Kategorie: Humans

Six years on from the nationwide protests in October 2019, referred to as Tishreen, Iraqi authorities continue to persecute activists and protestors while failing to deliver meaningful justice and accountability for the killings of hundreds and the maiming of thousands of protesters by security forces and militias or to reveal the fate and whereabouts of those disappeared, Amnesty International said today.  

Young people involved in the Tishreen protests were killed, injured and forcibly disappeared by security forces or militias simply for speaking out. Consecutive governments have announced numerous investigative committees to look into these crimes during Tishreen and its aftermath but to date no results have been made public. While at least 2700 criminal cases have been filed, few individuals have been brought to trial, and next to no justice has been delivered, with many sentences overturned.   

Six years on it is high time for the Iraqi authorities to break the vicious cycle of impunity.

Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International

Today, entrenched impunity for abuses during the protests has been compounded by an escalating crackdown on civic space, as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are further curtailed. Since 2019, young people involved in the protests have endured exile, disability, job losses, and relentless repression. 

Militias and security forces have launched what many describe as a “revenge campaign” against activists, forcing scores into hiding, exile, or prison. Authorities continue to raid activists’ homes without warrants, frequently using violence and harassing family members. At the same time, attacks on freedom of expression are worsening with dozens of arrests made this year as part of the Ministry of Interior’s “indecent content” crackdown. 

“It is abominable that six years after the Tishreen protests, Iraqi authorities remain busy hounding and intimidating activists and their families, while those behind the horrific killings, assassinations, and enforced disappearances remain at large. This obliterates prospects for justice, truth, and reparations for crimes under international law committed by security forces and affiliated militias during and after the protests,” said Razaw Salihy, Iraq Researcher at Amnesty International.

“Freedom of expression is under attack from all sides. Activists and protesters risk their lives and their families by speaking out. The authorities must meet the demands they have long promised: justice and an end to the hounding and killing of Iraqis demanding their basic rights.” 

‘It was like they were here to arrest a terrorist’

Several Activists in hiding as a result of arrest warrants issued in their home cities told Amnesty International that security forces had repeatedly raided their family homes and harassed their relatives to pressure them out of hiding. 

Amnesty International is aware of at least one case where an activist who was in hiding returned to his hometown in the hopes that it would alleviate or stop the frequent raids by the security forces on his family home. He was then sentenced to six months on trumped-up charges accusing him of violence during protests, only to be acquitted later after securing a deal through tribal connections, which in effect required paying a bribe.

A number of activists from Baghdad, Nasiriya, and other governorates who took part in protests and have been driven into hiding outside their home cities said that they feared being sent to other parts of Iraq where charges have been brought against them/or others who participated in protests. 

In one case, 25-year-old activist Yassin Majed Shehab was arrested on 25 September 2025 after briefly coming out of hiding to visit his ill parents in Baghdad. He had been a protester during Tishreen and had since taken part in many protests calling for justice for those killed and forcibly disappeared, as well as criticizing authorities on social media. 

His family told Amnesty International:

“He arrived at about 8pm on Wednesday [24 Sept]. At about 3am [25 Sept] a huge force arrived—local police, intelligence, and security forces. It was like they came to arrest a terrorist. Armed men kicked the door in before the women could cover up. Yassin’s pregnant sister was struck in the head when she tried to shield him. They beat Yassin, dragged him out, and threatened to detain more family members if we asked questions. They were waving their weapons and showed no arrest warrant. They said they were taking him to the intelligence directorate. We went to ask next day but they told us he was not there.”

Arrests in Nasiriya: ‘It is revenge for Tishreen’

In Nasiriya, in Thi Qar governorate, south Iraq, activists and their families face relentless reprisals, including home raids, harassment, and arrests under “dormant” warrants, some carrying charges punishable by death. The campaign intensified after the appointment of a new police chief in October 2024.

A local NGO director described what happened in Nasiriya as “a campaign of revenge”, adding that the new police chief immediately announced plans to enforce 400 “dormant” or outstanding arrest warrants that activists believed had been dropped in 2020.

Amnesty International spoke to several activists from Nasiriya who have been in hiding due to outstanding arrest warrants issued against them in 2020 for participation in protests in Nasiriya. 

One activist in hiding told Amnesty International that security forces attacked his family home in December 2020: “They brought Saraya al-Salam members [a faction of the Popular Mobilization Units] with them and had no arrest warrant or even gave a reason for the arrest. Those are the same arrest warrants they are hunting us with now [that had not been shown at the time]. It is revenge for Tishreen. We wanted change, not political power. We wanted a better Iraq and the rule of law… They [militias] kill, terrorize and disappear people, but it is us who are accused of destabilizing Iraq.” 

In one case, on 8 March 2025, security forces arrested an activist in Nasiriya. On 13 April, he was sentenced to 15 years under the Penal Code for the alleged killing of a protester in 2020. According to his family and activists who spoke to Amnesty International, the charges were fabricated, with witness statements coerced under torture. They said he was arrested because of his role in organizing protests, including the Tishreen protests, since 2019. 

Another activist said: “They tortured him until he confessed. When he retracted, he was freed. But then his accusers appealed, and now he is serving 15 years.”

Amnesty International has not accessed and assessed the relevant court documents relating to this case.

