Amnesty International deeply regrets the death of Eduardo Mauricio Ruiz Sanz (32) from a gunshot wound, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in the context of the social mobilizations held yesterday in Lima. We urge the authorities to carry out thorough and impartial investigations to identify and punish those responsible, in accordance with international human rights standards.
Amnesty International further regrets that dozens of people, including protesters, bystanders and police, have been injured in the context of the state repression of the demonstrations, and categorically rejects the disproportionate use of force by the police and all acts of violence.
We also express our rejection of the attacks against the press. Peru’s National Association of Journalists (ANP) reported 11 attacks on journalists covering the protests in the capital, six of whom were reportedly injured by pellets. This could constitute a worrying pattern of unlawful use of state force against the press, who play an important role in covering such protests.
Amnesty International has been able to verify that police officers fired pellets, used tear gas, and beat or violently repressed people unnecessarily and disproportionately, violating international human rights standards. Likewise, outbreaks of violence in which protesters allegedly clashed with law enforcement officers reinforce the need for the state to adopt response protocols that prioritize prevention, mediation and the protection of rights.
We would like to reiterate that a protest does not lose its peaceful nature because of isolated incidents or violent behavior by individuals. It is therefore the role of law enforcement to identify and respond specifically to any such incidents, while continuing to guarantee and protect the human rights of peaceful protesters.
In light of the current social and political crisis facing the country, we urge the authorities to listen to the demands of the population, rather than delegitimizing them through stigmatizing rhetoric. The right to peaceful protest must be guaranteed without any limitations, and the repression of social demonstrations must stop.
In light of the current social and political crisis facing the country, we urge the authorities to listen to the demands of the population, rather than delegitimizing them through stigmatizing rhetoric.
Amnesty International continues to analyse the human rights situation throughout the country, monitoring the social mobilizations and deploying teams of observers.
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org
Across the world, people are still suffering the long-lasting effects of slavery and colonialism and struggling to get the reparations they deserve from governments and private actors that perpetrated and profited from these historical injustices.
In this explainer, we break down what reparations for these historical wrongs are, the long-lasting effects of slavery and colonialism, and why this issue is still relevant.
What are reparations?
Most often, the word reparation is used in relation to money. It’s given as an acknowledgement of wrongful/unlawful conduct and to repair the harm caused by or as a result of this conduct.
Under international law, victims of crimes under international law and human rights violations have a right to reparations. The word reparations refers to measures to redress violations of human rights by providing a range of material and symbolic remedies to victims or their families as well as affected communities.
Reparations must be adequate, effective, prompt, and should be proportional to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered.
What kind of reparations are there?
Reparations can take several forms:
Compensation, where a state would give money to those affected as a way to compensate for damage, harm or losses suffered.
Rehabilitation, which can include medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services.
Restitution, which involves restoring victims to the position they would have been in had the harm not occurred.
Satisfaction, which include effective measures aimed at the cessation of continuing violations; verification of the facts and full and public disclosure of the truth to the extent that such disclosure does not cause further harm or threaten the safety and interests of the victim; or a public apology.
Guarantee of non-repetition, which include measures aimed at preventing harm and human rights violations in the future by addressing the root causes.
Case study: The Metis Children from Belgium’s colonial rule
For others, education can take the form or a reparation as seen in the case of Jacqui Goegebeur.
Jacqui Goegebeur was abducted when she was three and sent to live with strangers in Belgium.
Jacqui was one of thousands of ‘Métis’ children — those of mixed European and African heritage — systematically abducted from their mothers during Belgium’s colonial rule in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo 70 years ago. When Jacqui was three years old, she was abducted and sent to live in Belgium with strangers. Her family was ripped apart, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering that’s still felt today. Now, Jacqui is calling for reparations, but in different ways.
“For me, I want to see funded studies to help us understand our past.”
Why do we need reparations for slavery and colonialism given that they happened so long ago?
Slavery, the slave trade and colonialism are not only harms of the past. For racialised people, including Indigenous Peoples, the legacies of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism persist in present day structures of racial discrimination, subordination and inequality.
