Schlagwort: Amnesty International

Iranian authorities are trampling upon children’s rights and committing a grave violation of international humanitarian law amounting to a war crime by recruiting and mobilizing children as young as 12 into a military campaign led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Amnesty International said today. 

On 26 March 2026, a deputy of the IRGC Mohammad Rasoul Allah Corps of Greater Tehran, Rahim Nadali, announced that a recruitment campaign called the “Homeland-Defending Combatants for Iran” is “open to volunteers” aged 12 and above, encouraging registrations at Basij bases in mosques across Tehran to join “combatants defending the homeland.” Eyewitness accounts and verified audiovisual evidence show child soldiers having been deployed at IRGC checkpoints and patrols, armed with weapons, including AK47pattern rifles.   

“The Iranian authorities are shamelessly encouraging children as young as 12 to join an IRGC run military campaign, putting them in grave danger and violating international law, which prohibits the recruitment and use of children in the military. Recruiting children under 15 into the armed forces constitutes a war crime,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns. 

As US and Israeli strikes hit thousands of IRGC sites, including Basij facilities, across the country, including through drone attacks targeting security patrols and checkpoints, the deployment of child soldiers alongside IRGC personnel or in their facilities puts them at grave risk of death and injury.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns. 

“As US and Israeli strikes hit thousands of IRGC sites, including Basij facilities, across the country, including through drone attacks targeting security patrols and checkpoints, the deployment of child soldiers alongside IRGC personnel or in their facilities puts them at grave risk of death and injury. Iranian authorities must immediately stop their criminal assault on children’s rights and prohibit the recruitment of anyone under 18 by the armed forces.” 

According to official statements, under announced campaign, recruits are being assigned to a range of activities linked to the IRGC’s “operational and security” activities, including patrols, checkpoint duties, logistical support, distribution of equipment and supplies, and assisting with food, medical and relief tasks.  

Amnesty International has analysed 16 photos and videos that have appeared online since 21 March 2026, showing children wielding weapons such as AK-pattern assault rifles  or standing alongside IRGC and other forces at checkpoints, on patrols and during state-organized militarized rallies in Tehran, Mashad and Kermanshah. 

On 29 March, 11-year-old boy, Alireza Jafari, was killed, while accompanying his father, a member of the IRGC’s Basij, at a checkpoint in Tehran, laying bare the devastating consequences of the presence of children at military objectives. Authorities have confirmed that the child was killed “while serving” at a checkpoint following an Israeli drone attack. 

The boy’s mother told Hamshahri newspaper that on the night of the incident, her husband reported a “shortage of personnel” at checkpoints and took their sons, Alireza Jafari and his younger nine-year-old brother, with him. She added that her husband said Alireza “must get prepared for the days ahead” and that currently, children as young as 15 and 16 commonly take part in checkpoint duties. 

A Senior Reporter for BBC Persian Forensic, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, shared with Amnesty International screenshots of text messages received from four eyewitnesses in Tehran, Karaj, and Rasht who reported seeing children deployed at Basijrun checkpoints and armed with weapons, including AK47pattern rifles, in March 2026.  

One of the eyewitnesses from Tehran wrote: 

“[On 25 March], I saw a child at a checkpoint near our house… I think he was about 15. He just had the faint beginnings of a moustache. It seemed like he was struggling to breathe from the effort of lifting the gun. He was pointing the gun toward the cars.” 

Another eyewitness from Karaj wrote: 

“Today [on 27 March], I saw a child at a checkpoint. I think he was about 16. His facial hair hadn’t even grown. He was holding a Kalashnikov rifle.” 

An eyewitness from Rasht wrote on 30 March: 

“I have seen children wielding weapons. They wear masks to cover their faces, but it is obvious they are kids. They have not even grown in height… some appear to be 13 years old at most… I saw [several] children standing in front of mosques [where Basij bases are located], ahead of the actual forces. I keep thinking their brains aren’t developed like adults and they might actually fire randomly. I am both scared of them and feel sad for them.” 

