Responding to the resolution on Afghanistan adopted yesterday at the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), which extended the vital mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan but yet again failed to establish an independent international accountability mechanism for the country, Smriti Singh, Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International, said:
“The HRC has again shied away from sufficiently supporting justice for the people of Afghanistan who have placed their hopes in the international community. While it is notable that the UN HRC resolution recognises the need to investigate as well as to collect, preserve and analyse evidence of crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations in Afghanistan, it falls short of establishing an independent international accountability mechanism that can actually perform these functions.
“The HRC has yet again missed the chance to deliver an adequate response, advance accountability and justice, and deter further abuse of human rights as the Taliban continues to intensify and escalate their crackdown on the rights of the people in Afghanistan including through far reaching, draconian restrictions on the rights of women and girls. An independent international accountability mechanism that can identify perpetrators as well as investigate, collect, and preserve evidence is critical to effectively address past and ongoing violations as well as the pervasive impunity of over forty years that continues today.
The HRC has again shied away from sufficiently supporting justice for the people of Afghanistan who have placed their hopes in the international community.
Smriti Singh, Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International
“Shortcomings in this resolution also lets down brave activists, particularly women human rights defenders, journalists and others who pursue their work in the face of repression at a huge personal risk. Despite these shortcomings, the resolution on Afghanistan has recognised the principles outlined in the stocktaking on accountability options and processes by the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR).
“This is the furthest that the HRC has come towards acknowledging the importance of a comprehensive approach to accountability for past and ongoing violations. It is imperative that UN member states build on this and on the recognition of the need to collect and preserve evidence of human rights violations and move towards establishing an independent international accountability mechanism at the earliest opportunity.”
Responding to the resolution on Sri Lanka adopted yesterday at the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which extends the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) including the Sri Lanka Accountability Project by one year, Babu Ram Pant, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International, said:
“The adoption of the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution underscores the continued need for international scrutiny on human rights concerns in Sri Lanka. While the extension of the mandate is a welcome step towards supporting accountability, it is disappointing to note that the resolution was extended only by a year, despite calls for at least a two-year renewal by local civil society and international organizations.
“As the country is undergoing a period of political transition following recent presidential elections and with general elections scheduled for next month, it is critical that the new Sri Lankan government breaks from the past and fully engages with the UN Human Rights Council and OHCHR’s Sri Lanka Accountability Project. It was disappointing therefore that the government instead chose to continue past policy and express opposition to evidence gathering by the UN. This casts a shadow on the government’s willingness to utilise available resources to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations and risks perpetuation of deep-rooted impunity.
The adoption of the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution underscores the continued need for international scrutiny on human rights concerns in Sri Lanka.
Babu Ram Pant, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International
“With this resolution, the international community should step up its engagement with the new Sri Lankan government towards meaningful progress on truth, justice and reparations. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka must fully cooperate with UN human rights mechanisms including the Accountability Project and demonstrate its commitment towards all victims and survivors who have been waiting for justice and accountability for the serious human rights violations and other crimes under international law committed during Sri Lanka’s decades-long internal armed conflict.”
Girls as young as nine could be forcibly married, and protections regarding divorce and inheritance potentially removed
Urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights and criminalise marital rape
‘Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments’ – Razaw Salihy
Ahead of an imminent parliamentary vote in Iraq on possible changes to the country’s Personal Status Law, Amnesty International is calling on Iraqi lawmakers to drop amendments that would violate women and girls’ rights, further entrench discrimination and could allow for girls as young as nine to be forced into marriage.
The current Personal Status Law applies to all Iraqis irrespective of their religion. The proposed amendments would grant religious councils of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam in Iraq the authority to develop their own “code of Sharia rulings on personal status matters” within six months of the law being passed, effectively threatening women’s and girls’ rightsand their equality before the law.
The amendments would also open the door to legalising unregistered marriages, which are often used to circumvent child marriage laws, and removing penalties for adult men who enter such marriages and clerics who conduct them. It would also remove critical protections for divorced women, such as the right to remain in the marital home or receive financial support from the former husband.
“Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments, which would eliminate the current legal marriage age of 18 for both girls and boys, paving the way for child marriages, as well as stripping women and girls of protections regarding divorce and inheritance.
“Not only does child marriage deprive girls of their education, but married girls are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, and health risks related to early pregnancy.
“It is alarming that these amendments to the Personal Status Law are being pushed so vehemently when completely different, urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights.
“Iraq’s parliament must reject these harmful proposed amendments and instead focus their efforts on addressing woeful shortcomings in the penal code, which permits ‘honour’ as a mitigating factor for the killings of women and girls and allows for the corporal punishment of the wife and children by the husband, as well as failing to criminalise marital rape.”
Amnesty confirmed that the proposed amendments violate international treaties ratified by Iraq including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Opposition to the bill
The first reading of the bill took place on 4 August 2024. Similar amendments were proposed in 2014 and 2017 but failed to pass due to a nationwide outcry. On 3 September, Iraq’s parliament attempted to hold a second reading of the draft bill but opposing MPs had waged a boycott campaign that succeeded in blocking this. The bill’s second reading took place on 16 September, with women MPs and other opponents of the bill raising concerns that none of their recommendations had been taken into account, nor an amended draft shared. On 17 September, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled that the amendments were aligned with Iraq’s constitution.
NEW YORK/BEIRUT, October 10, 2024 — Israeli attacks in Lebanon have forced health care facilities to close, limiting people’s access to health care at a time when medical and humanitarian needs are rising due to the ongoing conflict, said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Medical facilities and medical personnel in Lebanon must be protected to ensure people have access to essential health care services.
Heavy Israeli bombardments have severely disrupted access to medical care across Lebanon. As of October 1, six hospitals and 40 general health care centers have closed their doors as the intensity of the fighting has made it impossible to work without safety guarantees, according to OCHA. In the last two weeks, Israeli strikes have claimed the lives of at least 50 paramedics. This brings the total number of health care workers killed since October last year to over 100, as reported by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
“We must ensure the continuation of care for those in need,” said François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon. “We urge all parties to respect international humanitarian law. Civilians, civilian infrastructure, and medical facilities and medical personnel must not be targeted. Their safety must be guaranteed.”
Intense Israeli airstrikes impede MSF response
To reduce devastating consequences for civilians, MSF is working to ensure the continuation of health care in its existing facilities, while also scaling up and adapting activities. However, due to intense Israeli airstrikes, MSF has been forced to suspend some activities in highly affected areas.
“Given the intensity of the violence, road damage, and the lack of guaranteed safety, we are currently unable to reach all affected areas in Lebanon despite the increasing medical and humanitarian needs,” Zamparini said.
Last week, MSF was forced to completely close its clinic in the Palestinian camp of Burj el Barajneh in the southern suburbs of Beirut and temporarily stop activities in Baalbek-Hermel, northeast Lebanon. These are both areas heavily affected by the strikes. The closure of medical facilities has left vulnerable people in these areas, specifically those living with chronic diseases, without the essential services they need.
Given the intensity of the violence, road damage, and the lack of guaranteed safety, we are currently unable to reach all affected areas in Lebanon despite the increasing medical and humanitarian needs.
François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon
“We partially reopened our clinic in Hermel this week to ensure that patients receive their medications, providing them with a two-to-three-month stock of essential drugs, depending on the severity of their conditions and medical risks,” Zamparini said. “One of the hospitals we planned to support and had donated medications and trauma kits to, in Nabatiyeh—only a few kilometers away from the active frontlines—was hit on October 5.”
In the south of Lebanon, where the conflict and needs are greatest, MSF medical teams remain unable to operate at full capacity due to a lack of safety guarantees for medical personnel. For example, an MSF mobile medical team, which had been actively supporting general health care centers in Nabatiyeh and other areas closer to the Lebanese border since last November, has been forced to stop its activities. The team, which was once able to reach areas near the border, can no longer do so and is currently limited to operating only as far as Saida, which is about 50 kilometers [31 miles] north of the southern border.
The armed conflict is worsening an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Lebanon’s health care system was already overburdened by the country’s economic crisis, which has caused the immigration of many medical staff and strained the capacity and resources of medical facilities. Local health centers—already at capacity—are now facing increasing pressure as they try to meet the growing medical needs of displaced people.
The scale of displacement in Lebanon significantly surpasses the country’s ability to provide adequate shelter, with over a million people displaced, according to UNHCR. The majority of shelters in which people are seeking safety are in dire condition. In response, MSF has deployed 12 mobile medical teams across various regions of the country, including Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Saida, Tripoli, Bekaa, and Akkar. These teams are providing psychological first aid, general medical consultations, and mental health support, in addition to donating mattresses, hygiene kits, hot meals, and clean water.
MSF first began working in Lebanon in 1976 and has worked in the country without interruption since 2000.
Analysis of more than a dozen Israeli evacuation warnings show how Lebanese civilians were given contradictory information and exposed to heightened danger
Some warnings issued in middle of night on social media and with only 30 minutes notice
Backdrop of comments from Netanyahu and others indicates that Israel considers Lebanese civilians and property to be legitimate targets
‘This is not a warning, it’s torture. It’s a sadistic game’ – resident of Burj al-Barajneh
‘We’re extremely concerned that Israel may be seeking to replicate the approach it followed in Gaza, resulting in unprecedented civilian harm’ – Agnès Callamard
The evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut and south Lebanon have been inadequate – and in some cases misleading – said Amnesty International.
Amnesty analysed more than a dozen Israeli military evacuation warnings and conducted interviews with 12 residents who fled various districts in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh following the Israeli evacuation warnings on 27-28 September, including al-Laylaki, Hay El Sellom, Hadi Nasrallah highway and Burj al-Barajneh. Amnesty also interviewed three residents of villages in south Lebanon.
Amnesty examined two warnings issued to residents of the crowded urban areas of Dahieh overnight on 27-28 September, after the attack that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The airstrikes demolished entire residential buildings in the densely-populated area. Each warning identified three military targets and said that residents should evacuate a 500-metre radius around that location. The warnings were issued through the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson on X at night, without a clear timeline or details on safe routes.
In the two Dahieh warnings, maps published by the Israeli military alongside the evacuation warnings covering six different areas were misleading. In each case the area highlighted on the maps indicating the danger zone for civilians covered a much smaller area than the 500-metre radius that the Israeli military had advised civilians was the minimum distance civilians should evacuate. To be effective, warnings must give clear and timely instructions for civilians on moving away from military objectives that are going to be targeted, with information on safe routes and destinations.
The Israeli military also issued evacuation warnings to residents of approximately 118 towns and villages in south Lebanon between 1-7 October, following the start of its ground invasion. These warnings, which included towns that were more than 35 km from the border with Israel and outside the UN-declared buffer zone, do not – said Amnesty – make south Lebanon a free-fire zone.
Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict have a clear obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid – or at least minimise – harm to civilians when carrying out attacks. This includes giving effective advance warning of attacks to civilians in affected areas unless circumstances do not permit. In any case, emphasised Amnesty, issuing warnings does not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law to never target civilians and to take all possible measures to minimise harm to them.
According to the UN, a quarter of Lebanese territory has been affected by evacuation warnings.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:
“The warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahieh – the densely-populated southern suburbs of Beirut – were inadequate.
“Our analysis shows that not only did the warnings issued by the Israeli military include misleading maps, but they were also issued at short notice – in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began – in the middle of the night, via social media, when many people would be asleep, offline or not following media reports.
“Instructing the residents of entire towns and villages in south Lebanon to evacuate is an overly-general warning that is inadequate and raises questions around whether this is intended to create the conditions for mass displacement.
“Regardless of the efficacy of the warnings, they do not mean that Israel can treat any remaining civilians as targets.
“Having spent the last 12 months investigating Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, we’re extremely concerned that Israel may be seeking to replicate the approach it followed in Gaza, resulting in unprecedented civilian harm.
“Amnesty International is calling on Israel’s allies, including the United States, to suspend all arms transfers and other forms of military assistance to Israel due to the significant risk that these weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law.
“The organisation is also calling for a suspension of all arms transfers to Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon.”
Case studies – southern suburbs of Beirut
Starting at 11:06 pm on 27 September, the Israeli military began to issue evacuation warnings to residents of Dahieh, a suburb in the south of Beirut. In the first warning, the Israeli military instructed residents via X to move 500 metres away from three buildings in the districts of al-Laylaki and al-Hadath, both densely-populated areas, alleging that residents are “located near Hezbollah interests”. The order did not give a timeframe for the evacuation. The map published alongside this warning highlighted an area around the buildings to indicate what was supposedly the 500-metre radius that residents should leave. However, the highlighted area in fact only covered approximately a 135-metre radius. While the map showed 30 buildings within the red circle, there are in fact 500 buildings within the 500-metre radius. The same is true for the evacuation warnings in the al-Hadath district: the areas highlighted on the maps warning residents to stay 500 metres away from the Sheet building and the al-Salam Complex, showed only at approximately 125m and 100m radiuses respectively.
At around 12:36am, just an hour and a half later, local media reported an Israeli airstrike on al-Laylaki. Over the next hour and 10 minutes, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported 11 further attacks on Dahieh, including on buildings and areas that had not received an evacuation warning. Fatima, a journalist who lives in al-Laylaki, told Amnesty that her brother called her at around 11:15pm while she was covering news of the strike on Nasrallah, warning her to leave the area. She said:
“I jumped in the car and drove erratically … I arrived in al-Laylaki and found that everyone was acting as crazily as I was. If people could throw themselves off the balcony to leave faster [they would]. Screaming, running, cars honking, motorcycles, plastic bags … I quickly helped my parents down the stairs to my car, and I only took my cat with me … I currently have no belongings at all.”
