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Mali: Army, Wagner Group Atrocities Against Civilians

Human Rights Watch - 9 hours 52 min ago
Click to expand Image Mali’s Foreign Affairs Minister Abdoulaye Diop (left) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a joint press conference following talks in Moscow, February 28, 2024. © 2024 MAXIM SHIPENKOV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians in counterinsurgency operations in Mali’s central and northern regions since December. Mali’s Russia-backed transitional military government is committing horrific abuses and is leaving the regional group that could provide scrutiny into its human rights situation. The mandate of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s independent expert on human rights in Mali, who assists the Malian government to protect human rights, should be renewed and given adequate resources.

(Nairobi) – Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters have unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians during counterinsurgency operations in Mali’s central and northern regions since December 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. Military drone strikes on a wedding celebration on February 16, 2024, and during a burial on February 17, 2024, killed at least 14 civilians, including 4 children.

Mali has long been engaged in an armed conflict with Islamist armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The recent abuses have occurred at a time when Mali’s relations with the United Nations and neighboring West African governments have sharply deteriorated. In December, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), pulled out of the country at the request of Mali’s transitional military authorities, raising concerns about the protection of civilians and the monitoring of abuses. In January, the transitional authorities announced that Mali would leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which would deprive victims of gross human rights violations of the ability to seek justice through the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice.

“Mali’s Russia-backed transitional military government is not only committing horrific abuses, but it is working to eliminate scrutiny into its human rights situation,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Malian authorities should urgently work with independent experts to monitor human rights violations and ensure that those responsible are held to account.”

Between January 1 and March 7, Human Rights Watch interviewed by telephone 31 people with knowledge of the incidents in central and northern Mali. These included 20 witnesses to abuses, as well as community leaders, activists, international organization representatives, journalists, and academics. On March 1, Human Rights Watch sent letters to Mali’s justice and defense ministers detailing its findings and inquiring about alleged abuses. The Malian authorities did not respond.

Witnesses reported serious abuses by the Malian armed forces and the Wagner Group, the Russia-linked military security contractor, during counterinsurgency operations against Islamist armed groups in the villages of Attara, in Timbuktu region; Dakka Sebbe and Nienanpela in Segou region; Dioura and Gatie Loumo in Mopti region; Ouro Fer, Nara region. They said that in most of the operations, foreign, non-French-speaking armed men described as “white” or “Wagner" took part. In Dakka Sebbe, the operation was carried out almost entirely by Wagner fighters. In Attara, more Wagner fighters were identified than Malian soldiers.

Wagner personnel first deployed to Bamako, Mali’s capital, by December 2021 with support from the Russian armed forces. Human Rights Watch has previously documented grave abuses by Malian security forces and allied fighters believed to be from the Wagner Group. In August 2023, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended the work of the panel of experts tracking abuses by armed groups and Malian security forces and Wagner fighters, curbing efforts to bring accountability for conflict-related violations.

On January 26, scores of Malian soldiers searching for Islamist fighters in Ouro Fero village went door-to-door and arrested 25 people, including 4 children. Later that day, villagers found their bodies about four kilometers from Ouro Fero. “We found the bodies on a hill, charred, bound by the hands, and blindfolded,” said a 26-year-old villager who helped bury the bodies. “They had all been shot in the head.”

On February 16, a Malian drone strike on an outdoor wedding celebration in Konokassi killed at least five men and two boys and wounded three others. The following day, as villagers attempted to bury the bodies, a second drone strike hit a group of people at the Konokassi cemetery, killing five men and two boys and injuring six others. Villagers said that while the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) controls the areas around Konakassi, none of their fighters were at the wedding.

Islamist armed groups have committed serious abuses in Mali for over a decade. They have summarily executed hundreds of people accused of collaborating with government forces; raped women and girls; planted indiscriminate improvised explosive devices; forced civilians into adhering to their version of Islam; looted and burned property; and denied civilians food and aid during sieges of cities and towns.

“Whatever we choose is bad, wherever we go is to face suffering,” said a man from Nienanpela village, where on January 23 Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters executed a 75-year-old man who was unable to flee. “The jihadists are brutal and have imposed their way of Islam on us, but the military and Wagner [fighters] who are supposed to protect us, what they do is only to kill, loot, and burn.”

Mamoudou Kassogué, Mali’s justice minister, told the UN Human Rights Council on February 28 that his government had “deployed major efforts to investigate allegations of human rights violations,” including those “made against security and defense forces.” He also promised that the National Directorate for Human Rights, a Justice Ministry body, would begin its work. The directorate was created in April 2023 to develop human rights-related policies and prevent human rights abuses by carrying out recommendations from human rights organizations, including the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Malian human rights advocates expressed skepticism that the commission could be effective, since its head will report directly to the justice minister. “The NHRC is today the only independent human rights body left in the country, but it faces challenges,” said a prominent Malian human rights defender. “When MINUSMA was still around, the NHRC, human rights defenders, as well as victims and witnesses of abuse felt reassured. Now, few dare to speak out.”

The mandate of the UN independent expert on human rights in Mali, who assists the Malian government to promote and protect human rights, expires on April 4. The UN Human Rights Council should renew the independent expert’s mandate and ensure that their office has the resources it needs, Human Rights Watch said.

All parties to the armed conflict in Mali, including members of foreign armed groups, are bound by international humanitarian law. Applicable law includes Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law. The laws of war prohibit the killing or ill-treatment of people in custody, attacks that do not discriminate between civilians and combatants, and the destruction or looting of civilian property, among other violations. Individuals who commit violations of the laws of war with criminal intent, that is deliberately or recklessly, are responsible for war crimes. Commanders who knew or should have known about abuses by their subordinates but did not prevent them or punish those responsible may be liable as a matter of command responsibility.

“The Malian army and Wagner Group fighters have shown deliberate cruelty against Malian civilians that should be investigated as war crimes,” Allegrozzi said. “Malian authorities should continue working with the National Human Rights Commission and the UN independent expert to gather evidence of serious abuses, ensure credible and impartial investigations, and bring those responsible to justice.”

For witness accounts and other details, please see below. The names of those interviewed have been withheld for their protection.

Malian Military Drone Strike

Konokassi, Segou region, February 16 and 17

On February 16 at about 3 p.m., a Malian drone bombed a wedding celebration in an open-air location in Konokassi, Segou region, three witnesses told Human Rights Watch. The attack killed at least five men and two boys, and wounded three other men. The following day, as villagers attempted to bury the bodies of those killed during the wedding, a second drone strike hit a group of people at the Konokassi cemetery killing five men and two boys, and injuring six other men.

Mali has acquired Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones since 2022. These remotely piloted aerial combat vehicles can surveil, accurately target, and deliver up to four MAM-L laser-guided bombs.

A 57-year-old man who lost his 20-year-old son during the first strike said that they were sitting in three groups: the youth, friends of the groom, about 30 of them; and the adults, about 20 men and 10 elders. “When we saw the drone coming from the south, we did not bother too much because since November 2023, we are used to seeing this drone, it comes many times and flies over the village,” he said. “But this time, we suddenly heard a noise, like a whistle and then the big ‘boom!’ of the explosion.”

The JNIM Islamist armed group operates in the Segou region. However, witnesses said there were no Islamist fighters or any other armed men at the wedding. “There were no jihadists at the wedding,” the man said:

They are present in our area, but they do not mix with us, they are in the bush. They would never come to a civilian wedding … They don’t celebrate weddings. They ask the father for a girl’s hand. If he accepts, they pay [him] the dowry and it’s over; there is no party. If the father refuses, they might take the girl by force.

A 34-year-old man said:

The strike occurred at about 3 p.m. It’s because of the jihadists that we now celebrate weddings during the day. They have forbidden us to do it at night, as we used to do … They also do not want men and women to mix, that’s why that day, women were inside the house of the groom, while men and boys were celebrating the wedding outside.

Another 57-year-old man said:

The bomb struck the group of young people … We all ran away, even the wounded ran. There were three wounded: one with a broken arm; another wounded in the head; another with an injured shoulder. Looking at the wounds, they looked like blade wounds, very deep … We did not come back to the village until the following day.

Witnesses said that the following day, some villagers went back to Konokassi to bury the bodies of those killed at the wedding but were hit by a second drone strike.

The man who lost his son during the first strike said:

We found seven bodies, three of which were totally torn apart. We first buried the three on the spot, then we wrapped the other four in clothes and took them to the cemetery. We were digging the graves when we saw a drone coming, which looked like the one we saw the day before. It flew over us before dropping a bomb. We were shaken by the explosion. I fell and ran away. I was injured lightly in my back. We fled to the bush and late at night some of us, including myself, went back to the cemetery and counted seven more dead. We buried them in a hurry.

Human Rights Watch reviewed two lists of victims and wounded compiled by survivors and residents, with the names of 14 people killed and 9 injured in the two strikes. There are 10 names on the list of victims of the first strike: the dead included 5 men, ages 18 to 30, a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy, and the three injured were all men, ages 18 to 30. The list for the second strike included 13 names: the 7 fatalities were 5 men, ages 19 to 24, a 17-year-old boy and 14-year-old boy, and the 6 injured were all men, ages 22 to 61.

Radio France Internationale also reported the incident, stating that “a drone hit a wedding in Konokassi, in Mariko district. Six people were killed instantly. The next day, Saturday, the drone struck the same locality again during the burial of the previous day's victims. Six other people were killed. And several others injured.”

Abuses by Malian Armed Forces and Wagner Fighters

Ouro Fero (also known as Welingara), Nara Region, January 26

On January 26, scores of Malian soldiers carried out an operation in Ouro Fero village, searching for Islamist fighters, four witnesses said. During the operation, they went door-to-door and arrested 25 people, including 4 children. Later the same day, villagers found the charred bodies of the 25 people who were arrested about four kilometers from Ouro Fero. The JNIM armed group is known to operate in the area.

Witnesses said that the operation was a reprisal following an attack claimed by the JNIM, on the military base in Mourdiah, 18 kilometers from Ouro Fero, on December 25. A 26-year-old man from Ouro Fero said:

Following the attack on the military barracks in Mourdiah, we were expecting a violent response by the army. It’s always like this. Every time the jihadists attack the army, reprisals against civilians, especially ethnic Fulani, follow. The military accuses us of being accomplices to the jihadists while we just suffer their domination.

Witnesses said that the soldiers, who were coming from the Mourdiah military base, were armed with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles and wore camouflage uniforms, body armor, and helmets. They said the soldiers arrived from the east side of Ouro Fero at about 6 a.m. and surrounded the village while shooting in the air, which caused people to flee. A 56-year-old herder said:

I was awakened by shooting. I went outside, saw people running, and joined them. Once we arrived at the west side of the village, we realized that we could not continue because the military had surrounded the whole village. So, I returned home and hid on top of a shed, under some straw and grass … I saw two soldiers break into my home. I could hear them asking my wife: “Where is your husband?” She replied I wasn’t around … Before leaving, one of the two soldiers told my wife that they were conducting the operation to identify suspected Islamist fighters to take them to their camp in Mourdiah to interrogate them.

Witnesses said that at the end of the operation, at about 7 a.m., the soldiers arrested 21 men and 4 boys.

Witnesses said that later the same day, people from a nearby settlement, about four kilometers from Ouro Fero, informed them by telephone that they saw the military stop there with a group of people, then heard gunfire. A group of 12 villagers from Ouro Fero, including two Human Rights Watch interviewed, said they rushed to the site where they found the bodies of those arrested that day. The victims, witnesses said, were bound and blindfolded, and appeared to have been shot before being burned.

A man who found the bodies said:

Before finding the bodies, we found the place where the soldiers had searched the victims’ pockets. We found some identity cards and hats. Then, about 200 meters further, we found the bodies of all those arrested in the morning. Their hands were tied, their eyes blindfolded. They were shot, some in the head, before being burned … We buried them at about 5 p.m. We collected several stones and placed them around the bodies, then we poured sand on them and covered them with tree branches.

Human Rights Watch reviewed two lists compiled by survivors and Ouro Fero’s residents with 25 names of victims, including 21 men, ages 21 to 67, and 4 boys, ages 12 to 16.

On January 30, French media Radio France Internationale also reported on the killings in Ouro Fero, also mentioning the presence of Wagner fighters. On February 1, the UN high commissioner for human rights stated that he was “appalled by credible allegations that Malian armed forces accompanied by foreign military personnel summarily executed at least 25 people in the village of Welingara,” on January 26, and called for an “impartial investigation” to bring those responsible accountable.

On January 26, the chief of Ouro Fero sent a letter to the Malian defense minister, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, informing him of the army killings in his village and expressing his regret. He said that soldiers killed 25 people, including a man who could not see well and children, and that their bodies were burned.

Attara, Timbuktu Region, January 25

On January 25, the Malian armed forces and Wagner fighters carried out a military operation in Attara, a village on the banks of the Niger River, in an area where the JNIM is known to operate. They threatened villagers with death, summarily killed seven civilian men, and looted property, three witnesses said.

Witnesses said that soldiers and Wagner fighters came from Leré, a city about 65 kilometers from Attara.

