Human Rights Watch News

Azerbaijan: Escalating Crackdown on Critics

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 15:20:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Left - Bahruz Samadov. © Bahruz Samadov/Facebook and Right - Igbal Abilov. © Private

(Berlin) – Azerbaijani authorities have arrested a researcher and political analyst, Bahruz Samadov, on spurious treason charges, in the government’s escalating crackdown against its critics, Human Rights Watch said today. A Ph.D. candidate at Prague’s Charles University, Samadov is the latest scholar targeted ahead of COP29, the global United Nations climate summit, to be hosted by Azerbaijan in November 2024.

In July, the authorities arrested another researcher, Igbal Abilov, also on spurious treason charges. The courts sent both men to four months of pretrial custody. If convicted, they face lengthy prison terms, or even a life sentence. Samadov’s and Abilov’s arrests are the latest in a staggering series of arrests targeting critical voices in the country.

“Azerbaijani authorities are on a relentless assault against dissenting voices, and the arrests of Samadov and Abilov are the latest illustrations of this crackdown,” said Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Azerbaijan’s hostility towards independent civic activism raises serious concerns about whether human rights defenders, academics, journalists, and other independent members of civil society will be able to participate meaningfully at COP29.”

Samadov, 29, is a regular contributor to numerous international and regional publications and media, often writing critical pieces about political developments in Azerbaijan. He was also an outspoken critic of the Second Karabakh War, fought in 2020, in which Azerbaijan reestablished control over Nagorno-Karabakh, and wrote about retaliation against anti-war advocates.

The authorities arrested Samadov on August 21, while he was visiting Baku during the summer break to spend time with his grandmother. Several state security service officers searched his house and confiscated two mobile devices, two laptops, university diplomas, Samadov’s identity card, and passport.

The authorities charged Samadov with treason and on August 23 a Baku court ordered his detention for four months of pretrial custody, which the Baku Court of Appeals upheld on August 27. The authorities claimed that Samadov communicated sensitive information to Armenian nationals on WhatsApp Messenger and acted on their orders.

During the custody hearing, Samadov adamantly denied the charges, stating that he had no sensitive information to disclose and that he had not acted on anyone’s orders. He also said that he is a “prisoner of peace,” as he is firmly against wars and people dying because of them. Samadov was among a handful of voices that dared to criticize the Azerbaijani authorities’ military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. Samadov was among the signatories of a peace statement in early October 2020. He has been called a “traitor” and otherwise harassed online in retaliation for his activism.

On July 22, the authorities arrested Igbal Abilov, 34, a member of the Talysh minority ethnic group who studied ethnic minorities. He is one of the founders of the Talysh National Academy, established in 2010, and the editor-in-chief of its namesake publication.

Abilov, who lives in Belarus, was visiting Azerbaijan for his cousin’s wedding. His lawyer told Human Rights Watch that when he tried to return to Belarus at the end of June, border officials refused to allow him to leave the country and told him he was under a travel ban. A few weeks later, police arrested Abilov in his village and a Baku court sent him to pretrial custody pending investigation into charges of treason, sedition based on orders of foreign actors, and inciting national, racial, social, or religious hatred and enmity. A pro-government media outlet accused him of acting on behalf of Armenia’s national security services.

The authorities have imposed a ban on any communication with his family, including visits. His lawyer told Human Rights Watch that they have appealed the ban to a court and are awaiting a response.

On August 27, another well-known Azerbaijani researcher, Cavidan Aghayev (Cavid Aga), was in the Baku airport on his way to Lithuania to pursue his studies there, when his friends and family lost contact with him. Hours later, Aghayev posted on social media that the authorities had prevented him from leaving the country and were holding him for questioning as a witness in the ongoing investigation against Samadov. Aghayev remains in Azerbaijan.

In the year leading up to COP29, the authorities have arrested over 30 independent journalists, civil society activists, and academics on a variety of bogus criminal charges, including smuggling money into the country, illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, and tax evasion. Among those arrested is a veteran human rights defender, Anar Mammadli, who in the weeks before his arrest co-founded an independent climate justice organization, and who is currently in pretrial detention.

Another is a prominent economist and professor, Gubad Ibadoghlu, who specializes in revenue transparency and anti-corruption in the oil and gas sectors, was arrested in July 2023 and spent nine months in pretrial custody before being transferred to house arrest.

Meaningful civil society participation and open debate, free of fear of retaliation, are important to hold governments to account and ensure ambitious and rights-respecting climate outcomes at COP29, Human Rights Watch said.

“Azerbaijan should release those unjustly imprisoned and end the crackdown,” Gogia said. “They should guarantee that activists, human rights defenders, and journalists will be able to participate meaningfully before, during, and after the COP29 conference.”

Mexican State Approves Six-Week Abortion Ban

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 13:07:20 -0400

This week, Mexico’s Aguascalientes state took an alarming step backwards on access to abortion in violation of Mexico’s legal obligations.

One year ago, in August 2023, Mexico’s Supreme Court ordered the decriminalization of abortion in Aguascalientes, after five civil society organizations – GIRE, CECADEC, Cultivando Género, Morras Help Morras, and TERFU A.C. – challenged the abortion prohibition in the state’s criminal code. In accordance with the ruling, the Aguascalientes Congress reformed the state’s criminal code in December 2023, decriminalizing abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

But by approving this new law, that same Congress is now effectively outlawing abortion access. The sharp reduction in the number of weeks in which women, girls, and pregnant people can access legal abortion, from 12 weeks to 6, will severely limit access to this essential health service.

The change conflicts with Mexico’s obligations under international human rights law, including those concerning sexual and reproductive health, and autonomy and nondiscrimination. Restrictions on access to safe and legal abortion services can place many other internationally protected rights at risk, including the right to life, health, and information; to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; to privacy and bodily autonomy and integrity; and to decide the number and spacing of children.

The six-week ban also contradicts Mexico’s Supreme Court precedents and the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended avoiding the enactment of laws prohibiting abortion based on gestational age limits.

The six-week limit will in practice place abortion out of reach for many due to its excessively tight time constraints. It will disproportionately affect adolescents and young people, those living in conditions of poverty, and people with disabilities. It will compel painful choices: forcing pregnant people to travel outside of the state to access care, manage abortion outside the health system, or continue a pregnancy against their wishes.

This harmful law will now reach the Aguascalientes governor’s desk. She should veto it.

Dominican Republic: Court Reviews Laws Against Gay Sex

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

Click to expand Image Officers of the Dominican Republic's armed forces take part in a parade to celebrate the country's independence in Santo Domingo on February 27, 2012. © 2012 Ricardo Rojas/Reuters

(New York)– The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court will hear a challenge on August 30, 2024, to laws that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct by officers in the police and armed forces, Human Rights Watch said today. In an amicus curiae brief, Human Rights Watch said that these discriminatory laws violate the rights under international law of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) officers to equality, privacy, and the ability to work without fear, among others.

Article 210 of the Code of Justice of the National Police and article 260 of the Code of Justice of the Armed Forcespunish same-sex “sodomy” by officers with up to two years and one year in prison, respectively. No such criminal penalties exist for heterosexual sexual acts.

“These draconian laws are a stain on the Dominican Republic’s human rights record and contribute to an unchecked discriminatory environment in the police and armed forces,” said Cristian González Cabrera, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “State-sanctioned bigotry has no place in a democratic society governed by the rule of law and in a region that has mostly disavowed the criminalization of private sexual acts between people of the same sex.”

The Dominican Republic does not ban same-sex conduct by private individuals. Yet, it lags behind on LGBT rights, lacking comprehensive civil anti-discrimination legislation, same-sex marriage or civil union rights, and gender identity recognition for transgender individuals, Human Rights Watch said. In recent months, LGBT activists have criticized a proposed criminal code for not providing protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, including hate crimes provisions.

In 2019, a viral video exposed a Dominican army sergeant in a same-sex encounter, leading to his dismissal. The army cited a “duly proven serious fault that tarnishes the morals and ethics of the institution.” The sergeant filed an appeal. An administrative court dismissed his case in 2021 on procedural grounds, but the sergeant filed a new appeal and is awaiting a final decision.

In 2014, the then-director of the National Police told a congressional committee that existing legislation “does not allow people who are homosexual” to be part of the force. In response to questions about what would happen to homosexual officers already in the police force, the then-director asked for them to be identified, news reports said.

Anderson Javiel Dirocie de León, one of the lawyers leading the constitutional challenge, told Human Rights Watch: “The discriminatory provisions mean that LGBTI officers serve in constant fear of being discovered, sanctioned, and losing everything, including their livelihood. The provisions convey a message from the state that LGBTI people are inherently unfit to perform public functions and can be considered criminals for being who we are.”

In 2004, the Dominican Republic’s congress passed a broad criminal procedure reform that limited the ability of the police and the armed forces to criminally sanction officers, but made clear that those institutions retain their administrative “disciplinary powers.” In 2019, the Constitutional Court clarified that criminal cases against officers should be heard by ordinary criminal courts, but it did not strike down the provisions on sodomy in the security forces’ codes of justice.

In recent years, countries in the region, including Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and the United States, have scrapped laws that criminalize same-sex conduct by officers.

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

While the provisions under constitutional challenge prohibit same-sex conduct only in the military and police context, they make the Dominican Republic one of the few remaining countries in the Americas to criminalize same-sex conduct.

Five Anglophone countries in the Caribbean – Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – still have such laws on the books, a relic of British colonialism. Consensual same-sex conduct remains criminalized in 63 countries, including in places like Iran, Myanmar, and Sudan.

“President Luis Abinader and Congress should not wait for the Constitutional Court ruling and should promptly introduce legislation to repeal these outdated and discriminatory laws that meddle in officers’ private lives,” González said. “Repealing these laws would send a strong signal to LGBT people and the world that the principles of equality and nondiscrimination are of the utmost importance in the Dominican Republic.”

Mexico: Proposed Constitutional Changes Threaten Rights

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 02:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Federal court workers in Mexico City protest against a proposal that would remove and replace all judges in the country in popular elections, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. © 2024 Eduardo Verdugo/AP Photo

(Washington, DC) – Mexican legislators who will take office on August 31, 2024, should reject a series of proposed constitutional changes that would undermine judicial independence, government accountability, and the right to privacy, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposals could also lead to an increase in military abuses and arbitrary detentions.

The proposals are contained in four bills that legislators are expected to discuss when Congress returns to session on September 1. The bills would expand automatic pretrial detention, replace the current judicial appointment process with popular elections, eliminate constitutional restrictions barring the military from carrying out civilian law enforcement, and abolish the country’s independent privacy and government transparency watchdog.

“These dangerous proposals would undermine judicial independence, give unprecedented power over civilians to the military, and eliminate safeguards intended to protect human rights,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Given Mexico’s long history of serious human rights violations and official cover ups, legislators should be taking steps to strengthen human rights protections, not weaken them.”

The four bills are part of a series of 18 proposed constitutional reforms that outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent to Congress in February. President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, whose party controls Congress, has endorsed many of the proposals and urged legislators to approve them before she takes office on October 1.