In the same month, security forces raided the family’s home once more with live ammunition and smoke grenades, attempting to arrest the activist’s younger brother but detaining his father instead. He was released days later, reporting severe beatings during interrogation about his son’s whereabouts. Amnesty International reviewed photos showing bruises on his abdomen and head. 

Amnesty International reviewed an arrest warrant for the younger brother dated 1 January 2025, issued by the Thi Qar Court of Appeal’s Judicial Authority, charging the activist with “willfully contributing” to damaging significant public or state-owned property with the intent to overthrow the constitutional regime under article 197(4) of the Penal Code – an offense that can carry the death penalty.

The activist, who is still in hiding, said: “My entire family in Nasiriya is in danger. My sister has to be escorted from and to university because we keep receiving threats. We are worried she will be kidnapped, hurt or even raped. My father has been harassed and intimidated at his work. I am still in hiding, and they [militias] are watching us. All of this is because my family and I refuse to be bought. Because I spoke up and took part in protests.”

“Six years on it is high time for the Iraqi authorities to break the vicious cycle of impunity. They must end their clampdown on free expression and peaceful assembly, and make public the results of the investigation they say they have carried out into violations committed in the context of Tishreen and its aftermath,” said Razaw Salihy.

Background

In recent years, Iraqi authorities have further restricted civic space. The Ministry of Interior has carried out dozens of arrests of social media content creators in the name of “indecent content”, and courts have sentenced tens of content creators to pay fines or serve prison terms under varying articles of the Penal Code, although it remains unclear what type of “content” is considered indecent. Parliament has also attempted to pass restrictive laws on freedom of expression, peaceful protest, and NGO activity.

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In response to the plan that the Trump administration has proposed to end the conflict in Gaza, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said: 

“The most urgent priority is to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza and release all civilian hostages. Any initiative aimed at securing a lasting peace must be grounded in international law, uphold the human rights of all people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel, and be focused on bringing an immediate end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and system of apartheid.

“The immediate first steps must be a permanent ceasefire, unconditional lifting of Israel’s unlawful blockade to allow for the safe and unhindered provision of lifesaving aid, and unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups and detainees unlawfully held by Israel.

“Whether or not the parties to the conflict agree to any peace plan, States must act, and act now, to end the genocide, bring about a ceasefire, secure the release of hostages and allow unhindered access to humanitarian supplies.

The most urgent priority is to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza and release all civilian hostages. Any initiative aimed at securing a lasting peace must be grounded in international law, uphold the human rights of all people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel, and be focused on bringing an immediate end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and system of apartheid.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General

“The provision of humanitarian aid and the end of Israel’s genocide in Gaza cannot be made contingent, as this plan provides, on whether or not Hamas accepts the proposal. Over 65,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed; hundreds of thousands injured, and Palestinians in Gaza continue to reel under the horrific impact of ongoing displacement, destruction and starvation for almost two years. This catastrophe, engineered by Israel and enabled by US-backing, must finally end, whether or not there is a deal.

“Similarly, the release of civilian hostages and of arbitrarily detained Palestinians should be unconditional. Israel and Hamas both must stop the unlawful practice of withholding the bodies of the dead from relatives.

“It is vital that any agreement leads to justice for the victims of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity.  Experience the world over, including in Israel and the OPT, has demonstrated that impunity breeds conflict and further atrocities. All states must uphold their obligations under international law to hold those responsible for crimes under international law accountable.

“Justice and peace cannot be mutually exclusive. Apartheid and occupation are among the root causes of the horrors Palestinians are facing and any plan that does not acknowledge this reality effectively prewrites the recipe for more abuses.”

In September 2024, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel, in line with the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024, withdraw from the OPT, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza within a year. Any peace plan should build on, and allow for, the implementation of the resolution. It should not include provisions which may nullify the resolution or render its full implementation impossible.

The absolute rejection of all forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is crucial, but must be extended to the entire OPT and to forcible transfer within the OPT. Should Israel wish to have a security perimeter, it must not use the OPT to do so. Moreover, Israel must not retain a stranglehold over who can and cannot return to the OPT.

In addition, any ultimate agreement must ensure that Palestinians fully and meaningfully participate in all decisions involving the future of the OPT, its governance and the exercise of their rights, including the right to return. 

Amnesty International notes with alarm that President Trump is stating that Israel would have his administration’s “full backing” to destroy Hamas should it not accept this plan, given that Israel has used the purported rationale of destroying Hamas as justification for its genocide in Gaza. Genocide cannot and must not be the means for waging war. Should Hamas reject this proposal, Israel and the United States remain bound by international law, as does Hamas, and must not engage in acts that target civilians or withhold life-sustaining aid from the civilian population.

Amnesty International calls on all states to focus on implementing their obligations under international law. Governments should also end their self-imposed inertia and their active or tacit support for Israeli violations of international law. They must commit to halting any forms of cooperation, including arms transfers or economic cooperation, that may contribute to or sustain Israel’s unlawful occupation, its system of apartheid or the genocide in Gaza.

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Palestinian armed groups must immediately and unconditionally release all civilians held hostage in the occupied Gaza Strip, reiterated Amnesty International nearly two years after they were seized during the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

The organization is also reiterating its calls for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to end its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Over the past month, Israel has stepped up its campaign of annihilation against Palestinians in Gaza, adding hundreds more civilians to the ever-rising death toll, deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure and forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, demonstrating its determination to bring about their physical destruction.

