RIGHTSTODAY WHY OUR MOVEMENT MATTERS - Amnesty International Ireland
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Preface Contents 2 Preface As 2018 draws to a close, we reflect on the 3 Kumi Naidoo – a year defined by women’s resistance 70 years that have passed since the United 6 #ToxicTwitter and the silencing Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of women online 8 Women bear the brunt of inequality of Human Rights, and ask ourselves: “How 10 Refugees need meaningful change 14 A year in arms supplies to the far have we come?” Saudi/UAE coalition 16 Focus on Africa 18 Focus on the Middle East and North Africa The Universal Declaration pronounces rights 22 Focus on Europe and Central Asia 28 Focus on Southeast Asia and that each and every one of us possesses, the Pacific by the very fact that we are human. Every 32 Focus on East Asia 34 Focus on South Asia year since 1948, progress has been made 38 Focus on the Americas 42 Five women leading the struggle towards every person enjoying all those for human rights 46 The “not enough” impact report rights. More and more people are living lives 50 Birthright – a personal perspective on the 70th anniversary of the UDHR free from want, fear and discrimination. And yet there are always places where humanity takes a step backwards too. Much more work remains to be done before we fully realize the Universal Declaration’s vision of a world where all are free and equal. Conflict, prejudice, unequal sharing of resources and poor governance are just some of the reasons why many of us have yet to enjoy all our rights. Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in In this summary of the state of the world’s the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, human rights, we turn our attention to a handful of key issues and themes that have political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. © Amnesty International 2018 Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed been prominent in 2018. We examine some of the defining moments for each region, under a Creative Commons (attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, international 4.0) licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode For more information please visit the permissions page on our website: www.amnesty.org Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Amnesty look at key movements that have called International this material is not subject to the Creative Commons licence. for change, and consider in particular how the rights of women have fared during the First published in 2018 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW, UK year. We also acknowledge the many human rights defenders working around the world Index: POL 10/9090/2018 Original language: English today, and pay tribute to those who have lost their lives or freedom in the course of their work. Even in the darkest moments, their courage gives us the strength to continue our fight for human rights. n Cover photo: International Women’s Day in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 8 March 2018. © Reuters/Marcos Brindicci.
Introduction A year defined by women’s resistance KUMI NAIDOO, SECRETARY GENERAL Today, the world honours the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This extraordinary document, adopted on 10 December 1948, brought the international community together in an unprecedented show of unity, setting out for the first time a bill of rights that would apply to all people, and in doing so struck at the heart of injustice across the globe. Abortion rights activists gather as lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill legalizing abortion, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 8 August 2018. © Reuters/Marcos Brindicci. 3
Secretary General Yet seven decades on, we have seen a weak global economy give rise to bombastic figureheads who use macho posturing, misogyny, xenophobia and homophobia to give the appearance that they are “tough guy” leaders. This mirrors the rise of fascism in the 1930s, following an earlier economic depression, and its culmination in the horrors of the Holocaust; one response to this was the Universal Declaration and its proclamation that all people “are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. In 2018, we witnessed many of these abortion ban. In Saudi Arabia, women and gender non-conforming people; “tough guy” leaders trying to undermine were finally granted the right to drive. yet it remains a human rights crisis the very principle of equality – the In Iceland and Sweden, new laws were that politicians continue to ignore. In bedrock of human rights law. They passed recognizing sex without consent July, Bulgaria chose not to ratify the sought to demonize and persecute as rape. In the USA, accusations of Istanbul Convention, a European treaty already marginalized and vulnerable sexual misconduct sent shockwaves for preventing and combating domestic communities. But nowhere has the through the Hollywood patriarchy, violence and violence against women, struggle for equality this year been challenging decades of impunity. after its Constitutional Court declared louder or more visible than in the fight it “unconstitutional”. In August, for women’s rights. THE DIRE REALITY OF Luxembourg became the 33rd state to ratify the Convention; yet, even with WOMEN’S RIGHTS THE POWER OF a relatively large number of European states signing up to abide by it, the WOMEN’S VOICES Yet we cannot celebrate the statistics still paint a grim picture. stratospheric rise of women’s activism Women around the world have been at without recognizing why women need to One in 10 girls worldwide is reportedly the forefront of the battle for human fight so hard. The stark reality is that, in sexually assaulted by the age of 20, rights in 2018. In India and South 2018, many governments openly support while only a third of EU countries Africa, thousands took to the streets to policies and laws that subjugate and recognize that sex without consent is protest against endemic sexual violence. suppress women. rape. Elsewhere, in interviews with In Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively, Amnesty International, women from women activists risked arrest to Globally, 40% of women of childbearing conflict-affected areas of Nigeria, Iraq, resist the driving ban and forced age live in countries where abortion South Sudan and Myanmar described hijab (veiling). In Argentina, Ireland remains highly restricted, and some the horrors of sexual violence they have and Poland, demonstrators rallied in 225 million do not have access faced, often by their country’s own vast numbers to demand an end to to modern contraception. Despite security forces. oppressive abortion laws. Millions of widespread activism, El Salvador people in the USA, Europe and parts of refused to decriminalize abortion in any Throughout the world, women who Asia joined #MeToo-led women’s circumstances, and the Argentinian experience intersecting layers of marches to demand an end to misogyny senate narrowly voted against a bill discrimination – including based on and abuse. In northeastern Nigeria, that would have legalized abortion their sexual orientation, gender identity, thousands of displaced women on demand in the first 14 weeks of ethnicity, race or socio-economic status mobilized for justice for the abuses they pregnancy. At the same time, Polish – face unique and additional human have suffered at the hands of Boko and Guatemalan policy-makers continue rights violations. In Somalia, women Haram fighters and the Nigerian security to advocate for stricter abortion laws, with disabilities are often subjected to forces. while in the USA, funding cuts to family forced marriages and domestic violence. planning clinics have put the health of In Canada, Indigenous women are six The burgeoning power of women’s voices millions of women at risk. times more likely to be murdered than cannot be overstated. Spurred on by other women. We in the women’s and powerful cries for women’s rights to Gender-based violence disproportionately human rights movements need to do finally be respected, citizens of Ireland affects women, transgender people more to recognize how these intersecting voted by a landslide to overturn the 4
