Schlagwort: Amnesty International

G20 leaders meeting in Rome must put aside greed and selfishness and ensure the fair global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, said Amnesty International ahead of this year’s G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, which takes place from 30-31 October.

Last November, leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies held their annual G20 Summit online, with a focus on ensuring Covid-19 vaccines would be made available to everyone. However, one year on, the most powerful countries have failed to protect the lives of millions of people, choosing to hoard vaccines, resulting in a predictable and utterly devastating vaccine scarcity for the rest of the world. Rich countries are sitting on an estimated 500 million doses right now.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said:

“The rollout of vaccines began last December – bringing hope to a world that had been crippled by Covid-19 and saving millions of lives. However, since the first vaccine was administered, the death toll has risen from 1.3 million people to nearly 5 million in 2021 due to gross inequality in access.

“The sheer selfishness and greed behind these deaths is unfathomable. While G20 countries enjoy vaccination rates of around 63%, only 10% of the population in low and lower-middle income countries have been able to get vaccinated. What have these leaders been doing for the past year but hoarding and actively contributing to vaccine scarcity along with Big Pharma? The millions of deaths show a staggering disregard for human life, a disturbing moral acceptance that profit trumps lives, and a blatant neglect of their global obligations.”

The millions of deaths show a staggering disregard for human life, a disturbing moral acceptance that profit trumps lives, and a blatant neglect of their global obligations”

Agnès Callamard

In 2020, G20 countries pre-ordered and bought the vast majority of Covid-19 vaccines before these vaccines had even been approved. Many countries stockpiled enough doses to be able to vaccinate their populations several times over. In 2021, they continue to hoard surplus doses, preferring to sit on them, rather than share them with those who need them most.

On 22 September 2021, Amnesty International launched a global campaign to demand that the World Health Organization’s target of vaccinating 40% of the population of low and lower-middle income countries is met by the end of the year. The 100 Day Countdown: 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines now! calls on governments with surplus stocks to redistribute these doses to other countries by the end of the year.

“While some countries have pledged to redistribute vaccines, many still haven’t provided a clear timeline– with some only committing to share vaccines by September next year,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Vaccines must be shared now. It’s in the best interests of everyone, especially if we want to ensure borders can reopen and our global economy can recover in a fair way. The clock is ticking. It’s time to take action now.”

Leading up to the G20, Amnesty International, together with members of the Peoples Vaccine Alliance, will be calling on G20 leaders to redistribute vaccines now, upping the pressure with a media stunt expected to be held in Rome, Italy, on 29 October.

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Police in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) carried out a sweeping campaign arbitrarily detaining and deporting at least 375 African migrant workers who were seized from their homes in terrifying night-time raids, taken to prison where they were subjected to degrading treatment and other multiple human rights violations, before being collectively deported without any form of due process, new research from Amnesty International has found.

Hundreds of African nationals were rounded up on the night of 24-25 June 2021 before being arbitrarily detained incommunicado in Al-Wathba prison for up to two months. Emirati police later falsified negative PCR tests for them to travel, stripped them of their belongings, including vital legal documents, and denied them access to legal counsel.

“These African workers were living and working in the UAE legally. This racial targeting caused devastation in the lives of some of the most marginalized members of Emirati society at a time when the UAE government presents itself as a model country for multicultural tolerance as it hosts Dubai Expo 2020,” said Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.  

“The authorities have brutalized hundreds of individuals on the basis of their skin colour, ill-treating them in detention, stripping them of their personal possessions and their dignity before deporting them en masse. The UAE must take a clear and public stance that any racist targeting for whatever reason will not be accepted and they must ensure that those who already suffered such treatment be provided with appropriate restitution and redress.”

The UAE must take a clear and public stance that any racist targeting for whatever reason will not be accepted and they must ensure that those who already suffered such treatment be provided with appropriate restitution and redress.

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International

Amnesty International interviewed eight women and 10 men who were arbitrarily deported and expelled from the UAE following the June raids, of which 11 were from Cameroon, five from Nigeria, one from Uganda and one from Ghana. All of them described a pattern of racial targeting in the apprehensions, noting that those rounded up were almost exclusively Black. A few Asian nationals found living in the same flats as the Africans were also arrested. 

