Schlagwort: human rights

Amid the doom and gloom of human rights work in the region, a few success stories this year give me hope.

by Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International

A cursory look at the human rights situation in South Asia can make one feel that the arc of the moral universe in the region has been too long and does not seem to be bending towards justice. And yet, as people committed to human rights, we can’t let doom and gloom be our defining narrative. We must keep hope close to our hearts in terrain that is so hostile to human rights work.

Indeed, while 2022 has seen a great number of violations of human rights across South Asia, there have also been positive developments that need to be acknowledged and celebrated.

We must keep hope close to our hearts in terrain that is so hostile to human rights work.

Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International

The use of draconian anti-terror laws in the region to put behind bars and silence activists, journalists and almost anyone who dares to speak up against injustice has become an easy and replicable template across the region. But our collective struggle for freedom and justice did ensure liberty for at least some of those critical voices.

In Sri Lanka, the authorities have been using legislation from 1979 called the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to intimidate critics. But in February, after spending almost two years in pre-trial detention, Hejaaz Hizbullah, a Sri Lankan lawyer and a vocal advocate for minority rights who was detained under the PTA, was granted bail. In August, Mohamed Imran, a computer engineering student, was released after a long, unjust detention under the PTA; a month later Divaniya Mukunthan, the director of a Tamil YouTube channel, was also let go.

During the anti-government protests earlier this year, the Sri Lankan government once again used this draconian legislation to quash dissent, along with excessive force and mass arrests. But after deciding not to renew the state of emergency imposed due to the upheaval, the authorities also released most protesters who were arbitrarily detained. Student leader Galwewa Siridhamma Thero who was arrested under the PTA got bail earlier this month.

In India, the authorities have been using the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to hold activists in jail without a trial. But there were at least two cases this year with positive developments. Poet and radical thinker Varavara Rao, who was detained under the UAPA in 2018, was granted bail from the Supreme Court. Prominent intellectual and scholar Anand Teltumbde, who was arrested in 2020 also on UAPA charges, was also given bail.

Another encouraging development came from the Supreme Court of India after, in May, it suspended the country’s colonial-era sedition law, which has also been used to suppress dissent. This was a big step in the right direction, particularly for the protection of freedom of expression. The court also passed landmark orders affirming the right of sex workers to dignified life and the right to abortion for every pregnant person until the 24th week, notwithstanding their marital status.

While the Indian judiciary has sometimes failed to uphold human rights over these past few years, such developments make me think that not everything is lost. They also give me hope that the Indian courts can also step up and defend rights, particularly those of persecuted minorities.

The persecution of minorities has been a dominant trend across the region, not just in India. In Pakistan, blasphemy laws have contributed to violence against ethnic and religious groups and several deaths were reported. However, in a positive move, the Supreme Court of Pakistan called on the authorities to ensure due process in the administration of justice in relation to blasphemy cases. This, of course, is not enough and such legislation needs to be abolished altogether.

In the Maldives, which also has strict blasphemy laws, activist Mohamed Rusthum Mujuthaba was arrested for posting content critical of religion on social media and for possession of “obscene material”. He was released from detention in August and relieved from further imprisonment.

In Bangladesh, teenager Dipti Rani Das, who was arrested for “hurting religious sentiment” was released after spending 16 months in detention.

There have also been modest gains for women’s rights in the region, too. In Nepal, activists secured reforms to strengthen the rights of survivors of gender-based violence. As a result of their campaigning, the government extended the restrictive statute of limitation on rape and other forms of sexual violence from one year to up to three years. This is a small win and we need to continue advocating until the statute of limitations is done away with.

Afghanistan has seen perhaps the most disheartening human rights crisis in the region. One year of Taliban rule has been marked by gender persecution of the worst kind, as well as persecution of minorities, including torture and enforced disappearances of Hazara people and individuals associated with the former Afghan government.

But at times even the Taliban has given in after people stood up for justice. Professor Faizullah Jalal, a prominent leader and university lecturer in Afghanistan, was released after being detained for pointing out the Taliban’s failure to address the humanitarian catastrophe in the country. His release came after months of campaigning by Amnesty International and many others.

