – including demonstrators, children, people with chronic illness and members/ of the security forces and pregnant women. The number of bystanders – during these mass Venezuelans seeking asylum in other demonstrations. countries increased. There were also reports from the Attorney ETGeneral’s Office that groups of armed people BACKGROUND EMBARGOEDwith the support orFEBRUARY acquiescence of the The year was marked by growing public government carried out violent actions protests due to rising inflation and shortages against demonstrators. of food and medical supplies. The state of According to the local NGO Venezuelan emergency declared in January 2016 Penal Forum,22 5,341 people were arrested in remained in force, providing the government the context of the protests, of which 822 were with special powers to attend the economic tried. Of these, 726 civilians were subjected situation. Despite the political dialogue to military justice and charged with military processes initiated between the00:01 government crimes for demonstrating against the and the opposition during the year, there was government. At the end of the year, 216 no concrete progress in advancing human people remained in pre-trial detention. rights issues. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION In January the government relaunched its STRICTLYThe Office of the Special Rapporteur for public security programme, previously freedom of expression of the Inter-American named Operation Liberation of the People, Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) under the new name Operation Humanist expressed concernUNTIL about the closure of 50 Liberation of the People. Reports continued radio stations by the National of excessive use of force by security agents. THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 393 In the context of the demonstrations that the systematic and widespread use of took place between April and July, the excessive force during the protests between government announced the activation of the April and July, pointing to a pattern of violent “Zamora Plan”, with the objective to home raids and torture and other ill- “guarantee the functioning [of the] country treatment of detainees. The report also [and] its security” by mobilizing civilians expressed concern regarding difficulties alongside police and military forces to faced by international organizations in “preserve internal order”. However, the accessing the country, and victims’ fears of details of the plan were not made public. reporting abuses. The Bolivarian National Police and the Bolivarian National Guard – among other civil ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS and military security forces – continued to Amnesty International documented 22 use excessive and undue force against emblematic cases of people arbitrarily demonstrators. Between April and July there detained for political reasons through the was an increase in the deployment of military implementation of various unlawful forces to repress protests, resulting in an mechanisms since 2014. TheseGMT mechanisms 2018 increase in the excessive use of less-lethal included the use of military justice, arrests force and undue use of lethal force, including without a warrant, and the use of ambiguous firing tear gas directly at people’s bodies, and discretionary criminal definitions, among shooting multiple munitions such as rubber others, that demonstrated a much broader bullets, beatings, and use of firearms, all of pattern of efforts to silence dissent.1 At the which put protesters at risk of serious harm end of the year, 12 of these people were or death. granted alternative measures to detention; According to the Attorney General’s Office, the other 10 remained arbitrarily detained, Jairo Johan Ortiz Bustamante was killed by although the05:01 courts had ordered the release gunshot wounds during a protest in Miranda of many of them. state on 6 April and Juan Pablo Pernalete These/ documented cases included those of was killed by the impact of a tear gas bomb MP Gilber Caro and activist Steyci Escalona, to his chest during a protest in the capital, both members ​​of the opposition party Caracas, on 26 April. David Vallenilla, Popular Will, who were arbitrarily detained in Neomar Lander and Rubén Darío González ETJanuary after senior government authorities also died from injuries sustainedEMBARGOED during the publicly accused FEBRUARYthem of carrying out protests between April and July. “terrorist activities”. Despite Gilber Caro’s trial During this period, the civil society requiring authorization by Parliament, he organization Micondominio.com recorded at remained arbitrarily detained and his case least 47 illegal raids on multiple communities was submitted22 to military courts. Steyci and homes in 11 states across the country. Escalona was granted conditional release These raids were characterized by illegal use from pre-trial detention in November. By the of force, threats and mass arbitrary arrests, end of the year, neither had been brought to and were often linked to police 00:01and military trial. operations against protests that took place Hundreds of people reported that they were near the communities. The actions of the arbitrarily detained during the protests that security forces during these raids were illegal took place between April and July. Many and arbitrary and had indiscriminate effects. were denied access to medical care or a Groups of armed people also harassed and lawyer of their choice and in many cases STRICTLYintimidated residents during the raids with were subjected to military tribunals. There the acquiescence of the state security forces was a notable increase in the use of military present. justice to try civilians. In August, theUNTIL UN High Commissioner for In December, 44 people arbitrarily detained Human Rights published a report highlighting for what local NGOs considered to have been THURSDAY 394 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 politically motivated reasons were released Lawyers representing people on trial before with alternative restrictions on their freedom. military courts reported being harassed and intimidated by government authorities, TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT putting great pressure on those defending Many new reports of torture and other ill- people critical of the government. treatment were received. Wilmer Azuaje, a member of the Legislative Council of Barinas JUSTICE SYSTEM state, was arrested in May. His family The justice system continued to be subject to reported that during his detention he was government interference, especially in cases locked in a noxious-smelling room, involving people critical of the government or handcuffed for long periods of time and those who were considered to be acting sometimes kept incommunicado, conditions against the interests of the authorities. The that constitute cruel treatment. In July, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service Supreme Court of Justice ordered his transfer continued to ignore court decisions to to house arrest; however, at the end of the transfer and release people in its custody. year Wilmer Azuaje remained at the 26 July Two police