humanrightsupdates

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Kazakhstan: Ensure Journalist Gets Fair Appeal

Revise Anti-Free Speech Laws, Uphold Media Freedoms

(Berlin, November 28, 2024) – The authorities in Kazakhstan should ensure a fair appeals process for an investigative journalist who has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on criminal charges for allegedly disseminating false information, Human Rights Watch said today. The Kazakh authorities should revise such laws to ensure that no other journalists are jailed for exercising their right to free speech.

The Astana City Interdistrict Criminal Court on October 18, 2024, found the journalist, Daniyar Adilbekov, guilty of “disseminating knowingly false information” and making a “knowingly false denunciation” in connection with materials he published on the Telegram channel “Wild Horde.” Adilbekov has been in custody since he was arrested in late March 2024. His appeal hearing in Astana could come up for review in the coming weeks.

“Imprisonment is an inappropriate and disproportionate punishment for reputational harm and is inconsistent with Kazakhstan’s international obligations,” said Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Kazakh authorities should release Adilbekov, ensure that his appeal hearing is fair, and take steps to abolish criminal penalties for speech offenses that are limited to reputational harm.”

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EU Should Reaffirm Support for ICC Arrests

Use Existing Policies to Ensure Effective Strategies for Executing Arrests

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.

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UN Report Portrays Afghanistan’s Destroyed Media

Taliban Threaten, Detain and Abuse Journalists, Media Workers

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.”

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China State Bank Shouldn’t Back East African Crude Oil Pipeline

Planned Fossil Fuel Project Threatens Human Rights, Drives Climate Change

“We are now drilling.” Uganda’s energy minister recently confirmed at COP29 that the government was pressing ahead with the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The 1,443-kilometer pipeline will connect oilfields in western Uganda with the port of Tanga in eastern Tanzania. Among one of the world’s largest fossil fuel projects currently under development, EACOP poses significant risks to human rights and the environment.

Given the government’s unwavering support, the pipeline’s completion will now rely on whether it can secure the necessary funding.

Several banks, including major African banks, have already declined to support the project. The state-run Import-Export Bank of China (Exim Bank) remains undecided and is expected to make a key decision in December about its financial support for EACOP.

A Human Rights Watch report in 2023 found that land acquisition associated with the project has already devasted thousands of people’s livelihoods in Uganda. The inadequate and delayed compensation for land lost to the project has impacted many communities’ access to food, health, and education. It is estimated that developments in the oilfields will displace as many as 100,000 people across Uganda and Tanzania.

Human Rights Watch has also documented the Ugandan government’s routine harassment and arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders and activists who voice concerns about the pipeline. More than 80 have been arrested since May 2024 for protesting against EACOP.

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Indonesian Domestic Workers’ Long Wait for Reform

President Prabowo Should Seek Passage of Domestic Workers’ Protection Bill

For over two decades, domestic workers in Indonesia, the vast majority of them women, have been advocating for their rights to no avail. Millions of Indonesian women and girls work in private households as domestic workers, but despite their critical role in the economy, they remain unprotected under Indonesian labor laws. This, along with the fact that these workers are isolated inside the employer’s home, means that many experience horrific psychological, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of their employers.

Lita Anggraini, national coordinator of Jala PRT, Indonesia’s National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy, said: “Domestic workers are workers. They provide essential services. But domestic workers are denied access and claim to basic rights and protection. They face some of the harshest working conditions, with many describing their situation as modern slavery. And yet, the state is absent.”

Indonesia's new president, Prabowo Subianto, has the opportunity to take a bold step toward guaranteeing these workers’ rights by getting parliament to pass the Domestic Workers' Protection Bill (PPRT) and ratify both the International Labour Organization’s Domestic Worker’s Convention and the Violence and Harassment Convention. 

Discriminatory gender norms often devalue domestic labor as mere “women’s work.” This devaluation is compounded by the fact that many domestic workers enter the profession as children, some as young as 12. The lack of enforcement of a minimum age of 15 for all sectors of work and the lack of legal recognition of domestic workers as workers leave hundreds of thousands of women and girls exposed to exploitation and abuse.

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Zimbabwe Opposition Activists Freed After Five Months

But Politically Motivated Criminal Convictions Remain

On November 27, a Zimbabwean court sentenced Jameson Timba, interim leader of the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), and 34 others to suspended prison terms, after being convicted earlier in the week for participation in an unlawful gathering. Timba was sentenced to a suspended two-year prison term, while the other activists received lesser suspended prison terms.

