Kategorie: Humans

A 2017 law purportedly designed to protect human trafficking victims and sex workers from exploitation is instead facilitating the targeting and abuse of sex workers, and the state is failing to protect them from violence, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

The report, “We live within a violent system”: Structural violence against sex workers In Ireland, reveals how the criminalization of aspects of sex work is forcing sex workers to take more risks as they avoid the police, putting their lives and safety in jeopardy.
“Laws intended to protect sex workers are putting them at higher risk of abuse and violence, including rape and physical attacks. This is what sex workers are telling us about the actual impact of the 2017 law, and the Irish government needs to start listening to them,” said Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.

“Our research clearly shows that criminalizing the purchase of sex is forcing sex workers to take more risks while penalizing brothel keeping is preventing sex workers from working together to ensure their own safety.”

The majority of the sex workers interviewed for the research want sex work fully decriminalized in Ireland, including the purchase of sex. They also said that sharing premises with other sex workers helps to increase their safety and limits the potential risk of violence.

One sex worker told Amnesty International: “One-to-one, a woman with a man, we don’t stand a chance. We need another girl. She can hear what’s happening… But to be alone, it’s very dangerous.”  

Another sex worker told Amnesty International: “One night I was going down a cul de sac that was discreet, so I wasn’t going to be found by the Gardaí [Irish police]…they couldn’t drive by the spot we were in. But at the same time, I had no escape route if anything went wrong…And that was a very direct result of the Garda presence there targeting clients.”

The research also shows how the lack of trust in the police and social stigma reinforced by the criminal law are key concerns for sex workers.

The overwhelming majority of sex workers interviewed reported experiencing violence while engaging in sex work. Yet sex workers also reported being fearful of the police. Among the reasons given for preferring not to engage with the Gardaí when experiencing violence were a lack of trust and a belief that no action would be taken. In addition, sex workers expressed a fear of harassment or violence at the hands of the Gardaí, as well as their landlords being notified or targeted, which could lead to eviction and homelessness.

One sex worker told Amnesty International: “I see the Gardaí as a threat rather than as a shield.” Another sex worker told Amnesty International: “It has to be 100% decriminalized. When it’s not, I’m scared to report to cops or others. In every other business, if there are bad clients, if anything happens to you, you can call the police… It’s more about creating a safer environment for us.” 

Migrant sex workers’ fears of contacting the police stem from the risks they face because of their immigration status or plans to apply for Irish citizenship. One migrant sex worker told Amnesty International: 
“The only time I would call the cops would be if I was dying on the floor. …I’d personally rather be at risk with a client than with a police officer.” 

For many of those interviewed, the criminalization of paying for sex adds to the already high levels of societal stigma and discrimination they experience on other grounds, such as race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disability, drug use, homelessness or migrant status.

The research highlights the lack of data on sex workers’ experiences and the government’s reliance on outdated and flawed research that conflates human trafficking for sexual exploitation with sex work. It also highlights that the state failed to sufficiently consult sex workers when drafting the 2017 law.

The Irish government is currently conducting a review of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 and this time, sex workers want their voices to be heard.
“The review of the law represents a vital opportunity to ensure that it actually protects sex workers,” said Colm O’Gorman.

“But if this is to happen, sex workers themselves must be meaningfully consulted so that their lived experiences can inform the laws and policies that are meant to protect them.”

BACKGROUND

Polling conducted by Amnesty International in December 2021 revealed that 70% of people in Ireland believe sex workers should be consulted on any law that directly affects them while 73% felt that sex workers have a right to make decisions about their bodies and lives.

Since 2017, Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act has criminalized the purchase of sex and significantly increased penalties for brothel keeping – two or more sex workers selling sexual services from the same premises – to a 5,000 euro fine or a jail term of up to 12 months.

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The Russian federal authorities must urgently intervene over the abduction of Zarema Musaeva – mother of the human rights defender Abubakar Yangulbaev – to ensure she is immediately released and put an end to the persecution of critics of the Chechen authorities, said Amnesty International after death threats were made against the family on social media by Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

On 20 January, at least seven armed men broke into the apartment Zarema Musaeva shares with her husband, the retired federal judge Saydi Yangulbaev, in Nizhnii Novgorod (Central Russia). The men spoke Chechen and one of them introduced himself as a member of the Chechen Interior Ministry. Zarema Musaeva, whose son is a human rights lawyer, was driven all the way to Chechnya and placed in police custody. Later it was revealed that she received 15 days of arrest on charges of “petty hooliganism.”

