Human Rights Watch News

Biden Should Oppose US Sanctions on ICC

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 23 May 2024 07:56:35 -0400

(Washington, DC) – US President Joe Biden should oppose threats and calls for punitive actions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), 121 human rights and civil society groups said today in a letter to President Biden.

On May 20, 2024, the court’s prosecutor announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for three leaders of Hamas and two senior Israeli officials. Some members of the US Congress have threatened to retaliate against the ICC, including by imposing sanctions against court officers, if the court moves forward with arrest warrants against Israeli officials in its Palestine investigation.

Although the United States is not a member of the ICC, Republican and Democratic administrations have supported the court in specific cases, and the US government has assisted with the arrest of suspects wanted by the court. The Biden administration has recognized the court’s essential role in addressing serious international crimes in Ukraine and in Darfur, Sudan.

In the May 22 letter to the White House, the groups urged President Biden to reject attacks on the court, calling the previous US administration’s sanctions against the prosecutor’s predecessor an affront to justice. “The previous administration’s sanctions against [ICC officials] … aligned the United States with authoritarian tactics of threatening judges and independent judicial institutions,” the groups said in their letter.

President Biden should “oppose any legislative efforts to undermine the ICC, and to make clear that regardless of its views on specific ICC investigations, the United States continues to support independent international justice mechanisms,” the groups said.

The text of the letter and its signatories is available here.

On EU’s ‘Day Against Impunity,’ Stand for Equal Justice

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 23 May 2024 03:31:40 -0400

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell showed what a principled commitment to justice looks like, on May 7, when he pushed back against threats aimed at undermining the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Palestine investigation. “If we respect the ICC, it has to be in any case, on any occasion, with respect to anyone,” he said.

On May 23, the EU marks its ninth Day Against Impunity, shortly after the ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants for grave international crimes committed in Israel and Palestine since October 7, 2023. ICC judges are now considering that request.

Now, EU member countries face a critical test, when it comes to their support for victims’ equal access to justice.

The EU and its member states have contributed to a strong response to serious crimes committed in Ukraine, Myanmar, Syria, and other places, supporting international and domestic justice efforts. In the past, they have also provided critical political support when the ICC justice process came under attack by those fearing accountability.

They should now apply that same principled commitment to securing justice for grave abuses in Israel and Palestine. EU members like Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, and France have indeed expressed support for the court’s independence, even as attempts to threaten the court and its officials – particularly by some US lawmakers – intensify.

However, some responses from EU members since the ICC prosecutor announced applications for arrest warrants have been less than supportive or even critical.

The ICC is doing precisely what its members, including all EU countries, set it up to do. The EU and its members should present a common front to advance justice for atrocities committed in Israel and Palestine, as well as globally, no matter the alleged perpetrator. They should also take action to stop the commission of further crimes and unequivocally back any independent judicial effort to bring about accountability; be it through the ICC, the UN Commission of Inquiry, the International Court of Justice, or before national courts in EU countries.

No atrocity crime is ever justified. Accountability is key to ensure that they are not repeated, and that all victims have access to the redress they deserve.

Zambia: Opposition Figure Sentenced for ‘Defaming President’

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 23 May 2024 03:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Government photo of Raphael Nakacinda, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for “defaming the president." Credit: National Assembly of Zambia

(Johannesburg) – The conviction and sentencing of a leading opposition member to 18 months in prison with hard labor will have a broad chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression in Zambia, Human Rights Watch said today.

Raphael Nakacinda, secretary general of the main opposition party, Patriotic Front, was sentenced on May 17, 2024, for his 2021 remarks “defaming the president,” a criminal offense that the president abolished in 2022. President Hakainde Hichilema had earlier said that the law on criminal defamation of the president “inhibits the growth of democracy and good governance, impedes human rights and basic freedoms.”

“Sending a leading opposition figure to prison under a law that previous administrations have notoriously used to silence critics is a blot on President Hichilema’s record,” said Idriss Ali Nassah, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The administration should quash Raphael Nakacinda’s conviction, release him, and stop prosecuting political opponents and others under this revoked law.”

In December 2021, Nakacinda alleged that President Hichilema had summoned judges to his residence to intimidate and coerce them into passing judgments favorable to him in legal battles with the Patriotic Front. Hichilema’s spokesperson dismissed the allegation as “contemptuous,” and said that “law enforcement agencies must not hesitate to hold accountable those who will abuse basic constitutional freedoms to peddle malicious and baseless attacks against other members of the public.”

Nakacinda, 43, was sentenced under section 69 of Zambia’s penal code, which had made it a criminal offense for “any person who, with intent to bring the President into hatred, ridicule or contempt, publishes any defamatory or insulting matter, whether by writing, print, word of mouth or in any other manner.” Those convicted face up to three years in prison.

In 2022, President Hichilema assented to Penal Code (Amendment) Bill No. 25, which repealed section 69, effectively abolishing the crime of defaming the president. He later wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he had repealed the law as part of his commitment to democracy as it is “the democratic right of every citizen to be able to exercise their rights.” According to media reports, the magistrate who sentenced Nakacinda said that she was aware that the law had been repealed but still convicted Nakacinda as a deterrence to others.

In Zambia, the charge of criminal defamation of the president has been used for decades to prosecute critics of the government and journalists. When elected president in 2021, Hichilema promised to amend laws that inhibit basic human rights and freedoms.

However, the media reported that in 2022 alone, at least 12 perceived critics and opponents of Hichilema had been arrested for insulting the president, some multiple times. For example, in September 2022 the authorities arrested Sean Tembo, president of a smaller opposition party, Patriots for Economic Progress, and charged him with “defaming the president.” He is facing another two charges for using insulting language against the president, a separate offense under section 179 of the penal code, in August and October 2023, to which he pleaded not guilty.

These charges raise concerns that President Hichilema intends to use the law, like his predecessors, to stifle critical voices and deter criticism, Human Rights Watch said.

The Chapter One Foundation, which promotes constitutionalism and the rule of law in Zambia, told Human Rights Watch that although the provisions on defaming the president were repealed, the repeal did not apply retrogressively. Cases that had been initiated before the repeal, such as Nakacinda’s, are still being prosecuted and convictions are being handed down.

“For the Nakacinda case, our concern stems from the fact that the government proceeded to prosecute a citizen based on a law that they acknowledge undermines Zambia’s democratic credentials,” the Chapter One Foundation said. The foundation expressed concern about “the deteriorating civil and political rights situation in Zambia. The delay in instituting structural reforms such as reviewing the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act, for example, and its continued application to prosecute citizens that are critical of government, is of concern.”

Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Zambia ratified in 1984, those convicted of crimes must benefit from the imposition of lighter penalties that are adopted subsequent to the commission of the offense.

Human Rights Watch has consistently opposed criminal defamation provisions and prison sentences for nonviolent speech offenses. Human Rights Watch considers civil defamation provisions sufficient for the purpose of protecting people's reputations, although they also can be abused.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the independent expert body that monitors compliance with the ICCPR, states in its general comment on freedom of expression that “imprisonment is never an appropriate penalty” for defamation. In addition, “all public figures … are legitimately subject to criticism.”

People in Zambia should be able to openly criticize the government without fear of reprisal. However, as Human Rights Watch has previously reported, ordinary people, journalists, human rights defenders, and political opposition members still face harassment for their perceived criticism of the authorities.

“Zambian authorities should stop harassing and prosecuting people to deprive them of their right to free speech and other fundamental liberties,” Nassah said. “Elected public officials in a rights-respecting democracy should have greater tolerance of criticism and scrutiny, and Zambians need to be able to exercise their basic rights without fear of reprisals.”

DR Congo: Prominent Activist Abducted

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 23 May 2024 01:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Gloria Sengha Panda Shala in Kinshasa, DR Congo, in 2018. Credit: CPGLCONGO

(Nairobi) – The Democratic Republic of Congo government should urgently investigate and publicly report on the whereabouts of the prominent opposition and civil society activist Gloria Sengha, Human Rights Watch said today. The abduction of Sengha and two of her colleagues appears linked to a wave of repression by Congolese authorities that has severely restricted the rights of activists, journalists, and opposition party members.