Kumi Nadoo forms of discrimination affect people’s social and economic inequality. LGBT supporters run from tear gas fired by police after attempting to march to Taksim Square on 25 June 2017 in lives and to ensure the voices of the Although record numbers of women Istanbul, Turkey. The 2017 LGBT Pride March was banned by authorities for the third year. Organizers defied the order most marginalized are heard. ran for public office in 2018, progress and people attempted to march to Taksim Square but were remains painfully slow. Currently, met by a heavy police presence. The crowd was dispersed by tear gas and several people were arrested. © Chris McGrath/ In response to women’s resistance and only 17% of all heads of state or Getty Images. activism, anti-rights groups across Latin government, and 23% of the world’s America and Europe have adopted parliamentarians, are women. a new tactic of repression: labelling feminists and LGBTI activists as so- 2019: AN called “proponents of gender ideology” who, according to them, pose an OPPORTUNITY existential threat to “marriage and family FOR CHANGE values”. Such groups often try to silence women and LGBTI people who speak The 70th anniversary of the Universal up for human rights, including through Declaration is an opportunity to reflect campaigns of online abuse. Thus, people on what was a momentous achievement of all genders campaigning against for all the women and men involved gender inequality are also fighting the in its creation. It took the active additional battle to defend their rights to lobbying of a woman – Hansa Mehta speak out at all. – to successfully change the wording of Article 1 of the Declaration from Research carried out by Amnesty “All men are born free and equal”, to International this year, one of the first “All human beings are born free and studies of its kind on human rights and equal.” And Hansa Mehta was right violence against women online, confirms to be concerned that women would be what many women know to be true: excluded from human rights protections. that social media platforms have proved Now, 70 years on, we are still fighting both a blessing and a curse. Companies for women’s rights to be recognized as and governments have comprehensively human rights. One of the most urgent failed to protect users from a deluge of steps governments must take to address this is to genuinely commit to the online abuse, prompting many women international bill of rights for women in particular to self-censor or even leave – the Convention on the Elimination these platforms altogether. of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) – and ensure, through Conversely, social media has given more national implementation, that women prominence in some parts of the world have freedom from discrimination and to women’s calls for equality in the violence. workplace, a battle that has been raging for decades, centuries even, but which CEDAW is the second most ratified gained renewed attention during the human rights treaty, with 189 states year in calls to narrow the gender pay parties. Yet governments must stop gap, currently standing at 23% globally. merely paying lip-service to women’s Women worldwide are not only paid less, rights. If the undeniable surge of on average, than men, but are more women’s activism this year proves likely to do unpaid work and to work in anything, it is that people will not accept informal, insecure and unskilled jobs. this. And neither will we. In 2019, Much of this is due to social norms that Amnesty International will be increasing consider women and their work to be of our lobbying efforts to ensure that lower status. governments drop their reservations to CEDAW with immediate effect and take Without workplace equality, women will the bold steps necessary to fully realize continue to bear the brunt of the world’s women’s rights. Now, more than ever, we shaky economic recovery. In the UK, must stand with women’s movements, women have reportedly shouldered 86% amplify women’s voices in all their of the burden of austerity measures put diversity and fight for the recognition of in place since 2010 due to their reliance all our rights. I hope you will join us. n on social security benefits. For most of history, women have been trapped in a cycle of discrimination driven by gender hierarchies and norms. The political participation of women is essential to tackle laws that entrench 5
#TOXICTWITTER AND THE SILENCING OF WOMEN ONLINE Social media allows SELF-CENSORSHIP Sometimes it is for speaking out about certain – often feminist – issues. people around the Many women who spoke to Amnesty Sometimes it is because they are public world to express International as part of our research on figures. Although people of all genders can experience violence and abuse themselves by debating, this issue said that violence and abuse flourish on the social media platform online, the abuse experienced by women networking and sharing Twitter, often with little accountability. is often sexist or misogynistic in nature, and online threats of violence against The violence and abuse many women information. Yet, in experience on Twitter has a detrimental women are often sexualized and include 2018, women have effect on their right to express themselves specific references to women’s bodies. Women who experience multiple and equally, freely and without fear. Instead been increasingly vocal of strengthening women’s voices, these intersecting forms of discrimination offline about a particular threat experiences lead women to self-censor often find that violence and abuse online also targets their different identities. what they post and limit their interactions to their right to freedom online. In some cases, it drives women Non-binary people can also face targeted and misogynistic abuse online for not of expression on social away from Twitter completely. conforming to gender norms. media platforms: the At a watershed moment when women Twitter’s policies on hateful conduct and proliferation of violence around the world are using their collective power to speak out and amplify their abuse are designed to provide guidance and abuse online. voices through social media platforms, and clarity on which behaviours the Twitter is failing to adequately respect company deems acceptable on the human rights and effectively tackle platform. However, although Twitter’s violence and abuse on its platform. “hateful conduct policy” covers many This means that, instead of women forms of abuse that affect women’s using their voices to create change in rights, it means little for women the world, many are being pushed on Twitter if such