Schlagwort: human rights

In response to a report submitted by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, to the 60^th session of the UN Human Rights Council today concluding that Israeli authorities and forces have committed and are continuing to commit genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard said:  

“As Israeli authorities and forces intensify their brutal campaign of annihilation, particularly in Gaza City, the UN Commission of Inquiry’s damning report provides further confirmation of what Amnesty International and others have been concluding for months: that the Israeli authorities and Israeli forces have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.  

“Building on its previous report, the latest report by the Commission of Inquiry concludes that there is reasonable ground to conclude that Israeli forces and authorities have committed four acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, namely: killing members of the group; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births. Crucially, the report also concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Statements made by Israeli authorities provide direct evidence for genocidal intent, and the pattern of conduct of Israeli forces provide circumstantial evidence that genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the totality of evidence.  

“The Commission of Inquiry joins a growing number of international human rights bodies and experts in concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. 

There is no more time for excuses: as the evidence of Israel’s genocide continues to mount the international community cannot claim they didn’t know.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“There is no more time for excuses: as the evidence of Israel’s genocide continues to mount the international community cannot claim they didn’t know. This report must compel states to take immediate action and fulfill their legal and moral obligation to halt Israel’s genocide. The international community, especially those states with influence on Israel, must exert all possible diplomatic, economic, and political pressure to ensure an immediate and lasting ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza. The findings of this report should compel all states to halt all arms and security transfers to Israel to re-evaluate their trade ties with Israel to ensure they are not contributing to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, apartheid, other crimes against humanity or war crimes, or the unlawful occupation of the OPT. 

The very existence of Palestinians in Gaza is under threat. The scale of deaths and destruction has already been cataclysmic, but we are at a juncture where states have the tools to prevent further crimes. They must demonstrate that they also have the will to do so.

Agnès Callamard.

“With Israel intensifying its brutal campaign of destruction and displacement, especially in Gaza City, including through the mass forced displacement of its residents and the erasure of its millennia-old heritage, the stakes have never been higher. The very existence of Palestinians in Gaza is under threat. The scale of deaths and destruction has already been cataclysmic, but we are at a juncture where states have the tools to prevent further crimes. They must demonstrate that they also have the will to do so.” 

“The UN Commission of Inquiry’s report also warns the international community of its serious concerns that the specific intent to destroy the Palestinians as a whole has extended to the rest of the OPT, that is the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.  

Amnesty International urges all states, beginning with those that have supported Israel for the last two years to shift course, to hear the findings of expert after expert, and to do all in their power to protect Palestinians and stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza and prevent its possible spread to the rest of the OPT.” 

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Recently proposed amendments would restrict rights

Lebanon’s parliament should ensure that a draft media law it is considering upholds the right to freedom of expression, 14 Lebanese and international rights organizations, including Amnesty International, said today. 

This includes decriminalizing defamation, blasphemy, insult, and criticism of public officials; prohibiting pretrial detention in speech-related violations; and removing onerous restrictions on the establishment of media outlets. The parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee is set to resume its discussion of the draft law on 16 September 2025.

“Lebanon’s criminal defamation laws have been repeatedly used to target and silence government critics, activists, and journalists in Lebanon, with journalists repeatedly summoned before security agencies in retaliation for their work,” the organizations said.

“Parliament should ensure that these practices come to an end by passing a media law that is entirely consistent with international human rights standards, including on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom.”

Lebanon’s parliament began discussing a new media law in 2010 after a former parliament member, Ghassan Moukheiber, and Maharat Foundation, a Beirut-based nongovernmental organization specialising in media and freedom of expression issues, submitted a proposal to amend Lebanon’s outdated Publications Law. In January 2023, parliament established a subcommittee to study and amend the draft media law, a final version of which was submitted to the Administration and Justice Committee on 27 May 2025.

The draft law submitted to the committee in May 2025 included significant advancements in protecting the right to freedom of expression in Lebanon, including abolishing pretrial detention and prison sentences for all speech-related violations. It also repealed criminal defamation and insult provisions from Lebanon’s penal code and military judiciary law.