At about 5 p.m. on May 17, 2024, unidentified men, including some wearing balaclavas and police uniforms and bearing arms, abducted Sengha, a founder of the movement Citizen Awareness (Vigilance Citoyenne), along with Robert Bunda and Chadrack Tshadio, in Kinshasa, the country’s capital. All are members of Tolembi Pasi (“We are done with suffering” in Lingala), which campaigns against social injustice and high living costs. The assailants forced them into a black SUV with no license plate and drove away. The three had just attended a Tolembi Pasi meeting. Bunda and Tshadio were located in police custody on May 20.

“Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned for the activist Gloria Sengha’s safety,” said Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Congolese authorities should urgently locate and report on Sengha’s whereabouts and obtain her release.”

Sengha has long been known as an activist working to advance social justice in Congo. In May 2023, she announced that she had joined the political party Envol (“Take-Off”).

Congolese rights groups have called for her immediate release.

“Gloria's arrest is the latest in a trend of increasing attacks and arbitrary arrests against activists that has been going on for months,” said Fred Bauma, executive director at Ebuteli, a Congolese research institute. “The ANR [National Intelligence Agency] and other intelligence services have been playing an increasingly active role in this repression, which is reminiscent of the [Joseph] Kabila years.”

Sengha is a former member of the activist movement Struggle for Change (Lutte pour le Changement, or Lucha), and had previously told Human Rights Watch that she and another female activist had faced abuse, including sexual abuse, from police agents when the government arrested pro-democracy activists ahead of the 2018 presidential elections.

In May 2023, Lens Omelonga, the Envol party’s digital communications coordinator, was also abducted after attending a political meeting. He told Human Rights Watch that ANR agents in civilian clothes forced him into a white SUV and drove him away under circumstances that appear similar to Sengha’s case. He eventually spent seven months in custody for having retweeted a post criticizing a foundation established by Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi, the wife of President Félix Tshisekedi.

The authorities have increasingly cracked down on opposition members, civil society activists, critics, and journalists throughout the 2023 presidential election period and ever since. Others targeted included the prominent journalist Stanis Bujakera, who spent weeks in detention on dubious charges, and the comedian Junior Nkole, who was arbitrarily arrested and detained for his satirical videos exploring socioeconomic realities in the country.

“Sengha’s abduction just months after President Félix Tshisekedi was sworn in for a second term sends a terrible message for civil liberties in Congo,” Kaneza Nantulya said. “Tshisekedi’s administration should seize the opportunity of the new term to show genuine support for fundamental liberties and ensure that opposition activists can gather and speak freely.”

Sri Lanka: Crackdown Over Civil War Anniversary

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 23 May 2024 00:30:00 -0400

(Geneva) – Sri Lankan authorities have threatened and detained Tamils commemorating those who died or went missing in the country’s civil war, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 17, 2024, the United Nations human rights office issued a report calling for international prosecutions and other accountability measures to address the thousands of unresolved cases of enforced disappearances in the war, which ended on May 18, 2009.

“The Sri Lankan government is in denial about atrocities its forces committed during the civil war, so it tries to silence victims and their communities instead of providing truth, justice, and reparations,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s clear that more international action is needed to bring relief to victims and prevent a recurrence of abuses.”

Prior to the May 18 anniversary, police in Sri Lanka’s north and east attempted to disrupt commemoration events. In Trincomalee, they detained four people for seven days for serving “kanji,” a rice porridge symbolic of the starvation conditions many civilians suffered at the end of the war. The authorities also obtained court orders to prevent some relatives of forcibly disappeared people and others from attending events. At some locations, police intervened to prevent events from proceeding, or to block people from reaching them.

In the war’s final months in 2009, the Sri Lankan military bombarded “no fire zones” it had designated, killing tens of thousands of Tamil civilians, while the retreating separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) used civilians as human shields. After the LTTE’s final defeat, the Sri Lankan army forcibly disappeared an unknown number of people; many are believed to have been extrajudicially executed.

Enforced disappearances are defined under international law as the arrest or detention of a person by the authorities followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty, or to reveal the person’s fate or whereabouts.

On May 17 the UN Sri Lanka Accountability Project, established in 2021 to collect evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions, published a report on enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka. It found that in 15 years there has been no “tangible progress in realizing victims’ rights,” and therefore “there remains a real risk of recurrence.”

The Accountability Project said that foreign governments should “use all available forms of leverage” to press the Sri Lankan authorities to ensure truth, justice, and reparations for victims. It also calls for “investigations and prosecution [in foreign courts] using universal jurisdiction,” and “the appropriate imposition of targeted sanctions.”

Under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, countries can prosecute individuals for serious international crimes committed elsewhere. While no country has yet issued an arrest warrant in relation to enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka, prosecutors from several countries have contacted the Accountability Project seeking evidence that may support future cases.

Since the 1970s, tens of thousands of people have been “disappeared” in Sri Lanka, about 90 percent of them believed to have been abducted by state security forces. The Sri Lankan government has previously acknowledged that between 1988 and 1990 alone around 27,000 people were forcibly disappeared. Victims include people deemed to be members or supporters of opposition armed groups, as well as journalists, and human rights defenders.

Many relatives of the disappeared, often their mothers and wives, have campaigned for years to press the government to provide information about what happened to them and to see those responsible brought to justice. The relatives often face harassment and surveillance from security and intelligence agencies.

A woman campaigning for justice for her husband, who disappeared in 2000, told Human Rights Watch in 2023 that, “Since my husband was abducted, I lost my freedom to do routine activities.… Even if I go to the market or temple, [security officers] ask, ‘Where are you going?’”

In September 2023, a judge fled the country, having received death threats after ordering the investigation of a mass grave that had recently been accidentally uncovered. Among those appointed in recent years as commissioners of the Office of Missing Persons, the government agency that is supposed to establish what happened to the disappeared, was a former senior police officer who had responsibility for units accused of carrying out enforced disappearances.

Although reported disappearances have declined in recent years, in the absence of reform or accountability, the practice remains entrenched within security forces. On May 14, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka asked the attorney general to investigate evidence that police had held a man in secret detention in April, assaulted him, and threatened to kill him.

The Sri Lankan government should immediately carry out the UN report’s recommendations, Human Rights Watch said, including acknowledging the scale of enforced disappearances, pursuing prompt and credible investigations, seeking international technical assistance to investigate mass graves, establishing an independent prosecutorial authority, and repealing legislation that enables abuses, including the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Foreign governments and UN agencies should also implement the report’s recommendations, including “using all forms of leverage” to press the Sri Lankan government to act, providing technical assistance for exhumations, pursuing prosecutions abroad under universal jurisdiction, and stricter vetting of Sri Lankan personal involved in UN peacekeeping operations, Human Rights Watch said. “Sri Lanka has a horrific record on enforced disappearances that causes profound suffering to victims’ families and puts the country at risk of future violations,” Pearson said. “It is vitally important for the UN Human Rights Council to renew the Sri Lanka Accountability Project’s mandate in September, and for prosecutors around the world to make use of the evidence gathered to bring those responsible to justice.”

Argentina: Reconsider Supreme Court Nominations

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:01 -0400

Click to expand Image Argentina's Supreme Court members Ricardo Lorenzetti, Juan Carlos Maqueda, Carlos Rosenkrantz and Horacio Rosatti attend the opening session of the 142nd legislative term, at the National Congress, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 1, 2024. © 2024 Reuters/Agustin Marcarian

(Washington, DC) – Argentina’s President Javier Milei should reconsider his nominations to the Supreme Court to take qualifications, experience, diversity and integrity into consideration, Human Rights Watch said today.

On April 15, 2024, President Milei nominated Ariel Lijo, a federal judge, and Manuel García-Mansilla, a scholar, to the Supreme Court. Several rights groups, citizens, business associations, and scholars have formally expressed concern over the nominations, particularly regarding Lijo’s record as a federal judge. In addition, if the nominations are confirmed, there would be no women on the five-member court. Supreme Court nominations must be approved by a vote of two-thirds of the Senate.