Israel’s current military escalation in Gaza, in Gaza City in particular, is not only having catastrophic consequences for Palestinians struggling to survive an engineered famine and forced displacement, it also further endangers the lives of those Israelis and other individuals held hostage by Palestinian armed groups. On 20 September 2025 the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, published what it described as a “farewell image” featuring the photographs of people still held hostage and thereby heightened fears over their fate.

Out of the 47 people who continue to be unlawfully held it is believed that approximately 20, all men, are still alive. They are at grave risk of death, torture and other ill-treatment. They are the last remaining of the 251 people – mostly civilians – who were seized, in most cases alive, and taken to Gaza during the brutal Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. The majority were taken alive, but, in 36 cases reportedly, Palestinian assailants seized the bodies of people who were killed during the attacks. Hostage-taking is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.

“Every moment of inaction costs more lives and deepens the horrors civilians are facing. An immediate ceasefire is not just a moral imperative; it is a global responsibility. Israel must immediately stop its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza including its deliberate starvation and mass displacement policy. Palestinian armed groups must immediately release all civilian hostages,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“Pending their release, Hamas must ensure that all hostages are treated humanely, granted access to international monitors and allowed regular, dignified communication with their family and loved ones. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups must also immediately and unconditionally return the bodies of all individuals seized on 7 October 2023. Anything less continues to constitute grave crimes under international law and is a further source of anguish for families desperate for the safe return, or at least news, of their loved ones.”

Statements and actions by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have made clear they have been holding both civilians and soldiers as bargaining chips to compel Israeli authorities to stop their military attacks, release all arbitrarily detained Palestinian prisoners and end the blockade on Gaza and their unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory. This conduct corresponds to the definition of hostage-taking under international law.

Every moment of inaction costs more lives and deepens the horrors civilians are facing. An immediate ceasefire is not just a moral imperative; it is a global responsibility.

Agnes Callamard, Secretary General

Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have dramatically increased the detention of Palestinians, across the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). According to Hamoked, as of 1 September 2025, 11,040 Palestinians are being held by Israeli authorities, some of whom have been in prison for decades. More than half – about 57% – are held without charge or trial either under administrative detention or under the Unlawful Combatants Law. According to the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), the bodies of at least 730 Palestinians are held by Israel as bargaining chips, some for decades.

Amnesty International is demanding that Israel immediately release the thousands of Palestinians it arbitrarily detains, end its abuses against Palestinian detainees, which include torture, starvation and sexual violence, and stop its long-standing illegal practice of withholding Palestinian bodies as bargaining chips.

“There can be no justification for seizing people as hostages nor for the prolonged arbitrary detention of individuals without charge or trial. The world must not turn its back on humanity,” said Agnès Callamard.

Physical, sexual and psychological abuse of hostages in captivity

Israelis and other nationals taken hostage have faced a harrowing ordeal since 7 October 2023. All hostages have been held incommunicado, denying them any contact with their family or access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) until the time of their release. Many families have received no signs of life to indicate whether their loved ones were alive or dead for months or longer, compounding their suffering.

In accounts they have given to Amnesty International, to the media or to medical professionals, released hostages have reported being subjected to abuse while in captivity. One released hostage told Amnesty International that he and four other men were beaten over several days after they were seized and described being held in a tunnel and denied adequate food and water. At least five other men and one woman have publicly reported they were subjected to beatings and other physical mistreatment, and four women, two girls and two men have publicly reported being subjected to sexual assault, forced nudity or threats of forced marriage. These are forms of physical and sexual violence which amount to torture or other ill-treatment under international law.

A medical professional involved in treating hostages released in November 2023 told Amnesty International that some hostages reported being beaten, forced to witness or participate in violent acts, confined in isolation or total darkness and deprived of basic needs, leading to serious and long-term mental and physical health implications. The medical professional also said that some returned hostages said they were subjected to sexual violence, including forced nudity and sexual assault.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (UN Commission of Inquiry) stated in September 2024 that it “received credible information about some hostages being subjected to sexual and gender-based violence while in captivity” including one female hostage who reported that she had been raped. The Office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court also reported finding evidence of sexual violence, including rape, against hostages. The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber, in approving the Prosecutor’s request for the arrest warrant against Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (known as Mohammed Deif), commander of Hamas’s military wing, noted that “while they were held captive in Gaza, some hostages, predominantly women, were subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, including forced penetration, forced nudity, and humiliating and degrading treatment”.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad subjected all hostages they held, as well as their family members, to psychological abuse. They held all hostages incommunicado, without contact with the outside world. They denied all hostages communication with their family and access to the ICRC until their release. They did not provide a list of hostages they held, nor did they share details and updates on the hostages’ whereabouts or condition, thereby denying families information about loved ones held hostage. Family members of hostages with whom Amnesty International spoke described not having received signs of life for months or longer, as well as the unbearable pain and anguish of not knowing where or how their loved ones are, or if and when they will return.

Palestinian armed groups intentionally separated family members held hostage from each other and kept some children completely alone, according to testimonies released hostages gave to medical professionals. Erez Calderon, aged 11 at the time of his abduction from Nir Oz, and whose capture was recorded on a video verified by Amnesty International, told Israeli media that he was held separately from his father and sister. This was confirmed by Erez’s family members in separate media reports.

Hamas and Palestinian armed groups have published photographs and videos of hostages often seen injured, in pain, fear or pleading for their lives or release. They have also publicly paraded hostages in front of crowds during their abduction and in humiliating “release ceremonies”. Subjecting hostages to such humiliating and degrading treatment is a form of outrage upon personal dignity, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.

