Human Rights Watch News

Rwanda: Human Rights Watch Researcher Barred

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 16 May 2024 09:45:00 -0400

(New York) – Rwandan immigration authorities denied entry to Clémentine de Montjoye, a senior researcher in the Africa division at Human Rights Watch, upon arrival at Kigali International Airport, on May 13, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today.

De Montjoye traveled to Rwanda for meetings with officials from foreign embassies but was told upon arrival that she was “not welcome in Rwanda” for undisclosed “immigration reasons,” and Kenya Airways was instructed to ensure her removal from the country.

“Rwanda touts itself as an open and welcoming destination, but the treatment reserved for those who may investigate abuse exposes the government’s deep-seated hostility to human rights monitoring and independent scrutiny of any kind,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “The Rwandan authorities can demonstrate that their projected openness is not just a façade and allow de Montjoye to return to Rwanda and carry out her work without obstruction or interference.”

De Montjoye, a Franco-British national, informed the government of her travel plans and sent meeting requests to the Justice Ministry, Human Rights Watch’s interlocutor in the Rwandan government, on April 29 and May 7, who did not respond. Human Rights Watch also contacted the National Commission for Human Rights’ chairperson, who replied that she was out of the country. The chairperson did not respond to a proposal to have a meeting once she returns to Kigali.

Human Rights Watch had informed Rwandan authorities when de Montjoye traveled to Rwanda with the same entry documents in June 2022 and August 2023, and she did not face any problems entering the country.

When de Montjoye arrived on the morning of May 13, immigration authorities took her passport. She was told to board a flight back to Nairobi, Kenya, the same evening, where she was given her passport and a document stating she had been denied entry for “immigration reasons.”

The denial of entry reflects the authorities’ intensifying assault on human rights, months ahead of the country’s 2024 general elections, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch has conducted research on the human rights situation in Rwanda for over 30 years, since before the 1994 genocide. De Montjoye is the fourth Human Rights Watch researcher to be blocked from entering Rwanda, with previous staff facing similar treatment in 2008, 2010, and 2018. In January 2018, after a Human Rights Watch researcher was denied entry to the country, a Rwandan consultant working with Human Rights Watch was detained and arbitrarily held for 6 days, the first 12 hours of which were incommunicado.

De Montjoye’s denied entry follows the publication of a comprehensive October 2023 report documenting Rwanda’s systematic targeting of critics and dissidents beyond its borders.

During a parliamentary session to discuss the report, a Rwandan Patriotic Front member, John Ruku-Rwabyoma, accused Human Rights Watch of “never step[ping] foot in Rwanda” to carry out research. Speaking directly to Human Rights Watch, he suggested: “Just dare come here, you don’t need a visa … you can get visas at the airport … Then you will find the true Rwanda you’re trying to tarnish the image of.”

Rwandan authorities have long sought to block independent scrutiny and criticism, including by denying entry to a number of international journalists, maligning Rwandan rights advocates and journalists, and subjecting them to abusive prosecutions. Several Rwandan journalists, critics, and activists have been killed or have been reported missing in suspicious circumstances.

Rwanda’s rights record has garnered significant international attention in recent months. Its army has played an increasingly active role in the armed conflict in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where it provides logistical and operational support to the abusive M23 armed group.

Despite the country’s dire human rights record, the United Kingdom is continuing with its plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, where, in defiance of the facts, it claims independent monitoring and oversight of people’s conditions will be possible. De Montjoye’s denied entry raises renewed questions about the UK government’s persistence in its intention to send asylum seekers to a country that so openly blocks scrutiny and is itself responsible for turning away human rights investigators, Human Rights Watch said.

Thirty years after the 1994 genocide, the Rwandan government has made great strides in rebuilding its infrastructure, developing its economy, and delivering public services. It should recognize the valuable role civil society can play and allow free access to those monitoring the country’s human rights record.

Human Rights Watch remains committed to engage with the Rwandan authorities and requests access for its staff to meet with government officials and carry out the same work it conducts in over 90 countries across the world.

“Rwanda’s decision shows why the international community needs to reboot its approach to Rwanda’s deteriorating human rights record,” Hassan said. “A government that blocks a leading human rights organization’s staff is not likely to stop its repression of human rights without greater international pressure. This is about more than forcing Human Rights Watch out of Rwanda, it is a brazen attempt to muzzle reporting on Rwanda’s compliance with its international human rights obligations.”

Thailand: ‘Swap Mart’ Targets Foreign Dissidents, Refugees

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 15 May 2024 21:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Suspected Uyghurs are transported back to a detention facility in the town of Songkhla in southern Thailand, March 26, 2014. © 2014 Andrew RC Marshall/Reuters Thai authorities are helping neighboring governments to take unlawful actions against refugees and dissidents from abroad, making Thailand increasingly unsafe for those fleeing persecution.These targets of transnational repression have gotten caught up in a “swap mart” in which foreign dissidents are effectively traded for critics of the Thai government living abroad.The Thai government should investigate alleged harassment, threats, surveillance, and forced returns against migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and the role of Thai officials in these actions.

(Bangkok) – Thai authorities are assisting neighboring governments to take unlawful actions against refugees and dissidents from abroad, making Thailand increasingly unsafe for those fleeing persecution, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These targets of transnational repression have gotten caught up in a “swap mart” in which foreign dissidents in Thailand are effectively traded for critics of the Thai government living abroad.

The report, “‘We Thought We Were Safe’: Repression and Refoulement of Refugees in Thailand,” details Thai authorities’ upsurge in repression directed at foreign nationals seeking refugee protection in Thailand. Foreign governments have subjected exiled dissidents and activists living in Thailand to harassment, surveillance, and physical violence, often with the cooperation and knowledge of Thai authorities. In a number of cases, Thai officials arrested asylum seekers and refugees and deported them without due process to their home countries.

“Thai authorities have increasing engaged in a ‘swap mart’ with neighboring governments to unlawfully exchange each other’s dissidents,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin should break with this practice and prosecute Thai officials wrongfully collaborating with foreign governments acting on Thai soil.”

The term “transnational repression” describes efforts by governments or their agents to silence or deter dissent by committing human rights abuses against their own nationals or members of the country’s diaspora outside their territorial jurisdiction.

Human Rights Watch analyzed 25 cases that took place in Thailand between 2014 and 2023 and conducted 18 interviews with victims, their family members, and witnesses to abuses, along with representatives of local and international nongovernmental organizations. The governments responsible include member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China and Bahrain, among others.

In one case, a Cambodian dissident who had fled to Thailand in July 2022, said he started receiving letters from Cambodian officials urging him to defect from the main Cambodian opposition party. After he had received these letters for months, unidentified men attacked him in August 2023. “They did not say anything to me, they just came out and started beating me,” the Cambodian dissident said.

In recent years in Thailand, dissidents from Vietnam have been tracked down and abducted, Lao democracy advocates have been forcibly disappeared or killed, and a Malaysian LGBTI rights influencer was targeted for repatriation. Thai authorities have detained and unlawfully deported Chinese dissidents and refugees, seemingly at the request of the Chinese government. Thai authorities also detained a visiting professional football player from Bahrain with Australian refugee status, and nearly returned him to Bahrain.

At the same time, a number of Thai activists have been killed or disappeared in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The mutilated bodies of two missing activists were later found floating in the Mekong River.

“Swap mart” arrangements increased under Thailand’s National Council for Peace and Order military government that came to power after the May 2014 coup and continued under the post-2019 government of Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha.

The Thai authorities, in addition to facilitating assaults, abductions, enforced disappearances, and other abuses, repeatedly violated the principle of nonrefoulement: the prohibition on returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture, or other serious ill-treatment, or a threat to life.

Thai authorities have arrested and summarily deported exiled critics and dissidents, even those with refugee status determined by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). One Cambodian activist pleaded with Thai police, saying he would “be killed or put in jail … if deported.” Yet Thai authorities forcibly returned him to Cambodia within days of his arrest.

Thailand’s actions violate customary international law as well as the UN Convention against Torture and other treaties that Thailand has ratified barring refoulement. The actions also violate Thailand’s Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances, which came into effect in February 2023. It states that “no government organizations or public officials shall expel, deport, or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or enforced disappearance.”

The Thai government should thoroughly and impartially investigate alleged harassment, threats, surveillance, and forced returns from Thailand by foreign governments against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand and the role of Thai officials in those actions, Human Rights Watch said.

“Prime Minister Srettha should act to restore Thailand’s deserved reputation as a country that is a safe haven for dissidents from abroad,” Pearson said. “He should immediately order a full and transparent investigation into arbitrary arrests, violent assaults, and forced returns of refugees and political dissidents.”

No Justice for Crackdown in Tajikistan’s Autonomous Region Two Years On

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 15 May 2024 19:00:00 -0400

Two years ago, Tajik authorities cracked down on protesters in an autonomous region of the country, resulting in the death of a local man by what witnesses reported was live ammunition from security forces. In the next couple of days, police reportedly killed up to 40 people from the area during so-called security operations.

These events were a turning point for an already troubled region.

The protests began peacefully on May 16, 2022, in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakshan autonomous region (GBAO), with people demanding an end to harassment and alleged persecution of local people by Tajik authorities.

Over the next two days, police blocked and dispersed protesters using rubber bullets and teargas, reportedly with excessive force. Police also carried out killings and arbitrarily detained and tortured more than two hundred protesters and local people, who were prosecuted behind closed doors.

There has been no accountability for the crackdown on protesters, which authorities called an “anti-terrorism operation.”

At least six civil society activists who stood up for the rights of the Pamiris, a culturally, religiously, and linguistically distinct ethnic minority living in the region that has been historically persecuted by authorities, are still imprisoned.

They include Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, a 67-year-old independent journalist and civil rights activist sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges of conspiring against the state and organizing the protests, and Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov, director of the Lawyers Association of Pamir, sentenced to 16 years on charges of participation in a criminal organization.

Since the protests, Pamiris have reportedly been prohibited from speaking their languages in public and from hosting prayer meetings in their homes. At a high-level UN meeting, Tajikistan’s justice minister, Muzaffar Ashuriyon, denied that the Pamiris are a distinct ethnic minority. Hundreds of nongovernmental groups in the region and the country have been forced to close.