Fatima explained that al-Laylaki is a crowded residential area that remained fully populated until that night because it is on the outskirts of Dahieh and residents did not expect it to be targeted.
Abir, who lives with her mother close to al-Laylaki, told Amnesty that she could not immediately evacuate her house because her mother is older and sick, and needs to be carried down the stairs:
“It was a night from hell. I laid my mother on the floor in the safest room, which is the old bathroom, we hid our heads with our arms [throughout the bombardment].”
They were only able to leave a few hours later after a friend helped carry her mother down from the sixth floor.
At 3am on 28 September, the Israeli military issued another evacuation warning via X to residents in the districts of Burj al-Barajneh and al-Hadath, again in Beirut’s southern suburbs, instructing them to move 500 metres away from three other identified buildings. The warning did not give a timeframe for evacuation and maps of the affected areas were similarly misleading, highlighting areas much smaller than the indicated 500 metre radius.
At 5:47 am, the National News Agency reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted al-Hadath and al-Laylaki as well as the Chouiefat and al-Kafaat districts in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which were not listed in the evacuation warning. Local media reported continued airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs throughout the day.
Taghreed, a resident of Hay el-Sellom, said that she had not heard about the Israeli warning and took the decision to flee after the major attack that killed Hassan Nasrallah. She told Amnesty: “We were hiding and couldn’t reach the television. I don’t have social media so I don’t know what the Israelis said.”
Ahmad, a resident of Burj al-Barajneh, also said that he made the decision to leave Dahieh immediately after the airstrike that killed Nasrallah, as he lives with his elderly parents. He said:
“While we were still stuck on the road out of Dahieh, with all the ambulances trying to prioritise the wounded people, we heard about the warning on the radio in the van. I felt bitter. This is not a warning, it’s torture. It’s a sadistic game: ‘we will kill you and your family soon. Show us how you can escape’.”
On 30 September, the Israeli military issued a warning to evacuate from the surroundings of residential buildings in al-Laylaki, Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh. The Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes just 30 minutes later. Similarly, on 3 October, at 10:51 pm, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the residents of Burj al-Barajneh, telling them to leave immediately. Local media reported a “heavy strike” minutes after the evacuation order was issued, and at least four attacks by 11:30 pm.
Under international law, Hezbollah and other armed groups must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives, including fighters, ammunition, weapons, and military infrastructure, in or near densely-populated areas. However, the presence of military objectives in populated areas does not absolve Israeli forces of their obligations under international humanitarian law to avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks as well as to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians, including civilians who fail to leave the area after an evacuation warning. Failure to provide effective advance warnings of attacks which may affect civilians, unless circumstances do not permit, and not taking all other feasible precautions to protect civilians, constitute violations of international humanitarian law.
Case studies – southern Lebanon
On 1 October, the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings to residents of southern Lebanon. The first, at 9:21 am, instructed residents not to move vehicles south of the Litani River “until further notice,” alleging that Hezbollah is using “the civilian environment and the population as human shields”. At 12:18 pm, the Israeli military instructed residents of more than 25 towns across southern Lebanon to evacuate and move north of the Awwali River, some 58 km from the border with Israel and about 30km farther than the Litani River, which marks the UN buffer zone created after the 2006 war.
On 2 October, at 9:11 am and then at 11:15 am, the Israeli military issued warnings for a further 24 towns and villages across southern Lebanon, telling residents to “save their lives and leave their homes immediately”, ordering them to move north of the Awwali River and saying that any movement south could expose them to danger. The Israeli military issued a similar warning at 12:49 pm on 3 October for a further 25 towns and villages, at 9:11 am on 4 October for a further 35 villages, and at 12:58 pm on 7 October for 25 additional villages.
None of the “orders” offered safe and effective evacuation information, just instructing residents to leave “immediately”.
Amnesty’s concerns about the warnings to civilians in south Lebanon are heightened by some statements from Israeli political and military leaders indicating that they considered Lebanese civilians and property to be legitimate targets. Benjamin Netanyahu said on 27 September there is “a missile in every kitchen, a rocket in every garage”. The Israeli Education Minister said on television on 21 September that there was no difference between Hezbollah and Lebanon and that Lebanon “would be annihilated”. In June, the Israeli Defence Minister said that Israel is capable of returning Lebanon “to the stone age”.
The south Lebanon warnings and instructions that vehicles do not travel south of the Litani River also raise serious concerns over civilians’ access to essential supplies and services, including food, medication, healthcare and fuel. The mukhtar of Rmeich, a village south of the Litani river close to the border with Israel, which did not receive an evacuation warning but is within the area in which Israel has said vehicles are prohibited from travelling, told Amnesty that supplies in the town were rapidly dwindling. “The area is going to become destitute. How can we continue? It’s like they want to displace us,” he said.
The conditions being created by Israel’s actions in south Lebanon risk forcibly displacing the majority of the civilian population there. One of the towns in southern Lebanon that the Israeli military warned must be evacuated is Ain Ebel, where the majority of residents are Christian and have no known affiliation with Hezbollah.
Rakan Diab, an Ain Ebel resident, told Amnesty that residents of the village were surprised when, on 1 October, Ain Ebel was included in the Israeli military’s evacuation warning on X. Shortly afterwards, the village mayor received a call from a person purporting to be a member of the Israeli military warning residents to flee within around 45 minutes because there were weapons in the village. “People panicked … we needed to pack and leave immediately,” Rakan Diab said, explaining how the majority fled to the nearby village of Rmeich and the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross facilitated safe passage for a convoy of around 100 cars from Rmeich to north of the Awwali River.
Year of Israel-Lebanon conflict
Israel’s intensified military attacks in Lebanon began on 23 September. During the first day, Israeli forces carried out at least 1,600 attacks in areas across Lebanon, killing more than 500 people and injuring more than 1,800 in the first 24 hours. Hezbollah also launched more than 200 rockets towards Israel that day, with around 10 people sustaining shrapnel or debris wounds.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in ongoing cross-border hostilities since the group launched attacks into northern Israel following the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Gaza last October. Israeli attacks on Lebanon since 7 October 2023 have killed at least 2,083 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon, and at least 400,000 have crossed the border to Syria.
Since 8 October 2023, Hezbollah and other armed groups have launched thousands of missiles at northern Israel, killing 16 civilians. A further 12 civilians, all children, were killed on 27 July in an attack on Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. Around 63,000 residents of northern Israel have been evacuated since 8 October. In one Hezbollah attack, on 12 November 2023, an anti-tank missile hit a group of electricity company workers who were doing infrastructure work near Dovev. One worker was killed and another lightly injured. In another attack, on 9 July, two civilians were killed when a missile hit their car while driving on highway 91 in the Golan Heights. In a statement released that day, Hezbollah took responsibility and said that it targeted the nearby Nafah military base in response to the assassination of one of its members. Many of Hezbollah’s rockets are unguided and cannot be aimed at a specific target. Firing inherently inaccurate rockets into areas where civilians are present are indiscriminate attacks, and thus violate international humanitarian law. Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians constitute war crimes.
Following the recent interactive dialogue with the UN expert on Haiti, where Amnesty International expressed its deep concern over gang-related violence, particularly against children, perpetrated in total impunity, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, stated:
“We have documented heartbreaking stories of children forced to work for gangs: from running deliveries to gathering information and performing domestic tasks under threats of violence. Additionally, girls have been subjected to rape and sexual violence. The desperation of their situation is truly disturbing; many have been displaced or have nowhere to go.”
We have documented heartbreaking stories of children forced to work for gangs: from running deliveries to gathering information and performing domestic tasks under threats of violence. Additionally, girls have been subjected to rape and sexual violence. The desperation of their situation is truly disturbing; many have been displaced or have nowhere to go.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
“The violence in Haiti is devastating, and Haitian children are paying the price. Children are sustaining serious injuries that will change their lives due to stray bullets or targeted attacks. Recently, 70 people, including children, died in a gang attack against the population in the department of Artibonite, according to reports,” added Ana Piquer. “The need for resources to comprehensively protect children’s rights and prevent further abuses and violations is urgent, as is ending the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators.”
The violence in Haiti is devastating, and Haitian children are paying the price. Children are sustaining serious injuries that will change their lives due to stray bullets or targeted attacks. Recently, 70 people, including children, died in a gang attack against the population in the department of Artibonite, according to reports.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Iraqi lawmakers must drop amendments to the Personal Status Law, which would violate women and girls’ rights, further entrench discrimination and could allow for girls as young as nine to be married, Amnesty International said today, ahead of an imminent parliamentary vote on the changes.
“Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments, which would eliminate the current legal marriage age of 18 for both girls and boys, paving the way for child marriages, as well as stripping women and girls of protections regarding divorce and inheritance, said Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher.
“Not only does child marriage deprive girls of their education, but married girls are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, and health risks related to early pregnancy. It is alarming that these amendments to the Personal Status Law are being pushed so vehemently when completely different urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights.
“Iraq’s parliament must reject these harmful proposed amendments and instead focus their efforts on addressing woeful shortcomings in the Penal Code, which permits ‘honour’ as a mitigating factor for the killings of women and girls and allows for the corporal punishment of the wife and children by the husband, as well as failing to criminalize marital rape.”
The current Personal Status Law applies to all Iraqis irrespective of their religion. The proposed amendments would grant religious councils of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam in Iraq the authority to develop their own “code of Sharia rulings on personal status matters” within six months of the law being passed, effectively threatening women’s and girls’ rights and their equality before the law.
The amendments would also open the door to legalizing unregistered marriages, which are often used to circumvent child marriage laws, and removing penalties for adult men who enter such marriages and clerics who conduct them. It would also remove critical protections for divorced women, such as the right to remain in the marital home or receive financial support from the former husband.
“The amendments violate international treaties that Iraq has ratified, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ensuring the safety, dignity and rights of women and girls is not only a state obligation under international human rights law but also a moral imperative that all Iraqi institutions must uphold,” said Razaw Salihy.
Healthcare facilities are being forced to close in areas affected by airstrikes.
Our teams are working to ensure the continuation of care in our facilities, while also suspending some activities in heavily affected areas.
All warring parties must spare civilians, medical facilities, and medical personnel.
Beirut – As Israeli attacks intensify in Lebanon, healthcare facilities in areas most affected by airstrikes are being forced to close. This is leading to devastating consequences for civilians and their access to healthcare.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are working tirelessly to ensure the continuation of care in our existing facilities, while also scaling up our activities to address the needs emerging from the ongoing conflict. However, due to the intense Israeli airstrikes, we were forced to suspend some activities in highly affected areas. We continue to adapt our activities to provide people with much needed healthcare.
MSF urges all warring parties to spare civilians, medical facilities, and medical personnel in Lebanon to ensure that vital healthcare services can adequately address people’s urgent medical needs.
“Given the intensity of the violence, road damage, and the lack of guaranteed safety, we are currently unable to reach all affected areas in Lebanon despite the increasing medical and humanitarian needs,” says François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon.
Distribution of essential item kits in downtown Beirut, Aazarieh building shelter. October 2, 2024.Maryam Srour/MSF
Last week, MSF was forced to completely close its clinic in the Palestinian camp of Burj el Barajneh in the southern suburbs of Beirut. We also had to temporarily stop our activities in Baalbek-Hermel, northeast Lebanon. These are both areas heavily affected by the strikes.
“We partially reopened our clinic in Hermel this week to ensure that patients receive their medications, providing them with a two-to-three-month stock of essential drugs, depending on the severity of their condition and medical risks,” adds Zamparini.
Patients in these areas are already vulnerable, struggling to access the healthcare they desperately need. The closure of medical facilities has left them, specifically people living with chronic diseases, without the essential services they need.
MSF medical teams also remain unable to operate properly in southern Lebanon due to a lack of safety guarantees for our medical personnel.
“One of the hospitals we planned to support and had donated medications and trauma kits to, in Nabatiyeh, only a few kilometres away from the active frontlines, was hit on 5 October,” explains Zamparini.
An MSF mobile medical team, which had been actively supporting general healthcare centres in Nabatiyeh and other areas closer to the Lebanese border since November 2023, has been forced to stop its activities. The team, which was once able to reach areas near the border, can no longer do so and is currently limited to operating only as far as Saida, which is about 50 kilometres north of the southern border, where needs are highest.
In the last two weeks, Israeli strikes have claimed the lives of at least fifty paramedics. This brings the total number of healthcare workers killed since October last year to over a hundred, as reported by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Healthhttps://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-medics-hezbollah-hospitals-6c7f75c921c9deec0fa5c160ce639664#:~:text=The%20health%20ministry%20on%20Thursday,wounded%20in%20the%20intense%20fighting.. The heavy Israeli bombardments have also severely disrupted access to medical care across Lebanon. As of 1 October 2024, six hospitals and 40 general healthcare centres have closed their doors as the intensity of the fighting made it impossible to work without safety guarantees, according to OCHA.https://www.unocha.org/news/todays-top-news-lebanon-occupied-palestinian-territory-and-israel-syria-haiti-ukraine-eastern
The armed conflict is worsening an ongoing humanitarian crisis, aggravating existing needs. Lebanon’s healthcare system was already overburdened by the country’s economic crisis, which has caused the emigration of many medical staff and strained the capacity and resources of medical facilities. Local health centres, already at capacity, are now facing increasing pressure as they try to meet the growing medical needs of displaced people.
