Schlagwort: human rights

Tanzanian authorities have intensified their repression of dissent against the opposition, journalists, civil society and human rights defenders in a deliberate strategy to instil fear, suppress civic engagement and entrench power, Amnesty International said today in a briefing released ahead of the country’s general elections on 29 October.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government has dashed hopes for reform. Instead, under her watch, authorities have continued and intensified repressive practices targeting opposition leaders, civil society, journalists, and dissenting voices, including through assaults, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, with nobody held accountable.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

The general election is expected to be dominated by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party, with the two main opposition presidential candidates locked out from contesting. Last month Luhaga Mpina was disqualified for a second time from running, while Tundu Lissu of the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), the biggest opposition party, is on trial for treason.

“President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government has dashed hopes for reform. Instead, under her watch, authorities have continued and intensified repressive practices targeting opposition leaders, civil society, journalists, and dissenting voices, including through assaults, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, with nobody held accountable,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa.

“Political opponents have faced politically motivated charges and in some cases their right to contest the vote has been denied.”

Authorities must end their unacceptable campaign of repression against dissent, which has escalated since the last elections five years ago. They must immediately and unconditionally drop trumped up and politically motivated charges against all those detained solely for expressing political and religious views or other beliefs, including opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Political opponents have faced politically motivated charges and in some cases their right to contest the vote has been denied.

Tigere Chagutah

For the briefing, “Unopposed, unchecked, unjust:  The disquiet beneath the 2025 Tanzania vote” Amnesty interviewed 43 victims, witnesses, family members of victims, legal representatives, and members of civil society organizations, and collated reports of attacks from media sources. All documented cases were verified through multiple independent sources where possible.

The Tanzanian authorities did not respond to Amnesty’s request for comment.

Abductions and unlawful killings

Amnesty International also documented widespread and systematic human rights violations—including enforced disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment, and extrajudicial killings of opposition figures and activists.

The Tanganyika Law Society documented 83 cases of people going missing under mysterious circumstances as of August 9, 2024.

On 7 September 2024, the body of Ali Mohammed Kibao, a senior strategist for Chadema, was found dumped near the shores of the Indian Ocean a day after being abducted from a bus in Dar es Salaam.

On 26 July 2024, Dioniz Kipanya, a Chadema party official, disappeared when he left home following a telephone conversation with an unidentified person. He is yet to be found. More than a year since Chadema youth activists Deusdedith Soka and Jacob Mlay, and Frank Mbise, a motorcycle taxi driver, were abducted by a group of men suspected to be police officers, their whereabouts remain unknown.

Amnesty International is calling for prompt and rigorous investigations into all reported abductions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and attacks, and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Use of the criminal justice system and laws to repress the opposition

The authorities have also weaponized the criminal justice system against political opponents.

Opposition leader Tundu Lissu remains in detention facing charges for the non bailable offence of treason and publishing false statements, following comments he made on social media and on YouTube on 3 April 2025.On 24 April 2025, police arrested dozens of supporters outside the Kisutu Resident Magistrate Court, where Lissu was appearing. Many later reported being harassed, beaten, and subjected to treatment that may amount to torture or other ill-treatment, before being abandoned in remote areas such as Ununio and Pande Forest, about 43 km from central Dar es Salaam.

“Out of nowhere, a man who was wielding a long, pointed object jammed it through the inner ankle of my left leg, which left a gaping wound that was squirting blood. Through my bloodied eyes, I noticed that several of my captors were filming the ordeal, while laughing at and taunting us,” said one survivor.

In the run up to the elections, authorities have passed flawed laws and regulations that have further suppressed civic space, most notably amendments to the Political Parties Affairs Laws Act 2024 and the Independent National Electoral Commission Act 2024.

“Sadly, authorities have spent the last five years ripping apart the constitution. They have ramped up their clampdown on the civic space and the right to participate freely in elections through the passing of deeply flawed legislation that not only create room for violation of human rights but also attest to their zero tolerance of any opposing views both offline and online,” said Tigere Chagutah. of any opposing views both offline and online,” said Tigere Chagutah.

Restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly, movement, association, expression and the media

Tanzanian authorities have systematically banned, disrupted, or violently dispersed peaceful gatherings, particularly those organized by opposition parties. Opposition leaders and activists have faced severe restrictions on their freedom of movement that have effectively prevented them from conducting normal political activities.

On 13 May 2025, Chadema deputy secretary general Amani Golugwa was arrested at Julius Nyerere International Airport as he was preparing to travel to Brussels to attend the International Democracy Union Forum. He said the police questioned him about allegedly sending information to individuals in the European Parliament. “They claimed that the information I shared dishonoured the country and may have contributed to the European Parliament issuing sanctions against Tanzania,” he added.“Without sustained pressure from Tanzania’s regional and international partners to reverse the clampdown on freedom of expression and human rights generally, the 2025 elections risk becoming a procedural exercise devoid of legitimacy, conducted in an environment where fear, violence, and exclusion have replaced open political participation,” said Tigere Chagutah.

Background

In a 2020 report, “Lawfare: Repression by Law ahead of Tanzania’s General Elections”,  Amnesty International highlighted worrying human rights situation in the lead up to the polls and called on the Tanzanian authorities to respect and uphold human rights throughout the vote and after.

On 19 March 2021, Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as the President of Tanzania, becoming the country’s first female head of state following the death of President John Pombe Magufuli. Her initial months in office were marked by a series of policy shifts that signalled a departure from the repressive governance style of her predecessor. These included lifting bans on certain media outlets and allowing opposition political parties to resume public rallies which had been arbitrarily restricted under President Magufuli’s administration. President Hassan also publicly committed to constitutional reforms and fostering a more inclusive political environment.

Despite these initial reforms, repression has intensified under President Hassan, particularly as the country approaches general elections on 29 October.

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The sentencing of three land defenders criminalized by Canada sends a chilling message about the threats facing people and Nations on the front lines of the struggle for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. 

On Friday, a British Columbia judge handed down sentences for three Indigenous land defenders who were arrested in November 2021 during a heavily militarized Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raid on the unceded ancestral territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), a Wing Chief (Cas Yikh or Grizzly Bear House) of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan with Wet’suwet’en family connections, and Corey “Jayohcee” Jocko, a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesasne, were later charged and convicted for allegedly breaching a B.C. court injunction that banned land defence actions near the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) liquefied natural gas pipeline. 

Each of the land defenders’ sentences include jail time: 17 days in jail for Sleydo’, 12 for Jocko, and nine for Sampson. However, the judge suspended the implementation of those sentences and ordered the defenders to complete 150 hours of community service rather than serve time behind bars. In explaining his decision to suspend the defenders’ jail sentences, the judge said he took into account the Province of British Columbia’s and the Government of Canada’s disrespect for the rights and interests of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

“While we are relieved that Sleydo’, Shaylynn and Corey were allowed to walk free, the application of jail sentences – suspended or not – sends a chilling message to land defenders who act to protect Indigenous rights and territory in the face of destructive mega-projects,” said Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International. “These courageous defenders should never have been arrested in the first place for exercising their rights and defending the natural environment we all depend on. Canada must stop criminalizing Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous defenders amid a global climate emergency.”

These courageous defenders should never have been arrested in the first place for exercising their rights and defending the natural environment we all depend on. Canada must stop criminalizing Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous defenders amid a global climate emergency.”

Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International has documented the human rights violations experienced by Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their allies, including Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko, since 2020. Amnesty International’s research has found that the injunction order that led to their arrest unduly restricts the human rights of the land defenders and the Indigenous rights of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. The arrests, prosecutions and sentencing of the land defenders therefore constitute serious violations of their rights. 

In February 2025, the B.C. Supreme Court found that Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko’s rights had been infringed during their arrests. In response to an abuse-of-process claim filed by the defenders’ legal team, the Court ruled that the conduct, including anti-Indigenous racist statements, of some RCMP members during the November 2021 raid violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, the judge declined to stay all charges against the defenders. 

