Pakistan: Authorities must protect the right to peaceful protest and lift communications blackout amid Jammu & Kashmir protests 

Responding to reports of the deaths of at least nine people, including six protesters and three police officers, and injuries to hundreds of others during ongoing protests in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir which have taken place amid a communications blackout in the region, Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said: 

“The situation in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir was preventable and now the priority of the authorities must be to ensure that there are no further injuries or loss of life. There should also be an immediate, impartial and transparent investigation into all incidents of deaths and injuries, including investigating the excessive use of force by law enforcement, and all those responsible must be held to account.  

“This is not the first time the authorities have cracked down on peaceful protests in the region. Pakistani authorities have a positive obligation under international human rights law to respect the right to peaceful assembly and to facilitate and protect peaceful protesters. Even in instances where some protesters turn violent, the peaceful participants should not be prevented from protesting peacefully. Law enforcement must assess the situation on a case-by-case basis and should attempt non-violent means first before resorting to the use of force, which must be necessary and strictly proportionate to the seriousness of the offence. 

The situation in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir was preventable and now the priority of the authorities must be to ensure that there are no further injuries or loss of life

Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia

“Regrettably, the total communication blackout in the region has further exacerbated the situation, creating panic, restricting mobility, impacting access to essential services, and increasing the possibility of misinformation. The Pakistani authorities must immediately lift the blanket communication ban to allow people to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and access to information.” 

Background

According to government officials, nearly 172 police personnel and 50 protesters were injured in the protests. Protest organizers have claimed that over 100 protesters have been injured following police use of lethal force. 

The protests have been organized by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), an alliance demanding civil liberties and political rights in the region, demanding an end to special privileges for government officials, restoration of student unions, access to free and quality healthcare and education, among others. The JKJAAC had engaged in talks with the government before calling for a region-wide strike on 29 September. In the lead up to the strike, the government shut down all mobile, landline and internet services in the region since 28 September. 

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Israel’s unlawful interception of Global Sumud Flotilla illustrates its determination to continue deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza 

Responding to reports that Israeli forces have intercepted at least 39 vessels and detained dozens of crew members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was attempting to break Israel’s illegal blockade and deliver essential humanitarian aid to the occupied Gaza Strip, amidst Israel’s ongoing genocide, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard said: 

“Israel’s forceful interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla vessels and detention of its crew off the coast of Gaza is a brazen assault against solidarity activists carrying out an entirely peaceful humanitarian mission. This seizure comes after weeks of threats and incitement by Israeli officials against the flotilla and its participants and after several attempts to sabotage some of its ships.  

“By continuing to actively block vital aid to a population against whom Israel is committing genocide, including by inflicting famine, Israel is once again demonstrating its utter contempt for the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice and its own obligations as the occupying power to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to sufficient food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance.  

“The crew of the intercepted vessels must be immediately and unconditionally released. Their detention is unlawful, and Israel must be held fully accountable for their safety and ensure they are protected against any form of ill-treatment pending their release. 

This interception is not just about blocking aid; it is a calculated act of intimidation intended to punish and silence critics of Israel’s genocide and its unlawful blockade on Gaza.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard

“This interception is not just about blocking aid; it is a calculated act of intimidation intended to punish and silence critics of Israel’s genocide and its unlawful blockade on Gaza. The incitement and threats that preceded it are also a shameless attempt to demonize peaceful solidarity initiatives seeking to end Israel’s genocide and the cruel blockade it has imposed on Gaza since 2007 and significantly tightened since October 2023. We are gravely concerned for the safety of all those who have been detained so far, particularly Arab delegates and solidarity activists who have been targeted by an inflammatory smear campaign.  

“The Global Sumud Flotilla, whose crew composed of human rights defenders, doctors, parliamentarians, activists and journalists from over 40 countries, and other previous peaceful initiatives that attempted to break Israel’s unlawful blockade, have emerged as a powerful symbol of solidarity with besieged, starved and suffering Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The very fact that they had to set sail in the first place is a clear indictment of the international community’s persistent failure to end Israel’s ongoing genocide and to ensure the unhindered flow of aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.  

The decades-long impunity for Israel’s blatant violations of international law must end, nothing can justify genocide. 