policies are not backwards towards a culture of silence. consistently enforced in practice. Many women told Amnesty International that Violence and abuse against women on when they report abuse on Twitter it Twitter takes various forms, including is often met with inaction and silence direct or indirect threats of physical or from the company. One of the most sexual violence; abuse targeting one pernicious impacts of the combination of or more aspects of a woman’s identity, inaction and inconsistency in responding such as racism or transphobia; targeted to reports of abuse is the detrimental harassment; privacy violations such as effect this has on women reporting such doxing (uploading private identifying experiences in the future. Women who are information publicly to cause alarm or the targets of abuse bear the burden of distress); and the sharing of sexual or reporting it. This not only takes time, but intimate images of a woman without also takes an emotional toll on women. her consent. The aim of this violence When women have – or hear of other people and abuse is to create a hostile online having – negative experiences reporting environment for women with the goal abuse to Twitter, they are less likely to of shaming, intimidating, degrading, undertake the effort of reporting it. belittling and ultimately silencing them. Twitter should be assessing, on an ongoing This year, Amnesty International and proactive basis, how its policies and acted to address this dangerous trend practices affect users’ rights to freedom which threatens the ability of women of expression and opinion as well as other to participate freely in the public rights, and taking steps to mitigate or realm. Amnesty’s International’s report prevent any possible negative impact. It #ToxicTwitter: Violence and abuse against is also critical that Twitter is transparent women online, found that women are about its policies and practices and the targeted with violence and abuse on steps it is taking to identify and address Twitter for a variety of reasons. human rights abuses. 6
Despite some improvements, Twitter is Although the company states that it Above: Protesters stage a demonstration as part of a nationwide strike by women against gender inequality to failing to adequately meet its responsibility “doesn’t tolerate behaviour that harasses, coincide with International Women’s Day in Bilbao, Spain. 8 March 2018. © Reuters/Vincent West. to respect human rights in the context of intimidates or uses fear to silence another Above left: A demonstrator chants with a megaphone during violence and abuse against women on its person’s voice”, this is exactly what is a one-day strike to defend women’s rights on International Women’s Day in Madrid, Spain, on 8 March 2018. platform. The steps it has taken are not happening to many women who use its © Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images. sufficient to tackle the scale and nature platform. Below left: Women students at Delhi University and members of the group Pinjratod, or Break the cages, protest in favour of the problem. Women have the right to of equal rules for men and women in Indian universities, live free from discrimination and violence. Twitter should publicly share especially curfew timing and other rules for women in university hostels. Arts Faculty, North Campus, Delhi, They also have the right to freely express comprehensive and meaningful India, 8 October 2018. © Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan themselves, both online and offline. information about the nature and levels Times/Getty. Twitter’s policies and practices clearly fail of violence and abuse against women, as to respect these rights. well as other groups, on the platform, and how the company responds to it. Ensuring that everyone can freely participate online and without fear of It must improve its reporting mechanisms violence and abuse is vital to ensuring the to ensure consistent application of effective exercise of the right to freedom its own rules and a better response to of expression. The silencing and censoring complaints of violence and abuse. impact of violence and abuse against women on Twitter can have far-reaching Finally, Twitter should provide more and harmful repercussions on how women, clarity about how it interprets and particularly younger women and those identifies violence and abuse on the from marginalized communities, fully platform and how it handles reports of exercise their right to participate in public such abuse. It should undertake far more 23% life and freely express themselves online proactive measures in educating users for years to come. and raising awareness about security and privacy features on the platform that will In 2019, Twitter, as a company, must act on its responsibility to respect all human help women enjoy a safer and less toxic Twitter experience. OF WOMEN POLLED IN EIGHT COUNTRIES HAVE rights – including the rights to non- discrimination and freedom of expression Continued inaction by Twitter in 2019 EXPERIENCED ONLINE ABUSE OR and opinion. It must demonstrate that would effectively be silencing women. HARASSMENT it hears the voices of women, and take Twitter must therefore undertake, with concrete steps to avoid causing or urgency, these concrete steps to tackle contributing to abuses of those rights. the problem once and for all. n This includes acting to identify, prevent, address and account for human rights abuses that are linked to its operations. Violence and abuse against women on this scale can be ended. Twitter, first and foremost, must enforce its own policies on hateful conduct and abuse. 7
WOMEN BEAR THE BRUNT OF INEQUALITY Last January, the But two months earlier, in November 2017, the organization had said that it will take For more than a decade, Amnesty International has called on governments to World Economic 217 years to close the economic gender gap. guarantee a minimum degree of security of tenure to everyone. This must include Forum made the Prior to this, in 2015, following concerted campaigning by women’s groups protection against forced evictions, harassment and other threats. Governments call for 2018 and development and human rights organizations, governments had made continue, however, to carry out land acquisitions for large commercial projects to be “the year a political commitment, under the UN Sustainable Development Goals, to achieve or redevelopment of urban areas in ways which flagrantly breach international law for women to gender equality by 2030. and result in forced evictions. thrive”. It urged There is a stark mismatch between the commitment to achieve gender equality The impacts are deeply gendered because of women’s differential access to land governments to within 12 years - including through women’s equal rights to economic and property rights, and drive women into, or further into, poverty. For example, raise women’s resources - and the prognosis that it will in fact take more than two centuries. Indigenous Sengwer women described to Amnesty International how forced participation in evictions from Kenya’s Embobut forest BARRIERS TO the labour force destroyed their financial autonomy because WOMEN’S ECONOMIC they lost access to the forest, land and to that of men. AND SOCIAL RIGHTS livestock upon which they depend for their livelihoods and cultural identity. A Sengwer The barriers to women achieving their woman, who received no compensation, economic and social rights are