Schlagwort: Amnesty International

• AV materials available on 4 June, the 33^rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown
• Events in cities including London, San Francisco and Seoul
• Activists will demand justice for those killed in Beijing on 4 June 1989 and protest against the crackdown on Hong Kong’s annual vigil

Hong Kong’s suppressed Tiananmen vigil will be recreated around the world this June Fourth as people in more than 20 cities light candles in remembrance of those killed in the 1989 Beijing crackdown.

The annual Hong Kong event ran for more than 30 years but has been banned since 2020 amid increased repression in the city. Amnesty International is organizing a series of global candlelight vigils and other events to continue to demand justice and show solidarity for Hong Kong.  

“The Chinese government’s concerted efforts to erase the Tiananmen crackdown from history have spread to Hong Kong since the national security law was enacted in the city in 2020. But the atrocities of 4 June 1989 must never be forgotten,” said Hana Young, Amnesty International’s East Asia Deputy Regional Director.

“This June Fourth, people will come together across the world to remember those killed in Beijing 33 years ago, and to stand in solidarity with those in Hong Kong whose peaceful acts of commemoration are now criminalized.”

For three decades, Hong Kong hosted the world’s biggest commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown: when hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed as Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully calling for political and economic reforms as well as an end to corruption.

Every year on 4 June since 1990, as many as hundreds of thousands of people joined a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and take accountability for the fatalities. The vigil has been banned for the past two years, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds.

The organizer of the vigil, the Hong Kong Alliance, was forced to disband in September 2021 after coming under increasing pressure since the enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law in June 2020. Several of its senior figures are currently in jail.

The Alliance is one of several prominent civil society organizations forced to fold since last year after being targeted by the Hong Kong police on national security grounds.

On this year’s 33^rd anniversary of the deadly crackdown, vigils and related events – organized by Amnesty International and other groups – will instead take place in cities including San Francisco, Washington DC, Seoul, Taipei, Ulaanbaatar, Sydney, Oslo, Paris, Amsterdam and London.

“The simple act of lighting a candle for Tiananmen has become a crime in Hong Kong, just as it has been in mainland China for more than 30 years. But history cannot be erased and activism will never be silenced,” Hana Young said.

“Just as Hongkongers once stood in solidarity with the victims of Tiananmen, the rest of the world now stands with the people of Hong Kong to the deliver the same message: that repression will not be tolerated anywhere.”

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Global figures

Amnesty International recorded 579 executions in 18 countries in 2021, an increase of 20% from the 483 recorded in 2020. This figure represents the second lowest number of executions recorded by Amnesty International since at least 2010.

Most known executions took place in China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria – in that order.

China remained the world’s leading executioner – but the true extent of its use of the death penalty is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figures for executions and death sentences therefore exclude the thousands of people that Amnesty International believes to have been sentenced to death and executed in China.

Figures for North Korea and Viet Nam, which are believed to have extensively resorted to executions, were also not included in the global executions figure, as secrecy and lack of access to independent information made it impossible to assess trends.

Amnesty International recorded 24 women among the 579 people known to have been executed in 2021 (4%), in the following countries: Egypt (8), Iran (14), Saudi Arabia (1) and USA (1).

Belarus, Japan and UAE resumed executions. Amnesty International did not record any executions in India, Qatar and Taiwan, having done so in 2020.

Iran executed at least 314 people (up from at least 246 in 2020), their highest number of executions since 2017, reversing year-on-year declines since then.

Recorded executions in Saudi Arabia rose sharply, from 27 to 65, an increase of 140% percent.

Despite these increases, the 2021 global executions figure constitutes the second-lowest figure recorded by Amnesty International since at least 2010. For the second consecutive year, the number of countries known to have executed people was the lowest the organization has recorded. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 Amnesty International recorded 657, 483 and 579 executions respectively.

In July, Sierra Leone’s parliament unanimously adopted an Act which abolishes the death penalty for all crimes. Kazakhstan adopted legislation in December abolishing the death penalty for all crimes, which came into effect this year. Papua New Guinea embarked on a national consultation on the death penalty, which resulted in the adoption of an abolition Bill in January 2022, still to come into force. The Government of Malaysia announced that it would table legislative reforms on the death penalty in the third quarter of 2022.

At the end of 2021, more than two thirds of the world’s countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 108 countries, a majority of the world’s states, had abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes and 144 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 55 countries still retained the death penalty.

