Human Rights Watch News

Chad: No Justice for Post Election Celebratory Shooting

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 22:00:00 -0500

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A resident of the Ridina district in N'Djamena shows the fragments of a projectile, that fell into a house on May 9, 2024, in N'Djamena following the announcement of the provisional results of the Chad presidential elections.

© 2024 JORIS BOLOMEY/AFP via Getty Images Victims and survivors of celebratory shootings by Chad’s security forces, that killed at least 11 people on May 9, 2024, are still awaiting justice six months later.In response to an announcement that the then-transitional president had won the presidential election, his loyal forces opened fire over cities and towns in what some described as threatening rather than celebratory.The government should urgently investigate the events of May 9 and prosecute those found responsible, and the victims should be fully supported medically and financially by the government.

(Nairobi) –Victims and survivors of celebratory shootings by Chad’s security forces, which killed at least 11 people on May 9, 2024, are still awaiting justice six months later, Human Rights Watch and the Observatory for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Observatoire pour la promotion et la défense des droits humains, OPDH) said today.

Several hundred more were injured as security forces shot into the air to celebrate an announcement that the then-transitional president, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby, was the provisional winner of the presidential election. Chadian authorities should take swift action to hold those responsible accountable and to ensure that victims are compensated.

“The transition in Chad came to a tragic end on May 9, when forces from the police and army loyal to the then-transitional president opened fire over cities and towns, terrifying the population, killing innocent people, and maiming hundreds,” said Mahamat Zene Oumar Abdelaziz, the president of the OPDH. “The government of Chad should urgently open an investigation to identify which units participated in the shooting and ensure redress for the injured.”

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Remnants of a projectile that fell on a house in the Ridina district of N'Djamena on May 9, 2024, following the announcement of the provisional results of the Chad presidential elections.

The shootings began around 9 p.m. after the National Election Management Agency (Agence nationale de gestion des élections), citing provisional results, announced that Déby had won the May 6 election. His main challenger, then-Prime Minister Succès Masra, declared himself the winner in a separate announcement on social media.

Human Rights Watch and OPDH interviewed 27 witnesses and survivors between July 29 and August 7, including people injured by stray bullets and family members of those killed. The organizations also interviewed government officials and Chadian civil society activists.

Those injured by the gunfire spoke of terror over cities and towns across Chad after the provisional results were announced over the radio and security services began shooting in celebration. One woman, from the Gassi neighborhood in N’Djamena, the capital, said: “We were listening to the news over the radio at a friend’s house. All of a sudden, there was shooting coming from everywhere.” Bullets from the shooting in N’Djamena injured at least three people, including two children, in Kousseri, Cameroon.

Another person who was injured in Moundou, a town in southern Chad, said : “The soldiers were on every street, at every crossroads and intersection. They were shooting about 500 meters away from me and they were shooting in the air and in any direction they wanted.”

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Remnants of a projectile that fell on a house in Moundou, southern Chad, on May 9, 2024, following the announcement of the provisional results of the Chad presidential elections.

While celebratory gunfire in Chad is common after marriages or other significant events, the shooting on May 9 was different, with large caliber weapons and rockets fired into the air. A civil society activist told Human Rights Watch: “The shooting was not to celebrate but to intimidate. It was a warning for us to not dare to protest, like we had in 2022.”

The organizations spoke with two people whose homes were hit by rockets and visited one of the homes in N’Djamena. People in both homes showed the organizations photos of the rockets that hit their homes. Dozens of witnesses said that the military were firing their weapons, something which the organizations also saw in videos they reviewed, including one posted on May 9, that shows soldiers wearing Chadian military uniforms firing an autocannon mounted in the bed of a truck. While Human Rights Watch was not able to geolocate this video, it was shot in N’Djamena, and they were able to confirm it did not exist before May 9.

The organizations confirmed six cases of killings in N’Djamena and heard reliable accounts of several others who were killed. A government official said at least 11 people were killed and that it could have been more. The mother of a 2-year-old girl, Safia Imam, who was killed in N’Djamena’s Naga neighborhood, said: “We were laying down a mat in the house. I was with my husband, and we had our two kids with us. There was noise all around and suddenly Safia was hit. The bullet came through the house … I lost my daughter. I am still in shock.”

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A photo of 2-year-old Safia who was hit by a stray bullet while in her home in the Naga neighborhood of N’Djamena on May 9, 2024 following the announcement of the provisional results of the Chad presidential elections.

In the hours and days that followed the shooting, hundreds of people across Chad sought hospital care. Dozens of injured said that the health minister had announced over the radio that medical fees would be waived for anyone injured by the celebratory shooting. However, at least 14 people said that they had to pay some or all of their medical bills, in some instances straining an already difficult financial situation. Some still owe hundreds of dollars in medical fees. The government should promptly and adequately reimburse those who paid for medical services and subsequent treatment, the organizations said.

On August 5, Human Rights Watch met with the defense minister, who said that civilians fired the shots and that people, including soldiers, had a right to celebrate. On August 6, the justice minister told Human Rights Watch: “No cases or civil cases have been filed, so what can we do? We don’t know about people killed or injured. The first thing would be for the victims to make a case and then we would investigate. But who would the prosecutor file a complaint against?”

Chadian security forces need to be held fully accountable for these serious violations of the rights to life, bodily integrity, and security of Chadians, among other rights, the organizations said. There was absolutely no justification for the use of weapons that occurred on May 9, and international legal norms are clear on the rules for law enforcement using lethal force, whether military or police, and the obligation to ensure an effective investigation and appropriate punishment for violations and remedy including compensation for victims.

On October 4, Human Rights Watch wrote to the justice and health ministers to share research findings, and seek clarification on the number of people killed or injured and on government actions to support the victims. The same day, Human Rights Watch also sent a separate correspondence to the justice minister asking if an investigation would be opened. Several other officials were copied. There has been no official response to either letter at time of publication.

The Chadian authorities should open an investigation into those responsible for the May 9 killings and provide compensation to victims. The authorities should also ensure that all security forces receive adequate training, appropriate equipment, and oversight, the organizations said. The Chadian government should seek international support to ensure that its security forces abide by regional and international standards on the use of firearms.

“The government should urgently investigate the events of May 9 and prosecute those found to be responsible,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Out of respect for the victims, the truth should be revealed and those injured who are still suffering the consequences should be fully supported medically and financially by the government.”

For more reporting on the May 9, 2024, shootings, please see below.

Ahead of the Shootings

The period before Chad’s May 6 presidential elections was marred by violence. On February 28, security forces killed Yaya Dillo, the president of the Socialist Party Without Borders (Parti socialiste sans frontières), during an attack on the party’s headquarters in N’Djamena. The state prosecutor, Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye, said at a news conference that Dillo was killed during an exchange of gunfire with security forces.

However, Human Rights Watch reviewed several photos sent by a reliable source close to Dillo, showing him dead with a single bullet wound to his head and a Reuters investigation concluded that he was most likely shot at point blank range.

The presidential elections result was contested by Succès Masra, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby’s main opponent. Déby was sworn in on May 23, ending the transition that started in 2021 after his father, then-President Idriss Déby Itno, died fighting against an armed group.

May 9 Shootings

In the hours before the provisional results were announced, soldiers and police were deployed in key positions across the country. A resident of Moundou, southern Chad, said: “The soldiers were on every street, at every crossroads.” A civil society leader in N’Djamena said: “The military started to take their positions around 3 p.m., with their weapons in place. They were at all the major roads, bridges, and crossroads.”

The provisional election results were announced around 9 p.m. over the radio. While many witnesses and victims said that they anticipated shooting, they said this was different from what happened after previous election results’ announcements. Witnesses said the shooting was “intense” and that it “seemed to come from everywhere.” One victim said: “Once it started it was not celebratory shooting but shooting to terrorize.”

Several people died or were injured after being struck. Some bullets landed harmlessly or lodged in roofs or other properties across N’Djamena. However, in neighborhoods with high population densities, bullets hit human beings, often piercing the roof of a home or structure.

The injured described a deep sense of injustice that they were shot in such a senseless and arbitrary fashion. “I was just at my home and was shot by a bullet,” one woman who was injured said. “I had not done anything. I am lucky that I was only injured. It could have been worse, but when the bullets are falling like that how can you protect yourself?”

The husband of 32-year-old Khadidja Douba, who was killed in N’Djamena’s Senegalese neighborhood, said:

My wife was hit with shrapnel in the head and neck. We were all sitting in the living room and a rocket hit the house. We don’t know where the rocket came from, but the shooting was all over and close by to the house. The authorities gave me 950,000 CFA francs (about US$1,550) for the loss, but since then nothing. They asked us our ethnic group and gave us the money, but they did not say they were sorry. The kids ask every day for their mother, even I am traumatized by what happened.

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A photo of Khadidja Douba who was killed by shrapnel from a projectile that fell on her house in the Ridina district of N'Djamena on May 9, 2024, following the announcement of the provisional results of the Chad presidential elections.

A Human Rights Watch researcher visited the man’s home and documented the damage caused by the rocket-propelled grenade.

A witness who was sitting next to a woman named Mantchoko, who was also killed in N’Djamena’s Senegalese neighborhood, said:

I was just outside the house listening to shots when she was shot in the chest just over 10 feet in front of me. Mantchoko was just laying down and talking to her sister on the phone. She died here on the spot, but we later brought her to the hospital. She was buried two days later.

The father of a 3-year-old boy said that his son was killed in the Klemat neighborhood in N’Djamena while asleep outside with his mother and siblings under a mosquito net:

I was washing myself when I was told to come quickly so I ran over. There was a bullet in his back. There was no roof there, so the bullet just hit him. He was hit in the back with two bullets. He was already vomiting blood when I ran up to him. We brought him to the hospital and they said there was no bullet inside him, so we were sent home at midnight with the child. The next day around 9 a.m. we gave him milk, but he wouldn’t take it. He got really hot, so we took him back to the hospital where they gave him oxygen. They said they wanted to do a scan. He stayed in bed and on oxygen until he died. We buried him the same day.

The organizations saw x-rays from six people who had bullets lodged in their bodies. Three of the people had not yet had the bullets removed at the time of interview in August.

Image Gallery: Chad celebratory shooting x-rays Load Image Gallery

One woman from N’Djamena’s Gassi neighborhood said:

At first a bullet fell right next to me and I thought, ‘What was that?’ Then I was hit. There was so much shooting, it was coming from everywhere. I screamed, ‘I’ve been shot!’ but I had to stay at home because it was too dangerous to go outside. I bled out for an hour. The next day I went to the central hospital.

A 15-year-old girl from Bebedjia, a town in Logone Oriental province, said:

I went into my room because of the shooting. After a few minutes a bullet came through the roof and hit me on the head. It was bleeding a lot … The bullet is still in my head and the doctors say we have to wait. It makes me very scared.

The mother of a 4-year-old boy from Blabline neighborhood in N’Djamena said that she and her son were asleep in a bed when the shooting started. She said that around 10 p.m. she noticed blood on the bed and realized that her son had been struck by a bullet:

When we saw the blood we took him to the hospital, it was around 10:45 p.m. when we arrived. They made us pay 7,000 CFA (about $12) for the x-ray and told us to go home. We had to go back to the hospital four times and had to pay each time. The family is in shock that this could happen. We were scared that he would die … The child won’t sleep in the same room where he was shot. He is traumatized.

The mother of a 13-year-old girl shot in Morsal neighborhood in N’Djamena said that she thought the sounds of bullets piercing her roof were small stones:

I was outside when we heard the noises, but we thought it was a kid just causing trouble. But then [my daughter] screamed. She had been shot in the hip. We got a pharmacist to come to the house because it was bleeding so much, but we could not risk going to the hospital until after midnight because the shooting was too bad.

An 18-year-old woman from Mongo, in eastern Chad, said she was nine months pregnant when she was struck by a bullet while trying to sleep. The bullet when through her roof and struck her in the right lower leg.

Medical Costs

Authorities around Chad unofficially compensated some family members of victims who had been killed. Family members who received compensation said that men in civilian clothes came to their homes and gave them money for “their sacrifice.” The sum for most families was 1,000,000 Central African Francs (CFA), or about US$1,600.

“The life of my son was worth more than 1,000,000 CFA,” the mother of one victim said.

The mother of a 12-month-old baby from Angabo Chateau neighborhood, north of N’Djamena, said: “Even a large sack of money could not make up for the life of my son. I want accountability for my son’s death.”

At least five families received money, however, at least one family did not receive any money.

Those injured from the celebratory gunfire, including those who still have bullets in their bodies, said that they were disappointed by the lack of medical support from the authorities. They said that the health minister announced on several occasions that medical bills were to be waived.

