Human Rights Watch News

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 2019 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.”

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

Click to expand Image Silhouette of a woman (representation). © coldsnowstorm/Getty Images

(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.

Jordan: Syrian Student Faces Imminent Deportation

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:30:00 -0400

(Amman) – Jordanian authorities should halt the imminent deportation of a Syrian communications student who faces a significant risk of persecution if forcibly returned to Syria, Human Rights Watch said today.

Click to expand Image Atia Mohamad Abu Salem, 24. © Private.

The police arrested Atia Mohamad Abu Salem, 24, and a Jordanian friend on April 9, 2024, as they were on their way to film a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza in Amman. He and a number of his family members, known for their opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria, have been registered as asylum seekers with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since 2013. Jordanian authorities later ordered Abu Salem’s deportation without a court order or realistic ability to challenge the order.

“Jordanian authorities are on the verge of deporting a 24-year-old Syrian student who has lived half his life in Jordan without charging him for a crime or presenting him before a judicial body and merely for attempting to document a rally in solidarity with Gaza,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Nobody should face deportation without due process, especially when their life and well-being are at stake.”

The unlawful deportation of Abu Salem, who is originally from Daraa governorate in southern Syria, would violate the customary international law principle of nonrefoulement, which forbids governments from returning people to places where they have a well-founded fear of persecution or other serious abuses.

While parts of Syria have not had active conflict hostilities since 2018, Syria remains unfit for safe and dignified refugee returns. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous instances where Syrian security agencies have arbitrarily detained, kidnapped, tortured, and killed refugees who returned to Syria from Jordan and Lebanon between 2017 and 2021. As recently as July 2023, Human Rights Watch found that returnees had been tortured in Syrian military intelligence custody and conscripted to serve in Syria’s military reserve force. Other human rights groups, the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria, and UNHCR also maintain that Syria remains unsafe for returns. In March 2024, the COI declared that Syria is experience a “new wave of violence” not seen since 2020.

Human Rights Watch spoke to Ahmad Sawai, a lawyer with the freedoms committee at the Jordanian Bar Association who is representing Abu Salem; to Hadeel Abdel Aziz, the executive director of the legal aid group Justice Center for Legal Aid (JCLA), whose lawyers are also representing Abu Salem in administrative proceedings; and to a relative of Abu Salem abroad.

The lawyers said that Abu Salem has been held in administrative detention by order of Amman’s governor without charge and without being brought before a prosecutor or judge. The Jordanian Interior Ministry issued a deportation order against Abu Salem even though he has asylum seeker status. Lawyers with JCLA requested a copy of the order and appealed it in Jordan’s administrative court on April 15.

Abu Salem told his lawyer that during his interrogation at the Central Amman Police Directorate in the Abdali neighborhood, security officers coerced him into letting them search his phone, and repeatedly threatened to deport him. Abu Salem was then taken to the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), followed by the Shmeisani police station and back to the police directorate in Abdali, where he remains.

Abu Salem is a student at Yarmouk University’s Faculty of Mass Communications in the northern town of Irbid, nearing graduation and an independent filmmaker. He fled Syria with members of his family in April 2013 following the reported killing of his father by Syrian government forces in the city of al-Hirak in Daraa in August 2012. A relative abroad said that family members have long been vocal in opposition to President al-Assad’s rule and that one of Abu Salem’s brothers, who fled in 2018, is wanted by Syrian security forces for his activism. He said that Syrian officials have arrested or harassed various family members over the years and that security forces still inquire about those who have left.

“Atia’s pursuit of media studies alone could result in punishment in Syria,” the relative said. “And the very act for which it seems he is being deported carries the risk of severe persecution in Syria. On top of that, the family’s decision to flee Syria to begin with is viewed as incriminating in the eyes of the Syrian regime.”

If returned to Syria, Abu Salem would also be subject to military conscription, for which evaders can face arrest and detention.

“Atia loves Jordan, and our family is grateful they are there,” his relative said. “If he did something wrong, try him in court, but please don’t deport him to Syria.”

Lawyers told Human Rights Watch about another case in which a Syrian in Jordan is at risk of deportation in relation to the pro-Palestine protests and one involving a Jordanian-born Syrian national with a Jordanian mother whose deportation order was canceled after lawyers and activists intervened in his case.

Over recent years, Jordan has experienced a protracted shrinking of civic space, with the authorities increasingly persecuting citizens and residents engaged in peaceful organization and political dissent and using vague and abusive laws that criminalize speech, association, and assembly. Since October 2023, Jordanian authorities have arrested and harassed scores of Jordanians who participated in pro-Palestine protests across the country or engaged in online advocacy, bringing charges against some of them under a new, widely criticized cybercrimes law.

International donor governments should use their leverage to advocate against summary deportations and forced returns, which amount to a breach of nonrefoulement obligations, Human Rights Watch said.

“Jordan’s rush to unlawfully deport a Syrian media student for simply seeking to document a peaceful pro-Palestine protest is incredibly alarming and tramples upon both the right to free expression and the principle of nonrefoulement,” Coogle said.

Gambia: Bill Threatens Female Genital Mutilation Ban

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 01:04:57 -0400

(Abuja) – A bill before Gambia’s National Assembly to reverse a groundbreaking 2015 ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) jeopardizes the rights of women and girls in the country, Human Rights Watch said today.

Gambia is among the 10 countries with the highest levels of FGM. In addition to the 2015 ban, which made all acts of FGM a criminal offense, the Gambian government adopted a national strategy and policy for 2022–2026 to end the practice in the country by 2030. If the National Assembly adopts the Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2024 at its June session, Gambia would become the first country to overturn a FGM ban.

“The Gambian government’s consideration of a bill reversing the ban on FGM is deeply troubling for women’s rights,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The proposed law would legitimize FGM in the country and could encourage similar measures elsewhere on the continent, undermining the progress made in protecting girls and women from this harmful practice.”

Female genital mutilation refers to “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons,” according to the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It has lasting physical, psychological, and emotional consequences. It is also a serious public health issue and can lead to complications during childbirth, including maternal and infant mortality.

FGM violates girls’ and women’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, rights to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, rights to life, and rights to sexual and reproductive health.

The UN reported that over 230 million girls and women worldwide have survived FGM and live with its lasting effects. UNICEF found that approximately 73 percent of girls and women in Gambia ages 15 to 49 years reported surviving FGM, with more than 80 percent of those ages 10 to 19 having been cut before age 5. More than 20 percent of them were infibulated, meaning the genital area is cut and sown shut.

Traditional practitioners, many of them women, perform most cases of FGM in Gambia, leading to deaths in some cases as well as short-term and long-term morbidity in many more instances. While medicalization of FGM or reinfibulation, meaning the genital area is cut back open after previously being sown shut, performed by any category of healthcare provider, might slightly mitigate immediate complications, FGM is never “safe.” Girls and women face a high risk of health consequences immediately and later in life. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no medical justification for the practice.

The 2019-2020 Gambia Demographic and Health Survey data showed a slight decrease in FGM, 73 percent of girls and women ages 15 to 49 having survived FGM compared with 75 percent in 2013. The survey also reflected a shift in the attitudes and behaviors of many practicing communities. However, over the last 30 years, the percentage of girls and women ages 10 to 19 who reported experiencing FGM has not changed significantly.