Amnesty International recorded commutations or pardons of death sentences in 19 countries: Bangladesh, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Amnesty International recorded seven exonerations of people under sentence of death in four countries: Bahrain (1), Kenya (1), USA (2) and Zambia (3).

Amnesty International recorded 2,052 death sentences imposed in 56 countries, up 39% from at least 1,477 in 54 countries in 2020.

Ethiopia, Guyana, Maldives, Oman, Tanzania, and Uganda handed down death sentences having not done so in 2020, while the reverse was true of Bahrain, Comoros, Laos and Niger.

At the end of 2021, at least 28,670 people were known to be under sentence of death. Nine countries held 82% of the known totals: Iraq (8,000+), Pakistan (3,800+), Nigeria (3,036+), USA (2,382), Bangladesh (1,800+), Malaysia (1,359), Viet Nam (1,200+), Algeria (1,000+), Sri Lanka (1,000+).

The following methods of execution were used across the world in 2021: beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.

Four people were executed for crimes that occurred when they were below 18 years of age: in Iran (3) and Yemen (1). Amnesty International believes that other people in this category remained on death row in Maldives, Myanmar and Iran.

At least 134 executions for drug-related offences were known to have been carried out in two countries (China and Iran), an increase of 346% from 2020 (30). Information on Viet Nam, which is very likely to have carried out such executions, was unavailable.

Death sentences were known to have been imposed after proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards in countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Singapore and Yemen.

Regional Analysis

Americas

All 11 of the recorded executions in 2021 took place in the USA. The rest of the Americas region remained execution-free for the 13th consecutive year.

25 new death sentences were handed down in three countries: USA, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago.

Virginia became the 23rd abolitionist state in the USA and first southern state to have abolished the death penalty. For the third consecutive year, Ohio rescheduled or halted all set executions.

The new US administration also established a temporary moratorium on federal executions in July. 2021 marked the lowest number of executions in the US since 1988.

Asia-Pacific

Amnesty International recorded executions in five countries⁠—Bangladesh, China, Japan, North Korea and Viet Nam⁠—the lowest number in more than two decades.

At least 819 new death sentences were handed down in 16 countries, a rise of 58% compared to 2020 (517), largely linked to increases in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Viet Nam.

After a hiatus of 24 months, Japan hanged three people. For the second consecutive year, Pakistan reported no executions and also prohibited the use of the death penalty on those diagnosed with severe mental (psycho-social) disabilities. Thailand continued to commute death sentences.

The threat of reintroduction of the death penalty in the Philippines diminished as three of its proponents in the Senate announced they would oppose any such move.

Although Singapore reported no executions for the second consecutive year, the country has resumed executions in 2022.

Europe and Central Asia

Amnesty International recorded one execution and one new death sentence, both in Belarus, which remains the only country in the region carrying out executions.

Kazakhstan signed into law a bill abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.

Armenia became a state party to a key international treaty on abolition of the death penalty.

The Russian Federation and Tajikistan continued to observe moratoriums on executions.

Middle East and North Africa

520 executions were recorded in seven countries–Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen – an increase of 19% on 2020.

Recorded executions in Iraq more than halved, from 45 to 17, though this may have been the result of a slowdown in the executive approvals of death sentences due to the political turmoil that the state was in for much of the year.

A mass execution of 24 people in Syria in October made the country the fifth biggest recorded executor in 2021.

There were at least 834 new death sentences in 17 countries, a jump of 32%, with sharp increases in Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon. This figure does not reflect the many death sentences that were believed to have been imposed in Iran.

At least 356 people were sentenced to death by Egyptian courts in 2021, a rise of 34% and the highest number of death sentences that Amnesty International was able to record worldwide in 2021.

Sub-Saharan Africa

The number of executions, recorded in 3 countries, more than doubled to 33, as a result of rises in Somalia and South Sudan. The other country to carry out executions was Botswana.

At least 373 new death sentences were handed down in 19 countries, an increase of 22%, due to sharp rises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mauritania, and despite a significant drop in Zambia.

In July, Sierra Leone’s parliament unanimously adopted an Act which abolishes the death penalty for all crimes. In Central African Republic and Ghana, legislative processes to abolish the death penalty were started and remain ongoing.

At least 5,843 people were held under a sentence of death, with Nigeria holding 52% of them (at least 3,036).