In some instances, those injured have paid a minimal amount for medical services. However, 14 people said they have spent between 5,000 CFA (about $8) and 400,000 CFA (about $660) on treatment. A 25-year-old student who was struck by a bullet outside his home in N’Djamena’s Rue de 30 Mètres neighborhood said:

I had to have surgery to get the bullet out of my arm. I paid for everything, for the X-ray and for the medicine. I paid at least 100,000 CFA (about $165). When I asked at the hospital I was told, “No, you have to pay for the anesthetic, the bandages, everything.”

A 36-year-old woman from the Gassi neighborhood in N’Djamena said she had to return to the hospital after few days because the injury to her side caused by a bullet was too intense:

I asked for some medicine because I was still in pain. A hospital administrator said, ‘No, it is not true that the care is free, you have to pay. We’re not giving you free treatment and you don’t even have a bullet in you anymore, so you don’t need anything. It was removed so you are fine.’ When I said that I was buying medicine, I was told, ‘That’s not my business’ by the administrator so I had to pay myself.

In some cases, those injured are forgoing care to raise enough money to pay for anticipated medical expenses. A 45-year-old woman from N’Djamena, who still has a bullet in her arm, said: “First I need to raise the money for a blood test, then I will have to pay for a surgery.”In some cases, those injured are forgoing care to raise enough money to pay for anticipated medical expenses. A 45-year-old woman from N’Djamena, who still has a bullet in her arm, said: “First I need to raise the money for a blood test, then I will have to pay for a surgery.”

A Cover Up

Efforts to cover up the serious and fatal violations that occurred on May 9 began early on. On May 10, the health ministry issued a communiqué forbidding anyone from publishing statistics relative to the number of people killed or injured during the May 9 shootings. The communiqué also forbade anyone from entering hospitals to ask questions about the shootings or take photos.

In contrast to the response to the May 9 shootings, in response to a June 18 explosion at a military munitions depot in N’Djamena, the Ministry of Social Action, Solidarity, and Humanitarian Affairs issued an in-depth report outlining the number of dead and injured and the location of households that had been affected. Yet, in the final line of the report, the government calls for assistance to those affected by “the explosion … and the celebratory shooting.”

International Standards on Lethal Force

Chad is a party to a number of international human rights treaties including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Its international legal obligations deriving from those treaties and other sources include respect for the rights to life, bodily integrity, to liberty and security of the person, inviolability of the home, and the right to a remedy, among other rights.

Upholding those obligations requires it to implement laws to prevent and deter unlawful use of weapons including by its military and police, and to ensure those deployed for law enforcement, whether drawn from military or police units, are fully trained in and comply with standards on the use of firearms as set out in the United Nations’ Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

These standards prohibit the use of firearms unless necessary for self-defense or the defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, when less extreme means are insufficient. When individuals are killed or injured, or property damaged, by law enforcement’s use of firearms, Chad has an obligation to conduct an effective investigation, meaning prompt, independent, public, and capable of identifying wrongdoing and those responsible. It also has an obligation to provide victims with an effective remedy including adequate compensation; and to take steps to prevent reoccurrence including punishing those responsible and implementing other appropriate measures such as improving applicable regulations and providing oversight or training.

UN Report Portrays Afghanistan’s Destroyed Media

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 07:06:20 -0500

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The Taliban flag flies over a National Radio Television of Takhar (RTA) building in Talogan, Afghanistan, on October 15, 2024.

Today’s United Nations report on the state of Afghanistan’s media is devastating.

Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, they have largely destroyed Afghanistan’s media landscape, creating such a climate of fear that Afghan journalists cannot genuinely investigate or report. The Taliban have detained and tortured journalists, severely limited what the media can report, and worked directly in newsrooms to suppress any critical content.

The report, produced by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), documents numerous occasions in which journalists were detained for either trying to report on events or for publishing or airing reports that included criticism of Taliban policies. For example, in August 2023, the Taliban’s intelligence agency arrested at least seven journalists across the country for allegedly providing information to “diaspora media” abroad. The UN documented 256 instances of arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists and media workers since the Taliban takeover.

Additionally, Afghanistan’s media are also required to seek approval from the authorities prior to publishing a report and are subjected to other forms of censorship. Media cannot publish on topics that could “have a negative impact on public opinion or could weaken people’s morale.”

The Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index lists Afghanistan as one of the worst countries in the world for press freedom and journalist safety. The 2024 index ranks Afghanistan near the very bottom, 178 out of a total 180 countries, with only Syria and Eritrea coming in lower. This represents a significant drop from Afghanistan’s ranking of 118 in 2018.

Before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had over 500 media outlets. By November 2021, almost half of those were gone, due to a loss of donor funding, tightening Taliban restrictions, and the flight of many journalists abroad.

Today, men and women must work in segregated workspaces. The report finds that radio stations managed and staffed by women continue to operate, but women are forbidden from calling into radio programs, and in some provinces women’s voices cannot be broadcast. Women journalists are often either not invited or not allowed to attend press conferences, and officials often refuse to be interviewed by women.

The UN report demonstrates the importance of monitoring the conditions for Afghanistan’s media and supporting Afghan journalists, both in-country and abroad, so they can continue their vital work.

EU Should Reaffirm Support for ICC Arrests

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500

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European Union flags wave in the wind as pedestrians walk by EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.

After the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli leaders and a Hamas official on November 21, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell immediately made clear that ICC “decisions are binding on all States party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU Member States.” His response is a reminder of the EU and its member states’ firm policy of supporting the ICC, especially when it comes to enforcing arrest warrants.

Over the years, the EU and its member states have developed several policies and practices building on their obligations to the court to support arrests before the ICC. This includes EU governments affirming their obligation as ICC members to carry out ICC arrests within their borders and supporting other ICC member countries to uphold their obligations.

Despite this, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is subject to one of the warrants, to visit Hungary and said he will not enforce the arrest warrant. Some other EU countries have not explicitly committed to enforcing the warrant, despite confirming their support for the ICC. This deepens perceptions of double standards in support of justice before the ICC.

To ensure EU member countries stand firm for justice across all the ICC’s cases, we outline the EU’s obligations and policies as they relate to arrest strategies in a new briefing paper. Firm state support can yield progress. Russian President Vladimir Putin, wanted by the ICC on allegations of serious crimes in Ukraine, recently stayed away from the G-20 summit in Brazil, an ICC member. But challenges for ICC arrests will likely remain. While Putin did not go to Brazil, he did visit Mongolia, also an ICC country, without facing arrest. This was rightfully challenged by the EU and before the court’s judges.

Each of the court’s pending warrants poses specific challenges, and failure to execute them breeds a climate of impunity. Recent attempts to undermine the ICC, including by Israel and Russia, and threats of sanctions by US lawmakers risk undoing investments by the EU and its member states in the court.

Ensuring the ICC has the ability to implement arrest warrants will require defending the court against external pressure and coercive measures. That means that right now EU support for arrests should include preparedness to adopt measures to protect the court from possible US sanctions.

The stakes are high, but when the EU takes a prominent role in supporting the court in partnership with justice-supporting governments globally, it can positively impact even the most difficult circumstances.

Sri Lanka: New President Should Reset Course on Rights

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 20:00:00 -0500

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Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (right) and Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya during the swearing-in of the new cabinet members on November 18, 2024, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(New York) – Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, should address the country’s many human rights problems by fulfilling and building upon pledges he made in recent election campaigns, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the president on November 18, 2024. Dissanayake was elected president on September 21, and on November 14 his National People’s Power coalition won a majority of parliamentary seats.

In his election manifesto, Dissanayake pledged to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, remove abusive provisions of the Online Safety Act, establish an independent Directorate of Public Prosecutions separate from the attorney general’s office, aggressively combat corruption, and revise economic policies to promote equity. However, while his government has announced renewed investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and other emblematic crimes, it should also reverse the failures of previous administrations to address severe human rights violations committed during the 1983-2009 civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

“President Dissanayake faces a daunting list of human rights problems, including enduring discrimination against minority communities, which has long divided the country,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “To live up to its commitments for reform, the new administration should prioritize addressing the entrenched impunity surrounding decades of grave violations, corruption and financial mismanagement, and abusive security force practices severely restricting the rights of Tamils and Muslims.”

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has had a disastrous impact on millions of people, eroding public services essential to their rights and placing the burden of efforts to quickly raise revenues on those least able to cope. In March 2023, then-President Ranil Wickremesinghe negotiated a US$3 billion bailout with the International Monetary Fund focused on raising government revenues while tackling corruption and improving social protection. However, it shifted the burden of recovery principally onto people with low incomes, while social protection provision is inadequate and new anticorruption legislation has not yet been widely applied.

The Dissanayake government has pledged to implement more progressive tax policies; increase government provision to uphold Sri Lankans’ economic and social rights, such as to health care, education, and social security; and clamp down on corruption.

Previous governments have pledged to end human rights violations and address past crimes, but they have failed to act, instead pursuing repressive policies while shielding those responsible for past violations and denying justice to victims. Successive administrations have harassed and intimidated thousands of families of victims of enforced disappearance, while human rights defenders and journalists have been subject to intrusive government surveillance, threats, and restrictions.

President Dissanayake should act on the evidence on enforced disappearances collected by previous commissions of inquiry, reform or replace the Office of Missing Persons, and ensure instead a body that has the trust of victims’ families and the technical capacity to identify remains discovered in mass graves, Human Rights Watch said.

The new government should also immediately impose a full moratorium on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and release remaining prisoners who were convicted on the basis of confessions obtained under torture. It should ensure fair and thorough investigations of grave crimes, including the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, as well as emblematic cases that were partially investigated between 2015-19 before those investigations were dropped under then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

To put an end to the repression of civil society groups, the Dissanayake administration should place the National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organizations under a ministry responsible for supporting social welfare activities, instead of treating independent groups as security risks. It should also direct the police, military, and intelligence agencies to end the intimidation and arbitrary surveillance of human rights defenders and civil society activists.

To protect minority rights, the new government should direct state agencies to end the practice of encroaching upon or denying access to minority religious sites, such as Hindu temples, Human Rights Watch said. It should also adopt reforms to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act approved by a previous cabinet in 2021. It should repeal laws that are used to criminalize same-sex relationships and to target transgender people, and back a longstanding demand by the women’s rights movement to legalize abortion in the country.

“President Dissanayake and his new government have an opportunity to deliver long-sought-after reforms to governance,” Ganguly said. “Dissanayake should follow through and build upon his rights commitments to set a new course for human rights in Sri Lanka.”

This #16Days, Remember Afghan Women and Girls

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:55:04 -0500

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An Afghan woman weaves a carpet at a factory on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, November 11, 2024.

The plight of Afghan women and girls under Taliban rule continues to demand the world’s attention. The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, observed from November 25 to December 10 and using the hashtag #16Days, is a crucial moment to unite.

The violence women and girls in Afghanistan face is structural and systematic. Girls are barred from education beyond grade six, constraining their future solely because of their gender. This has lifelong consequences for them and their country.

Metra Mehran, an Afghan activist campaigning for the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, recently wrote: “How many fronts must we fight on? The Taliban? The political manoeuvring of UNSC [United Nations Security Council]? All-male, closed-door meetings of special envoys? Time for the women of Afghanistan, especially protesters leading civil resistance to be present in the room and make decision when we bear the consequences.”

Mehran’s words deeply resonated with me, as she highlighted the multifaceted violence Afghan women endure, from domestic abuse to societal oppression, structural violence by the Taliban, and even marginalization by those who should be allies, such as the United Nations and others in the international community. Mehran was referring to the UN’s exclusion of Afghan women from the June 2024 Doha 3 meeting, which for her exemplified betrayal by those obligated to uphold human rights. Denying half Afghanistan’s population representation erases their voice and agency; their very existence.

Over the past three years, the Taliban have systematically erased women from public life and doubled down on the patriarchal systems that already existed in Afghanistan. They have banned women’s voices outside the home and asserted that only men can make decisions about women’s lives, voice, body, and movement.

Furthermore, the Taliban compels men to enforce these orders. For example, when women protest Taliban rules or disregard Taliban-mandated dress codes, male relatives face punitive consequences. Men are pressured to enforce Taliban orders on “their” women. Even taxi drivers are prohibited from transporting unaccompanied women beyond a set distance. The imposition of male family members as mahrams (chaperones) further curtails women’s freedom of movement, deepening their dependence and isolation.

Despite these crushing abuses, Afghan women and girls are still fighting for their freedom. The Taliban should immediately end their attacks on Afghan women and girls. The UN and concerned governments should hold the Taliban to account for their crimes and prioritize Afghan women participation in all international discussions on Afghanistan’s future.