The scale of displacement in Lebanon significantly surpasses the country’s ability to provide adequate shelter, with over a million people displaced according to UNHCRhttps://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/unhcr-s-grandi-appeals-urgent-humanitarian-support-and-end-bloodshed-lebanon. The majority of shelters people are seeking safety in are in dire conditions. To respond, MSF deployed 12 mobile medical teams across various regions of the country, including Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Saida, Tripoli, Bekaa, and Akkar. These teams are providing psychological first aid, general medical consultations, and mental health support, in addition to donating mattresses, hygiene kits, hot meals, and clean water. Nevertheless, people’s needs are far greater than what we are able to cover.
“We must ensure the continuation of care for those in need,” emphasises Zamparini. “We urge all parties to respect international humanitarian law. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, medical facilities and medical personnel must not be targeted. Their safety must be guaranteed.”
MSF’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon:
In response to the ongoing escalation of conflict and intense Israeli bombing in Lebanon, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has deployed 12 mobile medical teams across various regions of the country, including Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Saida, Tripoli, Bekaa, and Akkar. These teams are providing psychological first aid, general medical consultations, medication, and mental health support. MSF is also distributing essential items such as blankets, mattresses, and hygiene kits, as well as supplying water by trucks to schools and shelters where displaced people have gathered. Additionally, we are offering hot meals and drinking water to hundreds of displaced families. MSF has also donated fuel and trauma kits to several hospitals, prepositioned 10 tons of medical supplies and trained over 100 healthcare workers in trauma care and mass casualty management across the country.
About MSF in Lebanon:
MSF is an independent international medical humanitarian organisation that provides aid and free healthcare to people in need, without discrimination. MSF first began to work in Lebanon in 1976, and its teams have worked in the country without interruption since 2008.
In 2023, MSF teams worked in six locations across Lebanon, providing 13,609 free medical consultations for vulnerable communities, including Lebanese citizens, refugees, and migrant workers. MSF’s services include mental healthcare, sexual and reproductive healthcare, paediatric care, vaccinations, and treatment for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
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Israeli bombardment in Lebanon is causing mass displacement and urgent humanitarian needs
Evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut and south Lebanon were inadequate, and in some cases also misleading, said Amnesty International today, highlighting that these warnings do not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law to never target civilians and to take all possible measures to minimize harm to them.
Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict have a clear obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, harm to civilians when carrying out attacks; this includes giving effective advance warning of attacks to civilians in affected areas unless circumstances do not permit.
“The warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahieh, the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, were inadequate. Our analysis shows that not only did the warnings issued by the Israeli military include misleading maps, but they were also issued at short notice – in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began – in the middle of the night, via social media, when many people would be asleep, offline or not following media reports,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Furthermore, instructing the residents of entire towns and villages in south Lebanon to evacuate is an overly general warning that is inadequate and raises questions around whether this is intended to create the conditions for mass displacement. Regardless of the efficacy of the warnings, they do not mean that Israel can treat any remaining civilians as targets. People who choose to stay in their homes or are unable to leave because members of their household have limited mobility, due to disability, age or other reasons, continue to be protected by international humanitarian law. Israel must at all times abide by its obligations under international law, including by taking all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians, wherever they are.”
Our analysis shows that not only did the warnings issued by the Israeli military include misleading maps, but they were also issued at short notice – in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began – in the middle of the night, via social media, when many people would be asleep, offline or not following media reports
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General
To be effective a warning must be timely and provide information on safe routes and destinations. Amnesty International examined two warnings issued to residents of the crowded urban area of Dahieh overnight on 27/28 September, after the surprise strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The airstrikes demolished entire residential buildings in the densely populated area. Each warning identified three military targets and requested that residents evacuate a 500-metre radius around that location. The warnings were issued through the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson on X (formerly Twitter), at night, without a clear timeline or details on safe routes.
In the two warnings issued to residents of Dahieh, the maps published by the Israeli military alongside the evacuation warnings, covering six different areas, were misleading. In each of these cases the area highlighted on the maps to indicate the danger zone for civilians covered a much smaller area than the 500-metre radius that the Israeli military had advised civilians was the minimum distance civilians should evacuate.
The Israeli military also issued evacuation warnings to residents of around 118 towns and villages in south Lebanon between 1 -7 October, following the start of its ground invasion. These warnings, which included towns that were more than 35 km from the border with Israel and outside the UN-declared buffer zone, do not make south Lebanon a free-fire zone.
To be effective, warnings must give clear instructions for civilians on moving away from military objectives that are going to be targeted. While warnings can, in some circumstances, be general in character, the definition of what constitutes general does not include overly broad warnings that ask civilians to evacuate entire areas (see for instance the 1987 Commentary on Protocol I).
Israel’s warnings in southern Lebanon covered large geographical areas, raising concerns as to whether they were designed instead to trigger mass relocation. Principle 5 of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement states that, in all circumstances, authorities and international actors must abide by their obligations under international law so as “to prevent and avoid conditions that might lead to displacement of persons”.
Methodology
Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows began on 23 September with intense aerial bombardment of several areas across Lebanon, including the south, the Bekaa valley and Dahieh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. According to the Lebanese government, the number of displaced people fleeing Israeli airstrikes has risen to 1.2 million – the vast majority in the last three weeks alone.
Amnesty International reviewed over a dozen evacuation warnings by the Israeli military and conducted interviews with 12 residents who fled Dahieh following the Israeli evacuation warnings on 27/28 September 2024, including al- Laylaki, Hay El Sellom, Hadi Nasrallah highway, and Burj al-Barajneh. The organization also interviewed three residents of villages in south Lebanon.
Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab mapped the areas covered by Israel’s evacuation warnings to analyse the areas impacted by the strikes.
In its analysis of these warnings, Amnesty International is not seeking at this time to determine whether Israel struck military objectives in their attacks, but rather to investigate whether or not the warnings that Israel issued were effective at protecting civilians and adhered to international law.
Southern suburbs of Beirut: ‘This is not a warning, it’s torture’
Starting at 11:06 pm on 27 September, the Israeli military began to issue evacuation warnings to residents of Dahieh. In the first warning, the Israeli military instructed residents via X (formerly Twitter) to move 500 metres away from three buildings in the neighbourhoods of al-Laylaki and al-Hadath, both of which are densely populated areas, alleging residents there are “located near Hezbollah interests”. The order did not give a timeframe for evacuation.
The map published alongside this warning highlights an area around the buildings to indicate what was supposedly the 500-metre radius that residents should leave. However, the highlighted area in fact only covered approximately a 135-metre radius. While the map showed 30 buildings within the red circle, there are in fact 500 buildings within the 500-metre radius.
Caption: A map published by the Israeli military on X misrepresents the area affected by an evacuation warning. The text over the red dotted line reads “500 metres” in Arabic, but the line covers approximately 135 metres.
Caption: Satellite imagery shows the al-Laylaki neighborhood, in southern Beirut. The red circle shows the area highlighted by the Israeli military on the map published on social media. The wider area shows the full 500 metre radius impacted by the evacuation warning.
The same is true for the evacuation warnings in the al-Hadath neighbourhood: the areas highlighted on the maps warning residents to stay 500 metres away from the Sheet building and the Al-Salam Complex, showed only approximately 125m and 100m radiuses respectively.
Caption: Satellite imagery shows the al-Hadath neighbourhood, in southern Beirut. The red circles show the area highlighted in the map published by the Israeli military on social media. The wider circles show the area impacted by the evacuation warning.
At around 12:36am, just an hour and a half later, local media reported an Israeli strike on al-Laylaki. Over the next hour and 10 minutes, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported 11 further strikes on Dahieh, including on buildings and areas that had not received an evacuation warning.
Fatima, a journalist who lives in al-Laylaki, told Amnesty International that her brother called her at around 11:15pm while she was covering news of the strike on Nasrallah, warning her to leave the area:
“I jumped in the car and drove erratically… I arrived to al-Laylaki and found that everyone was acting as crazily as I was. If people could throw themselves off the balcony to leave faster [they would]. Screaming, running, cars honking, motorcycles, plastic bags…I quickly helped my parents down the stairs to my car, and I only took my cat with me… I currently have no belongings at all.”
Fatima explained that Al-Laylaki is a crowded residential area that remained fully populated until that night because it is on the outskirts of Dahieh and residents did not expect it to be targeted.
Abir, who resides with her mother close to al-Laylaki, told Amnesty International that she could not immediately evacuate her house because her mother is older and sick, and needs to be carried down the stairs: “It was a night from hell. I laid my mother on the floor in the safest room, which is the old bathroom, we hid our heads with our arms [throughout the bombardment].” They were only able to leave a few hours later after a friend helped carry her mother down from the sixth floor.
It was a night from hell. I laid my mother on the floor in the safest room, which is the old bathroom, we hid our heads with our arms
Abir, whose mother is older and sick and needed to be carried down from the sixth floor to be evacuated
At 3am on 28 September, the Israeli military issued another evacuation warning via X to residents in the neighbourhoods of Burj al-Barajneh and al-Hadath, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, instructing them to move 500 metres away from three other identified buildings. The warning did not state a timeframe for evacuation and maps of the affected areas were similarly misleading, highlighting areas much smaller than the indicated 500 metre radius.
Caption: Satellite imagery shows the Burj al-Barajneh and al-Hadath, in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The red circles show the area highlighted in the map published by the Israeli military on social media. The wider circles show the actual area impacted by the evacuation warning.
At 5:47 am, the National News Agency reported that Israeli strikes targeted al-Hadath and al-Laylaki as well as the Chouiefat and al-Kafaat neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which were not listed in the evacuation warning. Local media reported continued strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs throughout the day.
Taghreed, a resident of Hay el-Sellom, said that she had not heard about the Israeli warning and took the decision to flee after the major attack that killed Hassan Nasrallah. “We were hiding and couldn’t reach the television. I don’t have social media so I don’t know what the Israelis said,” she told Amnesty International.
Ahmad, a resident of Burj al-Barajneh, also said that he made the decision to leave Dahieh immediately after the strike that killed Nasrallah, as he lives with his elderly parents. “While we were still stuck on the road out of Dahieh, with all the ambulances trying to prioritize the wounded people, we heard about the warning on the radio in the van. I felt bitter. This is not a warning; it’s torture. It’s a sadistic game: ‘we will kill you and your family soon. Show us how you can escape’.”
On 30 September 2024, the Israeli military issued a warning to evacuate from the surroundings of residential buildings in al-Laylaki, Haret Hreik, and Burj al-Barajneh. The Israeli military launched a series of strikes just 30 minutes later. Similarly, on 3 October 2024, at 10:51 pm, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the residents of Burj al-Barajneh, urging them to leave immediately. Local media reported a “heavy strike” minutes after the evacuation order was issued, and at least four strikes by 11:30 pm.
Under international law, Hezbollah and other armed groups must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives, including fighters, ammunition, weapons, and military infrastructure, in or near densely populated areas. However, the presence of military objectives in populated areas does not absolve Israeli forces of their obligations under international humanitarian law to avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks as well as to take all feasible precautions to spare all civilians, including civilians who fail to leave the area after an evacuation warning. Failure to provide effective advance warnings of attacks which may affect civilians, unless circumstances do not permit, and not taking all other feasible precautions to protect civilians, constitute violations of international humanitarian law.
En masse evacuation warnings to residents of south Lebanon
On 1 October, the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings to residents of south Lebanon. The first, at 9:21am, instructed residents not to move vehicles south of the Litani River “until further notice,” alleging that Hezbollah is using “the civilian environment and the population as human shields.”
At 12:18 pm, the Israeli military instructed residents of over 25 towns across southern Lebanon to evacuate and move north of the Awwali River, some 58 km from the border with Israel and about 30km farther than the Litani River, which marks the UN buffer zone created after the 2006 war.
On 2 October 2024, at 9:11 am and then at 11:15 am, the Israeli military issued warnings for a further 24 towns and villages across southern Lebanon, telling residents to “save their lives and leave their homes immediately,” ordering them to move north of the Awwali River, and saying that any movement south could expose them to danger. The Israeli military issued a similar warning at 12:49 pm on 3 October for a further 25 towns and villages, at 9:11 am on 4 October for a further 35 villages, and at 12:58 pm on 7 October for 25 additional villages.
None of the “orders” offered safe and effective evacuation, just instructing residents to leave “immediately”.
Caption: A map showing the towns and villages impacted by evacuation warnings across southern Lebanon
Amnesty International’s concerns about the warnings to civilians in south Lebanon are heightened by some statements from Israeli political and military leaders indicating that they considered Lebanese civilians and property to be legitimate targets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said on 27 September 2024 there is “a missile in every kitchen, a rocket in every garage”. The Israeli Education Minister said on television on 21 September 2024 that there was no difference between Hezbollah and Lebanon and that Lebanon “would be annihilated”. The Israeli Defense Minister has also previously warned in June 2024 that Israel is capable of returning Lebanon “to the stone age”.