Most communities in Gambia use religion or tradition to justify the practice. However, there is no requirement in Sharia (Islamic law) for FGM, or female circumcision, nor is it a part of the Sunna (Prophetic traditions) or considered an honorable act. It contradicts the prophetic hadith, Muhammad’s words, “Do not harm yourself or others.” The common definition that circumcision is the cutting or removal of “extra skin” is not applicable because there is no unnecessary part of a female’s external genitalia that could be useless or harmful.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights defines harmful practices as “practices which constitute a denial of the dignity and/or the integrity of an individual, result in physical, psychological, economic and social harm and/or violence and limit women’s and girl’s capacity to participate fully in society.” It says that such practices, including those based on tradition, custom, or religion, are a violation of human rights.

FGM is addressed in a number of international conventions and regional agreements and is prohibited by national legislation in many countries. The international community and UN member countries have committed to eliminating all harmful practices, including FGM, by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality. With Gambia’s current FGM trends, reversing the ban would inevitably maintain and possibly increase its high levels of FGM, endangering the lives and well-being of Gambian girls and women now and in the future.

The Gambian government should prioritize the protection of girls’ and women’s rights and adopt all measures to eliminate this harmful practice by 2030, Human Rights Watch said. The government should heed calls from civil society organizations and African and UN human rights bodies to discourage legislative efforts to lift the ban.

It should urgently invest in comprehensive education and awareness-raising programs to promote understanding of the harmful effects of FGM, encourage community-led efforts to end the practice, strengthen enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance, and provide survivor-responsive medical, legal, and psychosocial support. International donors should immediately coordinate with national and local efforts to advocate for upholding the FGM ban.

“The Gambian government should fiercely protect the rights of Gambian girls and women and reject any proposal to reverse or weaken the 2015 FGM ban,” Segun said. “The government should take concrete steps to end the harmful practice of FGM once and for all.”

Civilians at Risk as Large-Scale Fighting Looms in Darfur

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 14:42:48 -0400

After a months-long, uneasy détente between Sudan’s two warring parties, hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering in the city of El Fasher in Darfur are in the crosshairs.

In the past few days, several villages near El Fasher appear to have been burned to the ground. People in one camp for internally displaced people have reportedly been killed by shelling and in clashes. Alarming reports of mass mobilization of fighters on both sides raise concerns that fighting in one of Darfur’s most populated cities could lead to atrocities against civilians.

El Fasher, the only capital in Darfur not controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is home to 2 million people, half a million displaced by hunger and war from other parts of Darfur including over the last year.

A patchwork of armed actors, including the Darfur Joint Protection Forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the RSF control different parts of the El Fasher area. Tense calm alternating with episodic fighting has prevailed for months.

Over the last two weeks, there have been reports of an uptick in civilian casualties, with many killed and injured in both RSF & Arab militia attacks on non-Arab villages west of El Fasher as well as during fighting between these forces and SAF and allied forces, including shelling and bombing. In February, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) warned of catastrophic levels of malnutrition among children in the city. Further fighting risks entirely cutting off already malnourished displaced people from critical care.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said reports of an imminent attack raised the “risk of further violations and abuses against civilians.” The United States special envoy for Sudan called “on the RSF to end the siege” and urged “them, the SAF and its aligned fighters to respect IHL [international humanitarian law] and protect civilians.”

For almost a year, the RSF and allied groups have targeted the ethnic Massalit people of West Darfur with summary executions, sexual violence, and massive destruction of property, while also abusing people in other areas under their control, most recently in Al Gezira state. The SAF have reportedly also arrested, tortured, and extrajudicially killed Darfuris. All warring parties have carried out indiscriminate attacks in populated areas.

The risk of atrocities against El Fasher’s non-Arab civilians is all too clear.

The UN Security Council meeting tomorrow on Sudan should urgently ask the secretary-general to consider what kinds of measures the UN can adopt to better protect Sudan’s civilians. The African Union’s Peace and Security Council should warn against further attacks on civilians, call for respect for the UN arms embargo on Darfur, and make clear support for international investigations. Influential governments should make clear warring parties will face consequences for violating the laws of war. Without such basic steps, global leaders’ condemnations this week on the devastating one-year anniversary of the conflict will ring even more hollow.

Landmark Court Ruling Upholds Right to Healthy Environment

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 14:06:08 -0400

Click to expand Image The Metalurgia Business Peru metallurgical complex in the city of La Oroya, in the department of Junín, east of Lima, November 9, 2022. ©

Last month, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found the Peruvian government responsible for violating the right to a healthy environment, among other rights, of residents of La Oroya, a town exposed to toxic pollution from a mine and smelter complex, the first ruling of its kind before the Court. The town is so polluted that one study by Peru’s Ministry of Health in 2005 found that 99.9 percent of children under six years old who were tested had high lead levels in their blood.

The families who initiated the case included 80 residents, 57 of which were children, who had been exposed to extreme levels of toxic lead and other metals. The court found that the government was responsible for allowing serious health harms caused by mining and smelting, particularly in children, and the deaths of two residents, one of whom was 17 years old. It also found that the affected families did not receive adequate health care and ruled that the government had failed to investigate harassment and threats against victims who had publicly denounced the contamination.

The court ordered Peru to provide free health care for victims; pay compensation for the harms they experienced; assess and clean up the contaminated areas; and continue to monitor air, ground, and water quality, among other measures.

In its ruling, the court referred to general guidance issued by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child last year, particularly on the rights of children affected by environmental crises.

Unfortunately, the dire health impacts faced by people in La Oroya are not unique. In Kabwe, Zambia, a former lead and zinc mine has left a similarly toxic legacy, and nearby residents continue to suffer disastrous health complications from lead exposure. A Human Rights Watch investigation exposed the harmful impacts of lead contamination on children’s rights to health, information, and education. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment has described both La Oroya and Kabwe as “sacrifice zones”: areas that are among the most polluted and hazardous on earth, leading to a systematic violation of human rights.

Peru, where illegal mining is widespread and where there is a high rate of conflicts between communities and mining companies over alleged pollution, should not only comply with this ruling, but also better protect the right to a healthy environment throughout the country.

Ahead of Earth Day next week, this ruling should serve as a warning to governments of other such pollution hotspots where progress continues to stall. All governments should view it as a signal of the increasing global urgency, now reflected in international law, of preventing the “ongoing toxification” of people and the planet.

Armenia Strengthens Domestic Violence Law

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 12:32:04 -0400

Armenia’s parliament adopted amendments strengthening the country’s domestic violence law. The legislation was adopted last week as postwar Armenia both struggles to secure its border with neighboring Azerbaijan and deepen its relations with the European Union.

Armenia’s 2017 domestic violence law was an important first step, but its accountability provisions were inadequate and protective measures were deeply flawed. The law’s title, which included “restoring family harmony,” set the tone.

The amendments remove the reference to “family harmony” and add additional acts of physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence that can be considered domestic violence. These include, among others, forced medical and psychiatric interventions, hindering access to medical care, virginity testing, prohibiting or hindering contacts with relatives and friends, and various forms of exercising control over a partner. The amendments also criminalize stalking as a standalone crime.

Armenia’s criminal code doesn’t list domestic violence as a standalone offence, but it does specify that if the perpetrators of certain crimes are close relatives, this can be an aggravating factor. The amendments provide that partners and former partners (who are not deemed relatives) are now also included as perpetrators who can be charged with this aggravating factor. The amendments also specify that causing a child to witness domestic violence is tantamount to an act of violence.

The amendments set a minimum time period for urgent intervention measures – which are a step short of court-issued protective orders – and extend the time period for protective orders. Both measures allow police to force an abuser from the home or restrict them from communicating with a victim.

