humanrightsupdates

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Canada: Abuse, Bias Against Immigration Detainees with Disabilities

Designated Representatives System Undermines Legal Capacity Rights

(Toronto) – Canada’s immigration detention system routinely discriminates against people with disabilities, including through widespread violations of their legal capacity rights that strip them of their ability to make crucial decisions about their own lives, Human Rights Watch said today in a report marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

The 40-page report, “‘It Felt Like Everything in Life Stopped’: Legal Capacity Rights Violations Against People with Disabilities in Canada’s Immigration Detention System,” documents how the country’s use of designated representatives undermines the rights of immigration detainees with disabilities to make their own decisions, often with life-altering or even life-endangering consequences. Designated representatives are appointed by the Immigration and Refugee Board when it deems that a detained person is “unable to appreciate the nature of the proceedings.”

“Canada’s immigration detention system not only strips people with disabilities of their freedom, but also of their right to make their own decisions,” said Samer Muscati, acting deputy disability rights director at Human Rights Watch. “This system perpetuates discrimination against people with disabilities, robs them of their autonomy, and can have devastating consequences on their lives.”

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Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured

ICC Prosecutor Should Investigate Attacks on Health Care, Detainee Abuses

(Jerusalem) – Israeli forces have arbitrarily detained Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza since hostilities began in October 2023, deported them to detention facilities in Israel, and allegedly tortured and ill-treated them, Human Rights Watch said today. The detention of healthcare workers in the context of the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on hospitals in Gaza has contributed to the catastrophic degradation of the besieged territory’s healthcare system.

Released doctors, nurses and paramedics described to Human Rights Watch their mistreatment in Israeli custody, including humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing and blindfolding, and denial of medical care. They also reported torture, including rape and sexual abuse by Israeli forces, denial of medical care, and poor detention conditions for the general detainee population.

“The Israeli government’s mistreatment of Palestinian healthcare workers has continued in the shadows and needs to immediately stop,” said Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

From March to June 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed eight Palestinian healthcare workers who were taken by the Israeli military from Gaza between November and December 2023 and detained without charge for between seven days and five months. Six were detained at work following Israeli sieges of hospitals or during hospital evacuations that they said had been coordinated with the Israeli military. None of the healthcare workers said they were ever informed of the reason for their detention or charged with an offense. Human Rights Watch also spoke with seven people who witnessed Israeli soldiers detaining healthcare workers carrying out their duties.

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Volkswagen’s China Joint Venture to Exit Xinjiang

Positive Step Doesn’t End Risk of Supply Chain Links to State-Imposed Forced Labor

Volkswagen’s decision last week to cease operations in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region after 12 years is significant, though long overdue.

The German automaker’s exit demonstrates the near impossibility of operating responsibly in a region where the Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity, and subjecting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims to state-imposed forced labor.

Volkswagen was among the highest-profile global brands to maintain a presence in Xinjiang, with a subsidiary of its Chinese joint venture, SAIC-Volkswagen, operating a production plant in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, and a testing track in the city of Turpan. The company has long denied any risk of forced labor at the facilities and cited “economic reasons” for the decision to sell them.

Sustained global pressure on Volkswagen led the company to commission and release a deeply flawed audit of the Xinjiang facilities in 2023. Although the audit purportedly found no evidence of forced labor at the plant, the German official overseeing the audit acknowledged it was based on a review of documentation rather than interviews with workers, which he said could be “dangerous.” He also suggested the risk of retaliation meant workers would be unlikely to report evidence of forced labor at the plant.

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Ukraine Parliament Adopts Bill on Legal Status of CRSV Survivors

A Step Toward Sustainable Support and Interim Reparations

Ukraine’s parliament has taken a critically important step towards providing survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) with interim reparations, by adopting a law to codify the definition of CRSV in national legislation.

The new law addresses acts of sexual violence—such as rape, forced pregnancy, and sexual exploitation—committed after February 20, 2014. It recognizes the status of CRSV survivors, as well as their immediate family members in the case of a victim’s death. It includes parents of minor victims, spouses, children, and dependents, and provides pathways to receiving essential legal, social, and medical support.

