Schlagwort: human rights

Responding to a decision by Lebanese authorities to suspend the investigation into the 2020 Beirut port blast, following complaints filed by two MPs summoned for interrogation accusing the leading investigative judge of bias, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Lynn Maalouf, said:

“This decision is just the latest evidence that the political leadership have had one aim since day one of this investigation – to stop it. And it is yet another illustration of their callous disregard for the rights of the victims, survivors and their families.

This decision is just the latest evidence that the political leadership have had one aim since day one of this investigation – to stop it

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International

“Every stage of this investigation has been hampered by the Lebanese authorities’ efforts to shield politicians and officials from scrutiny. They dismissed the first judge on the case and suspended the work of the second, refused to lift immunity for MPs, and failed to appear for questioning when summoned.

“The suspension of the investigation is yet another reminder of the urgent need for the UN Human Rights Council, which is currently in session, to establish a fact-finding mechanism, and heed the calls made by dozens of organizations, victims’ families, including recommendations from the EU and UN human rights experts.”

Over the past 13 months, the Lebanese authorities have repeatedly obstructed the course of the investigation into the port blast taking all possible steps to shield politicians and officials implicated in the blast from questioning or prosecution.

Most recently, two MPs who had been summoned for interrogation in connection with the explosion, accused Judge Tarek Bitar, who is leading the investigation into the port blast, of political bias. He had previously sought to lift MPs’ immunity and to question former Prime Minister Hassan Diab as well as three former ministers – current MPs and senior members of the security forces. None appeared for questioning.

He is the second judge to be accused of bias by politicians or officials summoned for interrogation. The first, Judge Fadi Sawan was dismissed by the Court of Cassation after he summoned political figures for questioning and was accused of bias partially because his own home was damaged by the explosion.

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Efficient, fair trial should hold 2009 stadium abusers accountable

(Conakry, September 27, 2021) – The trial of suspects in the massacre of more than 150 people and the rape of dozens of women in a Guinea stadium on 28 September 2009 should begin as soon as possible, six human rights groups said today.

Twelve years later, victims and their families should not have to wait any longer for justice to finally be delivered.

As Guinea embarks on a political transition process after the 5 September 2021 coup, the opening of this trial would send a strong signal that the authorities are willing to put respect for human rights and the fight against impunity at the center of their priorities.

The groups are the Association of Victims, Relatives and Friends of September 28, 2009 (AVIPA), Equal Rights for All (MDT), the Guinean Human Rights Organization (OGDH), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.

Although 12 years have gone by, the need for justice remains as strong as ever for the survivors of the massacre and victims’ families. Just one year ago, the six groups had denounced the delays and time wasted in organizing the trial. The wait has become unbearable for the survivors and victims’ families, the groups said, given that the investigation phase concluded in late 2017.

The Guinean government has promised several times to begin the trial as soon as possible, and no later than June 2020. The organizations remain concerned by an evident lack of will to complete preparations for this trial in Guinea.

In recent months, the steering committee overseeing the preparations for the trial, made up of government officials and international partners, had resumed its work and adopted a road map. Construction had progressed at Conakry’s Court of Appeal, where the trial is to take place, and a training session for judges was planned by the French government. However, despite these efforts, no trial date has yet been set.

Given the deteriorating health of the survivors, we, together with the Association of Victims, Relatives and Friends of 28 September 2009, are calling for this year to be the last commemoration before justice is done.

Aissatou Diallo, a survivor of the 28 September events

“It is urgent for the trial to be held and reparations awarded before all the victims die.”

The investigation by Guinean judges began in February 2010. More than 13 suspects were charged, 11 of whom were sent for trial. Among them is Moussa Dadis Camara, the former leader of the National Council for Democracy and Development junta that ruled Guinea in September 2009, who is living in exile in Burkina Faso. Some of the suspects who have been charged held influential positions until the recent coup, including Moussa Tiegboro Camara, who was in charge of fighting drug trafficking and organized crime.

The organizations are closely following Guinea’s period of political transition after the National Committee for Reconciliation and Development (Comité national du rassemblement et du développement, CNRD) took power on 5 September 2021, and reiterated their call for the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties of all Guineans.

As the CNRD leader, Mamady Doumbouya, stated that “justice will be the compass guiding every Guinean citizen,” the fight against impunity should be at the heart of the authorities’ actions, the groups said.