In a video posted online on 30 March 2026, filmed in Mashhad at Shariati Square, two children, visibly identifiable from their height and stature, are seen wearing Basij camouflage uniforms and balaclavas and carrying AK‑pattern assault rifles while positioned on a white car during a state-organized rally. One child is visible standing through a side window, while the other appears positioned through the top window of the vehicle. The footage shows the children elevated above the crowd as the car moves through the square, with people around them cheering and waving flags. 

The recruitment announcement was circulated alongside a poster depicting a man in a uniform belonging to the Basij battalions of the IRGC, a woman in civilian dress, and two children, a boy and a girl. The poster promoted the campaign under the slogan “Basij with people, for people,” and featured a quote from the late Supreme Leader and commander-in-chief of the armed forces Ali Khamenei, stating that “Basijis must remain at the heart of the field for the main virtues of the Revolution to stay alive.” 

In an interview aired by state media, a deputy of the IRGC Mohammad Rasoul Allah Corps of Greater Tehran, Rahim Nadali, spoke of the “high enthusiasm” among teenagers to join “intelligence and operational patrols,” saying:  

“Teenagers and youth have repeatedly come forward saying they want to take part… Given the ages of those making these requests, we have set the minimum age at 12. There are now kids aged 12-13 who want to be present in this space.” 

Abusive legislative framework enabling the enlistment of children 

The latest recruitment of children is enabled by the IRGC Recruitment Regulations Law, which divides the IRGC personnel into two categories: official guards and Basijis. Article 13 defines Basijis as ordinary, active, and special Basijis. Ordinary Basijis are described as individuals “from various segments of society who believe in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the goals of the Islamic Revolution”. After completing general training, they join and are organized within the “20-million-strong army”, a term coined by the first Supreme Leader, Rouhollah Khomeini, shortly after the 1979 Revolution, and during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) became known as a reference to state efforts at mass mobilization of children and youth into military campaigns.  

Article 93 explicitly allows children under 15 to become ordinary Basijis, effectively setting no minimum age. 

Active Basijis are ordinary Basijis who “volunteer to be organized” and can “collaborate with the IRGC in carrying out assigned missions” after completing training. Article 94 allows children aged 15 and above to qualify as active Basijis. 

Special Basijis, also described as “honorary guards”, are those who “possess the qualifications of an [official] guard and, after completing the training stipulated in this law, are organized and commit to being available fulltime to the IRGC when needed.” Article 16 allows children as young as 16 to become special Basijis. 

Although authorities frequently describe Basijis as “popular forces” or “the people’s forces” of the IRGC, in reality these units are not voluntary. Basij members receive financial compensation. Various laws and policies also require the government to provide Basij agents with preferential access to employment opportunities, housing facilities and loans, and admission advantages for higher education institutions, all of which heighten the risk of recruitment of children from impoverished communities, particularly in a context marked by severe economic hardship. 

Iranian authorities must immediately issue explicit instructions to prohibit military forces in Iran, including the Basij structures of the IRGC, from enlisting children under 18 and ensure that  existing Basijis and other members of the armed forces who are under the age of 18 years are immediately released from service.. 

Iran is a party to the the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits recruitment of children under 15. The Optional Protocol to the Convention, which Iran has signed but not ratified, prohibits the compulsory recruitment by states of children under-18, as well as the use of under 18s in hostilities. Under customary international humanitarian law, which is legally binding on Iran, conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 into the armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities constitutes a war crime. 

Background  

According to Iranian authorities, Israeli-USA strikes have killed more than 1,900 people, including 249 women and 216 children. In one egregious incident, a USA strike on a school in Minab killed 168 people, including more than 100 children. Amnesty International’s investigation into the attack found that the school was directly hit with precision-guided munitions and that USA forces failed to do everything feasible to verify that the intended target was a military objective.  

Attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran have killed at least 16 in Israel, four in the West Bank and 23 in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.  