“In our law, the land defenders who were on trial would have been rewarded for their actions, but under Canadian law, they face punishment,” said Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks. “The land defenders did exactly what they were supposed to do to uphold ‘Anuk niwh’it’en [Wet’suwet’en law]. They followed our law and our way of life. Our law stands for “land, air, water.” Their law stands for punishment. We are slowly getting them to recognize our process, and while it’s taken us years to get to this point, this is a huge shift. Do I applaud their law? Absolutely not. But we are making a difference.” 

“Sleydo’, Shaylynn and Corey have been convicted for peacefully protecting Wet’suwet’en territory against the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline – something they should never have been prosecuted for in the first place,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section. “Even though the Court recognized that they were subjected to racist and violent treatment during their arrests, the three defenders find themselves being punished. Unfortunately, the systemic racism that led to their arrests remains unaddressed. The governments of B.C. and Canada have denied the Wet’suwet’en their right to free, prior, and informed consent, violated their freedom of movement across their ancestral lands, and threatened their traditional way of life. These ongoing injustices are painful reminders of Canada’s enduring legacy of colonial violence against Indigenous Peoples.” 

Unfortunately, the systemic racism that led to their arrests remains unaddressed. The governments of B.C. and Canada have denied the Wet’suwet’en their right to free, prior, and informed consent, violated their freedom of movement across their ancestral lands, and threatened their traditional way of life.

Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section.

If Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko had been sentenced to jail time or house arrest, Amnesty International would have declared them prisoners of conscience. It would have been only the second time Amnesty had applied that designation to a person or group held by Canada.  

In July 2024, the organization declared another Wet’suwet’en land defender – Likhts’amisyu Clan Wing Chief Dsta’hyl – a prisoner of conscience after the B.C. Supreme Court sentenced him to 60 days of house arrest. Like Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko, Chief Dsta’hyl was charged and later convicted for allegedly violating the terms of the B.C. court injunction banning land defence actions near the CGL pipeline, including in areas of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s territory.

“Indigenous Peoples are on the front lines of climate change and will face disproportionate harms if humanity fails to move on from burning fossil fuels,” said France-Isabelle Langlois, Executive Director of Amnistie internationale Canada francophone. “States must hold up, not lock up, Indigenous land defenders like Sleydo’, Shaylynn and Corey, and follow their lead towards a healthier, more sustainable future for all. B.C. and Canada must take immediate steps to end the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders. No one should be intimidated, harassed, or arrested, let alone convicted in a criminal court case, for exercising their constitutionally protected rights and defending the natural environment we all share.”

Indigenous Peoples are on the front lines of climate change and will face disproportionate harms if humanity fails to move on from burning fossil fuels.

rance-Isabelle Langlois, Executive Director of Amnistie internationale Canada francophone.

The Wet’suwet’en Nation’s fight against the CGL pipeline continues as Canada, B.C. and the international business consortium behind the pipeline advance Phase II of the project. Aimed at doubling the output of the LNG export facility in Kitimat, B.C., CGL Phase II would involve the construction of seven new compressor stations along the pipeline route, including two on Wet’suwet’en Territory – again without the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.  

Additional Information 

Amnesty International’s 2023 report ‘Removed from our land for defending it’: Criminalization, Intimidation and Harassment of Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders details the violations committed inflicted upon members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation by Canadian and B.C. authorities, CGL Pipeline Ltd., TC Energy, and Forsythe Security. Over 75 people have been arbitrarily arrested by the RCMP in four large-scale raids on Wet’suwet’en territory.

In June and July 2022, the B.C. Prosecution Service (BCPS) decided to charge 20 land defenders with criminal contempt for allegedly disobeying the injunction order to stay away from pipeline construction sites. Several went on trial in 2023 and 2024. In November 2023, land defender Sabina Dennis was found not guilty of criminal contempt. In February 2024, Likhts’amisyu Clan Wing Chief Dsta’hyl was found guilty of criminal contempt for violating the terms of the injunction order. He was sentenced to 60 days’ house arrest which he served in July and August 2024.