The suspended sentences mean that Timba and the other activists will immediately be freed, but the convictions remain.

The defendants have been detained since June following their arrest at Timba’s home in the suburbs of the capital, Harare. The authorities charged over 70 people, who had gathered at his home to commemorate the Day of the African Child, with “gathering with intent to promote public violence and disorderly conduct.” All those arrested were denied bail several times. In September, they were acquitted of disorderly conduct and 40 were released. The rest remained in custody until Wednesday’s sentencing.

Lawyers for the defendants told Human Rights Watch that some of their clients had been left with serious injuries following police beatings. They had been denied the rights to humane treatment, a prompt trial and other basic rights, including access to medical care, adequate food and the right to bail.

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State of Mexico Congress Votes to Decriminalize Abortion

Authorities Should Ensure Access to Care, Wide Dissemination of Legal Protections

(Toluca) – The vote by the Congress of the State of Mexico on November 25, 2024, to decriminalize abortion in all cases during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is a significant step forward for reproductive rights in the country’s most populous state, Human Rights Watch said today.

Once enacted, the reform will remove all criminal penalties for abortion within the first trimester. It will align the State of Mexico with 18 other states in the country that have already decriminalized abortion following the landmark 2021 ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court, which found the absolute criminalization of abortion unconstitutional.

“This decision is a critical victory for women, girls, and pregnant people in the State of Mexico,” said Marea Verde Edomex (Green Wave), the coalition of civil society organizations and activists that pushed for this change. “Decriminalizing abortion is an essential step toward respecting the right of women and girls to gender equality, allowing people to make informed decisions about their bodies, health, and futures.”

Fear of legal repercussions has long deterred healthcare providers in the State of Mexico from offering services and deterred patients from seeking abortion care. Under the previous law, abortion was only permitted in cases of rape, a threat to the woman’s life, “negligent abortions,” or “serious fetal anomalies” (sic). After the change goes into effect, abortion will remain criminalized after the first trimester, with the same exceptions.

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WORKER ARRESTED FOR CRITICIZING FORMER EMPLOYER

UA: 95.24 Indonesia

On August 26, 2024, Septia Dwi Pertiwi, a former worker at a tax and accounting services company in Jakarta, Indonesia, was arrested after a co-owner of her former company accused her of defamation under the Electronic Information and Transactions Law.

She had criticized the company on social media for allegedly underpaying employees and neglecting their rights. She was recently detained for 25 days at the Pondok Bambu Detention Centre in Jakarta. She is now under city detention until November 30, 2024.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: December 15, 2024

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DEATH SENTENCE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS COMMUTED

UA: Second 85.23 Saudi Arabia

On September 24, 2024, the appeals chamber of Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) commuted Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi’s death sentence for his social media posts, resentencing him to 30 years in prison, a ludicrously harsh punishment for exercising his right to free expression. Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, a 55-year-old retired teacher, was sentenced to death by the SCC on July 9, 2023 for his peaceful online activity on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube. He was convicted on trumped up terrorism charges for posts in which he criticized the Saudi King and Crown Prince and Saudi’s foreign policy, called for the release of detained religious clerics and protested increased prices. Amnesty International calls on Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: May 13, 2025

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UNJUSTLY JAILED LAWYER’S HEALTH AT RISK

UA: Ninth 190.18 Egypt

The health of human rights lawyer, Hoda Abdelmoniem, has been deteriorating throughout her arbitrary detention for more than six years and she was recently diagnosed with diabetes.

Her arbitrary detention is solely in relation to her human rights work.

Hoda Abdelmoniem was arrested on November 1, 2018 and due to be released on October 31, 2023, after serving her five-year unjust prison sentence. Instead, on the same day she was taken before a Supreme State Security Prosecution prosecutor, who interrogated her in relation to a separate case and renewed her detention for 45 days on November 5, 2024.

We urge President Abdelfattah al-Sisi to immediately and unconditionally release Hoda Abdelmoniem and to drop all charges against her as they stem solely from the exercise of her human rights.

Pending her release, I call on you to ensure that she is provided with access to the healthcare she needs as well as regular access to her family and lawyer.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: May 13, 2025

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End Racist Deportations of Haitians

UA: 88.24 Dominican Republic

President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic announcedopens in a new tab a plan to deport up to 10,000 Haitian migrants, asylum seekers, and Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic.