The international response to the crisis has been relatively muted. In July 2022, the European Parliament and in December 2022, Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, called on the Tajik authorities to investigate the clashes in GBAO. But more is needed.

Despite reports of Tajikistan's increased involvement in transnational repression, there are signs of growing security cooperation between certain EU members and Türkiye with Tajikistan.

It is imperative that Tajikistan’s international partners remember the May 2022 events in Khorog and demand accountability from Tajik authorities.

Peru Chooses Bigotry in Medical Services

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 15 May 2024 16:03:11 -0400

Click to expand Image Organizations march to demand investigations and justice in cases of transphobic violence in Lima, Peru, on February 22, 2023. © 2023 Guillermo Gutierrez Carrascal/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Peru’s government published a presidential decree on May 10 classifying trans identities as mental health conditions in the country’s Essential Health Insurance Plan, which lists insurable health conditions for insurance policies. The decree, signed by President Dina Boluarte, the minister of health, and the minister of the economy, also refers to “ego-dystonic sexual orientation” as a mental health condition.

A Ministry of Health official said the policy change was meant to facilitate coverage for “transsexual people and people with gender identity disorders,” particularly in private clinics. However, the decree is profoundly regressive.

It employs obsolete classifications related to gender identity and sexual orientation that the World Health Organization (WHO) replaced in the most recent International Classification of Diseases, published in 2019. The decree also further calcifies prejudices against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Peru which have led to violence and discrimination against this population.

The Ministry of Health has since affirmed it does not view LGBT identities as “illnesses,” but the decree remains in place despite heavy criticism from Peruvian human rights organizations and activists, including PROMSEX, Más Igualdad Perú, and Gahela Cari.

Officially pathologizing LGBT people in Peru may seriously undermine efforts to improve rights protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Peru currently does not allow same-sex couples to marry or enter into civil unions, does not have a procedure for trans people to change their documents to reflect their gender identity, and does not have civil laws prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people. The decree could also give legitimacy to “conversion practices” and exacerbate mental health issues that LGBT communities face in Peru.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, a group of UN human rights experts, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe have urged governments worldwide to reform medical classifications because pathologization is “one of the root causes behind the human rights violations that [LGBT people] face.”

The Peruvian government should discard this biased and unscientific decree and aim to implement the WHO’s updated classification of diseases with respect to sexual orientation and gender identity. It should also consult with Peru’s LGBT organizations about how best to ensure their communities’ rights to physical and mental health through rights-respecting and proportionate public policies.

Mozambique: Child Soldiers Used in Raid on Northern Town

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 15 May 2024 01:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image Rwandan Counter-Terrorism Special Units and Mozambique police patrol streets in Palma, Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique on December 18, 2023. © 2023 Cyrile Ndegeya/Anadolu via Getty Images

(Johannesburg) – An armed group linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) in northern Mozambique used boys as young as 13 to raid and loot the town of Macomia, in Cabo Delgado province, on May 10, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. It is unclear if the children also engaged in fighting against government armed forces. The recruitment and use of children under age 15 as child soldiers is a war crime.

The armed group, known locally as Al-Shabab, attacked Macomia to loot shops and warehouses before targeting government forces’ positions in the town, triggering heavy fighting. Several witnesses, including relatives of the boys, told Human Rights Watch that among the Al-Shabab fighters who took part in the raid were dozens of boys carrying ammunition belts and AK-style assault rifles. Two people from the same family said they recognized their 13-year-old nephew among the children.

“The armed group Al-Shabab’s use of children as soldiers is cruel, unlawful, and only adds to the horrors of Cabo Delgado’s conflict,” said Zenaida Machado, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Al-Shabab should immediately release all children in their ranks and stop any further recruitment.”

Human Rights Watch spoke by phone with six residents who witnessed the Macomia raid, as well as two humanitarian aid workers in the region. They said that the fighters, including dozens of boys, arrived in the town at around 4 a.m. on May 10. They were divided into at least three groups of “hundreds,” witnesses said. One group wandered around the town, speaking to residents and looting shops and warehouses.

Footage seen by Human Rights Watch, and now widely shared on social media, appeared to show some of the fighters, including a child, carrying guns and freely moving near a local market. According to witnesses and media reports, a second group engaged in fighting against joint South African and Mozambican army troops stationed in the town, while a third group blocked the main road to Macomia, where they reportedly ambushed military vehicles carrying South African troops serving with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM).

President Filipe Nyusi confirmed the raid, which took place in an area that the Southern African military mission previously controlled. The military mission is gradually withdrawing from the country ahead of a July deadline.

More than 700 people fled the fighting that started on May 10 and continued through May 12, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Some of the displaced sought to hide in the surrounding forests according to press reports and footage shared online. At least 10 people, mostly soldiers, were reportedly killed in the fighting.

One of the people who hid in surrounding forests was the 22-year-old trader, Abu Rachide. He told Human Rights Watch that upon arrival in the town, fighters engaged peacefully with people and told residents not to fear or flee as they had “come only for the food.” He said: “I and my sister decided to flee anyway because we didn’t want to take risks, but many people stayed behind.”

Abu Rachide said that he saw dozens of children among the fighters, including his 13-year-old nephew who had been missing since a January 10 attack in Mucojo. “I saw him with my own eyes carrying a big gun and ammunition belt and acting like a confident big man,” Abu Rachide said. When he called out to his nephew, Abu Rachide said, the boy waved at him and then continued on his mission.

Abu Rachide’s sister, Aida, confirmed his account. “The boy seemed very comfortable carrying a gun and taking instructions from the [older ones],” she said. “I kept wondering how he became a fighter like that in just four months.”

A 47-year-old trader, Jamal Jorge, who decided to stay in the market to monitor events, said most of the fighters were children and young men who spoke Swahili and Kimwani, a language spoken on the coast of Cabo Delgado. He said he saw more than 20 children among the fighters. “There in the market, I only saw children, some a bit older, maybe 17 or 20 years,” he said. “But to me, most of them were children not older than 16 years.”

Al-Shabab fighters occupied Macomia town for more than 24 hours, abandoning the area on the afternoon of May 11, then moving toward Mucojo, various sources said. Before departing the town, they looted food from various shops and warehouses of humanitarian groups, two humanitarian workers said. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders or MSF) said it had suspended its activities in Macomia following the violence.

Mozambique’s Al-Shabab have long used children in combat. In 2021, Human Rights Watch reported that the group was kidnapping boys and using them to fight government forces in violation of the international prohibition on the use of child soldiers.

The United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which Mozambique ratified in 2004, prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting children under 18. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court categorizes as a war crime the conscription, enlistment, or active use of children under age 15 in active hostilities during armed conflict. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child further notes that non-state armed groups are bound by international humanitarian law.

“Al-Shabab’s ability to recruit, train and use child soldiers across Cabo Delgado is very concerning,” Machado said. “The Mozambican authorities, armed groups, and international partners should step up their efforts to ensure that children stay safe in school and at home and keep children off the battlefield.”

Gambia: Landmark Swiss Conviction of Ex-Official

Human Rights Watch — Wed, 15 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(Geneva) – A Swiss court’s conviction of the former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko for crimes against humanity is monumental for Gambian victims of atrocity crimes during the rule of Yahya Jammeh, Human Rights Watch said today. The verdict is a major achievement for Switzerland’s efforts to hold accountable those responsible for grave crimes committed abroad.

On May 15, 2024, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona convicted Sonko and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for his role in crimes against humanity relating to torture, illegal detentions, and unlawful killings between 2000 and 2016 during then-President Jammeh’s administration. Sonko is the second person convicted in Europe for international crimes committed in Gambia.

“Ousman Sonko’s conviction is a landmark moment for Gambian victims of brutal crimes under Yahya Jammeh’s rule,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “The verdict should catalyze justice efforts in Gambia and further bolster Swiss prosecutors to continue to pursue international atrocity cases.”

Sonko’s trial was possible because Swiss law recognizes universal jurisdiction over certain serious international crimes, allowing for the prosecution of these crimes no matter where they were committed and regardless of the nationality of the suspects or victims. Sonko is the highest-ranking former government official to be convicted on the continent under the principle of universal jurisdiction, Human Rights Watch said.

Swiss authorities arrested Sonko in Bern on January 26, 2017, the day after a Swiss nongovernmental group, TRIAL International, filed a criminal complaint against him. The Swiss Attorney General’s office filed an indictment against Sonko on April 17, 2023. The prosecution, representatives of victims who were formal parties to the proceeding known under Swiss law as private plaintiffs, and the defense presented arguments during the trial, which opened on January 8 and closed on March 7. A number of witnesses, as well as Sonko himself, testified during the proceedings. TRIAL International provided daily highlights of the hearings.

Over the past two decades, the national courts of an increasing number of countries have pursued cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions committed abroad. Despite having solid legislation to pursue such cases, judicial officials in Switzerland have been criticized in the past for lagging behind other European counterparts. Nevertheless, over the past few years, Swiss authorities have pursued a number of universal jurisdiction cases involving alleged crimes in Liberia, Algeria, and Syria.

Members of the media, civil society representatives, and the general public were able to attend the trial in person. However, remote access to the proceeding was not available, posing problems for victims and affected communities in Gambia to follow the case. The media reported that the Swiss court did not cover the private plaintiffs’ costs to attend the entire trial, only the days they presented evidence in the courtroom, hindering the ability of plaintiffs to attend key hearings, including the delivery of the verdict. Human Rights Watch research in other situations has shown that inadequate outreach to affected communities can undermine the impact of accountability efforts for serious international crimes.

Another concern was whether Gambians could follow and understand the proceedings, which were conducted in German. Human Rights Watch monitored five court sessions and noted that the interpretation provided from German into English, a language understood by the accused and Gambian communities, was not comprehensive. On the final day of the trial, Sonko expressed his concern that crucial steps of the proceeding, such as the parties’ closing arguments, were not accompanied by English interpretation. The court made the conclusions of the judgment available in English. Swiss authorities should ensure that future universal jurisdiction cases are fully accessible to the accused and affected communities, including by providing adequate interpretation, even if not legally required.

