Amnesty 2017

On 24 May, 10 rural workers who were society organizations and governmentalcamping in the margins of Santa Lucia farm technical bodies working for Indigenousin Pau D’Arco, Pará state, were shot dead Peoples’ rights. Budget cuts to FUNAIduring a joint operation between military and impacted negatively on its work for thecivil police officers. On 7 July, one of the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.leaders of the group of rural workers,Rosenildo Pereira de Almeida, was shot Indigenous people from Vale do Javari,dead. Survivors of the massacre continued to Amazonas state, reported that members offear for their lives following the killings. isolated Indigenous groups in the area were killed during the year. The killings were not In September a group of armed mine investigated. Demarcated Indigenous land inworkers threatened smallholders in the rural Vale do Javari was subjected to invasions bysettlement of Montanha e Mangabal, in the miners.Tapajós river region, municipality of Itaituba,Pará state. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLEINDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS According to Bahia Gay Group, 277 LGBTIConflicts over land and invasion by illegal people were killed in Brazil between 1loggers and mine workers into Indigenous January and 20 September, the highestPeoples’ territory continued, resulting in number since the group began compilingseveral episodes of violence against data in 1980.Indigenous people. The government andcourts undermined the institutional On 15 February, transgender womanframework and national policies, introducing Dandara dos Santos was beaten to death infurther delays in the already slow land Bom Jardim neighbourhood in Fortaleza city.demarcation process, aggravating conflicts According to investigators, at least 12 peopleover land in Indigenous territories. Data were involved in her killing. Two men werepublished by the Indigenous Missionary arrested in connection with her killing duringCouncil during the year revealed that at least the year.118 Indigenous people were killed in 2016. In September, a Federal District judge In January, the Ministry of Justice issued a authorized psychologists to use unethical anddecree changing the land demarcation harmful so-called “conversion therapies” inprocess, making it even slower and more an attempt to alter individuals’ sexualvulnerable to pressure from landlords. orientation. The decision flouted a resolution of the Federal Psychology Council confirming In April, at least 22 Indigenous Gamela that psychologists cannot take any action thatpeople were attacked by gunmen in Viana, would “pathologize homosexuality”. TheMaranhão state; some were shot at, others judge’s decision contributed to increasingbeaten, and two had their hands cut off. stigma and violence against LGBTI people. The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry A number of proposals at city, state andinto the National Indigenous Foundation national level sought to prohibit gender and(FUNAI) and the National Institute for sexual orientation-related issues from beingColonization and Agrarian Reform, two included in educational materials.independent institutions set up by thegovernment to protect Indigenous Peoples’ FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEFrights and promote access to land, presentedits final report, which was approved by the Throughout the year, religious centresHouse of Representatives in May. The report (terreiros) of the Afro-descendant religionswas a clear attack on Indigenous Peoples’ Umbanda and Candomblé in Rio de Janeirorights and had a direct intent to criminalize state suffered several attacks by private(including by requesting criminal indictment individuals, criminal gangs and members ofof dozens of people) Indigenous leaders, civil other religions. In August and September, at least eight centres were attacked andAmnesty International Report 2017/18 101

destroyed, most of them in Rio de Janeiro BRUNEIcity and surrounding municipalities in the DARUSSALAMBaixada Fluminense region. Brunei DarussalamCHILDREN’S RIGHTS Head of state and government: Sultan Hassanal BolkiahJuvenile detention facilities remainedovercrowded and detainees suffered Lack of transparency made independentinhuman and degrading conditions. monitoring of the human rights situation difficult. Phased amendments to the In Ceará state, torture by state officials was Shari’a Penal Code, if implemented, wouldrecurrent inside juvenile detention facilities. provide for the death penalty and corporalDuring the year, there were at least 20 riots punishment, such as caning and stoningand 37 escapes from units in Ceará. Out of which amount to torture and other ill-200 formal reports of torture of adolescents treatment, for a range of offences. Theinside juvenile detention units in Ceará amendments would further restrict thebetween 2016 and September 2017, only rights to freedom of thought, consciencetwo reports resulted in a formal inquiry by the and religion and discriminate againststate for further investigation. Reports of the women.chaotic state of the juvenile justice system inCeará resulted in a formal visit by Brazil’s BACKGROUNDNational Human Rights Council inSeptember. Several amendments to the Shari’a Penal Code remained pending and were subject to Early in the year, Espirito Santo state held phased implementation. Brunei completed1,198 juvenile detainees in a system with phase one of the amendments which dealtcapacity for only 754, a rate of overcrowding with crimes punishable by prison sentencesof more than 39%. Of the state’s 13 detention and fines. If implemented, phase two willfacilities, only four were operating within their cover crimes punishable by amputation;intended capacity. while phase three will deal with crimes carrying the penalty of stoning to death. On 3 June, seven boys aged between 15and 17 were killed by other teenage FREEDOM OF EXPRESSIONdetainees during a riot in a juvenile detentionfacility in Lagoa Seca, Paraíba state. On 27 July, government employee Shahiran Sheriffudin bin Shahrani Muhammad was On 13 November, four young boys were removed from his post and charged underkilled by hooded men who entered a juvenile Section 4(1)(c) of the Sedition Act for postingjustice system facility where the boys were comments on Facebook deemed “offensive”detained. to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Journalists and online activists continued to self-censor1. Brazil: Law leading to military impunity sanctioned (AMR for fear of prosecution. 19/7340/2017) WOMEN’S RIGHTS2. Brazil: Police killings, impunity and attacks on defenders: Amnesty International submission for the UN Universal Periodic Review – 27th Shari’a Penal Code amendments included session of the UPR working group, May 2017 (AMR 19/5467/2016) provisions which, if implemented, would further discriminate against women,3. Brazil: Over 90 men killed in Brazilian prison riots (AMR including by criminalizing pregnancy outside 19/5444/2017) marriage and forcing unmarried Muslim women to live in their guardian’s home.102 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

DEATH PENALTY BULGARIAAlthough abolitionist in practice, death by Republic of Bulgariahanging was maintained as punishment for Head of state: Rumen Radev (replaced Rosenseveral offences including murder, terrorism Plevneliev in January)and drug-related crimes. Penal Code Head of government: Boyko Borisovamendments, if implemented during phasethree, would impose death by stoning as Summary detentions, pushbacks andpunishment for offences including “adultery”, abuses at the border continued. The“sodomy” and rape. Stoning to death or 100 necessary services were not provided tolashes, depending on the offender’s marital migrants and refugees, including tostatus, would be imposed on Muslims and unaccompanied children. A climate ofnon-Muslims who commit “adultery” with a xenophobia and intolerance sharplyMuslim. intensified. Roma continued to be at risk of pervasive discrimination.RIGHT TO EDUCATION REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTSStateless children and children who were notcitizens of Brunei faced barriers to basic The number of refugees and migrantsrights, including education. While primary entering Bulgaria declined, but reports ofeducation was free and accessible to citizens, frequent pushbacks, excessive use of forcestateless and non-citizen children had to and theft by border police continued.apply for permission to enrol and were often Irregular border crossing remainedrequired to pay monthly fees. criminalized resulting in administrative detention of migrants and refugees, includingRIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, unaccompanied children, who arrived inTRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE greater numbers. Human rights organizations documented numerous allegations of ill-Consensual same-sex sexual relations treatment of refugees and asylum-seekersremained a criminal offence with “intercourse and substandard conditions in detentionagainst the order of nature” punishable by up facilities.to 10 years’ imprisonment under Article 377of the Penal Code. Amendments to the Penal In February, local authorities in the town ofCode would, if implemented, allow a Elin Pelin refused to receive a Syrian familymandatory punishment of death by stoning that had been granted humanitarian status infor consensual same-sex activity (see above). Bulgaria. The Mayor publicly warned that “Muslims from Syria [were] not welcome”COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY and refused to register the family or issue them with identity documents. OtherSuspects were detained without trial under municipalities expressed a similarthe Internal Security Act. In February, four unwillingness to accommodate refugees.Indonesian nationals were detained underthe law for alleged links with the armed group In July, the government adopted theIslamic State (IS) and subsequently deported. Regulation on Integration of Refugees; however, this fell short of providing an effective mechanism for integration. According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, the Regulation failed to address the persistent problem of unco-operative municipalities or to propose measures to create more favourable conditions for integration in local communities. It also failedAmnesty International Report 2017/18 103

to address the gaps in refugees’ access to Directorate in all proceedings involvingsocial housing, family benefits for children or unaccompanied children who had notlanguage training, which limited their applied for international protection. Theenjoyment of social and economic rights. amendments, however, proposed repealing the requirement for an individual assessment The government issued an order restricting of the best interests of the child beforefreedom of movement for registered asylum- placing children in short-term immigrationseekers. Adopted in September, it imposed detention. Human rights organizationsterritorial limits for asylum-seekers in refugee warned that the proposals would legitimizecentres, prohibiting them from moving out of the practice of “attaching” unaccompaniedprescribed areas. children to often unrelated adults travelling in the same group in order to avoid the Although Bulgaria committed to accept prohibition of detention of children.1,302 asylum-seekers from Greece and Italyunder the EU emergency relocation scheme, DISCRIMINATIONit had only resettled 50 people from Greeceby the end of the year. It did not receive any Hate speech and hate crimes continued,Syrian refugees from Turkey under the EU- directed at minority groups, including TurksTurkey “one-for-one” resettlement deal and Roma; refugees, asylum-seekers andalthough it had originally committed to accept migrants remained vulnerable to violence and100 people under the scheme. harassment. Discriminatory or xenophobic statements were made during the campaignCHILDREN’S RIGHTS for parliamentary elections held in March, by candidates and political parties as well as byReception conditions for unaccompanied the coalition of far-right parties, the Patrioticrefugee and migrant children remained Front, which gained enough seats to enterinadequate. Children were routinely denied the government.adequate access to legal representation,translation, health services and psychosocial Marginalization and widespreadsupport. Basic education was not available in discrimination against Roma persisted. Theythe centres and most children were not faced systemic obstacles in all aspects of life,enrolled in local schools. Limited social and including education, health care, housingeducational activities were available several and employment. Roma children weredays a week and organized exclusively by enrolled in special schools and deniedNGOs and humanitarian organizations. access to mainstream education. High numbers of Roma lacked health insurance The authorities lacked developed systems and faced persistent barriers to adequatefor early identification, assessment and health care and services. The authoritiesreferral mechanisms for unaccompanied continued the practice of forced evictionschildren. Children often did not have access without the provision of adequate alternativeto qualified legal guardians and legal housing, leaving many families homeless.representation. In February, mayors and Human rights organizations documentedresidents of several towns refused to numerous cases involving ill-treatment andaccommodate two unaccompanied refugee physical abuse of Roma by police. Romachildren in facilities in their communities. The remained over-represented in places ofboys were moved several times and finally detention. In July, mass anti-Romaseparated, causing the younger boy to demonstrations organized by the Patrioticabscond. Front took place in the towns of Asenovgrad and Byala, following a violent incident In September, the National Assembly between a sports youth team and severaladopted, in the first reading, amendments to Roma.the Law on Foreigners. They included anobligation to provide legal representation forall unaccompanied children and to increasethe authority of the Social Assistance104 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

People with disabilities, particularly LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL ORchildren, continued to face discrimination INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTSand systemic social exclusion, includinglimited access to education, health services In December, a draft Constitution wasand employment. Those with intellectual submitted to the President for approval,disabilities and psychosocial problems were following which it will either be approved bydeprived of their legal capacity and the right referendum or adopted by Parliament. Itto independent living and were frequently included provisions to strengthen humanplaced under guardianship or social care rights protection, including economic, socialinstitutions without their consent. and cultural rights, gender equality, protection for women and girls from violence, Despite numerous threats and simultaneous abolition of the death penalty, and to increasecounter-demonstrations organized by far-right the independence of the judiciary.groups, Sofia Gay Pride took place in Juneunder heavy police presence. In June, the National Assembly adopted a law to protect human rights defenders.FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION In July, legislation was adopted which wouldJOURNALISTS AND MEDIA give the High Court of Justice jurisdiction toA pattern of threats, political pressure and try members of the government for crimesattacks against journalists continued; a committed in the course of, or in connectionsignificant portion of the media remained with, their duties. In the same month, theunder the tight control of political parties and government adopted a law allowing thelocal oligarchs. In October, Deputy Prime military prosecutor to initiate publicMinister Valeriy Simeonov and MP Anton prosecutions against civilians in proceedingsTodorov publicly threatened TV journalist which would operate independently of theVictor Nikolaev that he would be fired unless High Council of Magistrates which, amonghe stopped investigating the government’s other things, was responsible for overseeingpurchase of a fighter aircraft. The incident the independence of the judiciary.was widely condemned by civil society, butno action was taken against the public TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENTofficials. There were complaints at the main prison of Bulgaria remained the lowest ranking EU Ouagadougou, the capital: detainees atmember state on the World Press Freedom MACO prison (Maison d’Arrêt et deIndex. The NGO Reporters without Borders Correction de Ouagadougou) complained ofranked Bulgaria 109th out of 180 countries torture and other ill-treatment, mainly duringin terms of press freedom. arrest or in police custody, often in order to extract “confessions”. Several prisoners saidBURKINA FASO they were held in custody for over two weeks without charge. Four prisoners said thatHead of state: Roch Marc Christian Kaboré courts took no action when they reported thatHead of government: Paul Kaba Thiéba they had been tortured.The draft Constitution included provisions Several soldiers who were tried in April forwhich, if implemented, would strengthen conspiracy to raid an arms depot in Yimdi inhuman rights protection. There were reports January complained in a military court inof torture and other ill-treatment and prison Ouagadougou that they were tortured duringconditions remained poor. Rates of detention in custody either at thematernal mortality as well as early and gendarmerie or at MACO prison.forced marriage remained high. Armedgroups committed human rights abuses. DETENTION Many prisons remained overcrowded: 1,900 detainees were held in MACO prison which has a capacity for 600. Conditions remainedAmnesty International Report 2017/18 105

poor, with inadequate food and medical infection and death. There were at least 100provisions. In June, however, Ministry of maternal deaths in the first half of the year atJustice representatives said that they were one of the two main public hospitals indeveloping a strategic plan to improve prison Ouagadougou. In one hospital, overworkedconditions. midwives carried out up to 25 caesarean sections a day, while shortages forced womenIMPUNITY patients to sleep on the floor, sometimes without bedding.The trial of former President Blaise Compaoréand 32 former ministers before the High No progress was made towardsCourt of Justice was repeatedly delayed; in implementing the government’s pledge inJune it was temporarily suspended by the 2016 to increase the legal marriage age ofConstitutional Council. Blaise Compaoré was girls and women. Over 50% of girls betweencharged with acts of wilful assault, complicity 15 and 17 were married in the Sahel regionin assault, assassination and complicity in in the north of the country. Rates of femaleassassination in relation to the October 2014 genital mutilation continued to lessenuprising. An international arrest warrant for although it remained widespread despitehim and his former Chief of Security, being outlawed.Hyacinthe Kafando, remained in place. ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS In May, an international arrest warrant wasissued against Blaise Compaoré’s brother, The self-defence militia called “Kogleweogo”,François Compaoré, in relation to the murder mainly comprising farmers and cattleof investigative journalist Norbert Zongo in breeders, continued to commit human rightsDecember 1998. François Compaoré was abuses including beatings and abductions,placed under court supervision in France, despite the Justice Minister’s pledge inwhere he was living, pending a decision on December 2016 to regulate the militia’shis extradition to Burkina Faso. activities. Fourteen people awaited trial in connection Justice Ministry officials said thatwith the murder of former President Thomas Kogleweogo members beat a man to death inSankara, three of whom remained in the town of Tapoa in January over an allegeddetention. chicken theft. In May, six people died, including four Kogleweogo members, in The findings of an investigation into the clashes between locals and Kogleweogo inattempted coup in September 2015 were Goundi. In the same month, the regionalreferred to the Indictments Division for a governor banned “self-defence groups” indecision in October. At least 106 people − Boulkiemdé and Sanguié.including 40 civilians, one of whom was aforeign national – were charged, including There were reports that trials werewith threatening state security, crimes against postponed when Kogleweogo heldhumanity and murder during the coup demonstrations in order to protect theirattempt. More than 20 of them remained in members from prosecution in Fadadetention at the end of the year while N’Gourma and Koupela.another, General Djibril Bassolé, remainedunder house arrest having been transferred Armed groups carried out attacks close tofrom detention in October. In December the the Mali and Niger border, killing dozens ofUN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention civilians. They also attacked police andcalled for his release. military personnel. Repeated attacks in the Sahel region led to public officials temporarilyWOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS vacating the region.Lack of medical equipment, medication and In late January, armed men went to severalstaffing in hospitals left women and newborn schools in the north and threatened teachersbabies at serious risk of birth complications, to make them adopt Islamic teaching.106 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

Consequently, hundreds of schools closed, assistance to the EAC’s political dialogueincluding in Soum, Oudalan and Loroum. efforts. Ansaroul Islam claimed responsibility for The government declared a malariaattacking police stations in Baraoulé and epidemic in March. Between January andTongomaël on 27 and 28 February. mid-November, 6.89 million cases and 3,017 deaths were recorded. On 3 March, an armed group killed a schoolprincipal and another local person in UNLAWFUL KILLINGSKourfayel, a village in Soum. Unlawful killings continued. Bodies were In August, at least 19 people were killed regularly discovered in the streets of theand more than 22 injured in an attack capital, Bujumbura, and throughout theagainst a restaurant in Ouagadougou. No country. Several Burundians who were livinggroup claimed responsibility. as refugees in neighbouring countries said that they left Burundi after their relatives were On two occasions in September and killed, primarily by the Imbonerakure – theNovember, armed groups carried out attacks increasingly militarized youth wing of thein Soum, killing at least nine people. ruling National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence ofBURUNDI Democracy. Others witnessed the killings of their family members by the Imbonerakure asRepublic of Burundi they tried to flee the country.Head of state and government: President PierreNkurunziza ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCESRestrictions on the rights to freedom of Reports of enforced disappearancesexpression and assembly continued. The continued, and cases from 2015 and 2016security forces, among others, carried out remained unresolved. The UN Commission ofunlawful killings, enforced disappearances, Inquiry on Burundi highlighted several casestorture and other-ill-treatment, arbitrary where there were reasonable grounds toarrests and detention. believe or to fear that people had been forcibly disappeared. Pacifique Birikumana,BACKGROUND driver for the Ngozi diocese, was believed to have been forcibly disappeared on 8 AprilIn October, the Council of Ministers approved after he returned from driving a group ofrevisions of the Constitution. The proposed soldiers to Gitega province. The Commissionconstitutional amendments would allow received information that he may have beenPresident Nkurunziza to stand for at least two arrested by the National Intelligence Servicesmore seven-year terms, and reduce the size (SNR); his whereabouts remained unknown.of the majority required to pass legislation in Former senator and businessman OscarParliament. In December, the President of Ntasano went missing with two of histhe National Independent Electoral employees on 20 April after meeting a manCommission announced that a referendum said to work for the SNR. Witnesses told theon the constitutional amendments was Commission that Oscar Ntasano receivedplanned for May 2018. threats from state officials in connection with a contract he was negotiating with the UN to Efforts by the East African Community rent office space. One state official was said(EAC) to find a mediated solution to the to have threatened him with death if hepolitical crisis sparked by the President’s refused to split the proceeds.decision in 2015 to stand for a third termcontinued to stall. Michel Kafando, formerPresident of Burkina Faso, was appointed asUN Secretary-General Special Envoy toBurundi in May. His role included providingAmnesty International Report 2017/18 107