officers from theGMT Chacao 2018 Detention Centre without any charges against municipality remained arbitrarily detained him or any improvement in his conditions of since June 2016, despite a warrant being detention. issued for their release in August 2016. During the demonstrations between April Twelve other officers accused in the same and July, there were reports of ill-treatment criminal case who had also been arbitrarily by state officials during arrests of protesters, detained since June 2016 were released in including kicking, beatings and sexual December. In June 2017, the 14 officers violence. went on hunger strike, some for 23 days, in order to demand05:01 that the authorities release HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS them in compliance with the judicial order.5 Human rights defenders and individuals who In August,/ four opposition officials who had sought justice for human rights violations been elected to public office were arrested continued to be subjected to attacks and and five others had arrest warrants issued smear campaigns, in an apparent attempt to against them. These warrants were issued by halt their human rights work. ETthe Supreme Court in a proceeding that was In February, transgenderEMBARGOED lawyer Samantha not enshrined in law.FEBRUARY A total of 11 officials Seijas was threatened by a police official elected by popular vote were removed from while filing a complaint at a police station in office in irregular proceedings. Aragua state accompanied by his daughter.2 In May, authorities raided the home of PRISONERS22 OF CONSCIENCE human rights defender Ehisler Vásquez in the Leopoldo López, leader of the opposition city of Barquisimeto, Lara state. When he party Popular Will and a prisoner of requested information on the reason for the conscience, was moved to house arrest in raid, the Public Prosecutor’s Office00:01 August. During his detention at the National threatened to charge him with a crime.3 Later Centre for Military Proceedings in Ramo that month in the same city, a group of Verde, Caracas, there had been several unidentified people stormed the home of reports of abuses against him, including human rights defenders Yonaide Sánchez torture and denial of visits from his lawyers and Nelson Freitez.4 and family. STRICTLYHuman rights defenders were intimidated Villca Fernández, a student and political by state media and high-ranking government activist from the state of Mérida and a officials, who publicly announced their prisoner of conscience, remained arbitrarily names and contactUNTIL details while accusing detained by the Bolivarian National them of “terrorism”. Intelligence Service in Caracas. He had been THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 395 repeatedly denied urgent medical care and victims of murder, torture and other violations had reported other ill-treatment since his by state actors were yet to receive justice or detention in January 2016.6 reparation. The Attorney General’s Office announced INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY investigations into killings in the context of In May, Venezuela announced that it was protests between April and July 2017. The withdrawing from the Organization of National Constituent Assembly, established American States and therefore from the on 30 July, appointed a Truth Commission to authority of the IACHR, further limiting the investigate cases of human rights violations protection for victims of human rights during the protests; there were concerns violations in Venezuela. about its independence and impartiality. Decisions and rulings from international There were reports of victims or their families human rights monitoring mechanisms were being pressured by authorities to testify and still not implemented at the end of the year, agree on facts that could waive the especially regarding the investigation and responsibility of state agents for these punishment of those responsible for human violations, as well as obstaclesGMT to the work of 2018 rights violations. defence lawyers working with human rights In November, Venezuela received a visit organizations. from the UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable DETENTION international order. Visits from the UN Special Despite reforms to the penitentiary system in Rapporteur on the right to development, and 2011, prison conditions remained extremely the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative harsh. Lack of medical care, food and impact of unilateral coercive measures on the drinking water, insanitary conditions, enjoyment of human rights, were announced overcrowding05:01 and violence in prisons and for 2018. other detention centres continued. During clashes/ inside penitentiary centres, the use of ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES firearms remained commonplace among Former Minister of Defence and detained inmates. Many detainees resorted to hunger government critic Raúl Isaías Baduel was strikes to protest against the conditions of unexpectedly taken from his cell at the ETtheir detention. National Centre for MilitaryEMBARGOED Proceedings in The IACHR expressedFEBRUARY concern over the Ramo Verde, Caracas, on the morning of 8 deaths of 37 detainees at the Amazon August; he remained disappeared for 23 Judicial Detention Centre in August during days. The authorities then acknowledged that clashes that took place when the Bolivarian he was being held at the facilities of the National 22Guard and the Bolivarian National Bolivarian National Intelligence Service in Police reportedly attempted to search the Caracas, where he was held incommunicado premises. and denied access to his family and lawyers for more than a month.7 00:01 RIGHT TO FOOD The Documentation and Analysis Centre for IMPUNITY Workers reported that in December the Most victims of human rights violations basket of consumer goods for a family of five, continued to lack access to truth, justice and which is used to define the consumer price reparation. Victims and their families were index, was 60 times the minimum wage, STRICTLYoften subjected to intimidation. representing a 2123% increase since In April, two officers of the Bolivarian November 2016. The humanitarian National Guard were sentenced for killing organization Caritas Venezuela found that Geraldine MorenoUNTIL during demonstrations in 27.6% of children studied were at risk of Carabobo state in 2014. The majority of THURSDAY 396 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 malnutrition and 15.7% of them suffered SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS mild to acute malnutrition. The economic crisis continued to limit access The government failed to acknowledge the to contraception. In June, in an online survey worsening food shortage caused by the carried out by the local NGO AVESA, 72% of economic and social crises. In its Global respondents had not been able to access any Report on Food Crises 2017, the UN Food contraceptives during the previous 12 and Agriculture Organization stated that it months, and 27% said that they could not lacked reliable official data on Venezuela and afford to buy contraceptives from that the deepening of the critical economic