Kategorie: Humans

Women and LGBTIQ+ protesters, journalists and human rights defenders suffered sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence at the hands of Colombia’s National Police and its Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) during the repression of the National Strike in 2021, Amnesty International said today in a new report.

The police do not protect me: Sexual violence and other gender-based violence during the 2021 National Strike documents28 cases of gender-based violence that took place in seven cities against women and LGBTIQ+ people in the context of the protests. The report details an array of violent behavior by state agents, particularly National Police officers, ranging from the use of sexist, misogynist and abusive language to sexual violence, which can constitute a form of torture.

“Gender-based violence, and particularly sexual violence, have a painful history in the context of the Colombian armed conflict – a history that authorities have yet to overcome. We received hundreds of reports of gender-based violence during the National Strike in 2021 detailing psychological violence, discrimination, threats, touching, sexual harassment, forced nudity, torture and sexual violence. Having documented 28 of these incidents in depth, it’s clear that gender-based violence was a tool of repression that the National Police used to punish those who dared to speak out and protest,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International.

The cases documented took place in the cities of Cali and Palmira (Valle de Cauca), Popayán (Cauca), Soledad (Atlántico), Tunja (Boyacá), Manizales (Caldas) and Bogotá. Women protesters were broadly targeted, with Afro-descendant and Indigenous women, human rights defenders, journalists, healthcare workers, and mothers among the survivors.

Gender-based violence, and particularly sexual violence, have a painful history in the context of the Colombian armed conflict – a history that authorities have yet to overcome

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International

The report reveals how the violence against women and LGBTQI people was inextricably linked with other factors of discrimination, such as race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Testimonies from Indigenous, Afro-descendant and Trans women reveal how their identities became additional motives for repression, exacerbating the risks of violence. Further, women and LGBTIQ+ journalists and human rights defenders experienced attacks marked by machismo, homophobia and other forms of hatred, and stigmatization.

The human rights violations mainly took place in two instances: during the action the National Police took to disperse the protests and during detentions following the initial intervention. In both situations, acting in official capacity, members of the National Police committed acts ranging from sexist insults and threats to sexual violence. The common factors in all these cases were the intent with which the violence was carried out: the perpetrators were seeking to punish the protesters for challenging social gender norms and taking to the streets to exercise their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

Amnesty International also received information regarding how the justice system – and particularly the Attorney General’s Office – either failed to respond or responded inadequately to the complaints that survivors of gender-based violence filed. Several survivors also said they decided not to file complaints before the Attorney General’s Office out of fear and mistrust.

“As the ultimate head of the National Police, President Gustavo Petro must issue an order condemning all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and demand it to stop. Each complaint from the National Strike in 2021 must be investigated and those responsible must be held to account. The Colombian authorities must also address the root causes of this violence and work with women and LGBTIQ+ people to develop and adopt effective measures to guarantee a life free from institutional discrimination and gender-based violence. This is the bare minimum to begin paving a road to justice and accountability,” said Agnès Callamard.

Prior to this new report, Amnesty International published several statements and reports documenting other serious human rights violations in the context of the National Strike, including disproportionate restrictions on peaceful demonstrations, urban paramilitarism, arbitrary detentions and torture and ill-treatment of peaceful demonstrators in the city of Cali, and eye injuries caused by ESMAD agents as a result of the unlawful use of less lethal weapons.

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Responding to reports that imprisoned opposition figure Mariya Kalesnikava has been rushed to intensive care from her ‘punishment cell’ to undergo surgery, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Marie Struthers, said:

“The Belarusian authorities must immediately disclose all information regarding Maryia Kalesnikava’s condition, whether her life is in danger, and her whereabouts. The secrecy that surrounds prisoners in Belarus is unacceptable. This situation once again demonstrates what a cruel and impenetrable system Aliaksandr Lukashenka has built in his efforts to punish those who dare to dissent or challenge his rule.”

“Lukashenka’s government will not achieve its aim to silence a powerful voice of peaceful protest by throwing Maryia Kalesnikava into a punishment cell in inhumane conditions, by denying her contact with her lawyer, and denying the rest of us any information about her well-being.”

Lukashenka’s government will not achieve its aim to silence a powerful voice of peaceful protest by throwing Maryia Kalesnikava into a punishment cell in inhumane conditions, by denying her contact with her lawyer, and denying the rest of us any information about her well-being

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Background

The news of the hospitalization of Mariya Kalesnikava came from the team of imprisoned Belarusian politician Viktar Babaryka – an associate of Maryia Kalesnikava – on 29 November. On the same day Mariya Kalesnikava’s lawyer was denied a visit for the third time in a row. According to Viktar Babaryka’s team, earlier in November, Maryia Kalesnikava was placed in a punishment cell, a harsher type of confinement, usually solitary. The team received no information about the reasons for and duration of this reprimand measure.

