FRONT COVER 1 3 PEN INTERNATIONAL CHARTER The PEN Charter is based on resolutions passed at its International Congresses and may be summarised as follows: PEN affirms that: 1. Literature knows no frontiers and must remain common currency among people in spite of political or international upheavals. 2. In all circumstances, and particularly in time of war, works of art, the patrimony of humanity at large, should be left untouched by national or political passion. 3. Members of PEN should at all times use what influence they have in favour of good understanding and mutual respect between nations; they pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel race, class and national hatreds, and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace in one world. 4. PEN stands for the principle of unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations, and members pledge themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country and community to which they belong, as well as throughout the world wherever this is possible. PEN declares for a free press and opposes arbitrary censorship in time of peace. It believes that the necessary advance of the world towards a more highly organised political and economic order renders a free criticism of governments, administrations and institutions imperative. And since freedom implies voluntary restraint, members pledge themselves to oppose such evils of a free press as mendacious publication, deliberate falsehood and distortion of facts for political and personal ends. Membership of PEN is open to all qualified writers, editors and translators who subscribe to these aims, without regard to nationality, ethnic origin, language, colour or religion. 4 ABOUT PEN INTERNATIONAL PEN International promotes literature and freedom of expression and is governed by the PEN Charter. Founded in London in 1921, PEN International – PEN’s Secretariat – connects an international community of writers. It is a forum where writers meet freely to discuss their work; it is also a voice speaking out for writers silenced in their own countries. Through Centres in over 100 countries, PEN operates on five continents. PEN International is a non-political organisation which holds Special Consultative Status at the UN, Associate Status at UNESCO and Observer Status at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International was set up in 1960 as a result of mounting concern about attempts to silence critical voices around the world through the detention of writers. It works on behalf of those who are detained or otherwise persecuted for their opinions expressed in writing and for writers who are under attack for their peaceful political activities or for the practice of their profession, provided that they did not use violence or advocate violence or racial hatred. The work of the WiPC in documenting persecution of writers resulted in the development of PEN’s Case List – an annual record of attacks, imprisonment and persecution of those who use the written word to express themselves, in whatever form. Member centres of PEN International are active in campaigning for an improvement in the conditions of persecuted writers and journalists. They send letters to the governments concerned and lobby their own governments to campaign for the release of detained writers and for investigations into cases of torture and killings. Through writing to the families and, where possible, directly to prisoners, they provide encouragement and hope. PEN International and its Centres also advocate for systemic change to restrictive laws and practices, including by submitting its freedom of expression concerns and recommendations to various internatonal and regional human rights bodies. Information sources PEN International gathers its information from a wide variety of sources. It seeks to confirm its information through two independent sources. Where its information is unconfirmed, it will either take no action, or word its outputs to reflect the fact that the information is as yet incomplete. Sources include press reports, reports from individuals in the region in question, reports from other human rights groups, PEN members themselves, embassy officials, academics, prisoners’ families, lawyers and friends, and exile groups. It also partners with other international NGOs, such as Article 19, Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, Index on Censorship, and Reporters without Borders. It is a founder member of IFEX – the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a collaborative, on-line service in which national, regional and international organisations involved in the campaign for free expression pool information and amplify each others’ voices. 5 Our work would be not possible without our Sponsors who include: the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Fritt Ord Foundation, the Evan Cornish Foundation, the United Nations Fund for Democracy (UNDEF), the Clifford Chance Foundation, individual donations and membership fees from PEN members. CONTENTS 1. Introduction 7 2. Statistics - By Region 8 - By Profession - By Gender 9 - By violation 3 .Global Overview 10 4. Explanation of Terms 14 5. Day of the Imprisoned Writer 16 6. Writers Killed 17 7. Impunity 20 8. List of Cases by Country - Africa 22 - The Americas 50 - Asia and the Pacific 68 - Europe and Central Asia 133 - Middle East and North Africa 178 9. List of Centres with Honorary Members 224 The last report was dated December 2015 and can be found here. 6 INTRODUCTION In his 1821 essay, A Defence of Poetry, the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley had called poets the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Broadening Shelley’s characterization, writers have played that role for a long time. They speak truth to power, and that enrages those with power. In an earlier, simpler world, that meant the State; today, there are many more who place writers at risk – non-state actors including religious groups, vigilantes, corporations, and others who exercise power and do not wish their use of power to be questioned. 2016 marks another grim year for writers around the world. PEN International has compiled and verified data from all over the world and identified 224 individuals who have suffered repression, including 142 writers, 32 poets, and 28 singers-songwriters. If we add the number of journalists who have faced pressure, the number crosses the thousand-mark. Clearly, truth-telling is a dangerous business. Writers have been persecuted in a range of ways. In some cases, they are held in solitary confinement, in the hope that they will be forgotten. Some have been murdered, some tortured, some denied medical treatment, some sued on ridiculous charges, and some have been harassed in other ingenious ways. Religious defamation and blasphemy laws are invoked against writers, and criminal libel has been used in an attempt to stifle dissent. Writers are murdered in conflict areas; worse, those murders have been carried out with impunity. Anti-terror laws have been misused to target writers who question the state. Digital media, which once promised freedoms in the virtual world that were denied in the real world, has belied some of that promise; the technology enables surveillance, and the nasty laws of the real world have intruded the virtual sphere, making writers cautious about what they say online, and how that might get interpreted in another society and what laws might be used to curb freedoms. With the advent of social media, anonymous individuals have mounted fierce attacks on some writers, hoping to bully them into silence, if not submission. Women writers are particularly exposed to such tactics, but nevertheless, they persist. What those who seek to silence writers don’t realize is that these writers are rarely alone. When the Cameroonian poet Emoh Meyomesse was in jail, the French writer Alain Mabanckou wrote to him in a letter: ‘Well, you are not alone in this captivity, because when writers are thrown in prison, they are followed in their cells by an army of readers and the loud footsteps of their outraged colleagues.’ PEN’s members have been doing just that, for the writers whose freedom they campaign for – by picketing in front of Turkish and Saudi embassies, by writing postcards, by signing petitions, by holding candle-light vigils, by visiting trials, by witnessing, and by demonstrating their disapproval, their anger, and their criticism of the persecution. Forty- three writers were freed last year, thanks to the persistent campaigning by PEN and other allies. That still means scores remain in jail and thousands face risks, but those voices must not be silenced, and so long as there is a writer at risk or a writer in prison, we, their fellow writers, will bear witness, stand in solidarity, and unceasingly demonstrate our support to our brothers and sisters. Salil Tripathi Chair, Writers in Prison Committee 7 STATISTICS BY REGION BY PROFESSION OTHER 4 SONGWRITER 28 PLAY 7 FILM 3 CARTOON 3 PUBLISHER 5 POET 32 WRITER 142 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 8 BY GENDER SENTENCED 1 HARASSED 6 THREATENED 3 JUDICIAL CONCERN 1 ON TRIAL 6 DETAINED: INVESTIGATION 3 DETAINED: MAIN CASE 3 IMPRISONED: MAIN CASE 4 ABDUCTION 1 DEATH IN CUSTODY 1 KILLED: IMPUNITY 2 KILLED 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 WRITERS UNDER ATTACK - BY VIOLATION KILLED 2 KILLED: MOTIVE UNKNOWN 3 KILLED: IMPUNITY 16 DEATH IN CUSTODY 1 ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE 7 ABDUCTION 2 ABDUCTION-IMPUNITY: