IHRP external news feeds

Prosecution Seeks Crimes against Humanity Charges in Guinea Massacre Trial

Human Rights Watch - Friday, March 15, 2024
Click to expand Image Eleven men accused of responsibility for the 2009 massacre and mass rape of pro-democracy protesters by forces linked to a former military junta, stand during their trial in Conakry, Guinea, September 28, 2022. © 2022 Souleymane Camara/Reuters

Earlier this month, in the landmark trial of Guinea’s former president and 10 others, including former ministers, who are accused of responsibility for a massacre and rapes in a stadium, the prosecution team requested the reclassification of charges to crimes against humanity. The trial is currently suspended until March 18, 2024, to allow for the defense’s response.

The trial examines one of the most brutal events in Guinea’s history. On September 28, 2009, Guinean security forces opened fire on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators who had gathered in a stadium in the country’s capital, Conakry. At least 150 people died and many more were injured. Security forces raped more than 100 women.

Security forces later engaged in an organized cover-up, disposing of the bodies in mass graves.

So far, judges have heard from each of the 11 accused, more than 100 victims, and just over a dozen witnesses, including high-level government officials, called by all parties in the trial. Judges have also considered video and audio evidence captured around the 2009 events.

It was in response to the video and audio evidence that the prosecutor’s representative, El Hadj Sidiki Camara, took the floor and requested reclassification of the charges. He has now made a formal submission to the court in writing. Though shared with the parties in the trial, this submission is not publicly available.

According to trial monitoring organized by Human Rights Watch and media reports, when making the reclassification request, the prosecutor invoked Guinean criminal procedure law, arguing that reclassification is permitted, and relied on crimes against humanity provisions incorporated in Guinea’s 2016 criminal code.

The civil parties, that is, victims who have joined the case as formal parties to the proceedings, supported the prosecution’s request in court.

After hearing from the defense, the judges will decide whether the reclassification of the charges is appropriate. If they allow the reclassification, it would be the first time that crimes against humanity are prosecuted in Guinea.

A Human Rights Watch investigation into the event indicated that the abuses surrounding the event rose to the level of crimes against humanity. An international commission of inquiry and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court reached similar conclusions. However, it will be up to the judges to rule on the reclassification request, addressing the specific allegations concerning the individuals on trial.

Reclassifying the charges could mean that the justice process will have greater impact, particularly in being seen to be responsive to the experience of victims, survivors, and the communities most affected by these crimes.

Kyrgyzstan: Veto Law to Curb Civil Society

Human Rights Watch - Friday, March 15, 2024
Click to expand Image Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov addresses a Summit of the Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, December 9, 2022. © 2022 AP Photo/Vladimir Voronin

(New York, March 15, 2024) – Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov should support Kyrgyzstan’s nongovernmental sector and withdraw the abusive “foreign representatives” draft law aimed at silencing the country’s vibrant and vocal civil society, Human Rights Watch said today. The draft law passed its third parliamentary reading on March 14, 2024, and the president has a month to decide whether to sign it.

The bill would require nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign funding and engaging in vaguely defined “political activities” to be listed on a special registry of “foreign representatives.” They would also have to label all their publications as “produced and distributed by a noncommercial organization performing the functions of a foreign representative” or acting in the interests of their foreign funders. The draft is similar to laws in Russia that have been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights as violating, among other standards, the rights to freedom of association and freedom of speech.

“Advocating the rights of vulnerable groups is a legitimate activity that the government should support, not restrict,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “Kyrgyzstan has signed on to numerous international and regional agreements that confirm that seeking resources from national, international, and foreign sources is an inherent part of the right to freedom of association.”

The draft law was introduced in May 2023, passed its first reading on October 25, and second reading on February 22. In addition to introducing the discriminatory and misleading label of “foreign representatives,” the draft law would also grant the government significantly enhanced oversight powers. These would include the right to participate in the internal and external activities of these nongovernmental organizations and to check their expenditures, ostensibly to determine if they are consistent with the organization’s founding purpose.

The bill defines political activity as anything involving the organization of public events and direct action, engaging in electoral processes, advocating to governmental bodies, or disseminating opinions through “modern information technologies’ “that shape people’s socio-political views.

This overbroad definition of political activity is a grave threat to the right of nongovernmental and noncommercial organizations to freely engage in their legitimate activities, Human Rights Watch said. These include protecting various groups of the population, civic education, and monitoring and raising concerns about the country’s civil and political situation.

Singling out nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign funding as ‘foreign representatives’ further stigmatizes Kyrgyzstan’s civil society and human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said.

Kyrgyzstan’s international partners, in particular the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Germany issued a joint statement expressing their concern about the negative consequences of the legislation and urging President Japarov not to sign it. They said the draft “contravene(s) international norms,” may “hurt the most vulnerable” in society, and would “jeopardize our ability to provide assistance that improves the lives of the citizens and residents of the Kyrgyz Republic.”

On March 11, Matteo Mecacci, director of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said the bill would have a negative impact on civil society, human rights defenders, and the media. OSCE also said it would “harm Kyrgyzstan’s international cooperation” due to its extremely repressive nature that allows greatly expanded government control over the activities of nongovernmental organizations and independent media.

On October 6, 2023, in a joint letter, three UN special rapporteurs noted that the draft law would have a “chilling effect on the operation of all associations in the Kyrgyz Republic,” curtailing their capacity to provide social services and advocacy for human rights, and unduly restricting their freedom of opinion and speech. In a resolution from July 13, 2023, the European Parliament called on the Kyrgyz authorities and members of Parliament to review the draft law as it contravenes Kyrgyzstan’s international commitments.

The draft law is also inconsistent with Kyrgyzstan’s commitments to uphold its international human rights obligations at home and abroad as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Until the February reading, the draft law included a provision for up to 10 years in prison for establishing or participating in a nongovernmental organization found to be “inciting citizens to refuse to perform civic duties or to commit other unlawful deeds.” That provision was removed from the draft.

“The Kyrgyz government should see civil society organizations, grassroots movements, and human rights defenders as its allies in building a thriving and inclusive society, and ensure an enabling environment that fosters diversity of opinion and freedom of association,” Hassan said. “President Japarov should withdraw the draft law and guarantee continued freedom and openness for Kyrgyzstan’s diverse civil society.”

Sudan: Urgent Action Needed on Hunger Crisis

Human Rights Watch - Friday, March 15, 2024
Click to expand Image Sudanese women and children who fled the conflict in Geneina, in Sudan's Darfur region, line up at the water point in Adre, Chad, July 30, 2023.  © 2023 Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

(New York, March 15, 2024) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to alert the Security Council in the coming days that Sudan has entered a downward spiral of extreme conflict-induced hunger, Human Rights Watch said today. The council should immediately take action, including by adopting targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for obstructing aid access in Darfur.

“The Security Council will be formally put on notice that the conflict in Sudan risks spurring the world’s largest hunger crisis,” said Akshaya Kumar, crisis advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Council just broke months of silence by adopting a resolution on Sudan last week, and should build on that momentum by imposing consequences on those responsible for preventing aid from getting to people who need it.”

The alert will be sent to the Council as a so called “white note,” drafted by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in accordance with its mandate under Security Council resolution 2417 to ring the alarm about “the risk of conflict-induced famine and wide-spread food insecurity.” OCHA’s alert follows warnings by international aid experts, Sudanese civil society leaders, and Sudanese emergency responders that people across Sudan are dying of hunger. It also comes on the heels of Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) brazenly escalating its efforts to restrict the movement of humanitarian aid.

In a 2023 presidential statement, the Security Council reiterated its “strong intention to give its full attention” to information provided by the secretary-general when it is alerted to situations involving conflict induced food insecurity. The council should honor that commitment and convene an open meeting to discuss OCHA’s findings. That could pave the way for decisive action, including sanctions on individuals responsible for obstructing aid delivery, Human Rights Watch said.

Since conflict broke out between Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, both warring parties have restricted aid delivery, access, and distribution. Ninety percent of people in Sudan facing emergency levels of hunger are in areas that are “largely inaccessible” to the World Food Programme. “Communities (in Sudan) are on the brink of famine because we are prevented from reaching many of the children, women and families in need,” according to UNICEF executive director, Catherine Russell.

In February, Sudan’s military leader, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said the authorities would no longer allow aid to reach areas under RSF control. Aid organizations have repeatedly said that the SAF is obstructing their delivery of aid to RSF-controlled areas. Aid groups face a maze of bureaucratic impediments, including delays, arbitrary restrictions on movement, harassment, and outright bans on some supplies.

On March 4, Sudan’s foreign affairs minister added to the restrictions, announcing that the government opposed cross-border aid delivery from Chad to areas under RSF control. On March 6, Sudanese authorities informed the UN that they would allow limited cross-border movement exclusively through specific crossings under the control of forces allied to the military. Sudanese authorities have also blocked cross-line aid movement to RSF-controlled territory, which has put Khartoum under a de facto aid blockade since November 2023 at least, aid groups told Human Rights Watch.

The UN welcomed the Sudanese authorities’ announcement identifying aid crossings. The medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, however, raised concerns that this would leave “vast areas in Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Jazeera states still inaccessible.”  

Aid operations have also been choked by limited funding. As of the end of February, the UN's appeal was 5 percent funded. That gap is exacerbated by widespread looting of warehouses, including a December 2023 incident in which Rapid Support Forces fighters looted stocks in a World Food Programme warehouse in Wad Madani that would have been used to feed 1.5 million hungry people and attacked an MSF compound, forcing the organization to evacuate its team. There have been widespread attacks on aid workers, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, including killings, injuries and detentions.

The Security Council’s latest resolution 2724 on Sudan calls “on all parties to ensure the removal of any obstructions to the delivery of aid and to enable full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access, including cross-border and cross-line, and to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that “the apparently deliberate denial of safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies within Sudan itself constitutes a serious violation of international law, and may amount to a war crime.”

The Security Council’s Sudan Sanctions Committee met in February, announcing that it “wishes to remind the parties that those who commit violations of international humanitarian law and other atrocities may be subject to targeted sanctions measures in accordance with paragraph 3 (c) of resolution 1591 (2005).”

The World Food Programme and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization found in a recent report that food security in Sudan had significantly deteriorated even faster than anticipated, and that there is a risk of “catastrophic conditions” hitting the states of West and Central Darfur “during the lean season in early 2024,” roughly from April to July.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a US government-funded group that monitors food insecurity, said in February that the “worst-affected populations … in Omdurman (in Khartoum state) and El Geneina (in West Darfur state)” were expected to soon see “Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) outcomes.” Under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, a globally recognized scale used to classify food insecurity and malnutrition, catastrophic conditions are the fifth and worst phase. The program determines that famine is occurring when over 20 percent of an area’s population are facing extreme food gaps, and children’s acute malnutrition and mortality exceed emergency rates.

According to new figures released by the Nutrition Cluster in Sudan, nearly 230,000 children, pregnant women, and new mothers could die in the coming months due to hunger.

In Darfur, civil society and local leaders have repeatedly sounded the alarm about hunger among displaced people living in camps in areas under RSF control. Leaders shared that their communities have resorted to eating ants, tree bark, and animal feed. People currently in West Darfur include survivors of waves of attacks by the RSF and their allied militias, which Human Rights Watch has described as “having all the hallmarks of an organized campaign of atrocities against Massalit civilians.” A local government official reported in early March that 22 children had died of hunger in Murnei, a town in West Darfur that was the site of horrific RSF attacks in June 2023.

In January, Doctors Without Borders raised the alarm on malnutrition in Zamzam camp in North Darfur, warning that “an estimated one child is dying every two hours.” A camp leader from Kalma camp in Nyala (South Darfur) told Human Rights Watch that 500 to 600 children and at least 80 older people have died in the camp since the start of the conflict because of what he believed was the result of lack of food and medical supplies. “People [are] dying every day,” he said. He said that the RSF has also been limiting the amount of food supplies entering the camp since it took control of the city in October.

In Khartoum, a communications blackout has forced hundreds of communal kitchens run by Sudanese emergency response rooms, a grassroots mutual aid network, to pause operations, leaving many people without food, and reports of people dying alone in their homes of hunger. “The shutdown has a significant impact on food access and distribution,” a member of one of the emergency response rooms in Khartoum told Human Rights Watch in mid-February, “it is happening while we are facing growing food insecurity and risk of famine in the capital.”

This is the first time Sudan has been spotlighted in this kind of an alert from the secretary-general to the Security Council. Guyana, Switzerland, the US, and other Security Council members have pledged to make combating food insecurity a priority for the UN’s most powerful body. 

“Council members should show leadership by holding open discussions to develop a plan that averts the risk of mass starvation in Sudan and imposing targeted sanctions on the individuals responsible for obstructing aid,” Kumar said. “The people of Sudan need more than words. They need food.”

Out of Sight, Afghans Are Going Hungry

Human Rights Watch - Thursday, March 14, 2024
Click to expand Image An Afghan woman carries empty containers to fetch water in Nahr-e-Shahi district in Balkh province, Afghanistan, August 6, 2023.  © 2023 Ali Khara/Reuters

“The situation is getting worse every day,” Ahmad, a former journalist in Herat, Afghanistan, told me. “I don’t think anyone can afford to buy enough food anymore.”

Afghanistan has been in the throes of an economic crisis for more than two years, after donors cut foreign funding in response to the Taliban takeover in 2021 and suspended Afghanistan’s Central Bank from the international system. The Taliban's violations of women’s rights in areas including employment, education, and freedom of movement have exacerbated the situation, intensifying its effect on women and girls. The humanitarian response is incapable of addressing the crisis, especially because levels of humanitarian aid have decreased since 2023 as donors’ reduced aid in response to the Taliban’s actions.

According to the United Nations, in 2024, 23.7 million people – more than half of the country's population – will need humanitarian assistance. The statistics are startling: 69 percent of people do not have enough food; 67 percent have trouble accessing water, worsened by a prolonged drought linked to climate change; the economy has contracted by 27 percent; and only 40 percent of the population has access to electricity. On top of this, the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse.

Women are bearing the brunt of the crisis. Alia, who used to work at a beauty salon in Kabul before the Taliban ordered their closure, told me: “After losing my job, I have no other means to afford my daily expenses. It’s obvious that women in Afghanistan are suffering the most in losing their rights and means to survive.”

In its 2024 humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan, the UN has requested $3 billion to address the growing crisis but has received less than 3 percent of the required funds.

Donors need to up their response to the appeal, but aid will not be enough on its own. Governments should support measures to normalize payments and other transactions through Afghanistan’s banking system; restore public services in the areas of water management, electricity, and agriculture; address income-related poverty; and improve climate adaptation.

They also need to work in a coordinated and unified way to ensure the Taliban are held accountable for their ongoing violations of the rights of women and girls.

Human Rights Watch to End Its Celebrated Film Festival

Human Rights Watch - Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Click to expand Image Opening night of the 2018 London Human Rights Watch Film Festival at the Barbican. © 2018 Laura Palmer

(New York) –Human Rights Watch announced today that it would be closing its long-running film festival. Founded in 1988, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival showcased nearly 1,000 independent films, was presented in over 30 cities across the globe, and is the world’s longest running human rights film festival.

“It’s with sadness and deep regret that we have made the difficult decision to close the Human Rights Watch Film Festival,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “The film festival is a celebrated cultural institution that educated and inspired hundreds of thousands of filmgoers and filmmakers around the world over three decades, providing a critical space for connection, conversation, and action on human rights issues.”

The decision to close the festival was part of a wider restructuring due to financial constraints, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch Film Festivals will take place as planned across the United Kingdom and Ireland, opening on March 14, 2024, and across Canada starting on March 21.

Human Rights Watch is immensely proud of the talented film festival leadership and staff, who built partnerships across the human rights community and film industry. The festival established a mainstream platform for impactful films and in-depth conversations about human rights issues, with a priority focus on underrepresented perspectives from around the world.

The festival staff have been instrumental in pushing for increased accessibility standards in the film industry, resulting in three fully inclusive film festivals in the last two years. During the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that shuttered cinemas, the film festival team created a digital streaming site that tripled attendance figures, encouraged festival members to tune in for live conversations, and ensured that the public would not be isolated at home. The innovative site continued the festival’s work of creating spaces for dialogue, connection, and action on human rights issues.

“We owe the Human Rights Watch Film Festival’s success and impact to the longstanding commitment of our festival staff and consultants, volunteers, partners, the filmmakers, and of course our audiences,” Hassan said. “They helped to nurture the human rights storytelling movement that we see thriving today.” 

To Really Help Migrants, Poland Should Stop Pushbacks at Belarus Border

Human Rights Watch - Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Click to expand Image Two women and a child huddle in sleeping bags on the forest floor after crossing the Polish-Belarusian border near Michalowo on October 6, 2021. © 2021 Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto via AP

A good starting point for the new Polish government to demonstrate it is serious about restoring the rule of law, which was eroded by the previous government, would be stopping the practice of migrant pushbacks at the country’s border with Belarus.

On March 8, the Polish Border Guard announced the establishment of search and rescue teams tasked to provide medical and humanitarian aid to migrants stranded in a forested border area.

The announcement followed a call in January by more than 100 local organizations for Poland’s new government to halt unlawful pushbacks at the border with Belarus.

While the new teams may help avert some of the deaths of migrants stranded between Belarus and Poland, it leaves the underlying problems untouched.

Since 2021, Human Rights Watch has documented serious abuses against migrants by Polish border guards, including violent pushbacks to Belarus, which in at least 55 cases have led to deaths, including those of children. The previous Law and Justice government declared the area close to the Belarusian border a restricted zone, blocking humanitarian organizations’ access. Restrictions were lifted in June 2022, but humanitarian groups continued to face bogus charges of heading criminal networks and organizing illegal border crossings of migrants into Poland.

Once pushed back to Belarus, migrants have endured serious abuses by Belarusian border guards, including beatings, food and water shortages, and being prevented by Belarusian border guards from leaving the forested and closed military area close to the border.

In late September 2023, a Somali man told Human Rights Watch he was stranded in the border area on the Belarusian side for 40 days following multiple pushbacks by Polish border guards. He witnessed the death of a Somali woman who perished after falling ill due to the lack of food and clean water.

Putting a “humanitarian” face on pushbacks doesn’t make them lawful. Instead, Poland’s government should immediately restore legal order at the border by granting access to the Polish asylum procedure for those foreigners seeking it. It should repeal the unlawful border regulation that legalized pushbacks and implement numerous domestic court rulings finding the pushbacks to be unlawful. It should stop criminal prosecution and harassment of civil society activists and humanitarian workers aiding migrants at the border, and it should allow medical and humanitarian organizations access so that they can assist people in need.

Failing to do so will perpetuate an unlawful border regime that violates basic human rights and put people’s lives at risk.

Zambia: Government Stalling on Lead Cleanup Plan

Human Rights Watch - Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Click to expand Image View of a former mine pit, now flooded, at the old mine site in Kabwe. In the foreground is an area where small-scale miners still work today. © 2019 Diane McCarthy for Human Rights Watch

(Lusaka) – Zambia’s government is delaying urgently needed action to clean up severe lead contamination in the city of Kabwe, the Alliance for Lead-Free Kabwe, a coalition of Zambian and international civil society organizations, said today.

The government should draft a technical proposal and seek support from donor agencies and companies responsible for the pollution to undertake a comprehensive clean-up of the former Kabwe mine, one of the most heavily lead-polluted sites in the world.

“It is inconceivable that 30 years after the mine’s closure, children in Kabwe still suffer lead poisoning and serious lifelong health impacts,” said Juliane Kippenberg, child rights associate director at Human Rights Watch. “The toxic mine needs to be cleaned up immediately to protect children’s health and lives.”

Kabwe is one of the world’s worst pollution hotspots because of contamination from a former lead and zinc mine established during the British colonial period. The mine was closed in 1994, but its toxic waste remains. Lead dust from its large, uncovered waste dumps blows across nearby residential areas, exposing up to 200,000 people to high levels of toxic lead. The situation is compounded by small-scale and informal mining activities at the former mine site.

In March 2022, President Hakainde Hichilema instructed the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment to establish a technical committee to “address and lead the process of comprehensive remediation” in Kabwe. However, after an initial informal meeting in June 2022, the technical committee was never formally set up. In 2023, the ministry announced its intention to make Kabwe a “Green City” where economic development takes place “on top of buried lead surfaces.” But it remains unclear how the ministry is planning to turn this vision into reality.

“We are disappointed by the government’s inaction,” said Namo Chuma, country director of Environment Africa Zambia. “The government should finally develop a tangible plan and time frame to tackle the toxic waste in Kabwe and consult civil society and affected communities in the process.”

Lead is a toxic metal with no safe level of exposure. It causes stunted growth, learning difficulties, memory loss, developmental delays, and many other irreversible health effects. It can also cause coma and death. Children and pregnant women are especially at risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists lead as one of 10 chemicals representing a “major public health concern.” According to medical research, over 95 percent of children living near the former mine in Kabwe have elevated lead levels in their blood, and half of them require urgent medical intervention.

In 2020, lawyers from South Africa and the United Kingdom filed a class action lawsuit in a South African court on behalf of affected children and women of child-bearing age in Kabwe. The lawsuit seeks compensation, a lead-screening system for children and pregnant women, and remediation of the area. The lawsuit contends that the mine was operated and managed by the company Anglo American between 1925 and 1974, while Anglo American argues it did not own or operate the mine, but only provided “technical services.”

In December 2023, the South African High Court refused to let the case proceed, describing it as an “unmanageable claim that would set a grave precedent.” Lawyers for the plaintiffs have announced they will appeal. Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies have a responsibility to provide remedies when they caused or contributed to adverse impacts.

With a World Bank loan, Zambia’s government has undertaken some limited efforts to address the contamination in Kabwe, It has tested and treated some children and cleaned up a small number of homes and a highly polluted canal. But it has failed to clean up the source of the contamination, which makes its measures unsustainable, and any gains quickly reversed.

“The people of Kabwe are entitled to better than this,” said Father Gabriel Mapulanga, director of Caritas Zambia. “Immediate action is needed to make sure that children in Kabwe can enjoy the right to a healthy environment.”

For the Alliance for Lead-Free Kabwe:

Advocacy for Child Justice Advocacy for Teen Mothers’ Education and Empowerment Caritas Zambia Centre for Environmental Justice Children’s Alliance Zambia Children’s Environmental Health Foundation Conservation Advocates Zambia Creative Thinkers Consulting Environment Africa Zambia Environment Saviours Zambia Human Rights Watch Keepers Zambia Foundation Lifeline Childline Zambia Paralegal Alliance Network Prisoners’ Future Foundation Save Environment and People Agency          Zambian Governance Foundation Zambia National Education Coalition 

Egypt: Questionable Amnesty Deals for ISIS Members

Human Rights Watch - Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Click to expand Image Egyptian army tanks and armored vehicles in Rafah in North Sinai sometime in 2018. The army has demolished thousands of homes in the city that borders Israel and Gaza, forcibly evicting almost the entire population.  © 2018 Private

(Beirut) – The Egyptian authorities appear to have made opaque amnesty deals in recent years with suspected members of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) affiliate in Egypt’s North Sinai without making the criteria public, Human Rights Watch and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights said today.

Evidence gathered by the two organizations and public statements by officials indicate that the authorities have granted some members of the ISIS affiliate Wilayat Sina’ (Sinai Province) amnesties for laying down their arms and turning themselves in. However, the authorities have not clarified whether they have a plan for prosecuting those suspected of serious abuses such as mass civilian killings and extrajudicial executions.

“Amnesties for members of armed groups who lay down their arms should never include those who intentionally carried out grave crimes such as targeting or deliberately killing civilians,” said Ahmed Salem, executive director of the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights. “Egyptian authorities should develop a national strategy for Wilayat Sina’ prosecutions, ensuring that those with direct responsibility for serious crimes do not enjoy impunity.”

Since 2020, the Egyptian authorities have been encouraging members of Wilayat Sina’ to surrender under security initiatives facilitated by North Sinai local clan leaders, based on media and human rights reports.

Wilayat Sina’ is a relatively small group that that has targeted the Egyptian military, other government forces, and civilians since 2013. The group pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014. The armed conflict has gradually de-escalated as Wilayat Sina’ lost most of its strongholds in 2020 and appears to have been near completely eradicated by the end of 2022, according to media reports, residents’ accounts, and official statements. But the military, police, army-aligned militias, and Wilayat Sina’ have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law that in many cases may have amounted to war crimes.

Despite the relatively calm situation, the authorities continue to effectively keep the region a closed military zone where independent reporting is prohibited. The military also has continued to prevent tens of thousands of  residents, whom the military had forcibly evicted since 2013, to return to their land.

The authorities have not formally announced their amnesty strategy nor its basis in local laws. However, officials on several occasions have given statements confirming amnesties. On May 15, 2022, Lieutenant-Colonel Gharib Abdel Hafez, the spokesperson for the Egyptian Armed Forces, said in a televised phone interview with Sada al-Balad, a pro-government television station, that the army “treats all the elements [suspected Wilayat Sina’ members] in North Sinai, who turn themselves in to army checkpoints or units, in a humane way.” He added that the army provides those who surrender with “housing and shelter” after “coordinating with judicial authorities to ensure they are not wanted in any cases.” The Egyptian military did not respond to Human Rights Watch written requests for comment on September 8, 2023.

While authorities granted amnesty to suspects, they have unlawfully detained and abused women and girls who are relatives of male Wilayat Sina’ suspects, Human Rights Watch and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights reported in May 2023. Detaining the relatives appears to have been aimed at pressuring the men to turn themselves in.

The international laws of war encourage the broadest possible amnesties at the end of non-international armed conflicts such as the one in North Sinai, with the aim of promoting reconciliation and peace. However, the law specifically excludes from amnesties anyone suspected, accused, or convicted of committing war crimes or other serious international crimes. The authorities should make public the criteria used to grant amnesty and measures taken to ensure that those responsible for serious abuses face justice, the two organizations said.

Based on credible media and human rights organizations’ reports and interviews with local residents, the military made a pact with some local clan leaders in North Sinai that if they persuaded men who joined Wilayat Sina’ to turn themselves in, those surrendering would be extensively interrogated, but not charged or imprisoned. Mada Masr, a leading independent media organization, reported that 23 fighters in Wilayat Sina’ turned themselves in under local leaders’ mediation in 2020, and said the security agencies promised to release them after a few months.

Wilayat Sina’ committed horrific crimes, including kidnapping and torturing scores of residents and security force members, and extrajudicially executing some. The government-sponsored National Council for Human Rights said in 2018 that 650 civilians had been killed by Sinai Province militants in recent years, not including the 2017 incident in which over 300 mosque-goers were killed.

Egypt Amnesty and Acct for Wilayat Sina' Members Letter to Prosecutor_8 Sept 2023

Human Rights Watch and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights spoke with one member of a pro-government militia in North Sinai in 2023 who said that a senior military leader in Battalion 101, al-Arish, whose name is withheld for their security, informed the militia that he ordered the distribution of flyers, some of which the two organizations reviewed, throughout the region calling on Wilayat Sina’ suspects to turn themselves in so that authorities could obtain useful information.

On July 19, 2022, the Sinai Tribes’ Union, one of the main military-aligned militias in North Sinai, posted on its official Facebook page a photograph of a flyer that appeared to be attributed to the Egyptian army purporting to show a wife and children of alleged Wilayat Sina’ suspects alongside the Arabic text: “Your families live normally (education – housing – food), they only miss having the head of family with them.” The flyer calls for those with “deluded minds” to take the flyer and turn themselves in to the nearest security point, assuring them “a safe life.”

Egypt Amnesty and Acct for Wilayat Sina' Members Letter to MoD_8 Sept 2023

In 2023, Human Rights Watch and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights interviewed four North Sinai residents who said that, between 2020 and 2021, they witnessed three of their relatives and other residents of their villages who are former Wilayat Sina’ members living openly alongside their families in the neighboring Ismailia governorate and adjacent areas. The four residents said that security agencies provided them with monthly stipends and identity cards that allow them to move safely within a defined area.

The same pro-government militia member said that his relative, whose name is withheld for his safety, and who was a member of Wilayat Sina’, surrendered to the militia in late 2022 after the militia participated in a military operation in al-Moqat’a village, near the town of Sheikh Zuweid. A family member of the man told the militia member that he called the family in early 2023 and informed them that security forces were sheltering him in a residential building in Ismailia for a six-month period for him to debrief security officers, after which he would be released with a ban on returning to Sinai.

The four residents said that in 2015 and 2016, they had witnessed two of the three relatives now living in Ismailia participate in public executions of civilians in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah in North Sinai, when the group had strongholds in those areas.

The pro-government militia member also said that another relative who turned himself in to security forces in 2021 informed him that he receives a monthly stipend from security agencies and holds a card issued by the Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance Agency labelled “First Degree Collaborator.” “No one knows where he lives now, he killed people from the region and if local residents saw him, they would kill him,” the militia member said.

In another prominent case, in September 2021, a leader in Wilayat Sina’ named Mohamed Saad, but better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Hamza al-Qady, turned himself in to the security forces, according to a statement published by the Sinai Tribes’ Union. The statement said that the Union, in coordination with the Egyptian army and intelligence, provided a safe reunion for Saad and his wife and three children. Egyptian media and other reports have alleged that Saad had authorized war crimes.

In a voice recording attributed to Saad a few months after his surrender, he called on members of Wilayat Sina’ to turn themselves in, saying the military and security forces were not detaining those who surrendered. The recording was posted on Facebook on February 28, 2022, by Sheikh Salem Abo Ngez, a leader of an armed group cooperating with the Egyptian army. The Egyptian authorities have not announced whether prosecutors have investigated Saad or charged him with any crimes.

“The Egyptian government should establish detailed, transparent, and human rights-based criteria for any amnesties it grants to former Wilayat Sina’ members,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “It should offer rehabilitation and reintegration services to aid those who turn themselves in, while investigating and prosecuting suspected war criminals in proceedings that meet international due process standards.”

Sri Lanka: Repression of Civic Space Threatens Financial Reform

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Click to expand Image Protesters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 14, 2023.  © 2023 Pradeep Dambarage/NurPhoto via AP Photo

(Washington, DC) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should urge Sri Lanka’s government to abandon draft legislation that would severely curtail civil society and jeopardize the IMF’s program in the country, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the IMF that was released today. The proposed Non-Governmental Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Act is among several recent and planned measures that would curtail fundamental freedoms, despite the critical role of public scrutiny in promoting good governance and combatting corruption.

The IMF’s US$3 billion bailout of Sri Lanka – which is linked to government commitments to reform – helped stem the immediate economic crisis after the country defaulted on its foreign debt in 2022, but further progress is threatened by the adoption of laws by President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s administration that would severely restrict basic rights. The Online Safety Act, enacted in January, creates vague and broad speech-related offenses punishable with lengthy prison terms. The Anti-Terrorism Bill, currently before parliament, contains sweeping new speech-related offenses and arbitrary powers of arrest. And the draft law to regulate nongovernmental organizations could make independent civil society activity all but impossible in Sri Lanka.

“As the economy collapsed in 2022, Sri Lankans demanded good governance and an end to corruption, but instead now face draconian laws and policies that threaten human rights and undermine reforms,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The protests helped bring President Wickremesinghe to power, but instead of listening to calls for change, he’s clamping down on peaceful dissent.”

A 2023 IMF study of Sri Lanka known as the Governance Diagnostic Assessment stated that “[a]nticorruption efforts are unlikely to achieve their objectives unless they also encompass initiatives designed and led by groups outside of government who are committed to rule-based inclusive economic and social progress.” However, the study found that civil society’s participation in oversight and monitoring of government actions has been “restricted by limited transparency, the lack of platforms for inclusive and participatory governance, and by broad application of counter-terrorism rules.” As a result, “opportunities for public participation and oversight of official behaviour, including by civil society, are increasingly restricted.”

The government on January 30, 2024, provided the draft NGO law to selected members of civil society, who were given three weeks to respond. The bill does not address any evident need, but instead seeks to subject civil society organizations to invasive government scrutiny and interference, and threatens civil society members with prison if they don’t comply with cumbersome administrative procedures.

The National Collective of CSOs and NGOs, a coalition of Sri Lankan civil society organizations, wrote to the government on February 28 that the proposed law would “violate the fundamental rights to freedom of association and expression,” while damaging the delivery of services by civil society organizations, including to “the many families who are struggling to make ends meet in the midst of severe economic hardship.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in his March 1 update to the UN Human Rights Council on the crisis in Sri Lanka, said he was “concerned by the introduction of new or proposed laws with potentially far-reaching impact on fundamental rights and freedoms … which variously strengthen the executive, grant broad powers to the security forces, and severely restrict rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression, impacting not only on civic space but the business environment.”

The IMF should protect the credibility and efficacy of its program in Sri Lanka by publicly calling upon the government to abandon the proposed NGO law, impose a moratorium on use of the Online Safety Act, and amend the Anti-Terrorism Bill to ensure that it respects human rights standards, Human Rights Watch said.

“The IMF and other international partners supporting Sri Lanka’s economic recovery recognize that this crisis has its roots in misgovernance and corruption,” Ganguly said. “If their efforts are to be successful, they need to stand firm against the government’s attempts to curtail fundamental civil and political rights.”

Ecuador's Uptick in Violence Heightens Risks for Schoolchildren

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Click to expand Image Students return to school after the government of Ecuador temporarily suspended in-person lessons in response to a series of violent events at the beginning of the year in Quito, Ecuador, January 24, 2024.  © 2024 FranklinJAcome/Agencia Press South/Getty Images

The escalation of violence and organized crime activity throughout Ecuador is having a dire impact on children’s rights. A temporary switch to online learning, as well as threats by criminal groups, have particularly impacted their right to learn in a safe environment.

After President Daniel Noboa declared on January 9 an “armed conflict” against gangs, Ecuador’s education ministry temporarily suspended all in-person classes and switched to online learning across the country, affecting nearly 4.3 million children, according to UNICEF. In previous months, the ministry had already transitioned to online learning in cities like Guayaquil and Durán, among the worst affected by gang violence.

But as the world learned during the Covid-19 pandemic, online learning can expose children to sexual violence both online and offline.

Civil society representatives I interviewed over the last year said that online learning makes it difficult for school staff to detect sexual violence cases among children and for children to report these incidents. The education ministry’s protocols guide staff on identifying symptoms of violence in survivors, which may be difficult to do if children are not regularly in contact with school staff.

In some of Ecuador’s provinces, during online classes, unknown, masked individuals—in one case armed—reportedly entered online classes to threaten students and teachers.

As of last week, all schools are back in person, but the heightened organized crime activity is making it harder to address sexual violence.

Ecuador has long had high levels of impunity for people who commit sexual violence against children. Young survivors and their families are often threatened into silence by perpetrators, who then may avoid reporting or withdraw complaints. Sexual violence cases may also be underreported due to threats or extortion against school staff, who may fear repercussions or lack of support from authorities if they do report such offenses.

According to one civil society representative who worked in Guayaquil's schools, when perpetrators are linked to drug trafficking or other crimes—as when organized crime is involved—victims do not wish to report violence against them.

Whether Ecuador’s children are learning online or offline during this period of instability, children have a right to learn in a safe environment. The government should ensure that survivors can safely report sexual violence, that threats and violence against staff who report cases are thoroughly investigated and prosecuted, and that survivors are able to find justice.

Ghana’s Leaders Push Back on Anti-LGBT Bill

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Click to expand Image A demonstrator attends a rally against a controversial bill being proposed in Ghana's parliament that would make identifying as LGBTQIA or an ally a criminal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Harlem, New York, October 11, 2021.  © 2021 Emily Leshner/AP Photo

Influential people in Ghana are speaking out against the country’s dangerous anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) bill.

Last week, Samia Nkrumah, a former member of parliament and chair of a major political party in Ghana, urged the president to veto an anti-LGBT bill, calling it “brutal, harsh, and unjust.” Nkrumah’s father, Kwame, is a towering figure in Africa and Ghana’s history, having led the independence movement and served as the country’s first president and prime minister in the 1950s and 60s.

On February 28, Ghana’s parliament passed a draconian bill that increases criminal penalties for consensual same-sex conduct and criminalizes individuals and organizations who advocate for the rights of LGBT people. Additionally, the bill criminalizes failure to report an LGBT person to the authorities and to report anyone who uses their social media platform to produce, publish, or disseminate content promoting activities prohibited by the bill.

Since then, prominent individuals, such as Nkrumah, have urged President Nana Akufo Addo to reject the bill. This includes a memo from Ghana’s finance minister to the president, warning of the bill’s disastrous economic consequences if it were to become law.

Ghana’s current criminal law, derived from British colonial-era laws, punishes same-sex conduct between men with a maximum penalty of three years in prison. The recent push for increasingly harsh legislation has already had consequences for LGBT people in Ghana. After the introduction of the bill in 2021, twenty-one LGBT activists were unlawfully arrested and detained for holding a human rights education meeting on the grounds that they were promoting homosexuality and that the gathering was an unlawful assembly.

On Ghana’s Independence Day, March 6, protestors gathered outside Ghanaian high commissions in London, Johannesburg, and elsewhere to demonstrate pan-African and global solidarity against the egregious and harmful bill. President Addo has said with regard to the bill that he will not allow the country to backslide on human rights and the rule of law.

A swift veto once the bill reaches his desk would make that pledge a reality. 

Confronting the Rising Civilian Toll from Explosive Weapons

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Click to expand Image The aftermath of an explosion of an intercepted Russian missile on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 13, 2023. © 2023 Valentyna Polishchuck/Getty Images

In late February, I joined youth from 14 countries for a four-day seminar on the rising civilian toll caused by bombing and shelling with explosive weapons in towns and cities during armed conflict. The event was hosted by Mines Action Canada, a co-founder—along with Human Rights Watch—of the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW).

The Political Declaration on the Protection of Civilians from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas, adopted in Dublin, Ireland on November 18, 2022, provided guidance for the meeting. A total of 85 countries have endorsed the declaration, committing to prevent and provide remedies for the devastating humanitarian consequences of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The declaration calls on countries to adopt “policies and practices to help avoid civilian harm, including by restricting or refraining as appropriate from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, when their use may be expected to cause harm to civilians or civilian objects.” 

The seminar brought together young advocates, campaigners, and workers from countries affected by the use of explosive weapons, including Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. Rooting their interventions in their experiences, they exchanged community-sensitive best practices for local advocacy, education, and rebuilding efforts.  

Participants challenged the idea that the use of explosive weapons in populated areas is an inevitable part of modern-day conflicts and discussed ways to encourage states to join the declaration and promote adherence to its tenets.

The meeting also established the group’s message ahead of an international conference on the declaration, which Norway is convening in Oslo next month. During the conference, the youth attendees will urge endorsing states to adopt an effective approach to implementing the declaration and to ensuring it meets the long-term needs of affected communities.

With the increased use of explosive weapons in towns and cities, youth participants will also call upon both states that have endorsed the declaration and those that have not to condemn all use of explosive weapons in populated areas as a moral imperative and a demonstration of solidarity with affected communities.

Play Video

European Union Should Adopt Forced Labor Law

Human Rights Watch - Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Click to expand Image Workers make aluminum alloy products on a production line in Jinhu county, Jiangsu province, China, July 19, 2020. © 2020 Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images

The links between China’s rapidly expanding car industry and forced labor in the Xinjiang region demonstrate why it is vital for European Union governments to adopt a proposed law banning imports and exports linked to forced labor.

EU institutions agreed on a draft version of the law on March 5, and EU governments are scheduled to vote on it on March 13.

China’s car imports into the EU are growing exponentially, driven by low-cost electric vehicles. The value of cars imported from China to the EU was 30 times larger in 2023 than five years earlier, rocketing from less than half a billion Euros in 2018 to nearly 13 billion in 2023.

This influx of Chinese cars into the EU risks exposing consumers to Chinese state-sponsored forced labor. Almost 10 percent of the world’s aluminum, a vital material for car making, especially electric cars, is produced in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government’s “labor transfer programs” coerce ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims into jobs away from their homes and into often distant factories and warehouses. Researchers have also documented links between other materials used in car manufacturing and forced labor in Xinjiang. Companies making cars in China, or sourcing parts from China, are at risk of exposure to forced labor.

The forced labor law agreed to by EU institutions is far less robust than the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act adopted in the United States, which establishes a presumption that any product produced in whole or in part in Xinjiang is produced with forced labor and cannot be imported.  

But the EU law does include measures to help investigators identify and stop products linked to state-imposed forced labor from entering the EU. This would help EU companies compete for the EU market on a level playing field with their Chinese counterparts. EU carmakers’ responsible sourcing practices vary widely and are far from perfect, but several are making meaningful efforts to trace their supply chains to identify and address links to human rights abuses.

The International Labour Organization estimates that 3.9 million people worldwide are in state-imposed forced labor programs. EU governments should vote in favor of the forced labor regulation to better protect workers and prevent companies benefitting from forced labor, in China and beyond, from selling to EU markets.

Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law Targets Youth on Social Media

Human Rights Watch - Monday, March 11, 2024
Click to expand Image Police officers stand guard outside Multan jail after Junaid Hafeez, a university professor, was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy, Multan, Pakistan, December 21, 2019. © 2019 Asim Tanveer/AP Photo

In Pakistan, a WhatsApp message – even an alleged one – can have deadly consequences. Last week, a court in Gujrat district, Punjab, sentenced a 22-year-old student to death on charges of sharing blasphemous pictures and videos. A 17-year-old student was sentenced to life imprisonment in the same case because Pakistani law prohibits the death sentence for child offenders.

Blasphemy is an offense punishable by death in Pakistan. And although Pakistan’s blasphemy law has long been used abusively to carry out personal vendettas or prosecute members of minority religious communities, the increasing use of blasphemy provisions to jail and prosecute people for comments made on social media is a dangerous escalation.

However, the Punjab case is not first time that someone has been condemned to death over a social media post.

Aneeqa Atiq, 26, remains on death row after a court in Rawalpindi district sentenced her to death in January 2022, for allegedly sharing blasphemous material via WhatsApp. Junaid Hafeez, a university professor, has been imprisoned for more than 10 years and is facing a possible death sentence for accusations of sharing blasphemous material on Facebook. His lawyer, Rashid Rehman,  was murdered in May 2014, an apparent reprisal for his willingness to defend people charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

In Pakistan, the mere accusation of blasphemy can put you at risk of physical harm. Since 1990, at least 65 people have reportedly been killed in Pakistan over claims of blasphemy. And on August 16, 2023, several hundred people attacked a Christian settlement in Faisalabad district, Punjab province, after two members of the community were accused of committing blasphemy.

Expanding the use of blasphemy cases against people for what they say or share on social media is an invitation for witch hunts.

The Pakistani government should amend and ultimately repeal its blasphemy laws, not further extend their scope online. 

Thai Lawyer Remains ‘Disappeared’ 20 Years on

Human Rights Watch - Monday, March 11, 2024
Click to expand Image A sketch of Somchai Neelapaijit, a prominent Muslim human rights lawyer abducted in Bangkok on March 12, 2004.  © 2015 Prachatai

Twenty years ago today, I received a phone call in the middle of the night with the news that my friend and colleague, the prominent human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, had gone missing. At that time, Somchai was chair of Thailand’s Muslim Lawyers Association and vice-chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Lawyers Council of Thailand.

Official investigations established that Somchai was abducted in Bangkok on March 12, 2004, and presumably murdered, though his body has never been found. The alleged assailants were a group of police officers who sought retaliation for Somchai’s involvement in lawsuits regarding widespread police torture of Muslim suspects in Thailand’s insurgency-ridden southern border provinces.

Over the past two decades, eight Thai prime ministers, including current Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have failed to bring those responsible for Somchai’s enforced disappearance to justice.

Without Somchai’s body, prosecutors filed charges only for robbery and coercion against the five police officers implicated in the case. That trial, hampered by official cover-ups, ended in their acquittal in December 2015.

Efforts by Somchai’s family to obtain justice have been further obstructed by a 2015 Supreme Court ruling that the family cannot act as a co-plaintiff, because there is no concrete evidence showing Somchai is dead and therefore incapable of bringing the case himself. The ruling placed a Kafkaesque burden on individuals who have been forcibly disappeared to prove their own disappearance before any progress can be made in their case.

International law defines enforced disappearance as the detention of a person by state officials or their agents and a refusal to acknowledge the detention or to reveal the person’s fate or whereabouts. Disappearances are especially painful for the victims’ families.

The United Nations has recorded 76 enforced disappearance cases in Thailand since 1980. None have been resolved, and no one has ever been punished for these crimes, even after Thailand adopted a law in 2022 recognizing enforced disappearance as a criminal offense.

The Srettha government has pledged to ratify the International Convention on Enforced Disappearance, which Thailand signed in 2012. But as we mark 20 years since Somchai’s disappearance, that promise remains unfulfilled.

Another year should not pass without justice for Somchai and the other victims of enforced disappearance. The Thai government needs to deliver justice for them and their families, and for all Thais.

Ugandan Authorities Should Drop Charges Against Environmental Activists

Human Rights Watch - Monday, March 11, 2024
Click to expand Image Members of the Uganda National Students Association participate in a rally in Kampala, Uganda, September 29, 2022. © 2022 Luke Dray/Getty Images

Next week, eleven Ugandan students will appear before a Kampala court for their activism against the planned East Africa crude oil pipeline (EACOP), one of the largest fossil fuel infrastructure projects currently under development globally. This is the latest in a series of harassment, threats, and arbitrary arrests against EACOP protestors.

These trials are part of a deeply concerning escalation of threats against human rights defenders in Uganda, particularly those raising concerns around oil development.

Police arrested the students last year, and according to media reports, beat them before remanding them to a maximum security prison. They are charged with the colonial era “common nuisance” offense, which Ugandan authorities have used to suppress legitimate protests.

Activists in Uganda oppose EACOP because of the risks it poses to the environment, local communities, and its potential contribution to climate change. And its construction coincides with a  growing consensus amongst experts, including from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that there cannot be any new fossil fuel projects if the world is to limit the worst impacts of climate change.

Last month, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor urged Ugandan authorities to “change course,” highlighting that “a pattern is emerging from Uganda, in which students peacefully advocating for the protection of human rights and the mitigation of climate change are violently arrested and criminalized.” Earlier this year, Lawlor and other UN Special Rapporteurs expressed grave concerns for the “violent arrests and alleged arbitrary detention of human rights defenders advocating for a just transition from the use of fossil fuels” in Uganda.

Last year, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting the Ugandan government’s crackdown on anti-fossil fuel activists and environmental defenders. The report documented harassment, threats, and arbitrary arrests of protesters lawfully raising concerns over EACOP’s potential contribution to climate change. It followed an earlier HRW report which documented violations related to EACOP's land acquisition process, including inadequate compensation for landowners, and undue pressure, intimidation, and threats of legal action against those who rejected compensation offers.

People have the right to protest peacefully about a planned pipeline that poses grave environmental and human rights risks. The Ugandan authorities should drop charges against the student activists and stop their campaign of harassment against human rights defenders.

Pakistan: New Government Should Protect Rights

Human Rights Watch - Monday, March 11, 2024
Click to expand Image Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as Pakistan’s prime minister on March 4, 2024, after lawmakers in the National Assembly elected him for the second time. © 2024 K.M. Chaudary

(New York) – Pakistan’s newly elected prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, should make human rights a key focus of his government, Human Rights Watch said in a letter today to the prime minister. The new Pakistani government should adopt an agenda that actively promotes and protects human rights, advances the rule of law, and strengthens democratic institutions.

“Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif’s new government faces many challenges that need to be addressed by upholding human rights,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should begin by reversing abusive laws and policies and demonstrating a genuine commitment to the rule of law and equal justice.”

As Pakistan faces one of the worst economic crises in its history, the government has an obligation to ensure adequate social security to uphold the rights of Pakistanis to health, food, social security, and an adequate standard of living.

Human Rights Watch urged the Pakistani government to take concrete steps to protect fundamental civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights in nine key areas. These are economic justice; electoral reforms; digital rights; freedom of expression and protecting civil society; freedom of religion and belief; prison reform; ending violence against women and girls; improving access to education; and protecting rights in counterterrorism operations.

Peru: Congress Runs Roughshod Over Rule of Law

Human Rights Watch - Monday, March 11, 2024
Click to expand Image Congress of the Republic of Peru, in Lima, March 6, 2024. © 2024 Congress of the Republic of Peru

(Washington, DC) – The decision by Peru’s Congress on March 7, 2024, to arbitrarily remove two members of the National Board of Justice severely undermines judicial independence, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The Organization of American States (OAS) should convene a meeting of its Permanent Council to address ongoing attacks on judicial independence in Peru.

The board appoints and removes judges and prosecutors, as well as the heads of the agencies that organize elections and maintain the electoral registry. The removal of its members opens the door to political influence in the justice and electoral systems, endangering the right to vote.

“Peru’s Congress has severely weakened one of the last standing independent bodies that could serve as a check on its abusive practices,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Members of Congress seem to be trying to block investigations that could expose their own misconduct and influence the appointment of prosecutors and judges.”

Congress had been trying to dismiss National Board of Justice members, whose five-year tenures expire in January 2025, through several means for months.

These efforts seem to have accelerated after a team of anti-corruption prosecutors alleged in November 2023 that then-Attorney General Patricia Benavides had influenced congressional decisions in exchange for closing criminal investigations against lawmakers. As of September 2023, prosecutors were reportedly investigating at least 47 of the 130 members of Congress for various offenses, in many cases connected to corruption. The board suspended Benavides in December 2023 and opened an investigation into the allegations.

On March 7, Congress removed two of the board's seven members, citing a disagreement between lawmakers and the board over the interpretation of the law regarding the required age to be a member of the board. Lawmakers tried to remove all other board members but have so far failed to muster sufficient votes.

Peru’s constitution requires that anyone appointed to the board be under the age of 75. The board has interpreted that to mean that existing members appointed before turning 75 are not required to retire after they reach that age. The government agency in charge of public service administration supported the board’s interpretation. Under Peru’s constitution, Congress may only remove board members for “serious infractions.”

Under Peruvian law, members of the Permanent Commission of Congress, which previously discussed the removal of National Board of Justice members, are not allowed to participate in the final vote to dismiss them. But a member of the commission voted on the removal of board member Inés Tello, which was approved by a single vote majority. Congress’s press office issued a statement arguing that, because the member of the commission did not vote at the Permanent Commission’s session, he was allowed to vote in the March 7 session.

Separately, lawmakers complained that the president of Congress did not submit the removal of the board’s president to a second vote, after an initial attempt to dismiss him was rejected. This could be interpreted to allow Congress to vote again on his removal.

Peru’s Congress has led a severe erosion of judicial independence and the rule of law. In 2022, Congress used an improper process to appoint six Constitutional Tribunal judges. Since the appointments, the tribunal has made questionable decisions, including ordering the release from prison of former president Alberto Fujimori, in violation of orders issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Congress also appointed an ombudsperson with no human rights experience, who will preside the commission in charge of selecting the new members of the National Board of Justice for the 2025-2030 term, and removed a top prosecutor without basis. Some lawmakers have introduced proposals in Congress, including most recently on March 5, to remove the head of the National Elections Tribunal.

In February, a group of lawmakers introduced a bill that would declare an “emergency” in the Attorney General’s Office and remove the interim attorney general, who stepped in after Benavides’s suspension, and the five other members of the Board of Superior Prosecutors, who select the attorney general from among its members.

On March 6, Congress also approved several changes to the constitution allowing for the reelection of members of Congress—which has been prohibited since a 2018 referendum—and reinstatement of the Senate. It also limited the powers of the president to dissolve Congress, while maintaining Congress's ability to oust the president on broad grounds.

The international community should condemn the flawed removal of the National Board of Justice members and speak out in defense of Peru’s democratic system, Human Rights Watch said.

OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro or the organization’s member states should convene a meeting of the body’s Permanent Council to discuss the situation in Peru. Under the OAS Inter-American Democratic Charter, Peru’s government has an obligation to promote and defend the separation of powers and independence of the branches of government as essential elements of a representative democracy.

The Inter-American Democratic Charter allows any member state—or the secretary general—to convene the Permanent Council when a member nation suffers an “unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order.”

“Instead of serving people, many lawmakers in Peru seem intent on misusing their office to pursue personal interests, destroying human rights and democratic accountability on their way,” Goebertus said.

France: Ensure Muslim Women, Girls Can Play Sports

Human Rights Watch - Friday, March 8, 2024

(Nyon, Switzerland, March 8, 2024) – French basketball authorities should ensure equal access to sport for Muslim women and girls by overturning the discriminatory ban on wearing the hijab, the Sport & Rights Alliance said today. On International Women’s Day, The Alliance urges sports officials across the globe to ensure that everyone can play sports free of discrimination.

“I love basketball, my family, and my faith,” said Diaba Konaté, a former member of the youth French national team who now plays in the US. “It would break my heart to give up any one of those, and yet that is what the current French Federation of Basketball guidelines are forcing me to do.”

“My faith and my sport are both critical parts of who I am,” said Layshia Clarendon, professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. “No one should have to choose between honoring their faith and playing the sport they love, and it's heartbreaking and unacceptable that Muslim women in France are being forced to make that choice. I'm proud to be in solidarity with Diaba and with all athletes targeted by the French Federation of Basketball's discriminatory policy.”

“Basketball has long been a powerful vehicle for inclusion and equality,” said Terri Jackson, executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) in the US. “All athletes should be able to both practice their faith and the sport they love, and we will continue to fight until they have the opportunity to do so.”

Athletes worldwide have welcomed the inclusion of Muslim players in the global sports community and are raising their voices in support of the women and girls disproportionately affected by religious headwear restrictions in France, the Alliance said.

In an open letter published on March 8, 2024, over 80 athletes, including WNBA star Breanna Stewart and Olympic medalist Ibitihaj Muhammad, urge the French Federation of Basketball (FFBB) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to immediately overturn the hijab ban from the French basketball rules and uphold international human rights laws and standards.

“The Sport & Rights Alliance supports athletes’ calls to end the discrimination of Muslim women and girls in France who are being denied the ability to play simply because of who they are,” said Andrea Florence, director of the Sport & Rights Alliance. “We’re only months away from the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics and it is about time the French Basketball Federation catches up with the principles of Olympism.”

In 2017, in response to calls from US university athletes led by Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a former US college basketball player who wears a hijab, and organizations including Athlete Ally, Equality League, Human Rights Watch, World Players Association and other Sport & Rights Alliance partners, the international basketball federation FIBA overturned its ban on certain kinds of headwear, which included the hijab.

The French federation ignored these changes and then solidified its discriminatory stance in December 2022 with Article 9.3 to the General Sports Regulations in Basketball, which prohibits the wearing of “any equipment with a religious or political connotation” at all levels and for all categories. Since then, groups in France such as Basket pour Toutes (Basketball for All), formed by Muslim women players, coaches, and allies, have been relentlessly campaigning to overturn the discriminatory ban.

Since the French federation’s rules were introduced, exclusions of Muslim girls and women have increased, even in youth and recreational leagues. “Young players are facing uncertainty, anxiety, and even public humiliation as they are sidelined on game days,” the Alliance said. Many have stopped playing sports altogether.

“Rules that penalize women and girls who wish to wear the hijab undermine efforts to make women’s sport more inclusive and violate their human rights,” said Monica Costa Riba, Amnesty International’s senior campaigner on women’s rights in Europe. “Global and national sporting authorities must ensure their policies do not exclude entire groups of women and girls from sport and are free from racism and all forms of discrimination.”

In September 2023, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized the French government for banning French athletes from wearing a hijab at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, saying that “no one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear, or not wear.”