Under Jammeh’s 22-year rule, the government carried out systematic oppression against any real or perceived opponents to maintain political power. The government targeted journalists, human rights defenders, student leaders, religious leaders, political opposition members, judiciary officials, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and security force personnel, among others. Those apprehended were subjected to torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, and sexual violence. Many of these human rights violations were brought to light during the hearings of Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), which was set up in 2018.

Since Jammeh’s fall, Gambia’s government has brought only two prosecutions for Jammeh-era crimes. In December 2021, the final report of the TRRC found that Jammeh and 69 of his associates committed crimes against humanity, and called for their prosecution. In May 2022, the Gambian government accepted the TRRC’s recommendation for accountability.

On April 22, 2024, in a pivotal move toward justice, the Gambian national assembly approved two bills to further the creation of a Special Prosecutor’s Office and a hybrid court with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to try the most serious crimes.

“Victims of Jammeh-era crimes are entitled to justice and Sonko’s conviction is a step closer to that goal,” Jarrah said. “The verdict underscores the importance of the Gambian government and ECOWAS following through swiftly on establishing an impartial and independent hybrid court to widen accountability’s reach in the country.”

Victims of Vietnam’s Formosa Toxic Spill Deserve Justice

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 14 May 2024 17:28:24 -0400

Click to expand Image Vietnamese activists hold a photo of dead fish allegedly killed with toxic chemicals during a protest to urge Formosa Plastics Group to take responsibility for the cleanup in Vietnam, August 10, 2016, in Taipei, Taiwan. © 2016 Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo

In April 2016, Vietnam experienced one of the worst environmental disasters in its history when Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a subsidiary of the Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group, discharged toxic chemical waste off the coast of Ha Tinh province, killing millions of fish and destroying the livelihoods of fishing communities.

Afterwards, Formosa admitted responsibility for the disaster and pledged US$500 million in compensation—not to the victims but to the Vietnamese government. Residents of affected provinces have complained about the lack of transparency in the payment of the compensation, including obstacles to claiming damages and misappropriation of funds by local authorities.

Vietnamese authorities have also repressed protests over the disaster. Shortly after the spill, thousands of people carrying homemade banners calling for “clean water, clean government, and transparency” demonstrated peacefully to demand an investigation. Police and other security forces used unnecessary and excessive force against the marchers, assaulting people and arresting them. In the years since, the government has continued to silence critics. At least 41 activists involved in protests were sentenced to many years in prison. Of this group, 31 are still behind bars.

The prominent blogger Pham Doan Trang is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence after being charged with “conducting propaganda against the state.” One of the documents the authorities cited in her conviction was her report on the Formosa toxic chemical spill.

Labor activist Hoang Duc Binh is serving a 14-year prison sentence. He had participated in protests and helped organize advocacy around compensation for fishermen who lost their livelihoods.

Nguyen Nam Phong was arrested after driving people to an event where hundreds of people were gathering to file court petitions against Formosa. Many of the protesters were reportedly arrested or assaulted.

Facing the impossibility of pursuing justice in Vietnam, some victims of the spill took their case to Taiwan in 2019. Taiwan’s Supreme Court eventually determined that the plaintiffs needed to have their court documents notarized at Taiwan’s mission in Vietnam. But because the Vietnamese government continues to retaliate against victims and advocates, that has proved nearly insurmountable as well.

Given the extraordinary situation in Vietnam, Taiwan’s courts should consider other methods of notarization and extend the deadline for submission, which is currently the end of this week. The courts should not compound injustice by accommodating Vietnamese government repression.

Thai Youth Activist Dies in Custody

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 14 May 2024 16:32:59 -0400

Click to expand Image Pro-democracy protesters during a mourning ceremony for Netiporn “Bung” Sanesangkhom, a Thai political activist, outside the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court on May 14, 2024. © 2024 Peerapon Boonyakiat/SOPA Image/Sipa USA via AP Photo

Thai anti-monarchy activist Netiporn “Bung” Sanesangkhom, 28, died in custody in Bangkok today while on a hunger strike she began in January.

Netiporn brought attention to Thailand’s cruel use of its lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) law, which punishes critics of the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison. Thai authorities had paused lese majeste prosecutions for nearly three years until November 2020, when then-Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha ordered prosecutions resumed, purportedly due to growing criticism of the monarchy.

Authorities have jailed thousands under this law in recent years, and hundreds have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Hundreds of people accused of criticizing the monarchy are currently in pretrial detention without access to bail.

Thailand’s current prime minister, Srettha Tavisin, has vowed to continue strict enforcement of the lese majeste law. The Constitutional Court in January ruled that attempts by the opposition Move Forward Party to amend the law would amount to treason, which could result in the party’s dissolution and a ban on its leaders from politics.

Netiporn was one of about 270 activists charged with lese majeste after pro-democracy demonstrations broke out in Thailand in 2020. Her alleged crimes were related to a peaceful campaign to survey inconveniences to the Thai public from royal motorcades.

Human Rights Watch and several United Nations human rights experts, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, have repeatedly voiced concern over the Thai government’s use of arbitrary arrest and pretrial detention to punish critics of the monarchy.

Netiporn began her hunger strike to demand the right to bail for detainees like herself and to protest such prosecutions in general. Authorities met her demands with silence and have shown no interest in reforming the law or leniency for critics.

Prime Minister Srettha has now been in office 10 months, saying he would strengthen the rule of law and make Thailand a more rights-respecting country. But repressive government prosecutions remain the norm, reminiscent of when Thailand was under military rule.

Netiporn’s death should be a catalyst for Thai government reform. Authorities should engage with UN experts and civil society groups to amend the lese majeste law and bring it into compliance with human rights standards. The Thai government should permit all peaceful expression of political views, including issues about the monarchy.

Lesbian Women Set on Fire in Argentina

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 14 May 2024 04:00:00 -0400

Click to expand Image People light candles during a vigil on May 8, 2024, in front of the house where three lesbian women were killed following an attack in Buenos Aires. © 2024 Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images

Three lesbian women have died and one more is in critical condition in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after a man threw a Molotov cocktail into their boarding house room on May 6, setting them all on fire. One woman, Pamela Fabiana Cobas, was severely burned and died almost immediately. Her partner, Mercedes Roxana Figueroa, died of organ failure two days later, with burns covering 90 percent of her body. Andrea Amarante died in the hospital on May 12.

Police arrested a 62-year-old male suspect but have not announced a motive for the attack. Local human rights defenders have expressed concern that disparaging comments about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their rights made by prominent politicians, some of whom are now holding high office, are contributing to already high levels of violence against queer communities. The 2023 report from Buenos Aires’ LGBT ombudsman found that offensive speech by members of President Javier Milei’s political party, as well as on social media and in the streets, in the context of the 2023 presidential campaign “built a climate of segregation, rejection and discrimination; the most fertile ground for violence toward historically vulnerable groups.”

In May 2023, then-candidate Milei said on TV that education on gender and sexuality seeks to “exterminate the population” and causes “the destruction of the most important social nucleus within society ... the family.” In November 2023, now-Foreign Minister Diana Mondino claimed to support marriage equality, but then compared it to head lice in a nationally televised interview, saying: “If you prefer not to bathe and be full of lice and it is your choice ... then don't complain if there is someone who does not like that you have lice.”

A 2023 Human Rights Watch investigation found that around the world, lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ+) couples have been murdered, sexually assaulted, dismembered, or physically attacked alongside their partners. The report found that this “risk of lethal violence” to couples is chronically under-documented. In 26 countries, including Argentina, interviewees repeatedly cited “the extreme danger of appearing in public with an LBQ+ partner as a reason to stay home, refrain from holding their partners’ hand, or otherwise limit their movement and queer signaling.” In Argentina, where government data from 2023 showed 41.7 percent of the population lives in poverty, lesbian couples face heightened barriers to secure housing, limiting their ability to use the privacy of a home to protect themselves.

Authorities in Argentina should conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the killings and ensure proper medical care and housing for the surviving woman. Government officials should cease and condemn rhetoric that stigmatizes queer women and may contribute to a climate in which they are seen as deserving of violence.

Gaza: Israelis Attacking Known Aid Worker Locations

Human Rights Watch — Tue, 14 May 2024 00:00:00 -0400

(Jerusalem, May 14, 2024) – Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza since October 2023, even though aid groups had provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities to ensure their protection, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli authorities did not issue advance warnings to any of the aid organizations before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 aid workers and those with them. More than 250 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the October 7 assault in Israel, according to the UN.

One attack on January 18, 2024, injured three people who were staying in a joint guest house belonging to two aid organizations and was most likely carried out with a US-made munition, according to one of the organizations and to a report by UN investigators who visited the site after the attack, which Human Rights Watch reviewed. One of the aid organizations, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), said UN inspectors concluded that the bomb was delivered by an F-16 aircraft. F-16 aircraft use British made components according to campaigners.

The eight incidents reveal fundamental flaws with the so-called deconfliction system, meant to protect aid workers and allow them to safely deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

“Israel’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was shocking and should never have happened under international law,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop.”

Israel’s attack on April 1 on the World Central Kitchen convoy, which killed seven workers, far from being an isolated “mistake,” is just one of at least eight incidents that Human Rights Watch identified in which aid organizations and UN agencies had communicated with Israeli authorities the GPS coordinates of an aid convoy or premises and yet Israeli forces attacked the convoy or shelter without any warning.

In these eight incidents, Israeli forces killed at least 15 people, including 2 children, and injured at least 16 others. Five of these attacks were the subject of a recent New York Times investigation that included visual evidence and internal communications between aid organizations and the Israeli military.

The other seven attacks are:

Attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) convoy, November 18, 2023Attack on a guest house of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), December 9, 2023Attack on an MSF shelter, January 8, 2024Attack on an International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) guest house, January 18, 2024Attack on an UNRWA convoy, February 5, 2024Attack on an MSF guest house, February 20, 2024Attack on a home sheltering an American Near East Refugee Aid Organization (Anera) employee, March 8, 2024

As of April 30, the UN reported that 254 aid workers had been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, with UNRWA personnel accounting for 188 of these fatalities. On May 13, a UN vehicle was hit on the way to a hospital in Gaza, killing at least one UN staff member and injuring at least one more. According to UNRWA, 169 of its facilities have been affected by the hostilities in 368 incidents and at least 429 displaced people have been killed in UNRWA shelters. Israeli forces have, according to the UN, also shot at and shelled people congregating to collect aid, killing and injuring hundreds. These attacks are having a chilling effect on efforts to provide lifesaving aid in Gaza.