Lack of Progress at COP29 Puts Rights at Risk

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:43:44 -0500

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The COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, November 9, 2024.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), which wrapped up last weekend, failed to make sufficient progress to maintain global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. COP29 ended with a global climate finance target that developing countries said was inadequate to enable them to tackle climate change.

One of the final texts of the conference did not clearly mention the need to transition away from fossil fuels, as previously agreed upon last year in COP28’s key outcome document. No further progress was made on this crucial topic at COP29.

Frontline communities have long borne the brunt of the impacts of fossil fuel production and it is a human rights imperative to phase out all fossil fuels. Host Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, stated during his opening remarks at the conference that fossil fuels were a “gift of God,” suggesting that fossil fuel-rich countries are entitled to expand production.

COP29 also adopted new carbon market rules intending to allow countries to meet their Paris Agreement commitments through carbon offsetting projects. But the decision ignores a long history of such projects which have violated the land rights of rural communities and vastly overstated their climate benefits.

Azerbaijan’s crackdown on dissent limited meaningful participation of civil society during COP29. In the lead up to the conference, authorities arrested dozens of journalists, human rights defenders, and other government critics on spurious charges. Climate activists were unable to march outside of the official conference venue, as protests are restricted in Azerbaijan, and were instead asked to gather inside a conference room within the UN-run “blue zone.” Chanting wasn’t allowed, so protesters hummed instead. Some participants I spoke to, including human rights defenders, activists, and journalists, acknowledged they censored themselves and avoided publicly criticizing the Azerbaijani government over fears of retaliation.

Such restrictions are unacceptable. Meaningful civil society participation and the respect for basic rights and freedoms should be protected in climate negotiations, as they are essential for ensuring just and ambitious government actions to tackle the climate crisis.

Governments should urgently step up efforts to confront the climate crisis by submitting national emissions reduction targets by 2025 that are consistent with Paris Agreement goals. They should also deliver concrete plans to transition away from coal, oil, and gas within a clear timeline.

UN: Russia Vetoes Sudan Resolution Despite Global Support

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 11:56:56 -0500

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Displaced people gather to receive free breakfast meals at a neighborhood in Omdurman city, Sudan, August 1, 2024.

Tomorrow Russia is scheduled to go before the United Nations General Assembly to explain why it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Sudan last week, at a time when civilians are facing an onslaught of unlawful attacks and a man-made famine spreads across the country.

The resolution, co-sponsored by the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone, sought to build on an October report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the protection of civilians in Sudan and a June Security Council resolution.

In the days running up to the vote, the text had been watered down to ensure consensus. Its primary request was for the secretary-general to develop an implementation mechanism to ensure compliance with the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan, a commitment both Sudan’s warring parties made last year to respect their obligations according to international humanitarian law. Both parties have since brazenly violated the terms of this declaration.

Russia gave the flimsy justification that its veto was intended to help “our African brothers.” Such arguments are hard to take seriously when all three African council members, Algeria, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone, voted in favor of the draft resolution.

The veto came as Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked civilians in Sudan’s breadbasket of Al Gezira state, killing hundreds, raping women and girls, and forcing over 340,000 to flee. The RSF also continues to besiege North Darfur’s capital El Fasher, as heavy fighting between the RSF against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), joint Darfuri forces and their allies continue to endanger civilians, in defiance of the June UN Security Council resolution.

The SAF and the RSF are both willfully blocking access to aid, including to famine-stricken communities. Many soup kitchens across the country, a lifeline for many civilians, are struggling to feed people faced with limited funding, ongoing harassment and attacks by parties.

Most members of the Security Council have acknowledged the gravity of the situation and the need for urgent action. This resolution has been a long time coming and now is not the time to give up.

During the debate in the General Assembly tomorrow, states from across the world should urge council members, including the United States which holds the Council presidency in December, to go back to the drawing board and devise a plan for robust civilian protection that includes the deployment of a mission for the protection of civilians. The actions of Sudan’s warring parties make clear why this is essential: without a physical protection presence, large numbers of civilians will continue be killed, raped, and starved while the world watches on in horror.

Confronting South Africa’s Crisis of Gender-Based Violence

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 09:41:20 -0500

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Protesters march against gender-based violence in front of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, South Africa, September 13, 2019.

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains shockingly pervasive across South Africa, according to a new report. Despite the country’s robust legal framework and policies aimed at tackling GBV, the practice is deeply rooted in societal norms and incidents continue to escalate at an alarming rate.

On November 18, South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council released its first national study on GBV prevalence in the country. The study highlights, among other things, societal attitudes towards gender power dynamics; the prevalence and patterns of GBV experiences among women and the perpetration of violence by men; and presents data underscoring the GBV crisis.

According to the researchers, “the data reveals deeply ingrained gender norms and power dynamics, with strong cultural reinforcement of traditional gender roles and a troubling acceptance of male aggression and dominance.”

The study surveyed a sample of households in 1,000 communities across South Africa’s nine provinces. About 10,000 people, men and women, participated in the survey. Of the women surveyed, more than 1 in 3, 36 percent, said they experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, while 24 percent reported experiencing violence by an intimate partner.

The study also uncovered disturbing opinions held by men regarding gender roles. Nearly 70 percent said a wife should obey her husband, and 15 percent felt a husband had the right to “punish” his wife for wrongdoings. Almost 23 percent believed a wife may not refuse to have sex with her husband. Nearly 10 percent held the false idea that women are often to blame if they were raped, and 12 percent wrongly believe if a woman does not physically resist it is not rape.

Furthermore, the study highlighted the longstanding issue of violence against women with disabilities, which previously lacked much data. According to responses, 31 percent of women with disabilities have experienced sexual or physical violence in their lifetime.

While often perpetrated behind closed doors GBV is not a private matter, but a serious public crime that denies women and girls the most fundamental of human rights including the rights to be free from violence, discrimination, and to physical integrity. Failure to take effective steps to deter and punish it, is a human rights violation.

The South African government needs to increase its efforts to combat all forms of GBV. This should include implementing the report’s recommendations for holistic approaches to individual, interpersonal, community, and societal-level interventions, and strengthening availability of and access to psychosocial services for GBV survivors. The government should also promptly establish a coordinating body to address GBV as required under the 2024 National Council on GBV and Femicide Act, and ensure full implementation of the 2020 National Strategic Plan on GBV and Femicide.

South African women cannot afford to wait any longer for the comprehensive changes needed to end the country’s shocking rates of gender-based violence.

Lebanon: US Arms Used in Israeli Strike on Journalists

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:30:00 -0500

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Two destroyed vehicles and a demolished building where three journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike at the Hasbaya Village Resort, in sourthern Lebanon on October 25, 2024.

(Beirut, November 25, 2024) – An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on October 25, 2024, that killed three journalists and injured four others was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch determined that Israeli forces carried out the attack using an air-dropped bomb equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit. The US government should suspend weapons transfers to Israel because of the military’s repeated, unlawful attacks on civilians, for which US officials may be complicit in war crimes.

“Israel’s use of US arms to unlawfully attack and kill journalists away from any military target is a terrible mark on the United States as well as Israel,” said Richard Weir, senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli military’s previous deadly attacks on journalists without any consequences give little hope for accountability in this or future violations against the media.”

The attack took place in the early morning at the Hasbaya Village Club Resort in Hasbaya, a town in southern Lebanon, where more than a dozen journalists had been staying for over three weeks. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of fighting, military forces, or military activity in the immediate area at the time of the attack. Information Human Rights Watch reviewed indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building. After initially stating that its forces struck a building where “terrorists were operating,” the Israeli military said hours later that “the incident is under review.”

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A remnant from the site of the October 25, 2024 attack on Hasbaya Village Resort in southern Lebanon that is consistent with the “strake” (a metal cage with protruding ridges to improve aerodynamics) of a 500-lb class general purpose bomb equipped with a JDAM.

Human Rights Watch interviewed eight people who were staying at or near the resort, including three injured journalists and the resort’s owner. Human Rights Watch also visited the site on November 1 and verified 6 videos and 22 photos of the attack and its aftermath, plus satellite images. There has been no response to letters sent to the Israeli military on November 14 with findings and questions and to the Lebanese military on November 5 with questions.

The attack on the building in which the journalists were staying took place just after 3 a.m., based on interviews and CCTV footage with the same time code. Most of the journalists were sleeping. Zakaria Fadel, 25, an assistant cameraman for Lebanon-based ISOL for Broadcast, a Lebanese satellite and broadcast services provider, said he was brushing his teeth when the blast threw him into the air.

A munition struck the single-story building and detonated upon hitting the floor. The blast killed Ghassan Najjar, a journalist and cameraman, and Mohammad Reda, a satellite broadcast engineer, both from Al Mayadeen TV, and Wissam Kassem, a cameraman from the Hezbollah-owned outlet Al Manar TV. Al Mayadeen is a Lebanon-based pan-Arab television station politically allied with Hezbollah and the Syrian government.

Human Rights Watch verified videos taken minutes after the attack which show the targeted building completely destroyed and nearby buildings damaged. The strike collapsed a wall in the adjacent building, seriously injuring Hassan Hoteit, 48, a cameraman for ISOL for Broadcast, and substantially damaged the wall of a small building about 10 meters away, injuring other journalists, including Ali Mortada, 46, a camera operator for Al Jazeera.

Mortada said he woke to the blast and pieces of concrete falling on him, injuring his face and his right arm. When the debris stopped falling, he went to see if his colleagues were okay. He and others found Hoteit injured, and the building struck destroyed. Mortada said he saw the bodies of Kassem and Najjar nearby. They found Reda’s remains further away.

Soon after, the resort’s concierge approached them, saying he had found two human legs in one bedroom. Ehab el-Okdy, a reporter for Al Jazeera who was staying at the resort, said that he also saw the bodies and body parts of the dead reporters. “We saw the bodies,” he said. “We saw Mohammad Reda was shattered all over the place.”

Anoir Ghaida, the resort’s owner, said the journalists had arrived on October 1, following an evacuation order from the Israeli military for an area south of Hasbaya. The journalists had been reporting from Ibl al-Saqi, an area included in the evacuation order.

The journalists said that from October 1 until the day of the attack, they made routine and repeated trips, reporting from the Hasbaya area, frequently doing live television reports from a hilltop that overlooked large parts of southern Lebanon. The journalists and Ghaida said they would leave the resort in the morning and return in the evening, about the same time each day. Most of the vehicles at the resort were marked “Press” or “TV.”

The journalists and Ghaida said they constantly heard the buzzing of aerial drones in the area, indicating it was most likely under Israeli surveillance. Prior to October 25, there had been no attacks on Hasbaya town.

Since the current hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began on October 8, 2023, the Israeli military has attacked and killed journalists and targeted Al Mayadeen TV. On October 23, Israeli forces attacked and destroyed an office used by Al Mayadeen in Beirut. Al Mayadeen had evacuated their staff from the building.

Israeli strikes killed at least six Lebanese journalists between October 8, 2023, and October 29, 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Human Rights Watch found that the October 13, 2023 attack, which killed the Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists, was an apparent war crime. On November 21, 2023, an Israeli strike killed two Lebanese journalists reporting for Al Mayadeen TV, Rabih al-Maamari and Farah Omar, and their driver, Hussein Akil, in Tayr Harfa in southern Lebanon.

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A remnant from the site of the October 25, 2024 attack on Hasbaya Village Resort in southern Lebanon collected by the resort’s owner, Anoir Ghaida. It is consistent with a part of a JDAM guidance kit’s actuation system that moves the fins. The numeric code “81873” is a Commercial and Governmental Entity (CAGE) code that identifies it as having been manufactured by Woodard, a US company that makes components for guidance systems on munitions, including the JDAM.

Human Rights Watch verified a photo and video from Najjar’s funeral that showed his casket wrapped in a Hezbollah flag and buried in a southern Beirut cemetery where Hezbollah fighters are buried, near the grave of al-Maamari. A Hezbollah spokesperson told Human Rights Watch on November 14 that Najjar had asked to be buried near his friend and colleague al-Maamari, but that Najjar “was just a civilian” and “had no involvement whatsoever in any military activities.”

Human Rights Watch found remnants at the attack site and reviewed photographs of remnants collected by the resort owner and determined that they were consistent with a JDAM guidance kit assembled and sold by the US company Boeing. Human Rights Watch identified one remnant as part of the guidance kit’s actuation system that moves the fins. It bore a numerical code identifying it as having been manufactured by Woodard, a US company that makes components for guidance systems on munitions, including the JDAM. The JDAM is affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates, making the weapon accurate to within several meters.