A 57-year-old herder said:

Early in the morning, our relatives from Leré called to inform us that a convoy of more than 100 Malian military vehicles with Wagner [fighters] had left Leré and was heading in our direction. Given the abuses committed by Wagner [fighters], their movements are always monitored by villagers … We also received calls from other relatives as the convoy moved forward, passing through the villages of Dianke and Sambani. Our contacts told us that in Sambani, the convoy split into two groups, one heading toward Attara and the other toward Soumpi.

Soldiers based in Leré participated in “Operation Maliko,” which was created by a January 30, 2020 decree signed by then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to “counter terrorist and criminal threats.” The operation falls under the direct command of the chief of the general staff of the Malian armed forces and is divided in geographic sectors. Credible sources told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers based in Leré operate under Sector 3, whose commander is Col. Seydou Niangadou.

Witnesses said that one of the convoys of about 50 military vehicles, including armored vehicles and pickup trucks carrying soldiers and Wagner fighters, arrived in Attara at about 10 a.m. Soldiers and Wagner fighters went door to door, pulling men, women, and children out of homes and rounding them up by the Niger river. A 55-year-old man said:

I was at the market when the military and Wagner [fighters] came, ordering everyone to go by the riverside. There were more Wagner [fighters] than Malian soldiers. They rounded up villagers there. They stood in front of us pointing their guns. Then, a Wagner [fighter] took a Quran. He … started preaching. He spoke a language I did not understand, but it wasn’t French. A Malian soldier translated in Bambara [language]. He said: “God authorized us to secure you. The Quran itself says that you must submit to our authority. If you refuse, we will kill you … Do not let yourselves be led astray by the jihadists who lie to you by saying that we, the soldiers, are kuffar (nonbelievers); we are more legitimate than the jihadists.

Witnesses said that some people attempted to escape during the sermon, and the Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters shot them, killing seven men, four of whom fell into the river. The 57-year-old witness said:

As soon as the Wagner [fighter] threatened the community with death, seven people stood up and ran away. But the soldiers and the Wagner [fighters] immediately opened fire. Three were killed by the side of the river and died instantly. Four more attempted to catch a boat but were hit by gunfire and fell into the river … When the soldiers left, we recovered their bodies from the water.

Human Rights Watch obtained three lists of victims compiled by survivors and Attara residents, with names of three men ages 27, 28, and 35. Witnesses said that they could not identify the other four people killed because they were not from Attara, but they said they were all civilians and ethnic Tuareg traders.

Witnesses said that soldiers and Wagner fighters also looted all the shops at the Attara market, taking goods and money. “I used to own a large shop in the Attara market, selling fuel,” said a 74-year-old trader. “I lost up to 5 million CFA [US$8,200] in barrels of fuel. The military took everything from me and looted almost the entire market.”

Dakka Sebbe, Segou Region, January 25

On January 25, scores of Wagner fighters, with at least one Malian soldier, attacked the ethnic-Bozo settlement of Dakka Sebbe, two witnesses said. Dakka Sebbe is in a region where the JNIM regularly carries out attacks. The fighters tortured three ethnic-Fulani herders, men whom they suspected of collaborating with Islamist armed groups.

One of the victims, 35, said:

At 10 a.m., about 100 Wagner [fighters] riding motorbikes stormed the settlement. Because we know that the Wagner [fighters] and the military only go after ethnic-Fulani men, my two friends and I hid in a house. But three Wagner [fighters] broke into the house and pulled us out. They were tall, wore camouflage military uniforms, and carried Kalashnikovs. They were masked. They spoke a language I did not understand.… They started kicking us with their boots … and the butts of their guns. Then, one of the Wagner [fighters] called someone, probably a Malian soldier, and gave me the phone. The man on the phone asked me in Bambara whether we had been caught with weapons. I said no.… But the two other Wagner [fighters] did not seem to be satisfied with my answer and beat us again. One of the two took a knife from his bag and threatened to slaughter us. But the one with the phone stopped them and convinced them to let us go.

Nienanpela, Segou Region, January 23

On January 23, at about 9 a.m., scores of Malian soldiers in pickup trucks stormed Nienanpela village and executed a 75-year-old man, two witnesses reported.

A 52-year-old man said:

Villagers were informed that soldiers from Dougabougou were heading toward Nienanpela. So, everyone fled fearing the military. I hid in the nearby bush and saw a convoy of 17 pickup trucks with Malian soldiers arrive. They carried Kalashnikovs, wore helmets and body armor. They found no one in the village, but an older man who had gone grazing his animals early in the morning and had returned.… When the soldiers left, I went back to the village with other people. We found his body and buried him.

The 34-year-old son of the victim said:

I did not see how the soldiers killed my father because I hid in the bush when they came. But I heard at least two gunshots from my hiding place.… When I went back to the village, I discovered the body of my father lying on the left side, with a bullet wound in the forehead and another one on his right side. My father was an old man and could not run away. Villagers wrapped up his body in some clothes and buried him in the local cemetery.

Dioura, Mopti Region, January 7

On January 7 at about 8 p.m., two Malian soldiers arrested a 50-year-old ethnic-Fulani man whom they suspected of collaborating with Islamist armed groups in Dioura, his relatives said. Villagers found the body of the man the following day with a bullet wound to the head, about a kilometer from Dioura. The JNIM armed group operates in the area.

The man’s mother said:

The soldiers broke into our home and searched it looking for my son. They did not find him. They remained outside. Meanwhile, my son came back from the mosque and was immediately arrested. The soldiers said they would take him to their base, about two kilometers away, for interrogation. I begged them not to. But they said that if I didn’t stop talking, they would kill me. Then they drove off with him in a pickup truck. That was the last time I saw my son.

The wife of the man, who was also present at the time of the arrest, said:

When the soldiers left, I went to see a villager who knows the military and asked him if he could go to their base to inquire about my husband.… The next day he went, and the military told him that my husband was doing fine and that they were not yet done with the interrogation. By noon, however, a man came to my house to inform me that the body of my husband had been found under a tree.

Villagers attempted to bury the man’s body on January 8, but soldiers prevented them from doing so by shooting in the air. “It was thanks to the intercession of a soldier from Dioura that we could bury the body on January 9,” said the victim’s wife.

Gatie Loumo, Mopti Region, December 18, 2023

On December 18 at about 9. a.m., Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters searching for Islamist fighters surrounded the village of Gatie Loumo, in the Mopti region where the JNIM operates, three witnesses said. The military arrived in about 30 vehicles, including three armored vehicles, pickup trucks, and motorbikes. They entered the village on foot heading towards the market area where they killed at least 21 men, and looted motorbikes, shops, and money. Witnesses said that the soldiers and the Wagner fighters came from the military base in Leré, about 30 kilometers from Gatie Loumo, and that the attack was a reprisal against the community for allegedly collaborating with Islamist armed groups.

A 35-year-old villager said:

About 10 days before the attack, we received messages on WhatsApp saying that the military and Wagner [fighters] based in Leré were preparing an operation in our area and specifically in Gatie Loumo.… In fact, the day of the attack, the soldiers arrived from and left to that direction.

He said that they also found the body of one of those killed from the village on the road linking Gatie Loumo to Leré.

A 52-year-old trader said:

The Wagner [fighters] were masked or wore sunglasses. The Malians were not masked. Both had the same camouflage uniform and were heavily armed. Once at the market, they began to arrest traders. Wagner [fighters] carried out the arrests. … Many fled out of fear. … I saw a Wagner [fighter] shoot a cattle trader from close range at about 20 meters from where I was standing in my shop. The victim fell and the Wagner [fighter] searched his pockets and stole money. Then, that same Wagner [fighter], with another one and a Malian soldier, headed toward my shop. The Malian soldier asked me: “What are you doing here?” I replied that it was my shop. He said that I am selling products to the jihadists. I replied that I only sell biscuits and candies to the kids. So, he said: “Don’t sell your stuff to terrorists.” And then, they left.

Another 35-year-old man said:

I was at the market with my friend Salla Dambere, a well-known trader. The soldiers and the Wagner [fighters] invaded the market, looting shops and shooting people. They took Salla and beat him before taking him away. I ran to save my life. … When they [soldiers] were gone, I was informed that Salla’s body was found on the road between Gatie Loumo and Leré, where the soldiers came from. I went there with six other men, and I saw the body. I noticed marks of torture; his throat had been slit. He was slaughtered like an animal. We buried the body where we found it. On my way back to the village, I saw the body of another man, an ethnic Tuareg, shot in the head.

The first 35-year-old man said:

When the soldiers left, we identified the bodies of 14 people from Gatie Loumo, and we buried them in four graves. The other seven people killed were not from Gatie Loumo, they came from the nearby village of Kelesegui, so we could not identify them. But the following day, their relatives came to take these bodies. All the people were shot in the head or in the chest.

Human Rights Watch obtained three lists of victims compiled by survivors and Gatie Loumo residents, with the names of 14 people between 20 and 70 years.

Witnesses said soldiers and Wagner fighters looted almost all shops at the market, as well as motorbikes and money.

“The material toll of the attack is heavy,” said the 52-year-old trader. “The soldiers and the Wagner [fighters] looted about 20 shops, 60 Sanili motorbikes, and nearly thirty million CFA francs from the traders they killed.”

Michigan: Parental Consent Law for Abortion Harms Young People

Human Rights Watch - 10 hours 51 min ago
Click to expand Image © 2024 Rebecca Hendin for Human Rights Watch A Michigan law that requires a young person to obtain parental consent to have an abortion threatens the health and safety of youth in the state and violates their human rights. In some cases, disclosing a pregnancy to a parent will result in abuse or being forced to leave home or continue the pregnancy, and judicial bypass can be subjective and cause delays. Michigan’s forced parental consent for abortion law should be immediately repealed to ensure young people’s safety and dignity.

(New York) – A Michigan law that requires a young person to obtain parental consent to have an abortion threatens the health and safety of youth in the state and violates their human rights, according to a new report released today by Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, and the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH).

March 28, 2024 In Harm’s Way

The 36-page report, “In Harm’s Way: How Michigan’s Forced Parental Consent for Abortion Law Hurts Young People” examines the impact of a Michigan law that requires people under age 18 seeking an abortion to have a parent or legal guardian’s written consent or get approval from a judge in a process known as “judicial bypass.”

The report found that some young people fear that disclosing a pregnancy to a parent will result in physical or emotional abuse, being forced to move out of the home, being forced to continue the pregnancy against their will, or alienation from their families. The alternative, judicial bypass, can be invasive, distressing, and even traumatizing for young people, the report found. Judges’ decisions can be highly subjective, and those with anti-abortion views can unduly block young people’s ability to get care. Judicial bypass often delays care by a week or more, limiting patients’ already constrained and time-sensitive healthcare options.

“No one should have to face a judge to access basic health care,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “Michigan should repeal this harmful and dehumanizing law.”

The report is based on court data from 2007 through 2022, in-depth interviews with nearly two dozen Michigan experts, including judicial bypass attorneys, healthcare providers, and reproductive justice advocates, as well as analysis of state health department data and other state records. Other report findings include:

About 700 young people (mostly ages 16 and 17) have abortions in Michigan each year, and more than 85 percent involve a parent in their abortion decision. When a young person does not involve a parent, it is often rooted in concern for their safety and well-being. One healthcare provider said a young client told her: “I can’t tell my parents because they will literally beat me, kick me out, and I’ll be on the street.” Some young people do not have access to a parent or legal guardian due to a parent’s illness, death, or incarceration; challenges establishing or demonstrating legal guardianship; or other reasons. State court data showed that each year about 100 young people—roughly 14 percent of those under 18 obtaining abortions in the state—go through the judicial bypass process. Young people face logistical hurdles throughout the judicial bypass process, including finding an attorney, scheduling and attending hearings, taking time off school, and securing transportation to and from court. Some attorneys said judges made stigmatizing comments or gave their clients demeaning lectures before granting their petitions. One attorney said that a judge asked her client: “Are you aware that some people who have abortions regret it later in life?” Another attorney said a judge lectured his client about adoption as an alternative, citing couples who were unable to have children. The time required for judicial bypass can leave young people ineligible for medication abortion, forcing them to have more expensive and invasive procedures. The law compels some young people to involve unsupportive or abusive parents in their abortion decisions, even when it is not in their best interests. One healthcare provider said she had treated multiple young people whose parents asked her to withhold pain medication during their abortion procedures.

“Forced parental consent not only violates a young person’s constitutional right to make decisions about their reproductive health, it needlessly delays care and harms pregnant young people,” said Merissa Kovach, political director at the ACLU of Michigan. “That is why the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine are among medical organizations in agreement that young people should not be compelled or required to involve parents in their decisions about abortion care.”

The report concludes that Michigan’s forced parental consent law undermines the safety, health, and dignity of young people seeking abortion care in Michigan, whether they obtain parental consent or go through judicial bypass, and regardless of whether their request for a judicial waiver is granted or denied.

The report urges the immediate repeal of Michigan’s forced parental consent for abortion law to ensure that people under 18 can access this health care without being forced to involve a parent, legal guardian, or judge.

“Young people deserve the right to have power and control over their bodies, including if and when they are pregnant,” said Taryn Gal, executive director at the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH). “Youth in Michigan tell us that the judicial bypass process is not youth-friendly or accessible; it creates an unwarranted barrier to critical health care. No young person should be forced to continue a pregnancy that they do not want.”

Haiti: Six Urgent Steps to Overcome Crisis

Human Rights Watch - 10 hours 52 min ago
Click to expand Image Haitians forced to flee their homes amid spiraling criminal violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 9, 2024.  © 2024 Guerinault Louis/Anadolu via Getty Images

(Washington, DC, March 28, 2024) – United Nations Security Council members should address the deteriorating situation in Haiti by keeping their promise to the Haitian people and urgently acting to restore basic security, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Human Rights Watch recommended six key measures to allow for democratic governance, human rights protections, and access to essential goods and services.

“Ongoing events in Haiti highlight the urgency of a broad-based Security Council response to the human rights crisis and addressing the needs of the Haitian people,” said Nathalye Cotrino, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It is critical for Haitian, regional, and international leaders to act to prevent the situation from spiraling further out of control and to truly support Haitians on a path forward toward democratic governance, basic security, the rule of law, and access to basic necessities so they can freely exercise and enjoy their human rights.”

Security Council members should ensure the necessary funding and other resources for the establishment of a multinational security support mission, authorized by the council in October 2023, with all necessary human rights safeguards. Other measures are also needed to address the country’s escalating human rights, humanitarian, and political crisis.

They should include the urgent establishment of a transitional government made up of leading Haitians not tarnished by credible allegations of corruption, support to criminal groups, human rights violations, or other serious crimes; the urgent and safe delivery of humanitarian aid; support for accountability efforts; scaled-up efforts to stop the flow of weapons and ammunition into Haiti; and an end to all forced returns of Haitians fleeing the violence.

Syrians Face Dire Conditions in Turkish-Occupied ‘Safe Zone’

Human Rights Watch - 10 hours 52 min ago
Click to expand Image The Tel Abyad border crossing in northern Raqqa, Syria, pictured on October 6, 2022.  © 2022 Bakr Alkasm/AFP via Getty Images

(Beirut) – Turkish authorities are deporting or otherwise pressuring thousands of Syrians to leave the country to Tel Abyad, a remote Turkish-occupied district of northern Syria where humanitarian conditions are dire, Human Rights Watch said today.  

Between January and June 2023, the Tel Abyad border crossing administration published monthly or daily numbers of Syrian returnees on its Facebook page, labeling all as voluntary. An analysis of the page reveals an over twofold increase compared to the same period in 2022. While Türkiye in the past maintained that all returns are voluntary, Human Rights Watch research has found that Turkish forces have, since at least 2017, arrested, detained, and summarily deported thousands of Syrian refugees, often coercing them into signing “voluntary” return forms and forcing them to cross into northern Syria. Turkish authorities did not respond to a letter Human Rights Watch sent on February 1 sharing research findings and requesting information.

“Türkiye’s ‘voluntary’ returns are often coerced returns to ‘safe zones’ that are pits of danger and despair,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Türkiye's pledge to create ‘safe zones’ rings hollow as Syrians find themselves forced to embark on perilous journeys to escape the inhumane conditions in Tel Abyad.”

Human Rights Watch has seen border crossing statistics from Türkiye into Syria provided by an informed source, revealing discrepancies with data published on the official Facebook pages of the three operational border crossing administrations in categorizing returns. The statistics provided reveal that between January and December 2023, Turkish authorities deported 57,519 Syrians and others over its border crossings, including 16,652 through the Tel Abyad crossing. Analysis of official page data show variations in reporting practices, with one crossing, Bab al-Hawa, distinguishing between returnees and deportees, which match the statistics shared with Human Rights Watch, while the Bab al-Salama and Tel Abyad crossings do not.

According to the informed source, staff at all three border administrations interview every returnee and collect data, including on reason for return, but Turkish officials have successfully pressured the Bab al-Salama and Tel Abyad border administrations not to publish deportation numbers. This has left Bab al-Salama, since at least September 2022, categorizing all returns as simply “returns” and Tel Abyad, since at least January 2021, categorizing all returns as “voluntary.” Before September 2022, Bab al-Salama used to publish how many of the overall returns were voluntary. Tel Abyad stopped publishing data on returns in June 2023.

In 2023, Türkiye increased the number of Syrians it sends back via Tel Abyad, which has been under the control of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army since 2019. Türkiye says it aims to turn areas of northern Syria under its control, including Tel Abyad, into “safe zones,” but in reality, these areas are rife with human rights abuses. Türkiye’s incursion into the 150 kilometer-long strip of land between Raqqa and al-Hasakeh provinces displaced hundreds of thousands of people, forcing them to flee their homes.

In May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced a plan to create a “safe zone” in the Turkish-occupied territories of northern Syria and build homes to accommodate up to one million Syrians living in Türkiye. A Human Rights Watch report published on February 29 documented serious human rights abuses and potential war crimes committed primarily by Türkiye-backed local armed groups in these lawless and insecure areas. Human Rights Watch also found that members of the Turkish Armed Forces and intelligence agencies were involved in carrying out and overseeing abuses.

Human Rights Watch interviewed seven deportees sent to Tel Abyad, a human rights researcher, a border crossing official, the president of a local group in Tel Abyad hosting deportees, and a journalist.

Six deportees said that they held a Turkish temporary protection ID permit when they lived in Türkiye, which should protect Syrian refugees legally against forced return to Syria. Six said they were forced or coerced to sign “voluntary” return forms. All said they were from other regions of Syria and had no meaningful ties to Tel Abyad.

One said that Turkish police detained him on the street in Antakya one month after his wife and three children were killed in the February 2023 earthquake that devastated parts of southern Türkiye and northern Syria. He said that the authorities detained him on his way to work even though he held a valid protection ID.  

“They made me sign on documents written in Turkish, and I don’t speak Turkish,” he said. “They wouldn’t translate it. They are obliging us to sign these documents to make it look like voluntary returns.”

All seven deportees said that Turkish authorities did not ask them their preferred border crossing for their return. Two said the deportations separated them from family members. “My wife and two kids are still in Istanbul, and I have no relatives and nowhere to go here and cannot bring them back to Syria,” said one man originally from Deir Ezzor. “I am trapped here.” As a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Türkiye is duty-bound not to separate children from their parents against their will except where competent authorities have determined that separation is necessary for the best interests of that child.

Since Tel Abyad came under Turkish occupation in 2019, it has had no operating crossing points to other parts of Syria, leaving expensive and dangerous smuggling routes the only viable option to leave the border strip. Four deportees said they had used smugglers to reach other non-government-held areas of northern Syria. 

“I faced many hardships on my way,” said a 28-year-old deportee who was smuggled. “We were sure it was either we live, or we die. I left Tel Abyad at 8 a.m., and I arrived 30 hours later to my destination.”

One said he hoped to find a way to return to Türkiye: “I am from Deir Ezzor but I can't go there.  I don't have anything left in Syria. I can't go to my city at all.”

An aid worker whose organization provides temporary shelter to deportees in Tel Abyad said that economic conditions in the region were poor. He said that residents struggled to find jobs, and many had to rely on subsistence agriculture. Many deportees have been forced to rely on limited external assistance. “I try to survive on one meal per day here, if by any chance I was able to secure the expenses for it,” one said. “Most of the days, we sleep hungry.”

The aid worker said that his organization, the Al Bir Society for Social Services in Tel Abyad, hosts about 40 deportees a day and sheltered 1,500 total between June and December. “The organization’s capacity remains limited,” he said. He said that the deportees sleep in dire conditions as there is not enough space. One 22-year-old deportee originally from Idlib said: “When there is no place left for us [at the organization], we sleep on the streets of Tel Abyad or in nearby mosques.”

The lack of access to other parts of Syria has compelled some deportees to turn to expensive and dangerous smuggling routes to escape the harsh conditions of Tel Abyad. Deportees who have had to use dangerous smuggling routes said that there is unofficial cooperation between smugglers and the Syrian National Army (SNA) and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control the borders of the enclave. They said it costs between US$300 and $500 to be smuggled to another region in Syria, and more than $1,000 to be smuggled back to Türkiye.

They said safety is a serious concern. “If someone is trying to leave through smugglers, one of the parties may arrest them on suspicion of being an agent or spy, which might land him in jail,” said the aid worker. Informed sources said that Turkish authorities twice facilitated the transfer of Syrian deportees from Tel Abyad to Azaz, elsewhere in northern Syria, or back to Türkiye in August 2023 after deportees complained about the situation in Tel Abyad. Human Rights Watch is unaware of any facilitated transfers since.  

“I just want to be reunited with my family, and to be able to sustain a life for my kids and wife,” one deportee said. “This is impossible in Tel Abyad. We need to get out of here.”

UN agencies have organized three one-day humanitarian crossline missions to the Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad areas since October 2022. The most recent mission in May 2023 was the first time UN agencies had reached Tel Abyad city since 2019. All three missions involved UN staff crossing to the area to directly provide limited humanitarian assistance and perform assessments of humanitarian needs.

However, the significant humanitarian needs remain largely unaddressed, according to humanitarian organizations, with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders or MSF) calling the humanitarian situation there “alarming” in June 2023. The aid worker as well as several of the deportees interviewed said that they had not received any aid from Türkiye or local authorities.

As the occupying power in Tel Abyad, Türkiye has an obligation to maintain law and order and public life and protect Syrians there from violence, whatever the source. Türkiye is bound by both its international humanitarian law and international human rights law obligations to ensure that its own officials and those under its command do not commit violations of international law, to investigate alleged violations, and ensure that those responsible are appropriately punished.

Türkiye is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the 1951 Refugee Convention. As such, and as a matter of customary international law, it is obliged to respect the principle of nonrefoulement, which forbids returning anyone to a location where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture or other cruel treatment, or a threat to their life. Turkish Law 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection (LFIP), issued in April 2013, offers Syrians “temporary protection in Türkiye, ensures their non-refoulement, and guarantees their stay until safety is established in their original countries.”

“Deportees to Tel Abyad have painted a bleak picture of conditions in Türkiye’s touted ‘safe zone,’ one where they are deprived of basic necessities, including shelter and sustenance, and forced to resort to perilous options to leave,” Coogle said.

Thailand: Promptly Pass Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Human Rights Watch - Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Click to expand Image Women kiss while holding a poster to support marriage equality, during a Pride Parade in Bangkok, Thailand, June 4, 2023. ©2023 AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File

(Bangkok) – The Thai parliament’s upper house should promptly pass a same-sex marriage bill that the lower house approved by an overwhelming majority on March 27, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. Thailand would become the first country in Southeast Asia, and the second in Asia, to recognize same-sex relationships.  

Thailand’s House of Representatives passed the Marriage Equality Act with the approval of 400 of the 415 members present. Ten voted against the bill, two abstained, and three did not vote.

“Thailand is poised to send an important message to the rest of Asia by recognizing same-sex relationships,” said Kyle Knight, interim co-director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights program at Human Rights Watch. “Lawmakers should not delay this important occasion, which could create momentum across the region to respect the fundamental rights of LGBT people.”

The rights to marry and to form a family are fundamental rights recognized in article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Thailand has ratified. Various international human rights bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women have rejected the idea that a “family,” as understood under international human rights law, must conform to any single model.

Thailand’s Marriage Equality Act makes important amendments to the civil and commercial code language concerning spouses, in particular by changing “men and women” and “husband and wife” to “individuals” and “marriage partners.” However, LGBT rights advocates have raised concerns that it leaves in place “mother” and “father,” rather than replacing those terms with the more gender-neutral “parent,” which could cause complications for same-sex couples attempting to adopt and raise children.

Thirty-seven countries currently recognize same-sex marriage in their national laws. Taiwan became the first country in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage in 2019. Nepal has recognized some same-sex marriages in 2023 and 2024 under an interim order from the Supreme Court while a final judgment is forthcoming.

Passing same-sex marriage legislation is an opportunity for Thailand to match its positive global reputation on LGBT rights with tangible legal protections, Human Rights Watch said. For decades, Thailand has been a destination for LGBT tourists, and in particular for transgender people seeking gender-affirming health care. Thailand still offers no protections for transgender people, and lawmakers should also seriously consider passing much-needed reforms for trans rights as well.

“Social acceptance has its limitations and is no substitute for protections grounded in law,” Knight said. “Thailand is on the brink of offering more legal protections for LGBT people than it ever has in its history, and setting a positive example for the region.”

Türkiye: Stonewalling on Charges for Officials in Earthquake Deaths

Human Rights Watch - Wednesday, March 27, 2024

 

Play Video The absence of criminal proceedings against municipal officials in deaths stemming from the February 6, 2023 earthquakes, is deeply troubling and unacceptable. Public officials for years have evaded responsibility to make sure buildings are safe, and the lack of investigations severely hampers proceedings in cases against private contractors. The Turkish authorities should permit criminal investigation leading to prosecution of all officials responsible for earthquake deaths and those who failed to mitigate the deadly risk of such quakes.

(Istanbul, March 27, 2024) – The absence of criminal proceedings against municipal officials in deaths stemming from the February 6, 2023 earthquakes, is deeply troubling and unacceptable, Human Rights Watch and Citizens Assembly, a nongovernmental organization from Türkiye, said today. There has been little action despite evidence that officials authorized and approved defective buildings that collapsed, killing over 53,000 people.

Expert reports commissioned by public prosecutors in regions hardest hit by the earthquakes, and seen by Human Rights Watch, identify municipal officials, alongside private contractors and builders, responsible for defects in buildings that collapsed in the southeast city of Kahramanmaras and other places. Citizens’ Assembly has asked state authorities to provide information about the number of cases in which permission has been granted, as Turkish law requires, to pursue a criminal investigation against a public official. As of publication of this report, Citizens’ Assembly had received information that permission to investigate just three public officials has been granted, with the authorities for the most part refusing to provide answers.