pharmacies. situation could lead to a greater absence of consumer goods such as food and medical REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS supplies. There was a notable increase in the number of Venezuelans seeking asylum in Brazil, RIGHT TO HEALTH Costa Rica, the USA, Spain, Peru, and After almost two years of publishing no Trinidad and Tobago. Other countries in the official data, in May the Ministry of Health region, including ColombiaGMT and Ecuador, also 2018 published the weekly epidemiological continued to receive large numbers of bulletins from 2016. The data revealed that Venezuelans seeking refuge. during 2016, there were 11,466 reported deaths of children under the age of one, an 1. Silenced by force: Politically motivated arbitrary detentions in increase of 30.1% from 2015, when this Venezuela (AMR 53/6014/2017) figure stood at 8,812. The most common 2. Venezuela: Trans man and daughter threatened by police (AMR causes of infant mortality were neonatal 53/5651/2017) sepsis, pneumonia and premature birth. In 3. Venezuela: Human rights defender harassed − Ehisler Vásquez (AMR addition, the bulletins showed that 324 cases 53/6252/201705:01) of diphtheria were reported in 2016. 4. Venezuela: Defenders’ home invaded, safety at risk (AMR 53/6324/2017/ ) WOMEN’S RIGHTS 5. Venezuela: Arbitrary detainees on hunger strike (AMR 53/6758/2017) The Ministry of Health bulletins indicated an 6. Venezuela: Prisoner of conscience needs medical care: Villca increase in instances of maternal mortality of Fernández (AMR 53/7464/2017) 65.8% from 2015 to 2016, with a total of 756 ET7. Venezuela: Detainee held incommunicado again: Raúl Isaías Baduel deaths recorded in 2016,EMBARGOED 300 more than in (AMR 53/7051/2017 ) FEBRUARY 2015. Lack of official data made it almost impossible to monitor the rate of femicides VIET NAM and other crimes against women. However, 22 the NGO Women’s Metropolitan Institute Socialist Republic of Viet Nam estimated that there were at least 48 Head of state: Trần Đại Quang femicides between January and May. Head of government: Nguyễn Xuân Phúc Ten years after the implementation00:01 of the Organic Law on Women’s Right to Live a Life Arbitrary restrictions on the rights to Free of Violence, local NGOs reported that freedom of expression, association and prosecutors, judges, police officers and other peaceful assembly continued. A crackdown officials remained poorly equipped to protect on dissent intensified, causing scores of women’s rights, and women often suffered activists to flee the country. Human rights STRICTLYre-victimization because of institutional defenders, peaceful political activists and violence. Other obstacles to implementing the religious followers were subjected to a range law included a lack of official data to plan of human rights violations, including and programmeUNTIL public policies to prevent arbitrary detention, prosecution on national and eradicate violence against women. security and other vaguely worded charges THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 397 in unfair trials, and long-term activists were particularly targeted, as well as imprisonment. Prominent activists faced social and environmental activists restrictions on movement and were subject campaigning in the aftermath of the 2016 to surveillance, harassment and violent Formosa Plastics toxic spill that killed tonnes assaults. Prisoners of conscience were of fish and destroyed the livelihoods of tortured and otherwise ill-treated. thousands of people. At least five members of Suspicious deaths in police custody were the independent Brotherhood for Democracy, reported, and the death penalty was co-founded by human rights lawyer and retained. prisoner of conscience Nguyễn Văn Đài, were arrested between July and December.1 They BACKGROUND were charged under Article 79 (activities Dozens of state company officials were aimed at overthrowing the People’s arrested and prosecuted during an anti- Administration), which carried a punishment corruption campaign, including those also of up to life imprisonment or the death holding government and Communist Party of penalty. Several were previous prisoners of Viet Nam positions. Several were sentenced conscience. In August, theGMT same additional 2018 to death for embezzlement. In July, state charge was brought against Nguyễn Văn Đài security officials abducted a former and his associate Lê Thu Hà, who had been businessman and government official while held incommunicado since their arrests in he was seeking asylum in Germany, and December 2015 on charges of “conducting forcibly returned him to Viet Nam to stand propaganda against the state” under Article trial for embezzlement and economic 88. mismanagement; Vietnamese authorities At least 98 prisoners of conscience were maintained that he had returned voluntarily. detained or imprisoned, an increase on During the assessment of Viet Nam’s previous years05:01 despite some releases on human rights record under the UN UPR completion of sentences. They included process, the government stated that by bloggers,/ human rights defenders working on February it had implemented 129 out of 182 land and labour issues, political activists, recommendations made during the review in religious followers and members of ethnic 2014. No amendments were made to vaguely minority groups. The authorities continued to worded national security legislation used ETgrant early release to prisoners of conscience against peaceful dissidentsEMBARGOED to bring it into line only if they agreedFEBRUARY to go into exile. Đặng with international law and standards. Xuân Diệu, a Catholic social activist and Viet Nam hosted meetings of the Asia- blogger arrested in 2011, was released in Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum January after serving six years of a 13-year throughout the year, including the leaders’ prison sentence.22 He was immediately flown summit in November. into exile in France. In July, Pastor Nguyễn Cong Chinh was released four years before REPRESSION OF DISSENT the end of his 11-year sentence and The crackdown on freedom of expression00:01 immediately flown to exile in the USA. Both and criticism of government actions and men were tortured and otherwise ill-treated policies intensified, causing scores of while imprisoned. peaceful activists to flee the country. At least Trials of dissidents routinely failed to meet 29 activists were arrested during the year, international standards of fairness; there was and others went into hiding after arrest a lack of adequate defence as well as denial STRICTLYwarrants were issued. They were charged of the presumption of innocence. Human mostly under vaguely worded provisions in rights defender and blogger Nguyễn Ngọc the national security section of the 1999 Như Quỳnh, also known as Mẹ Nấm, Penal Code orUNTIL detained on other spurious (Mother Mushroom), was sentenced to 10 charges. Bloggers and pro-democracy years’ imprisonment for THURSDAY 398 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 “conducting propaganda” (Article 88) in region, was denied follow-up treatment after June. Land and labour activist Trần Thị Nga a medical operation.4 Hòa Hảo Buddhist and received a nine-year