These legacies remain among the primary barriers to the full enjoyment of human rights by racialised people including Indigenous Peoples throughout the world today. The historical harms of slavery and colonialism are therefore inextricably linked to present racial injustices, global inequality and human rights violations.
There is growing recognition by international human rights bodies and mechanisms that the legacies of slavery, including the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism require urgent reparatory justice.
What atrocities were committed under European colonial rule?
It is estimated that between 25 million and 30 million people were violently uprooted from Africa for enslavement throughout history. From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, approximately 12.5 million Africans were enslaved by Europeans and shipped to colonies in the Americas in what has come to be known as the “transatlantic slave trade.” Of those 12.5 million enslaved Africans, it is estimated that close to 2 million lost their lives during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean.
The trade in enslaved people did not only affect the African and American continents. For example, between 1500 and 1850, Europeans were also involved, directly or indirectly, in trading between 953,900 to 1,275,900 enslaved persons “within an oceanic world that stretched from eastern Africa and Madagascar to the Persian Gulf, South Asia, and the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos”.
The colonial empires built by European states between the 15th and 20th centuries extended across nearly 80% of the entire globe. This means that two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations, approximately 127 out of 193 Member States, were subject to European colonial rule at some point in history. In many cases, this rule lasted for over 250 years. Among the many harms of colonialism was the denial of self-determination and dispossession of land from Indigenous populations, the imposition of colonial borders, plunder of natural resources, the exploitation of labor of enslaved and colonized peoples, and the destruction of local cultures, languages and knowledge systems.
How are the effects of slavery and colonialism being felt today?
European colonialism and slavery built the world that we inhabit today. It is palpable all around us – from the borders that divide us to the languages we speak and the knowledge systems we are taught. The incredible wealth that was made by European states through slavery and colonialism has led to gross inequality that continues to mark the world order.
We often think about slavery and colonialism as something that’s finished, but we are still living in its long shadow. We live in a world shaped by colonial logic.
For example, where people migrate from and to neatly maps on to histories created under colonial power, while low-income countries are most likely to be former colonies. So, while the transatlantic slave trade is over, many of the ideas of how the globe is organized and who can move where, how, why and when map comfortably with those divisions – and that’s why they are so difficult to undo.
What are some of the countries that are still reeling from the effects of colonialism?
Countries across the world, such as Haiti, are still reeling from the effects of colonialism and slavery. The enduring harmful effects of Haiti’s so-called “independence debt”, alongside the legacies of slavery and colonialism, continue to shape the country’s political, social, economic, humanitarian, and human rights realities. Imposed by France in 1825 under threat of military force, the financial burden crippled the country’s entrenched structural inequalities that persist to this day. As 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the imposition of the debt, Haitian activists and international organizations are renewing calls for France to provide reparations and acknowledge the profound harm caused by slavery and colonialism.
In Namibia, more than a century since Germany’s colonial genocide against the Indigenous Ovaherero and Nama peoples, descendant communities continue to be impacted by its legacies. The dispossession of ancestral lands and loss of cultural heritage as a result of the genocide have caused irreparable damage and transgenerational harm for the Ovaherero and Nama peoples that endures to this day.
Indigenous Peoples in Namibia today also face the perpetuation of colonial patterns through new forms of dispossession driven by the extraction of natural resources and the transition to renewable energies. For example, the planned construction of a major renewable energy project by a European joint venture on Nama ancestral land has been challenged by the Nama Traditional Leaders Association. Although the Namibian and German governments have concluded a joint declaration to address the colonial past, the agreement does not provide for direct reparations to Ovaherero and Nama descendants and failed to provide for the meaningful participation by affected communities in the negotiation of the declaration. Because of this, Nama and Ovaherero leadership have rejected the declaration and continue their struggle for reparatory justice from Germany not only through political advocacy but also through courts.
Have governments acknowledged the need for reparations?
For far too long communities and individuals directly impacted by historical injustices have been demanding reparations, especially Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent. Colonialism, enslavement, the slave trade and their ongoing legacies remain largely unaccounted for by European states and others who are responsible.