The Emirati authorities detained them for between 35 and 61 days and summarily deported them without affording them the opportunity to challenge their deportation.

The UAE’s Ministry of Interior issued a statement on 3 September stating arrests of 376 women and men had been carried out “as part of legal procedures to address crimes related to human trafficking.”  Yet all interviewees confirmed that that the authorities had not informed them of why they were being held nor had they brought them before judicial authorities to allow them to see and challenge the evidence against them.

However, the African nationals were not given a chance to challenge their deportation as required under international law and due process standards. In detaining and arbitrarily deporting hundreds of African nationals en masse, based on racial targeting and with no legal due process, the UAE violated international law relating to the prohibition of racial discrimination and the prohibition of collective expulsions which carry an inherent risk of refoulement.

Racially driven raids

All those interviewed described the same pattern of racial targeting in the apprehensions. Deported residents of Lagym building said that there were people of various Asian and African nationalities living there, but that security forces had targeted the African residents, and that the handful of South and Southeast Asian residents detained were picked out because they were living with Africans. 

The workers interviewed said that Emirati police broke into their homes between 2am and 4am and hauled them off without even allowing them to get properly dressed. They said the police officers, some of whom were identified as being from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), did not allow them to show their residency documents proving that they were in the UAE legally.   

Kabirat Olokunde from Nigeria was working as an assistant at an international school when she was deported on 22 August. She said that the police had not allowed her to dress and handcuffed her even though she was wearing her nightclothes. She said: “I was asking them, ‘Why am I here? I’m not a criminal. I have my papers. Why are you bringing me here?’ And they told me, ‘Emirates give, Emirates take.’” She also said police officers molested her. “Those idiots were touching my boobs… I told them, you touch [me] again I will slap you.” 

Squalid conditions in detention 

The deportees described squalid conditions in Al-Wathba prison, where they were kept in overcrowded, unsanitary halls and denied access to adequate healthcare, before being arbitrarily deported.

Prison authorities separated men and women upon entry, putting each in separate halls. 

The women interviewed said up to 220 detainees were held in their part of the prison. There were only four toilets for all of them. All interviewees said they were given no masks and there was no testing for Covid-19 despite the substantial risk of transmission in such a crammed space. 

One woman who was pregnant when she was detained said she was denied medication for anaemia and nurses dismissed her complaints of abdominal pain. “I went there three months pregnant, I came back and it was … five months, with no medical attention,” she said. “My weight was 58, 59 [kg] before. I came out, my weight was 51 … It was horrible.” 

Legal rights ignored in mass expulsions

Those interviewed said they were not brought before a prosecutor, judge, or court, or given any paperwork to show why they were being held. They also said they were never given the opportunity to consult with a lawyer, nor receive any visitors. All but two said they were not allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer. The other two interviewees said after a month in prison the detainees in their rooms were given one chance to make a call if they had a number memorized.

The 18 deportees said they were forcibly returned to their home countries after being stripped of their personal belongings, including clothing, savings, TVs, electronic devices, all kinds of licences and certificates, medical records and in some cases proof of legal identity.

A nurse from Cameroon said: “All my degrees, my diploma, my license, everything remained in the UAE. Our money in the bank – because as we are working, we are investing – our money remains there. Everything. We came [home] with just passports.”

Five interviewees described how Emirati authorities had forged negative Covid-19 PCR test results needed to travel internationally, when in fact they had not been tested for weeks before being deported. Amnesty International inspected three of the false test documents, which were issued on the letterhead of the Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters and carried no doctor’s signature.

With no legal process and no assessment of individual cases and risks to deportees, the deportations amounted to collective expulsions, which are prohibited under international customary law. Expulsion must be based on an individual assessment, including of the risk of deporting an individual to a country where they are at risk of serious human rights violations. Individuals affected must be informed of the reasons and allowed to challenge lawfulness of their detention and deportation. 

“The UAE authorities must investigate this appalling incident in view of providing the victims prompt restitution of their belongings and redress for the shameful treatment they were subjected to prior to their deportation. The UAE is bound by obligations under international customary and treaty law prohibiting racial discrimination and forbidding forcible returns en masse,” said Lynn Maalouf. 