Human Rights Watch wrote to Boeing and to Woodard on November 14, but did not receive responses. Companies have responsibilities under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct, and related guidance to stop, prevent, mitigate, or remediate actual and potential violations of international humanitarian law that they cause, contribute to, or are linked with.

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A remnant from the site of the October 25, 2024 attack on Hasbaya Village Resort in southern Lebanon collected by the resort’s owner, Anoir Ghaida. The remnant is consistent with the tailfin of a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition Guidance (JDAM) kit.

Given Israel’s record of widespread laws of war violations and lack of accountability, companies should end arms sales, recall already sold weapons wherever possible, and stop all support services for already sold weapons.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented the Israeli military’s unlawful use of US-equipped weapons in a strike in March that killed seven aid workers in southern Lebanon.

International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian objects. Journalists are considered civilians and are immune from attack so long as they are not directly participating in hostilities. Journalists cannot be attacked for their work as journalists, even if the opposing party considers the media biased or being used for propaganda. When carrying out any attack, warring parties must take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm and damage to civilian objects. This includes taking all necessary actions to verify that targets are military objectives.

Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent—that is, intentionally or recklessly—may be prosecuted for war crimes. Individuals may also be held criminally liable for assisting in, facilitating, aiding, or abetting a war crime.

Lebanon should urgently accept the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction to give the court’s prosecutor a mandate to investigate serious international crimes committed on the country’s territory.

Israel’s key allies—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany—should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel, given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses. US policy prohibits arms transfers to states “more likely than not” to use them in violations of international law.

“As evidence mounts of Israel’s unlawful use of US weapons, including in apparent war crimes, US officials need to decide whether they will uphold US and international law by halting arms sales to Israel or risk being found legally complicit in serious violations,” Weir said.

Haiti: Scarce Protection as Sexual Violence Escalates

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500

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The emergency room of the General Hospital is empty during a visit by then-Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. Haiti's then-prime minister and police chief visited the capital's largest hospital, which had been under the control of criminal groups for at least two months. This occupation significantly disrupted healthcare services, including those for survivors of sexual violence. Authorities announced that police had regained control of the medical institution from armed criminal groups.

© 2024 AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph Criminal groups in Haiti are subjecting girls and women to horrific sexual abuse, and survivors have little access to protection and care services because of insufficient resources and difficulties reaching those that exist.Criminal groups have often used sexual violence to instill fear in rival territories. As fighting between criminal groups has decreased, they have expanded the use of sexual violence, which is now widespread.The transitional government should make justice, aid, and reparations for survivors a priority, and the international community should urgently increase funding to restore rule of law, provide basic security, and rebuild the health and justice systems.

(Washington, DC, November 25, 2024) – Criminal groups in Haiti have intensified attacks against the population in recent weeks, including by subjecting girls and women to horrific sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch said today. The international community should urgently increase funding to support a rights-based security response, and to improve the ability of the transitional government, as well as grassroots and international organizations, to address the needs of survivors, who have little access to protection and care services.

Criminal groups control over 80 percent of the capital and surrounding areas, as the Haitian National Police and the severely under-resourced United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission struggle to restore security. Criminal groups have often used sexual violence to instill fear in rival territories. While fighting between these groups has decreased in 2024, attacks on the population, the police, and the country’s key infrastructure have increased, including through the widespread use of sexual violence.

“The rule of law in Haiti is so broken that members of criminal groups rape girls or women without fearing any consequences,” said Nathalye Cotrino, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The international community should urgently increase funding for comprehensive programs to support survivors of sexual violence while ensuring that the transitional government and the Multinational Security Support mission have the resources needed to restore the rule of law, provide basic security, and rebuild the health and justice systems.”

In July 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed 58 people in Port-au-Prince, including survivors of sexual violence, human rights and humanitarian workers, transitional government officials, diplomats, and representatives from Haitian civil society and UN agencies. Researchers also conducted remote interviews with 36 people, including the former public health and population minister and healthcare professionals from Haitian and international organizations, and reviewed data and reports from the UN, Haitian, and international groups. Human Rights Watch contacted spokespersons of criminal groups through trusted intermediaries, but the groups’ spokespersons declined to comment.

Between January and October, nearly 4,000 girls and women reported sexual violence, including gang rape, mostly committed by members of criminal groups, according to the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) sub-cluster, which includes grassroots women’s groups, international organizations, and government entities. According to the UN, the increase in cases involving children is 1,000 percent, compared to the same period in 2023. Human rights and humanitarian workers as well as government officials said this is most likely a fraction of the cases, as most go unreported.

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“The bandits don’t care about their age,” an aid worker said. “They rape because they have the power. Sometimes they do it for days or weeks.” Many [survivors] suffer from the effects of physical abuse and mistreatment or end up pregnant, with no access to medical, psychosocial, or legal services, even for those who end up contracting sexually transmitted infections, which affect a large number of survivors, particularly HIV.

Many survivors are reluctant to report sexual violence or seek health care for fear of retaliation, survivors and humanitarian workers said. Many who seek care often cannot do so within the critical 72-hour window to access post-exposure prophylaxis and emergency contraception, either because many public medical facilities are closed due to the violence, or because they do not have the financial resources to go to private health centers, medical workers said.

“These women are extremely vulnerable,” an international healthcare worker said. “They are trapped in poverty and struggle daily to survive. When they [suffer] the violence of rape, they also struggle to access protection and health care.”

Haiti also has a total ban on abortion. “Haitian women and girls facing poverty resort to unsafe abortions, risking their lives,” said Pascale Solages, director of the women’s organization Nègès Mawon. “Unsafe abortions are the third leading cause of maternal mortality.”

“I was raped by four men [in May] while walking down a street in Brooklyn [a neighborhood of the Cité Soleil commune in the capital, Port-au-Prince],” said a 25-year-old mother of four who had been looking for water for her children. “They were Gabriel’s men [from the G-Pèp criminal group]. They didn’t used to do this, but now they do whatever they want to all of us. I couldn’t go to the doctor; I didn’t have money.”

Escalating criminal violence, including attacks on and looting of hospitals, has pushed the health system to the brink of collapse, leaving fewer than 30 percent of health facilities operational in the capital, according to the former public health and population minister. This significantly hinders sexual violence survivors’ access to crucial healthcare services.

Poverty exacerbates the situation, with over 64 percent of Haiti’s population of 11.7 million living on less than US$3.65 per day, according to the World Bank.

“I live on the street with my children,” said a 27-year-old woman who is nine months pregnant and a mother of three. “Sometimes we go three or four days without eating… After they [G9 criminal group members] raped me, I was in very bad shape. I fell sick with a vaginal infection, but I didn’t have money to go to the doctor.”

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF), which has provided free emergency care across Port-au-Prince for over 30 years, suspended its activities on November 20. This decision followed attacks by “self-defense” groups on MSF ambulances, patients, and medical personnel, as well as death and rape threats against MSF staff from members of the Haitian National Police. The attacks and threats against MSF stem from allegations by some members of the Haitian police and “self-defense” groups that the organization provides medical support to members of criminal groups, disregarding, as MSF has stated, that the organization “provides care to everyone based solely on medical needs.”

MSF has often been the only option for assistance for victims and survivors in areas controlled by criminal groups. The suspension is set to affect a weekly average of more than 1,100 outpatients, including over 80 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, who are unable to access public hospitals due to closures or private hospitals, which victims typically find inaccessible or unaffordable.

Grassroots women’s organizations also provide health care, psychological support, temporary shelter, education, and reintegration and legal assistance for survivors of sexual violence, often with the support of UN agencies and other international organizations. These groups have very limited resources and most are only able to operate in government-controlled areas. Many of them have also been affected by the recent escalation of violence, leading them to suspend their activities.

UN experts have warned that Haitian authorities have also undermined and underfunded state institutions responsible for providing essential services and protecting human rights. While the new transitional government has prioritized reopening closed health institutions and ensuring better access to justice for victims, senior government officials said that it lacks adequate financial resources.

Restoring basic security conditions is also essential to combat sexual violence. Haiti’s partners should urgently provide the necessary resources for the MSS mission to operate effectively. The UN had only received 17 percent of the required $16 million needed to strengthen and expand access to essential services for girls and women as of September. The UN’s human rights office in Haiti has been supporting the formation of specialized judicial units to investigate and prosecute those responsible for serious crimes, including sexual violence, but the transitional government should issue an official decree establishing them so they can be fully operational.

“The transitional government should prioritize protection and comprehensive care for survivors of sexual violence,” Cotrino said. “The US, the European Union, Canada, and other concerned governments across Latin America and beyond should provide financial support to help the government and aid groups meet these needs.”

For more details, accounts from victims, and recommendations, please see below.

Survivors of sexual violence are referred to here without full identification or with pseudonyms to protect their privacy.

Impact of Criminal Violence on Girls and Women

According to the United Nations, the expansion of criminal group activity in Haiti has contributed to a sharp rise in gender-based violence, including sexual violence, primarily targeting girls and women. Grassroots and international organizations similarly indicated an alarming rise in the number of reported rapes between April and June 2024, particularly in Carrefour, Cité Soleil, Croix-des-Bouquets, Delmas, Gressier, and Port-au-Prince municipalities—areas largely controlled by criminal groups—where some facilities have reported to the UN receiving up to 40 rape victims per day.

In 2023, criminal groups regularly used rape as a “weapon of terror” to “punish” girls and women from territories controlled by rival groups. Human Rights Watch documented numerous cases of rape, primarily in Brooklyn, Cité Soleil, where there were intense clashes between two major coalitions, the G-Pèp federation, which controlled Brooklyn, and the G9 alliance, which controlled the surrounding neighborhoods and aimed to expand its territory. Members of the G9 frequently gang raped girls and women from Brooklyn to instill fear and punish them for living in the area controlled by the rival group.

By late February, the formation of the “Viv Ansam” alliance of major criminal coalitions, including the G9 and G-Pèp, shifted the dynamics. As clashes between the groups decreased, criminal groups have expanded the use of sexual violence, making it widespread, including against girls and women seeking refuge in informal sites after being displaced.

“Criminal groups abuse anyone [in their territories] for any reason, as they are the authority,” a Haitian security expert said. “Leaders, mid-level members, and rank-and-file members all rape girls and women just because they can, and nobody stops them.”

Girls and women are intercepted in public spaces while on foot or using public transport. Criminal group members take them to nearby locations, usually semi-destroyed and abandoned houses, where they threaten, beat, and rape them. Many are gang raped. Human rights and humanitarian workers have reported cases of women and girls being raped in broad daylight on public buses and in the streets.

“Two months ago, when I was begging for food on the street, three men from Gabriel’s group [G-Pèp] grabbed me ... and threw me face down on the ground. They raped me, and they didn’t care that I was pregnant,” said Aurelie G., 27, a Brooklyn resident. “I was too scared to resist. They all had guns … When they finished, they slammed my face against the pavement and insulted me, saying we are all theirs and they could do whatever they wanted with us.”

Bridget C., a 14-year-old girl from the Croix-des-Bouquets commune, said she was abducted from her home and raped by members of the 400 Mawozo criminal group in late February:

It was near 10 a.m. More than 10 bandits arrived ... Two grabbed me by my arms and dragged me to another house... [There], they took me to a room where there were six [other] girls. They tied me to a chair ... five men raped me that day. They hit me in the head with their fists several times ... I spent five days in that house and every day I was raped by different men ... The other girls were also raped and beaten.

Girls and women who have fled their homes due to violence are also raped in informal sites for internally displaced people “as a deliberate tactic to control women’s access to the scarce humanitarian assistance available,” UN Women said.

Survivors Lack Access to Essential Services

Over the past two decades, the Haitian government has dramatically reduced investment in public health care. When adjusted for inflation and measured on a per capita basis, Haiti is one of only 16 countries that spent less on public health care in 2021 than it did in 2000.

The Ministries of Public Health and Population, the Status of Women and Women's Rights, and Justice and Public Security have a national plan to combat violence against women, including sexual violence, by 2027. This plan is largely supported by the UN and has as the coordination mechanism the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) sub-cluster. However, survivors of sexual violence continue to face limited or no access to essential public services, including protection and health care.

“When a survivor of sexual violence arrives at a public facility, they receive immediate care,” the former public health and population minister said. “A screening process identifies their needs, followed by reactive care to address potential pregnancy risks and referrals for psychological assistance. Hygiene kits are provided when feasible [due to shortages] to support their well-being. These services form a critical package aimed at addressing the complex needs of survivors.”

However, not all victims can access the health system due to significant barriers. The public system suffers from chronic underfunding, resource shortages, and critical staff deficits. Currently, only two of the country’s five public hospitals are operational, and even these struggle with inadequate medical equipment and personnel, as over 40,000 health workers have fled the country due to violence, according to the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). Most private facilities have closed, and many victims cannot afford their services, human rights and humanitarian workers said.