Finally, the amendments specify that survivors have priority access to free healthcare services to address conditions caused by domestic violence and that shelters must be accessible to people with disabilities.

Authorities noted a doubling in the number of criminal investigations into domestic violence: 1,848 investigations in 2023 compared with 960 in 2022. They partially attributed this to a new methodology of compiling statistics and an increased reporting rate, rather than an increase in violence.

Much needs to be done in Armenia to protect women and girls from domestic violence. For example, in some cases, courts invalidate police urgent intervention orders. And Armenia has yet to ratify the Council of Europe’s convention on preventing domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention. Meanwhile, the Armenian government should continue promoting zero tolerance on domestic violence and ensure accountability of perpetrators.

UN Plastics Treaty Should Mandate Protection of Human Rights and Health

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 10:40:00 -0400

Next week in Ottawa, countries will reconvene to continue negotiations on an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. A revised draft of the treaty published by the United Nations Environment Programme on December 28, 2023, contains certain positive measures to reduce plastic production. However, it lacks the necessary provisions to protect human rights and health from the impacts of plastic pollution, especially for frontline communities and those who are most vulnerable.

The draft proposes options to address the full life cycle of plastics, from reducing production to eliminating the use of the most hazardous chemicals to improve plastic safety. However, it promotes higher recycling rates to increase producer responsibility without accounting for the human rights and health harm associated with recycling. It also overlooks a significant element of plastic production: fossil fuels. Ninety-nine percent of plastics are made from fossil fuels, which are also the primary driver of the climate crisis.

January 25, 2024 US: Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’

Dire Health Crisis From Government Failure to Rein in Fossil Fuels

In January, a Human Rights Watch report found that communities living alongside fossil fuel and petrochemical operations, including those producing the feedstocks for plastics, in Louisiana, United States, suffer elevated risks and rates of severe health harm, including cancer, respiratory ailments, and maternal, reproductive, and newborn health harm. This area has come to be known as “Cancer Alley” due to parts of it bearing the highest risks of cancer from industrial air pollution in the country. In Cancer Alley, health harm from fossil fuel operations disproportionally impacts Black residents.

September 21, 2022 Turkey: Plastic Recycling Harms Health, Environment

Lax Monitoring, Enforcement Creates Serious Rights Risks

Previously, Human Rights Watch documented the harmful impacts of plastic recycling in Turkey, where people living near recycling facilities suffer respiratory and skin ailments from pollutants and toxins emitted from plastic recycling. The treaty should not promote higher recycling rates without outlining measures to mitigate human rights and health impacts linked to recycling.

Governments are obligated under international human rights law to respect, protect, and fulfill all human rights, including the rights to health and to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The plastics treaty should uphold existing obligations and commitments, including by phasing out fossil fuels, to address the climate crisis.

German Chancellor’s Trip to China a Wasted Opportunity

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sits opposite of Chinese President Xi Jinping during talks at the State Guest House in Beijing, China, April 16, 2024. © 2024 Michael Kappeler/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo

Germany's economy is very dependent on China, so expectations were low that Chancellor Olaf Scholz would place human rights concerns prominently on the agenda of his April 13-16 trip to China. But his apparent unwillingness to publicly say the words “human rights” was deeply disappointing.

The Chinese government’s long-egregious human rights record has become dramatically more repressive since Xi Jinping took power in 2013. Thousands of critics of the government are behind bars. The government oppresses and surveils the Tibetan and Uyghur populations and for years has actively suppressed their language, culture, and religion. In recent years, Beijing has deprived the people of Hong Kong’s fundamental freedoms.

Scholz’s three days in China were longer than any of his previous trips since taking office. He came with a huge entourage, consisting of the heads of the largest and most renowned German companies, as well as federal ministers, state secretaries, and the media. He spoke for hours with Xi, campaigned for freer trade for German industries, and sought Chinese support on key foreign policy issues, including over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He assured journalists that he had addressed "all the difficult issues," but did not once mention “human rights.”

Sino-German relations are complicated. But even evaluated against its own metrics, the new German China Strategy, the German chancellor did not achieve its aims. The strategy recognizes China as a security threat and geopolitical competitor from which Germany should “de-risk,” and that the two countries’ relations should be rules-based and values-driven. This broadened Sino-German relations from their traditional focus on improving market access for German industries to a more multifaceted one.

But sadly, the German China Strategy proved to be nothing but hollow words. Germany’s experience with Vladimir Putin’s Russia should have made it clear that abusive governments make unreliable trade partners. Instead of steering Sino-German relations on a new course consistent with its own strategy by publicly promoting respect for human rights, Scholz defaulted to the well-worn path that will not further Germany’s long-term interests nor the basic human rights of the people in China.

Explosive Weapons’ Dire Impact on Cultural Heritage

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 02:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image A statue of 18th-century Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhorii Skovoroda stands amidst the ruins of a museum and memorial dedicated to him in Skovorodynivka in the Kharkivska region of Ukraine. The building was destroyed when a munition fired by Russian forces hit the roof on May 6, 2022, sparking a major fire. © 2022 Sergey Kozlov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

(Oslo, April 18, 2024) – The bombing and shelling of cities and towns during armed conflict has devastating consequences for cultural heritage and civilians, Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic said in a report released today. Minimizing this harm should be addressed at the first meeting of countries endorsing the 2022 Political Declaration on the Protection of Civilians from the Use of Explosive Weapons, which will be held in Oslo, Norway from April 22-24, 2024.

The 80-page report, “Destroying Cultural Heritage: Explosive Weapons’ Effects in Armed Conflict and Measures to Improve Protection,” details both the immediate and long-term harm from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas on cultural heritage, such as historic buildings and houses of worship, museums and archives, public squares, and performance centers. It shows that the Declaration on explosive weapons could serve as a valuable tool for addressing the problem.

April 18, 2024 Destroying Cultural Heritage

Explosive Weapons’ Effects in Armed Conflict and Measures to Strengthen Protection

Download the full report in English

“Governments should recognize that using explosive weapons in populated areas endangers cultural heritage as well as the people who cherish it,” said Bonnie Docherty, senior arms adviser at Human Rights Watch and a lecturer on law at the Harvard Clinic. “To preserve this heritage for future generations, parties to armed conflicts should abide by the 2022 Political Declaration and refrain from bombing and shelling populated urban areas.”

When used in populated areas, explosive weapons, such as aerial bombs, artillery projectiles, rockets, and missiles, kill and injure civilians and destroy civilian objects at the time of attack. These weapons also have long-term indirect, or “reverberating,” effects that aggravate civilian suffering. By harming cultural heritage, the weapons erase history, undermine community identity and unity, and have financial costs.

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Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Clinic interviewed 17 experts and affected civilians, reviewed primary and secondary sources, and conducted legal analysis.

They examined Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine to illustrate the vulnerability of cultural heritage to explosive weapons in populated areas. They surveyed five examples – including local museums and archives, cultural sites in urban centers, and places of worship – that highlight the frequency, diversity, and gravity of the effects of explosive weapons on cultural heritage, and why these effects matter to the civilian population.

The researchers also drew on examples from other armed conflicts, notably Gaza and Yemen, to differentiate and elaborate on the direct and indirect harm to places and people that this method of war causes.

“The use of explosive weapons causes heartbreaking loss to sites and objects that may be treasured locally or globally,” Docherty said. “The damage also strikes at the heart of a nation’s people, who expect to pass their cultural heritage from one generation to the next.”

