Human Rights Watch News

Indonesian Government Acts to Protect Student Media

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 08 May 2024 10:51:05 -0400

Click to expand Image Participants at a student-journalist organized conference on the “legal umbrella” (payung hukum) of laws and regulations that protect media outlets, in Solo, Central Java, May 2023. © 2023 Andreas Harsono/Human Rights Watch

As student journalists in Indonesia face increasing intimidation, censorship, and newsroom closures, the Ministry of Education has agreed to have the national Press Council mediate all defamation disputes involving student journalists and publications. It’s an important step toward better protecting student media in the country.

Until now, criminal defamation cases involving student journalists and publications were handled by universities or the police, who were more likely to be swayed by influential local elites pressing cases against student publications. The new agreement, signed on March 18, provides a mechanism that no longer requires these defamation disputes to be referred to the police or public prosecutors.

One year ago, Human Rights Watch called on the Indonesian government to work with the Press Council and set up such a mechanism to support and protect student media. While the 1999 Press Law had established the Press Council to mediate defamation disputes faced by media organizations, student media did not fall under its purview. Instead, student journalists operate under the jurisdiction of their educational institution and, by extension, the Ministry of Religious Affairs for Islamic schools and the Ministry of Education for all others. The Press Council said it hopes to sign a similar agreement with the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Most Indonesian universities have student media outlets, such as magazines, online news sites, or radio stations. Many of these outlets operate like traditional independent newsrooms. This has often brought them in conflict with the university administration when student reporters uncover and report on malfeasance, corruption, sexual misconduct, and other sensitive issues at the school.

Between 2020 and 2021, the Indonesian Student Press Association (Perhimpunan Pers Mahasiswa Indonesia) recorded 48 cases of university administrators intimidating or shutting down student media outlets among 185 cases of alleged press-related abuses on campuses around the country. In addition to intimidation and shuttering outlets, the abuses ranged from threats to physical assault to the expulsion of students because of their journalism work.

Student journalism has a long history in Indonesia and this latest decision will bolster press freedom on Indonesian campuses. University leaders and administrators should protect, encourage, and applaud student journalists instead of censoring them.

West Bank: Israeli Forces’ Unlawful Killings of Palestinians

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Israeli forces enter the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus during a large-scale search-and-arrest operation on November 23, 2023. © 2023 Sipa via AP Images Israeli security forces have unlawfully used lethal force in fatal shootings of Palestinians, including deliberately executing Palestinians who posed no apparent security threat, based on documentation of several cases since 2022.The United Nations reported that such killings are now taking place at a level without recent precedent in an environment in which those responsible need not fear the Israeli government will hold them accountable.Governments should support the International Criminal Court’s probe into serious crimes committed in Palestine and impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for grave abuses.

(Jerusalem, May 8, 2024) – Israeli security forces have unlawfully used lethal force in fatal shootings of Palestinians in the West Bank, Human Rights Watch said today, based on documentation of several cases. Research into eight deaths in four incidents between July 2022 and October 2023 concluded that Israeli forces wrongfully fatally shot or deliberately executed Palestinians who posed no apparent security threat.

Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have long documented the unlawful and excessive use of lethal force by Israeli forces in the West Bank and the Israeli government’s failure to hold those responsible to account. According to the United Nations, Israeli security forces killed more than twice the number of Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023 than in any year since systematic data collection began in 2005, and the rate of killings was even higher during the first quarter of 2024.

“Israeli security forces are not just unlawfully killing Palestinians in Gaza, but have been killing Palestinians without a legal basis in the West Bank, including deliberately executing Palestinians who posed no apparent threat,” said Richard Weir, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These killings are taking place at a level without recent precedent in an environment in which Israeli forces have no need to fear that their government will hold them accountable.”

Between May and November 2023, Human Rights Watch interviewed 14 witnesses and 6 family members of victims of fatal shootings by Israeli security forces in the West Bank. Human Rights Watch also spoke to medical personnel in the West Bank and reviewed medical records, verified videos posted on social media, and news reports. Human Rights Watch wrote to the Israel Defense Forces on August 8, 2023, and April 23, 2024, with questions about the eight fatalities and the military’s rules regarding the use of force, but has not received a reply to either query.

Human Rights Watch has also released a question-and-answer document on the international legal framework applicable to violence and the use of force in the West Bank.

In one case that Human Rights Watch investigated, Israeli forces in Jenin repeatedly fired upon Sidqi Zakarneh, who was crawling injured on the ground, killing him. Videos showed that he was not participating in violence and did not appear to have weapons. In another case, in the northern West Bank, family members said Rafiq Ghannem went out apparently unarmed early one morning to investigate loud noises. He encountered Israeli forces, who fatally shot him when he tried to flee.

Israeli forces in 2023 killed 492 Palestinians, including 120 children, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). That figure is more than twice as many as in any other year since the UN began systematically documenting fatalities. About 300 were killed in the nearly three months following the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, though the increase in killings dates back to 2022. Between January 1 and March 31, 2024, Israeli forces killed 131 Palestinians in the West Bank.

In 2023, Palestinians killed 25 Israeli civilians in the West Bank, the highest figure in at least 15 years, and 5 members of the Israeli armed forces, according to OCHA.

Palestinians have been at risk of being killed by Israeli security forces throughout the West Bank, whether traveling to and from work or in their own neighborhoods. Children on their way to school have been fatally shot, as Human Rights Watch documented in August 2023. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that in 2022, in only 45 percent of incidents in which Palestinians were killed did the Israeli military even allege that the victims were armed or that there were “clashes in which there was an exchange of gunfire.”

Between October 7, 2023, and March 18, 2024, Israeli forces conducted a monthly average of 640 search-and-arrest and other operations in the West Bank, nearly double the 340 such operations during the first nine months of 2023, according to OCHA. These operations resulted in the killing of 304 Palestinians, out of a total of 409 killed by Israeli forces during this period.

During a search-and-arrest operation near the West Bank city of Tulkarem on October 19, Israeli forces shot and killed 15-year-old Taha Mahamid and, minutes later, wounded his father, Ibrahim, who went to retrieve his body. Video and other evidence shows no sign that either was carrying a weapon. Ibrahim Mahamid died of his injuries four months later. Witnesses said, and video footage supported, that the shootings occurred at a time when there were no active confrontations in the area and neither Taha nor his father posed any imminent threat to Israeli forces.

Israeli security forces in the West Bank are bound by international human rights law. The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials provide that the “intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.”

Israel does not make public the rules on the use of force that it applies to the army. However, in the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, Israeli military personnel engaged in law enforcement used lethal force when it was not strictly unavoidable to protect life, including firing on people who were fleeing or were considered to be linked to clashes or possible violent acts.

Repeated unlawful killings and endemic impunity are among the inhumane acts that make up the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution that Israeli authorities commit against Palestinians, as Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have documented.

Governments should suspend arms and other military support to Israel because of the risk of complicity in grave abuses in Palestine, take action to ensure accountability including supporting the International Criminal Court’s probe into serious crimes committed in Palestine, and impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for grave abuses.

“The Israeli government’s permissive and discriminatory practices on the use of force and endemic impunity are one facet of the apartheid and structural violence Palestinians face every day,” Weir said. “The unlawful killings in the West Bank will continue so long as the Israeli authorities’ systemic repression of Palestinians continues.”

Impunity for Unlawful Use of Lethal Force

Human Rights Watch has previously documented that some senior Israeli officials have encouraged soldiers and police to kill Palestinians suspected of attacking Israelis, even when they are no longer a threat. Haaretz reported that since “December 2021, soldiers are allowed to shoot at Palestinians who are fleeing if they had previously thrown stones or Molotov cocktails.” In April 2022, then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said there would be “no restrictions” on Israeli forces’ response to Palestinian violence. In October 2022, Itamar Ben-Gvir, now the national security minister, said while running for election that it should be legal to use lethal force against anyone throwing stones.

Such statements, coupled with the lack of accountability for abuses, contribute to a permissive environment for security forces to unlawfully use lethal force, Human Rights Watch said.

Despite decades of frequent unlawful killings of Palestinians in policing situations, Israeli authorities continue to use tactics that contravene international human rights norms. Israeli security forces do not use a similar pattern of unlawful lethal force against Jewish Israelis, even during disruptive demonstrations, including by West Bank settlers, that involve stone-throwing and blocking roads. This indicates that Israeli authorities use of unlawful excessive force is discriminatory and is used to further their policy of maintaining domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians.

The Israeli rights group Yesh Din found that between 2017 and 2021, fewer than one percent of complaints of violations by Israeli forces against Palestinians, including killings and other abuses, resulted in criminal indictments. During the same period, Yesh Din found that only three soldiers were convicted for killing Palestinians, and all received short sentences of military community service. The Israeli rights group B’Tselem, which for years filed claims and reported on the military justice system, have characterized the military’s internal law enforcement system as a “whitewash mechanism.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, has confirmed that his office has, since March 2021, been conducting an invesetigation into serious crimes committed in Palestine since 2014.

Cases of Killings of Palestinians

Taha and Ibrahim Mahamid, Nur Shams, October 19, 2023

On October 19, 2023, just before 3:30 a.m., as captured in a voice note sent by a local resident, sirens went off in Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, warning residents that the Israeli military was preparing to enter the camp. At 3:31 a.m., as confirmed in a video that Human Rights Watch verified, 15-year-old Taha Mahamid was approaching Nablus Street, the main street in front of his home in the al-Malash neighborhood in the camp, near its entrance, when at least two bullets struck him.

Taha’s sister Sara, who filmed the video, told Human Rights Watch that, after hearing the sirens, she opened her bedroom window to observe what was happening. Sara saw Taha outside with their neighbor and asked Taha what he was doing. “I won’t be long,” he said. “I want to see the [military] jeeps and come back up.” She said he was holding only a cellphone.

The video shows two males, one identified as Taha, stepping cautiously toward Nablus Street in Nur Shams from Taha’s home. As he approaches the main road, Taha turns his body to the right to look east along Nablus Street. One second later a shot is heard and Taha collapses to the ground. Two more shots ring out, and Taha lies there motionless. No Israeli forces or armed Palestinians were in the area, Sara said. The video shows no sign of an active confrontation or of Taha carrying a weapon of any kind.

Click to expand Image Taha Mahamid’s mother holds a photo of her son, whom Israeli forces killed on October 19, 2023 when he was 15, at the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, November 2, 2023. © 2023 Human Rights Watch

The preliminary forensic medical report by the Martyr Dr. Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem recorded that Taha was dead when he was brought by ambulance to the emergency room of the hospital. It states that two bullets hit Taha in the front of his body “from below the right eye” and that they “exited from the back of the head,” indicating that the shots were most likely fired from the direction in which Taha was looking.

Minutes after Taha was shot, his father, Ibrahim Mahamid, 58, left the house and went toward Taha. He told Human Rights Watch that he could not bear the sight of his son bleeding on the ground or the thought of Israeli forces taking him. When he reached Taha, a bullet struck the father in the abdomen, he said and medical reports confirmed. Videos reviewed by Human Rights Watch show him next to Taha, rolling over in an attempt to stand up, until a neighbor arrives and helps him to reach his house.

Sara made two phone calls to the Palestinian Red Cresent Society, at 3:37 a.m. and 3:43 a.m., requesting ambulances. The neighbor, a volunteer paramedic, also called for ambulances. The Red Crescent informed them that ambulances would not be able to immediately reach them, as Israeli forces were blocking entry to the camp.

An ambulance arrived at the scene at 4:44 a.m., more than an hour after Taha had been shot, according to a video Sara shared and that Human Rights Watch verified. About 10 minutes later, another ambulance came for Ibrahim Mahamid. “All this time, there was absolutely nothing outside,” Sara said. “No sound, no movement … no one came to him.” She said that Taha lay motionless, with blood around his head.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights documented that Israeli authorities “prevented Palestinian paramedics from accessing the injured” during the October 19 raid, which the office said “reflect[s] a growing pattern.” This obstruction could have denied Ibrahim Mahamid and possibly his son access to life-saving medical care, Human Rights Watch said.

Ibrahim Mahamid succumbed to his injuries on February 29, OCHA reported. A death certificate from the Palestinian Interior Ministry, signed by the Health Ministry, identified “aspiration, septic shock,” as a result of an “abdominal bullet injury,” as the cause of death.

Human Rights Watch concluded, based on its research, that Israeli forces shot both Taha and Ibrahim Mahamid. The shootings occurred at the entrance to the camp, at about the time that Israeli forces entered the camp. Residents said that Israeli forces had a practice of taking positions in and atop buildings in the camp to provide cover for troops to enter. As far as Human Rights Watch could determine, while Israeli authorities made no statement regarding the shooting of Taha and Ibrahim Mahamid, the Israeli military said that they had killed “more than 12 terrorists” in Nur Shams camp during the entire operation.

The Israeli military operation in Nur Shams camp that day lasted 27 hours, according to OCHA, resulting in the death of 14 Palestinians, including 6 children. The Israeli military said that its Duvdevan Unit of the Commando Brigade and its Duchifat Battalion and Sayeret Haruv of the Kfir Brigade carried out the operation, alongside the Israeli Border Police, including its Yamas Unit, which conducts covert and special operations. Israeli authorities said the operation in the camp was intended to “arrest wanted persons, destroy terrorist infrastructure, and confiscate weapons.” They said a member of the Yamas Unit of the Border Police was killed during the operation. They have not indicated that they are investigating the deaths, including those of Taha or Ibrahim Mahamid.

There was no apparent basis for shooting Taha and Ibrahim Mahamid, Human Rights Watch found. They posed no imminent threat to life or serious injury, making their killings unlawful.

During a subsequent 50-hour Israeli military incursion in Nur Shams on April 18-20, Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians and severely damaged infrastructure in the refugee camp, OCHA reported.

Atta Shalabi, Sidqi Zakarneh, and Tareq Damaj, Jenin, December 8, 2022

At about 5 a.m. on December 8, 2022, Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinian men on a main road in the middle of Jenin city, while Israeli forces conducted a search-and-arrest raid nearby. Video verified by Human Rights Watch indicates that Sidqi Zakarneh, 29, Tareq Damaj, 29, and Atta Shalabi, 46, were all seemingly unarmed.

Zakarneh was shot as he approached an intersection near where the raid was taking place and then, after being seriously wounded, was shot repeatedly as he tried to crawl away. Damaj and Shalabi were both shot apparently after they stopped near where Zakarneh had been shot. Israeli forces were apparently deployed in a café on the second floor of a building that overlooked an intersection about 50 meters from where the arrest raid was taking place.