Many victims reach out to international and local organizations within the GBV sub-cluster to access protection and health services. However, despite members’ efforts, significant obstacles remain in coordinating an effective response. The sub-cluster “produces systematic data on violent incidents, but it does not function effectively … partly due to the rotation of officials serving as focal points, lack of clarity on roles, and uncertainty about available resources,” a humanitarian official said.

In areas controlled by criminal groups, most health centers are inoperative. Before the recent suspension, MSF’s centers were often the only option for victim care, and even all of those were operating intermittently, including in Drouillard, Turgeau, Tabarre, and Carrefour, along with its mobile clinics, including in Cité Soleil. Since the suspension, MSF is only providing care to existing hospitalized patients and will no longer accept new admissions. “MSF is present but we have no other facilities to refer [victims] to for medical attention, much less psychological support,” a worker from Oganizasyon Fanm Vanyan an Aksyon (Brave Women in Action Organization or OFAVA), a Haitian women’s rights organization, said before MSF announced the suspension of its operations.

“After I was raped, I got a vaginal infection, but I couldn’t go to the doctor because there were none nearby, and I didn’t have any money,” said Emanuela B., a survivor of sexual violence from Cité Soleil.

Only a quarter of the reported survivors of rape can access health care within the critical 72-hour window for post-rape treatment, according to the UN Population Fund. “It is heartbreaking to see women arriving long after the assault, showing symptoms of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV that could have been effectively treated if they had had prompt access to health services,” a human rights worker said.

“I’m infected with HIV,” said Ellie M., a 29-year-old sexual violence survivor, widow, and mother of four children who lives in Brooklyn. She was abducted and gang raped for five hours by armed members of the G9 criminal coalition. “Afterward, they shot me in the foot,” she said. “[When] I went to the hospital, [the doctors] discovered I was infected … It was too late. Then [I learned] I was pregnant.”

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Ellie M. (pseudonym), a 29-year-old survivor of sexual violence, with her 3-month-old baby during an interview with Human Rights Watch in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 23, 2024.

Ellie’s baby was not diagnosed with HIV at birth. Doctors advised her against breastfeeding to prevent infection, but she could not afford formula. When Ellie spoke to Human Rights Watch, the baby, then three months old, had developed red spots on her back, legs, and feet, and Ellie feared she may have contracted HIV. “The doctor gave me a card for monthly medicine, but it’s just for me, not for the baby,” she said.

Survivors of sexual violence have almost no support to deal with the psychological impact of their experience. “[Survivors’] greatest need after medical care is mental health support,” said a psychologist from an international organization. “Women feel hopeless and are mentally affected by unimaginable suffering, horror, and pain … We have patients with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] who experience sleep disturbances, anxiety, eating disorders, despair, and suicidal thoughts.”

Although Bridget C., 14, was provided with shelter, psychological support, and health care by a local group, she was suffering from PTSD symptoms when she spoke to Human Rights Watch, five months after criminal group members raped her: “I still have many nightmares about what those men did to me. I wake up in the middle of the night screaming in fear and sweating. Sometimes, I hide under the bed.”

While some local organizations, mainly funded by the UN, operate shelters, they are unable to meet the high demand. “We receive many cases of young female victims of rape who become pregnant,” a representative of a local group said. “[They] often do not have a home or family. We can only provide shelter for them for a short time—one or two months—as we do not have enough resources to do this.”

Survivors of sexual violence who become pregnant have no access to safe abortion services, as abortion remains criminalized, with the transitional government postponing until 2025 a proposal to decriminalize it up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. “Women are doubly victimized,” a humanitarian worker said. “They are raped, abused, left pregnant and ill … They have no access to safe abortion services.”

Justice and reparations remain largely inaccessible for survivors of sexual violence. Criminal violence has also left the judicial system mostly inoperative. While the government has taken some measures to to address the demands of judicial staff who have been on strike, as well as to relocate certain court facilities, the main first-instance courts in Port-au-Prince and Croix-des-Bouquets are not functioning.

Amandine P., a 34-year-old mother of five, was displaced from the Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood in Port-au-Prince following a violent attack in which she was raped and her husband was killed by members of the Grand Ravine criminal group. “I didn’t file a complaint because there’s no reliable or functional judicial system,” she said. “I’m in a really hopeless situation. I want justice, not just for me, but for the other victimized families.”

Several civil society organizations, including the National Human Rights Defense Network (Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains, RNDDH), have documented human rights violations by criminal groups and assisted victims in filing complaints. But they said that progress toward prosecuting the perpetrators has been minimal, with no notable advancements in Port-au-Prince.

Impunity is the norm. The lack of an official record of cases and the lack of a mechanism to assess the progress of investigations makes the situation worse. “Rape and gang rape are spreading across Haiti,” said Rosy Auguste Ducena, program director at RNDDH. “Sexual violence survivors are ignored by the judicial authorities, who fail to enforce accountability for these crimes or deliver justice. In Haiti, girls and women remain in constant danger.”

Recommendations

Haiti requires a comprehensive strategy to protect and ensure access to essential services for survivors of sexual violence, involving both immediate actions and long-term strategies.

Haiti’s donors and other concerned countries should: Provide the financial and human resources needed to enhance the capacity of the Haitian National Police and the Multinational Security Support Mission to fight criminal groups.Urgently mobilize additional international funding to support health and protection programs aimed at providing emergency care, including psychosocial support and emergency contraception, to survivors of sexual violence and their families.Support the efforts of the Gender-Based Violence sub-cluster to establish, expand, and improve internal coordination among networks of support services for survivors of sexual violence, including medical, psychological, and legal assistance, as well as access to emergency contraception and HIV prevention and treatment, and provide the necessary resources, estimated at $16 million.Urge the government to establish a robust system to monitor incidents of sexual violence and ensure they are reported and documented effectively.Support local and international organizations with increased resources and technical expertise so they can strengthen their presence, expand coverage to more victims, and develop activities aimed at providing a comprehensive response to victims’ needs, coordinating with state entities to offer shelter, education, and other services.Provide UN agencies with the resources to provide technical expertise to train judicial officials, including prosecutors and judges, to prevent retraumatization and gender-based discrimination or stigma throughout judicial proceedings, and to handle cases involving child survivors appropriately.Haiti’s transitional government should:Strengthen the Haitian health system, with a short-term focus on the rapid and effective reactivation of health centers and hospitals that have suspended operations and a long-term goal of ensuring that medical facilities, particularly in areas affected by criminal violence, provide comprehensive care and services.Avoid further reductions in funding for health care and set a goal of spending, through domestically-generated public funds, the equivalent of at least 5 percent of GDP or 15 percent of general government expenditures on health care, or an amount that otherwise ensures the maximum available resources for the realization of the right to health. Five percent of GDP and 15 percent of general government expenditures are two commonly used benchmarks drawn from international agreements used to assess the extent to which countries are prioritizing spending on health in line with their human rights obligations.Urgently pursue legislative changes to decriminalize abortion. This should include removing abortion from the criminal code to align with international human rights standards, ensuring that no one faces criminal charges for seeking abortion services.Promote respect for healthcare infrastructure and medical missions by all actors, including the Haitian National Police and criminal groups, allowing local and international medical teams to operate even in areas under the control of criminal groups and ensuring that survivors of sexual violence have swift and safe access to medical care, including emergency contraception, post-exposure prophylaxis, and abortion care.Ensure the prompt initiation of disciplinary and criminal investigations into police officers allegedly implicated in threats and attacks reported by MSF.Ensure that girls and women survivors of sexual violence have access to justice, legal assistance, and reparations. This includes issuing a decree to establish specialized judicial units, with support from the UN Human Rights Office.

Kenya: Justice Overdue for 2023 Protest Abuses

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500

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Riot police officers disperse supporters of Kenya's opposition Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) One Kenya Alliance, during nationwide protests over the cost of living and alleged fraud during the 2022 elections, in Mathare settlement of Nairobi, March 27, 2023.

© 2023 REUTERS/John Muchucha Kenyan authorities have failed to ensure justice for the killing of at least 31 people and other abuses by the police during protests throughout the country from March to July 2023.Over a year later, investigations have not been finalized and not a single police officer or government official has been prosecuted for the killings or other serious rights violations.President Willam Ruto should ensure that the Independent Policing Oversight Authority can work independently and call on the necessary authorities to follow up on its recommendations.

(Nairobi) – Kenyan authorities have failed to ensure justice for the killing of at least 31 people and other abuses by the police during protests throughout the country from March to July 2023, Amnesty International Kenya and Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Over a year later, investigations have not been finalized and not a single police officer or government official has been prosecuted for the killings or other serious rights violations.

The 77-page report, “Unchecked Injustice: Kenya’s Suppression of the 2023 Protests,” documents that the police, under President William Ruto’s administration, committed grave rights abuses in response to largely peaceful opposition-led nationwide protests. The demonstrations were triggered by the high cost of living and alleged electoral malpractices following the August 2022 general elections.

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“Kenyan police brazenly and unlawfully killed, injured, and otherwise abused protesters and bystanders, including many children,” said Otsieno Namwaya, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should ensure that the Independent Policing Oversight Authority and public prosecutions authorities are able to work effectively so that victims and their families receive justice for these crimes.”

The report is based on 226 interviews with survivors and witnesses in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nyamira, Machakos, Migori, Kisii, Siaya, Nakuru, Homa Bay, and Makueni counties.

Amnesty International Kenya and Human Rights Watch found that between March and July 2023, police used excessive and unnecessary force against protesters and bystanders, including by using lethal ammunition, kinetic impact projectiles, such as “rubber bullets,” torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and unlawful detention, and committed serious abuses against children under the age of 18.

The organizations also found that the Kenyan police disproportionately and indiscriminately used tear gas, notably in and around schools, medical facilities, and residential areas. At least two children died following tear gas exposure in their homes.

During house-to-house searches of suspected protesters in July 2023, police in Kisumu County beat, intimidated, and threatened those they found, including people who were not involved in the protests. They killed three people during the searches, including cousins Brian Oniango’ and William Amulele, who died as a result of injuries from police beatings.

A relative said, “I was in my house when I heard noises outside and voices shouting that the cousins were being killed…. I opened the gate and saw them being beaten. I knelt, pleading with them to leave the boys since they were not part of the [protests], but one officer came and ordered me to get back to the house…. He pushed me with his boots until I fell back, forcing me to step back. They [continued to] beat them.”

The police abuses took physical, mental, and financial tolls on victims and their families. Many interviewed in the ensuing days and months said that their injuries had affected their health and livelihoods. A 50-year-old farmer whose son John was shot dead on July 7, 2023, in Kisii apparently by police, said, “My son supported me in everything. He liked calling me and asking me if I needed any support. He wanted to come home and stay so that he could help me to educate his siblings. John was my eye. The eye has gone…. I don’t know what to do.”

Some survivors and families of victims of abuses reported being turned away from police stations when they attempted to report police abuse. Others said they were not able to or did not make a report to the police because they feared reprisals or believed their report would not lead to tangible action.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which provides civilian oversight of police conduct, informed Amnesty International Kenya and Human Rights Watch in an October 29 response to a letter seeking comment that at least 67 people had been killed during the protests between March and July 2023. The IPOA said that they had recommended an inquest in 6 cases by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, closed 4 cases, and are actively investigating cases involving 57 victims. The IPOA said that they had faced numerous problems including a lack of cooperation from witnesses and a tendency by the police to conceal their identities and use unmarked vehicles, which made it difficult to ascertain responsibility.

President Ruto should ensure that IPOA is able to conduct its work independently and call on the necessary authorities to follow up on IPOA recommendations. He should also establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the 2023 abuses and ongoing protest-related abuses, including to determine what units are responsible for abuse, identify implicated officers, and determine the orders given to police officers, the use of nonuniformed and noncommissioned officers at protests, and police officers’ use of disguises, the two organizations said.

Further, the Kenyan government should address the root causes of past and ongoing protests, including the government’s economic policies that deprive people of their economic, social, and cultural rights. This could include enacting or expanding social security measures to ensure the income security of those injured by authorities and unable to work, as well as the surviving dependents of those killed, the two organizations said.

“Kenyan authorities should work hard to regain public faith and demonstrate that they can deliver people-centered and human rights-focused reforms,” said Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty International Kenya. “They could start by ending impunity for police abuses during protests and enacting tangible remedies to address the negative impacts of the government’s economic policies.”