“It is more than urgent for Guinea to put an end to the cycle of impunity that has deeply marked the country’s history for more than 60 years,” the groups said.

“We remind the authorities that international law requires states to provide effective remedies to victims of human rights violations and that any lack of justice or the adoption of an amnesty for serious crimes is incompatible with these requirements.”

It is also essential for the new authorities to guarantee the protection of human rights defenders and activists who have suffered numerous violations of their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly for years.

The groups added

“The new authorities should make justice a prerequisite of their actions.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened a preliminary examination of the situation in Guinea in October 2009. Designed as a court of last resort for the most serious crimes, the ICC steps in when national courts are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute such cases.

In its latest report, the ICC had expressed its disappointment that “the trial has not yet started and no timeline or action plan for the opening of the trial has been communicated by the Government of Guinea.” The ICC had indicated that “the Guinean authorities must demonstrate, in the coming months, their will and ability to combat impunity and to prevent renewed cycles of violence.”

Guinea’s partners, particularly the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union, the European Union, the ICC, and the United Nations should pay increased attention to the current situation in the country and strengthen their actions and support, on the one hand, for the September 28 trial to be organized as soon as possible, and on the other, for the new authorities in Guinea to respect human rights.

Background

Shortly before noon on 28 September 2009, several hundred members of Guinea’s security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of people who had gathered peacefully at the 28 September stadium in Conakry for a march against Dadis Camara’s intention to run for president. The security forces also individually or gang raped more than 100 women and sexually assaulted some of them with objects such as batons or bayonets, during or soon after the events. The security forces killed more than 150 people and wounded hundreds of others.

The security forces then organized a cover-up operation, sealing off all the entrances to the stadium and morgues and removing the bodies to bury them in mass graves. Many of the graves have yet to be identified.

After the investigation was completed, in April 2018, the then-justice minister, Cheick Sako, set up a steering committee to organize the trial. It set Conakry’s Court of Appeal as the location.

In January 2020, justice minister Mohammed Lamine Fofana announced to the United Nations his government’s “unequivocal” support for opening the trial. Despite his announcement that proceedings would begin in June, following completion of construction on the courtroom facility, the trial did not move forward during this past year.

In June, Mory Doumbouya was appointed justice minister. Minister Doumbouya said that he supported the trial, but that the judiciary was responsible for organizing it.

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Responding to the disbandment of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (Hong Kong Alliance), which has organized Hong Kong’s Tiananmen commemoration vigil for the past 30 years, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director Yamini Mishra said: 

“For 32 years, the Chinese government has sought to censor all mention of the Tiananmen crackdown on the mainland.  The effectively forced disbandment of the Hong Kong Alliance is the latest signal that authorities in Hong Kong are keen to do the same.

“The candlelight vigil organized by the Hong Kong Alliance has inspired generations of Hongkongers to denounce the horrific events of 4 June 1989. While the Beijing authorities punished those in the mainland who sought justice for Tiananmen victims, the Alliance tirelessly archived evidence of what really happened.

“But the pressure exerted on the group in the lead-up to its disbandment, including arrests of some of its leaders on various charges and a police investigation into its peaceful activities, show that such June Fourth-related activism will no longer be tolerated.

“After the recent demise of some of Hong Kong’s largest unions and the group organizing some of the city’s largest protests, it is clear the Hong Kong government is targeting civil society groups with broad support and the capacity to mobilize. Worryingly, the government’s crackdown on such organizations seems likely to continue.

“Without the Hong Kong Alliance, the future of the Hong Kong’s June Fourth vigil seems bleak. But the large numbers of people who chose to publicly remember Tiananmen for the past two years, despite the vigils being banned, shows that Hongkongers will not be forced to forget this dark chapter in China’s past.”

Background

For three decades, the Hong Kong Alliance organized the world’s biggest commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown, which took place on the evening of 3–4 June 1989, when hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed in Beijing when troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully calling for political and economic reforms as well as an end to corruption.

Every year on 4 June since 1990, tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people joined a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and take accountability for the fatalities. For the past two years, the vigil was banned on Covid-19 grounds.

The Hong Kong Alliance announced its decision to disband on Saturday 25 September after coming under increasing pressure since the enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law in June 2020.

Last month, the group received a letter from the Hong Kong police’s national security unit accusing it of “collusion with foreign forces” and requesting information about its membership, finances and activities.