well said, “I am hosted [living in someone else’s documented. The UN says that women own home], I have no land, no bedding, I hardly only 12.8% of the world’s agricultural land. have food. I do casual labour in people’s Lack of security of tenure is a major obstacle farms. I live in destitution.” to women’s rights to food, work and housing in rural and urban areas. Discriminatory GROSSLY INADEQUATE inheritance, and personal and property laws frequently impede women’s ability to rent, PROTECTION OF own or register land or property. Amnesty WOMEN’S RIGHTS TO International’s 2018 report on Eswatini AND AT WORK (formerly Swaziland) demonstrated how the traditional system of land allocation, According to the World Bank, Brazil, kukhonta, by chiefs who traditionally allocate Egypt, France, India, Russia and 99 other land to men, often disadvantages women. countries still have laws which prevent One woman, forcibly evicted from her home women from working in specific jobs. More after the authorities demolished it, told us than 2.7 billion women are therefore legally “It’s very difficult as a woman to kukhonta. restricted from having the same choice of You need a male. Otherwise you won’t be jobs as men. The Fielding School of Public able to get land, or be heard.” Health, a think tank, found that only 87 8
GLOBAL GENDER PAY GAP: 23% Left: A worker delivering vegetables rests on a rickshaw at Divisoria Market in Manila, Philippines, 12 July 2018. © Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images. Above: Participants march during the Labour Day Parade organized by the Central Organization of Trade Unions Kenya (COTU-K) at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on 1 May 2018. © Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images. Right: Water vendor Esther Njuguna in Nairobi, Kenya, 2 March 2018. A mother of four, she has delivered water to customers for the past 18 months, a business decision she made after determining that no-one could deliver water when she needed it. © Biko Macoins/AFP/Getty Images. countries guarantee equal pay between of enforcement to address gaps in the countries. For example, in Spain, delays men and women for work of equal value. protection of women’s rights to, and at, in implementing legislation to regulate work. Companies need to identify, prevent long-term care has had a huge impact on The International Labour Organization (ILO) and address risks to labour and other human informal carers, most of whom are women. estimates that 740 million women work in rights throughout their global operations and Similarly, Chad’s austerity measures have the informal economy where there is a lack supply chains. Governments must make a had a serious impact on the public health of legal protection and limited or no access substantial paradigm shift in the way they sector and undermined access to basic to social security systems. assign legal responsibility within corporate health care for women and girls. This has groups, and ensure that all victims have a severe effect on economically vulnerable Domestic workers are often in a particularly access to remedies. women and girls who live in rural areas. vulnerable situation. Amnesty International’s One 29-year-old pregnant woman who lives campaigns in Lebanon, Qatar, Hong Kong SAR and Indonesia have highlighted WOMEN’S UNPAID 12km from her nearest health centre told Amnesty International, “I did not come domestic workers’ vulnerability to severe AND CARE WORK before because I did not have the money labour and other human rights abuses for the health tests, nor money to buy iron because of gaps in labour laws and/or poor Women continue to bear the tablets or purchase the booklet...” enforcement. Women who work in informal disproportionate burden of unpaid and care work. According to data analysed by economies and in many export processing zones face legal and practical barriers to the UN from 83 countries, women carry GOVERNMENTS MUST joining trade unions and exercising their out more than twice as much unpaid care ENSURE GENDER rights to collective bargaining. and domestic work as men. This restricts EQUALITY their ability to access education and gainful Women comprise the majority of workers in employment opportunities, and adversely It is positive that more than 100 certain segments of global supply chains, affects their incomes. According to the ILO, governments have taken action to track like clothing and horticulture, according to as the educational and work experience gaps budget allocations for gender equality. the ILO, but tend to be disproportionately between women and men narrow, the gender However, governments need to do far concentrated in low-wage or low-status pay gap remains wider than expected. more to assess, develop, and implement jobs. Amnesty International’s ongoing appropriate fiscal and monetary policies campaigns around palm oil and cobalt in Gender inequalities in work and the burden to ensure gender equality. This includes global supply chains have highlighted the of unpaid and care work also result in implementing progressive taxation policies failure of some of the world’s wealthiest gaps in social protection cover for women. and addressing tax evasion and illicit companies to undertake adequate human Furthermore, women make up nearly 65% financial flows in order to make more rights due diligence. of people over retirement age who do not resources available to realize women’s have a regular pension. Almost 750 million economic, social and cultural rights. Changing employment patterns, such women also do not benefit from a statutory as increased offshoring and outsourcing right to maternity leave. It is essential To achieve gender equality, governments in global supply chains and in the gig that governments recognize, reduce and can and must address gaps in legal economy, especially when combined redistribute unpaid care work, including frameworks in the enforcement of laws and with insecurity of work and low pay, raise through better provision of public services in public spending. Women cannot wait significant challenges to closing the gender and social care programmes. another 200 years. n wage gap. These inequalities are compounded by Governments need to urgently adapt regressive austerity measures and budget labour rights frameworks and modes cuts to key public services in many 9
REFUGEES NEED MEANINGFUL CHANGE The UN Global Compact on Refugees, initiated by the General Assembly, failed to deliver meaningful change for 25 million refugees. In July, after 18 months of consultations, the final text of the Compact, which aimed to improve the international community’s response to mass forcible displacement, was notably unambitious: a shameful blueprint for responsibility shirking. Above right: A drone photo shows an aerial view of al-Karama camp which hosts thousands of war victims who fled their homeland due to ongoing civil war. 20 December 2017, near Qah village in the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria. © Burak Karacaoglu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images. Right: A migrant sits on board a rescue boat run by the NGO Proactiva Open Arms in the central Mediterranean Sea, 2 August 2018. © Reuters/Juan Medina. Below: Two migrant boys walk through a makeshift area next to the Moria camp for refugees and migrants on the island of Lesbos, Greece, 17 September 2018. © Reuters/Giorgos Moutafis. UNHCR REPORTED A 54% DROP IN RESETTLEMENT PLACEMENTS FOR REFUGEES. 10