Mozambique: Security Force Crackdown Kills, Injures Children

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 23:00:00 -0500

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A boy wears a “bullet-proof vest” made of cardboard while walking on the streets of Maputo, Mozambique, November 5, 2024.

(Johannesburg) – Mozambican security forces deployed to suppress nationwide post-election protests have killed at least 10 children and injured dozens more since October 24, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. Police have detained hundreds of children, in many cases for days, without notifying their families, in violation of international human rights law. The protests and ensuing government crackdown have led to severe disruptions of education throughout the country.

“The Mozambican security forces that have used force unlawfully against protesters and bystanders have also showed a shocking disregard for the lives of children,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately release all those held, including children, for exercising their rights to free expression and assembly.”

Post-election tensions escalated on October 24 after supporters of the independent presidential candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, and the leading opposition party, Optimistic People for the Development of Mozambique (Partido Optimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique, Podemos), rejected the official declaration that the ruling party and its candidates were the winners of the October 9 election. Mondlane had claimed victory the day after the polls closed.

The ensuing protests called for by the opposition began largely peacefully. However, government security forces used live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas to disperse the crowds. Protesters responded by burning tires, blocking roads, and throwing rocks and other objects at the police.

On October 29, Mondlane called for a weeklong nationwide shutdown, culminating in a major march in Maputo, the capital, on November 7. In response, Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda accused Mondlane of causing terror and urged people not to join the protests because it could “end up degenerating into acts of vandalism and violence.”

The deputy police chief, Fernando Tsucana, during a live television interview with the privately operated station STV on November 3, pledged to ensure security on the streets and urged parents to send their children back to school. Many schools had been closed because of the violence.

A spokesman for the Education Ministry, Manuel Simbini, told Human Rights Watch that the government had instructed schools to make alternative provisions for almost 13,000 students who were unable to take their final exams across the country due to the violence.

A 26-year-old woman said that her sister was among those parents who believed the authorities’ pledge of safety and sent her 13-year-old daughter to school on November 4, despite the reported violence in their neighborhood. “The situation was already tense with many police officers around,” she said. “But my niece had to go to school because the teacher had scheduled a written test for that day.” On her way back from school just before 11 a.m., the girl was caught in a crowd of people fleeing tear gas and gunfire by the security forces. One of the bullets hit her in the neck, and she instantly fell to the ground and died, two witnesses said.

Human Rights Watch documented nine additional cases of children killed and at least 36 other children injured by gunfire during the protests.

The mother of a 6-year-old boy in Maputo’s Chamanculo neighborhood said that on November 5 they were standing in line to buy bread around 10 a.m., when nine riot police officers arrived in a pickup truck. Without warning they fired teargas and live bullets to disperse a crowd that had gathered outside the bakery. She said: “We tried to run away, but there was no place to go or hide, so a bullet hit my son in the stomach.” She added that police officers took him and other injured people to the nearby Chamanculo hospital for medical treatment.

The media reported further violations of children’s rights by the security forces and some protesters, including vandalizing schools, burning classrooms, and endangering children’s lives. Footage shared on social media on November 4, which Human Rights Watch geolocated to have been recently recorded outside a school in Tete province, appears to show dozens of children in school uniform fleeing in panic, after security forces allegedly threw tear gas canisters into their school premises.

Human Rights Watch also documented the arbitrary detention for several days of children whom the security forces allegedly arrested during protests without notifying their families. The Mozambican Bar Association reported on November 6 that it had secured the release of over 2,700 people detained throughout the country for participation in the post-election demonstrations. Feroza Zacarias, head of the bar association’s human rights section, said that a significant number of the detainees were children and adolescents.

A 17-year-old girl was arrested on November 17 during a “pots and pans” protest in the capital’s Jardim neighborhood. Her father said the family only learned about her whereabouts two days later from the bar association. He said that when police officers at the station demanded payment of 25,000 meticals (around US$392) for his daughter’s release, he refused to pay on a lawyer’s advice. His daughter was released on November 21, without charges, after the bar association intervened.

Mozambican authorities have publicly criticized the involvement of children in the protests. The National Council of Defense said in a statement that it “deplore[d] in the strongest terms the involvement of children and the veiled attempt to subvert the legitimately established democratic order.” The statement did not mention children’s right to protest and the need for accountability for abuses against children.

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child both affirm children’s rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly. Under the convention, children found in conflict with the law should be detained “only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”

“Concerned governments should press Mozambican authorities to stop unnecessary and excessive use of force against child protesters and bystanders and urgently address the harm to children’s education,” Ngari said. “Those found responsible should be held accountable.”

SADC: Denounce Security Force Violence in Mozambique

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 09:31:40 -0500

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Police deploy amid opposition protests in Maputo, Mozambique, November 7, 2024.

(Johannesburg) – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) should publicly condemn the Mozambican authorities’ excessive use of force against postelection protesters, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since the protests began on October 24, 2024, Mozambican security forces have been implicated in killing at least 30 people throughout the country according to media reports. Human Rights Watch found that security forces indiscriminately fired tear gas into residential areas, exposing children to its effects.

An extraordinary summit of SADC heads of state and government on November 20 in Harare, Zimbabwe, issued a statement that expressed condolences for the lives lost in Mozambique during postelection violence, but failed to criticize the Mozambican security forces for the unlawful use of lethal force.

“SADC has squandered an opportunity to publicly condemn human rights abuses against postelection protesters in Mozambique,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The regional body should call on the Mozambique government to respect the right to peaceful protest under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and immediately cease its use of unnecessary and excessive force.”

In its November 20 statement, SADC pledged to work with Mozambique “in ensuring peace, security and stability through the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.” Yet, the statement did not make any reference to the conduct of the Mozambican security forces during postelection unrest, which has resulted in the killing of dozens of people and injuries to hundreds more.

Postelection tensions in Mozambique escalated dramatically on October 10 when Venâncio Mondlane, an independent candidate supported by the leading opposition party, Partido Optimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique, known as PODEMOS), claimed victory in the October 9 elections.

On October 24, the election commission declared Daniel Chapo and the ruling party, Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Mozambique Liberation Front, known as FRELIMO), the winners of the election. Thousands of opposition supporters then peacefully marched in Maputo, the capital, to protest the announced results. Across the country, some protesters burned tires and blocked roads. In response, riot police deployed with dogs and armored vehicles fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas to disperse demonstrators, leading to violent standoffs between protesters and security forces in many parts of the country.

Since the unrest began, the authorities said they have detained over 400 people for alleged public disorder, looting shops, destroying public and private property, and an attack on a police station. The Mozambican Bar Association said that lawyers have secured the release of over 2,700 people they believe were detained unlawfully.

Given the ongoing violence against protesters, SADC still has an opportunity to press the Mozambique government and security forces to respect fundamental human rights in line with the SADC Treaty, Human Rights Watch said. SADC should establish a fact-finding mission to investigate abuses against protesters and others and seek accountability in accordance with international standards.

The African Union Guidelines for the Policing of Assemblies by Law Enforcement Officials in Africa provide that law enforcement officials must prioritize nonviolent methods and distinguish between peaceful protesters and those who engage in violence. Isolated acts of violence do not make a protest nonpeaceful. The intentional use of lethal force is prohibited unless strictly unavoidable to protect life. The United Nations Guidelines on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement states that tear gas should only be used after appropriate warnings have been issued and protesters have been given time to safely disperse.

“SADC should press the Mozambican authorities to enforce human rights standards and prevent further loss of life amid the ongoing protests,” Ngari said. “International partners should back a regional fact-finding mission to investigate abuses before, during, and after the October elections, so that those responsible can be held to account.”

UN Review of DR Congo Exposes Lack of Progress on Rights

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 16:30:00 -0500

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People displaced by fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels at a camp on the outskirts of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 13, 2024.

Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council review of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s human rights record revealed that the government had made little progress addressing the country’s widespread rights issues.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a state-to-state rights review held for each country every 4½ years, showed that rights abuses have persisted, if not worsened, under President Félix Tshisekedi’s government.

During Congo’s previous review in 2019, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups submitted numerous recommendations.

During the 2019 process, we called on the government to ensure human rights activists were able to pursue their activities and criticize government policies without intimidation and retaliation. We pressed the government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; investigate and appropriately prosecute armed group members and security force members responsible for serious human rights abuses; and we urged authorities to increase efforts to prevent and punish extrajudicial executions and other serious violations by establishing a special mixed judicial mechanism.

Unfortunately, these calls remain as relevant today as they were in 2019. Despite our call for the government to abolish the death penalty, the government lifted its moratorium earlier this year. We have continued to document laws of war violations and the deepening humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo, including conflict-related sexual violence and the government’s repeated attacks on activists and restrictions on fundamental freedoms.

At this year’s review, UN member states made similar recommendations to those of 2019 to address the deteriorating human rights situation, the shrinking of civic space, and the need to ensure Congo’s compliance with international human rights standards.

The Congolese government has until the next Human Rights Council session in early 2025 to signal its intention to implement the recommendations made during the latest review.

In January, Congo will join the Human Rights Council as a new member, creating an additional responsibility for the government to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights,” and to “fully cooperate with the Council.” A first step should be to heed their peers’ calls on the recent review, prioritize civilian protection in conflict areas, strengthen civil and political rights, and address the country’s persistent accountability gap for serious abuses.

Ugandan Military Court to Try Opposition Leader

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 13:04:13 -0500

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Ugandan opposition leader and four-time presidential candidate Kizza Besigye, stands in the dock at the Makindye Martial Court in Kampala, Uganda, November 20. 2024.

A Ugandan military court in Kampala has ordered former opposition presidential candidate, Kizza Besigye, and his travel companion, Obeid Lutale, to be held in pretrial detention in a prison, the latest example of Uganda’s authorities misusing military courts and military-related charges to clamp down on the opposition.

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Besigye went missing on November 16 in Kenya’s capital Nairobi where he had travelled from Uganda to attend a book launch. Four days later, he was discovered to be in the custody of the Ugandan military, who arraigned him before a military court on charges of “soliciting for logistical support and identifying military targets in Uganda with intent to prejudice the security of the [Ugandan] Defence Forces”, and of allegedly being in possession of guns and ammunition belonging to the Ugandan military. During his appearance in court, Besigye told the media he had not had access to his lawyers since his arrest in Kenya.

A Kenyan foreign ministry official denied his government’s involvement in Besigye’s detention and said authorities have begun investigating the circumstances of Besigye’s forceful removal from the country.

State-sponsored kidnapping of Ugandan opposition supporters in Kenya is not new. In July, Kenyan and Ugandan security officials abducted 36 supporters of Besigye’s former political party, the Forum for Democratic Change, in Kisumu, Kenya, and transferred them to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, where they were charged with terrorism and remanded in prison pending trial. The group has since been released on bail.

For years military courts in Uganda have been misused to prosecute civilians, particularly opposition supporters, despite a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling against the practice.

On October 23, the General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala sentenced 16 supporters of the opposition National Unity Platform party to five years imprisonment for “treachery” and for possession of explosive devices “ordinarily a monopoly of the defence forces” between November 2020 and May 12, 2021. Some of the defendants had been violently arrested by military personnel in December 2020, ahead of a campaign rally of then presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine.

The Ugandan authorities should release Besigye or try him in a civilian court for any alleged crimes and end the weaponization of military detention and trial of political opposition leaders and supporters.

Palestine: ICC Warrants Revive Hope for Long-Delayed Justice

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 07:49:08 -0500

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International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan gives an interview with Reuters about Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, The Hague, Netherlands, October 12, 2023.

(The Hague) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) judges’ decision to issue arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official in the face of strong opposition – including from the United States and Israel – deserves international support, Human Rights Watch said today.

On November 21, 2024, the ICC issued warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of Israel, as well as Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (“Mohammed Deif”), commander-in-chief of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades.

“The ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “This is all the more important given the brazen attempts to obstruct the course of justice at the court. Whether the ICC can effectively deliver on its mandate will depend on governments’ willingness to support justice no matter where abuses are committed and by whom.”

The court’s judges concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip from at least October 8, 2023, including the starvation of civilians, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, murder, and persecution. The judges determined that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Deif is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza since at least October 7, 2023, including extermination, murder, and hostage-taking.

The ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, had announced on May 20 that he asked the court’s judges to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant, Deif, the then-head of Hamas in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, and the former Hamas political bureau head, Ismail Haniyeh. Khan’s office withdrew the application against Haniyeh after he was killed on July 31 while visiting Tehran to attend Iran’s presidential inauguration. The judges also confirmed the prosecutor’s withdrawal of the application against Sinwar following the confirmation of his death.