Aid workers have also been unable to leave Gaza, since Israeli forces seized control of and closed the Rafah Crossing on May 7.

During a recent trip to Cairo and northern Sinai, near the border between Egypt and Gaza, Human Rights Watch met with staff from 11 humanitarian organizations and UN aid agencies operating in Gaza who said that Israeli attacks on aid workers had forced them to take various measures that for some included suspending activities for a period of time, reducing their staff inside Gaza, or severely restricting their aid activities in other ways.

“I can’t risk sending more staff into Gaza because I cannot rely on deconfliction as a way of keeping them safe,” a senior employee from one of the organizations whose guest house was attacked told Human Rights Watch. He said this was a key factor in limiting the organization’s ability to provide medical services. “You can build docks and send shipments, but without a safe operating environment, you will have a pile up of shipments that people aren’t able to deploy safely to help people.”

This pattern of attacks despite proper notification of Israeli authorities raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment and capacity to comply with international humanitarian law, which some countries, including the UK, rely on to continue to license arms exports that end up in Israel.

Human Rights Watch has found that Israeli authorities are using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza. Pursuant to a policy set out by Israeli officials and carried out by Israeli forces, the Israeli authorities are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to its survival. Children in Gaza have been dying from starvation-related complications.

Israel has not responded to a Human Rights Watch letter sent on May 1, requesting specific information about the attacks on aid workers documented in this report.

The laws of war prohibit attacks that target civilians and civilian objects, that do not discriminate between civilians and combatants, or that are expected to cause harm to civilians or civilian objects that is disproportionate to any anticipated military advantage. Indiscriminate attacks include attacks that are not directed at a specific military target or use a method or means of combat whose effects cannot be limited as required.

Warring parties must take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians, including by providing effective advance warnings of attacks unless circumstances do not permit, and by sparing civilians under their control from the effects of attacks. Serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent – that is, deliberately or recklessly – are war crimes.

Israel should make public the findings of investigations into attacks that have killed and injured aid workers, and into all other attacks that caused civilian casualties. The Israeli military’s long track record of failing to credibly investigate alleged war crimes underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) inquiry into serious crimes committed by all parties to the conflict.

Israeli and Palestinian officials should cooperate with the ICC in their work, Human Rights Watch said. Israel should also provide the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel access to Gaza to conduct its investigations.

Given the pattern of attacks on aid groups that have provided Israeli authorities with proper information about their locations, a group of recognized international experts should conduct an independent review of the humanitarian deconfliction process. Israel should give these experts full access to its processes, including the coordination and communications that occur before, during, and after such attacks as well as information regarding any alleged military target in the vicinity and any precautionary measures taken to mitigate harm.

Israel’s allies, including the United States and United Kingdom – both states sending the weapons parts apparently used in at least one of the documented attacks – should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel so long as its forces commit systematic and widespread laws-of-war violations against Palestinian civilians with impunity. Governments that continue to provide arms to the Israeli government risk complicity in war crimes.

They should also use their leverage, including through targeted sanctions, to press Israeli authorities to cease committing grave abuses and enable the provision of humanitarian aid and basic services in Gaza, in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international law and recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders to Israel in the case brought by South Africa concerning alleged violations of the Genocide Convention.

“On one hand, Israel is blocking access to critical lifesaving humanitarian provisions and on the other, attacking convoys that are delivering some of the small amount that they are allowing in,” Wille said. “Israeli forces should immediately end their attacks on aid organizations, and there should be accountability for these crimes.”

For details of attacks on the aid organizations, please see below.

Attack on the World Central Kitchen Workers

On April 1, just before 11 p.m., Israeli forces carried out a drone strike with three missiles targeting a convoy of three World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicles, two marked with the organization’s logo on the roof, in central Gaza, all carrying civilians, that were escorting eight aid trucks. The attack killed seven aid workers. The convoy had just left a food warehouse in Deir al-Balah and was traveling a route that the organization said they had agreed upon with the Israeli military. The attack was reportedly carried out by an Israeli-made Hermes 450 drone.

After the attack, WCK paused its operations in Gaza for several weeks, as did American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera). At the time, the two groups had together been providing an average of 300,000 meals across Gaza daily. Photographs of the damaged vehicles were initially verified by the independent investigative collective Bellingcat and later independently verified by Human Rights Watch researchers.

A preliminary Israeli investigation into the attack found that Israeli forces’ conduct was “contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures” and had occurred because of “a grave mistake,” including a lack of coordination between different levels of the army and the mistaken identity of a man in one of the vehicles, according to the Israeli armed forces. The preliminary investigation also found that the two additional drone missiles were fired against army protocol.

In its response, WCK reiterated its call for an independent commission to investigate the incident because, it said, the “[Israeli Defense Forces] cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.” WCK resumed its operations in late April because, it said, “The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire,” but said it had still received “no concrete assurances” that the Israeli military’s operational procedures had changed.

This incident elicited widespread condemnation, including from leaders of countries whose citizens were killed in the attack, including United States President Joe Biden, United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Convoy, November 18

On November 18, 2023, armed forces attacked a convoy of five marked MSF vehicles, killing two people, witnesses said. The group had been trying to evacuate 137 civilians from its guesthouse near al-Shifa Hospital in Rimal, northern Gaza, where they had been trapped for a week, to southern Gaza. MSF said that it had coordinated the convoy’s movement with the Israeli armed forces and followed the route prescribed by the army. Once the convoy reached a crowded checkpoint near Wadi Gaza, Israeli soldiers did not allow the vehicles to clear the checkpoint for hours.

When gunfire rang out near the checkpoint, MSF staff, who were still waiting to go through the checkpoint, decided to return to the guest house, 7.5 kilometers to the north. They said they maintained contact with the Israeli Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), the military unit responsible for the coordination of access to and from Gaza in connection with the facilitation of civilian and humanitarian needs, throughout their travel back and informed them that the convoy had to return to their guest house.

As they were approaching their office, between 3:30 and 4 p.m., MSF said that the Israeli army attacked the convoy, hitting two of the vehicles. The organization quoted one staff member as saying: “I was terrified when I saw that the snipers and the tanks were pointing their weapons at us, especially at the fourth and the fifth van [in the convoy].” MSF said that the staff there during the incident saw no military targets in the area. The organization has requested an explanation from Israeli authorities, but has received no response, a representative told Human Rights Watch.

“This incident shows just how ineffective the coordination mechanisms put in place by Israeli authorities have been,” said the representative of MSF. In this instance, “The latter appeared to have little or no influence on the operational troops on the ground, including to let the vehicles pass through the checkpoint.”

This failed coordination with the CLA has been cited in previous UN reporting.

Attack on a Guest House of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), December 9

On December 9, the Israeli navy fired 20mm cannon rounds at an UNRWA guest house consisting of two buildings in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost governorate, the agency told Human Rights Watch. The rounds damaged the west side of both buildings. The attack occurred late in the evening, while 10 staff were asleep inside. The agency said it had shared the coordinates of the guest house with Israeli authorities on a regular basis prior to the attack, including on the date of the attack, and was not aware of any military targets in the area at the time. UNRWA told Human Rights Watch that it had received no warning of the attack. Following the attack, the deputy commander of the Israeli Southern Command told UNRWA that the attack had been carried out in error, UNRWA told Human Rights Watch.

Attack on an MSF Shelter, January 8

On January 8, an Israeli projectile pierced the side of a building in which over 100 MSF staff and their families were sheltering in Khan Yunis, MSF said. The strike killed the 5-year-old daughter of an MSF worker and injured four people. At the time, the staff saw no military targets in the area and received no warning of the attack, which took place in an area under no evacuation order, the organization told Human Rights Watch. The organization said it had shared the coordinates of the building with Israeli authorities on a regular basis, saying it was being used as an MSF shelter.

MSF published a video in which Léo Cans, the MSF head of mission for Palestine, described the attack and showed two parallel holes in the wall that munitions had passed through, he said. The video also included two photographs of remnants lying on the grass, allegedly outside the building. Human Rights Watch could not confirm the location of these remnants but was not able to find them online prior to January 8. The New York Times analyzed the photographs and reported that they showed the remnants of an Israeli 120mm tank shell with Hebrew markings outside the shelter. Human Rights Watch independently verified the type of remnants.

The Israeli military denied to the New York Times that it had struck the building. However, MSF said that Israeli authorities later told the organization that the damage to the guest house had been collateral in an attack on a “terror” target.

Attack on an International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Guest House, January 18

On January 18, an Israeli air attack hit the perimeter wall around a guest house being used by both the IRC and MAP north of Khan Younis, where 12 people, including 4 doctors, were staying at the time, according to the 2 organizations. No one was killed in the strike but three people suffered light injuries, MAP told Human Rights Watch.

Satellite analysis shows the attack left a roughly 15-meter-wide crater in the sandy ground, destroyed the wall marking the perimeter of the property, and significantly damaged the house. MAP confirmed to Human Rights Watch that the organization had shared the coordinates of the guest house with the Israeli authorities and with the UN twice in late 2023 to ensure it did not come under attack. The building stands alone, with no other buildings or structures around it, and MAP said they knew of no military targets in the area at the time of the attack and received no warnings.

Human Rights Watch reviewed a report of an on-site independent assessment by a multi-agency UN team after the attack, which concluded that the damage was the result of an airstrike, most likely involving a US-made guided GBU-32 air-dropped bomb. MAP said inspectors concluded that the bomb was delivered by an F-16 aircraft. The organizations said that, since the attack, Israel has provided six different and often contradictory explanations as to whether and why the attack took place, but they said the explanations had not provided clarity or accountability.

Attack on an UNRWA Convoy, February 5

On February 5, Israeli naval gunfire hit an UNRWA aid truck, the agency said. The attack occurred while a convoy of 10 trucks flanked by marked UN vehicles were parked on a road in western Nuseirat, waiting at a previously agreed holding point for permission from the Israeli military to proceed to an Israeli checkpoint. The shelling damaged the last truck in the convoy. No one was injured. UNRWA said it had coordinated with Israeli authorities the planned movement of trucks prior to the attack, including reporting to Israeli authorities when the convoy had reached the holding point and when aid workers in the convoy began to hear naval gunfire in proximity to the stationary convoy.