“The massive loss of life in Lebanon in recent days raises fears that Israeli forces may be flouting their obligation to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians wherever they are, including through issuing effective warnings. Having spent the last 12 months investigating Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, Amnesty International is extremely concerned that Israel may be seeking to replicate the approach it followed in Gaza, resulting in unprecedented civilian harm,” said Agnes Callamard.
The south Lebanon warnings and the instructions that vehicles do not travel south of the Litani River also raise serious concerns over civilians’ access to essential supplies and services, including food, medication, healthcare and fuel.
The mukhtar of Rmeich, a village south of the Litani river close to the border with Israel, which did not receive an evacuation warning but is within the area in which Israel has said vehicles are prohibited from travelling, told Amnesty International that supplies in the town were rapidly dwindling. “The area is going to become destitute. How can we continue? It’s like they want to displace us,” he said.
The conditions being created by Israel’s actions in south Lebanon risk forcibly displacing the majority of the civilian population there.
One of the towns in southern Lebanon that the Israeli military warned must be evacuated is Ain Ebel, where the majority of residents are Christian and have no known affiliation with Hezbollah.
Rakan Diab, an Ain Ebel resident, told Amnesty International that residents of the village were surprised when Ain Ebel was included in the Israeli military’s evacuation warning on X (formerly Twitter) on 1 October. Shortly afterwards, the mayor of the village received a call from an individual purporting to be a member of the Israeli military warning residents to flee within around 45 minutes because there were weapons in the village.
“People panicked… we needed to pack and leave immediately,” he said explaining how the majority fled to the nearby village of Rmeich and the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross facilitated safe passage for a convoy of around 100 cars from Rmeich to north of the Awwali River.
“Amnesty International is calling on Israel’s allies, including the United States, to suspend all arms transfers and other forms of military assistance to Israel due to the significant risk that these weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law. The organization is also calling for a suspension of all arms transfers to Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon,” said Agnès Callamard.
Background
Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows began on 23 September. During the first day, Israeli forces carried out at least 1,600 strikes in areas across Lebanon, killing more than 500 people and injuring over 1800 in the first 24 hours. Hezbollah also launched more than 200 rockets towards Israel that day, with around 10 people sustaining shrapnel or debris wounds.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in ongoing cross-border hostilities since the group launched attacks into northern Israel following the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the occupied Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Many of Hezbollah’s rockets are unguided and cannot be aimed at a specific target. Firing inherently inaccurate rockets into areas where civilians are present are indiscriminate attacks, and thus violate international humanitarian law. Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians constitute war crimes.
Since 8 October 2023, Hezbollah and other armed groups have launched thousands of missiles at northern Israel, killing 16 civilians. A further 12 civilians, all children, were killed on 27 July in an attack on Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. Around 63,000 residents of northern Israel have been evacuated since 8 October.
In one Hezbollah attack, on 12 November 2023, an anti-tank missile hit a group of electricity company workers who were doing infrastructure work near Dovev. One worker was killed in the attack, and another lightly injured.
In another attack, on 9 July 2024, two civilians were killed when a missile hit their car while driving on highway 91 in the Occupied Golan Heights. In a statement released that day, Hezbollah took responsibility and said that it targeted the nearby Nafah military base in response to the assassination of one of its members.
We were forced to stop outpatient care for 5,000 children with acute malnutrition living in Zamzam camp for displaced people at the end of September without the supplies necessary for care.
Warring parties have blocked the delivery of food, medicines, and supplies to Zamzam camp for months.
All parties to the conflict and their allies must do everything to facilitate the delivery of aid to Zamzam camp.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been forced to stop outpatient treatment for 5,000 children with acute malnutrition in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, Sudan, because the warring parties have blocked deliveries of food, medicines, and other essential supplies for months.
As supplies ran low at the end of September, MSF was forced to stop care for 5,000 children on an outpatient basis, including 2,900 children with severe acute malnutrition. Only MSF’s 80-bed hospital remains functioning in the camp to treat children at the greatest risk of dying.
“There is an urgent need for a massive supply of nutritional products and food to help people, it is currently a catastrophic situation,” says Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF’s head of emergency operations. “MSF is calling on the various stakeholders, the governments, the allies of the parties to the conflict, the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Joint Forces, to facilitate humanitarian aid delivery to the camp.”
Some limited supplies have arrived in recent weeks, including medical supplies that MSF was able to transport, but the quantities remain far too low to meet the needs of people suffering from malnutrition in Zamzam camp, which has a population of approximately 450,000.
The crisis has attracted broader international attention as the IPC Famine Review Committee concluded in August that a famine was underway in Zamzam camp. MSF’s own malnutrition assessments found that 30 percent of children were malnourished in multiple surveys earlier this year, estimating that a child was dying of causes linked to malnutrition every two hours on average. As the current crisis also limits MSF’s ability to collect new data, the current rate of death among children is not known.
“In the last few days, we’ve seen some positive signs, with trucks arriving after months of almost complete blockade around the camp. However, these quantities are insufficient,” says Lacharité. “These are positive signs, and we can see that the parties to the conflict recognise the seriousness of the situation and are starting to let trucks arrive. If we are to have a massive response, the aid agencies will also have to significantly step up their efforts and all diplomatic stakeholders negotiating with the parties to the conflict will have to convince them to ensure that this delivery continues over the coming months.”
For example, providing a month’s worth of emergency food rations (around 500 calories a day per person) to the 450,000 people in Zamzam represents around 2,000 tons of rations. It would take 100 trucks a month to deliver them.
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“It’s difficult for many of them, because they have to prove their vulnerability in legal terms. It’s emotionally dehumanizing that I need to prove what has happened to me for a basic human right, which is safety.”
With these words, Panos Mylonas, a psychologist and Mental Health activity manager working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Athens, Greece, describes the emotional toll that the asylum-seeking process takes on individuals who are forced to continually justify their suffering.
On International Mental Health Day, in a conversation with Panos, the depth of the mental health crisis among migrants and refugees becomes painfully clear. Having worked with MSF for over four years, Panos shared his experiences working in the grave migration reality in Athens, where he supports unaccompanied minors, victims of sexual violence, and people with psychiatric needs.
The journey, the future, and the trauma
Migrants and refugees arrive in Greece carrying stories of survival from their countries of origin. Many of them have faced life-threatening circumstances including violence, torture, imprisonment, and sexual violence. Panos describes how most individuals are unaware of the dangers they will face on their journey, which often includes additional trauma. He explains that the combination of their traumatic experiences at home and the violence they encounter while fleeing leads to complex mental health issues that emerge when they arrive in Greece.
“They come here, having faced traumatic events in their country of origin and during their journey, which leads to very complex mental health presentations,” says Panos.
Panos highlights several recurrent mental health issues among the migrants he works with, including suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and severe anxiety.
“Almost all of them talk about suicidal thoughts, lack of support, and sleeping problems,” he says. The overwhelming feeling of hopelessness stems from their uncertain future in Greece, where many remain in a state of limbo, waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. This uncertainty exacerbates their trauma, preventing them from finding any sense of stability.
Panos Mylonas, a psychologist and Mental Health activity manager“Almost all of them talk about suicidal thoughts, lack of support, and sleeping problems,”
One of the most severe challenges faced by migrants and refugees is the deprivation of access to healthcare, which has a direct and devastating impact on their mental health. Panos explains that “when they get, let’s say, a negative reply to their asylum claim, this means that their access to healthcare is stopped.”
For many, this loss of healthcare is a significant blow, exacerbating their feelings of helplessness and deepening their mental health struggles. The denial of essential medical services strips them of the opportunity to receive both physical and psychological care, worsening their already fragile state. Panos places great stress on the need for uninterrupted access to healthcare, regardless of asylum outcomes, asserting, “access to healthcare should always be present, regardless of the result.” Without such support, the psychological burden on these individuals intensifies, leaving them trapped in a cycle of uncertainty and despair, further complicating their ability to rebuild their lives.
A particularly vulnerable group
Among the most vulnerable are unaccompanied minors, who face specific challenges. These young individuals, already in a fragile stage of their development, are thrust into an environment where they are disconnected from their families and have limited social support. While Greece provides some legal protections and shelter, Panos explains that these minors often face a sudden withdrawal of support once they turn 18.
“Once they are no longer minors, they are sent to camps, where there is little to no follow-up,” he adds, explaining the difficult transition many minors face as they enter adulthood without sufficient support.
MSF provides crucial support
MSF plays a crucial role in providing specialized mental health support to refugees and migrants. MSF offers a space where individuals are welcomed with respect and dignity.
“We provide them a space, regardless of race or gender or sexuality, to be heard and supported,” he emphasizes. We not only offer psychological support but also works in collaboration with social workers to provide holistic care, addressing both the practical and emotional needs of the migrants.
However, the demand far exceeds the capacity of MSF. Many patients have complex mental health needs, requiring long-term support that is difficult to sustain. “The scope of MSF is limited, and the needs are much greater than we can meet,” says Panos. This underscores the need for more comprehensive support systems for migrants, including better integration strategies and expanded mental health services.
When asked what he would change in the current system, Panos calls for faster processing of asylum claims and better living conditions in the camps, which often feel like prisons to those forced to reside there. He also points to the need for greater community support and raising awareness in the host society.
“There needs to be more awareness in Greek society about what is happening and more efforts to integrate these individuals into the community,” he suggests. Improving the availability of interpreters in healthcare settings and ensuring continuous access to healthcare, even for those who receive negative asylum claims, are also critical changes MSF calls for.
Médecins Sans Frontières has been providing essential medical and humanitarian aid to asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants in Greece since 1996. In response to the 2015 humanitarian crisis, MSF expanded its efforts to address the growing needs of people arriving in Greece. Emergency interventions were set up across Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Athens, and the border town of Idomeni, offering medical and mental health care, shelter, water and sanitation services, and distributing vital relief items. From December 2015 to March 2016, MSF also carried out life-saving search and rescue operations in the Aegean Sea.
Since the beginning of 2024, our mental health services in Athens, Greece have provided vital support to more than 1,900 individuals. Our primary clinical diagnoses include anxiety disorders, PTSD, and depression, often triggered by difficult living conditions, forced displacement, and experiences of sexual violence. Over half of those we support (56.3%) have been impacted by violence, leading to symptoms such as anxiety (40.9%), depression (31,6%) and trauma-related distress (14,7%). Our team works to address these complex needs, helping people cope with the challenges of displacement and adversity.
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Three sub-Saharan African countries on the cusp of abolition must act now and abolish the death penalty once and for all, paving the way for others around the world to follow in their footsteps, said Amnesty International on World Day Against the Death Penalty (10 October).
Kenya and Zimbabwe currently have bills tabled to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Gambia, which has made steady progress against this cruel punishment since 2017, has commenced a constitutional amendment process that will, among other things, effectively abolish the death penalty. So far, 24 countries across sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes while two additional countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes only.
“Although the sub-Saharan Africa region saw a surge in both recorded executions and recorded death sentences in 2023, Gambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe have the opportunity to buck that trend in the region,” said Oluwatosin Popoola, Amnesty International’s legal adviser on the death penalty.
“Countries that still retain the death penalty are an isolated minority as the world continues to decidedly move away from this cruel punishment. The more countries that abolish the death penalty for all crimes, the more isolated the remaining countries will become and the weaker their position on the death penalty will be. The majority of countries in the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. It’s time for all countries to move away from this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment once and for all.”
Countries that still retain the death penalty are an isolated minority as the world continues to decidedly move away from this cruel punishment.
Oluwatosin Popoola, Amnesty International’s legal adviser on the death penalty
Hope for the region
Gambia, Kenya and Zimbabwehaven’t carried out an execution in over a decade while each country has commuted multiple death sentences in the same period.
The last known execution in Kenya was recorded in 1987. Although the country does not have an official moratorium on executions, it has an established practice of not carrying them out. While the courts in Kenya continue to impose death sentences, the country continues to make good progress against the death penalty. In 2023, 606 commutations of death sentences were granted, while four bills to abolish the death penalty are currently pending in Parliament.
The last known execution in Zimbabwe was carried out in 2005 even if courts continue to impose death sentences. However, since President Emmerson Mnangagwa assumed office in November 2017, he has made his opposition to the death penalty clear.
“Zimbabwe’s President himself was sentenced to death for ‘terrorism’ as a young man due to his involvement in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. He narrowly avoided execution as he was below the age of 21 at the time and was sentenced to 10 years in prison instead. The President knows what it’s like to be facing the death penalty and he now has the opportunity to ensure no one else goes through that,” said Oluwatosin Popoola.
In December 2023, the Death Penalty Abolition Bill was published in the official gazette in Zimbabwe and the government cabinet announced its support for it in February 2024. The Bill is currently pending before parliament.
The last execution in Gambia was carried out in 2012, when nine soldiers were executed by firing squad. However, since President Adama Barrow assumed office in January 2017, Gambia has been making remarkable strides against the death penalty with the country establishing an official moratorium on executions, becoming a party to an international treaty aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and regularly commuting death sentences.
Moving forward
In 2023, Amnesty International recorded 1,153 executions, an increase of 31% (270) from the 883 known executions in 2022. This year has continued a worrying trend with an alarming surge in executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia, a decision in Democratic Republic of Congo to resume executions, and Taiwan’s Supreme Court failing to abolish the death penalty. Yet countries in sub-Saharan Africa offer a glimmer of hope in the way towards the global abolition of the death penalty. So far, 113 countries around the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
“Countries that still retain the death penalty in their laws often resort to the death penalty believing the punishment can make their people and communities safer. However, that is a misconception. The death penalty does not have a unique deterrent effect, and it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The small minority of countries that insist on using this punishment must move with the times and abolish the death penalty once and for all,” said Oluwatosin Popoola.