According to further information, later confirmed by the lawyer, Maryia Kalesnikava was transported to the Homel city hospital on 28 November, underwent urgent surgery and was then transferred to intensive care.

On 6 September 2021, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Maryia Kalesnikava and her associate Maksim Znak, members of the opposition Coordinating Council and associates of the jailed presidential contender Viktar Babaryka, to 11 and 10 years respectively, on trumped-up charges including “conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means”.

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United Nations member countries should establish an international, independent entity to track and identify those missing and disappeared since the start of the Syria crisis in 2011, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today.

The Syrian conflict has been marked by prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and forced disappearance at the hands of all parties to the conflict. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed the mechanism in a landmark report published in August 2022 on how to bolster efforts to address the thousands of detained and disappeared and provide support to their families.

“The practice of “disappearing” people in Syria has left a devastating legacy for hundreds of thousands of people and their loves ones,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “A new international entity to address this devastating unfinished business that can never be overlooked from the Syrian conflict offers a glimmer of hope for families.”

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been responsible for the vast majority of those disappearances, which frequently result in deaths in custody and extrajudicial executions. Even before the crisis began in 2011, Syrian authorities forcibly disappeared people for peaceful political opposition, critical reporting, and human rights activism. Non-state armed groups have also abducted people, with some like ISIS, taking hostages and summarily killing them.

As of August, the Syrian Network for Human Rights estimated that about around 111,000 people remain unaccounted for, most believed to have been in the hands of the Syrian government. The exact number cannot be determined because the overwhelming majority of detention facilities, especially those run by the intelligence forces, are off limits to outsiders. Those detained by government security services or many of the non-state armed groups in Syria routinely are subjected to enforced disappearance or held incommunicado, with families unable to get information about the whereabouts of their loved ones or what happened to them.

Groups representing families of people formerly detained as well as Syrian civil society and international human rights organizations, have tirelessly advocated on behalf of torture victims and the thousands who have been disappeared, arbitrarily detained, and kidnapped, calling for a robust independent body to investigate thousands of disappearances. Most recently, 10 Syrian victims’ associations laid out their views on what such a body should look like.

As tens of thousands languish in detention facilities or elsewhere, there are no reliable avenues for families to learn the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

Diana Semaan, Amnesty International

Consistent with the views of the Syrian victims’ associations, the secretary-general’s August report acknowledged the systemic challenges families across Syria face when seeking information about their missing loved ones and highlighted the gaps in current efforts. The secretary-general also set out the proposed mandate and priorities of a new body for this purpose, including providing adequate support to victims, survivors and their families. Such a body would offer a single avenue to register new cases, as well as coordinate with other existing mechanisms, to build upon the wealth of available information and streamline efforts to tackle this issue.

“Eleven years into the conflict and the Syrian government and armed opposition groups continue to disappear or abduct anyone who opposes them, while their allies, Russia and Turkey, do nothing to stop these violations,” said Diana Semaan, Amnesty International’s Acting Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “As tens of thousands languish in detention facilities or elsewhere, there are no reliable avenues for families to learn the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. The lack of political will to address this issue has only prolonged the suffering of families. The UN SG’s proposal provides a way to fulfil the families’ right to truth and member states should rally behind it.”

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has thrown its weight behind the secretary-general’s proposal, with the commissioners announcing in an opinion piece for Al Jazeera English that the considerable wealth of information the Commission had collected over 11 years will be made available to the new mechanism. The commissioners also warned that the longer it takes to establish such a mechanism, the more difficult it will be to clarify the whereabouts and fate of the missing and those forcibly disappeared. “Families have waited far too long for action at the international level,” the commissioners said. “The time to act is now.”

Member states should do everything in their power to ensure that a new international body in line with the secretary-general’s recommendations is established quickly through General Assembly action. Countries with influence in Syria should also put pressure on parties to the conflict to act swiftly to resolve what has come to be seen as one of the major tragedies of the Syrian conflict, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said.

Russia and Iran, the most prominent backers of the Syrian government, should press the government to immediately publish the names of everyone who died in Syrian detention facilities, and to inform families of the deceased and return the bodies to their relatives. They should also press the government to provide information on the whereabouts of and what happened to all those forcibly disappeared, end the practice of enforced disappearance, and allow independent humanitarian agencies access to detention facilities.

Backers of non-state armed groups, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, should compel groups they support to reveal what happened to the detainees in their custody and allow humanitarian agencies access to their detention facilities.