“It is sobering for citizens in the earthquake-hit region to find out that cases against municipal officials who signed off on defective building projects seem to be barely moving forward,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Over a year after the earthquakes, the failure to demonstrate progress damages public trust in the government’s commitment to securing justice for the victims.”

Click to expand Image A commemoration held in Hatay, Turkey on the first anniversary of the February 6, 2023 earthquakes. Survivors of the earthquake and families of victims are campaigning for all those responsible for defective buildings to be held accountable. The banner here reads “Is anyone hearing us?”  © 2024 Ugur Yildirim/ dia images via Getty Images

In January 2024, Citizens’ Assembly filed information requests with the Interior Ministry, governorates of the 11 provinces in southeastern Türkiye devastated by the earthquakes, and 46 relevant district governorates in those provinces. Citizens Assembly asked how many applications to pursue criminal investigations prosecutors had filed and how many investigations they had been permitted under provisions of the Law on Trials of Public Officials into current or now retired appointed officials and elected officials such as mayors and municipal council members for their role in licensing and overseeing deadly construction projects or failing to take adequate steps to mitigate the risk of harm.

While in four cases, governorates and a district governorate said that permission on whether to investigate is pending, Islahiye district governorate in Gaziantep province said that permission to investigate three public officials has been granted, and in two of those cases the decision is being appealed. The majority of authorities however failed to provide any data, claiming that such information falls outside the scope of permitted freedom of information requests or concerns confidential information.

Human Rights Watch also conducted research in the city of Kahramanmaraş, in Kahramanmaraş province, one of the places most affected, examining the progress of investigations and trials against private contractors and technical personnel responsible for collapsed buildings in which there was huge loss of life.

A man who was rescued from block E of the Kahramanmaraş Ebrar housing complex reflected the views of many, saying: “The first person I blame here is not the contractor. First of all, I blame those who gave permission to build the block. Whoever has the smallest finger in the permitting processes, allowed the building to be built, and turned a blind eye to its inspection, I blame them.”

Human Rights Watch examined 14 expert reports concerning large apartment buildings in Kahramanmaraş that collapsed, killing most of their residents, as well as six more concerning buildings in other provinces. Of the 14 commissioned by the Kahramanmaraş chief public prosecutor’s office from university construction engineering departments, all but one report point to serious failures by builders to adhere to applicable technical standards, with municipal building department officials apparently turning a blind eye by issuing building permits for flawed projects and later signing off on inadequate and unsafe finished construction.

These expert reports have provided the basis for indictments of private actors and give ample basis for investigations of public officials, many of whom are identified by name, Human Rights Watch and Citizens’ Assembly said.

On February 5, 2024, citing figures provided by prosecutors’ offices in eight provinces, Turkish media reported that 883 private developers, builders, and technical personnel are now on trial in connection with deaths in buildings that collapsed. In the trials now underway in Kahramanmaraş, a central pillar of developers and building teams’ defense has been that the municipality authorized their projects and building work and that the relevant municipal officials and other public authorities therefore bear responsibility for flawed construction.

The lack of investigations into public officials severely hampers proceedings in these cases, Human Rights Watch and Citizens’ Assembly said. Courts hearing the cases are being prevented from determining the full background of how builders on trial were able to flout applicable building regulations to secure permits, evade thorough inspection, and sell to the public buildings that were known to be unsafe.

Municipalities have also failed over many years in their duty to take bold steps to mitigate the risk of earthquakes to the local population, ignoring the recommendations outlined in the reports of Türkiye’s Disaster Management Directorate (AFAD). These reports have identified areas of cities at risk and in need of detailed ground studies and advised that municipalities should evacuate defective buildings.

“The Turkish authorities should permit criminal investigations capable of resulting in the prosecution of all responsible public officials alongside private actors for their role in earthquake deaths,” Williamson said. “Beyond that the government should undertake a wider inquiry into municipalities and any other relevant public authorities for their failure to take measures to mitigate the deadly risk of earthquakes, despite the available recommendations from Türkiye’s Disaster Management Directorate, AFAD.”

For detailed findings, please see below.

Deaths in Kahramanmaraş and the Search for Justice

The two earthquakes that struck on February 6, 2023, were centered on districts of Kahramanmaraş province in southeastern Türkiye and had a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 on the Richter scale. Over 53,000 people were killed during the earthquakes and their immediate aftermath, and hundreds of thousands more were injured and displaced across 11 provinces. The most badly affected provinces were Hatay and Kahramanmaraş.

According to a February 16, 2023 internal report by the national Building Works General Directorate of the Ministry for Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change, seen by Human Rights Watch, 1,670 buildings collapsed in Onikişubat and Dulkadiroğlu, the two central districts of Kahramanmaraş city where Human Rights Watch conducted research. On February 5, 2024, the Kahramanmaraş prosecutor’s office reported to the media that courts had accepted 70 indictments of private actors for their role, that 15 more indictments were ready, and that there were 152 defendants, of whom 10 were in pretrial detention.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 32 people including relatives of people who died, lawyers, an architect, construction engineers, a geological engineer, and city planners. The organization examined expert reports from university construction engineering departments commissioned by prosecutors investigating earthquake deaths, and met with a public prosecutor handling earthquake-related investigation cases in Kahramanmaraş.

Many of those interviewed noted the importance of investigations into private contractors and other private actors but pointed to the glaring lack of progress on holding the municipal and other public authorities to account.

Families of earthquake victims said that they had been given no information on when investigations into municipal and other public authorities might begin. Officials at the Kahramanmaraş courthouse and governorate verbally confirmed that although permission to investigate municipal officials had been requested, the Interior Ministry had not yet granted permission.

Human Rights Watch researched 11 buildings that collapsed in Kahramanmaraş, all but one of them built in the years directly after the deadly 1999 Marmara earthquake in western Türkiye that triggered stricter building regulations and in theory a greater awareness about the importance of adherence to building standards. While provisions of Türkiye’s building regulations that address mitigating the risk of earthquakes have been amended seven times, the February 6, 2023 earthquakes revealed a massive implementation gap, evident in widespread lack of adherence to safety standards.

Ebrar Housing Complex

While figures for the number of dead and injured in Onikişubat and Dulkadiroğlu districts are not publicly available, the highest number of deaths in a single site in Kahramanmaraş were in a housing complex in Onikişubat known as the Ebrar Sitesi (housing complex). Eighteen out of 22 blocks ranging between 8 and 11 stories and built between around 2000 and 2011 collapsed, killing at least 1,400 people. Human Rights Watch is aware of five ongoing trials of private developers and builders concerning deaths in individual Ebrar blocks that collapsed, but no investigations or prosecutions of public officials.

Click to expand Image At least 1400 people died when apartment blocks belonging to the Ebrar housing complex in Kahramanmaraş city, Turkey collapsed in the February 6, 2023 earthquakes. © 2023 Kazim Kızıl

Human Rights Watch conducted a focus group interview with eight people whose relatives had died in the Ebrar complex as well as individual interviews with six more.

Sıla Danyeri, 20, a university student, lost her closest family members when the Hünkar Apartment in the Ebrar complex collapsed. “At first when I arrived at the scene I couldn’t even understand where our apartment was,” she said. “There were body bags everywhere, people waiting to be rescued, those hopeless screams…. The weather conditions … it was minus 2 or minus 3 degrees [celsius]…. And at first the voices from the rubble of people expecting help....”

After three days, the bodies of her parents and brother had been recovered and two days later, her paternal grandmother. Danyeri estimates that over 100 people died in the Hünkar Apartment.

A construction engineer, Cafer Nalçacı, 39, said that he had rushed to his older sister’s building, B block in the Ebrar complex, where 109 people died. He was able to locate his two nephews, but only rescue the older one. “We spoke to my other nephew for close to three hours as we attempted to rescue him. He was 14. We didn’t manage to save him.... At Ebrar there were no work machines, not even a hammer.” Nalçacı was only able to identify his sister’s body 42 days later via a DNA sample. Her body had been removed from the rubble and buried in an unnamed cemetery.

In some other cases, families were unable to find the bodies of their loved ones. Fadime Gökçe, 55, spent 10 days beside the rubble of E block, attempting to rescue her 26-year-old daughter Fikriye Aybüke Körük, who lived there. Despite reports at the time that Aybüke was rescued from the building and taken to a hospital, her whereabouts is unknown.

Along with others whose loved ones were never recovered from the rubble, Gökçe continues her search. “When I am in my house and I look out of the window I see the Ebrar complex,” she said.  “I see the collapsed buildings and I am waiting beside the rubble. I can’t get away from it, I am still there. There is no way to describe it.”

The Ebrar construction began after the municipality authorized the building to go ahead on soft fertile alluvial ground previously used for growing lettuce. Mehmet Kuruçay, a geological engineer who formerly headed the chamber of geological engineers in Kahramanmaraş, said that for years he had raised concerns about the failure to conduct proper ground studies to determine the suitability of the location for high-rise buildings. An architect who preferred to remain anonymous blamed the municipality for opening the area where the Ebrar blocks are built for development in the first place.

Human Rights Watch has seen six expert reports concerning Ebrar housing complex blocks prepared at the request of the Kahramanmaraş prosecutor’s office by the Karadeniz Technical University engineering department. The reports form the basis of the prosecutors’ case against contractors and their building teams. The expert reports identify a pattern of failure by the developers and builders to adhere to building standards applicable at the time of construction, lack of or inadequate ground survey reports prior to building, and an absence of effective oversight of projects by the municipal building license and control department.

Five of the six expert reports concerning blocks F, K, L, Reyyan Apartment, and Hünkar Apartment within the Ebrar complex attribute secondary liability for flawed construction to municipal personnel from the project licensing department and building control department who originally signed off on projects alongside private contractors held primarily liable. The sixth expert report concerning Ebrar block N (Berk Apartment) attributes primary liability to both the municipal personnel from the project licensing department and the private contractors.

Hamidiye, Palmiye, Penta Park, Ezgi, Fazilet, Sait Bey Housing Blocks

In another seven expert reports seen by Human Rights Watch concerning single multistory buildings and multiple block housing complexes in various locations of Onikişubat and Dulkadiroğlu districts, which collapsed killing hundreds of people, secondary liability is also attributed to municipal personnel. In the case of the Hamidiye, Palmiye and Fazilet Apartment blocks, primary liability is attributed to municipal personnel, alongside private contractors and personnel. So far trials have begun in the cases of the Ezgi and Sait Bey apartments.

The experts said in their reports that in some cases defects in the original building were compounded by later refitting the ground floors of buildings, removal of supporting columns and weight-bearing walls, and additions of mezzanine floors. It is the responsibility of municipality construction departments to ensure that such modifications are licensed and approved. From 2011 onwards, building controllers working for private building inspection companies have also played a role in overseeing the conformity of buildings and modifications to buildings with relevant regulations.

Nurettin Çağdaş Çakmak, 45, whose parents and other relatives died in the Fazilet Apartment block A in the Onikişubat district, said that the municipality had failed to meet its responsibilities over a period of 12 years, despite a court case initiated by apartment residents, to prevent the owners of a bakery from making unlicensed alterations to the ground floor of the building that fundamentally undermined its structure. Those alterations, he contended, contributed to the collapse of the building during the earthquake.

The Kahramanmaraş prosecutor has indicted the contractor as well as the owners of the bakery whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

The experts also found that the builders of the Fazilet Apartment did not adhere to the building regulations and said that municipal officials and private actors shared liability for the building’s collapse.

In the case of the 8-floor Ezgi Apartment, which collapsed, killing 35 of the 37 people in it at the time, there is strong reason to believe unlicensed building modifications played a role. Nurgül Göksu, 46, said that she spent 12 days at the site of the building from which the bodies of her son, daughter-in-law and 6-month-old granddaughter were recovered.

Seeking to understand what happened, Göksu found evidence that a key supporting column and parts of supporting walls had been removed when the owners of a restaurant café on the ground floor undertook refitting work with no municipal license. She also found that a complaint by the apartment manager to the municipality in 2021 had resulted in no action and the provincial directorate of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change found no irregularities in the refitting work despite removal of the supports. The whereabouts of the café owners, who have been indicted, is currently unknown.

In the case of the one of two Penta Park apartment blocks that collapsed, killing 115 people, the expert report said it was not only lack of compliance with building standards in the original building but also unlicensed refitting of the ground floor by the Ziraat Bank that was responsible for problems. The municipality neither enforced the original standards nor prevented the unauthorized refit. A trial concerning deaths in the Penta Park blocks is scheduled for August 12.

Some blocks that were constructed more recently also collapsed, among them the Sait Bey apartment blocks, which were built in 2016 and subject to the private building control inspection system in place since January 2011, as well as inspections by municipalities.

Human Rights Watch learned from a construction engineer and two expert reports that floors of the Sait Bey apartments were built before the municipality had even issued a building license and before the works could be inspected. Instead of ordering the illegal construction to be demolished, the municipality building commission allowed the developer to continue.