One of the bills, which legislators said will be among the first to be put to a vote, would significantly change the way federal judges are chosen and supervised. Currently, federal judges are selected based on their performance in an open, competitive evaluation process run by the Federal Judicial Training School and are eligible to apply for lifetime tenure after six years in office.

Under the proposed changes, judicial tenure would be eliminated and judges would be elected every nine years, in local elections in each judicial district, from lists of candidates selected by the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The approximately 1,650 currently serving federal judges would be forced to resign and would be replaced in elections in 2025 and 2027. The bill would require all state legislatures to make similar changes to the judicial appointment processes of their state court systems within 180 days, which would affect about 5,000 state judges and magistrates.

The proposal would also reduce the size of the Supreme Court, shorten the terms of its members, and replace the current members in a special election in 2025. It would also allow for judges to hear alleged organized crime cases anonymously, without defendants knowing the identity of the judge who will decide their case.

These proposals would seriously undermine judicial independence and contravene international human rights standards intended to ensure everyone receives a fair hearing before the courts, Human Rights Watch said.

Under international standards, judges should have guaranteed tenure and be protected from political influence to ensure that they can make decisions based solely on the facts of the case and in accordance with the law. The UN special rapporteur for the independence of judges and lawyers has highlighted the importance of adopting “non-political appointment processes, linked strictly to the quality and professional merit” of judicial candidates.

In July, the special rapporteur expressed concern, in a letter to President López Obrador, that the proposed changes could “increase the risk that judicial candidates try to please voters or their campaign sponsors to increase their chances of re-election, instead of taking decisions based exclusively on judicial norms and standards.”

The UN Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have said that trials carried out with “faceless judges” are contrary to the right to a fair trial since defendants are unable to evaluate whether the judge hearing their case may have a conflict of interest.

Another bill under consideration would eliminate the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information, and Data Protection, the independent agency that enforces transparency and data protection rules in Mexico. The agency has the authority to require the government to comply with freedom of information requests and to require any organization, public or private, to allow people to access their personal data, such as medical records. It can issue fines to enforce its rulings and take legal action against the government.

Under the proposal, each branch of the government would be responsible for ensuring its own compliance with freedom of information laws. Between October 2022 and September 2023, the agency received and reviewed nearly 20,000 complaints from people who said government agencies had refused to comply with access to information rules.

Eliminating the independent transparency agency and allowing the government to enforce its own compliance with freedom of information laws would undermine Mexicans’ rights to privacy and access to public information, Human Rights Watch said.

The proposed constitutional changes would also further expand automatic pretrial detention, requiring judges to order the detention of anyone accused of extortion, drug dealing, tax fraud, smuggling, or crimes related to fentanyl production and trafficking without reviewing the circumstances of the case to determine whether the detention is justified. Mexico’s Constitution already requires judges to order pretrial detention for over a dozen categories of crimes.

Requiring judges to order pretrial detention without reviewing the circumstances of each case contravenes international human rights law and is not an effective way of addressing crime, Human Rights Watch said.

Under international law, pretrial detention should only be used in exceptional cases, based on an individualized determination that it is necessary for purposes such as preventing flight, interference with evidence, or the recurrence of crime. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that Mexico’s use of mandatory pretrial detention violates human rights standards and ordered it to reform its laws and Constitution to eliminate the practice. About 88,000 people were being held in pretrial detention at the close of 2022, approximately 40 percent of the total prison population.

Additionally, a proposed bill would eliminate the constitutional prohibition preventing the military from exercising non-military functions outside wartime, permanently transfer control of the National Guard, the main federal law enforcement agency, to the defense ministry, and officially give the president the authority to indefinitely deploy the military domestically at their discretion.

The military has been informally deployed for law enforcement since 2006 with almost no civilian oversight, during which time it has committed widespread human rights violations, including executions, enforced disappearances, and torture, that are rarely investigated, with neither the violators held to account nor the victims granted justice. President López Obrador has vastly expanded the role of the military, giving the Army and Navy control over hundreds of traditionally civilian government tasks, without any corresponding expansion of civilian oversight and accountability.

“Mexico urgently needs more effective security and justice institutions,” Goebertus said. “Sadly, these proposed bills are likely to do the exact opposite.”

DR Congo: Little Justice for Goma Massacre Victims

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Congolese military personnel on trial for the murder of 57 civilians during a demonstration against the presence of MONUSCO, the United Nations stabilization mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Goma, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, September 7, 2023. © 2023 Arlette Bashizi/Reuters

(Kinshasa) – Democratic Republic of Congo authorities should expand their investigation into security force personnel responsible for killing scores of people in eastern Congo one year ago, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should also provide prompt and adequate compensation to victims or their families.

On August 30, 2023, Congolese security forces killed at least 57 people in Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province. Most were members of a mystic religious group, the Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations (Foi Naturelle Judaique et Messianique vers les Nations), who were preparing a protest against the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). A United Nations panel of experts and Human Rights Watch found that the actual death toll was most likely significantly higher. A military court in October found four soldiers, including a commanding officer, guilty of murder, but no further investigations appear to be ongoing and no victims have received compensation.

“One year on, Congolese authorities have successfully prosecuted several people for the 2023 Goma massacre, but the investigations have been severely limited, and no compensation has been paid to victims,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Establishing command responsibility and appropriately punishing all those responsible is crucial to preventing similar abuses in the future.”

On July 30, 2023, Ephraim Bisimwa, the leader of the mystic religious movement, announced a protest against MONUSCO to be held on August 30 to demand the UN mission’s departure by the end of the year due to its inability to stem protracted fighting in the east.

On August 23, the mayor of Goma issued a communiqué banning the protest. Bisimwa called off the demonstration and asked his members to meet at his church on the morning of August 30. The UN panel reported that the military and police chain of command sent down reports that the group’s protests were connected to rumored plans by the M23 rebel group and its Rwandan backers to destabilize the city. Since late 2022, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have committed unlawful killings, rape, and numerous other grave abuses in eastern Congo.

On August 30, between 3 and 4 a.m., Congolese soldiers raided a radio station affiliated with the movement in Goma’s Ndosho neighborhood. Bisimwa was at the station and used a WhatsApp message to inform his members of the raid. When soldiers took Bisimwa and eight others out of the station, his members arrived. Soldiers opened fire on them, killing six members outside the radio station, and then departed with Bisimwa and a colleague. Bisimwa later told Human Rights Watch: “They took us to the [Republican Guard]’s base where they tied us up, made us lie on the floor, then they threw water on us and beat us with sticks.”

Following the deadly raid, members of the group captured a police officer, bound his hands, and took him back to the group’s headquarters, commonly referred to as its temple.

In the confusion that followed, the police shot some members of the group, killing Bisimwa’s son. Some members then returned to the temple and killed the abducted police officer. Footage verified by Human Rights Watch shows the officer lying on the floor, hands tied, and curled up into a ball, while people beat him with sticks and threw rocks at him, killing him.

Soldiers arrived at the temple around 7 a.m. and Republican Guards followed. Col. Mike Mikombe, the Republican Guard commander in Goma, took over negotiations with a growing crowd. An officer who was there later told Human Rights Watch that once Mikombe arrived, tensions quickly arose.

Human Rights Watch verified a video filmed at the scene around 7 a.m. which shows Mikombe and Maj. Peter, commander of a Republican Guard special forces unit, addressing the members in an alley adjacent to the temple, flanked by special forces personnel. In the footage the soldiers are wearing full combat gear and carrying weapons. Witnesses said at least four drones were flying overhead.

Minutes after the arrival of the Republican Guard commanders, shooting began. “I don’t know what the colonel from the Republican Guard saw to give the order to shoot at us,” a group member said. Several witnesses reported that Mikombe lifted his handgun in the air and ordered Republican Guard soldiers to open fire. One man said Mikombe shouted, “Bofungola nzela!” (“Open the path!” in Lingala). Human Rights Watch research, including interviews with national army officials, indicated that the movement members were unarmed.

The soldiers fired with military assault rifles on the demonstrators and bystanders, killing and wounding dozens while others ran for cover. Many took refuge in neighboring houses or inside the temple around the corner. The gunfire was continuous for several minutes. Human Rights Watch verified a video filmed at the scene showing clouds of dust filling the alley as automatic gunfire is heard. Walls of surrounding houses and the temple were struck, killing and wounding people who were taking cover inside both. Human Rights Watch examined bullet holes in the walls of many houses at the scene.

A woman who took cover in her house with her younger brother said a woman and a boy were killed inside her compound, where they had sought safety. “I didn’t know them, and they didn’t seem to know each other either,” she said. “They had come to hide when the shooting began.”

Some people taking cover in houses filmed the immediate aftermath of the shooting on their cell phones. Several videos show numerous bodies on the streets. A man who witnessed the killings from a house near the temple said the soldiers walked among the bodies to check if anyone was still alive. “They would shoot at the wounded to kill them once and for all,” he said.

Immediately after the shooting stopped, soldiers loaded bodies onto at least one military truck. Video footage verified by Human Rights Watch shows soldiers dragging bodies along the street, pulling them by the legs or arms in a degrading manner. Additional footage shows them throwing bodies onto the trucks, piled onto one another. Several wounded people were also forced onto the same truck.

The soldiers rounded up dozens of people, including children, in the temple courtyard. Many were later arrested. Footage verified by Human Rights Watch shows members of the Republican Guards walking away with looted goods, furniture, and livestock on a street near the temple. Between 9:30 and 10 a.m., Republican Guards and other soldiers set the temple on fire. Human Rights Watch verified a video that shows the temple on fire.

In September and October, a military court tried Mikombe and five other soldiers. Three were sentenced to ten years in prison, while two others, including Mikombe's deputy, were acquitted. On October 2, Mikombe was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.

The case against Mikombe did not address the role played by higher-ranking officers who might have ordered or otherwise be criminally liable for the crimes committed. The authorities did not establish an exhaustive count of the dead. They did not investigate allegations that soldiers executed wounded people or burned the temple. In its final report, the UN panel of experts raised doubts about the investigation.

Further investigations should be conducted to establish whether officers senior to Mikombe were liable for these crimes, Human Rights Watch said.

Because the North Kivu province is under military rule, a military court tried Bisimwa and 63 other movement members for killing the police officer. All were sentenced to 10 or more years in prison or to death. The UN panel of experts said no evidence was presented at the trial to link the defendants with direct participation in killing the officer. Bisimwa had been in military custody for several hours prior to the killing.

The government commuted all death sentences to life in prison.

Victims or their families should receive prompt and adequate compensation for their loss, Human Rights Watch said. A movement member whose wife was killed said: “I would like us to be compensated for the damage that has been done to us. Looking after seven children without their mother is something that is very difficult for me. We need assistance.”

In addition to expanding their investigation of those responsible for the government killings and providing compensation to victims, the Congolese authorities should address its crowd control measures. The military generally should not be used for law enforcement, a function for which the police are better trained. Any security forces used for crowd control should receive proper training, equipment, and oversight. The Congolese government should seek international support to ensure that its security forces abide by regional and international standards on the use of force.

“The victims of the Goma massacre still await accountability,” Mudge said. “All those responsible, regardless of rank or standing, should be prosecuted, and those harmed promptly and fairly compensated.”