In October, six UN human rights experts wrote to the French government expressing their concern that bans on religious headwear not only excluded large numbers of Muslim women and girls from education, culture, and sport, but could also lead to further intolerance and discrimination.

Prohibitions on the wearing of religious garments violate Muslim athletes’ rights under international human rights laws and standards, including the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the Conventions on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

“It has been almost 10 years since FIBA lifted its hijab ban, opening the door for millions of Muslim women and girls to play basketball,” said Minky Worden, global initiatives director at Human Rights Watch. “The French federation should act now to ensure that all women and girls can experience the community-building, education, and economic advancement opportunities that sport provides.”

***
The Sport & Rights Alliance’s partners include Amnesty International, The Army of Survivors, Committee to Protect Journalists, Football Supporters Europe, Human Rights Watch, ILGA World (The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), the International Trade Union Confederation, Transparency International Germany, and World Players Association, UNI Global Union. As a global coalition of leading NGOs and trade unions, the SRA works together to ensure sports bodies, governments and other relevant stakeholders give rise to a world of sport that protects, respects, and fulfills international standards for human rights, labor rights, child wellbeing and safeguarding, and anti-corruption.
 

Haiti: Urgent Action Needed amid Growing Lawlessness

Human Rights Watch - Friday, March 8, 2024
Click to expand Image A man walks past several cars torched by criminal groups after group members exchanged gunfire with police and soldiers around the airport in Delmas 28 district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti on March 6, 2024. © 2024 Guerinault Louis/Anadolu via Getty Images

(Washington, DC) – Haiti is on the brink of a total collapse or takeover of the state as violent criminal groups seeking to overthrow the government have attacked police officers and state institutions, including prisons, Human Rights Watch said today. The groups’ actions have brought economic activity, the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance, and nearly all transportation, including the country’s main port and international airport, to a near standstill.

“With Haiti on the cusp of even greater chaos and violence, it is more urgent than ever for regional and international partners to support Haitians’ calls for a rights-based international response that addresses all aspects of the crisis,” said Nathalye Cotrino, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This should include an international support mission that complies fully with human rights and the formation of a transitional government that can work with partners to restore basic security, democratic governance, access to necessities, and the rule of law.”

In October 2023, the United Nations Security Council authorized a Multinational Security Support  mission to provide operational support and training for the Haitian National Police, though it has yet to deploy to Haiti.

Criminal groups, which control much of the country, including nearly all of the capital, Port-au-Prince, have killed over 1,100 people and injured nearly 700 others just since the start of 2024, according to the UN. Nearly 13,000 people were killed, injured, and kidnapped by criminal groups between January 2022 and early March 2024. Thousands of women and children have been victims of sexual violence and over 362,000 people have been internally displaced. The rates of food insecurity in Haiti are among the worst in the world. Many children are out of school, and child use and recruitment by criminal groups are on the rise.

“We are abandoned to our own fate; nothing works in the country,” a 23-year-old mechanic in Port-au-Prince told Human Rights Watch by phone on February 19. “There is no state, the police are scared, and they have no way to defend us from the gangs that shoot, kill, kidnap, rape women, and take away everything from us on a daily basis.”

Protests broke out across Haiti after Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who took over after the president was killed, failed to organize elections and step down by February 7, 2024, under the December 2022 agreement between political and civil society actors. Many Haitians see Henry as heading an illegitimate and corrupt government with alleged links to criminal groups.

Haitian human rights and civil society groups have called for Haiti’s international partners, especially the United States, to stop propping up Henry’s government. They have pressed other governments to support the formation of a transitional government led by technocrats untainted by allegations of involvement in corruption or support for abusive criminal groups who would also promise not to participate in future elections. The transitional authorities could then work to create an environment that will allow for the organization of free, fair, and credible elections within a clearly defined timetable, Haitian civil society groups have said.

Talks facilitated by leaders from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to address the country’s political stalemate have stalled for more than a year because Henry and other key actors have not reached a consensus. Some political parties proposed a new government that would include a role for Guy Philippe, a former police commander-turned-coup instigator. Since Philippe returned to Haiti in late November 2023 after serving six years in a US prison on money laundering and drug charges, he has mobilized shutdowns and street protests around the country and appears to have garnered the support of members of the heavily armed Protected Areas Security Brigade, a government force tasked with providing security to Haiti’s environmentally protected areas.

Civil society groups have raised concerns about the proposal and fear that such a government would not address the country’s underlying problems. “Individuals, groups and political parties involved in criminal practices ... should not be part of the transitional government, whose members must be above suspicion,” said Vélina Élysée Charlier, a member of the Haitian Noupapdòmi collective, which fights corruption and impunity.

Henry has not returned to Haiti since he traveled to Kenya on February 29 to finalize arrangements for the deployment of the Kenyan-led international security support mission. That same day, Jimmy Chérizier (also known as “Barbecue”), the leader of Haiti’s main criminal coalition, known as G9, announced the resumption of a joint initiative with the rival G-Pèp coalition called “Viv Ansanm” (“living together” in Creole), with the stated goal of removing Henry from power and confronting the support mission.

Members of criminal groups have since attacked two major prisons, resulting in the release of nearly 4,700 people, forced the closure of the main international airport, and attacked the main port and state offices and several police stations, with enormous human and material losses, as reported by the Haitian National Human Rights Defense Network. The increased insecurity has severely disrupted business, transportation, and the delivery of humanitarian aid, further limiting the already restricted access of Haitians to essential goods and services. Basic access to water and health care is also threatened.

Amid this chaos, Henry has not spoken publicly about the latest events in the country.

The US government appears to have increased its pressure on Henry and support for a transition in recent days, with the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, saying on March 6 that the US government had asked Prime Minister Henry to “move forward on a political process that will lead to the establishment of a presidential transitional council that will lead to elections,” adding “that it’s urgent that he moves forward in that direction and start the process of bringing normalcy back to the people of Haiti.” A US State Department spokesperson said that US Secretary Antony Blinken spoke with Henry on March 7, expressing support for CARICOM and Haitian stakeholders’ proposal “to expedite a political transition through the creation of a broad-based, independent presidential college to steer the country toward the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission and free and fair elections.”

Meanwhile, legal, funding, and operational problems continue to stall the deployment of the support mission, though Kenya and Haiti signed a bilateral agreement on March 1. Pledges of support have come from the US, Canada, and France. Benin, Chad, Bangladesh, Barbados and The Bahamas have committed to deploying forces alongside Kenyan police officers.

In a March 6 statement, UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, reiterated his call “for the urgent deployment, with no further delay” of the mission. “The reality is that, in the current context, there is no realistic alternative available to protect lives,” he said. “We are simply running out of time.”

To avoid repeating failures of past interventions in Haiti, governments should ensure that troop-contributing countries and donors enforce a human rights due diligence policy that is at least as rigorous as that which the UN applies to its peacekeeping missions, Human Rights Watch said.

“The country is falling apart,” a senior police official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Human Rights Watch by phone on March 7. “There is no state authority left; the authorities now are the criminals ... The police lack sufficient officers, equipment or technology to protect people. That is why we need international support, we cannot fight them alone.”

Rosy Auguste Ducéna, a Haitian human rights activist from the Haitian National Human Rights Defense Network, also underscored the need for a rights-based international response: “What is happening today was foreseeable and, above all, avoidable. To avoid a worsening of the situation, more than ever, the international community must listen to the Haitian people.”

The US, Canada, France, and other governments should redouble their efforts to immediately provide the necessary funding for the functioning of an international support mission that includes human rights due diligence for its personnel and human rights monitoring. They should also engage more effectively with Haitian civil society and other key stakeholders to support the establishment of a transitional government that can work with an international mission to re-establish a minimum level of security and avoid a further deterioration of humanitarian conditions.

“Governments committed to human rights and democracy should act now to support Haitian efforts to restore security and avoid a situation where a power vacuum is exploited by criminal actors who are likely to perpetuate the cycles of violence and abuse,” Cotrino said. “All stakeholders should work with Haitian civil society, building on their proposals to restore the rule of law, security, and access to basic necessities, with a view toward true democratic governance while avoiding the mistakes of past abusive international interventions.”

Pages