Schlagwort: Amnesty International

• Games take place amid worsening human rights situation
• International community must not be complicit in sportswashing exercise
• IOC should better protect athletes’ rights following Peng Shuai case

The world must use the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics as an opportunity to push for human rights improvements in China, Amnesty International said ahead of next month’s Games.

China’s capital will welcome athletes, officials and diplomats from around the world for the Games, which begin on 4 February. But the event will take place against a backdrop of myriad ongoing human rights violations in the country.   

“The Beijing Olympic Games promise to be a memorable sporting spectacle, but the watching world cannot wilfully ignore what is happening elsewhere in China: the lawyers and activists imprisoned for their peaceful work; the sexual assault survivors punished for speaking up; the thousands estimated to be executed each year; the Muslim ethnic groups facing systematic mass internment, torture and persecution,” said Alkan Akad, Amnesty International’s China Researcher.

“The Games should not be used as a distraction from China’s appalling human rights record. On the contrary, they should be an opportunity to press China to address these issues.”

IOC should ensure promises are kept

The Chinese government made a series of assurances related to human rights ahead of hosting the Winter Olympics, including on respecting media freedom, labour rights, “displacement” and ensuring genuine opportunities for peaceful demonstrations during the Games.

Amnesty International is calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to fully implement and publicly disclose its human rights due diligence policies and practices in the lead-up to, and during, the Games.

“The right to freedom of expression is systematically violated in China. That’s why it’s vital that the IOC and the various National Olympic Committees at the Games adequately respect athletes’ and sports officials’ wishes to speak out about human rights, including on issues deemed ‘sensitive’ by the authorities,” Alkan Akad said.

“The IOC must also insist that the Chinese government keeps its promise to guarantee media freedom, including unrestricted internet access for Chinese and international journalists, and ensure that people who want to peacefully protest during the Games are able to do so.”

Amnesty International urges government representatives, including those who plan to attend the Olympic Games, to place human rights at the top of the agenda in their discussions with Chinese authorities.

“The world must heed the lessons of Beijing 2008 Games, when Chinese government promises of human rights improvements never materialized,” Alkan Akad said.

“The Beijing Winter Olympics must not be allowed to pass as a mere sportswashing opportunity for the Chinese authorities, and the international community must not become complicit in a propaganda exercise.”

The peaceful activists detained in China

Ahead of the Games, Amnesty International has launched its ‘Free the Five’ campaign highlighting the plight of five Chinese activists among the many detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression. They are: citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, Uyghur professor Ilham Tohti, labour rights activist Li Qiaochu, human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng and Tibetan blogger Rinchen Tsultrim.

“The unjust imprisonment of these five peaceful activists is emblematic of the Chinese government’s intolerance of all opposing views, and its eagerness to punish dissent in the harshest possible terms,” Alkan Akad said.

“If the Chinese government wants to use the Olympics as a showcase for the country, it should start by releasing all those who have been prosecuted or detained solely for peacefully exercising their human rights.”

Athletes must be allowed to speak freely

The IOC has pledged – through its Safe Sport initiative – to support the rights of athletes and protect them from harassment and abuse “on and off the field”. However, the strict Covid-19 “bubble” imposed at Beijing 2022 will severely limit athletes’ freedom of movement in a way that could make it even more difficult for them to freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Late last year, tennis player and three-time Olympian, Peng Shuai, made sexual assault allegations against a former Chinese Vice Premier in a social media post that was quickly censored in China. When reference to her was scrubbed from the internet and she disappeared from public view, fellow players and the Women’s Tennis Association expressed fears about Peng’s fate. Nearly three weeks after her post was censored, the IOC responded by arranging a video call with Peng in an attempt to ease concerns about her well-being and whereabouts.

“The IOC accepted assurances about Peng Shuai’s well-being without corroborating whether she experienced any limitations to her freedom of expression, freedom of movement and right to privacy, therefore running the risk of whitewashing possible violations of Peng Shuai’s human rights,” Alkan Akad said.