sentence on the same land rights activist Trần Thị Thúy continued charge with five years’ house arrest upon to be denied adequate treatment for serious release in July.2 In October, after a trial lasting medical conditions since April 2015. just a few hours, student Phan Kim Khánh was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY and four years’ house arrest upon release, The authorities used unnecessary or after conviction under Article 88. He had excessive force to disperse and prevent criticized corruption and lack of freedom of peaceful gatherings and protests, in expression in Viet Nam on blogs and social particular those relating to the Formosa media. He was also accused of being in Plastics toxic spill in April 2016. In February, contact with “reactionaries” overseas. police and plain-clothes men attacked In May, the authorities revoked the around 700 mainly Catholic peaceful Vietnamese citizenship of former prisoner of protesters gathered in Nghệ An province conscience Phạm Minh Hoàng, a member of before marching to presentGMT legal complaints 2018 Viet Tan, an overseas-based group peacefully against Formosa Plastics. Several individuals campaigning for democracy in Viet Nam. He were injured and required hospital treatment, was forcibly deported to France in June. and others were arrested.5 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT DEATHS IN CUSTODY Reports continued of torture and other ill- Deaths in police custody in suspicious treatment, including beatings and other circumstances continued to be reported. Hòa assaults, of peaceful activists by individuals Hảo Buddhist Nguyễn Hữu Tấn died after believed to be acting in collusion with his arrest 05:01in May. Police claimed that he security police. In September, Viet Nam’s committed suicide, but his father said that initial report on implementation of the UN the injuries/ on his body suggested that he Convention against Torture, ratified in was tortured before being killed. November 2014, acknowledged challenges and difficulties in implementation due to an DEATH PENALTY “incomplete legal framework on human ETA Ministry of Public Security report published rights”, among other reasons.EMBARGOEDin February revealedFEBRUARY the extent of Prisoners of conscience were routinely held implementation of the death penalty, with an incommunicado during pre-trial detention, average of 147 executions annually between lasting up to two years. Detainees were August 2013 and June 2016. The report denied medical treatment and transferred to stated that22 five new lethal injection centres prisons distant from their family home. were to be built. Only one execution was The whereabouts of Nguyễn Bắc Truyển, a reported by official media during 2017, but human rights defender arrested in secret in more were believed to have been carried out. July, were not disclosed to his family00:01 until Death sentences were handed down for drug three weeks later. He was held offences and embezzlement. incommunicado and denied access to medication for pre-existing medical 1. Viet Nam: Four peaceful activists arrested in connection with long- 3 conditions. detained human rights lawyer (ASA 41/6855/2017) Denial of medical treatment was used to try 2. Viet Nam: Female activist sentenced to nine years in prison (ASA STRICTLYto force prisoners of conscience to “confess” 41/6833/2017) to crimes. Đinh Nguyễn Kha, an activist 3. Viet Nam: Missing human rights defender at risk of torture − Nguyễn sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for Bắc Truyển (ASA 41/6964/2017) distributing leafletsUNTIL critical of Viet Nam’s 4. Viet Nam: Necessary medical treatment denied to prisoner − Đinh response to China’s territorial claims in the Nguyễn Kha (ASA 41/5733/2017) THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 399 5. Viet Nam: Hundreds of peaceful marchers attacked by police (ASA controlled southern parts of Yemen including 41/5728/2017) the governorates of Lahj and Aden. On 4 December, Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed by Huthi forces consolidating their control over YEMEN Sana’a. Meanwhile, rival armed factions proliferated Republic of Yemen and vied to assert control against a Head of state: Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi background of economic collapse and Head of government: Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr widespread lawlessness, in the absence of functioning state institutions. All parties to the continuing armed conflict The authority of President Hadi, weak or committed war crimes and other serious absent in large swathes of the country, violations of international law, with continued to wane and faced challenges from inadequate accountability measures in multiple actors and entities. Through its place to ensure justice and reparation to Supreme Political Council, the Huthi-Saleh victims. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition alliance undertook, in the areasGMT under their 2018 supporting the internationally recognized control, responsibilities and functions of the Yemeni government continued to bomb state. This included the formation of a civilian infrastructure and carried out government, the appointment of governors indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring and the issuing of governmental decrees. civilians. The Huthi-Saleh forces In May, former Governor of Aden Aidarous indiscriminately shelled civilian residential al-Zubaydi, and Hani bin Brik, a former areas in Ta’iz city and fired artillery Minister of State, formed a 26-member indiscriminately across the border into Southern Transition Council. The Council, Saudi Arabia, killing and injuring civilians. which expressed05:01 the aim of an independent The Yemeni government, Huthi-Saleh forces South Yemen and which enjoyed public and Yemeni forces aligned to the United support,/ held several meetings and Arab Emirates (UAE) engaged in illegal established headquarters in the city of Aden. detention practices including enforced The continued conflict led to a political and disappearance and torture and other ill- security vacuum and the establishment of a treatment. Women and girls continued to ETsafe haven for armed groups and militias, face entrenched discriminationEMBARGOED and other assisted by outsideFEBRUARY states. Some of these abuses, including forced and early marriage forces were trained, funded and supported and domestic violence. The death penalty by the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Some local remained in force; no information was security forces, including the Hadrami Elite publicly available on death sentences or Forces and22 Security Belt Forces, were armed executions. and trained by and reported directly to the UAE. Such forces were characterized by in- BACKGROUND fighting and competing agendas. Yemen’s territorial divisions and00:01 controls The armed group al-Qa’ida in the Arabian became deeply entrenched as the armed Peninsula (AQAP) continued to control parts conflict continued between the internationally of southern Yemen and to carry out bomb recognized government of President Hadi, attacks in the governorates of Aden, Abyan, supported by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, Lahj