The Iranian authorities have a record of violating international humanitarian law by recruiting children, particularly during the 1980s when, by their own admission, over 550,000 children were sent as child soldiers to the Iran–Iraq war, and at least 36,000 of them were killed. 

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Last year, the European Commission launched a drive to simplify existing EU laws on artificial intelligence (AI) and data protection, arguing that this would “boost competitiveness” and “cut red tape”. In November 2025, it unveiled proposals for sweeping changes to major laws like the AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

At stake are the rules that protect us on and offline. Corporations work hard to give regulation a bad name, but regulations protect our rights from being steamrolled by states and governments. They protect our environment, our rights at work, our rights online, and so much more. 

Backed by powerful corporations, the Commission’s so-called “Digital Omnibus” threatens to weaken EU digital rules that were once seen as global benchmarks for privacy and AI. This plays on a false dichotomy between regulation and innovation, championed by Big Tech, who seek a rules-free environment that prioritizes profit at any cost. True innovation means finding ways to ensure that the benefits of new technologies are shared by society at large, and not serve only the interest of Big Tech oligarchs. 

The proposals presented under the guise of “simplification” amount to an unprecedented rollback of rights online at the EU level that protect us from corporate and state surveillance, discrimination at the hands of AI systems, and much more. 

Who benefits from AI deregulation/simplification and who is likely to suffer the biggest consequences? 

The “simplification” process is a deregulation process that is likely to benefit business interests. For years, Big Tech have been pushing back against attempts to regulate them, framing content governance rules as censorship, and – with the AI boom – pushing for greater access to all our data to feed their surveillance-based business models. The proposed changes to EU laws come at a time when Big Tech companies have been ramping up their lobbying presence in EU institutions in Brussels, with Amazon alone spending €7 million on lobbying in one year.  

Pressure is mounting across different areas of regulation, resulting in the rolling back of environmental protections, the weakening corporate governance and erosion of digital rights. It all amounts to a coordinated effort to weaken corporate accountability.  

Rolling back these protections puts all of us at risk. 

 What changes does the “Digital Omnibus” propose?

So far, the Commission has unveiled the “Digital Package” comprised of the Digital Omnibus and the Digital Omnibus on AI Regulation. They affect many laws, especially the GDPR and AI Act. 

GDPR 

The GDPR is an EU law that protects personal data by governing how organizations collect, use and secure it. However, the Commission’s proposed reforms to GDPR include redefining what constitutes personal data. Civil society has warned that this will weaken  protections under the law and potentially allow Big Tech to harvest more personal data for the training and operation of AI systems. In addition, companies are required to remove such data from AI systems but only if it does not require “disproportionate efforts”, a term that is not clearly defined and open to misuse. These special carveouts for AI, as other civil society groups have pointed out, could undermine the core purposes of the GDPR – to protect people from the harm caused by the mass collection and analysis of their personal information.  

The reforms also restrict people’s ability to get access to their own data. This is a core right that enables people to know what data is held about them and how it is being used. Proposed changes would allow controllers to refuse requests if they believe the request is for “purposes other than the protection of their data.”  

Taken together, these changes would cut holes in the EU’s flagship data protection law, make it easier for companies and states to harvest and manipulate our data, and make it harder for us to know what is being done, let alone prevent it. 

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act 

The AI Act, which is yet to fully come into force, is one of the most ambitious attempts globally to protect people from the harms of AI systems. But proposed changes in the AI Omnibus threaten to undermine this by weakening and delaying implementation of the rules, especially for high-risk systems which pose the most risk to the health, safety or fundamental rights of EU citizens.  

Even under the current AI Act, transparency provisions are weak. For example, a provider (i.e. a company) is allowed to determine whether its own system should not be considered a high risk and simply publish this assessment on an EU database. Under the proposed changes, even this minimal safeguard would disappear. AI companies would no longer be required to publish the assessment, giving them free rein to decide the levels of risk their systems pose. This lack of transparency will make it harder for their assessments to be challenged.  