The post Death Penalty 2021: Facts and Figures appeared first on Amnesty International.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz must halt the imminent execution of Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer, two Bahraini Shi’a men who were sentenced to death on terrorism and protest-related charges following a grossly unfair trial, Amnesty International said today.

In its 2021 annual review of the death penalty published today, Amnesty International found that Saudi Arabia more than doubled its number of executions over the previous year, with that spike continuing in March when 81 people were executed in a single day.

“These two men are at imminent risk of execution now that their sentences are before the King for ratification. They were sentenced after a deeply flawed trial based on torture-tainted confessions. King Salman should immediately halt the execution of Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer, annul their death sentences, and ensure they are retried in accordance with international law,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“In upholding these death sentences, Saudi Arabia’s judicial system has yet again displayed a chilling disregard for human rights. If the King ratifies their death sentences, their execution will constitute an arbitrary deprivation of the right to life.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities must order a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the defendants’ claims before the court of torture and ill-treatment. They must also establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty entirely in Saudi Arabia.”

Background

Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer were arrested on 8 May 2015 and held incommunicado in solitary confinement for three-and-a-half months. They were only allowed to call their families 115 days later, but prison officials did not allow them to discuss the conditions of their detention.

The Specialized Criminal Court sentenced them to death in October 2021 following a grossly unfair trial. They were tried on terrorism-related charges over the smuggling of explosive materials into Saudi Arabia and participation in anti-government protests in Bahrain. The Appeals Court upheld their sentences in April 2022. They could be executed in Saudi Arabia as soon as the King ratifies their sentence. In the absence of transparent information around judicial processes in Saudi Arabia particularly in death penalty cases, families only find out about the fate of their loved ones in the media after the execution is carried out.

Jaafar and Sadeq had no access to legal representation throughout their pre-trial detention and interrogations. According to court documents, they told the court that they were tortured and that their so-called confessions were extracted under duress.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Join Amnesty International’s Urgent Action to call on King Salman to halt these executions.

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The Angolan authorities are tightening their grip on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association by preventing civil society meetings from taking place ahead of the general election in August, Amnesty International said today.

The harassment and intimidation of activists and repression of civil society organizations, who are merely exercising their rights and trying to hold a conference, is a worrying development for human rights in Angola

Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for East and Southern Africa

On 21 May, Angolan police prevented two NGOs — Omunga, and Associação para Desenvolvimento da Cultura e Direitos Humanos (ADCDH) — from holding a conference on peace building. The police blocked the entrance to Hotel Maiombe in Cabinda to prevent attendees from entering, saying they were following orders from their superiors.

“The harassment and intimidation of activists and repression of civil society organizations, who are merely exercising their rights and trying to hold a conference, is a worrying development for human rights in Angola — especially ahead of the August election,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.

By preventing this conference from taking place, the authorities are showing their growing intolerance of criticism.

Deprose Muchena

“By harassing and intimidating the activists and preventing this conference from taking place, the authorities are showing their growing intolerance of criticism. The repression of independent civil society organizations, debate and critical views on issues such as the economy and human rights must stop.

“The muzzling of this civil society conference is reminiscent of previous election years, when human rights came under repeated attack. The Angolan authorities must stop targeting activists and civil society groups and instead respect, protect and promote their human rights and provide a conducive environment for them to operate.”

Guest speakers scheduled to present at the meeting included the economist Belchor Tati, human rights lawyer Arao Tempo, Father Celestino Epalanga of the Catholic Church, and Rev. Dr. Daniel Ntongi-Nzinga, a peace building activist and pastor of the Baptist Church.

The muzzling of this civil society conference is reminiscent of previous election years, when human rights came under repeated attack. The Angolan authorities must stop targeting activists and civil society groups and instead respect, protect and promote their human rights and provide a conducive environment for them to operate.

Deprose Muchena

The conference was not being held at a public venue. It was a private event that was taking place in a private venue. By banning attendees from entering, the authorities violated the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, which is enshrined in the Angolan Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Angola is a state party. Angola authorities must end the repression and harassment of independent Angolan civil society.

Background

Cabinda, which is Angola’s most militarized province, tightly restricts civic space. The province has been mired in an armed conflict between government security forces and the rebel group Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC).

Restrictions on the operations of civil society organizations and civic space have been increasing in Angola in recent months. On 9 April 2022, the police arbitrarily arrested 26 young people who were planning a march to demand the release of political prisoners. They were accused of disobeying and insulting the police.

All of the 26 detainees were eventually released, although the two organizers were convicted and made to pay fines.

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