Although a growing number of states, institutions and corporations have begun to formally acknowledge or apologize for their role in slavery, the slave trade and/or colonialism, this has not been accompanied by other reparatory justice measures such as restitution or compensation which centred on or are decided with affected communities.
What barriers do people and communities face when it comes to getting reparations?
One of the biggest challenges in the fight for reparations is that many States argue that slavery and colonialism weren’t considered illegal acts at the time they happened. Because of that, they claim they don’t have any obligation to repair today.
This argument has been raised by a number of European states, notably those who benefitted and continue to benefit from the legacy of slavery and colonialism, to refute the existence of a duty under international law to provide reparation for these historic wrongs.
For example, in 2022 the UK voted against a UN resolution calling on States to provide reparation for past injustices, explaining that the UK does not agree “with claims made in this resolution that states are required to make reparations for the slave trade and colonialism, which caused great suffering to many but were not, at that time, violations of international law.”
Are communities holding accountable States for their role in colonialism and slavery?
Yes, communities are organising across the world to obtain reparations but it’s a slow process, with many European states continuing to oppose claims for reparations. In a historic move in December 2024, Belgium was found responsible for crimes against humanity for acts committed during colonization, signalling as a turning point for European states. The decision represents long-awaited recognition and supports additional claims for reparations for Métis people, victims and survivors of Belgian colonization.
In Canada, Indigenous Peoples have long been fighting for reparatory justice for historic and ongoing violations, including violations of their right to self-determination and loss of ancestral lands. The transatlantic slave trade and its enduring legacies created deep generational inequities that continue to disadvantage people of African descent. As part of the British Empire, Canada participated in this system, with institutions like the Hudson’s Bay Company profiting immensely from enslaved and indentured labour. While slave owners were compensated for their “losses”, after the abolition of slavery, through the Slavery Compensation Act—payments that continued until 2015—those who were enslaved and exploited have yet to receive justice, making the call for reparations both urgent and necessary.
In 2012, hundreds of Indigenous Peoples brought a class action lawsuit against Canadian authorities, seeking reparations for the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families and placement in residential schools. The residential school system formed part of a colonial policy to eradicate Indigenous cultures, languages, and communities in Canada, resulting in the separation of approximately 150,000 Indigenous children from their families, identity, and cultures. Residential schools were also rife with neglect and abuse of Indigenous children causing thousands of deaths.
Survivor stories detail horrific physical and emotional abuse suffered that resulting in lasting trauma. In January 2023, the Canadian government agreed to pay a 2 billion US dollars to settle a lawsuit, with the settlement to be used to “revitalize Indigenous education, culture, and language – to support survivors in healing and reconnecting with their heritage.” As a result of an earlier class action lawsuit filed by thousands of Indigenous survivors, the Canadian government formally apologized for the harms of the residential school system and held a Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2007 to 2015 to investigate and record crimes and human rights violations committed against Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.
Regional bodies are also addressing the issue of reparations for historical injustices. In 2014, Caricom – the Caribbean intergovernmental body – developed a 10-points agenda for reparatory justice including full formal apology, illiteracy eradication and debt cancellation. The African Union designated reparations for Africans and People of African Descent as theme of the year for 2025, which has now turned into a decade for reparations going from 2026 to 2036.
What is Amnesty International doing to advance reparations?
Reparation involves not only justice for the historic wrongs of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism. It requires also dismantling or transforming contemporary systems and structures of racial discrimination, subordination and inequality that were built under slavery and colonialism, like white supremacy. Reparations therefore concern our future and our present as much as they do our past.
Over the past year, Amnesty International’s Racial Justice Team has:
Developed legal arguments under international law for reparations.
Advocated alongside the UN, producing oral statements, submissions and inputs into U.N resolutions, advocacy meetings and co-organising side-events with partners.
Continued to document the effects of colonialism and slavery on human rights today.
The team also works with partner organizations and communities struggling to achieve justice. They bring together groups and communities so they can learn about different ongoing reparation processes, discuss successes and challenges, and strategize how international law and advocacy may be used for achieving reparatory justice.