Amnesty International continues to call on the Government of British Columbia to end the criminalization of Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous land defenders and opposes the expansion of all fossil fuel pipelines and related infrastructure.

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

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Amnesty International deeply regrets the death of Eduardo Mauricio Ruiz Sanz (32) from a gunshot wound, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in the context of the social mobilizations held yesterday in Lima. We urge the authorities to carry out thorough and impartial investigations to identify and punish those responsible, in accordance with international human rights standards.

Amnesty International further regrets that dozens of people, including protesters, bystanders and police, have been injured in the context of the state repression of the demonstrations, and categorically rejects the disproportionate use of force by the police and all acts of violence. 

We also express our rejection of the attacks against the press. Peru’s National Association of Journalists (ANP) reported 11 attacks on journalists covering the protests in the capital, six of whom were reportedly injured by pellets. This could constitute a worrying pattern of unlawful use of state force against the press, who play an important role in covering such protests.

Amnesty International has been able to verify that police officers fired pellets, used tear gas, and beat or violently repressed people unnecessarily and disproportionately, violating international human rights standards. Likewise, outbreaks of violence in which protesters allegedly clashed with law enforcement officers reinforce the need for the state to adopt response protocols that prioritize prevention, mediation and the protection of rights.  

We would like to reiterate that a protest does not lose its peaceful nature because of isolated incidents or violent behavior by individuals. It is therefore the role of law enforcement to identify and respond specifically to any such incidents, while continuing to guarantee and protect the human rights of peaceful protesters.

In light of the current social and political crisis facing the country, we urge the authorities to listen to the demands of the population, rather than delegitimizing them through stigmatizing rhetoric. The right to peaceful protest must be guaranteed without any limitations, and the repression of social demonstrations must stop.

In light of the current social and political crisis facing the country, we urge the authorities to listen to the demands of the population, rather than delegitimizing them through stigmatizing rhetoric.

Amnesty International continues to analyse the human rights situation throughout the country, monitoring the social mobilizations and deploying teams of observers.

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

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Across the world, people are still suffering the long-lasting effects of slavery and colonialism and struggling to get the reparations they deserve from governments and private actors that perpetrated and profited from these historical injustices.

In this explainer, we break down what reparations for these historical wrongs are, the long-lasting effects of slavery and colonialism, and why this issue is still relevant.

What are reparations?

Most often, the word reparation is used in relation to money. It’s given as an acknowledgement of wrongful/unlawful conduct and to repair the harm caused by or as a result of this conduct.

Under international law, victims of crimes under international law and human rights violations have a right to reparations. The word reparations refers to measures to redress violations of human rights by providing a range of material and symbolic remedies to victims or their families as well as affected communities.

Reparations must be adequate, effective, prompt, and should be proportional to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered.

What kind of reparations are there?

Reparations can take several forms:

• Compensation, where a state would give money to those affected as a way to compensate for damage, harm or losses suffered.
• Rehabilitation, which can include medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services.
• Restitution, which involves restoring victims to the position they would have been in had the harm not occurred.
• Satisfaction, which include effective measures aimed at the cessation of continuing violations; verification of the facts and full and public disclosure of the truth to the extent that such disclosure does not cause further harm or threaten the safety and interests of the victim; or a public apology.
• Guarantee of non-repetition, which include measures aimed at preventing harm and human rights violations in the future by addressing the root causes.

Case study: The Metis Children from Belgium’s colonial rule

For others, education can take the form or a reparation as seen in the case of Jacqui Goegebeur.

© Amnesty International

Jacqui was one of thousands of ‘Métis’ children — those of mixed European and African heritage — systematically abducted from their mothers during Belgium’s colonial rule in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo 70 years ago. When Jacqui was three years old, she was abducted and sent to live in Belgium with strangers. Her family was ripped apart, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering that’s still felt today. Now, Jacqui is calling for reparations, but in different ways.

