Human Rights Watch News

Africa’s High Teenage Pregnancy Rate Demands Strong Response

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 00:01:00 -0400

Throughout 2024, the African Union will mark the “AU Year of Education.” The aim is to renew collective commitment and joint action by African countries towards the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education, as well as the Continental Educational Strategy for Africa, designed to make education a reality for all children and young people in Africa.

However, tens of thousands of African girls drop out of school every year, many because they are pregnant or have a young child. A study commissioned by the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child found that one in every five adolescent girls in Africa becomes pregnant before reaching the age of 19.

Many will not return to school because they face huge barriers and have little to no support from schools at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives. Many are denied access to basic sexual and reproductive health services, such as antenatal and postnatal care, contraception, and abortion care. This impacts both girls’ and their children’s survival and development.

The African Committee study is clear: If governments don’t take swift action to tackle and prevent high adolescent pregnancy rates and address barriers faced by girls in attending school, they will continue to fail many girls, as well as future generations. Young people’s progress in education is interlinked with their access to comprehensive sexuality education, as well as access to quality sexual and reproductive health interventions.

To successfully mark the AU Year of Education and advance their education commitments, AU member countries should protect girls’ rights to education while also protecting adolescents’ sexual and reproductive rights. The AU should develop and adopt guidelines on protecting the rights of pregnant and parenting students, which should serve as a model of positive practice across the continent.

Lebanon: Stepped-Up Repression of Syrians

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(Beirut) – Lebanese authorities have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly returned Syrians to Syria in recent months, including opposition activists and army defectors, Human Rights Watch said today.

Between January and March 2024, Human Rights Watch documented the forcible return of a Syrian army defector and an opposition activist by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the General Directorate of General Security, the Lebanese security agency that controls entry and residency status for foreigners. In a separate case, the Lebanese military’s intelligence unit briefly held and allegedly tortured a Syrian man who had participated in a solidarity protest for women in Gaza. Other Syrian refugees are fighting to remain in Lebanon despite deportation orders and an increasingly hostile environment exacerbated by officials’ scapegoating of the refugee population.

“Lebanese officials have for years imposed discriminatory practices against Syrians in the country as a way of coercing them to return to Syria, which remains unsafe,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Arbitrarily arresting, torturing, or deporting Syrians who face a well-founded risk of persecution if returned are additional blights on Lebanon’s refugee record.”

In March, a United Nations report indicated that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is aware of “13,772 individuals deported from Lebanon or pushed back at the border with the Syrian Arab Republic in approximately 300 incidents in 2023,” including 600 people in one day on November 8. It further stated that “local authorities in 27 municipalities took measures limiting the ability of Syrian refugees displaced in south Lebanon from finding alternative shelter.” The reference was in relation to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents in South Lebanon following the cross-border hostilities between Israel and Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups that have been ongoing since October 2023.

Since the killing of a local political party official on April 7, 2024, which the Lebanese army alleged was carried out by a group of Syrian nationals, Lebanese ministers and political officials have reiterated calls for the return of Syrians in Lebanon, fueling ongoing violence against Syrians. In April, Syrians in Lebanon were reportedly beaten and faced demands across Lebanon to leave their homes, with governorates and municipalities imposing discriminatory curfews, unlawfully restricting Syrians’ right to freedom of movement.

Human Rights Watch spoke to Mohammed Sablouh, the head of the legal support program at the Cedar Centre for Legal Studies and a lawyer representing three Syrian men, and reviewed correspondence between Sablouh and Lebanese judicial authorities. Two of his clients, Rafaat al-Faleh and Muaz al-Waer, were deported to Syria between January and March, while Yassin al-Atr, a Syrian opposition activist, currently faces a deportation order from the General Security Directorate. Human Rights Watch also spoke to people close to both al-Atr and al-Faleh, who requested to remain anonymous for security reasons, and to another lawyer, Diala Chehadeh, who is representing a Syrian man arrested by Lebanese military intelligence and reportedly tortured.

On April 9, Human Rights Watch sent letters with research findings and questions to the LAF and the General Security Directorate but has not received responses.

The military deported al-Faleh, a Syrian army defector, in January after detaining him at a military checkpoint near Tripoli on January 10, Sablouh said. Originally from Daraa, al-Faleh had fled to Lebanon in 2021, said an individual familiar with his case. A Lebanese driver who was with al-Faleh at the time of his arrest later informed al-Faleh’s family that the army had arrested him because he was not carrying legal residency papers.

In late January, a family member in Syria received a call from an official who identified himself as a member of Syria’s military intelligence, said people close to al-Faleh. The official said he was seeking information about al-Faleh and his political affiliations and informed al-Faleh’s relative that he would soon be handed over by Lebanon to the Syrian authorities.

An official who identified himself as a member of the Syrian government-allied Syrian Social Nationalist Party, tasked with investigating Syrian army defectors in Lebanon, called al-Faleh’s family a few days later and told them that Lebanon had deported al-Faleh to Syria and that he was being held at the infamous Branch 235 of Syrian Military Intelligence, better known as the Palestine Branch, in Damascus. His family has not been able to find out anything about him since.

In March, the General Security Directorate deported al-Waer, who had been serving a prison sentence in Lebanon, shortly after he completed his sentence, his lawyer said. The deportation prompted four other Syrian inmates in Roumieh prison, including two of his brothers, to attempt to hang themselves, apparently out of fear of being deported. Videos of the hanging attempts were widely shared on social media. Sablouh said that family members only found out about al-Waer’s deportation when he was permitted to call his mother at the Masnaa border crossing with Syria.

The General Security Directorate in January ordered the deportation of al-Atr, a Syrian opposition activist jailed in Lebanon since 2017, who faces trial in Lebanon on charges of terrorism, said his lawyer and an individual familiar with his case. The deportation order was issued despite a separate military court decision, reviewed by Human Rights Watch, that ordered his release from prison on bail and barred him from leaving the country.

Originally from al-Qusayr, al-Atr fled to Lebanon in 2012 after taking part in anti-government protests. In 2011, Syrian authorities arrested his father, whose situation and whereabouts remain unknown. The day after Lebanon issued the deportation order, people in al-Qusayr told al-Atr’s family that officials from Syria’s State Security and Political Security apparatuses were asking around about him. “The officer told our contact in Qusayr that ‘Yassin’s time is finished in Lebanon. They didn’t know how to discipline him […] But we know how to,’” a person close to al-Atr told Human Rights Watch.

Although Lebanese authorities halted his deportation due to public pressure, his lawyer said he remains in detention and faces the threat of deportation. The Lebanese Army had detained al-Waer in 2015 and al-Atr in 2016, accusing them of taking part in hostilities by armed groups in Arsal, near Lebanon’s border with Syria, against the army. Their families deny that they took up arms or took part in the armed hostilities. Al-Atr is set to appear again before Lebanon’s military court on May 23.

Chehadeh told Human Rights Watch that members of the Lebanese Military Intelligence, dressed in civilian clothing, arrested her client while he was participating in a solidarity protest with women in Gaza in the Sin el-Fil area, near Beirut. Chehadeh said that the agents approached her client, whose name is withheld at the lawyer’s request, and demanded his residency papers.

She said they held him for several hours at the military intelligence directorate and allegedly tortured him, including beating him with an electric cable. She said that her client confessed under torture to belonging to a terrorist organization. He was released later that day. A forensic medical exam conducted on the same day, reviewed by Human Rights Watch, shows that he had bruises and marks on his neck, shoulder, arms, chest, and hands, resulting from “being beaten or hit ... with a hard, cable-shaped object.”

In a separate case, Lebanese authorities in March ordered a Syrian opposition activist, Jumaa Lehib, to leave Lebanon within 21 days when he went to renew his residency papers with General Security. Lehib, who is from Idlib, fled to Lebanon in 2011 after Syrian authorities detained him over his participation in protests. General Security issued the deportation order even though Lehib is registered with the UNHCR and faces a serious risk of persecution if returned.

Sablouh said that General Security officials have repeatedly attempted to intimidate him because he defends refugees at risk of deportation.

Human Rights Watch and other rights groups previously reported that the army summarily deported thousands of Syrians, including unaccompanied children, to Syria in 2023, in violation of Lebanese law and Lebanon’s international human rights obligations. Deportations of Syrian opposition activists and army defectors violate Lebanon’s obligations as a party to the UN Convention Against Torture and under the customary international law principle of nonrefoulment—that is, not to forcibly return people to countries where they face a clear risk of torture or other persecution.

Other governments providing funding to the LAF and General Security Directorate should press them to end unlawful deportations and other violations of Syrians’ rights, Human Rights Watch said. Donor governments should also develop a public human rights impact assessment of their funding and press Lebanon to allow an independent reporting mechanism to ensure that funding does not contribute to or perpetuate human rights violations.

“The Lebanese army and General Security are targeting people who have already suffered far too much and could face even worse punishments by Syrian authorities if returned,” Kaiss said. “Donor countries providing funds and other assistance to Lebanon’s security and military services should ensure that any funds or equipment provided to Lebanon are not being used to commit rights violations.”

Burkina Faso: Army Massacres 223 Villagers

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(Nairobi) – The Burkina Faso military summarily executed at least 223 civilians, including at least 56 children, in two villages on February 25, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today.

These mass killings, among the worst army abuse in Burkina Faso since 2015, appear to be part of a widespread military campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist armed groups, and may amount to crimes against humanity. Soldiers killed 44 people, including 20 children, in Nondin village, and 179 people, including 36 children, in the nearby Soro village, of Thiou district in the northern Yatenga province.

