Schlagwort: human rights

The dire state of transgender people’s rights to healthcare, housing, and employment in Asia and the Pacific Islands worsened at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amnesty International said today. The organization is calling for governments in the region – and world over – to ensure lessons are learned so transgender people are not left behind in future health emergencies and natural disasters.

In a report, Pandemic or not, we have the right to live, Amnesty International documented discrimination, violence and marginalization of transgender people in 15 countries – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mainland China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga and Viet Nam. It reveals that transgender people suffered disproportionately under restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, at the same time that they were excluded from receiving government assistance to help people cope with the impact of the pandemic.

The pandemic and governments’ responses to it have laid bare the many barriers that transgender and gender diverse people in Asia and the Pacific Islands must navigate every day to meet their basic needs.

Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s Researcher and Policy Advisor on Gender

“The pandemic should be a wake-up call to governments to build more inclusive and sustainable economies and societies for trans and gender diverse people, especially in the face of future health and climate crises. The first step is to ensure individuals can easily and quickly change their legal name and gender on official ID documents, which is crucial to accessing their rights to essential services on an everyday basis.”

As lockdowns were introduced at the height of the pandemic, transgender people faced numerous challenges including a loss of income, food insecurity, safe housing, problems in accessing gender-affirming treatment, increased domestic violence and a notable absence of social protection support. These are all part of systemic issues states in the region need to address urgently, to comply with their human rights obligations.

‘No money and starving’

Discrimination and stigma mean that the overwhelming majority of transgender people in the region work in the informal sector without any job security, labour protections or welfare benefits. For example, in the Philippines, South Korea and Viet Nam, trans women told Amnesty International that performing at entertainment venues, working in the hospitality industry, engaging in sex work, and taking part in beauty pageants, were often the only ways they could earn a living.

In Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, many transgender women earn money performing ceremonial functions at weddings and births, engaging in sex work or begging on the streets. When lockdowns were imposed, many of them lost their only form of income.

A trans woman in Bangladesh told Amnesty International: “No mainstream companies hire us. We are seen as ‘cursed’ and ‘taboo’. There is no data from the government about trans people. NGOs and activists talked to about 1,500 trans women [during Covid-19] and they [mostly all] told us that they are living a very miserable life, have no money and are starving”.

Obstacles to accessing healthcare

Transgender people in Asia and the Pacific Islands reported that they are routinely subjected to disrespect, lack of privacy and confidentiality, and in many cases, outright refusal of care, when they seek medical assistance.

There is also a lack of health professionals trained in the specific health requirements of trans people, including the regulation of hormones and other gender-affirming treatment. As a result, many transgender people rely on the internet or clandestine market sellers for advice about medication and its side effects.

Accessing hormones was even harder for trans people during the pandemic, with many trans people claiming that interruptions to their gender-affirming treatment was causing them symptoms of anxiety and depression.

“The main difficulty transgender men have faced is getting hormone medicines. When their hormone stocks finished, they couldn’t go to the hospital to get medicines because of the curfews. At times they also couldn’t complete the process to get their gender officially recognized because clinics were closed, and surgeries got delayed,” a trans man in Sri Lanka told Amnesty International.

Humiliation and abuse directed at trans people

The report showed that most transgender people in Asia are unable to obtain legal ID documents that reflect their gender identity, which not only made it difficult for them to access relief packages and Covid-19 vaccines, but is a major barrier for them in their everyday lives.

“They said the virus was the great equalizer but in fact it – as well as the response to it – has greatly exacerbated existing inequalities. The systems that were already inaccessible became almost impossible to access for trans people,” one trans activist in the Philippines told Amnesty International.

The inability to produce an ID that reflected their gender expression also exposed transgender people to greater harassment, abuse and violence.

“Trans women were arrested for being out during the curfew. Most cisgender people just get fines but trans women are humiliated by the officers. There are even reports where trans women were asked to remove their wigs and/or clothes and provide their IDs. Law enforcement officers often go overboard with trans communities when they enforce these policies,” said a trans activist from the Philippines.

In addition to dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, trans people lived through what was termed their “deadliest year on record” with 375 trans and gender diverse people reported to have been killed globally between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021, including 44 people in Asia. Between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022, 327 deaths of trans and gender diverse people were recorded globally, with 40 in Asia. The actual figures for both years are likely to be much higher due to lack of adequate reporting at the national levels. This shocking violence is rooted in their longstanding marginalization, which is reflected in their lack of human rights.