Agnès Callamard

“The time for mere condemnation is over. States worldwide must act now and now make clear that they will no longer tolerate Israel’s systematic starvation of Palestinians in Gaza nor its targeting of unarmed civilian humanitarian efforts. The decades-long impunity for Israel’s blatant violations of international law must end, nothing can justify genocide.  

“States must demand the immediate and safe return of all those detained and allow unhindered access to Gaza for the other ships. They must also press Israel to lift its suffocating 18-year blockade and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered through all crossings into and throughout Gaza now.” 

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Madagascar: Authorities must launch investigations into deadly force used against Gen Z protesters

Reacting to the reported deaths of at least 22 people and injuries to more than 100 others, including children, in the ongoing Gen Z movement protests in Madagascar, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Tigere Chagutah said:

“Every death on the streets of Madagascar is a painful reminder that the right to peaceful protest is under violent attack. The authorities must promptly launch thorough and effective investigations into these killings and hold perpetrators to account. All those arrested solely for exercising their right to protest must be immediately and unconditionally released.

“Amnesty International condemns the unlawful and excessive force used by state security officials and urges the exercise of restraint in the policing of these protests. Rather than use force, the authorities must listen to and address the protesters’ demands.

Every death on the streets of Madagascar is a painful reminder that the right to peaceful protest is under violent attack. The authorities must promptly launch thorough and effective investigations into these killings and hold perpetrators to account.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

“Protest is not a crime – it is a right. Instead of respecting, facilitating and protecting the protesters, the authorities have resorted to an outdated 75-year-old repressive law to justify the use of unlawful force in response to protests. This law gives security forces sweeping powers to crack down on protests and criminalize participation, in blatant violation of Madagascar’s human rights obligations under international law.

“Amnesty International calls on the government to repeal this law and enact a new one in line with its international obligations, including the African Union’s Guidelines for the Policing of Assemblies by Law Enforcement Officials in Africa.”

Background
Since 25 September 2025, hundreds of young people – mainly university and high school students mobilized under the Gen Z movement – have been taking to the streets of the capital Antananarivo and other major cities to peacefully protest water and power shortages, seen as emblematic of corruption and bad governance. Civil society actors have also joined in the protests.

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Namibia: Germany must deliver reparatory justice for its brutal colonial past  

Germany must fully acknowledge its legal responsibility for the genocide and other colonial crimes it committed in Namibia and provide reparations to the descendants of victims, Amnesty International said today on the anniversary of one of the “extermination orders” in Germany’s colonial genocide against the Indigenous Ovaherero and Nama peoples. More than a century since the German extermination proclamations, the effects of the genocide continue to be experienced by their descendants. 

Amnesty International further calls on the German and Namibian governments to guarantee the full, effective and meaningful participation of Ovaherero and Nama peoples in any reparation process or mechanism to address past human rights violations and the enduring legacy of the brutal German colonial era. 

The German government continues to deny that it has a legal duty to provide reparations to the Ovaherero and Nama peoples. Under international law, however, states that have engaged in colonial crimes and other violations have a duty to provide full, prompt and effective reparations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. 

“It is shameful that over a hundred years since German colonial forces waged a genocide against the Nama and Ovaherero peoples, Germany has failed to engage in meaningful consultations with these communities or provide reparations,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa. “There cannot be true justice if those affected are excluded from the talks. Victims and affected communities should be at the centre of any processes to redress colonial legacies.”  

In a 2021 joint declaration between the Namibian and German governments, German authorities agreed to pay the Namibian government approximately €1.1bn over a period of 30 years to support “programmes for reconstruction and development.” Development aid, however, is not a substitute for full and effective reparations. Where the former colonial power sets the terms and conditions for the provision of assistance to a former colony, development aid may reinforce and perpetuate colonial legacies and hierarchies of power rather than disrupt them. 

It is shameful that over a hundred years since German colonial forces waged a genocide against the Nama and Ovaherero peoples, Germany has failed to engage in meaningful consultations with these communities or provide reparations.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa.

The negotiations between the two governments leading to the declaration were also flawed as they did not include meaningful participation by representatives of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples.  

Namibia has also failed the Ovaherero and Nama by failing to guarantee the meaningful and effective participation of their representatives in talks with Germany. 