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT them were arrested and six student leaders were charged with rebellion.Reports of torture and other ill-treatment by,among others, the SNR, police and the army, On 4 April, Joseph Nsabiyabandi, editor-in-of detainees suspected of opposing the chief of Radio Isanganiro, was summoned forgovernment continued. Torture methods questioning by the SNR, and accused ofincluded beating men with cables, iron collaborating with two radio stations set up byreinforcing bars (rebar) and batons, as well Burundian journalists in exile.as hanging heavy weights from genitals.Imbonerakure members were frequently On 9 June, the Mayor of Bujumbura refusedaccused of beating detainees during arrest. to allow Amizero y’Abarundi, the parliamentary opposition coalition, composed Impunity for such violations continued. of representatives from the NationalBurundi had not yet established a National Liberation Forces and Union for NationalPreventive Mechanism against torture as set Progress, to hold a press conference on theout in the Optional Protocol to the UN grounds that the coalition did not have “legalConvention against Torture. personality”.SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERSThe Commission of Inquiry interviewed 49 In January, the Bujumbura Court of Appealsurvivors of sexual violence that took place overturned a decision by the Barbetween 2015 and 2017. Most of the cases Association’s president not to disbar fourinvolved rape of women and girls by police, lawyers following a request to do so by aoften while arresting a male family member. prosecutor in 2016. Three of the lawyersThe Commission also documented sexual were, therefore, disbarred while another wasviolence against men in detention. It suspended for one year. The prosecutor hadconcluded that sexual violence appeared to called for them to be struck off after theybe used as a way to assert dominance over contributed to a report to the UN Committeepeople linked to opposition parties or against Torture.movements. Germain Rukuki was arrested on 13 July;ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS he was president of the community organization Njabutsa Tujane, an employee ofArbitrary arrests and detentions continued, the Burundian Catholic Lawyers Associationincluding during police searches in the so- and a former member of ACAT-Burundicalled opposition neighbourhoods of (Action by Christians for the Abolition ofBujumbura. People were often arrested Torture, ACAT). The SNR held andwithout warrants and only later informed of interrogated him without a lawyer present,the accusations against them. Police and before transferring him to prison in Ngozi cityImbonerakure sometimes used excessive on 26 July. On 1 August, he was chargedforce during arrests and attempted arrests. with “undermining state security” andFormer detainees said that they or their “rebellion”, for collaborating with ACAT-family had to pay vast sums of money to Burundi, which was banned in Octobermembers of the SNR, police or Imbonerakure 2016. The Public Prosecutor presented asin exchange for their release. evidence against him an email exchange from a period when ACAT-Burundi was legallyFREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND registered in Burundi. Germain Rukuki wasASSEMBLY denied bail and remained in detention at the end of the year.Restrictions on freedom of expression andpeaceful assembly continued at all levels. Nestor Nibitanga, former member of theUniversity students in Bujumbura went on deregistered Association for the Protection ofstrike in March to protest against a new Human Rights and Detained Personsstudent loan and grant system; several of (APRODH), was arrested in Gitega on 21108 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

November. He was charged with INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLEundermining state security and rebellion.This appeared to be in retaliation for his The International Organization for Migrationhuman rights activities. Following a hearing said that 187,626 people were internallyon 28 December, the Mukaza court in displaced as of November; 19% weresession at Rumonge decided to keep Nestor displaced in 2017. Two thirds of the totalNibitanga in provisional detention. He were displaced by natural disasters and oneremained in detention at the Murembwe third as a result of the socio-politicalcentral prison in Rumonge at the end of the situation.year. RIGHT TO PRIVACYREFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS Couples cohabiting without being marriedPeople trying to flee the country reported risked prosecution under a 2016 law whichabuses including rape, killings, beatings and banned “free unions” or cohabitation andextortion by members of the Imbonerakure. carried a prison sentence of one to threeMany tried to leave by informal routes, as months, and a fine of up to 200,000 francsthey did not have official travel documents; (USD114). In May, following Presidentthey were afraid of being accused of joining Nkurunziza’s call for a nationwidethe rebellion, being refused permission to “moralization” campaign, the Interior ministryleave or being arrested at the border for spokesperson gave cohabiting couples untiltrying to leave. 31 December to “regularize” their situation. The number of Burundian refugees in ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURALrelation to the current crisis reached over RIGHTS418,000 in September but fell to 391,111 bythe end of 2017. Most of them were hosted In October, the Minister of Justice presentedby Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic proposed amendments to the Penal Codeof the Congo (see Democratic Republic of the which were unanimously adopted by theCongo entry) and Uganda. In an operation National Assembly and the Senate. Theled by the Tanzanian government and amendments would criminalize begging andsupported by UNHCR, the UN refugee “vagrancy”. Able-bodied people found guiltyagency, organized returns began in of begging would face a prison sentence ofSeptember with 8,836 refugees assisted to between two weeks and two months, and/or areturn to Burundi by 20 November. Many fine of up to 10,000 francs (USD6). Therefugees cited harsh conditions in their same sentence was proposed for “vagrancy”.countries of asylum as their main reason forreturn. In August, the World Food Burundian refugees living outside theProgramme warned that without urgent country claimed that increased local taxationfunding from donors, insufficient food rations was affecting their livelihoods. The extent toto refugees in Tanzania would be further which fees were formally imposed or werereduced. The UNHCR-led Burundi Regional simply acts of extortion was not always clearRefugee Response received only 20% of the especially where they were collected byfunding required for 2017. members of the Imbonerakure. In January, Tanzania stopped automatically INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINYrecognizing Burundian asylum-seekers asrefugees. Uganda followed suit in June. On On 4 September, the Commission of Inquiry20 July 2017, President Nkurunziza visited report concluded that there were reasonableTanzania in an attempt to convince grounds to believe that crimes againstBurundian refugees that it was safe to return. humanity had been committed since April 2015. On 28 September, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution mandating a team of three experts “to collect and preserve information […] in cooperationAmnesty International Report 2017/18 109

with the Government of Burundi”, and “to Sam Rainsy stood down as leader of themake recommendations for technical opposition Cambodia National Rescue Partyassistance and capacity building”. On 29 (CNRP) to avoid party dissolution because ofSeptember, the Council also renewed the his 2016 conviction on criminal charges. TheCommission of Inquiry’s mandate for another lead-up to the June 2017 commune electionsyear. Discussions between the UN and the was marked by threatening rhetoric from thegovernment on the reopening of the UN Prime Minister and other senior governmentOffice of the High Commissioner for Human and military officials. The ruling CambodianRights in Burundi had not reached a People’s Party (CPP) won control of 70% ofconclusion by the end of the year. communes. In September, the UN Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the Burundi’s withdrawal from the ICC came Special Rapporteur on the situation of humaninto effect on 27 October. Two days earlier, rights in Cambodia for a further two years. Onthe Pre-Trial Chamber authorized an 16 November, the CNRP was dissolved amidinvestigation into the situation in Burundi, a allegations of being part of a purported US-decision made public in November. funded “colour revolution” to topple the current regime. The AU Peace and Security Council did notmeet to discuss Burundi in 2017, despite the FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION ANDcontinued presence of AU human rights ASSOCIATIONobservers and military experts in the countryat the Council’s request. Harassment of the political opposition and civil society through misuse of the criminalCAMBODIA justice system escalated in an apparent attempt to hamper activities ahead of theKingdom of Cambodia 2018 general election.1 Amendments to theHead of state: King Norodom Sihamoni Law on Political Parties in February and JulyHead of government: Hun Sen gave the Ministry of Interior and courts new powers over political parties and barredThe crackdown on human rights defenders, individuals convicted of a criminal offencemedia, civil society and the political from holding leadership positions.opposition intensified ahead of electionsscheduled for July 2018. The authorities’ In March, Sam Rainsy was convicted ofmisuse of the justice system continued. “defamation and incitement to commit aNew criminal charges were brought against felony” for claiming on social media that theserving and former leaders of the main July 2016 murder of political commentatoropposition party. The authorities increased Kem Ley was an act of “state-sponsoredpressure on civil society including by terrorism”. Political commentator Kim Sokconducting surveillance of human rights was convicted on the same charges inworkers and restricting or shutting down August for allegedly linking the government toorganizations monitoring elections. Media the murder in a radio interview. Following thefreedom and diversity were dramatically commune elections, the Ministry of Interiorreduced. Human rights defenders continued ordered a local election monitoring coalitionto be monitored, threatened, arrested and to cease its activities.imprisoned. Montagnard asylum-seekersfaced forcible return to Viet Nam. In August, the US-based National Democratic Institute was expelled fromBACKGROUND Cambodia for alleged regulatory violations. Also in August, more than 30 FM radioThe prospect of a close general election in frequencies were silenced. Radio stations2018 led to an unstable political environment were alleged to have violated their contractsand threats to human rights. In February, with the government by “overselling” air time to broadcasting programmes from the US-110 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

based Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of December, the Supreme Court upheld a six-America, as well as Cambodian radio month prison sentence against Tep Vannyprogramme Voice of Democracy. In and two other community membersSeptember, the long-running English stemming from a protest in 2011. Humanlanguage newspaper The Cambodia Daily rights defenders Am Sam Ath and Chanshut down after the authorities gave its Puthisak were investigated in February forpublishers 30 days to pay a USD6.3 million allegedly instigating violence at an Octobertax bill, a move widely viewed as arbitrary. 2016 demonstration in Phnom Penh. TheyThe same month, RFA ceased operations in were beaten by para-police during theCambodia, citing the restrictive media demonstration; however, their formalenvironment. In November, two former RFA complaint of assault appeared to have beenreporters were arrested on trumped-up ignored.charges of “espionage” and faced up to 15years in jail. In June, five serving and former staff members of the Cambodian Human Rights On 3 September, new CNRP leader Kem and Development Association (ADHOC) wereSokha was arrested at his home in the released on bail after being held for morecapital, Phnom Penh, and later charged with than a year in pre-trial detention on charges“conspiracy with a foreign power” in relation of bribing a witness. Three of the five − Nyto a 2013 speech in which he discussed Sokha, Nay Vanda and Yi Soksan − wereinternational advice he had received arbitrarily denied access to medical care forregarding democratic change. CPP two months prior to their release. Thelawmakers later voted to strip him of the charges remained pending at the end of theparliamentary immunity he had been granted year.under the Constitution. In September, two activists from the The Ministry of Interior ordered local land environmental organization Mother Naturerights organization Equitable Cambodia (EC) were arrested while filming sand-dredgingto suspend its activities for 30 days for boats off the coast of Koh Kong in an attemptalleged regulatory violations. Although the to highlight alleged illegal smuggling. Theysuspension lapsed on 15 November, EC was were charged with incitement to commit anot allowed to resume activities. At least three felony and making an unauthorizedindividuals were arrested throughout the year recording.for posting comments on Facebook that wereregarded by authorities as insulting to the UNLAWFUL KILLINGSPrime Minister. On 26 November, theCambodian Centre for Human Rights was On 23 March Oeuth Ang was sentenced tothreatened by the Prime Minister with life imprisonment after being convicted byclosure; it was allowed to remain open after the Phnom Penh Municipal Court of theinvestigation by the Ministry of Interior and an 2016 murder of prominent politicalannouncement by the Prime Minister on 2 commentator Kem Ley. The trial lasted onlyDecember. half a day. The authorities did not respond to calls for an independent, impartial andHUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS effective investigation into the killing of Kem Ley.Human rights defenders were harassed andprosecuted for their peaceful human rights WOMEN’S RIGHTSwork. In February, Tep Vanny, a prominentland rights activist from the Boeung Kak Lake Cambodia failed to submit its report, due incommunity, was convicted of “intentional October, on implementation of theviolence with aggravating circumstances” in recommendations of the 2013 UN CEDAWrelation to a 2013 protest, and sentenced to Committee, or to follow up with requestedtwo years and six months’ imprisonment. In information regarding sexual and gender- based violence – in particular redress andAmnesty International Report 2017/18 111

protection for victims. Women continued to different charges. They faced charges ofbe under-represented in politics. Although crimes against humanity, genocide and gravethe number of women commune chiefs breaches of the Geneva Conventions.elected during the 2017 commune electionsincreased, the total number of women 1. Cambodia: Courts of injustice − suppressing activism through thecouncillors decreased. criminal justice system (ASA 23/6059/2017)RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED CAMEROONEVICTIONS Republic of CameroonLand grabbing, land concessions granted to Head of state: Paul Biyaprivate stakeholders for agri-industrial use, Head of government: Philémon Yangand major development projects continued toimpact the right to adequate housing for The armed group Boko Haram continued tocommunities around the country. A report commit serious human rights abuses andreleased in January by the Land violations of international humanitarian lawManagement Ministry showed an increase in in the Far North region, including lootingland dispute complaints received in 2016 and destroying properties and killing andcompared to the previous year. Work on the abducting civilians. In response, theLower Sesan II hydropower dam in the authorities and security forces committednortheast province of Stung Treng human rights violations and crimes underprogressed; Indigenous people who refused international law, including arbitrary arrests,to leave their ancestral lands faced forcible incommunicado detentions, torture andrelocation. Those who accepted relocation deaths in custody. As a result of thewere moved to substandard and flooding- conflict, around 240,000 people in the Faraffected resettlement sites. North region had fled their homes between 2014 and the end of 2017. Freedoms ofREFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS expression, association and peaceful assembly continued to be restrictedThe government rejected 29 applications for throughout the country. Security forcesrefugee status by Montagnard asylum- violently repressed demonstrations inseekers from Viet Nam, who faced possible Anglophone regions in January andrefoulement. UNHCR, the UN refugee September. Civil society activists,agency, stated that they had legitimate journalists, trade unionists and teachersgrounds. They remained in Cambodia at the were arrested and some faced trial beforeend of the year. military courts.INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPSIn February, the Co-Investigating Judges The armed group Boko Haram committedissued a joint closing order dismissing the crimes under international law and humancase against Im Chaem in Case 004/1 at the rights abuses, including suicide bombings inExtraordinary Chambers in the Courts of civilian areas, summary executions,Cambodia (ECCC). She was found not to fall abductions, recruitment of child soldiers, andwithin the ECCC’s personal jurisdiction of looting and destruction of public and privatebeing a senior leader or one of the most property. During the year, the group carriedresponsible officials during the Khmer Rouge out at least 150 attacks, including 48 suicideregime. bombings, killing at least 250 civilians. The crimes were part of a widespread and In June, closing statements were made in a systematic attack on the civilian populationsecond trial of Nuon Chea and KhieuSamphan in Case 002. The case againstthem had been severed by the Trial Chamberof the ECCC in 2011, resulting in two trials on112 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

across the Lake Chad basin. Boko Haram authorities to clarify whether investigationsdeliberately targeted civilians in attacks on were being carried out.markets, mosques, commercial areas andother public places. On 12 July a female FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION,suicide bomber detonated explosives in a ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLYcrowded video-game shop in the town ofWaza, killing at least 16 civilians and injuring Human rights defenders, including civilmore than 30. On 5 August, a suicide society activists, journalists, trade unionists,bomber in the village of Ouro Kessoum, near lawyers and teachers continued to beAmchide, killed eight children and injured intimidated, harassed and threatened.four more. On 17 January, following protests in theTORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT English-speaking regions of the country, the Minister of Territorial Administration bannedSecurity forces continued to arbitrarily arrest the activities of the political party Southernindividuals accused of supporting Boko Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and theHaram, often with little or no evidence and Cameroon Anglophone Civil Societysometimes using unnecessary or excessive Consortium (CACSC).2 The same day, theforce. Those arrested were frequently president of the CACSC, barrister Nkonghodetained in inhumane, life-threatening Felix Agbor-Balla, and its Secretary General,conditions. At least 101 people were detained Dr Fontem Aforteka’a Neba, were arrestedincommunicado between March 2013 and after signing a statement calling for non-March 2017 in a series of military bases run violent protests. Held incommunicado at theby the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) and State Defence Secretariat, they were chargedfacilities run by the intelligence agency. They under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, withoutwere subjected to torture and other ill- any basis. They were transferred to thetreatment.1 These routine and systematic Prison Principale in the capital, Yaoundé,practices continued throughout 2017, before eventually being released following aalthough at least 20 people were reported to presidential decision on 30 August, alonghave been transferred from the BIR military with 53 other Anglophone protesters who hadbase in Salak to the central prison in Maroua been arrested between late October 2016in late August. and February 2017. It was highly likely that senior military Between January and April, and in earlyofficers based in Salak were aware of the October, telephone and internet servicestorture, but they did nothing to prevent it. US were cut in the English-speaking regions,military personnel also had a regular with no official explanation.presence at the BIR’s base at Salak and aninvestigation was launched into their possible On 24 May, authorities shut down anknowledge of human rights violations at the Amnesty International press conferencebase; its outcomes were not published during scheduled to take place in Yaoundé. Amnestythe year. International staff had planned to present more than 310,000 letters and petitions No investigations were known to have been asking President Biya to release threeconducted by the Cameroonian authorities students imprisoned for 10 years for sharinginto the allegations of incommunicado a joke by text message about Boko Haram.detention, torture and other ill-treatment, nor No written administrative justification wasefforts made to prevent such occurrences or provided for the prohibition of the pressto prosecute and punish the perpetrators. conference. In December the UN Committee against More than 20 protesters were shot byTorture expressed deep concern about the security forces in the Anglophone regionsuse of torture and incommunicado detention, between 1 and 2 October, and more thanand criticized the failure by Cameroonian 500 arrested. Others wounded in the protests were forced to flee hospitals where theyAmnesty International Report 2017/18 113