“For me, I want to see funded studies to help us understand our past.”

Why do we need reparations for slavery and colonialism given that they happened so long ago?

Slavery, the slave trade and colonialism are not only harms of the past. For racialised people, including Indigenous Peoples, the legacies of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism persist in present day structures of racial discrimination, subordination and inequality.

These legacies remain among the primary barriers to the full enjoyment of human rights by racialised people including Indigenous Peoples throughout the world today. The historical harms of slavery and colonialism are therefore inextricably linked to present racial injustices, global inequality and human rights violations. 

There is growing recognition by international human rights bodies and mechanisms that the legacies of slavery, including the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism require urgent reparatory justice.

What atrocities were committed under European colonial rule?  

It is estimated that between 25 million and 30 million people were violently uprooted from Africa for enslavement throughout history.  From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, approximately 12.5 million Africans were enslaved by Europeans and shipped to colonies in the Americas in what has come to be known as the “transatlantic slave trade.” Of those 12.5 million enslaved Africans, it is estimated that close to 2 million lost their lives during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean.

The trade in enslaved people did not only affect the African and American continents. For example, between 1500 and 1850, Europeans were also involved, directly or indirectly, in trading between 953,900 to 1,275,900 enslaved persons “within an oceanic world that stretched from eastern Africa and Madagascar to the Persian Gulf, South Asia, and the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos”.

The colonial empires built by European states between the 15^th and 20^th centuries extended across nearly 80% of the entire globe. This means that two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations, approximately 127 out of 193 Member States, were subject to European colonial rule at some point in history. In many cases, this rule lasted for over 250 years. Among the many harms of colonialism was the denial of self-determination and dispossession of land from Indigenous populations, the imposition of colonial borders, plunder of natural resources, the exploitation of labor of enslaved and colonized peoples, and the destruction of local cultures, languages and knowledge systems.

How are the effects of slavery and colonialism being felt today?

European colonialism and slavery built the world that we inhabit today. It is palpable all around us – from the borders that divide us to the languages we speak and the knowledge systems we are taught. The incredible wealth that was made by European states through slavery and colonialism has led to gross inequality that continues to mark the world order.

We often think about slavery and colonialism as something that’s finished, but we are still living in its long shadow. We live in a world shaped by colonial logic.

For example, where people migrate from and to neatly maps on to histories created under colonial power, while low-income countries are most likely to be former colonies. So, while the transatlantic slave trade is over, many of the ideas of how the globe is organized and who can move where, how, why and when map comfortably with those divisions – and that’s why they are so difficult to undo.

What are some of the countries that are still reeling from the effects of colonialism?

Countries across the world, such as Haiti, are still reeling from the effects of colonialism and slavery. The enduring harmful effects of Haiti’s so-called “independence debt”, alongside the legacies of slavery and colonialism, continue to shape the country’s political, social, economic, humanitarian, and human rights realities. Imposed by France in 1825 under threat of military force, the financial burden crippled the country’s entrenched structural inequalities that persist to this day. As 2025 marks the 200^th anniversary of the imposition of the debt, Haitian activists and international organizations are renewing calls for France to provide reparations and acknowledge the profound harm caused by slavery and colonialism.

In Namibia, more than a century since Germany’s colonial genocide against the Indigenous Ovaherero and Nama peoples, descendant communities continue to be impacted by its legacies. The dispossession of ancestral lands and loss of cultural heritage as a result of the genocide have caused irreparable damage and transgenerational harm for the Ovaherero and Nama peoples that endures to this day.