The following day, Ramzan Kadyrov issued an explicit death threat, stating on his Telegram channel that Yangulbaev’s family “is waiting for a place either in prison or in the ground” and that his family members “will no longer be able to walk freely enjoying life” as they “deeply hurt” the honour of Chechens.

“This shameful campaign of persecution against Abubakar Yangulbaev, his family and other critics of the Chechen authorities has gone beyond all limits. If this mistreatment of dissenters and their family members continues, we will be forced to conclude that federal authorities either do not have any influence on the actions of regional officials or that they are accomplices in this lawlessness,” said Marie Struthers, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International.

If this mistreatment of dissenters and their family members continues, we will be forced to conclude that federal authorities either do not have any influence on the actions of regional officials or that they are accomplices in this lawlessness

Marie Struthers, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International

The intruders used physical force against Zarema, her husband and their daughter Aliya, as well as against their lawyer and members of the NGO Committee Against Torture who were in the apartment with them.

Saydi Yangulbaev and his younger daughter Aliya have subsequently left Russia out of fear of reprisals. On 23 January, Abubakar Yangulbaev reported that at least 15 of his relatives in Chechnya might have been abducted and arbitrarily detained by the police. Two more of his family members have been held in detention since last December.

On 23 January, Ramzan Kadyrov issued new threats, this time against Igor Kalyapin, Chair of the Committee Against Torture and member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, and Elena Milashina, Novaya Gazeta investigative journalist, calling them “terrorists and terrorists’ accomplices” and urging the federal authorities to jail them. Both are outspoken human rights defenders who have repeatedly criticized the Chechen leadership and exposed gross violations committed in the region.

Background

At the end of December 2021, dozens of relatives of five public critics of the Chechen authorities were abducted in Chechnya. Among the detainees were relatives of lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev. The lawyer himself was also detained in Pyatigorsk (North Caucasus), but after interrogation he was released. According to him, he was given the status of a witness in a criminal case on “justifying terrorism” (Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code). Details of this case are not known.

The Chechen authorities interrogated Abubakar Yangulbaev in connection with the publications of the Telegram channel 1Adat, which is critical of the Chechen authorities including the Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. In 2020, a moderator of this channel, 19-year-old Salman Tepsurkaev, was abducted by unknown persons believed to be Chechen law enforcement officers – a video then appeared on the Internet where he subjected himself to self-torture. There has since been no news of his fate and whereabouts. In October 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Russian authorities were responsible for his arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment and failure to investigate allegations of these.

Amnesty International is campaigning for an investigation into Salman Tepsurkaev’s abduction. In early January 2022, the organization, together with other international human rights groups, demanded that the Russian authorities take measures to stop repression against relatives of critics of the leadership of the Chechen Republic.

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Following today’s High Court decision to certify one issue in the Assange appeal as of ‘general public importance’, Massimo Moratti, Amnesty International’s Deputy Research Director for Europe, said:

“While we welcome the High Court’s decision to certify one narrow issue related to the US’s assurances as being of ‘general public importance’, and so to allow the Supreme Court to consider granting an appeal on this issue, we are concerned the High Court has dodged its responsibility to ensure that matters of public importance are fully examined by the judiciary. The courts must ensure that people are not at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. This was at the heart of the two other issues the High Court has now effectively vetoed.

“Torture and other ill-treatment, including prolonged solitary confinement, are key features of life for many people in US federal prisons, including those imprisoned on charges similar to Assange’s.

“The ban on torture and other ill-treatment is absolute and cannot be upheld by simple promises from a state that it won’t abuse people.

“The Supreme Court should have had the opportunity to deliberate and rule on all of the points of law raised by Assange at this crucially important point but the High Court has limited its scope to do so. If the question of torture and other ill-treatment is not of general public importance, what is?

“We now hope that the Supreme Court will grant leave to appeal on the certified issue concerning at what stage in extradition proceedings should such assurances be submitted and considered.”

BACKGROUND

The High Court ruled in December 2021 that Assange could be extradited, based on alleged US promises to safeguard him in prison. The US had submitted written assurances that, if extradited, Assange would not be placed in a maximum security prison or subjected to special administrative measures (including prolonged solitary confinement, which can amount to torture under international law); and would receive adequate health care. But the US included a caveat: if Assange did something in the future that required him to be subjected to SAMs or placed in a maximum security prison, then it reserved the right to do so.

