Kategorie: Humans

Russian human rights activist Yan Sidorov is facing the prospect of three years under harsh probation conditions, when he is released next week from the penal colony where he has spent the last two years, Amnesty International said today.

Yan Sidorov is a prisoner of conscience, whose attempts to hold a peaceful protest in 2017 resulted in an imprisonment at a Dimitrovgrad penal colony after he had spent two years in pre-trial detention. He is set to be released on 3 November, but on 29 October Dimitrovgrad City Court will hear a request by the authorities to impose a severely restrictive probation period.

“Russian authorities are sending a clear signal to all young activists that participation in peaceful protests can come at huge personal cost. Yan Sidorov has already served four years in prison; he may now have to spend three more under strict police surveillance, forbidden to go out after 10 pm and banned from travelling outside the Krasnodar region,” said Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director.

Russian authorities are sending a clear signal to all young activists that participation in peaceful protests can come at huge personal cost

Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director

“The Russian penitentiary authorities must immediately withdraw their request to impose additional arbitrary restrictions on Yan Sidorov and release him unconditionally. Yan Sidorov has done nothing but exercise his rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and this outrageous campaign of punishment must end.”

Background

Two weeks ahead of Yan Sidorov’s release from penal colony IK-10 in Dimitrovgrad (Central Russia), the penitentiary administration requested that the court impose a three-year probation period on him. Conditions include obligatory biweekly registration at the local police station and a curfew between 10 pm and 6 am; Sidorov would also be banned from leaving his native Krasnodar region, and banned from attending or participating in any mass events. The Dimitrovgrad City Court will hear this case on 29 October. On 15 October, the penal colony authorities accused Yan Sidorov of violation of the prison regime regulations – allegedly for not attending morning workout – and placed him in a punishment cell for seven days.

In October 2019, Yan Sidorov and his friend Vladislav Mordasov, who spent almost two years in pre-trial detention, were found guilty of “attempted organization of mass disturbances”, and each sentenced to more than six years imprisonment for organizing a peaceful protest in November 2017. The protest was in support of dozens of people in Rostov-on-Don (Southern Russia) who had lost their homes in mass fires. Their sentences were subsequently reduced to four years on cassation. Vladislav Mordasov serving his sentence in IK-9 penal colony in Shakhty (Rostov-on-Don region) is due to be released on 3 November as well.

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Algerian authorities must quash the conviction of Christian convert Foudhil Bahloul, under a law that is being used to crack down on religious minorities and restrict the right to freedom of religion and belief, Amnesty International said ahead of his appeal hearing on 27 October.

A court in Ain Defla, a city west of the capital Algiers, had on 21 July sentenced Bahloul to six months imprisonment because of a 200-euro transfer into his bank account deemed an “unauthorized donation” under a discriminatory law regulating non-Muslim worship.

“Algerian authorities must immediately quash Foudhil Bahloul’s conviction and drop all charges against him. He shouldn’t have been tried in the first place. This discriminatory law is being used as a weapon to repress those who do not follow Islam in an assault against their fundamental freedoms,” said Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Instead of targeting non-Islamic believers, Algeria authorities must work on protecting the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief – which includes the freedom to manifest that belief.”

On 17 April, gendarmerie officers arrested Foudhil Bahloul and three of his friends in Ain Defla before searching his house and seizing books and materials related to the Christian faith.

Bahloul told Amnesty International that the officers asked him if he had received money for his beliefs, if those funds came from abroad, and if he had a bank account. They further interrogated him about 200 euros Bahloul said he had received from a friend in Germany as financial support because he was jobless.

Bahloul went to trial without a lawyer and witnesses were not allowed to testify before the court.

Amnesty International reviewed the tribunal’s ruling which was based on Bahloul’s statements on the day of his arrest, in which he acknowledged receiving money from an individual in Germany. The verdict mentioned that Foudhil Bahloul “spread poisonous ideas to the unemployed youth,” and that he “destabilized their faith in Islam” by distributing books. He was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 100,000 Algerian dinars (around US$730).

The authorities should stop harassing and arresting those who belong to minority religious groups and leave people to practice their faith as they see fit.

Amna Guellali, Amnesty International

Background 

In March 2021, a court in Oran convicted on appeal a pastor and his friend, also a Christian, for “proselytism”. They were sentenced to a year in prison and fined based on Article 11 of decree law 06-03. The authorities also closed a bookshop the pastor owned.