These proposed changes would also delay full implementation of the AI Act. This is especially concerning given the AI Act’s “grand fathering” clause, which means high-risk systems rolled out ahead of the deadline would remain free from many obligations designed to mitigate the human rights risks they pose.  

Will other laws be affected? 

More “simplification” proposals are expected in the pipeline, further watering down our rights to accommodate corporate interests, including a plan to amend existing “better regulation guidelines” which will justify avoiding transparent and participatory policy making. 

The planned “digital fitness check” or assessment of existing digital laws’ effect on competitiveness, will include an “evaluation of all the main legal instruments”, including the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) a process which may potentially be used to further justify deregulation.  

Why are these regulations so important to human rights? 

AI and human rights 

As new AI systems are deployed across the world, the need for stronger regulation could not be clearer. All too often these systems rely on massive amounts of private and public data which reflects societal injustices and leads to biased outcomes resulting in further discrimination against some of the most vulnerable in society.  

Amnesty International has documented, for example, how legislative changes in Hungary, enabled the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) targeting peaceful assemblies such as the Budapest and Pécs Pride Marches. Elsewhere, the use of AI systems to monitor the movements of refugees and migrants poses grave risks to human rights, including the right to seek asylum. Other forms of AI, such as fraud detection algorithms used as part of the “digital welfare state”, have disproportionately impacted ethnic minorities, low-income individuals, migrants and refugees in several European countries including Denmark, France, Sweden and the Netherlands. 

Data protection and human rights 

GDPR is one of the most important laws protecting people against abuses of their personal data by Big Tech and states. Though enforcement has been lacking, the potential for this law to serve as a bulwark against the voracious appetite of Silicon Valley’s unlawful surveillance-based business model is vitally important. Data protection laws are amongst the most crucial tools to fight against the mass harvesting of our data, discriminatory profiling, repackaging and analyzing of personal data for resale by data brokers, and online advertising companies. Gaps in data protection laws can also facilitate the sharing and selling of data to state authorities who can use it to profile, surveil, deny us our rights, such as social benefits, or even decide whether to arrest or detain us.  

What happens next? 

The Commission’s proposals are not a fait accompli. Negotiations will take place in coming months that will decide the final form these proposals take. Already there are encouraging signs that the European Council, and the European Parliament, are pushing back against some of the most harmful provisions in the AI Omnibus. In a recent vote, the EU parliament maintained the registration requirement for high-risk systems, albeit in a weakened form which means the problems remain, and the battle is far from over. 

Human rights and the digital fitness check 

Alongside the Digital Package, there is also a huge concern around the forthcoming digital fitness check. Its full scope is unknown, and open-ended, but the DSA and DMA have already been mentioned as potential targets for simplification, and these alone are serious cause for concern. 

The DSA has the potential to assert some control over dangerous features of the Big Tech business model, including algorithmic amplification. Amnesty International research links platform algorithms to ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, and grave human rights abuses against Tigrayan people in Ethiopia. In both cases Meta failed to moderate and, in some instances, actively amplified harmful, discriminatory content on Facebook. 

Weakening DSA and DMA  would leave communities more exposed to harms from monopolies and the effects of anti-competitive practices of Big Tech. Amnesty International’s research has demonstrated that their largely unchecked power across various digital sectors poses serious risks to the right to privacy, the right to non-discrimination, freedom of opinion and access to information, and allows them to influence states to prevent rights-respecting regulation.  

Though incomplete – digital rights regulations in the EU offer crucial protections against these sorts of harms. Rather than dismantling them, they need to be strengthened and enforced. People in Europe, and people everywhere around the world whose rights are impacted, should stand up against the Commission’s proposals and call out “simplification” for what it really is: a stripping of our rights to serve the interests of Big Tech and AI.  

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Reacting to Angolan authorities’ continued detention of Serrote Oliviera, also known as General Nila, the leader of the National Union for Total Revolution of Angola (UNTRA), Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa’s regional office Tigere Chagutah said;.

