Kategorie: Humans

Responding to the ‘surveys’ conducted on Wednesday by the Income Tax Department of India at multiple locations, including the premises of Oxfam India, Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF) and the Centre for Policy Research, Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International said:

“The coordinated raids, which are being presented as ‘surveys’, carried out by the Income Tax department against multiple civil society organisations in India are yet another blatant example of how financial and investigative agencies of the government have been weaponised to harass, intimidate, silence, and criminalise independent critical voices in the country. It is alarming how the attack on the rights to freedom of expression and association by the authorities keeps growing unabated every day in India.”

It is alarming how the attack on the rights to freedom of expression and association by the authorities keeps growing unabated every day in India.

Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International

“The raids are clearly a heavy-handed attempt by the government to instill fear among the staff, supporters and funders of these organisations, and to impose a chilling effect to silence civil society at large. Indian authorities must immediately stop these tactics of repression and ensure that civil society organisations are able to operate free from fear of reprisal in the country.”

Background

On 7 September 2022, the Income Tax Department of India conducted raids at multiple locations including the two NGOs and a public policy think-tank named above as part of a probe investigating alleged contraventions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. This is not the first time that central investigative or financial agencies have raided premises and conducted investigations against civil society organisations. Previously, Amnesty International India and Greenpeace India’s offices were raided by various central agencies. The Income Tax department have also previously raided the premises of independent media houses critical of the government, including Newclick, Newslaundry, The Quint, Dainik Bhaskar, and Bharat Samachar.

These raids which constitute intrusive scrutiny and burdensome administrative requirements are a violation of the rights to association and to privacy protected under international human rights law. Authorities must ensure that any processes undertaken to ensure transparency and accountability from organizations are not arbitrary and are non-discriminatory.

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Responding to the “sedition” convictions handed down today to five Hong Kong speech therapists who published illustrated children’s books about mass protests and other events in the city, Amnesty International’s China campaigner Gwen Lee said:

“In today’s Hong Kong, you can go to jail for publishing children’s books with drawings of wolves and sheep. These ‘sedition’ convictions are an absurd example of the disintegration of human rights in the city.

“Writing books for children is not a crime, and attempting to educate children about recent events in Hong Kong’s history does not constitute an attempt to incite rebellion.

“The Hong Kong authorities’ recent revival of colonial-era sedition charges to prosecutive activists, journalists and writers is a brazen act of repression. No one had been charged with sedition since 1967 until the Hong Kong government began weaponizing these provisions to intensify its crackdown on freedom of expression.

“The Hong Kong government must abolish the archaic sedition laws that are being used to prosecute people solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression. These five speech therapists have been unjustly detained, and they must be immediately released.”

Background:

Two men and three women, who were all members of the General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists at the time the books were published, were today convicted of sedition and face up to two years in jail. The government revoked the union’s registration in October 2021, alleging that it was used for “unlawful purpose”. The group are due to be sentenced on Saturday.

All five were arrested in July 2021 for publishing a series of children’s books about Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy mass protests and other issues.

In books such as The Guardians of Sheep Village, The 12 Heroes of Sheep Village and The Garbage Collectors of Sheep Village, Hong Kong residents were depicted as sheep and mainland Chinese authorities as wolves. 

National security police said the illustrated books – which were aimed at children between four and seven years old – had a “seditious intent” and “incited violence”.

Since 2020, the Hong Kong government has been using colonial-era sedition charges – alongside the repressive National Security Law which was enacted in June of that year – to stamp out dissent.

People charged with sedition have faced some of the same draconian measures as those targeted under the National Security Law. When one of the speech therapists, Sidney Ng, applied for bail in 2021, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the stringent bail threshold applicable in cases involving national security charges was also applicable to this case.

In July, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed concern about the Hong Kong government’s use of colonial-era sedition charges to target people for exercising their right to freedom of expression. It called for the repeal of sedition offences and to end their use to suppress criticism or dissent.

Under international law and standards, the right to freedom of expression applies to information, ideas and opinions of all kinds, including those that some may find offensive.