Going forward, the team will be attending the Wakati Wetu Festival in Nairobi Kenya from 22-23 October, where they will be working with partners African Futures Labs to ignite global conversations on reparative justice through art, activism, and community.
Reacting to the leaked draft of the 11th Judicial Package (“11. Yargı Paketi”) which proposes the introduction of criminal penalties targeting Türkiye’s LGBTI community, Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for Europe, said:
“These proposals present a grave threat to the rights of LGBTI people and those who advocate for LGBTI rights and they must never see the light of day.
“For the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic, legislators could be considering the criminalization of any expression of LGBTI identities, consensual same-sex sexual activity, and access to vital gender-affirming healthcare. Under these proposals, people could face jail terms based on gender stereotypes, how they present themselves, and who they chose to be in a relationship with. If tabled and passed, any positive discussion of LGBTI related issues could also be criminalized for ‘encouraging, promoting or praising’ LGBTI people.
For the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic, legislators could be considering the criminalization of any expression of LGBTI identities and consensual same-sex sexual activity
“Under the spurious guise of protecting ‘public morality’ and ‘the family institution’ these measures would, in reality, threaten the very fabric of Turkish society. If passed into law, they would be a grave violation of the Turkish authorities’ obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of LGBTI people and their allies without discrimination. They would represent a hugely regressive step, and they must be resoundingly resisted and categorically rejected.”
Background
The 66-page leaked Draftlaw proposal on amendments to Turkish Penal Code and Some Laws includes amendments to the Turkish Penal Code, Turkish Civil Code, as well as other laws. This is the third time in the last year that a package of laws including measures targeting LGBTI people has been put into the public domain. The two previous ones were not discussed in the Justice Commission as per the procedure in Parliament.
The proposed amendment to Article 225 (Indecent Acts) of the Turkish Penal Code increases the sentence for “anyone who publicly engages in sexual relations or exhibitionism” to up to three years and states in the new second paragraph that “anyone who exhibits an attitude or behaviour that is contrary to the biological sex at birth and public morality, or who publicly encourages, praises or promotes such behaviour, shall be punished with imprisonment from one to three years.”
If the proposals are tabled and approved by Parliament, same sex couples carrying out symbolic engagement or wedding ceremonies would face up to four years in prison. Same sex marriage is not legal in Türkiye.
The justification stated for this amendment is “to raise physically and mentally healthy individuals and generations and to protect the family institution and social structure”.
Furthermore, the leaked document includes amendments to Article 40 of the Turkish Civil Code which would make gender-affirming procedures extremely difficult, if not impossible, and would place additional barriers for individuals seeking to obtain legal gender recognition. The proposed amendments include raising the minimum age to undergo the procedures from 18 to 25, reintroducing the requirement to be permanently deprived of reproductive abilities, and introducing further evaluations in state approved hospitals demonstrating that the gender affirmation is necessary for the well-being of the individual.
A new article is also proposed to the Turkish Penal Code, criminalizing people undergoing gender-affirming procedures. The new proposed article also criminalizes and imposes prison sentences for medical professionals who carry out such procedures.
The closure of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) in the Central African Republic would be a catastrophic blow to thousands of victims’ and survivors’ prospects of securing justice for serious crimes committed over two decades of conflict, Amnesty International said amid serious concerns over the Court’s future due to a major lack of funding.
“We call on the African Union, the European Union and their respective member states, as well as all other State partners to step up with sustained financial and human resources support so the SCC can continue its vital work in the Central African Republic,” said Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.
The SCC, inaugurated on 22 October 2018, has a mandate to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law committed during conflicts in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2003. During this period, CAR suffered waves of violence and armed conflicts. Thousands of civilians were killed, raped, abducted, mutilated, wounded, displaced or had their homes burned.
Ending the SCC’s funding would hand impunity a victory.
Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa
Ongoing proceedings jeopardized
The Court’s budget is solely based on voluntary contributions by states and international organizations.