Another positive development came in October, when the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the armed conflict in Afghanistan will resume. This has restored some hope for long-awaited justice. The ICC Prosecutor must now seize this opportunity to urgently commence investigations into all parties to the conflict and ensure justice and reparations for the victims of these heinous crimes.

While 2022 has seen no dearth of human rights violations in vast tracts of South Asia, and as widespread repression persists, there is definitely a light that continues to shine.

Let’s keep the candle of human rights burning.

Yamini Mishra

It burns in every Afghan woman who continues to protest and claim her space in what is probably one of the most hostile environments for women. It burns in Bilkis Bano who continues to demand justice for the 2002 Gujarat riots and fights the premature release of her rapists in India. It burns in activist Shahnewaz Chowdhury who faces prison in Bangladesh for speaking up about pollution and deaths at a coal plant. It burns in the resilience that protesters in Sri Lanka have shown to claim a better future for themselves and for their country.

South Asia has a history of strong people’s movements fighting against injustice, so let’s celebrate them and support them in their quest to secure human rights for all. Let’s keep the candle of human rights burning.

As the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

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Yamini Mishra

Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International

Originally published on International Human Rights day, December 10, 2022 at Al Jazeera:

A flicker of hope for human rights in South Asia | Opinions | Al Jazeera

The post Op-ed: A flicker of hope for human rights in South Asia appeared first on Amnesty International.

Back in 2001, a group of friends from Warsaw, Poland, decided to celebrate Human Rights Day by holding a 24-hour letter-writing marathon. Over the course of the day, they managed to write more than 2,000 letters on behalf of individuals whose rights were being denied by various state authorities. No mean feat. 

Fast forward 21 years and the idea conceived by those friends has spawned something they couldn’t possibly have envisaged. Each year, more people in more countries also started to write letters. Today, what’s now known as Write for Rights has become the world’s biggest human rights event. In 2021 alone, more than 4.5 million actions—including letters, e-mails, tweets and petition signatures—were taken across over 200 countries and territories.  

The event’s staggering growth and enduring appeal rests upon a simple but powerful idea that has been central to Amnesty International since its foundation in 1961: when enough people come together to oppose injustice, using only the power of words, authorities do listen, and change does happen. 

It’s a principle that’s been proven time and again.  

Since its inception, Write for Rights has transformed the lives of more than 100 people, freeing them from torture, harassment, or unjust imprisonment. Recent examples include Bernardo Caal Xol, an environmental activist from Guatemala who was freed this year after being jailed on bogus charges; Magai Matiop Ngong, released in March after being sentenced to death at just 15 years old in South Sudan; and Burundian human rights defender Germain Rukuki, released in 2021 four years into a 32-year prison sentence. 

The event is a testament to the power of activism and collective action. So, in a year punctuated by mass protests and violent crackdowns, it’s only fitting that Write for Rights 2022 is speaking up for those who have paid a heavy price for speaking out.  

From Iran and China to Cuba and Sri Lanka, the last 12 months has seen people across the globe loudly assert their right to peaceful protest. We’ve witnessed iconic acts of defiance, including Afghan women taking to the streets to protest Taliban rule and Iranian women posting videos of themselves cutting their hair in protest against the country’s abusive and forced veiling laws. 

Almost without exception, this wave of mass protest has been met with obstructive, repressive and often violent responses by state authorities. 

The escalating global threat to the right to protest is one of the key human right battlegrounds of our time. Over recent decades, issues including the environmental crisis, growing inequality and threats to livelihoods, systemic racism and gender-based violence have made collective action ever more necessary. They have given rise to some of the biggest protest mobilizations seen for decades. Groups including Black Lives Matter, MeToo, and climate change movements have inspired millions the world over to take to the streets and online. 

Across the globe, governments of every stripe have responded by implementing an expanding array of repressive measures. Protesters everywhere are facing a potent mix of pushbacks, with a growing number of laws and other measures to restrict the right to protest; excessive use of force, the expansion of unlawful mass and targeted surveillance; internet shutdowns and online censorship; and abuse and stigmatization. 

Reflecting the universal nature of this threat, Write for Rights 2022 is campaigning for 13 individuals from every region of the world who have suffered as a result of repression. They include a lawyer from Hong Kong jailed for encouraging people to light candles to commemorate the Tiananmen Square crackdown; an Iranian man jailed and tortured for peacefully protesting against inequality and political repression who has been held in solitary confinement for more than two years; and three Zimbabwean activists who were abducted, beaten, sexually assaulted and jailed because of their activism. 