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Responding to the continuing imprisonment of human rights defender Atikur Rahman under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), India’s draconian anti-terror law solely for peacefully exercising his human rights and despite his deteriorating health condition, Aakar Patel, chair of board for Amnesty International India said:

“It is a travesty for the Indian authorities to keep Atikur Rahman in detention for almost two years on bogus charges solely for peacefully exercising his human rights.  It seems the authorities are on a vindictive quest to further crush him by making his life unbearable, including by denying and delaying his medical treatment. Rahman should not have been detained in the first place. His arbitrary detention must end.”

It seems the authorities are on a vindictive quest to further crush activist Atikur Rahman by making his life unbearable, including by denying and delaying his medical treatment… His arbitrary detention must end.

Aakar Patel, chair of board for Amnesty International India

“Rahman must be released immediately and all politically motivated charges against him dropped. Pending his release, the Indian authorities must ensure that his detention conditions are improved in line with international standards and that he has immediate and regular access to his family and any healthcare he may require. Subjecting Rahman to inhumane conditions and failing to provide adequate medical treatment is a human rights violation.”

Background

On 5 October 2020, Atikur Rahman along with journalist Siddique Kappan, student Masood Ahmad and taxi driver Mohammad Alam was arrested in Mathura, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. They were on their way to meet the family of a Dalit woman who was raped and murdered by a group of men from the dominant caste in Hathras.

The Uttar Pradesh police charged them with ‘sedition’, ‘promoting enmity between groups’, ‘outraging religious feelings’ and ‘criminal conspiracy’ under the Indian Penal Code and ‘raising funds for terrorist act’ and ‘conspiring to commit a terrorist act’ under the UAPA.

In November 2021, Atikur Rahman was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for an open-heart surgery after his family filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court. Since March 2022, he has been hospitalised multiple times. His medical documents state in addition to an existing heart ailment, he has now developed a neurological disease. The left side of his body has been paralyzed and he suffers from memory loss.

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Responding to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s findings that Russia is stationing forces in the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), confirming information that Amnesty International received in August, Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Research in Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia office, said:

“By occupying the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Russian forces are not only endangering those in the plant and its surroundings, but also heightening the risk of a nuclear catastrophe across the region.

“By placing its forces on the territory of the plant and in its immediate vicinity, Russia bears primary responsibility for the potentially devastating consequences of a nuclear accident. Amnesty International calls for full demilitarization of the power plant and its immediate surroundings.

“On top of the obvious dangers of militarizing the power plant, a local resident told Amnesty that Ukrainians, including staff who Russian forces suspect of documenting their activities near the plant, have reportedly been subjected to brutal reprisals. Some were abducted and tortured in the basement of the building previously used by the Security Service of Ukraine.”

In August, Amnesty was also informed by a local resident and a member of ZNPP staff that Russian military personnel at the plant were restricting the movement of staff and also subjecting them to intrusive personal searches. Amnesty International was not able to verify these worrying allegations from other sources. However, the IAEA findings confirm the presence of Russian troops on the plant and restrictions of staff movement.

IAEA has also reported physical damage to the ZNPP’s facilities resulting from the military activities in the vicinity, including shelling. Amnesty International’s local sources said that the damage was the result of Russian forces firing mortars from occupied Ukrainian territory, allegedly to blame the Ukrainian forces. Amnesty has been unable to verify these claims but is concerned to hear that IAEA confirms the damage resulting from shelling, including on dates specifically described by our local sources.

IAEA stopped short of naming either side as responsible for the shelling and has demanded that both sides cease all such military activity.

Background

IAEA has published its report: Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguards in Ukraine, 2nd Summary Report by the Director General 28 April – 5 September 2022 (ukraine-2ndsummaryreport_sept2022.pdf (iaea.org)

The IAEA reported its team observed “the presence of Russian military personnel, vehicles and equipment at various places at the ZNPP, including several military trucks on the ground floor of the Unit 1 and Unit 2 turbine halls and military vehicles stationed under the overpass connecting the reactor units”. It called for “the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone”.

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The heart-wrenching death in custody this week of Bashar Abdel-Saud, a Syrian refugee who was tortured, must serve as a wake-up call to the Lebanese authorities to address torture in their detention facilities, said Amnesty International today.