Waiting for Justice for Afghanistan’s Forcibly Disappeared

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 21:30:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Photos of some of the victims of enforced disappearances in Afghanistan following the communist coup of 1978. © Other

Afghanistan has one of the world’s highest number of enforced disappearances, with tens of thousands of people unaccounted for after being detained by government or militia forces since the late 1970s. Authorities of all stripes have forcibly disappeared opponents in Afghanistan. On August 30, International Day of the Disappeared, advocates grappling with ending longstanding impunity in Afghanistan should recall these victims and their families still waiting for answers.

Enforced disappearances are grave international crimes and are considered ongoing crimes so long as the fate of those disappeared remains unacknowledged and their whereabouts unknown. They cause profound suffering to families who can never really mourn.

The Taliban are among abusive authorities over the past 46 years, who use enforced disappearances to assert control and instill fear in those who oppose them. The victims include hundreds of members of the former government’s security forces, many of whom are feared to have been summarily executed after being detained, and women protesters who have been held incommunicado, sometimes for many weeks.

The publication in 2013 of a list of people forcibly disappeared in Afghanistan after the communist coup in 1978 finally allowed families to holdfatehas (mourning ceremonies) for relatives. But the so-called death list of 4,785 names represented only a fraction of the tens of thousands forcibly disappeared and presumably executed between 1978-79.

Otherlists include more than 600 people captured by various rival militia forces during the intense fighting that engulfed Kabul between 1992 and 1995. They include students, journalists, shopkeepers, and other civilians detained and disappeared by every militia force fighting in Kabul, including Shura-e Nazar, Ittihad, Junbish, Hezb-i Wahdat, and the Taliban.

Between 2010 and 2018, United States-backed police forces in Kandahar were responsible for some 2,200 enforced disappearances of accused Taliban as well as civilians belonging to rival tribal communities. Most are believed to be buried in mass graves in the desert.

No entity implicated in disappearances in Afghanistan has ever acknowledged responsibility. Families have created memorials with photographs of the disappeared, commemorations reminiscent of other cases of large-scale atrocities, such as in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. These efforts suggest a longing for the truth to be acknowledged and justice for thousands of Afghan families whose loved ones remain missing.

Sri Lanka: Families of ‘Disappeared’ Persecuted

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 21:30:00 -0400

(Geneva) – The Sri Lankan government continues to persecute the families of victims of enforced disappearance who seek to enforce their rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces persistently harass families through surveillance, intimidation, false allegations, violence, and arbitrary arrests.

On August 29, 2024, a court in Trincomalee granted a request by police to ban relatives of the disappeared from holding a procession to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance on August 30.

“The relatives of the disappeared experience the daily torment of not knowing what happened to their family members, which state agencies have cruelly compounded by trying to silence them,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Hundreds of mothers, wives, and others have passed away without learning what happened to their loved ones, and many more express fear they might not live to see justice done.”

Sri Lanka has one of the world’s highest rates of enforced disappearance, including those who disappeared during the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurgency (1987-89) and the civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (1983-2009). Sri Lankan authorities have for decades refused to reveal the fate of the disappeared or to prosecute those responsible, leading the United Nations human rights office to call for international prosecutions.

In his August 22 annual report on Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, described “a persistent trend of surveillance, intimidation and harassment of journalists and civil society actors, especially those working on enforced disappearances … and reprisals against family members of the disappeared engaging with the UN or international actors, including members of the diplomatic community.”

The high commissioner also examined allegations of abduction, arbitrary detention, torture, and sexual violence by Sri Lankan security forces carried out as recently as January. The victims in these cases, whom they said were primarily men, had been involved in protests over issues such as enforced disappearances.

In May, Human Rights Watch met with relatives of disappeared people throughout north and east Sri Lanka, mostly the wives or mothers of victims. They described a pattern of ongoing abuses. Several are facing court proceedings after being arrested at protests, including three who had been hospitalized as a result of police violence against protesters.

One woman in the Eastern Province, campaigning to know the fate of her husband, who surrendered to the military in 2009, said she believes she is under regular surveillance by security agencies, including the police Criminal Investigation Department, Terrorism Investigation Division, Special Task Force, and the army. She said they offer to pay her neighbors for information about her, in tactics apparently designed to isolate her from her community.

“We can’t raise our voices, we have no freedom to move,” said a woman in the Northern Province, whose husband has not been seen since his arrest in 2008. “They [security agencies] threaten us, and even take action against our family members. We have no freedom to do anything.”

The women said that police officers habitually deliver stay orders – prohibiting them from attending memorialization events or protests – in the middle of the night when they are dressed in their nightclothes and take photographs. “If my gate is locked, police climb over the wall or cut the fence to deliver a stay order,” one said. Another showed a pile of eight stay orders, although she said she had received more. “If anything is happening in the Northern or Eastern Provinces I get a stay order,” she said.

Several mothers of the disappeared said the most frightening threats were directed at their other children. One said that when she attends protests the police tell her, “You have to look after your child who is still alive.” Another said that days after she was arrested at a protest in 2023, her son was arrested in an allegedly fabricated drugs case and sent for custodial “rehabilitation.” Criminal cases against both her and her son are ongoing.

In December, the authorities launched an abusive anti-narcotics campaign called “Yukthiya,” which the UN says had resulted in over 121,000 arrests five months later. Families of the disappeared said the authorities are increasingly using false drug cases to harass them. The mother of a disappeared man said that police – including anti-narcotics officers – began making inquiries about her surviving son in December, leading her to fear that they would plant drugs in her home. “I have already lost a son,” she said. “He is now the only one I have left. I sent him to India [for his safety].”

Relatives of the disappeared said they have little or no recourse to domestic avenues for redress. In 2017 the Sri Lankan government established the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), which is supposed to establish the whereabouts or fate of the disappeared but has resolved almost no cases. Relatives accused the OMP of pressuring them to agree to receive compensation payments that they fear will lead to their cases being closed without further investigation.

One relative said, “The OMP says ‘take this certificate, get Rupees 200,000 [US$665], don’t support this movement [for truth and justice].” Another, whose daughter disappeared in 2009, said, “When I went to the OMP I noticed that they were pressing many families like us. They said to the families, ‘we don’t want any documents, we just want the details of the [disappeared] person.’ Some people took compensation, and some refused.”

“Earlier we trusted the OMP but after they recruited certain commissioners, we lost our faith,” said the mother of a disappeared person from Mannar, in northwest Sri Lanka, referring to the appointment of former senior security forces officials to the body. She said she has refused offers of compensation because “I need to know what happened to my son.”

Many relatives of the disappeared are also skeptical of the current government’s proposal for a new domestic truth and reconciliation commission, following numerous similar bodies that have previously failed to deliver truth or accountability. “We don’t accept it. We don’t have faith in it,” one said. They emphasized the importance of international involvement, including in criminal investigations.

The UN Human Rights Council, concerned governments, and other UN bodies should implement the recommendations in the UN high commissioner’s report, including:

Investigating and prosecuting alleged perpetrators of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka under the principle of universal jurisdiction.Imposing targeted sanctions on alleged perpetrators.Carrying out enhanced vetting of Sri Lankan officials, including those involved in UN peacekeeping missions.Renewing the Human Rights Council’s mandate for UN monitoring, reporting, and work on accountability for human rights violations and related crimes in Sri Lanka.

“Successive Sri Lankan governments have resisted any progress to address the terrible legacy of enforced disappearances, and instead compounded the anguish of victims’ families,” Ganguly said. “While the Sri Lankan government commits these abuses, the Human Rights Council and governments around the world need to stand with the families of the disappeared.”

Hong Kong: Two Journalists Convicted on Baseless ‘Sedition’ Charge

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 17:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Chung Pui-kuen, the former chief editor of Hong Kong's now-shuttered Stand News, is released on bail after being found guilty in a politically motivated sedition trial, in Hong Kong, August 29, 2024. © 2024 Billy H.C. Kwok/AP Photo

(New York) – The Hong Kong government should quash the politically motivated convictions of two journalists and cease its assault on media freedom, Human Rights Watch said today.

On August 29, 2024, the Hong Kong District Court convicted two editors of the now-defunct Stand News – Chung Pui-kuen, 54, the former editor-in-chief, and Patrick Lam, 36, the former acting editor-in-chief – and the paper’s parent company, Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Limited, of “conspiring to publish seditious materials.” Chung and Lam face up to two years in prison.

“The Hong Kong government is sending a dire message to journalists that reporting on issues of public concern will get you thrown in jail,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “The Hong Kong and Chinese governments should immediately quash Chung’s and Lam’s convictions and end the crackdown on media freedom.”

During the 57-day trial, the prosecutor presented 17 articles published in Stand News as evidence that the popular award-winning media outlet had sought to “incite hatred against the Hong Kong and central governments.” The district court judge, whom the government hand-picked to oversee national security cases, ruled that 11 of these articles were “seditious.” Police raids and arbitrary arrests of staff members had forced Stand News to close in December 2021.

One allegedly “seditious” article profiled the former journalist Gwyneth Ho when she ran in an informal primary to select pro-democracy candidates for the 2020 Legislative Council elections. A court later ruled the primary “illegal” and convicted Ho and 44 other activists under the National Security Law, which the Chinese government had imposed on Hong Kong in June 2020.

Other articles included commentaries by the journalist Allan Au characterizing a national security trial as a “show trial” and the government’s use of the sedition law as “lawfare” and an opinion piece by the exiled activist Sunny Cheung on being wanted by the Hong Kong police.

The judge ruled that, “considering the societal unrest and the unstable emotions of the public at the time,” these articles intended to “undermine the authority of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments” and “incite public hatred against them.”

The court will hand down Chung’s and Lam’s sentences on September 26. Lam was not present for the verdict hearing due to health issues, local media reported.

Under the National Security Law, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have taken rapid-fire steps to erase civil liberties in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government has increasingly abused an overly broad colonial-era sedition law to crack down on peaceful expression. It has used the law against children’s book authors, academics, people who distributed pro-independence flyers, and those who clapped during the trial of a pro-democracy activist.

In March, after the Hong Kong government introduced another draconian national security law that further expands its powers to curb dissent, the colonial-era sedition law was replaced by new legislation that carries penalties of up to seven years in prison.

Since 2020, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have dismantled Hong Kong’s once-thriving independent media, which for decades had often been highly critical of the Chinese Communist Party. The Hong Kong government turned Radio Television Hong Kong, a public broadcaster that previously had editorial independence, into a government propaganda outlet.

Hong Kong police raided and shuttered Apple Daily, arresting its owner, top executives, and staff, and froze the company’s assets. At least seven other news outlets shut down in fear of the crackdown. The Hong Kong government has repeatedly harassed the Hong Kong Journalist Association, including prosecuting its former head for “obstruction” while reporting and making an apparently politically motivated claim for HK$400,000 (US$51,000) in back taxes.

Several governments and the United Nations have expressed concern about the rapid deterioration of freedoms in Hong Kong since 2020. However, except for the United States, which imposed targeted sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials because of the National Security Law, few governments have taken concrete action.