“The culturally rich history of transgender and gender diverse people in many countries across the Asia Pacific, and indeed world over, has been overshadowed by structural discrimination, violence and stigma. Governments must not turn away from their suffering, but address the structural conditions and inequalities that shape trans people’s everyday lives, choices and opportunities, which, if left unchanged, will continue to make them particularly vulnerable to future crises,” Nadia Rahman said.

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In Mexico, the story of renewable energy goes hand in hand with colonial practices of dispossession and violation of the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples. In the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrow stretch of Mexican territory that separates the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean, the Indigenous Peoples who inhabit the area have been living with the consequences of the imposition of this model for more than a decade. In this area, wind energy has become a symbol of the idea of “sustainable” development for local, state and federal government administrations, and it has become the poster child for development and investment. Furthermore, the installation of more than 2,000 wind turbines has had a significant impact on the dynamics of everyday life.

The communities on the receiving end of the projects are faced with the impact that private capital has on social, economic and cultural dynamics. “Wind enclaves” have been developed at key points (based on their political and economic values), leading to an increase in the cost of housing and services, an increase in sex work and the arrival of supermarket, fast food and restaurant chains to meet the needs of foreign workers in the companies (to the detriment of the local market).

The wind megaproject in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is an example of how the expansionist nature of this so-called development recreates the irregular conditions of leasing contracts and the negative effects on the life of the communities in the area. The aim of these projects is to ensure the continuation of the capitalist accumulation model rather than climate mitigation. Technology is once again used as a weapon for capital and non-appropriable, inappropriate projects are proposed in which technological advances that enable the harnessing of renewable energy sources are costly and require a certain capacity in terms of finance and infrastructure. This limits access to countries with weak economies and especially to their communities while benefiting the private sector.

The aim of these projects is to ensure the continuation of the capitalist accumulation model rather than climate mitigation

Bettina Cruz and Rosa Marina Flores Cruz

In the face of these dynamics, community resistance in the Isthmus continues to be shaped. It is not just a matter of standing up to multinational green capitalism projects, but a fight to defend territory in the face of neoliberal dispossession projects. We are fighting to maintain our binnizá and ikoojts Isthmus life, a life linked to corn (zapalote chico or xhuuba’huiini), to “native” tomatoes and to shrimp and fish. We are fighting to defend a shared space, a living space. This is the alternative proposed from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the legitimacy of our decision to remain a community.

And we keep asking ourselves, in return for all this, what is left for us? The arrival of the wind farms was accompanied by many impressive words such as progress, development and opportunities, linked to the narrative of environmental co-responsibility in the face of climate change. The territory of the Isthmus was given the mission to contribute to the achievement of the international climate change mitigation targets signed by the Mexican government, without even considering the energy needs of our area or the impacts of climate change on our communities. The so-called mitigation policies guaranteed a new window of opportunity for the same old companies to continue implementing harmful projects in our territories, but with a green façade.

Currently, our territory has once again been assigned for the second phase of the wind energy project which aims to double the amount of energy produced in the area. It also deepens the dispossession of territory to be handed over to international finance capital with the Faustian project in the Interoceanic Corridor. This involves the implementation of a communication and freight corridor from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico by means of a high-speed train that will, in the end, make use of the geopolitical advantage of crossing the Isthmus. Attempts to establish this inter-oceanic project have been going on for centuries and finally, thanks to this deceitful narrative on progress, it will be implemented along with a motorway, two deep seaports and a gas pipeline running from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and south to Central America.

International decisions on state and government action on the climate crisis, such as at COP-27 in Egypt, continue to affect the lives of hundreds of Indigenous communities to ensure the green growth of capitalism. In Mexico, discussions around energy are exclusionary and perpetuate the role of rural and Indigenous areas as providers of services and raw materials for industry. This applies equally to both fossil fuel and renewable technologies, as the industrial exploitation tactics are the same, implemented by the same fossil fuel companies, producers of waste and hoarders of goods and resources that have caused the current climate crisis.

While the projects that threaten our territory continue, our fight will continue. We will continue to insist that it is not up to anyone other than us to decide what happens on our land. Despite the pressure to abandon that which makes us a community, we will continue to maintain our identity. We know that our existence has been a thorn in the side of colonial interests for more than 500 years, and we will continue to be so.

While the projects that threaten our territory continue, our fight will continue

Bettina Cruz and Rosa Marina Flores Cruz

From the Isthmus of Tehuantepec we will continue our resistance against these projects on our territory, in defence of life and demanding respect for the free will and determination of Indigenous Peoples, particularly the Puente Madera community, who are standing up against the installation of the Industrial Park in the Interoceanic Corridor in their community lands.