Human Rights Watch verified and reviewed six videos on social media that show: Zakarneh and Damaj being shot; the apparent moment when Shalabi was shot and Shalabi’s motionless body; men dragging Shalabi away; and Israeli forces exiting the area following the killings.

The first shooting took place as Zakarneh and two other men were leaving a car parked on Al-Malek Faysal Street about 25 meters north of the intersection with Al-Nahda Street. A closed-circuit television video posted online shows Zakarneh being wounded by gunfire a few meters from the car. One man flees north, away from the intersection and the nearby raid. Zakarneh begins to slowly crawl on his stomach back toward the vehicle, and then at least two successive shots can be seen striking him, apparently in the head. At no time does it appear that Zakarneh or the men he was with were openly carrying weapons or engaged in acts of violence.

In a closed-circuit television (CCTV) video filmed just after Zakarneh was shot, another vehicle pulls alongside the car that carried Zakarneh. The driver, whom a witness later identified as Damaj, exits the vehicle and can be seen approaching cars driving on Al-Malek Faysal Street, near where Zakarneh lies, gesturing in his direction. As Damaj approaches Zakarneh, he is shot repeatedly and falls to the ground. The other vehicles in the area speed away, leaving the two men motionless in the street. From the videos alone, it is not clear where the shots originated.

The witness who identified Damaj said that minutes after Damaj was shot, the witness approached the scene, driving behind an ambulance to help recover the men. “When we got out of the car, we saw two martyrs, their bodies full of bullet holes, especially in their heads,” he said.

The witness said that while he and medics from the ambulance attempted to move one of the men, bullets struck the area around them. They could not confirm the direction from which the bullets came. The witness said he and the medics fled after managing to get one of the men into the ambulance. The witness said he did not see any weapons on or near the men.

At the same time, several men, including Shalabi and his brother, were near the intersection, as seen in a CCTV video verified by Human Rights Watch. At one point in the video, Shalabi approaches the ambulance, then walks back toward Al-Nahda Street and out of view of CCTV cameras. Seconds after he disappears from view, a man nearby is seen flinching and running for cover, apparently under gunfire.

The video then shows Shalabi’s brother running from where he and Shalabi had just moved out of view. Two videos posted online show Shalabi face down on Al-Nahda Street. One of these then shows Shalabi’s brother dragging his body back toward Al-Malek Faysal Street, in view of the CCTV cameras. At no time do any of the videos show anyone carrying weapons, weapons near the bodies of those shot, or anyone engaging in acts of violence.

Shalabi was shot immediately below the café that Israeli forces were apparently occupying during the raid. Shalabi’s motionless body is just a few meters from a door to a stairway that leads up to the café. Human Rights Watch visited the site and saw that the large door had been damaged. Residents said the damage occurred when Israeli forces forced it open on the morning of the raid. One shop worker said that he reviewed his CCTV camera footage after the raid from early that morning, which showed Israeli forces driving past the entrance and then returning. Human Rights Watch did not review this footage.

The location of the victims’ bodies, impacts visible in videos circulated online, and damage on the asphalt are consistent with small arms fire coming from an elevated position on the corner where the café is located.

Shortly thereafter, a witness who was helping to recover the body on Al-Malek Faysal Street said, Israeli armored vehicles drove up and stopped near the intersection with Al-Nahda Street. A CCTV video posted online also shows Israeli forces pulling up in multiple armored vehicles, with seven members of the armed forces coming from Al-Nahda Street just meters from the entrance to a stairwell that leads to the café. All seven armed forces personnel are seen boarding one of the armored vehicles through its rear doors.

Human Rights Watch visited the site where the men were killed and identified damage on the asphalt consistent with small arms fire in the locations where a witness said the three men were shot. Videos circulated on social media show the men shot or lying apparently dead in positions consistent with the damage on the asphalt that Human Rights Watch observed.

Following the killings, the Israeli military released a statement about its operations in Jenin city, saying that during an operation to arrest two suspects, the soldiers were “targeted with direct fire and responded with live fire, hits were identified.” They said that they had confiscated a weapon used by one of the suspects.

The Jenin branch of the armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad made a statement following the raid in Jenin claiming to have attacked Israeli troops with gunfire and explosives. They do not specify the location or time of the attacks. Human Rights Watch found no evidence that Shalabi, Zakarneh, or Damaj were engaged in any acts of violence.

The totality of the video and witness evidence shows that Zarkaneh, Damaj, and Shalabi did not present an imminent threat to life or serious injury in the moments leading up to when Israeli forces shot and killed them. At no time immediately prior to their killings did any of these men appear to possess or use weapons. The men’s conduct, as captured on video, does not show them engaged in violent acts, nor does it show Israeli forces attempting to exercise restraint. Instead, Israeli forces appear to have immediately intentionally used firearms, in violation of international norms.

Following the killings, the Palestinian armed group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed Zakarneh as a member and a “fighter,” while Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigade claimed that Damaj was a member. There is no further information about the extent of their respective memberships and their activities. Photos and posts circulated online before and after the incident show the two men posing with rifles. Shalabi does not appear to have participated in any armed group.

Regardless, membership or the past activities of Zakarneh and Damaj in any group is not a relevant factor in determining the standards on the intentional lethal use of force or firearms by forces acting in a law enforcement role. If Israeli authorities had a legal basis to arrest the men, the security forces could have acted to take them into custody and, depending on their response, used the minimal force necessary to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective.

The repeated shooting of Zakarneh while he crawled on the ground injured and posed no imminent threat and the shooting of the other men likely amount to extrajudicial killings outside of the existing legal framework.

Jawad Rimawi and Thafer Rimawi, Kafr Ein, November 29, 2022

On November 29, 2022, Israeli forces on patrol in the village of Kafr Ein, northwest of Ramallah, shot and killed the brothers Jawad Rimawi, 22, and Thafer Rimawi, 21, who were from nearby Beit Rima. They and other Palestinians had confronted an Israeli armored vehicle convoy with rock-throwing and an apparent “Molotov cocktail” (gasoline bomb). After being shot, the brothers were taken in private vehicles to a nearby hospital, where they died from their injuries.

Early that morning, an Israeli convoy of armored vehicles approached Kafr Ein from the east. Witnesses said that Palestinians from nearby villages alerted Kafr Ein residents that forces were heading toward them, and residents awake at the time saw the vehicles approaching. One resident heard a commotion from the center of town, including what he described as gunshots, and began filming from his rooftop.

The convoy made its way from the center of Kafr Ein toward its periphery. A witness said that up to four people, including the Rimawis, had also moved there, to the front yard of an unoccupied house along the main road leading out of the village to the south.

Another witness said that as the armored vehicles approached this house, people threw rocks at them and attempted to set tires alight on the road. A video shared with and verified by Human Rights Watch shows at least five Israeli armored vehicles passing by the front of the house, where the brothers were in the yard. In the video, the call to prayer can be heard starting, indicating that it was filmed shortly before 5 a.m.

A bright fireball erupts on or near the house’s front patio, at least 25 meters from the road, as one of the vehicles drives past. A small fire is seen in the yard first, followed by an intense larger fire apparently on the patio that dissipates within seconds. It is unclear if the two fires were ignited with the same material.

An independent expert on fire dynamics reviewed the video and concluded that the characteristics of the fires are consistent with the use of an incendiary device like a Molotov cocktail.

Just after the fireball erupts, nine gunshots are heard on the video. As the gunshots are ringing out, a man’s voice, identified by his family as Thafer’s, is heard screaming for Jawad. Approximately eight seconds after the last of the nine gunshots, a single shot is heard.

A witness said that Jawad, who was meters away across the yard, was coming to assist his brother when he was shot.

Less than 10 seconds after this single shot, an Israeli armored vehicle, which now appears in the video in front of the house, continues forward, following the other vehicles in the convoy. The remaining 40 seconds of the video do not show any more vehicles, suggesting that the gunfire came from this vehicle, the last in the patrol. No Israeli personnel appear to be outside of the vehicles at any time, and witnesses said they saw no forces on foot as the vehicles passed.

Human Rights Watch found what appeared to be a grouping of bullet holes about 1.5 meters up from the ground in a window on the side of the house where the fireball erupted.

After the shooting, residents raced to the wounded Rimawi brothers, placed them in separate private vehicles and rushed them to a hospital in Salfit, eight kilometers away. Based on interviews with doctors, reviews of medical reports, and witnesses, Thafer was hit by bullets at least twice in the chest. Jawad was hit in the lower abdomen.

Doctors at the hospital rushed Jawad into surgery and transferred Thafer by ambulance to a specialist hospital in Ramallah.

Jawad died during surgery. A hospital report, which Human Rights Watch viewed, documented a single gunshot entry wound in Jawad’s lower abdomen with no exit wound.

Thafer had no pulse when he arrived at the Ramallah hospital, said his sister Ru’a, who rode in the ambulance with him, and was pronounced dead. A report by the Palestinian Medical Complex said he had “several bone wounds in the sternum and lower neck.” A death certificate from the Palestinian Interior Ministry says that Thafer had “multiple gunshot injuries to the chest.”

A Molotov cocktail can cause serious injuries or death. However, were one to ignite and burn 25 meters or more from a moving armored military vehicle, it would not place those inside the vehicle at continuing risk.

One witness said that when Thafer was shot, he was not throwing a Molotov cocktail. Even if he were involved with the Molotov cocktail attack that had exploded at the house, when Israeli forces shot him, he no longer presented an imminent threat to life or serious injury. There were no Israeli forces on foot in the vicinity and the last armored vehicle was driving away. The use of deadly force against Jawad and Thafer Rimawi by Israeli forces appears unjustified.

Rafiq Ghannam, Jaba, July 6, 2022

At about 2:30 a.m. on July 6, 2022, Israeli forces fatally shot Rafiq Ghannam, 20, outside his home in Jaba in the northern West Bank between Jenin and Nablus. His family members said that Ghannam was asleep, his clothes laid out for his workday in Israel, when loud noises outside awakened him. According to residents, Israeli soldiers had surrounded his small neighborhood and were attempting to arrest the Ghannams’ neighbor, who lived on the other side of a high wall to the east that separated the two homes. The Ghannams’ house has a tall steel gate and is next to an olive tree grove at the end of a cul-de-sac, about 100 meters down a road connecting the cul-de-sac to a larger road.

Ghannam got out of bed wearing a white tank-top and brown shorts and put on his sandals. His brother and mother were already awake. Ghannam joined his brother at the gate to their house and peered out. Unable to see anything, Ghannam walked out of the gate. Three people said that they saw him step cautiously from his house; they said they did not see a weapon. As he reached the edge of a neighbor’s house, about 10 meters from his home, there was a simultaneous eruption of gunfire and shouting by Israeli forces, based on witness accounts and a video that Human Rights Watch reviewed.

Witnesses said several shots were fired as Ghannam approached the corner of his neighbor’s house, where there is an opening to the olive tree grove. At least seven shots can be heard on the video. Human Rights Watch could not establish the direction from which the forces fired and found no evidence that bullets struck the area around where Ghannam was standing, either on the ground or walls, indicating that the shots could have been fired into the air.

Witnesses said Ghannam ran from the gunfire, down the cul-de-sac leading to the main road. The video has audio of several gunshots and shows an individual who appears to be wearing a helmet and a backpack running in the direction that witnesses said Ghannam ran.

Witnesses lost sight of Ghannam as he ran down the cul-de-sac but said that shortly after, they saw Israeli forces return to the area around his house and walk back and forth. After the forces left, residents found a large pool of blood at the end of the cul-de-sac nearest to the main road.

Within hours, an Israeli intelligence officer called a relative of Ghannam who lived nearby, saying that Israeli forces had Ghannam and would provide information about him if the neighbor they had come to arrest surrendered. Shortly thereafter, the officer called again and told the relative: “I have a present for you.” The authorities had detained the wanted neighbor’s younger brother, gave him Ghannam’s blood-stained cellphone, and then released him. The brother handed the phone to Ghannam’s family.

At about 8 a.m., the Palestinian Coordination and Liaison Office informed the family that Ghannam had been killed. Israeli authorities took 21 days to return his body to the family.

Click to expand Image Rafiq Ghannam, 20, after he enrolled at Al-Quds Open University in Jenin, specializing in social work. The photo was taken in 2022, the same year he was killed by Israeli forces. © 2022 Private

An autopsy report from the Palestinian National Authority’s Public Prosecution Office notes a 0.5 centimeter wound on Ghannam’s back under the left shoulder, that it assessed as the bullet entry wound, and a 3.5 centimeter wound with irregular edges on Ghannam’s chest, that it assessed as the exit wound. The entry and exit wounds suggest that Ghannam was facing away from his shooter.

In a statement released later on July 6, the Israeli military said: “the force initiated a suspect apprehension procedure, which included opening fire at a suspect who fled from a building, and detected an injury to the suspect. The force provided medical aid to the suspect, but he was later pronounced dead. The circumstances of the case are being investigated.” Haaretz initially reported that the military said Ghannam threw a Molotov cocktail at the forces who had entered his neighborhood to arrest “a terror suspect.”

A subsequent report by Haaretz indicated that the Israeli forces’ investigation was complete and had been submitted to the military advocate general to decide whether any charges would be brought.

The outcome of the investigation has not been disclosed, and there have been no further announcements. The Israeli military did not respond to a Human Rights Watch letter requesting information on the status of the case.

There is no evidence that indicates that Rafiq Ghannam engaged in any acts of violence or that he presented an imminent threat of serious injury or death to Israeli forces. The Israeli military said on July 6 that it shot Ghannam because he fled a building and did not stop, an insufficient justification for the use of lethal force under the applicable international standards.

Mali: Islamist Armed Groups, Ethnic Militias Commit Atrocities

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image The National Road 15, going from Mopti region in southern Mali – where the Islamist armed group JNIM attacked two villages on January 27, 2024 – to Burkina Faso. © 2021 AMAURY HAUCHARD / AFP

(Nairobi) – An Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist armed group killed at least 32 civilians, including 3 children, and set fire to over 350 homes in central Mali in January 2024, forcing about 2,000 villagers to flee, Human Rights Watch said today. Earlier in January, an ethnic militia killed at least 13 civilians, including 2 children, abducted 24 other civilians, and looted property and livestock in central Mali. These attacks violate international humanitarian law and are apparent war crimes.