Because of this incident, UNRWA and its partners had to pause assistance activities to northern Gaza, affecting 200,000 people, for 19 days, a UNRWA representative said. Since March 24, the Israeli government has restricted access to northern Gaza for UNRWA , refusing to allow UNRWA to provide food assistance to the north, despite UNRWA’s mandate. Israeli authorities have taken other steps that have undermined the ability of UNRWA to distribute aid in Gaza, which has contributed to the dire humanitarian situation, given that UNRWA has maintained the largest humanitarian aid operation in Gaza.

The Israeli military told CNN the same day that it was looking into the incident. An UNRWA official told Human Rights Watch that Israeli authorities have since acknowledged the attack and said they have put in place “prevention measures to prevent another such occurrence.”

Attack on an MSF Guest House, February 20

Just after 8 p.m. on February 20, an Israeli tank fired a medium- to large-caliber weapon at a multi-story apartment building in al-Mawasi neighborhood of Khan Younis housing only MSF staff and their families, 64 people in all. The attack killed two people and injured seven others. MSF said that the weapon was an Israeli tank shell. It said that staff saw no military objects in the area at the time and received no warning.

Click to expand Image On February 20, 2024, an Israeli tank fired a medium- to large-caliber weapon at a multi-story apartment building in al-Mawasi neighborhood of Khan Younis in Gaza. The building housed only Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and their families, killing two people and injuring seven more. © 2024 Mohammed Abed/MSF

Photographs and videos included in a Sky News report on the attack and reviewed by Human Rights Watch confirm that a large MSF flag was draped on the outside of the building at the time of the attack. The images and satellite imagery also show that the building is secluded, with the nearest buildings approximately 50 meters away.

MSF said that armed forces fired additional rounds at the building’s exterior and the interior of the ground floor. It told Human Rights Watch that an independent investigation, which was corroborated by witness accounts, confirmed that there had been an Israeli tank in the area at the time of the incident. The investigation found that the projectile causing the explosion was fired by an Israeli Merkava tank. The small-caliber bullet impacts on the building are consistent with the secondary armament of Merkava tanks, it also concluded. Human Rights Watch verified a photograph posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) by MSF on February 22, showing damage to the exterior of the building.

MSF said that the organization had shared the coordinates of the building with the Israeli authorities prior to the attack. It received no warning. MSF said that, after the attack, Israeli authorities reconfirmed that they had received the coordinates of the building.

In response to the attack, the Israeli army told Sky News the tank opened fire on the building because it had been “identified as a building where terror activity is occurring.” It committed to an examination by the Israeli Army's General Staff's Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism, a permanent “independent” body established in 2014 to examine “exceptional incidents” that take place during military operations. No results have been made public.

“These killings underscore the grim reality that nowhere in Gaza is safe, that promises of safe areas are empty and deconfliction mechanisms unreliable,” Meinie Nicolai, MSF general director, told Sky News after the incident.

Attack on a Home Sheltering an American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) Employee, March 8

On October 13, Doaa Shawwa, her husband Mousa Shawwa, and their children Dima, 13, and Karim, 6, fled their home in Tal al-Hawa and moved into the second-floor apartment of a friend in al-Zuwaida, in a building with three apartments further south. The attack killed at least three people and injured at least three more. Doaa told Human Rights Watch the neighborhood had avoided the worst of the hostilities over the subsequent months. Mousa was the Anera supply and logistics coordinator, and, upon moving to al-Zuwaida, he had communicated the coordinates of the home with his Anera colleagues, the organization confirmed.

Click to expand Image On March 8, an Israeli attack on an apartment in al-Zuwaida, killed Mousa Shawwa, the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) supply and logistics coordinator. © Private

Anera showed the New York Times emails it had sent to Israeli authorities in which it included the coordinates of the house, as well as photographs of the building, informing them that this was where one of their workers was living with his family. In the emails, Israeli authorities confirmed that the location was being “processed” in their “system.”

On Friday, March 8, at about 4 p.m., an Israeli strike hit the building without warning, Doaa said. Mousa was standing in the doorway of the apartment with Doaa’s visiting brother, Baha al-Gifri, speaking to Doaa when the strike hit. “He was halfway through his sentence when we were hit. I don’t remember anything from that moment, I lost consciousness immediately and only woke up later in the hospital to find out that I had lost Mousa and my brother,” she said.

Mousa had injuries all over his body and died as he arrived at al-Aqsa Hospital, Doaa said she was later told. Baha died at the moment of impact, with wounds to his head and face. Doaa’s 6-year-old son, Karim, had a head injury, but medical staff did not realize he had a skull fracture and internal bleeding in his brain, so his injuries went initially untreated. He died at al-Arish Hospital in Egypt, 11 days after the attack.

With the assistance of Anera, Doaa, Karim, and Dima had been transferred to Egypt from Gaza eight days after the attack. The attack fractured Doaa’s right hand and caused a large wound to her face and head. It fractured Dima’s right foot, and covered her body and face with wounds from metal fragments. Dima also had burns on her right hand. A friend who owned the home in Gaza where they were attacked also had burns on his face, Doaa said.

Doaa said that, as far as she knew, the other two apartments in their building had only been housing civilians, and that she knew of no presence of armed forces in the neighborhood. Human Rights Watch verified Al Jazeera footage, posted on YouTube on March 9, of the building after the attack which shows considerable damage to the second floor of the building, and experts consulted by the New York Times concluded the attack was carried out with a precision-guided air-dropped munition. Israel told the New York Times in response to its request for comment that the attack had targeted a Hamas member who participated in the October 7 assault in Israel. Anera said it had received no information from Israel about who or what had been targeted, or why.

“We did not receive any warning from the Israelis before the attack,” Doaa said. “This is the thing that upsets me the most. My husband works for an American organization and the Israelis knew we were there. They should have sent us a message to warn us to get out. Why didn’t they?” Doaa said she keeps asking herself. “This was something beyond our imagination. Our hearts were destroyed.”

Guilty Verdict in High-Profile Kazakhstan Domestic Violence and Murder Case

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 13 May 2024 18:05:34 -0400

A Kazakh court has delivered a guilty verdict in the high-profile trial of the country’s former economy minister, Kuandyk Bishimbayev. On May 13, the court found Bishimbayev guilty of the torment and murder with extreme cruelty of his partner Saltanat Nukenova and sentenced him to 24 years in a maximum-security prison. Murder with extreme cruelty carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while torment carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

The prosecution presented evidence during the trial showing how Bishimbayev severely tormented Nukenova before she died of a traumatic brain injury and provided audio and video material, witness testimony, and forensic reports to convince the court of his guilt. Bishimbayev has 15 days to appeal the verdict from the day he formally receives it and should not be eligible for parole until 2040.

Saltanat Nukenova is just one of hundreds of women who suffer violence at the hands of their partners in Kazakhstan each year. The Prosecutor General’s office has estimated that about 80 women die annually from domestic violence in Kazakhstan, while 150 women sustain injuries amounting to grievous bodily harm and more than 4,000 incur light bodily harm.

Every woman or girl who is beaten or killed at the hands of abusive partners or within the family deserves justice, and Kazakhstan’s authorities should conduct thorough investigations into every case of family abuse and hold those responsible to account.

In June, a new law criminalizing ‘battery’ and ‘light bodily harm,’ dubbed as Kazakhstan’s “domestic violence law” or “Saltanat’s law,” named for Nukenova, will come into force. Its effective enforcement is crucial to ensuring other women in Kazakhstan do not suffer the same fate.

During the trial, which I followed, the defense made many statements blaming Nukenova for the violence she suffered. This victim-blaming is outrageous, but sadly not unusual in Kazakhstan. Nukenova’s horrific killing and the spectacle of Bishimbayev’s trial should prompt the authorities to introduce measures to prevent investigations and prosecutions of domestic violence cases from becoming spaces for victim-blaming and revictimization.

While Kazakhstan has yet to heed the calls of women’s rights activists and others to make domestic violence a discrete criminal offense, full implementation of recent changes to laws offers Kazakh officials a way to meaningfully tackle the scourge of domestic violence and take action to save the lives of Kazakh women.

Chad: Political Transition Ends with Déby’s Election

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 13 May 2024 13:30:00 -0400

(Nairobi) – The political transition in Chad ended with violence as at least 9, and possibly more, civilians were reported killed by celebratory gunfire from soldiers and civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 9, 2024, the National Election Management Agency (Agence nationale de gestion des élections, ANGE) announced that the interim president, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby, had won the May 6 election outright, citing provisional results. His main challenger, Prime Minister Succès Masra, declared himself the winner in a separate announcement on social media.

The run up to the election and the days around the vote were violent. On February 28, members of the security forces killed Yaya Dillo, the president of the Socialist Party Without Borders (Parti socialiste sans frontières, PSF) and a potential election opponent, during an attack on the party’s headquarters in N’Djamena, the country’s capital. Human Rights Watch has called for an independent investigation into his killing. On the day of the vote, violence broke out in the southern city of Moundou and a man attempting to vote was killed. After the results were announced, celebratory gunfire by security forces and civilians broke out across N’Djamena, killing at least nine people according to local media reports.

“President Déby has consolidated his power as the transition period has now ended,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “As the result has already been contested, an investigation into the violence before and after the vote should be paramount.”

The election authorities announced that Déby won 61.03 percent of the vote, well over the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. The authorities announced that Masra won 18.53 percent.

While international organizations, like the International Organization of la Francophonie (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, OIF), made some attempts to observe the election, they did not have the capacity to systemically monitor the vote across the country. The interim government denied national civil society organizations funded by the European Union the accreditation to monitor the election. Masra has reported threats against him and his supporters since the vote.

On March 23, the civil society platform Wakit Tamma, which had been instrumental in leading pro-democracy protests, had called for a boycott describing the election as a “masquerade” aimed to support a “dynastic dictatorship.”