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The Dutch government risks exacerbating racial discrimination through the continued use of unregulated algorithms in the public sector, Amnesty International said in a damning new analysis of the country’s childcare benefit scandal.

The report Xenophobic Machines exposes how racial profiling was baked into the design of the algorithmic system used to determine whether claims for childcare benefit were flagged as incorrect and potentially fraudulent. Tens of thousands of parents and caregivers from mostly  low-income families were falsely accused of fraud by the Dutch tax authorities as a result, with people from ethnic minorities disproportionately impacted. While the scandal brought down the Dutch government in January, sufficient lessons have not been learnt despite multiple investigations.

Governments around the world are rushing to automate the delivery of public services, but it is the most marginalized in society that are paying the highest price.

Merel Koning, Senior Advisor on Technology and Human Rights

“Thousands of lives were ruined by a disgraceful process which included a xenophobic algorithm based on racial profiling. The Dutch authorities risk repeating these catastrophic mistakes as human rights protections are still lacking in the use of algorithmic systems,” said Merel Koning, Senior Advisor on Technology and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

“Alarmingly, the Dutch are not alone. Governments around the world are rushing to automate the delivery of public services, but it is the most marginalized in society that are paying the highest price.”

Amnesty International is calling on all governments to implement an immediate ban on the use of data on nationality and ethnicity when risk-scoring for law enforcement purposes in the search of potential crime or fraud suspects.

Thousands of lives were ruined by a disgraceful process which included a xenophobic algorithm based on racial profiling.

Merel Koning

Discriminatory loop

From the start, racial and ethnic discrimination was central to the design of the algorithmic system introduced in 2013 by the Dutch tax authorities to detect incorrect applications for child benefits and potentially fraud. The tax authorities used information on whether an applicant had Dutch nationality as a risk factor and non-Dutch nationals received higher risk-scores.

Parents and caregivers who were selected by the system had their benefits suspended and were subjected to hostile investigations, characterized by harsh rules and policies, rigid interpretations of laws, and ruthless benefits recovery policies.This led to devastating financial problems for the families affected, ranging from debt and unemployment to forced evictions because people were unable to pay their rent or make payments on their mortgages. Others were left with mental health issues and stress on their personal relationships, leading to divorces and broken homes.

The design of the algorithm reinforced existing institutional bias of a link between race and ethnicity, and crime, as well as generalizing behaviour to an entire race or ethnic group.

These discriminatory design flaws were reproduced by a self-learning mechanism that meant the algorithm adapted over time based on experience, with no meaningful human oversight. The result was a discriminatory loop with non-Dutch nationals flagged as potentially committing fraud more frequently than those with Dutch nationality.

Absence of accountability

When an individual was flagged as a fraud risk, a civil servant was required to conduct a manual review but was given no information as to why the system had generated a higher-risk score. Such opaque ‘black box’ systems, in which the inputs and calculations of the system are not visible, led to an absence of accountability and oversight.

“The black box system resulted in a black hole of accountability, with the Dutch tax authorities trusting an algorithm to help in decision-making without proper oversight,” said Merel Koning.

A perverse incentive existed for the tax authorities to seize as many funds as possible regardless of the veracity of the fraud accusations, as they had to prove the efficiency of the algorithmic decision-making system. Parents and caregivers who were identified by the tax authorities as fraudsters were for years given no answers to questions about what they had done wrong.

The findings of Xenophobic Machines are to be presented at a United Nations General Assembly side event on algorithmic discrimination on 26 October. This year, Amnesty International is launching an Algorithmic Accountability Lab – a multidisciplinary team tasked with carrying out investigations and campaigning on the human rights risks of automated decision systems in the public sector.  Amnesty International is calling on governments to:

• Prevent human rights violations in relation to the use of algorithmic decision-making systems, including by implementing a mandatory and binding human rights impact assessment before the use of such systems.
• Establish effective monitoring and oversight mechanisms for algorithmic systems in the public sector.
• Hold those responsible for violations to account and provide effective remedy to individuals and groups whose rights have been violated.
• Stop the use of black box systems and self-learning algorithms where the decision is likely to have a significant impact on the rights of individuals.