In late July and early August 2025, Palestinian armed groups posted online videos of two hostages which indicated they were being subjected to severe mistreatment. One of the hostages, Rom Braslavski, is seen on the floor of a tunnel, emaciated and weeping, in a video bearing the logo of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He says he is too weak to stand and is on the verge of death. Adding to the suffering of the family, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed that, since the video was made, they had lost contact with Rom’s captors. A video of Evyatar David published on 2 August 2025 by the Al-Qassam Brigades shows him emaciated in a tunnel and being forced to dig what he says he believes is his own grave. He describes in detail and with reference to an annotated calendar going consecutive days without food. Being forced to dig one’s own grave in these circumstances also amounts to torture, as does intentional denial of food over extended periods of time in captivity and psychological abuse.

The holding of hostages and broadcasting of videos of their suffering is not only a crime against the immediate victims, but the uncertainty and anguish caused to hostages’ loved ones constitutes torture or other ill-treatment.

Hostage-taking and seizure of bodies

According to a database produced by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, cross-checked against other datasets, out of the 251 people seized during the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel, 27 were soldiers on active duty. The vast majority of the remaining 224 people were civilians. They comprised 124 men, 64 women and 36 children. Among those abducted from Israel were 16 children under the age of 10, and nine people aged over 80. Most of those seized were Jewish Israelis, including some with dual nationality. Seven were Bedouin citizens of Israel. At least 35 were foreign nationals. In 36 cases, the victims were already dead when taken to Gaza.

Based on video and testimonial evidence, Amnesty International has documented incidents of individuals, couples and families being forced out of their homes in multiple civilian communities on 7 October 2023 and taken to Gaza, including by members of the Al-Qassam Brigades. It has similarly documented the abduction of young people from the Nova music festival site and surrounding areas, some of whom were forced out of rocket shelters where they were hiding.

Shoshan Haran, the founder and president of Fair Planet, an Israeli development NGO, and a member of Women Wage Peace, a grassroots peace movement, was abducted with six other members of her family, including three children, and held hostage by Hamas. Shoshan, who lived in Be’eri, a kibbutz, around 4km from the perimeter fence surrounding Gaza, and was aged 67 at the time, told Amnesty International that, after receiving a warning via WhatsApp she and her family sheltered in her safe room.

Shoshan told Amnesty International that armed men forced them out the safe room. One of them shouted at them in English, “Women, children, take. Men, boom-boom.” They were then taken out of the kibbutz, to Gaza. When she and five members of her family were released from what she described as the “horrifying 50 days of captivity”, she learnt that her husband, Avshalom Haran, had been killed after the family were forced out of their safe room. Her son-in-law, Tal Shoham, who had been abducted with her, endured over 500 days in captivity before he was released.

Shoshan’s sister, Lilach Kipnis, her sister’s husband, Eviatar Kipnis, and Paul Castelvi, a Filipino national who worked as a caregiver with the family, were also among those killed in the attack on the kibbutz.

A 49-year-old teacher, Liat Atzili, described to Amnesty International being taken hostage from Nir Oz, another kibbutz near the perimeter fence surrounding Gaza. She said she hid in her safe room while the kibbutz was attacked and that at first some people in civilian clothing came and opened the safe room door, asked her for money and left when she said she did not have any. They were soon, however, followed by armed men. She said: “Two people arrived, armed, in uniform, and they opened the door. They kidnapped me.” She said that she was taken in a vehicle with another person from the kibbutz but was separated from this person on arrival in Gaza. She told Amnesty International that guards holding her told her that they were members of Hamas, and recounted being visited by other Hamas members during her time in captivity whom she understood to be more senior and “doing the rounds between apartments” where hostages were being held.

Also, among those abducted on 7 October 2023 were individuals who were clearly very badly injured, as seen in videos verified by Amnesty International. They included Hersh Goldberg-Polin, aged 22, who was abducted from Road 232 near the Nova festival site after fleeing the attack on the festival and seeking refuge in a rocket shelter.

Amnesty International has also documented evidence that Palestinian fighters, likely including fighters from both the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, took to Gaza the bodies of people who had been killed or mortally wounded during attacks in southern Israel. This practice denied families the opportunity to bury their loved ones, and in many instances left them not knowing, sometimes for months or longer, if their loved ones were still alive or had been killed.

At least 48 hostages who were seized alive have reportedly died in Gaza. Others were released in negotiated exchanges or rescued in Israeli military raids, one of which resulted in the killing of hundreds of Palestinians.

Killing of hostages

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have issued public statements threatening to kill the Israeli hostages they have been holding in retaliation for Israeli actions or to prevent rescue operations by the Israeli military.

On 1 September 2024, the Israeli military announced that, the previous day, it had recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages from an underground tunnel in Rafah near where their forces had found another hostage, 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, alone, but alive, in a tunnel in August 2024.

Three statements posted by Abu Obaida, the Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson, on social media on 2 September 2024, seemingly in response to the Israeli military’s announcement, suggested that the six were killed to prevent them from being rescued.