The Compact will not change the situation for Rohingya refugees newly FORCIBLE RETURNS Those refusing to leave would be detained until they agreed to do so; otherwise arrived in Bangladesh, or a generation of In Europe, several states forcibly they would be transferred forcibly. Court Somali youth born in refugee camps in returned increasing numbers of Afghans proceedings halted implementation, but Kenya, or refugees stuck in illegal and who had not obtained refugee status or did not stop Israel’s attempts to pass devastating limbo on the island of Nauru other forms of international protection, its responsibility for these refugees for the past five years. For sub-Saharan despite Afghanistan’s deteriorating and asylum-seekers to Uganda, which Africa, now hosting 31% of the global security situation, and amidst UN already hosts 1.3 million refugees, the refugee population, it will provide no reports of record high civilian deaths. largest refugee population in Africa, relief. Amnesty International documented and one of the top five worldwide. the risk that serious human rights The procedure violates Israel’s legal violations and generalized violence pose REFUGEES’ VOICES to refugees returned to Afghanistan. obligation of non-refoulement. GO UNHEARD Nevertheless, during 2018 Finland CITIZEN ACTIVISM forcibly deported 75 people; Germany Few of the world’s refugees will have returned 366; the Netherlands returned SEEKING SOLUTIONS heard of the Global Compact. Neither around 28; and Norway returned 15. will they have been consulted on its While governments abdicate their This was in addition to the almost process or content or involved in the responsibilities, citizen activism and 10,000 Afghans deported from Europe negotiations. The Compact set out to advocacy has raised its profile. But between 2015 and 2016. be a comprehensive, all-encompassing governments around the world are collection of best practice but using an increasing variety of methods any momentum towards concrete RESPONSIBILITY to hamper the work of people and commitments, mandatory requirements SHIRKING organizations assisting migrants, asylum- or bold action was crushed in the early seekers and refugees. Administrative, rounds of discussion. Human rights European governments also failed to criminal and other laws are some of the and refugee law obligations were largely reform asylum rules, or agree on a measures employed to deter, constrain, absent from the “zero” draft. Even common system of shared responsibility prosecute and punish those providing fundamentals like the principle of non- and co-operation for protecting and such assistance. From the seizure of refoulement and the right to seek asylum assisting refugees within Europe. As NGO search and rescue ships in the were omitted. Climate change as a a result, frontline states continued Mediterranean to the detention of a cause of forced displacement was also to shoulder a disproportionate journalist investigating the Australian dropped and there was little space for responsibility for processing asylum government’s abuses of refugees on refugee voices to be institutionalized in applications. Despite the considerable Nauru, activism for refugee and migrant any mechanisms. What remained was drop in numbers arriving in Europe, rights has become a precarious and the EU and individual member states potentially criminal affair. a strong bias towards states’ interests continued to advance externalization rather than refugees’ rights. practices aimed at keeping people on However, the Global Compact’s the move well away from European STATES MAKE borders, shifting the responsibility onto final draft mentions complementary pathways for refugees to reach safe SEVERE CUTS TO governments in Africa and elsewhere. third countries, recommending that RESETTLEMENT Refugees and migrants trapped in Libya states “establish private or community QUOTAS bore the brunt of European policies, sponsorship programmes that are additional to regular resettlement, policies which supported the Libyan Far more outrageous, however, were including community-based authorities in preventing departures certain initiatives that states took programmes”, something Amnesty and intercepting people risking their outside the Compact negotiations. International has long advocated for. lives to reach safety and a better life in State actions this year have already Europe. During the summer, over 1,200 shown that even the feeble ambitions Some countries made a start this year. In people were reported dead or missing July, Canada, the UK, Spain, Argentina, recommended in the Compact are not at sea in the central Mediterranean. likely to be abided by. Ahead of the Ireland and New Zealand announced Thousands were intercepted and pulled their endorsement of the concept of text’s finalization, UNHCR, the UN back to Libya to face arbitrary detention, refugee agency, reported a 54% drop community-based refugee sponsorship violence, abuse and exploitation. in resettlement placements: 75,188 which places individuals and compared to 163,206 in the previous The EU/Turkey deal, a benchmark for communities at the heart of organizing year due to a decline in resettlement responsibility shirking, led to thousands the arrival, welcome and integration quotas provided for by states. This is of refugees and migrants being confined of refugee families in third countries. significantly less than the 1.2 million in overcrowded and squalid EU- Meanwhile, New Zealand announced a places UNHCR say are needed. sponsored camps on the Greek islands. commitment to increase refugee quotas Women and girls were particularly in from 1,000 to 1,500 places. The US government cut its refugee danger, facing harassment, sexual admissions quota to 45,000, their In an increasingly hostile world, violence and other abuses. lowest since the domestic Refugee Act solidarity and direct action by was enacted in 1980, and apparently In Israel, the government started 2018 communities and individuals may be plan to decrease it to 30,000 in 2019. with the publication of its Procedure for the way to strengthen everyone’s right Amnesty International, meanwhile, Deportation to Third Countries, under to seek asylum and live in dignity. documented the catastrophic and which single Sudanese and Eritrean men Governments should celebrate and irreparable harm caused to thousands who had not applied for asylum by the follow the example of their citizens of asylum-seekers by the Trump end of 2017, or whose application was rather than threaten and target them. administration’s border and immigration denied, would be served with deportation Now negotiations have ended, let’s policies. Policies included separating notices to either their country of origin, or hope more governments see the Global and detaining children and families, to two unnamed “third countries”, widely Compact as a starting point for positive violating both US and international law. understood to be Uganda and Rwanda. change, rather than an end to it. n 11
Above: Refugees and migrants demonstrate in Jerusalem against the Israeli Prime Minister’s cancellation of an agreement with the UN aimed at avoiding forced deportations, 4 April 2018. © Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images. Right: A woman walks with her children amid the rubble of destroyed homes in Banki, Nigeria, 26 April 2017. © Jane Hahn/Washington Post/Getty Images. Below: Central American refugees and migrants await registration at a makeshift centre of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration, in Matias Romero, Mexico, 4 April 2018. © Reuters/Henry Romero. AS OF EARLY SEPTEMBER 2018, APPROXIMATELY 300 CHILDREN IN THE USA HAD STILL NOT BEEN REUNITED WITH THEIR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS, FROM WHOM THEY WERE FORCIBLY SEPARATED. 12