“The dramatic decline of Hong Kong’s media freedoms have global implications, as the world had long benefited from the city’s intrepid journalists reporting on China,” Wang said. “Concerned governments should stand up for what remains of this space by sanctioning abusive officials and supporting Hong Kong’s journalists.”

Australia: Bolster Global Advocacy Against Death Penalty

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 17:00:00 -0400

(Sydney) - The Australian government should strengthen its global advocacy to abolish the death penalty, Human Rights Watch said in a recent submission to Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (JSCFADT). The Committee is currently reviewing Australia’s international engagement to promote the abolition of the death penalty.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty. Around 170 countries, including Australia, have abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty either in law or in practice.

“Australia has consistently spoken out against the death penalty at the United Nations, but time and again the government has missed opportunities to make strong public comments regarding certain countries,” said Daniela Gavshon, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to be more outspoken to put sustained political pressure on governments still using this terrible and globally condemned form of punishment.”

Most notably, the Australian government has missed many opportunities to publicly convey its concerns about executions in Singapore. In 2023, the Singaporean authorities carried out the highest number of executions for drug-related offenses in over a decade, including the first woman put to death in nearly 20 years. Singaporean authorities executed two men for drug trafficking on August 2 and August 7, 2024, despite both having pending appeals when the executions were scheduled.

Australia and Singapore have annual leaders’ meetings, yet the death penalty has not been raised publicly during those meetings, even when executions in Singapore have occurred immediately before the leaders’ summit.

The Australian government should also update its 2018 Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty to include government-to-government assistance and police cooperation in a death penalty context. Currently, Australian police cooperate with foreign police forces on, for example, drug trafficking cases. This could have grave consequences if it is cooperating with a country that executes people for drug-related crimes. Although the Australian Federal Police has an internal oversight board for “sensitive” investigations, there is no mandatory external and human rights oversight. Without this oversight, there is a serious risk that Australian police could cooperate with a foreign police force in a way that leads to someone being sentenced to death and executed.

“It’s not good enough to rely on internal oversight for matters as serious as the death penalty,” Gavshon said. “At the very least, any Australian police and government oversight board should include a government human rights specialist; the stakes are much too high to risk getting it wrong.”

Ecuador Sets Plan to End Sexual Violence in Schools

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 13:12:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Students return to school after the government of Ecuador temporarily suspended in-person lessons in response to a series of violent events at the beginning of the year in Quito, Ecuador, January 24, 2024. © 2024 FranklinJAcome/Agencia Press South/Getty Images The president’s decree launching the Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools is an important step in Ecuador’s efforts to tackle endemic levels of school-related sexual violence.Human Rights Watch analysis shows the policy lacks adequate long-term funding, which could affect its implementation, reinforce longstanding barriers to response, and jeopardize the implementation of the policy’s prevention and “access to justice and reparations” aims.The government should meaningfully involve the legal representatives in the case, civil society organizations, and children in the development of the policy’s operational plan, as well as in the implementation and evaluation of the public policy.

(New York) – President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador on August 20, 2024, signed a decree for a Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools, an important step to address the problem, Human Rights Watch said today. The document details the government’s plans to tackle sexual violence through 2030.

Sexual and gender-based violence is endemic in Ecuador’s schools. Over the last decade, the Ministry of Education received reports of close to 6,500 cases of school-related sexual violence, affecting 7,303 children across the country. These numbers undoubtedly understate the true total, as most cases of sexual violence go unreported.

“The president’s decree signals that ending sexual violence against students is of utmost importance for Ecuador’s government,” said Elin Martínez, senior children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “A high number of students experience school-related sexual violence throughout Ecuador, often without support as they cope with the abuses and faced with limited chances of seeking justice and reparations.”

The public policy responds to various measures ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in June 2020 in Paola Guzmán Albarracín v. Ecuador, the court’s first case on school-related sexual violence. It outlines the government’s commitments on prevention of and response to sexual violence, dissemination of information and data related to school-related sexual violence, and access to justice and reparations.

Ecuador’s education system faces significant challenges in responding to abuses, including a shortage of student welfare teams, schools’ tendencies to shield staff and protect their reputations over student welfare, and setbacks in sanctioning teachers who have been accused of sexual violence. The widespread levels of insecurity and violence in recent years have had a dire impact on children’s rights, and have further hampered government institutions’ ability to detect and respond to cases of sexual violence.

Survivors and their families face an uphill battle to find justice for abuses, including adequate reparations. Many face retraumatization due to deep discriminatory and prejudicial challenges entrenched in judicial institutions and having to retell their stories countless times. They share a prevailing feeling that impunity prevails in the judicial system. The Attorney General’s Office and Judiciary Council’s limited financial and human resources hamper efforts to guarantee effective justice for children.

The public policy details various actions to address hurdles identified in the education and justice systems to effectively address sexual violence in schools. Human Rights Watch analysis of the policy shows that it lacks adequate long-term funding, including adequate budgets for prevention and eradication of school-related sexual violence and gender-based violence against children. For example, the estimated budget for “access to justice and reparations” through 2030 is just US$1.5 million. The Judiciary Council has said that it needs a total yearly budget of $22 million to maintain its services specializing in addressing violence cases.

This could affect its implementation, reinforce longstanding barriers to response, and jeopardize the implementation of the policy’s prevention and “access to justice and reparations” aims. The policy outlines a goal to provide 90 percent of staff involved in administrative and judicial proceedings with at least one training session on sexual violence by 2030. This limited goal overlooks the need to provide ongoing training on sexual and gender-based violence, and violence against children for judicial staff. The policy also fails to increase the number of staff needed to investigate sexual violence cases against children.

Inconsistent funding, insufficient spending, and subsequent budget cuts within various government institutions have historically stalled efforts to address school-based sexual violence. Ministry of Education funding for prevention and response of sexual violence has fluctuated over the years. Funding to address gender-based violence, part of which would go toward school-based sexual violence, was not fully spent in 2023 and was reduced in 2024.

Human Rights Watch has also found that cuts to the Judiciary Council’s budget in previous years led this institution to partner with national and international organizations to fund repairs of Gesell chambers, rooms designed to protect children’s wellbeing and identities during preliminary investigations.

In 2024, the National Assembly’s Education Commission conducted an audit of all institutions tasked with addressing violence against children, including the Ministry of Education, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Judiciary Council. The Commission’s report demonstrates the gaps in government institutions’ efforts to respond to violence against children. The Ministry of Economy and Finances reported to the Commission that in 2022 and 2023, none of the institutions examined had utilized 100 percent of the funding they already had to address sexual violence. It similarly found that the lack of staff, including trained and specialized staff in the judicial system, interferes with directives to adequately work with survivors, including to prevent retraumatization.

The president’s decree says that the government’s Interinstitutional Roundtable with representatives of various agencies is responsible for the policy and for reporting to the Inter-American Court. The Center for Reproductive Rights and CEPAM-Guayaquil, the legal representatives of Paola Guzmán’s family in the Paola Guzmán Albarracín v. Ecuador case, who have been involved in development of the policy, raised concerns about the lack of involvement of Ecuadorian civil society organizations and children in the finalization and introduction of the policy. The government should meaningfully involve the legal representatives in the case, civil society organizations, and children in the development of the policy’s operational plan, as well as in the implementation and evaluation of the public policy, Human Rights Watch said.

“The government should do its utmost to fully deliver on its commitment to prevent and tackle school-related sexual violence at the scale needed to end the scourge of sexual and gender-based violence against children,” Martínez said. “Now that it’s a national priority, the government should ensure its public policy has adequate funding and the requisite human resources to guarantee every student’s right to learn in a safe environment.”

Indonesian Police Crack Down on Anti-Corruption Protests

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 12:19:42 -0400

Click to expand Image Students protest proposed amendment to the local election law outside of West Java’s parliament building in Bandung, Indonesia, August 22, 2024. © 2024 Ryan Suherlan/NurPhoto via AP Photo

It was an extraordinary sight for Indonesia: On August 28, protesters set up tents outside a government guesthouse in Yogyakarta city where the president, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, was staying the night after inaugurating a local market. Hundreds of protesters, surrounded by police officers and presidential guards, shouted slogans accusing the president of corruption and nepotism.

Street protests have erupted in at least 16 cities in Indonesia, including the capital, Jakarta, after President Jokowi’s ruling coalition invited their allies to meet in parliament on August 22 to amend the election law and allow candidates below the age of 30 to run for office. There’s only one candidate in the November 27 elections under 30: 29-year-old Kaesang Pangareb, the president’s youngest son, who is running for deputy governor of Central Java.

Just two days earlier, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court had rejected a request permitting politicians younger than 30 to run for office.

When Jokowi sought to bypass the courts through legislative means, college students and union workers accused him of nepotism. A coalition of 27 civil society organizations alleged he was placing his sons and son-in-law in government positions without a fair election process. In February, Jokowi had allegedly bent election rules to help his eldest son, Gibran Raka, 36, successfully contest the presidential election as Prabowo Subianto’s running mate.

On August 22, protesters in Jakarta surrounded the parliament building, forcing legislators to move the meeting to a hotel. Two days later, with protests raging, the parliamentarians decided not to proceed with the amendment. The police arrested at least 300 protesters, mostly high school students, accusing them of attacking the police and destroying the fence of the parliament compound. Police and military officers assaulted at least 11 journalists, seizing their phones. A Tempo journalist was taken to a police station and forced to delete his video of the protests. Police also beat a Kompas journalist who had witnessed the arrest.

Security forces used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protests in Semarang, Central Java, and in Makassar, South Sulawesi. In some other places, the police also hit peaceful protesters with batons. Several suffered injuries and were hospitalized. Police obstructed legal aid lawyers from meeting the detained protesters.

The authorities should impartially investigate the reports of police violence and appropriately punish those involved, including their commanding officers.

South Korea’s Digital Sex Crime Deepfake Crisis

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 11:02:04 -0400

South Korea faces an epidemic of digital sex crimes, hundreds of women and girls targeted through deepfake sexual images being shared online. One group sharing these images reportedly has 220,000 members. The number of reported deepfake cases alone has soared from 156 in 2021 to 297 as of July this year.

While South Korea’s president spoke out this week about this issue, over the years the country’s leaders seem to have had difficulty understanding the extraordinary and often lifelong harm these crimes cause.

In 2020, I interviewed women in South Korea who were survivors of digital sex crimes, some of whom were targeted using faked images. I also spoke to the father of a woman who was not a survivor, she died by suicide in 2019 after having been covertly filmed by a male colleague in the changing room of the hospital where she worked.

We also heard from protesters. In 2018, the South Korean government jailed a woman who posted a nude photo of a man. The case sparked a series of six protests; tens of thousands of women and girls marched through the streets of Seoul chanting slogans, including “My life is not your porn” and “Are we not human?” Men usually go free in such cases.

The government responded to these protests with legislation to expand the range of acts punishable as digital sex crimes and toughen penalties. It also established a center to assist survivors of digital sex crimes.