In 2025, the Al-Qassam Brigades stepped up threats to kill the remaining Israeli hostages. On 15 February 2025, as shown in a video analysed by Amnesty International, they forced one of three Israeli hostages who were being released in a negotiated hostage-prisoner exchange, to hold an hourglass above a photograph of Matan Zangauker, one of the hostages still being held in Gaza, in a threatening message that time was running out for the remaining hostages. On 24 March 2025, the Al-Qassam Brigades issued yet another video featuring two hostages pleading for a hostage-prisoner exchange deal as their only chance of survival.

The bodies of three of the most well-known hostages abducted on 7 October 2023, Argentine-Israeli Shiri Bibas and her two sons – nine-month-old Kfir Bibas and four-year-old Ariel Bibas – were finally returned to their family on 21 February 2025 as part of a negotiated hostage-prisoner exchange. Three weeks earlier, the Al-Qassam Brigades released Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the children’s father, who had been held separately from his wife and children.

Shiri and her two sons were alive and unharmed when they were seen being abducted from Nir Oz on 7 October 2023, but, in a video date-stamped 20 December 2024, a spokesperson of the Mujahideen Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, stated in a media interview that they had been killed in an Israeli air strike along with their captors. The Al-Qassam Brigades made a statement to the same effect, and the Israeli army said it would investigate the allegation. Neither the Mujahideen Brigades nor the Al-Qassam Brigades provided any evidence to substantiate their claims. The Israeli authorities claimed that the victims had been killed by their captors but similarly provided no evidence.

Some hostages were killed by the Israeli military. The most well-known case is that of Yotam Haim, aged 28, Samer Talalka, aged 22, and Alon Shamriz, aged 26, all of whom were shot dead on 15 December 2023 in the Shuja’iya neighbourhood of Gaza City, where Israeli forces were facing significant resistance from local Palestinian armed groups. The Israeli military took responsibility for these killings promptly, whereas in the case of three other hostages – Nik Beizer, Ron Sherman and Elia Toledano – it took the army 10 months to announce that they had been killed in an air strike in November 2023.

Background

During the 7 October 2023 attacks in southern Israel around 1,200 people were killed. More than 800 of them were civilians, including at least 36 children. The victims were primarily Jewish Israelis, but also included Bedouin citizens of Israel, and scores of foreign national migrant workers, students and asylum seekers. More than 4,000 people were injured, and hundreds of homes and civilian structures were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. Amnesty International has concluded that Palestinian armed groups committed violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes during the attacks and are continuing to commit crimes under international law in their ongoing holding and mistreatment of hostages and the withholding of bodies seized.

In May 2024, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed applications for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar over their alleged responsibility for the following war crimes and/or crimes against humanity committed from 7 October 2023 onwards: extermination, murder, rape and other sexual violence, hostage-taking, torture, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity. In November 2024, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the Court issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif. The Chamber terminated proceedings against each of the three Palestinians suspects after they were confirmed to have been killed in Israeli military operations.

The military offensive Israel launched in the wake of the 7 October 2023 attacks has killed more than 65,000 people, including over 18,000 children, and injured over 200,000, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health. Many have been killed or injured in direct attacks on civilians or indiscriminate attacks, which have often wiped out entire multigenerational families. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza remain unaccounted for; their bodies are believed to be trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings or in areas that are inaccessible due to Israeli military operations. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 78% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged as a result of Israeli military operations.

In November 2024, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the war crimes of starvation of civilians and intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population, as well as for the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.

In December 2024 Amnesty International concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza through killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, mostly civilians, have been detained during Israel’s military operations, many subjected to public forced nudity and torture before being transferred to detention camps and prisons inside Israel.

While in detention, Israeli authorities have systematically subjected them to torture or other ill-treatment, including starvation, physical and sexual violence, and denied them access to independent monitors and humanitarian organizations. Since 7 October 2023, at least 76 Palestinians have died while in Israeli custody, according to the Palestinian detainees’ commission. The actual number of Palestinian deaths in custody is believed to be higher.

The 7 October 2023 attacks took place against the backdrop of Israel’s prolonged occupation of the OPT and the widespread human rights violations perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians, including the imposition of a system of apartheid on Palestinians and the long-standing illegal blockade of Gaza since 2007.

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Rohingya communities in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State are facing forced labour, food and health crises, severe restrictions on movement and escalating armed conflict, Amnesty International said today as it warned against dangerously premature decisions to repatriate refugees from Bangladesh.

Tomorrow the UN General Assembly will convene a High-level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar. The conference aims to formulate a plan under which the more than one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh can return home to Myanmar after the majority were violently driven from the country by the military in 2016 and 2017.

Amnesty International conducted interviews with 15 Rohingya refugees who arrived in Bangladesh within the past year, as recently as July 2025. The refugees came from both Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships, which were both captured from the Myanmar military by the Arakan Army in 2024. The organization also spoke with UN agency staff, diplomats, researchers and international humanitarian organizations.

In addition, Amnesty International met with representatives from the political and humanitarian wings of the Arakan Army: the United League of Arakan (ULA) and the Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office (HDCO).

“Existing conditions in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State are nowhere near ready for Rohingya to return safely,” Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said. “The Arakan Army has, to many Rohingya, replaced the Myanmar military as their oppressor. The military are using Rohingya civilians as cannon fodder to fight against the Arakan Army, and Rohingya armed groups are launching new attacks into the territory. The dramatic reduction of US aid has further contributed to a humanitarian crisis in which supplies are scarce and prices are skyrocketing.