Writing a letter, sending a tweet, signing a petition. Surely you can’t change the world with something so simple? Yes, you can! 

______________________________ 

For more information about Amnesty International’s Protest the Protest campaign, see here 

The post Write for Rights 2022: Championing activists in a year of global protest appeared first on Amnesty International.

Activists across the globe will mark this year’s Human Rights Day by taking part in the world’s biggest human rights event: Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign. Held annually since 2001, Write for Rights sees people in more than 200 countries and territories take millions of actions in support of people whose human rights are under attack.

Reflecting the growing global threat to the right to protest—and tying in with Amnesty’s new global Protect the Protest campaign—Write for Rights 2022 is campaigning for 13 individuals who have paid a great price for speaking out. This year’s campaign includes a lawyer from Hong Kong jailed for encouraging people to light candles to commemorate the Tiananmen Square crackdown; an Iranian man jailed and tortured for peacefully protesting against inequality and political repression who has been held in solitary confinement for more than two years; and three Zimbabwean activists who were abducted, beaten, sexually assaulted and jailed because of their activism.

“Year after year, Write for Rights offers a reminder of the enduring power of collective action. The campaign has shown time and again that when enough people come together and challenge injustice with one voice, authorities do listen and lives can be transformed,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Everywhere you look across the world, the right to protest is coming under attack. Over the last 12 months alone, from Iran to Cuba and beyond, we’ve seen a host of protest movements met with repressive government responses. It’s only fitting that for Write for Rights 2022, activists are speaking up in solidarity with those who are paying a heavy price for speaking out.”

This Human Rights Day, a host of Write for Rights events will be taking place across all regions of the world. These include a concert in Cote D’Ivoire, a half-marathon in Zimbabwe, and public letter writing events in Belgium, Denmark, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Mali, Mongolia, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. Further events will take place globally throughout December. 

Every December, people around the world write millions of letters, emails, tweets, Facebook posts and postcards in support of those who are unjustly persecuted. Write for Rights has helped transform the lives of more than 100 people since 2001, freeing them from torture, harassment, or unjust imprisonment. In 2021, more than 4.5 million actions were taken.

Last year’s campaign featured Guatemalan teacher and environmental activist, Bernardo Caal Xol, who had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison on bogus charges aimed at preventing his work to protect his people’s land and resources. Write for Rights 2021 saw more than half a million actions taken on his behalf and, in March 2022, he was released. In a video message to Amnesty International activists, he said: 

“I, Bernardo Caal Xol, a member of the Maya Q’eqchi’ people of Guatemala, am grateful to each and every one of you. You have given me hope for the justice, liberty and equality that must prevail in every people and nation.” 

Across all regions of the world, state authorities are implementing an expanding array of measures to suppress dissent. Protesters across the globe are facing a potent mix of restrictions, with a growing number of laws and other measures to limit the right to protest. These include preventing, forbidding, and criminalising protests, excessive and unnecessary use of force, the unlawful use of law enforcement equipment, unlawful arrests and detentions, the expansion of unlawful mass and targeted surveillance, internet shutdowns and online censorship, and harassment and stigmatization.

People who face inequality and discrimination, whether based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, disability, occupation, social, economic or migratory status are also more affected by restrictions on their right to protest and face harsher repression.

This year, Write for Rights is featuring 13 people whose lives have been negatively impacted by governments’ crackdown on the right to protest:

• Chow Hang-tung, a lawyer from Hong Kong who is serving 22 months in jail for encouraging people on social media to light candles to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown.
• Vahid Afkari, who was sentenced to decades in prison and 74 lashes for joining protests against inequality and political repression in Iran, and whose family have been repeatedly targeted for seeking truth and justice, including through the arbitrary detention last month of Vahid’s sister Elham. According to state media, she was arrested in connection with the current wave of protests sweeping the country.
• Zimbabwean activists Joanah Mamombe, Netsai Marova and Cecillia Chimbiri, who were abducted, beaten, sexually assaulted and jailed for protesting, then charged with faking their ordeal.
• Shahnewaz Chowdhury, who faces prison in Bangladesh for writing a Facebook post raising concerns about the potential negative environmental impact of a new power plant.
• Dorgelesse Nguessan, a hairdresser from Cameroon, sentenced to five years in prison after she attended her first ever protest. 
• Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was sentenced to five years in prison in a maximum-security jail in Cuba after posting a video in which he said he would attend a protest.
• Zineb Redouane, an 80-year-old woman who was killed by the reckless use of a tear gas grenade in France. Police officers were using tear gas to disperse protesters in the streets below her apartment when a police officer fired a tear gas grenade in Zineb’s direction. It hit her in the face and she died from her injuries. No one has been charged or suspended over her tragic death.
• Nasser Zefzafi, who is serving 20 years in prison in Morocco for his involvement in a peaceful protest movement demanding improvement to healthcare, education and employment opportunities in his region.
• Yren Rotela and Mariana Sepulveda, two trans women from Paraguay who have been barred from legally changing their names by the authorities.
• Aleksandra Skochilenko from Russia, who faces up to 10 years in prison for opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Background

Write for Rights began 21 years ago in Warsaw, Poland, when a group of friends decided to celebrate Human Rights Day with a 24-hour letter-writing marathon. From 2,326 letters in 2001 to 4.5 million letters, tweets and petition signatures in 2021, Write for Rights has grown into the world’s biggest human rights event. For more information about Write for Rights, see here. For more information about Amnesty International’s Protect the Protest campaign, see here.

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Reacting to the visit of Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders to Tajikistan, which concluded on 9 December, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:

“In her capacity as UN Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor visited Tajikistan and met with some unlawfully imprisoned human rights defenders and independent journalists, before making a bold statement at the conclusion of the mission. Our hope is that this helps cast light on the deplorable human rights situation in the country and that the authorities will act on her recommendations. Imprisoned human rights defenders are subjected to extreme hardship and abuse in Tajikistan and kept in terrible conditions sometimes with minimal or no contact with the outside world. The situation of prisoner of conscience Buzurgmekhr Yorov deserves attention. But he is just one human rights defender among many who are unfairly imprisoned.”

Imprisoned human rights defenders are subjected to extreme hardship and abuse in Tajikistan and kept in terrible conditions sometimes with minimal or no contact with the outside world

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director

“Languishing in jail for fighting for human rights and for representing the interests of other human rights defenders and civil society activists in court, Buzurgmekhr Yorov faces the frightening prospect of being cut off from the outside world, at risk of torture or other ill-treatment, and with no access to necessary medical treatment.”

“Buzurgmekhr Yorov must be released as he has committed no internationally recognizable crime and faces reprisals for his lawful work to protect human rights and establish justice. So must all those who have been imprisoned under false charges.”

Background

According to his supporters, prisoner of conscience Buzurgmekhr Yorov, a human rights lawyer and activist, was hospitalized in the prison infirmary on the evening of 23 November, after being moved to a punitive prison cell where he was allegedly subjected to torture a week earlier. Buzurgmekhr Yorov managed to get a note to his family from prison explaining that he was being transferred from Vakhdat penal colony to a high-security detention facility in the capital Dushanbe without the prospect of being able to communicate with the outside world for the next two years.

Buzurgmekhr Yorov is serving a 24-year prison sentence after being convicted on politically motivated charges, including fraud and “insulting the leader of the Nation,” following a series of blatantly unfair trials in 2016 and 2017. He has always denied the charges.

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The Iranian authorities’ arbitrary arrest, intimidation and harassment of relatives of children, unlawfully gunned down or beaten to death by security forces in connection with protests, exposes their inconceivable cruelty and sinister attempt to cover up their crimes, said Amnesty International today.   

In updated research, Amnesty International has documented how the unlawful killings of children by Iran’s security forces continue unabated, detailing the names and details of at least 44 children and the heartless violence inflicted upon their families.   

The authorities have been killing children in a bid to crush the spirit of resistance among the country’s youth and retain their iron grip on power at any cost.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International

“The authorities have not only condemned families of children killed to a lifetime of inconsolable sadness, but they have also inflicted extreme mental anguish upon them through cruel restrictions on burials, commemorations and relentless intimidation aimed at enforcing silence. These practices violate the absolute prohibition on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The recent establishment of a UN fact-finding mission to collect, consolidate and analyse evidence of such violations sends a clear message to the Iranian authorities that they can no longer commit crimes under international law and other grave violations of human rights without fear of consequences. Amnesty International now urges all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to criminally investigate Iranian officials involved in militarized attacks on demonstrators, including children.”