These responses were positive signs but nowhere near enough. Online gender-based violence is an increasing problem globally but is especially widespread in South Korea. Judges, prosecutors, police, and lawmakers in South Korea, the vast majority of them men, do not take these crimes seriously enough. Women seeking police help are often dismissed, retraumatized, and even ridiculed. There is very little sexuality education in South Korea’s schools to help young people understand how wrong this conduct is. These crimes happen against a backdrop of extreme gender inequality, where there is a 31 percent gender pay gap and less than 13 percent of board members are women.

The South Korean government has known for years that digital sex crimes were rampant and deadly. It’s time for them to take this crisis more seriously. The government should hold perpetrators accountable, provide comprehensive sexuality education to children and adults, and take meaningful steps to promote gender equality.

Empower Communities to Adapt as Pacific Faces Surging Seas

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 08:55:52 -0400

As government leaders gather in Tonga this week for the Pacific Islands Forum, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is sounding the alarm on rising sea levels as not just an environmental issue but a serious threat to human rights.

The latest report from the World Meteorological Organization shows that sea levels in the Pacific are rising faster than the global average, putting communities in this region at disproportionate risk of climate crisis-related harms. For communities whose homes, sources of livelihoods, and cultural heritage are being eroded, adaptation is an urgent necessity. Among the strategies being discussed is the planned relocation of entire communities to safer land.

Around the world, over 400 communities have already completed or are undertaking planned relocation because of natural hazards, including those intensified by climate change. But planned relocations are far from straightforward; many communities face serious threats to their rights during and after such moves.

Past experience shows that planned relocation should be approached with a steadfast commitment to human rights protection, and considered a “measure of last resort” after all efforts to adapt in place are exhausted. Planned relocation, if done without respecting the rights of those affected, risks compounding trauma. Communities should not be forced into relocation without their informed consent, but instead supported to lead these processes on their own terms. Relocation plans should ensure that relocated communities have access to the same or improved sources of livelihood, housing, education, and healthcare, and should not infringe on communities’ cultural heritage.

Some Pacific Island nations, including Fiji and Solomon Islands, already have national guidelines that, on paper, underscore the importance of rights-respecting approaches. How these instruments are implemented and funded remains to be seen.

As Pacific leaders gather in pursuit of a bold vision of moving “beyond policy deliberation to implementation – to achieve transformation by building better now,” it is imperative that all conversations on planned relocation adopt rights-respecting approaches. The global community should respond to the Pacific SOS, including by ensuring all planned relocation policies and funds center communities’ rights and leadership.

Bangladesh: Government Sets up Disappearances Inquiry

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 06:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image © Private

(New York) – Bangladesh's interim government should seek expertise and technical assistance from the United Nations for its new commission of inquiry investigating all cases of enforced disappearances during the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina, Human Rights Watch said today. The interim administration, led by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has announced a five-member team headed by a retired judge, which includes another former judge, a university teacher, and two human rights activists.

The government has also made a commitment to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, a landmark move after years of refusals by the previous government to recognize enforced disappearances. It has also agreed to support a UN fact-finding team in investigating abuses during recent protests, which earlier in August 2024 led Sheikh Hasina to resign as prime minister and flee the country.

“With this commission of inquiry, Bangladesh has an opportunity to pursue justice for the victims of enforced disappearances and their families, many of whom have desperately sought answers, only to be dismissed, threatened, and humiliated by officials,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should seize the opportunity to create a robust process with international expertise, including forensics, to investigate these abuses and identify avenues for reparations in collaboration with victims and their families.”

Odhikar, a prominent Bangladeshi human rights organization, estimates that 708 people were forcibly disappeared under Hasina’s rule. While some people were later released, produced in court, or said to have died during an armed exchange with security forces, nearly 100 people remain missing.

The commission of inquiry should investigate every case, regardless of whether the person was returned, killed, or remains missing. It should be additionally mandated with identifying all clandestine detention centers, and the interim government should immediately shut them down and release anyone still being held in incommunicado custody. The commission should have the authority to make recommendations regarding the prosecution of suspects, reparations to victims and their families, the enactment of specific legislation, and institutional and other reforms that would prevent repetition of past violations.

The newly formed commission has said it would submit a report within 45 days. To effectively carry out its mandate, the commission should be adequately resourced and authorized to obtain all information necessary, including to compel the attendance and cooperation of state officials and law enforcement as witnesses and to order the government, police, and other officials to produce records. The commission should establish a variety of means through which to submit evidence so that the process is accessible and all interested parties have an opportunity to participate.

Given the entrenched impunity for security force abuses in Bangladesh, the interim government should request the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN human rights experts to provide technical support and monitoring of the investigation. The investigators should also work closely with Maayer Daak (“Mothers’Call”) and other organizations representing victims and their families.

Throughout the inquiry, the commission should collect views from victims about what forms of reparation would serve to meaningfully recognize the harm suffered, in addition to bringing those responsible to justice. The commission should recommend the full range of reparations required by international standards, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition.

The interim government should make a commitment to ensuring effective reparations, including carrying out Maayer Daak’s call for the creation of a memorial to commemorate victims of enforced disappearances and the suffering of their families, and to stand against the commission of disappearances in the future.

The report’s conclusions and recommendations should be made public and accessible and should require periodic updates on implementation. Evidence collected by the commission should be preserved and made available for judicial and other official investigations in Bangladesh and elsewhere, and the commission should identify an independent entity to safely hold the records following the completion of investigations.

Three victims of enforced disappearances – Michael Chakma, Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, and Abdullahil Amaan Azmi – were released shortly after Hasina fled the country. In all three cases, authorities had for years denied having them in custody.

Speaking to the media, Chakma described severe torture while he was detained underground in a secret detention site called Aynaghar (house of mirrors) run by the military intelligence agency. Since he was released, he has had difficulties walking and reading and suffers from nightmares. Both Quasem and Chakma said they were confined alone in near-constant darkness but could hear others being tortured, indicating that others may still be held in the secret detention center.

“The only sounds were the incessant whirring of fans and the muffled cries of fellow detainees from nearby cells. I couldn’t see how many of us there were, but the sounds of weeping and despair gave me a sense of the numbers,” Chakma said.

“I could hear people crying, I could hear people being tortured, I could hear people screaming,” Quasem told Agence France-Presse.

The commission’s mandate should include investigations into the torture and other ill-treatment that victims experienced, Human Rights Watch said. The government should ensure that individuals found in the commisssion’s investigation as having participated in violations are investigated and brought to justice. Yunus should facilitate a visit by the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and seek their recommendations and input.

On August 16, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called on the government to open a “comprehensive, impartial and transparent investigation into all human rights violations and abuses that have occurred” and to release all victims of enforced disappearances. The commissioner also identified the need for an independent investigation into abuses, including enforced disappearances, in a report it released following the recent protests.

Under Hasina, the government consistently denied that security forces had committed enforced disappearances, insisting that those missing had gone into hiding of their own volition. Relatives of victims of enforced disappearance have suffered harassment and reprisals at the hands of the authorities, with some forced to sign false statements that they had been intentionally misleading the police and the public.

Bangladesh has no witness protection law or system. The interim government should move forward with the proposed legislation drafted by the law commission nearly 15 years ago and donor governments should financially support the implementation of a witness protection program. In the meantime, the commission of inquiry should take special precaution to ensure all witnesses are protected from harassment, threats, intimidation, and retaliation.

As part of efforts to ensure abuses are not repeated, the interim government should reform institutions to enable civilian oversight over security forces and immediately disband the Rapid Action Battalion, a notoriously abusive paramilitary unit that was sanctioned by the United States government in 2021 for human right abuses, particularly enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

“Pursuing accountability for enforced disappearances in Bangladesh and informing the families of victims of what happened to their loved ones is an important first step in building toward a rights-respecting future,” Ganguly said. “Yunus should call on the UN to ensure that Bangladesh’s new commission is well-resourced and has the power to gather all the information required to bring answers and justice to victims of enforced disappearances, their families, and their communities.”

Lebanon: Nationwide Electricity Blackout

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Lebanon's capital, Beirut, in the dark on July 27, 2020, due to widespread electricity blackouts caused by fuel shortages in the midst of a dire economic crisis. © 2020 Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images

(Beirut) – The Lebanese government’s continued mismanagement of the electricity sector and its failure to carry out key reforms is diminishing the public’s already-limited access to electricity, Human Rights Watch said today.

On August 17, 2024, Lebanon’s only operational power plant shut down after the state-run electricity company, Electricité du Liban (EDL) ran out of fuel, resulting in a complete nationwide power outage. The outage left residents and key state institutions, such as the airport, water pump stations, sewage systems, and prisons, without state-provided electricity for more than 24 hours, and reliant on costly and highly polluting private diesel generators.

“The government’s continued willful mismanagement has plunged the country into complete darkness as residents are left to pay the price,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Failing to implement key reforms that would enable access to continuous, accessible, and clean electricity means that Lebanon will lurch from one acute power outage to the next with no end in sight.”

March 9, 2023 Lebanon: Electricity Crisis Exacerbates Poverty, Inequality

Access to Reliable, Affordable Electricity Is a Human Right

A 2023 Human Rights Watch report documented that Lebanon’s electricity crisis is preventing people in Lebanon from realizing their right to electricity, as well as other rights, including to education, health, water, sanitation, and a healthy environment.

The South Lebanon Water Establishment, the public utility responsible for supplying water and treating wastewater across southern Lebanon, published a statement on August 18 calling on people to ration water use “to the maximum extent possible” in light of the current power outage. It said that the utility’s reliance on private diesel generators will “not be enough to provide the sufficient quantities of water to supply all the cities and towns within the jurisdiction of the establishment.”

The August 17 power outage resulted from the government’s failure to make overdue payments to the Iraqi government for supplying Lebanon with heavy fuel oil that the Lebanese government can then swap for fossil fuels compatible with Lebanon’s power plants. The last operational plant shut down after the plant’s fossil fuel reserves were depleted, EDL said, leading “to a total blackout across all Lebanese territories.”

Media reported that the Lebanese government had asked Iraq to forgive part of Lebanon’s unpaid debt for previous fuel shipments, which caused Iraq to delay further shipments. On August 18, Algerian authorities stated that they will supply Lebanon with fuel to operate its electricity power plants in wake of the power outage, and sent several thousand tons on August 22, but no further details on the arrangement are publicly available. On August 19, Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Lebanon’s Central Inspection, the government agency responsible for overseeing public agencies, to investigate the power outage.

On August 21, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Energy and Water Minister with questions about the blackout, the status of promised reforms, and government steps to resolve the problem, but has not received written responses to the questions.

For almost 30 years, Lebanese authorities have failed to properly manage the state-run electricity company, resulting in widespread blackouts. Between 2005 and 2020, the Lebanese government purchased billions of dollars’ worth of tainted, faulty fuel from a subsidiary of the Algerian state oil company, Sonatrach. The decades of unsustainable policies and fundamental neglect, the result of elite capture of state resources, alleged corruption, and vested interests caused a complete collapse in 2021 amid the ongoing economic crisis, leaving the country without power through most of the day.

The government, including the Energy and Water Ministry, which is responsible for the overall strategic planning and policy development for electricity, has failed to implement key reforms that would unlock donor funds, enable greater access to continuous, accessible, and clean electricity from renewable sources, and rapidly phase out the use of fossil fuels.