MORE THAN 720,000 ROHINGYA WOMEN, MEN AND CHILDREN HAVE FLED NORTHERN RAKHINE STATE TO BANGLADESH. Rohingya refugees wade across the Naf River from Myanmar into Bangladesh in Whaikhyang on 9 October 2017. © Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images. 13
A YEAR IN ARMS SUPPLIES TO THE SAUDI/UAE COALITION This year was another gruelling one in the conflict in Yemen, a country where millions of people are at risk of famine and nearly 17,000 civilians have been killed or injured since the war began. In 2018, Saudi Arabia and the United to the UAE, citing concerns over the More contradictory still is the situation Arab Emirates (UAE) coalition air forces situation in Yemen. When images in Spain. Eight days after announcing crisscrossed Yemen, bombing residential emerged of a Finnish-made Patria the cancellation of the bomb sales, the areas, civilian infrastructure, and even armoured vehicle being deployed by UAE Spanish government backed down under hitting a school bus full of children. forces in Yemen, all eight candidates in intense pressure both domestically and Finland’s February presidential elections from Saudi Arabia. The bombs were In reckless ground attacks, Yemen’s Huthi pledged to suspend sales. shipped in late September, and the armed group indiscriminately shelled following month, in a parliamentary urban centres and villages. And states, Most dramatically, in April, Germany, a debate, the government refused to bend most significantly the USA and the UK, major arms manufacturer and exporter, to pressure from Amnesty International but also France and Italy, among others, appeared to change tack. The country’s and other civil society groups and commit continued to send billions of dollars incoming coalition announced that to revoking past licences and suspending of sophisticated military equipment in it would suspend future licences for future sales. support of coalition forces. arms transfers to countries directly engaged in the Yemen conflict. Joining While many western states are beginning PUBLIC PROTEST AND what appeared to be a growing trend, to question their support for the POLICY SHIFT in September the Spanish government coalition, the USA and the UK – the two largest suppliers – have stood firm, not announced it would cancel the sale But as the toll on the civilian population of 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi only supplying the equipment that is rose, 2018 saw a distinct shift in policy Arabia, following an international outcry being used to bomb civilians and destroy and practice amongst those arming the over an air strike on a Yemeni school bus civilian infrastructure, but providing vital coalition. Under intense pressure from in the city of Sa’da, northern Yemen, technical and logistical assistance to the Amnesty International and other civil which killed 40 children. Royal Saudi Air Force. society organizations, journalists and parliamentarians, some states began STATES RECANT ON SUPPLIER STATES AND cutting off arms supplies. PROMISES ARMS COMPANIES The shift began at the end of 2017 UNDER FIRE when Amnesty International Greece But as the year wore on some of these led protests against the proposed states appeared to recant. Ignoring the But as the civilian casualties mount and transfer of 300,000 tank shells election promises and more footage of the catastrophic humanitarian situation from Greece to Saudi Arabia and the Patria armoured vehicles in action in worsens, the pressure on arms-supplying substantial risk that they could be used Yemen, Finland authorized licences for governments intensifies. In the UK, in Yemen. Breaking with precedent, vehicle spare parts to the UAE. Despite opposition parties have repeatedly called a parliamentary committee cancelled earlier coalition promises, Germany for an end to the arming of Saudi Arabia, the deal. In January 2018, Norway continued to approve sales of military and public opinion is overwhelmingly suspended supplies of lethal equipment equipment to Saudi Arabia. against the current policy. While a 14
The crater made by a missile from a Saudi-led coalition air strike which left six members of the same family wounded in Sana’a, Yemen, 28 April 2018. © Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images. judicial review challenging the UK as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, Italy, among others, have adopted a government’s decision to continue recovered from the rubble in the shameful business-as-usual attitude, authorizing arms supplies to Saudi aftermath of controversial air strikes. The undermining international law on arms Arabia was rejected last year, two Court UK’s BAE Systems continues to supply transfers that they helped to create and of Appeal judges granted permission and service Saudi Arabia’s formidable committed to respect. Large corporations to appeal in May 2018. In the USA, fleet of combat aircraft. Household – like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and opposition in Congress is growing, names such as Boeing, General Electric BAE Systems – are their willing partners threatening the transfer of 120,000 and Rolls-Royce supply aircraft engines in irresponsibility on an industrial scale. precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia and munitions. and the UAE. In a separate action, in Campaigners across the world must In April a coalition of NGOs in Italy keep applying pressure on governments September, there were renewed attempts and Germany filed a criminal complaint and companies. States must abide by to invoke the 1973 War Powers Act against managers of RWM Italia S.p.A., their legal obligations under the Arms to end US involvement in the Yemen (a subsidiary of the German arms Trade Treaty and stop supplying all conflict on the grounds that Congress giant Rheinmetall AG), and senior arms, munitions, military technology and never authorized it. officials of Italy’s export authorities to assistance for use in the Yemen conflict. The extrajudicial execution of Jamal the public prosecutor in Rome. The They must also use their leverage as Khashoggi, a journalist, in the Saudi complaint concerns the export of a bomb key players in the region to pressure the - manufactured by RWM in Sardinia coalition to abide by their international Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, and exported by Italy - which killed six obligations under international human has raised further concerns in the US civilians in Yemen when it was used in rights and humanitarian law. Otherwise Congress and the UK parliament about an air strike on Deir al-Hajari, a village they risk complicity in violations and the continuing arms supplies to the in the northwest, in October 2016. war crimes, committed in a conflict that Kingdom. Chancellor Angela Merkel has not only killed and maimed tens said that German arms exports would be put on hold and Switzerland vowed to SHAMEFUL BUSINESS- of thousands of civilians but displaced millions more and left the country on the suspend exports of spare parts and air AS-USUAL ATTITUDE brink of a catastrophic famine. n defence munitions. The EU parliament responded to the incident by reiterating The events in Yemen pose a stark its call on EU member states to impose challenge to all those involved. an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia. The conduct of supplier states and companies in the face of likely war As supplier states faced pressure, crimes is being subjected to ever closer arms companies also came under scrutiny and vociferous protest. Amid fire. Amnesty International and other some principled decisions on the part of organizations have documented mainly smaller states to stop supplying remnants of munitions, manufactured the coalition, the USA and the UK in by leading US arms companies such particular, but also Spain, France and 15