The High Court today denied permission for Assange to appeal to the Supreme Court. This is common practice, as it allows the Supreme Court to choose which cases it will hear itself. However, while the Supreme Court can grant permission, the scope of the appeal would be limited to the point the High Court has certified. The only issue that the Supreme Court could now grant permission on concerns at what stage in extradition hearings assurances should be offered by the requesting state.

For more on diplomatic assurances in the Assange case: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur45/4450/2021/en/

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact: stefan.simanowitz@amnesty.org

Out of hours contact details +44 20 7413 5566: email: press@amnesty.org   
twitter: @amnestypress 

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More than a hundred people from Cameroon’s Anglophone regions and its main political opposition party, arrested over the past five years for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, are still languishing in jail, where some have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, Amnesty International said today as it launches a new campaign to release them.

Over the past five years, the human rights situation has grown increasingly bleak as people from Anglophone regions, including journalists, human rights defenders, activists and supporters of political opposition, have been arrested and jailed for expressing their opinions or peacefully protesting

Fabien Offner, Amnesty International's Central Africa Researcher

The campaign, ‘Don’t shut them up: Free victims of arbitrary detention now’, calls on the authorities to immediately release people arrested for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The campaign focuses on dozens of individuals from the Northwest and Southwest Anglophone regions, arrested for taking part in peaceful protests, and at least 107 supporters of opposition party Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC).

“Over the past five years, the human rights situation has grown increasingly bleak as people from Anglophone regions, including journalists, human rights defenders, activists and supporters of political opposition, have been arrested and jailed for expressing their opinions or peacefully protesting,” said Fabien Offner, Amnesty International’s Central Africa Researcher.

Most of the jailed individuals were tried before military courts — in violation of international human rights law — and sentenced under the country’s repressive 2014 anti-terror law.

“We call on the Cameroonian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those incarcerated for practicing their rights to free speech and peaceful protest. They should also rescind the overly broad anti-terror law, which has been used to criminalize protesters for years,” said Fabien Offner.

Anglophone detainees tortured

Thousands of people, including lawyers, teachers and human rights defenders, took part in largely peaceful demonstrations in late 2016 that called for greater rights in the two Anglophone regions.

More than 1,000 Anglophone people arrested between 2016 and 2021 in relation to the Anglophone crisis are behind bars in at least 10 prisons across the country, including 650 in Buea, 280 in Yaoundé, 181 in Douala and 101 in Bafoussam. Dozens have been arbitrarily detained.

We call on the Cameroonian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those incarcerated for practicing their rights to free speech and peaceful protest.

Fabien Offner

According to testimonies gathered by Amnesty International, many of them were held incommunicado and suffered torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings and lashes, deprivation of food and water for days, mock drownings and forced extraction of fingernails.  

On 25 May 2018, the Yaoundé military court sentenced eight people to lengthy prison sentences under the anti-terror law, including journalist Tsi Conrad, who was arrested in Bamenda on 8 December 2016 after attending a protest. Conrad was sentenced to 15 years in prison for terrorism-related offences. In May 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Conrad’s detention was arbitrary and called for his release.

Penn Terence Khan, the vice principal of a high school in Bamenda, was arrested on 17 January 2017 and sentenced on 10 April 2018 to 12 years in prison and fined 15 million CFA francs (23,000 euros) by the Yaoundé military court. His charges included “complicity in secession, financing of terrorism and complicity with the rebellion”, yet the only piece of evidence was a T-shirt with the words “Diaspora South Africa Standing behind West Cameroonians 4 a Federal Cameroon” and “We are Cameroonians, we are not extremists” printed on it. 

Protest leader Ngalim Felix Safeh, a member of the separatist Southern Cameroon National Council party, wasarrested on 29 November 2016 and placed in pre-trial detention on 7 February 2017. He was charged with “apology for terrorism, attempted murder, insurrection, group rebellion and degradation of public goods”. More than five years after his arrest, he remains in pre-trial detention. His case has seen nearly 90 adjournments before the Yaoundé military court.

Mancho Bibixy Tse, a protest leader and radio journalist based in Bamenda, was also tried before a military court and sentenced to 15 years in prison for terrorism-related offences.

“The Cameroonian authorities must end their relentless assault on dissenting voices in the Anglophone regions. All others who have been arbitrarily detained with their right to a fair trial violated, must also be freed”, said Fabien Offner.