In December 2023, Lebanon’s parliament passed the Distributed Renewable Energy Law, which seeks to organize the renewable energy sector and increase the number of hours of electricity provided by integrating renewable energy sources into the country’s electricity grid and to allow private renewable energy sources to sell electricity. However, the law has yet to go into effect because the government has failed to activate and appoint the members of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), the independent regulatory body mandated with overseeing the electricity sector since 2002.

“The ERA has not been appointed because of politics,” Diana Kaissy, former executive director of the Lebanese Oil and Gas Initiative, told Human Rights Watch. “The political parties are behind forbidding the relinquishing of powers of the ministry to the ERA.” In the absence of the ERA, the Council of Ministers, particularly the Energy and Water Minister, exerts almost complete control with little transparency and accountability.

In 2023, the World Bank conditionally agreed to finance agreements for Lebanon to import electricity and methane gas from Jordan and Egypt if Lebanese authorities carried out reforms, media reported. These included activating the ERA, auditing EDL, and improving collection of electricity bills. But the government, in addition to not appointing the ERA, has not published the required audit.

The World Bank should refrain from funding any new energy projects that rely on fossil fuels and instead provide technical and financial support to expand renewable energy infrastructure, Human Rights Watch said. The two main measures that the World Bank lists rely primarily on fossil fuels as the primary source of electricity, with renewable sources remaining relatively limited and largely seen as a last resort.

Human Rights Watch found in a 2023 report that Lebanon has almost unlimited renewable energy potential, particularly from solar and wind, with some experts saying that Lebanon could transition to 100 percent renewable energy utilizing wind, solar, and hydropower by 2035 using existing technologies.

In 2024, the main electricity company provided about four hours of electricity a day, media reported, while people who can afford it use highly polluting private diesel generators to supplement that supply. An informal and largely unregulated private diesel generator industry valued at around US$3 billion has mushroomed across the country.

The reliance on heavy fuel oil-powered plants and diesel generators generates significant air pollution that has taken a huge toll on the environment and had significant impacts on people’s health, possibly killing thousands each year in Lebanon, according to a Greenpeace estimate in 2020.

The Energy Minister has promised to increase the state-provided electricity supply up to eight hours a day, but energy experts told Human Rights Watch that this plan is unrealistic.

“All the current plans are not realistic,” said Christina Abi Haidar, a lawyer and independent energy consultant. “They do not address the current status quo, in light of the economic collapse. If we have fuel coming in for generators there will be no reform to the sector because the private generator profiteers are mostly politically affiliated cartels, and their business is going well. Who closes a business that brings them money?”

Since the beginning of cross-border hostilities with Israel on October 8, 2023, Israeli strikes in south Lebanon have also resulted in severe damage to electricity, water, and telecommunications infrastructure there, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said. On August 4, an Israeli strike destroyed an electricity substation in al-Taybeh. Israeli artillery shelling also damaged a power distribution station in Marjeyoun on July 13, exacerbating the electricity supply disruptions in the area.

The Lebanese government should, in the current fiscal and electricity crisis, immediately ramp up local and utility-scale renewable energy generation projects to decrease its reliance on expensive, and heavily polluting fossil fuels, Human Rights Watch said.

Everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living, as set out in treaties like the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), that are binding in Lebanon. Human Rights Watch has found that this right should also include, explicitly, a right to adequate, accessible, clean and sustainable electricity. Lebanon should recognize the right to electricity and enact a strong strategy to implement it as rapidly as possible.

Lebanon’s government should take immediate steps to ensure that all residents have a continuous, accessible, clean and sustainable supply of electricity from renewable energy sources. It should implement the 2023 Distributed Renewable Energy Law and ensure accountability and transparency in the electricity sector by activating the ERA and conducting an audit of the state-run electricity company.

“The time for excuses and dithering is over,” Kaiss said. “The government should no longer delay the needed electricity sector reforms to transition to a model of, clean and sustainable electricity from renewable energy sources.

Egypt: Spate of Free Speech Prosecutions

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:00:00 -0400

(Beirut) – The Egyptian authorities have in recent weeks arbitrarily detained and referred for prosecution at least four critics of the government on charges stemming solely from their legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, as part of their work, in a fresh assault on freedom of expression, eight organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said today. Those prosecuted include two detained journalists and a researcher living in exile.

The authorities have employed incommunicado detention, abusive pretrial detention, and unsubstantiated terrorism-related charges against the critics. The family of one detainee alleged that he was tortured. Harsh repression has stymied freedom of expression and independent media in recent years, despite the government’s claims that it is pursuing reforms.

“Egypt cannot turn a new page without respecting freedom of expression, which is part and parcel of promoting other political and economic rights,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Egypt should urgently cease targeting critics and immediately release those unjustly detained.”

Authorities detained Ashraf Omar, a political satire artist, on July 22, 2024. Al-Manassa, an independent news site where Omar publishes cartoons, and his family said that security forces belonging to the Interior Ministry’s National Security Agency (NSA) arrested him during a late-night home raid. Omar’s wife, Nada Moogheeth, said in public statements that CCTV video showed a group of people in civilian clothes and others in police uniforms arriving in two minibuses, raiding the house, and leaving with Omar blindfolded 40 minutes later. They then took him to an undisclosed location where he was held for more than 48 hours. Omar’s wife later declared that NSA officers had tortured him, including by threatening to subject him to electric shocks.

On July 24, security officials brought Omar to the Supreme State Security Prosecutors Office in Cairo, a branch of Egypt’s public prosecution known for its abuses and responsible for keeping thousands of peaceful activists and journalists in pretrial detention for months or years without evidence of wrongdoing. Omar’s lawyer and prominent human rights defender Khaled Ali said that prosecutors ordered Omar detained on charges of “joining a terrorist group,” “misusing social media,” and “spreading false news,” charges that the prosecution frequently uses to lock up actual or perceived critics.

On July 16, security forces raided the home of journalist Khaled Mamdouh in Cairo and arrested him late at night. The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, an independent organization, said members of the security forces searched Mamdouh’s apartment and seized his electronic devices without revealing their identity or presenting a judicial warrant.

Mamdouh’s lawyer, Fatma Serag, said authorities kept Mamdouh in secret detention for five days and then presented him to the prosecutors on July 20, recording the official date of his arrest on that same day. She said in an August 8 news conference that the home raid was “terrifying” and that security forces surrounded Mamdouh’s apartment for six hours and briefly detained his son.

The prosecution has kept Mamdouh in pretrial detention since July 20. His lawyer said prosecutors have not presented any evidence of criminal wrongdoing but charged Mamdouh with belonging to an unnamed “terrorist group” and “spreading false news.”

Serag said Mamdouh is being held in Abu Za’abal prison, where prosecutorial hearings for pretrial detention renewal are conducted through a video conference system. Human Rights Watch documented that this abusive method of renewing pretrial detention – without bringing the detainee before a judge – severely undermines due process. It prevents a judge from assessing the legality and conditions of detention as well as the detainees’ wellbeing, and violates several fair trial guarantees, including the right to legal counsel.

Human Rights Watch spoke to a third journalist, who previously worked with Mamdouh for the Arabic Post, who said he fled the country in the last week of July for fear of arrest after Omar and Mamdouh were detained. He said security forces were looking for him and raided his home after he fled. The journalist had already been arbitrarily detained in 2018 for over two years in a case stemming from his legitimate work as a journalist.

In early July, the prosecution referred Abdelrahman Mahmoud Abdou, a researcher and journalist also known as Abdelrahman Ayyash, to trial. The indictment states that Ayyash was charged, alongside four others, with “leadership of a terrorist group,” while 41 others were charged with joining or financing the unnamed group.

Ayyash, who is living in exile, said human rights lawyers obtained the case file and notified him, but that he has not received formal notice of the charges. The indictment describes Ayyash as a “supervisor” at the Arabic Post even though he said he quit his job there in 2018. Ayyash was employed as a senior research assistant at Human Rights Watch between August 2018 and September 2021. After leaving Human Rights Watch, Ayyash joined the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom Initiative, and he currently serves as an independent consultant for the Middle East Democracy Center. Ayyash has also contributed to publications at several organizations, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Century International, and the Arab Reform Initiative.

Security forces previously raided Ayyash’s family home in July 2022 and detained his father, after questioning him about Ayyash’s human rights and political activism. His father was referred to trial on unsubstantiated charges of possessing printed materials and information undermining the constitution, and was detained for several months. A court acquitted him in November 2022.

On July 16, the Interior Ministry stated it had detained a man it claimed was responsible for displaying criticism of President al-Sisi on a billboard screen in Giza, which went viral on social media. Such criticism is protected peaceful free expression that should not be penalized, the organizations said.

Under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, freedom of expression, including media freedom, has faced relentless attacks for years. Egypt regularly ranks among the countries with the most journalists in detention, with the International Committee to Protect Journalists finding it accounted for more than 13 percent of the world’s detained journalists as of 2023. Mainstream media are severely curtailed in Egypt, and the few remaining media websites face government restrictions and harassment. Egyptian authorities have previously abused terrorism laws to prosecute journalists, activists, and critics.

Egypt is a state party to international instruments guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (article 19) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (article 9).

“Attacks on freedom of expression in Egypt must end,” said Said Benarbia, Middle East and North Africa director at the International Commission of Jurists. “Instead of muzzling independent, critical, and dissenting voices through arbitrary detentions and prosecutions, the Egyptian authorities must ensure that all individuals are able to participate in public debate and openly express their opinions and criticism of State institutions and officials without intimidation or reprisal.”

Signatories:

Human Rights WatchInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)DAWNEuroMed RightsInternational Commission of JuristsFairSquareIFEXMiddle East Democracy Center (MEDC)

Sudan: Warring Parties Execute Detainees, Mutilate Bodies

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 23:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Still image from a video posted to social media showing Sudanese Armed Forces soldiers setting the bodies of persons they have apparently executed, on fire. © User via X, 2024

(Nairobi) – The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and affiliated fighters have summarily executed, tortured, and ill-treated people in their custody, and mutilated dead bodies, Human Rights Watch said today.

Leaders of both forces should privately and publicly order an immediate halt to these abuses and carry out effective investigations. They should cooperate fully with international investigators, notably from the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, who should include these abuses, which constitute war crimes, within the scope of their investigations.

“Forces from Sudan’s warring parties feel so immune to punishment that they have repeatedly filmed themselves executing, torturing, and dehumanizing detainees, and mutilating bodies,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These crimes should be investigated as war crimes and those responsible, including commanders of these forces, should be held to account.”

Human Rights Watch analyzed 20 videos and 1 photograph of 10 incidents uploaded to social media platforms between August 24, 2023, and July 11, 2024. Eight videos and 1 photograph depict 4 incidents of summary executions, including mass executions, of at least 40 people. Four videos show torture and ill-treatment of a total of 18 detainees, including some who appear wounded; and 9 show mutilation of at least 8 dead bodies.

Many of the abusers and victims appear to be wearing military uniforms, suggesting they may be fighters, although some victims are wearing civilian clothes. In all the incidents detainees appear to be unarmed, posing no threat to their captors, and in several they are restrained.