Burkinabè authorities should urgently undertake a thorough investigation into the massacres, with support from the African Union and the United Nations to protect its independence and impartiality.

“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “The repeated failure of the Burkinabè authorities to prevent and investigate such atrocities underlines why international assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity.”

From February 28 to March 31, Human Rights Watch interviewed 23 people by telephone, including 14 witnesses to the killings, 3 local civil society activists, and 3 members of international organizations. Human Rights Watch verified videos and photographs shared by survivors of the aftermath of the killings and injured survivors.

On February 24 and 25, Islamist armed groups carried out several attacks across the country on military targets, including barracks and bases, and on civilian infrastructure, such as religious sites, killing scores of civilians, soldiers, and militia members. Burkinabè Defense Minister Mahamoudou Sana, in a February 26 statement to the media, denounced what he described as “simultaneous and coordinated” attacks by Islamist fighters, but made no mention of the mass killings of civilians in Nondin and Soro.

On March 1, Aly Benjamin Coulibaly, prosecutor of the high court in Ouahigouya said in a statement that he received reports of “massive deadly attacks” on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soro in Yatenga province on February 25, with a provisional toll of “around 170 people executed,” and others injured, and that he ordered an investigation. On March 4, Coulibaly said that he had visited the sites of the incidents along with the judicial police on February 29, but indicated that he was not able to locate the dozens of bodies he had been told were there.

Villagers said that on February 25, military forces first stopped in Nondin, then in Soro, five kilometers away. They believe that the killings were perpetrated in retaliation for an attack by Islamist fighters against a Burkinabè military and militia camp outside the provincial capital, Ouahigouya, about 25 kilometers from Nondin, earlier that day. “Before the soldiers started shooting at us, they accused us of being complicit with the jihadists [Islamist fighters],” said a 32-year-old woman survivor from Soro who was shot in the leg. “They said we do not cooperate with them [the army] because we did not inform them about the jihadists’ movements.”

On February 25, the Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB), the government-run national television network, reported “a major attack” by Islamist fighters around 7 a.m. “against the mixed battalion” military base in Ouahigouya. It said that soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (Batallion d’Intervention Rapide, BIR), a special forces unit involved in counterinsurgency operations, “chased the fighters fleeing towards Thiou” and “neutralized the maximum of those who could not” flee. The report, which made no reference to civilian casualties, stated that soldiers requested that aerial drones do not follow the fighters they were chasing, and to “leave this group to them,” perhaps indicating that they did not want the drones to record what followed.

Witnesses said that between 8:30 and 9 a.m., about 30 minutes after a group of armed Islamist fighters passed near the village yelling “Allah Akbar!” (God is great), a military convoy with over 100 Burkinabè soldiers arrived on motorbikes, in pickup trucks, and in at least two armored cars in Nondin’s Basseré neighborhood located near the asphalted National Road 2. They said the soldiers went door-to-door, ordering people out of their homes and to show their identity cards. They then rounded up villagers in groups before opening fire on them. Soldiers also shot at people trying to flee or hide.

Villagers described a similar scenario in Soro, where soldiers arrived about an hour later and shot people who had been rounded up or who tried to hide or escape. “They separated men and women in groups,” said a 48-year-old farmer. “I was in the garden with other people when they [soldiers] called us. As we started moving forward, they opened fire on us indiscriminately. I ran behind a tree, and this saved my life.”

Human Rights Watch obtained two lists of the victims’ names compiled by survivors and others who helped bury the bodies. Witnesses said that survivors and people from nearby villages buried the bodies in Nondin in three mass graves and those in Soro in eight. Some bodies in both villages, they said, were buried individually since they were recovered days later in the bush.

Click to expand Image Reported number of bodies and location of the eight mass graves visible on a video shared with Human Rights Watch. Six of the mass graves are clearly visible on satellite imagery of March 15, 2024. Two others are hidden by the shadows of buildings. Image © 2024 Planet Labs PBC. Graphic and analysis © 2024 Human Rights Watch

On February 26, a group of family members of victims from Nondin and Soro went to the gendarmerie brigade in Ouahigouya to make a statement, leading the high court prosecutor to announce an investigation.

On March 21, following a brief visit to Burkina Faso, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said in a statement that he received “assurances” from the Burkinabè president “that steps are being taken to ensure” that the conduct of security forces “fully complies with international humanitarian and international human rights laws … against the backdrop of reports of serious violations by security forces … which need to be thoroughly investigated and acted upon.”

Human Rights Watch has previously documented serious abuses by the Burkinabè army during counterterrorism operations, including summary executions and enforced disappearances as well as indiscriminate drone strikes.

All parties to the armed conflict in Burkina Faso are bound by international humanitarian law, which includes Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law. Common Article 3 prohibits murder, torture, and ill-treatment of civilians and captured fighters. Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent are responsible for war crimes. Commanders who knew or should have known about serious abuses by their forces and do not take appropriate action may be prosecuted as a matter of command responsibility.

Burkina Faso is a state party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provide for the right to life and prohibit extrajudicial executions. Burkina Faso in 2004 ratified the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court.

Crimes against humanity are a series of offenses, including murder, that are knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. “Widespread” refers to the scale of the acts or number of victims. A “systematic” attack indicates a pattern or methodical plan.

The Burkina Faso government has an obligation to exercise criminal jurisdiction over those who carry out grave international crimes. War crimes and crimes against humanity are crimes of universal jurisdiction, which allows other countries to prosecute them regardless of where the crimes were committed or the nationality of victims and perpetrators.

“The Burkinabé army has repeatedly committed mass atrocities against civilians in the name of fighting terrorism with almost no one held to account,” Hassan said. “Victims, survivors and their families are entitled to see those responsible for grave abuses brought to justice. Support from AU or UN investigators and legal experts is the best way to ensure credible investigations and fair trials.”

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

Armed Conflict in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso forces have been fighting an insurgency by the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) since the armed groups entered the country from Mali in 2016. The two armed groups control large swathes of territory, attacking civilians as well as government security forces.

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project, recorded violent events linked to this conflict that resulted in the deaths of more than 8,000 people in 2023 and over 430 in January 2024 alone.

On November 26, 2023, the JNIM attacked military barracks in the besieged northern town of Djibo, Sahel region, and broke into homes and a camp for internally displaced people, killing at least 40 civilians. On February 25, the ISGS claimed responsibility for an attack on a church in the town of Essakane, Sahel region, that killed 15 civilians.

Islamist armed groups have also besieged cities, towns, and villages across Burkina Faso, blocking food, other necessities, and humanitarian aid to the civilian population and causing starvation and illness among residents and displaced people, violations of international humanitarian law that amount to war crimes.

Since 2022, Burkina Faso has experienced two military coups. The military authorities have relied heavily on militias to counter attacks from Islamist armed groups. In October 2022, the government began a campaign to bolster these militias by recruiting 50,000 civilian auxiliaries, called Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie, VDPs).

Since the fighting expanded, the military has been linked to mass killings of civilians for which no one has been held accountable. On April 20, 2023, soldiers killed 83 men, 28 women, and 45 children, burned homes, and looted property in and near the village of Karma, in Yatenga province. The authorities announced an investigation but have not followed up.

On November 12, the European Union called for an investigation into a massacre in the Centre Nord region in which about 100 people were reportedly killed. The government said that on November 5, unidentified gunmen killed at least 70 people, mainly older people and children, in Zaongo village, and that the incident was being investigated. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any progress in the investigation. Human Rights Watch spoke to witnesses who said the army was responsible for the massacre in Zaongo, which international media corroborated.

On December 19, 2023, media reported that hundreds of civilians were killed in several villages around the town of Djibo, Sahel region. The authorities said that Islamist armed groups were responsible, but local sources, including some who spoke to Human Rights Watch, pointed to responsibility by the army.

The conflict has forced two million people from their homes and led to the shutdown of over 6,100 schools since 2021.

In September 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger created a mutual defense pact, the Alliance of Sahel States, and, in January, the three countries decided to withdraw from the Economic Community of West African (ECOWAS) regional bloc. On March 6, the army chiefs of the three countries announced the creation of a joint force to fight Islamist armed groups.

A Retaliatory Attack

Nondin and Soro are among the many villages within Thiou district that the JNIM has besieged. On February 25, JNIM fighters attacked a government militia base next to a military camp in Ouahigouya, killing and injuring several militiamen.

Witnesses and residents believe the killings were perpetrated in retaliation for allegedly collaborating with the Islamist armed groups.

A 50-year-old farmer from Nondin said:

I was sitting in front of a kiosk when the jihadists came back from Ouahigouya shouting victory, and “Allah akbar!” When they arrived, they split into two groups. One continued toward Thiou and the second took the rural path that starts from our neighborhood and crosses the whole village to go to the village of Sim. About 30 minutes later a group of heavily armed soldiers came, followed by another group … They said: “Out! Come out! You support the jihadists! You’ll see!”

A 43-year-old man working in a gold mine just outside Soro said:

I saw the jihadists passing by and yelling “Allah Akhbar!” Thirty minutes later, the first group of soldiers came and stopped by the mine. One asked me: “Why didn’t you inform us when you saw the terrorists passing by?” I replied that there is no telephone network here, so we couldn’t call. They didn’t say anything and continued toward Soro.

“They [soldiers] said we collaborate with the jihadists,” said a 36-year-old in Soro. “They said we didn’t inform them about the movements of the jihadists.”

Killings in Nondin

Survivors described scenes of horror with soldiers ordering people out from their homes, rounding them up, and executing them. They said soldiers killed several dozen people in less than an hour, shooting at groups or individuals running away.