Group leaders Lee Cheuk Yan, Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung were subsequently charged with “inciting subversion” under the national security law and face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Their trial begins on 28 October.

The Hong Kong Alliance is the latest organization to fold in the city, following the recent disbandment of two other civic groups who were being targeted either by the authorities or pro-Beijing media. 

The Civil Human Rights Front, the umbrella group behind many of Hong Kong’s largest protests, disbanded on 13 August. Three days earlier, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU) said it was breaking up after the government ceased working with the it and police warned of further action.

Earlier this week, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) said it will also disband due to threats to the safety of its members.

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Responding to a court decision that came into force today to indefinitely confine Siberian shaman, Aleksandr Gabyshev, to a psychiatric ward for vowing in 2019 “to purge” President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director, said:

“Aleksandr Gabyshev has become a symbol of grassroots resistance to the increasingly repressive government of Vladimir Putin, so it is not surprising that the authorities went to such extreme lengths to silence him and smear his name. Once again, the authorities are using ‘psychiatric care’ as a punishment – a method tried and tested during Soviet times.

“It is genuinely shocking to see how easily the life of someone who dares to peacefully express their views and criticize the authorities is destroyed by the powerful and repressive tools of the state.

“Compulsory psychiatric treatment is a form of torture and other ill-treatment. The authorities must refrain from any involuntary therapy and release Aleksandr Gabyshev immediately and unconditionally, as he has been sentenced to indefinite compulsory psychiatric treatment solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. The use of punitive psychiatry as a method to silence dissent must stop now.”

BACKGROUND

Today, an appeal by Aleksandr Gabyshev was unsuccessful and the decision on indefinite forced hospitalisation has been upheld.
On 26 July, the Yakutsk City Court ruled that Aleksandr Gabyshev must be confined indefinitely to a psychiatric hospital for compulsory “intensive” treatment. Today the court decision came into force after his defence team lost their appeal. The court declared Aleksandr Gabyshev “insane” and lacking legal capacity, and was found guilty of “using violence against police officers” and “calling for extremism”.

In 2019, Aleksandr Gabyshev became widely known after he walked hundreds of kilometres from Yakutsk to Moscow, promising to use his self-proclaimed magic powers to “purge” President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin. In September 2019, after travelling around 3,000 km – over a third of the way to Moscow – he was abducted by police and accused of suspected “public calls for extremism”, then briefly placed in a psychiatric hospital for examination. He was released two days after, only to be forcibly hospitalized again in May 2020 – this time purportedly because he refused to be tested for Covid-19. He was released two months later after public outcry, and an international campaign of solidarity, which Amnesty International took part in.

In January 2021, two weeks after Aleksandr Gabyshev announced another march on the Kremlin, 50 police officers broke into his house, arrested him and took him to a psychiatric hospital. This time he was officially charged with making “calls for extremism” and “using violence against police officers”. During his arrest, Gabyshev allegedly tore a riot officer’s uniform and superficially wounded him with a batas, a ceremonial Yakut sword.

For more information or to arrange an interview contact Stefan Simanowitz, press@amnesty.org

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• Current parliamentary session is an opportunity to make significant changes to improve human rights protection
• Gambia Press Union recorded more than 15 assaults on media professionals in the past four years

Despite Gambian President Adama Barrow’s pledge to reform the country nearly five years ago, oppressive laws curtailing human rights including the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, which were used under former President Yahya Jammeh to suppress peaceful dissent remain operative, Amnesty International said in a new analysis published today.

“Upon assuming power in 2017, President Adama Barrow vowed to carry out critical reform in the country and to reverse the oppression which characterized the previous government. Nearly five years later, Gambia’s legislative landscape has barely changed.”

<strong> Michèle Eken, </strong><br><strong>Amnesty International West Africa researcher.</strong>

“There is still no new Constitution. Punitive and restrictive legal provisions on human rights, particularly the rights to freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly among other issues are still on the statute books. What’s more, the current parliamentary session, which represents one of the rare opportunities to make significant legal reforms and changes consistent with the country’s international human rights obligations before the presidential election in December, is expected to end by next week.”

On 14 February 2018, the Court of Justice of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued a judgment that found most Gambian media laws violated freedom of expression. The court asked the government to repeal or amend all criminal laws on libel, sedition, and false news in line with Gambia’s obligations under international human rights law.