sought life-saving treatment out of fear of having already served this sentence. Theirarrest. In addition, dozens of members of the trial was marred by irregularities. During theirsecurity forces, including soldiers and initial period of detention, the two men hadgendarmes, were killed in attacks perpetrated been held incommunicado for more than 40by Anglophone insurgents in the South and days in an illegal facility run by the GeneralNorth West regions during the year. Directorate of External Relations and subjected to torture.UNFAIR TRIALS DETENTIONUnfair trials continued before military courts,which were often marred by irregularities. Prison conditions remained poor, marked by chronic overcrowding, inadequate food, On 10 April, Radio France Internationale limited medical care, and deplorable hygienecorrespondent Ahmed Abba was sentenced and sanitation. Maroua prison housed aroundto 10 years’ imprisonment, convicted by the 1,500 detainees, more than four times itsYaoundé Military Court of “complicity with intended capacity. The population of theand non-denunciation of terrorist acts”. The central prison in Yaoundé was approximatelytrial was marred by irregularities, including 4,400, despite a maximum capacity of 1,500.documents not being disclosed to defence The main factors contributing tolawyers. Ahmed Abba had been arrested in overcrowding included the mass arrests sinceMaroua in July 2015 and was tortured while 2014 of people accused of supporting Bokoheld incommunicado for three months at a Haram, the large number of detainees heldfacility run by the General Directorate of without charge, and the ineffective judicialExternal Research. On 21 December the system. The government finalized theAppeal Court of the Yaoundé Military Court construction of at least 10 new cells for theordered his initial sentence to be reduced to prison in Maroua.24 months, which he had already served.The Court upheld the charge of “non- REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERSdenunciation of terrorism”. At least 250,000 refugees from the Central The appeal of Fomusoh Ivo Feh, who was African Republic lived in harsh conditions inarrested in December 2014 for forwarding a crowded camps or with host families alongsarcastic text message about Boko Haram border areas of southeastern Cameroon.and sentenced to 10 years in prison, had not Some 60,000 refugees from Nigeria lived inbegun at the end of the year. Scheduled to the UN-run Minawao camp in the Far Northbegin in December 2016, his hearings had region; around 30,000 others struggled tobeen adjourned at least seven times. cope outside the camp, facing food insecurity, lack of access to basic services, On 30 October, journalists Rodrigue Tongué, harassment by the security forces and theFelix Ebole Bola and Baba Wamé were risk of refoulement as they were perceived toacquitted by the Yaoundé Military Court, be supporters of Boko Haram.having been initially charged in October 2014with “non-denunciation of information and On 2 March, Cameroon, Nigeria andsources”. Facing trial alongside the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, signed ajournalists were opposition party leader “Tripartite Agreement for the VoluntaryAboubakary Siddiki, and Abdoulaye Repatriation of Nigerian Refugees Living inHarissou, a well-known notary detained since Cameroon”. However, between January andAugust 2014. The Yaoundé Military Court September, Cameroon forcibly returned atsentenced Aboubakary Siddiki to 25 years’ least 4,400 Nigerians. These forced returnsimprisonment on charges including hostility were part of a larger deportation operationagainst the homeland, revolution, and carried out by Cameroon. Human Rightscontempt of the President. Abdoulaye Watch estimated that, since 2015,Harissou was sentenced to three years’ Cameroonian authorities and security forcesimprisonment, and subsequently released114 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

had summarily deported more than 100,000 DEATH PENALTYNigerians living in areas located along theCameroon-Nigeria border, often with People accused of supporting Boko Haramunnecessary and excessive use of force. continued to be sentenced to death followingSome of those forcibly returned, including unfair trials in military courts; none werechildren, weakened by living for months or executed during the year. The cases were allyears with limited or no access to food and prosecuted under the deeply flawed 2014health care, died during the deportations. anti-terrorism law. In December, UNHCR reported having 1. Cameroon’s secret torture chambers: Human rights violations andregistered more than 5,000 Cameroonians, war crimes in the fight against Boko Haram (AFR 17/6536/2017)mainly women and children, who had fledthe Anglophone areas of Cameroon to 2. Cameroon: Arrests and civil society bans risk inflaming tensions inNigeria. English-speaking regions (Press release, 20 January)RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD CANADAOF LIVING CanadaThe conflict with Boko Haram led to the Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Julieinternal displacement of around 240,000 Payette (replaced David Johnston in October)people in the Far North region and Head of government: Justin Trudeauexacerbated the hardships experienced bycommunities, limiting their access to basic Discrimination against Indigenous Peoplessocial services, and disrupting trade, farming continued, in particular the failure toand pastoralism. In December, almost 3.3 protect their rights to lands and resources.million people, of whom 61% were in the Far Urgent measures were required to ensureNorth region, were in need of humanitarian the safety of Indigenous women and girlsassistance, including food and medical care. while a national inquiry was under way.Humanitarian access continued to be There was a substantial increase inrestricted by the ongoing conflict. numbers of asylum-seekers crossing the border from the USA irregularly.RIGHT TO EDUCATION INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTSDozens of schools were closed in the English-speaking regions between November 2016 Government commitments to respect andand September 2017, following strikes and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples wereboycotts called for by trade unions and contradicted by the failure to addressmembers of civil society. Extreme elements violations of treaty-protected Indigenouswithin Anglophone pro-secession groups hunting and fishing rights by the plannedcarried out attacks on education facilities that flooding of the Peace River Valley in the“breached the boycott”. province of British Columbia for the Site C dam. Between January and September 2017,more than 30 schools were burned and The Canadian Human Rights Tribunalseverely damaged. In the Far North region, issued three non-compliance orders against139 primary schools in the departments of the federal government for discrimination inLogone and Chari, Mayo Sava and Mayo services for First Nations children andTsanaga remained closed because of families.insecurity and at least eight were occupied bysecurity forces, affecting almost 40,000 The Public Inquiry Commission on Relationschildren. between Indigenous Peoples and Certain Public Services in Québec held hearings throughout the year.Amnesty International Report 2017/18 115

In June the province of Ontario agreed to number of relatives of missing and murderedfund the clean-up of a river system women and girls expressed frustration aboutcontaminated with mercury. In November the the Inquiry’s slow progress and poorfederal government agreed to provide communication, and several staff and one ofspecialized medical care for mercury five Commissioners resigned. Communitypoisoning as long sought by members of the hearings commenced in June and an interimGrassy Narrows First Nation. report was issued in November. In July the Supreme Court of Canada, in a In October, Quebec passed the Act to Fostercase brought by the Inuit hamlet of Clyde Adherence to State Religious NeutralityRiver, ruled that the government has an requiring everyone, including Muslim womenobligation to intervene when regulatory wearing a niqab, to uncover their faces to useagencies fail to protect Indigenous rights. or provide government services, including on public transit and in libraries. A court ruling In August the UN CERD Committee in December suspended application of theexpressed concern about Indigenous land Act until a constitutional challenge is heard.rights violations and Canada’s failure torespect the right of free, prior and informed RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL,consent. The Committee asked Canada to TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLEreport back within one year on measures toaddress the impacts of the Site C dam. In In June, Parliament passed legislation addingDecember the provincial government in gender identity and expression as prohibitedBritish Columbia announced that grounds for discrimination in Canada’sconstruction of the Site C dam would Human Rights Act and Criminal Code.continue, despite the objections of affectedFirst Nations. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY In November the government announced In January, six worshippers were killed andsupport for a bill to develop a legislative 19 others injured when a gunman openedframework for implementing the UN fire in a mosque in Quebec City.Declaration on the Rights of IndigenousPeoples. In March, parliament adopted a motion calling for a committee study to develop a In November, the Supreme Court rejected a new approach for addressing Islamophobiapotentially groundbreaking legal challenge by and religious discrimination.the Ktunaxa Nation in British Columbia whichsought to apply constitutional protection of In March, Canadian citizens Abdullahreligious freedom to the preservation of Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and MuayyedIndigenous Peoples’ sacred sites. Nureddin received compensation and an apology for the role of Canadian officials inWOMEN’S RIGHTS their unlawful arrest, imprisonment and torture in Syria and Egypt between 2001 andIn June, the federal government launched a 2004.Feminist International Assistance Policy andcommitted to placing women’s rights, gender In June, national security legal reforms wereequality and sexual and reproductive rights at proposed, including improved review andthe core of its foreign policy. In November the oversight of national security agencies.government released its second National Continuing concerns included insufficientAction Plan on women, peace and security. information-sharing safeguards, inadequate appeal provisions for people named on “no- In June, the federal government released a fly lists”, and expanded mass surveillancestrategy to combat gender-based violence, and data-mining powers.but without a national action plan. In June, legislation was passed reversing The National Inquiry into Missing and 2014 Citizenship Act reforms which hadMurdered Indigenous Women and Girls allowed dual nationals convicted of terrorismproceeded throughout the year. A growing116 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

and other offences to be stripped of regardless of immigration status. NewCanadian citizenship. guidelines released in November required that minors only be held in immigration In July, Canadian citizen Omar Khadr detention in “extremely limitedreceived compensation and an apology for circumstances”.the role of Canadian officials in violationsagainst him at the US detention facility at Annual government refugee resettlementGuantánamo Bay, Cuba, for 10 years from targets declined to pre-2016 levels of 7,500,2002. following an increase to 25,000 in 2016 as part of the government’s Syrian refugee In September, revised guidelines resettlement programme.strengthened safeguards against complicityin torture in intelligence sharing with other CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITYgovernments, but failed to absolutely prohibitthe use of information obtained through The British Columbia Conservation Officertorture by other governments. Service concluded its investigation into the 2014 Mount Polley Mining CorporationJUSTICE SYSTEM (MPMC) tailings pond collapse, without bringing charges. A federal level investigationIn June, federal legislation was tabled for violations of the Fisheries Act wasproposing to establish a 20-day limit on ongoing. In April, against the wishes ofsolitary confinement, to be reduced to 15 Indigenous and other communities, Britishdays once the law has been in force for 18 Columbia authorities approved MPMC’s planmonths. The draft law did not prohibit to discharge mine waste water that does notholding people suffering from mental illness meet provincial drinking water guidelines intoin solitary confinement. A court ruling in Quesnel Lake. In June the UN WorkingDecember declared existing solitary Group on Business and Human Rightsconfinement provisions to be unconstitutional supported British Columbia Auditor General’sbecause of inadequate safeguards and recommendation to establish a complianceprovided the government with one year to and enforcement unit independent of theadopt new standards. Ministry of Energy and Mines. In August, a private prosecution was filed against MPMC. In October the Journalistic Source Also in August, the CERD Committee calledProtection Act was passed, establishing a on Canada to report within one year on action“shield law” to protect journalists and their to address the 2014 disaster.sources. In January the British Columbia Court ofREFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Appeal ruled that a lawsuit against Tahoe Resources regarding the shooting ofMore than 18,000 asylum-seekers irregularly protesters outside its mine in Guatemalacrossed from the USA into Canada during the could be heard in Canada. In November theyear, as conditions for refugees and migrants Court upheld a lower court ruling that ain the USA deteriorated. Asylum-seekers lawsuit against Nevsun Resources forcrossed irregularly to avoid the ban on complicity in forced labour at its mine inmaking claims at official border posts, Eritrea could proceed.pursuant to the 2004 Canada-US Safe ThirdCountry Agreement. A legal challenge to the In December, the government announcedAgreement was launched jointly by civil plans to establish, in early 2018, a humansociety groups and individual asylum-seekers rights Ombudsperson for Canadianin July. extractives companies operating abroad. In August, the CERD Committee pressed Negotiations to revise the North AmericanCanada to set a maximum time frame for Free Trade Agreement between Canada,immigration detention, end the immigration Mexico and the USA, including Canadiandetention of minors and provide access toessential health care for all people in Canada,Amnesty International Report 2017/18 117

proposals on gender equality and Indigenous BACKGROUNDPeoples, were under way. There was a resurgence of violence mainly in Talks regarding a potential free trade deal and around the Ouaka, Basse-Kotto andwith China continued, amid concerns over Haute-Kotto prefectures (districts). Ex-Selekapossible implications for human rights and Anti-balaka armed groups controlledprotection in China. much of the country.LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL OR The mandate of the UN MultidimensionalINSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) was renewedIn June the government tabled legislation to until 15 November 2018. Its forces wereaccede to the UN Arms Trade Treaty, but strengthened following criticism of itswithout it applying to arms transfers to the capacity to protect civilians and respond toUSA, the primary market for Canadian arms attacks. In June, the UN agreed to reducesales. the MINUSCA budget by USD18.8 million, and the budgets of 14 peacekeeping In October the Justice for Victims of Corrupt missions.Foreign Officials Act was passed,strengthening redress and sanctions in US and Ugandan troops, deployed underdesignated cases of serious human rights the African Union-led Regional Task Force toviolations. eliminate the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), withdrew from the country between April and In December, federal, provincial and May.territorial ministers responsible for humanrights met for the first time since 1988 and In May, the national assembly presented acommitted to establish a “senior level peace roadmap, which included a nationalmechanism” to more effectively co-ordinate committee of victims and excluded amnestiesimplementation of Canada’s international for war crimes, to the government.human rights obligations. In June, the government and 13 of the 14CENTRAL AFRICAN armed groups signed a peace agreementREPUBLIC which included an immediate ceasefire, political representation for armed groups andCentral African Republic the creation of a Truth and ReconciliationHead of state: Faustin-Archange Touadéra Commission. It also incorporated theHead of government: Simplice Sarandji potential for pardons.The government had minimal control In July, the AU produced the Roadmap foroutside the capital, Bangui. Armed groups Peace and Reconciliation in the Centralcontinued to fight for territorial control, and African Republic, which launched a jointtargeted civilians, humanitarian workers and mediation.peacekeepers. Widespread impunity furtherfuelled instability and conflict. Increasing ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS ANDnumbers sought refuge in neighbouring CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAWcountries or were internally displaced, indire conditions. At least 2.4 million people Armed groups were responsible for killings,depended on humanitarian assistance and torture and other ill-treatment, sexual1.4 million remained food insecure. assaults, abductions, arrests, extortion and looting, recruitment and exploitation of children and attacks on humanitarian workers and premises; they also prevented access to humanitarian assistance. The International NGO Safety Organisation reported that over 390 security incidents targeted relief agencies and at least 15 local humanitarian workers were killed.118 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

Between 20 and 21 March, at least 20 civilian deaths and over 24,000 peoplepeople, including civilians, were killed in displaced.clashes between ex-Seleka and Anti-balakain the towns of Bakouma and Nzako, In August, clashes between Anti-balaka andMbomou prefecture. UPC in the town of Gambo, near Bangassou, resulted in at least 36 civilian deaths In April, 11 civilians were killed in fighting including six national Red Cross workers.between Anti-balaka and the Union for Peacein the Central African Republic (UPC) in In September, clashes between rival FPRCloose alliance with herders along the factions left 10 people dead in Bria.Bangassou-Rafai road. Hundreds of Muslims returned home in the On 2 May, Return, Reclamation and southwest but continued to be persecuted;Rehabilitation (3R) killed 12 people in Niem- fear of attacks forced them to restrict theirYelewa and occupied the town for 12 days. movements and, in some cases, hide their religion. Between 7 and 25 May, UPC’s attacks killedhundreds of civilians and displaced In the southeast, international NGOsthousands in the southeast including in the reported 113 attacks by the LRA and at leasttowns of Alindao, Nzangba and Mobaye. At 12 civilian casualties and 362 kidnappings.least 130 civilians died in Alindao; womenwere systematically raped. On 10 October, at least 25 people were killed in a mosque when Anti-balaka attacked Between 12 and 13 May, Anti-balaka Kembe town, in the Basse-Kotto province. Onattacked the predominantly Muslim 18 October, clashes between Anti-balaka andneighbourhood of Tokoyo in Bangassou, UPC fighters in Pombolo, in MbomouMbomou prefecture, and the MINUSCA province, led to at least 26 deaths.base. The UN estimated that at least 72people were killed, 76 injured and 4,400 In November, four people were killed whendisplaced, while the national Red Cross unidentified assailants threw a grenade at aestimated at least 115 deaths. concert in Bangui. From 16 to 18 May, at least 17 civilians VIOLATIONS BY PEACEKEEPING FORCESwere killed in clashes between ex-Seleka andAnti-balaka in the town of Bria, and some Reports of sexual exploitation and abuses15,000 displaced. (“SEA”) by UN peacekeeping troops continued. In January, the UN Secretary- On 6 June, at least 18 civilians were killed General announced a new task force towhen Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central prevent and respond to SEA. However, theAfrican Republic (FPRC) elements attacked UN registered 21 SEA cases, includingAnti-balaka positions in Nzako. against six children, involving peacekeepers. In June, the Republic of the Congo withdrew From 20 to 23 June, over 80 civilians died nearly 650 troops in light of sexual abuse andduring fights between Anti-balaka and FPRC misconduct allegations.in Bria. On 30 September, at least one Mauritanian Between 27 and 30 June, at least 22 people peacekeeper allegedly drugged and raped awere killed when Anti-balaka attacked woman in the town of Bambari. MINUSCAMuslim neighbourhoods in Zemio town, and rapidly deployed investigators and committedthe local population retaliated. to pursuing the issue. On 1 July, at least 10 people were killed in Several SEA complaints involving Frenchfighting between the Central African Patriotic forces, deployed under Operation Sangaris,Movement (MPC) and Anti-balaka in Kaga- were dismissed following investigations. InBandoro, Nana-Gribizi province. March, the Paris Prosecutor requested the dismissal of a rape case which allegedly Between 29 July and 1 August, clashes occurred between 2013 and 2014 at anbetween ex-Seleka and Anti-balaka in the internally displaced people’s settlement intown of Batangafo resulted in at least 14 M’Poko in Bangui. At least 14 OperationAmnesty International Report 2017/18 119