“250 days since General Nila’s shooting and subsequent arrest and detention, Angolan authorities have failed to present credible evidence against him while repeatedly obstructing his lawyers’ access to the case file, raising serious concerns about fair trial guarantees and due process.

“His case illustrates the Angolan authorities’ escalating repression of activists, punishing and silencing dissent with impunity.

250 days since General Nila’s shooting and subsequent arrest and detention, Angolan authorities have failed to present credible evidence against him while repeatedly obstructing his lawyers’ access to the case file, raising serious concerns about fair trial guarantees and due process.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for ESARO

“Pending his release, Amnesty International calls on authorities to ensure full respect for General Nila’s fair trial rights, in line with international standards, including promptly providing his lawyers with full access to all documents related to his case and continued detention.”

Background

In recent years, General Nila has been a prominent voice against injustice in Angola, organizing peaceful demonstrations and advocating for the release of arbitrarily detained activists. General Nila has been detained several times during peaceful demonstrations that had been notified to the authorities.

UNTRA was among the groups that organized protests in July 2025, in response to an increase in fuel prices and transportation costs.

General Nila was shot by security forces when he stopped to film/livestream the first day of a strike in Luanda while on his way to visit a relative in hospital. Since his arrest, his case has been characterized by a lack of transparency over the legal basis for his continued detention, undermining confidence in the justice process and raising concerns about his arbitrary detention.

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Responding to the civil complaint  filed before France’s War Crimes Unit by French-Lebanese artist and filmmaker Ali Cherri and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) regarding a November 2024 Israeli military attack on a civilian building in central Beirut which killed seven civilians, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Heba Morayef said: 

Amnesty’s research into the attack found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity at the time of the attack and concluded the strike should be investigated as a war crime. 

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa

“Amidst a longstanding pattern of serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli forces in Lebanon, and as Israel once again steps up its attacks, if War Crimes Unit prosecutors open an investigation into this  complaint, this would offer a rare opportunity to examine Israel’s actions in a European court given the general impunity it usually enjoys. This case could offer some form of accountability and reparation to victims of this deadly attack. The strike on the residential building, killed at least seven civilians, destroyed several people’s homes. Amnesty’s research into the attack found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity at the time of the attack and concluded the strike should be investigated as a war crime. 

“Since October 2023, Amnesty International has documented serious and repeated violations of international humanitarian law by parties to the conflict in Lebanon, including numerous Israeli airstrikes on residential buildings that killed scores of civilians. More than a year later, none of the victims of these attacks have received justice or reparations and with the renewed intensification of hostilities, people in Lebanon are being forced again to witness their family members being killed, their homes destroyed, and their safety threatened. 

“Given Israel’s escalating attacks and longstanding impunity, states should urgently use universal or other extraterritorial jurisdiction to investigate serious violations of international humanitarian law and, where evidence permits, prosecute those responsible for war crimes in national courts.  

The Lebanese government should cooperate with the proceedings and take other measures to seek accountability for Israeli’s serious violations of international humanitarian law in Lebanon, including by accepting the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction, to ensure credible investigations and meaningful redress for victims.” 

Background 

In February 2026, Amnesty International published an investigation into the 26 November 2024 strike on the Cherri building in the Nouweiri neighbourhood of Beirut, carried out just hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect. This attack killed Ali Cherri’s parents, Nadira Hayek (78) and Mahmoud Naim Cherri (88) and their Iive-in helper Birki Negesa, along with at least four other civilians, all residents of the same building. 

The organization found no effective advance warnings were issued, Israel identified no military target before or after the strike, and no military objectives were present in the vicinity at the time. These findings provide reasonable grounds to conclude that the strike violated international humanitarian law and should be investigated as a war crime. 

Since 2 March 2026, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have intensified significantly across Lebanon, marked by sustained Israeli airstrikes, ground invasion and mass evacuation orders.  