Indigenous Peoples in Namibia today also face the perpetuation of colonial patterns through new forms of dispossession driven by the extraction of natural resources and the transition to renewable energies. For example, the planned construction of a major renewable energy project by a European joint venture on Nama ancestral land has been challenged by the Nama Traditional Leaders Association. Although the Namibian and German governments have concluded a joint declaration to address the colonial past, the agreement does not provide for direct reparations to Ovaherero and Nama descendants and failed to provide for the meaningful participation by affected communities in the negotiation of the declaration. Because of this, Nama and Ovaherero leadership have rejected the declaration and continue their struggle for reparatory justice from Germany not only through political advocacy but also through courts.

Have governments acknowledged the need for reparations?

For far too long communities and individuals directly impacted by historical injustices have been demanding reparations, especially Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent. Colonialism, enslavement, the slave trade and their ongoing legacies remain largely unaccounted for by European states and others who are responsible.

Although a growing number of states, institutions and corporations have begun to formally acknowledge or apologize for their role in slavery, the slave trade and/or colonialism, this has not been accompanied by other reparatory justice measures such as restitution or compensation which centred on or are decided with affected communities. 

What barriers do people and communities face when it comes to getting reparations?

One of the biggest challenges in the fight for reparations is that many States argue that slavery and colonialism weren’t considered illegal acts at the time they happened. Because of that, they claim they don’t have any obligation to repair today.

This argument has been raised by a number of European states, notably those who benefitted and continue to benefit from the legacy of slavery and colonialism, to refute the existence of a duty under international law to provide reparation for these historic wrongs.

For example, in 2022 the UK voted against a UN resolution calling on States to provide reparation for past injustices, explaining that the UK does not agree “with claims made in this resolution that states are required to make reparations for the slave trade and colonialism, which caused great suffering to many but were not, at that time, violations of international law.”

Are communities holding accountable States for their role in colonialism and slavery?

Yes, communities are organising across the world to obtain reparations but it’s a slow process, with many European states continuing to oppose claims for reparations. In a historic move in December 2024, Belgium was found responsible for crimes against humanity for acts committed during colonization, signalling as a turning point for European states. The decision represents long-awaited recognition and supports additional claims for reparations for Métis people, victims and survivors of Belgian colonization.

In Canada, Indigenous Peoples have long been fighting for reparatory justice for historic and ongoing violations, including violations of their right to self-determination and loss of ancestral lands. The transatlantic slave trade and its enduring legacies created deep generational inequities that continue to disadvantage people of African descent. As part of the British Empire, Canada participated in this system, with institutions like the Hudson’s Bay Company profiting immensely from enslaved and indentured labour. While slave owners were compensated for their “losses”, after the abolition of slavery, through the Slavery Compensation Act—payments that continued until 2015—those who were enslaved and exploited have yet to receive justice, making the call for reparations both urgent and necessary.

In 2012, hundreds of Indigenous Peoples brought a class action lawsuit against Canadian authorities, seeking reparations for the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families and placement in residential schools. The residential school system formed part of a colonial policy to eradicate Indigenous cultures, languages, and communities in Canada, resulting in the separation of approximately 150,000 Indigenous children from their families, identity, and cultures. Residential schools were also rife with neglect and abuse of Indigenous children causing thousands of deaths.

Survivor stories detail horrific physical and emotional abuse suffered that resulting in lasting trauma. In January 2023, the Canadian government agreed to pay a 2 billion US dollars to settle a lawsuit, with the settlement to be used to “revitalize Indigenous education, culture, and language – to  support survivors in healing and reconnecting with their heritage.” As a result of an earlier class action lawsuit filed by thousands of Indigenous survivors, the Canadian government formally apologized for the harms of the residential school system and held a Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2007 to 2015 to investigate and record crimes and human rights violations committed against Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools. 

Regional bodies are also addressing the issue of reparations for historical injustices. In 2014, Caricom – the Caribbean intergovernmental body – developed a 10-points agenda for reparatory justice including full formal apology, illiteracy eradication and debt cancellation. The African Union designated reparations for Africans and People of African Descent as theme of the year for 2025, which has now turned into a decade for reparations going from 2026 to 2036.

What is Amnesty International doing to advance reparations?