Sangaris soldiers and five soldiers of the Abdoulaye Hissène, a leading FPRC member,African-led International Support Mission to and Maxime Mokom, an Anti-balaka leader.the Central African Republic (MISCA), AU In June, Chad announced that it had frozentroops, and peacekeepers, were allegedly Abdoulaye Hissène’s assets and banned himinvolved. The Prosecutor’s decision was that from crossing the Chadian borders.the victims’ testimonies did not sufficientlyestablish the facts. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICEREFUGEES AND INTERNALLY Progress was made in operationalizing theDISPLACED PEOPLE Special Criminal Court (SCC) which will try individuals suspected of serious humanThe number of people seeking refuge in rights violations and crimes underneighbouring countries increased due to an international law committed since 2003. Theescalation of violence in April and May. By SCC Special Prosecutor took office in Maythe end of the year, at least 538,000 people after which five national magistrates and twohad fled the country for neighbouring international magistrates were nominated,countries Chad, Cameroon, DRC and and a committee to select judicial policeRepublic of the Congo; while 601,000 were officers was created.internally displaced, living in poor conditionsin makeshift camps with inadequate access The ICC investigations on the “Centralto food, water, health care and sanitation. African Republic II situation” continued but no arrest warrants were issued. In March, theIMPUNITY ICC increased Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo’s 18-year prison sentence to 19 years after heMany suspected perpetrators of human rights and his legal team were convicted ofabuses and violations, including armed attempting to bribe witnesses in 2016.groups and security forces, were notinvestigated or tried. Impunity was NATURAL RESOURCESexacerbated by the collapse of the nationaljustice system and its slow reconstruction. On 20 July, the General Court of the European Union upheld the asset freeze On 26 February, MINUSCA arrested six against the Belgium-based diamondFPRC and MPC members. Central African companies BADICA and KARDIAM, whichauthorities detained them from 1 March and had procured diamonds from the Centralopened investigations. Suspects had not African Republic despite a ban.been brought to trial by the end of the year. RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF Between November and December, eight LIVINGAnti-balaka members were sentenced in fourcases, in a court in the western town of The UN reported that nearly half theBouar, to up to 20 years’ imprisonment for population (2.4 million) needed humanitariancrimes including criminal association, assistance, and 1.4 million were foodunlawful possession of homemade arms, insecure.murder and theft. Others were sentenced intheir absence. The health system collapsed due to the conflict and the population depended almost The Central African authorities failed to entirely on humanitarian organizations forimplement an asset freeze which was basic services. Escalating violence ledextended by the UN Security Council on 27 humanitarian organizations to temporarilyJanuary until 31 January 2018 along with an withdraw staff from cities and villages.arms embargo and travel ban. Several listedindividuals continued to collect their state The UN said that about a third of thesalaries. population had access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities. Between April and December, the USimposed financial sanctions including against120 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

CHAD On 30 May a woman was abducted by Boko Haram about 4km from Kaiga Kindjiria.Republic of Chad Similar attacks were reported in May andHead of state: Idriss Déby Itno June in other areas including Bodou-DoloumHead of government: Albert Pahimi Padacké in the Baga Sola sub-prefecture, which resulted in the killing of three people and theThe armed group Boko Haram continued to abduction of three others.commit abuses around Lake Chad. Chadianauthorities repeatedly banned peaceful FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLYassemblies and arrested and prosecutedhuman rights defenders, activists and During the year, the authorities banned atjournalists, some of whom became least six peaceful assemblies, and thoseprisoners of conscience. The right to organizing and participating in protests werefreedom of association was violated with arrested.unlawful restrictions on the right to organizefreely, including the criminalization of On 6 and 15 April respectively, Nadjo Kainacertain citizens’ associations. More than and Bertrand Solloh, leaders of the citizen408,000 refugees continued to live in dire movement IYINA (“We are tired”), wereconditions in camps including in Baga Sola. arrested by ANS agents for calling on citizens to wear red on the anniversary of the 2016BACKGROUND presidential election as a protest against corruption and impunity. They were detainedRevisions to the Criminal Code were by the ANS without access to their families orpromulgated by President Déby, repealing lawyers, before being handed over to thethe death penalty except for “terrorism”, and judicial police. They were charged withincreasing the minimum age for marriage to attempted conspiracy and organizing an18 years. unauthorized gathering and given a six- month suspended sentence. The two men New powers, including the power to arrest, reported being tortured while in detention,were provided to the National Security including by being suffocated with plasticAgency (ANS). bags containing chili. A severe economic crisis, following a sharp On 12 April, Dingamnayal Nely Versinis,drop in the price of petrol in recent years, led president of the organization Collectifto austerity measures, public discontent and Tchadien Contre la Vie Chère, was arrestedstrikes in sectors including health, education by ANS agents at the city hall in the capital,and justice. N’Djamena. He had called on traders at the N’Djamena Millet Market to strike in protestABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS at an increase in market fees. He was detained without access to his family orThe armed group Boko Haram continued to lawyer and charged with fraud and using akill, abduct and injure civilians, and to false identity, before being released on 27destroy property. April by the Public Prosecutor on the grounds that he had committed no offence. On 5 May, Boko Haram members killed atleast four civilians and burned 50 houses in FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATIONKaiga Kindjiria. On the night of 25 May, aBoko Haram attack on Kirnatchoulma village, Certain social movements and civil societyin the west of Kaiga Kinjiria, resulted in at platforms were banned and the right to strikeleast three people being killed and three was restricted in contravention ofwounded. On 26 and 27 May, Boko Haram international law.carried out several attacks on the villages ofKonguia, Wangui and Kagrerom, in the area The citizens’ movement IYINA remainedof Tchoukoutalia. banned and, on 6 January, the Minister of Territorial Administration banned the activitiesAmnesty International Report 2017/18 121

of the National Movement of Citizen conflict between herders and farmers inAwakening (MECI), a movement bringing Doba. He was released the following day andtogether civil society organizations, trade the prefect who ordered his arrest wasunions and political parties, describing it as removed from office.“unnatural” and “without any legal basis”. On27 May the police interrupted and banned PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCEMECI’s General Assembly. The authorities continued to arrest and detain The rights of trade unions were violated in journalists for doing their work and activistsresponse to the strike action they initiated and human rights defenders for exercisingfrom September 2016 to January 2017. They their freedoms of expression and opinion.remained subject to a decree introduced in2016 limiting the right to strike, and their Online activist Tadjadine Mahamat Babourirequests to protest were rejected. (also known as Mahadine), who was arrested on 30 September 2016, remained in In January the authorities interfered in the detention. He was arrested by ANS agentsinternal affairs of the trade union after posting several videos on Facebookrepresenting researchers and university criticizing the government’s allegedteachers, SYNECS, to force the removal of its mismanagement of public funds. He waspresident and end its strike. The same later charged with undermining themonth, visas were denied to representatives constitutional order, threatening territorialof the General Confederation of Labour, an integrity and national security, andinternational partner of Chadian trade unions. collaborating with an insurrectional movement. He reported that, while detainedFREEDOM OF EXPRESSION by the ANS, he was deprived of food and water for three days, electrocuted andJournalists critical of the government beaten.received threats and were subject tosurveillance, while defamation and contempt On 5 May, Maoundoe Decladore,laws continued to be used in an attempt to spokesperson of the organization Ça doitsilence them. changer (“It must change”), was arrested at night by four armed men in plain clothes in Between 22 and 24 February, Eric Moundou. He was detained for 25 daysKokinagué, the Director of Publication of the without any access to his family or lawyer, innewspaper Tribune Info, received more than what he believes was an ANS facility. He wasa dozen anonymous, threatening calls from transferred to the judicial police on 30 Maydifferent numbers after he published an and charged with public disorder. Maoundoearticle heavily critical of President Déby. On Decladore was released on bail due to his25 February, the columnist who wrote the deteriorating health and was awaiting trial atarticle, Daniel Ngadjadoum, was abducted by the end of the year.armed men, detained for up to 24 hours inwhat he believes was an ANS facility, and On 20 June, Sylver Beindé Bassandé, aforced to write a letter of apology to the journalist and director of community radio AlPresident. Nada FM in Moundou, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined XAF100,000 In June, Déli Sainzoumi Nestor, editor of the (USD180) by the High Court of Moundou forbi-monthly newspaper Eclairages, was complicity in contempt of court andcharged with defamation after Daoussa Déby undermining judicial authority. He had beenItno, former minister and brother of President charged after airing a radio interview with aDéby, filed a complaint about an article municipal councillor, who had criticizedalleging his involvement in fraud in the sugar judges after having been convicted with twoindustry. other councillors in a separate proceeding. Sylver Beindé Bassandé lodged an appeal On 4 September, radio journalist Mbairaba and was released on bail on 19 July. On 26Jean Paul was arrested and accused ofdefamation after he reported on a communal122 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

September, the Court of Appeal overruled the against Mapuche Indigenous Peoples. Thedecision by the High Court of Moundou, Anti-Terrorism Law was used againstsentencing Sylver Beindé Bassandé to Mapuche people, despite violatingcomplicity in defamation and fined him international standards on due processXAF100,000 (USD180). He appealed to the guarantees. A law decriminalizing abortionSupreme Court. in three specific circumstances entered into force; abortion continued to be otherwiseREFUGEES AND INTERNALLY criminalized.DISPLACED PEOPLE BACKGROUNDMore than 408,000 refugees from the CentralAfrican Republic, the Democratic Republic of Presidential and congressional elections werethe Congo, Nigeria and Sudan continued to held between November and December, andlive in poor conditions in refugee camps. Sebastián Piñera Echenique was electedInsecurity caused by Boko Haram attacks President. The President-elect and newand military operations resulted in the members of Congress were due to begin theirdisplacement of more than 174,000 people mandates in March 2018.including at least 25,000 in 2017 alone. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS In June, nearly 5,000 people fled a wave ofBoko Haram attacks on villages around Kaiga Congress considered a bill proposed by theKindjiria and Tchoukoutalia, creating two new executive for a new immigration law.sites for internally displaced people: Kengua(Kiskra canton, Fouli department) and Kane The first 14 Syrian families (66 people)Ngouboua (Diameron). Since July, around arrived in October under a resettlement6,700 people arrived in Baga Sola from Niger programme announced in 2014.after the withdrawal of Chadian troops fromthe country and in fear of attacks from Boko POLICE AND SECURITY FORCESHaram. There were continuing reports of excessiveRIGHT TO FOOD use of force by the police.The Chadian military continued to impose In June, police used tear gas in closerestrictions on the movement of people and proximity to a school in the Temucuicuigoods along the shores of Lake Chad, Mapuche community where young childrenhampering the livelihoods of communities were attending class. The action was deemedand heightening the risk of food insecurity. “proportionate” by the Supreme Court. According to the UN, severe acute In November, a judge in Collipulli, Mallecomalnutrition increased from 2.1% to 3.4% in Province, opened an investigation against athe region during the year. Countrywide, the police officer for shooting 17-year-oldUN estimated that 2.8 million people were Brandon Hernández in December 2016; hefood insecure, including more than 380,000 received more than 100 pellet wounds in hispeople at crisis or emergency level. back. The hearing was rescheduled three times because the accused police officer didCHILE not appear in court.Republic of Chile The Supreme Court reopened the case ofHead of state and government: Michelle Bachelet Jeria Alex Lemún, who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ercilla, Malleco Province inImpunity for past and present human rights 2002. A military court had closed the case inviolations remained a concern. Police 2004 without finding anyone responsible.continued to use excessive force, especially IMPUNITY Victims of human rights violations during Chile’s military regime continued to demand truth, justice and reparation. Although courtsAmnesty International Report 2017/18 123

had heard hundreds of cases, most of those acquittal were declared null and void. Theconvicted did not serve prison sentences, trial was due to be repeated in 2018.and many victims continued to lack access toinstitutional mechanisms to demand The government and Attorney General’sreparation. Office also brought “terrorism” charges against four Mapuche men for a fire that Congress discussed a bill to make destroyed a church in the city of Padre lasinformation gathered by former truth Casas in June 2016. No one was hurt in thecommissions available to prosecutors and fire. The men were arrested, detained andparties to relevant judicial proceedings. indicted on the day of the incident and continued to be held in pre-trial detention at In May the government filed a bill before the end of 2017. After the four accused heldCongress to establish a National Mechanism a prolonged hunger strike, the governmentfor the Prevention of Torture. filed a request for reclassification of the crime. However, the prosecution decided toINDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS continue pursuing terrorism charges.In June the government announced the Plan In September the government implementedfor the Recognition and Development of “Operation Hurricane”, arresting andAraucanía to promote Indigenous Peoples’ charging eight people with conspiracy toparticipation, economic development and commit terrorist acts in connection withprotection of victims of violence. burning and planning to burn dozens of cargo vehicles. No one was hurt in these President Bachelet extended a formal incidents. The eight accused were held inapology to the Mapuche People for “errors pre-trial detention until October when theand horrors” perpetrated by the state against Supreme Court declared their detentionthem. A bill was under discussion to create a unlawful and ordered their release, since theMinistry of Indigenous Issues. judge had not sufficiently justified the need for pre-trial detention. Investigation of the As part of the process of developing a new alleged crimes was ongoing.Constitution, scheduled to be completed in2018, a consultation was conducted with HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERSIndigenous Peoples’ representatives. Theprocess was criticized by some In April, Rodrigo Mundaca and other leadersrepresentatives for excluding some key issues of the Movement for the Defence of Water,brought forth by Indigenous Peoples. Land and the Environment (MODATIMA) in the province of Petorca received death The Attorney General’s Office and the threats. An investigation was ongoing into thegovernment continued to misuse the Anti- harassment and intimidation thatTerrorism Law to prosecute Mapuche people MODATIMA’s leaders had been subjected toin violation of due process guarantees. In for a number of years.2014, similar applications of the Anti-Terrorism Law against Mapuche activists In May the Temuco Public Prosecutor’swere found by the Inter-American Court of Office announced the closure of theHuman Rights − in Norín Catrimán et al v. investigation into the abduction and torture ofChile − to be in violation of the American Víctor Queipul Hueiquil, a Mapuche lonkoConvention on Human Rights. (traditional community authority) in the Autonomous Community of Temucuicui in In October, 11 Mapuche people, including June 2016. He had been threatened withMachi Francisca Linconao, who had been death if he continued his work as a leadercharged with “terrorism” for a fire that killed and supporter of the Mapuche People. Thelandowners Werner Luchsinger and Vivian Public Prosecutor said that the investigationMackay in January 2013, were acquitted. could not proceed because Víctor QueipulThe 11 defendants had been held in pre-trial did not collaborate with the investigation. Indetention or under house arrest for 18months. Upon appeal by the AttorneyGeneral’s Office in December, the trial and124 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

May, the National Human Rights Institute CHINAfiled a new lawsuit relating to the torture ofVíctor Queipul; the investigation for the People’s Republic of Chinasecond case was ongoing. Head of state: Xi Jinping Head of government: Li KeqiangSEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS The government continued to draft andIn September a law entered into force enact new laws under the guise of “nationaldecriminalizing abortion in three security” that presented serious threats tocircumstances: when the pregnancy poses a human rights. Nobel Peace Prize laureaterisk to the life of the pregnant woman or girl; Liu Xiaobo died in custody. Activists andwhen the foetus is not viable; or when human rights defenders were detained,pregnancy is a result of rape. It also prosecuted and sentenced on the basis ofestablished the right to conscientious vague and overbroad charges such asobjection for medical professionals and “subverting state power” and “pickinginstitutions who choose not to perform quarrels and provoking trouble”. Policeabortions even in those circumstances. detained human rights defenders outsideGuidelines for the implementation of the law formal detention facilities, sometimeswere approved in December. Abortion incommunicado, for long periods, whichcontinued to be criminalized in all other posed additional risk of torture and other ill-circumstances. treatment to the detainees. Controls on the internet were strengthened. Repression ofRIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, religious activities outside state-sanctionedTRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE churches increased. Repression conducted under “anti-separatism” or “counter-In August a criminal case filed against a terrorism” campaigns remained particularlyjudge for allowing the change of name and severe in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomousgender markers for a transgender girl was Region and Tibetan-populated areas.closed with all charges dropped. Freedom of expression in Hong Kong came under attack as the government used vague In June the Senate approved the Gender and overbroad charges to prosecute pro-Identity Bill, which established the right of democracy activists.people over the age of 18 to have theirgender identity legally recognized by LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL ORchanging their name and gender markers on INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTSofficial documents through an administrativeprocess, without requiring gender Sweeping national security-related laws andreassignment surgery or medical certification. regulations continued to be drafted andThe bill was pending before Congress at the enacted, giving greater powers to theend of the year. authorities to silence dissent, censor information and harass and prosecute In August the government filed a bill in the human rights defenders.Senate establishing marriage and adoptionrights for same-sex couples in equality with On 1 January the foreign NGO managementdifferent-sex couples. law, whose provisions impeded independent operations of registered NGOs, came into effect. Foreign NGOs that had not yet registered and continued to operate in China could face a freeze on bank accounts, sealing of venues, confiscation of assets, suspension of activities and detention of staff.Amnesty International Report 2017/18 125