Lebanese judicial officials have announced an investigation by the military prosecution, however Amnesty International is calling for the investigation and trial to take place before the civilian justice system.

“Bashar Abdel-Saud cruelly died while in the custody of Lebanon’s State Security agency – the images of his bruised, gashed body offer a distressing reminder of the need to urgently implement the 2017 anti-torture law. It is unacceptable for torture to be continuing to occur in Lebanese detention centres and with such brutality – the authorities must put a stop to it immediately,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“While it is a positive measure that a group of security personnel have been remanded in custody for questioning, under human rights law standards, military courts should restrict their jurisdiction to that of military offences by military personnel. To ensure transparency and impartiality, Abdel-Saud’s case must urgently be referred to a civilian court. His family deserves justice and reparations for their tragic loss.”

State Security officers arrested Abdel-Saud from his home in Beirut on 31 August, without presenting an arrest warrant. According to Mohammed Sablouh, the lawyer assigned to Abdel-Saud’s case, the family received a call from a State Security official four days later on 3 September, asking them to collect his dead body from their headquarters in Tebneen, Southern Lebanon. Sablouh and the family refuse to collect the body before they receive an independent and comprehensive forensic report from the doctor who has examined the body.

…the images of his [Bashar Abdel-Saud] bruised, gashed body offer a distressing reminder of the need to urgently implement the 2017 anti-torture law.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International

Following the uproar caused by leaked pictures and videos revealing bruises and gashes covering Abdel-Saud’s body article, State Security issued a statement saying that he had been arrested for possession of a fake 50$ bill and that he had “confessed” to being a member of ISIS before he died. They also said that the case would be investigated internally.

On 2 September, the government commissioner of the Military Court examined the body and ordered the detention of five officers in the State Security branch in Tibneen, including the Lieutenant in charge and the officers suspected of committing torture.

Mohammed Sablouh told Amnesty International that the authorities had thus far accused Abdel-Saud of three things: “they said he had fake currency, they said he used and dealt with Captagon, and they said he was a member of ISIS. All these are lies. We need a transparent investigation in the civilian court to know what has happened and who is to be held accountable.”

Bashar Abdel-Saud was 30 years old when he died and had three children, including a one-month old child. He had defected from the Syrian army eight years ago and moved to Lebanon to work as a porter. He lived with his family in the Sabra and Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees in Beirut.

His experience of torture was not an isolated one. In March 2021, Amnesty International released a report documenting an array of violations against 26 Syrian refugees, including four children, held on terrorism-related charges between 2014 and early 2021. Among the violations were unfair trial and torture, which included beatings with metal sticks, electric cables and plastic pipes. Authorities failed to investigate the torture claims, even when detainees or their lawyers told a judge in court that they had been tortured.

Abdel-Saud’s case echoes that of Ziad Itani, a Lebanese actor who was arrested by the State Security agency in December 2017 on trumped-up charges of spying for Israel before being tried before a military court. Itani said State Security officers subjected him to severe torture, including beating him with electric cables, tying him up in metal chains, kicking and punching him in the face, and threatening to rape him. He filed a complaint against them in November 2018 but no further steps have been taken to effectively investigate his torture.

“During Lebanon’s last review by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, the Lebanese government committed to implement the anti-torture law, investigate all allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, hold the perpetrators accountable, and nullify confessions under torture. Yet impunity for torture remains commonplace, with dozens of complaints regarding torture and other ill-treatment filed under the 2017 Anti-Torture Law rarely reaching court and most closed without an effective investigation. It is time for this to stop.” Said Heba Morayef.

Background

Lebanon ratified the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and its Optional Protocol in 2000 and 2008 respectively. In compliance with its obligations under the CAT, Lebanon passed an anti-torture law in 2017, which makes torture a criminal offence.

Under international human rights law, military personnel should be tried before military courts only for breaches of military discipline. Under the Lebanese anti-torture law, the power to prosecute, investigate and try is granted exclusively to ordinary civilian courts. Also, the prohibition of torture applies regardless of the nature of the alleged crime.

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