Since February 2022, Ukrainian authorities have documented 331 cases of CRSV perpetrated by Russian forces in occupied areas of Ukraine and in Russian detention facilities. Urgent assistance, including interim reparations, is crucial to address CRSV survivors’ immediate needs, with specialized support essential for their long-term recovery.

Daria Rosokhata, a legal analyst with JurFem, a Ukrainian organization providing legal assistance to CRSV survivors, said embedding social and economic support for survivors into national legislation is key to ensuring a sustainable state approach. “Under the new mechanism individuals will receive comprehensive support … this differs from the current system, where survivors must seek assistance from various organizations and state bodies,” she said.

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New UN Cybercrime Treaty Primed for Abuse

States Should Reject Ratifying Convention on Human Rights Grounds

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention against Cybercrime on December 24, despite widespread concerns that the treaty will facilitate human rights violations.

The convention, the first global treaty of its kind, extends far beyond addressing cybercrime – malicious attacks on computer networks, systems, and data. It obligates states to establish broad electronic surveillance powers to investigate and cooperate on a wide range of crimes, including those that don’t involve information and communication systems. And it does so without adequate human rights safeguards.

The General Assembly launched treaty negotiations, sponsored by Russia, in 2019 after a very divided vote. Years of heated negotiations resulted in consensus, with countries that originally opposed the treaty (notably the United States and European governments) ultimately supporting a deeply problematic outcome.

The convention will obligate governments to collect electronic evidence and share it with foreign authorities for any "serious crime,” defined as an offense punishable by at least four years of imprisonment under domestic law. Many governments treat activities protected by international human rights law as serious offenses, such as criticism of the government, peaceful protest, same-sex relationships, investigative journalism, and whistleblowing.

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Mexico Moves to Protect Platform Workers’ Rights

Amendment Grants Platform Workers Access to Healthcare, Pension

Mexico’s congress has approved an amendment to the country’s federal labor law to uphold the labor rights of workers for digital labor platforms.

The amendment reclassifies workers to “employees” from “independent contractors” when their monthly income from digital labor platforms – such as Uber and Didi – exceeds the minimum wage (approximately USD$415 per month). This change grants them access to the social security system, which provides health care, old-age pensions, and paid sick leave. It also ensures workers can set their own working hours and guarantees their right to unionize, marking a significant step forward in safeguarding platform workers’ rights.

The amendment will come into force once signed by President Claudia Sheinbaum, who proposed it.

Human Rights Watch has documented how digital labor platforms use opaque and ever-changing algorithms to allocate jobs and determine pay rates, offering workers no transparency into how their work is allocated and paid, and no meaningful ways to challenge these decisions. This amendment attempts to address this by requiring companies to publish transparent policies on how algorithms are used to assign tasks, and how these policies impact workers. This provision, along with others providing legal recourse and complaints mechanisms in situations of rights violations, could significantly help safeguard workers’ rights.

The bill also tackles violence and harassment that, too often, is a feature of digital platform work, especially for women workers. The law requires platform companies to adopt a gender-sensitive approach and ensure workers are protected from discrimination and harassment. In 2022, Mexico ratified the International Labour Organization’s Convention on Violence and Harassment, making a commitment to eliminate violence and harassment at work.

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End Prosecutions Targeting Kurdish Language Activities in Türkiye

Case Equating Kurdish Education with Terrorism an Abuse of Law

Rıfat Roni has spent more than a decade as an official court interpreter facilitating communication for Kurdish speakers in legal proceedings. This week, he found himself in the dock facing charges.

Roni, 59, stood trial on the widely used charge of “membership of an armed organization” on the basis of his involvement in a civil society group, the Mesopotamian Language and Culture Research Association (Med-Der), which offers Kurdish language classes and other activities to promote Kurdish linguistic rights.