According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health on 1 April, 1,318 people have been killed since then—including 125 children and 91 women—and 3,935 others wounded with more than 1.2 million people newly displaced. 

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• Regulators rubber-stamped casinos this year despite evidence of slavery and torture
• Survivors describe being trafficked to casino complexes and forced to scam
• Casinos linked to scamming compounds owned by major Cambodian companies

A new investigation by Amnesty International shows that a dozen casinos in Cambodia are directly linked to scamming compounds where torture, forced labour, child labour and human trafficking have taken place.

Analysis of official licensing documents issued by Cambodia’s Commercial Gambling Management Commission (CGMC) shows that casino owners are in direct control of buildings and sites where human rights abuses have been documented in at least 12 separate locations. The findings corroborate testimony from compound survivors who described being on casino property while they were confined and abused.

The casinos’ plans were recognized by the CGMC in December and January – during the country’s supposed nationwide crackdown on scamming compounds. The approved businesses include three Crown casinos owned by Anco Brothers Co. Ltd., one of the most powerful companies in Cambodia.

“This research establishes a clear link between Cambodia’s licensed casinos and its scamming compounds. At a time when the government says it is dismantling the scamming industry, the evidence shows it is simultaneously recognizing the plans for casino properties where abusive scamming compounds are run,” Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director Montse Ferrer said.  

“This contradiction raises urgent questions about whether Cambodian regulators are legitimizing companies linked to grave abuses. The authorities must explain why casinos with documented links to trafficking and torture continue to receive official approval. Every day that these casinos remain licensed is another day in which people on casino property are at risk of human rights abuse.”

Casinos recognized by government despite scamming links

In December 2025 and January 2026, the CGMC reviewed and recognized plans submitted by companies operating casinos. These included Crown casinos in the cities of Poipet, Bavet and Chrey Thum, and the Majestic Two and Majestic Hotel & Casino in Sihanoukville, whose former chairman was charged in January 2026 with illegal recruitment for exploitation, aggravated fraud, organized crime and money laundering.

The CGMC published detailed maps of the casino complexes, which show casino buildings, rental buildings, guest accommodation, hotels and general facilities.  

By comparing the official CGMC maps with satellite imagery, analyzed alongside Amnesty International’s own visits to compounds and testimony from scores of survivors gathered for its June 2025 report on scamming compounds, Amnesty identified 11 instances where the compounds profiled in the 2025 report were within the casino complexes recognized by the CGMC.

In all cases, the same companies had been operating the casinos since at least 2022. All of the testimony obtained by Amnesty International – in which survivors reported being confined, tortured and/or enslaved in scamming compounds – took place from 2022 onwards.

Amnesty International was able to link an additional complex not featured in its June 2025 report, the Crown Bavet Casino, to very recent evidence of human rights abuse. In January 2026, Amnesty interviewed two individuals from Kenya who had been subject to forced labour and deprived of their liberty at the casino complex, in one case until December 2025. The victims identified the buildings, including through photographs they had taken while confined, and the Crown logo. One of them identified building 15 in the CGMC map as the location where she was confined. The map marks this building as “residential and office building”.

“The children in the room were crying”

Between 2024 and 2026, Amnesty International interviewed survivors who were able to identify exact buildings within casino complexes where they were held.

Two survivors told Amnesty International they were at the Crown Resorts complex in Poipet where they were confined for months, threatened with electric shock batons and forced to open bank accounts that were likely used to launder money. The victims identified an image from Google Streetview which features a door and a sign for “Crown Casino”, saying they were taken through that door and forcibly confined inside.

One was in tears as she recounted: “The guards would enter the room and trigger the shock batons … it made a terrible sound. The children in the room were crying.” The building where she was tortured is marked in the Crown Resorts map in Poipet as “Restaurant and Office Buildings”.