Former President Idriss Déby died in April 2021 in fighting with an armed group, and the military gave power to his son, Mahamat Idriss Déby, in a transition that violated the constitution. Mahamat Déby’s government violently suppressed continuing protests demanding a return to civilian rule, culminating in a bloody crackdown on October 20, 2022. On that day, thousands took to the streets in N’Djamena and several other towns in southern Chad, including Moundou, Doba, and Sarh, to protest the transitional government’s decision to extend a transition period. The constitution was replaced in a referendum in December 2023 by a new one enabling Mahamat Idriss Déby to run for president.

In the months leading up to the vote, the political space tightened for Masra’s party Les Transformateurs (The Transformers, in English). Despite an arrest warrant issued for Masra, he was named prime minister in January as part of a political deal.

Dillo, the president of the Socialist Party Without Borders, was considered Déby’s leading political opponent. The two men are reported to be cousins from the same Zaghawa ethnic group. Dillo had been widely reported to be preparing to run for president though he had not announced his intention. An independent investigation into Dillo’s death should be a priority for the Déby government, Human Rights Watch said.

On election day, a group of men tried to access a polling place in Moundou. When they failed to produce identification cards the men were asked to leave the center. A witness told Human Rights Watch that the men then started shooting in the area around the polling site. “It was chaos, and a man was hit,” the witness said. “The military and the gendarmes came, but by then the attackers had left and the officials said they did not have any idea as to whom they may be.” The victim, Enock Neratar, was shot in the stomach while waiting to vote and died on the spot. He was buried on May 9.

While the ANGE, the national election body, had an additional 12 days to announce results, it released the provisional tally on May 9. In his speech on social media just before the results were announced, Masra claimed victory and called on security forces and his supporters to oppose what he deemed an attempt to steal the vote. To the Chadian people he said, “Don’t let your destiny be stolen,” however, Masra reiterated that any mobilization should be “with a spirit of peace.”

Human Rights Watch reviewed multiple videos and photos from N’Djamena on May 9, which show large numbers of Chadian military taking up key positions across the city, and multiple videos of soldiers firing off their weapons to celebrate Mahamat Déby’s victory. Local media reported that the shooting across the capital killed at least 9 civilians and wounded 60 others.

Some of the shooting was concentrated in neighborhoods considered strongholds for Les Transformateurs party. “These shots are a threat to us, they are sending us a message: if you take to streets to protest, we will kill you,” one member of the party told Human Rights Watch. On their Facebook page, Les Transformateursannounced that there was heavy firing outside of Masra’s residence in Gassi neighborhood, 7th arrondissement, in a heavily populated neighborhood outside the city center.

“The lead up to this election has been fraught with violence and civil society, journalists, and opponents fear that some Chadians, frustrated with the outcome of the election, may take to the streets,” Mudge said. “President Déby should instruct the security services unequivocally and publicly not to resort to violence against protesters, and warn them that those who do will be held accountable and met with severe sanctions.”

Philippines’ Marcos Forms Toothless Rights ‘Super Body’

Human Rights Watch — Mon, 13 May 2024 10:51:45 -0400

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has created a “super body” to promote human rights protection in the Philippines.

On paper, the Special Committee on Human Rights Coordination looks impressive, and its stated purpose is admirable. But as constructed, the body will have little authority to address the serious rights abuses facing the country.

At best, the special committee is a coordinating mechanism among its members: the Presidential Human Rights Committee, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, which oversees the Philippine National Police, and the Department of Foreign Affairs. None of these entities have distinguished themselves combatting rights violations, including thousands of extrajudicial killings in the “war on drugs” since 2016.

The administration said the special committee will replace the structures set up by the United Nations Joint Programme, a technical cooperation and capacity-building program run by the UN to institutionalize human rights reforms. However, the program proved unable to fulfill its mandate because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Philippine government’s initial lack of engagement. The three-year program is set to expire in July after Manila and UN member countries decided not to extend it.

The Philippine government has sought to frustrate attempts by the UN Human Rights Council and now the International Criminal Court to investigate grave abuses committed in the “drug war.” This meant haphazard cooperation with the UN Joint Programme.

Excluded from the new special committee is the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), created as an independent body under the 1987 Philippine Constitution and mandated to investigate human rights violations. The CHR is in the best position to do what the “special committee” is tasked to do. If Marcos were serious about improving human rights protections and accountability for abuses, he would seek an expanded role for the CHR, including by ensuring they were part of the new special committee. He would also create a clear role for the involvement of nongovernmental human rights groups.

The human rights “super body” might impress some foreign observers, but what would impress people in the Philippines would be rescinding the “war on drugs,” ending the targeting of activists through often deadly “red-tagging,” and fairly prosecuting government officials implicated in serious rights violations. Another layer of questionable bureaucracy will do little to protect anyone’s rights in the Philippines.

Iraq: Looming Camp Closures in Kurdistan

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

(Beirut) – The planned closure of displaced people’s camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) by a July 30 deadline will imperil the rights of many camp residents from the northern Sinjar district, Human Rights Watch said today.

Sinjar remains unsafe and lacks adequate social services to ensure the economic, social, and cultural rights of thousands of displaced people who may soon be forced to return. The 23 camps across the KRI currently host about 157,000 people many of whom are from Sinjar, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Interior Ministry.

“Many Sinjaris have been living in camps since 2014 and they deserve to be able to go home, but returns need to be safe and voluntary,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Given the lack of services, infrastructure, and safety in the district, the government risks making an already bad situation worse.”

Sinjar, a mountainous district in northwestern Iraq, is home to a mixed population of Kurds, Arabs, and Yazidis, an ethnic and religious minority. Eighty percent of public infrastructure and 70 percent of homes in Sinjar town, the largest city in the district, were destroyed during the conflict against the extremist armed group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) between 2014 and 2017. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 183,000 people from Sinjar remain displaced, including 85 percent of the district’s Yazidi population. At present, 65 percent of towns and villages in Sinjar host half or less than half of their original populations, and 13 towns and villages have not recorded any returns at all since 2014.

The Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement announced the July 30 deadline on January 24. To encourage returns, the Ministry also announced a package of aid and incentives for returnees, including a one-time payment of 4 million Iraqi dinars (about US$3,000) per family, some government jobs, social security benefits, and interest-free small business loans.

On March 19, a delegation from the Prime Minister’s Office visited Chamishko camp in Dohuk. “They outlined three options for IDPs: to return to Sinjar, to relocate to other cities under federal control, or to remain in the KRI but outside the camps,” a teacher and resident of the camp who attended a meeting with the delegation told Human Rights Watch. “But the government should provide compensation for us to rebuild our homes and offer services before expecting us to return.”

Human Rights Watch found in a 2023 report that the main barriers to Sinjaris’ return were the government’s failure to provide compensation for the loss of their property and livelihoods, delayed reconstruction, an unstable security situation, and lack of justice and accountability for crimes and abuses against them.

In May 2023, Human Rights Watch found that not a single person from Sinjar had received financial compensation for the loss of their property and livelihoods as required under Law No. 20 of 2009, with 3,500 approved claims awaiting payment by the Ninewa Finance Department. By February 2024 the number of completed claims had risen to 8,300, and still not a single person had received any payment, Judge Ammar Mohammed, head of the Tel Afar Compensation Committee, which oversees the Sinjar Compensation Sub-Office, told Human Rights Watch.

Over the last months, multiple government officials have told a Human Rights Watch researcher that the funds for compensation payments for Sinjaris would be released soon, with one stating “as soon as next week,” and that reconstruction projects were imminently scheduled to break ground. But a year on, there have been few improvements.

Two government officials told Human Rights Watch that the delays in compensation payments were a result of “budgetary issues” that prevented disbursement of the earmarked funds, without providing any further detail.

Dr. Dilshad Ali, head of the Sinjar General Hospital, told Human Rights Watch on April 4 that the hospital remains damaged and abandoned, with medical staff still operating out of a location that was meant for temporary use. “We are waiting for the reconstruction project to be forwarded to an executive entity in order to start the rebuilding process,” he said. “Chain of Hope NGO is building an extension of 27 beds at the temporary location to give us more capacity, which is almost done. But it won’t be enough, especially if more people return.”

Many Sinjaris have been living in camps since 2014 and they deserve to be able to go home, but returns need to be safe and voluntary. Given the lack of services, infrastructure, and safety in the district, the government risks making an already bad situation worse. Sarah Sanbar

Iraq Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Dr. Ali said one primary health center in Gohbal village, north of Mount Sinjar, had been rebuilt and was now operational.

An employee in the Ninewa Education Department told Human Rights Watch on May 2 that four of the 24 schools damaged or destroyed during military operations had been rebuilt and were soon to reopen. However, he said only 86 schools are currently operational out of the 206 that existed before 2014, and that they are overcrowded and facing a teacher shortage. Parents interviewed said they pay 5,000 Iraqi dinars (about US$3.82) per child per semester so schools can hire teachers, in a country where free public education is required.

“I told the Prime Minister during his last visit that we need to build at least 100 schools if the IDPs return, because there are 100 schools in the camps” the employee said.

The employee said that two schools in Khanasour village are being occupied by armed groups, one by the police and the other by the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), a Yazidi-led militia with perceived links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). A third school was occupied by the Iraqi Security Forces until the end of 2023, when they returned it to the Education Department.

Only one of the 14 displaced people from Sinjar whom Human Rights Watch interviewed in March 2023, Khalil Hasan, has returned home. “Returning to Sinjar in July 2023 was a decision rooted in my personal well-being, as I felt the camp life was no longer sustainable,” Hasan said. “Governmental support for our return was nonexistent. My primary drive was to reclaim my homeland and rebuild my life independently.”

The others, like Abdo Alo, are still living in the camps. “I am still in Khanke camp,” he said. “Several factors, such as the absence of essential services, security concerns, and the devastation of my home, have prevented my return.” He expressed concern about an uncertain future as the date of camp closure looms near, and the prospect of being forced to return to Sinjar without anywhere else to go.

International human rights law and the Iraqi constitution guarantee citizens’ rights to health, education, housing, and an adequate standard of living. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement say that competent authorities should provide compensation or other appropriate forms of compensation to displaced people when recovery of their property is not an option. The Guiding Principles also require authorities to provide them with basic shelter and housing.

“Nobody wants to live in an IDP camp forever, but closing these camps when home isn’t safe is not a sustainable solution to displacement,” Sanbar said. “The funds to rebuild Sinjar are there; the government needs to disperse them so that Sinjaris can return and rebuild their lives.”