However, most of the laws which were used to oppress human rights defenders, activists and journalists during Jammeh’s rule are still in force.

Among the most notorious are:

Section 138 of the Information and Communications Act, which gives national security agencies, investigating authorities and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority the powers to monitor, intercept and store communications for surveillance purposes without effective judicial oversight. 

As it stands, the current Criminal Code still contains several clauses restricting the right to freedom of expression, criminalizing sedition as related to the President and providing for stiff penalties, including imprisonment, for those who dare to criticize the authorities – a concern for journalists and human rights defenders. It also allows for the confiscation of publications and printing machines.  

Legal provisions muzzle dissenting voices

The Gambian Press Union (GPU) told Amnesty International that the laws continue to create a hostile environment for journalists. While attacks on journalists have fallen under President Barrow, several high-profile arrests have shown the risk of these repressive laws being used to muzzle dissenting voices more widely.

On 30 June 2020, human rights defender Madi Jobarteh was charged with spreading false information under Section 181A of the Criminal Code after he stated during a Black Lives Matter protest on 27 June that the government had failed to investigate the killings of three Gambian citizens by police officers. The charges were dropped the following month.   

On 26 January 2020, the police closed local radio stations King FM and Home Digital FM after they covered a protest that was violently suppressed by the police. Police also arrested and charged the stations’ owners and managers with broadcasting incendiary messages and inciting violence. Although the charges were eventually dismissed by the court, their broadcasting licenses were suspended for one month.

More attacks on journalists are feared as we are coming close to the elections. The country is increasingly polarized, especially because attacks are not investigated. In the last four years, we recorded more than 15 cases of assaults from police and supporters of political parties. Not a single one of those cases was prosecuted.” 

A member of the GPU said.

Public Order Act used to suppress protests

Section 5 of the Public Order Act requiring permission from the police to protest remains in force and has been used to restrict public gatherings over the past five years.

For example, in June 2021, the Inspector General (IG) of police denied permission for a pro-Barrow group, “Gambia for 5 Years and Peace Building”, to protest against a decision of the electoral commission to allow the mayor of the capital Banjul to issue attestations to voters.

In January 2020, the police responded with force when “Three Years Jotna”, a group demanding that President Barrow resigns, allegedly deviated from their approved route while protesting. The authorities then banned the group and arrested four of its members. In May 2021, the Attorney General finally withdrew criminal charges against them.

“The Public Order Act has had a huge bearing on peaceful protests and assembly. They arrest people protesting peacefully without the IG’s permission, they randomly refuse permits. There have been various discussions about it, but it is not moving,” said a member of an international organization working on human rights in Gambia. 

Danger of repressive laws

Despite the many efforts of civil society and the international community, the government has so far failed to pass a new Constitution. Instead, the Gambian parliament rejected a draft Constitution in September 2020.

Therefore, Article 69 of the current Constitution, which provides for full civil immunity and limited jurisdiction over criminal proceedings against the President after he leaves office, remains in place.

The current Constitution also gives blanket immunity to members of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council and individuals appointed by them, as well as any member of the government or individuals allegedly involved in the 1994 coup d’état.

In addition, the death penalty, which was abolished in the draft Constitution, remains. Courts continue to hand down death sentences.

Moreover, members of parliament have yet to pass the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Bill, which has been pending at the National Assembly since last year.

Positive steps

Despite slow progress in reforming repressive laws, Amnesty International welcomed the enactment of the Access to Information law on 1 July 2021, designed to help the public and the media to access information.

Another positive development has been the National Human Rights Commission, which was established by an act passed by the National Assembly in 2017 and became operational in 2019.

It has the power to “receive and hear complaints from the public on human rights violations, recommend appropriate remedial actions to the Government and seeks appropriate remedial actions on behalf of victims.” The independence of the Commission and adequate resources are crucial for it to carry on being effective and impartial.  

“The establishment of the National Human Rights Commission shows what is possible. Gambians who have waited so long for a recourse when their rights are violated must not wait any longer,” said Michèle Eken.

Amnesty International is calling for alleged perpetrators of human rights violations to be prosecuted following concerns from civil society that members of Jammeh’s regime who admitted to their crimes at the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) are still in the security apparatus.

The establishment of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission was a crucial first step towards fighting impunity. But it cannot be judged a success if the government fails to effectively implement its recommendations.”

<strong>Michèle Eken.</strong>

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