A 61-year-old man, who was injured and lost 11 family members, including his wife, son, brothers, and nephews, said that masked Burkinabè soldiers speaking Moré, a language widely spoken in Burkina Faso, “with an accent from Ouahigouya,” came to his courtyard and ordered his family out of the house:

They made us sit down … and then they opened fire on us. They shot “Pa! Pa! Pa!” They shot us like that, killing all the members of my family. I was injured in the armpit because I raised my hands to ask for “mercy.” One bullet passed through the armpit, and another bullet pierced my right thigh.

A 60-year-old farmer who hid in his home said:

They showed no mercy. They shot at everything that moved, they killed men, women, and children alike. Some [soldiers] wore masks on their faces. They were heavily armed. I saw a soldier asking a woman for something and then executing her point blank.”

A human rights defender who visited the morgue of the regional hospital in Ouahigouya on February 26 said:

I saw more than 20 bodies of whom at least 5 [were] women. The driver of the ambulance told me these were the bodies of the people killed in Nondin and of the VDPs killed at their base in Ouahigouya the previous day. I also spoke to some relatives of the victims from Nondin. The morgue is very small and could not take more than six bodies. The other bodies were in an adjacent room. Some bodies were covered, others not. I could clearly see the marks of the bullets on the bodies, some in the chest, others in the abdomen, legs, head.

Witnesses said that survivors and people from nearby villages buried the bodies in Nondin in three mass graves. In the absence of photographs or videos, Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm the location of these graves on satellite imagery.

Killings in Soro

Human Rights Watch verified and geolocated six photographs and six videos filmed in Soro and shared with researchers by survivors showing scores of bodies of men, women, and children scattered between houses or gathered in large piles in open areas. One of these videos shows three piles of bodies. The person taking the video films the bodies of 11 children, then walks a few meters to film at least 18 male bodies, and then continues to film nearby another pile of at least 20 bodies, many of them female. The videos also show several dead animals, with at least 7 dead livestock in a walled-off enclosure. None of the videos and photographs Human Rights Watch verified show weapons and all the bodies are in civilian clothing.

Witnesses said that soldiers in Soro gunned people down after rounding them up, or as they attempted to flee or were caught hiding in homes, granaries, and behind walls.

A 32-year-old woman said that the military parked their vehicles by the main road and entered the village with motorbikes or on foot, then rounded people up, and ordered them to show identity cards:

They separated us by men and women, in groups. They only asked us one question: “Why didn’t you alert us of the arrival of the jihadists?” And then they added, answering themselves: “You are terrorists!” Then they started shooting us with live ammunition. I was shot in the right leg and fell unconscious. I didn't know what happened next until people … came to help me, after the soldiers left. Some dead people fell on me.

A 36-year-old farmer who was injured in his right hand said:

We gave them our identity cards, but they started shooting at us. They fired live bullets. When I realized that, I let myself fall and it was at that moment that I received a bullet in my right hand. Then I saw blood flowing from my neighbor's body so I took a little of it to put it on my head so that the soldiers would think I was dead. I laid still, thinking that they would still come by to check if there were any survivors and that it was over for me, but they didn't come back because they were in too much of a hurry. I stayed where I was … until they left.

Witnesses said soldiers rounded up people in three groups of men, women, and children, and shot them point blank, finishing off those who were still alive.

A 25-year-old man who lost 16 family members, including his wife, mother, and father, said:

They [soldiers] were agitated and talked through walkie-talkie in Moré language, with a distinctive accent from our area.… They received instructions from the walkie-talkie.… I understood: “Get everyone out!” … As soon as we got by the main road, they sprayed us with gunfire. They shot at everyone. People started falling over each other.… I was injured in my left shoulder. The bullet passed through my armpit and broke my arm.… I think the soldiers wanted to ensure there were no survivors because before leaving they shot several rounds at people who were already on the ground.

A 22-year-old woman who was injured in her right leg, abdomen, and shoulders, along with her 7-month-old daughter, who was injured in her left foot and arm, said:

I was home with my daughter. Suddenly the village began to swarm, there was noise everywhere. I didn't leave the house until the soldiers broke in. Two soldiers arrived in front of my door on two motorcycles, they were dressed in Burkinabè military uniform and wore helmets. They asked me to go out, shouting at me in Moré language, saying: “Are you deaf or what? Haven't you heard that everyone is outside?” I took my daughter, I went out. The soldiers took me to the place where they had gathered the entire population of Soro. They made me sit among [a group of] women. A few minutes later, they opened fire on us. I was seriously injured; I don't remember anything until my arrival at the hospital.

Residents described digging mass graves to bury the bodies on February 25. A 23-year-old man said:

There were about 10 of us. On February 25, we dug two mass graves, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The next day, we dug 6 more mass graves. In the first one, we put 39 bodies of men; in the second one, we put 51 bodies of women and children; in the third one, we put 12 bodies of men; in the fourth, we put children ages 6, 7, and 8 there.… I don't remember how many of them, but they were between 9 and 10 children; in the fifth one, we put 14 bodies of men; in the sixth one, we put 15 bodies of women. For the seventh and eighth graves, I was too tired to watch. I did not help burying the bodies inside these last two graves, but I know there were about 20 for both.

Click to expand Image Screengrab of a video showing one of the eight reported mass graves in Soro. The person who recorded the video said it contains the bodies of 10 children. Human Rights Watch also geolocated a photograph showing the bodies of nine boys on the ground at the same location. March 2024 © 2024 Private

Human Rights Watch reviewed and geolocated a video sent by a survivor and recorded on March 9 in Soro showing eight mass graves. For each one, the survivor gave the number or an approximate number of bodies it contains, a total of about 170.

Human Rights Watch geolocated these eight mass graves based on satellite imagery from March 15. Six mass graves are clearly visible on the satellite imagery while the two others are hidden by the shadow of buildings.

Trauma

Survivors described symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, including fear, anxiety, inability to speak and focus, loneliness, and insomnia.

“I struggle to express how I feel and recall what happened,” said the 22-year-old survivor from Soro. “My mind is cloudy; my look is empty.”

“Those who survived, like me, have been pulled out from a bunch of dead bodies,” said the 25-year-old man from Soro. “I have lost 16 family members; they have all been exterminated. Now it’s just me. I am all alone. I am lost and shaken.”

“I do not know how I feel,” said a 50-year-old survivor from Nondin. “I have trouble sleeping. I have nightmares. I see the corpses again, the babies, the women, lying down. I hear the gunshots.”

The authorities should promptly provide adequate reparations, including compensation, livelihood support, and access to long-term medical and psychological health care for survivors of both attacks, Human Rights Watch said. International donors, including the European Union, should increase support for the provision of medical and psychosocial assistance to victims of serious human rights and international humanitarian law violations.

Justice and Accountability

Survivors of the attacks in Nondin and Soro said they want to know who ordered the killings and to see those responsible held accountable. However, the widespread nature of military abuse and related entrenched impunity left them with little hope for justice.

“We want justice,” said a 25-year-old trader from Soro. “We want perpetrators to be punished.”

“We want the truth to be established,” said a 50-year-old man from Nondin. “We want to know why this was done to us and we demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice.”

A human rights activist, who on February 26 accompanied family members of people killed in Nondin and Soro to the gendarmerie in Ouahigouya to give a statement, said: “I knew it was a necessary and crucial step to undertake in our campaign for accountability, but it was also very painful because somehow I know that there won’t be any follow-up.”

A 43-year-old man from Soro said:

We went to the gendarmerie in Ouahigouya and gave our version of the facts. We want justice to be done, but we are disappointed. We no longer know who to confide in, when even our own soldiers massacre us and there has been no justice for other massacres.

Iran: Popular Rapper Sentenced to Death for Dissent

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:00:00 -0400

(Beirut) – An Iranian court has issued a death sentence to the imprisoned popular rapper Toumaj Salehi on speech-related charges, Human Rights Watch said today. The legal proceedings and sentence against Salehi, 33, are a cruel and outrageous assault on fundamental freedoms and the right to a fair trial.

Amir Raeesian, Saheli’s lawyer, told the Shargh media outlet on April 24, 2024, that Branch 1 of Isfahan’s Revolutionary Court had sentenced his client to death on the charge of “corruption on earth.” In November 2023, Iran’s Supreme Court struck down Salehi’s six-year prison sentence related to this case, referred the case back to the court of first instance, and released him on bail. Iranian security forces rearrested Salehi 12 days later.

“Iran’s revolutionary court judges act like they are empowered to assault citizens’ basic rights and make a mockery of any existing legal safeguards,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Toumaj Salehi’s outrageous verdict is just latest manifestation of Iran’s brutal justice system. He should be released immediately.”

On October 30, 2022, the authorities violently arrested Salehi, a musician and vocal critic of the government, amid protests following the death in morality police custody of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Jina Amini the previous month. The authorities held Salehi in solitary confinement and brought multiple charges against him including “corruption on earth,” a vague charge that can carry the death penalty. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that government security forces beat Salehi in custody.

On July 10, 2023, Branch 1 of Isfahan’s Revolutionary Court ruled that the threshold for the “corruption on earth” charge against Salehi had not been substantiated, and instead sentenced him to six years in prison under article 286 of the Islamic Penal Code. Article 286 punishes crimes against national security or disruption of public order on a large scale with up to five years in prison or a death sentence if it meets the threshold of “corruption on earth.”