Political opposition and civil society targeted

As of 15 January 2022, 107 supporters and members of the MRC remained in detention after being arrested before, during and after taking part in demonstrations held in September 2020 to denounce the way upcoming regional elections were being organized, especially in relation to the Anglophone crisis.

A group of nearly 50 people were sentenced by military courts on 27 December 2021 for “insurrection”, “rebellion” and “endangering state security”. Olivier Bibou Nissack, the spokesperson for MRC President Maurice Kamto, and Alain Fogué, the MRC’s first vice president, were sentenced to seven years in prison for “revolution and rebellion” and “revolution, rebellion and gathering” respectively.

The next day, Awasum Mispa Fri, President of the ‘Women of the MRC’, was sentenced to seven years in prison for “complicity in revolution and rebellion”. Other MRC supporters were convicted and then released, having spent over a year in detention.

Numerous detainees are currently being held in prisons in Yaoundé, Douala, Bafoussam and Mfou. On 7 December 2021, Dorgelesse Nguessan was sentenced to five years in prison for “insurrection, assembly, meetings and public demonstrations” by the Douala military tribunal. Before she was transferred to Douala central prison on December 30, she was denied the right to wash in the police station where she was held and suffered an attempted sexual assault by a police officer.

Intifalia Oben, a 29-year-old trader and MRC supporter, was sentenced to five years in prison by the Yaoundé military court on 27 December. He was found guilty of “complicity in revolution and rebellion”. He was subjected to torture, including beatings and mock drownings, while in detention at the Defence Secretary of State (Secrétariat d’Etat à la Défense, SED).

MRC detainees have reported widespread use of torture and other ill-treatment by security forces, including the SED and the police in Yaoundé. On 5 November 2021, detainees at Yaoundé prison wrote to the President of the military tribunal to request their release and list the repeated violations of their rights.

rescind the overly broad anti-terror law, which has been used to criminalize protesters for years

Fabien Offner

A member of the Stand Up for Cameroon movement, Collins Nana, was arrested and after taking part in an MRC protest on 22 September 2020. He remains in detention after being sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Douala military court on 7 December 2021 for “insurrection, meetings and public demonstrations”.

Four other men from Stand Up for Cameroon —Etienne Ntsama, Moussa Bello, Mira Angoung, and Tehle Membou — were also arrested in September 2020 after attending a meeting at their Douala headquarters. They were sentenced to 16 months in prison by a Douala military tribunal on 31 December 2021 for conspiring to revolt, allegedly for having ‘mobilized’ ahead of the MRC’s 22 September marches.

“These frequent attacks on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, coupled with the widespread use of torture and trials of civilians by military courts, reveal the extent to which the Cameroonian authorities are normalizing the repression of critical voices. Their relentless repression must end” said Fabien Offner.

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This International Day of Education, Amnesty International has launched Rights Arcade, a free human rights game app which aims to educate the next generation of human rights defenders about rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.

Rights Arcade is designed to strengthen the human rights movement through action-oriented education. The games will boost players’ knowledge about human rights and encourage people to take action on human rights issues.  

One of Rights Arcade’s key features is a self-paced approach that allows players to learn, reflect and take action at their own pace while navigating through the game’s stories.

“This game has been designed to empower and encourage people everywhere, but especially younger audiences, to learn about human rights in an engaging manner,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Young people are pivotal in setting the human rights agenda, today and for the future. Reaching them in the spaces they inhabit, or with which they engage regularly, is key to enabling new generations of activists and empowering them to fight for, and protect, human rights – now and in the future.”

The players take a human rights journey through the experiences of three real-life people: Ahmed Kabir Kishor, a cartoonist unjustly charged under the Digital Security Act in Bangladesh; Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist sentenced to four years in prison for reporting about Covid-19 in China; and Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, a student activist facing more than 25 charges for protesting in Thailand.

The game’s stories, which are fictionalized experiences inspired by real world events, are driven by a player’s choices.

The player gets to play the role and navigate the experiences of the three central characters, making decisions based on their own understanding of human rights and unpacking how human rights concepts apply in daily life.

People around the world will be able to access a collection of three games currently available in four languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Thai and Korean.

Rights Arcade can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices, ensuring its accessibility in regions with poor internet connectivity.

Rights Arcade will be regularly updated to accommodate learning in more languages, and with new game offerings in the months and years to come.

• Please find the iOS link and Android link here

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