On 4 June, a tribunal in Oran ordered the closure of three churches for not conforming to restrictive laws’ provisions on association.

In 2017, Amnesty International documented that judicial authorities prosecuted at least 280 individuals from the minority Ahmadi religious movement including on charges of “collecting donations without authorization” based on law 06-03.

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G20 leaders meeting in Rome must put aside greed and selfishness and ensure the fair global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, said Amnesty International ahead of this year’s G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, which takes place from 30-31 October.

Last November, leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies held their annual G20 Summit online, with a focus on ensuring Covid-19 vaccines would be made available to everyone. However, one year on, the most powerful countries have failed to protect the lives of millions of people, choosing to hoard vaccines, resulting in a predictable and utterly devastating vaccine scarcity for the rest of the world. Rich countries are sitting on an estimated 500 million doses right now.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said:

“The rollout of vaccines began last December – bringing hope to a world that had been crippled by Covid-19 and saving millions of lives. However, since the first vaccine was administered, the death toll has risen from 1.3 million people to nearly 5 million in 2021 due to gross inequality in access.

“The sheer selfishness and greed behind these deaths is unfathomable. While G20 countries enjoy vaccination rates of around 63%, only 10% of the population in low and lower-middle income countries have been able to get vaccinated. What have these leaders been doing for the past year but hoarding and actively contributing to vaccine scarcity along with Big Pharma? The millions of deaths show a staggering disregard for human life, a disturbing moral acceptance that profit trumps lives, and a blatant neglect of their global obligations.”

The millions of deaths show a staggering disregard for human life, a disturbing moral acceptance that profit trumps lives, and a blatant neglect of their global obligations”

Agnès Callamard

In 2020, G20 countries pre-ordered and bought the vast majority of Covid-19 vaccines before these vaccines had even been approved. Many countries stockpiled enough doses to be able to vaccinate their populations several times over. In 2021, they continue to hoard surplus doses, preferring to sit on them, rather than share them with those who need them most.

On 22 September 2021, Amnesty International launched a global campaign to demand that the World Health Organization’s target of vaccinating 40% of the population of low and lower-middle income countries is met by the end of the year. The 100 Day Countdown: 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines now! calls on governments with surplus stocks to redistribute these doses to other countries by the end of the year.

“While some countries have pledged to redistribute vaccines, many still haven’t provided a clear timeline– with some only committing to share vaccines by September next year,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Vaccines must be shared now. It’s in the best interests of everyone, especially if we want to ensure borders can reopen and our global economy can recover in a fair way. The clock is ticking. It’s time to take action now.”

Leading up to the G20, Amnesty International, together with members of the Peoples Vaccine Alliance, will be calling on G20 leaders to redistribute vaccines now, upping the pressure with a media stunt expected to be held in Rome, Italy, on 29 October.

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Police in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) carried out a sweeping campaign arbitrarily detaining and deporting at least 375 African migrant workers who were seized from their homes in terrifying night-time raids, taken to prison where they were subjected to degrading treatment and other multiple human rights violations, before being collectively deported without any form of due process, new research from Amnesty International has found.

Hundreds of African nationals were rounded up on the night of 24-25 June 2021 before being arbitrarily detained incommunicado in Al-Wathba prison for up to two months. Emirati police later falsified negative PCR tests for them to travel, stripped them of their belongings, including vital legal documents, and denied them access to legal counsel.

“These African workers were living and working in the UAE legally. This racial targeting caused devastation in the lives of some of the most marginalized members of Emirati society at a time when the UAE government presents itself as a model country for multicultural tolerance as it hosts Dubai Expo 2020,” said Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.  

“The authorities have brutalized hundreds of individuals on the basis of their skin colour, ill-treating them in detention, stripping them of their personal possessions and their dignity before deporting them en masse. The UAE must take a clear and public stance that any racist targeting for whatever reason will not be accepted and they must ensure that those who already suffered such treatment be provided with appropriate restitution and redress.”

The UAE must take a clear and public stance that any racist targeting for whatever reason will not be accepted and they must ensure that those who already suffered such treatment be provided with appropriate restitution and redress.