On November 18, Raeesian told Shargh that Salehi had been released on bail after the court struck down the sentence and referred the case back to the court of first instance. Upon his rearrest on November 30, the authorities opened a new case against him for accusing his interrogators of abuse in a video published online. On January 1, HRANA reported that Salehi had been sentenced to one year in prison and a two-year travel ban as punishment in the new case.

On April 18, Branch 1 of Isfahan’s Revolutionary Court held a new trial for Salehi. Raeesian said that the authorities added charges in the case, and the court ultimately convicted Salehi and sentenced him to death for the “corruption on earth” charge. Raeesian alleged that the ruling had significant legal errors, including contradicting the supreme court verdict. He said that they will appeal the verdict.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is inherently cruel and irreversible.

Since the crackdown against protests, Iran’s judicial authorities have drastically increased the use of vaguely defined national security charges against protesters that carry the death penalty, including for destroying public property. Following grossly unfair trials in which many defendants have not had access to legal counsel of their choice, the authorities issued 25 death sentences in connection to the protests. As of April 2024, the government has executed eight who were convicted in connection to the protests The Supreme Court has overturned another 11 death penalty convictions.

Among those arrested during the protests was a Kurdish-Iranian rapper, Saman Seyedi, known as “Yasin.” He was sentenced to death on “enmity against the state” charges, including for alleged “weapon possession and conspiracy to threaten national security,” but the Supreme Court struck down the sentence. On April 21, HRANA reported that Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court had sentenced Seyedi to five years in prison.

“The Iranian government has made unfair courts a cornerstone of its vicious repression of popular dissent,” Sepehri Far said.

Honoring a Philippine Human Rights Icon

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:56:06 -0400

Click to expand Image Human rights lawyer and former senator Rene Saguisag holds a copy of a book about the martial law period in the Philippines while describing his ordeal in detention, Manila, September 26, 2018. © 2018 Bullit Marquez/AP Photo

The Philippines on April 23 lost a human rights stalwart. Rene Saguisag, a human rights lawyer and former senator, defended victims of abuses during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship and was an ardent human rights advocate in the ensuing years. He died of undisclosed causes at the age of 84.

Saguisag, along with Jose Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, and other human rights lawyers, worked on countless cases for the Free Legal Assistance Group, a pioneering nongovernmental organization that provided pro bono legal assistance to victims of human rights violations. Later, Saguisag formed Mabini, which also helped victims of government abuses. He also assisted in the prosecution of human rights violators, among them leaders of a paramilitary cult.

Saguisag rose to further prominence after the “People Power” uprising in 1986 when Corazon Aquino, who became president after Marcos’s downfall, named him her spokesman. He was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1987. As a senator, he led work promoting government ethics and accountability and was among those voting to close the United States military bases in the country.

After retiring from politics in 1992, Saguisag returned to law and wrote newspaper columns and essays, often almost gleefully recalling his former cases. He also helped the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes), a foundation that runs the country’s martial law memorial. He was a fierce critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s abusive “war on drugs.”

Rene Saguisag was an inspiration to a generation of Filipinos and human rights defenders. As the Philippines continues to grapple with serious rights issues, his presence, wit, wisdom, and commitment will be greatly missed.

EU Misses Opportunity on Frontex Transparency, Accountability

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:29:22 -0400

Nearly three years ago, on July 30, 2021, a Libyan Coast Guard patrol boat intercepted a small vessel carrying around 20 people. The interception by Libyan officials happened despite the vessel being within Malta’s search-and-rescue area. Our investigations suggest the European Union border agency Frontex played a role in enabling the interception, but the agency has refused to share any information about it.

Today, the General Court of the EU ruled that Frontex can continue to shield itself from scrutiny for the way it conducts aerial surveillance in the Mediterranean Sea and enables such Libyan interceptions.

Sea-Watch, a sea rescue organization, filed the case to challenge Frontex’s lack of transparency. A Sea-Watch ship and their airplane, Seabird, witnessed the July 30 interception. Sea-Watch then filed a freedom of information request for all documents related to Frontex’s actions and communications that day. The agency said they had 73 documents, images, and video but would not disclose them.

Human Rights Watch also tried. As part of our reconstruction of the events that day, Human Rights Watch and Border Forensics filed 30 freedom of information requests. Frontex refused our request for information about its operations on July 30 and turned down our appeal. In response to other requests about Frontex aerial surveillance, the agency told us they had 3,092 relevant documents; they gave us 86. Many were heavily redacted.

Frontex systematically refuses access to documents, arguing it would hamper the agency’s effectiveness and public security. In its ruling on the case brought by Sea-Watch, the General Court of the EU upheld the agency’s prerogative to use this blanket justification without a requirement to provide detailed explanations. The court did find that Frontex wrongfully withheld the existence of over 100 photographs relevant to the organization’s request.

Lack of transparency undermines the public interest in holding an EU institution accountable and dramatically limits oversight by civil society. European taxpayers have a right to information about how Frontex uses aerial surveillance to enable interceptions by Libyan forces—knowing full well the arbitrary detention, violence, and exploitation people face upon return to Libya—instead of rescue and disembarkation in a place of safety.

Upon becoming Frontex director in 2023, Hans Leijtens said the agency would, “restore trust by being very transparent about what we are doing and how we are doing it.” Today’s ruling notwithstanding, restoring trust requires the agency’s leadership to allow access to information about Frontex operations, showing that EU taxpayer money is being spent on protection, not abuse.

Dominica High Court Decriminalizes Same-Sex Conduct

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 14:00:15 -0400

In a historic judgment published on April 22, the Dominica High Court decriminalized consensual same-sex relations. Dominica becomes the fourth Eastern Caribbean country to strike down discriminatory legal provisions and decriminalize gay sex, following Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados.

Dominica’s Sexual Offences Act had punished “buggery” with up to 10 years’ imprisonment and the court could “order that the convicted person be admitted to the psychiatric hospital for treatment.” “Gross indecency” was sanctioned with up to five years’ imprisonment. Both provisions were understood to criminalize consensual same-sex conduct and were relics of British colonial law.

While laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy in the Caribbean are rarely enforced, they are broad, vaguely worded, and serve to legitimize bias and hostility toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. A 2018 Human Rights Watch report documented discrimination, violence, and prejudice against LGBT people in seven island nations in the Eastern Caribbean, including Dominica, that criminalized gay sex.

The court’s ruling this week held that the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act violated Dominica’s Constitution, specifically “the right to liberty, freedom of expression, and protection of personal privacy,” buttressing its arguments with international jurisprudence on decriminalization.

The landmark ruling follows efforts by local and regional civil society groups to challenge anti-LGBT legislation in the Eastern Caribbean, spearheaded in part by the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality.

In the Anglophone Caribbean, the Belize Supreme Court in 2016 became the first to hold that laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy were unconstitutional. Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court followed suit in 2018.

Still, five countries in the Caribbean – Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – have versions of “buggery” and “indecency” laws on the books, making them outliers in the Western Hemisphere, where all other countries have decriminalized same-sex conduct.

The criminalization of same-sex conduct violates international standards, including the rights to be protected against arbitrary and unlawful interference with one’s private and family life and to one’s reputation or dignity, as emphasized by the United Nations independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Dominica ruling should remind governments in the region and beyond that upholding individual freedoms, including for LGBT people, bolsters the rule of law for everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Indian Authorities Stop Australian Journalist from Covering Elections

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 10:52:52 -0400

Click to expand Image Journalists protest against authorities’ growing restrictions on media, outside the Press Club of India, New Delhi, India, February 18, 2021. © 2021 Pradeep Gaur/SOPA Images/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images)

Australian journalist Avani Dias left India on April 19 after the government did not extend her journalist visa until moments before it was due to expire – the latest example of foreign writers, journalists, academics, and activists being denied access to India for seemingly political reasons.

Dias, who works for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and had been based in India as their South Asia correspondent, said that Indian officials told her she “crossed a line” after a report on the killing of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of being involved in Nijjar’s killing, which the Indian government denied. In March, Indian authorities directed the social media platform YouTube to block access to Dias’ report.

Dias said the authorities also denied her necessary accreditation to cover India’s general elections, which began on April 19. Just hours before she was due to leave the country, and following intervention by Australian authorities, the government extended her visa by two months. But she said the government had made it too difficult for her to do her job and left the country.

On April 23, more than 30 foreign correspondents in India wrote an open letter protesting Dias’ case, saying the problems she has faced are not new. “Foreign journalists in India have grappled with increased restrictions on visas and journalism permits,” the letter states. In February, French journalist Vanessa Dougnac left India after authorities issued a notice threatening to cancel her Overseas Citizen of India card, which gives foreign nationals of Indian origin or those married to Indian nationals residency and work permits. Authorities alleged Dougnac, who had worked in India for 22 years, had created a “biased negative perception of India” through her reports.

So far, the Australian government has not made any public statements about the Dias case. Nor have the country’s leaders publicly raised broader human rights concerns with the Indian government. But “quiet diplomacy” by Australia and other countries has proven ineffectual in getting India to reverse the deteriorating human rights situation. As the Dias case shows, governments that stay silent on rights don’t win special protections for their nationals from politically motivated abuse.

Japan’s Transgender Law Revisions Should Be Grounded in Autonomy

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 08:30:45 -0400

Members of Japan’s Diet are revising the law, declared unconstitutional, that allows transgender people to change their legal gender.

Last October, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled the country’s sterilization surgery requirement for transgender people is unconstitutional, and now lawmakers are debating how to amend the legal gender recognition law. Debates have featured some troubling proposals, such as a lengthy waiting period and compulsory hormone treatment.