Amnesty International’s research has shown that Iran’s security forces shot 34 of the identified child victims with live ammunition in the heart, head or other vital organs. At least four were killed by metal pellets unlawfully fired by the security forces at close range. Five other children, four girls and one boy, died from injuries consistent with fatal beatings, and one girl was killed after being struck on the head with a tear gas canister. The recorded child victims include 39 boys, aged between two and 17, and five girls, three of whom were 16 years old, one 17 years old, and one aged six.

Children represent 14% of overall deaths of protesters and bystanders recorded by Amnesty International, which exceeds 300 since the protests erupted. Our investigations into killings by security forces continue and the number of those killed, including children, is believed to be higher (For more information on the organization’s methodology, see here).

The Iranian authorities have routinely harassed and intimidated the families of child victims to coerce them into silence or to force them to accept narratives absolving authorities of responsibility for the deaths of their loved ones in written statements or video recordings broadcast on state television. Amnesty International has identified such practices against the relatives of at least 13 child victims. Information obtained by the organization from informed sources indicates that security forces subjected them to coercion including arbitrary arrest and detention, threats to bury the bodies of their loved ones in unidentified location, and threats to kill, rape, detain or otherwise harm bereaved parents and their surviving children.

The father of Koumar Daroftadeh, a 16-year-old boy killed by live ammunition said on 13 November in an interview with Radio Farda, an independent media outlet:

“They [security and intelligence agents] summoned me and told me that I should say whatever they dictate to me… The authorities killed my son and must be held accountable.

Cruel restrictions on burials and commemorations 

Security and intelligence agents often threatened not to return the bodies of child victims for burial unless families commit, in writing, to remaining silent and observing restrictions on funeral and memorial ceremonies.

In some cases, officials prepared the bodies of victims for burial without notifying families, then handed them the bodies, wrapped in shrouds, minutes before the scheduled burial, denying families their right to wash and prepare their loved ones for burial in accordance with their own religious and cultural traditions.

Other restrictions included forcing families to bury their loved ones in remote villages, banning the use of word “martyr” and prohibiting relatives from hanging large memorial banners or sharing images of victims and funeral posters on social media.

Denying responsibility for unlawful killings of children

The Iranian authorities have publicly denied responsibility for the killing of at least 19 of the child victims. They have blamed 12 of these deaths on attacks by either “hired terrorists” or “unknown persons”, attributed three to suicidal or accidental falls from heights, one to a suicidal or accidental drug overdose, one to a dog bite, one to a motorcycle accident and another to a stampede.

For nine other children, all from the oppressed Baluchi minority, the authorities have questioned their deaths, claiming in their reports to member states of the UN Human Rights Council that “there is no death record” for the children concerned in the Sistan and Baluchistan province.

Children from persecuted minorities most targeted

Over 60% of the children killed were from Iran’s oppressed Baluchi and Kurdish minorities. These communities have long suffered from systemic discrimination and persecution by the authorities. 

A family member of a child unlawfully killed in Sistan and Baluchistan told Amnesty International:

“They did not pay any attention to us. They [Iranian authorities] do not consider us [Baluchis] human. There are many witnesses [to the killings], but their testimonies are worthless against the Islamic Republic because the authorities do not accept them.”

Of the 44 recorded child victims, 18, which amounts to 40%, belonged to Iran’s oppressed Baluchi minority. Thirteen of them were killed by security forces on 30 September in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province, during the deadliest day of the authorities’ crackdown on the protests, widely known to Iranians as “Bloody Friday”.

Ten of the children killed, which amounts to 20%, were from the Kurdish minority and were killed in eight cities or towns in the Kurdish populated provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah and West Azerbaijan.

The remaining 16 child victims were killed in six other provinces across Iran.

“The authorities have been killing children in a bid to crush the spirit of resistance among the country’s youth and retain their iron grip on power at any cost. And yet despite that, many children have courageously continued to take to the streets in search of a future without political oppression and inequality,” said Heba Morayef.

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