The ICC judges’ consideration of Khan’s applications was deferred when the United Kingdom sought permission on June 10 to file an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief to argue that the Oslo Accords, the 1993 agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, barred the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli nationals. The initiative appeared aimed at delaying a decision given that a separate panel of ICC judges previously confirmed the court’s mandate, Human Rights Watch said.

The judges granted the United Kingdom’s request and subsequently allowed 63 others – including states, intergovernmental organizations, academics, United Nations officials, and civil society organizations – to also file amicus briefs on the issue. Palestine participated in the process, but Israel did not make a submission at that time.

The United Kingdom abandoned its initiative following a change in government in July, but the process it triggered ultimately delayed the judges’ decision on the warrants. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and REDRESS had urged the new British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in July to drop the former UK government’s plan to file an amicus brief.

In August, the groups also filed an amicus brief together with the Open Society Justice Initiative and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, making the case that the Oslo Accords are irrelevant to the decision and that the accords do not prevent the court from exercising its jurisdiction.

On August 23, Khan’s office filed its response to all the amicus briefs and asked the court’s judges to decide on its application for arrest warrants with the “utmost urgency.” Israel filed a brief on September 23 challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction and asked the court’s judges to dismiss the arrest warrant applications against Netanyahu and Gallant. Khan’s office responded on September 27 calling on the ICC judges to reject Israel’s challenge. On November 21, the judges considered such challenge “premature” and rejected it.

The earlier ICC panel of judges concluded in February 2021 that the ICC has jurisdiction over the situation in Palestine following a January 2020 request by the former prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, seeking their guidance on the issue. Bensouda’s office had concluded a nearly five-year-long preliminary inquiry into the Palestine situation in December 2019 and determined that all the necessary criteria to proceed with a formal investigation had been met. Her office opened an investigation in March 2021.

Palestine became an ICC member in 2015 and gave the court a mandate back to June 13, 2014, to address serious crimes committed on its territory or by its nationals since that date, including the 2014 hostilities in Gaza. In May 2018, Palestine formally asked the ICC prosecutor to investigate and affirmed its commitment to cooperate with the court. Israel signed but has not ratified the ICC treaty, and in 2002, it announced that it did not intend to become a court member.

In November 2023, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, Djibouti, and South Africa – all ICC member countries – referred the situation in Palestine to the court’s prosecutor, referencing numerous war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide.

The same month, a number of Palestinian nongovernmental organizations submitted a brief urging the ICC prosecutor to consider including the crimes of apartheid and genocide as part of his ongoing investigation. Mexico and Chile also referred the Palestine situation to the court’s prosecutor in January 2024.

The decision to issue the warrants comes as the court faces unprecedented pressure, Human Rights Watch said. In April, amid speculation that the warrants were imminent, 12 US senators threatened to sanction Khan if he pursued cases against top Israeli officials. Netanyahu also called on governments to prevent the court from issuing warrants. Khan’s office denounced the threats, noting that the ICC can also prosecute individuals for obstructing justice.

At the end of May, the Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call reported that Israeli officials have been conducting surveillance on senior ICC officials for nine years as part of a secret operation to thwart the court’s Palestine investigation. On June 4, the US House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at imposing sanctions against the ICC, its officials, and those supporting investigations at the court involving US citizens or allies.

On June 14, 94 ICC member countries expressed their “unwavering support” for the court in the face of these threats. The joint statement followed similar expressions of support by several ICC member countries – including UN Security Council members – the high representative of the European Union, UN experts, and nongovernmental groups. ICC member countries should again reaffirm their commitment to defend the court, its officials, and those cooperating with it from any political interference and pressure, Human Rights Watch said.

On November 17, the incoming Senate majority leader John Thune called for immediate action on the US House of Representatives legislation and vowed to pursue sanctions as a “top priority in the next Congress.”

In addition to strong political messaging in defense of justice, ICC members should also take concrete steps to limit or, where possible, nullify the effects of potential sanctions against the court. This should include the adoption or implementation of national or regional blocking statutes, such as the EU Blocking Statute.

Because the ICC has no police force of its own, it must rely on states to assist with arrests. All ICC member countries are obligated to cooperate in the arrest and surrender of people wanted by the court.

Lack of accountability for crimes committed in the context of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups has fueled abuses across the Middle East, including in Lebanon and Yemen. Lebanon should urgently give the ICC jurisdiction to enable the court’s prosecutor to investigate grave international crimes committed there, Human Rights Watch said.

“These warrants should finally push the international community to address atrocities and secure justice for all victims in Palestine and Israel,” Jarrah said. “After over a half-century of rampant impunity, those responsible for some of the gravest crimes should pay the price so that victims and survivors can obtain a measure of justice that has long eluded them.”

For details about HRW’s documentation and other recent legal efforts to achieve justice, please see below.

Abuses Since October 7, 2023

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led Palestinian armed groups, in what amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, attacked southern Israel, killing over 800 civilians and taking 251 people hostage, and these groups have continued to launch indiscriminate rockets at population centers in Israel.

Israeli forces have unlawfully attacked residential buildings, medical facilities, and aid workers, committing apparent war crimes, and have restricted medical evacuations, blocked humanitarian aid, and used starvation as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip, amounting to the war crime of collective punishment. Israeli authorities have also caused the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023 and are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israeli authorities have detained incommunicado and mistreated thousands of Palestinians, including Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza, with persistent reports of torture.

In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli forces continue to use excessive force, including airstrikes, with at least 736 Palestinians killed since October 7. Attacks by settlers continue to rise and have displaced entire Palestinian communities, destroying homes and schools, with the apparent backing of Israeli soldiers and higher Israeli authorities, and effectively confiscating Palestinian lands.

These abuses, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, occur amid Israel’s ongoing repression of Palestinians, undertaken as part of a policy to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians, amounting to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

Impunity for these and other alleged serious crimes remains the norm. This has long highlighted the importance of an ICC investigation to fill the accountability gap, Human Rights Watch said.

Other International Accountability Responses

The UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel has noted there was “clear evidence” of war crimes in Israel and Gaza and that it would share information with relevant judicial authorities, especially the ICC. The commission concluded in an October report that Israel has carried out a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination. Governments should press Israeli and Palestinian authorities to cooperate with the ICC and the commission.

The ICC’s Palestine investigation is distinct from proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which adjudicates disputes between states and issues advisory opinions on international law. The ICJ is currently considering a case brought by South Africa alleging that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention of 1948.

While a ruling on the merits of that claim will most likely take years, the ICJ has ordered Israel three times to take certain measures, including enabling the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Human Rights Watch research demonstrates that Israel is continuing to flout the court’s orders, with devastating consequences for Palestinians in Gaza.

In July, the ICJ also issued an advisory opinion with multiple findings on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful. The opinion has significant consequences for human rights protections in Palestine under Israel’s 57-year occupation. The opinion stems from a December 2022 request by the UN General Assembly to consider the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The ICJ’s findings are legally and morally persuasive and set out obligations on all states and on the UN itself. Two of its important conclusions are with respect to apartheid and reparations. Although the main opinion did not directly address international crimes, the court’s factual and legal findings, and some of the separate statements by its judges, should be considered by the ICC prosecutor in the investigation of crimes including apartheid, persecution, forced displacement, and crimes concerning unlawful settlements in occupied territory.

Thailand: Insurgents Target Civilians in South

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 21:00:00 -0500

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The concept art for the Guan Yin statue, Songkhla, Thailand.

(Bangkok) – Separatist insurgents in southern Thailand carried out an unlawful grenade attack against civilians on November 20, 2024, at the construction site of a 136-meter-high statue of a Chinese goddess in Songkhla province, Human Rights Watch said today. This was the first insurgent attack in five years against a non-Islamic religious site.

The insurgents fired grenades at about 6:10 a.m. into the construction site of the world’s tallest Guanyin (Chinese goddess of mercy) statue, in Thepa district, injuring two workers and a 9-year-old girl. The explosions started fires in the workers’ camp and wrecked a pickup truck. The assailants left behind leaflets threatening to kill Thai Buddhist and Myanmar workers if they continued work at the site.

“The insurgent attack on workers at the Guanyin statue construction site is a serious violation of the laws of war and an apparent war crime,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The armed group and individuals responsible should be held to account for this unlawful and morally reprehensible act.”

Since 2022, local ethnic Malay Muslims have protested against the Guanyin statue project, funded by the industrial estate company TPI Polene Power, out of concerns that the statue would pave the way for the development of the company’s controversial proposed industrial estate and facilitate Chinese influence in the region.

International humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including houses of worship and cultural property, and indiscriminate attacks not directed at a specific military objective.

The insurgent attack on the Guanyin statue construction site is the first on a Chinese shrine in Thailand’s restive southern border region. Previously, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN or National Revolutionary Front) insurgents, who claim to represent ethnic Malay Muslim communities, targeted Buddhist temples and monks, which they consider to be emblematic of the Thai Buddhist state’s occupation of their traditional territory. Between 2004 and 2019, insurgents killed at least 23 monks and wounded more than 20. The insurgents also targeted security personnel assigned to provide monks safe passage to and from the temples.

Amid a peace dialogue between the Thai government and the BRN, insurgents have continued to attack civilians and civilian objects. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly condemned such laws-of-war violations by BRN.

Thai government security forces and militias have also committed numerous violations of the laws of war and international human rights law against ethnic Malay Muslim civilians and suspected BRN members, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture. Insurgent attacks do not justify such violations.

An entrenched culture of impunity for abuses by officials has exacerbated the situation in the southern border provinces, Human Rights Watch said. Thai authorities have failed to prosecute 14 former military personnel and government officials indicted on charges related to the violent dispersal of ethnic Malay Muslim protesters in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province in October 2004, and the subsequent death in military custody of 85 and injuries to several hundred. The 20-year statute of limitations ended on October 25, preventing further legal action.

“It’s critically important for the BRN and other insurgents to immediately cease attacks on civilians and for the Thai authorities to fully prosecute security personnel responsible for rights violations,” Pearson said. “Only then will civilians in Thailand’s deep south escape this 20-year cycle of abuses by all sides.”

Turkmenistan Forcibly Hospitalizes Human Rights Defender

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 20:51:03 -0500

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Human rights defender Soltan Achilova, forcibly held in an infectious disease hospital in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. November 20, 2024.

Turkmenistan’s authorities have gone to extreme lengths to stop veteran human rights defender, Soltan Achilova, from traveling abroad. Achilova, 75, was scheduled to travel to Geneva for events hosted by the Martin Ennals Foundation, honoring her achievements. But at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the morning of her planned departure, four men in laboratory coats showed up at her apartment in Ashgabat, the country’s capital, claimed they suspected she had an infectious disease, forcibly bundled her into an ambulance, and took her to a hospital for infectious diseases.

Farid Tuhbatullin, a Vienna-based human rights defender who works closely with Achilova and spoke with her several times throughout the day she was detained, said that when leaving the apartment, Achilova tried to lock the door. The men detaining her grabbed and confiscated her keys, telling her: “what do you need these for?”

Achilova’s daughter and son-in-law arrived at her apartment 15 minutes later to take her to the airport and found one of the lab-coat clad men still there. He claimed that since the couple had come into contact with Achilova, they too had to be tested.

At the hospital, staff took blood from Achilova but offered no information on which disease she was allegedly suspected of having. Staff later told her that she tested positive and would need to remain at the hospital for an unspecified period of time.

Achilova, her daughter, and son-in-law were forced to spend the night at the hospital.

The spectacle of men in white coats forcibly taking Achilova and her family to an infectious disease hospital might seem like a plot from a dystopian film, but it is the harsh reality of a government who fears a courageous woman. Turkmenistan’s authorities have a long record of interfering with freedom of movement, particularly that of people like Achilova, who are critical of the country’s severely repressive government.

Indeed, it is a common occurrence for authorities at passport control to simply stop Turkmenistan citizens from leaving the country without explanation. Last year, when Achilova and her daughter tried traveling to Geneva also for a Martin Ennals event honoring her, border authorities tampered with their passports, then claimed the women could not travel as the documents were damaged.

Turkmenistan’s authorities should immediately release Achilova and her family from their arbitrary forced confinement in the hospital and allow her to travel to Geneva as planned.

Myanmar: Surging Landmine Use Claims Lives, Livelihoods

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 18:00:00 -0500

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A member of the opposition Karenni Nationalities Defence Force holds antipersonnel mines planted by the Myanmar military and removed during demining operations near Pekon township, July 11, 2023.

(Bangkok) – Myanmar’s military forces are increasingly using banned antipersonnel landmines that indiscriminately kill and injure people across the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Over the past year, fighting between the junta military and alliances of opposition and ethnic armed groups has spiked nationwide. Landmine casualties and contamination have been documented for the first time in all 14 Myanmar states and regions, affecting about 60 percent of the country’s townships.