Background information
In 2023, Amnesty International documented a sharp increase in the use of the death penalty across sub-Saharan African. Recorded executions more than tripled and recorded death sentences increased significantly by 66%. Somalia was the only country in the region known to have carried out executions. Death sentences were recorded in 14 countries, a decrease of 2 compared to 2022. Four countries took positive legislative steps towards the abolition of the death penalty. For more information, please see Death Sentences and Executions 2023.
Executions more than tripled in 2023, while death sentences increased by 66% in the region
Fresh call for abolition on World Day Against Death Penalty, with Kenya, Zimbabwe and Gambia leading the way
‘It’s time for all countries to move away from this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment once and for all’ – Oluwatosin Popoola
Sub-Saharan African countries on the cusp of abolitionmust ban the death penalty immediately, paving the way for others around the world to follow in their footsteps, said Amnesty International on World Day Against the Death Penalty (10 October).
Last year, Amnesty documented a sharp increase in the use of the death penalty across sub-Saharan Africa, when recorded executions more than tripled and death sentences increased by 66% from 298 to 494. Somalia was the only country in the region known to have carried out executions.
Death sentences were recorded in 14 African countries, an overall decrease of two compared to 2022. However, there were increases in recorded death sentences in some countries, including Ghana (seven to 10); Mali (eight to 13); and Nigeria (77 to 246).
Despite these bleak statistics, Kenya and Zimbabwe and Gambia are edging closer towards abolition. Kenya and Zimbabwe currently have bills tabled to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Gambia has begun a constitutional amendment process that will effectively abolish the death penalty. So far, 24 out of 53 countries across sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
Oluwatosin Popoola, Amnesty International’s legal advisor on the death penalty, said:
“Although the sub-Saharan Africa region saw a surge in both recorded executions and recorded death sentences in 2023, Gambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe have the opportunity to buck that trend in the region.
“Countries that still retain the death penalty in their laws often resort to the death penalty believing the punishment can make their people and communities safer. However, that is a misconception. The death penalty does not have a unique deterrent effect, and it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“Countries that still retain the death penalty are an isolated minority as the world continues to move away from this cruel punishment. The more countries that abolish the death penalty for all crimes, the more isolated the remaining countries will become and the weaker their position on the death penalty will be. It’s time for all countries to move away from this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment once and for all.”
Progress in the region: Kenya
Gambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe have not carried out an execution in more than a decade, while each country has commuted multiple death sentences in the same period. The last known execution in Kenya was in 1987, and although the country does not have an official moratorium on executions it has an established practice of not carrying them out. Kenyan courts continue to impose death sentences, but the country continues to make good progress against the death penalty. In 2023, 606 commutations of death sentences were granted, while four bills to abolish the death penalty are currently pending in Parliament.
Progress in the region: Zimbabwe
The last known execution in Zimbabwe was carried out in 2005 even though courts continue to impose death sentences. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who assumed office in 2017, has also made his opposition to the death penalty clear.
Oluwatosin Popoola explained:
“Zimbabwe’s president was himself sentenced to death for ‘terrorism’ as a young man due to his involvement in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. He narrowly avoided execution as he was below the age of 21 at the time and was sentenced to ten years in prison instead. The president knows what it’s like to be facing the death penalty and he now has the opportunity to ensure no one else goes through that.”
Last December, the Death Penalty Abolition Bill was published in the official gazette in Zimbabwe and the Government announced its support for it this February. The bill is currently pending before parliament.
Progress in the region: Gambia
The last execution in Gambia was carried out in 2012, when nine soldiers were executed by firing squad. However, since President Adama Barrow assumed office in 2017, Gambia has made significant progress in abolishing the death penalty: the country has established an official moratorium on executions, become party to an international treaty aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and regularly commutes death sentences.
The global picture
In 2023, Amnesty recorded a sharp rise in executions globally, with 1,153 executions, an increase of 31% (270) from the 883 known executions in 2022. This year has continued a disturbing trend with an alarming surge in executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia, a decision in Democratic Republic of Congo to resume executions, and Taiwan’s Supreme Court failing to abolish the death penalty. So far, 113 countries around the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
78% of UK adults say that people with direct experience of homelessness should be included when developing policies to tackle homelessness
The majority (72%) believe that homelessness is a major problem in the UK and should be given urgent priority by Government, with 73% saying they are not doing enough to help
Nearly three quarters (73%) agree that having access to a home is a fundamental human right and should be protected by law
“Government strategy is only a piece of paper without action. We need action now for those facing winter in unsuitable temporary accommodation or experiencing life on the streets.” – Jen Clark
The latest annual Government statistics on October 4th showed a 12.3% rise in homelessness and with people trapped in temporary accommodation at an all-time high since records began. *
On World Homelessness Day (October 10th), Amnesty International UK has published new data showing what the UK public think about political action, which reveals homelessness is seen as a major UK problem and that the Government must do more, including developing solutions with those who have direct experience.
In his first press conference as Prime Minister, Keir Starmer said: ‘The principle I operate to is those with skin in the game know what’s best for their communities’ and nearly eight in ten polling respondents** agreed that those with lived experience of homelessness should be included when developing policies to tackle this.
Amnesty is calling on the Government to invite those with lived experience of homelessness, to hear firsthand what immediate solutions there are to both the current emergency and longer-term strategy. Urgent action is needed to protect people as the rise in homelessness shows us that many people will be facing a life-or-death situation this winter without safe and secure housing.
At a roundtable hosted by the human rights organisation, people with lived experience shared their desire for their voices to be heard and how without the protection of everyday rights they feel oppressive stigma from society.
Tony said: “As a person who has been homeless in the past, I know how difficult it is to get out of homelessness. The Prime Minister said it is people with the skin in the game who know what is best for their community. So, listen to us.”
*The following names have been anonymised
Lucy said: “You think like everyone is judging you, they’re thinking you chose it, that it’s your choice, whereas it is not. I was an asylum seeker it was not my choice. Then I became a refugee and asked to leave the accommodation, that was not my choice. Then I became homeless, that was not my choice. If I did not take a shower for a long time, that was not my choice because I did not have the shower facility.”
Dillon said: “We all see homeless people in doorways, you see Councils building aggressive architecture. And this all sort of shows how we think of people experiencing homelessness as being some kind of scourge on society. What we really need to be doing is flipping that over and realising its society being the scourge on its most vulnerable.”
Jody said: “To tackle stigma we need to be more compassionate towards others and understand how it makes people feel.”
Jen Clark, Economic and social rights lead at Amnesty International UK, said:
“This World Homelessness Day, the public back Amnesty’s call for Government to involve those with direct experience to create solutions to end this horrifying crisis for good.
“Homelessness is often the result of a devastating domino effect triggered by poor decision making within siloed Government departments who repeatedly fail to protect our basic human rights and dignity.
“Whilst the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced the development of a strategy to end homelessness, this is not new – strategy is only a piece of paper without action. We still do not know when, with who or how this strategy will be developed. We need solutions developed with those with skin in the game and we need urgent action now for those facing winter in unsuitable temporary accommodation or experiencing life on the streets.”
Additional findings from the poll, conducted in September 2024, showed that:
A third (35%) of UK adults say they are worried that themselves or someone they know may become homeless in the next 12 months.
Among those who are renting in the UK, either privately, or through their local council or housing association, approaching half (47%) say they are worried that they, or someone they know, will become homeless in the next 12 months. This was highest at 47% with young adults aged 16-34.
Girls and young women in north-east Nigeria suffered horrific abuses in Boko Haram captivity, with many survivors then arbitrarily detained and subsequently neglected by the Nigerian authorities. Now, these girls and young women are sending a clear message: they want to rebuild their lives.
For more than a decade, Boko Haram used these girls and young women as “wives”, forcibly marrying them, and subjecting them to years of domestic servitude and sexual violence, including forced pregnancy.
Today, on International Day of the Girl Child, Amnesty International is launching a new petition calling for Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian government to empower these girls and young women by ensuring their access to medical care, education, and livelihood support.
Myanmar’s military authorities must immediately account for the whereabouts and wellbeing of two pro-democracy activists arrested in Yangon on Wednesday, Amnesty International said today.
Paing Phyo Min and Shein Wai Aung were arrested on 9 October and sent to an interrogation centre, Amnesty International understands. Paing Phyo Min’s family has not been able to reach him, while Shein Wai Aung and his father, mother and sister have also been uncontactable.
As many as six additional people are also believed to have been arrested in raids.
“The Myanmar military must urgently account for the whereabouts and wellbeing of Paing Phyo Min and of Shein Wai Aung and his family. Unless they can be charged with an internationally recognized crime, they must be immediately and unconditionally released,” Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said.
“As leaders from The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet in Laos and discuss a way out of the crisis brought on by the 2021 coup, the Myanmar military continues to arbitrarily detain people and carry out repression across the country.”
Paing Phyo Min is known for his involvement with a group of young people performing Thangyat, a popular Myanmar traditional art form which fuses poetry, comedy and music to comment on social issues.
In 2019, Paing Phyo Min and other members of an activist group called the Peacock Generation were arrested after performing Thangyat dressed as soldiers. For this, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
In 2020, Amnesty International called for Paing Phyo Min’s release as part of its annual Write 4 Rights campaign, with many people writing letters to him to bolster his spirits. He was released in 2021 as part of a mass prisoner amnesty.
After the military coup, he and others took part in peaceful protests in Yangon, despite enormous risks following violent crackdowns.
Shein Wai Aung, a former student at Dagon University in Yangon, has been active in peaceful protests and in supporting political prisoners in Myanmar.
“Protesting in Myanmar today is not the same as it was before the coup. Anyone involved in any kind of dissent against the military faces long jail terms, torture and other ill-treatment, and even death in custody,” Joe Freeman said.
“In Myanmar’s prison system, there is little hope of fair treatment, no transparency, and extremely substandard conditions. Interrogation centers, where these two activists have likely been sent, are also notorious locations of abuse where torture has been used to extract information before charges are formally brought.”
Myanmar’s military has killed more than 5,000 civilians since seizing power in the coup on 1 February 2021. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in its latest report last month that at least 1,853 of those people have died in custody.
In the 2022 report ‘15 Days Felt Like 15 Years’, Amnesty International documented torture and other ill-treatment against people arbitrarily detained by the military and police after the coup.
UN Member States should support a resolution to promptly begin formal negotiations of a Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity, with the aim of strengthening the international justice framework and vastly reducing safe havens from investigation and prosecution for perpetrators, said Amnesty International today.
The organization’s call comes as the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Sixth Committee meets to debate the agenda item “Crimes against humanity”. The Sixth Committee session is scheduled to last until 22 November.
“The next six weeks present a unique opportunity for the international community to finally make progress on the negotiation and adoption of a convention on crimes against humanity. Such a treaty would open new pathways – desperately needed in today’s world – for ensuring justice, truth and reparation for victims and survivors of some of the most heinous of crimes,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Unlike other crimes under international law, such as genocide and war crimes, there is presently no specific, standalone convention for crimes against humanity. While the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) does outlaw crimes against humanity under international law, a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity, which would be applied by states, would reinforce and strengthen the overall international justice framework, including that of the ICC.
“The Crimes Against Humanity Convention could be a milestone treaty in more ways than one. It would impose obligations on states not only to criminalize and punish crimes against humanity, but also to prevent them, and to cooperate with other states, including through mutual legal assistance,” said Agnès Callamard.
The next six weeks present a unique opportunity for the international community to finally make progress on the negotiation and adoption of a convention on crimes against humanity.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General
“The new convention would bring much-needed improvement of international standards on gender justice, including by recognizing gender-based crimes that have received far too little international attention, such as gender apartheid, forced marriage and forced abortion. It is well past time for an international law that’s fit to address the age-old war being waged on women, girls and LGBTI people in many corners of our planet.”
“A convention on crimes against humanity would make it much harder for perpetrators to escape justice. For instance, the present draft includes provisions for universal jurisdiction for all crimes covered. It would obligate states to either prosecute or extradite any suspects within their reach – regardless of where the crime was committed or the nationality of the suspect or the victim – and enable domestic courts to take up cases, including those that the International Criminal Court is unable or unwilling to pursue.”
Crimes against humanity are a worldwide phenomenon. In the past 10 years alone, Amnesty International has found evidence of such crimes in at least 18 countries all over the planet.
“No region on earth is free from these atrocities that deeply shock the conscience of humanity. Recent and ongoing situations in countries such as Afghanistan, China, Ethiopia, Iran, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Myanmar, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela serve as constant reminders of the urgent need to reinforce the international justice system,” said Agnès Callamard.
16 September marked one year since Pensador has been arbitrarily detained. We met with his fiancé, Lemba Cahungo, who describes what an entire year, without her partner has been like.
Activist Abraão Pedro Santos, AKA Pensador (37) had everything ready and organized for his wedding ceremony in October 2023. Still, he ended up being arrested, tried and sentenced to two years and five months in prison before he could fulfill his dream, simply for joining a planned protest on 16 September 2023, in Luanda, the capital of Angola.