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International

Amnesty International interviewed eight women and 10 men who were arbitrarily deported and expelled from the UAE following the June raids, of which 11 were from Cameroon, five from Nigeria, one from Uganda and one from Ghana. All of them described a pattern of racial targeting in the apprehensions, noting that those rounded up were almost exclusively Black. A few Asian nationals found living in the same flats as the Africans were also arrested. 

The Emirati authorities detained them for between 35 and 61 days and summarily deported them without affording them the opportunity to challenge their deportation.

The UAE’s Ministry of Interior issued a statement on 3 September stating arrests of 376 women and men had been carried out “as part of legal procedures to address crimes related to human trafficking.”  Yet all interviewees confirmed that that the authorities had not informed them of why they were being held nor had they brought them before judicial authorities to allow them to see and challenge the evidence against them.

However, the African nationals were not given a chance to challenge their deportation as required under international law and due process standards. In detaining and arbitrarily deporting hundreds of African nationals en masse, based on racial targeting and with no legal due process, the UAE violated international law relating to the prohibition of racial discrimination and the prohibition of collective expulsions which carry an inherent risk of refoulement.

Racially driven raids

All those interviewed described the same pattern of racial targeting in the apprehensions. Deported residents of Lagym building said that there were people of various Asian and African nationalities living there, but that security forces had targeted the African residents, and that the handful of South and Southeast Asian residents detained were picked out because they were living with Africans. 

The workers interviewed said that Emirati police broke into their homes between 2am and 4am and hauled them off without even allowing them to get properly dressed. They said the police officers, some of whom were identified as being from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), did not allow them to show their residency documents proving that they were in the UAE legally.   

Kabirat Olokunde from Nigeria was working as an assistant at an international school when she was deported on 22 August. She said that the police had not allowed her to dress and handcuffed her even though she was wearing her nightclothes. She said: “I was asking them, ‘Why am I here? I’m not a criminal. I have my papers. Why are you bringing me here?’ And they told me, ‘Emirates give, Emirates take.’” She also said police officers molested her. “Those idiots were touching my boobs… I told them, you touch [me] again I will slap you.” 

Squalid conditions in detention 

The deportees described squalid conditions in Al-Wathba prison, where they were kept in overcrowded, unsanitary halls and denied access to adequate healthcare, before being arbitrarily deported.

Prison authorities separated men and women upon entry, putting each in separate halls. 

The women interviewed said up to 220 detainees were held in their part of the prison. There were only four toilets for all of them. All interviewees said they were given no masks and there was no testing for Covid-19 despite the substantial risk of transmission in such a crammed space. 

One woman who was pregnant when she was detained said she was denied medication for anaemia and nurses dismissed her complaints of abdominal pain. “I went there three months pregnant, I came back and it was … five months, with no medical attention,” she said. “My weight was 58, 59 [kg] before. I came out, my weight was 51 … It was horrible.” 

Legal rights ignored in mass expulsions

Those interviewed said they were not brought before a prosecutor, judge, or court, or given any paperwork to show why they were being held. They also said they were never given the opportunity to consult with a lawyer, nor receive any visitors. All but two said they were not allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer. The other two interviewees said after a month in prison the detainees in their rooms were given one chance to make a call if they had a number memorized.

The 18 deportees said they were forcibly returned to their home countries after being stripped of their personal belongings, including clothing, savings, TVs, electronic devices, all kinds of licences and certificates, medical records and in some cases proof of legal identity.

A nurse from Cameroon said: “All my degrees, my diploma, my license, everything remained in the UAE. Our money in the bank – because as we are working, we are investing – our money remains there. Everything. We came [home] with just passports.”

Five interviewees described how Emirati authorities had forged negative Covid-19 PCR test results needed to travel internationally, when in fact they had not been tested for weeks before being deported. Amnesty International inspected three of the false test documents, which were issued on the letterhead of the Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters and carried no doctor’s signature.

With no legal process and no assessment of individual cases and risks to deportees, the deportations amounted to collective expulsions, which are prohibited under international customary law. Expulsion must be based on an individual assessment, including of the risk of deporting an individual to a country where they are at risk of serious human rights violations. Individuals affected must be informed of the reasons and allowed to challenge lawfulness of their detention and deportation. 