and al-Bayda. Air strikes and strikes by and the Huthis and allied forces, which remotely piloted vehicles (drones) against STRICTLYincluded army units loyal to former President AQAP by US forces increased threefold. US Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Huthi-Saleh forces also carried out at least two ground authorities continued to control large parts of assault raids. The armed group Islamic State the country includingUNTIL the capital, Sana’a, (IS) continued to operate in parts of the while President Hadi’s government officially country, albeit on a small scale. THURSDAY 400 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 There was no progress in political launched by Huthi-Saleh forces in Ta’iz, negotiations nor any cessations of hostilities including shelling on a house in the Shab al- during the year. As military operations and Dhuba district and al-Sameel Market, killing fighting continued in and around the port three children and injuring seven others. cities of Mokha and Hodeidah, all parties to The Huthis and allied forces, as well as pro- the conflict refused to engage with the UN- government forces, continued to recruit and led process at different times depending on deploy child soldiers. military gains on the ground. VIOLATIONS BY THE SAUDI ARABIA-LED COALITION The UN reported that the Saudi Arabia-led ARMED CONFLICT coalition supporting President Hadi’s According to the Office of the UN High government continued to be the leading Commissioner for Human Rights, 5,144 cause of civilian casualties in the conflict. civilians, including more than 1,184 children, The coalition continued to commit serious had been killed and more than 8,749 violations of international human rights law civilians wounded since the conflict began in and humanitarian law with impunity. March 2015 until August 2017. The UN Coalition aircraft carried outGMT bomb attacks 2018 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian on areas controlled or contested by Huthi Affairs (OCHA) reported that more than two forces and their allies, particularly in the thirds of the population were in need of Sana’a, Ta’iz, Hajjah, Hodeidah and Sa’da humanitarian assistance and at least 2.9 governorates, killing and injuring thousands million people had fled their homes. The of civilians. Many coalition attacks were WHO reported that more than 500,000 directed at military targets, but others were people were suspected of having cholera due indiscriminate, disproportionate or directed to lack of clean water and access to health against civilians and civilian objects, facilities. Nearly 2,000 people had died of including 05:01funeral gatherings, schools, cholera since the outbreak began in 2016. markets, residential areas and civilian boats. The ongoing conflict was a major factor in the In March,/ a helicopter attacked a boat prevalence of cholera in Yemen. carrying 146 Somali migrants and refugees VIOLATIONS BY HUTHI-SALEH FORCES AND PRO- off the coast of the port city of Hodeidah, GOVERNMENT MILITIAS killing 42 civilians and injuring 34 others. Huthi and allied forces, including army units ETAnother attack in August on a residential loyal to former President Saleh,EMBARGOED continued to neighbourhood inFEBRUARY southern Sana’a killed 16 employ tactics that appeared to violate the civilians and injured 17 others, the majority of prohibition of indiscriminate attacks. They whom were children. indiscriminately fired explosive munitions Coalition forces used imprecise munitions in with wide-area effects, including mortars and some attacks,22 including large bombs with a artillery shells, into residential areas wide impact radius that caused casualties controlled or contested by opposing forces, and destruction beyond their immediate killing and injuring civilians. The city of Ta’iz strike location. They also continued to use was particularly affected, with such00:01 attacks cluster munitions in attacks in Sa’da intensifying at particular times including in governorate, despite such munitions being January and May. The UN reported that a widely prohibited internationally because of series of attacks from 21 May to 6 June their inherently indiscriminate nature. Cluster between Huthi and anti-Huthi forces killed at munitions scattered explosive bomblets over least 26 civilians and injured at least 61.The wide areas and presented a continuing risk STRICTLYHuthis and their allies also continued to lay because of their frequent failure to detonate internationally banned anti-personnel on initial impact. In February, the coalition landmines that caused civilian casualties. On fired Brazilian-manufactured rockets 15 September, theUNTIL UN reported a further containing banned cluster munitions on series of apparently indiscriminate attacks residential areas and farmland in Sa’da city, THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 401 injuring two civilians and causing material UAE-backed Yemeni forces in Aden damage. perpetrated a campaign of arbitrary detention AERIAL AND NAVAL BLOCKADE and enforced disappearances. Amnesty The coalition continued to impose a partial International documented 13 cases of sea and air blockade that was tightened in arbitrary detention during the year; some of November, purportedly to enforce the UN- these detainees were held incommunicado or sanctioned arms embargo on the Huthis and had been subjected to enforced Saleh-aligned forces. Throughout the year, disappearance. Members of the Baha’i these blockades curtailed the movement of community were also arbitrarily detained at people and goods, deepening the Aden International Airport by local forces humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict aligned with the UAE and were held without and contributing to violations of the right to charge for nine months. health and to an adequate standard of living, Professor and political figure Mustafa al- including adequate food. This contributed to Mutawakel was arbitrarily arrested by the pervasive food insecurity and what became internationally recognized Yemeni the world’s worst cholera epidemic. In March, government forces in MaribGMT on 27 April. He 2018 the NGO Save the Children reported that the remained in detention without charge. coalition prevented three of its aid shipments from reaching the port of Hodeidah, forcing IMPUNITY them to reroute to Aden and delaying the Since the conflict began, all parties delivery of aid for three months. In August, committed serious violations of international OCHA reported that four vessels carrying humanitarian law and violations and abuses more than 71,000 tonnes of fuel were denied of human rights law with absolute impunity. access to Hodeidah by the coalition. In Since its inception in September 2015, the November, 29 ships carrying essential National Commission05:01 to Investigate Alleged supplies were prevented by the coalition from Violations of Human Rights, established by reaching Hodeidah port, according to OCHA. the Yemeni/ government, failed to conduct prompt, impartial and effective investigations ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS consistent with international standards into The Huthi-Saleh forces, Yemeni