Bettina Cruz is a Binnizá woman originally from Juchitán in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. She has a degree in Agricultural Engineering from UNAM, a Master’s degree in Regional Rural Development from the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo and doctoral studies at the University of Barcelona, in Territorial Planning and Regional Development. In 2007 she was part of an organizational process for the defense of communal lands in the Isthmus, forming the APIIDTT. She is part of the National Indigenous Congress and since May 2017 is part of the Indigenous Council of Government.

Rosa Marina Flores Cruz is an Afrozapoteca woman from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, and a member of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory and the Indigenous Futures Network. She holds a Master’s degree in Rural Development from UAM-Xochimilco and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from UNAM’s Morelia campus. She is currently studying Communication Sciences. Her work has focused on issues such as the climate crisis and environmental education, community resistance, green capitalism, and indigenous and community feminism.

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On the eve of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), Amnesty International released a report on the impact of climate change on the human rights of eight communities around the world. One of these eight case studies was conducted with the Innu community of Pessamit in Quebec. The results are unequivocal: the Innu way of life and culture are at risk. In the short term, all of Quebec and Canada will pay the price. However, the ancestral Aboriginal know-how is a key tool in the fight against climate change. We have a duty to listen and learn.

The research conducted by Amnesty International Canada Francophone (AICF), in collaboration with the Pessamiulnuat, focuses on the human rights violations of the Innu Nation of Pessamit, resulting from the combined effects of climate change and the forestry, hydroelectricity and resort industries, as well as colonialist policies.

We recently were in the Innu Nation’s territory to learn from their struggles to protect the environment and their culture. For the Pessamiulnuat, the close relationship with the land is an expression of Innu lifestyle and spirituality. When at risk, the essence of their identity, Innu-aitum, is also at risk. Coastal erosion threatens the practice of certain cultural activities at the same time as it leads to the loss of part of the territory.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes that indigenous peoples “have suffered historical injustices, including colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources. Injustices that will continue until justice and redress are achieved. And it is only in this way that there can be reconciliation. Article 25 of the Declaration states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with the lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used, and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard.”

Furthermore, in its most recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it clear that it is the most vulnerable populations, including the 476 million indigenous people around the world, who suffer the most from climate change, due to their very connection between cultural identity and territory.

Indigenous peoples have suffered historical injustices, including colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The interest of the Innu Nation of Pessamit in climate change goes back some twenty years, precisely because of the erosion of the banks. This phenomenon is accentuated by the increase in temperature, milder winters and the multiplication of freezing and thawing periods. Thinner ice reduces the protection of the shoreline against waves and winter storms. Erosion modifies the seabed where silt is deposited, making it difficult for fish to spawn. In addition, summers are getting hotter and hotter. The fauna and flora change, the trees turn yellow in the middle of summer because of the lack of water, burned by the sun. These are worrying facts.

However, the IPCC recognizes that when the territorial rights of indigenous peoples are respected, the climate, the territory and its biodiversity are better off. The Pessamiulnuat are aware of this. The Pessamit Innu Council has therefore set up a team to monitor changes in Nitassinan, the claimed and unceded ancestral territory, as well as a salmon restoration project in the Betsiamites River. The Nation is also calling for the creation of a protected area for woodland caribou and has created partnerships with universities to understand and find solutions to riverbank erosion.

However, the IPCC recognizes that when the territorial rights of indigenous peoples are respected, the climate, the territory and its biodiversity are better off. The Pessamiulnuat are aware of this. The Pessamit Innu Council has therefore set up a team to monitor changes in Nitassinan, the claimed and unceded ancestral territory, as well as a salmon restoration project in the Betsiamites River. The nation is also calling for the creation of a protected area for woodland caribou and has created partnerships with universities to understand and find solutions to riverbank erosion.

However, despite all these efforts, in the end, Pessamit has no decision-making power over the activities of the forestry, hydroelectric, mining and resort industries, which not only have an impact on the territory but also accentuate climate change.

Thirteen hydroelectric power plants and 16 Hydro-Quebec dams have been built on the Pessamit Nitassinan since the 1950’s without free, prior and informed consent, without even the appearance of consultation. History cannot be rewritten and this is not what the Pessamiulnuat are claiming, any more than they are claiming to live in the Stone Age. But the least we can do is to recognize that this has not been done, and that it has been highly prejudicial, and consequently pay the necessary compensations. We can also do things differently today. Not by “consulting as much as possible”, but by ensuring that the free, prior and informed consent of the whole community is obtained.