UK Football Regulator Should Not Give Abusers Blank Check

Human Rights Watch — Sun, 12 May 2024 19:00:00 -0400

A new Football Governance Bill currently being debated in the United Kingdom’s parliament will establish a much-needed independent regulator for English football. It is being established, following years of rising financial inequality between clubs, greed, and the politicization of the game, which was typified by a failed attempt by six of the larger football teams to break away from English football and join a European Super League in 2021.

However, unless a dangerous provision is repealed, the bill could leave a backdoor open in the legislation to states looking to “sportswash” their rights abuses through English football.

A key function of the new regulator will be to improve the current “owners’ and directors’ test” that is used to assess the suitability of prospective football club owners and directors. This test was shown to be ineffective in October 2021, when it failed to block the takeover of Newcastle United by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), credulously relying on false assurances the Saudi state does not control the PIF.

The bill proposes new disqualification criteria for prospective owners, including looking into whether the source of owners’ wealth is linked to “serious criminal conduct,” such as environmental crimes, a criteria which would have clearly blocked the acquisition of Newcastle United, and also the acquisition of Manchester City by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2008.

However, a regressive clause in the bill will undermine the regulator's independence, and has led to organizations such as Fair Game and FairSquare saying it may lead to an increase in state ownership of English football clubs. Section 37(2) requires the regulator to consider the UK governments “foreign and trade policy objectives” when assessing prospective owners, which could hamper the regulators’ ability to block allied state actors from acquiring football clubs. Clearly, given the UK’s trade interests in the region, countries like Saudi Arabia or UAE seeking to acquire teams could trigger the application of Section 37(2).

Sportswashing is on the rise across global sport. Authoritarian states are increasingly looking to sport and sports’ infrastructure as potential public relations vehicles to launder their reputations and exert geopolitical influence. Acquiring football clubs has proved a particularly effective sportswashing tactic, as they hold considerable cultural significance and lobbying power. This is especially true in the UK, where teams enjoy a cult-like following.

The future of English football is at a critical juncture. UK lawmakers have an opportunity and responsibility to uphold human rights and should ensure this back door to rights abusers is closed. Anything less would be an own goal for English football.

With Pause, US Joins Other States Stopping Arms Transfers to Israel

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:05:17 -0400

This week, United States President Joe Biden announced that his administration has “held up” at least one shipment of 3,500 bombs and artillery shells to Israel, saying the US wouldn’t transfer certain weapons to Israel if it proceeded with an assault on the city of Rafah’s densely populated areas.

This partial pause on weapon transfers doesn’t go far enough in response to Israel’s international law violations and US rules on arms transfers. Nonetheless, Biden’s decision represents a shift from the unconditional support the US has offered Israel, particularly since Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed as a consequence of those bombs and other ways [Israel] goes after population centers.”

Biden should resist congressional opposition to the pause and go further. Immediately stopping all transfers of arms and military support would be consistent with the US’s international and domestic legal obligations.

Since November, Human Rights Watch has called for the suspension of arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups given the real risk that weapons would be used to commit grave abuses. Providing weapons that knowingly and significantly would contribute to unlawful attacks can make those providing them complicit in war crimes. Other human rights organizations and dozens of United Nations human rights experts have echoed with their own calls to stop transfers to Israel.

Recently, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) considered Nicaragua’s legal challenge to bar Germany’s military assistance to Israel, among other things. The ICJ declined that request based on Germany’s assertion that it was not exporting any “war weapons” for use by Israeli forces. However, the court allowed the case to move forward and left the door open for a different outcome if Germany begins providing more “war weapons,” language that two legal scholars have characterized as “might hang like a sword of Damocles over States providing military support to Israel.”

Several of the US’s Western allies have already revised their policies of supplying weapons to Israel. In March, Canada announced it would cease future arms exports to Israel. Italy and Spain also stopped new licenses.

Legal action has also effected changes in state policies. In the Netherlands, a lawsuit forced the government to pause sales of F-35 fighter jet parts. In Germany, civil society groups filed a similar suit seeking to stop weapon sales.

Mounting public and legal pressure is making it harder for governments such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Denmark to continue selling arms to Israel. Biden’s shift in tone will add to the pressure. In the face of continuing atrocities, “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza, and Israel’s obstruction of aid for Gaza, these countries need to stop sending weapons now.

Germany: British-Palestinian Doctor Denied Schengen Entry

Human Rights Watch — Fri, 10 May 2024 00:00:01 -0400

Click to expand Image Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a Palestinian-British plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, speaks during an interview at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon, December 9, 2023. © 2023 AP Photo/Hussein Malla

(London, May 10, 2024) – Germany’s government needs to explain publicly if it has imposed a Schengen-wide entry ban on a prominent British-Palestinian surgeon and academic, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, and, if so, the reasons why, Human Rights Watch said today. Dr. Abu Sittah has in recent weeks been denied entry to Germany and France and, on May 9, 2024, Dutch officials informed the Palestinian Ambassador to the Netherlands that Dr. Abu Sittah would not be allowed to enter the country on May 15 for an event at the Palestinian Embassy in The Hague.

Dr. Abu Sittah was denied entry to France on May 4, 2024, where he was due to speak about Gaza at the French Senate. He said on social media and to Human Rights Watch that French authorities at Charles de Gaulle airport informed him that he was barred from entering due to a year-long ban imposed by Germany. Dr. Abu Sittah’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that German authorities had not informed him about the ban, nor disclosed the basis for it. A French official told the Associated Press that Germany’s entry ban applied across the Schengen area, a 29-country zone where internal border controls have generally been removed.

“Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah has seen first-hand the atrocities taking place in Gaza,” said Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director at Human Rights Watch. “Germany should immediately explain why it has denied him entry and imposed this far-reaching ban on a leading health professional to speak in Berlin, Paris, and The Hague about what he witnessed in Gaza.”

The attempts to prevent him from sharing his experience treating patients in Gaza risks undermining Germany’s commitment to protect and facilitate freedom of expression and assembly and to nondiscrimination, Human Rights Watch said.

On April 24, Human Rights Watch wrote to the German government asking for an explanation of how its actions are consistent with Germany’s international and domestic obligations to protect and facilitate freedom of expression and assembly and nondiscrimination. Human Rights Watch has not received a response.

The Palestinian Ambassador to the Netherlands invited Dr. Abu Sittah to speak at an event in The Hague on the 76th anniversary of Nakba Day, which commemorates the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes and the more than 400 villages destroyed in the events surrounding the establishment of Israel in 1948. The director-general of The Hague-based intergovernmental Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) also invited Dr. Abu Sittah in May to provide a briefing on the use of white phosphorus by Israeli forces in Gaza. Dr. Abu Sittah said that he witnessed the use of white phosphorus munitions, which cause especially harmful injuries, while working in Gaza.

Dr. Abu Sittah said that the Dutch officials informed the Palestinian Ambassador to the Netherlands that he would not be permitted to enter the Netherlands for the Nakba Day event on May 15, but they would consider allowing him to enter for the meeting with the director-general of the OPCW on the condition that he only attend that meeting and leave immediately thereafter. On May 09, the Palestinian Mission to the Netherlands announced that they cancelled the event due to the Schengen-wide entry ban against Dr. Abu Sittah. The announcement states that Dr. Abu Sittah was also scheduled to meet with international organizations, civil society actors, Dutch members of Parliament, and universities.

Dr. Abu Sittah had planned to speak to the French Senate at the invitation of Green Party parliament members at a meeting about France’s responsibility for the application of international law in Palestine. Dr. Abu Sittah spoke at the meeting via video link.

Germany blocked Dr. Abu Sittah from entering the country on April 12 to deliver a speech at a Palestine conference in Berlin. He said German officials told him that if he were to attempt to participate in the conference remotely or if he sent in a video message to the conference, that would be a criminal offense for which he could be fined or imprisoned for up to one year. He told Human Rights Watch that the airport authorities told him that they were refusing him entry due to “the safety of the people at the conference and public order.” Dr. Abu Sittah said he plans to challenge the Schengen-wide entry ban in Germany.

Freedom of expression and peaceful assembly can only be restricted in limited circumstances, and the enjoyment of these rights cannot be subject to any discrimination, for example on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or political opinion. Any restriction must not put in jeopardy the right itself.

The UK and Scottish governments should press the German government to explain the legality of banning the British surgeon from entering its territory and imposing a Schengen-wide visa ban, Human Rights Watch said. The German government should also immediately clarify the reasons for, and process followed, in imposing such a ban.

Dr. Abu Sittah treated patients at al-Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals in Gaza in October and November 2023. He has provided evidence about what he witnessed in Gaza to the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit in London. The UK Police have said that they would pass any relevant information on to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as appropriate.

The ICC prosecutor confirmed that his office has, since March 2021, been conducting an investigation into alleged atrocity crimes committed in Gaza and the West Bank since 2014, and that his office has jurisdiction over crimes in the current hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups that covers unlawful conduct by all parties.

The reported travel ban on Dr. Abu Sittah may hinder his ability to provide information about crimes in Gaza to other judicial authorities and bodies across Europe, Human Rights Watch said.

Following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel that included deliberate killings of civilians and taking civilians hostage, acts that amount to war crimes, Israeli forces have carried out repeated apparently unlawful attacks, including on medical facilities, personnel, and hospitals in Gaza. Israeli forces continue to block the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance into Gaza, acts that amount to war crimes, including the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.

“In the midst of ongoing atrocities in Gaza, countries should be prioritizing ending complicity and promoting accountability,” Ahmed said. “Instead, Germany, in blocking Dr. Abu Sittah from sharing his experience, is trying to block citizens from even hearing about the grave abuses taking place in Gaza. The UK government should immediately raise the reported ban with their German counterparts.”

Nigerian Journalist’s Detention Threatens Press Freedom

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

Journalists and human rights activists in Nigeria are protesting the arrest and detention of Daniel Ojukwu, a reporter at the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, who went missing in Lagos on May 1. He was later discovered to be in police custody, accused of violating Nigeria’s cybercrimes law.