Turkish Authorities’ Failure to Mitigate Risk of Earthquakes

Multiple public authorities share an obligation under Turkish law to protect the right to life by taking adequate preventive steps to reduce harm and mitigate risk. Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, affiliated with the Interior Ministry, leads on disaster response in Türkiye, but its duties laid out in Presidential Decree no. 4, dated July 2018, include “ensuring coordination between the institutions and organizations that carry out the preparation and risk reduction before the occurrence of [disaster] incidents....”

In cases in which a municipality is alerted to areas at serious risk of natural disasters, high-level municipal decision makers bear the main duty of ensuring that preventive steps are taken to reduce the risk of harm to the local population. The law on municipalities (no. 5216) lays out municipalities’ duties in disaster management, including for making contingency plans in advance of disasters, and sole responsibility for identifying and, if necessary, evacuating buildings judged to pose a risk.

Concerning Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye’s government and local municipal authorities had sufficient information to know and to take steps to determine in advance that buildings in some areas of the province would not withstand a strong earthquake, the groups said. In 2020, the Disaster and Emergency Management agency (AFAD) published a detailed report on mitigating the risk of natural disasters in Kahramanmaraş, and Türkiye’s earthquake experts have issued repeated warnings over many years. Because the city was built on active intersecting fault lines, the agency warned, during an earthquake some alluvial areas of Kahramanmaraş would be prone to liquefaction of the ground, a process in which the soil literally assumes a liquid-like state, greatly increasing the likelihood of buildings collapsing.

A key recommendation advised that “to reduce loss of lives and property in the event of an earthquake, detailed ground studies of residential areas and the evacuation of buildings in dangerous areas is necessary … Earthquake-proof buildings with the right concrete structure and technical specification must be constructed at a distance from active fault lines and on stable ground.” The agency identified in its report the neighborhoods of Kahramanmaraş most at risk in this respect.

All those interviewed were aware of how little had been done by national and local authorities to carry out the agency’s recommendations by immediate evacuation and rebuilding of unstable structures.

Nebahat Paçala, 69, rescued from the rubble of the Selam Apartment in the Ebrar complex, said: “The disaster and emergency management presidency knew the risk of earthquakes, and all public officials knew that the buildings in this area were not durable, but no one did anything about it.” Experts such as a geological engineer and the two construction engineers interviewed in Kahramanmaraş expressed the same view.

Successive governments in Türkiye have dealt with the widespread practice of irregular and unsafe building activity by granting amnesty to contractors and others responsible for unlicensed construction or unauthorized refitting of existing buildings. The previous Erdoğan government passed the most recent of such amnesty laws in May 2018.

Experts have pointed out how deeply troubling and problematic pardoning those responsible for unlicensed and uninspected construction can be, in light of the well documented risk of earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Investigation of Public Officials

The Law on the Trial of Public Servants, no. 4483, requires the government and state authorities grant prior administrative permission to investigate and prosecute a public official for crimes committed in the course of their public duty. Regardless of the weight of evidence, prosecutors cannot open investigations of officials on their own initiative but must first send preliminary evidence and recommendations for criminal investigation to the relevant administrative authority. The authority must then conduct a preliminary investigation of its own and decide whether to give the prosecutor permission to proceed.

The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly criticized this requirement. The court has found that the administrative bodies determining whether permission should be granted lack independence from the executive, and that there is inadequate judicial scrutiny of their decisions. This denies victims access to effective remedies. The issue of prior permission is particularly problematic in cases involving the liability of public officials for violations of the right to life.

In January, under the Right to Information Law, Citizens’ Assembly submitted 58 information requests – to the Ministry of Interior, the governorates of 11 provinces, and the district governorates of the 46 most damaged districts in those provinces – about the number of criminal investigations prosecutors have requested and the number permitted into current or now- retired public officials and elected political actors. The 11 provinces are Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Hatay, Adana, Kilis, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Elazığ, and Malatya

Although there is no legal obstacle to disclosing statistical information in response to access to information requests, on January 12, the Interior Ministry refused on several grounds to share such information. It cited articles 19, 20, and 21 of the Right to Information Law, which provide that information should not be shared if it conflicts with obligations to protect confidentiality, could jeopardize an administrative or criminal investigation, could lead to crimes being committed or jeopardize the prevention of crime and the capture of suspects, the right to a fair trial, and the right to private life.

On February 1, Citizens’ Assembly appealed the ministry’s refusal to provide statistical information. At the time of writing there had been no response to that appeal.

Seven of the 11 provincial governorates also refused to provide information on the basis of one or more of articles of the Right to Information Law cited by the Interior Ministry. An eighth, the Kahramanmaraş governorate, did not respond at all. Only three governorates – Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, and Adana – provided substantive answers.

On January 19, Şanlıurfa governorate informed Citizens’ Assembly that the prosecutor’s office had submitted four investigation permit requests and that the governorate had asked the Interior Ministry to assign an inspector to conduct a preliminary investigation into these cases. The governorate was also processing a fifth request from Birecik district. None of the preliminary investigations had been concluded and no investigation permits have yet been granted for any public official in Şanlıurfa.

On January 26, Gaziantep governorate informed Citizens’ Assembly that the four pre-investigation files had been completed and had been forwarded to the district governor’s office for a decision. In three other cases, the governorate itself had requested a pre-investigation and the process was continuing. In nine cases a pre-investigation request and request to appoint an inspector had been forwarded to the Interior Ministry and the process was continuing.

On January 11, the Adana governorate informed Citizens’ Assembly that it had communicated the information requests to the Adana district governorates with a request to reply directly to Citizens’ Assembly. Eleven Adana district governorates informed Citizens’ Assembly that no investigation permit process concerning public officials was underway or refused to answer. Seyhan district governorate stated that it could not reveal the content of 47 decisions from various dates since Citizens’ Assembly was not a party to the decisions, and Çukurova district governorate stated that it had not existed as a district at the time the relevant buildings that collapsed there dating from before 2008 were built.

Out of the 45 other district governorates Human Rights Watch approached, only three more provided substantive answers. The Hatay Dörtyol district governorate, on January 18, provided a detailed answer to the Citizens’ Assembly information request. In response to a prosecutor’s office’s request for permission to investigate three public officials named by profession, a request had been made to the Interior Ministry to assign an inspector to conduct preliminary investigations. In a February 1 response, the Malatya Akçadağ district governorate said that there had been no applications for permission to investigate in the district.

On March 26, the Gaziantep Islahiye district governorate sent a response saying that it had issued decisions granting permission to investigate three public officials and that in two of those cases appeals against the decisions had been lodged at the regional administrative court.  

Yemen: Houthis Sentence Men to Death, Flogging

Human Rights Watch - Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Click to expand Image Illustration of string sealing person’s lips. © 2020 Malte Mueller / Getty Images

(Beirut) – A Houthi court sentenced 32 men, 9 of them to death, on January 23, 2024, in an unfair mass trial based on dubious charges of “sodomy,” Human Rights Watch said today. The Houthis should end their use of the death penalty and other forms of cruel and degrading punishment and provide fair trials for those charged.

In addition to death sentences that include crucifixion and stoning, the Houthi court sentenced 23 men to prison for periods of up to 10 years. Three of them were also sentenced to public flogging. The initial court indictment, dated October 17, 2023, included serious due process violations and egregious violations of Yemen’s own criminal procedural code, Human Rights Watch found.

“In an abhorrent disregard for the rule of law, the Houthis are handing down death sentences and subjecting men to public mistreatment without a semblance of due process,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Houthis are using these cruel measures to distract from their failure to govern and provide people in their territories with basic needs.”

Human Rights Watch reviewed the official indictments against the 32 men by the Houthi courts and videos of the Houthi court proceedings posted on social media, and interviewed a lawyer with knowledge of the case. Blatant due process violations included police officers failing to provide arrest warrants and unlawfully searching and confiscating the men’s phones. The lawyer questioned whether those charged had adequate access to legal counsel.

Human Rights Watch has documented serious violations by governments in the Middle East and North Africa targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people online and using “illegitimately obtained digital photos, chats, and similar information” to prosecute them.

The Yemeni Criminal Procedures law, under articles 132 and 172, prohibits warrantless arrests as well as seizing people’s belongings in police custody. Article 181 also prohibits police interrogations without the presence of a lawyer.

The Houthi armed group took over Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, causing the internationally recognized Yemeni government to flee. The Houthis, as a non-state actor that exercises “de facto control over [a] territory and population,” are obligated to “respect and protect the human rights of individuals and groups” living under their control.

Human Rights Watch has also documented systematic abuses in Houthi prisons. In a 2023 report, the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Yemen found that “Houthi-held prisoners are subjected to systematic psychological and physical torture, including the denial of medical intervention to cure the injuries caused by the torture inflicted, which for some prisoners resulted in permanent disabilities and death.”

On October 10, 2023, another Houthi-run court in Dhamar city, a Yemeni governorate south of Sanaa, convicted 16 men of committing “immoral acts,” according to the official indictment reviewed by Human Rights Watch. According to a post on X by al-Mashhad al-Yemeni, a local news website, on February 14, 2024, Houthi forces gathered 30 men, including the 16 men who had been convicted on October 10, in a cemetery in Dhamar, and stated that they were going to execute the men by stoning them to death. The men were instead returned to detention, according to the same local news website.

Two activists and a lawyer told Human Rights Watch that the families of several defendants fled Dhamar governorate to escape the social stigma associated with the accusations. Another Yemeni activist with knowledge of the case said: “Charging and putting people on trial because of ‘immoral acts’ has catastrophic long-term consequences on people’s lives in Yemen, even if they are fabricated or made up. Those charged and their families will be impacted and stigmatized forever.”

Houthis have repeatedly arrested people who have been critical of their policies under the guise of “committing immoral acts,” Human Rights Watch said. In January 2024, the Houthis arrested Judge Abdulwahab Qatran on charges related to alcohol consumption after he criticized the Houthis’ Red Sea attacks on social media. In 2021, a Houthi court sentenced a Yemeni model and actress, Intisar al-Hammadi, as well as three other women, to prison after convicting them on charges of committing “an indecent act.”

According to Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Houthi courts have sentenced 350 people to death since taking over the capital in 2014 and executed 11 of them. On September 18, 2021, Houthi forces executed 9 people, reportedly including a 17-year-old, in Sanaa’s Tahrir Square. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that “the defendants were sentenced to death in a judicial process that violated their constitutional rights and did not comply with fair trial standards under international law.”

International human rights standards, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights, ratified by Yemen, obligate countries that use the death penalty to restrict its enforcement to exceptional circumstances for the “most serious crimes.”

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all countries and under all circumstances. Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and its determination is often plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error, Human Rights Watch said.

“To cover up their brutality, Houthis are charging people with immoral acts, especially for those who oppose them,” said Jafarnia. “The Houthis should immediately end the use of the death penalty and other forms of cruel and degrading punishments and provide due process for those charged.”

Brazil: Join Regional Treaty on Environment, Defenders

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Click to expand Image Environmental defenders. © Win Edson for Human Rights Watch

(São Paulo) – The administration of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should rally legislators to approve the Escazú Agreement, more than 150 Brazilian and international organizations said today in a letter to Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha. The regional agreement protects the rights of access to information and to justice, as well as public participation in decision-making processes on environmental matters, and contains specific provisions for protecting environmental human rights defenders.

The letter's signatories include organizations working with communities affected by environmental destruction and associated violence; groups working on environment, Indigenous rights, transparency, access to information, and human rights; and academic institutions.

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“The Lula administration took a very important step by sending the Escazú Agreement to Congress for approval last year,” said Andrea Carvalho, Brazil researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It now needs to engage lawmakers to ensure approval of a treaty that would further the government’s stated goal of protecting Brazil’s forests and taking a leading international role in fighting climate change.”

In March 2018, 24 Latin American and Caribbean states adopted the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation, Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin American and the Caribbean, also known as the Escazú Agreement. Brazil signed the treaty that year but took no further action on it until May 2023, when President Lula finally sent it to legislators for ratification. Congressional approval is still pending. The agreement is currently under consideration by the foreign affairs committee in the Chamber of Deputies.

The agreement guarantees everyone’s right to access environmental information, such as on environmental risks and environmental protection, as well as to meaningfully participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives and the environment. It also requires countries to ensure adequate access to justice when those rights are violated, adopt measures to provide environmental defenders with a safe and enabling environment “so that they are able to act free from threat, restriction and insecurity,” and hold accountable anyone who threatens or commits acts of violence and intimidation against them.

The agreement is particularly relevant to countries like Brazil, where environmental and land defenders face threats and attacks. Human Rights Watch has documented the plight of communities in the Amazon trying to hold on to their land and protect the environment and their livelihoods from the onslaught of criminal networks involved in illegal logging, mining, and land grabs. The perpetrators of these acts of violence are rarely brought to justice.

Between April 22 and 24, the 15 countries that have ratified the Escazú Agreement will gather in Santiago, Chile, for the third Conference of the Parties (COP3). The Lula administration should send high-level officials as observers to show that Brazil is eager to join their efforts to protect the environment and those standing up to defend it across the region, Human Rights Watch said.

“Approving the Escazú Agreement should not be a partisan issue,” said Joara Marchezini, project coordinator at Nupef Institute and member of the Escazú Brazil Movement. “The agreement would benefit everyone by fostering government transparency, access to information, and stronger protection for Brazil’s natural heritage and its defenders. All parties in Congress should support it.”