The Administration and Justice Committee started discussions on the latest draft media law on July 29 and has held three meetings on the issue. Parliamentary committee discussions are confidential, unless the committee decides otherwise, under article 34 of parliament’s Rules of Procedure. The Administration and Justice Committee should make its discussions public to ensure transparent legislative debates and facilitate effective public participation, particularly in light of the law’s impact on upholding or restricting fundamental human rights like the right to freedom of expression, the organizations said.

On 31 August, members of parliament received proposed amendments to the draft law’s text. Its title suggested that Lebanon’s information minister had proposed the amendments. The information minister denied being the author, however.

The organizations reviewed the proposed amendments. They include reintroducing pretrial detention, including “under aggravated circumstances, such as infringing on individuals’ dignity or private lives.”

Pretrial detention is only permissible in Lebanon for offenses that are punishable by more than one year in prison. It is expressly prohibited for media-related offenses in Lebanon’s existing media laws.

“If adopted, such an amendment would be a significant step backward for the protection of the right to freedom of expression and media freedom in Lebanon,” the organizations said.

The suggested amendment does not specify what “infringing on individuals’ dignity or private lives” entails. A vague law that leaves people uncertain of what expression may violate it has a chilling impact on freedom of expression, as people may self-censor out of fear they might be subject to summons, pretrial detention, or eventual prosecution. Vague provisions also leave the law subject to abuse by authorities, who may use them to silence peaceful dissent.

The suggested amendments would also further unlawfully restrict the work of media organizations that are subject to a legal complaint by prohibiting them from publishing materials about the complainant while judicial proceedings are ongoing. Such a general legislative ban would constitute a serious infringement on the right to freedom of expression, with Lebanese and international rights organizations having long documented the Lebanese authorities’ repeated use of defamation and insult laws to silence media organizations, journalists, activists, and others critical of government policies and corruption.

The suggested amendments would require licensed television stations to provide the Information Ministry and the National Council for Audiovisual Media with regular reports, including detailed information on the schedule of broadcast programming, and imply that electronic media be subjected to a prior licensing regime rather than a notification regime. Unless carefully crafted, such licensing requirements risk allowing for arbitrary decision-making over who can establish and operate media outlets and could facilitate violations of the right to freedom of expression and media freedom.

International human rights standards require that any fees and licensing requirements for allocation of frequencies for broadcast media should not be onerous, and the criteria for applying these conditions and fees should be reasonable, objective, clear, transparent, and nondiscriminatory.

“Lebanon’s parliament should adopt a media law that includes rights protections that Lebanese rights and media groups have long fought for,” the organizations said.

“They should immediately lift the secrecy shrouding discussions of the draft media law and reject suggestions that would further restrict the right to freedom of expression and media freedom, including pretrial detention and provisions that criminalize insult and defamation.”

Signatory organizations:

• Amnesty International
• Committee to Protect Journalists 
• Cedar Centre for Legal Studies
• Human Rights Watch
• International Commission of Jurists 
• Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE)
• The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) 
• Legal Agenda
• Maharat Foundation
• Reporters Without Borders
• Samir Kassir Foundation
• Silat Wassel
• Social Media Exchange (SMEX)
• The Union of Journalists in Lebanon

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Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard will be in New York City for the 80^th Session of the UN General Assembly from September 18 to 24 and available for interviews. She will be focusing her visit on the following issues: international and multilateral responses to Israel’s genocide in Gaza; the Trump administration’s attacks on international justice institutions, as well as its recent sanctions against three prominent Palestinian NGOs; political, humanitarian and human rights crises in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Sudan; the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda; and the UN80 initiative and the current state and relevance of the UN and the multilateral system.

“As the United Nations turns 80, the institution finds itself at a crossroads, confronted by crisis both internally and externally. Humanity is struggling amid a record number of armed conflicts, rampant inequality, inadequate efforts to regulate new technologies or address climate collapse, the rise of authoritarian laws and practices around the world, and a growing global backlash against the rights of migrants, refugees, women, girls and LGBTI people. The UN was built from the ashes of World War Two to uphold universal principles such as human dignity and equality, but today the very countries that championed these principles are turning their back on them,” said Agnès Callamard.