“Argentina needs to strengthen judicial independence, the rule of law, and efforts to combat corruption,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should carefully consider the concerns raised about Judge Lijo and ensure that all nominees to the Supreme Court have the highest integrity and qualifications.”

The Supreme Court has been functioning with only four members since 2021, when justice Elena Highton de Nolasco resigned. The current members are facing a politically motivated impeachment process in Congress initiated in 2023 by former President Alberto Fernández (2019-2023). Under the Constitution, Supreme Court judges need to be reappointed to continue in their posts once they turn 75, although some judges have questioned the constitutionality of this provision. Justice Juan Carlos Maqueda will turn 75 in December and has said he will retire. The Milei administration has made clear that the president does not intend to reappoint him.

Lijo currently has three pending disciplinary investigations in the Council of the Judiciary, the body charged with investigating and removing federal judges. He has faced 29 other disciplinary proceedings that were closed, including 16 in limine, meaning without any analysis, according to a study by the human rights group Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ). Some proceedings were based on allegations that Lijo delayed, and otherwise manipulated, investigations into corruption. A 2016 report by a lawyers’ association found seemingly “anomalous” delays, at times of over a decade, in at least 28 corruption investigations handled by Lijo’s court.

Lijo and his brother Alfredo, who admitted to lobbying judges, were also criminally investigated for “money laundering” and “bribes,” among other crimes. In 2021, a federal judge closed the investigation against them, in a decision that Argentine legal experts have described as “controversial.” According to media reports, the judge failed to analyze a report by Argentina’s financial investigation unit, detailing possible evidence of suspicious financial transactions.

Several Argentine human rights organizations, associations of lawyers, and business unions have expressed concern about Judge Lijo’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Some fear that senators from across the political spectrum might seek to trade a vote for Lijo in exchange for having him use his position in the Supreme Court and his influence in the federal court system to close corruption investigations against people close to the senators, including former government officials.

The nomination of two men for the vacancies is also contrary to a 2003 presidential decree calling on authorities to consider “gender diversity” in the selection process.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Argentina has ratified, governments must “take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in [...] political and public life.”

According to a study by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), with data from December 2021, Argentina’s Supreme Court was the only high court in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula without any women on its bench.

“Having an all-male Supreme Court sends a troubling message to Argentina’s many highly qualified women lawyers and scholars about their ability to serve in prominent roles in the judiciary,” Goebertus said.

Yemen: Houthi Landmines Claim Lives, Livelihoods

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(Beirut) – Landmines laid by Houthi forces and others in Yemen continue to kill and cause serious injuries to civilians in areas where active hostilities have ceased and are preventing farmers from accessing their land, Human Rights Watch said today. Yemeni law and the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty prohibit any use of antipersonnel landmines under any circumstances.

“Houthi forces flouted the landmine ban for years and Yemeni civilians are paying the price as these weapons kill and wound indiscriminately,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “There is an urgent need to step up clearance of landmines to save lives, prevent unnecessary suffering, and ensure people can safely access their homes and livelihoods.”

The presence of uncleared landmines has had a devastating impact on residents of al-Shaqb, a village in Sabir Al-Mawadim district on the mountainous outskirts of Taizz city. Out of a few thousand residents—there has been no census since 2004—28 have been injured and six killed by landmines in the years immediately following a 2015 siege of Taizz and the surrounding areas, according to the community leader.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited al-Shaqb in April 2024 and interviewed seven residents, including four landmine survivors, two people whose family members were killed by landmines, and al-Shaqb’s community leader. All four survivors have a permanent disability from their injuries. Everyone interviewed had been displaced from their homes to a nearby village.

Human Rights Watch also interviewed officials from two national mine clearance coordination agencies, the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) and the Yemen Mine Action Coordination Center (YMACC), and a member of the Yemeni National Commission for Human Rights who has documented landmine use in the area.

Al-Shaqb is located in a valley between two mountain peaks, one controlled by the internationally-recognized Yemeni government (Mazaal Peak) and the other controlled by Houthi armed forces (Al-Saleheen Peak), the adversaries in Yemen’s conflict since 2014. While al-Shaqb is on a front line, most active fighting ceased several years ago, though snipers remain in the area and sporadically shoot at and sometimes kill civilians. Most recently, on March 23, residents said a Houthi sniper shot and seriously injured a child who was coming home from school.

Most of al-Shaqb’s residents, many of whom are farmers or herders, were displaced from their land earlier in the conflict. According to al-Shaqb's community leader, over 257 families have been displaced. With the decrease in active fighting in the past few years, several residents trying to return to their homes, tend to agricultural land, or graze their livestock have been killed or seriously injured by antipersonnel mines, and their animals have also been killed. Many of those injured have a permanent disability.

Several residents said that starting in 2018, Houthi forces began entering their land at night to place landmines in and around their homes and farmland. According to the mine clearance organizations, al-Shaqb is contaminated by a significant number of antipersonnel mines.

One man interviewed said he was displaced from his home in 2016 due to the fighting. In August 2022, with the fighting reduced, he returned home to retrieve some wheat stored in his house. He stepped on what he said was a yellow bottle in front of the front door and the bottle exploded. He lost several fingers in the blast, which severely injured his leg, other body parts, and his eyes, leaving him with a permanent disability and scarring.

The landmines have also made it more difficult for villagers to feed themselves and maintain their incomes. According to the World Food Programme, as of February 2024, 64 percent of Taizz governorate’s population do not have sufficient food, and Taizz is one of four governorates in Yemen facing “high risk and deteriorating” food insecurity.

One woman interviewed said that a landmine killed her father when he returned to his farm in February 2021. She said that even though the farm was on the front line, her father and other agricultural workers continued to go there to farm because it was their source of income and that there were “only snipers” in the area. “He used to go to the valley every day to farm, and he had no idea there were landmines there,” she said.

Abdullah, a 35-year-old man, lost both his legs to a landmine in June 2022, when he took his goats to graze at a farm in the area. “I used to feed my goats in the same farm every two or three days,” he said. “It was my land and nobody lived there. My life became very difficult after the incident. I used to work as a driver and in other jobs, but I'm not working anymore, just sitting in the house.” People with disabilities in Yemen face barriers to accessing quality health services, education, and employment opportunities.

A child interviewed said that a landmine killed both of his parents in 2022. His mother was killed just outside their front door in February 2022. His father was killed one month later while farming. “He would farm every day,” the boy said. “Then one day he entered his land in the morning to farm as usual and was blown up.”

The use of landmines has also exacerbated extreme food insecurity. “We have agricultural lands that we used to cultivate with qat [and vegetables for our personal use], and then sell it to get the money that we need to cover our needs and expenses,” the first man said. But now, these lands in the front lines are contaminated so we can’t go there anymore. The people who went to these lands and who were [seriously injured or killed by mines] were forced to do so because of how significant their needs are and due to the poor situations they are in.”

A total of 164 nations are party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of antipersonnel mines and requires their clearance and assistance to victims. The use of antipersonnel landmines is banned in all circumstances, as they are indiscriminate weapons that cannot differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Yemen ratified the treaty on September 1, 1998, committing to never use antipersonnel mines under any circumstances and to prevent and suppress activities prohibited by the treaty. In April 2002, Yemen reported to the UN secretary-general that it had finished destroying its stockpile of antipersonnel mines as required by the Mine Ban Treaty.

Human Rights Watch has monitored Yemen’s policy and practice on antipersonnel mines since 1999 and has documented in depth numerous incidents of Houthi use of antipersonnel mines in Taizz and other governorates, including in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. Houthi authorities informed Human Rights Watch in April 2017 that they consider the treaty binding. In addition to the prohibition on use in the Mine Ban Treaty, individuals responsible for using prohibited weapons or carrying out indiscriminate attacks may be prosecuted for war crimes.

The Landmine Monitor initiative by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines reported that at least 582 people were killed or wounded by landmines or other explosive remnants of war in Yemen in 2022, up from 528 in 2021.