The authorities have since moved Ojukwu between various police units, including the National Cyber Crimes Center and the Force Criminal Investigations Department in Abuja, the nation’s capital. Nigeria’s constitution requires that anyone suspected of a crime be charged before a court within 48 hours of arrest. Ojukwu has been in detention without charge for more than nine days.

The Foundation for Investigative Journalism said thatOjukwu was arrested over an online report he authored in November, alleging that Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, a former senior special assistant to the president on sustainable development goals, transferred 147 million naira (about US$106,000) of government funds marked for school construction into a restaurant’s bank account.

Nigeria’s cybercrimes law makes a broad range of online interactions a criminal offense. Several activists and journalists have been arrested and charged under the law. The Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) Court of Justice in 2022 ruled that certain provisions of the law should be amended, citing violations of the rights to freedom of expression and information.

In February, the government amended the law, but the Committee to Protect Journalists and others contend that the amendments are not extensive enough to prevent the law from being used for censorship and intimidation. In particular, section 24 of the law vaguely criminalizes messages sent with the intention of “causing a breakdown of law and order [or] posing a threat to life.”

Nigeria’s constitution, along with international and African human rights conventions, protects press freedom and the right to free expression. Nigerian authorities are obligated to respect such rights by allowing criticism of the government without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanctions.

The detention of a journalist for doing his job is a violation of these rights. The authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Ojukwu if he has not been charged with a criminal offense.

Anti-Loitering Laws Will Not Help California Fight Human Trafficking

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 09 May 2024 13:57:51 -0400

Click to expand Image Activists across the United States have worked to repeal laws which disproportionately criminalize Black and LGBT communities and subject them to police violence, including anti-loitering legislation in California and New York. Above, protesters gather in Union Square in New York City on May 30, 2020. © 2020 Ron Adar/Shutterstock

In January 2023, California removed “loitering in a public place with the intent to commit prostitution” from the state’s penal code. It was a victory for transgender people, Black communities, trafficking survivors, sex workers, and others disproportionately targeted by the ban.

Unfortunately, just over a year later, three bills before the California State Legislature proposed reinstating this harmful and discriminatory loitering ban. Though none progressed beyond committee hearing, some of their more harmful elements deserve a closer look, because they keep cropping up in California legislation.

AB-2034 and AB-2646 specifically targeted “loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense.” This language recodifies laws that have had a stark discriminatory impact on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and Black communities. As Governor Gavin Newsom wrote when he signed the law striking down the loitering ban: “Black adults accounted for 56.1% of the loitering charges in Los Angeles between 2017-2019, despite making up less than 10% of the city's population.”

SB-1219 went further, proposing to criminalize anyone operating “a motor vehicle in a public place” who slows down their car “with intent to solicit prostitution,” in addition to re-criminalizing “loitering in a public place with the intent to commit prostitution.” The criminalization of clients in different countries has repeatedly been associated with increases in sexual violence, murder, police abuse, and exclusion from social services, while having no demonstrable effect on the eradication of trafficking. In fact, research has shown that anti-prostitution laws endanger and undermine the work of human rights defenders doing life-saving anti-trafficking work.

Loitering laws have existed for centuries. They are definitionally vague and have historically been used against the working class, migrants, sex workers, people who use drugs, people living in poverty, and other stigmatized groups to restrict their access to the public sphere. What anti-loitering laws do not do is end sex work or trafficking. Much like the criminalization of the purchase of sex, loitering bans merely provide cover for abuses against already marginalized groups. Reinstating loitering as a crime in California would be a step backwards.

Georgia: ‘Foreign Influence’ Bill Threatens Rights

Human Rights Watch — Thu, 09 May 2024 00:00:01 -0400

(Berlin, May 9, 2024) – The Georgian parliament’s introduction of a bill obliging certain nongovernmental groups and media outlets to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power” threatens fundamental rights in the country, Human Rights Watch said today.

The bill, under debate since mid-April 2024, prompted harsh criticism from Georgia’s bilateral and international partners and led to some of the largest peaceful protests in the country in recent decades. There have been multiple, credible reports of unjustified police use of violence to disperse them. The bill has passed two readings and is scheduled for its final adoption the week of May 13.

“Georgian parliamentarians and government officials formally defend the bill as providing transparency, but they make no secret of its intended purpose,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “By labeling independent groups and media as serving foreign interests, they intend to marginalize and stifle critical voices in the country that are fundamental for any functioning democracy.”

Parliament should reject the bill at its final reading. The government should ensure respect for fundamental rights to freedom of assembly and expression and effective investigations of all allegations of excessive use of police force.

The bill, the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, is nearly identical to a draft law the Georgian parliament tried to adopt in 2023 but withdrew following mass protests. In the new version, the ruling party, Georgian Dream, substituted the term “agents of foreign influence” with “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.”

The bill requires nongovernmental groups and print, online, and broadcast media that receive 20 percent or more of their annual revenue – either financial support or in-kind contributions – from a “foreign power” to register with the Ministry of Justice as “organizations serving the interest of a foreign power.”

If adopted, the bill will impose additional onerous, duplicative reporting requirements, inspections, and administrative liability, including the equivalent of up to US$9,300 in fines for violations.

Georgian legislation already requires nongovernmental organizations to register grants with the tax authorities, including the amounts and duration of the projects, to benefit from certain tax exemptions. They also file monthly financial reports that include information on the number of employees and service contracts and income tax paid. Media outlets also file monthly reports on their income and expenses to the Communications Regulatory Commission. All information that the nongovernmental groups and media outlets file is public and anyone could request a copy.

The bill’s initiators and the ruling party leaders have made clear in public statements that they intend the law to be used against groups and media that criticize the government, advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, or engage in other work that irritates the authorities.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze justified the need for the bill by pointing to initiatives that criticize the authorities or challenge government policies, claiming that some civic groups tried to “organize a revolution” in 2020 and 2022, “engage in LGBT propaganda,” and “discredit the police, judiciary, and the Georgian Orthodox Church.”

Georgian Dream introduced the bill amid other efforts to restrict rights as the country heads toward parliamentary elections, scheduled for October. In late March, the ruling party introduced another bill that would restrict the rights of LGBT people and ban, among other things, “gatherings aimed at popularizing same-sex family or intimate relationships… and non-use of gender-specific terminology.”

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Georgian Dream founder and leader, in a rare public speech on April 29, said that by introducing the “transparency law” now, the ruling party aimed to exhaust the political opposition in advance of parliamentary elections. He also vowed to punish the National Movement, the opposition party that ruled Georgia under Mikhael Saakishvili from 2003 until 2012. Ivanishvili also attacked Georgia’s political opposition and civic groups, painting the latter in one broad stroke as “having no homeland” and accusing foreigners of plotting to bring the political opposition to power through “non-transparent NGO funding.”

The bill’s supporters falsely allege that the bill is similar to the United States Foreign Agent Registration Act. But the US law does not equate receiving foreign funding, in part or in whole, with being under the direction and control of a foreign principal. It primarily regulates lobbyists and does not serve as a mechanism for weakening civil society organizations and media. Russia also uses this false equivalence argument to justify its draconian and abusive legislation.

Tens of thousands of people have protested the bill continuously in recent weeks, in Tbilisi and several other cities. On multiple occasions during especially large demonstrations in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi, police used tear gas, water cannons, and pepper spray to disperse mainly nonviolent protesters, including on the night of April 30, the eve of bill’s second reading. There were credible reports of police using rubber bullets at least once on the night of May 1.

Human Rights Watch spoke with three people, including a 17-year-old high school student, who were all beaten viciously by police in separate incidents the night of April 30 to May 1. They each said that multiple police officers at the protest grabbed them unprovoked, then kicked them to the ground, beat them for several minutes, and then detained them. The authorities charged them with misdemeanor disobedience or petty hooliganism and released them. If the charges are not dropped, the three will face trial.

Ted Jonas, a 62-year-old lawyer who has been living in Georgia for 30 years, had numerous bruises, including a black eye, abrasions, and a bloody nose. Forty-nine-year-old Vakhtang Kobaladze had multiple bruises on his back, chest, hand, legs, and jaw. The 17-year-old said that five police officers dragged him to the ground and beat and kicked him repeatedly, leaving him with head trauma, a broken lip, and bruises on his left eye and all over his chest, shoulders, back, and hands.

The Georgian Special Investigation Service reported receiving 80 calls to its hotline from protesters and journalists alleging police violence. It said it had initiated a criminal investigation.

The bill, police violence, and detentions triggered statements of concern and criticism within Georgia and from multilateral organizations and Georgia’s international partners. In a public statement, Georgia’s human rights ombudsperson said there were no grounds for the police to use pepper spray to disperse protesters at the entrance to parliament and that police used water cannons and tear gas without adequate warning or reason, as “the rally had a peaceful character and there was no reason to terminate it....” A statement by 10 Georgian civic organizations called on Georgian authorities to investigate “cases of disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officers” that night.

In a May 2 statement, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, urged Georgian authorities to “conduct prompt and transparent investigations into all allegations of ill-treatment” and urged Georgian authorities to withdraw the bill, [which] “… poses serious threats to the rights to freedom of expression and association.”

On April 16, Joseph Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and Olivér Várhelyi, its commissioner for EU enlargement, jointly urged authorities to withdraw the bill, which if adopted, they said would “negatively impact” Georgia’s EU candidacy. On May 1, Borrell condemned the violence against protesters.

In a letter to the chair of Georgia’s parliament, the Council of Europe human rights commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, asked parliament to refrain from adopting the draft law because, if adopted, it would “likely result in the stigmatization and discreditation of the civil society organizations.”

The draft law is incompatible with legal obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Georgia is a party. While certain limitations on the rights to freedom of expression and association are permissible under international law, the proposed bill far exceeds any legitimate interference with these rights, Human Rights Watch said.

In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia’s “foreign agents” law, which is similar to the Georgian bill, in violation of article 11 of the European Convention, protecting the right to association. The court ruled that creating a special status and legal regime for organizations that receive funding from international or foreign sources was not justified, and that such restrictions interfered with their legitimate functions. The right to seek, receive and utilize resources from national, international, and foreign sources is an inherent part of the right to freedom of association.

“The foreign influence bill tramples on fundamental rights and Georgian authorities should drop it,” Williamson said. “They should also promptly and effectively investigate the allegations of police violence and safeguard the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression.”