government alleged human rights violations committed by and Yemeni forces aligned with the UAE ETall parties to the conflict in Yemen. Similarly, engaged in arbitrary and illegalEMBARGOED detention the Saudi Arabia-led FEBRUARY coalition investigative practices. Amnesty International documented mechanism continued to appear to lack the a few cases in Sana’a and Marib of civilians necessary impartiality and independence to being detained solely to be used as leverage carry out its work credibly. in future prisoner exchanges, which amounts With the22 proliferation of armed groups and to hostage-taking and is a violation of security forces without command and control international humanitarian law. and the lack of effective control of the central In Sana’a and other areas they controlled, government over its security forces and the Huthis and their allies continued00:01 to territories, the space for impunity further arbitrarily arrest and detain critics and widened. In its mid-term report, the UN opponents as well as journalists, private Panel of Experts on Yemen expressed individuals, human rights defenders and concern that member states of the coalition members of the Baha’i community, were expressly shielding themselves from subjecting scores to enforced disappearance. accountability and individual responsibility by STRICTLYFive Baha’i men remained in detention at the hiding behind the umbrella of the coalition. end of the year. One of the men had been In a positive development, the UN Human held for nearly four years, accused by the Rights Council passed a resolution in Huthis of apostasy,UNTIL which carries the death September mandating a group of experts to penalty under Yemeni law. investigate abuses by all parties in Yemen. THURSDAY 402 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 This constituted a first step towards justice authorities in Sana’a convicted journalist for victims of human rights abuses and grave Yahya al-Jubaihi and sentenced him to death violations of international law. on charges of spying. This was the first time the Huthi-Saleh authorities had sentenced FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND somebody to death. Yahya al-Jubaihi was ASSOCIATION released in September. The Huthis and their allies, as well as armed factions in Ta’iz, Aden and Sana’a, waged a campaign against journalists and human rights defenders, curtailing freedom of ZAMBIA expression in areas under their de facto Republic of Zambia administration. Head of state and government: Edgar Chagwa Lungu The Huthis and allied forces continued to hold at least nine journalists without charge; The authorities cracked down on critics, they had been arbitrarily detained for more including human rights defenders, than two years. Meanwhile in Aden and Ta’iz, journalists and oppositionGMT political party 2018 armed groups and security forces members. The Public Order Act was used to assassinated, harassed, intimidated, detained repress rights to freedom of expression, and in some cases tortured human rights association and assembly. The police used defenders and journalists, forcing some to unnecessary and excessive force against exercise self-censorship and others to flee peaceful protesters and failed to address Yemen. violence by groups close to the government. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the The judiciary came under verbal attack from Yemeni government prevented journalists the President. Levels of food insecurity in from entering Yemen, including by preventing rural areas05:01 remained high. the UN from allowing journalists onto their flights into Yemen, minimizing coverage and BACKGROUND/ effectively imposing a media blackout. This There was heightened tension between ban was also extended to human rights supporters of the President and of Hakainde organizations in May. Hichilema, leader of the opposition United ETParty for National Development (UPND), WOMEN’S RIGHTS EMBARGOEDfollowing the disputedFEBRUARY election results in The protracted conflict exacerbated existing 2016. Hakainde Hichilema refused to discrimination and inequality for women and recognize Edgar Chagwa Lungu as President. girls and gave rise to the adoption of negative The Constitutional Court rejected Hakainde coping mechanisms, such as child marriage, Hichilema’s22 petition against the results on especially in the governorates of Ta’iz, Hajjah, procedural grounds. The Court was also Hodeidah, Ibb and Sana’a. Societal and legal expected to deliver a judgment during 2018 protection mechanisms – however on whether President Lungu could run for inadequate – broke down. This00:01 left women president in the 2021 elections. and girls with less protection from, and fewer avenues of redress for, sexual and other FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND violence, including female genital mutilation, ASSOCIATION forced marriage and other abuses. The space for civil society, human rights defenders, journalists and opposition political STRICTLYDEATH PENALTY parties was increasingly restricted. The The death penalty remained in force for authorities continued to use the Public Order many crimes; no information was publicly Act to prevent political parties and civil available aboutUNTIL death sentences or society organizations from gathering. Section executions. On 12 April, the Huthi-Saleh 5(4) of the Act provided that anyone THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 403 intending to assemble or convene a public EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE meeting or demonstration was required to On 8 April, Hakainde Hichilema and other give the police seven days’ notice. However, UPND members − Lastone Mulilandumba, the police interpreted the law as imposing a Muleya Haachenda, Wallace Chakwa, requirement to obtain prior authorization for Pretorius Haloba and Hamusonde Hamaleka any public assembly to proceed. On 24 − were arrested and charged with treason August, police dispersed a prayer meeting and disobeying a lawful order following an convened to welcome Hakainde Hichilema’s earlier incident in which Hakainde release from Mukobeko Maximum Security Hichilema’s motorcade refused to give way to Prison in Kabwe city where he had been held President Lungu’s convoy. Police raided for four months on charges of treason, which Hakainde Hichilema’s house without a were dropped. warrant, using tear gas against him and his On 10 January, UK lawyer Oliver Holland family. On 28 April, his wife, Mutinta, was was arrested and charged under the Public threatened with arrest after she reported the Order Act with unlawful assembly for meeting police’s use of excessive force. No charges with a community in Chingola city who was had been brought against GMTthe police in 2018 challenging in court environmental pollution connection with the incident by the end of allegedly caused by a mining company. He the year. On 15 August, the Director of Public was released the same day and charges Prosecutions withdrew all charges against against him were dropped; however, he was Hakainde Hichilema and the other UPND later charged with conduct likely to breach members. the peace and ordered to pay a USD5 fine. Police frequently used unnecessary