After heavy criticism, in December the IOC acknowledged “we can’t give assurances and don’t know the full facts”. They insisted that “all aspects of the case are being discussed with the Chinese side” and this would continue beyond the Games.

“Amid the severe restrictions in place at Beijing 2022, the IOC must do better at keeping its promise to protect athletes’ right to voice their opinions – and above all to ensure it is not complicit in any violations of athletes’ rights,” Alkan Akad said.

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Responding to a decision of the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, which has convicted former Syrian intelligence officer Anwar Raslan to life in prison for crimes against humanity, including torture, murder and rape of detainees in Branch 251, an infamous military intelligence facility in Damascus city, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Lynn Maalouf, said:

“Today’s verdict is a historic victory that amplifies the voices of tens of thousands of survivors of unlawful detention, torture and sexual violence, as well as the voices of the families of victims who died in Syria’s prisons and detention centres as a result of the treatment of Syrian security forces for over a decade. Notably, it also recognizes the systematic nature of sexual violence as a crime against humanity. This result would not have come about without those who dared to share their stories, Syria’s civil society actors, and human rights and litigation organizations who have doggedly pursued justice, truth and reparation over the years.

“Anwar Raslan’s sentence serves as a reminder to the Syrian government, and all those who have committed crimes against humanity with impunity, that justice can be served.

“States across the globe must follow Germany’s lead and initiate similar proceedings against individuals suspected of committing crimes under international law. With domestic criminal prosecutions in Syria inconceivable and no pathway for referring cases to the international criminal court, universal jurisdiction is the only way to achieve justice.” 

Background: 

In February 2020, German and French police arrested former Syrian intelligence officers Anwar Raslan and Eyad al-Gharib. In a trial that began in April 2020, they were charged with crimes against humanity over the torture of detainees held in Branch 251. On 24 February 2021, Eyad al-Gharib was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the torture of detained protesters.

Amnesty International has published several reports documenting the inhuman conditions across Syria’s prisons – where enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment lead to death in detention, and extrajudicial executions following sham trials are rife. These crimes amount to crimes against humanity; all states are permitted, and sometimes obliged, to exercise universal jurisdiction.

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A joint investigation by Access Now and the Citizen Lab has identified the use of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware against journalists and members of civil society organizations in El Salvador on a massive scale. Technical experts from the Amnesty International Security Lab have peer-reviewed the report and independently verified forensic evidence showing that Pegasus has been misused in the country.

“The use of Pegasus for the surveillance of communications in El Salvador reveals a new threat to human rights in the country. The authorities must stop any efforts to restrict freedom of expression, and conduct a thorough and impartial investigation to identify those responsible,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

“It’s unacceptable that reports of harassment and threats against journalists and human rights defenders, who work in a hostile environment and are at serious risk, are becoming more and more common in El Salvador. The international community must stand with human rights defenders and journalists in their demand for respect for human rights.”

Since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019, the human rights situation in the country has deteriorated swiftly. Freedom of expression has been one of the rights facing the most obstacles, with state officials repeatedly publicly expressing their refusal to accept dissent and seeking to discredit those who expose practices by the authorities that violate or threaten human rights. 

The authorities must stop any efforts to restrict freedom of expression, and conduct a thorough and impartial investigation to identify those responsible

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

In this context, in November 2021, it was made public that several journalists and members of civil society organizations received an alert from Apple warning them that they were possibly being subjected to targeted surveillance  by “state-sponsored attackers”.

The Amnesty International Security Lab independently analyzed technical data from a sample of individuals identified as Pegasus targets in the joint Access Now and Citizen Lab investigation. This sample included multiple journalists from two media outlets. The forensic analysis confirmed that each device was successfully infected with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The earliest evidence of compromise from the sampled devices was on or around 30 July 2020. Signs of compromise or attempted targeting continue as recently as 15 November 2021.  