Since November 18, 2022, 86 countries have endorsed the Declaration, which sets standards for preventing and remediating the effects of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

Countries should interpret the Declaration and put it into practice to maximize the protection of cultural heritage, Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Clinic said. In addition to avoiding the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, countries should, for example, train soldiers to recognize and understand the significance of local cultural heritage, collect and share data related to cultural heritage damage, and allow preservation experts immediate access to affected sites.

By taking such steps, parties to armed conflicts can bolster safeguards for cultural heritage laid out in existing international law. In practice, these steps can better protect both cultural heritage and civilians.

“Countries should join the Declaration on explosive weapons and use it to maximize its humanitarian impact,” Docherty said. “By implementing its protections for cultural heritage, countries will also benefit civilians and hopefully reduce the long-term horrors of war.”

West Bank: Israel Responsible for Rising Settler Violence

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image A family packs up their belongings in Khirbet Zanuta, in the southern West Bank, on October 30, 2023. Attacks by settlers, in some cases accompanied by soldiers, forced all the residents to leave. © 2023 Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

(Jerusalem) – The Israeli military either took part in or did not protect Palestinians from violent settler attacks in the West Bank that have displaced people from 20 communities and have entirely uprooted at least 7 communities since October 7, 2023, Human Rights Watch said today.

Israeli settlers have assaulted, tortured, and committed sexual violence against Palestinians, stolen their belongings and livestock, threatened to kill them if they did not leave permanently, and destroyed their homes and schools under the cover of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza. Many Palestinians, including entire communities, have fled their homes and lands. The military has not assured displaced residents that it will protect their security or allow them to return, forcing them to live in precarious conditions elsewhere.

“Settlers and soldiers have displaced entire Palestinian communities, destroying every home, with the apparent backing of higher Israeli authorities,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “While the attention of the world is focused on Gaza, abuses in the West Bank, fueled by decades of impunity and complacency among Israel’s allies, are soaring.”

Human Rights Watch investigated attacks that forcibly displaced all residents of Khirbet Zanuta and Khirbet al-Ratheem south of Hebron, al-Qanub east of Hebron, and Ein al-Rashash and Wadi al-Seeq, east of Ramallah, in October and November 2023. The evidence shows that armed settlers, with the active participation of army units, repeatedly cut off road access and raided Palestinian communities, detained, assaulted, and tortured residents, chased them out of their homes and off their lands at gunpoint or coerced them to leave with death threats, and blocked them from taking their belongings.

Human Rights Watch spoke to 27 witnesses of the attacks, and viewed videos that residents filmed, showing harassment by men in Israeli military uniforms carrying M16 assault rifles. As of April 16, the Israel Defense Forces did not reply to questions Human Rights Watch sent by email on April 7.

Settler attacks on Palestinians increased in 2023 to their highest level since the UN began recording this data in 2006. This was the case even before the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 that killed about 1,100 people inside Israel.

Following October 7, the Israeli military called up 5,500 settlers who are Israeli army reservists, including some with criminal records of violence against Palestinians, and assigned them to West Bank “regional defense” battalions. The authorities distributed 7,000 guns to battalion members and others, including “civilian security squads” established in settlements, according to Haaretz, and Israeli rights groups. Media reported that settlers left leaflets and sent threats on social media to Palestinians after October 7, such as warnings to “flee to Jordan” or be “exterminate[d],” and that “the day of revenge is coming.”

The UN has recorded more than 700 settler attacks between October 7 and April 3, with soldiers in uniform present in nearly half of the attacks. Attacks since October 7 have displaced over 1,200 people, including 600 children, from rural herding communities. At least 17 Palestinians were killed and 400 wounded, while Palestinians have killed 7 settlers in the West Bank since October 7, the UN reported.

On April 12, the body of a 14-year-old Israeli boy was found after he had disappeared from the settlement outpost of Malachei Hashalom. Since then, settlers have attacked at least 17 Palestinian villages and communities in the West Bank, according to OCHA. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, reported that four Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, have been killed in these incidents, and that houses and vehicles were set on fire, and livestock killed.

None of those evicted from the five communities investigated have been able to return, Human Rights Watch found. The Israeli military either rejected or did not answer requests to allow residents to return, leaving Palestinians without protection from the same armed settlers and soldiers who threatened to kill them if they returned. One family with seven children, forced to flee on foot from al-Qanub, now lives in a small cinderblock storeroom with no money to pay the rent.

Haqel: In Defense of Human Rights, an Israeli human rights organization, petitioned the Israeli High Court to instruct the army to protect five Palestinian communities from threats of displacement due to settler violence, and to allow Khirbet Zanuta families to return to their lands. The Israeli state attorney’s February 20 response claimed that no forced displacement occurred in Khirbet Zanuta, and that Palestinians had left voluntarily due to herding and agricultural problems, according to Haqel. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 1.

The displaced residents raised sheep. Some said that Israeli attackers stole vehicles, cash, and household appliances, as well as sheep and fodder that families had bought on credit and now cannot repay. Other families escaped with their flocks but had to build new shelters and have nowhere to graze them.

Settlers have subsequently been grazing their own sheep on the communities’ lands, according to rights groups. The Israeli rights group B’Tselem reported that as of mid-March, settlers had taken over 4,000 dunams (about 988 acres) of Palestinian grazing lands since October 7.

Repeated settler attacks, often at night, have caused fear and mental health harm. Children and their parents said children have had nightmares and difficulty concentrating. The attacks destroyed schools in two of the five communities. Most children were unable to go to school for a month or longer after being displaced.

The Israeli police have law-enforcement jurisdiction over settlers, while the army has jurisdiction over Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. After October 7, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir instructed police not to enforce the law against violent settlers, an Israeli investigative journalist reported. Police denied the report, though Ben-Gvir did not. The vast majority of Palestinian complaints against settlers and the Israeli military do not result in indictments, based on official data compiled by Yesh Din.

After October 7, the National Security Ministry distributed thousands of guns, including to settlers. In December, the Attorney General’s Office stated in the Knesset that they had found the Ministry had unlawfully approved 14,000 firearms permits.

Countries including the United States, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom have licensed exports of weapons, including assault rifles and ammunition, to Israel. The US has approved more than 100 weapons transfers to Israel since October 7, and exported 8,000 military rifles and 43,000 handguns in 2023, before pausing a shipment of 24,000 assault rifles in December over concerns about settler attacks. It is “almost a certainty” that settlers are using US-made guns, a former US State Department official said.

Since December, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France announced visa policies that barred some violent settlers from entry. The US and UK imposed financial sanctions on a total of eight settlers and two settlement outposts. EU sanctions are still being discussed, due to staunch reluctance by the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Forcible transfer or deportation and the extensive destruction and appropriation of property in occupied territory are war crimes. Israeli authorities’ systematic oppression of and inhumane acts against Palestinians, including war crimes, committed with the intent to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians, amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

Governments should suspend military support to Israel, given the risk of complicity in abuses. They should also review and possibly suspend bilateral agreements, such as the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and ban trade with settlements in the occupied territories. The UK should immediately withdraw the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill, which restricts public bodies in the UK from deciding not to do business with companies’ operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The US, the EU, UK, and other countries should take action to ensure accountability for those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including criminal investigations and prosecutions under universal jurisdiction and at the International Criminal Court. This should include those responsible under command responsibility for failures to prevent or punish crimes by those in their chain of command.

In addition, they should consider sanctions on those responsible for ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestinian communities or for the prevention of displaced Palestinians from returning to their lands, until those subject to sanctions end the attacks and ensure the displaced Palestinians can return, Human Rights Watch said.

