Press pack

In this press briefing I want to highlight three key points:

First, Amnesty International is challenging global leaders to acknowledge and apologise for six decades of human rights failure and to recommit themselves to concrete improvements to bring about change.

In putting this “C minus” report card on the table, AI has not overlooked the progress that has been made over the past 60 years. We recognise that treaties, laws and institutions of human rights have improved the rule of law in many parts of the world.

We recognise that in the course of last year alone:

• the UN adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (and this was done despite active campaigning by Canada, USA and Australia)
• the UN General Assembly called for a halt to the executions
• a number of countries ended the use of death penalty (Rwanda, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan)
• international tribunals and the International Criminal Court made progress on prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Just today, a Chilean judge has ordered the arrest of 100 agents for abuses committed during the Pinochet regime. Former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, former President Fujimori of Peru are now facing prosecution, as are some former military rulers in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Important as these gains are, they are not enough. The achievements are over-shadowed and undermined by human rights failures. In too many parts of the world the gap between promise and reality is too wide.

Injustice, inequality and impunity are the hallmarks of our world today.

60 years after the UDHR was adopted: human rights flashpoints continue to ignite

The most horrific human rights abuses are being committed by government forces and armed groups in high profile conflicts like Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel/Palestinian Occupied Territories and in forgotten crises in places like northern Sri Lanka and southern Thailand.

• Rape of women and girls has become the most prolific weapon of war in Africa – reaching crisis proportions in eastern DRC, Darfur and Somalia.
• In Somalia, AI has thrown light on a particularly brutal way in which hundreds of men have been killed like goats – their throats slit and left to bleed to death.
• The death toll for 2007 in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has already exceeded the figures of 2008, for both Palestinians and Israelis victims (2008: 350 P, 22 I 17) (2007 (330 P, 13 I). More Palestinian children have been killed in the five months of this year in the whole of 2007 through reckless shelling by Israeli forces. House demolitions in the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza – [which denies access to such basics as paper, ink, medical equipment, fuel and food - and the 550 checkpoints in the West Bank that hamper freedom of movement are destroying lives and livelihoods with disastrous consequences. )

60 years after the UDHR banned the use of torture and other forms of ill treatment and prohibited arbitrary detention,

• Not only are torture and other forms of ill treatment practised widely in many countries, but they are being promoted as acceptable forms of intelligence gathering by the US Administration.
• The US was not the only culprit undermining these principles. Fresh evidence emerged in 2007 that several EU member states had looked the other way or colluded with the CIA in the abduction, secret detention and illegal transfer of prisoners to countries where they were tortured and ill-treated, and that at least two of them had hosted so-called CIA black sites or secret detention centres. None of these countries have carried out any independent investigations, come clean and put in place safeguards called for by the Council of Europe.

60 years after the UDHR promised the right to justice and redress, criminal justice systems are failing people in many countries

• AIR 2008 shows that they are politically manipulated, institutionally weak, riddled with corruption or shrouded in secrecy, and unable or unwilling to hold police, security and other government officials to account for gross violations of human rights.

60 years after the UDHR declared that all human beings are born free and equal

• Discrimination is rife and political will to fight it is either missing or inadequate, whether for the Roma minority in Europe, or indigenous peoples in the Americas, Australia and Asia, or religious and ethnic minorities around the world. Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and homophobia are increasingly being tolerated.
• Violence against women is pervasive.
  1. Our report is replete with facts and figures of the horrors women face , both in times of war and peace – and the gaps in laws, policies and practices in every region of the world that leave them without justice or a way out of the violence.
  2. Thanks to the work of women’s groups and AI’s campaign to Stop Violence Against Women, new laws were introduced in a number of countries and additional resources were allocated but they fall far short of what is needed.

60 years after the UDHR proclaimed the right to seek and enjoy asylum,

• Refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants are often denied protection and assistance they need.
• In 2007, some countries closed their borders and pushed refugees back even as escalating persecution and violence forced people to seek refuge.
• Others like the European Union continued to tighten their borders, procedures and systems, driving standards down dangerously.
• Migrants fuelled the global economy but were exploited and abused, and sometimes trafficked and endangered. Hundreds drowned trying to reach Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic or Spain from the Mediterranean.
• In this sorry landscape, the decision of the Rudd government to end the so-called Pacific solution and temporary visa regime for refugees in Australia was a welcome development.