Another victim, who was a child when he was trafficked into Cambodia, was deprived of his liberty in two separate casino complexes recently recognized by the CGMC. Sawat (not his real name) said he was confined in building 9, identified in the Crown Chrey Thom map plans as a “Hotel and office”, and was later taken to a location now confirmed as the New Venetian Casino in Bavet, operated by the New Venetian Resort Co., Ltd.

At The New Venetian site, Sawat said he was tortured in a dark room on the eighth floor of  “building E” before being told to eat his “last meal” in 2024. He jumped out of a window to escape, later losing consciousness before receiving medical assistance away from the compound.

Building E is identified as a “Hotel” in the CGMC approved map of the casino complex. During a site visit, Amnesty International observed a marker on the gate to Buildings C, D and E reading “The New Venetian Casino and Resort” with the corresponding logo.

A systemic pattern that demands accountability

In addition to the Crown casinos and The New Venetian casino, Amnesty International also confirmed the following CGMC-recognized casino buildings located within the same complex as scamming compounds documented in its June 2025 report. Deprivation of liberty was documented in all locations, among other abuses:

• Casino Kyom (My casino), operated by Zhou Cheng K.P. Hotel Co. Ltd., a Cambodian company with links to China through one of its two directors; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound KA02;
• Marinan International, operated by Marinan International Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company with links to China through one of its two directors; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound PO07 where evidence of human trafficking and forced labour was documented;
• Peak Casino, operated by Conglomerate Development Group Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI12;
• Majestic Hotel & Casino and Majestic Two, both operated by Big House Commercial Corporation, a Cambodian company with links to China through one of its two directors; the same locations Amnesty International identified as scamming compounds SI15 and SI16, respectively, where evidence of human trafficking, forced labour, child labour and enslavement were documented;
• Long Feng Xuan Casino, operated by Long Feng Xuan Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company whose sole director is listed as being based in China; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI20;
• Huang (or Wang) Chao International, operated by Bao Shi International Entertainment Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI32;
• Golden Sea Casino; operated by King Golden Sea Corp Ltd., a Cambodian company; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI50 where evidence of human trafficking, forced labour and torture and other ill-treatment was documented.

In all cases Amnesty International has evidence that the human rights abuse documented took place within the buildings marked as part of the casino complexes recognized by the CGMC. Amnesty has also verified further accounts of human rights abuse connected to at least three of these casino complexes since the publication of its June 2025 report.

“The scale and industrialized nature of abuse documented in these Cambodian casinos makes clear that this is a high-risk sector that demands investigation and accountability at every level of the corporate chain,” Montse Ferrer said.

“The Cambodian government must immediately suspend the gambling licenses of these casinos and conduct a full, independent and transparent investigation into the violations documented at these sites. It should also investigate all those suspected of individual responsibility for crimes under international law or other gross human rights violations, including the owners, financiers and operators of these casinos.”

Background

In June 2025, an Amnesty International report found that more than 50 scamming compounds across Cambodia were sites of widespread slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, torture and other human rights abuses, operating as prison-like facilities controlled by organized criminal groups. The report concluded that Cambodian authorities had failed to prevent or address these violations, with evidence pointing towards state complicity or deliberate inaction that had allowed the industry to flourish. Nearly half of the 53 scamming compounds Amnesty International identified in June 2025 were linked to a casino.

In July 2025, the Cambodian government announced a nationwide crackdown on scamming compounds in the country. The CGMC has taken some enforcement actions since the start of this crackdown, such as the suspension and sealing of four casinos in Preah Sihanouk province in November 2025.

As reflected in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, all businesses — including casino operators — bear a responsibility to respect human rights, which is independent of the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by private actors. Where casino premises are used to facilitate the detention, coercion and exploitation of trafficked workers, casino operators and property owners may face exposure under Cambodian, transnational, and international criminal law where there is evidence that they knowingly assisted in the trafficking, enslavement or torture of persons.

Amnesty International wrote to the CGMC and all the companies named above to give them an opportunity to respond to the allegations raised. At the time of publication, none have responded.

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