The case against Roni is just one among a slew of outrageous cases over the past year in which Kurdish language songs, dances, and promotion of cultural and linguistic rights have been interpreted by the police and prosecutors as evidence of links with terrorism. The prosecutor claimed Roni’s Kurdish language activities and teaching were serving the aims of the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Drawing on vague witness testimony but no concrete evidence of criminal activity, the prosecutor concluded the aim of associations like MED-DER was “to secure recruitment of youths to the rural areas [PKK militant recruitment] by using Kurdish language and winning over youths to the ideology of the PKK armed terrorist group”.

Kurdish language classes are barely accessible to most school children in the national education system in Türkiye, even though by law they should be available as a two-hour per week elective option. Associations like MED-DER have tried to offer Kurdish language classes to fill this gap. Despite Roni’s prosecution, MED-DER continues to operate as a legally registered and regularly audited association.

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Liberian Warlord-Politician’s Death and the Search for Justice

Victims Never Saw Prince Johnson Prosecuted for War Crimes

Liberia’s Prince Y. Johnson, who rose to prominence first as a warlord and then politician, was implicated in serious abuses during the country’s two civil wars between 1989 and 2003. His death on November 28, without ever being prosecuted, highlights the need to bring those responsible for international crimes to account and uphold the promise of justice.

Johnson was a member of former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s rebel armed group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), and a founding member of its breakaway group, the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL). In 2005, he was elected to the Liberian Senate. Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in its final report recommended Johnson’s prosecution for “gross human rights violations,” stating that he was among the “most notorious perpetrators.” Human Rights Watch had found Johnson responsible for egregious abuses as far back as the early 1990s.

Other prominent Liberians have been held to account for their role in crimes during the country’s civil wars, largely due to efforts by victims and civil society organizations who have sought justice beyond Liberia’s borders under the principle of universal jurisdiction. In 2008, Charles “Chuckie” Taylor Jr., the former president’s son, was found guilty by a court in the United States for committing torture in Liberia. In 2021, Alieu Kosiah, a former commander of United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), a Liberian armed group, was convicted by a Swiss court for war crimes. Another former ULIMO commander, Kunti Kamara, was convicted by a French court in 2022 for crimes against humanity and torture.

Unfortunately, these cases have been the exception rather than the rule. In Liberia, where some alleged perpetrators have held positions of power, impunity for serious wartime crimes remains the norm. This includes George Boley, a former warlord, who was elected to parliament in 2017. Prince Johnson had used his position in the Senate to work against the creation of a Liberian war crimes court.

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OPPOSITION POLITICIAN CHARGED AFTER ABDUCTION

Amnesty International UA: 100.24 Uganda

On November 16, Dr. Kizza Besigye, Ugandan opposition politician and former presidential candidate for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) political party, was abducted in Nairobi, Kenya. He resurfaced on November 20, 2024, when he was arraigned in a military court in Kampala, Uganda, where he was charged alongside FDC member Haji Obeid Lutale with offenses relating to security and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition. He was remanded to Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Kampala, Uganda, where he continues to be detained as investigations into these allegations continue. Dr. Besigye must be immediately released due to the nature of his abduction, which was in clear violation of both international human rights law and the process of extradition with its requisite fair trial protections.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: May 25, 2025

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IMPRISONED POET IS AT RISK OF TORTURE

Amnesty International UA: 102.24 Russia

Poet Artyom Kamardin, sentenced to seven years imprisonment for public reading of his anti-war poem, is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment while being transferred to a penal colony and during his imprisonment there. He also requires an urgent medical examination and care. He is being prosecuted for exercising his right to freedom of expression and must be immediately released. His case must be overturned.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: January 20, 2025

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MALAYSIAN MAN BELIEVED AT RISK OF EXECUTION

UA: 107.24 Singapore

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, a Malaysian national, is believed to be at risk of execution in Singapore, following the recent rejection of judicial appeals. He was convicted in 2017 of importing 51.84g of diamorphine (heroin). The judge found that he had only transported the drugs but had sentenced him to the mandatory death penalty as the prosecution did not issue a certificate of substantive assistance. Executions in Singapore have continued at an alarming rate, with four men hanged in November alone. We call on the government of Singapore to commute the death sentence of Pannir Selvam Pranthaman and immediately establish an official moratorium on all executions as a first critical step.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: March 1, 2025