In June, the National Intelligence Law was In November, writer and government criticadopted and entered into force. These laws Yang Tongyan, who had spent nearly half hiswere part of a national security legal life in detention, died shortly after his releasearchitecture introduced in 2014 − which also on medical parole.included the Anti-espionage Law, CriminalLaw Amendment (9), National Security Law, Among the nearly 250 targeted individualsAnti-terrorism Law and Cyber Security Law − who were questioned or detained by stateand presented serious threats to the security agents following the unprecedentedprotection of human rights. The National government crackdown on human rightsIntelligence Law used similarly vague and lawyers and other activists that started in Julyoverbroad concepts of national security, and 2015, nine were convicted of “subvertinggranted effectively unchecked powers to state power”, “inciting subversion of statenational intelligence institutions with unclear power” or “picking quarrels and provokingroles and responsibilities. All lacked trouble”. Three people were given suspendedsafeguards to protect against arbitrary sentences and one “exempted from criminaldetention and to protect the right to privacy, punishment” while remaining underfreedom of expression and other human surveillance and five remained imprisoned. Inrights.1 April, Beijing lawyer Li Heping, detained since the beginning of the crackdown, was The draft Supervision Law, which opened given a three-year suspended prisonfor consultation in November, would, if sentence for “subverting state power”. Heenacted as is, legalize a new form of arbitrary claimed that he was tortured during pre-trialdetention, named liuzhi, and create an detention, including being force-fedextrajudicial system with far-reaching powers medicine. Yin Xu’an was sentenced in May towith significant potential to infringe human three and a half years’ imprisonment. Wangrights.2 Fang was sentenced in July to three years’ imprisonment. Beijing lawyer Jiang Tianyong, The authorities continued to use “residential who went missing in November 2016 andsurveillance in a designated location”, a form “confessed” at a trial in August to fabricatingof secret incommunicado detention that the torture account of lawyer Xie Yang byallowed the police to hold individuals for up Chinese police and attending overseasto six months outside the formal detention workshops to discuss changing China’ssystem, without access to legal counsel of political system, was sentenced in Novembertheir choice, their families or others, and to two years’ imprisonment for “incitingplaced suspects at risk of torture and other subversion of state power”. Hu Shigen andill-treatment. This form of detention was used Zhou Shifeng, convicted in 2016, remainedto curb the activities of human rights imprisoned. Beijing human rights lawyerdefenders, including lawyers, activists and Wang Quanzhang, held in incommunicadoreligious practitioners. detention since the beginning of the crackdown, was still awaiting trial at the endHUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS of the year, charged with “subverting state power”. In January, an interview transcriptOn 13 July, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu with Xie Yang was published in which he saidXiaobo died in custody from liver cancer. The he faced torture and other ill-treatmentauthorities had refused a request from Liu during detention. Xie Yang was released onXiaobo and his family that he travel abroad to bail without a verdict in May after his trial. Onreceive medical treatment.3 At the end of the 26 December, the court announced hisyear, his wife Liu Xia remained under conviction on the charge of “incitingsurveillance and illegal “house arrest” which subversion of state power” but ruled that hehad continued since Liu Xiaobo was awarded was “exempt from criminal punishment”. Hethe Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. At least 10 remained under surveillance.activists were detained for holding memorialsfor him.126 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

In July, Beijing lawyer Wang Yu, whose Lawyer Li Yuhan was detained in Octoberdetention on 9 July 2015 marked the and claimed she was tortured and ill-treatedbeginning of the crackdown, wrote in an during detention.article published online that she was ill-treated during detention. She was released WORKERS’ RIGHTSon bail in mid-2016 but remained underclose surveillance. Lawyers Li Shuyun, Ren In May, labour activists Hua Haifeng, Li ZhaoQuanniu and Li Chunfu, and activist Gou and Su Heng were detained in JiangxiHongguo, reported that they were drugged province while investigating work conditionsduring detention.4 at Huajian shoe factories. The activists were released on bail in June but remained under In addition to the 250 targeted individuals, close surveillance.activist Wu Gan, who worked in a law firmlater targeted by the authorities in the In July, a Guangzhou court sentencedcrackdown, was tried in August in a closed labour activist Liu Shaoming to four and ahearing for “subverting state power” after half years’ imprisonment for publishing hisnearly 27 months’ pre-trial detention. On 26 reflections about joining the pro-democracyDecember, he was sentenced to eight years’ movement and becoming a member ofimprisonment. China’s first independent trade union in 1989, and experiences during the 1989 In March, Guangdong activist Su Changlan Tiananmen crackdown.was sentenced to three years’ imprisonmentfor “inciting subversion of state power” for FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – INTERNETher online criticism of the ChineseCommunist Party and the Chinese socialist Thousands of websites and social mediasystem. She was detained in 2014 after services remained blocked, includingexpressing support for Hong Kong’s 2014 Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On 1 June,pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. She the Cybersecurity Law came into effect,was released in October after serving the full making it obligatory for internet companiessentence but with health concerns operating in China to censor users’ content.aggravated by poor conditions in detention. In August, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Guangdong Provincial On 19 March, Lee Ming-Cheh, manager of a Cyberspace Administration launched anTaiwan NGO, was detained by state security investigation into internet service providersofficers when he entered mainland China Tencent’s WeChat, Sina Weibo and Baidu’sfrom Macao. In September, he was tried in Tieba because their platforms contained userHunan Province for “subverting state power” accounts which “spread information thatand sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in endangers national security, public securityNovember.5 and social order, including violence and terror, false information and rumours and At least 11 activists were detained in June pornography”. In September, China’sfor commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen dominant messaging service WeChatcrackdown; most were accused of “picking introduced new terms of service to collect aquarrels and provoking trouble”. Li Xiaoling wide range of personal information, andand Shi Tingfu remained in detention, and made data on its over 900 million usersDing Yajun was sentenced to three years’ available to the government.imprisonment in September. Huang Qi, co-founder of 64tianwang.com, a In August, lawyer Gao Zhisheng went website that reports on and documentsmissing from an isolated village in Shaanxi protests in China, was accused of “leakingprovince, where he had lived under tight state secrets”. He was allowed to meet hissurveillance since his release from prison in lawyer only eight months after he was2014. The family later learned he was in detained and claimed that he was ill-treatedauthorities’ custody but his location and in detention. At the end of 2017, 10condition remained unknown.Amnesty International Report 2017/18 127

journalists of 64tianwang.com were in prison: DEATH PENALTYWang Jing, Zhang Jixin, Li Min, Sun Enwei, LiChunhua, Wei Wenyuan, Xiao Jianfang, Li In March, the President of the SupremeZhaoxiu, Chen Mingyan and Wang Shurong. People’s Court announced that over the last 10 years, since the Court regained the Liu Feiyue, founder of human rights website authority to review and approve all deathCivil Rights and Livelihood Watch, was sentences, capital punishment “had beendetained in late 2016 and charged with strictly controlled and applied prudently” and“inciting subversion of state power”. His only applied “to an extremely small numberlawyer said that the charge was mostly of criminals for extremely severe offences”.related to opinions he had expressed publicly However, the government continued toand posted on the website. conceal the true extent of the use of the death penalty, despite more than four In August, Lu Yuyu, who documented decades of requests from UN bodies and theprotests in China on Twitter and in a blog, international community for morewas convicted of “picking quarrels and information, and despite the Chineseprovoking trouble” and sentenced to four authorities’ own pledges to bring aboutyears’ imprisonment. greater openness in the criminal justice system.7 In September, Zhen Jianghua, executivedirector of online platform Human Rights TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION ANDCampaign in China, was criminally detained TIBETAN-POPULATED AREAS IN OTHERon suspicion of “inciting subversion of state PROVINCESpower” and later placed under residentialsurveillance at a designated location. Police ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTSconfiscated numerous documents related to In June, in his report of a 2016 visit to China,his website which contained reports from the UN Special Rapporteur on extremegrassroots rights activists. poverty and human rights stated that while achievements towards alleviating povertyFREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF were generally “impressive”, the situation of Tibetans and Uighurs was deeplyIn June, the State Council passed the revised problematic, and “that most ethnic minoritiesRegulations on Religious Affairs, to come into in China are exposed to serious human rightseffect on 1 February 2018. It codified far- challenges, including significantly higherreaching state control over every aspect of poverty rates, ethnic discrimination andreligious practice, and extended power to forced relocation”.authorities at all levels of the government tomonitor, control and potentially punish Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan educationreligious practice. The revised law, which advocate, remained in detention awaiting trialemphasized national security with a goal of at the end of the year, without access to hiscurbing “infiltration and extremism”, could family. He was taken away in early 2016 forbe used to further suppress the right to giving an interview to the New York Times infreedom of religion and belief, especially for which he expressed fears about the gradualTibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and extinction of the Tibetan language andunrecognized churches.6 culture. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Falun Gong practitioners continued to be Ethnic Tibetans continued to facesubjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, discrimination and restrictions on their rightsunfair trials and torture and other ill- to freedom of religion and belief, of opiniontreatment. Chen Huixia remained detained and expression, of peaceful assembly and ofsince 2016 for suspicion of “using an evil cult association.to undermine law enforcement”. In May, hertrial was adjourned after her lawyer requested At least six people set themselves on fire inthe court exclude evidence extracted through Tibetan-populated areas during the yeartorture.128 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

in protest against repressive policies, bringing Islamic in origin, and required all childrenthe known number of self-immolations since under 16 with these names to change them.February 2009 to 152. On 18 March, PemaGyaltsen set himself on fire in Ganzi (Tibetan: In May, there were media reports that theKardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Chinese authorities in the XUAR had initiatedSichuan Province. Tibetan sources said that a policy to compel all Uighurs studyinghe was believed to be alive when he was abroad to return to China. Six Uighurs whotaken away by the police. His relatives were had studied in Turkey but had returned todetained and beaten when they approached the XUAR were given prison sentencesthe authorities asking for his whereabouts. ranging from 5 to 12 years on undefinedTibetan NGOs abroad said that Lobsang charges. In April, Chinese authoritiesKunchok, a Tibetan monk detained after detained relatives of several students in Egyptsurviving a self-immolation attempt in 2011, to coerce them to return home by May.was released from prison in March.8 On 26 Reports were received that some whoDecember, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup returned were tortured and imprisoned. InWangchen was reunited with his family in the July, the Egyptian authorities began aUSA, almost 10 years after he was first massive round-up of hundreds of Chinesedetained in China for making an independent nationals in Egypt, mainly Uighurs. Of these,documentary about the views of ordinary at least 22 Uighurs were forcibly returned toTibetans ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China.XINJIANG UIGHUR AUTONOMOUS Buzainafu Abudourexiti, a Uighur womanREGION who returned to China in 2015 after studying for two years in Egypt, was detained in MarchUnder the leadership of new regional and sentenced in June to seven years’Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, imprisonment after a secret trial.9the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region(XUAR) authorities put new emphasis on In August, international media reported that“social stability” and increased security. education authorities had issued an order inMedia reports indicated that numerous June in the largely Uighur-populated Hotandetention facilities were set up within the Prefecture to ban the use of the UighurXUAR, variously called “counter extremism language in schools, including for “collectivecentres”, “political study centres”, or activities, public activities and management“education and transformation centres”, in work of the education system”. Media reportswhich people were arbitrarily detained for stated that families across the region wereunspecified periods and forced to study required to hand copies of the Qur’an andChinese laws and policies. any other religious items to the authorities or risk punishment. In March, the XUAR enacted the “De-extremification Regulation” that prohibits a HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVEwide range of behaviours labelled REGION“extremist”, such as spreading “extremistthought”, denigrating or refusing to watch A series of actions taken throughout the yearpublic radio and TV programmes, wearing by the Hong Kong authorities increasedburkas, having an “abnormal” beard, concerns about whether freedom ofresisting national policies, and publishing, expression and freedom of peacefuldownloading, storing or reading articles, assembly were at risk.publications or audio-visual materialscontaining “extremist content”. In March, the founders of the Occupy Central campaign – Benny Tai, Chan Kin- In April, the government published a list of man and Rev Chu Yiu-Ming – were chargedprohibited names, most of which were with “public nuisance”-related offences, carrying a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment, for their involvement in the Umbrella Movement.Amnesty International Report 2017/18 129

In July, the High Court disqualified four MACAO SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVEelected pro-democracy legislators − Nathan REGIONLaw, Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai and YiuChung-yim − for failing to meet the In August, the Macao government stoppedrequirements specified in the National four Hong Kong journalists from enteringPeople’s Congress Standing Committee’s Macao to report on the destruction andinterpretation of the Hong Kong Basic Law clean-up work of Typhoon Hato, which mediawhen they took their oaths of office in reported caused 10 deaths. In December,October 2016. Macao’s legislature voted to suspend pro- democracy lawmaker Sulu Sou and to In August, the Court of Appeal sentenced remove his legislative immunity. He wasJoshua Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law to elected in September and charged insix, seven and eight months’ imprisonment November for taking part in a May 2016respectively for their part in a student-led peaceful protest against Macao’s Chiefdemonstration in September 2014 which Executive.triggered the Umbrella Movement. JoshuaWong and Alex Chow had been found guilty 1. China: Submission on the draft “National Intelligence Law” (ASAin 2016 of “taking part in an unlawful 17/6412/2017)assembly” and Nathan Law of “incitingothers to take part in an unlawful assembly”. 2. China: Submission on the draft “Supervision Law” (ASAA magistrates’ court originally ordered 17/7553/2017)community service or suspended sentencesbut prosecutors successfully appealed, 3. Liu Xiaobo: A giant of human rights who leaves a lasting legacy forseeking harsher penalties.10 Joshua Wong China and the world (Press release, 13 July)and Nathan Law were released on bail inOctober and Alex Chow in November 4. Further information: China − lawyer on bail remains under tightpending their appeals. surveillance: Xie Yang (ASA 17/6307/2017) The District Court sentenced seven police 5. China: Taiwanese activist sentenced to five years in jail (Pressofficers to two years’ imprisonment in release)February for assaulting protester Ken Tsangduring the Umbrella Movement protests. 6. Why China must scrap new laws that tighten the authorities’ grip onAfter the sentencing, China’s state religious practice (News story, 31 August)mouthpieces initiated an orchestratedcampaign attacking Hong Kong’s judiciary. 7. China’s deadly secrets (ASA 17/5849/2017)Appeals were pending at year end.RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER 8. China: Disclose the whereabouts of two Tibetans who attempted self-AND INTERSEX PEOPLE immolation (ASA 17/6098/2017)In April, the Court of First Instance ruled thatthe government’s refusal to extend work 9. China: Uighur woman incommunicado after secret trial – Buzainafubenefits to the same-sex husband of a civil Abudourexiti (ASA 17/7168/2017)servant was discrimination based on sexualorientation. 10. Hong Kong: Freedom of expression under attack as scores of peaceful protesters face “chilling” prosecutions (News story, 26 September) In September, the Court of Appeal ruled thatthe Immigration Department’s refusal to grant COLOMBIAa dependant visa to the same-sex civilpartner of a foreign professional on a work Republic of Colombiavisa was discriminatory. The government Head of state and government: Juan Manuel Santosappealed against the decisions in both cases. Calderón The civilian population, especially Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant and peasant farmer communities, and human rights defenders, continued to be the main victims of the ongoing armed conflict. Although official figures indicated that there was a decrease in the number of civilians killed in military actions involving130 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

the Revolutionary Armed Forces of UN Monitoring and Verification Mission inColombia (FARC) and the Colombian Colombia established by UN Security Councilsecurity forces from the start of the resolution 2261 (2016). The process to verifynegotiations to signing of the Peace FARC disarmament, which was due to beAgreement in 2016, the armed conflict completed in 180 days, began on 1 March.persisted in 2017 and in some parts of the On 27 June, the process of surrendering ofcountry it seemed to have intensified. weapons by individuals ended, and on 15Concerns remained about impunity for August the process of removing arms andcrimes committed during the armed munitions from the 26 FARC camps wasconflict. Security forces used excessive completed. In accordance with the Peaceforce, sometimes causing civilian deaths. Agreement, the UN Security Council adoptedViolence against women, particularly sexual resolution 2377 (2017) approving a secondviolence, persisted. verification mission on the political, economic and social reintegration of FARC members,INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT which commenced on 26 September.PEACE PROCESS Despite the stipulations in the “EthnicOn 11 October, the Constitutional Court gave Chapter” of the Peace Agreement, there werebacking to the Peace Agreement signed by complaints about the lack of guarantees forthe Colombian government and the FARC the effective participation of Indigenousguerrilla group on 24 November 2016. Peoples and Afro-descendant communities inHowever, at the end of 2017 legislation had the implementation of the Agreement. On 21yet to be implemented for most of the points September, members of the Permanentin the Peace Agreement. Bureau for Co-ordination with Indigenous Peoples and Organizations declared During separate negotiations in Quito, themselves to be in a state of emergency andEcuador, between the National Liberation permanent assembly to demand that theArmy (ELN) guerrilla group and the provisions of the Peace Agreement be fullyColombian government, the parties declared complied with.on 4 September that a bilateral ceasefire CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF THE ARMED CONFLICTwould take effect from 1 October until early The Unit for the Victims’ Assistance and2018. The ceasefire was declared in principle Reparation, created in 2011 by Law 1148,for a period of four months, after which the recorded a total 8,532,636 victims for theColombian government and the ELN would five-decade duration of the armed conflict.begin to discuss a possible peace agreement. This included 363,374 victims of threats,However, from October there were various 22,915 victims of sexual offences, 167,809reports of ELN attacks against civilians in victims of enforced disappearance,contradiction of the ceasefire agreement. 7,265,072 victims of forced displacementELN acknowledged one such attack: the and 11,140 victims of anti-personnel mines.killing of Aulio Isaramá Forastero, an Crimes against 31,047 victims of the armedIndigenous leader from Chocó, by ELN conflict were recorded for the first timemembers on 24 October. Civil society between January and October 2017.organizations in the Department of Chocóissued a call for a “Humanitarian Agreement In the departments of Chocó, Cauca,Now”, directed at the national government Antioquia and Norte de Santander, amongand the ELN guerrillas, in order to implement others, crimes under international law andconcrete humanitarian actions to stop ethnic human rights violations persisted, includingcommunities in Chocó continuing to be put at targeted killings of members of Afro-risk by confrontations in their territories. descendant communities and Indigenous Peoples, collective forced displacements, the Between 28 January and 18 February, forced confinement of communities within6,803 FARC guerrillas moved into 26 their territories (limiting their freedom ofdemobilization zones with the support of theAmnesty International Report 2017/18 131