This announcement comes despite the security and humanitarian crisis in Haiti that puts many lives at risk. The announced increase of deportations poses a serious risk of racial profiling, collective expulsions, and other human rights violations.

Despite government promises to respect human rights, evidence suggests that violations persist, including the arbitrary detention of minors and pregnant women, excessive use of force by authorities, among others. However, high-level state officials have denied the evidence presented by Amnesty International and others regarding the impact on human rights of migration policies.

We urge President Abinader to immediately end the practice of collective expulsions and ensure that migration policies and practices respect and protect everyone from racial discrimination and comply with international human rights obligations.

Please consider taking all forms of action listed below before February 1, 2025

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Saudi Arabia: Dutch-Yemeni Restaurant Owner Arbitrarily Detained - Amnesty UK Urgent Action

Saudi authorities detained Fahd Ezzi Mohammed Ramadhan on 20 November 2023, two days after he arrived in Saudi Arabia from the Netherlands. He was held in incommunicado detention from 23 November 2023 until 1 January 2024, and has had no access to legal representation throughout his detention and interrogation. He told officials from the Dutch embassy in Riyadh that he had sympathized online with a critic of the Saudi royal family and believed that was the reason for his detention.

He is likely to be arbitrarily detained because of his online activities because according to his family, he was asked to sign a document by interrogators in May which included four of his tweets.

Saudi authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Fahd Ezzi Mohammed Ramadhan.

Amnesty International has documented the Saudi authorities’ increasing crackdown on freedom of expression, targeting both citizens and foreign nationals, many of whom have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. This includes criticizing the government and its policies.

Legal proceedings in these cases fall far short of international fair trial standards. Individuals are often held incommunicado without charge, in solitary confinement, and denied access to lawyers or the courts to challenge the lawfulness of their detention.

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Mexico: Woman Human Rights Defender Disappeared - Amnesty UK Urgent Action

Mexican defender Sandra Domínguez and her husband Alexander Hernández are disappeared. Sandra’s relatives reported to the Office of the Attorney General of the state of Oaxaca that Sandra and Alexander were last seen in their home in María Lombardo de Caso, municipality of San Juan Cotzocón, located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, on 4 October, 2024.

We call on Mexican authorities to take all necessary steps and resources to find defender Sandra Domínguez alive in coordination with their relatives and all the authorities responsible for the search, as well as bring those responsible for the disappearance to justice

Sandra Domínguez is an Ayuuk indigenous defender from Oaxaca, a state located in southern Mexico. She is a lawyer and litigates cases of violence against women. In 2020, she publicly denounced a WhatsApp group where officials of the state of Oaxaca participated. In that chat, sexual images of indigenous women were circulating. Sandra, who was one of the victims whose images were shared, filed a criminal complaint against one of the officials involved in the chat.

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Guam’s Indigenous Groups Challenge US Militarization, Colonization

US Should Respect, Protect, and Fulfill Chamorro Human Rights

Since the US seized control of Guam during World War II, its military has turned the Pacific island into a fortress, destroying cultural sites, food sources, and limestone forests that contain medicinal plants used by the Indigenous Chamorro people.

But on October 14, a Chamorro-led advocacy group, Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian (Prutehi), submitted a complaint to the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, alleging various human rights violations committed by the US government against the Chamorro people.

The complaint details the ongoing US colonization of Guam, one of the last formally recognized colonies in the world. It describes impacts of US military expansion on the island, including destruction or endangerment of sacred sites, critical habitat, and the island’s freshwater source, all of which harm environmental and human health.

The US is the colonial administrator of the territory and is obligated under international law to uphold the right to self-determination of the people of Guam. Despite being US citizens, Chamorro people have no meaningful representation within the US political system as colonial subjects: they have no representation in Congress and no right to vote in US presidential elections.

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Lebanon: Israeli Attacks on Medics Apparent War Crimes

Israel’s Allies Should Suspend Arms Sales

(Beirut) – The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked medical workers and healthcare facilities in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch documented three attacks, involving apparent war crimes, in which Israeli forces unlawfully struck medical personnel, transports, and facilities, including paramedics at a civil defense center in central Beirut on October 3, 2024, and an ambulance and a hospital in southern Lebanon on October 4, killing 14 paramedics.