The United States were its main donor, along with UN peacekeeping mission MINUSCA and the EU. In January 2025, the United States suspended its funding to the SCC, leaving about $4.15 million in unpaid commitments. This major cut has profoundly affected the court’s ability to function, jeopardizing ongoing proceedings and essential services for victims and witnesses.
“Despite the authorities’ efforts, national courts still lack the resources and capacity to assume the mandate the SCC has been carrying out. Support to these courts is crucial, but ending the SCC’s funding before that capacity exists would hand impunity a victory,” said Marceau Sivieude.
“The SCC’s issuance of an arrest warrant against former President François Bozizé in 2024 was a very encouraging step for the victims and we continue to call for the execution of this arrest warrant. If the SCC closes having prosecuted only a few low-level individuals concerning a few recent incidents, it will have fallen well short of both its mandate and of the hopes and expectations of CAR’s population. Victims and survivors of crimes under international law have a right to truth, justice and reparations.”
The SCC is a UN-backed hybrid court, composed of both Central African and foreign prosecutors and judges. On 19 April 2022, the SCC opened its first trial against three former members of an armed group over war crimes and crimes against humanity, with a final judgment handed down in July 2023.
The SCC has conducted three trials (two of which are still in the appeals phase) and has currently around 20 cases waiting to be tried. The court has also issued arrest warrants against close to 50 people, many of whom are still at large.
The SCC currently has three years left on its mandate.
Ahead of the presentation of the UN Secretary-General’s report on Iran on 16 October 2025 and the combined briefings of the UN Special Rapporteur and the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Iran to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on 30 October 2025, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hussein Baoumi, said:
“UN Member states must confront the Iranian authorities’ shocking execution spree with the urgency it demands. More than 1,000 people have already been executed in Iran since the beginning of 2025 – an average of four a day. Since the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022, the Iranian authorities have increasingly weaponized the death penalty to instill fear among the population, crush dissent and punish marginalized communities. This year, executions have reached a scale not seen in Iran since 1989.
“The use of the death penalty for drug-related offences continues at a horrifying rate, in blatant breach of Iran’s obligations under international law. Executions are being carried out following grossly unfair trials held behind closed doors, amid widespread patterns of torture and forced ‘confessions’.
Even by Iran’s own bleak record, this is a grim moment that demands a serious and coordinated international response.
Hussein Baoumi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“For years, Iranian authorities have sought to normalize the execution of hundreds of people each year, but this grotesque assault on the right to life must not be treated like business as usual while hundreds of families mourn their loved ones and the lives of thousands more on death row are at risk. Even by Iran’s own bleak record, this is a grim moment that demands a serious and coordinated international response.
“We call on all UN member states to urgently speak up, including by making strong oral statements during the upcoming Third Committee Interactive Dialogue on Iran. States must demand that the Iranian authorities immediately halt all executions, quash death sentences imposed after unfair trials, revoke lethal anti-narcotic laws, and establish an official moratorium with a view to fully abolishing the death penalty. We also call on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) to pressure the Iranian authorities to reform their drug control policies in a way that respects human rights.
“Given the systemic impunity prevailing in Iran for serious human rights violations, we also urge states to pursue accountability measures, including by initiating criminal investigations under universal jurisdiction into torture and other crimes under international law committed in Iran, with a view to issuing arrest warrants for officials against whom there is evidence of criminal responsibility.”
Background
The thousands of people at risk of execution in Iran include those sentenced for drug-related offences in violation of international law, which restricts the use of the death penalty to only ‘the most serious crimes’ involving intentional killing, as well as others sentenced to death on vaguely defined charges such as “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth” in politically motivated cases.
Executions in Iran consistently follow grossly unfair trials, including before Revolutionary Courts, which lack independence and collude with security and intelligence forces to sentence people to death. Oppressed ethnic minorities and communities from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, including Afghans, Ahwazi Arabs, Baluchis, and Kurds, are disproportionately impacted by executions.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of who is accused, the nature or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of execution. The death penalty violates the most fundamental human right – the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
Join our campaign to take Urgent Action to defend the thousands of people at risk of execution in Iran.