Human Rights Watch documented two attacks by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) on the villages of Ogota and Ouémbé, Mopti region, on January 27, and two attacks by Dozo militia on the villages of Kalala and Boura, Segou region, in early January. These attacks occurred amid recurrent tit-for-tat killings and communal violence in central Mali. Mali’s transitional military authorities, which took power in a May 2021 coup, should urgently investigate the abuses, fairly prosecute those responsible, and provide better protection for all civilians at risk.

“Islamist armed groups and ethnic militias are brutally attacking civilians without fear of prosecution,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities need to act to end the deadly cycles of violence and revenge killings and better protect threatened civilians.”

Between February and April, Human Rights Watch interviewed 25 people by telephone with knowledge of the attacks, including 15 witnesses, 3 Malian activists, and 7 international organization representatives. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite imagery of burned homes in Ogota and Ouémbé.

Mali has been fighting Islamist armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the extremist armed group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) since 2015. In December 2023, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), pulled out of the country at the request of Mali’s transitional military authorities, raising concerns about protecting civilians and monitoring abuses. In January, the transitional authorities announced that Mali would leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), depriving abuse victims of the ability to seek justice through the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice.

Witnesses said that on January 27 the JNIM attacked Ogota, populated mainly by ethnic Dogon, as retaliation for the presence of Dan Na Ambassagou militia in the vicinity. “They invaded the village, shooting at anything and anyone for more than an hour,” said a 40-year-old woman. “They set the whole village on fire.”

On January 6, Dozo militia attacked Kalala, a predominantly ethnic-Fulani village, and killed 13 civilians. “We found six bodies in front of the mosque, and the others inside homes or outside,” said a herder. “The Dozo targeted us because we are Fulani, and they think all Fulani are terrorists.” Witnesses from Kalala said the attack was retaliation for JNIM’s attacks against ethnic Bambara in surrounding villages in October and November.

Malian transitional military authorities have not adequately investigated incidents implicating members of Islamist armed groups or ethnic militias, Human Rights Watch said. In his February report, Alioune Tine, the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali, stated that he regrets “that no significant progress has been made in prosecuting the alleged perpetrators of multiple violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law attributed to violent extremist groups, militias and community self-defence groups and Malian forces.”

Witnesses to the JNIM attacks said that the Malian security forces failed to adequately protect their communities. “The Malian state has abandoned us,” said a 34-year-old man from Bankass, Mopti region. “Since 2018, the jihadists have imposed Sharia [Islamic law] on us, attacked our villages, mined our roads, [and] kidnapped our children. We have always called for help from our authorities, but there has been no response. These attacks continue because terrorists enjoy freedom of action and are never held accountable.” A witness to the Dozo militia attack in Boura on January 3, however, found the authorities willing to respond promptly, saying that local gendarmes “acted quickly … and arrested three militiamen.”

Human Rights Watch has also documented serious abuses by the Malian security forces and apparent Russia-backed Wagner forces during counterinsurgency operations in central Mali.

Under international humanitarian law, the fighting in Mali is considered a non-international armed conflict. Applicable law includes Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and customary laws of war, which apply to non-state armed groups as well as national armed forces. The laws of war prohibit summary executions, torture, attacks on civilians and civilian property, and looting, among other violations. The government has an obligation to impartially investigate and appropriately prosecute those implicated in war crimes, which are serious violations of the laws of war committed with criminal intent.

“The Malian transitional government’s failure to hold Islamist armed groups and ethnic militias to account only emboldens abusive forces to commit further atrocities,” Allegrozzi said. “The authorities should ramp-up efforts to appropriately investigate and prosecute all those responsible for grave abuses.”

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

Abuses by the JNIM

The Islamist armed group JNIM emerged in March 2017 as an umbrella coalition of Al-Qaeda-aligned groups, including Ansar al-Din, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Mourabitoun, and Katibat Macina. Human Rights Watch has previously documented serious abuses by the JNIM across Mali.

The JNIM has concentrated its recruitment efforts on ethnic Fulani, exploiting their frustrations over government corruption and competition over natural resources. This has exacerbated tensions between the Fulani and other ethnic groups, especially the Bambara and Dogon, leading to the formation of ethnic self-defense groups, such as the Dozo and Dan Na Ambassagou, which have taken protecting their villages and property into their own hands.

Ogota and Ouémbé, Mopti Region, January 27

On January 27 at about 6 p.m., scores of JNIM fighters armed with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles and riding motorbikes and vehicles mounted with heavy machine guns led simultaneous attacks on Ogota and Ouémbé villages, three kilometers apart, four witnesses said.

The fighters, who wore headscarves and spoke Fulfulde, a language widely spoken in Mali, killed 28 villagers in Ogota, including 8 women, 4 older men, and 3 children, and 4 villagers in Ouémbé, including 2 women. Witnesses said the fighters burned at least 150 homes in Ogota and 130 homes in Ouémbé, then returned on February 1 to burn the remaining intact homes.

On January 29, international media reported the attacks, citing information from local authorities. In a February 1 statement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said he was “alarmed by reports that about 30 civilians were killed in attacks by yet unidentified gunmen” on Ogota and Ouémbé, and called for an impartial investigation and for those found responsible to be “brought to justice in trials observing international standards.”

A 46-year-old farmer from Ouémbé said:

I saw the terrorists coming. They split into two groups: one headed toward Ouémbé, and the other toward Ogota. The group heading toward Ouémbé … was made up of about 20 motorcycles and a pickup truck with a machine gun mounted on top. The group heading to Ogota was larger. A few minutes after the convoy passed me, gunshots were heard from Ogota, then gunshots could also be heard from Ouémbé. The shooting lasted about an hour and a half.

Villagers said they believed they were attacked because some members of the Dan Na Ambassagou militia refused to lay down their weapons following a deal between the militia and the JNIM. The Dan Na Ambassagou is an umbrella organization of self-defense groups started in 2016 “to protect the Dogon country” that provided security in Ogota, Ouémbé and surrounding villages.

A 24-year-old former Dan Na Ambassagou militiaman from Ogota said:

At the beginning of the movement, we fought the jihadists, but in late 2018, we realized that the jihadists were better armed and that our involvement in the militia made our villages the targets of the jihadists. The jihadists cut off market roads, kidnapped our relatives, prevented us from practicing agriculture, and besieged our villages to the point that our children died of hunger. Some of us decided to negotiate with the jihadists and lay down weapons. However, some militiamen refused the negotiations, so our movement split into two: we accepted a deal with the jihadists, others continued to fight them. It’s because of those who kept fighting that our village was attacked.

Witnesses from Ogota and Ouémbé said that residents learned days earlier about an imminent threat from the JNIM. They contacted Malian soldiers based in Bankass and in Bandiagara, respectively about 40 and 70 kilometers from Ogota and Ouémbé, seeking protection, without success.

A 46-year-old farmer from Ouémbé said:

We have been living with the terrorists since 2018. When they have bad intentions against a village, they say it clearly in the WhatsApp groups. So, we contacted our relatives who are civil servants in Bandiagara asking them to inform the soldiers about the threats against our village and Ogota. They met with the military authorities in Bandiagara and told them that the terrorists were gathering in the bush at Bankass and that they planned to attack our villages. But the soldiers didn’t do anything.

Killings in Ogota

Villagers from Ogota said JNIM fighters came at sunset from the southern side of the village. They started shooting heavily from the top of a hill causing villagers to panic and flee. They then stormed the village, firing at people trying to escape or hide.

A 40-year-old woman said:

The jihadists spoke in Fulfulde language and shouted “Allah Akbar” [God is great]. They cheered saying the “enemy village has fallen,” and “this is what we are going to do with all the villages that do not respect Islam.” My husband fled as the shooting started, leaving me and my children in the house. Two women with their children came and hid with us. When the shooting stopped, we decided to leave, but as soon as we went out, gunfire resumed, I was hit in my legs and fell. The two women left me behind and ran with my children.… When the jihadists left, my husband came back to rescue me.

The former militiaman said that when the attack started, he phoned members of the Dan Na Ambassagou militia for help, “but they only came when the jihadists had already left.”

A 34-year-old man said:

When the attack started, I was about four kilometers from Ogota. I heard bursts of machine-gun fire for an hour and a half, and I saw flames coming out from the village. When the shooting stopped, I went back to Ogota and found some villagers and militiamen who were trying to rescue the injured.… The village was covered in smoke, and we could see dead bodies inside and outside homes. Some people had been shot while running, others were executed in their homes. Homes were still on fire. In one house, we found five bodies charred: one woman, a 50-year-old man, and three older men.

Human Rights Watch reviewed two lists of victims compiled by survivors and residents, with the names of 28 people killed, including 3 children under age 2, 4 men over age 68, and 8 women between 30 and 50. At least 5 of those killed appeared to have been shot in the head, 9 were burned, and the remaining were riddled by bullets, witnesses said.

“We buried the bodies the day after the attack,” said a 45-year-old farmer. “Some bodies had bullet wounds everywhere. Others, especially those charred, could not be lifted, so we buried them where we found them. The others were buried separately.”

Killings in Ouémbé

Villagers from Ouémbé described a similar scenario.

“I was home when I heard heavy gunfire,” said a 43-year-old farmer. “By the time I had gathered my family, I saw the terrorists coming in large numbers. They screamed ‘Allah Akbar’ and shot continuously. I fled to Segué.”

A 46-year-old man said:

We heard repeated gunshots and bursts of machine-gun ‘pa-pa-pa.’ I fled to the bush before the terrorists invaded the village.… When shooting stopped at night, I came back and found the bodies of four people, two men and two women, in a home where they were probably hiding.… They had been shot in the chest and the head. We buried them the following day.

Human Rights Watch reviewed two lists of victims compiled by survivors and residents, with the names of four people killed, two men, between ages 50 and 60, and two women, between 30 and 40.

Arson in Ogota and Ouémbé

Witnesses said that during the January 27 attacks, JNIM fighters set on fire at least 150 homes in Ogota and about 130 in Ouémbé, forcing about 2,000 villagers to flee. They also said that the fighters came back four days later to burn remaining homes in Ogota and Ouémbé.

“It was a ghost village,” said the 45-year-old man from Ogota who returned to the village after the attack and later fled with his family to Bankass.

“There was nothing left of the village,” said the 46-year-old man from Ouémbé who returned to the village after the attack. “People had fled, the houses were still burning. All the people have been displaced, including myself and my family. We are now in Bankass and lack everything.”

On satellite imagery that Human Rights Watch analyzed, burn marks are visible all over Ogota and Ouémbé villages. They first appeared over both villages on an imagery from January 28, 10:38 a.m. local time, and were not visible the previous day at the same time. Additional burn marks appeared over both villages on an imagery of February 1, 10:38 a.m. local time, that were not visible the day before.

Infrared satellite image comparison between January 26 and February 1, 2024, shows burn marks all over the village of Ogota, Mopti region, Mali. On infrared images, the vegetation appears in red and the burned areas more clearly in dark.

Infrared satellite image comparison between January 26 and February 1, 2024, shows burn marks all over the village of Ouémbé, Mopti region, Mali. On infrared images, the vegetation appears in red and the burned areas more clearly in dark.

Abuses by Dozo Militia

The Dozo, or “traditional hunting societies,” consisting mainly of ethnic Bambara, have acted as village self-defense forces in Segou and Mopti regions since about 2014. Human Rights Watch has previously documented serious Dozo abuses against Fulani civilians, as well as allegations that Dozo and other self-defense groups have acted as Malian army proxies.

Kalala, Segou Region, January 6

On the evening of January 6, Dozo militia attacked Kalala and killed 13 people, including 3 older men, one of them blind, an older woman, and 2 children, 3 witnesses said. They also burned at least one home, 10 huts, and 20 sheds.

Villagers believe that the Dozo attacked Kalala, with a predominantly Fulani population, in retaliation for JNIM attacks against ethnic-Bambara in several surrounding villages in late 2023.

A man from Kalala said:

Between October and November 2023, some people from Berta, Diado, Kéré, Goumba and Kafagou, which are mainly populated by ethnic Bambara, began arming themselves, breaking the deals they had made with the jihadists. The jihadists then chased them out of their villages. Those driven out of their homes organized themselves and attacked Kalala, a village mostly inhabited by ethnic Fulani. A Fulani village in our area is considered a jihadist village by other communities.

Witnesses said that scores of Dozo militiamen riding motorbikes, wearing distinctive brown hunting clothes and amulets around their necks, and carrying Kalashnikov-style assault rifles and hunting guns, arrived in Kalala after sunset. They stopped at the village football field and started shooting. They headed to the mosque and summarily executed at least six men.

A villager said:

When I saw a dozen Dozo heading towards the mosque, I hid in the mosque’s toilet.… The Dozo rounded up six men in front of the mosque and one Dozo shot each person in the head. I watched the scene from the door [of the toilet]. Among the six were the village chief, the muezzin [who makes the call to the daily prayer], an 83-year-old blind man, and an 80-year-old man.

Witnesses said that, after the killings, the Dozo went door-to-door, looting, burning huts and other properties, and killed seven more people.

A 45-year-old woman said:

I bumped into two Dozo militiamen. One asked me: “Where are your children and your husband?” I replied that my children were not around and that my husband is visually impaired, I begged them to have mercy on us.… They left but set fire to the shed in front of the house.… My husband told me to leave him behind and flee.… I joined 20 other women and children. We walked through the bush at night.… At 6 a.m., we split, some went east, toward Tionce; others went west, toward Saye. I went to Kalala Bamara where a woman helped me and took me in her wheelbarrow back to my village to look for my husband.

The woman said that when she arrived in the village, she saw the bodies of 13 people. “Some [were] shot in the head,” she said, and “the village had been looted” with “several huts and sheds burned.” She found her husband alive and fled with him to Saye.

A man who helped bury the bodies in Kalala said:

We could not bury our relatives for many days because we feared more attacks by the Dozo. On February 3, we decided to go back and found that the bodies of the six men killed in front of the mosque had already been buried in a mass grave, which was uncovered. We don’t know who dug it, but we think the jihadists [JNIM] did it. We just covered it with sand, buried the seven other bodies, and left in a hurry.

Human Rights Watch obtained three lists of victims compiled by survivors and Kalala residents, with 13 names of people between ages 4 and 83. Among those killed, witnesses said, was the village chief and an older woman whose charred body was found in her house.