“While it is vitally important to put an international spotlight on the Rohingya crisis with this conference, any attempt to push ahead with repatriation without addressing the acute dangers facing all communities – Rohingya, Rakhine and other ethnic minorities in Bangladesh and in Myanmar – could be catastrophic.”

‘This is not your country’

The northern part of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh, is now under the control of the Arakan Army, while the Myanmar military still controls the state capital Sittwe, a key entry point for aid and transportation.

In November 2023, the Arakan Army, which is also loosely aligned with myriad opposition armed groups fighting against the Myanmar military since a coup in 2021, began an offensive that drove the military out of much of the northern part of the state. It now has effective control of Myanmar’s entire border with Bangladesh.

Long-standing tensions between the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist population of Rakhine State and the Rohingya Muslim population have been exploited by the Myanmar military, which worked with Rohingya armed groups and forcibly recruited Rohingya civilians to fight against the mostly Buddhist Arakan Army.

Due to the armed conflict, Rohingya and Rakhine civilians have been caught between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military, which has blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid via the state capital Sittwe, and carried out deadly indiscriminate air strikes. Earlier this month, in one such attack, a military air strike reportedly killed at least 19 Rakhine students while they slept. 

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are internally displaced, and more than 150,000 Rohingya men, women and children have fled across the border to the Bangladesh camps in the last 20 months, according to the UN refugee agency, bringing the total number of refugees to an estimated 1.2 million.

Amnesty International and other groups have documented violations of international humanitarian law and mounting abuses against civilians by the Arakan Army, including indiscriminate attacks and arbitrary detention.

For Rohingya civilians, life under Arakan Army rule in Rakhine State feels painfully similar to life under the Myanmar military. Many allege it is worse, as they are constantly under suspicion of being tied to Rohingya militant groups. A report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 2 September said that “restrictions on the rights and freedoms of Rohingya imposed by previous Governments remained in place,” and that similar to the Myanmar military, the Arakan Army denied Rohingya identity by referring to them only as Bengalis or Muslims.

Arakan Army representatives argue the group is the victim of a propaganda campaign fuelled by Rohingya activists and armed groups.

According to testimony gathered by Amnesty International, Rohingya communities in northern Rakhine state face severe restrictions on movement by the Arakan Army, discriminatory bans on fishing or other livelihood options, forced labour and inadequate access to healthcare, education and humanitarian aid. They also continue to die or be seriously injured in the ongoing conflict.

One man in his 20s said that while Arakan Army soldiers were leading him and members of his family to a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), he saw at least four people lose limbs from stepping on landmines.

A 60-year-old man who fled Myanmar with his family in July 2025 described life in an IDP camp in Buthidaung Township, where he was moved after the Arakan Army took Buthidaung from the Myanmar military in May 2024. He said the Arakan Army were searching for members of Rohingya armed groups at the camp and that they “randomly took people from the crowd and disappeared them”.

People living in the camp were also forced to work, including in frontline conflict areas.

“They would make us carry stones and bricks to their checkpoints and stack them there while we were hungry. Since I was old, they did not make me do all of that work, but my children had to do it more than 10 times…if we refused to work, [members of the Arakan Army] would beat us severely, forcing us to lie face down while they beat us.”

People who lived in IDP camps in Myanmar before fleeing to Bangladesh said they ate infrequently, relying on rice and water from a muddy well, and that children died after getting diarrhea.

“They [the Arakan Army] did not provide anything; instead, they seemed happy when anyone died,” the 60-year-old man said. “They would say, ‘This is not your country. This is our country, our land, our water, our air – nothing here belongs to you. Get out of our country.’”

People were told by the Arakan Army that if they did not follow their rules or refused to work, they would be kicked out of Myanmar.

‘No school, no medicine and no aid’

A 25-year-old who spent eight months displaced from his home in Buthidaung Township before arriving in Bangladesh in January of this year said conditions in the IDP camp where he lived were “terrible”.

“We had no school, no medicine, no food and no aid. Occasionally, we secretly brought back some rice from unburnt villages. We used water from a single pond and needed Arakan Army permission to go anywhere.”

He said his brother was shot and injured by the Arakan Army when soldiers were trying to forcibly relocate large groups of people and they were not moving fast enough. On another occasion, the man said the Arakan Army suspected him of being part of a Rohingya armed group and began beating him for information. When the man’s pregnant wife asked them to stop, he said they hit her as well, which the couple believe caused developmental problems with their baby after the birth.

“The Arakan Army treated us worse than the Myanmar military. Whenever fighting occurred between the two forces, they forced us to clean the aftermath, picking up bodies and debris, then dumping them in the river. I was forced to do this over 10 times without pay. Every family was required to send someone aged 15 to 70 for forced labour. If anyone refused, they were beaten,” he said.

A 35-year-old woman, who also arrived in Bangladesh in January 2025 after walking for five days across mountainous terrain with her children, said farmers had to pay tax in rice to the Arakan Army, and Rohingya had to make paid applications to seek permission to travel.

“Under Arakan Army control, every household was forced to provide night guards, boys from as young as 10 years old up to men in their 70s, and to send family members for forced labour at least five times per month,” she said, adding that young men were also forcibly recruited to fight. “If anyone refused, we were told to leave this country or face punishment.”

The descriptions of restrictions on movement imposed by the Arakan Army match details of travel documents obtained by Amnesty International that show the permissions needed to move from place to place. One interviewee said mandatory travel documents had to be paid for, and some were only good for two days. Another said that the Arakan Army would allow only a limited number of people to leave their homes for basic errands and only for one hour.