“What is the UN’s present and future and how do we address the many grave and often global challenges threatening the human rights of billions all over the planet? What is the place, if any, of the Pact for the Future and the roadmap agreed during last year’s General Assembly? What is the role of international and grassroots civil society organizations in shaping and influencing multilateral vision and institutions? These are some of the questions I will seek to explore with all those present at the UN this week.

As the United Nations turns 80, the institution finds itself at a crossroads, confronted by crisis both internally and externally.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard

“There are immediate litmus tests that we are failing, and the cost is counted in millions of lives, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. How to stop Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. It cannot be business as usual while Israel deliberately starves and annihilates a population before our very eyes. We need rock-solid political will to end this hellish nightmare, with states applying robust diplomatic and economic pressure on Israel to end its unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory – just as the UN General Assembly mandated in a resolution 12 months ago – and stop the genocide and its cruel system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights Israel controls.”

On September 18, Amnesty International will publish research naming 15 major US, Chinese, Spanish, South Korean and Israeli firms that are contributing to or directly linked to Israel’s crimes under international law. The briefing will contain detailed calls on states and companies to uphold their obligations and responsibilities under international law and standards.

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Reacting to the Belarusian authorities’ refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts of the recently released opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich, Maria Guryeva, Amnesty International’s Senior Campaigner, said:

“The ongoing lack of information about Mikalai Statkevich’s fate and whereabouts is profoundly worrying. He has not been seen since he was taken to the border with Lithuania where he refused to go into exile, after being released from prison. This has prompted fears the Belarusian authorities have returned him to prison. There is a clear and simple term for this: forced disappearance. Mikalai Statkevich’s whereabouts must be immediately disclosed, his safety guaranteed, and his continued detention brought to an end. He should have never been imprisoned in the first place, nor denied his right to stay in his country.

“Mikalai Statkevich’s forced disappearance following his refusal to leave his homeland is a chilling reminder of how appalling the human rights situation in Belarus is, under Aliaksandr Lukashenka. And let’s make no mistake about the recent prisoner release: the authorities in Belarus cannot be said to be rectifying injustices or showing good will – not when they continue to arbitrarily detain people in retaliation for expressing dissent.

The authorities in Belarus cannot be said to be rectifying injustices or showing good will – not when they continue to arbitrarily detain people in retaliation for expressing dissent

Maria Guryeva, Amnesty International’s Senior Campaigner

“The Belarusian authorities must stop using people imprisoned on political grounds as bargaining chips on the international stage. They must immediately and unconditionally free all those imprisoned for attempting to exercise their human rights. And they must not force anyone to exile.”

Background

On 15 September, Nasha Niva, an independent Belarusian media in exile, reported that Mikalai Statkevich, a prominent opposition politician and long-time government critic, had been returned to the prison colony in Hlybokaye, the same strict-regime facility where he had been serving a 14-year sentence under false charges of “organizing mass unrest” until four days ago.

Mikalai Statkevich was released on 11 September 2025 as part of a political deal in which 52 prisoners were freed in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the Belarusian state airline Belavia. Out of these 52, local human rights defenders consider 40, including Statkevich, to have been prosecuted on politically motivated grounds. Belarusian authorities attempted to deport the entire group the next day, transporting them to the Lithuanian border. However, Statkevich refused to leave Belarus, declaring “I will keep fighting!” before forcing his way out of the bus in which he was being transported alongside other former prisoners, in the neutral zone. CCTV footage shows him being detained again by masked men coming from the Belarusian side.