“This investigation shows that, yet again, the Pegasus spyware continues to be abused in the world to unlawfully surveil journalists on a massive scale even after the groundbreaking revelations of the Pegasus Project,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

“So far not enough has been done globally to reign in unlawful targeted surveillance. We urgently need governments to implement a global moratorium on the sale, transfer, and use of spyware until human rights regulatory safeguards are in place.”  

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Duncan Tucker: duncan.tucker@amnesty.org

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The recent conviction of two investigative journalists in Niger for reporting the findings of an international NGO marks an alarming turn in the authorities’ increasingly brazen targeting of media critics, Amnesty International said today.

On 3 January, a court in the capital Niamey sentenced two prominent journalists, Samira Sabou and Moussa Aksar, to respective one-month and two-month suspended jail terms, for republishing the findings of a May 2021 report by the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC).  The report alleged that a huge drug seizure made by the Niger authorities had been reacquired by the drug traffickers, using illicit means.

Both were convicted based on the 2019 Cyber Criminality Law which has been used by the authorities to clamp down on dissenting voices in the media and civil society – with terms like ‘defamation by means of electronic communication’, and ‘disseminating data for the purpose of disturbing public order’. They were also fined between 100-200 US dollars.

Samira Sabou and Moussa Aksar have long been targeted by Niger’s authorities simply for doing their essential journalistic work. Their convictions violate their right to freedom of expression and threaten media freedom in the country. Defamation should never be criminalized by law.

Ousmane Diallo, Amnesty International West Africa Researcher.

Samira Sabou, who is also president of the Association of Bloggers for Active Citizenship (ABCA in French), shared the conclusions of the GITOC report, along with the link, on her Facebook page in May 2021. Moussa Aksar, who is also editor of the daily L’Évènement, and president of the Norbert Zongo Center for investigative journalism in West Africa (CENOZO), had also published the findings in a news article he had written in the same month.

Their lawyer Ahmed Mamane told Amnesty International: “The conviction constitutes a danger for press freedom in Niger. The 2019 Cybercriminality Law has regularly been used by the judiciary to prosecute and intimidate journalists who report on critical national issues. It allows the authorities to circumvent the law decriminalizing press offences and to prosecute journalists for defamation, or disseminating data that could disturb public order, when they report on contentious issues”.

The Niger Office for Repression of Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs (OCRTIS) had refuted the findings of the GITOC report on 28 May 2021 – denials that were also published by the two journalists, according to their lawyer.

In May 2021, Samira Sabou was arrested by police officers at home, and driven to OCRTIS where she was interrogated without the presence of her lawyer and without official notification of the charges against her.

Over the course of 2021, Samira Sabou and Moussa Aksar were summoned by the OCRTIS several times and interrogated about the reasons behind their publishing of the GITOC report. Aksar and Sabou then appeared on 9 September 2021 before a Niamey High Court. During their trial in December, the Public Prosecutor pleaded for a conviction on 27 December, despite the lack of a formal complaint for defamation against the two journalists.

“The convictions of Samira Sabou and Moussa Aksar constitute an alarming setback for press freedom in Niger. It’s abundantly clear that the opportunity to freely report on critical issues, is now at the mercy of national authorities,” said Ousmane Diallo.

“It is the responsibility of the authorities to ensure the media can do their work freely, and to protect journalists and bloggers against attacks, threats, or judicial harassment.”

Background

In May 2021, Moussa Aksar was convicted of defamation for reporting on the misappropriation of public funds from the Ministry of Defence between 2017 and 2019. He was fined 362 US dollars and ordered to pay 1,810 US dollars.

Between June and July 2020, Samira Sabou was detained for 48 days, while being pregnant, following a defamation complaint filed by the son of the former president against her, after she posted on Facebook about the same scandal of Defence funds misappropriation.  She was freed after all charges against her were dismissed by the Niamey High Court on 28 July 2020.

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