Human Rights Watch has recorded another 20 cases appearing to show similar violations by both parties, but has not investigated these cases.

Four cases of executions appear to have been filmed by the perpetrators themselves, 3 by the RSF, including the execution of at least 21 men in El Fula, West Kordofan, in June 2024; the execution of at least 14 men in the aftermath of RSF attacks on Belila Airport, 60 kilometers southeast of El Fula, in West Kordofan in October 2023; and the execution of 2 men 12 kilometers south of El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan. The fourth is of the SAF’s execution of three detainees, possibly children under the age 18, in October 2023 in Omdurman, northwest of the capital city, Khartoum.

Human Rights Watch analyzed another four instances in which SAF and RSF personnel filmed themselves torturing and ill-treating detainees, including by whipping, beating, and forcing detainees to walk on their knees on gravel roads. Analysis by Human Rights Watch suggests that these incidents occurred in Khartoum, Gezira, and North and West Kordofan states.

Three cases show SAF soldiers committing outrages against the bodies of apparent RSF fighters or civilians, including one in which they brandish two heads.

Since the conflict broke out in Khartoum on April 15, 2023, the leadership of both the SAF and RSF have failed to halt or address abuses. In July 2023, SAF-affiliated authorities announced national investigations into RSF abuses, headed by the attorney general, but made no mention of investigating crimes committed by their own forces.

The RSF, in a July 23, 2024 letter responding to a previous report by Human Rights Watch, provided a code of conduct that in vague terms bans mistreatment of detainees, and wrote that it had established a committee to investigate violations or abuses and to prosecute those responsible. But it has not provided any public evidence of its investigations or prosecutions.

On August 19, Human Rights Watch sent a detailed email summary of its findings with specific questions to Lieutenant Colonel Al-Fateh Qurashi, the RSF spokesperson, and to Brigadier-General Nabil Abdallah, the SAF military spokesperson. Neither has responded.

In February, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that hundreds of fighters had been detained by both parties and that the condition and whereabouts of most remain unknown. Human Rights Watch has previously documented widespread torture and execution of unarmed people by RSF forces in El Geneina and its suburb Ardamata, West Darfur, in 2023. Other monitoring groups and nongovernmental groups have also reported on abuse, torture, and execution of detainees by both sides in various parts of the country.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, established by the UN Human Rights Council in October 2023, is the only independent investigative body with the mandate to probe conflict-related violations across Sudan. Given the scale of abuses and the dearth of credible investigations by the parties themselves, council members should renew the mission’s mandate at the council’s September session, Human Rights Watch said.

Regional and international bodies, including the European Union and African Union, and individual countries should work together to hold those responsible for these abuses accountable, including by imposing individual targeted sanctions, Human Rights Watch said. Countries leading ceasefire and humanitarian access talks should also address the warring parties’ abuses and ensure that there is provision for robust monitoring of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, in any agreement reached.

“Sudan’s warring parties have shown a shocking disregard for human life and dignity,” Osman said. “The commanders need to be held to account for failing to prevent or punish these crimes.”

Methodology

Human Rights Watch did not find the videos it analyzed online before the suspected incident dates. Researchers analyzed the videos frame by frame to identify the abuses, determine as best as they could the affiliations of perpetrators and victims, and verify the locations of the incidents to determine how they corresponded to areas of territorial control at the time the videos were made. To assist in identifying the perpetrators and victims, Human Rights Watch analyzed comments made by those filming themselves that identified them or the detainees, and information shared alongside the videos on online platforms.

The videos were posted to various social media channels, including Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Telegram. A large majority of the videos were uploaded to pro-SAF or pro-RSF channels. Human Rights Watch has not included links to the online videos due to their graphic nature, but has preserved the visual evidence. In the report, audio or captions from the videos originally in Arabic were translated into English.

Summary Executions

Human Rights Watch investigated four cases of executions.

Mass Executions by the RSF

Human Rights Watch analyzed 3 videos capturing the RSF’s execution of at least 21 men–possibly 23–on the outskirts of El Fula, the capital of West Kordofan state. The RSF reportedly took control of the city on June 20, 2024.

A video uploaded to X on June 28, and analyzed by Human Rights Watch, shows 21 detained and unarmed men, many in SAF camouflage and some in civilian clothes, sitting on the ground near a communication tower, 1.5 kilometers west of El Fula. RSF fighters surround the detainees, lift their guns in the air, and intimidate the detainees, pushing one of them over. An RSF fighter comes into view, walks over to the detainees, and shoots at least four, one by one. As more shots ring out, other fighters move in front of the camera, obscuring the scene.

Another video uploaded to Telegram on June 20, captures the same scene shortly afterward as dozens of RSF fighters stand over the bodies. The person filming says, “Look at these rotten ones,” showing the motionless bodies. Then he says, “He is still alive … take him,” and a single shot is heard and one of the men in SAF uniform is hit while a second shot is fired off camera. The person on the ground stops moving. The camera pans and shows two additional people motionless on the ground, some distance from the main group. Blood surrounds one of the men, whose hands are tied.

Human Rights Watch also analyzed three videos and one photograph with RSF fighters executing, or in the immediate aftermath of the execution of detainees, during offensive operations in West Kordofan. On October 30, 2023, the RSF posted a statement on X, stating it had begun an operation to liberate Belila Airport and nearby oil fields, 60 kilometers southeast of El Fula.

One of the videos, uploaded to a pro-RSF Telegram channel on October 31, captures the moments after RSF fighters execute 14 unarmed detainees, some in SAF camouflage and others in civilian clothes, in a parking lot by the airport.

The video shows at least nine people, some in RSF camouflage and most of them armed, surrounding the bodies. As the person recording the video approaches, another person points a rifle toward the bodies, followed by the sound of gunfire and a dust cloud that quickly dissipates. As the person filming approaches the bodies, a pool of blood is seen surrounding most of the victims.

The photograph uploaded to a pro-RSF Telegram channel on October 30 shows the same scene, based on the position of the bodies lying on the concrete and the victims’ clothes, and shows some of the wounds. It was uploaded with the caption: “The end of anyone playing with readiness.” Readiness is a motto often used on social media by the RSF and its supporters to refer to the force.

Another recorded execution of 2 detainees by RSF fighters took place 12 kilometers southeast of El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state. A video uploaded to X on May 8, 2024, was initially analyzed by Mustafa, an open source researcher with OSINT Sudan, and later analyzed by Human Rights Watch. It shows a group of armed men in a mix of civilian and military clothing surrounding two men in typical SAF camouflage.

The fighters instruct the detainees several times to say “readiness.” The man filming grabs a fighter’s assault rifle and says, “Don’t shoot,” then steps back and turns away. He then pans to show the 2 SAF soldiers, as assailants fire 25 shots, executing the 2 detainees. The man filming points to a third body a few meters away, near an ambulance surrounded by fighters, apparently already dead. A fourth body wrapped in fabric lies inside a nearby abandoned structure.

Executions by the SAF and Affiliated Forces

Human Rights Watch also analyzed a video uploaded to social media on October 5, 2023, showing the execution of three detainees by the SAF in Omdurman, which was reportedly partially under SAF control at the time. Five armed men, one of whom appears to be in full uniform of the Central Reserve Police, a paramilitary force affiliated with the SAF, and another who wears CRP trousers, are moving three detainees in civilian clothes in a courtyard between buildings.

The three detainees are possibly children under 18 and are blindfolded and shirtless. One has a bandaged foot. The soldiers force them into a pit, and one says, “These are mercenaries ... snipers….” At least 3 soldiers fire 31 times over the next 44 seconds at the people in the pit. The location was initially established by Mustafa and confirmed by Human Rights Watch.

Torture and Ill-Treatment

Human Rights Watch analyzed four incidents that show SAF and RSF fighters repeatedly torturing and ill-treating detainees.

Torture and Ill-Treatment by the SAF

A video reviewed but not geolocated by Human Rights Watch, which was uploaded to Telegram on November 7, 2023, shows several armed men – some in SAF uniforms, one in Central Reserve Police camouflage trousers, some carrying assault rifles, and some in civilian clothing – torturing six blindfolded detainees with their hands tied behind their backs by whipping and beating them with sticks.

Torture and Ill-Treatment by the RSF

A video uploaded to a pro-RSF Telegram channel on November 5, 2023, captures an incident of torture and humiliation by RSF fighters at Belila Airport in West Kordofan. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine if this event took place around the same time as the execution of the 14 unarmed detainees.

At least four armed people, three in full or partial RSF camouflage, are seen forcing a man to undress on the airport runway. As the man takes off his pants, leaving him in a white undershirt and blue boxer shorts, an RSF soldier kicks him in the back. As the camera moves, it shows a man in RSF uniform placing his boot on the neck of the same man lying on the tarmac. A second victim, a man in a red T-shirt, is lying still on his side on the tarmac with a pool of blood surrounding his lower back. He opens his eyes as the person filming approaches.

The person filming asks the first detainee, “Who are you affiliated with?” Then another fighter kicks the first detainee in the back. The person filming says: “Don’t hit him!” and orders the detainee to get up and for someone to take him to a vehicle. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine what happened to them after that.

A video uploaded to X on August 24, 2023, depicts a third incident. The video was initially analyzed by Mustafa, who found that it was recorded in Al-Ozozab, Khartoum. It shows six armed men, one in RSF camouflage, forcing nine detainees, including at least one older man, to crawl or walk on their knees on a gravel street. All nine are in civilian attire and have their hands tied behind their backs.

More armed men, at least one in uniform with an RSF arm patch, are visible behind the group. A tenth detainee with a possible blood stain on his chest is being pushed along. The RSF fighter filming repeatedly calls the detained men “dogs.” A man in civilian clothes and with an assault rifle hits the detainees on the back with a stick.

A fourth incident, that according to the commentary accompanying the video says took place in Gezira state, was uploaded to Telegram on March 30, 2024, and shared widely by pro-SAF channels and accounts. The video shows two men in civilian clothes, one with his hands tied behind his back, in the back of a pickup truck, surrounded by three men with assault rifles and some fighters in partial or full RSF uniform.

RSF fighters gather around the detainees, force them out of the truck, and repeatedly ask, “Where are your guns?” A person in civilian clothes whips the detainees for about 20 seconds. The RSF fighters then force the detainees into a building. Once inside, the RSF fighters and a man in civilian attire begin hitting and kicking the detainees. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine what happened to them after the video clip ends.

Mutilation of Bodies by the SAF

Human Rights Watch has documented three cases of SAF soldiers mutilating bodies of apparent RSF fighters since January, including one case in which they are mocking severed heads.

Four videos of one incident show the SAF soldiers setting alight bodies after possibly executing them. Human Rights Watch could not independently verify the location.

The first video posted to X on June 5, 2024, shows several SAF soldiers in three pickup trucks surrounding a fourth pickup truck in an undetermined location. Seven armed soldiers, some in typical SAF camouflage, approach the fourth vehicle, in which a body hangs out from the driver’s seat. One soldier drags a body dressed in dark pants from the back of the pickup and throws it onto the ground. Three more bodies are visible on the other side of the truck wearing RSF camouflage. A fighter can be heard saying, “One [of them] is alive!” Another fighter says, “Shoot him,” and shots are fired.