Pensador was not the only one to be sentenced for participating in the planned demonstration, he is part of the AGPT, the group of four activists sentenced on 19 September 2023.
Pensador’s fiancée, Lemba, received us with a smile on her face, opened the door of her home and her heart to talk about her fiancé’s arrest and the impact it had on her life. She shared what it means to dream of building a family and suddenly see everything falling apart for no reason.
Lemba begins by describing how she met Pensador in 2017, at church, but it wasn’t until three years ago that they formalized their relationship and had already set a wedding date. “My fiancé’s dream is to get married and to start a family. He always said he couldn’t wait to get home and be welcomed by his children.”
“Abraão(as she calls him) had started a law degree but was unable to continue his studies. He is very intelligent. Likes reading books and loves Pepetela (an Angolan writer). He grew up inspired by his father, who also has several books. He loves watching entertainment programs and eating, usually pasta with fish. He’s also a big fan of Azagaia (a Mozambican artist)… This is what I knew about Abraão. He never revealed to me he was an activist”.
“At the beginning of our relationship, I thought it was strange the way he dressed. He had long hair, wore military-type clothes, grew beards and wore boots. I could tell he was someone with his own ideas, but I didn’t think he was an activist. Eventually I found out a few years ago and told him that if he wanted to pursue activism, he should forget about me. He pretended to listen and even walked away from activism for a while, at least that’s what I thought”.
Pensador has been an activist since 2011, when several young people took to the streets to demand an end to the rule of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who at the time had been in power for 32 years.
“Those who get involved in activism in Angola risk their lives. This fear hangs over us. There was a time when the authorities were looking for activist Gangasta, it became terror. I wouldn’t want something similar to happen to someone close to me. I think activism is essential. I can’t keep quiet in situations of injustice, even in my job I often demand better working conditions. I know it’s necessary. Activists want the best for the country, but unfortunately the police always act in bad faith and the consequence is that activists are often beaten, arrested or shot”.
If Pensador was hiding about his activism, what did he say before he left the house on the morning of 16 September ? We asked.
“Abraaosaid he was going to the church to fix some speakers. Of course, he couldn’t tell the truth because I wouldn’t agree. Around 4pm, one of his friends called me to ask about Pensador(Abraao), and I said he was at the church. The friend then revealed that Pensador was arrested, and that the information was already circulating on Facebook. When I saw the news, I started shaking from head to toe. I cried bitterly, but I thought it was just a few hours’ detention and that maybe he would be released the same day, but he wasn’t.”
A group of activists had called for a demonstration on 16 September 2023, in solidarity with motorcycle taxi drivers who were being restricted from carrying out their activities on some areas of the city. For the organizers, the restrictions were unfair, and several young people could be at risk of becoming unemployed and that would contribute to the already high levels of poverty in Angola.
The demonstration had been duly communicated, but as usual, the police arrived moments before the demonstration began, and without any warrant, arrested the activists.
On 19 September 2023, Pensador and other three other activists were summarily tried, convicted and sentenced. The public prosecutor initially accused them of “outrage and injury to the President of the Republic” because one of them was holding a placard with words saying “President Joao Lourenço is incompetent”. Amid various inconsistencies and lack of evidence, the charge was changed to ‘disobedience and resisting orders.’ Witness reports and videos circulated showed that at the time of their arrest, the activists were lying on the ground, not resisting.
Without any evidence, the court sentenced AGPT to two years and fivemonths in prison and fined them 80,000.00 Kwanzas (approximately USD100 ) each. Their lawyers submitted both an appeal and complaint against the decision, but both were rejected by the court.
A curious fact, as described by the lawyer in the case, Dr. Zola Bambi, was that while still in the courtroom when the judge read out the sentence, there were only three names (Adolfo Campos, Tanaice Neutro and Gildo). Moments later, when the clerk returned to the courtroom to read the minutes of the trial, Pensador’s (Abraao Pedro dos Santos)’ name was now on the list of those convicted, and it was at that moment that Pensador discovered that he had also been convicted.
How was it like to visit Abraão for the first time in prison and how he’s doing?
“When I saw him for the first time in the prison, I started crying and he cried too as we hugged. That was the last time I touched Abraão. When I go to visit him, there’s a barrier that separates us, we stand in different places. I can’t even see his full body. The bars are so thin that your fingers can’t get through”.“We spend hours talking while standing until we run out of things to talk about. When I go to see him, I always try to bring him positive things. I tell him about the nieces he likes and that
calms him down”.
“I miss Abraão so much. He’s very intelligent, a little special box of surprises. He always has good ideas to offer, and sometimes I get lost on my own. I need him. I need to talk to him. He loves going after his dreams. All I want is for my fiancé to be released. He didn’t commit any crime. The criminals are the ones who should be locked up.”
The rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are constantly being violated in Angola. Like Pensador every year there are several documented cases of injustice committed against people who decide to take to the streets and protest for their rights or those of their communities. Stand up for Pensador and three other activists who are arbitrarily detained simply for the peaceful exercise of their human rights. Sign this petition and share it on your networks using the hashtag #Freethefive #FreeAGPT.
Today marked the formal beginning of the criminal investigation against three people who served as senior Carabineros commanders during the political repression of protests in 2019. Under their leadership, two people died at the hands of the police and thousands suffered serious injuries, including irreversible eye damage. At this hearing, which has been anticipated for over nine months, the North Central Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office formally informed that it is investigating these individuals for their possible participation as perpetrators of the omissive crime of unlawful coercion, resulting in serious injuries and homicide, and that this will initiate legal proceedings.
The start of legal proceedings, which are set to begin after this hearing, will clarify whether these commanders had individual criminal liability for failing to prevent the serious injuries caused to thousands of protesters, despite having the ability to do so, as per their obligation.
“This hearing shows that it is possible to prosecute not only the people who pulled the trigger, but, above all, those who failed to do everything in their power to prevent indiscriminate shooting at protesters. Responsibility for these acts must be commensurate with the responsibility of the position they held”, said Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International.
This hearing shows that it is possible to prosecute not only the people who pulled the trigger, but, above all, those who failed to do everything in their power to prevent indiscriminate shooting at protesters. Responsibility for these acts must be commensurate with the responsibility of the position they held.
Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International.
Since October 2019, Amnesty International and other Chilean and international human rights bodies and organizations have denounced the indiscriminate and improper use of shotguns loaded with metal and rubber pellets by Carabineros, which left thousands of people injured and over 400 people with severe eye damage. Today, there are more than 1,100 cases of unlawful coercion (mistreatment) caused by this sort of action, which highlights the broader damage inflicted by the actions of the Carabineros.
The criminal investigation into the police commanders who allowed this to happen is a milestone for Chile. Every day, in many countries, the right to protest is being threatened by the use of extremely harmful weapons and ammunition which international law prohibits for use in controlling protests. Today, Chile has the historic opportunity to hold accountable those in position of power who did not act to prevent irreversible harm to thousands of people.
Amnesty International welcomes this hearing, which will conclude tomorrow, as the start of a legal process that, with the relevant due process guarantees, will clarify the facts and determine the liability for the serious human rights violations committed since 2019.
“The eyes of the world are still on Chile. Bringing charges against commanders is a valuable precedent for other countries in the region, but especially for Chile and the victims of political violence, who have resisted for five years so that this door to justice could be opened”, said Rodrigo Bustos, Executive Director of Amnesty International Chile.
The eyes of the world are still on Chile. Bringing charges against commanders is a valuable precedent for other countries in the region, but especially for Chile and the victims of political violence, who have resisted for five years so that this door to justice could be opened.
Rodrigo Bustos, Executive Director of Amnesty International Chile.
Lastly, Amnesty International welcomes the departure of the current Director General from his role, since, as the organization has reported on numerous occasions, his continued presence constituted a risk to procedural evidence and compliance with guarantees of non-repetition.
In northern Gaza, Palestine, Israeli evacuation orders and strikes are forcing people to flee south.
The bombing and evacuations of neighbourhoods in the north are making the area unliveable, with no supplies entering the area for a week.
We call on Israel to stop issuing evacuation orders and immediately allow in humanitarian aid.
Israeli evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza, Palestine, issued on 7 October, are pushing tens of thousands of people to immediately flee south as the area is targeted by airstrikes and a ground offensive. In this latest forced mass displacement, residents of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia have been urged to move south to the overcrowded, so-called humanitarian zone between Al-Mawasi and Deir Al-Balah, where one million people are already living in inhumane conditions. The zone also remains unsafe for civilians and aid workers, as Israeli forces continue to repeatedly strike the area.
These forced mass evacuations of homes and bombing of neighbourhoods by the Israeli forces are turning the north of Gaza into an unliveable wasteland, effectively emptying out the whole north of the Strip of Palestinian life. To make matters worse, no humanitarian supplies have been allowed to enter the area since 1 October.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on the Israeli forces to halt evacuation orders, which are causing the forced displacement of people, and to ensure the protection of civilians. They must also allow desperately needed humanitarian supplies to enter the north as a matter of extreme urgency.
“All of a sudden, I was told that we had to move from the north,” says Mahmoud, an MSF watchman, who left Jabalia at night to find refuge at the MSF guest house in Gaza City. “We left our home in despair, under bombs, missiles and artillery. It was very, very difficult. I would prefer to die than to be displaced to the south; my home is here, and I do not want to leave.”
Israeli forces also called for the evacuation of the three main hospitals in northern Gaza, namely Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals. These are operating at minimal capacity and have a total of 317 patients still hospitalised, with around 80 people in intensive care and unable to move, according to the Ministry of Health. These three medical facilities, as well as those that remain partially functional across the Strip, must be protected at all costs.
The MSF clinic in Gaza City received 255 patients on Sunday and Monday alone, as options for people to access medical care shrink by the day. For some people, accessing the few existing health facilities is impossible; our teams have received reports of wounded people who have died as they were unable to seek medical care.
Among those facing evacuation orders in the north are seven MSF staff who managed to find shelter in Gaza City. Five others remain blocked in Jabalia, where the Israeli forces are on the ground carrying out attacks.
“The latest move to forcefully and violently push thousands of people from northern Gaza to the south is turning the north into a lifeless desert, while aggravating the situation in the south, where more than one million people have already been squeezed into a small portion of the Gaza Strip and live in deplorable conditions,” says Sarah Vuylsteke, MSF project coordinator in Gaza.
“Access to water, healthcare, and safety is already almost non-existent, and the thought of more people fitting into this space is impossible to imagine,” says Vuylsteke. “People have been subjected to endless displacement and relentless bombing for the past 12 months. Enough is enough, this must stop now.”
While the Israeli authorities have recently declared a minimal expansion of the so-called humanitarian zone, the area remains subject to evacuation orders and is unsafe due to regular Israeli bombardment. Many people living in the zone are suffering from skin diseases and respiratory infections because of the dire conditions. The situation is even more worrying with the approach of winter and the cold temperatures that people will be exposed to.
Israeli forces must urgently halt evacuation orders in the north of Gaza. The relentless killing of people in Gaza must stop now, and an immediate and sustained ceasefire must be implemented.
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In the leadup to next month’s COP29 climate summit in Baku, states must exert pressure on the Azerbaijani authorities to reverse their clampdown on civil society, release those detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, and ensure participants including activists and journalists can engage freely and fully in the event, Amnesty International said today.
Since Azerbaijan was announced as the host of COP29 last December, the authorities have intensified their crackdown on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Independent civil society organizations have been closed and critics locked up under politically motivated charges, or forced into exile, in a haunting echo of previous crackdowns documented by Amnesty International around other major international events hosted by Azerbaijan, including Eurovision 2012 and the 2015 European Games.
“Azerbaijan is hosting an international conference on climate justice while actively undermining the main pillars of climate activism – repressing all forms of critical expression and protests and dismantling local civil society. The Azerbaijani authorities have locked up hundreds of people on politically motivated charges for daring to speak out. The list includes journalists, activists and human rights defenders critical of the government who remain in arbitrary detention, in violation of due process and with no guarantee of fair trials,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“The authorities are also subjecting dissenters’ relatives to reprisals, while passing repressive laws to inhibit the work of NGOs and the media. The Azerbaijani government’s attempt to hide its abysmal human rights record behind a global climate summit is blatant greenwashing.”
Azerbaijan is hosting an international conference on climate justice while actively undermining the main pillars of climate activism – repressing all forms of critical expression and protests and dismantling local civil society.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General
Azerbaijani human rights defenders estimate that approximately 300 people remain in detention on politically motivated charges. These include human rights defenders, journalists, and environmental, political and other activists prosecuted under fabricated and/or politically motivated charges in retaliation for their criticism of the authorities. For example, prominent human rights defender and climate advocate Anar Mammadli has been in pre-trial detention since 30 April 2024 on bogus charges of conspiracy to bring illegal foreign currency into the country.
Economist and political activist Gubad Ibadoghlu was moved to house arrest on 22 April 2024 after 274 days in detention. Opposition figure Tofig Yagublu has been in pre-trail detention since 15 December 2023 on spurious fraud and forgery charges. Also among the detained are: Ulvi Hasanli, Ilhamiz Guliyev, Mahammad Kekelov, Sevinj Vagifgyzy, Elnara Gasimova, Nargiz Absalamova Hafiz Babali, Imran Aliyev, Shamo Eminov, Teymur Karimov, Arshad Ibrahimov, Ibrahim Humbatov, Alasgar Mammadli, Mushfig Jabbar, Akif Gubanov, Ruslan Izzatli, Ramil Babayev Ali Zeynalov, Afiaddin Mammadov and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev.