Boura, Segou Region, January 3

On January 3 at about 8 a.m., scores of Dozo militiamen, riding at least 100 motorbikes, stormed the village of Boura, abducting 24 people, including the 72-year-old village chief, three witnesses said. They also looted homes and livestock.

Witnesses said that the Dozo came from the locality of Ndokoro, 14 kilometers away, and attacked the predominantly ethnic Fulani village. Since late 2023, JNIM had abducted Dozo militiamen in several villages surrounding Boura.

“At the beginning of 2023, the army patrolled our area, so the jihadists suspected that the Dozo were collaborating with the military,” said a 40-year-old woman. “The jihadists then started to kidnap some Dozo. And in retaliation, the Dozo attacked our village.”

Human Rights Watch has previously reported allegations that Dozo and other self-defense groups acted as Malian army proxies.

Witnesses said that the militiamen came with motorbikes, wore distinctive brown hunting clothes and amulets, and carried Kalashnikov-style assault rifles. They said the assailants went door-to-door looking for men and looting homes.

The 40-year-old woman said:

My husband was able to escape. I tried to escape too with my children, but the village was already cordoned off. I went back home and prayed to God. Two Dozo came to my house, asked me where my husband was. I said he wasn’t there. They broke into the house and forced me to give them my silver jewelry.… At about 10 a.m., they left the village.… Everything had been looted. All the men had fled. Only the women and children remained.

Human Rights Watch reviewed a list compiled by survivors and Boura residents with the names of the people abducted, including 23 men, ages 18 to 80, and a 17-year-old boy.

A 50-year-old man, who fled at the Dozo’s arrival, said he went to Segou city, 140 kilometers away:

I went to the gendarmerie to inform the gendarmes that our village had been attacked by a hundred of the Dozo who looted the village, took our animals, and kidnapped people. The gendarmes registered my complaint.… The gendarmes acted very quickly and went to seal off the road connecting Segou to our village.… The following day, the gendarmes were able to stop a truck carrying our looted animals, more than 60 cows, and arrested three Dozo.

Witnesses said that family members of those abducted did not look for their loved ones out of fear of attacks by the Dozo. “Some people told us that they had been killed, but none found their bodies and there is no evidence of that,” said the 40-year-old woman. The 50-year-old man who reported the attack to the gendarmerie said he also informed gendarmes about the abductions, but “we still have no news.”

Trinidad and Tobago: Bring Home Children, Women Held in Iraq

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 07 May 2024 18:08:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Women allegedly associated with the Islamic State (ISIS), wait inside a small room at a court in Bagdad, Iraq, April 17, 2018. © 2018 Afshin Ismaeli/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

(New York) – The government of Trinidad and Tobago should urgently bring home Trinidadian children and their mothers imprisoned in Iraq because of their alleged association with the Islamic State (ISIS), Human Rights Watch said today. Four Trinidadian women have been held along with their seven children, aged approximately 7 to 15, for nearly seven years.

On May 2, 2024, Iraqi prison authorities forcibly removed two Trinidadian brothers, ages 13 and 15, from their mother’s cell in Rusafa women’s prison in Baghdad and transferred them to a cell with other youths. Their mother, in a voice recording shared with Human Rights Watch, expressed fear that the two boys would be transferred to another prison. She said her youngest son suffered from asthma, anemia, and malnutrition.

“Trinidad and Tobago has publicly promised that it would bring home its nationals from Iraq and Syria, but not a single Trinidadian has returned home in more than five years,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “These children, who are not responsible for any crime, should be in school in Trinidad and Tobago, not languishing in an Iraqi prison.”

The mother in the voice recording expressed further concern about her younger son with health problems: “They took my son from me, they told me he was too big to be staying in a cell with us. They put him in a cell with about 10 boys. We have no education for our children. Nothing. We are going on our seventh year in prison and our children are growing up here.”

Iraqi authorities are holding an estimated 100 children with their mothers at Rusafa prison. Many of the women are foreign nationals who have been charged with or convicted of terrorism-related offenses.

The imprisoned women said that they are willing for their children to be returned to Trinidad and Tobago without them. They said the Red Cross has visited them and that they communicated with the repatriation committee established by Trinidadian Prime Minister Keith Rowley in March 2023, but have had no response from the government regarding their or their children’s situation.

The four women were convicted of ISIS affiliation by Iraqi courts. Human Rights Watch has found serious, widespread flaws in the prosecutions of terrorism suspects, including foreign women. Three of the women are held with five of the children in Rusafa prison, where the women are serving 20-year sentences. A court in the Kurdistan region of Iraq convicted the fourth, who is being held with her two children in Erbil. She recently completed her 6-year sentence and is technically free to leave the prison, but the Trinidadian government has made no effort to assist her return.

The Iraqi authorities’ apparent denial of the children’s right to education over many years, possible responsibility for their lack of access to health care and adequate food, and recent separation of children from their mothers should galvanize Trinidadian authorities to urgently seek their nationals’ repatriation, Human Rights Watch said. The Iraqi and Trinidadian authorities should weigh the children’s best interests and right to family unity and consider repatriating both the children and their mothers, so their children could regularly visit their mothers as they serve out their sentences in Trinidad and Tobago, Human Rights Watch said.

“We are here just waiting, and time is wasting,” said one of the imprisoned Trinidadian women in a voice recording shared with Human Rights Watch on May 4. “Our children remain uneducated without any knowledge.”

A February 2023 Human Rights Watch report documented the unlawful detention of Trinidadian nationals in life-threatening conditions in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria. Since 2019, at least 39 countries have repatriated well over 8,000 of their nationals from the region. Trinidad and Tobago has repatriated none of their nationals during that time.

“Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister has pledged to bring the Trinidadians detained in Iraq and Syria home,” Becker said. “He shouldn’t wait any longer.”

Gaza: Israel Flouts World Court Orders

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 07 May 2024 12:30:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Egyptian trucks carrying humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip queue outside the Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian side on March 23, 2024. © 2024 Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

(Jerusalem) – Israel is contravening the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) legally binding orders by obstructing the entry of lifesaving aid and services into Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. Since January 2024, the court has twice ordered provisional measures requiring Israel to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance as part of South Africa’s case alleging that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention of 1948.

On May 5, Israeli authorities closed the Kerem Shalom crossing after a Hamas rocket attack, and on May 7, they seized the Rafah crossing as part of its incursion in the area, thus blocking aid from entering and people from leaving Gaza via the primary crossings used in recent months. While Israeli authorities had allowed more aid trucks to enter in the preceding weeks and opened an additional crossing and a port for aid entry, the increase has been modest and nowhere near enough to meet the overwhelming need, according to United Nations and nongovernmental aid agencies. The groups said Israel continued to block critical aid items, and only a small proportion of the limited aid has been reaching northern Gaza, where it’s vitally needed.

“Despite children dying from starvation and famine in Gaza, the Israeli authorities are still blocking aid critical for the survival of Gaza’s population in defiance of the World Court,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “With each day that Israeli authorities block lifesaving aid, more Palestinians are at risk of dying.”

On January 26, the ICJ ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid.” In light of the “spread of famine and starvation,” the court imposed additional measures on March 28, ordering Israel to ensure the unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance, in full cooperation with the UN, including by opening new land crossing points.

The court’s March order required Israel to report to the ICJ on the implementation of the court’s measures within one month. However, as of May 2, Israeli authorities continued to obstruct basic services and entry of fuel and lifesaving aid, acts that amount to war crimes and include the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.

According to the UN, the average number of aid trucks into Gaza through Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings increased by only 24 trucks a day in the month following the order – from an average of 162 trucks a day between February 29 and March 28 to 186 trucks a day from March 29 to April 28. This is only about 37 percent of the number that entered Gaza each day before October 7, 2023, when 80 percent of Gaza’s population relied on aid amid Israel's more than 16-year-long unlawful closure.

Israeli authorities have blamed the UN for distribution delays, but, as the occupying power, Israel is obliged to provide for the welfare of the occupied population and ensure that the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s population are met.

In response to United States government pressure, Israeli authorities opened the Erez crossing – a checkpoint between Israel and northern Gaza – for aid deliveries on May 1, allowing 30 trucks to enter. It's unclear whether further trucks have entered via Erez since then. In April, they also began allowing some aid to come from Ashdod port, a seaport south of Tel Aviv. In an April 30 response to a High Court petition challenging the restrictions on aid, the Israeli government said that it was also planning on opening an additional northern aid crossing.

Despite these increases, on May 1, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders or MSF) stated that essential items like oxygen tanks, generators, refrigerators, and critical medical equipment continued to be blocked, that very little of the aid is reaching northern Gaza, and that there is “no clarity or consistency to what is allowed into Gaza.”

In early April, Human Rights Watch researchers went to Egypt's North Sinai region, which borders Gaza, and spoke to workers for 11 UN agencies and aid organizations sending aid into Gaza. All said that Israeli authorities continue to obstruct the entry of aid via Egypt. They said that the amount of aid, despite recent increases, and the arbitrary rejection of critical items, meant that the colossal need for aid is not being met.

Aid workers said the Israeli authorities have provided no list of barred items and inspections staff are rejecting entire truckloads in an ad hoc manner with no explanation or possibility of appeal. “They refuse to give a list [of items that are barred from entry], saying it is an individual determination,” one said. Adding to the opacity of the process, they said that Israeli authorities generally don’t allow aid agency representatives to be at the checkpoints where aid trucks are being inspected.

Several people said that Israeli authorities, in some cases, bar items they consider “dual use,” which could be used for military purposes, but there is no clear list of what items are included. In response to a freedom of information request for lists of so called “dual use” items, Israeli authorities said that they were still using a list of dual use items that they had published in 2008. Tania Hary, executive director of the Israeli human rights organization Gisha, told Human Rights Watch, “We see them interpreting the list very broadly, which is nothing new, except it’s taking place on the backdrop of a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Since Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, high-ranking Israeli officials have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water and fuel – reflecting the policy being carried out by Israeli forces. Other Israeli officials have publicly stated that humanitarian aid to Gaza would be conditioned either on the release of hostages unlawfully held by Hamas or Hamas’ destruction.

Israel’s Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the military body responsible for coordinating humanitarian aid into Gaza, has complete control over what can be taken into Gaza. After being inspected in Egypt, humanitarian aid trucks must go through two Israeli-controlled inspection sites: Nitzana and Kerem Shalom. People interviewed said trucks often have to wait for days, and sometimes weeks, for inspections due to limited working hours and scanning machines, as well as additional inspection procedures added since the October 7 attacks in Israel.

One UN employee told Human Rights Watch that a truck full of medical supplies had been sitting at the border for a month awaiting inspection.

Aid workers said that Israeli authorities have rejected most items with solar panels, motors, some metal parts, and even items stored in wooden crates, irrespective of their content. They said items like generators, water filtration systems, and oxygen, are consistently rejected. If any single item on a truck is rejected, the entire truck is denied entry, several aid workers said.

Human Rights Watch wrote to COGAT on April 2 seeking comment regarding Israel’s obstruction of aid but has not received a response.

Several people said that some trucks had been rejected several times for unknown reasons. They said aid workers tried to guess what might have caused the rejection and modified the shipments accordingly, but they were sometimes rejected again. “It’s a mystery with rejections,” a World Food Program worker said. “It’s not consistent. Some of the same items that have been approved to go in before are then rejected later.”

Aid workers said that more than six months into the hostilities, agencies are now automatically filtering out key lifesaving items from the trucks, only sending in what they anticipate will be allowed entry. That means they leave out critical items, including generators to provide electricity for equipment critical to health, water, and sanitation; repair items for water and sanitation infrastructure; and medical equipment like x-ray machines, because they anticipate rejection.

Since November, aid agencies sometimes have submitted lists of aid items to COGAT for preapproval. However, even when preapproval was given, on many occasions the items were still rejected at the checkpoints. The World Food Program staff member said that in one instance, the United Nations Population Fund, an agency focused on reproductive and maternal health, had received preapproval to send a maternity clinic to Gaza, but Israeli authorities twice rejected it at the border without explanation.

Several countries have responded to the Israeli government’s unlawful restrictions by airdropping aid. The US also pledged to build a temporary seaport in Gaza. However, aid groups and UNofficials have said such efforts are inadequate to prevent a famine.

In its March provisional measures order, the ICJ stated, “there is an urgent need to increase the capacity and number of open land crossing points into Gaza and to maintain them open so as to increase the flow of aid delivery,” as “there is no substitute for land routes and entry points from Israel into Gaza to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of food, water, medical and humanitarian assistance.”

Israeli authorities should urgently open additional land crossings and lift bans on critical aid items. They should provide aid agencies with a list of banned items and provide specifications for items that are allowed under certain requirements. Inspectors should provide written explanations for any rejections and allow agencies to appeal rejection decisions, Human Rights Watch said.

On May 4, Cindy McCain, an American who is director of the World Food Program, said, “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it's moving its way south.” On April 22, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that “1.1 million people face catastrophic levels of hunger.”

“Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face famine and many risk dying of starvation following Israel’s continued disregard for the law,” Shakir said. “The countries that continue to send arms risk being complicit in Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians.”

Progress in Philippines’ Media Murder Cases Just a Start

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 07 May 2024 11:14:10 -0400

Click to expand Image Activists call for justice and protection of media workers during a rally following the killing of radio journalist Percy Lapid, Quezon City, Philippines, October 4, 2022. © 2022 Eloisa Lopez/Reuters

Advocates of media freedom in the Philippines got some good news within days of World Press Freedom Day on May 3. On April 29, police arrested a third suspect in the on-air shooting of radio broadcaster Juan Jumalon in Mindanao. And a court in Manila on May 6 sentenced the gunman responsible for the murder of the radio commentator Percival Mabasa, popularly known as “Percy Lapid,” to up to 16 years in prison. The Philippines normally draws global attention for having one of the worst records for impunity for killings of journalists.

The Presidential Task Force on Media Security proclaimed the Philippines to be a safer place for journalists. And President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that he will ensure journalists can do their jobs without fear.

The arrest in the Jumalon killing and the sentencing of Lapid’s murderer, who accepted a plea bargain, do not directly address the bigger issue in those two cases. And that is that the individuals who masterminded these two murders remain at large.

The Marcos administration needs to do a lot more if the Philippines is going to discard its reputation as one of the world’s most dangerous places to practice journalism and ensure an environment in which members of the media can do their jobs safely.