No official confirmation of his whereabouts has been issued by the authorities. According to research by the NGO Belarusian Investigative Centre, and based on reporting by the Human Rights Centre Viasna, between 21 June 2025 – the date of the first U.S.-mediated prisoner release – and 11 September, the Belarusian authorities released 53 individuals imprisoned on political grounds (excluding Mikalai Statkevich), while 103 others were newly deprived of freedom, also on politically motivated grounds. The total number of victims of politically motivated prosecution who remain in Belarusian prisons, according to Viasna, is over 1,160.

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Côte d’Ivoire’s next president must seize the opportunity of their mandate to prioritize the human rights of everyone in the country, Amnesty International said as it launched a manifesto setting out six key priorities for the next administration. The official list of candidates for the 25 October election was published on 9 September.

“Over the next five years, the president should address violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. They should end forced evictions and support affected people, ensure respect for the right to truth, justice and reparation for victims of electoral violence, protect the rights of women and children and the right to a healthy environment,” said Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

These elections offer an opportunity to strengthen respect for human rights in Côte d’Ivoire. We call on all candidates to commit to this.

Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

Ensure and protect freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly  

The Criminal Code criminalizes the dissemination of ‘false information’ and provides for prison sentences for organizers of or participants in undeclared protests. These provisions are often used to silence critical voices. Furthermore, the authorities can currently dissolve organizations by a simple decree, without the possibility of appeal.

It is essential to amend the law on the organization of civil society to guarantee the right to freedom of association, to revise the Penal Code to reduce the penalties for disseminating false information and to ensure its compliance with international human rights standards.

“The future president must commit to ending abusive legal proceedings and all forms of intimidation, harassment or violence against individuals and legal entities simply for exercising their human rights,” said Marceau Sivieude.

End forced evictions and fairly compensate victims

Although support measures for the tens of thousands of victims of forced evictions have been announced, they remain insufficient and have not been implemented for all victims.

Amnesty International calls on the next president to put an end to forced evictions, in accordance with the country’s obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified by Côte d’Ivoire in 1992. All victims should be guaranteed fair compensation and adequate and secure rehousing.

Ensure right to truth, justice and reparations 

The 2018 amnesty law benefited hundreds of people prosecuted or convicted for offences related to the 2010–2011 post-election violence. In the violence that followed the 2020 elections, 85 people were killed and hundreds injured. Victims and their families are still waiting for justice and reparations. Since 2020, individuals and non-governmental organizations can no longer bring cases directly before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights because the authorities withdrew the declaration that made this possible.

“Efforts towards national reconciliation must not compromise the rights of victims and families of victims of electoral violence. Domestic justice mechanisms must be strengthened, and the jurisdiction of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to receive complaints must be restored,” said Marceau Sivieude. 

Tackle gender-based violence

Despite progress, sexual violence survivors continue to face obstacles in accessing justice and support services. For instance, a paid medical certificate is still required when filing rape complaints, and the Penal Code establishes a presumption of consent between spouses.

There is an urgent need to ensure the enforcement of laws against gender-based violence and to guarantee that survivors have access to medical care and forensic examinations, psychological counselling and shelters without delay or financial barriers.

Children’s rights should be protected

The president should prioritize the fight against child labour, which despite some progress persists as noted by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. The authorities should conduct investigations and bring alleged perpetrators to justice. They must ensure access to justice and effective remedies to victims.

It is also essential to facilitate access to civil registration for all children to ensure their human rights.

Ensure and guarantee right to a healthy environment

Already vulnerable rural communities are seeing their land reduced or seized, sometimes without adequate consultation or fair compensation, due to the expansion of agricultural land and illegal logging. The chemicals used in gold mining are making water sources unfit for consumption and agriculture.

There is an urgent need to enforce laws against illegal deforestation, unsustainable logging and land grabbing, to establish consultation and compensation mechanisms, and to facilitate communities’ access to information and remedies when their human rights are violated through environmental degradation, including climate change impacts. The communities’ initiatives must be supported and integrated into public policy.

“The recommendations in our manifesto are not exhaustive, but they provide the future president with a roadmap. These elections offer an opportunity to strengthen respect for human rights in Côte d’Ivoire. We call on all candidates to commit to this,” said Marceau Sivieude.

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