Argentina: Firearms Resolution Opens Door to Abuse

Human Rights Watch - Monday, March 25, 2024
Click to expand Image Security Minister Patricia Bullrich shakes hands with security forces deployed to Rosario, Argentina, on Monday, March 11, 2024. The Argentine government sent federal security forces to the city following a wave of killings in public areas. © 2024 AP Photo/Celina Mutti Lovera 

(Washington, DC) - A new executive branch resolution broadening the scope for security agents’ use of firearms in Argentina runs counter to basic human rights standards and opens the door to abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.

On March 14, 2024, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich approved the resolution citing increased gang violence in the city of Rosario, Santa Fe province, which Human Rights Watch visited in late February. The resolution contains loopholes and ambiguities that could allow security officers to employ firearms in an unacceptably broad set of circumstances. It applies to all national security forces, including the national police and the national penitentiary service.

“People in Rosario and elsewhere in Argentina should be able to go about their daily lives without fear due to insecurity,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “To achieve that, the government should be strengthening judicial capacity and preventing gang recruitment, not opening the door to excessive use of force.”

The resolution is an extended version of another resolution that Bullrich passed in 2018, when she was also Security Minister. Human Rights Watch had called for its modification as it ran counter to international human rights standards.

Rosario is the urban center with the highest rate of homicides in Argentina, five times higher than the average national rate. Its location, on the banks of a key waterway for regional trade and connected by land to Paraguay and Bolivia, makes it strategic for drug trafficking. For more than a decade, various local gangs have fought over control of the local drug trade. In the first two weeks of March, two taxi drivers, a bus driver, and a gas station employee were killed. Some analysts say the killings were possibly a countermove by gangs against the authorities’ measures to exert greater control in prisons.

When Human Rights Watch visited Rosario, provincial and municipal authorities, as well as judges, prosecutors, and experts on gang violence, emphasized the importance of strengthening judicial and prosecutorial capacities to investigate crimes by local gangs, their financing, and their connections with corrupt politicians. They also cited the need to prevent gang recruitment by improving education and job opportunities.

The resolution’s vague language is inconsistent with human rights standards that limit the use of firearms, Human Rights Watch said.

The resolution fails to distinguish between the use of firearms and the deliberately lethal use of firearms—that is, the distinction between shooting and shooting with the intent to kill. This is a key distinction because, even in those limited cases in which the use of firearms is justifiable, officers should generally not shoot to kill. Under the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which the resolution cites but to which it fails to adhere, the intentional lethal use of firearms is permissible only “when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.”

Moreover, the resolution allows federal security officers to use firearms when “non-violent means are ineffective,” without specifying that there are other means that should be employed before using firearms.

Under the UN Basic Principles, security officers may only employ firearms when “less extreme means,” including both non-violent and violent ones, are insufficient. This key provision recognizes that firearms are more likely to cause death or injury than other uses of force. Security forces may only use firearms when less lethal modes of force and non-violent means remain ineffective or without any promise of achieving the intended result.

The resolution undermines both administrative and judicial accountability for the use of firearms by security forces, Human Rights Watch said.

It provides that authorities cannot adopt “precautionary nor disciplinary measures” against an official “credibly” believed to have complied with the resolution, unless and until courts have issued a final criminal decision otherwise. This would make it impossible for authorities to discipline officers unless they have been convicted of a crime. It also eliminates the requirement, established in the 2018 resolution, that security forces “rapidly” prepare an administrative report after an officer uses a firearm causing injuries or death.

In a separate step, the Justice Ministry decided to carry out, starting in May, an adversarial system in criminal proceedings in the federal court system in Rosario, as part of a developing implementation of the system throughout the country. If effectively put in place, this change has the potential to accelerate criminal cases and more clearly distinguish between the functions of judges and prosecutors. However, authorities at the Attorney General’s Office and the Justice Ministry told Human Rights Watch that there were few, if any, additional resources available to implement the new system.

The administration of President Javier Milei should ensure adequate funding, resources, and training to ensure rights-respecting and effective investigations under the new system, Human Rights Watch said.

New Bill Would Protect Child Farmworkers in the US

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image A 15-year-old girl works on a tobacco farm in North Carolina. July 2013. © 2013 Human Rights Watch

A bill introduced today in the US Senate would strengthen protections for children working on farms. The new legislative push comes amid rising child labor violations and backsliding on child labor protections by some US states.

Senator Ben Ray Luján’s bill, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment in Agriculture, or CARE Act of 2024, would raise the age of children who can work in agriculture to 14, and for hazardous work to 18, in line with all other industries. The bill would also increase penalties for child labor violations. There are exemptions for children who work on family farms.

Child workers in the US face the greatest risks to their lives and health in agriculture. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 40 percent of child workers under 18 who died on the job between 2018 and 2021 were working in agriculture. Sixty-two percent of work-related deaths among children under 16 during the same period also occurred in agriculture. Thousands of children are injured while working on farms each year.

Human Rights Watch has interviewed hundreds of child farmworkers who have risked their lives and health while working in agriculture. Children worked long shifts in excessive heat, with limited breaks and hydration, without safety training or protection, and exposed to toxic pesticides. Latinx children and families are disproportionately impacted.

Current federal labor law allows children to work on farms of any size for any number of hours, outside of school hours, starting from age 12. In all other sectors, 16 is the basic minimum work age and 14- and 15-year-olds can only work for limited hours in certain jobs. Children in agriculture can do hazardous work at age 16, compared to age 18 for other sectors.

A previous version of the CARE Act introduced in the House of Representatives in June 2023 has 45 co-sponsors. Thirty-four organizations, including labor, child, and farmworker rights groups, have endorsed the new Senate bill. Majorities in the House and Senate would need to vote for the bill before the president could sign it into law.

The CARE Act is critical to address the dangers that child farmworkers face every day across the country. Congress should pass this bill without delay.

Drone Attack Collapses Odesa Residential Building

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image An apartment building heavily damaged during a Russian drone strike in Odesa, Ukraine March 2, 2024.  © 2024 Stringer/Reuters

On March 2, Andriy Sidak raced to his sister’s apartment building fearing the worst.

Earlier, a Russian drone had struck the building in the north part of Odesa. What he found was rubble and dust, the mangled remains of what had been a nine-story residential building. Witnesses say the drone hit the building at the sixth-floor level, causing concrete slabs of the upper floors of the building to collapse on the lower levels.

Click to expand Image Serhii Gaidarzhi watches as rescue workers search for the bodies of his wife Anna Gaidarzhi and their four-month-old son Tymofii, both killed in the drone attack. Odesa, March 2, 2024.  © 2024 Andriy Sidak

Sidak entered what remained of the apartment where his sister Anna Gaidarzhi lived with her husband Serhii and two children, a four-month-old son Tymofii and a three-year-old daughter Lizzi.

“The living room …, where they had a piano and a sofa, was gone. The huge concrete slab blocked the doorway to the bedroom where Anna and Tymofii slept,” said Sidak. “Their bodies were found last … in the basement. They died in their sleep, flattened by the rubble.”

Serhii and Lizzi survived.

In total, 12 people were killed in the attack, five of them children, the youngest of them Tymofii Gaidarzhi. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine called it “the deadliest incident for children in more than nine months.”

Mykhailo Voitov, who lived on the seventh floor, was also killed in the collapse. His wife, Angelina, had fled to Germany in 2022 with their 11-year-old daughter because she was distressed about the war. The couple had been married for 33 years, and before the war started, had never been apart for more than one day.

“Our daughter was very frightened,” Angelina said after her husband’s funeral. “She has only just begun to settle down. I don’t know how her father’s death will impact her.”

Ukrainian authorities stated that the defense forces shot down seven drones launched by the Russian forces into Odesa that night. One drone hit a residential building. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine whether Ukrainian forces attempted to intercept the drone.

Russia’s full-scale invasion has killed and injured tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, most of the casualties have been from the use in populated areas of explosive weapons, such as missiles, drones, and artillery. Use of such weapons in populated areas should be avoided because of the heightened risk of indiscriminate and often devastating impact on civilians and infrastructure and, in the long run, post-conflict reconstruction.

Ugandan Appeals Court Shutters LGBT Rights Group

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image Pepe Onziema (L), Frank Mugisha (C),  from SMUG and UNAIDS representative Tseday Alemseged before the hearing of the petition challenging the Anti Homosexuality Act, Kampala,Uganda, December 13, 2023.  © 2023 Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters

Last week, in another blow to freedoms of association and expression in Uganda, a Ugandan court rejected a petition brought by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a leading group advocating for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, to compel the government to register the NGO. The petition was rejected on the grounds that the organization’s name is against “public interest.” Without registration, SMUG, which was shut down in August 2022 for failing to register with the NGO Bureau, cannot operate legally.

Today marks the first anniversary of the adoption of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), one of the harshest anti-LGBT laws in the world, signed by President Yoweri Museveni on March 21, 2023. The Supreme Court is currently examining petitions by human rights activists, journalists, academics, and religious leaders, who are challenging the repressive and controversial law. The attacks on LGBT rights have been part of a broader crackdown on civil society, including with respect to environmental rights activists.

SMUG, which has provided education on sexuality and advocated for health services since 2004, has been fighting to be legally recognized for more than a decade.

Their first attempt at registration was rejected by the Uganda Registration Services Bureau in 2012, also on the ground that their name was deemed to be against public policy. The Bureau also deemed them a criminal organization under section 145 of the Penal Code Act because “sexual minorities” are referenced in the group’s name and because they engaged with people whose sexual activities are criminalized. A lower court upheld this decision in June 2018, which SMUG appealed.

Last week’s ruling affirmed the previous judicial decisions. Although the court focused primarily on the naming issue, the judge noted that SMUG is associated with the promotion and protection of the rights of LGBT people, who, according to the AHA, are breaking the law.

Several human rights advocates have expressed their disappointment in the decision and view this ruling as a missed opportunity to protect the basic human rights of LGBT people, like freedoms of association and expression.

“This is invalidating all the advocacy work that has been done for years and gives the Anti-Homosexuality Act and all homophobes more power over people’s lives, bodies, and rights,” a Ugandan queer and feminist advocate told Human Rights Watch.

SMUG’s case is yet another reminder of the unjustified and arbitrary restrictions on human rights defenders in Uganda. Ugandan authorities should stop targeting LGBT people and groups and instead pass laws to protect vulnerable minorities and uphold fundamental rights.

Cameroon: Government Bans Opposition Coalitions

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image Demonstrators stopped by gendarmes and police in Bafang, West Cameroon, on September 22, 2020. © 2020 Private

(Nairobi) – A declaration by Cameroon’s territorial administration minister to make two opposition coalitions illegal is part of a government crackdown on opposition and dissent, Human Rights Watch said today.

On March 12, 2024, the minister, Paul Atanga Nji, said in a statement that the Political Alliance for Change (Alliance politique pour le changement, APC), led by Jean-Michel Nintcheu, and the Political Alliance for Transition in Cameroon (Alliance politique pour la transition, APT), led by Olivier Bile, are “illegal,” calling them “clandestine movements.” The minister also referenced a recent meeting at a prison in Yaoundé between Nintcheu and Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, a leader of the Anglophone separatist group Ambazonia Interim Government, as a factor in the decision to ban the coalition.

“The government’s move against these coalitions shows how the Cameroonian authorities are moving to close down space for the opposition and for public debate ahead of the 2025 presidential elections,” said Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately lift the ban and allow opposition parties to continue working without harassment.”

In December 2023, a prominent opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, was reelected as the leader of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun, MRC), one of the most prominent opposition groups in the country. Kamto used his reelection to announce the creation of the APC.

The current president, Paul Biya, has been in power since 1982 and is serving out his seventh term. Biya, 91, was last reelected in 2018 after a contested vote-counting process. Kamto challenged the official results and declared himself winner of the election.

Biya’s 2018 election sparked a wave of political repression. After the 2018 vote, opposition-led protests occurred across the country, and the government responded with a heavy crackdown and the use of excessive force by the police, army, and gendarmes. In January 2019, Kamto and over 200 of his supporters were arrested and detained. Kamto was charged with insurrection, hostility against the homeland, criminal association, threats to public order, rebellion, and inciting insurrection, crimes that can carry the death penalty. He was freed on October 5, 2019, and the charges were dropped, though the crackdown on the opposition continued.

In early September 2020, Cameroon authorities banned demonstrations across the country after Kamto’s MRC encouraged people to take to the streets over the government’s decision to call regional elections in December 2020. Opposition parties had expressed concerns that the elections could not be conducted freely and fairly without reforming the electoral code and addressing the lack of security in the country’s minority Anglophone regions, where separatist groups and security forces have repeatedly clashed.

On September 22, 2020, Cameroonian security forces fired tear gas and water cannons and arrested over 550 people, mainly opposition party members and supporters, to disperse peaceful protests across the country. Many peaceful protesters were beaten and mistreated while being arrested and in detention.

While the majority of Kamto’s supporters who were arrested in 2019 were eventually released, 41, including Olivier Bibou Nissack and Alain Fogue Tedom, two of the group’s leaders, remain behind bars after being sentenced to seven years.

When initiating the APC in December 2023, Kamto said that the opposition should rally behind one candidate for the next presidential elections, slated for late 2025. Biya has not announced if he will run again for reelection.