Harassment and threats to Filipino journalists also come from the authorities. At least one journalist, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, has been in police detention for more than four years. Many journalists have also been subjected to government “red-tagging,” the practice of accusing them of being members or sympathizers of the communist insurgency. Being red-tagged can lead to threats, unlawful surveillance, harassment and even death.

Rather than resting on the laurels of the pending Jumalon trial and the incomplete Lapid case, the Marcos administration needs to rachet up its effots to protect journalists. It should immediately end the practice of red-tagging journalists and ensure harassment and killings of journalists are fully investigated and prosecuted, whoever is responsible. Foreign governments and donors have an important role to play in this and should scrutinize Philippine government claims on media freedom and the need to end impunity for attacks on the press.

UN: Revise ‘Pact for the Future’ to Focus on Rights

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(New York) – United Nations member countries should use negotiations on the “Pact for the Future” to commit to strengthening human rights, including promoting economic justice and protecting the right to a healthy environment, Human Rights Watch said.

The UN Pact for the Future, currently being negotiated, is expected to be adopted at the Summit of the Future, a special UN meeting slated for September 2024. Among the issues being discussed by the 193 UN member countries are economic policy reforms and how to realize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, as well as the emphasis that should be placed on human rights generally.

“The Pact for the Future shouldn’t become another UN document that gets adopted and then ignored,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch. “Governments should commit to action to end widening economic inequalities that deny billions of people their rights and a climate crisis that’s taking a mounting toll on lives and livelihoods around the globe.”

Many governments that recognize the importance of sustainable development often ignore that human rights are key to achieving this goal, Human Rights Watch said. They need to confront climate change and responsibly manage new technologies. And while most governments acknowledge the importance of complying with international humanitarian law in conflicts, they disagree on how to address atrocities against civilians in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine.

Although the final text will be non-binding, the pact presents a critical opportunity to affirm a vision of human rights that can help bridge some of the sharp divisions between governments on these and other issues. In the process, governments should strengthen the ability of the UN system to deliver on the UN Charter by protecting and promoting peace and security, development, and human rights.

Some governments were disappointed with the initial draft of the pact due to what they considered its scant attention to human rights, diplomats told Human Rights Watch.

A number of countries are seeking to strengthen the human rights language in the draft pact. However, China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, and others have sought to weaken, dilute, or delete references to human rights.

Western governments are partly to blame for leaving space to those critical of a human rights approach, Human Rights Watch said. Their selective application of human rights undermines the credibility of such an agenda, particularly for countries in the Global South. While the United States and other Western countries justifiably condemn Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine, for example, many of them have not shown the same resolve concerning Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. While the European Union says it champions human rights protection globally, it opposes efforts at the UN to make the international tax system fairer for developing countries.

All governments’ assertions in support of human rights would resonate more powerfully if they applied them consistently, including in their own countries and with their friends and allies, Human Rights Watch said.

Rather than dismissing the views of countries in the Global South on international financial reforms, Global North states should support much-needed changes to the international financial architecture. Those include aligning international financial institutions’ policies and practices with human rights, supporting efforts to achieve a global tax treaty, combatting illicit financial flows, and reducing governments’ debt burdens.

The concept of a “human rights economy,” which has been championed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, offers the potential to meet the legitimate demands of Global South countries through a more holistic approach to human rights.

Governments should also ensure that the pact reaffirms the centrality of human rights in confronting the climate crisis. They should explicitly endorse the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, recognized by the UN General Assembly in 2022, while emphasizing the urgent need for phasing out fossil fuels through a just transition that is consistent with human rights. Fossil fuels are the primary driver of the climate crisis, and all stages of their use have been linked to severe human rights harm.

The pact should also highlight the importance of civil society and the rights to freedom of speech, association, and peaceful assembly. The upcoming UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi, Kenya on May 9-10 is an opportunity for the UN leadership and delegations overseeing the drafting process to hear from hundreds of civil society representatives from around the world. The drafters should listen carefully to civil society priorities for the Pact for the Future and its two annexes, the Global Digital Compact on “shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all” and the Declaration on Future Generations. Outreach to civil society organizations in the drafting process has so far been haphazard.

“Instead of standing by while governments trample on human rights, or selectively condemning abuses by their adversaries while ignoring those of their friends, UN member countries should commit to ending repression wherever it occurs and improving everyone’s lives,” Charbonneau said.

Israel: US Arms Used in Strike that Killed Lebanon Aid Workers

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image A man carries belongings of a paramedic killed at a paramedic center hit on March 27, 2024, by an Israeli airstrike in Habbarieh, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2024. © 2024 AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari

(Beirut) – An Israeli strike on an emergency and relief center in south Lebanon on March 27, 2024, was an unlawful attack on civilians that failed to take all necessary precautions, Human Rights Watch said today. If the attack on civilians was carried out intentionally or recklessly, it should be investigated as an apparent war crime. The strike, using a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit and an Israeli-made 500-pound (about 230 kilograms) general purpose bomb, killed seven emergency and relief volunteers from the town of Habbarieh, five kilometers north of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The strike, after midnight, targeted a residential structure that housed the Emergency and Relief Corps of the Lebanese Succour Association, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization that provides emergency, rescue, first aid training, and relief services in Lebanon. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at the site. Just a week before, Israel reportedly submitted written assurances to the US State Department that US-provided weapons were not being used in violation of international law.

“Israeli forces used a US weapon to conduct a strike that killed seven civilian relief workers in Lebanon who were merely doing their jobs,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s assurances to the United States that it is abiding by the laws of war ring hollow. The US needs to acknowledge reality and cut off arms to Israel.”

The United States should immediately suspend arms sales and military assistance to Israel given evidence that the Israeli military is using US weapons unlawfully, Human Rights Watch said. Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry should also swiftly move forward with filing a declaration with the International Criminal Court, enabling it to investigate and prosecute crimes within the court’s jurisdiction on Lebanese territory since October 2023.

In a Telegram post on March 27, the Israeli military said that “fighter jets struck a military compound in the area of al-Habbariyeh in southern Lebanon” and that “a significant terrorist operative belonging to the ‘al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya’ [The Islamic Group] organization who advanced attacks against Israeli territory was eliminated along with additional terrorists who were with him.” A parliament member representing The Islamic Group, a Lebanese Islamist political party whose armed wing, the Fajr Forces, has been engaged in cross-border hostilities with Israel, told Human Rights Watch that no fighters from the group were killed in the strike, and denied any affiliation with the Emergency and Relief Corps of the Lebanese Succour Association.

Human Rights Watch interviewed six people from Habbarieh: the parents of three people killed, the owner of the house, a member of the emergency and rescue team who left the center shortly before the strike, a resident who was at the site shortly after the attack, and a local official. Human Rights Watch also spoke to the head of the Emergency and Relief Corps at the Lebanese Succour Association, a member of parliament representing the Islamic Group, and two people at the General Directorate of the Lebanese Civil Defense, including the head of the civil defense team that pulled the bodies out of the rubble.

Human Rights Watch also reviewed photographs of weapon remnants found at the site; photographs and videos of the site before and after the attack shared online by journalists, news agencies, and rescue workers; and footage shared directly with researchers. Human Rights Watch sent a letter with findings and questions to the Israeli military and the US State Department on April 19 but has not received a response as of time of publishing.

Footage of weapons remnants found at the site of the strike, and shared with Human Rights Watch, included a metal remnant marked “MPR 500,” confirming it was a 500-pound class general purpose bomb, made by Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, and remnants of the strake and a tail-fin belonging to a JDAM guidance kit, produced by the US-based Boeing Company.

Two verified photographs, posted on the Emergency and Relief Corps Facebook page on March 28 and taken at the attack site, show remnants in the same location seen in the photographs sent directly to Human Rights Watch. The photographs were shared by a Habbarieh resident who was at the site shortly after the attack and by a journalist in Beirut who shared photographs of the same set of remnants displayed at the funeral service for the seven volunteers.

The seven people killed were all volunteers who had begun working with the center shortly after it opened its branch in Habbarieh in late 2023, their families, colleagues, and the head of the Emergency and Relief Corps said. Those killed were 18-year-old twin brothers Ahmad and Hussein al-Chaar, Abdul Rahman al-Chaar, Ahmad Hammoud, Mohammed Farouk Atwi, Abdullah Atwi, and Baraa Abou Qaiss; the oldest person of this group was 25.

The attack came shortly after 12:30 a.m., killing all seven workers at the center, said Samer Hamdan, the head of the civil defense team at the site. Photographs and videos taken by residents and journalists show the center razed to the ground and a destroyed ambulance parked nearby with distinguishable red markings on its back and sides.

Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target. The Israeli military’s admission in their Telegram post about targeting the center, given it was a relief center, indicates at a minimum their failure to take all feasible precautions to verify that the target was military and avoid loss of civilian life and damage to civilian objects, making the strike unlawful.

An Islamic Group official said that while some Islamic Group supporters are volunteers in the Lebanese Succour Association, they do not include any fighters from its armed wing, the Fajr Forces. Content posted on social media and reviewed by Human Rights Watch suggests that at least two of the people killed may have been supporters of the Islamic Group. In one case, the person posted four photographs to his Facebook page with the banner and imagery of the Islamic Group between 2016 and 2018. Another photograph posted on social media showed a third person holding an assault rifle while wearing camouflages fatigues. The person’s mother said that her son, like other men in the village, used rifles for hunting and was not affiliated with any armed group. Family members of the people killed, the Lebanese Succour Association, and the civil defense all said that the seven men were civilians and not affiliated with any armed group. A member of parliament representing the Islamic Group, which has a history of issuing public statements when its fighters are killed, told Human Rights Watch that none of its fighters were killed in the strike, and the group publicly denied any affiliation with the association.

“We turned every stone,” Hamdan said. “Everything we found were emergency and medical equipment and devices. Overalls, helmets, gauze, first aid kits. That’s it.”

In retaliation for the strike, Hezbollah said that it launched rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shimona and the headquarters of the 769th brigade later that morning. The attack by Hezbollah killed one civilian, according to media reports. Later that day, Israeli strikes killed nine people, including Hezbollah and Amal fighters and three other medical workers affiliated with the two groups. As of May 1, Israeli attacks in Lebanon since October 2023 have reportedly killed at least 73 civilians, according to an AFP tally, in addition to more than 300 fighters.

Rocket and missile strikes and other attacks into Israel by Hezbollah and armed Palestinian groups in Lebanon since October 2023 have reportedly killed at least 9 civilians and 11 soldiers. More than 92,000 people have been displaced from their homes in south Lebanon and at least 80,000 people have been displaced from northern Israel.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to the conflict have a duty to distinguish between combatants and civilians and to target only combatants. In case of doubt whether a person is a civilian, that person must be considered a civilian. In the conduct of military operations, constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians, and civilian objects. All feasible precautions must be taken to avoid, and in any event to minimize, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to civilian objects. Each party to the conflict must do everything feasible to verify that targets are military objectives. Anyone who commits serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent—that is, intentionally or recklessly—may be prosecuted for war crimes. The attack that destroyed an emergency and relief center containing only civilians shows a significant failure to take adequate safeguards to ensure that targets were military objectives and to prevent civilian deaths, Human Rights Watch said.

In March, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam submitted a joint memorandum to the US State Department highlighting a wide range of Israeli violations of international humanitarian law and finding that its assurances to use US weapons legally are not credible.

“The uninterrupted and unconditional flow of arms despite Israel’s systematic violations of the laws of war and impunity for those abuses facilitate the continued unlawful killing of civilians, including aid workers.” Kaiss said. “Israel's conduct in Gaza and Lebanon violates US and international laws, and President Biden needs to stop the flow of weapons as a matter of urgency to avoid further atrocities.”

Submission to the United Nations Secretary-General on Autonomous Weapons Systems

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 06 May 2024 17:50:00 -0400

Human Rights Watch appreciates the opportunity to submit its views and recommendations for consideration by the United Nations secretary-general in response to Resolution 78/241 on “Lethal autonomous weapons systems” adopted by the UN General Assembly on 22 December 2023. This historic resolution asks the UN secretary-general to seek the views of countries and other stakeholders on “ways to address the challenges and concerns raised” by such weapons systems “from humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical perspectives.”

This submission briefly summarizes our work on this issue, outlines specific challenges and concerns raised by autonomous weapons systems, and elaborates on ways to address these challenges and concerns through a legally binding instrument.

Download the full submission I. Background

Human Rights Watch is an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. We conduct research and advocacy to uphold human dignity and promote human rights and international human rights law across the globe. For more than 30 years, Human Rights Watch has documented and advocated for the prevention of civilian harm and human suffering caused by a range of arms, including landmines, cluster munitions, incendiary weapons, chemical weapons, and explosive weapons used in populated areas. We work to advance humanitarian disarmament, an approach that aims to prevent and remediate arms-inflicted human suffering and environmental harm through the establishment and implementation of norms.

In October 2012, Human Rights Watch co-founded the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots with six other NGOs working in the field of humanitarian disarmament.[1] The coalition, which is now comprised of more than 270 NGOs in 70 countries, advocates for the negotiation and adoption of an international treaty to prohibit and restrict autonomous weapons systems. On behalf of Human Rights Watch, Mary Wareham served as founding coordinator of the campaign from 2012 to 2021.

II. Challenges and Concerns Raised by Autonomous Weapons Systems

This submission is based on and informed by our years of research and advocacy on this issue. Since 2012, Human Rights Watch has published more than two dozen reports on autonomous weapons systems, most in conjunction with the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Harvard Law School. This research has explored the numerous serious ethical, moral, legal, accountability, and security challenges and concerns raised by weapons systems that select and engage targets based on sensor processing rather than human inputs.[2]

In November 2012, Human Rights Watch and IHRC released “Losing Humanity: The Case against Killer Robots,” the first major civil society report to examine the dangers of removing human control from the use of force.[3] This report – and later ones – found that allowing machines to select and attack targets without further human intervention would be incompatible with fundamental provisions of international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction and proportionality.[4] Autonomous weapons systems would find it difficult to distinguish between combatants and civilians, particularly when the former commingle with the latter, because they could not interpret subtle cues. In addition, they would lack the human judgment to determine whether the expected civilian harm was excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage in rapidly changing case-by-case situations.