The world’s leading transgender health organization wrote to the Diet’s bipartisan LGBT caucus that medical requirements have no place in legal gender change procedures. “We urge you to resist the temptation to insert a requirement that transgender people undergo hormone therapy as a requirement,” stated the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH). “Hormone therapy is an important part of some transgender people’s health care; for other transgender people, it is not desired or necessary.” WPATH noted that requiring hormone therapy “as a prerequisite for legal gender recognition amounts to a form of coercion, similar to the surgery requirement.”

Since 2004, transgender people in Japan who want to legally change gender have had to appeal to a family court. Under the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) Special Cases Act, applicants must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and be surgically sterilized. They also must be single and without children younger than 18. The law created significant and humiliating barriers for trans people, and violated Japan’s human rights commitments.

Diet members should draft a law removing the five criteria for changing legal gender and replace them with a simple administrative legal gender recognition process based on self-declaration that respects the rights of transgender individuals. In doing so, they would bring Japan in line with other countries, including Germany, which recently enacted a new law. WPATH’s standards of care make it clear that medical and legal processes related to gender transition should be separated, and healthcare services should be available for trans people who want them.

Japan has a unique opportunity to make robust legal protections for trans people a reality in the revision process. The recent statement by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida resonates strongly in this regard: “Gender identity is diverse and different for each person, and no one should ever be denied their own gender identity.”

EU Parliament Approves Supply Chain Law

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 06:50:00 -0400

(Brussels) – The European Parliament vote on April 24, 2024, to approve the proposed European law to require large companies to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chains is a step forward for corporate accountability, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) seeks to introduce legal obligations for large corporations to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence in their global supply chains.

The Parliament’s vote in Strasbourg was on the 11th anniversary of the tragic collapse on April 24, 2013, of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, which killed 1,138 garment workers and injured over 2,000 others. The proposed law requires large companies to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence in their own operations and in their global value chains. It considers large companies to be those with more than 1,000 employees on average and more than €450 million in net worldwide in the previous financial year. It empowers regulators to take action against companies failing to conduct such due diligence and, in some situations, allows victims of corporate abuses to approach European courts to seek justice.

“The 11th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster is a somber reminder of why a due diligence law is long overdue,” said Aruna Kashyap, associate director on corporate accountability at Human Rights Watch. “The European Parliament’s vote sends a strong message that the EU should no longer let large corporations get away with human rights and environmental abuses.”

The Rana Plaza disaster, alongside a range of other corporate abuses of human rights, labor rights, and environmental standards in global supply chains, have prompted rights groups, trade unions, and even some businesses to call for binding legislation to hold corporations accountable for abuses in their global supply chains.

Rights groups and social movements from around the world have campaigned for the European Union to adopt such legislation. These efforts have been critical to push back against corporate lobbying seeking to derail the proposed law.

The legislative process, which began in 2020, has been protracted and difficult, Human Rights Watch said. The governments of France, Italy, and Germany vastly curtailed the scope of the legislation, limiting its application to very large corporations, excluding certain sectors, and extending the time it would take before the directive comes into force. On March 15, a majority of ambassadors of EU member states approved the draft law, but only after significantly weakening a text that had been previously approved. On March 18, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee approved the text.

Following the European Parliament’s vote, the law now needs final approval by ministers of EU member states. The EU ministerial vote is expected to take place in late May.

“The European Commission pledged to adopt a law to hold corporations accountable when they took office five years ago,” said Kashyap. “Ministers from EU member states should give a final nod to the text and pave the way for a new chapter on corporate accountability in global supply chains.”

UK’s Harmful Rwanda Bill to Become Law

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 13:24:08 -0400

It is a dark day in the United Kingdom as the Safety of Rwanda Bill will soon become law after passing its final stages in parliament yesterday. This will have a devastating impact on human rights and the rule of law, risking the lives of people who came to the UK seeking safety and setting a dangerous global precedent.

The government’s new law tries to legislate away the facts and declare Rwanda safe to send asylum seekers despite the UK Supreme Court's November 2023 ruling and abundant evidence to the contrary. The law compels UK courts and civil servants to “conclusively” treat Rwanda as safe, while severely limiting access to appeals and remedies. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that flights will take off in 10 to 12 weeks and reserved 2,200 detention spaces in the UK, amid reports that detaining asylum seekers could start within days.

The government’s blatant disregard for international obligations and the rule of law has already received international condemnation. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees and UN high commissioner for human rights warned of the law’s wide-ranging consequences for global responsibility sharing, human rights, and refugee protection. These sentiments were echoed by the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights who cautioned that the new law raises “major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law."

This week several UN experts publicly warned airlines and aviation authorities that removing asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda, even if the Safety of Rwanda Bill passed, could make them complicit in violating human rights and court orders. The Ministry of Defence has suggested that Royal Airforce planes may be used as commercial airlines face pressure not to participate.

The UK’s efforts to shirk its asylum responsibilities are undermining global responsibility sharing and have not gone unnoticed by other governments, who have told Human Rights Watch that the UK has lost credibility to call upon other states to uphold their obligations towards refugees.

The fight is not over. Legal challenges are expected against individual removals and the law itself. The UK should urgently adopt humane and fair asylum policies, including ensuring people can have their claims heard in the UK and expanding safe routes so people are not forced into deadly journeys.

Can New African Union Genocide Envoy Curb Atrocities in Africa?

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:15:39 -0400

Adama Dieng has been appointed as the first African Union (AU) special envoy for the prevention of the crime of genocide and other mass atrocities.

Dieng will drive the organization’s agenda to “combat the ideology of hate and genocide on the continent,” said AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat. The April 6 appointment could not be more symbolic, marking 30 years since the Rwandan genocide and harkening to the failure of the international community to stop the slaughter.

Dieng has occupied several positions within the United Nations human rights and justice system, including as a registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), then as UN designated expert on the situation of human rights in Sudan. From 2012 to 2020, he was UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, with a mandate to raise the alarm over situations likely to spiral into genocide and mobilize UN security council action to prevent such atrocities.

Dieng’s new appointment comes at a time when Africa is witnessing spates of terrible mass atrocities and serious crimes, with dire humanitarian consequences, and little to no international attention.

April 15 marked the first anniversary of the fast-deteriorating conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). While both parties have committed egregious laws of war violations, the targeted attacks on ethnic non-Arab communities in West Darfur by the RSF and allied militias have evoked the spectre of the horrific Darfur war. That conflict killed 300,000 people in the early 2000s and led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict then-Sudan President Omar al-Bashir.

Government forces in Burkina Faso have carried out mass killings of civilians as part of a brutal campaign to tackle Islamist armed groups, who have also committed serious abuses. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, government forces and armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23, have committed atrocities against civilians in violence throughout North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

Atrocities and serious crimes are nevertheless not limited to war time, as illustrated by the October 30, 2022 crackdown on protestors in Chad, when scores of protesters were shot by security forces.

Dieng’s newly created regional mandate could be a timely boost to existing international mechanisms on atrocities prevention if it proves to be an indication of more genuine AU political willingness to end mass abuse and uphold accountability standards.

The UK Again Attempts to Bend Truth on Rwanda

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:10:41 -0400

In an interview on the BBC’s Today Program this week, Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell sang the praises of Rwanda’s “remarkable regime.” But as the debate over the government’s Safety of Rwanda bill came to a close, he left out some important facts about Rwanda’s human rights record.

When asked about an incident in which Rwandan security forces shot and killed 12 Congolese refugees during a 2018 protest over cuts in food rations in the Kiziba refugee camp, Mitchell claimed the incident was “highly contested.” In its December 2023 policy statement, the UK government also tried to present the killings as “an isolated case [with] no information on similar incidents since 2018.”

There is nothing contested about what happened. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International found that Rwandan police used excessive force during the protest. Dozens of protesters were arrested and prosecuted, with those who signed a letter to the UN pleading for increased food rations receiving the heaviest sentences.

Impunity for security forces, a cover-up report by Rwanda’s National Human Rights Commission, and the jailing of dozens of refugees sent a stark warning against any further attempts to organize protests.

Mitchell also failed to mention Rwanda’s involvement in one of the largest displacement crises on the continent in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, by backing the abusive M23 armed group that has committed widespread atrocities. He omits the fact that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has opposed the UK-Rwanda asylum deal, instead seeming to deliberately mislead the audience into thinking otherwise by comparing the deal to a UNHCR transit mechanism that temporarily hosts asylum seekers and refugees voluntarily evacuated from Libya to Rwanda.

Instead of focusing on how Rwanda’s capital Kigali may be considered safe from petty thievery, Mitchell should examine how those who question the Rwandan government’s right record have been blocked from entering the country, arrested, disappeared, or ended up dead in unexplained circumstances.

The Safety of Rwanda bill was adopted late last night, and efforts by the House of Lords to include oversight mechanisms were batted away by government officials as cumbersome and obstructive. Such scrutiny is now needed more than ever.

The government may have legislated its way around the Supreme Court’s ruling that Rwanda is not a safe country to which to send asylum seekers, but it cannot bend the truth to its will – Rwanda’s dismal human rights record is there for all to see.

Kazakhstan: New Law to Protect Women Improved, but Incomplete

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 02:41:00 -0400

(Berlin, April 23, 2024) – Kazakhstan’s President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new law on April,15, 2024, to strengthen protections from violence for women and children, including domestic violence survivors, but it falls short in key areas, Human Rights Watch said today. The law aims to advance women’s rights and enhance their safety, but among other concerns, it fails to explicitly make domestic violence a stand-alone offense in the criminal code or elsewhere.