“Palestinian children have seen their families brutalized, and their homes and schools destroyed, and the Israeli authorities are ultimately to blame,” Van Esveld said. “Senior state officials are fueling or failing to prevent these attacks, and Israel’s allies are not doing enough to stop that.”

Israeli Attacks Investigated

*** Names have been changed for people’s protection.

Al-Qanub

Settler attacks forced the residents of al-Qanub, 10 kilometers east of the town of Sa’ir, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, to flee on the evening of October 9. The community of about 40 people have been unable to return.

From October 7 to 9, ten to twelve settlers in civilian clothes, armed with handguns and assault rifles, piled up stones each day to block the only road to al-Qanub, which links it to the town of Sa’ir, said Salma, a 29-year-old resident who fled with her husband, Salim, and their seven children.

At 4:30 p.m. on October 9, dozens of armed settlers arrived. “Some went to [get] the sheep, and nine of them came to us,” Salim said. “They had guns and knives.” Settlers ordered them to leave within an hour or they would be killed, and one man said he would “cut our throats, and pointed at us, including our kids.”

Dozens of men, with dogs, stole and led the 200 sheep that Salim and his father owned toward a settlement outpost, Salim said. He and several neighbors ran toward them, but “that seemed to trigger [the settlers].” His father feared they would open fire and warned the residents to leave. The men, and women and children fled in different groups: “I told my wife to take the kids and run.”

Salma carried her 8-month-old boy and walked with her other children through rocky terrain for more than five hours in the dark, until 10 p.m., to reach her parents’ home, she said.

Salim, 35, his father, 75, and his children were all born in al-Qanub. “All our life was there,” he said. He is 18,000 shekels (about US$4,800) in debt for sheep fodder that settlers stole, he said. The family is living in a windowless, cinderblock storeroom in a nearby town, with no income to pay the rent.

Settlers from an outpost 400 meters away west of al-Qanub, began harassing residents five years ago, Salim said. It appears the settlers came from the outpost of Pnei Kedem North. Settlers prevented residents from grazing their sheep, and “cut the electricity, and three months ago they cut the water. They even took the pipes.” In December 2021, settlers set dogs on two brothers in al-Qanub and hit one brother with an all-terrain vehicle, and in February 2022, settlers attacked the brothers’ father, 76, fracturing two of his fingers and his skull, the rights group B’Tselem reported.

Wadi al-Seeq

Attacks involving armed settlers in civilian clothes and an Israel Defense Forces unit displaced all 30 families – about 180 people, including 90 children – from Wadi al-Seeq, northeast of Ramallah, on October 12, based on residents’ and human rights groups’ accounts, as well as Israeli news reports.

Beginning on October 7, settlers gathered daily at the entrance of the road that leads to the community. At 8 p.m. on October 11, a group of 8 to 10 men in military uniforms, armed with M16s and some wearing masks, arrived in two trucks, said 46-year-old Abu Hasan.

The uniformed men first entered the tents belonging to Abu Nayef and his sons, destroyed and stole the family’s belongings, then searched other people’s tents until around 3 a.m., Abu Hasan said.

Later that morning, a prominent local settler, armed and wearing civilian clothes, led a group of armed men wearing military uniforms without name tags who had arrived in civilian cars in blocking an access road, while a military vehicle and two police patrol vehicles were stationed nearby, four residents said.

Four vehicles with soldiers, some of whom residents recognized as settlers from prior attacks, then entered Wadi al-Seeq, residents said. The soldiers took residents’ phones, car keys, and IDs, hit people, and entered tents where women and children were taking cover, and threw belongings on the ground, said 30-year-old Marwan M.

The attackers said they would shoot residents if they did not leave within an hour. Abu Bashar said: “They said, you can’t take anything with you, and even the cars were forbidden.” About 30 people were wounded in the attack, according to news reports.

Soldiers entered Reem R.’s tent, shoved her and her children, and took their phones, she said. “One man in uniform kicked me in the back of my neck. They said, ‘Go to the valley, and if you come back, we will kill you.’” As she was fleeing, Reem saw her 20-year-old son, who has a congenital bone condition and a physical disability, lying on the ground, with a settler “stomping on his back,” she said. The women and children, including two with physical disabilities, fled to a cave, where they sheltered for eight hours without food or water, or their phones, until around 8 p.m., then walked toward the town of Taybeh, Reem said.

Meanwhile, soldiers forced Marwan M., Abu Hasan, and a third man, Nadim N., onto the ground, bound them, and hit, kicked, and beat them with their gun butts, they said. Another group of soldiers arrived and left, and a civilian vehicle arrived with men in military uniforms. Soldiers dragged the three men to a sheep pen, blindfolded and stripped them to their underwear, replaced the zip-tie on Abu Hasan’s wrists with painful metal wire, and for more than two hours, beat and kicked the men in the head and face. Nadim N. was burned with cigarettes. Marwan M. lost consciousness, he said. The attackers posted images of the men online.

“They took turns beating us, over and over, with threats like, ‘When you die your wife won’t be able to feed your children’,” Abu Hasan said. One man urinated on him, and another kicked him in the chest, stomach, and genitals. “I was screaming in pain. After that he brought a broom handle, jumped on my back, hit me with it and tried to shove it in my anus.”

Abu Hasan said the attackers stole three phones and 2,700 shekels (about US$700) in cash from the three men, and other belongings. In the evening, an Israeli military medic arrived with other soldiers. Marwan M. said, “they gave me glucose, and apologized. We told them how they stole our cars, phones, money, everything, and insisted that they get our things back, but they didn’t respond [to our requests].” He and Abu Hasan were hospitalized.

About five days later, Israeli authorities in two police cars escorted some residents back for two hours to retrieve their belongings, Reem R. said. Her household’s mattresses, blankets, clothes, electrical equipment, refrigerator, car trailer, 250 chickens, and 35,000 shekels (about US$9,400) worth of sheep fodder that was bought on credit, were missing, she said. Other residents’ documents, including birth and marriage certificates, were burned or missing, and two cars, water tanks, donkeys, chickens, and 13 sheep had been stolen, Abu Bashar said. Their homes had been destroyed.

Residents said they filed a complaint at the police station in the Binyamin settlement but have heard nothing since. The military asked two men to submit complaints.

The soldiers involved in the attack were part of the military’s Desert Frontier unit, which recruits residents of settlement outposts, including some settlers with criminal records, Haaretz reported. The military dismissed the commander in October in response to reports about the attack, and in December, dismissed five combat soldiers and froze the unit’s operations following additional violent incidents, Haaretz reported. Human Rights Watch is not aware of anyone having been prosecuted in relation to the events.

In December, the Israeli military filed an order barring the settler leader from most of the West Bank, for three months. He appealed the order. The US sanctioned him in March.

Reem R. and her family are sheltering in a tent on the outskirts of Taybeh. Her children were out of school for more than two months. The school in Wadi al-Seeq, which opened in 2017 and had over 100 students in grades 1 through 8, including children from neighboring communities, was destroyed after the attack.

The families were originally displaced during the 1948 war from what is now Israel. Between 2010 and 2023, the Israeli military issued demolition orders for 110 structures in the community, including the school, for lacking building permits, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

Settlers began herding sheep on the community’s lands and harassing residents in February 2023. On August 3, settlers beat children and youth with sticks and tried to steal their sheep, residents said. The army arrested three men who prevented the theft and detained 35-year-old Karim K. on charges of assault and resisting arrest, which his uncle said were bogus. He was released in February on bail and a third-party guarantee.