movement and access to essential services Dios, in the Cacarica River Basin, departmentand food), the forced recruitment of children, of Chocó, searching for several people said tosexual violence, and the use of anti- be on a “death list”.2 On 6 March, apersonnel mines. paramilitary incursion was reported in the town of Peña Azul, municipality of Alto Despite the signing of the Peace Baudó, Chocó, which resulted in the large-Agreement, the armed conflict intensified in scale displacement of families and the forcedsome areas of Colombia as a result of armed confinement of many people within theirconfrontations between ELN guerrillas, communities near Peña Azul.3 On 18 April,paramilitary groups and state forces seeking residents of Puerto Lleras in the Jiguamiandóto fill the power vacuum left by the collective territory, Chocó, reported that theydemobilized FARC guerrillas. On 27 had received threats and that there had beenNovember, 13 people were killed as a result a paramilitary incursion into theof a confrontation between FARC dissidents Humanitarian Zone of Pueblo Nuevo that putand ELN members in Magüí Payán Nariño all the inhabitants at risk.4department. There were complaints aboutthe weak state presence in areas that were Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombianhistorically controlled by the FARC, which communities continued to be at risk fromfacilitated incursions and control by other anti-personnel mines on their territory; theillegal armed groups, putting Afro- laying of such mines is a grave violation ofdescendant and peasant farmer communities international humanitarian law. On 11 July,and Indigenous Peoples at risk. Sebastián Carpio Maheche, from the Wounaan Indigenous community of Juuin Paramilitary structures continued to operate Duur in the Embera Wounaan Katio dein various parts of the country, despite their Quiparadó Reserve in the municipality ofsupposed demobilization under the terms of Riosucio, Chocó, was injured by an explodingLaw 975, passed in 2005. There were reports anti-personnel mine.5of paramilitary attacks and threats againstleaders of the Peace Community of San José Clashes between ELN guerrillas, the securityde Apartadó in the department of Antioquia.1 forces and paramilitary groups putOn 29 December, armed men attempted to Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombiankill Germán Graciano Posso, the legal communities at serious risk.6 According to therepresentative of the community. Other National Indigenous Organization ofcommunity members disarmed them, but Colombia, between 1 November 2016 andwere injured in the process. The Peace 31 July 2017, 3,490 Indigenous people wereCommunity had sought to distance itself from victims of mass forced displacements, 827the armed conflict by formally refusing to were subjected to forced confinement, 115allow state security forces, guerrilla groups or received threats and 30 were killed, includingparamilitary groups to enter their territory. community leaders.Despite their efforts to remain neutral, peopleliving in San José de Apartadó continued to The ELN abducted two Dutch journalists onbe victims of attacks, torture, sexual abuse 19 June in the area of El Tarra, Norte deand forced displacement at the hands of all Santander. Both were released on 24 June.parties to the conflict. According to the Office of the Ombudsperson, hostage-taking by ELN There were reports of paramilitary guerrillas continued.incursions in the department of Chocó, in REPARATION FOR VICTIMSnorthwestern Colombia, particularly affecting Point 5 of the Peace Agreement created theAfro-descendant communities and “Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Indigenous Peoples. On 8 February, a group repetition System”, which included theof paramilitaries belonging to the Gaitanista Special Jurisdiction for Peace and judicialSelf-Defence Forces entered the mechanisms such as a unit for investigatingHumanitarian Zone of Nueva Esperanza en and dismantling the criminal organizations132 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

that succeeded paramilitarism. Point 5 also with the FARC. Police, army and navy officersdefined the position regarding reparations for were present in the area. Protesters reportedthe victims of the armed conflict. In this that tear gas was used against peacefulcontext, victims of the armed conflict demonstrators. The Ombudsperson reporteddemanded guarantees of access to justice, as that approximately 205 children as well as 10well as guarantees of the right to truth and pregnant women and 19 elderly peoplereparation and, especially, of non-repetition suffered health complications as a result. Inof abuses such as forced displacement and total, health problems as a result of exposuresexual violence, for Indigenous, Afro- to tear gas were reported by 313 people, anddescendant and peasant farmer communities 16 people sustained gunshot injuries orat risk. These demands had yet to be met, trauma from blunt objects. The “Civic Strike”and the long-term viability of the Peace ended on 7 June.Agreement was threatened due to theperpetrators of crimes under international One Indigenous man, Felipe Castro Basto,law, including war crimes, crimes against was reported to have died in the municipalityhumanity and human rights abuses not being of Corinto, in the North of Cauca, whenbrought to justice. ESMAD opened fire on a demonstration by 200 Indigenous people. In April Legislative Act No.1 of 2017 wasadopted, to ensure Congress would pass The Association of Community Councilslegislation implementing Point 5 of the Peace Mira, Nulpe and Mataje (Asominuma)Agreement. One of its provisions provided for reported that, on 5 October, security forcesthe separate – and privileged – treatment of killed nine peasant farmers bystate agents before the law, to the detriment indiscriminately firing at a peacefulof the rights of victims of crimes by the state demonstration in Tumaco (Nariño).in the context of the armed conflict. The lawalso provided for the possibility that the state HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERSwould not pursue criminal prosecutions incertain cases – although how this would be Human rights defenders continued to be theimplemented was not clear – potentially victims of threats and targeted killings. Thebreaching the obligation of the state to Office of the UN High Commissioner forinvestigate, prosecute and punish grave Human Rights reported that at least 105violations of human rights, undermining the human rights defenders were killed inrights of victims to truth and full reparation. Colombia during the year. There wasOn 27 November, Congress approved the continuing concern over the increase in theSpecial Jurisdiction for Peace. number of attacks against defenders, especially community leaders; defenders ofPOLICE AND SECURITY FORCES land, territory and the environment; and those campaigning in favour of the signing ofThere were allegations of deliberate killings the Final Agreement with the FARC. Thereby state forces and allegations of excessive continued to be an alarming rate of attacksuse of force by the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad against defenders of the rights of Indigenous(ESMAD) during protests in Chocó, Valle del and Afro-descendant people, peasantCauca, Cauca and Catatumbo. farmers and women, calling into question the implementation of the Peace Agreement. Inhabitants of Buenaventura on the Pacificcoast reported police repression of peaceful According to the organization Somosdemonstrations which were part of the “Civic Defensores, the number of killings ofStrike” declared on 16 May to demand that defenders increased by 31% in the first halfthe Colombian government guarantee of the year compared to the same period ineconomic, social and cultural rights and the 2016. The killings of women exercising anyright of the city’s inhabitants to participate in kind of leadership role increased comparedthe implementation of the Peace Agreement to 2016, with seven such killings occurring in the first six months of 2017. Amnesty International Report 2017/18 133

There were reports of killings of Afro- by women’s organizations of serious cases ofdescendant leaders. On 8 June, Afro- sexual violence perpetrated during the year.descendant human rights defender Bernardo According to the organization Sisma Mujer,Cuero Bravo of the National Association of between 1 January 2016 and 31 July 2017,Displaced Afro-Colombians in Malambo, the Ombudsperson issued 51 statementsAtlántico, was killed. He had been threatened warning of the risk of sexual violence,and attacked many times on account of his including six reports and notes associatedwork for the community and as a defender of with women defenders/leaders, in which hethose who had been forcibly displaced. highlighted the extraordinary risks faced byDespite his repeated requests, he had not women leaders and human rights defenders.been granted any protection measures by theNational Protection Unit. Due to weak protection mechanisms, there was a heightened risk of gender-based In November and December, two land violence, particularly domestic violenceclaimant leaders from collective Afro- against women, in the context of thedescendant territories were killed by transition towards peace. Official figuresparamilitaries from the Gaitanistas Self- recognized that following the demobilizationDefence Forces of Colombia. There were of the United Self-Defence Forces ofreports of at least 25 other leaders being Colombia (AUC) in 2005 there was a 28%threatened by paramilitaries in these areas increase in cases of sexual violence in theduring the year. communities where ex-combatants from the AUC were reintegrated. However, the Many death threats against human rights government had yet to implementdefenders and other activists were attributed mechanisms for prevention and for ensuringto paramilitary groups, but in most cases of care, assistance, protection and access tokillings it was difficult to identify which groups justice for women survivors of sexualwere responsible. However, the nature of the violence, notably in communities wherework carried out by the victims, many of FARC guerillas were to be reintegrated duringwhom were community leaders or land and the year. There were also weaknesses inenvironmental rights activists, suggested that mechanisms to ensure that survivors ofseveral of them may have been killed sexual violence are heard and can participatebecause of their human rights work. equally in all bodies responsible forMoreover, it appeared that denouncing implementing the Peace Agreement.abuses was perceived as a threat by regionaland local economic and political interests, as 1. Colombia: Paramilitary build-up in peace community (AMRwell as by various armed groups, including 23/5614/2017); Colombia: Spike in attacks against peace communityparamilitaries.7 shows conflict still alive (News story, 21 March)VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS 2. Colombia: Paramilitary incursion in humanitarian zone (AMR 23/5685/2017)The efforts of women’s organizations ensuredthat the Peace Agreement established that 3. Colombia: Over 300 displaced due to paramilitary incursion (AMRpeople suspected of committing crimes of 23/5826/2017)sexual violence would be required to appearbefore transitional justice tribunals. In 4. Colombia: Further information: Continued paramilitary presence inaddition, the Agreement confirmed that such Chocó (AMR 23/6082/2017)crimes would not be subject to amnesties orpardons, although human rights groups had 5. Colombia: Wounaan Indigenous community in danger (AMRserious reservations as to whether this 23/6774/2017)provision would be genuinely implemented. 6. Colombia: Recent collective displacements and violence indicate the Official statistics showed no progress in lack of non-repetition guarantees for Chocó’s Indigenous Peoples andaccess to justice for women survivors of Afro-Colombian communities (AMR 23/6946/2017)sexual violence, despite repeated allegations 7. The human rights situation in Colombia – Amnesty International’s written statement to the 34th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (27 February-24 March 2017) (AMR 23/5573/2017)134 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

CONGO (REPUBLIC Conditions, and the United Forces forOF THE) Freedom and Democracy. The organizations had intended, during the demonstration, toRepublic of the Congo give the Prime Minister a letter raisingHead of state: Denis Sassou Nguesso concerns about the human rights situation.Head of government: Clément Mouamba The right to freedom of expression wasDozens of political opponents remained in restricted. On 11 January, Ghys Fortunédetention; some were prisoners of Dombé Bemba, editor of the Talassaconscience. There were no investigations newspaper, was summoned by the judicialinto allegations of torture and other ill- police in connection with charges oftreatment by security forces and prison “complicity in undermining state security”.guards. Armed conflict between security This followed his publishing a statement byforces and armed groups continued in Pool; Reverend Ntumi, leader of the “Ninjas”, anaround 81,000 internally displaced people armed group operating in the Pool(IDPs) from the area continued to live in department.appalling conditions; and the rate of acute PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCEmalnutrition reached alarming levels. In November Paulin Makaya completed a two-year prison sentence for participating inBACKGROUND an unauthorized protest. However, he remained in prison at the end of the year as aThe government conducted military result of additional charges brought againstoperations, including air strikes, in the him on 6 January 2017 which includedsoutheastern department of Pool. “undermining national security, complicity inGovernment restrictions and the continuing a plan to escape from detention, andarmed conflict limited access to the area. complicity in the unlawful possession of arms and munitions of war”. The charges related The Congolese Labour Party won 90 of the to a shooting in Brazzaville central prison in151 National Assembly seats in legislative December 2016 in which, according toelections in July while elections in Pool had witnesses, he played no part.been postponed indefinitely due to the POLITICAL PRISONERSconflict. On 23 December, the government Little progress was made in judicialand armed groups led by Frédéric Bintsamou proceedings involving opposition leaders and(also known as Reverend Ntumi) signed up members detained since 2015 for opposingto a ceasefire in Pool. changes to the Constitution, or the presidential election results. On 31 March, the Republic of the Congoratified the International Convention on the The opposition Initiative for Democracy inProtection of the Rights of All Migrant the Republic of Congo – Republican Front forWorkers and Members of Their Families. the Respect of Constitutional Order and Democratic Change (FROCAD-IDC) – saidFREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND that over 100 political prisoners remained inEXPRESSION detention in Brazzaville central prison at the end of the year. Local human rightsThe authorities used restrictive legislation, organizations compiled a list of names of 90relating to public gatherings and assemblies, political prisoners held during the year. Theyto curtail the right to freedom of assembly. On included opposition leaders Okouya Rigobert23 March, the Prefect of Brazzaville, the of the Convention for Action, Democracy andcapital, rejected a request to hold a peaceful Development (CADD); Jean-Marie Micheldemonstration from the Congolese Mokoko, a presidential candidate and retiredObservatory of Human Rights, the army general; and Jean Ngouabi, a memberAssociation for Human Rights and Prison of the latter’s campaign team. In January,Amnesty International Report 2017/18 135

André Okombi Salissa, former member of the grounds, in public buildings, or inNational Assembly and president of CADD, overcrowded makeshift sites.was arrested and detained at the GeneralDirectorate of Territorial Surveillance after REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERSspending almost a year in hiding. The refugee status of around 10,000 Also in January, Noël Mienanzambi Boyi, Rwandan refugees expired on 31 December,president of the Association for the Culture of under the Cessation Clause for RwandanPeace and Non-Violence and a broadcaster refugees, on the grounds that Rwanda was afor a community radio station, was arrested in safe country. Some of the refugees may beKinkala, the main town in Pool. The permitted to choose between voluntaryauthorities claimed that he was transporting repatriation and residency in their hostmedicine and food to Reverend Ntumi, and countries, or otherwise retain their refugeecharged him with “complicity in undermining status if they fulfill certain criteria.state security”. Local NGOs said that he wasarrested after he agreed to organize RIGHT TO FOODmediation between the authorities andReverend Ntumi on the government’s According to the UN, 138,000 people in Poolrequest. They also alleged that he was required humanitarian assistance, and overtortured in various detention centres before 50% of families were food insecure.being transferred to Brazzaville central prisonin June where he remained at the end of the Global Acute Malnutrition − theyear. measurement of the nutritional status of those in long-term refugee situations –TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT affected between 17.3 and 20.4% of IDP children aged under five who fled from Pool.Several cases of torture and other ill-treatment by security services were reported. CÔTE D’IVOIRENo investigations or judicial proceedings intothese allegations were conducted by the Republic of Côte d’Ivoireauthorities. Head of state: Alassane Dramane Ouattara Head of government: Amadou Gon Coulibaly (replaced On 24 January, Modeste Boukadia, Daniel Kablan Duncan in January)president of the opposition Congolese Circleof Democrats and Republicans, was admitted Around 200 detainees, loyal to formerto Clinique Guénin in Pointe Noire city as a President Laurent Gbagbo, awaited trial inresult of injuries he sustained when prison connection with post-electoral violence inguards beat him at Pointe Noire prison in 2010 and 2011. Killings in the context ofNovember 2016. The beating resulted in two mutinies and clashes between demobilizedfractured bones, and caused him to have soldiers and security forces werehigh blood pressure and a heart condition. uninvestigated. The rights to freedom of expression, association and peacefulINTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE assembly were restricted; some protests were prohibited. Simone Gbagbo, wife ofFollowing fighting between government forces former President Gbagbo, was acquitted ofand the Ninjas armed group, around a third crimes against humanity and war crimes.of residents in Pool fled their homes. An The ICC tried Laurent Gbagbo and Charlesestimated 81,000 people were IDPs; 59,000 Blé Goudé.of them were registered displaced in 2017.IDPs were in dire need of shelter, food, water, BACKGROUNDbasic health services and adequatesanitation. They were forced to live with The UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI)families in host communities, on church concluded its mission in June, 13 years after136 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

its establishment by the UN Security Council. One student said the police arrested her withThe UN Independent Expert praised Côte her friends in her room, and beat her. Somed’Ivoire’s gradual progress towards national of those arrested had thrown stones at thereconciliation and stability which, he warned, police, but others were peaceful. All werewas fragile given the unrest in January. charged with disruption of public order and provisionally released after 20 days. The government launched an investigation,supported by UN investigators, into the IMPUNITYdiscovery of an arms cache in a house ownedby a close aide of the President of the People suspected of supporting formerNational Assembly. President Gbagbo were tried for human rights violations committed during and after the In July, there were several attacks by armed 2010 election. In contrast, none of Presidentgroups. Three soldiers were killed when Ouattara’s supporters were arrested or triedarmed men attacked a military camp in in connection with human rights violations.Korhogo in the north. In May Simone Gbagbo was acquitted ofFREEDOM OF EXPRESSION crimes against humanity and war crimes by the Assize Court of Abidjan. Victims ofLegislation which contained provisions that human rights violations were denied theircurtailed the right to freedom of expression, legal right to participate in the hearing. Newincluding in relation to defamation, offending lawyers, appointed by the head of the barthe President and disseminating false news, after her lawyers withdrew in 2016, alsowas adopted. pulled out in March saying the Court was irregularly constituted because a judge was In February, six journalists were detained for appointed after the trial had begun.two days in the city of Abidjan, accused ofdivulging false information on army mutinies. Around 200 supporters of Laurent Gbagbo,They were not charged but continued to be arrested since 2011 for crimes allegedlysummoned by authorities for questioning. committed during the post-electoral violence, were still detained awaiting trial. Two of them In August, two Le Quotidien journalists were − Assi Jean Kouatchi and Bonfils Todé – diedarrested over an article they wrote about the in custody in 2017.National Assembly President’s finances. Some detainees were provisionally releasedFREEDOMS OF ASSOCIATION AND and awaited trial. They included AntoinetteASSEMBLY Meho, a member of civil society organization Solidarité Wé, released in May. She wasIn February, the police used tear gas and charged with undermining state security. Inrubber bullets to repress a peaceful protest December Hubert Oulaye, a former ministerby cocoa planters and National Agricultural who was provisionally released in June, andUnion members in Abidjan. Maurice Djire, were sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of, and complicity in In July, demobilized soldiers held peaceful the murder of, UN soldiers in 2012. Despiteprotests in Bouaké city calling on the defence lawyers’ requests, the court did notgovernment to deliver on promises made provide testimonies from two prosecutionafter protests in May (see below). Amadou witnesses during their trial.Ouattara, Mégbè Diomandé and LassinaDoumbia, members of “Cellule 39” (an In July, Adou Assoa, another formerassociation of demobilized soldiers), were minister was sentenced to four years’arrested and charged with public disorder imprisonment for public disorder but clearedand organizing an unauthorized protest. of charges of undermining state security. At least 40 students were arrested in David Samba, opposition activist andSeptember after FESCI (Fédération president of the NGO Coalition des Indignésestudiantine et scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire) de Côte d’Ivoire, completed his six-monthorganized protests across the country againstpolice violence and increased university fees.Amnesty International Report 2017/18 137

sentence for public disorder in March 2016. where 540,000 litres of toxic waste werePrior to completing that sentence, he was dumped in Abidjan in 2006. The waste hadcharged with a new offence of undermining been produced by the company Trafigura.state security in relation to an attempted The authorities had still not assessed theuprising in Dabou in 2015 and was held long-term health risks to individuals ofpending trial at the end of the year. exposure to the chemicals in the waste orMUTINIES monitored victims’ health. CompensationAt least 10 people were killed and dozens claims against the company continuedwounded in mutinies and clashes between although many had not received payments.the security forces and demobilized soldiers.Four people were killed between 12 and 14 CROATIAMay during a mutiny in Bouaké which spreadto other cities. It was led by soldiers who had Republic of Croatiabeen integrated into the army in 2011 and Head of state: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovićwere demanding the payment of bonuses. On Head of government: Andrej Plenković13 May a group of mutineers went to theoffice of “Cellule 39” and shot at them, in Discrimination against ethnic and sexualresponse to “Cellule 39” condemning the minorities persisted. Refugees and migrantsmunity. Issoufou Diawara was killed after he entering irregularly were returned withoutwas shot in the back, and several were access to an effective asylum process.wounded. The violence ended when the Croatia accepted less than a 10th of thegovernment agreed to meet the mutineers’ refugees and asylum-seekers it hadpayment demands. committed to relocate and resettle under EU schemes. Access to abortion remained On 22 May, four demobilized soldiers were restricted.killed in clashes with police when they heldprotests calling for an agreement equivalent CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAWto the one obtained by the mutineers. Theysaid they were unarmed when police fired on Of the over 6,000 people who went missingthem. (The demobilized soldiers were former during the 1991-1995 war, the fate andmembers of armed groups who fought on the whereabouts of more than 1,500 remainedside of President Ouattara during the unclarified. The International Commission on2010-2011 election violence.) Missing Persons reported that Croatia failed to make significant steps towards fulfilling the There was no indication that suspected rights to truth, justice and reparation forperpetrators, including security forces, would victims, including by failing to account forbe brought to justice for human rights over 900 unidentified mortal remains in itsviolations by the end of the year. mortuaries.INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE DISCRIMINATIONThe ICC trial of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Discrimination against ethnic and sexualBlé Goudé for crimes against humanity, minorities remained widespread.including murder and rape during the post-electoral violence, continued. In July, the ICC Civil society organizations criticized newAppeals Chamber ordered the Trial Chamber government proposals for a national strategyto review its ruling to deny Laurent Gbagbo’s and action plan to fight discrimination thatprovisional release. were presented in March. The policies subsequently adopted by the government inCORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY December failed to reflect and adequately address human rights violations faced byThe UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Serbs, Roma and sexual minorities.delayed until 2018 the publication of itsassessment of lasting pollution at the 18 sites138 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