“It is significant that Kazakhstan’s leadership has prioritized protecting women and children from violence, and adopting this law is an important step forward,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But more should be done to ensure that women and children are protected from family abuse in accordance with international human rights standards, including by criminalizing domestic violence as a stand-alone offense.”

The new law, known as Kazakhstan’s “domestic violence” law, introduces amendments to Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code, the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, the Law on Marriage and Family, and other laws. The passage of the new law coincides with the ongoing high-profile trial of Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan’s former economy minister, who is charged with the murder of his wife, Saltanat Nukenova. The trial has drawn national and international attention and ensured a focus on the urgent need to tackle domestic violence with adequate sanctions for abusers and trauma-informed support for survivors.

Women in Kazakhstan face high rates of domestic abuse. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2023 police received 99,026 complaints related to family violence and courts sentenced 67,270 people with administrative sanctions.

The law reimposes criminal penalties for “battery” and “intentional infliction of light bodily harm” committed against “an individual in helpless condition or financially or otherwise dependent on the perpetrator,” the articles most commonly used in domestic violence cases and introduces tougher penalties for convicted abusers. Both offenses had been decriminalized in 2017.

Under the new law, the duty to collect evidence in cases of domestic abuse is assigned to the police, a shift from its being the sole responsibility of the survivor. In addition, the law provides that police must register and investigate all cases of domestic violence, even in the absence of a survivor’s complaint, including in response to reports of domestic violence in the media or on social media.

The law also eliminates the option of seeking “reconciliation” between parties as a way of resolving cases of repeated “battery” and “light bodily harm.”

These are notable and important improvements, but the changes introduced by the law fall short of criminalizing domestic violence as a stand-alone offense either in the Criminal Code or Kazakhstan’s 2009 Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence.

International human rights law mandates recognizing domestic violence as a serious crime against a person and society, Human Rights Watch said.

But the law lacks a separate definition of the offenses when they occur within the family or household relations, a missed opportunity to ensure that when committed as a form of domestic violence, such offenses, including “battery” and “light bodily harm” are treated as a separate crime from other types of violence, and with the seriousness required by international human rights norms.

The creation of a stand-alone offense of domestic violence, could ensure that other types of violence within the family, such as psychological or sexual violence, are also properly investigated and prosecuted, Human Rights Watch said.

The law includes a reference to the promotion of “traditional family values” based on “strengthening the institute of marriage and family…” Such language risks downplaying domestic violence as such, as well as violence that takes place in unregistered relationships, or is inflicted by relatives or in-laws, and does not reflect a zero-tolerance approach to domestic violence, Human Rights Watch said.

The law also lacks concrete provisions on monitoring and evaluating its implementation and impact. Putting the law into effect without delay, raising public awareness about it, as well as ensuring survivors’ access to justice, services, and support, especially in rural areas, should be the next priorities for the government of Kazakhstan, Human Rights Watch said.

Kazakhstan’s international partners should also take this opportunity to urge the Kazakh government to criminalize domestic violence as a stand-alone offense, establish a monitoring mechanism to ensure the law is being properly implemented, and to ratify the Council of Europe’s convention on preventing domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention.

“Women in Kazakhstan have been waiting for comprehensive legislation to help end domestic violence and violence against women, and to effectively prosecute their abusers for a long time,” Williamson said. “It is important for Kazakhstan’s authorities to see the adoption of this law as only the start of many steps needed to eradicate the scourge of violence against women in Kazakhstan.”

Angola: Proposed Security Law Threatens Rights

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:01:00 -0400

(Johannesburg) – Angola’s parliament should significantly revise or withdraw a proposed national security law that fails to meet international human rights standards, Human Rights Watch said today. The draft National Security Law passed a first vote in parliament on January 25, 2024. Following specialist committee review, the bill is expected to be submitted to parliament for final approval.

The draft law in its current form would permit excessive government control over private institutions, including media organizations, and undermine the rights to freedom of the press, expression, and association.

“The proposed national security law would give the Angolan government broad authority to improperly interfere with the media and civil society groups,” said Zenaida Machado, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Parliament should stand up for basic rights and freedoms, and substantially revise or reject the current bill.”

The national security bill has not been made public, but Human Rights Watch has reviewed a recent draft. It contains a number of provisions contrary to the rights to freedom of expression and the press set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Angola ratified in 1992, and other international and regional human rights treaties. The Angolan constitution also protects these rights.

For instance, draft article 36 gives government security forces the authority to prohibit public or private radio stations from broadcasting and to disrupt some telecommunication services under “exceptional circumstances” without a court order. The bill does not specify what would constitute “exceptional circumstances.” It would also authorize security forces to inspect “establishments or other public places or places open to the public” and “surveil [their] security equipment,” without judicial approval or oversight.

Draft article 40 would require workers of public and private companies and others to report to security forces any facts they become aware of in the course of their duties or because of them that constitute risks and threats to national security. Failure to abide by this provision could result in criminal prosecution.

Domestic and international human rights groups have been highly critical of the draft law. Florindo Chivucute, president of the human rights group Friends of Angola, told Human Rights Watch that the bill posed a long-term threat to Angola’s democracy. The Angolan organization Mãos Livres (Free Hands) expressed concern that the new law would “promote an authoritarian and repressive state.” The Committee to Protect Journalists said the bill could “severely undermine press freedom, further exposing journalists to harassment, intimidation, and censorship by authorities.”

The Angolan government has not publicly discussed the contents of the draft law. The Minister of State and head of the Military House of the President, Francisco Furtado, told members of parliament that it “was not appropriate” to discuss the national security law, and that lawmakers would have the opportunity “to enrich the bill” during specialist committee review. The minister did not respond to a Human Rights Watch text message requesting a comment.

The Angolan government has repeatedly enacted repressive legislation, Human Rights Watch said. In January 2017, then-President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos signed a media law that severely limited freedom of expression. In May 2023, parliament voted on the first draft of the law on the status of nongovernmental organizations, which civil society groups said contradicts Angola’s international legal obligations to uphold the freedoms of expression and assembly.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa provide for limitations on the right to freedom of expression to protect national security. However, such limitations must be necessary and proportionate and fulfill certain conditions that the draft law does not provide.

The African declaration of principles adds that “[s]tates shall ensure that any law limiting the rights to freedom of expression and access to information is overseen by an independent body in a manner that is not arbitrary or discriminatory” and “effectively safeguards against abuse including through the provision of a right of appeal to independent and impartial courts.”

The lack of provisions for judicial oversight in the proposed national security law opens the door for the Angolan government to arbitrarily prosecute and criminally charge media and civil society groups, Human Rights Watch said.

“The Angolan government appears intent on using a broad national security law as a pretext to further undermine people’s rights,” Machado said. “Parliament should act to ensure that the media and civil society can operate free from improper government intervention.”

Australia: Withdraw Punitive Migration Bill

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 22:13:09 -0400

(Sydney) – The Australian government should withdraw a proposed law that would allow the authorities to seek prison terms for asylum seekers for exercising their right not to be sent to a country where they fear being persecuted, Human Rights Watch said in a submission to the Australian parliament. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee is currently considering the Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill 2024 for enactment.

The bill would introduce prison sentences from one to five years for previously recognized refugees who have been stripped of their refugee status, and rejected asylum seekers who fail to cooperate with the authorities in deporting them from Australia. Actions that could result in criminal punishment for essentially administrative violations include failing to apply for a passport or travel document, not signing documents to facilitate travel, or not showing up for interviews and appointments.

“The Australian government is disregarding its international legal obligations and doubling down on earlier legislation that undermines the very principles on which refugee protection is based,” said Annabel Hennessy, Australia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This proposed law effectively treats administrative violations as criminal offenses carrying hefty prison terms.”

The proposed law also expands the Australian immigration minister’s existing powers to reverse findings of a person’s need for protection and to strip them of their refugee status.

Under a controversial provision of existing Australian law – Subsection 197D of the Migration Act – the minister for immigration can strip refugee status from an “unlawful non-citizen” who has previously been found to be entitled to protection. This bill expands 197D to apply not only to those deemed “unlawful non-citizens,” but also to “lawful non-citizens” on certain bridging visas to facilitate their removal. The United Nations Refugee Agency and the Australian Human Rights Commission have previously warned that 197D does not comply with Australia’s international obligations.

“Instead of heeding warnings from the UN and the Australian Human Rights Commission, the government is seeking authority that would put the lives and safety of refugees and asylum seekers at greater risk,” Hennessy said.

On Earth Day, a Homage to a Beloved Forest Defender

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 12:22:36 -0400

Click to expand Image Osvalinda Marcelino Alves Pereira. © Edelstam Foundation

This Earth Day is an opportunity to celebrate the work of the courageous people who put themselves at risk fighting for a world in which people and the planet can thrive.

I personally would like to honor Osvalinda Marcelino Alves Pereira. Sadly, she passed away from a long-standing illness just over a week ago. I first met her in 2018: She was a small-scale farmer from Trairão, a village in the state of Pará, in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon.

When I met Osvalinda, she lived on a settlement set up by Brazil’s federal land reform agency. She had been forced to flee her home within her community because of death threats that began in 2011, after Pereira, who had already founded a women's association, also took on illegal loggers.

While still living with her community, Pereira had obtained support from an environmental nongovernmental organization to develop sustainable organic agricultural practices and reforest the area. A group of illegal loggers exploring the area told Pereira to stop. When she did not, they began threatening her, but she persisted and repeatedly reported the issue to the authorities and the police. The authorities did nothing to protect Pereira and her family, which lead to her move in 2018.