Khirbet al-Ratheem

Between October 14 and 23, the entire community of about 50 people in Khirbet al-Ratheem, in the southern West Bank, was displaced due to attacks by armed men in military uniforms whom community residents recognized as settlers from previous attacks, accompanied by other soldiers whom residents did not recognize.

Settlers began to harass Khirbet al-Ratheem in 2021, destroying crops and raiding homes at night, former residents said.

On October 7, 2023, soldiers arrived and warned the community not to leave their homes or graze their sheep and blocked all the roads. On October 8, settlers attacked the home of 50-year-old Ghassan G., his 44-year-old wife Farah, and their three children under the age of 18; destroyed two water cisterns; and smashed their solar panels with stones.

At 10 p.m. on October 12, five masked, armed men in military uniforms forced three nearby households into Ghassan’s tent, dragging Ghassan’s elderly father, who had difficulty walking, and pointing an M16 at his head, Farah said. One man told them, “You have 24 hours to leave, [or] we will kill you and take your sheep,” Ghassan said. The attackers punctured their water tanks and cut their gas and water pipes. Ghassan called a humanitarian agency and the nearby municipality of al-Samu’a to help them evacuate but was told it was not possible to coordinate with the Israeli military, he said.

On the night of October 13, masked and armed soldiers, whom a family member identified by their voices as “settlers we’re used to,” entered the family home again, threatened them and demanded their phones. The family member, who hid her phone and video camera, showed Human Rights Watch videos of prior settler attacks.

As Ghassan’s extended family were leaving on October 14, settlers returned and forced them face-down on the ground, beating, kicking, and threatening to kill them, family members said. The family escaped to the town of al-Samu’a, 15 kilometers away, with 220 sheep, a few solar panels, appliances, and mattresses. A neighbor later filmed a settler bulldozing their home.

Ghassan had to build a sheep shelter on the outskirts of al-Samu’a, at a cost of 50,000 shekels (about US $13,400), and buy fodder. Previously, the sheep had grazed on 30 dunams (about 7 acres) of land.

The extended family of 76-year-old Abu A. and his wife, Lana, who have five children under the age of 18 along with adult children and their families, lived nearby. On October 8 or 9, men Abu A. recognized as settlers from an outpost of the Asa’el settlement entered their home and warned them to leave or “we’ll cut your throats.” His family found the slain body of one of their sheep next to their door, on October 11. At 11 p.m. on October 12 or 13, settlers smashed their solar panels, Abu A. said.

At 9 p.m. on October 16, five masked men, one wearing a military uniform and carrying an M16 assault rifle, arrived at Abu A.’s home, “shoved me on the ground, and the one in uniform kicked me in my stomach and hit me in the forehead with the butt of his gun.” The men punctured a water tank and warned them to leave by October 21 “or we will burn you.” Lana was hiding inside with her daughter in law and her daughters, including Anan, 8. Anan said she was very scared and “hid inside the closet and looked through the keyhole.”

Abu A.’s son, Iyad, said that on October 20, a group of uniformed Israeli forces detained him and three of his brothers. Some soldiers beat and stomped on them, and warned them to leave, as other soldiers “sat on the side,” Iyad said.

At noon on October 21, as the family was leaving with their belongings, three soldiers armed with M16s, blindfolded and zip-tied Iyad. Iyad said he was hit on the head with gun butts, taken to an outpost and then to two settlements, and finally to an army base in the Otniel settlement. He was released at 10 p.m. after Israeli police came to the settlement. A photograph taken on October 22 shows Iyad’s swollen hands and raw marks on his wrists, consistent with zip tie restraints.

Abu A., who has 11 siblings, said his family had owned 600 dunams (about 148 acres) of land in the area, where he was born in 1947. His family are now in al-Samu’a, but he could not graze his herd, forcing him to sell 100 of his sheep. He had previously sold his six cows after the Israeli military prevented him from accessing their grazing lands. “We are in debt, [and] we don’t have any income,” he said.

Three brothers from another branch of the family were forced to leave by soldiers whom residents recognized as settlers. One of the brothers, 43-year-old Ayman A., said that after October 7, settlers wearing military-uniform pants, driving a bulldozer and two cars, repeatedly threatened him, his wife and their seven children to leave “or we will burn you.”

On October 23, uniformed soldiers whom Ayman described as settlers, fired their M16s in the air and “threw us onto the ground.” He and his brothers, Mohammed and Amer, said settlers hit them and stomped on their backs. At around 9 p.m., the brothers and their families fled to al-Samu’a but had to leave behind their furniture and appliances.

Their wives and children are staying in a relative’s home in al-Samu’a, while the brothers and their older sons are staying close to a shelter they built for their 150 sheep. “It cost 8,000 shekels [US $2,100] for a bulldozer to clear the ground,” and thousands more in building materials, Ayman said. The sheep, cut off from grazing lands, need 125 kilograms of fodder each day.

Schools in the area switched to online education after October 7 due to the movement restrictions Israel imposed. Only 5 out of 23 schoolchildren in the extended family had devices or phones and were able to attend online classes, a family member said. Some schools reopened in mid-December.

Khirbet Zanuta

Human Rights Watch interviewed members of the extended S. and N. families who fled Khirbet Zanuta, in the southern West Bank, on November 1 due to settler attacks. The entire community of more than 140 people was displaced.

Saleh S., 38, and his wife and four children, ages 5 to 11, said their families had lived in Khirbet Zanuta “since our grandparents’ days.” Settlers established a nearby outpost three years ago and repeatedly harassed the community. After October 7, “they entered the house, cursing at us, harassing the children, swearing at them. It was every other day, if not in the morning, then at night,” Saleh said.

On October 7, settlers bulldozed and blocked the entrance to the road into Khirbet Zanuta from al-Dhahiriya, eight kilometers away, said Saleh’s sister, Abier, 45. In the following weeks, settlers regularly threw stones at their homes at night, hitting the metal roof. “For 10 days we weren’t able to sleep,” said Saleh’s brother Sami, 53, who lived nearby with his wife and three children, two of them under 18. Settlers smashed Saleh’s solar panels and windows and destroyed several residents’ cars.

On October 31, six armed settlers drove all-terrain vehicles to the home of Saleh’s brother Mahmoud, 42, his wife and three children, ages 2 to 9. They detained and beat him, Mahmoud said. Mahmoud said: “They were choking me, I thought they were going to kill me. They hit me with their M16s, all over, [on] my back, my arms. They cursed me and threatened my family, in Arabic and Hebrew. They threw me on the ground. There were cactus spines stuck in me.”

Click to expand Image A room under construction by families displaced after attacks by settlers and soldiers from Khirbet Zanuta, in the southern West Bank, November 23, 2023. © 2023 Bill Van Esveld/Human Rights Watch

Saleh and Mahmoud said that they recognized the leader of the settlers who warned residents to leave their homes after October 7. This man had previously carried an M16 or a handgun and led settlers who cut water pipes, punctured water tanks, and used a drone to terrify the family’s sheep, Saleh and Mahmoud said. On November 1, the extended family fled. Sami said settlers armed with M16s “threw rocks at us even while we were leaving.” “We took the solar panels, the sheep, and our [kitchen] cutlery,” but had to leave everything else, said his sister, Abier. The family had to let their 100 pigeons go free. They rented three large trucks to help move their 300 sheep, at a cost of around 3,200 shekels (about US$860).