and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION excessive force to disperse protesters. Security forces and political activists affiliated In April, police stopped a UPND rally in with the Patriotic05:01 Front subjected media Kanyama Township in the capital, Lusaka, on workers, political activists and others who “security” grounds. Although the UPND had criticized/ the government to harassment and notified the police in advance of the rally, intimidation. they unlawfully dispersed the rally, shooting Staff of the Law Association of Zambia were 20-year-old Stephen Kalipa, one of the harassed and intimidated because of their protesters. He died later from gunshot ETwork in defence of human rights. On 3 wounds at the hospital. AnEMBARGOED investigation was March, for example,FEBRUARY Patriotic Front loyalists opened, but no one had been arrested in stormed the Association’s offices demanding connection with the incident by the end of the resignation of its president, Linda the year. The police claimed that he died of Kasonde. knife stab wounds at the hands of an Later the22 same month, the Association unidentified assailant. joined a High Court petition to prevent the On 23 June, police arrested senior UPND liquidation of Post Newspapers – known to be officials on charges of unlawful assembly highly critical of the government − in alleging that they held a press briefing00:01 at proceedings in which the Zambia Revenue the UPND’s secretariat offices without Authority, among others, sought the obtaining prior authorization. On 29 company’s liquidation, alleging that it had September, police arrested six human rights failed to pay taxes. defenders who gathered outside Parliament On 3 August, police arrested Saviour and protested peacefully against the Chishimba, president of the United STRICTLYgovernment’s purchase, at the inflated cost of Progressive People party on defamation USD42 million, of 42 fire engines; they were charges after he criticized President Lungu charged with refusing to obey police orders. for declaring a threatened state of The protestersUNTIL were beaten during the protest emergency. Saviour Chishimba was detained by members of the ruling Patriotic Front. THURSDAY 404 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 for seven days, without being brought before community was not fully consulted over the a judge; he was released without charge. use of its land for safaris. In October, the Independent Broadcasting Authority summoned Prime Television Zambia’s management to answer allegations that they had violated the provisions of their ZIMBABWE broadcasting licence when they covered a Republic of Zimbabwe story about the UPND’s parliamentary Head of state and government: Emmerson Dambudzo candidate for Kalulushi town, Everisto Mnangagwa (replaced Robert Gabriel Mugabe in Mwalilino, who had accused government November) officials of electoral corruption. The station had also highlighted corruption allegations Activists and human rights defenders against former Information Minister, continued to mobilize to hold the Chishimba Kambwili. government to account through protests on the streets and via social media. The state JUSTICE SYSTEM continued to use the law toGMT crack down on 2018 The government verbally attacked the dissenting voices. The authorities continued judiciary, which undermined the with forced evictions despite constitutional independence of the institution. At the same provisions prohibiting the practice. time, there was a growing public perception Independence of the judiciary remained of the judiciary as a polarized institution in under threat following amendments to the which some judges were not politically Constitution. independent. In September, while on a visit to South Africa, Hakainde Hichilema accused BACKGROUND the judiciary of corruption and of being under The economic05:01 situation worsened with no the control of the President. On 2 November, solution to the liquidity crisis in sight. President Lungu warned judges against In October,/ the Ministry of Cyber Security, blocking him from running for President in Threat Detection and Mitigation was 2021. In November, on a trip to Solwezi, he established in response to social media warned judges against following Kenyan activism. judges who, in September, had ruled to annul ETFactionalism and succession battles within the results of Kenya’s presidentialEMBARGOED elections. the ruling Zimbabwe FEBRUARY African National Union– Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party intensified; RIGHT TO FOOD President Mugabe dismissed the then First The 2017 Global Hunger Index reported that Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa on 6 food insecurity and undernourishment November,22 for allegedly plotting against the remained alarmingly high. Many subsistence government and exhibiting “disloyalty, farmers were affected because they were deceitfulness, disrespect and unreliability”. denied access to their land due to ongoing On 14 November, the military took power and land disputes. In Mpande, Northern00:01 after public support for the military action, Province, over 300 people were locked into a and Parliament’s impeachment process, legal dispute with the government after they Robert Mugabe resigned on 21 November. were forcibly evicted from their land to an Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as arid region where they could not produce President on 24 November. food. In Kaindu, Mumbwa District, the STRICTLYowners and employees of a German-owned FREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND safari company shot at, and verbally abused, ASSEMBLY members of a 700-strong community, The police dispersed meetings or peaceful preventing themUNTIL from fishing in the Kafue protests using excessive force. River and gathering food from the forest. The THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 405 On 26 June, police arrested Pastor Evan Pastor Evan Mawarire was targeted for Mawarire in the capital, Harare, after he held various public statements he made criticizing prayers with University of Zimbabwe medical the government. He had fled the country in students during a protest against fee July 2016, but was arrested by police in increases. He was held in Harare Central Harare, upon his return on 31 January, on Police Station for two days before being charges of subversion and insulting the released on bail on charges of inciting public national flag. He was released on bail on 8 violence and disorderly conduct. He was February. On 24 September, Pastor Mawarire acquitted on 29 September, although was arrested again and charged with separate charges remained against him subverting a constitutionally elected relating to a different arrest (see below government after he published a video on 23 “Freedom of expression”). September in which he complained about In July, Darlington Madzonga and Edmund fuel shortages and rising prices. He was Musvubi were arrested by police during a released from the Harare Central Police peaceful protest in Harare, held by the Station on 26 September. On 29 November, opposition Movement for Democratic Change the Harare High Court acquittedGMT him of all 2018 youth