In the newly released Landmine Monitor 2024, Myanmar unprecedentedly topped the global list of casualties, with 1,003 documented civilian deaths and injuries from landmines and explosive remnants of war in 2023, almost three times the previous year. The rate has continued to rise in 2024, with 692 civilian casualties, about one-third children, recorded in the first six months – though the actual numbers are presumed much higher. Countries participating in the Mine Ban Treaty’s Fifth Review Conference from November 25-29 in Siem Reap, Cambodia, should condemn Myanmar’s use of antipersonnel landmines while strengthening efforts to support victims.

“The Myanmar military’s widespread use of antipersonnel mines will threaten the lives and livelihoods of villagers now and for decades to come,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The junta’s planting of landmines in homes, villages, and farms appears designed to both terrorize and harm civilians.”

In October, Human Rights Watch interviewed four landmine survivors and six medical and humanitarian workers who provide support to victims. All four survivors lost one or both legs. People interviewed described soldiers planting mines around houses and along pathways in villages emptied by fighting, imperiling residents upon return. Three victims said they were injured either when returning to their villages or while fleeing.

Myanmar is one of only four countries actively using antipersonnel mines, along with Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The Myanmar military has long used antipersonnel mines, but new use has increased since the February 2021 coup amid the junta’s campaign of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Non-state armed groups have also used antipersonnel mines, often improvised, and have stockpiled junta-produced mines collected in the field.

The junta’s Directorate of Defence Industries, known as KaPaSa, produces at least five types of antipersonnel mines, including blast mines, stake mines, Claymore-type directional mines, and bounding fragmentation mines. Mines have been planted at schools, medical clinics, monasteries and churches, plantations, cell towers and power stations, displacement camps, ports, development projects, and bridges.

Military units have increasingly rounded up villagers to act as “human minesweepers,” including children, forcing them to walk ahead of troops to detonate any explosives. “Sometimes they force them to wear military uniforms,” said a doctor who travels to conflict regions. “If they’re injured, they’re just left to die.”

A surgeon who operates a clinic in Karenni (Kayah) State said he had treated 15 civilian landmine survivors since 2022 – including three children ages 8, 12, and 15 – and over 50 opposition fighters injured by mines. “Junta soldiers will displace villagers, then place landmines in the village, farms, rice and corn fields, and around the military camp,” the surgeon said. “Villagers are scared, but when it’s time to harvest the rice and corn, they have to go back. Kids will go with them, playing in the fields. The junta is intentionally harming villagers by placing mines in the farms because to them, villagers are the enemy.”

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Daw Khin, 57, stepped on a landmine near her toilet, two days after returning from a displacement camp in September 2022. She had fled military airstrikes over a year earlier. “I went back to clean like many other villagers,” she said. “I didn’t think the military would lay mines in my house.” She was unconscious for three days, during which doctors amputated her entire right leg, lower left leg, and finger. “I was crying for weeks and so depressed.... I’m still in pain. I feel numbness all the time.”

The surgeon said he had seen landmine injuries double or triple over the past year – the second most common injury he treats, after wounds from airstrikes.

Myanmar’s conflict has internally displaced more than 3 million people since the coup, including over 1.8 million since October 2023. The growing contamination of landmines and unexploded ordnance threatens their return.

A medic who provides treatment at displacement camps in Karenni State said he had met about 40 civilian landmine survivors over the past year, including four or five children. He said landmine contamination has increased in tandem with the military’s territorial losses. “When the military is retreating, soldiers will carry landmines in a pull cart and just dump them everywhere.”

The military’s use of landmines in civilian areas appears linked to its longstanding “four cuts” strategy, in which it seeks to exert control over an area by isolating and terrorizing civilians through collective punishment.

“The military has been using more mines since [Operation] 1027,” an opposition fighter said, citing an anti-junta offensive launched in October 2023. “The military’s putting more mines in residential areas to keep the resistance out. They’re mining the walls of houses, inside compounds, throughout villages. They’re booby-trapping people’s gates with wires.”

Non-state groups using landmines and other explosive devices include longstanding ethnic armed groups as well as opposition forces established since the coup. “Any armed group, whatever village they conquer, they’ll plant mines,” a humanitarian worker said. “For the resistance, mines are the cheapest way to protect against a SAC [junta] offensive.” Both the Myanmar military and ethnic Arakan Army have laid landmines along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border while fighting for control of the area. Abdullah, 40, stepped on an antipersonnel mine while fleeing his village in Maungdaw, Rakhine State, in August 2024. Doctors in Bangladesh later amputated his lower left leg.

In September, flooding and landslides from Typhoon Yagi affected an estimated one million people, while increasing risks from dislodged landmines and unexploded ordnance. “With the flooding, the mines have moved everywhere, across villages, IDP camps,” said a medic who has demined affected areas. “The monsoons bury the landmines under mud so they’re no longer visible.”

Landmine contamination has exacerbated Myanmar’s spiraling food insecurity and economic collapse, with millions at risk of starvation. A humanitarian worker said that villagers are often injured when hunger and desperation push them into unsafe areas to find food. Landmines have killed livestock and cut off farmers’ access to land.

Survivors are often unable to return to their former livelihoods. “Since I was injured, it’s been getting harder to survive,” said U Win, a 45-year-old farmer. He lost his lower left leg from a blast antipersonnel mine in February 2023, a year after his home was destroyed by an airstrike. “I can’t work. I don’t have money or a job. The military destroyed everything.”

Access to long-term services and rehabilitation, prosthetics, and assistive devices in Myanmar is extremely limited. Health workers said people often make their own crutches from rubberwood. Amid the ongoing conflict, survivors with disabilities face greater risks of being unable to flee hostilities or access lifesaving aid.

Survivors describe struggling with feelings of depression, helplessness, and fear. “I don’t feel like a normal person anymore, even though I survived,” said an opposition fighter who lost his lower right leg and partial hearing from a landmine blast in March 2022. “I’m in pain. I used to bleed from my ears, but not so much anymore.... After I stepped on the mine, I heard a click and realized, ‘Oh shit.’ I’m still traumatized by that ‘click.’”

“Some become suicidal,” the surgeon said of his patients. “They have no resources to support their mental health needs. They lose their work, their mobility, their pastimes. They believe they’ll never recover.”

Mine clearance efforts in Myanmar are extremely limited and ad hoc. Some villagers said they rented a vehicle with a backhoe attachment to try to clear affected land. The opposition fighter said he was injured despite his unit using a mine detector.

A total of 164 countries are party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of antipersonnel mines. The treaty also requires parties to destroy stockpiles, clear mine-affected areas, and assist victims. Although Myanmar is not a party to the treaty, the junta’s use remains unlawful because the weapons are inherently indiscriminate, unable to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Individuals responsible for using prohibited weapons or carrying out indiscriminate attacks may be prosecuted for war crimes.

The Myanmar military and non-state armed groups should immediately stop all use of antipersonnel mines, Human Rights Watch said. Donors should channel aid through local civil society groups and cross-border efforts to increase landmine risk awareness and provide assistance to victims and their families, including rehabilitation services, assistive devices, psychosocial support, and access to food and basic livelihoods.

“Governments meeting at the Mine Ban Treaty conference in Cambodia should coordinate efforts to press Myanmar’s junta and non-state armed groups to end their use of landmines,” Bauchner said. “Myanmar military officials should be held accountable for their unrelenting use of a devastating weapon that most of the world has banned for 25 years.”

Proposed US Landmine Transfers Gravely Threaten Civilians

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 14:49:06 -0500

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A pile of shoes during the annual demonstration by NGO Humanity and Inclusion denouncing antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions in Lyon on September 20, 2014.

(Washington, DC, November 20, 2024) – The Biden administration’s decision to transfer internationally banned antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine risks civilian lives and rejects the most successful humanitarian disarmament treaty of the past 25 years, Human Rights Watch said today.

On November 19, 2024, the Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden had authorized providing antipersonnel mines to Ukraine, which US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on November 20. “They’ve [Ukraine] asked for these, and so I think it’s a good idea,” Austin told the New York Times.

“President Biden’s decision to transfer antipersonnel landmines risks civilian lives and sets back international efforts to eradicate these indiscriminate weapons,” said Mary Wareham, deputy crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “The US should reverse this reprehensible decision, which only increases the risk of civilian suffering in the short and long term.”

A majority of the world’s countries rejected antipersonnel landmines decades ago due to their indiscriminate nature and the long-term human suffering that they cause, Human Rights Watch said.

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Antipersonnel mines are designed to explode in response to a person’s presence, proximity, or contact. They are typically placed by hand, but they can also be scattered by aircraft, rockets, and artillery or dispersed from specialized vehicles. Antipersonnel mines cannot distinguish between soldiers and civilians, making them unlawfully indiscriminate under international humanitarian law. Uncleared landmines pose a danger until cleared and destroyed. Mined land can drive displacement of the civilian population, hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid, and prevent agricultural activities. Civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded landmine casualties in 2023, while children were 37 percent of casualties when the age was recorded.

The United States has not used antipersonnel mines since 1991, has not exported them since 1992, has not produced them since 1997, and had no plans for future procurement. Over the past 30 years, the US has destroyed antipersonnel mines from its stockpile and has spent more than $1 billion on the development and production of systems that could be considered alternatives to antipersonnel mines.

On June 21, 2022, President Biden announced a policy committing the US not to use antipersonnel mines anywhere in the world, except on the Korean Peninsula, and set the goal of ultimately joining the Mine Ban Treaty. Under that policy, the US committed to destroy antipersonnel mine stockpiles that are “not required for the defense of the Korean Peninsula.” It promised that it would not develop, produce, or acquire antipersonnel mines. The policy explicitly requires the US “not [to] assist, encourage, or induce anyone, outside the context of the Korean Peninsula, to engage in activity that would be prohibited” by the Mine Ban Treaty.

In September 1994, the US became the first country to call for the “eventual elimination” of antipersonnel landmines and participated in the 1996-1997 Ottawa Process that created the Mine Ban Treaty. The US did not adopt or sign the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997, but the Clinton administration set the goal for the US to join the treaty in 2006. The George W. Bush administration reversed that objective in 2004.

In 2014, the Barack Obama administration issued a US landmine policy banning the production and acquisition of antipersonnel mines, as well as halting their use by US forces anywhere except on the Korean Peninsula. In January 2020, then-president and current President-elect Donald Trump canceled a policy that would have eliminated all antipersonnel mines in the US stockpile.

The existing US stockpile of antipersonnel mines is expected to expire—meaning that the mines will become unusable—by the early 2030s, in part because their 36-year shelf-life decreases over time as batteries embedded inside the mines deteriorate with age. The 2014 policy precluded the US from extending or modifying the life of the batteries in its stockpiled antipersonnel mines. The 2022 policy was understood to continue that practice.

The Mine Ban Treaty entered into force on March 1, 1999; it comprehensively bans antipersonnel mines and requires destruction of stocks, clearance of mined areas, and assistance to victims. A total of 164 countries have joined the treaty, including all NATO member states, except the US; all European Union member states; and US allies such as Australia, Japan, and Ukraine. Ukraine ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on December 27, 2005, while Russia has not joined it.

The US transfer decision comes days before the Fifth Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, to be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia from November 25-29. The US and Ukraine have registered to attend the event, also known as the Siem Reap Summit on a Mine-Free World.

Russia has used antipersonnel landmines widely in Ukraine since its full-scale invasion of the country on February 24, 2022, causing hundreds of casualties and contaminating vast tracts of agricultural land. Russia has also created an unprecedented situation in which a country that is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty is using the weapon on the territory of a treaty party.

Human Rights Watch has also documented Ukrainian use of antipersonnel mines in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty in and around the city of Izium, Kharkivska province, in 2022, when the city was under Russian control. Ukrainian authorities have said they are investigating reports that forces used rocket-fired antipersonnel mines.

By accepting and using antipersonnel mines, Ukraine risks further violating the Mine Ban Treaty, Human Rights Watch said. Under article 20 of the Mine Ban Treaty, a state party engaging in armed conflict is not allowed to withdraw from the treaty before the end of the armed conflict. The treaty is also not subject to reservations.

“Russian forces have repeatedly used antipersonnel mines and committed atrocities against civilians across Ukraine in violation of the laws of war, but this doesn’t justify transferring and using prohibited weapons,” Wareham said. “Abiding by international protections for civilians means working to ensure that antipersonnel mines are never used again.”

Human Rights Watch is a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, together with its coordinator, Jody Williams, for its efforts to bring about the Mine Ban Treaty and for its contributions to a new international diplomacy based on humanitarian imperatives.