The family paid 60,000 shekels (US$16,000) to build a new sheep shelter, but without access to their lands, including four water cisterns, they cannot afford to keep the flock. The three brothers built rooms to live in, one per family, in a field near al-Dhahiriya. Saleh said, “I haven’t been able to sleep, I haven’t been able to eat. They forced a Nakba [catastrophe] on us.”

Munir and Sara N., both 38, and their nine children lived in another part of Khirbet Zanuta. At 7 a.m., a few days after October 7, settlers in two trucks, armed with assault rifles, accompanied by soldiers, beat six of Munir’s neighbors, threatening to shoot them. Settlers smashed the windows of a neighbor’s Mitsubishi truck and the windows of nearby houses.

Two days later, at 10 p.m., soldiers and settlers returned. One man threw a stun grenade inside the family home, where the children were sleeping, Sara said. Her daughter, Yara, 13, said, “The soldiers threw a sound bomb [stun grenade] close to us and I got very scared.” “The weapons terrify the younger kids, and we were afraid for their lives,” Munir said.

At midnight, several days later, eight or nine settlers arrived, accompanied by a military vehicle from which three soldiers descended. Settlers assaulted four families living nearby, beat Munir with the butts of their guns, and warned, “You have 24 hours to leave, or we’ll set fire to you.” The next day the family rented trucks at a cost of 2,100 shekels (about US$560) to move their livestock, which now shelter in an unfinished building.

After October 7, settlers also repeatedly flew drones over the family’s penned-in flock of 250 sheep, causing them to panic and trample one another, killing 10 sheep, Munir said.

“We’re all in debt,” Munir said. “If anyone would provide safety and protection for my children from settlers, we would go back [home].” On January 31, rights activists filmed settlers fencing off Khirbet Zanuta’s lands.

Sara’s children had gone to school in Khirbet Zanuta before October 7, but afterward, schools shifted to online learning, “and we don’t have internet devices.”

The school had 27 students from kindergarten to 6th grade, an education official said. It was burned in an apparent arson attack on November 20, and filmed on November 21 by a member of B’tselem, who posted photos and videos online. The school, built with humanitarian support from the EU, the UK, and other European countries, was later bulldozed.

The school’s kindergarten was subsidized and cost parents 150 shekels (about US $40) per year. Nadia, age 4, who had attended the kindergarten, said, “I saw it burned [on social media]. All of it. I got sad, and I started yelling. I used to play with doctor tools, kitchen tools, dolls, and Barbies.” Nadia’s family cannot afford the kindergarten where they are displaced, which costs 200 shekels (about US$53) per month.

School officials partnered with civil society groups to offer psycho-social support programs, a weekly health clinic, and purchased hearing aids for one student, the education official said. “The students lost so much with the loss of the school,” he said.

Ein al-Rashash

All eight families living in Ein al-Rashash fled on October 13 fearing further settler violence, and Bedouin families in the area were also displaced that week due to threats, according to residents and news reports.

The Israeli military has since 2010 issued demolition orders against 73 structures in Ein al-Rashash. Settlers began harassing the community in 2014 after establishing a herding outpost, called Angels of Peace, in a former military base, led by a settler whom residents identified by his first name.

On October 8, the same men appeared in uniform, carrying M16 assault rifles, and blocked the road to the community, said Wesam W., 25. On October 11 and 12, settlers killed six Palestinians in Qusra, about 10 kilometers north of Ein al-Rashash. Fearing a deadly attack, on October 13, the entire community “decided to leave, for our safety and dignity,” said Wesam’s brother Omar, 33. Omar, his wife, and six children, walked to the nearby town of Maghayir.

On October 27, two Israeli rights activists drove Omar back to Ein al-Rashash, hoping to recover some belongings. He found that 18 tents, a car trailer, appliances, solar panels, and sheep fodder that cost 150,000 shekels (about US$40,000) were missing, he said. Seven settlers wearing civilian clothes then arrived on foot and hit and kicked them, said Wesam and one of the activists.

Community members said the Israeli police in the Binyamin settlement would not allow them to file a complaint unless they did so in person, but they declined because police had previously detained and interrogated them about false complaints by settlers.

Omar's grandparents fled to the West Bank in 1948 as refugees from what is now Israel. The family is now renting a 7-room house in Maghayir, for 35 people. They cannot graze their flock.

Tajikistan: EU States, Türkiye Should Not Return Dissidents

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 21:00:01 -0400

Click to expand Image Groups protest against the visit of Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon and other Central Asian leaders to Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2023. © 2023 snapshot-photography/FBoillot/Shutterstock

(Berlin, April 16, 2024) – Several people based in Lithuania, Poland, and Türkiye, linked to a banned Tajik opposition movement, Group 24, have in recent months disappeared or have been arrested and threatened with extradition to Tajikistan, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee said today.

Group 24 is a political movement promoting democratic reforms in Tajikistan, which the Tajik government banned and designated a terrorist organization in October 2014. Tajikistan has for the last decade sought the extradition of exiled activists in other countries, some of whom also have been killed or forcibly disappeared. Host governments should not deport the people concerned to Tajikistan because of the risk of torture and should respect Tajik asylum seekers’ full due process rights, including not arbitrarily detaining them at the behest of unfounded and politically motivated requests by the Tajik government.

“Tajikistan should unequivocally end its decade-long hunt of perceived critics abroad, especially those related to Group 24 and other banned groups,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The EU and Türkiye should protect opposition activists and refrain from returning them to Tajikistan, a country known for engaging in transnational repression, where they risk being tortured.”

Human Rights Watch recently published a report on transnational repression – targeting of critics abroad by repressive governments – that includes several cases of members of Group 24, both former and active, who had fled the country only to be targeted by the Tajik government, seeking their arrest and extradition to Tajikistan on charges of terrorism or extremism-related activities. Activists in exile have also been subject to enforced disappearances or abusive use of Interpol Red Notices, which is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person because a government is seeking their extradition.

On April 5, 2024, Lithuanian security services detained Sulaimon Davlatov, a former member of Group 24, in Vilnius on charges of allegedly violating Lithuania’s national security. On April 7, a court in Vilnius ordered his pretrial detention for two months, and on April 9 the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s office told the media that Davlatov “presents a threat to the national security of Lithuania due to his cooperation with members and allies of terrorist organizations, extremist movements and propaganda of extremism.”

Davlatov has been a resident of Lithuania since he was granted asylum in 2015. Lithuanian authorities should rule out any risk that Davlatov could be extradited to Tajikistan, and in line with fair trial rights, grant Davlatov and his lawyer immediate access to any evidence they have to substantiate the allegations.

On February 23 and March 10 respectively, two senior figures in Group 24, Nasimjon Sharifov and Sukhrob Zafar, disappeared in Türkiye. Both had previously been detained by the Turkish police in March 2018 at the request of Tajik authorities and threatened with extradition but were eventually released. They had recently told family and colleagues that they were receiving regular threats from Tajik intelligence services. Neither man’s whereabouts is currently known. Friends and colleagues are concerned that they may have been forcibly disappeared by either or both Tajik and Turkish authorities and extrajudicially removed to Tajikistan.

On March 19, a court in Poland ordered Komron Khudoydodov, brother of former Group 24 activist Shabnam Khudoydodova, to leave Poland by April 19 voluntarily or be deported to Tajikistan. This followed the rejection of his application for asylum. Khudoydodov moved to Poland in 2018 on a humanitarian visa from the Polish authorities granted because he faced persecution in Tajikistan due to his sister’s peaceful political activity. In 2015, Tajik authorities had Shabnam Khudoydodova placed on the Interpol Red Notices on charges of extremism.