Al-Shaqb's location on the front line presents a security challenge for demining organizations, due to the sporadic sniper activity. However, Human Rights Watch also spoke to people in areas that are no longer on the front lines who are still displaced due to the continued presence of landmines.

Greater international assistance is urgently needed to equip and assist clearance personnel to systematically survey and clear mines and explosive remnants of war from Yemen, Human Rights Watch said. The Yemeni government, the Houthis, who are the de facto authorities in much of Yemen, and international agencies should provide appropriate compensation, assistance, support, and employment opportunities to those injured and to the families of those injured or killed, as well as to other landmine victims in Yemen. Assistance should include medical care, including reconstructive surgery and psychosocial support, prosthetics and other assistive devices where appropriate, and ongoing rehabilitation if needed.

Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate for its efforts to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty.

“The devastating impact of landmines in Yemen will not end until there’s a major mobilization to clear and destroy these weapons,” Jafarnia said. “People in Yemen are facing catastrophic levels of hunger and desperately need access to essential agricultural and grazing lands, but these lands are often contaminated by mines.”

Singapore Doubles Down on Executions

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 22 May 2024 21:09:51 -0400

The Singaporean government since mid-April has issued at least four execution notices to individuals convicted of drug-related offenses. They are among 36 death row prisoners taking part in a legal action relating to their constitutional right to legal aid following appeal. None of these prisoners currently have legal representation.

The executions of these prisoners have been put on hold, awaiting the outcome of the court application.

But the Singaporean government remains determined to use the death penalty, even as the global trend is towards abolition. On May 8, Singapore’s home minister, K. Shanmugam, announced that the Post-Appeal in Capital Cases Act (PACC), which was passed in 2022, would imminently come into force. This law will severely curtail prisoners’ ability to appeal their convictions and further undermine fair trial and due process rights in capital cases in Singapore.

In his address, in which he defended the country’s use of capital punishment as an “effective” deterrent, the home minister hit out at Singapore’s anti-death penalty activists, who have long been the target of government harassment and intimidation. He publicly named five anti-death penalty advocates, including a media outlet, who because of their activism have previously been subject to orders under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), a law that gives the government broad discretionary powers to censor online content.

The Singaporean government has a track record of silencing and intimidating opponents of the death penalty. Last year, the authorities suspended the law license of prominent human rights lawyer M. Ravi for five years: the maximum sanction for a lawyer’s misconduct. He was accused of making “grave and baseless accusations of improper conduct” on Facebook against the attorney-general, after M. Ravi managed to have the death sentence of his client, Malaysian national Gobi Avedian, set aside on the grounds of miscarriage of justice.

United Nations experts and governments have repeatedly called on Singapore to abolish, or impose a moratorium, on the death penalty, and to halt the targeting and silencing of anti-death penalty activists. But these efforts have so far been to no avail.

Singapore should demonstrate its commitment to upholding international law and standards by abolishing this cruel and inhumane practice.

Italy Threatens to Ground Rescue Planes in the Mediterranean

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 22 May 2024 15:44:17 -0400

Click to expand Image Volunteers aboard the Seabird, a plane operated by the rescue NGO Sea-Watch, look for boats in distress as they fly over the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa, October 5, 2021. © 2021 Renata Brito/AP Photo

Civilian rescue organizations working to save the lives of migrants and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean Sea are increasingly trapped in a dilemma: comply with arbitrary restrictions that often have fatal consequences, or risk detention and potential prosecution. Both alternatives impede groups from conducting lifesaving missions, jeopardizing lives at sea.

Adding to existing policies designed to obstruct ships operated by nongovernmental organizations, Italian authorities are now targeting small airplanes used by rescue organizations like Sea-Watch and Pilotes Volontaires. On May 21, Italian authorities fined Sea-Watch €2,064 (about US$2,240), the first fine imposed following a warning this month from the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile, ENAC) that any use of air surveillance outside existing regulatory frameworks will incur penalties, including grounding the aircraft.

Rescue groups fly planes over the central Mediterranean to spot boats in distress and alert authorities and rescue boats in the vicinity in hopes of preventing drownings. This aerial surveillance also plays a crucial role in documenting human rights violations in the Mediterranean, including reckless interceptions by the Libyan Coast Guard and pushbacks to abuse in Libya, as well as activities by the European Union’s border agency Frontex.

Spotting operations have for now continued as usual, but the Italian government’s zeal in detaining rescue ships could signal comparable challenges for these planes in the near future.

Since the beginning of 2023, Italian authorities have regularly seized rescue ships with flimsy justification. Courts in Crotone, Ragusa, and Catania have ruled some of these seizures unlawful. But this state harassment has far-reaching financial and reputational consequences for rescue groups and limits their ability to operate.

Another common tactic to hinder rescue missions involves assigning distant ports for ships to dock between each rescue, forcing them on lengthy journeys that keep them away from the area in the Mediterranean where they are most needed. If a rescue ship responds to a distress call while on their way to a designated port, the organization can face fines of up to €50,000 (about $54,114) or seizure of their vessels.

In the last ten years, more than 23,000 people have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean. Italian authorities must know that any reduction of already limited rescue resources will cost lives. And without air surveillance, there will be fewer watchful eyes. Instead of obstructing vital operations at every turn, Italy should recognize and support humanitarian efforts at sea.

Accountability Needed for Pylos Shipwreck

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 22 May 2024 13:09:30 -0400

Nine Egyptians who survived a devastating shipwreck off the coat of Pylos, Greece, were acquitted Tuesday of people smuggling and unlawful entry, almost a year after they were hastily arrested.

The Greek criminal court also dismissed the charges of causing the shipwreck, which killed hundreds of people, and of forming a criminal organization, saying it did not have jurisdiction over the case, as the shipwreck occurred in international waters. As a general rule, the flag state – or where a ship is registered – has jurisdiction over a vessel on the high seas, although it appears that the Adriana, the ship at issue, was not formally registered anywhere.

Now, all eyes are on Greece’s Naval Court, which is investigating the actions of the Hellenic Coast Guard on that fateful day. There is no question that the Naval Court has jurisdiction over the Hellenic Coast Guard no matter where it operates.

In the early hours of June 14, 2023, the overcrowded and unseaworthy Adriana capsized off the coast of Pylos, Greece. Only 104 people were rescued alive, while 82 corpses were recovered and as many as 600 people were lost. Research by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International documented a catalogue of failures by Greek authorities, from the moment they first learned about the boat to when, fifteen hours later, hundreds of people were thrown from the boat into the cold, dark waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We also collected testimonies from survivors who consistently said the boat capsized when a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol boat attempted to tow it.

Our two organizations expressed serious concerns about the independence and integrity of the criminal investigation that led to the charges against the nine survivors and about their fair trial rights. A principal concern was that the parallel investigation by the Naval Court, which opened almost immediately after the shipwreck, remains at the preliminary stages.

It is vital that the Naval Court proceed with a full and credible investigation. Fifty-three survivors joined the case with a complaint alleging that the Greek authorities were responsible for the shipwreck, and many of them have been summoned to testify. The Naval Court’s prosecutor’s request for forensic analysis of coast guard officers’ phones – only seized by authorities in late September 2023 – is still pending.

A full accounting of what happened is paramount to securing truth and justice for survivors and the families of victims. It should also serve to help avoid future deaths.

Ecuador: Unchecked Abuses Since ‘Armed Conflict’ Announcement

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 22 May 2024 01:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Soldiers briefly detain a youth to walk him to an area to check if he has gang-related tattoos as they patrol the south side of Quito, Ecuador, Friday January 12, 2024. © 2024 AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa

(Washington, DC) – The decision by Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa to announce that the country is in an “internal armed conflict” has contributed to serious human rights violations by security forces, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Noboa. The violations include at least one apparent extrajudicial killing and multiple cases of arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment.

On January 9, 2024, following a surge in violence, including the takeover of a state-owned TV channel, President Noboa decreed an “internal armed conflict” against 22 criminal groups operating in Ecuador, labeling them “terrorists.” Since then, overall killings in Ecuador have decreased, according to the government, but extortions and kidnappings have risen and the security situation remains dire.