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Amnesty International will close its two offices in Hong Kong by the end of the year, the organization announced today.

The local ‘section’ office will cease operations on 31 October while the regional office – which is part of Amnesty’s global International Secretariat – is due to close by the end of 2021. Regional operations will be moved to the organization’s other offices in the Asia-Pacific.

“This decision, made with a heavy heart, has been driven by Hong Kong’s national security law, which has made it effectively impossible for human rights organizations in Hong Kong to work freely and without fear of serious reprisals from the government,” said Anjhula Mya Singh Bais, chair of Amnesty’s International Board.

“Hong Kong has long been an ideal regional base for international civil society organizations, but the recent targeting of local human rights and trade union groups signals an intensification of the authorities’ campaign to rid the city of all dissenting voices. It is increasingly difficult for us to keep operating in such an unstable environment.”

There are two Amnesty International offices based in Hong Kong: a local membership section focused on human rights education in the city; and a regional office which carries out research, advocacy and campaigning work on East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. All of the regional office’s work will continue from new locations.

“We are deeply indebted to Amnesty members and staff who over the last 40 years have worked tirelessly to protect human rights in and from Hong Kong. From successfully pushing for the full abolition of the death penalty in Hong Kong in 1993, to exposing evidence of excessive use of force by police during the 2019 mass protests, Amnesty in Hong Kong has shone a light on human rights violations in the darkest of days,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“In the wider region, our research and campaigning has tackled subjects including freedom of expression in North Korea, conscientious objection to military service in South Korea, the right to housing in Mongolia, Japan’s wartime atrocities against “comfort women”, and the crackdown on human rights lawyers in China.

“Moreover, Amnesty International Hong Kong’s education programmes – from classroom talks to a documentary film festival – have enhanced awareness of human rights not only in the city’s schools but among the general public as well. No one and no power can demolish that legacy.”

The national security law, imposed by the Chinese central government, was enacted on 30 June 2020. It targets alleged acts of “secession”, “subversion of state power”, “terrorist activities” and “collusion with foreign or external forces to endanger national security”. 

Its sweeping and vaguely worded definition of “national security”, which follows that of the Beijing authorities, has been used arbitrarily as a pretext to restrict the human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, as well as to repress dissent and political opposition.

Amnesty documented the rapid deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong one year after the enactment of the national security law in a June 2021 briefing.

“The environment of repression and perpetual uncertainty created by the national security law makes it impossible to know what activities might lead to criminal sanctions. The law has repeatedly been used to target people who have upset the authorities for any number of reasons – from singing political songs to discussing human rights issues in the classroom,” said Anjhula Mya Singh Bais.

“The pattern of raids, arrests and prosecutions against perceived opponents has highlighted how the vagueness of the law can be manipulated to build a case against whomsoever the authorities choose.”

A government crackdown targeting activists, opposition politicians and independent media has recently expanded to include civil society organizations. At least 35 groups have disbanded since the law was enacted, including some of the city’s largest unions and activist groups.

“There are difficult days ahead for human rights in Hong Kong, but Amnesty International will continue to stand with the people of Hong Kong.  We will fight for their rights to be respected and we will be vigilant in our scrutiny of those who abuse them,” said Agnes Callamard.

“While leaving the city that we have called home for decades is devastating, we do so proud of our achievements over that time, and confident that the strength of Amnesty’s 10 million-plus supporters worldwide will enable us to continue our work together to end human rights abuses everywhere.”

Background

Amnesty International is a global human rights movement of 10 million people, with operations in more than 70 countries. The organization holds governments around the world accountable to equal standards under international law.

Amnesty’s local Hong Kong section works principally on building awareness of human rights issues in the city and is funded primarily by individual donations from the Hong Kong public.

The Hong Kong regional office – which has a sister location in Bangkok – conducts research, campaigning and advocacy work across the region including on mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands.

The overwhelming majority of Amnesty’s income comes from individuals the world over. These personal and unaffiliated donations allow the organization to maintain full independence from any and all governments, political ideologies, economic interests or religions. Amnesty neither seeks nor accepts any funds for human rights research from governments or political parties.

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