“The UAE authorities must investigate this appalling incident in view of providing the victims prompt restitution of their belongings and redress for the shameful treatment they were subjected to prior to their deportation. The UAE is bound by obligations under international customary and treaty law prohibiting racial discrimination and forbidding forcible returns en masse,” said Lynn Maalouf. 

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The Dutch government risks exacerbating racial discrimination through the continued use of unregulated algorithms in the public sector, Amnesty International said in a damning new analysis of the country’s childcare benefit scandal.

The report Xenophobic Machines exposes how racial profiling was baked into the design of the algorithmic system used to determine whether claims for childcare benefit were flagged as incorrect and potentially fraudulent. Tens of thousands of parents and caregivers from mostly  low-income families were falsely accused of fraud by the Dutch tax authorities as a result, with people from ethnic minorities disproportionately impacted. While the scandal brought down the Dutch government in January, sufficient lessons have not been learnt despite multiple investigations.

Governments around the world are rushing to automate the delivery of public services, but it is the most marginalized in society that are paying the highest price.

Merel Koning, Senior Advisor on Technology and Human Rights

“Thousands of lives were ruined by a disgraceful process which included a xenophobic algorithm based on racial profiling. The Dutch authorities risk repeating these catastrophic mistakes as human rights protections are still lacking in the use of algorithmic systems,” said Merel Koning, Senior Advisor on Technology and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

“Alarmingly, the Dutch are not alone. Governments around the world are rushing to automate the delivery of public services, but it is the most marginalized in society that are paying the highest price.”

Amnesty International is calling on all governments to implement an immediate ban on the use of data on nationality and ethnicity when risk-scoring for law enforcement purposes in the search of potential crime or fraud suspects.

Thousands of lives were ruined by a disgraceful process which included a xenophobic algorithm based on racial profiling.

Merel Koning

Discriminatory loop

From the start, racial and ethnic discrimination was central to the design of the algorithmic system introduced in 2013 by the Dutch tax authorities to detect incorrect applications for child benefits and potentially fraud. The tax authorities used information on whether an applicant had Dutch nationality as a risk factor and non-Dutch nationals received higher risk-scores.

Parents and caregivers who were selected by the system had their benefits suspended and were subjected to hostile investigations, characterized by harsh rules and policies, rigid interpretations of laws, and ruthless benefits recovery policies.This led to devastating financial problems for the families affected, ranging from debt and unemployment to forced evictions because people were unable to pay their rent or make payments on their mortgages. Others were left with mental health issues and stress on their personal relationships, leading to divorces and broken homes.

The design of the algorithm reinforced existing institutional bias of a link between race and ethnicity, and crime, as well as generalizing behaviour to an entire race or ethnic group.

These discriminatory design flaws were reproduced by a self-learning mechanism that meant the algorithm adapted over time based on experience, with no meaningful human oversight. The result was a discriminatory loop with non-Dutch nationals flagged as potentially committing fraud more frequently than those with Dutch nationality.

Absence of accountability

When an individual was flagged as a fraud risk, a civil servant was required to conduct a manual review but was given no information as to why the system had generated a higher-risk score. Such opaque ‘black box’ systems, in which the inputs and calculations of the system are not visible, led to an absence of accountability and oversight.

“The black box system resulted in a black hole of accountability, with the Dutch tax authorities trusting an algorithm to help in decision-making without proper oversight,” said Merel Koning.

A perverse incentive existed for the tax authorities to seize as many funds as possible regardless of the veracity of the fraud accusations, as they had to prove the efficiency of the algorithmic decision-making system. Parents and caregivers who were identified by the tax authorities as fraudsters were for years given no answers to questions about what they had done wrong.

The findings of Xenophobic Machines are to be presented at a United Nations General Assembly side event on algorithmic discrimination on 26 October. This year, Amnesty International is launching an Algorithmic Accountability Lab – a multidisciplinary team tasked with carrying out investigations and campaigning on the human rights risks of automated decision systems in the public sector.  Amnesty International is calling on governments to:

• Prevent human rights violations in relation to the use of algorithmic decision-making systems, including by implementing a mandatory and binding human rights impact assessment before the use of such systems.
• Establish effective monitoring and oversight mechanisms for algorithmic systems in the public sector.
• Hold those responsible for violations to account and provide effective remedy to individuals and groups whose rights have been violated.
• Stop the use of black box systems and self-learning algorithms where the decision is likely to have a significant impact on the rights of individuals.

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