“The escalation of violence—and the increase in organized crime—in Ecuador jeopardize Ecuadorians’ lives and institutions,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of announcing a baseless ‘armed conflict,’ the government needs to respond with an effective and rights-respecting security policy that protects Ecuadorians.”

Between January and April, Human Rights Watch interviewed a dozen victims of abuse, along with their relatives and lawyers; requested information from multiple government ministries and agencies; analyzed 33 photographs and videos posted online; attended several court hearings virtually; and reviewed case files. Previously, in November 2023, researchers met with Attorney General Diana Salazar, as well as with several prosecutors, judges, and experts on organized crime in Guayaquil and Quito to document the causes of the increased criminal violence in the country.

Homicides in Ecuador increased by 574.30 percent from 2019 to 2023, from a rate of just over 7 to more than 47 per 100,000 people, the Ecuadorian Observatory on Organized Crime reported. Two large gangs—Los Choneros and Los Lobos—are allied with Colombian, Mexican, and Albanian drug traffickers and fight for control of territory and drug trafficking routes.

The ‘armed conflict’ announcement followed a violent takeover of the state-owned TV channel, TC Television, and the prison escape of José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, the leader of Los Choneros. Noboa ordered the Ecuadorian Armed Forces to carry out “military operations, under international humanitarian law and respecting human rights to neutralize” the 22 groups.

Under international law, the existence of an armed conflict is determined by a factual analysis of criteria including the level of organization of the armed groups and the intensity of hostilities. The Ecuadorian government has consistently failed to present sufficient evidence that fighting with any of the 22 criminal groups constitutes a non-international armed conflict.

Between January and April, the number of homicides in Ecuador dropped by 27 percent, the government reports. But extortions and kidnappings have risen, and the recent killings of three mayors and the director of a prison show that the situation remains serious. Ecuador’s militarization of its streets and prisons, meanwhile, has led to serious human rights violations by security forces.

In one case Human Rights Watch documented, soldiers killed 19-year-old Carlos Javier Vega and injured his cousin Eduardo Velasco in Guayaquil on February 2. The army said that Vega and Velasco had “attempted to evade a control point by ramming into military personnel” and labeled them “terrorists.” But Human Rights Watch interviews with witnesses, relatives, and lawyers of the victims—along with verified videos, photographs, and court records—contradict the army’s account, including its assertion that the young men were involved with criminal groups.

Throughout Ecuador, many people reported arrested appear never to have been taken before a prosecutor or judge. Although the police and military are required to inform prosecutors about arrests they make, many of the over 13,000 people reported arrested appear to have been detained for short periods outside of the legal process and, based on videos and photographs posted online and verified by Human Rights Watch, subjected to reprimands, beatings, and other degrading treatment.

The military, which has controlled Ecuador’s prisons since January, has held detainees incommunicado, at times hampering their right to consult with lawyers or to obtain medical assistance. Soldiers appear to be responsible for multiple cases of mistreatment and some cases of torture in prison. At a court hearing, one detainee described guards whipping him on the back with a cable and stepping on his finger. “Since they supposedly couldn’t hit me yesterday because I’m sick, they made me spread my legs and hit me in the testicles,” he said.

Authorities appear to have taken few steps to prevent human rights violations or ensure that those responsible are held to account. Instead, members of the National Assembly said in a statement that they were willing to pass an amnesty or pardon “whenever necessary to guarantee the work” of the police and army. President Noboa accused a judge who found human rights violations in prisons of being “unpatriotic.”

“The Armed Forces are not trained for policing and investigations. Putting them in that role heightens the risk of abuses, and the government should limit this to strictly necessary circumstances.” Goebertus said. “Ecuador needs more and better-trained justice and law enforcement officials investigating organized crime, not more soldiers on the streets.”

Japan Aid Project Still Helping Myanmar’s Military

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 21 May 2024 22:08:09 -0400

Click to expand Image A protester holds a placard opposing Myanmar coup leader Min Aung Hlaing during a demonstration at United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan, February 11, 2021. © Photo by Viola Kam/SOPA Images/Sipa USA, Sipa via AP Images

Despite Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s pledge last February to “appropriately handle” the flow of government aid to Myanmar’s abusive military, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official told the Diet this week that Japan’s construction giant, Yokogawa Bridge Corp., will make further payments to the military-owned Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) for an aid project.

In March 2021, Myanmar Now reported that a steel mill owned by the MEC was supplying steel for Japan’s Bago River Bridge Construction Project and “profiting enormously.” Financial transactions analyzed by Human Rights Watch show that from July 2022 to January 2023, Yokogawa Bridge Corp. transferred around US$2 million to MEC for the project, with United States government approval.

During a House of Councilors session, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said that the MEC’s participation ended in December and that Yokogawa Bridge Corp.’s “progress payments” to the MEC had finished. However, Hideki Kusakabe of the Foreign Ministry’s International Cooperation Bureau responded to a question by opposition lawmaker Michihiro Ishibashi by saying that Yokogawa Bridge Corp. still had certain payments to make for the project. Kusakabe did not disclose a sum or a timeline.

The MEC generates vast revenue through businesses in sectors including manufacturing, mining, and telecommunications, according to a 2019 report by the United Nations-backed Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. The US, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, and Australia have sanctioned the MEC and Myanmar’s other military conglomerate, Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, for their role in generating significant revenues that help fund military abuses.

Since the February 2021 military coup, Myanmar’s military has been responsible for widespread and systematic human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians that amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Prior to the coup, Myanmar’s security forces committed crimes against humanity and acts of genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh in 2017. An estimated 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, where in recent months they have been caught in fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army armed group and subjected to forced recruitment by the junta.

Prime Minister Kishida needs to take responsibility for his pledge to “appropriately handle” the issue and should suspend further payments to the MEC, stop all non-humanitarian aid to Myanmar’s junta, and impose targeted sanctions on its military leaders and military-owned conglomerates.

Millions in the US at Risk of Losing Internet Access

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 21 May 2024 15:46:04 -0400

Click to expand Image Marisol Coronado, center, prepares for a zoom call, while her husband and son spend time in the living room of their apartment in Huntington Park on April 19, 2024. © 2024 Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

People in the United States are more reliant than ever on using the internet for all aspects of their lives. But one in six US households may lose internet access by June when current federal funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) ends. This puts millions of underserved people in the US, including people of color, older people, and people with disabilities, at risk of losing their ability to telework, receive telemedicine, attend online classes, and maintain social connections, among other daily essential activities.

The ACP emerged in 2022 as a means-tested program that reduces low-income households’ monthly internet bill by $30 (or $75 in Tribal lands). Some legislators have proposed extending the program through the end of the calendar year, with a budget of between $6 and $7 billion, about half of its initial budget of $14.2 billion. One of the funding proposals would also further restrict household income eligibility, potentially disqualifying 7.4 million currently eligible households.

Cynthia George, 71, is retired and lives on a low, fixed income. She recently told CNN that she uses the internet to find grocery deals and stretch her food stamps entitlement. Cynthia fears that if the ACP is defunded, she’ll have to choose between paying for the internet or food.

Cynthia isn’t alone. People aged 65 and older comprise almost 20 percent of the ACP’s recipients and in recent surveys the overwhelming majority of older people expressed concern about losing access to online social security, Medicare, healthcare services, and communication with loved ones.

Access to the internet is essential for the realization of a broad range of rights in the US, and for millions of people, the ACP is essential for keeping them connected. Rather than widening the already stark digital divide in the US, Congress should commit to permanently and robustly funding the ACP or otherwise promptly putting in place effective policies to ensure underserved people, including older adults, can access the internet.

Tibet: Mass Relocations of Tibetans Not Voluntary

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 21 May 2024 12:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image A Chinese Communist Party deputy secretary of Gonjo county visits households to persuade them to agree to the proposed relocation of their village, in Sa-ngen, Tibet Autonomous Region, March 2024. © 2024 Gongjue Pioneers (贡觉先锋) WeChat Account The Chinese government is using extreme forms of pressure to coerce Tibetans to relocate their long-established villages.Chinese officials misleadingly claim that relocation will lead to improved employment and higher incomes.The Chinese government should suspend relocations in Tibet and conform with Chinese laws and standards and international law concerning relocations and forced evictions.