In February, the European Court of Human Unaccompanied minors represented aRights found in Škorjanec v. Croatia that the quarter of all asylum-seekers in the country.authorities had failed to guarantee the By the end of the year, fewer than 200applicant’s right to be free from torture and asylum-seekers had been grantedother inhuman or degrading treatment by international protection.failing to adequately investigate andprosecute the racist motives of the assailants Croatia committed to accept 1,600 refugeeswho violently attacked and beat the applicant and asylum-seekers under the EUand her partner, who is Roma, in 2013. resettlement and relocation schemes by the end of the year; by mid-November, fewerREFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS than 100 people had been relocated, and none had been resettled.Croatia continued to return to Serbia refugeesand migrants who entered the country In June, amendments introduced to the Lawirregularly, without granting them access to on Foreigners forbade the provision ofan effective asylum process. These push- assistance in accessing basic needs, such asbacks by police, sometimes from deep inside housing, health, sanitation or food, to foreignCroatian territory, routinely involved coercion, nationals irregularly residing in Croatia,intimidation, confiscation or destruction of except in cases of medical and humanitarianprivate valuables and the disproportionate emergencies or life-threatening situations.use of force by the police. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS In July, the Court of Justice of the EuropeanUnion ruled that Croatia had acted against The criminal justice system continued to failthe rules of the Dublin Regulation (which many victims of domestic abuse by routinelydefines which EU member state has the treating abuse as a minor offence.obligation to evaluate the asylum claims) byallowing transit for refugees and migrants In June, the European Court of Humanthrough the country in 2015 without Rights found in Ž.B. v. Croatia that theexamining applications for international authorities violated the right to respect forprotection. private and family life of a victim of multiple instances of domestic violence. The The NGO Centre for Peace Studies authorities had failed to criminally prosecutedocumented that between January and April, the alleged perpetrator and establish theat least 30 asylum applications – including facts, suggesting that the victim should havethose from families with children – had been acted by herself as a subsidiary prosecutordismissed on the grounds of “security and pursued private prosecution.concerns” during a routine security checkcarried out by the Security and Intelligence Croatia had yet to ratify the Council ofAgency as part of the asylum process. The Europe Convention on preventing andnotes of these applications were marked as combating violence against women and“classified” and could not be seen and thus domestic violence.could not be rebutted or challenged onappeal by those seeking asylum or their legal RIGHT TO HEALTHrepresentatives. Cases with classified notesled to an automatic rejection by the Ministry In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on theof Interior. Subsequently, the failed asylum- right of everyone to the enjoyment of theseekers were at risk of expulsion from the highest attainable standard of physical andcountry and at heightened risk of refoulement mental health noted with concern the– a measure forcing an individual to return to renewed and pending revision of the 1978a country where they would risk serious Act on Health Care Measures for Exercisinghuman rights violations. the Right to a Free Decision on Giving Birth, which could potentially restrict access to abortion. Individual doctors, and in some cases health care institutions, continued to refuse abortions on grounds of conscience,Amnesty International Report 2017/18 139

forcing women to undergo clandestine and economic embargo on Cuba, whichunsafe abortions. In March, the Constitutional continued to undermine economic, socialCourt ruled against a challenge seeking the and cultural rights.1978 Act to be declared unconstitutional andcalled on the national assembly to refrain At least 12 lawyers from the human rightsfrom adopting any laws which would organization Cubalex received asylum in theeffectively ban abortions. In pharmacies, USA after being harassed, intimidated andwomen and girls continued to be assessed threatened with imprisonment for theiragainst a questionnaire for which they had to peaceful human rights work.reveal personal information about their sexualbehaviour and reproductive health as a Cuba had not ratified the ICCPR or thecondition of accessing emergency ICESCR, both of which it signed in Februarycontraceptives that were available without 2008, nor the Rome Statute of the ICC.prescription, in violation of their right toprivacy. In December the government announced that President Raúl Castro would step down Roma children and women continued to be in April 2018.disadvantaged in accessing health care, andone fifth of this group lacked access to it ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONSaltogether. Human rights and political activists continuedCUBA to be harassed, intimidated and arbitrarily detained in high numbers. The CubanRepublic of Cuba Commission for Human Rights and NationalHead of state and government: Raúl Castro Ruz Reconciliation, a Cuban NGO not officially recognized by the state, recorded 5,155Arbitrary detentions, discriminatory arbitrary detentions in 2017, compared todismissals from state jobs, and harassment 9,940 in 2016.in self-employment continued to be used tosilence criticism. Advances in education The Ladies in White, a group of femalewere undermined by ongoing online and relatives of prisoners detained on politicallyoffline censorship. Cuba remained mostly motivated grounds, remained one of theclosed to independent human rights primary targets of repression by themonitors. authorities. During detention, the women were often beaten by law enforcementBACKGROUND officials and state security agents dressed as civilians.Lifting of travel restrictions on Cubans in2013, removal of limits on receiving In January, Danilo Maldonado Machado,remittances, and the draw of visa-free known as El Sexto, was released from acountries continued to be important push maximum security prison. He had beenfactors for emigration. Cubans continued to arrested in November 2016, hours after theleave in large numbers, despite the country’s announcement of Fidel Castro’s death, forchanging international diplomacy, pushed by having written Se fue (“He’s gone”) on a wallexceptionally low salaries and a tight web of in the capital, Havana.1control on freedom of expression. In August, Yulier Perez, a graffiti artist In June, the administration of US President known for painting dilapidated walls inDonald Trump made an almost complete Havana, was arbitrarily detained after monthsreversal of the USA’s political rhetoric towards of intimidation and harassment from theCuba. This reduced the chance of US authorities for freely expressing himselfCongress passing legislation to lift the through his art.2 PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE The leader of the pro-democracy Christian Liberation Movement, Dr Eduardo Cardet Concepción, remained in prison having been140 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

handed a three-year sentence in March for lawyers limited effective recourse through thepublicly criticizing Fidel Castro.3 courts. A family of four human rights defenders RIGHT TO EDUCATIONwere detained in Holguín, southeast Cuba,for allegedly leaving their house during the Undue restrictions in access to informationperiod of state mourning for Fidel Castro in and freedom of expression online followed2016. The three siblings were given one-year decades of offline censorship, underminingprison sentences for “defamation of Cuba’s advances in education.institutions, organizations and heroes andmartyrs of the Republic of Cuba” and “public Between May and mid-June, the Opendisorder”.4 Their mother was sentenced to Observatory of Network Interferencehouse arrest. On 2 April, after a prolonged conducted testing on a sample of websites inhunger strike, the three siblings were freed Cuba and found 41 sites blocked by theunder conditional release, but they continued authorities. All the blocked sites expressedto be intimidated by the authorities. criticism of the Cuban government, reported on human rights issues, or discussed Jorge Cervantes, a member of the political techniques to bypass censorship.opposition group Patriotic Union of Cuba(UNPACU), was detained for approximately While the government continued to expandthree months between May and August. access to the internet, it prioritized access toWeeks before, UNPACU had published on its the highly censored, government-curatedYouTube channel a video called “Horrors in national intranet. Access to the globaljail” in which Jorge Cervantes interviewed a internet remained prohibitively expensive forman who had allegedly been ill-treated in a most Cubans.7Cuban prison, and a series of videos whichalleged corruption by public officials.5 INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY The authorities continued to present In April, the UN Special Rapporteur ontrumped-up charges for common crimes as a trafficking in persons conducted a visit toway to harass and detain political opponents, Cuba, and in July the country received themeaning there were likely many more UN independent expert on human rights andprisoners of conscience than documented. international solidarity.WORKERS’ RIGHTS Most independent human rights organizations continued to be denied accessThe state continued to use its control – as the to the country and to its prisons. Cubabiggest employer in the country, and as a remained the only country in the Americasregulator of the private sector – as a way to region to deny access to Amnestystifle even the most subtle criticism of the International.government.6 Politically motivated anddiscriminatory dismissals continued to be 1. Cuban graffiti artist released (AMR 25/5545/2017)used against those who criticized thegovernment’s economic or political model. 2. Urban artist at risk in Cuba (AMR 25/7000/2017)Workers pushed out of employment in thepublic sector for freely expressing themselves 3. Cuba: Activist sentenced to three years in jail after criticizing Fidelwere often further harassed after entering the Castro (News story, 21 March)emerging but highly regulated self-employment sector. 4. Cuba: Prisoners of conscience on hunger strike (AMR 25/6001/2017) The de facto prohibition on independent 5. Cuba: Opposition activist in maximum security prison (AMRtrade unions limited workers’ ability to 25/6671/2017)independently organize and appeal againstdiscriminatory dismissals. The executive’s 6. Cuba: “Your mind is in prison” – Cuba’s web of control over freestrong influence over the judiciary and expression and its chilling effect on everyday life (AMR 25/7299/2017) 7. Cuba’s internet paradox: How controlled and censored internet risks Cuba’s achievements in education (News story, 29 August)Amnesty International Report 2017/18 141

CYPRUS In September, the NGO Future Worlds Center warned of the need for a contingencyRepublic of Cyprus reception plan, especially in case of anHead of state and government: Nicos Anastasiades increase in refugees arriving by boat. According to the UN Migration Agency, 851UN-backed peace talks for the reunification people arrived by boat on Cyprus betweenof the island collapsed in early July. January and November 2017 in comparisonReception conditions for asylum-seekers to 345 in the previous year.remained a cause of concern. ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCESBACKGROUND Between January and the end of December,After intense negotiations, high-level peace the Committee of Missing Persons in Cyprustalks for the reunification of Cyprus failed to exhumed the remains of 46 people, bringingreach an agreement in early July. The Greek- the total number of exhumations since 2006Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot leaders could not to 1,217. Between 2007 and 31 Decemberagree on security, including the withdrawal of 2017, the remains of 855 missing individualsTurkish troops, and property issues. (645 Greek Cypriots and 210 Turkish Cypriots) were identified.REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS DISCRIMINATION – PEOPLE WITHIn February, the Supreme Court rejected an DISABILITIESapplication challenging the detention andextradition of Seif el-Din Mostafa, an Egyptian In May, the UN Committee on the Rights ofnational accused of hijacking an EgyptAir Persons with Disabilities expressed concernsplane in March 2016. Despite concerns he about the insufficient access to health carewould be at real risk of torture or other ill- by people with disabilities, the high level oftreatment if returned to Egypt, the Supreme unemployment among them and theCourt decided not to accept additional insufficient measures to promote their accessevidence regarding the risk of torture. The to employment in an open labour market.Court held that the applicant could beextradited regardless of his not having had a TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENTfinal decision in his asylum claim. InNovember, the Supreme Court also rejected In April, the European Court of Human Rightsan appeal lodged against its previous found that the Cypriot Ombudsperson anddecision. However, on the same day the the national police complaints mechanismEuropean Court of Human Rights halted Seif had failed to investigate effectively the allegedel-Din Mostafa’s extradition to Egypt. ill-treatment of a Kenyan national during his deportation in March 2007 (Thuo v. Cyprus). In May, the CERD Committee expressed The Court also held that the applicant’sconcerns about the limited employment detention conditions in Nicosia Central Prisonoptions for asylum-seekers living on the amounted to degrading treatment.island, the insufficient amount of socialassistance they received and the limited At the end of August, a 60-year-old Turkishreception facilities. The Committee also national claimed to have been ill-treated by araised concern about the insufficient access police officer outside and inside a policeto services for those asylum-seekers staying station near a designated crossing point ofat the Kofinou Reception and the UN Buffer Zone. The incident was beingAccommodation Center for Applicants for investigated by the national police complaintsInternational Protection, the only official mechanism at the end of the year.centre hosting asylum-seekers on the island.142 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

CZECH REPUBLIC affect new tenants or those who move to or within these zones. NGOs raised concernsCzech Republic that the new regulation wouldHead of state: Miloš Zeman disproportionately affect Roma and poorHead of government: Andrej Babiš (replaced Bohuslav people.Sobotka in December) REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERSThe government refused to participate inthe EU mandatory refugee relocation The Czech Republic accepted only 12quotas. Despite reforms, Roma pupils asylum-seekers out of the 2,691 it had beencontinued to be segregated in schools. An assigned under the 2015 EU Emergencyamendment allowing municipalities to Relocation Scheme – which aimed to relocatedeclare zones of “socially pathological refugees from EU member states such asbehaviour” with restricted access to housing Greece and Italy – by the end of the year. Inbenefits entered into force. June, the European Commission started infringement procedures against the CzechDISCRIMINATION – ROMA Republic, as well as Poland and Hungary, for refusing to participate in the scheme. In July,RIGHT TO EDUCATION the government stated it would not acceptOne year after the reform of the primary any further asylum-seekers. In December,education system that aimed to facilitate the the European Commission decided to step upinclusion of pupils from disadvantaged the action against all three countries andbackgrounds into mainstream schools, Roma referred them to the Court of Justice of thechildren continued to face discrimination in European Union over their refusal to acceptaccess to education. In July, the government the asylum-seekers under the scheme.published data which showed that over 24%of Roma pupils continued to be educated in There were 974 applications made forethnically segregated schools. international protection by the end of the year. Thirteen people were successful in their In March, a district court ordered a primary applications; 79 applications were rejected.school in the city of Ostrava to apologize to Sixteen asylum-seekers from Afghanistantwo Roma pupils. The school had refused to were refused an extension to their temporaryregister the pupils in 2014, claiming that it protection. The government continued tohad reached full capacity. Legal guardians of base such asylum decisions on its arbitrarythe pupils complained that the director designation of certain areas in Afghanistan asjustified his decision by claiming that non- “safe”, despite evidence to the contrary andRoma parents could start removing their with violence continuing to escalate inchildren from the school as there were Afghanistan during the year.already nine Roma pupils registered in thatgrade. The court held that a fear of “white RACISM AND XENOPHOBIAflight” could not justify the treatment of pupilson the basis their ethnicity. High-level government officials, including theRIGHT TO HOUSING President, made xenophobic statementsIn July, an amendment to the law on welfare about refugees and migrants. During the pre-benefits entered into force and dozens of election campaign, the Minister of Interiormunicipalities announced that they would presented as a success the restrictive policiesrestrict access to housing allowances. The that led refugees to avoid the Czechamendment allows municipalities to declare Republic.zones of “socially pathological behaviour”where residents would be barred from In February, the police discontinued theirclaiming some housing allowances. This will investigation into the 2016 death of a Roma man at a pizzeria in Žatec, determining that no crime had been committed. The man died after he was restrained by municipal policeAmnesty International Report 2017/18 143

officers and some customers as a result of DEMOCRATIChis allegedly aggressive behaviour. The REPUBLIC OF THEvictim’s family had filed a complaint against CONGOthe police in January, alleging that theinvestigation was not thorough; their lawyer Democratic Republic of the Congocriticized the police for failing to secure the Head of state: Joseph Kabilascene and evidence. Head of government: Bruno Tshibala Nzenze (replaced Samy Badibanga Ntita in April) In May, the Council of EuropeCommissioner for Human Rights urged the The human rights situation furtherCzech authorities to remove a pig farm from deteriorated. Violence in the Kasaï regionthe site of a former Nazi concentration camp, left thousands dead, at least 1 millionwhere most of the victims were Roma, in the internally displaced, and caused more thanvillage of Lety u Písku. While appreciating the 35,000 people to flee for neighbouringgovernment’s efforts to buy the land, the Angola. In the east, armed groups andCommissioner was concerned over the length government forces continued to targetof the process, and the government’s civilians and engage in illegal exploitationrepeated failure to remove the pig farm and of natural resources with impunity. Police,create a memorial as a measure of reparation intelligence services and courts continuedfor the Roma who suffered and died there to crack down on the rights to freedom ofduring the Second World War. In November, expression, association and peacefulthe government signed a contract to buy off assembly. Human rights defenders andthe land from the owner of the pig farm and journalists were harassed, intimidated,made a commitment to build a memorial on arbitrarily arrested, expelled or killed.the site. BACKGROUNDSECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS President Kabila remained in post althoughThe Czech Republic continued to export his second constitutional term ended on 19arms to countries where there was a December 2016. A political agreement wassubstantial risk that such arms could be used signed in December 2016 by the rulingto commit or facilitate serious human rights coalition, the opposition and some civilviolations, including the unlawful use of force society organizations. It provided thatagainst protesters or opposition groups. In President Kabila would remain in power, andMay, during an arms fair in the city of Brno, a government of national unity would bethe President stated that the Czech arms appointed, led by a Prime Ministerindustry needed to “export globally”, denying designated by the Rassemblement, the mainthat the country had responsibility to prevent opposition, with the task of organizing thethe re-export of its equipment to countries elections by December 2017. The agreementwhich are “not safe”. established the National Council for the Implementation of the Accord and the Electoral Process (CNSA) to monitor progress, led by Rassemblement leader Etienne Tshisekedi. The agreement included a commitment by President Kabila to adhere to the constitutional two-term limit and not undertake a revision or change of the Constitution. Implementation of the144 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