Two years later, she returned home but again received death threats. Even in these circumstances she never gave up. She told me many times in the last six years that she would not stop defending nature and the forest, which was, as she repeatedly said, “her home.”

In 2020, Pereira was the first Brazilian woman to receive the Edelstam Prize because she, as the citation read, “fearlessly stood up against the criminal networks in her work to defend the rainforest.” This contributed to Brazil’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and helped mitigate global warming.

Environmental activists are increasingly harassed, intimidated, threatened, or subjected to deadly violence for defending the planet, be they small farmers, Indigenous peoples, people from other Amazon forest communities, or young activists in the streets of Europe and the United States. Individuals like Pereira, who put their lives in danger to protect our world, our rainforests, and the environment, deserve strong support from the global human rights community as they take on one of the world’s most pressing issues.

Vietnam: UN Review Should Call for Urgent Reform

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 02:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Twelve Vietnamese rights activists and bloggers currently detained for exercising their basic rights. Top row from left to right: Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Hoang Duc Binh, Dinh Van Hai, Nguyen Tuong Thuy. Center row: Pham Doan Trang, Le Trong Hung, Pham Chi Thanh, Pham Chi Dung. Bottom row: Nguyen Lan Thang, Can Thi Theu, Dang Dinh Bach, Hoang Thi Minh Hong. © 2023 Human Rights Watch

(Geneva) – United Nations member countries should use the upcoming review of Vietnam’s rights record at the UN Human Rights Council to press the government to end its crackdown on dissent and other fundamental rights, Human Rights Watch said in its submission to the UN. Vietnam’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will take place on May 7, 2024, in Geneva.

The Vietnamese government’s human rights record has worsened significantly since its last appearance periodic review in January 2019. In February, the government, which has criticized the UPR process as “unobjective,” submitted its own human rights report to the Human Rights Council.

“Governments at the UN Human Rights Council should not be swayed by the Vietnamese government’s attempt to whitewash its appalling human rights record,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “UN member countries should use Vietnam’s review to call out the government’s systematic repression of civil and political rights and demand genuine reforms.”

The Vietnamese government’s UN submission is riddled with falsehoods about the rights to freedom of speech and media freedom in the country, Human Rights Watch said. More than 160 people are currently imprisoned in Vietnam for criticizing the government, which the penal code criminalizes. All media are under the control of the Vietnamese Communist Party and Vietnam is the world’s third largest jailer of journalists. The authorities carry out intrusive surveillance of the internet, and posting or sharing criticism of the government online could lead to a long prison sentence.

Between January 2019 and August 2023, the Vietnamese authorities prosecuted and convicted at least 139 people, for criticizing the government or joining pro-democracy groups, all of whom were sentenced to long prison terms. Among them was the prominent blogger Pham Doan Trang, who on May 16 will receive the 2024 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award.

Since August 2023 the authorities have imprisoned an additional 23 people for peacefully exercising their basic civil and political rights, and sentenced them to between 9 months and 13 years in prison. During the first four months of 2024, the police arrested at least 11 people on politically motivated charges, including the prominent rights activists Nguyen Chi Tuyen and Nguyen Vu Binh, and the religious freedom campaigners Thach Chanh Da Ra and Kim Khiem.

People arrested on politically motivated charges face months in pretrial detention without access to lawyers. The authorities may not even allow family members to be present at trials. The trials of rights activists last only a few hours, leaving no time for a genuine defense or cross-examination of evidence. Vietnam has no presumption of innocence or fair trial rights.

Despite government claims to the contrary, the authorities frequently hold “mobile trials,” informal courts in public spaces, to shame defendants and their families even before conviction. Between 2019 and 2023, Vietnam carried out mobile trials in at least 55 of its 58 provinces and the major cities of Hanoi, Hai Phong, Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang. During the first four months of 2024 alone, mobile trials took place in at least 39 provinces and all five cities.

On January 16, a court in Dak Lak began a mobile trial against 100 defendants who were accused of terrorism in a violent attack on government offices that caused nine deaths in June 2023. On January 20, the court convicted and sentenced all 100 to terms ranging from nine months to life in prison, with each defendant’s hearing lasting less than 24 minutes.

The right to religious freedom is also sharply controlled, Human Rights Watch said. All religious organizations allowed to operate must be officially recognized by the state and under the management of state-approved boards. Religious groups not recognized by the government are labeled “evil religions.”

Unrecognized independent religious groups face constant surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, and their followers are subject to public criticism, forced renunciation of faith, arbitrary detention, abusive interrogation, torture, and imprisonment.

In December 2023, Y Bum Bya, 49, from Dak Lak province, reported that he had been detained, interrogated, and beaten by the police for being affiliated with the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ, a religious group that the government has labeled “reactionary.” He was also publicly criticized and forced to renounce his faith on television. On March 8, he allegedly received a phone call from the police and then went out. An hour later, he was found dead, hanging in a local cemetery. As far as Human Rights Watch has been able to determine, officials are not investigating his death.

“Case after case of abuse is why concerned countries should speak out about Hanoi’s terrible human rights record,” Pearson said. “UN member countries should not only press Vietnam at its UN review for real change but follow up to ensure that reforms are actually being undertaken.”

Iran: Security Forces Rape, Torture, Detainees

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(Beirut) – Iran's security forces raped, tortured, and sexually assaulted detainees while repressing widespread protests in 2022 and 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The grave abuses are part of a broader pattern of serious human rights violations to repress dissent.

Human Rights Watch investigated abuses against ten detained people from Kurdish, Baluch, and Azeri minority regions that occurred between September and November 2022. Detainees described being raped by security forces and some said they witnessed security forces raping other detainees. In seven of the cases, detainees said that security forces had tortured them to coerce them into making confessions.

“Iranian security forces’ brutality against detained protesters, including rape and torture, are not only egregious crimes, but a weapon of injustice wielded against detainees to coerce them into false confessions,” said Nahid Naghshbandi, acting Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These methods are also a twisted and despicable means of further stigmatizing and repressing marginalized ethnic minorities.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed the survivors by phone between September 2022 and 2023, including five women, three men, and two children. Three shared medical records that supported their accounts.

In December 2023, Amnesty International released a report that documented that security forces “used rape and other forms of sexual violence” to “intimidate and punish peaceful protesters during the 2022 ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ uprising.” Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran have all separately documented Iranian authorities’ use of severe repressive violence in ethnic minority regions.

A Kurdish woman told Human Rights Watch that in November 2022 two men from the security forces raped her while a woman agent held her down and facilitated the rape.

A 24-year-old Kurdish man from West Azerbaijan province said he was severely tortured and raped with a baton by intelligence agency forces in a secret detention center in September 2022. A 30-year-old man from East Azerbaijan province said he was blindfolded and beaten along with other protesters, and he was gang raped with another man by security forces in a van in October 2022.

Human Rights Watch also documented government security forces restraining, blindfolding, and torturing protesters in detention. Authorities beat and sexually assaulted a Baluch woman who witnessed at least two other women being raped in a detention center in Sistan and Baluchistan in October 2022, leaving them physically and psychologically traumatized.

One woman who experienced sexual violence from security forces attempted suicide, while another required surgery for her injuries. A family member of another Baluch woman in her twenties told Human Rights Watch that in October 2022 her relative was raped twice in detention, and after her release she also attempted suicide.

Human Rights Watch previously reported cases of Iranian security forces’ use of torture and sexual assault against men, women, and children, as well as suspicious deaths in detention. The authorities did not provide medical treatment or even basic hygiene supplies to those assaulted by security forces, exacerbating their long-term injuries, and have not investigated these cases or held anyone accountable for these serious violations.

The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Iran should continue to investigate these grave abuses as part of its broader reporting on the Iranian government’s serial human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said.

“Accounts of brutal rape and the lasting traumatic consequences of those crimes should mobilize countries to meet the physical and psychological health needs of survivors who have managed to flee Iran,” Naghshbandi said. “They should also mobilize Iranians at home and abroad to push for accountability and justice.”

Rape, Sexual Assault, and Torture in Sistan and Baluchistan Province

A university student from Sistan and Baluchistan, who, like some others interviewed, asked not to identify her by name, told Human Rights Watch that in October 2022, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces arrested her, along with approximately 20 other women, after they protested and shouted anti-government slogans. The forces beat all of the women so severely during their arrest that one woman lost consciousness.

They blindfolded and bound the women, then loaded them into a van and took them to an undisclosed location. The woman described the place they were transferred to as a small room with a low ceiling. Security forces separated them into groups of three, in separate cells.

The security forces detained the women for over a month, during which the women were subjected to torture and sexual violence, including being kicked in their genitals to coerce false confessions that they were involved with political groups. The woman interviewed said that security forces handed her papers with Revolutionary Guard letterhead to write and sign a confession:

When I told the interrogator that I am not affiliated with any political party and will no longer participate in protests, he said: “No, you won't cooperate, I'll have to deal with you differently.” Then he called two people and said: “This whore likes to be torn apart.” They tore my clothes apart and brutally raped me. I lost consciousness, and when they poured water on my head, I regained consciousness and saw that my entire body was covered in blood.

They blindfolded her and took her to her cell, where her cellmates told her the same thing had happened to them. She said she could see that they were also badly hurt and scared. They told each other that if they get out alive, they would kill themselves.

She said she was raped three times during her approximately 50-day detention, mostly during the first days of her arrest. She was not given any medicine or hygienic supplies:

They didn’t even give us a single tissue, let alone medical aid. They only gave us a pill every night … I didn’t know what it was, maybe some sort of a sedative or sleeping pill. They would make us take the pill and wouldn’t leave the cell until we swallowed it.