(Taipei) – Chinese government officials are systematically using extreme forms of pressure to coerce rural Tibetans to relocate their long-established villages, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Since 2016, officials in the Tibet Autonomous Region have relocated or are currently relocating 500 villages with over 140,000 residents to new locations, often hundreds of kilometers away.

The 71-page report, “‘Educate the Masses to Change Their Minds’: China’s Coercive Relocation of Rural Tibetans,” details how participation in “whole-village relocation” programs in Tibet, in which entire villages are relocated, amounts to forced eviction in violation of international law. Officials misleadingly claim that these relocations will “improve people’s livelihood” and “protect the ecological environment.” The government prevents relocated people from returning to their former homes by generally requiring them to demolish these homes within a year of relocating.

“The Chinese government says that the relocation of Tibetan villages is voluntary, but official media reports contradict this claim,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch. “Those reports make clear that when a whole village is targeted for relocation, it is practically impossible for the residents to refuse to move without facing serious repercussions.”

The report draws on over 1,000 official Chinese media articles published between 2016 and 2023. It includes three case studies, including video footage, that show in detail the arguments and methods Chinese officials use to obtain the “consent” of residents to relocate their villages.

Chinese government policy in Tibet sets out that every household in every village targeted is to consent to relocation. Human Rights Watch found multiple references to initial reluctance among Tibetans whose villages were scheduled for relocation. In one case, 200 out of 262 households in a village in Nagchu Municipality initially did not want to relocate to a site nearly 1,000 kilometers away. The government claimed that all eventually agreed to move voluntarily.

Chinese officials attribute their success in getting total consent to “publicity work” and “door-to-door ideological work” carried out by officials. This often involves intrusive home visits. In some cases, officials of increasing seniority visit families repeatedly at their homes to gain their “consent.” In some cases, they also tell residents that essential services would be cut to their current homes if they did not move.

They openly threaten villagers who voiced disagreements about the relocations, accusing them of “spreading rumors” and ordering officials to crack down on such actions “swiftly and resolutely,” implying administrative and criminal penalties. In addition, officials require each targeted village to reach a consensus decision and do not allow any individual resident to opt out from that decision, creating additional peer group pressure on all residents to comply.

In addition to programs that relocate entire villages, officials in Tibet also use a form of relocation known as “individual household relocation.” This typically involves officials selecting poorer households for relocation to sites deemed more suitable for income generation. The government relocated 567,000 people under this program in Tibetan areas of China between 2016 and 2020.

While participants selected for this program could decline to take part, official media articles show that officials routinely assured them that relocation would lead to improved employment prospects and higher incomes. However, studies by Chinese government-affiliated researchers in Tibet show that most relocatees, having been moved to peri-urban areas where their farming or herding skills cannot be used, are unable to get sustainable employment.

While such mass relocations of residents have been occurring elsewhere in poor rural areas in China, these drives risk causing a devastating impact on Tibetan communities, Human Rights Watch found. Together with current Chinese government programs to assimilate Tibetan schooling, culture, and religion into those of the “Chinese nation,” the relocation of rural communities erode or cause major damage to Tibetan culture and ways of life – not least because most relocation programs in Tibet move former farmers and pastoralists to areas where they cannot practice their former livelihood and have no choice but to seek work as wage laborers in off-farm industries.

“The mass relocations of rural Tibetan villages are severely eroding Tibetan culture and ways of life,” Wang said. “China’s government should suspend relocations in Tibet until an independent, expert review of existing policies and practices is carried out to determine their compliance with Chinese law and standards and international law concerning relocations and forced evictions.”

What the Iranian President’s Death Means for Human Rights

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 20 May 2024 18:16:13 -0400

Click to expand Image Iranian President Ebrahim Raeesi at the inauguration ceremony of dam of Qiz Qalasi, at the border of Iran and Azerbaijan, on May 19, 2024. © 2024 Iranian Presidency Office via AP Photo

Iranians woke up on Monday to the news that President Ebrahim Raeesi, Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, and several other government officials were killed in a helicopter crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. How Raeesi’s death will affect human rights in the country is already the subject of much commentary.

Since the early years after the 1979 revolution, no high-level Iranian officials have been held to account for serious human rights violations, and Raeesi is closely affiliated with this legacy of abuse. Many families have placed Raeesi near the top of the list of officials they wished to see brought to justice for the government’s most egregious crimes.

Raeesi was one of four people who sat on a panel and issued death sentences against thousands of political prisoners in 1988. These panels made a mockery of fair trial standards, and the resulting mass executions should be investigated as crimes against humanity.

Raeesi formerly headed Iran’s judicial branch, and when he served as president, the executive branch. He bore significant responsibility for many repressive policies, including the deadly crackdowns against widespread protests in 2019 and the 2022 “women, life, freedom” protests following Mahsa Jina Amini’s death while in the morality police's custody. Raeesi also shoulders much responsibility for the executions of protesters after unfair trials, prosecution of peaceful dissidents, and the enforcement of the country’s abusive, compulsory hijab laws.

Yet it is important to recognize that Iran’s repressive machinery goes beyond the power of the president. Absent fundamental change, these violations can be expected to continue.

Under Iran’s constitution, a presidential election should be held within 50 days. Authorities are reportedly considering June 28 as the tentative date. Historically, Iran’s presidential elections have been far from free or fair, but they offered a narrow opportunity for parts of society and candidates to weigh in on issues, including some social and political freedoms.

For more than a decade, Iran’s Guardian Council has led the way in systematically disempowering elected bodies as spaces to influence government policy, including by narrowing the pool of eligible candidates so that even the speaker of the parliament was disqualified from the 2021 presidential elections.

Absent a major shift in the political landscape, don’t expect that Raeesi’s passing is going to bring real changes in human rights to Iran.

Iraq: Repeal Anti-LGBT Law

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

Click to expand Image Mariam, a 21-year-old lesbian woman from Baghdad, is one of many LGBT Iraqis who said they were harassed at checkpoints by security forces due to their appearance. © 2022 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch

(Beirut) – The Iraqi government should immediately reverse the recently passed law that punishes same-sex conduct and transgender expression with imprisonment, Human Rights Watch said today. The law violates fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, association, privacy, equality, and nondiscrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Iraq.

On April 27, 2024, Iraq’s parliament passed the anti-LGBT law as an amendment to the country’s existing “Law on Combatting Prostitution,” No. 8 of 1988. The new law punishes same-sex relations with a penalty of between 10 and 15 years in prison as well as allowing for a prison term between 1 and 3 years for people who undergo or perform gender-affirming medical interventions and for “imitating women.” The law also provides for 7 years in prison and a fine between 10 million Iraqi dinars (US$7,700) and 15 million dinars (US$11,500) for “promoting homosexuality,” which is undefined.

“The Iraqi parliament’s passage of the anti-LGBT law rubber-stamps the Iraqi government’s appalling record of rights violations against LGBT people and is a serious blow to fundamental human rights,” said Rasha Younes, interim LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The law adds insult to injury for LGBT people in Iraq, who are already facing violence and threats to their lives.”

Though consensual same-sex conduct was not previously explicitly criminalized in Iraq, the authorities have historically used vague “morality” laws to prosecute LGBT people. The introduction of the anti-LGBT law follows months of hostile rhetoric against sexual and gender minorities by Iraqi officials, as well as government crackdowns on human rights groups. Previous proposed amendments to the anti-prostitution law would have imposed the death penalty for same-sex relations, but this provision did not appear in the final version.

The new law, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, equates same-sex relations with “sexual perversion,” which it defines as “repeated sexual relations between members of the same sex … if occurring more than three times.”

The new law also specifically targets transgender women. It allows for a prison term between one and three years or with a fine between 5 million dinars (US$3,800) and 10 million dinars (US$7,700) for “imitating women,” which it defines as “wearing makeup and women’s clothing” or “appearing as women” in public spaces.