The Pakistan government’s ban on the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) and the use of anti-terrorism laws to target activists and peaceful protesters from minority groups is an affront on the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly in the country, said Amnesty International today.
The PTM is a grassroots movement peacefully advocating for human rights of Pashtuns who have long been subjected to harassment and violence by the Pakistani authorities. On 6 October 2024, in a new government notification, the PTM was designated as a ‘proscribed organization’ by placing it under the First Schedule for ‘List of Proscribed Organizations’ of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
“The listing of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement as a proscribed organization, days ahead of their gathering scheduled on 11 October, is part of a systematic and relentless clampdown by the Pakistani authorities on peaceful protests and assemblies by dissenting groups. This latest arbitrary ban under over-broad powers of the terror law is only the tip of the iceberg – for years the Pakistani authorities have suppressed such movements from marginalized regions by resorting to unlawful use of force, enforced disappearances, and media bans on the coverage of protests or rallies,” said Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia.
The Pakistan government must immediately course correct and put an end to the criminalization of peaceful protests and assemblies. It must stop its witch-hunt of dissenting groups on the basis of their ethnicity and reverse their decision designating PTM under the Anti-Terrorism Act
Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia
During his visit to Angola from 13 to 15 October, US President Joe Biden must demand Angolan President João Lourenço and his government immediately release five government critics arbitrarily detained for more than a year, four of whom have been tortured through deliberate denial of medical care, Amnesty International said.
President Biden must also demand President Lourenço and his government stop the four-year crackdown on peaceful protests which has killed dozens of people, including children, and seen more than 100 arbitrarily arrested during demonstrations. Angolan authorities must respect the rights of all people in the country.
“In President João Lourenço’s Angola, anyone who publicly criticizes the government risks arrest, torture or even death. If human rights are central to President Biden’s foreign policy, then he must demand Angola’s government immediately and unconditionally free the five arbitrarily detained government critics and end the crackdown on the right to protest,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International Senior Director for Regional Human Rights Impact.
Police arrested Adolfo Campos, Hermenegildo Victor (known as Gildo das Ruas), Abraão Pedro Santos (known as Pensador) and Gilson Moreira (known as Tanaice Neutro) ahead of a protest against high fuel prices in September 2023. One month earlier, police arrested social media influencer Ana da Silva Miguel (known as Neth Nahara) after she broadcast a live TikTok video criticizing President Lourenço. Neth Nahara is featured in this year’s Write for Rights, Amnesty International’s biggest human rights campaign.
If human rights are central to President Biden’s foreign policy, then he must demand Angola’s government immediately and unconditionally free the five arbitrarily detained government critics and end the crackdown on the right to protest.
Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International Senior Director for Regional Human Rights Impact
Prison authorities have denied urgent medical care, including surgery, to Campos, Gildo das Ruas and Tanaice Neutro as their health has deteriorated, amounting to torture. They also held Tanaice in solitary confinement for 36 days. Prison guards prevented Neth Nahara from accessing her daily antiretroviral medication for the first eight months of her detention.
Monday 7 October 2024 marks a year since the horrific attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 abducted.
It also marks one year since the start of an ongoing devastating Israeli onslaught that has killed more than 41,500 people and forcibly displaced 1.9 million in the occupied Gaza Strip.
To mark the date, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said:
“7 October marks a day of mourning for the Israelis whose loved ones were killed and abducted and for thousands who continue to be displaced ever since the heinous attacks by Hamas and other armed groups.
“7 October also marks a year since the start of the horrifying Israeli forces’ onslaught in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands, forcibly displaced 90% of the population and triggered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, placing Palestinians in Gaza at risk of genocide, as stated by the ICJ.
“As the war rages on with no end in sight, the need for a ceasefire, respect for international law and for the rights of all victims to truth, justice and reparation, is more pressing than ever.
“It is shameful and a collective failure of humanity that one year on still there is no ceasefire, still no release of hostages. Such atrocities should never have been committed let alone be allowed to continue.
“This anniversary is a sobering reminder of the urgent need to address the root causes, cut the supply of arms to all parties and end longstanding impunity that have seen Israeli forces, Hamas and other armed groups, flout international law for decades without fearing any consequences.
The crimes committed by Hamas and other armed groups, which the ICC’s Prosecutor is investigating as crimes against humanity, are horrific and completely unjustifiable. A year on, around 100 hostages remain held in Gaza. While some are confirmed dead, those still alive are at risk of death, torture and other abuse. Fears for their safety have grown since Israeli forces retrieved in August the bodies of six hostages and a subsequent Israeli forensic examination concluded they had been shot dead shortly before retrieval. Civilian hostages must be released immediately and reunited with their families.
Meanwhile in Gaza entire families have been decimated with many people yet to dig the remains of their loved ones from the rubble of their destroyed homes, including children. Hundreds of families in Gaza are still seeking information about loved ones detained in Israeli jails without charges or trial, with many subjected to torture.
Amnesty International has conducted in-depth investigations into the crimes committed on 7 October and thereafter. Amnesty Internationalhas called for Hamas and other armed groups to be held accountable for the deliberate killings, abductions and indiscriminate attacks, including rocket attacks on Israel.
The violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel began long before the 7 October attacks. Amnesty has investigated and denounced Israel’s cruel system of apartheid andan unlawful occupation,which was also the object of UN Security Council Resolutions.
In view of the rampant human rights violations against migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Tunisia, especially those who are Black; Tunisia’s lack of an asylum system; the Tunisian government’s crackdown on civil society, judicial independence, and the media; and the impossibility of fairly and individually determining nationalities or assessing the protection needs of migrants and asylum seekers while at sea, it is clear that Tunisia is not a safe place for the disembarkation of people intercepted or rescued at sea. The ongoing cooperation between the European Union (EU), EU member states, and Tunisia on migration control which includes reliance on the possibility to disembark people rescued or intercepted at sea in Tunisia – similar to previous cooperation with Libya – is contributing to human rights violations.
European policies to externalize border management to Tunisia are supporting security authorities who are committing serious violations. They are also obstructing people’s rights to leave any country and to seek asylum, containing refugees and migrants in countries where their human rights are at risk. Moreover, disembarkation in Tunisia can endanger individuals and expose them to serious harm, and further puts refugees and migrants at high risk of collective expulsion to Libya and Algeria, which can violate the principle of non-refoulement. The establishment on 19 June 2024 of the Tunisian Search and Rescue Region (SRR), called for and supported by the European Commission, risks becoming another tool to violate people’s rights rather than a legitimate fulfillment of the responsibility to protect safety at sea. Mirroring its cooperation with Libya, the EU and its member states’ engagement with Tunisia may have the effect of normalizing serious violations against people seeking protection and undermining the integrity of the international search and rescue system by twisting it to serve migration control purposes. 
As humanitarian and human rights organizations, we call on the EU and its member states to terminate their cooperation on migration control with Tunisian authorities responsible for serious human rights violations at sea and in Tunisia. Search and rescue NGOs and commercial ships should not be instructed to disembark anyone in Tunisia.
Widespread and repeated violations of human rights
Findings from Tunisian and international organizations, as well as UN bodies, over the past two years indicate that Tunisia cannot be considered a ‘Place of Safety’ for people intercepted or rescued at sea, most notably Black people as defined by the 1979 SAR Convention, the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) and UN bodies.
Despite being party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, Tunisia has no national asylum law or system. People who enter, stay in, or exit the country irregularly are criminalized by law. Following interceptions at sea or after arbitrary arrests on Tunisian territory, Tunisian authorities have repeatedly abandoned refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in the Tunisian desert or remote border regions with Libya and Algeria. These practices can amount to unlawful collective expulsions, demonstrate a total disregard for refugees’ and migrants’ right to life, and may violate the principle of non-refoulement. People expelled face the risk of serious human rights violations in Libya and onward expulsions from Algeria to Niger. According to reports citing information from the UN, Tunisian security forces have notably rounded up people presumed to be irregular migrants on land and directly transferred them to Libyan authorities, who subsequently subjected them to arbitrary detention, forced labour, extortion, torture and other ill-treatment, and unlawful killings.
According to the accounts of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, OMCT, and Alarm Phone, Tunisian authorities at sea have committed abuses and put lives at risk during boat interceptions – including by high-speed manoeuvers threatening to capsize the boats, physical violence, firing tear gas at close range, and colliding with the boats – followed by a failure to systematically ensure individualized assessments of protection needs at disembarkation. Tunisian authorities have also subjected refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to torture and other ill-treatment in the contexts of disembarkations, detention, or collective expulsions.
At the same time, several international and local organizations, human rights defenders and lawyers have reported an alarming deterioration of civil liberties and fundamental rights in Tunisia, impacting both the migrant population and Tunisian citizens.. Since 2021, the country has witnessed a significant rollback of human rights, characterized by a dismantling of institutional safeguards for their protection, an erosion of judicial independence and a clampdown on freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. The disembarkation in Tunisia of Tunisian nationals intercepted or rescued at sea, which could include people fleeing persecution, torture or other serious harm and intending to seek asylum abroad, could effectively deny the right to seek asylum to those in need of international protection.
The European Union’s complicity in human rights abuses
Despite the documented human rights violations by Tunisian authorities, the EU and its member states have stepped up their support for Kais Saïed’s administration. Through the Memorandum of Understanding signed in July 2023, the EU promised Tunisia 1 billion Euros, including 105 million EUR dedicated to border and migration management, effectively in exchange for preventing sea departures towards Europe, which includes people in need of protection. With the implementation of a Tunisian Search and Rescue Region (SRR), the Tunisian government has met a long-standing priority set by the EU. While on the one hand this represents a formal step towards the fulfillment of Tunisia’s responsibility to protect life at sea, the reality is that European Rescue Coordination Centers (RCC) will now refer boats in distress within the Tunisian SRR to the Tunisian RCC, reinforcing a gradual disengagement of EU actors in favor of actors with a poor human rights record.
By supporting an increased role for the Tunisian Coast Guard (National Guard) – without any human rights benchmarks or monitoring system in place, nor arrangements to ensure that rescued people are disembarked in a place of safety which cannot be Tunisia – the EU is contributing to a risk of further serious human rights violations at sea and in Tunisia against refugees and migrants and people at risk of persecution in the country.
Humanitarian space for search and rescue (SAR) NGOs will also be further curtailed, if European RCCs instruct SAR NGOs to liaise with the newly established Tunisian MRCC for disembarkation, which they may refuse to respect the principle of non-refoulement. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has noted that vessels at sea are not the appropriate place for determining protection needs. Under international maritime law, states have the primary responsibility for coordinating rescues within their SRRs and for arranging disembarkation in a place of safety, which may be another state.
European support of human rights violations must end
These developments follow the pattern witnessed in Libya since 2016. In addition to material, technical and political support, the EU and Italy supported the establishment of a Libyan SRR and MRCC, thus leading to a transfer of SAR responsibility to the Libyan Coast Guard and increased pullbacks and disembarkations in Libya, all while being aware that this would expose refugees and migrants to a serious risk of horrific and deadly violations in Libya. Both the Italian government and EU institutions have not only continued this cooperation, but sought to extend it to other countries, including in Tunisia.
We therefore urge the EU and its member states to:
Call on Tunisian authorities to end human rights violations against refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, including urgently with regards to life-threatening and unlawful collective expulsions.
Call on Tunisian authorities to end the crackdown on civil society.
Ensure that SAR NGOs and commercial ships are not instructed to disembark people they rescue at sea in Tunisia, given the risks of human rights violations there, and given that fair individual assessments concerning these risks cannot be made at sea. Tunisia cannot be considered a place of safety for people rescued at sea under applicable international law.
Terminate financial and technical support to Tunisian authorities responsible for serious human rights violations in relation to border and migration control.
Afrique-Europe Interact
Alarme Phone Sahara (APS)
All Included Amsterdam
Amnesty International
Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione (ASGI)
Association CALAM
Association for Justice, Equality and Peace
Association Lina Ben Mhenni
Association Marocaine d’aide des Migrants en Situation Vulnérable (AMSV)
Association pour la promotion du droit à la différence (ADD)
Association Sentiers-Massarib
Association tunisienne de défense des libertés individuelles
Aswat Nissa
Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF)
BAOBAB EXPERIENCE
Campagna LasciateCIEntrare – MaipiuCIE
Carovane Migranti
CCFD-Terre Solidaire
Chkoun? Collective
Comité de Sauvegarde de la LADDH
Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l’Homme en Tunisie (CRLDHT)
CompassCollective
Damj – l’Association Tunisienne pour la justice et l’égalité
Dance Beyond Borders
EMERGENCY
Fédération des Tunisiens pour une Citoyenneté des deux Rives (FTCR)
Fédération Internationale pour les Droits Humains (FIDH)
Forum Tunsien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES)
FUNDACION SOLIDAIRE
Human Rights Watch
Intersection pour les droits et les libertés
iuventa-crew
L’association Tunisienne pour les Droits et les Libertés (ADL)
La Cimade
LDH (Ligue des droits de l’Homme)
Maldusa
Médecins Sans Frontières
MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans
Melting Pot Europa
migration-control.info project
Migreurop
Missing Voices (REER)
Mission Lifeline International e.V.