She was forced to sign dozens of pages of confessions without any questions. They accused her of “destroying public property” and “disturbing the security of the population.”

She faced charges of “disrupting public order,” “blasphemy,” and “destruction of public property.” She said after she was released, she had an infection in her kidneys and uterus and underwent surgery twice.

Another person interviewed said that a relative of hers, a Baluch woman in her twenties, was arrested and beaten by Revolutionary Guard forces in October 2022 in Sistan and Baluchistan province while participating in a small protest. The security forces informed the detainee’s family about her whereabouts after four days, and she was only allowed to call them herself after nine days. She was in detention for almost a month, facing charges of “blasphemy” and “collaboration with opposition groups,” before being released on bail.

The relative said that the woman was raped twice in detention and was in very poor physical and mental health after her release, during which she attempted suicide. She was rushed to the hospital where she received life-saving treatment. The woman told her relative that nearly 20 other women ages 20 to 26 were detained with her, and she was aware that two others were sexually assaulted and raped.

Sexual Assault in Kermanshah

A 21-year-old Kurdish woman said that in November 2022 she was arrested by security forces while she was walking toward the university campus in Kermanshah with some other students. They were blindfolded and taken to an undisclosed detention center, where two interrogators raped her:

Two men interrogated me, then a woman came and took me to another room. She told me I needed to take off my clothes for a body search and be transferred to the general ward. While I was busy taking off my clothes, two other men came in; one of them grabbed me with that woman while the other raped me. Once the first was done I was already half unconscious and the other man started raping me. After that, another woman came and gave me a paper towel, telling me to clean myself up. She also took me to another room. The next morning, they blindfolded me again and took me to Razi Square, where they threw me out of the car. I managed to make my way back to the dormitory from there.

Sexual Assault in East Azerbaijan Province

Revolutionary Guard plainclothes agents arrested a 30-year-old male protester in October 2022. They took the man and other protesters who were arrested to a mosque courtyard nearby and blindfolded them and started beating them with batons and tasers. The men were then sent into a police van and told to take off all their clothes. Some of them protested, which he said made the security forces angry. The security forces took the man Human Rights Watch interviewed and another man to a riot control vehicle and forcibly took their clothes off using a taser on their back and behind their knees. Three officers raped both men.

The man interviewed said:

I was blindfolded but I could say that they were raping the other man too since we were next to each other, and I could also hear him crying and begging them to stop. He was in his twenties, and I asked him not to say anything to the others when they took us back. When they took us back, they put us in the van with the others and used pepper spray and closed the doors. After all the beating and torture and rape I felt I was dead and the things I was seeing weren’t real.

He was sent to jail in Tabriz, where he was not provided with any medical or hygienic services and finally was released on bail. He had been bleeding from his rectum for days after his release, he said, and is suffering from severe depression. He said he told the judges he had been raped and that one of them responded: “If you don’t shut up, I will rape you myself as well.”

He faced the charge of “assembly and collusion to commit acts against national security” that ultimately wasn’t substantiated, leading to the charge being dropped and his release.

Torture and Sexual Assault in West Azerbaijan Province

On September 29, 2022, Keivan Samadi, a 24-year-old medical student, was arrested in Oshnavieh by plainclothes officers near his home. Three officers approached him in a car under the pretext of asking for directions. When they got close to him, they threatened him with a pistol and ordered him into their car. He said they pushed his head down so he couldn't see where they were taking him and took him to a hidden detention center.

They placed him in a small cell with a dirty blanket and a toilet without any hygiene items, such as soap. He was held alone in this cell for 21 days, and he was only taken out for interrogation. He said that intelligence agents tortured and sexually assaulted him during interrogation, including raping him with a baton, using a taser on his genitals, burning his body hair, severely beating him with batons, and giving him electric shocks that led to bleeding from his left ear. He said he was whipped on the back, resulting in wounds and skin infection on his lower back:

They were from [Iran’s Ministry of Interior’s Intelligence Agency] in Oshnavieh, I knew this from the papers they gave me to sign a false confession. They kicked me so that I fell from the chair during the interrogation, and they kept kicking me in the stomach and my ear … and eventually my left ear started bleeding, every day they would take me and torture me in different ways using the taser on my neck and back. Another day they whipped me 43 times before I lost consciousness, which resulted in bleeding in my back. I asked them for antibiotics, but they didn’t give me anything. Once one of the interrogators took a cutter and wanted to cut the middle finger of my right hand when the other one stopped him.

From day 12 they started using a taser on my genitals. On day 16, they took off my pants I thought they are going to use the taser on my genitals again, but they raped me with a baton. I was shocked at that moment and couldn't believe they would do such a thing. I just stood there, speechless, and couldn't even scream because I was mute, as if four people had grabbed my throat so that my voice wouldn't come out.”

Qatar, Nepal, Bangladesh: Emir’s Visits Should Prioritize Migrant Worker Protections

Human Rights Watch — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 18:00:00 -0400

(Beirut) – The upcoming visits of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to Bangladesh and Nepal should prioritize labor protections for migrant workers, Human Rights Watch said today. Both are key countries for Qatar’s migrant workforce, which makes up 88 percent of the country’s population. Al-Thani is expected to arrive in Bangladesh on April 22, 2024, and in Nepal on April 24.

“It is important for Qatar, Bangladesh, and Nepal to go beyond exchanging diplomatic pleasantries over their longstanding labor ties and seize this moment to publicly commit to concrete, enforceable protections that address the serious abuses that migrant workers in Qatar continue to face,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Qatari emir should not just meet heads of state, but also visit dialysis centers filled with migrant worker returnees from Qatar and speak with the families of workers who died in Qatar to see the grave consequences of inadequate Qatari labor protections.”

Migrant workers from Bangladesh and Nepal have been indispensable to Qatar’s economy, including in the preparation and delivery of the 2022 World Cup. The Qatar-to-Nepal and Bangladesh routes that the Qatari leader is taking are well-trodden, with thousands of workers making this journey daily. As “guest workers” in a country that does not offer citizenship to most foreigners, the expectation is that workers come to Qatar to work, earn money, and, sooner or later, leave.

Qatar-based jobs have enabled migrant workers to send remittances back home to their families, but many workers leave Qatar worse off than before they migrated. They experience abuses that include wage theft, contract violations, and chronic illness linked to unsafe working conditions.

Many migrant workers do outdoor work and are exposed to Qatar’s extreme heat, and the lack of worker protections from this serious health hazard can take a devastating toll. Some workers also have been deported for demanding their contractually-owed wages and benefits. There have been thousands of unexplained deaths of young, healthy migrant workers in Qatar, and in many cases grieving family members receive neither an explanation of the reasons for their loved ones’ death nor compensation from employers or Qatari authorities.

The governments of Bangladesh and Nepal should not only highlight the importance of remittances but also the high costs that workers often bear to earn them, such as wage theft and recruitment fees. A 2020 survey found that the average recruitment costs for Bangladeshis going to work in Qatar was about US$3,863, equivalent to 18 months of earnings in Qatar. Workers take out informal loans at exorbitant interest rates to pay the fees. Research by Human Rights Watch has shown the role of Qatar-based companies in driving up worker-paid recruitment fees.

Qatar’s failure to safeguard worker rights and inadequate compensation mechanisms means that the responsibility is shifted to the origin countries’ governments to address harm originating in Qatar.

Many workers returning from Qatar are burdened with long-term diseases such as chronic kidney failure, for which the Nepali government provides free dialysis services. Families of many migrant workers who have lost their lives in Qatar rely on compensation through welfare funds set up unilaterally by countries of origin.

Human Rights Watch has documented the experiences of families who received no support from Qatari authorities or their employers despite losing their primary breadwinner, since the causes of their deaths are not classified as work-related.

Recognizing the inadequacies of the compensation system, Qatar’s own Supreme Committee urged its contractors to obtain life insurance for their employees, but this was adopted only by a handful of companies, even at the height of the 2022 World Cup when the world’s eyes were on Qatar’s migrant rights record.

The climate crisis is likely to worsen the risks to workers, which will further increase the care burden to overstretched healthcare systems in countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. These countries themselves are on the front lines of climate catastrophes despite their negligible greenhouse gas emissions.

Qatari authorities have introduced labor reforms, but Human Rights Watch has shown that they came too late and were too little and too narrow in scope. They have not abolished the abusive kafala (labor sponsorship) system that enables these abuses in its entirety.

Qatari authorities have claimed these reforms were not about the World Cup alone but a part of a process that continues beyond the tournament. Yet post-World Cup, many workers were stranded in Qatar in difficult conditions.

The labor agreements that are anticipated to be updated and signed during the emir’s visits should incorporate concrete provisions to address these issues, and the agreements themselves need to be made publicly available, Human Rights Watch said.

The significance of labor reforms or the agreements with migrant origin countries boils down to their implementation and their effectiveness in addressing widespread abuses, which requires strong enforcement mechanisms. Diplomatic visits, labor agreements, or labor reforms ring hollow if homecoming continues to be marred by unpaid wages or benefits, chronic kidney disease, and uninvestigated and uncompensated deaths.

“Public commitments by the Qatari emir to concrete, enforceable worker protections during these two high-profile visits, including compensation to workers who faced serious abuses and families of the deceased, would be the best way to mark his trips to the homes of millions of current and former workers who have helped transform Qatar,” Page said.

UPDATE (4/22/2024):

Qatar’s emir also visited the Philippines over the weekend, another significant origin country for migrant workers.