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12816/17 OZ 1 DGC 2B Delegations Will Find in the Annex the EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2016

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12816/17 OZ 1 DGC 2B Delegations Will Find in the Annex the EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2016 Council of the European Union Luxembourg, 16 October 2017 (OR. en) 12816/17 COPS 300 COHOM 108 CFSP/PESC 840 CSDP/PSDC 523 FREMP 105 INF 179 JAI 870 RELEX 818 OUTCOME OF PROCEEDINGS From: General Secretariat of the Council On: 16 October 2017 To: Delegations No. prev. doc.: 12714/17 COPS 294 COHOM 104 CFSP/PESC 834 CSDP/PSDC 514 FREMP 101 INF 172 JAI 857 RELEX 807 12715/17 COPS 295 COHOM 105 CFSP/PESC 835 CSDP/PSDC 515 FREMP 102 INF 173 JAI 858 RELEX 808 Subject: EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2016 Delegations will find in the Annex the EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2016, adopted by the Council at its 3566th meeting held on 16 October 2017. 12816/17 OZ 1 DGC 2B EN ANNEX EU ANNUAL REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD IN 2016 THEMATIC AND GEOGRAPHICAL PARTS Table of Contents THEMATIC PART 1. Introduction………… ...................................................................................................................... 3 2. The EU Human Rights Approach to Conflicts and Crises ............................................................. 12 3. Addressing the Main Human Rights and Democracy Challenges ................................................. 22 4. Human Rights throughout EU External Policies ........................................................................... 49 GEOGRAPHICAL PART I. Candidate countries and potential candidates ................................................................................53 II. EEA/EFTA Countries .................................................................................................................. 64 III. European Neighbourhood Policy................................................................................................ 67 IV. Russia and Central Asia ........................................................................................................... 121 V. Africa ..........................................................................................................................................140 VI. Arabian Peninsula..................................................................................................................... 255 VII. Asia...........................................................................................................................................270 VIII. Oceania................................................................................................................................... 338 IX. The Americas............................................................................................................................ 367 List of Acronyms and Initialisms………………………………………………………………….439 12816/17 OZ 2 ANNEX DGC 2B EN EU ANNUAL REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD IN 2016 THEMATIC 1. INTRODUCTION 2016 was a challenging year for human rights and democracy, with a shrinking space for civil society and complex humanitarian and political crises emerging. A number of countries also announced their intention to leave the International Criminal Court. In this context, the European Union showed leadership and remained strongly committed to promote and protect human rights and democracy across the world. In June 2016, the EU adopted the Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy, Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe, which sets out the EU's core interests and principles for engaging in the wider world, 1 and seeks to make Europe an even more united and influential actor on the global arena. The Global Strategy reaffirms an agenda for EU external action with human rights and democracy at its core; States and societies can only be resilient when democracy is strong and human rights are respected. The Strategy also calls for systematic mainstreaming of human rights and gender equality issues – a founding principle of the EU Action Plan Human Rights and Democracy (2015 – 2019).2 20 July 2016 marked the first anniversary of the adoption of the EU Action Plan, which establishes the EU's main policy on human rights in external action. The Action Plan addresses the protection of human rights and support to democracy in all aspects of the EU's external action, and is the EU's key implementing tool of the 2012 EU Strategic Framework for Human Rights and Democracy.3 1 Council conclusions on the Global Strategy on the European Union's Foreign and Security Policy, 13202/16, 17 October 2016 2 Council conclusions on the Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2015 – 2019, 10897/15, 20 July 2015 3 EU Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, 11855/12, 25 June 2012 12816/17 OZ 3 ANNEX DGC 2B EN 2016 was also the start of the second cycle of the Human Rights and Democracy Country Strategies. The strategies are of key importance in the implementation of human rights at country level. In 2016, all the strategies were updated to meet current challenges and take into account developments since the introduction of the Country Strategies in 2011. This report gives a broad picture of the EU's human rights efforts towards third countries in 2016, and encompasses two parts: The first part is thematic, and pays particular attention to the human rights approach to conflicts and crises, main human rights challenges and human rights throughout EU external policies. The second part is geographical and covers EU actions in third countries, thus mapping in detail the human rights situation across the globe. EU SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS The EU Special Representative (EUSR) for Human Rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, appointed in 2012, continued to work, under the authority of the HR/VP, to increase the effectiveness and visibility of human rights in EU foreign policy. His key emphasis in 2016 was on strengthening the EU's human rights engagement with strategic partners who have an important regional and multilateral presence. This included the EUSR chairing the EU Human Rights Dialogues with Mexico and South Africa and undertaking a second high level official visit to the U.S. There was also increased focus on the EU's neighbourhood, including the first visit by the EUSR to Belarus and active engagement and consistent follow-up to his previous visits to Azerbaijan and Egypt. 2016 saw continued strong engagement with selected countries in transition, including his fifth visit to Myanmar/Burma, a first ever EUSR high level human rights visit to Cuba, the launch of exploratory talks on human rights with Iran, meetings at high political level with Bahrain and first-time visits to Guatemala and Honduras. The EUSR continued to work towards increasing the profile of the EU’s engagement with the UN and with regional human rights mechanisms to foster regional ownership and to address increasing challenges to the acceptance of the universality of human rights and to civil society space, including through strong and well-established engagement and cooperation with UN human rights bodies and mechanisms. The EUSR continued his long standing high level cooperation with the Council of Europe including a visit to address the CoE Committee of Ministers and he also continued efforts to deepen cooperation with OSCE/ODIHR, the Organization of American States and UNESCO. 12816/17 OZ 4 ANNEX DGC 2B EN Thematically, the EUSR continued to place strong emphasis on promoting civil society space and protecting human rights defenders, focused on reversing crack-downs and new restrictive laws on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in certain countries as well as working for the release of those human rights defenders and political prisoners who have been imprisoned. A major focus of the EUSR was also to foster dialogue between civil society and government and highlight the importance of this to build stable societies. In 2016, in the spirit of the Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy for the EU, the EUSR actively promoted the idea of "sustainable security" with all stakeholders. This concept, which underpins the efforts of the EUSR, underlines that security can only be sustainable in the long term if compliant with fundamental freedoms and rights and rule of law requirements. Through numerous visits in 2016, speaking engagements at high level multilateral meetings, and meetings with hundreds of key stakeholders from governments, international organizations and civil society, the EUSR also sought to raise the EU's consistency, effectiveness and visibility as a preeminent world actor on human rights and to advocate for key EU priorities. These included the fight against torture, the abolition of the death penalty, economic, social and cultural rights, business and human rights, freedom of expression and association, freedom of religion or belief, women's and children's rights and promoting accountability for human rights violations. To increase awareness, within the EU and internationally, of the EU's pivotal role in promoting and protecting human rights in the world, the EUSR, together with the HRVP, launched in June the #EU4HumanRights campaign, with the participation of all EU member states. 12816/17 OZ 5 ANNEX DGC 2B EN EU INSTRUMENTS The EU has a broad range of policies, tools and external financing instruments at its disposal to promote and defend human rights. These include public diplomacy, such as EU statements and declarations, more discreet diplomacy tools including demarches4 and political dialogues, but also human rights guidelines and human rights country strategies, regular human rights dialogues,
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