PRO ASYL Bundesweite Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Flüchtlinge e.V.
r42-SailAndRescue
Reclaim the Sea
Refugees in Libya – APS
Refugees Platform In Egypt (RPE) منصة اللاجئين في مصر
Resqship
SALVAMENTO MARITIMO HUMANITARIO -SMH
SARAH Seenotrettung gUG
Sea-Eye e.V.
Sea-Watch e.V.
Search and Rescue Malta Network
Seebrücke
SOS Humanity e.V.
SOS MEDITERRANEE
Statewatch
Union des diplômés-chômeurs (UDC)
United4Rescue – Gemeinsam retten e.V.
Univ. of Southern California Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic
Responding to the news that Singapore authorities executed a man for a drug-related offence on Friday, Amnesty International’s Acting Deputy Regional Director for Research Kate Schuetze said:
“Azwan bin Bohari’s execution was clearly unlawful under international law and standards. It is especially concerning that this hanging took place in spite of a pending legal application.
“Executing people while they have ongoing appeals before the courts is a violation of international safeguards protecting the rights of people facing the death penalty. This execution calls into serious question the protections in the Singapore justice system to prevent the arbitrary deprivation of life.
“With numerous others on death row, coupled with Singapore’s pursuit of executions even when there are appeals pending, there are grave fears that many more are at imminent risk of hanging. Most have been sentenced to death for drug-related offences in violation of restrictions limiting the death penalty’s use to ‘the most serious crimes’.
“We urge the Singapore government to immediately end its unlawful resort to the death penalty and immediately establish a moratorium on executions as a first critical step towards abolition. The majority of the world’s countries have already abolished the death penalty in full and several governments in the Asia-Pacific region have taken steps in that direction. It is high time Singapore followed suit.”
The Lebanese authorities, communities and humanitarian agencies are struggling to shelter and provide the necessities of life to over one million people fleeing Israel’s airstrikes and invasion to the south, Oxfam said today.
Oxfam is working with local partners in Lebanon and alongside other aid agencies as part of the government’s humanitarian response plan following Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanon and aerial bombardment.
Oxfam assessments in shelters across Lebanon have found people most need mattresses, bedding, and cooking and sanitation items. Women also need sanitary pads, towels, and underwear. Oxfam and partners have started distributing some of this aid as well as water.
“People are coming to us traumatized. Most of them have lost their houses and relatives. Some of them are scared because of the scale of bombardment as they were fleeing.”
Gheith Bittar, Executive Director of SHIFT
Oxfam partner SHIFT – Social Innovation Hub
Gheith Bittar, Executive Director for Oxfam partner SHIFT – Social Innovation Hub, said more displaced people are arriving by the day and he fears shelters may buckle under the strain.
“The shelters are not ready to host the number of displaced people we are taking on and 629 are already full. They are public schools that are not equipped to be shelters and we are facing problems. For example, we don’t have hot water for showers. We will get to a point where we won’t be able to cope. Without funds, we cannot sustain our support to the shelters. The ground invasion will only increase the number of refugees, and we have already seen an increase in the number of displaced people on a daily basis with the continuous bombardment. The situation will only get worse as winter approaches.
“People are coming to us traumatized. Most of them have lost their houses and relatives. Some of them were scared because of the scale of bombardment as they were fleeing, and many others because of their fear of the unknown coming to a new city. People are suffering, they have many, many, issues to think about,”
Oxfam says without a ceasefire, the greenlight by Israel to a ground invasion in southern Lebanon will likely lead to a further escalation of the conflict and fighting, that will cause even more destruction of communities and inflame an already volatile region.
“The ground invasion and bombardment that includes Beirut and the southern suburbs will create a serious challenge for the humanitarian system in a few short days. People are being forced to flee with little to no notice, and often having to leave everything behind to shelters that are inadequate or sharing crowded homes with few essential supplies. None know when they can return. Without a ceasefire, the number of people desperately in need will only grow, as will their needs. The shelter system is set to collapse if there is no peace on the horizon,” said Oxfam’s Lebanon Country Director, Bachir Ayoub.
Oxfam is appealing for donations globally. “The needs of people in Lebanon who’ve been injured, traumatized and displaced, in fear of what the future might hold for them, are already huge. No other solution other than a ceasefire can alleviate the crisis they are facing,” Ayoub said.
There must be an end to this violence. All parties must stop fighting. We need safe space to get people the aid they need,” he said.
NEW YORK/JERUSALEM, October 2, 2024 — One year into the escalation of war in Gaza, the medical and humanitarian situation is catastrophic, said Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Israel’s all-out war and punishing siege have destroyed Gaza’s already fragile health system, repeatedly displaced people who have been forced into smaller and smaller areas, and choked off access to desperately needed food, water, and medicines.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched a horrific attack inside Israel, leaving 1,200 people dead and taking 251 people as hostages. In response, the Israeli military launched an assault on Gaza that has so far killed more than 41,500 people, wounded 96,000, and displaced approximately 1.9 million people. Violence has since surged in the West Bank, in Lebanon, and across the region.
“This has been a year of unrelenting horror and violence against civilians, with no end in sight,” said Avril Benoît, chief executive officer of MSF USA. “As this conflict spreads across the region, we repeat our urgent call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This is the only way to stop the spiraling violence and bring lifesaving care to people who are struggling to survive.”
Medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza
Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from war wounds, infectious diseases, malnutrition, and mental trauma while living in overcrowded and inhumane conditions. MSF medical staff have treated patients on a daily basis with wounds caused by bombings. People have extensive burns, crushed bones, and amputated limbs—all of which require intensive and long-term care that is not possible under current conditions. Since the escalation of war last October, MSF teams have treated more than 27,500 patients for violence-related injuries, with more than 80 percent of the wounds linked to shelling.
Our teams have been forced to perform surgeries without anesthesia, witness children die on hospital floors due to a lack of resources, and even treat their own colleagues and family members. Meanwhile, the health care system in Gaza has been systematically dismantled by Israeli forces.
Dr. Amber Alayyan, MSF medical program manager
“Israeli bombardments of densely populated areas have repeatedly caused injuries on a massive scale,” said Dr. Amber Alayyan, MSF medical program manager. “Our teams have been forced to perform surgeries without anesthesia, witness children die on hospital floors due to a lack of resources, and even treat their own colleagues and family members. Meanwhile, the health care system in Gaza has been systematically dismantled by Israeli forces.”
Well before October 7, MSF was already treating people in Gaza suffering from the effects of Israel’s 17-year occupation, blockade, and recurrent attacks. Teams have cared for patients with life-altering physical injuries, severe burns, and mental health conditions.
Attacks on health care leave few medical options
As medical needs are growing exponentially, people’s options for care are shrinking. Israeli forces have committed widespread and systematic attacks on Gaza’s health care system and other vital civilian infrastructure. The health care system is now on the edge of collapse. Today, only 17 out of 36 hospitals are partially functional. Warring parties have conducted hostilities near medical facilities, endangering patients, caretakers, and medical staff. Six MSF colleagues have been killed. From October 2023, staff and patients from MSF have had to leave 14 different health structures, due to serious incidents and ongoing fighting. Each time a medical facility is evacuated, thousands of people lose access to lifesaving medical care. This will have consequences on people’s health, not just in the immediate term, but in the weeks and months to come.
The lack of access to health care is compounded by the lack of humanitarian and medical supplies in Gaza. Israeli authorities have routinely imposed unclear, unpredictable criteria for authorizing the entry of supplies. Once supplies cross into the Gaza Strip, they often do not make it to their destination, due to an absence of safe and accessible roads, ongoing fighting, and looting of food and basic items. The first step in addressing this is for Israel to open vital land borders to ensure massive humanitarian and medical aid can reach those in need. The blockade on Gaza must end.
The US has a responsibility to ensure its support is not used to harm civilians
“For one year, Israel’s allies have continued to provide their military support to Israel, as children are killed en masse, tanks fire on deconflicted shelters, and fighter jets bomb so-called humanitarian zones,” said Chris Lockyear, MSF’s secretary general. “This has been accompanied by a consistent public narrative dehumanizing people in Gaza and failing to distinguish between military targets and civilian lives. The only way to stop the killing is with an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”
Israel and Hamas, supported by their respective allies, have failed time and time again to implement a sustained ceasefire in Gaza. While the US led efforts in June to secure passage of a ceasefire resolution by the UN Security Council, it has vetoed previous resolutions brought by other Council members and continues to provide arms to Israel. Israel must immediately stop the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Gaza and urgently facilitate the delivery of aid to alleviate suffering inside the Strip—and its allies must demand they do so. Under international norms and laws, civilians must be protected from violence and have the right to access humanitarian assistance, especially medical care.
As a leading ally of Israel, the US has a particular responsibility to ensure that its support is not used to kill and maim civilians, attack hospitals and health workers, and block the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Avril Benoît, chief executive officer of MSF USA
“The US remains the leading provider of military and financial support to Israel, fueling the destruction of Gaza and the resulting humanitarian crisis,” Benoît said. “As a leading ally of Israel, the US has a particular responsibility to ensure that its support is not used to kill and maim civilians, attack hospitals and health workers, and block the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza.”
In Gaza, MSF is currently running medical activities in two hospitals, Al-Aqsa and Nasser Hospitals, eight health care facilities, and two field hospitals in Deir al-Balah. Field hospitals cannot replace the health care system that Israel has dismantled in Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, MSF teams have offered surgical support, wound care, physiotherapy, maternity and pediatric care, primary health care, vaccination, mental health services, and water distribution.
Reacting to the fatal stabbing of Azerbaijani human rights defender Vidadi Isgandarli in France, where he had been living in exile, Natalia Nozadze, Amnesty International’s Researcher for South Caucasus, said:
“The violent death of Vidadi Isgandarli must be effectively and promptly investigated. We call on the French authorities to consider all possible motives for his killing, including his criticism of the Azeri president and government, which was the reason for his exile. This heinous crime must be addressed urgently, and all those suspected of criminal responsibility are brought to justice in fair trials.
We call on the French authorities to consider all possible motives for his killing, including his criticism of the Azeri president and government, which was the reason for his exile
Natalia Nozadze, Amnesty International’s Researcher for South Caucasus
“This is the second time in recent years that an Azerbaijani living in exile in France has been the victim of a knife attack. The French government must ensure effective protection of individuals at risk who are seeking international protection in France. The world needs to know who is responsible for these attacks against Azerbaijani emigres on French soil and steps taken to prevent this happening again.”
Background
Vidadi Isgandarli, a human rights defender known for his outspoken criticism of Azerbaijan’s government and of President Ilham Aliyev, was attacked at his apartment in Mulhouse, France, on 29 September and died of his injuries in hospital two days later. He had been violently assaulted and stabbed more than 20 times.
Vidadi Isgandarli sought international protection in France in 2015 after facing persecution in his home country.
In March 2021, Mahammad Mirzali, an Azerbaijani blogger and opposition figure, was stabbed 16 times in Nantes, France, but survived. The French authorities launched an investigation, which led to the arrest of six suspects. The mastermind behind the attack has not been named. Mahammad Mirzali has since been put under a protection scheme.
The self-proclaimed Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) must reveal the fate and whereabouts of former Minister of Defence Al-Mahdi al-Barghathi and 18 of his relatives and supporters who were abducted in Benghazi by armed men, said Amnesty International marking a year since their enforced disappearances.
“For a year, families of Al-Mahdi al-Barghathi and his relatives and supporters have been living in anguish, not knowing whether their loves ones are dead or alive. The injustices they suffered reveal the shocking lengths to which LAAF is prepared to go to eliminate any actual or perceived challenge to their absolute grip on power, and the near absolute impunity enjoyed by LAAF-affiliated armed groups,” said Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International’s Libya Researcher.
“The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, as well as LAAF, as the de facto authorities in eastern Libya, must ensure impartial, independent and effective investigations into crimes that took place, including revealing the fate and whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared and the causes and circumstances of deaths in custody.”
Al-Mahdi al-Barghathi, a rival of LAAF General Commander Khalifa Haftar, returned to his hometown of Benghazi on 6 October 2023 following tribal reconciliation efforts. Following his return LAAF-affiliated armed groups raided his mother’s home in the al-Salamani neighbourhood. Ensuing armed clashes between LAAF affiliated armed groups including TariqBenZeyad (TBZ) and the Internal Security Agency (ISA), on the one hand, and fighters loyal to Al-Mahdi al-Barghathi, on the other, left at least 15 dead and more injured, amid an internet shutdown by LAAF.
For a year, families of Al-Mahdi al-Barghathi and his relatives and supporters have been living in anguish, not knowing whether their loves ones are dead or alive.
Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International
On 7 October, LAAF affiliates took hostage 36 women and 13 children from Al-Barghathi’s family. They were released after Al-Mahdi al-Barghathi and his son were taken into LAAF custody, along with 38 other Al-Barghathi family members and supporters. The fate and whereabouts of at least 19 of them remains unknown, amid fears they may have been extrajudiciallyexecuted after being captured. Six others have been confirmed dead; at least two of them in suspicious circumstances after being captured alive. The remaining 15 are believed to be held in LAAF detention centres.
Amnesty International interviewed the families of eight detainees, including two men who died in custody, as well as lawyers and political activists. The organization reviewed medical and forensic reports, pictures, videos and official documents.