UN treaty bodies and special mandate holders have criticized the lack of participation by the affected communities in the declaration’s development, affirming that the “Ovaherero and Nama themselves must be permitted to shape the process of repair.” 

The first genocide of the 20th century  

In what is now recognised by experts as the first genocide of the 20th century, German colonial troops systematically executed and starved thousands of Ovaherero and Nama men, women and children between 1904 and 1908.  

It is estimated that 80% of the Ovaherero and 50% of the Nama populations were killed during this period. 

Those who survived the massacres were captured by German troops and detained in “konzentrationslager” (‘concentration camps’ in German) established by the colonial authorities across Namibia. Thousands of prisoners died as a result of malnutrition, disease and exhaustion caused by the inhumane conditions, torture, and brutal forced labour they were subjected to. Women and girls were also systematically raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence. The skulls of prisoners who died in the camps were shipped to German universities and museums for racist pseudo-scientific research, many of which remain in Germany to this day.   

Enduring Legacies of the Genocide 

The dispossession of ancestral lands and loss of cultural heritage because of the genocide has caused irreparable damage and transgenerational harm for Nama and Ovaherero descendants.  

“Today, the Ovaherero and Nama remain a minority in Namibia. Our small numbers are the living consequence of the genocide, and this reality continues to haunt us. It has left us politically vulnerable, with little chance to shape the direction of the country through the ballot box. Hence, the Namibian government’s indifference to our demands to participate in the negotiations about us.” said Jephta Nguherimo, a Namibian activist and founder of the OvaHerero People’s Memorial & Reconstruction Foundation

Over a hundred years after the dispossession of their land, the Ovaherero and Nama are still prevented from accessing some of their ancestral land and cultural heritage sites.  

Today, the Ovaherero and Nama remain a minority in Namibia. Our small numbers are the living consequence of the genocide, and this reality continues to haunt us. It has left us politically vulnerable, with little chance to shape the direction of the country through the ballot box

Jephta Nguherimo, Namibian Activist

“It is unconscionable that the descendants of the victims require permission to access their ancestral lands to commemorate and pay respect to their ancestors,” said Tigere Chagutah. “As if that colonial dispossession was not enough, Indigenous Peoples in Namibia today are also facing new forms of dispossession driven by the extraction of natural resources and the transition to renewable energies.” 

The Ovaherero and Nama peoples are demanding the return of the bodies of their ancestors killed during the genocide and the stolen artefacts still being held in German museums and universities.  

They are also calling for the preservation of the burial grounds of their ancestors who died in the concentration and forced labour camps.  

“We the Nama Gaogu will continue fighting for restorative justice, as our former Chairperson of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), Gaob PSM Kooper eloquently put: Let us Die Fighting,” said the NTLA. 

Background 

On 2 October 1904, General Lothar von Trotha, the commander of German imperial forces, issued a proclamation calling for the extermination of the Ovaherero people. A few months later, on 22 April 1905, General von Trotha issued a proclamation calling for the extermination of the Nama people.  

It is estimated that over 75,000 Ovaherero and Nama people were killed between 1904 and 1908, alongside thousands of other Indigenous Peoples, including among the San and the Damara. 

In 2023, representatives of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, the NTLA, and the Landless Peoples Movement filed a case in the High Court of Namibia to have the joint declaration between Namibian and German governments declared unlawful, arguing that the agreement violates Namibia’s constitution and international law. 

The planned construction of a major renewable energy project by a British-German joint venture on Nama ancestral land in the Tsau ||Khaeb National Park has been challenged by the NTLA for perpetuating colonial patterns of land dispossession. In a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the NTLA and civil society partners have argued that the Nama people have not been meaningfully consulted on the development of the project, violating their rights as Indigenous People to self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. 

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EU: New research suggests majority of Europeans favour human rights and environmental protection in face of EU rollback

New polling by Ipsos reveals that a large majority of people (75%) across 10 European countries think it is important that the European Union (EU) uphold its own environmental laws.

The new survey of 10,861 people – commissioned jointly by Amnesty International and Global Witness – also found that around three-quarters of respondents said large companies should be held accountable for human rights (75%) and environmental harm (77%) across their global value chains. The findings come at a time when the EU is considering drastically weakening environmental and human rights protections, with the European Parliament expected to vote on a range of laws that are part of the bloc’s rollback on the ‘Green Deal’ on 13 October.