Under international law, forced labour is defined as any work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty, and for which the person has not offered himself voluntarily.

Responding to these allegations, Arakan Army representatives told Amnesty International that it did not practise forced labour against civilians, but that detainees such as convicted criminals or prisoners of war would sometimes be put to work, or given tasks as “exercise”. They said that any clean-up activities following the conflict were voluntary community work, and that while there were fees for travel authorization documents, they were around 2,000 to 3,000 Myanmar kyats, equivalent to $1 to $1.50 USD.

‘We were not allowed to fish’

The World Food Programme said in August that “a deadly combination of conflict, blockades, and funding cuts is driving a dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition”. It added that in central Rakhine State, the number of families unable to meet basic food needs was up to 57 percent, compared to 33 percent in December 2024. It said the situation in northern Rakhine state, where international organizations are not active, was likely “much worse”.

A 45-year-old man who arrived in Bangladesh in July 2025 said that ethnic Rakhine people in Buthidaung Township were allowed to fish and move around freely, while Rohingya were not.

“We were not allowed to fish or go to the river. We could not work or buy food. The Arakan Army began demanding money from us, used us as forced labour without pay and banned movement between villages. Anyone who refused was punished harshly,” he said, adding that this included being detained and denied food.

“One day, I tried to go fishing for survival. The Arakan Army caught me, beat me with a rifle…and took away the fish I had caught.”

Arakan Army representatives told Amnesty International that movement and livelihood restrictions were not discriminatory and applied to Rakhine communities too. They said due to the armed conflict the restrictions were necessary for the security of the community. They also added that the Rohingya – whom they referred to as Muslims – were given jobs and that their rights and freedoms would be fulfilled and protected, pointing to the recent opening of a long-closed mosque in Maungdaw.

“We welcome any steps by the Arakan Army to provide the Rohingya communities with long-denied rights, and we hope that their public commitments to inclusivity, justice and accountability match the situation on the ground. They must avoid presenting one face to the international community and another to the Rohingya,” Freeman said.

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Background: In mid-September 2025, media reports suggested that US President Donald Trump’s administration planned to call for “reframing the global approach to asylum” during an event on the sidelines of the United National General Assembly High-level Week. On 25 September, the US hosted a side event at UNGA headlined by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, titled The Global Refugee and Asylum System: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It. Speakers included representatives from Panama, Liberia, Bangladesh, and Kosovo.  

The administration called for a “reframing” of the global approach to asylum, based on five “principles”: 

• Every nation has the “right” to control its borders. 

• There is no right to immigrate or to receive asylum or refugee status in the country of an individual’s choice. 

• Refugee status is temporary, not permanent. 

• Sovereign states, not transnational bodies, make the determination whether the conditions in a country of origin permit return. 

• Every country must agree to accept expeditiously the return of its nationals. 

The US is party to the 1967 Refugee Protocol, but not the 1951 Refugee Convention. Despite earlier reports, no indication was made in the event that the US would withdraw from the Protocol. However, consistent with an Executive Order issued by President Trump in February, the State Department is undergoing a review of all treaties to which the US is a party.  

Q1: What does Amnesty International think about the proposal? 

The most striking feature of the Trump administration’s proposal is the absence of any reference to the principle of non-refoulement, the cornerstone of the current global asylum system. Under this principle, states cannot return anyone to a place where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations.  

The key substantive point of the proposal would be requiring asylum seekers to claim protection in the first country they enter. This would (1) severely curtail the ability of refugees, particularly of poor and racialised people from Global South countries, to seek protection; and (2) increase the chasm between Global North and Global South countries, as middle- and low-income countries in the Global South continue carrying most of the responsibility for the world’s refugees.  

First, the proposal would have a disproportionate impact on poor and racialised asylum seekers and refugees from Global South countries. The proposal would make it impossible for asylum seekers to seek protection in countries other than the first country they enter. For people travelling by land, that would mean not being able to seek protection in countries other than those neighbouring their own. That would not only restrict people’s ability to exercise the right to seek asylum; it would make the right to seek and receive international protection dependant on an individual’s country of origin and the vagaries of geography. The impact of the proposal would be more severe on asylum seekers and refugees coming from regions where refugee protection is weak, and those who do not have the means to travel by air.  

Second, the proposal would serve the interests of Global North countries, to the detriment of Global South countries that already host most of the world’s refugees [see below Q4]. 

The US has both the international and domestic tools to address the concerns it has raised, without undermining or overturning the multilateral agreements or weakening protections for refugees. 

Q2: Why should asylum seekers be allowed to pick and choose the country they want to go to? 

The US administration’s claim that asylum seekers pick and choose the country where they claim asylum is not supported by evidence. In fact, most refugees and asylum-seekers worldwide stay in the first country they enter. According to UNHCR, 67% live in countries neighbouring their countries of origin; and 73% are hosted in low- and middle-income countries. 

However, often protection cannot be found in a neighbouring country and asylum seekers and refugees need to keep moving to find safety.  

Authorities in Iran, the country hosting the largest number of refugees (3.5 million), are waging an unlawful expulsion campaign targeting Afghan refugees, forcibly returning more than one million people to Afghanistan in 2025. Authorities in Pakistan have forcibly returned more than one million Afghan refugees and asylum seekers since announcing a “repatriation plan” in October 2023.  