THE “THIRD After independence came the struggle to guarantee human rights in law and practice, often against a backdrop of STRUGGLE” FOR one-party states, brutal repression and persecution of dissenters. Today, the struggle is far from won, FREEDOM IN but the intervening decades have seen extraordinary progress. Human rights defenders’ tireless AFRICA campaigning, often at great personal risk, has led to the Universal Declaration’s founding principles - including freedom from fear and want - When the Universal Declaration being enshrined in regional human rights treaties, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as of Human Rights was adopted in the national laws of most, if not all, African countries. by the UN in 1948, much of But the struggle continues: a fierce Africa was still in its first struggle “third” struggle to make national laws and regional human rights obligations for liberation from colonial rule. and commitments worth more than just the paper they are written on. While sub-Saharan African states have become Only three African countries were adept at speaking the language of human rights, too many continued in 2018 present at the UN for the vote: to brutally repress dissent and restrict the space in which individuals and Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa. organizations can defend human rights. STATE-SPONSORED Apartheid South Africa abstained. INTIMIDATION AND Below: Activists take part in a protest demanding the police conduct more investigations into the murders and HARASSMENT kidnappings of women in Kampala, Uganda, 5 June, 2018. © Sumy Sadurni/AFP/Getty Images. Bottom: Tendai Biti of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change is surrounded by police officers as he walks past a prison vehicle. He was given bail at Harare Magistrates Court on 9 August 2018 after facing charges of In the south, critics of the Zambian public violence as well as the illegal declaration of election results. © Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images. government have been harassed and charged on spurious grounds. The most prominent example involves the ongoing trial of six activists, including rapper Fumba Chama (also known as Pilato), who were arrested in September for protesting against exorbitant levels of government spending. Mozambique imposed prohibitively high accreditation fees on journalists and media houses in July, in an attempt to clamp down on independent reporting. In March, Ericino de Salema, a journalist, was kidnapped and beaten, contributing to a growing climate of fear. The continuing persecution faced by environmental rights activists in Madagascar is illustrated by the suspended sentences against Raleva and Christopher Manenjika which were confirmed on appeal in May and June respectively. In Niger, Moussa Tchangari, Ali Idrissa, Nouhou Arzika and Lirwana Abdourahmane, prominent activists, were detained in March for organizing protests against a new finance law. Lirwana Abdourahmane remains in jail. The Sierra Leonean authorities continue to restrict peaceful demonstrations, while the killings of protesters by police go unpunished. In Togo, authorities arrested pro-democracy activists 16
including Atikpo Bob in January. Naïm Touré, an online activist in Burkina granted to the Coalition of African Lesbians, a civil society organization ORDINARY PEOPLE: Faso, was sentenced to two months in registered in South Africa. The move EXTRAORDINARY prison in July for a Facebook post. In came after immense political pressure BRAVERY Mauritania, journalists and anti-slavery from the African Union’s Executive activists were arrested ahead of the Council. The best news of all, however, is September parliamentary elections. They the ongoing extraordinary bravery include Biram Dah Abeid, who remains NOT ALL BAD NEWS displayed by ordinary people across Africa, including countless courageous in detention. FOR HUMAN RIGHTS women human rights defenders, who Elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, this DEFENDERS exemplify resilience in the face of pattern of state-sponsored intimidation repression. Women like Wanjeri Nderu, and harassment of human rights Despite the widespread challenges, who spearheads a campaign against defenders persists. For example there however, there is some good news for extrajudicial killings in Kenya; Nonhle were renewed attacks on freedom of African human rights defenders. Mbuthuma, the land rights activist expression in Uganda via a tax on in South Africa who continues to social media use, introduced in July, In a few countries, leadership change advocate on behalf of her community and several MPs were arrested after has provided the impetus for significant despite being mistreated by police participating in a protest march. improvements. In Ethiopia, thousands during a protest in September; and of people were released from detention Nigeria’s Aisha Yesufu and Obiageli In Sudan, opposition figures and in the first half of 2018, among them ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili, co-founders of the human rights defenders were arbitrarily Eskinder Nega, the renowned journalist #BringBackOurGirls movement who arrested, including 140 activists and prisoner of conscience, imprisoned were arrested in January during a sit-in detained in January and February since 2011 on trumped-up terrorism in the capital, Abuja. following sporadic protests over rising charges. The new Prime Minister, Abiy food and medicine costs. Ahmed, introduced further reforms, There is no doubt that these are difficult including lifting the ban on several times for human rights defenders in In South Sudan, civil society activists opposition parties, initiating the reform sub-Saharan Africa and, indeed, around continued to be arbitrarily detained, of repressive laws and removing arbitrary the world. Although their work remains including Bashir Ahmed Mohamed restrictions on websites and online dangerous, it is also demonstrably Babiker, a human rights defender, media groups. However, there were major effective. This year proved that Africa’s arrested in August. setbacks. Prisons filled up again when, governments do respond to public in September, police arrested more pressure. Even in an increasingly hostile Eritrea continued its policy of zero than 3,000 young people and arbitrarily atmosphere, the courage, dedication tolerance for any form of dissent or free detained over 1,000 in Addis Ababa, and selflessness of the continent’s media. In September, Berhane Abrehe, including peaceful protesters, claiming it human rights defenders are keeping former Finance Minister, became yet one was containing “rising criminality”. human rights at the front and centre more of the thousands