Opposition groups simply coordinating activities and forming alliances cannot be considered “clandestine movements;” instead, this coordination should be considered a normal and important feature of the democratic process, Human Rights Watch said.

Activists have expressed doubts over the legality of the government’s ban. “This decision is not based on any legal texts,” Emmanuel Simh, a prominent rights activist and lawyer for the MRC, told Human Rights Watch. “No law in Cameroon prevents legally established parties getting together to establish a coalition. It’s just repression and another attempt to muzzle the opposition, to prevent it from organizing ahead of the next presidential elections.”

The government's decision to ban the two political coalitions violates the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the right to participate in political life . These rights are guaranteed under international human rights law including expressly in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which Cameroon has ratified.

“Cameroonians have watched Biya weaken any meaningful political opposition over the course of the last four decades and this ban is yet another example of the government’s repression,” Nantulya said. “He should consider his legacy and encourage authorities to facilitate and deliver a credible election process with full respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Canada: All 10 Provinces To End Immigration Detention in Jails

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image © 2024 Human Rights Watch

(Ottawa) – All 10 of Canada's provinces have now committed to ending their immigration detention agreements and arrangements with the Canada Border Services Agency, a major victory for migrant and refugee rights, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Canada said today. Newfoundland and Labrador, the last remaining province, has now confirmed that it will no longer allow the federal government to detain migrants and asylum seekers in local jails.

The two organizations created the #WelcomeToCanada campaign in October 2021 to urge provinces to stop the practice. The use of provincial jails for immigration detention is inconsistent with international human rights standards and devastating to people’s mental health. The federal government should follow the provinces and take meaningful steps to end immigration detention across the country. 

“Newfoundland and Labrador’s decision is a momentous human rights victory that upholds the dignity and rights of people who come to Canada in search of safety or a better life,” said Samer Muscati, acting disability rights deputy director at Human Rights Watch. “With all 10 provinces now having cancelled their immigration detention agreements and arrangements, the federal government should finally guarantee through a policy directive or legislative amendment that the border agency will stop using jails for immigration detention once and for all.” 

Click to expand Image

Over the past five years, the border agency has incarcerated thousands of people on immigration grounds in dozens of provincial jails across the country, on the basis of agreements and arrangements with provinces. Conditions in provincial jails are abusive, and these facilities are inherently punitive. On March 12, 2024, the Newfoundland and Labrador government sent official notice to the border agency that as of March 31, 2025, its provincial jails will no longer hold people detained solely under immigration law. So far, the agreements in five provinces have expired following notice-of-termination periods, with the remaining five provinces' agreements due to expire by March 2025. The border agency has sought to extend the agreements in some provinces.

In a 2021 report, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International documented that racialized people, and in particular Black men, are confined in more restrictive conditions and for longer periods in Canada’s immigration detention than other detainees. People with disabilities also experience discrimination throughout the immigration detention process.

People in immigration detention are regularly handcuffed, shackled, and held with little to no contact with the outside world. Canada is among only a few countries in the Global North with no legal limit on the duration of immigration detention, meaning people can be detained for months or years with no end in sight.

Sara Maria Gomez Lopez experienced immigration detention firsthand after she arrived in Canada as an asylum seeker in 2012. The border agency incarcerated her for three months in British Columbia. “I remember that deep pain I felt in jail,” she said. “Canada can and must stop multiplying such pain and instead give way to the humane welcome that has helped heal so many who found refuge in this country. This development gives me hope that others will be spared the pain that I experienced.”

#WelcometoCanada

Our #WelcomeToCanada campaign is going coast to coast. The federal government has contracts with provinces across Canada that allow for immigration detainees to be held in provincial jails. Call on the federal government of Canada to cancel these contracts!

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Since the #WelcomeToCanada campaign began, hundreds of advocates, lawyers, healthcare providers, and faith leaders, alongside people with lived experience in immigration detention, as well as dozens of leading social justice organizations, have called on provincial and federal authorities to end the use of provincial jails for immigration detention. More than 30,000 people across Canada have also participated in the campaign by writing directly to provincial and federal authorities.

Under the agreements and arrangements, the border agency paid provinces hundreds of dollars daily for each immigration detainee incarcerated in a provincial jail. For example, according to the border agency, in the fiscal year ending March 2023, the agency paid CAD$615.80 per day for each woman detained in a New Brunswick jail. That same fiscal year, the agency spent $82.7 million on detention, more than in any of the previous four years.

Under immigration law, the border agency has full discretion over where people in immigration detention are held, with no legal standard guiding the agency’s decision to hold a person in a provincial jail rather than an immigration holding center. Once agreements and arrangements with the provinces expire, the agency will no longer have access to provincial jails for immigration detention. It also operates three immigration holding centers, which resemble and operate like medium security prisons, with significant restrictions on privacy and liberty, rigid rules and daily routines, and punitive measures in response to failures to follow rules and orders.

There are viable alternatives to detention across the country. Instead of funding detention facilities or punitive non-custodial practices such as electronic trackers, the federal government should invest in rights-respecting, community-based programs that are operated by local nonprofit organizations independently of the border agency.

“We commend the provinces for their decisions to stop locking up refugee claimants and migrants in jails solely on immigration grounds,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section. “There is now clear pressure for the federal government to stop this rights-violating system across the country.”

Seychelles: Rights Concerns in High-Profile Case

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image The Supreme Court of Justice, in the island of Mahe, Seychelles, August 16, 2023. ©Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post via Getty Images.

(Johannesburg) – The authorities in Seychelles should ensure that the prosecution of a former presidential adviser and other defendants in a high-profile anticorruption case is free, fair, and impartial, Human Rights Watch said today.

The ongoing trial of five defendants for alleged illegal possession of firearms and conspiracy to commit terrorism started in July 2023. Allegations of procedural and other irregularities, which have persisted since the initial arrests of the defendants in November 2021, should be transparently and speedily investigated and addressed so they do not jeopardize the defendants’ right to a fair trial.

“The authorities should ensure that the judicial proceedings are conducted in line with the Seychelles constitution and international human rights laws,” said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy director of the Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “Abusive and partial application in the enforcement of anticorruption and arms control laws, risks undermining the very rule of law they seek to enthrone.”

In November 2021, law enforcement authorities, including officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Seychelles, searched the home of Mukesh Valabhji and his wife, Laura Valabhji, and arrested both in connection with an allegedly missing US$50 million. The funds, a foreign aid donation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2002, was to help the Government of Seychelles address its foreign exchange shortfalls and debts, including for importing essential commodities, like fuel and food.

Mukesh, then chief executive officer of the Seychelles Marketing Board and economic adviser to then-President France Albert René, was authorized by the president to sign the documentation and deposit the allegedly missing funds into a Marketing Board bank account.

The arrests and prosecution of the defendants, which include the wife of former president René, was widely touted as key progress toward ending impunity for corruption in the country. Media reports quoted the Anti-Corruption Commission officials as saying they opened the case in 2017 on then-President Danny Faure’s instruction, and that “there is nothing sinister about it or any ulterior motives.” Lawyers for the Valabhjis said, however, that former governments had said they had found no evidence of theft of the UAE funds. Human Rights Watch was unable to verify this information.

The authorities alleged that during the search at the Valabhji residence, agents discovered a cache of firearms and ammunition hidden behind basement walls. The couple’s lawyers said that these arms had been stored in their home for almost two decades with the authority of former President René.

The Attorney General’s office is separately prosecuting the Valabhjis, together with three former senior Seychelles army officers, for the importation and unlawful possession of the arms, and conspiracy to commit terrorism. According to the prosecution, Laura Valabhji was charged along with her husband on the assumption that she should have known about the presence of the arms in their home.

The Valabhjis’ lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the defendants have petitioned the United Nations’ working group on arbitrary detention, alleging that the government of Seychelles is depriving them of their right to liberty and a fair hearing, and has subjected them to abusive and degrading treatment in violation of international and Seychelles laws.

On June 1, 2023, the Supreme Court of Seychelles dismissed an application by the Valabhjis requesting the Chief Justice Rony Govinden to recuse himself from both trials on several grounds.

There have been several long adjournments in both cases, largely at the prosecution’s request. The defendants’ lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the prosecution has often introduced new witnesses at the last minute, and failed to disclose documents and information in time for the defendants to adequately prepare their defense. The lawyers said that the court brushed aside these concerns.

The trial court has refused the defendants’ multiple bail applications, as the Anticorruption Commission has dropped some charges and added others. The commission dropped the fraud charges against Laura Valabhji, but she is still detained and faces trial on the arms charges.

Human Rights Watch wrote to the attorney general on March 5 about these concerns but has not received a response.

The Constitution of Seychelles, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights provide legal safeguards during judicial processes, including the right to trial in an impartial court, within a reasonable time, or to release defendants pending trial; the right to adequate time to prepare for defense; and the right to a legal counsel of choice. Pretrial detention should be an exception, not the rule, and the authorities should justify the necessity of their detention on an individual basis.

“The Seychelles authorities should ensure that legitimate anticorruption efforts are not mired by violations of the country’s international and domestic human rights obligations,” Budoo-Scholtz said. “They should take urgent steps to ensure prompt and fair trial of all defendants and, unless the prosecution can prove the necessity of detention, grant them temporary release with reasonable conditions during the trial.”
 

Prominent Congolese Journalist Convicted on Baseless Charges

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image Stanis Bujakera in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 2023. © 2023 Actualite.cd

This week, a court in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, convicted the prominent journalist Stanis Bujakera and sentenced him to six months in prison for sharing an article on social media alleging that Congolese military intelligence had killed a senior opposition official.

On the basis that he had already spent six months in pretrial detention, Bujakera was released on March 19.

Bujakera, 34, Congo’s most-followed journalist on social media, had been detained since September 8. The authorities had arrested and charged him with fabricating and distributing a fake intelligence memo saying that Congolese military intelligence had killed Chérubin Okende, a member of parliament and spokesman for the opposition party Ensemble pour la République. Bujakera was not the author of the memo, which was published in Jeune Afrique.

Okende disappeared in Kinshasa on July 12, 2023, and was found dead in his car with gunshot wounds the next day. The government had publicly denounced Okende’s murder and set up a commission of enquiry. But the public prosecutor handling the case concluded that Okende had committed suicide, and in a March 2 memo he instructed his office to question anyone “gossiping” about the investigation’s conclusions.

Investigations carried out by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Congo Hold-Up media consortium determined that the memo was authentic and highlighted serious inconsistencies in the prosecution's claims that Bujakera had received the memo through a Telegram account and was the first person to share it.

Bujakera was placed in pretrial detention and transferred to prison on September 14 after being charged with “spreading false information,” “forgery and the use of forged documents,” and “distributing false documents.” His case resulted in a global outcry.

The court repeatedly denied provisional release to Bujakera, ignoring international bail standards. He was convicted on all charges.

Bujakera’s six months behind bars and a fine of one million Congolese francs (US$400) is a stark reminder of the growing government crackdown – including online – on journalists, human rights and pro-democracy activists, critics of the government, and opposition party members and officials since Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi's previous term.

The Congolese authorities should immediately move to set aside the conviction.

UN Rights Council: Renew Iran Mandates

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Click to expand Image Delegates attend the opening day of the 50th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in Geneva, June 13, 2022. © 2022 Keystone/Valentin Flauraud

(Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights Council should renew the mission of the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Iran and the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, 43 Iranian and International organizations including Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to member countries.

The letter was issued after the Fact-Finding Mission presented its first report to the rights council, concluding that the Government of Iran is responsible for serious human rights violations, including crimes against humanity.

“Victims and survivors in Iran rely on these critical international mechanisms amid the brutal ongoing crackdown,” said Nahid Naghshbandi, acting Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The special rapporteur and Fact-Finding Mission play a vital role shining a spotlight on egregious abuses and amplifying the voices of survivors and victims for accountability and justice.”

The UN special rapporteur on Iran has played a crucial role since the position was established in 2011, monitoring and documenting abuses, engaging with Iranian authorities, including on individual cases, and supporting Iranian civil society.

The Fact-Finding Mission was established more recently – following the death in Iranian morality police custody of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman detained over her apparel – specifically to address the brutal state repression of nationwide protests in 2022, with a particular focus on the women and children. Its mandate focuses on advancing accountability for serious crimes, including through the collection and preservation of evidence and identification of suspected abusers.

In its report, presented to the UN Human Rights Council on March 8, 2024, it concluded that the Government of Iran committed serious human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. These violations disproportionately affected women, children, and minorities, intersecting with discrimination based on ethnicity and religion. As abuses relating to the protests continue to reverberate in Iran, with total impunity at national level, the Mission’s work remains critical.

The human rights situation in Iran has deteriorated significantly in recent years, with heightened repression – particularly against women – since protests in 2022. There has been a significant spike in the use of the death penalty in Iran over the past year, including against those involved in protests and against juvenile offenders, in clear breach of international law. Iranian law discriminates against Baha’is, arresting them on vague national security charges and denying their university registration. The government also targets Sunni Muslims and ethnic minority activists, arresting them on similar charges and restricting their cultural and political activities.

Hong Kong: New Security Law Full-Scale Assault on Rights

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Click to expand Image A screen displays the vote count after the third reading of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance  at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, March 19, 2024. © 2024 AP Photo/Louise Delmotte

(New York) – The Beijing-controlled Legislative Council in Hong Kong passed a new security law on March 19, 2024, that eliminates the last vestiges of fundamental freedoms in the city, Human Rights Watch said today. The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance punishes peaceful speech and civil society activism with heavy prison sentences, expands police powers, and weakens due process rights. Because provisions apply to Hong Kong residents and businesses anywhere in the world, the law can silence dissent both in the city and globally.