Human Rights Watch and IHRC have detailed the significant hurdles to assigning personal accountability to the actions undertaken by autonomous weapons systems under both criminal and civil law.[5] Accountability is essential to deter future unlawful acts, punish past ones, and recognize victims’ suffering. In both armed conflict and law enforcement operations, there is an accountability gap for the harm caused by autonomous weapons systems. It is legally challenging and arguably unfair to hold human operators criminally responsible for the actions of autonomous weapons systems if they could not predict or control those actions. There are a range of further obstacles to holding weapons manufacturers liable under civil law.

Autonomous weapons systems would also contravene basic principles of humanity and the dictates of public conscience established by the Martens Clause under international humanitarian law.[6] The principles of humanity require humanity (including compassion) and respect for human life and dignity, neither of which autonomous weapons can express because they are inanimate objects. In addition, removing human control from the use of force crosses a moral red line for many and thus runs counter to their public conscience. Thousands of scientists and artificial intelligence experts, more than 24 Nobel Peace Laureates, and more than 160 religious leaders and organizations of various denominations have demanded a ban on autonomous weapons systems.

Autonomous weapons systems raise serious concerns under international human rights law because they are likely to be used in law enforcement operations as well as situations of armed conflict. Human Rights Watch welcomed the first UN report on autonomous weapons systems presented to the Human Rights Council in May 2013 by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions Professor Christof Heyns of South Africa.[7] The seminal report recommended an immediate moratorium on what Heyns called “lethal autonomous robotics,” weapons systems that would select and engage targets without further human intervention.[8]

Research by Human Rights Watch and IHRC has found that autonomous weapons systems raise concerns under the foundational rights to life and to remedy and the principle of dignity.[9] Under the right not to be arbitrarily deprived of life in international human rights law, force may only be applied if it is necessary, a last resort, and proportionate. Weapons that operate without meaningful human control face challenges complying with all three parts of that test. A machine could find it difficult to determine if it was necessary to use force because as an inanimate object, it could not read subtle cues in people to determine whether they are true threats. The machines would lack human judgment to weigh the proportionality of an attack. While a human law enforcement officer may be able to avoid force by negotiating with a human who was perceived as a threat and defusing a situation, an autonomous weapon system would be unable to do this, and humans would be less likely to surrender to a machine. Autonomous weapons systems raise additional concerns, discussed above, about an accountability gap, which present challenges for the right to remedy.

Autonomous weapons systems would undermine the principle of dignity, a legal and moral concept, which implies that everyone has a worth deserving of respect. As inanimate objects, machines cannot comprehend or understand the value of human life or the significance of its loss. Allowing them to make life-and-death determinations thus strips people who are being targeted of their human dignity. In the process of determining whom to kill, autonomous weapons systems boil human targets down to data points. As Heyns noted: “To allow machines to determine when and where to use force against humans is to reduce those humans to objects…. They become zeros and ones in the digital scopes of weapons which are programmed in advance to release force without the ability to consider whether there is no other way out, without a sufficient level of deliberate human choice about the matter.”[10] Recent efforts to hardcode a threshold for civilian harm into automated systems have been inadequate and provide no constraint.

Security concerns noted by Human Rights Watch and IHRC include the risk of an arms race, the threat of autonomous weapons systems reaching the hands of states or non-state actors with no regard for international law, and a lowering of the threshold to war.[11] Because autonomous weapons systems would have the power to make complex determinations in less structured environments, their speed could lead armed conflicts to spiral rapidly out of control. Their use could foster crisis instability and conflict escalation.[12]

III. Ways to Address the Challenges and Concerns Raised by Autonomous Weapons Systems A Legally Binding Instrument

As a member of the Stop Killer Robots campaign, Human Rights Watch endorses its call for the urgent negotiation and adoption of a legally binding instrument to prohibit and regulate autonomous weapons systems.[13] Autonomous weapons systems are a grave problem that can affect any country in the world so clear, strong, and global rules are essential. Those rules should be legally binding to promote compliance among states that join the treaty. Experience shows that a legally binding instrument can also influence states not party, and even non-state armed groups through norm-building and stigmatization of the most problematic weapons.

Only new international law will suffice to deal with the dangers raised by autonomous weapons systems.[14] Measures such as a voluntary code of conduct would only pave the way for a future of automated killing. Voluntary commitments such as the 2023 US political declarations aimed at ensuring responsible use of weapons systems that incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities are completely insufficient and provide no restraint.

As Human Rights Watch and IHRC have reported, relevant precedent for a legally binding instrument can be found in Protocol IV to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, which preemptively bans blinding laser weapons.[15] Indeed, threats to the principles of humanity and dictates of public conscience, as well as notions of abhorrence and social unacceptability, helped drive countries to ban blinding lasers through the protocol adopted in 1995. While blinding lasers are a narrower class of weapons than autonomous weapons systems, the parallels show that drawing the line on problematic emerging technologies through prohibitions is feasible and effective.

A legally binding instrument should be accompanied by national legislation and other measures to implement and enforce the treaty’s provisions at the domestic level. We agree with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recommendation that the instrument “should require States Parties to take all appropriate legal, administrative and other measures, including the imposition of penal sanctions, to prevent or suppress any activity prohibited to States Parties under the instrument undertaken by persons or on territory under their jurisdiction or control.”[16]

Essential Treaty Elements

Human Rights Watch, IHRC, and others have outlined the essential elements for an international treaty on autonomous weapons systems, following precent provided in previous disarmament treaties, international human rights instruments, and international humanitarian law, which all offer models for the proposed provisions.[17]

A legally binding instrument should apply to all weapons systems that select and engage targets based on sensor processing, rather than human inputs. While the treaty’s restrictions will focus on a narrower group of systems, this broad scope will help future-proof the treaty and ensure that no systems escape review. The new treaty should include: 1) a general obligation to maintain meaningful human control over the use of force; 2) prohibit weapons systems that autonomously select and engage targets and by their nature pose fundamental moral and legal problems; and 3) include specific positive obligations that aim to ensure that meaningful human control is maintained in the use of all other systems that select and engage targets.

The concept of meaningful human control is fundamental to such an instrument because most of the concerns arising from autonomous weapons systems are attributable to the lack of such human control.[18] The concept of meaningful human control should comprise a combination of components, such as, but not necessarily limited to: 1) Decision-making components, for example, the ability to understand how the system works; 2) Technological components, including predictability and reliability, and 3) Operational components, notably restrictions on time and space in which the system operates.

A new treaty should prohibit the development, production, and use of systems that inherently lack meaningful human control over the use of force given the links between loss of control and the challenges and concerns discussed above. The treaty should also prohibit the development, production, and use of autonomous weapons systems that target people in order to prevent the use of weapons systems that strip people of their dignity, dehumanize the use of force, or lead to discrimination. It should cover weapons that always rely on data, like weight, heat, or sound, to select human targets. These prohibitions would help protect civilians and other non-combatants in armed conflict, and reduce infringements of human rights during law enforcement operations. They should apply “under any circumstances” to ensure that the provisions cover times of peace and war.

The treaty should also include regulations (positive obligations) to ensure all other autonomous weapons systems are never used without meaningful human control. It should outline affirmative steps states parties would need to take to cover systems that are not inherently unacceptable but still have the potential to be used to select and engage targets without meaningful human control.

There are other types of positive obligations common to international humanitarian and human rights law that may be useful to include in a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems. For example, reporting requirements would promote transparency and facilitate monitoring. Verification and compliance mechanisms could help prevent treaty violations. Regular meetings of states parties would provide opportunities to review the treaty’s status and operation, identify gaps in implementation, and set goals for the future.

The Way Forward

In terms of negotiating fora, the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) has run its course after providing a forum for useful discussions and the development of support for a legally binding instrument over the years. After more than a decade, it is clear that negotiations of a new instrument in the CCW are impossible. It is time to step outside of that forum to one that can aim higher, move faster, and be more inclusive of countries that are not party to the CCW as well as of international organizations and civil society. Disarmament precedent shows that stand-alone and UN General Assembly-initiated processes are viable options in which committed, like-minded states, in partnership with other stakeholders, can produce strong treaties in 15 months or less.[19]

The world is approaching a tipping point on this topic as support for negotiating a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems reaches unprecedented levels.[20] The Stop Killer Robots campaign’s Automated Decision Research project identifies more than 110 countries that have expressed their desire through national and group statements for a new international treaty on autonomous weapons systems.[21] Human Rights Watch supports the joint call issued on October 5 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric for UN member states to negotiate a new international treaty by 2026 to ban lethal autonomous weapons systems.

Human Rights Watch affirms our strong commitment to work with urgency and with all interested stakeholders for an international legal instrument to ban and regulate autonomous weapons systems. We are grateful for the opportunity to share the above views and recommendations on ways to address this grave threat to humanity.

[1] See www.stopkillerrobots.org and also, Human Rights Watch, “New Campaign to Stop Killer Robots,” April 23, 2013, https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/23/arms-new-campaign-stop-killer-robots.

[2] Presentation by Bonnie Docherty, Human Rights Watch (HRW) to the Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Autonomous Weapons Systems, March 8, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/08/expert-panel-social-and-humanitarian-impact-autonomous-weapons-latin-american-and.

[3] Human Rights Watch and IHRC, Losing Humanity: The Case against Killer Robots, November 19, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/11/19/losing-humanity/case-against-killer-robots.

[4] See also, HRW and IHRC, Making the Case: The Dangers of Killer Robots and the Need for a Preemptive Ban, December 9, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/12/09/making-case/dangers-killer-robots-and-need-preemptive-ban.

[5] HRW and IHRC, Mind the Gap: The Lack of Accountability for Killer Robots, April 9, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/04/09/mind-gap/lack-accountability-killer-robots.

[6] HRW and IHRC, Heed the Call: A Moral and Legal Imperative to Ban Killer Robots, August 21, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/08/21/heed-call/moral-and-legal-imperative-ban-killer-robots.

[7] HRW, “US: Take Lead Against Lethal Robotic Weapons,” May 28, 2013, https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/28/us-take-lead-against-lethal-robotic-weapons.

[8] Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, UN document A/HRC/23/47, April 9, 2013, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session23/A-HRC-23-47_en.pdf.

[9] HRW and IHRC, Shaking the Foundation: Human Rights Implications of Killer Robots, May 12, 2014, https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/05/12/shaking-foundations/human-rights-implications-killer-robots.

[10] Christof Heyns, “Autonomous Weapon Systems: Human Rights and Ethical Issues” (presentation to the Convention on Conventional Weapons Meeting of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems, April 14, 2016).

[11] HRW and IHRC, Making the Case: The Dangers of Killer Robots and the Need for a Preemptive Ban, December 9, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/12/09/making-case/dangers-killer-robots-and-need-preemptive-ban.

[12] RAND, “Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Concerns in an Uncertain World,” April 28, 2020, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3139-1.html.

[13] Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, “Submission to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) for the Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace,” July 2023, https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Submission_StopKillerRobots_AgendaForPeace.pdf (accessed April 5, 2024), p. 3.

[14] HRW, “US: New Policy on Autonomous Weapons Flawed,” February 14, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/14/us-new-policy-autonomous-weapons-flawed.

[15] HRW and IHRC, “Precedent for Preemption: The Ban on Blinding Lasers as a Model for a Killer Robots Prohibition,” November 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/11/08/precedent-preemption-ban-blinding-lasers-model-killer-robots-prohibition.

[16] International Committee of the Red Cross, “Submission on Autonomous Weapons Systems to the United Nations Secretary-General,” March 2024, https://www.icrc.org/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/war-and-law/icrc_submission_on_autonomous_weapons_to_unsg.pdf.

[17] HRW and IHRC, New Weapons, Proven Precedent: Elements of and Models for a Treaty on Killer Robots, October 20, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/10/20/new-weapons-proven-precedent/elements-and-models-treaty-killer-robots. See also, Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, “Key Elements of a Treaty on Fully Autonomous Weapons,” November 2019, https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Key-Elements-of-a-Treaty-on-Fully-Autonomous- WeaponsvAccessible.pdf (accessed September 3, 2020).

[18] HRW and IHRC, “Killer Robots and the Concept of Meaningful Human Control,” April 11, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/11/killer-robots-and-concept-meaningful-human-control.

[19] HRW and IHRC, Agenda for Action: Alternative Processes for Negotiating a Killer Robots Treaty, November 10, 2022, https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/11/10/agenda-action/alternative-processes-negotiating-killer-robots-treaty.

[20] More than 1,000 representatives from 144 countries and international organizations, industry, academia, and civil society attended the largest international conference ever held on autonomous weapons systems in Vienna on April 29-30. See the chair’s summary: https://www.bmeia.gv.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Zentrale/Aussenpolitik/Abruestung/AWS_2024/Chair_s_Summary.pdf.

[21] Automated Decision Research, https://automatedresearch.org/state-positions/. See also, HRW, Stopping Killer Robots: Country Positions on Banning Fully Autonomous Weapons and Retaining Human Control, August 10, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/08/10/stopping-killer-robots/country-positions-banning-fully-autonomous-weapons-and.

South Africa: Toxic Rhetoric Endangers Migrants

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 06 May 2024 09:28:15 -0400

Click to expand Image Protestors demonstrate in front of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against xenophobia and vigilantism in the country, Johannesburg, during Africa Day, May 25, 2022. © 2022 MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images

(Johannesburg) – Candidates in South Africa’s forthcoming general elections have been scapegoating and demonizing foreign nationals, risking stoking xenophobic violence, Human Rights Watch said today.

On May 29, 2024, South Africa will hold general elections for the national and provincial legislatures. Among the campaign themes that have taken center stage is migration, in particular irregular migration, which is often accompanied by harmful and threatening rhetoric. While irregular migration has been a long-standing issue in South Africa, discourse around it has become more polemic as the country approaches the most contested elections since 1994.

“Politicians are using immigrants as pawns, without regard for their safety in an attempt to score votes ahead of the general elections,” said Nomathamsanqa Masiko-Mpaka, South Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, “The Electoral Commission of South Africa, as an independent constitutional body which manages free and fair elections, should explicitly condemn the harmful rhetoric directed towards foreign nationals.”

The authorities should enforce the electoral code of conduct to address harmful anti-immigrant rhetoric by government officials and candidates who are not only addressing legitimate issues of border control and irregular migration, but are making foreign nationals targets of abuse.