Reparation involves not only justice for the historic wrongs of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism. It requires also dismantling or transforming contemporary systems and structures of racial discrimination, subordination and inequality that were built under slavery and colonialism, like white supremacy. Reparations therefore concern our future and our present as much as they do our past.

Over the past year, Amnesty International’s Racial Justice Team has:

1. Developed legal arguments under international law for reparations.
2. Advocated alongside the UN, producing oral statements, submissions and inputs into U.N resolutions, advocacy meetings and co-organising side-events with partners.
3. Worked with partners to amplify reparations demands, through the Dekoloniale Berlin Conference, as well as for the cases of Namibia and Haiti.
4. Continued to document the effects of colonialism and slavery on human rights today.

The team also works with partner organizations and communities struggling to achieve justice. They bring together groups and communities so they can learn about different ongoing reparation processes, discuss successes and challenges, and strategize how international law and advocacy may be used for achieving reparatory justice.

Going forward, the team will be attending the Wakati Wetu Festival in Nairobi Kenya from 22-23 October, where they will be working with partners African Futures Labs to ignite global conversations on reparative justice through art, activism, and community.

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Reacting to the leaked draft of the 11th Judicial Package (“11. Yargı Paketi”) which proposes the introduction of criminal penalties targeting Türkiye’s LGBTI community, Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for Europe, said: 

“These proposals present a grave threat to the rights of LGBTI people and those who advocate for LGBTI rights and they must never see the light of day.   

“For the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic, legislators could be considering the criminalization of any expression of LGBTI identities, consensual same-sex sexual activity, and access to vital gender-affirming healthcare. Under these proposals, people could face jail terms based on gender stereotypes, how they present themselves, and who they chose to be in a relationship with. If tabled and passed, any positive discussion of LGBTI related issues could also be criminalized for ‘encouraging, promoting or praising’ LGBTI people.  

For the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic, legislators could be considering the criminalization of any expression of LGBTI identities and consensual same-sex sexual activity

“Under the spurious guise of protecting ‘public morality’ and ‘the family institution’ these measures would, in reality, threaten the very fabric of Turkish society. If passed into law, they would be a grave violation of the Turkish authorities’ obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of LGBTI people and their allies without discrimination. They would represent a hugely regressive step, and they must be resoundingly resisted and categorically rejected.”  

Background  

The 66-page leaked Draft law proposal on amendments to Turkish Penal Code and Some Laws includes amendments to the Turkish Penal Code, Turkish Civil Code, as well as other laws. This is the third time in the last year that a package of laws including measures targeting LGBTI people has been put into the public domain. The two previous ones were not discussed in the Justice Commission as per the procedure in Parliament. 

The proposed amendment to Article 225 (Indecent Acts) of the Turkish Penal Code increases the sentence for “anyone who publicly engages in sexual relations or exhibitionism” to up to three years and states in the new second paragraph that “anyone who exhibits an attitude or behaviour that is contrary to the biological sex at birth and public morality, or who publicly encourages, praises or promotes such behaviour, shall be punished with imprisonment from one to three years.” 

If the proposals are tabled and approved by Parliament, same sex couples carrying out symbolic engagement or wedding ceremonies would face up to four years in prison. Same sex marriage is not legal in Türkiye.  

The justification stated for this amendment is “to raise physically and mentally healthy individuals and generations and to protect the family institution and social structure”.   

Furthermore, the leaked document includes amendments to Article 40 of the Turkish Civil Code which would make gender-affirming procedures extremely difficult, if not impossible, and would place additional barriers for individuals seeking to obtain legal gender recognition. The proposed amendments include raising the minimum age to undergo the procedures from 18 to 25, reintroducing the requirement to be permanently deprived of reproductive abilities, and introducing further evaluations in state approved hospitals demonstrating that the gender affirmation is necessary for the well-being of the individual.  

A new article is also proposed to the Turkish Penal Code, criminalizing people undergoing gender-affirming procedures. The new proposed article also criminalizes and imposes prison sentences for medical professionals who carry out such procedures. 

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