Europeans are sending Brussels a powerful message of support for urgent climate action and the protection of human rights

Parliamentarians will decide whether to severely limit the scope and vital provisions of the landmark Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), passed just last year. The poll shows that 58% of people surveyed support the CSDDD, compared to just 9% opposing these protections.

Global Witness EU Senior Campaigner Beate Beller said:

“Europeans are sending Brussels a powerful message of support for urgent climate action and the protection of human rights. The European Union must honour its commitments and resist lobbyists trying to force a race to the bottom. Companies have a critical responsibility to drastically reduce their emissions, and they must be obliged to take action to address the climate crisis now.”

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

“People in Europe want protections for human rights and the climate – not weaker rules. Rolling back these safeguards would only serve the narrow interests of billionaires and big business. It’s not too late to change course. The European Parliament must now show courage, resist corporate bullies, and defend these laws in the name of the people it represents and the planet we all rely on.”

Polling was undertaken by Ipsos in 10 European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden.

The European Parliament must now show leadership by rolling back these damaging proposals and put people and the planet over corporate interests

Importantly, the findings could indicatethat the majority of people understand that taking climate action needn’t come at an economic cost to households. 87% of people surveyed said that the cost of living had increased in their country in the last 12 months. However, just 13% of those who said this then went on to select “European Union policies to tackle climate change” as one of their answers when shown a list of possible reasons and asked to choose which were most responsible for the increase.

More than half (53%) also said that it was now more important for the EU to uphold its own environmental laws, since the US administration scaled back on its own environmental protections. Just 10% said it was less important.

EU must put people and planet before corporate profits

In 2024, the EU passed the landmark CSDDD – legally requiring large companies operating in the EU to identify, prevent, and mitigate any negative impact of their activities on human rights and the environment across the world.

Hailed as a landmark law, these regulations were designed to fulfill the EU’s ambition of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. However, not long after the law was finally agreed, on 26 February 2025 the European Commission presented the so-called ‘Omnibus proposal’ – a series of rules intent on rolling back recently enacted environmental and human risks protections in the EU. In response, over 360 civil society organizations across some 50 countries signed a joint statement raising alarm and opposing these plans.

The proposals cover key corporate sustainability laws such as the CSDDD. The Omnibus risks weakening several central CSDDD provisions including: removing a harmonised civil liability regime that was intended to provide a clear avenue for justice for the victims of abuses i.e. exploited workers and people displaced by companies; reducing the scope of due diligence obligations only to immediate business partners instead of throughout the value chain; and undermining climate transitions obligations.

A drastic trend towards reducing the scope of companies that would be covered within the scope of CSDDD has also emerged, as seen in the Council’s proposal from June this year. 

“The European Parliament must now show leadership by rolling back these damaging proposals and put people and the planet over corporate interests,” Beller added.

“There is no time to lose. We all want and deserve to live, work in and enjoy a clean and healthy environment,” added Agnès Callamard.

Background

On 3 April 2025, the European Parliament adopted the ‘Stop-the-Clock’ proposal, postponing the application of the CSDDD by one year to July 2027.

On 13 October, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee is expected to vote on its position on the Omnibus proposal, paving the way for the Parliament’s position, as well as negotiations between Parliament and the Council.

Overall technical note:

On behalf of Amnesty International and Global Witness, Ipsos interviewed representative quota samples of adults in 10 markets using its online i:omnibus and ad hoc services: 1,086 aged 16-75 in the Denmark, 1,098 aged 16-75 in France,  1,092 aged 16-75 in Germany, 1,098 aged 16-75 in Italy, 1,063 aged 18-65 in Lithuania, 1,085 aged 16-75 in the Netherlands, 1,092 aged 16-75 in Poland, 1,084 aged 16-75 in Romania, 1,078 aged 16-75 in Spain, and 1,085 aged 16-75 in Sweden.

Fieldwork took place between the 5th and 17th of September 2025.  The samples obtained are representative of the national populations with quotas on age, gender, region and working status. The data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions in each market for age, working status, government office region and education, to reflect the adult populations of each market in which the research was conducted. In addition, a set of results combining the 10 European nations was provided which were then weighted to reflect the proportional size to one another.”

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