Candidates are pushing a narrative not just that migration is out of control, but blaming undocumented migrants for the country’s ills and engaging in xenophobia, Human Rights Watch said. South Africa’s electoral code of conduct, which every candidate is required to abide by, prohibits language that provokes violence and requires candidates to speak out against political violence. In a country where xenophobic violence, including lethal violence, has been a persistent problem, rhetoric that scapegoats foreign nationals can all too easily spark violence.

In one example, the party, Rise Mzansi, in its January 20 manifesto, said it would “fix the asylum seeker system: stop its use as a de facto permit for economic migrants,” feeding into the narrative of bogus asylum seekers.

Herman Mashaba, leader of ActionSA, in a tweet in December 2023 stated that foreign nationals who run tuckshops use their businesses as illicit drug channels, destroying small businesses in townships and villages, and disrupting communities’ way of life.

On November 26, 2023, the leader of the Patriotic Alliance, Gayton McKenzie while speaking at the political party's 10-year celebration said of foreign nationals: “they must go home” contending that foreign nationals are responsible for crime, drug peddling, unemployment, and other problems. “We don’t want illegal foreigners here.”

Lesego More of the nongovernmental group, Democracy Watch Foundation, said that, “When you encourage communities to directly confront illegal immigration, this might result in violence and attacking illegal migrants.”

Government officials have also been stoking anti-immigration sentiment. Kenny Kunene, the deputy president of the Patriotic Alliance political party and the Johannesburg city member of the Mayoral Committee for Transport called for the “mass deportation of illegal immigrants who are staying in abandoned buildings that are taking rent” following an August 2023 fire in a building in Johannesburg’s central business district that killed more than 70 people. In the wake of the tragedy, many South Africans blamed foreign nationals, with some claiming that eviction laws protect criminals by making it difficult to remove people who are occupying buildings without authorization.

On April 10, the Cabinet approved a Department of Home Affairs (DHA) White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection with recommendations including withdrawing from the 1951 Refugee Convention and reacceding to it with reservations. The DHA minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, also said that limited resources might affect guaranteeing socio-economic rights to refugees, suggesting that long-established rights enshrined in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights as applicable to all, are now at risk.

“Migration issues are clearly being used to circumvent the real issues that are present in South Africa” Nyeleti Baloyi, advocacy officer at the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, told Human Rights Watch.

For years South Africa has been grappling with sporadic and sometimes lethal xenophobic harassment and violence against African and Asian foreign nationals living in the country, including refugees, asylum seekers, and both documented and undocumented migrants. In 2019, South Africa initiated a five-year National Action Plan to combat xenophobia, racism, and discrimination. Despite this, sporadic incidents of xenophobic discrimination and violence have continued.

Xenowatch reported 170 incidents in 2022 and 2023 and 18 between January and April 2024. The authorities have yet to hold to account people responsible for past outbreaks of xenophobic violence, including in Durban in 2015 and the 2008 attacks on foreigners that resulted in the deaths of more than 60 people.

The anti-immigrant rhetoric used by politicians during the election campaign risks fueling more xenophobic violence, jeopardizing the protections in the South African constitution and international law, not only for foreign nationals but for South African citizens, Human Rights Watch said.

“If South Africa is to confront xenophobic discrimination, harassment and attacks, then it also needs to address anti-immigrant rhetoric and abandon retrogressive migration policies,” Masiko-Mpaka said. “The government can address irregular migration without using electioneering to endanger foreign nationals.”

Cambodia: UN Review Should Assail Loss of Freedoms

Human Rights Watch — Sun, 05 May 2024 21:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet (left), stands next to his father, Hun Sen, former prime minister and current Senate president, during the country’s 70th Independence Day, in Phnom Penh, November 9, 2023. © 2023 AP Photo/Heng Sinith

(Geneva) – United Nations member countries should press the Cambodian government on its human rights abuses, including targeting political opponents and dissidents, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 8, 2024, Cambodia will appear before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for the fourth Universal Periodic Review of human rights conditions in the country.

Since its 2019 review, when Cambodia accepted 173 out of 198 recommendations received and took note of 25 others, the government has failed to address those commitments and the human rights situation in the country has worsened significantly. Human Rights Watch, in its submission to the Human Rights Council, said that the government had continued to violate the rights of those critical of the government, including in the months leading up to the UN review.

“Since its last UN review in 2019, Cambodia has become further entrenched as an essentially single-party state without meaningful elections, no media freedom, and a ruling party-controlled judiciary,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Countries at the Human Rights Council should condemn the denial of fundamental freedoms in Cambodia and press the government to immediately adopt real reforms.”

On January 30, the Phnom Penh appeals court denied the request of the Cambodian political opposition leader Kem Sokha to review the terms of his home detention. Sokha, 70, who was sentenced on March 3, 2023, to a 27-year term on a politically motivated treason conviction, must continue to seek the approval of the prosecutor’s office for his defense lawyers to visit him.

The authorities have arrested 11 political opposition figures since the beginning of 2024 on politically motivated forgery charges in the lead-up to the scheduled May 26 local elections.

On April 5, police in Phnom Penh arrested three opposition activists from the Khmer Will Party and the Candlelight Party for allegedly forging reserved candidate lists. On April 9, two candidates for the district election and a Candlelight Party provincial party chief were also arrested for allegedly forging candidate lists. And on April 28, plain clothes police arrested a vice chairman of the Candlelight Party’s executive committee at his home and charged him with using forged documents. All seven remain in pretrial detention and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

On May 3, Cambodia’s Supreme Court upheld the baseless conviction against Chhim Sithar, leader of Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, and seven other union activists, with two receiving suspended sentences and sentences between one and two years for the others. The decision prolongs Sithar’s current incarceration and risks the immediate imprisonment of an additional five union members.

Hopes that the human rights situation in the country would improve after Hun Sen, who had been prime minister since 1985, on August 22 handed power over to his son, now Prime Minister Hun Manet, have not been borne out, Human Rights Watch said. Hun Sen remains head of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and became Senate president on April 3. Human Rights Watch documented a similar pattern of intimidation and threats against opposition politicians ahead of the Senate elections in February. Cambodian government officials offered them bribes and other unlawful inducements to withhold their support from opposition candidates.

The government has not only failed to implement the recommendations it accepted during its last UN review with respect to democratic space, elections, and political freedoms, but it has continued to restrict free speech and media, labor unions and labor rights, and civil society.

The Cambodian government’s UN submission claims that legal reforms have improved human rights, but recent legislative efforts have proven to be tools for repression. For example, the government is currently seeking to adopt a cybercrime law that contains vague language, broad categories of prosecutable speech, and lacks protections for citizens, falling far short of international standards. The law also raises the criminal penalty on defamation to include jail time when it previously only included a fine.

A “false information” clause contains an overly broad definition of harming national defense and security, among other violations, with penalties of from three to five years in prison and up to a US$25,000 fine. Civil society and media groups sharply criticized earlier drafts of the law for restricting the rights to privacy and free expression and said the drafting process lacked inclusivity, transparency, and public participation.

“The UN Human Rights Council need only to look at the continued deterioration of the human rights situation to conclude that the Cambodian government is making empty promises,” Lau said. “UN member countries should urge the Cambodian government to ensure immediate, concrete, and meaningful reforms to allow Cambodians to exercise their basic rights.”

A Critical Week for Environmental Rights in Southeast Asia

Human Rights Watch — Sun, 05 May 2024 20:00:00 -0400

Last week, millions of people in Southeast Asia grappled with a record-setting heatwave that triggered thousands of school closures, put unprecedented pressure on power grids, and led to fatal heat strokes. The brutal temperatures underscore the need to hammer out the details of a regional environmental rights declaration, work that is underway today in Jakarta as a working group formed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) convenes.

The draft already recognizes the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, to access environmental information, and to participate in environmental decisions. It also tackles transboundary haze, a recurrent cause for dispute among ASEAN members when smoke from fires leads to overwhelming air pollution across national borders.

The declaration has glaring omissions, however. To address them, Human Rights Watch urged the working group to include provisions on corporate accountability, climate-related mobility – when the effects of climate change, such as sea-level rise, compel people to move – and to ensure the declaration advances Indigenous rights.

Despite all ASEAN countries endorsing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the draft does not use the term “Indigenous peoples,” nor does it acknowledge their rights over their resources and territories. Further, it does not recognize Indigenous peoples’ contributions as the most effective caretakers of nature.

“ASEAN should place Indigenous rights at the heart of the declaration, such as the right to free, prior, and informed consent, rights to tenure, and the requirement for safeguards and accountability mechanisms,” said Dr. June Rubis, cofounder of Building Initiatives in Indigenous Heritage Sarawak. The Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, a grassroots organization, called on the working group to ensure Indigenous participation in the drafting process.

The draft is also weak in addressing corporate accountability. As Human Rights Watch’s work in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and elsewhere shows, companies are often responsible for environmental destruction or other rights abuses. The declaration should reflect the obligation of states to regulate businesses.

Confronted with rising sea levels and extreme weather events, the declaration should also acknowledge the need for greater rights protections for people compelled to move. Planned relocations should be community-led and carried out with transparency, participation, and nondiscrimination.

The working group has an opportunity to develop a framework in a region with no regional human rights treaty. But it cannot do so without recognizing those most affected by environmental abuses, or full accountability for those responsible.

Arrest Warrant Issued for Former Central African Republic President

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 03 May 2024 14:30:00 -0400

Click to expand Image François Bozizé, former president of the Central African Republic, during the first anniversary of the CAR Peace Agreement at the Palais de la Renaissance, in Bangui, CAR, on February 6, 2020. © 2020 Photo by Gaël Grilhot / AFP via Getty Images

Earlier this week, the Special Criminal Court (SCC) of the Central African Republic issued an arrest warrant for former president François Bozizé. He is charged with crimes against humanity allegedly committed between February 2009 and March 23, 2013, by the Presidential Guard and other security services at the Bossembelé military training center, referred to as “Guantanamo,” north of the country’s capital Bangui.

In April 2013, I interviewed 10 former detainees from Guantanamo who described conditions of near-starvation, constant beatings, torture, and extrajudicial executions. Later, I was taken to see two cells on either side of Bozizé’s private villa, concrete shafts in the ground with just enough space for a person to stand. A cement enclosure on top of the enclosures had air holes for a person to breathe, but no space to move. Reliable accounts by former prisoners indicate that individuals were placed in these cells and left there until they died.

The SCC is a novel court established to investigate and prosecute serious international crimes committed in Central African Republic since 2003. The court is staffed by both national and international judges and personnel.

Bozizé first fled Bangui in March 2013 as the Seleka, a mostly Muslim rebel coalition, took control of the Central African Republic amid widespread abuse, much of which was committed by Bozizé’s presidential guard, which killed at least hundreds of civilians and destroyed thousands of homes during unrest in the mid-2000s. Impunity for alleged crimes dates back even further. The Seleka gave rise to local militias, called anti-balaka, who in turn targeted Muslim civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Bozizé returned to the country in 2019 as it was wracked with conflict and later emerged as a key leader in a rebel coalition that attacked Bangui in late 2020 before going back into hiding in Guinea-Bissau.

Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the president of Guinea-Bissau, has told local media that he was surprised by the arrest warrant and that Bozizé had not done anything in Guinea-Bissau to call into question his exile status. Bozizé has been a glaring example of impunity in the Central African Republic for over a decade. Guinea-Bissau has a chance to play a role in finally bringing him to justice.

Nigerian Military Should Provide Details of Investigation into Deadly Airstrike

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 03 May 2024 13:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Nigerian Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, center, with other community leaders at the grave side where victims of an army drone attack were buried in Tudun Biri village, Nigeria, December 5, 2023. © 2023 AP Photo Kehinde Gbenga

The Nigerian military authorities said this week they had completed investigations into an erroneous Army airstrike in Tundun Biri Community, Kaduna state, which killed 85 people and injured dozens more in December 2023. Two officers have been indicted over the attack and will face court martial with the military’s disciplinary process.

While this announcement may mark progress towards accountability, authorities should provide answers to many of the outstanding questions about the investigation. This includes the terms of reference, those responsible for conducting the probe, the methodology, the findings – including those implicated. The army should also disclose measures recommended or put in place, if any, to prevent more erroneous airstrikes.

Since 2017, more than 300 people have been killed in strikes that security forces claimed were intended against bandits or members of the Islamist armed group Boko Haram but instead hit local populations.

Following the Tundun Biri airstrike in December, army authorities claimed responsibility for the incident and apologized to the community, while Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ordered an investigation to be carried out.

Human Rights Watch documented the loss, devastation, and trauma resulting from the December airstrike as well as a prior erroneous airstrike by the Air Force in January 2023, which killed 39 people.

Survivors and loved ones of those killed in these airstrikes have yet to receive compensation and services to help them through their loss, injuries, and trauma. The military’s announcement about the investigation’s conclusion did not mention any steps towards such efforts.

Far too many people have been killed by erroneous airstrikes by the Nigerian military. Authorities should build trust in their efforts towards accountability by ensuring transparency in the process and prioritizing reparations for victims.

Attacks Target Afghanistan’s Hazaras

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 03 May 2024 11:22:53 -0400

Click to expand Image Afghans mourn at a burial ceremony for Shia Muslims killed by gunmen who attacked a mosque in Guzara district of Herat province, April 30, 2024. © 2024 MOHSEN KARIMI/AFP via Getty Images

For many Afghans, the country’s armed conflict has never ended.

The armed group Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) attracted worldwide attention in March when it attacked the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, killing at least 143 people and injuring many others. Since emerging in Afghanistan in 2015, the group has carried out a bloody campaign mostly targeting Shia-Hazara mosques and schools and other facilities in predominantly Hazara neighborhoods.

In the most recent attack, on April 29, an armed member of the group opened fire on worshippers at a Shia-Hazara mosque in western Herat province, killing six, including a child. On April 20, a magnetic bomb attached to a bus whose passengers were primarily Hazara exploded, killing one and injuring 10. On January 6, a similar attack on a bus in Dasht-e Barchi, a predominantly Hazara neighborhood of Kabul, killed five people, including at least one child, and injured 14. Dasht-e Barchi has been the site of numerous ISKP attacks. When ISKP claimed responsibility for the January 6 attack, they said it was part of their “kill them wherever you find them” campaign against “infidels.”

Between 2015 and mid-2021, ISKP attacks killed and injured more than 2,000 civilians primarily in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, these attacks have continued – killing and injuring over 700.