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Responding to comments made by the Secretary General of the Qatar World Cup Supreme Committee, Hassan Al Thawadi, about migrant worker deaths during an interview with Piers Morgan, and a subsequent clarification of those comments issued by the Supreme Committee, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice, said: 

 “The continued debate around the number of workers who have died in the preparation of the World Cup exposes the stark reality that so many bereaved families are still waiting for truth and justice.     

“Over the last decade, thousands of workers have returned home in coffins, with no explanation given to their loved ones. Qatar’s extreme heat and gruelling working conditions are likely to have contributed to hundreds of these deaths, but without full investigations the true scale of lives lost can never be known. Meanwhile, families are suffering the added anguish of severe financial insecurity that comes from losing the main wage earner. 

There can be no excuse for denying families truth, justice and compensation any longer

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty's Head of Economic and Social Justice

“There is nothing natural about this scale of loss and there can be no excuse for denying families truth, justice and compensation any longer. Until all abuses suffered by migrant workers in Qatar are remedied, the legacy of this World Cup will be severely tarnished by their mistreatment.” 

Background 

During an interview on Piers Morgan’s ‘Uncensored’ programme, Hassan Al Thawadi said that an estimated 400-500 migrant workers had died as a result of work they were carrying out for the World Cup. The Supreme Committee subsequently issued a clarification stating that the figure cited by Al Thawadi referred to national statistics from 2014-2020 covering all work-related fatalities nationwide in Qatar, covering all sectors and nationalities.

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Serbia’s Social Card law is an intrusive surveillance system that could harm the most marginalized members of society, including Roma communities, Amnesty International said today, as it submits a legal opinion as part of a review of the constitutionality of the law. 

The law, which entered into force on 1 March 2022, authorizes the establishment of a centralized government database that processes 130 categories of personal data from those applying for social security support to assess their eligibility. The Serbian authorities say the procedure allows for a fairer distribution of funds for the socially disadvantaged, yet in reality it is an invasive digital surveillance system that threatens the right to equality.  

“The legal opinion submitted by Amnesty International and seven other rights organizations raises serious concerns over how the Social Card law will affect people’s rights to social security, equality and non-discrimination. It also details how the system does not appear to comply with human rights-based approaches to data protection,” said Imogen Richmond-Bishop, Amnesty Tech’s Researcher on Technology and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 

“The Social Card law is likely to harm the most marginalized people in Serbia. The authorities must urgently clarify how they are using the system to assess eligibility for financial support, and ensure that individual rights are not being violated.” 

The legal opinion submitted by Amnesty International and seven other rights organizations raises serious concerns over how the Social Card law will affect people’s rights to social security, equality and non-discrimination.

Imogen Richmond-Bishop, Amnesty Tech’s Researcher on Technology and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Those receiving social security support in Serbia, many of whom are people with disabilities or members of the Roma community, tend to have the lowest incomes in the country. By excluding them from the financial support system, the Social Card law could further exacerbate the already precarious living conditions of the most vulnerable people.  

There has been a total lack of transparency on the decision-making process used for the Social Card system, with the Serbian government yet to release any information on the automated technology employed for the scheme. 

In recent years, Serbia has increasingly relied on technology to monitor its citizens. In September 2021, following objections by the civil society and the Data Protection Commissioner, the government was forced to put on hold the planned roll-out of the facial recognition software and biometric video surveillance in public spaces. The unchecked use of technology by the government enables unprecedented intrusion into the lives of people in Serbia and could magnify discrimination of minority groups. 

“The vast amount of personal data being processed, coupled with an inability to amend data once it is in the system, means it is likely the automated system will make errors when assessing eligibility for social security. In such cases, individuals or families may face long delays if they challenge these mistakes and be denied crucial financial support from the state while doing so,” said Imogen Richmond-Bishop. 

Amnesty International, along with the seven co-authors of the legal opinion, is urging the Serbian government to halt its rollout of the Social Card law and to undertake a full assessment of whether the legislation complies with Serbia’s obligations under international human rights law. This review must also offer meaningful participation to those currently receiving social security support in Serbia, so they can assess whether the law meets their needs. 

Background 

On 28 November 2022, Amnesty International, in partnership with the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), submitted a legal opinion to the Serbian A11 Initiative as evidence for their Constitutional Court challenge of Serbia’s Social Card Law. 

The legal opinion is co-authored by Amnesty International, Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad (Dejusticia), the Digital Welfare State & Human Rights Project (DWS Project) at the Center for Human Rights & Global Justice at New York University School of Law, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), and the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) at Northeastern University. 

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