In several African countries, legislation criminalising homosexuality and increasingly repressive practices have had a negative impact on LGBTI refugee communities. In Kenya, Amnesty International and the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) have documented hate crimes, violence, and other serious human rights abuses targeting LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees living in one of Kenya’s biggest refugee camps. 

Amnesty International has also documented abuses against asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Mexico.  

US law already prohibits the granting of asylum or refugee status to anyone who was firmly resettled elsewhere meaning that those who successfully were able to seek safety elsewhere would already been disqualified under US law.  

Q3: Why should refugees be allowed to stay in their country of asylum indefinitely? 

Asylum is not indefinite or permanent per se. The length of time the protection exists is predicated on the conditions in the country of origin. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee status only continues as long as the person continues meeting the relevant criteria, and “cessation” procedures may be initiated if circumstances in the country of origin have changed significantly and durably.  

Many asylum systems include procedures for the host country to regularly check whether conditions in the country of origin have changed. In the European Union, for example, the Qualification Directive ((Directive 2011/95/EU) allows Member States to review refugee status periodically or when new evidence arises.  

In the United States, refugee status itself is not subject to periodic renewal. Thousands of refugees have become naturalized citizens and have contributed greatly to the country. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that from 2005 to 2019, resettled refugees and people granted asylum in the U.S. contributed billions more in federal, state, and local government revenues than they received in services.  

Q4: Would the proposal mark a radical shift from how the global refugee system currently works?  

The Trump administration’s proposal reflects and reinforces a decade-long trend among Global North countries refusing their fair share of the responsibility for the world’s refugees and shifting that responsibility on low- and middle- income Global South countries. 

Australia’s offshore detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, the EU’s cooperation agreements with Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and others, the UK’s failed deal with Rwanda, measures to unlawfully suspend access to asylum coupled with pushbacks of refugees and asylum-seekers at the borders of Greece, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, have all intended to deter and confront spontaneous arrivals of racialised refugees and asylum seekers from Global South countries.  

Proposals currently being negotiated to review the EU’s return or deportation legislation as well as the ‘safe third country’ concept in EU law, likewise, would make it possible for EU countries to reject individuals’ asylum claims as inadmissible and transfer them, against their will, to countries to which they have no connection and in which they may have never set foot. 

In the US, policies including “metering”, the Migrant Protection Protocols (“Remain in Mexico”), the Title 42 Public Health Order, the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways Final Rule (the “Asylum Ban”), the June 2024 Presidential Proclamation and mandatory use of the CBP One mobile application have severely limited access to asylum at the US-Mexico border over the past decade. On 20 January 2025, President Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and suspended the entry of non-citizens and people without valid visas, meaning there is currently no way for individuals at the border to seek asylum in the US.  

As they increasingly refuse to welcome refugees and asylum-seekers on their territories, Global North countries are also increasingly refusing to share the financial responsibilities for their protection and assistance in other countries where the vast majority of refugees are hosted, cutting their humanitarian aid budgets and leaving humanitarian appeals underfunded. 

The US’ proposal is a further shift away from the commitments to share responsibility across states in response to forced displacement included in the Global Compact on Refugees, a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing adopted by the UNGA in December 2018. 

The Trump administration’s proposal does not stem from an evidence-based analysis of the current global asylum system. It reflects the administration’s domestic political agenda, its biases about the US domestic asylum system, and populist-fuelled fears about a conspiracy to diminish the influence of White people in the country, while perpetuating false and harmful narratives about asylum seekers.  

Q5: But surely countries have the power to control their borders? 

The power of countries to control their borders is not absolute – it is limited by their human rights obligations. Notably, countries are under the obligation not to transfer anyone to a place where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations (the principle of non-refoulement). Individuals have the right to seek asylum; their asylum claims must be determined in fair and effective asylum determination processes.  

Q6: What are the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol? 

The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol define the term “refugee” and outline the international obligations for their protection. The 1951 Refugee Convention (Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted in Geneva on 28 July 1951) currently has 146 states parties. Its 1967 Protocol (Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted by the UN General Assembly with Resolution 2198 (XXI)) currently has 147 states parties. 

Reflecting the historic context of WWII, the scope of the 1951 Refugee Convention was originally limited to events occurring before 1 January 1951. States parties had the option to apply its provisions either universally or only to refugees from Europe, but most decided to apply it only to refugees from Europe. The 1967 Protocol expanded the scope of the 1951 Refugee Convention by removing both its temporal and geographic limitations. Most states parties currently apply the 1951 Refugee Convention to people fleeing persecution globally and at any time. Only four countries currently apply the 1951 Refugee Convention with the geographical limitation to Europe (Turkey, Monaco, Madagascar and Congo (Brazzaville)). 

The US proposal does not specifically state that the existing treaties should be abandoned. However, regardless of a country’s ratification status to these two treaties, states are bound by the obligation of non-refoulement, which prohibits them from transferring individuals to a place where they would be at real risk of persecution or other serious human rights violations. The obligation of non-refoulement is a rule of customary international law and is therefore universal, binding all states irrespective of their ratification of specific treaties. Its procedural aspects require states to allow individuals to challenge any decision to transfer them on non-refoulement grounds. Any procedure to challenge transfers should afford all procedural guarantees of fairness, including suspensive effect.  

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