against the Zimbabwe Electoral the charges. Commission’s failure to implement reforms. On 10 August, Energy Mutodi, a They were charged with killing a police officer businessman and supporter of Emmerson during the protest and they remained in Mnangagwa, was arrested in Harare by police detention in Harare at the end of the year officers of the Criminal Investigation while their case was pending in court. Department for suggesting on Facebook that On 10 November, the police disrupted a a coup was likely if President Mugabe did not meeting in Marange Village, in the east, of 22 choose his successor carefully. He was activists from Latin American and Southern charged with05:01 undermining the President’s African countries to commemorate the ninth authority and causing disaffection among the anniversary of the killing of 200 people by the police /and defence forces. On 23 August, he military. The 200 had been killed after they was released from Harare Remand Prison on took control of the diamond fields in protest bail but his case was ongoing at the end of at government plans to hand over diamond the year. mines to Chinese businesses. The 22 ETVictor Matemadanda, an executive member activists were arrested andEMBARGOED charged with of the National LiberationFEBRUARY War Veterans’ entering a protected area without a Association, was detained by police at Harare government permit. They were released on Central Police Station in August on charges of 11 November after pleading guilty and were undermining the office of the President and each fined USD100. causing disaffection22 among the police and defence forces. He had called on President FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Mugabe to step down. He was released on The state restricted the right to freedom of bail after several days but his case remained expression particularly of human00:01 rights pending at the end of the year. defenders and other activists. On 2 October, journalist Kenneth Nyangani On 16 January, Pastor Philip Mugadza was was arrested by police in the city of Mutare arrested by police in Harare and charged for reporting that the President’s wife donated with criminal nuisance after he said that clothing, including used underwear, to President Mugabe would die on 17 October. ZANU-PF supporters in Mutare. He was STRICTLYHe was released on bail on 10 March. His bailed on 4 October and was awaiting trial case was pending in the Constitutional Court until 13 December when the state failed to at the end of the year. If convicted, he faces a bring him to trial. jail sentence ofUNTIL up to six months. On 3 November, journalist Martha O’Donovan, a US national, was arrested at THURSDAY 406 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 home by the Harare Police and charged with 2000; the forced evictions from Manzou have insulting the President and attempting to left over 200 families homeless and without subvert a constitutionally elected compensation. government. She was alleged to have insulted Robert Mugabe on Twitter. She was released LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR on bail from Chikurubi Maximum Security INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS Prison on 10 November; she had not been In August, Parliament passed a bill amending brought to trial by the end of the year. section 180 of the 2013 Constitution. MP Jessie Majome challenged the bill in court on ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS the basis that the vote did not meet the The military police arrested a number of required two-thirds majority and threatened suspects on charges of fraud and corruption. judicial independence. The bill gives the Those arrested included senior state officials, President power to unilaterally appoint the implicated in corruption, whose rights were most senior judicial positions. denied on arrest, including by being denied access to lawyers. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL ANDGMT CULTURAL 2018 During the military takeover in November, RIGHTS army personnel detained several members of Economic instability, drought, high poverty a ZANU- PF faction who were alleged to levels and unemployment put obstacles in support Emmerson Mnangagwa’s dismissal. the way of access to education, health and They were held for more than the adequate food. In July, Zimbabwe reported to constitutionally permitted 48 hours before the Voluntary National Review of Sustainable being brought to court. Former Finance Development Goals for the UN High Level Minister Ignatius Chombo, ZANU-PF Youth Political Forum that over 76% of children in League Commissar Innocent Hamandishe, Zimbabwe05:01 lived in consumption poverty, and and ZANU-PF Youth League secretary a quarter lived in extreme poverty. Difficulties Kudzanayi Chipanga, were arrested and in paying/ basic school fees were widespread; detained by military police on 14 November. the national Food and Nutrition Council During their detention they were denied found that at least 63% of school-age access to their lawyers and were not taken to children were turned away from school for court until 25 November. Ignatius Chombo ETnon-payment of fees. An estimated 4.1 was charged with corruptionEMBARGOED and criminal million people in FEBRUARYrural areas were reported to abuse of office; Kudzanayi Chipanga and be food insecure. Innocent Hamandishe were charged with The right to health was increasingly publishing or communicating falsehoods after threatened as allocation of budget to health they claimed at a press conference that Army decreased22 to only 8.2% of the national Commander General Chiwenga stole money budget. The Auditor General’s June report from the sale of Marange diamonds. highlighted a crisis in health service delivery, and noted shortages of essential medicines FORCED EVICTIONS 00:01 and equipment, unavailability of water and In April, police used excessive force to evict specialized personnel. around 15 families from Manzou Farm in the Mashonaland Central Province which SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS consists of several small farms. The evictions In October, UNICEF reported that 34% of contravened a High Court order on 24 March girls and women were married by the age of STRICTLYwhich directed the government to end the 18. The government was yet to amend the practice of arbitrary evictions and home Marriage Act or related legislation to comply demolitions without providing compensation with the Constitutional Court’s 2016 judgment or alternative landUNTIL to those evicted. The under which marriage under 18 was residents had lived on the farmland since unconstitutional. NGOs and girls and women THURSDAY Amnesty International Report 2017/18 407 giving birth reported that those who had babies in public health facilities were not allowed to leave until their fees were paid. Despite the Ministry of Health policy guidance that maternal health services should be provided for free, local authorities continued to be charged fees for such services in public health facilities. Marginalized women and girls experienced severe delays in accessing maternal health services or received no care at all.

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