The Taliban have long battled the ISKP, which have also targeted Taliban personnel. A suicide bombing outside a Kandahar bank on March 21 killed at least 21 people and injured 50, many of them Taliban ministry employees who had lined up to collect their salaries.

Attacks on Hazara and other religious minorities and targeted attacks on civilians violate international humanitarian law, which still applies in Afghanistan. Deliberate attacks on civilians are war crimes. Beyond the immediate loss of life, such attacks incur lasting damage to physical and mental health, cause long-term economic hardship, and result in new barriers to education and public life.

Like the previous Afghan government, Taliban authorities have not taken adequate measures to protect Hazaras and other communities at risk or provide assistance to survivors of attacks, though they are responsible for ensuring the safety of all Afghan citizens.

France: Macron Should Stand Firm on Rights in China

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 03 May 2024 02:00:00 -0400

(Paris) – French President Emmanuel Macron should lay out consequences for the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity and deepening repression during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Paris, Human Rights Watch said today. Xi’s visit on May 6-7, 2024, will mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between France and the People’s Republic of China, and will likely focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, and trade issues.

“President Macron should make it clear to Xi Jinping that Beijing’s crimes against humanity come with consequences for China’s relations with France,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch. “France’s silence and inaction on human rights would only embolden the Chinese government’s sense of impunity for its abuses, further fueling repression at home and abroad.”

Respect for human rights has severely deteriorated under Xi Jinping’s rule. His government has committed crimes against humanity – including mass detention, forced labor, and cultural persecution – against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, adopted draconian legislation that has erased Hong Kong’s freedoms, and intensified repression of government critics across the country.

In March 2021, European Union governments unanimously agreed to adopt targeted sanctions against a handful of Chinese officials and entities deemed responsible for the crackdown in Xinjiang. China immediately retaliated with counter-sanctions, which contributed to cooling bilateral relations and the suspension of a bilateral trade deal.

Macron visited Beijing in 2019 and 2023, but refrained from publicly speaking out about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. He should change course and publicly raise human rights concerns during Xi’s visit, Human Rights Watch said.

Specifically, Macron should urge Xi to end crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and release hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs who remain arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, including Rahile Dawut, a Uyghur academic, and Ilham Tohti, the economist and Sakharov Prize laureate. Macron should press Xi to end Chinese government oppression in Tibet.

Macron should also urge Xi to revoke the two draconian national security laws that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong. As both laws can be applied for actions outside of China, they affect Hong Kong people and registered businesses in France that criticize the Chinese government. Macron should press for the release of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders including Joshua Wong, Chow Hang-tung, and Jimmy Lai, among others.

Finally, Macron should press the Chinese government to end its relentless repression of peaceful activists across China, including by freeing the human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife, Xu Yan, arrested in April 2023 on their way to meet an EU delegation in Beijing.

However, speaking out on human rights, as the EU has repeatedly done in its statements, will only lead to positive results if accompanied by concrete consequences, Human Rights Watch said. Macron should make clear to Xi that France will pursue accountability for Beijing’s egregious crimes, including by pressing ahead toward a United Nations Human Rights Council-backed investigation in Xinjiang.

And he should spell out how Beijing’s continued repression will hinder trade and business between the two countries and with the EU more broadly; including once the EU’s due diligence and forced labor legislation come into force.

This approach to human rights is in line with Macron’s vision of “strategic autonomy” for Europe; an idea that the continent should be strong and not a strategic “vassal” to the United States, as well as not to rely too heavily on China for production. He has also described a “humanist model” that is based on values such as democracy and human rights.

“Macron should demonstrate the French government’s commitment to addressing Xi’s assault on rights inside and outside China,” Wang said. “That requires leadership, determination, and clarity on human rights. He should step up to the task, and not succumb to business as usual.”

Human Rights Watch Launches Podcast

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(New York) – Human Rights Watch will present a podcast twice a month starting May 6, 2024, that will explore human rights hotspots around the world through the eyes and ears of people on the front lines. Rights & Wrongs will take listeners behind the scenes of in-depth Human Rights Watch investigations. 

Human Rights Watch researchers work in more than 100 countries across the globe, producing dozens of meticulously researched reports every year. Those reports, grounded in international human rights law, are directed at government officials and policymakers and aim to end abuses and change government policies. Rights & Wrongs will bring that research to life in an immersive medium with compelling accounts that are accessible to a general audience. 

“From a Ukrainian city to a Bangladesh shipyard, we will take listeners to the places where human rights violations are happening and hear firsthand powerful stories about the fight to speak freely, to get a decent standard of living, or simply, just to live,” said Mei Fong, chief media officer at Human Rights Watch.

Click to expand Image Ngofeen Mputubwele

The series will be hosted by Ngofeen Mputubwele, formerly of The New Yorker, and produced by Curtis Fox, a veteran podcast producer for National Public Radio and The New Yorker. Rights & Wrongs will feature interviews with Human Rights Watch researchers as well as voices from the countries where they work.  

The first episode of Rights & Wrongs looks at Human Rights Watch efforts to document the destruction of Mariupol as Russian forces laid siege and cut off communications to the Ukrainian city. Documenting what happened became all the more critical when Russia began destroying evidence of war crimes as it began to rebuild Mariupol in Russia’s image.

Subsequent episodes of Rights & Wrongs will explore how Human Rights Watch documented the killing of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi border guards at a remote Saudi-Yemen border outpost, how the shipping industry sends end-of-life ships to Bangladesh to be scrapped in dangerous yards that harm workers and pollute the environment, and how governments reach across borders to silence or deter dissent of their own nationals abroad.

Rights & Wrongs will be available on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, and Amazon.

Recognizing Journalists Living in Exile

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 02 May 2024 20:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Afghan journalist and producer Sadaf Rahimi (L) directs the talk show "Tabassoum" (“Smile,” in Dari) hosted by Afghan refugee journalist Diba Akbari (center) and former Afghan actress Marina Golbahari (right) in Begum TV studio, an educational television channel aimed at middle and high school girls deprived of education by the Taliban authorities since August 2021, Paris, March 12, 2024. © 2024 GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images

Around the world, journalists who have been forced to flee their countries have continued to report on their homelands, exposing ongoing human rights violations while living in exile.

Today, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day. But independent media faces increasing threats from abusive governments and armed groups worldwide. In 2023, Reporters Without Borders reported a surge of requests for help from journalists being threatened because of their work. Last year, the organization provided financial assistance to 460 journalists who had to flee abroad; the top countries where it intervened were Afghanistan, Russia, Myanmar, and Palestine.

The lives of journalists in exile can be rocky. They have too few resources, are forced to work from a distance, and often undertake their reporting at personal risk. They may face uncertain immigration status, digital harassment from foreign intelligence agencies operating abroad, and threats to their relatives remaining in their home country. That’s in addition to the ordinary difficulties of adjusting to life in a new country and often learning a new language.

But more organizations are supporting journalists in exile, helping them form networks and continue their essential work. The Network of Exiled Media Outlets, together with the US-based International Center for Journalists, has created a toolkit for journalists in exile to share knowledge and best practices. The Europe-based JX Fund says it has supported more than 1,600 journalists who fled crisis regions in returning to work. The Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization works to boost communication among Afghan journalists worldwide, among other goals.

Today, Human Rights Watch and its partners announced the recipients of the 2024 Human Rights Press Awards for outstanding reporting on human rights issues across Asia. For the first time, this year’s awards included the category of “newsrooms in exile.”

Two media organizations won in this new category. Frontier Myanmar received the award for its coverage of how Myanmar’s military, steeped in Buddhist nationalism, has targeted Bayingyi, a Roman Catholic minority. Zan Times, a women-led publication covering rights abuses in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, received the award for its reporting on the increase in female suicides in the country.

This new category of awards should draw much-needed attention to journalists in exile, so that more groups will support their crucial investigative reporting.

Asia: 2024 Human Rights Press Awards

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 02 May 2024 20:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image The staff of the newspaper Etilaat Roz, keep on working even after the Taliban took control of the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 19, 2021. © 2021 Marcus Yam/Getty Images

(Taipei) – Today, marking World Press Freedom Day, Human Rights Press Awards in Asia announced the 2024 winners and runners-up. The seven categories of awards are administered by Human Rights Watch, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and the foreign correspondents clubs in both Thailand and Taiwan.

Among the top winners are reporting on the rising number of suicides among Afghan women living under abusive Taliban rule; the persecution of religious minorities in Myanmar; and the Chinese government’s treatment of White Paper protesters who stood up against Covid-19 lockdowns.

“The Human Rights Press Awards recognize journalists who are uncovering some of the most pressing rights issues in Asia,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “In an era in which rising authoritarianism generates autocratic leaders and mass disinformation, the role of journalists in exposing the truth is more critical than ever. We are thrilled to honor these courageous reporters.”

The seven categories of awards include the newly created “Newsrooms in Exile” category, as well as commentary, print, photography, video, audio, and multimedia. The winners will be honored at a ceremony in Taipei hosted by the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club (TFCC) on May 10, 2024.

“We are honored once again to be administering the Human Rights Press Awards,” said Dr. Battinto L. Batts, Jr., dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “As part of our Cronkite Global Initiatives, we are proud to help recognize outstanding human rights journalism throughout Asia and the world.”

“It’s no coincidence that many winning entries are examples of brave journalism from Afghanistan, Hong Kong, and Myanmar, places where reporting has become increasingly difficult and dangerous,” said Thompson Chau, president of the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club. “The TFCC is honored to host the award ceremony in Taipei. Taiwan is an extraordinary place for a growing number of Asia-focused correspondents to live and work.”

Frontier Myanmar and Zan Times shared the top prize in the inaugural “Newsroom in Exile” category for their reporting on Myanmar and Afghanistan, respectively. Frontier Myanmar’s report uncovered the Myanmar military’s oppression of the Bayingyi, Roman Catholics of Portuguese descent. Zan Times gathered data illustrating the dire reality of the growing numbers of Afghan women and girls choosing death as preferable to living under Taliban repression.

“We're increasingly seeing media under threat in countries across Southeast Asia, which is why the new Human Rights Press Awards category for media in exile is so critically important,” said Phil Robertson, program committee chair at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT). “In countries such as Afghanistan and Myanmar, there needs to be greater recognition of journalists who bravely report human rights stories from the homeland they were forced to flee, and the FCCT is proud to be a part of that effort.”

The award for multimedia went to Al Jazeera for its piece, “‘If I die, I die’: Pakistan's death-trap route to Europe,” documenting the dangerous journey young Pakistani men undertake in search of work in Europe and the suffering of their families left behind.

The Initium won the investigative reporting prize in Chinese for its series on the anniversary of the White Paper Protest, featuring the lives and struggles of those who protested China’s “zero-Covid” lockdown policies in the wake of the pandemic.

The Guardian won the investigative reporting prize in English for its work, “Revealed: Amazon linked to trafficking of workers in Saudi Arabia,” which exposed the plight of Nepali migrant workers enduring forced labor and discrimination in Saudi Arabia. The reporting revealed the complicity of major multinational corporations that fail to police their supply chains.

Reporting on the Myanmar military’s airstrikes; abuses by the Bangladeshi elite police unit, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB); issues facing the LGBT community in Hong Kong; and a global private hospital group embroiled in a “cash for kidneys” racket all won honorable mentions.

A complete list of winners is available here: https://humanrightspressawards.org/2024-winners

Tajikistan: Forcibly Disappeared Opponent Allegedly Tortured

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 02 May 2024 19:00:01 -0400

(Berlin, May 3, 2024) – Tajik authorities should immediately confirm the detention and whereabouts of and release the opposition activist Sukhrob Zafar, Human Rights Watch, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and International Partnership for Human Rights said today.

Based on a media report and reports from reliable sources, Zafar was forcibly disappeared while in Türkiye in March 2024, despite holding official UNHCR asylum seeker status there. The sources said that the Tajik State Committee on National Security is holding him in Dushanbe, is periodically torturing him, and has denied him medical assistance. The Tajik government has neither confirmed that he is in their custody nor his whereabouts.

“There are devastating reports that Sukhrob Zafar may already have lost his ability to walk as a result of torture, so prompt action could be a matter of life and death,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Tajik authorities should immediately verify Zafar’s detention status and whereabouts and urgently investigate allegations that he has been tortured.”

Authorities should also ensure and confirm that Zafar receives his full due process rights, including contact with his family, access to a lawyer of his own choosing, and necessary medical treatment, the groups said.

Zafar, a senior figure in Group 24, a banned Tajik opposition group, was forcibly disappeared on March 10 in Türkiye, and his colleague Nasimjon Sharifov was forcibly disappeared on February 23. 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.

Group 24 is a political opposition movement seeking political reforms in Tajikistan, which the Tajik authorities banned and designated a terrorist organization in October 2014, after the group called on the Tajik population to publicly protest against the government. In the last decade, Tajik authorities have cracked down brutally on the group and its members, imprisoning scores at home and driving large numbers into exile.

Recently, many exiled activists associated with the group have organized protests against the Tajik government in Europe and elsewhere. In response, Tajik authorities have sought their forced return from abroad, while some have allegedly been killed or forcibly disappeared.

A recent Human Rights Watch report on repressive governments targeting critics abroad includes accounts of the Tajik government seeking the arrest and extradition to Tajikistan of current and former members of Group 24 who have fled the country on charges of extremism and terrorism-related activities.

On April 23, eight members of Group 24 were detained in Rome during a protest about a visit by Tajik president Emomali Rahmon to Italy. They were released the next day, but the Tajik interior minister raised with his Italian counterpart the possibility of Italy detaining and deporting Tajiks with a search warrant or an Interpol Red Notice against them.

Türkiye is a member of the Council of Europe and party to the European Convention on Human Rights, and any involvement of, or acquiescence by, state agents in the forcible disappearance of and potential extrajudicial transfer of Zafar and Sharifov to Tajikistan is a serious violation of the convention.

The European Court of Human Rights has warned that “any extra-judicial transfer or extraordinary rendition, by its deliberate circumvention of due process, is an absolute negation of the rule of law and the values protected by the Convention. It therefore amounts to a violation of the most basic rights guaranteed by the Convention.”

“Türkiye should thoroughly investigate the unlawful actions on Turkish territory, which appear to have led to the forced rendition to Tajikistan of Zafar Sukhrob,” said Marius Fossum, regional representative in Central Asia at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. “Zafar should be released pending a fair trial on any credible charges and provided with redress for the violation of his rights as a result of his forced removal to Tajikistan.”