One of the SAF soldiers is later seen firing four rounds, apparently into the back of the truck, the gun just out of view of the camera. The video shows what appears to be a cartridge casing ejecting from the gun and landing next to the person filming. A third soldier appears to be searching the front of the car. The person filming makes their way back toward the other side of the truck.

A soldier takes aim towards what looks like the direction of the person with the dark pants and fires two shots. There are sounds of cheering. This raises concerns about a potential execution, though it remains unclear whether the person in dark pants was still alive, as the camera pans away when the gunshots are heard.

A second video, uploaded to the same post, appears to show the soldier who fired the two bullets igniting something and throwing it beneath the car. The SAF soldiers run away, while shouting in apparent celebration. The camera pans back toward the vehicle, from which large flames and dark plumes of smoke emerge.

Two videos uploaded to a Telegram channel on June 4 and 5 show the same vehicle burned and at least three scorched bodies lying next to it. The video uploaded on June 4 shows 18 men standing in a semicircle around the vehicle, with one of the bodies still aflame. Nearly everyone is wearing SAF military fatigues. One officer stands inside the semicircle, pointing to the burned bodies and saying, “This is not a human fire ... this is a god’s fire ... burning these people….”

Human Rights Watch also analyzed three videos of SAF fighters holding the severed heads of two victims.

Two of the videos of this incident were uploaded to Telegram on February 15, and the third on July 3. In all three, men in SAF camouflage are seen in the same location, as one soldier is holding a decapitated head referring to the person killed as “habeshi,” a term used in Sudan to refer to people from Ethiopia and Eritrea that can sometimes be used as a racial slur to describe a foreigner. The same person points at the camera while parading the decapitated heads of two victims. A senior SAF officer is seen addressing the soldiers, pointing to the two decapitated heads while saying: “this is the fate every [RSF] will get.”

OHCHR said it has credible video evidence, also posted online on February 15, to show that several students travelling by road to the capital of North Kordofan, El Obeid, “may have been beheaded by men in SAF uniform in Obeid City,” because the “victims [were seen] as being RSF supporters based on their perceived ethnicity.” The SAF issued a statement on February 18, pledging to investigate the incident, but is yet to share publicly any evidence of an investigation or any findings.

Another case of mutilation by SAF forces took place in Omdurman in March, when two videos analyzed by Human Rights Watch were shared widely on pro-SAF Telegram channels on March 21, 2024, and in the following days. The videos were initially identified by Mustafa, as having been filmed on al Arda street in Omdurman, and later confirmed by Human Rights Watch researchers.

In one video, a person in SAF camouflage holding an assault rifle is showing four apparently dead and unarmed men lying close together in the middle of the street. A pool of blood surrounds two of them. The person filming shoots one of them in the head at point blank range, and then they do the same to two of the others.

In another video, filmed after the incident based on the dried pools of blood, six men in SAF uniform stand over the bodies. One appears to be a commanding officer, based on the epaulettes on his uniform, which includes the emblem of the Corps of Engineers, a SAF division known to be battling in Omdurman.

Relevant Legal Standards

While detainees in a non-international armed conflict, as is the case in Sudan, are not accorded the status of prisoners of war under the laws of war, international humanitarian law prohibits arbitrary deprivation of liberty and guarantees due process rights regardless of whether a detainee is a civilian or a fighter.

Summary executions, as well as ill-treatment and torture of detainees, are illegal under any circumstances under both international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions applies to situations of non-international conflict, and explicitly forbids, among other acts, summary executions, committing outrages upon personal dignity, and torture, mutilation, and inhuman and degrading treatment of all detainees. Serious violations of common article 3 are deemed war crimes for the purposes of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

International humanitarian law applicable to the conflict in Sudan prohibits the “mutilation of dead bodies.” Mutilating bodies in non-international armed conflicts is the war crime of “committing outrages upon personal dignity” under the Rome Statute.

Under international human rights law, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its states parties, has indicated that the disrespectful treatment of human remains may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of the family of the dead.

Private Door to Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:44:43 -0400

A few meters from the public door of Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply (MAPA), is a separate private door. To better understand who has access to one of Brazil’s most powerful ministries, the investigative group, Reporter Brasil, obtained a private log of those who entered through this second door between January and November 2023. Human Rights Watch helped digitize and turn the handwritten 381-page list of names into a searchable database.

Reporter Brasil identified the ministry’s top 10 visitors. Among them is João Henrique Hummel Vieira, instrumental in founding the Agriculture Parliamentary Front (FPA), the largest group representing interests of industrial agriculture, and Pensar Agro (Agriculture Thought Institute), a powerful think tank known for lobbying. The logs show Vieira made 12 visits. What precisely was on the agenda each time he and others met with officials at MAPA remains unknown.

Similarly, investigative group O Joio e O Trigo recently reviewed 752 meetings between federal government representatives and agribusiness and chemical lobbyists from October 2022 through July 2024 and found that the descriptions of these meeting were often blank or generic.

These new investigations underscore the opaqueness around lobbying in Brazil and the urgent need for robust regulations requiring transparency about what is discussed and with whom, made available to the public through searchable registries.

The lack of transparency is especially concerning since the agriculture ministry’s powers over pesticides dramatically increased in May with the adoption of the “poison package,” overruling President Lula da Silva’s vetoes. Notably, O Joio e O Trigo’s investigation found that agribusiness, chemical lobbyists, and companies increasingly visited the federal offices, during April and May 2024, as Congress was deciding whether to overrule President Lula’s vetoes in the “poison package.”

Widely criticized by local organizations, the “poison package” granted MAPA primary authority over pesticide regulation and opened the floodgates for regulatory approval of harmful pesticides in Brazil, which is already one of the world’s largest users of “highly hazardous” pesticides.

Mandatory lobbying disclosures and searchable public registries are central to good governance. While insufficient alone to curb corporate influence over public offices, they introduce transparency. The European Union, Canada, and US, have publicly searchable registries.

Global conglomerates manufacturing, importing, or exporting pesticides, and companies sourcing from Brazil’s farms should be aware of the heightened human rights risks of operating in environments where stringent pesticide approvals are downgraded, and corporate lobbying is carried out behind closed doors.

Stop Politicizing Education for Lebanon’s Refugee Children

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0400

Ahead of the upcoming school year, local authorities and politicians in Lebanon are seeking to impose discriminatory restrictions that could result in tens of thousands of refugee children being denied their right to education.

On July 8, Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea wrote on social media that the Education Ministry must require all students to provide identification papers to register for the 2024-25 school year, for both public and private schools. Foreign students, including Syrians, he insisted, must have valid residency permits to register.

In July and August, at least two municipalities in Lebanon issued their own statements requiring valid Lebanese residency permits for Syrian children to enroll in school.

But due to the red tape and stringent criteria for renewal of Lebanese residency permits, only around 20 percent of Syrian refugees have valid residency status in Lebanon. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also halted formal registration of Syrian refugees in 2015 in compliance with a government order.

Through no fault of their own, the children of the approximately 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are unregistered and undocumented risk losing their access to school.

For years, Lebanon’s refugee population has endured toxic anti-refugee rhetoric blaming them for the country’s overlapping crises. Much of that scapegoating is directed at Lebanon’s Syrian refugee community, estimated to be around 1.5 million people, and has resulted in discrimination, violence, and summary deportations.

But now, such anti-refugee policies are targeting one of the most basic needs of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugee children: education.

In an interview with L’Orient le Jour on August 13, 2024, Lebanese Minister of Education Abbas Halabi reiterated that his ministry is committed to the core principle of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that all children, regardless of nationality or status, will be registered for school in Lebanon.

As the new school year begins, foreign donors that have given substantial sums to education in Lebanon should press the government to follow through on Halabi’s words. The Lebanese government should ensure all children, regardless of nationality or status, can register for school and are not denied the right to an education.

Mexico: Flawed Inquiry on Soldiers’ Alleged Killing of Child

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 02:01:00 -0400

(Mexico City) – The Mexican Attorney General’s Office has failed to properly investigate allegations that soldiers shot and killed a 4-year-old girl in August 2022, Human Rights Watch said in a report, including visual evidence, published today.

The report, “Who Killed Heidi Pérez?” details the serious omissions and errors committed by prosecutors leading the investigation. The Attorney General’s Office failed to take basic steps to corroborate the military’s version of events, despite irregularities in the evidence presented by soldiers and inconsistencies between the military’s timeline and video evidence from the night of the shooting, Human Rights Watch found. The authorities also failed to follow up on a ballistics test result that showed a possible but inconclusive match between the bullet that killed the young girl and one of the weapons carried by a soldier that night.

Who Killed Heidi Pérez?

“Nearly two years after Heidi Pérez’s killing, the Attorney General’s Office has done next to nothing to examine the serious inconsistencies in the military’s story about what happened on the night of August 31, 2022,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The Attorney General’s Office should not just passively accept the Defense Ministry’s claims that soldiers had nothing to do with Pérez’s death. That is a recipe for impunity.”

Heidi Pérez was killed by shots fired into the rear windshield of her family’s car as they drove through downtown Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state, on the night of August 31, 2022. Her family has said that soldiers fired at the car, causing the young girl’s death.

Human Rights Watch reviewed thousands of pages from the criminal investigation file, interviewed Heidi’s family and their lawyers, visited the scene of the shooting, and examined the car in which Heidi was riding. Researchers also consulted with independent forensic and ballistics experts and reviewed satellite and open-source imagery and security camera footage from the night Heidi was killed. The evidence reviewed in the case file includes witness statements, forensic studies, and photographs of the crime scene, vehicles, ammunition, and of the wounds.

The Defense Ministry has claimed Pérez was killed by unidentified members of a criminal group who allegedly opened fire on soldiers nearby. Human Rights Watch reviewed this claim but found it is not supported by any reliable evidence.

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero on August 1, describing the findings and urging him to take steps to rectify omissions in the investigation. He has not replied.

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Defense Ministry in February, asking for information about the events of the night of August 31, 2022, including a list of the soldiers and military vehicles in the area. The Directorate General for Human Rights replied in May, saying an internal investigation had determined that “military personnel did not violate human rights.”

Heidi’s mother, Cristina Pérez, said that in September 2022, a Defense Ministry official approached her to offer “support” if the family agreed to stop speaking publicly about the killing. She interpreted this to mean an offer of money, she told Human Rights Watch. She refused. “The only thing I want right now is the truth” she told Human Rights Watch. “I want the Attorney General’s Office to do their job.”

The military harassed the family after she refused the offer. She said that soldiers followed her family around Nuevo Laredo and began appearing outside their home at night. Eventually, she left Nuevo Laredo to protect her family from harassment.

Mexico’s Defense Ministry often offers financial compensation to families of people killed or injured by soldiers. From 2010 to 2022, journalists found more than 230 such agreements between the Defense Ministry and victims’ families. The Defense Ministry refused a Human Rights Watch request for information on 2023 agreements.