The law prohibits hormone therapy and what it calls “sex change” based on personal desire, as well as any attempt to change one’s gender identity, punishable by prison terms between one and three years. The same penalty applies to any surgeon or other doctor who performs gender-affirming surgery. The law makes an exception for cases of people born with intersex traits, when a surgeon is performing an operation to “normalize” the sex characteristics into classical male or female aesthetics.

Iraq’s new anti-LGBT law builds on and reflects an increasing effort by anti-LGBT legislators to explicitly make same-sex relations and transgender expression a criminal offense. The immediate precursor to the law passed in April was a bill introduced on August 15, 2023, by Raad Al-Maliki, an independent member of parliament.

If passed in its original form, the bill would have punished same-sex relations with the death penalty or life in prison, punished “promoting homosexuality” with a minimum of seven years in prison and a fine, and criminalized “imitating women” with up to a three-year sentence. In introducing the bill, Al-Maliki said its purpose was to “preserve the entity of the Iraqi society from deviation and calls for ‘paraphilia’ [abnormal sexual impulses] that have invaded the world.”

The introduction of the 2023 bill in turn followed a proposed anti-LGBT law put forward by legislators in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In September 2022, members of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament introduced the “Bill on the Prohibition of Promoting Homosexuality.” Under the bill, anyone who advocates for LGBT rights or “promotes homosexuality” would face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to five million dinars (US$3,430). The bill would also suspend, for up to one month, the licenses of media companies and civil society organizations that “promote homosexuality.”

Although the bill was not passed, it was introduced amid a heightened crackdown on free assembly and expression in the Kurdistan region. On May 31, 2023, a court in the region ordered the closure of Rasan Organization over “its activities in the field of homosexuality.”

Violence and discrimination against LGBT people are already rampant in Iraq. The targeting of LGBT people online and lethal violence against LGBT people by armed groups in Iraq has routinely been met with impunity, Human Rights Watch said.

On August 8, 2023, the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission issued a directive ordering all media outlets to replace the term “homosexuality” with “sexual deviance” in their published and broadcast language and banning use of the term “gender.”

Iraqi authorities’ continued attacks against LGBT people and activists violate their basic rights, including their right to privacy, free movement, free expression, assembly, and association, including on the internet, as well as their right to nondiscrimination and protection under the law. The abuses violate Iraq’s Constitution and international treaties to which Iraq is a party.

Unequal protection against violence and unequal access to justice are prohibited under international law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in its articles 2 and 26, guarantees fundamental human rights and equal protection of the law without discrimination. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that provides authoritative interpretations of the covenant, has made clear that sexual orientation is a status protected against discrimination under these provisions. Similarly, the Arab Charter on Human Rights, of which Iraq is a member, affirms these rights.

“Relentless abuses against LGBT people in Iraq, starting with the family and stretching into every aspect of their public life, not only results in the deaths but makes people’s lives unlivable,” Younes said. “The Iraqi government should immediately repeal the anti-LGBT law and end the cycle of violence and impunity against LGBT people.”

South Korea: Extend Health Benefits to Same-Sex Partners

Human Rights Watch — Sun, 19 May 2024 23:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image So Seong-wook (L) and Kim Yong-min attend a news conference after filing a lawsuit against South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service for dependent family status, in Seoul on February 18, 2021. © 2021 Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images

(Seoul) – South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service should extend benefits to same-sex partners, Human Rights Watch said in an amicus brief filed before the country’s Supreme Court on May 16, 2024. The agency extends dependent benefits to heterosexual couples who are deemed to be in a de facto marriage, but has refused to extend those benefits to same-sex couples in a similar position.

The Supreme Court is currently considering whether the agency has impermissibly discriminated against a same-sex couple that was refused dependent benefits. In 2023, the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of the couple, concluding that the refusal to extend benefits constituted discrimination based on sexual orientation. The health agency appealed to the Supreme Court.

“The Seoul High Court correctly observed that the health agency’s refusal to recognize same-sex couples is discrimination,” said Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We hope the Supreme Court will affirm the principle that nobody should be denied benefits solely because of their sexual orientation.”

The couple who brought the case had held a symbolic wedding ceremony in 2019, and one of the men registered his partner with the National Health Insurance Service as his spouse in 2020. The agency later revoked the partner’s dependent benefits following media attention to its effective recognition of a same-sex couple.

Human Rights Watch’s brief examines international and regional precedents for state recognition of same-sex partnerships, the status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in South Korea, and the growing recognition of same-sex partnerships elsewhere in Asia.

South Korea has not created any framework for recognizing and supporting same-sex couples. The absence of any legal framework or protections for same-sex partners leaves LGBT people with few avenues to protect their relationships with partners and children, to safeguard their shared finances and property, and to access state benefits designed to support couples and families.

The government’s failure to recognize same-sex partnerships falls short of its human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has concluded that UN member states “have a positive obligation to provide legal recognition to couples, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics, as well as to their children,” and to extend those benefits offered to heterosexual couples without discrimination.

Among regional human rights bodies, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has said that states must extend the right to marry to same-sex couples, while the European Court of Human Rights has said that states must create some form of legal recognition and protection for same-sex relationships.

As Human Rights Watch and others have noted, South Korea also lacks comprehensive protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Despite strong public support for a comprehensive antidiscrimination law, lawmakers have repeatedly failed to enact basic protections that would prohibit discrimination in employment, education, and other areas.

In failing to protect LGBT rights, South Korea is out of step with trends elsewhere in the region. In 2019, Taiwan became the first jurisdiction in Asia to extend the right to marry to same-sex couples, and Australia and New Zealand have subsequently recognized the right to marry as well.

Courts in Japan and Thailand have expressed concern about the lack of partnership recognition in those contexts, and Nepal’s supreme court has extended interim recognition of the right to marry while it considers a marriage equality case.

A growing number of states in the region also prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Australia, Fiji, Macao, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Thailand, Tuvalu have prohibited sexual orientation discrimination in employment and other fields.

“South Korea’s lawmakers have failed to provide basic protection for same-sex couples by dragging their feet on nondiscrimination and partnership bills,” Yoon said. “South Korea’s courts now have the chance to uphold the state’s human rights obligations by ensuring that the state does not discriminate in the material benefits it does offer to committed couples.”

World Should Rally to Halt Unfolding Atrocities in Darfur

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 17 May 2024 15:21:57 -0400

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk of again becoming victims of atrocities, this time in the North Darfur city of El Fasher, amid fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), as well as allied militias. Fighting began in April, and the last week has seen fierce clashes in and around the city, including deliberate attacks on civilians, burning of residential neighborhoods, and indiscriminate bombing and shelling.

Tens of thousands of people in El Fasher have already been displaced, with many civilians trapped in the city without access to aid. A telecommunications blackout is also hampering real-time reporting.

Observers within the United Nations, governments, and civil society have warned an attack on El Fasher would cause immeasurable suffering. On May 15, the United States sanctioned two high-level RSF commanders, one for involvement in leading the attacks on El Fasher, but greater focus on civilian protection is needed.

Satellite imagery indicates fires in the eastern part of the city since at least April 18, with an increase from May 10 to 12, days when fighting in the city spiraled. The images show burn marks in the city that suggest targeting of non-Arab neighbourhoods. We also geolocated videos posted online of RSF soldiers close to residential areas ablaze. This is consistent with the RSF and allied forces’ modus operandi in West Darfur last year.

Bombing and shelling in the city is also costing lives. On May 15, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders or MSF), one of the only aid groups present in El Fasher, said the South Hospital, which it supports, had received 454 casualties, 56 of them succumbing to their injuries since May 10. MSF also reported that on May 11, a SAF airstrike 25 meters from a pediatric hospital had killed two children and at least one caregiver and forced the hospital to stop operations. The strike left an approximately 5 meter-wide crater near the hospital visible on satellite imagery.

Last week Human Rights Watch released a report documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity by the RSF and allied militias in West Darfur’s El Geneina. The ongoing assault in El Fasher bears stark similarities to these findings and warns of a tragedy which may repeat itself.