As of October 25, Israeli attacks have killed at least 163 health and rescue workers across Lebanon over the past year and damaged 158 ambulances and 55 hospitals, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. The Israeli military should immediately halt unlawful attacks on medical workers and healthcare facilities, and Israel’s allies should suspend the transfer of arms to Israel given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses.

“The Israeli military’s unlawful attacks on medical workers and hospitals are devastating Lebanon’s already frail health care system and putting medical workers at grave risk,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Strikes on medical workers and healthcare facilities also compound risks to injured civilians, severely hindering their ability to receive urgently needed medical attention.”

The United Nations should urgently establish, and UN member countries should support, an international investigation into the recent hostilities in Lebanon and northern Israel, and ensure that it is dispatched immediately to gather information and make findings as to violations of international law and recommendations for accountability.

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Saudi Arabia: Flawed Assessment of World Cup Bid

Law Firm at Risk of Being Linked to Abuses

(New York) – A flawed human rights assessment of Saudi Arabia’s FIFA 2034 World Cup bid by AS&H Clifford Chance, part of the global partnership of London-based law firm Clifford Chance, leaves the global firm at risk of being linked to abuses which result from the tournament, 11 organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said today.

AS&H Clifford Chance, which is based in Riyadh and sits within Clifford Chance’s integrated global partnership, produced an “independent human rights context assessment” that was published by FIFA. The assessment has helped pave the way for Saudi Arabia to be confirmed as 2034 hosts on December 11, 2034. But it contains no substantive discussion of extensive and relevant abuses in Saudi Arabia, documented by multiple human rights organizations and UN bodies, and has formed the basis of Saudi Arabia’s human rights strategy for the tournament, which was described by Amnesty International as a “whitewash.”

The 11 organizations, which include a Saudi Arabian diaspora organization, Gulf human rights groups, and labor organizations, as well as Football Supporters Europe, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, wrote to Clifford Chance’s Global Managing Partner, setting out in detail all the concerns in a statement and inviting the authors to publish an updated report. The firm, which says that it works in partnership with “some of the world’s leading NGOs and civil society organizations,” said in response that it would be “inappropriate” to offer any further comment on the report and shared a link to publicly available company policies.

“It has been clear for more than a year now that FIFA is determined to remove all potential obstacles to make sure it can hand Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the 2034 World Cup,” said James Lynch, co-director of the FairSquare human rights organization, which led the joint approach to the law firm. “By producing a shockingly poor report, AS&H Clifford Chance, part of one of the world’s largest law firms that makes much of its human rights expertise, has helped to remove a key final stumbling block

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Saudi Arabia: Flawed Assessment of World Cup Bid

Law Firm at Risk of Being Linked to Abuses

(New York) – A flawed human rights assessment of Saudi Arabia’s FIFA 2034 World Cup bid by AS&H Clifford Chance, part of the global partnership of London-based law firm Clifford Chance, leaves the global firm at risk of being linked to abuses which result from the tournament, 11 organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said today.

AS&H Clifford Chance, which is based in Riyadh and sits within Clifford Chance’s integrated global partnership, produced an “independent human rights context assessment” that was published by FIFA. The assessment has helped pave the way for Saudi Arabia to be confirmed as 2034 hosts on December 11, 2034. But it contains no substantive discussion of extensive and relevant abuses in Saudi Arabia, documented by multiple human rights organizations and UN bodies, and has formed the basis of Saudi Arabia’s human rights strategy for the tournament, which was described by Amnesty International as a “whitewash.”

The 11 organizations, which include a Saudi Arabian diaspora organization, Gulf human rights groups, and labor organizations, as well as Football Supporters Europe, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, wrote to Clifford Chance’s Global Managing Partner, setting out in detail all the concerns in a statement and inviting the authors to publish an updated report. The firm, which says that it works in partnership with “some of the world’s leading NGOs and civil society organizations,” said in response that it would be “inappropriate” to offer any further comment on the report and shared a link to publicly available company policies.

“It has been clear for more than a year now that FIFA is determined to remove all potential obstacles to make sure it can hand Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the 2034 World Cup,” said James Lynch, co-director of the FairSquare human rights organization, which led the joint approach to the law firm. “By producing a shockingly poor report, AS&H Clifford Chance, part of one of the world’s largest law firms that makes much of its human rights expertise, has helped to remove a key final stumbling block