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HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER IMPRISONED

UA: 109.24 Türkiye

On November 26, prominent human rights defender, Nimet Tanrıkulu, was detained from her home by the police in Istanbul. After a short period of detention at a police station, she was transferred to the anti-terrorism branch of the Ankara Security Directorate. Following four days in police custody, Nimet Tanrıkulu was remanded in pre-trial detention on November 30, accused of “membership to a terrorist organization”. She is currently held at Ankara’s Sincan women’s prison. Amnesty International believes that her detention, on what appear to be baseless accusations, is arbitrary, and she should be released immediately.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: February 10, 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 by May 13, 2025.

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PROMINENT HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER DETAINED

UA: 103.24 Niger

On December 3rd, Moussa Tchangari, a human rights defender and secretary general of the civil society organization, Citizens’ Alternative Spaces, was arrested in Niamey, Niger’s capital.

Moussa was at his home when at least three gunmen in plain clothes, who claimed to be policemen, arrested him. For nearly two days, his whereabouts remained unknown.

On December 5, 2024, he was located and charged, amongst other things, with advocating terrorism and criminal association in connection with terrorism.

We call on Niger’s authorities to drop all charges and immediately release Moussa Tchangari, who is being detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his human rights.

Since the 1990s, Moussa Tchangari has been known as an activist and human rights defender, working to advance human rights and the rule of law in Niger. He had been detained for his human rights work in the past. Days before his arbitrary arrest on December 3, 2024, he had told a colleague that he was worried and expressed concerns about the risk of arbitrary arrest and detention looming over many Nigeriens, especially those publicly criticizing the military authorities, including himself.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: June 16, 2025

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Cameroon: Minister Suspends Prominent Human Rights Group

Arbitrary Decision Violates Right of Association

(Nairobi) – Cameroon’s authorities should immediately reverse the suspension of a prominent human rights group, Human Rights Watch said today. The arbitrary suspension lacks a lawful basis and violates the right to freedom of association under both Cameroonian law and international human rights law.

On December 5, 2024, the minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, issued a decree without prior notification suspending the activities of the Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (Réseau des Défenseurs des Droits Humains en Afrique Centrale, REDHAC) for three months. He cited as reasons, among others, “illicit and exorbitant funding,” and lack of compliance with the legislation regulating the activities of non-profit organizations. On the same day, Nji suspended for three months at least four other civil society organizations. Cameroon’s 1990 law on freedom of association says that the territorial administration minister can only suspend an association with prior authorization from the provincial authority and for public-order and security related reasons. The decision appears linked to the Cameroonian authorities’ pervasive crackdown on civil society, the media, and the political opposition.

“Ensuring that associations operate transparently may be a legitimate aim, but the Cameroonian authorities have no justification to trample on rights protected by the constitution and the law and to bypass the judiciary,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “They should immediately lift the suspension and use the proper procedures established by law to go after any group against whom there is credible evidence of involvement in illicit funding.”

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UNJUSTLY JAILED FATHER APPEALS PRISON TERM

UA: Third 73.23 Egypt

On December 22, the Criminal Circuit of the Court of Cassation will examine Badr Mohamed’s appeal against his unjust conviction and five-year prison sentence. He was convicted in January 2023 in a grossly unfair trial in connection to the Ramsis Square protests on August 16, 2013, when he was 17 years old. He is held in Badr 1 prison in cruel and inhuman conditions of detention without access to adequate medical care. The Egyptian authorities must quash Badr Mohamed’s unjust verdict and immediately release him.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: June 12, 2025

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PROMINENT ARTIST ARRESTED FOR HIS WORK

Amnesty International UA: 106.24 China

On August 26, 2024, Gao Zhen, a prominent Chinese artist, was detained by authorities while traveling in China with his wife and son. Gao is charged with “slandering China’s heroes and martyrs,” a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. His formal arrest has been approved, and his wife and child have been prevented from leaving China. Chinese authorities must release Gao Zhen immediately and unconditionally, and cease using this and other laws to stifle creative expression.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: March 30, 2025