of prisoners of of the regional agenda. In the year that conscience and other detainees after he Amidst unprecedented steps towards the Universal Declaration turns 70, it published a book calling for a peaceful tackling endemic corruption in Angola is imperative that we acknowledge their transition to democracy. after President João Lourenço succeeded victories, resilience and bravery. n the long-serving Eduardo dos Santos In the Democratic Republic of the in 2017, human rights defenders saw Congo, there was a widespread encouraging signs that they would be crackdown on peaceful protests, protected. These included the court IN SEPTEMBER, POLICE resulting in multiple deaths and injuries acquittals of Rafael Marques de Morais ARRESTED MORE THAN and the sentencing to 12 months’ 3,000 and Mariano Brás, prominent journalists, imprisonment in September of four pro- in July. However, there have been no democracy activists, all members of the steps towards investigating past human Filimbi citizens’ movement. rights abuses by security forces. YOUNG PEOPLE AND ARBITRARILY DETAINED OVER 1,000 In Cameroon, Franklin Mowha, a civil Other notable victories for human rights society leader, was subjected to a defenders included the release in April possible enforced disappearance while on of Tadjadine Mahamat Babouri, known a fact-finding mission in the south-west as Mahadine, arrested in September IN ADDIS ABABA. to document internal displacement and 2016 and tortured in prison for the denial of justice. His case illustrates posting online criticism of the Chadian the government’s brutal crackdown and government’s alleged mismanagement of its suppression of information connected public funds. Meanwhile, international with ongoing clashes between the military pressure led to the release of Ramón and armed separatist groups in the Esono Ebalé, an Equatorial Guinean Anglophone regions. cartoonist and activist, after six months in Malabo prison. The backlash against human rights, and regressive measures to restrict the In Sudan, Matar Younis, a teacher, was space in which individuals can defend released in July after spending over rights is also evident at the continental three months in prison for criticizing bodies level. The independence and the government’s inhumane practices in autonomy of the African Commission on Darfur. In Rwanda, Victoire Ingabire, a Human and Peoples’ Rights - Africa’s jailed opposition leader, was pardoned main regional human rights treaty body by the President in September. Both - suffered a severe setback in August countries, however, continue to detain when it revoked the observer status real or perceived opponents. 17
CHALLENGING REPRESSION AND BRUTALITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Human rights defenders in the Middle East and North Africa faced an array of threats from governments and armed groups in 2018, but they have also been at the centre of stories of hard-won change. Women human rights defenders have been prominent on the front lines of resistance, challenging entrenched gender discrimination and other patterns of human rights violations. Nawal Benaissa, a prominent activist, was forced to move from the northern city of Al Hoceima to a different Moroccan city after harassment from the authorities. © Abdellah Azizi/Amnesty International. In 2019 the work of human rights forced hijab (veiling) and disrupt Iranian Thirty human rights defenders and staff defenders will continue to be vital to society’s apparent acquiescence in this of civil society organizations are under stemming crackdowns by governments abusive and degrading practice. travel bans; 10 of them have had their across the region and pressing for assets frozen. accountability for abuses. The authorities’ violent crackdown forms part of a wider wave of repression against ATTEMPTS TO SILENCE WOMEN AT THE human rights defenders. Dozens of PROTESTERS women have been beaten and arbitrarily FOREFRONT OF detained and, in some cases, prosecuted CHALLENGING and imprisoned for their peaceful Human rights defenders in the region have acted as a vital check on REPRESSION campaigning. One of them, Roya Saghiri, government excesses, exposing abuses began serving a 23-month prison sentence On 24 June, Saudi Arabia finally lifted its in August for “disturbing public order”. by the security forces in the Maghreb, ban on women driving, just one of a range challenging half a century of Israeli of discriminatory policies against women in Their lawyers and supporters have also military occupation of Palestinian territory the Kingdom. Long overdue, the step was a been harassed. For example, Nasrin and speaking truth to power in the Gulf. testament to the bravery of women human Sotoudeh, an award-winning human rights lawyer, was arrested in June and charged Nawal Benaissa, one of the leading voices rights defenders who, for decades, drew with serious national security offences. of Hirak, a popular movement, spoke out international media attention to the ban. for social justice and better health care in It was bitterly ironic then that the In Egypt, human rights defenders also felt the Rif region of Morocco. Like hundreds authorities subjected some of those who the full force of a government intent on of other peaceful protesters, she has been campaigned for the change to arbitrary crushing challenges to its legitimacy. While arrested and held in custody. In February, detention and smear campaigns. Loujain moments of victory, like the releases of she received a 10-month suspended al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan and Aziza woman human rights defender Mahienour sentence and a fine for “inciting to al-Yousef are among a group of activists el-Massry in January and human rights commit an offence”. held without charge since their arrest in lawyer Haytham Mohamdeen in October, May, a month before the ban was lifted, punctured the climate of repression, too In an attempt to silence criticism of and sinisterly accused of being “traitors”. many others remain behind bars on ludicrous the security forces’ handling of the terrorism or security-related charges. Hirak protests, the authorities also went Their plight reflects that of human rights after those defending the protesters. In defenders more generally in the country, Amal Fathy was sentenced to two years’ February, Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui, nearly all of whom have been sentenced imprisonment in September for posting a human rights lawyer, was sentenced to lengthy prison terms, placed under a video on Facebook condemning sexual to 20 months in prison and fined for his travel bans or forced to leave the country. harassment and the government’s failure online posts. to address it. Ezzat Ghoniem, co-founder Women’s rights activists in Iran have and director of the Egyptian Coordination The Israeli authorities have long displayed also been courageously protesting for Rights and Freedoms, and Azzoz brutality against those protesting its military against an entrenched manifestation of Mahgoub, a human rights lawyer in occupation of Palestinian territory and a broader set of discriminatory practices the same organization, remain in its blockade of the Gaza Strip, a pattern against women. Dozens removed their incommunicado detention despite a court manifested in its lethal response to the headscarves in public to challenge order to release them on 4 September. Great March of Return, in which the army 18
You can also read