Concerted global action is needed now. The UN Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Councils should meet, deploy a civilian protection mission to Sudan, and call on their respective institutions to press warring parties to ensure trapped civilians can safely flee.

Enduring Legacy of Photojournalist Killed in Central African Republic

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 17 May 2024 13:45:00 -0400

This week marked ten years since the death of Camille Lepage, a French photojournalist who was killed while working in western Central African Republic (CAR). She was a true friend to a country in need of people to bear witness to abuse. Camille was 26.

Months before her arrival in CAR in 2013, an alliance of rebel groups known as the Seleka took control of Bangui, the capital. By then they had also seized control of most of the country’s provinces, and its fighters unleashed waves of violence against civilians across the country. Camille arrived later that year as Christian and animist militias, known as anti-balaka, began to organize counter attacks against the Seleka. The group frequently targeted Muslim civilians, associating them with the Seleka. As the humanitarian situation rapidly deteriorated, hundreds of thousands of people fled the country as refugees, while others were displaced internally.

As people were fleeing, Camille went in. She used her camera lens to tell the story of those who had been left behind. She knew it was a forgotten crisis and knew she had a way to help.

Camille’s photos continue to be some of the most striking images that illustrate the human cost of the conflict in those early years. She gave faces to the victims and survivors, capturing in an image the fear of battle, the agony of losing a loved one, the injustice of war crimes. I remember accompanying her on a protest, where people called for justice for a slain judge. Ten years on, the images she took that day still stand as a testament to CAR’s indefatigable calls for justice and accountability.

Since Camille was killed, the Central African Republic continues to be one of the most dangerous places for humanitarians to work. Impunity is a key driver of abuse; there has been too little accountability for the war crimes committed across the country. Camille’s case is emblematic of this, as there has been little movement on bringing her killers to justice.

A book of Camille’s photography was issued after her death. Its title, Republique Centrafricaine: On est ensemble (Central African Republic: We Are Together), represents both Camille’s ties to the country and a common phrase she would say in Sango, the local language. After ten years, Camille is still connected to the country and her legacy lives on.

Greece: Respect Fair Trial Rights of Pylos Shipwreck Survivors

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 17 May 2024 07:50:15 -0400

(Athens, May 17, 2024) – The imminent trial of nine survivors of the June 2023 Pylos shipwreck off Greece raises fair trial concerns, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The survivors are charged with smuggling, aggravated by the deaths of passengers, causing a shipwreck, irregular entry, and forming and membership of a criminal organization, and could face multiple life sentences if convicted. A parallel investigation into the potential liability of the Greek authorities for the shipwreck is at the preliminary stage, meaning the criminal court will have incomplete information in assessing the culpability of the defendants. The criminal trial is due to begin in Kalamata, Greece, on May 21, 2024.

“There’s a real risk that these nine survivors could be found ‘guilty’ on the basis of incomplete and questionable evidence given that the official investigation into the role of the Coast Guard has not yet been completed,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Credible and meaningful accountability for one of the worst shipwrecks in the Mediterranean needs to include a determination of any liabilities of Greek authorities.”

The severely overcrowded fishing trawler capsized on June 14, 2023, leading to the death of more than 600 of its estimated 750 passengers, mainly from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt. Research by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and numerous investigative journalists and organizations points to several failures by the Greek authorities in the hours leading up to the shipwreck, as well as serious allegations that a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol boat caused the boat to capsize while attempting to tow it.

The case against the nine Egyptian survivors, referred to as the “Pylos 9” appears to be based on the theory that the poor and overcrowded state of the boat caused the shipwreck and that the defendants were smugglers in charge of the boat and its passengers, and therefore responsible for the deaths of those on board. The accused deny the charges. It is unclear whether and how the criminal court will examine the behavior of the Hellenic Coast Guard or the allegation that the attempt to tow the boat was the direct, material cause of the shipwreck.

A separate Naval Court investigation into the potential liability of the Hellenic Coast Guard, opened in June 2023, remains at the preliminary stages. Legal nongovernmental organizations joined the case filing a complaint on behalf of 53 survivors alleging that Greek authorities were responsible for the shipwreck, and many of them have been summoned to testify. The Naval Court prosecutor’s request for forensic analysis of coast guard officers’ phones – only seized by authorities in late September 2023, over two months after the events – is still pending.

The Pylos 9 were arrested on June 15, 2023, apparently on the basis of testimonies from nine other survivors taken by Hellenic Coast Guard officers in the immediate aftermath of the traumatic shipwreck, between June 14 and 15. It is unclear whether or how many other survivors gave their accounts and whether these were evaluated before the accused were arrested and subsequently sent into pretrial custody, on June 20.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have previously said that the fact that Coast Guard officials conducted the interviews raised concerns for the independence and integrity of the investigation, especially considering that allegations about the Coast Guard’s actions emerged soon after the shipwreck.

There are real concerns regarding the respect of fair trial standards based on questions about the integrity of the investigation and evidence, the organizations said. The speed at which the investigation against survivors was concluded, and the Pylos 9 defense lawyers’ lack of access to the Naval Court case file compound these concerns.

In separate investigations, Lighthouse Reports, Solomon, and others found that various survivors’ statements to the Coast Guard, admitted as evidence, described the shipwreck in identical terms and did not include allegations about the towing attempt, suggesting that those taking the first statements may have written official pro forma accounts rather than the actual accounts provided by survivors. However, in later testimony to the Kalamata prosecutor, several of those same survivors made the allegation of the towing attempt. One survivor also told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that his statement to the prosecutor that the Coast Guard had caused the fishing boat to capsize was changed to say that the boat sank due to other reasons.

Members of the Pylos 9 defense team told the organizations that the investigating judge in the Kalamata court rejected defendants’ requests to secure further evidence, including evidence pertaining to the potential liability of the Hellenic Coast Guard, on the grounds that it falls within the jurisdiction of the Naval Court. The defendants’ lawyers have been unable to gain access to the investigation file before the Naval Court despite its clear relevance to preparing the defense.

The judge rejected the request for analysis of any data from survivors’ mobile phones which were confiscated by Greek authorities under unclear circumstances, then reportedly discovered on the coast guard boat and seized as part of the Kalamata investigation only in July 2023. The judge also rejected motions by defense lawyers to take testimony from additional survivors, and to acquire the communications between the Hellenic Coast Guard, Frontex and the Greek Joint Rescue Coordination Center, and aerial photos of the boat prior to the shipwreck.

The separate investigation into the Hellenic Coast Guard’s potential liability should not impede the defendants’ access to crucial, and potentially exculpatory, evidence on the causes of the shipwreck, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. The Kalamata and Naval courts should cooperate in the interests of justice, with the goal of achieving as full and credible an account of how the shipwreck occurred and identifying those responsible and any alleged fatal shortcomings in the rescue efforts.

International and European human rights law guarantees a defendant’s right to an effective defense when facing a criminal charge. Among other things, this means the defendants have the right to “adequate facilities” for preparing their defense, including “all materials that the prosecution plans to offer in court against the accused or that are exculpatory.”

The Kalamata court should guarantee that the Pylos 9 receive a fair and impartial trial, and that their full due process rights are upheld and respected. The Naval Court should advance investigations promptly, effectively and impartially and ensure the safe and effective participation of the largest possible number of survivors and relatives of victims and full collection of evidence.

“Time and again, in Greece and in other countries, racialised people who are seeking to travel to Europe end up being the only ones facing accountability in the context of migration movements,” said Adriana Tidona, Migration researcher at Amnesty International. “The Pylos investigations and trials must serve as a turning point for this dangerous trajectory.”

After examining 81 trials in Greece, the nongovernmental group Borderline Europe found that “smuggled people themselves, including asylum seekers, are systematically convicted of smuggling because they (allegedly) drove or assisted in driving the boat or car” and denounced serious shortcomings and abuses in the context of arrests and preliminary investigations. According to the study, as of February 2023, 2,154 people were detained in Greece on suspicion of smuggling, and 90 percent of them were third country nationals. Meanwhile, serious and persistent human rights violations committed by the authorities against refugees and migrants at Greek borders – including pushbacks, arbitrary detention and torture – remain unpunished.