The legislature took only 11 days to pass the Ordinance unanimously. At the committee stage, the legislature reviewed the 212-page bill in 39 hours, with no amendments proposed. The law will come into effect on March 23.

“The new security law will usher Hong Kong into a new era of broad-based oppression,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Now even possessing a book in Hong Kong critical of the Chinese government can mean years in prison.”

The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance covers treason; insurrection and seditious acts; theft of state secrets and espionage; sabotage; and external interference.

Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s de facto constitution since the United Kingdom transferred its sovereignty of the city to China, stipulates that the Hong Kong government should enact a law that safeguards national security. Hong Kong people have consistently opposed such legislation since at least 2003, when half a million people marched against it.

No genuine public consultation took place during the legislative process, Human Rights Watch said. After Beijing imposed the National Security Law on the city in June 2020, it dismantled the city’s pro-democracy movement by detaining and prosecuting elected representatives and thousands of peaceful protesters, eliminated civil society groups and independent labor unions, and shuttered its most popular pro-democracy newspaper, among other measures.

In February, the Hong Kong government conducted a four-week “public consultation” on Article 23 legislation and claimed that 98.6 percent of the submissions supported the proposal. It dismissed submissions and statements from international human rights groups and overseas Hong Kong activists and groups – over 100,000 Hong Kongers have fled the city – as “deliberate smears.”

The new law already has had a chilling effect on free expression. Local media reported that US- funded news outlet, Radio Free Asia, planned to withdraw from Hong Kong by the end of March.

The ordinance will further devastate human rights beyond those curtailed by the National Security Law. Its provisions contravene human rights guarantees enshrined in the Basic Law, and violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is incorporated into Hong Kong’s legal framework via the Basic Law and expressed in the Bill of Rights Ordinance.

The Australian, UK, and US governments, the European Union, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have all publicly expressed concerns about the law.

“The Hong Kong government should immediately repeal the Beijing-imposed national security laws, halt its aggressive assault on basic rights, and release all those arbitrarily detained,” Pearson said. “Foreign governments should hold Beijing accountable by imposing coordinated and targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on the Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible, and protect overseas Hong Kong activists from Beijing’s long arm of intimidation and harassment.”

Broad and Vague Crimes

Definitions of many of the crimes in the Ordinance are overly broad, increasing the risks of politically motivated prosecutions and convictions.

The crime of “espionage” punishes those who, “with intent to endanger national security,” obtain, collect, or possess information that is “directly or indirectly useful to an external force” (clause 41).

The crime of “inciting disaffection of public officers” punishes those who “knowingly incite a public officer to abandon upholding the Basic Law,” or who simply possess documents “of such nature” (clauses 19-21).

The Ordinance defines “state secrets” as those concerning “major policy decision[s],” “economic or social development[s],” “technological development[s] or scientific technology,” and “diplomatic or foreign affair[s]” (clause 28). The chief executive, Beijing’s handpicked leader in Hong Kong, is authorized to decide what constitutes state secrets.

The Ordinance also broadly criminalizes acts with “seditious intention,” including an intention to bring anyone in Hong Kong “into hatred, contempt or disaffection” against the Chinese or Hong Kong governments, institutions, or constitutional order; an intention to “cause hatred or enmity amongst different classes of residents” in Hong Kong and China; and an intention to incite others to disobey the law or government order (clause 22). The threshold for conviction is low, as it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove an intention to incite public disorder or violence (clause 24). Additionally, the law empowers authorities to raid private premises to remove “seditious” publications and to “remove by reasonable force” anyone who obstructs the removal (clause 26).

Criminalization of Peaceful Association, Assembly and Activism

The Ordinance makes the freedoms of association, assembly, and peaceful civil society activism criminal offenses. It allows the government to ban organizations found to be engaging in activities broadly deemed to be endangering national security (clause 58). It also criminalizes “sabotage,” broadly defined as acts that “damage or weaken” public infrastructure, including public transportation systems, computer systems, and offices. Simply “being reckless” about national security can result in a 20-year prison sentence.

Some of the common tactics during the 2014 and 2019 protests, such as occupying major roads, would be subject to heavy penalties even if they were entirely peaceful.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in its General Comment on the right to peaceful assembly, stated that “[w]here criminal or administrative sanctions are imposed on organizers of or participants in a peaceful assembly for their unlawful conduct, such sanctions must be proportionate, nondiscriminatory in nature and must not be based on ambiguous or overbroadly defined offenses, or suppress conduct protected under” international law.

The Ordinance also criminalizes “external interference,” defined as using “improper means” to collaborate with “an external force” to “bring about an interference effect” (clause 50). External forces include authorities of an external territory, external political organizations, and even international organizations (clause 6).

Interference includes influencing the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities and courts on the “formulation or execution” of any policy decisions (clause 51). Peaceful activities, such as criticizing the Chinese or Hong Kong governments’ human rights records at the United Nations or urging foreign governments to call on the Chinese and Hong Kong governments to comply with their international legal obligations to protect human rights, will violate the Ordinance. The maximum penalty for external interference is 14 years in prison.

Global Application

Hong Kong residents and Hong Kong incorporated bodies or businesses can violate the Ordinance anywhere in the world. The government can cancel their passports and suspend their qualifications to practice a profession (clauses 90, 93). Anyone who “directly or indirectly” funds the absconders may be sentenced to up to seven years in prison (clause 87).

Harsh Sentences for Peaceful or Protected Activities

The Ordinance spells out harsh sentences for peaceful activities. Anyone who “manages or assists in the management” of a banned organization could be given a maximum fine of HKD 1 million (US$130,000) and up to a 14-year prison sentence. Anyone who “is a member or claims to be a member of,” or “conducts any activity in cooperation with,” or simply “participates in a meeting” with or “pays money or give aid” to a prohibited organization may be fined a maximum HKD 250,000 (US$32,000) and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Even allowing meetings on one’s premises could lead to a HKD 250,000 fine and up to 7 years in prison (clauses 60-61).

“Unlawful” acquisition, disclosure and possession of the vaguely defined “state secrets” when leaving Hong Kong carry up to 5 to 10 years in prison.

The law raises the maximum sentence for “sedition” from the current 2 years to 7 years, despite repeated calls from the UN Human Rights Committee to repeal the archaic colonial-era law and refrain from using it.

Pretrial Detention; Access to Counsel

Under the Ordinance, the police may extend detention of a person arrested without charge from the current 48 hours to a further 14 days subject to court approval (clause 75). Police may restrict the right of a person under investigation or detention to consult with certain lawyers (clauses 76-77).

The ICCPR states that anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge must be “promptly” charged before a court. The UN Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that provides authoritative analysis of the covenant, has said that 48 hours is ordinarily sufficient time to bring someone before a judge, and that any longer delay “must remain absolutely exceptional and be justified under the circumstances.”

National Security Prisoners’ Treatment

Currently, Hong Kong prisoners are entitled to apply for a review of their sentence and may receive up to one-third reduction for good behavior. However, amendments to existing laws now prevent prisoners convicted under a national security offense from such reviews (clause 168), including prisoners with sentences imposed before the Ordinance was passed. Hong Kong has 1,829 such prisoners, according to the US-based Hong Kong Democracy Council.

Japan Lawmakers Seek Probe of Carmaker Links to Xinjiang Abuses

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Click to expand Image A large screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping near a carpark in Kashgar, in western China's Xinjiang region, December 3, 2018. © 2018 AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

A group of Japanese ruling party and opposition lawmakers are calling on the government to investigate links between carmakers and forced labor in the aluminum industry in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China.

Human Rights Watch published a report earlier this year exposing global carmakers’ failure to minimize the risk of Uyghur forced labor being used in aluminum supply chains. The Diet members urged the Japanese government to provide “measures and alternatives” to tainted aluminum.

Since 2017, the Chinese government has committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and cultural and religious persecution, and has subjected Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities to forced labor inside and outside Xinjiang.

The link between Xinjiang, the aluminum industry, and forced labor is the Chinese government-backed labor transfer program, which coerce Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims into jobs in Xinjiang and other regions. Human Rights Watch reviewed online Chinese state media articles, company reports, and government statements, and found credible evidence that aluminum producers in Xinjiang are participating in labor transfers.

The group of lawmakers, called the Non-Partisan Parliamentary Association for Reconsidering Human Rights Diplomacy, was co-founded in 2021 by Shiori Kanno, a former parliamentarian, and Gen Nakatani, a ruling party lawmaker. The group is a rare outspoken voice within the Diet pushing the Japanese government to prioritize human rights in its foreign policy.

Specifically, Kanno has led the group to call for the introduction of a human rights sanctions law and a human rights due diligence law that would require companies to address rights violations in their supply chains.

Earlier this year, Hong Kong authorities named Kanno as a “conspirator” in the trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, who faces charges under the draconian National Security Law and a sedition law. These baseless accusations against Kanno suggest her campaign against supply chain abuses is being felt by the Chinese government.

The Japanese government should heed the bipartisan group’s repeated calls by swiftly enacting a human rights due diligence law as well as a human rights sanctions law. The government should also impose coordinated and targeted sanctions on officials who are implicated in serious rights abuses.

US: Supreme Court Opens Door to Chaos, Abuse in Texas

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Click to expand Image People hold a banner during a protest against Operation Lone Star after members of the Texas National Guard shot and wounded a 22-year-old near the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, Texas, September 1, 2023.  © 2023 REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

(Austin, March 19, 2024) – The US Supreme Court ruling on March 19, 2024, that allows Texas state police to arrest and deport people Texas officials claim have entered the US illegally while federal courts consider the constitutionality of these powers puts people fearing persecution into immediate danger, Human Rights Watch said today.

It also gives disproportionate and overreaching immigration enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement officers. The ruling allows the law to go into effect while the court challenge proceeds through the federal courts.

“National governments are entitled to regulate their borders so long as they comply with international human rights and refugee law,” said Bob Libal, Texas consultant at Human Rights Watch. “But allowing Texas to run with its draconian system of criminalization and returns of asylum seekers is a recipe for chaos and abuse.”

SB 4, the Texas law the Supreme Court will be reviewing, allows state and local police to arrest migrants entering Texas between official border crossings and charge them with either improper entry, punishable up to 1 year in prison, or improper re-entry, punishable by 2 to 20 years. The law allows the state to order the removal of migrants in lieu of a criminal penalty, even if they have a claim to asylum due to fears of persecution or other serious harm if deported.

The return of asylum seekers to a place where they fear persecution or other serious harm violates US federal law as well as US obligations under international human rights and refugee law, Human Rights Watch said.

The new law applies throughout Texas and is likely to increase racial profiling, clog state courts, and fill jails. It is also likely to distract police from other public safety work by requiring them to instead focus on arresting and prosecuting people seeking to rejoin family, find protection, or make a better life. Civil rights groups and the US federal government have challenged the measure on constitutional grounds.

Another new Texas state law that went into effect in February creates a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for people found guilty of smuggling or running a “stash house.” Human Rights Watch found the vast majority of the thousands of people booked for smuggling under existing Texas laws were young Texans, who often did nothing more than drive people from border communities to other parts of Texas. Nearly 80 percent of those booked for smuggling were US citizens, with a median age of 26. Almost 13 percent were 18 or 19 years old.

Yet another law passed in 2023 more than doubles funding to continue border wall construction, adding US$1.54 billion to an existing purse of nearly $1.5 billion to build 40 miles of barriers along the 1,200-mile long Texas-Mexico border.

The laws build on Governor Greg Abbott's high-profile busing of migrants to cities with Democratic leadership, as well as his Operation Lone Star. This discriminatory and abusive operation targets perceived migrants and others for arrest, prosecution, and incarceration on state misdemeanor and felony offenses, as well as building walls, “buoy barriers,” and concertina wire along the border.

“Operation Lone Star has ballooned into a nearly $12 billion multilayered state government program of unnecessarily harsh laws that has led to scores of deaths and hundreds of injuries to migrants and US citizens alike,” Libal said. “Make no mistake: Operation Lone Star risks lives and recklessly squanders public resources.”

While there is no evidence Operation Lone Star has slowed migration, the program has led to injuries and deaths, consistently violated the rights of migrants and US citizens, and included attacks on freedoms of association and expression of groups providing basic aid in Texas, Human Rights Watch said.

Dangerous chases of vehicles thought to contain migrants under Operation Lone Star have led to crashes that killed at least 74 people and injured at least another 189 in a 29-month period, according to a Human Rights Watch report in November. The dead and injured included migrants and US citizens, including many bystanders.

Operation Lone Star has most likely strengthened illicit actors who profit from the heightened fears of migrants and blocked or impeded opportunities for people to request asylum in the United States, which is their right under US law. Criminal cartels’ profits increase when migrants attempt to enter the US by traveling through remote and deadly terrain.

“Texas’s SB 4 and all components of Operation Lone Star are helping criminal cartels increase their profits and coercive power over migrants and border communities,” Libal said. “The federal government should immediately cease all funding and collaboration with Operation Lone Star, for as long as Texas continues on this dangerous and deadly path.”

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