This is true for all industries, and it is the responsibility of the provincial government and regional county municipalities (RCMs) to ensure this. The northern hemisphere’s boreal forest, of which Canada is the primary steward, is critical to the fight against climate change because of its high potential to store carbon emissions. However, “each year, industrial logging in Canada clearcuts over a million acres of boreal forest, much of this in irreplaceable, uniquely carbon-rich primary forests,” according to Jennifer Skene of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

And every time new roads are created to serve the forest industry, non-native hunters and tourists take them over. Resorting on Nitassinan is a growing phenomenon, an additional threat to traditional Innu activities. The Quebec government and the MRCs respectively distribute permits for logging and tourism, without regard for the Innu.

We are consulted for the sake of form. We propose new ways of doing things but we are not listened to. We are not taken seriously.

Érik Kanapé

Certainly, the federal government has made efforts in recent years to include the Nation and its vision in the management of the territory. However, on the provincial side, the community is still faced with a stubborn refusal: “We are consulted for the sake of form. We propose new ways of doing things but we are not listened to. We are not taken seriously”, testified Éric Kanapé, biologist and environmental consultant.

Finally, we cannot ignore the impact of colonialist policies for nearly 150 years. And the ways of governments and industries are a corollary of this entrenched colonialism.

The Pessamit First Nation wants a nation-to-nation relationship with the levels of government in order to be able to determine its own development on its territory, that is to say, to negotiate until an agreement is reached that suits both parties. Put another way: give the other party the power to say no. “We demand respect from all levels of government because we are being ignored,” says Chief Marielle Vachon.

Finally, let’s remember that the United Nations considers environmental degradation and unsustainable development as the greatest threats to the right to life of future generations.

Erika Guevara-Rosas is Americas director at Amnesty International. France-Isabelle Langlois is executive director at Amnesty International Canada Francophone

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Responding to the latest military developments on the ground in Kherson Region, Denis Krivosheev, Regional Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia said:

“Following Russian troops’ withdrawal from Dnieper’s right bank in Kherson, Ukraine should prioritize preservation of evidence of war crimes committed there. Justice is owed to victims of Russian crimes under international law against Ukraine, and all those responsible must be held to account in fair trial proceedings.

“While this is a major military development, the experience of recent weeks indicates we can expect to see further Russian attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure as Ukraine continues to retake its territory. Just today, the civilian death toll continues to rise from an overnight Russian missile strike which devastated a residential building in Mykolaiv.

Justice is owed to victims of Russian crimes under international law against Ukraine, and all those responsible must be held to account in fair trial proceedings.

Denis Krivosheev, Regional Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Amnesty International

“Although we understand that Ukrainian authorities and civilians will want to rebuild and reinhabit the region as soon as possible, preserving evidence of war crimes must be a priority. This is essential to ensure comprehensive accountability and enable the ongoing International Criminal Court investigation and other national and international justice mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators of the most serious crimes under international law committed on Ukrainian soil.”

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Responding to the news that the Saudi Arabian authorities today executed two Pakistani nationals for drug-related crimes, the first such executions since the country’s Human Rights Commission announced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes in January 2021, Diana Semaan, Amnesty International’s Acting Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

“This striking escalation in the country’s use of the death penalty this year reveals the true face the Saudi authorities are hiding behind the so-called progressive reforms agenda they are presenting to the world. Trampling on the official moratorium on drug related crimes, they arbitrarily took the lives of two Pakistani nationals.

“The lives of individuals on death row for drug-related crimes and other crimes are at risk. Regardless of the crimes committed, no one should suffer this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

“Saudi Arabia must immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty in the country. The authorities must review the cases of all prisoners currently under a death sentence with the aim of commuting their sentences or offering them a  fair retrial without recourse to the death penalty. They must also bring all laws and judicial practices in line with fair trial guarantees.”

Background

In January 2021, the Saudi Human Rights Commission stated that the country has enforced a moratorium on drug-related crimes, and that “the Kingdom and its justice system are focusing more on rehabilitation and prevention”.

Following this announcement, Saudi Arabia did not carry out any executions for drug-related crimes. However, there was no official change to Saudi laws, including the Saudi Drugs and Narcotics Control Law which provides that drug smuggling or related crimes are punishable by death under ta’zir (the discretion of the judge).

Since the beginning of 2022, the Saudi authorities have carried out 128 executions.

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