Tajik authorities also have an ongoing criminal investigation against Komron Khudoydodov on charges of extremism. Returning Khudoydodov to Tajikistan would place him at risk of torture or ill-treatment, and therefore be a violation of the ban on refoulement. Poland should make clear that it will abide by its international legal obligations and rule out deporting Khudoydodov to Tajikistan.

In addition to Lithuania and Poland, other European Union members, such as Austria, Germany, and Slovakia, have in recent years returned or threatened to return Tajik asylum seekers to Tajikistan despite credible evidence of their risk of being tortured. Upon their arrival in Tajikistan, those deported from the EU member states have been jailed.

The United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, prohibits the expulsion, return (refoulment), or extradition of a person to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be in danger of being tortured. The European Convention on Human Rights also incorporates this ban as an element of the prohibition on torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. All EU member countries and Türkiye are party to both treaties. This principle is also incorporated into Lithuanian, Polish, and Turkish domestic law.

“EU member states and Türkiye should uphold their international human rights obligations, including not to return people at risk of torture and persecution for their political activism to their country of origin,” Sultanalieva said. “They should denounce cases of transnational repression and review any cooperation agreements with states engaged in targeting critics abroad.”

Saudi Arabia: Free Award-Winning Activist

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 06:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Waleed Abu al-Khair, prominent lawyer and human rights activist, speaks to Human Rights Watch over Skype from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on September 19, 2013. © 2013 Human Rights Watch

(Beirut) – Saudi authorities should immediately release Waleed Abu al-Khair, an award-winning Saudi human rights defender and lawyer, 17 human rights groups including Human Rights Watch said today, on the 10th anniversary of his arrest. He is serving a 15-year prison sentence due to his peaceful human rights activism.

“This grim anniversary of Waleed Abu al-Khair’s arrest undermines Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s hollow narrative of reform,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Waleed Abu al-Khair, along with many other of Saudi Arabia’s best and brightest citizens, remains unjustly locked up for nothing more than demanding a rights-respecting future for their country.”

The Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), Saudi Arabia’s terrorism tribunal, convicted Abu al-Khair in July 2014 primarily for his comments to media outlets and tweets criticizing Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, especially the country’s harsh sentences against peaceful critics. The court also issued a 15-year travel ban and imposed a fine of 200,000 Saudi riyals (about US$53,000).

Abu al-Khair won the prestigious Human Rights Award from the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2016. He has won numerous other human rights awards as well.

“Abu al-Khair has lost 10 years of his life to the Saudi government’s repression,” Shea said. “The Saudi authorities should release him immediately.”

Justa Libertad: A Movement to Decriminalize Abortion in Ecuador

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 06:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Women from different organizations that are part of the Justa Libertad movement raise green scarves outside the Constitutional Court of Ecuador in Quito, March 19, 2024. © 2024 Karen Toro

Justa Libertad, an Ecuadorian coalition of eight civil society organizations, recently filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador seeking to decriminalize abortion. This crucial initiative seeks to ensure that women, girls, and other pregnant people can access safe abortion care. It follows similar coalitions that achieved progress in other Latin American countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina.

Abortion is currently penalized in Ecuador with up to three years in prison, with exceptions for cases in which the pregnancy represents a risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman or, after a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling, when the pregnancy is the result of sexual violence. Even for cases that fit these narrow exceptions, accessing abortion care remains challenging due to stigma among health personnel and other institutions that hold the belief that once pregnant, women and girls are obligated to become mothers.

Justa Libertad embodies the struggle for social justice and women’s rights in Ecuador. The denial of abortion services can violate a number of human rights, including the rights to nondiscrimination and equality; life; health; information; freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; privacy and bodily autonomy and integrity; and freedom of conscience and religion. Women, girls, and other pregnant people have the right to make decisions about their own body and their future.

Regulating abortion via criminal law perpetuates its stigma and disproportionately affects women and girls living in conditions of poverty, including Indigenous and Afro-descendant people.

Amid a movement across Latin America to achieve reproductive justice, decriminalizing abortion is an urgent matter. Ecuador should join other countries in taking this step.

Germany: Scholz Should Stand Firm on Rights in China

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 01:00:00 -0400

(Berlin) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz should stress the importance of human rights in the Sino-German relationship during his visit to China and meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Human Rights Watch said today. Scholz arrived in Beijing on April 13, 2024, and is expected to meet with Xi on April 16.

“Chancellor Scholz should not play second fiddle to Germany’s narrow business interests, but should lead by setting the Sino-German relationship on a rights-respecting footing,” said Wenzel Michalski, Germany director at Human Rights Watch. “Promoting human rights is good both for the Chinese people and for Germany’s long-term interests.”

Scholz last visited Beijing in November 2022, when he also brought along a large business delegation. Since then, Germany has issued a new China strategy in which it commits to responding to an increasingly assertive and abusive Chinese government by “de-risking," or reducing reliance on China for critical supply chains. The strategy also asserts that “[h]uman rights are at the heart of” German government policies toward China.

In an April 12 letter to the German chancellor, Human Rights Watch urged Scholz to make clear to Xi that the Sino-German relationship will suffer if Beijing does not address serious human rights violations in China. These include ending its crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in Xinjiang and freeing the hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, including Rahile Dawut, a prominent expert on ethnography, and Ilham Tohti, Uyghur scholar and Sakharov Prize laureate.

Beijing should also revoke the two draconian national security laws in Hong Kong and release those wrongfully detained in mainland China, including human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife, Xu Yan.

In a 2022 public opinion poll in Germany, 68 percent of those who responded said that is it important for Germany to stand up for human rights when dealing with China.

“Scholz needs to put Germany’s China strategy into action by forthrightly putting human rights at the center of the Sino-German relationship,” Michalski said. “The German government should demonstrate its commitment by impressing upon Chinese leaders its principled and public support for the human rights of everyone in China.”

Abu Ghraib Torture Case Finally Goes to Trial

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 00:01:00 -0400

Twenty years have passed since the media broke the story that US forces and the CIA were torturing “war on terror” detainees at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq. But for the men who were tortured, it feels like only yesterday. The physical and mental scars they carry serve as daily reminders of the abuse they suffered.

Still, several of these men told me they hold out hope that the US government will apologize and give them the redress they deserve.

On April 15, a federal court in Virginia will hear the case of Al Shimari et al. v. CACI, a lawsuit brought by the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of three Iraqi torture victims. The suit asserts that CACI, a private security company which the US government hired in 2003 to interrogate prisoners in Iraq, directed and participated in torture and other abuse at Abu Ghraib. The men are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

CACI has tried to have the case dismissed 20 times since it was first filed in 2008.

Al Shimari et al. v. CACI was only able to advance because it targeted a military contractor. US courts have repeatedly dismissed similar cases against the federal government because of a 1946 law that preserves US forces’ immunity for claims that arise during war.

What’s more, the US government hasn’t created any official compensation program or other avenues for redress for those who allege they were tortured or abused. Nor are there any pathways available to have their cases heard.

This lawsuit is a critical step towards justice for these three men who will finally have their day in court. But they are the lucky few. For the hundreds of other survivors still suffering from past abuses, their chances of justice remain slim. The US Government should do the right thing: take responsibility for their abuses, offer an apology, and open an avenue to redress that has been denied them for too many years.