agreement stalled over the appointment and Congolese and foreign journalists weredistribution of political posts to the intimidated, harassed and arbitrarily arrestedtransitional institutions. In February Etienne and detained while carrying out their work. InTshisekedi died. In April, President Kabila many cases, their equipment was confiscatedunilaterally appointed Bruno Tshibala as or they had to erase recorded data. ThePrime Minister; the Rassemblement refused Minister of Communication issued a decreeto recognize the appointment. In July, Joseph in July introducing new rules requiringOlenghankoy was also unilaterally appointed foreign correspondents to obtainas chairman of the CNSA. The main authorization from the Minister to travelopposition leaders, the Catholic Church and outside the capital, Kinshasa.the international community denouncedthese appointments as violating the In August, the day before a two-day protest,agreement. organized by the opposition, calling on people across the country to stay at home to Voter registration in the run-up to the encourage the publication of an electoralelections was significantly delayed. In July, calendar, the Post and Telecommunicationsthe president of the Independent National Regulatory Authority orderedElectoral Commission announced that telecommunication companies to strictly limitelections could not be held in December all social media activity and communication.2017, on grounds including the securitysituation in the Kasaï region. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Violence that erupted in 2016 over the Authorities continued to ban and represskilling of Chief Kamuena Nsapu spread to five public dissent and peaceful assembliesprovinces, triggering an unprecedented organized by civil society organizations andhumanitarian crisis. In the east, several the opposition, especially protests concerningarmed groups stepped up their attacks to the political crisis and elections. Oppositionexpel President Kabila. Both the Democratic peaceful protesters were intimidated,Republic of the Congo (DRC) security forces harassed and arrested by security forces;and the UN Organization Stabilization government supporters’ demonstrations tookMission in the DRC (MONUSCO) were unable place without interference from theto tackle the insecurity and neutralize more authorities.than 40 local or foreign armed groups thatremained active. On 31 July, more than 100 people, including 11 Congolese and foreign The annual inflation rate increased by journalists, were arrested during country-widearound 50% in 2017, contributing to demonstrations organized by the Struggle fordeepening levels of poverty. Strikes were held Change (LUCHA), to demand the publicationdemanding salary increases for teachers, of the electoral calendar. A journalist wasuniversity professors, doctors, nurses and charged in connection with the protest andcivil servants. A cholera epidemic affected at remained in detention in Lubumbashi; fourleast 24,000 people; over 500 died between demonstrators received prison sentences.January and September. The others were released without charge the same or following day.FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCEPress freedom and the right to informationwere restricted. The granting of visas and Protests other than those organized byaccreditations to foreign correspondents was government supporters were often met withdrastically limited. At least one journalist, a excessive and sometimes lethal force.Belgian national, was expelled in September;a French national and a US national were On 15 September, in Kamanyola, the armyunable to renew accreditation in June and and police fired at a crowd of BurundianAugust respectively. On at least 15 occasions, refugees protesting the detention and deportation of four refugees by DRCAmnesty International Report 2017/18 145

intelligence services; 39 protesters were people; 62 were children, 30 of them agedkilled, including at least eight women and five under 8.children, and at least 100 were injured. No VIOLATIONS BY SECURITY FORCESlegal action was known to have been taken The Congolese police and army carried outagainst the perpetrators by the end of the hundreds of extrajudicial killings, rapes,year. arbitrary arrests and acts of extortion. Between February and April, internet videosHUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS showed soldiers executing alleged Kamuena Nsapu followers, including young children.Human rights defenders and youth activists The victims were armed with sticks orwere targeted by security forces and armed defective rifles, or were simply wearing redgroups for their work; they included Alex headbands. The government initiallyTsongo Sikuliwako and Alphonse Kaliyamba, dismissed the accusations, saying they werekilled in North Kivu. “fabricated” to discredit the army. However, in February it acknowledged that “excesses” In May, the Senate passed a bill purporting had taken place and pledged to prosecuteto strengthen protection for human rights those suspected of serious human rightsdefenders. However, the bill contained a violations and abuses in the region, includingrestrictive definition of what constituted a its security forces.human rights defender. It strengthened the LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITYstate’s control over human rights On 6 July, seven army soldiers were givenorganizations, and threatened to curtail their sentences of between one year and lifeactivities. It could result in the non- imprisonment in connection with extrajudicialrecognition of human rights organizations. executions in Mwanza-Lomba, a village in Kasaï Oriental province. The sentencesCONFLICT IN THE KASAÏ REGION followed a trial in which the victims were not identified and nor were their relatives givenViolence in the region, which erupted in the opportunity to testify before the court or2016, spread to five provinces and left seek reparations.thousands dead, and by 25 September, 1million were internally displaced; there was On 12 March, Swedish national Zaidawidespread destruction of social Catalan and US national Michael Sharp, bothinfrastructure and villages. Militias emerged, members of the UN Security Council DRCwhich increasingly attacked people on the Sanctions Committee’s Group of Experts,basis of their ethnicity, namely those were executed during an investigativeperceived to support the Kamuena Nsapu mission in the Kasaï Central province. Theiruprising. bodies were found 16 days later, near Bunkonde village. Zaida Catalan had been Followers of Kamuena Nsapu were beheaded. Three of their drivers and ansuspected of human rights abuses in the interpreter who accompanied themregion, including recruitment of child disappeared and had not been found by thesoldiers, rapes, killings, destruction of over end of the year. In April, the authorities300 schools and of markets, churches, police showed diplomats and journalists in Kinshasastations and government buildings. a video of the execution of the two experts; the origins of the video remained unknown. The Bana Mura militia was formed around The video, which claimed that KamuenaMarch by individuals from the Tshokwe, Nsapu “terrorists” were the perpetrators, wasPende and Tetela ethnic groups with the shared on the internet and admitted assupport of local traditional leaders and evidence in the ongoing military court trial ofsecurity officials. It launched attacks against the people accused of the killings. The trialthe Luba and Lulua communities whom it began on 5 June in the city of Kananga.accused of supporting the Kamuena Nsapuuprising. Between March and June, therewere reports that in Kamonia territory, theBana Mura and the army killed around 251146 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

In June, the UN Human Rights Council Bundu dia Congore, resulted in the escape ofestablished an independent international over 4,000 prisoners. On 11 June, 930inquiry, which was opposed by the prisoners escaped from the Kangbayi centralgovernment, to investigate serious human prison in Beni city, including dozensrights violations in the Kasaï province. In July, convicted a few months earlier for killingthe UN High Commissioner for Human civilians in the Beni area. Hundreds of otherRights announced the appointment of an detainees escaped from prisons and policeinternational team of experts, which in detention centres in Bandundu-ville,September began investigating the incidents Kasangulu, Kalemie, Matete (Kinshasa),and is expected to issue its findings in Walikale, Dungu, Bukavu, Kabinda, Uvira,June 2018. Bunia, Mwenga and Pweto.CONFLICT IN EASTERN DRC Prisons were overcrowded, and conditions remained dire, with inadequate food andChronic instability and conflict continued to drinking water, and poor health care. Dozenscontribute to grave human rights violations of prisoners died of starvation and disease.and abuses. In the Beni region, civilians weretargeted and killed. On 7 October, 22 people CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITYwere killed on the Mbau-Kamango road byunidentified armed men. In August, the Ministry of Mines validated a National Strategy to Combat Child Labour in Kidnappings increased in North Kivu; at Mining. National and international civilleast 100 cases were recorded in Goma city. society groups were given the opportunity toIn North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, dozens of provide feedback. The governmentarmed groups and security forces continued announced that it would “progressively”to commit murder, rape, extortion, and to implement many of their recommendationsengage in illegal exploitation of natural and eradicate child labour by 2025.resources. The conflict between the Hutuand Nande in North Kivu resulted in deaths, DENMARKdisplacement and destruction, especially inthe Rutshuru and Lubero areas. Kingdom of Denmark Head of state: Queen Margrethe II In the Tanganyika and Haut-Katanga Head of government: Lars Løkke Rasmussenprovinces, communal violence between theTwa and the Luba continued. In Tanganyika The government annulled an agreementthe number of internally displaced people with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to(IDPs) reached 500,000. Between January accept refugees for resettlement. Theand September, over 5,700 Congolese fled to classification of transgender identities as aZambia to escape the conflict. “mental disorder” was ended. Despite the security situation, the authorities REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERScontinued to close IDP camps around thetown of Kalemie, forcing displaced people to Denmark failed to accept any refugees forreturn to their villages or to live in even worse resettlement. The government annulled itsconditions. standing agreement with UNHCR to receive 500 refugees annually for resettlement. FromDETENTION January 2018, the government, not Parliament, will decide each year if DenmarkThere was an unprecedented number of is to accept refugees for resettlement.prison breakouts across the country;thousands escaped, and dozens died. On 17 Individuals granted subsidiary temporaryMay, an attack was carried out on Makala protection status had to wait three yearsPenitentiary and Rehabilitation Centre, before being eligible to apply for familyKinshasa’s main prison. The attack, whichthe authorities blamed on the political groupAmnesty International Report 2017/18 147

reunification. In May, the High Court of RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL,Eastern Denmark ruled that the TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLEpostponement of family reunification of aSyrian refugee with his wife was not in In January, Parliament’s landmark 2016violation of the right to family life under the resolution to end the pathologization ofEuropean Convention on Human Rights. In transgender identities was implemented.November, the Supreme Court confirmed this However, existing procedural rules on accessruling. to hormone treatment and gender-affirming surgery continued to unreasonably prolong In January, the Supreme Court ruled that the gender recognition process forthe compulsory overnight stay and twice daily transgender people.reporting regime at a centre for individuals on“tolerated stay” (those excluded from No national guidelines from the Danishprotection but who could not be deported), Health Authority outlined how doctors shouldconstituted a disproportionate measure treat children with variations of sexamounting to custody when extended beyond characteristics and the approach was nota period of four years. The government human rights-based. This allowed non-implemented the ruling, but also decided that emergency invasive and irreversible medicalany person leaving the centre to live with procedures to be carried out on children,their family would lose their right to health typically under the age of 10, in violation ofcare and financial assistance for food. the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. These procedures can be carried out In March, the Parliamentary Ombudsman despite the lack of medical research toconcluded that government policy to separate support the need for surgical intervention,asylum-seeking couples when one partner and despite documentation of the risk ofwas under the age of 18 was a violation of the lifelong harmful effects.1 In October the UNDanish Act on Public Administration and Committee on the Rights of the Child raisedpossibly a violation of the right to family life. concerns regarding surgical interventions onThe policy did not provide for a process to intersex children.determine whether the separation was in theinterest of the younger spouse and did not 1. Europe: First, do no harm − ensuring the rights of children withconsider their opinion. variations of sex characteristics in Denmark and Germany (EUR 01/6086/2017)VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN DOMINICANIn April, a proposal by the opposition to REPUBLICintroduce a consent-based definition of rape,in line with the Council of Europe Convention Dominican Republicon Preventing and Combating Violence Head of state and government: Danilo Medina Sánchezagainst Women and Domestic Violence(Istanbul Convention) ratified by Denmark in Limited progress was made in solving the2014, was rejected in Parliament. In statelessness crisis. Abortion remainedNovember, the Council of Europe's Group of criminalized in all circumstances. ExcessiveExperts on Action against Violence against use of force by the police and gender-basedWomen and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) violence continued.encouraged the Danish authorities to changethe current sexual violence legislation and BACKGROUNDbase it on the notion of freely given consentas required by the Istanbul Convention. The Dominican Republic suffered from a series of natural disasters that hit the Caribbean during the year, including two148 Amnesty International Report 2017/18

major hurricanes in September. This, along The naturalization plan established by Lawwith previous flooding earlier in the year, left 169-14 for people in “Group B” (those whosetens of thousands of people temporarily birth was never registered in the Dominicandisplaced and badly damaged infrastructure. Civil Registry) had made little or no progressLike many small, developing island states, during the year. Of the 8,755 individuals whothe Dominican Republic remained very were able to register under the new planvulnerable to climate change, which (16% of the estimated 53,000 people inscientists linked to the increasingly extreme Group B, according to the government), itweather. On 21 September, the Dominican was believed that as few as 6,545 had hadRepublic ratified the UN Paris Agreement on their files approved by the authorities by theclimate change. end of the year. The law required a two-year waiting period after the approval of the Allegations that several Dominican officials registration for them to be able to formallywere bribed by the Brazilian construction request their naturalization as Dominicans.company Odebrecht triggered massive By the end of the year no one was known tocountry-wide demonstrations against have been naturalized under the new plan.corruption under the Green March Most of the individuals affected remainedmovement. In September, the Inter-American stateless in the absence of anotherCommission on Human Rights (IACHR) held nationality.a public hearing on the issue of “humanrights and reports of impunity and corruption During the year, the authorities failed toin the Dominican Republic”. discuss, design or implement new solutions to guarantee the right to nationality for the In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on the tens of thousands of Dominican-born peoplesale and sexual exploitation of children visited who could not benefit from Law 169-14, inthe country. She urged the government to put particular the remaining 84% of those inchild protection at the core of any tourism Group B, and all those who were left out ofstrategy. the scope of the 2014 legislation.DISCRIMINATION – STATELESS Responding to this situation, in April thePERSONS IACHR incorporated the Dominican Republic in Chapter IV.B of its annual report thatThe Dominican Republic continued to fail to included countries in need of special humanuphold its international human rights rights attention.obligations with respect to the large numberof stateless people born in the country who By the end of the year, no public official hadwere retroactively and arbitrarily deprived of been held accountable for discriminatorytheir Dominican nationality in September  practices in granting registration and identity2013.1 documents, including for the 2013 mass arbitrary deprivation of nationality. Affected Law 169-14, adopted in May 2014 to people continued to be denied a range ofaddress the statelessness crisis, continued to human rights and were prevented frombe poorly implemented. According to official accessing higher education, formalstatistics, only 13,500 people of the so-called employment or adequate health care, among“Group A” created by the law (out of an other things.official estimate of 61,000 individuals) wereable to access some sort of Dominican POLICE AND SECURITY FORCESidentity document proving their Dominicannationality. In the meantime, many had their The Office of the Prosecutor General reportedoriginal birth certificates nullified and their 110 killings by security forces betweennew ones transferred to a separate civil January and October. The circumstancesregistry without the necessary measures in around many of the killings suggested thatplace to avoid further discrimination. they may have been unlawful. The homicideAmnesty International Report 2017/18 149

rate remained high, at nearly 16 per 100,000 of killings of women and girls, compared withinhabitants during the first half of the year. the same period in 2016. The media reported allegations of the RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL,repeated use of unnecessary and excessive TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLEforce by the police during social protests. The Dominican Republic continued to lackREFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS legislation to combat hate crimes. In June, the body of a transgender woman, Rubi Mori,The authorities remained unable to process was found dismembered in wasteland.4 Bymost of the cases of irregular migrants that the end of the year, no one had been broughtthey received during the National to justice for her killing.Regularization Plan for Foreigners withIrregular Migration Status that operated 1. Dominican Republic: What does it take to solve a statelessnessbetween 2014 and 2015. As a result, in July crisis? (News story, 23 May)the authorities renewed for a further year thetemporary “regularization carnets” issued to 2. Dominican Republic: Vote against decriminalization of abortion, aregistered individuals, allowing them to stay betrayal to women (Press release, 1 June)in the country. 3. República Dominicana: Amnistía Internacional y Oxfam llaman aSEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Cámara de Diputados a garantizar derechos de las mujeres (AMR 27/6605/2017); Dominican Republic: Further information - CongressThe Dominican Republic remained one of the rejects regressive abortion reform (AMR 27/6724/2017); Dominicanfew countries worldwide that criminalized Republic: Further information: Abortion vote pending after President’sabortion without exception. veto (AMR 27/5478/2017) In May the Senate voted against a proposal, 4. Dominican Republic: Horrifying killing of transgender womansupported by President Medina, to highlights need for protection against discrimination (News story, 6decriminalize abortion.2 On 11 July the June)Senate’s vote was rejected by the Chamber ofDeputies, providing the possibility of future ECUADORreforms that would protect the rights ofwomen and girls.3 Republic of Ecuador Head of state and government: Lenín Boltaire Moreno In August, a petition was presented to the Garcés (replaced Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado inIACHR seeking justice and reparation for the May)death in 2012 of 16-year-old RosauraAlmonte Hernández, publicly known as Indigenous leaders, human rights defenders“Esperancita”. Because of the country’s and staff of NGOs faced persecution andrestrictive legislation on abortion, Rosaura harassment amid continuing restrictions onAlmonte Hernández, who was seven weeks the rights to freedom of expression andpregnant, was denied life-saving treatment association. The right to free, prior andfor leukaemia for several days and died informed consent of Indigenous Peoplesshortly after. continued to be restricted. The Bill to Prevent and Eliminate Violence against An investigation published in August by Women was pending revision by thethe NGO Women’s Link Worldwide found that National Assembly.one woman died every two days in theDominican Republic during the first half of BACKGROUND2017 from pregnancy-related causes due tothe lack of access to quality maternal health On 24 May, Lenín Moreno Garcés becameservices. President. Shortly afterwards he called for a referendum and a popular consultation, to beVIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS held in February 2018, for Ecuadorians to decide on matters including the amendmentAccording to official statistics, the first half ofthe year saw a 21% increase in the number150 Amnesty International Report 2017/18