The UDHR proclaimed freedom of expression, assembly and association, dissent is being muzzled, political opponents, journalists and human rights defenders attacked

• in far too many countries, from Iran to China, Myanmar to Zimbabwe, Russia to Colombia. Journalists and bloggers were targeted in a number of countries, including Egypt, Iran and Paraguay.
• Trade unionists continued to be at risk in Colombia – 39 killed in 2007, 22 already in 2008, 70 NGOs threatened by paramilitary groups.
• HRDs and activists were at particular risk – in Guatemala there 195 attacks on activists, but not the only country.
• 700 persons continue to be detained in Myanmar for participating in peaceful protests last September – in addition to 1100 political prisoners, among them Aung San Su Kyi.

The UDHR promises everyone the right to a decent livelihood, health and education but millions of people are being left behind by a global economy

• Millions of people are being marginalized and excluded by a global economy that has brought prosperity but also heightened disparity.
• Food, housing, education and health care are also human rights but have either been neglected or denied for too long, leaving billions of people behind.

Second point, There is a growing demand from people for justice, freedom and equality, and governments ignore it at their peril.

2007 was characterized by the growing power of civil society as a driving force pushing for human rights change. In this report you will find evidence of the remarkable growth of civil society, whether in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Americas or Europe.

People are increasingly impatient with their governments, demanding justice, freedom and accountability.

Some of 2007’s most striking images were of monks in Myanmar and lawyers in Pakistan demanding justice, equality, the rule of law and human rights.

Less visibly but no less effectively, women in Iran gathered support for their “Stop Stoning Forever” and Equality campaigns.

Despite the efforts of governments to silence human rights defenders, social activists and others, people power and people pressure are forces to be reckoned with.

2007 also saw angry grassroots protest. The post-electoral violence in Kenya was an example of how people’s discontent can be manipulated by unscrupulous leaders.

As the food crisis pushes 300 million people back onto poverty, wiping out progress of the last few decades, world leaders ignore the voices of people at their peril.

And this brings me to my third and final point, and that is: what hope for leadership n 2008 and ahead?

Can governments afford to continue living in a state of denial? Their failure to act comes at a high cost. Human rights problems are not isolated tragedies; they are like viruses that can rapidly spread and endanger us all.

The globe is littered with human rights flashpoints – take your pick of Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq, Myanmar, Somalia, Afghanistan – they will explode and ignite other problems if left to fester. They create a burning imperative for action.

Governments must act now to close the yawning gap between promise and performance.

Yet, 2007 was characterised by the impotence of western governments and the reluctance or ambivalence of emerging powers to tackle these problems.

The single biggest danger to the future of human rights today is the absence of a shared commitment, the lack of collective leadership.

One of the most damaging consequences of the US-led War on Terror has been its divisive nature – dividing the world into the West and the rest, at a time when the world needs to unite around the global values of human rights to address global challenges of inequality, injustice and impunity.

Looking back at 2007, AI’s analysis is grim, but looking ahead our prognosis is more optimistic.

First of all, because of the growing strength of civil society, but also because a new generation of leaders are coming to power – in countries like the US, Russia, Cuba, Paraguay, Australia and elsewhere – and a new set of countries are emerging on the world stage, like China, India, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil.

2008 provides an unprecedented opportunity for these leaders to reject the myopic policies and practices that have damaged human rights in recent years and set a new direction.

Amnesty International challenges the “new leaders”, governments as well as international organizations, to form alliances under the leadership of the UN, across political and regional lines to underline the true universality of human rights.

But the leaders will have credibility only if the powerful are prepared to lead by example.

Western governments have lost their credibility through their double standards and double speak on the War on Terror.

If it is to have moral authority on human rights, the USA must first close Guantanamo detention camp and either prosecute or release those detained there, and it must unequivocally denounce torture and ill treatment.

The EU must investigate the complicity of its member states in CIA-led renditions, and raise the same bar on human rights for its own member states just as it expects from other countries.

China must live up to its human rights promises around the Olympic Games, allow international access to Tibet, relax restrictions on the media and activists, and carry forward the reforms it began last year, including reform “re-education through labour”

Russia must show greater tolerance for political dissent by relaxing its restrictions on civil society organizations, and show zero tolerance for impunity by investigating human rights abuses in Chechnya.

The test will be whether governments are ready in 2008 to work with the UN, regional organizations urgently to defuse the human rights flashpoints:

• - In Myanmar: press for the release of prisoners of conscience – including in particular Aung San Su Kyi
• - In Darfur: provide the resources to urgently deploy peacekeepers
• - In Zimbabwe: ensure sufficient pressure on the Mugabe government and international monitoring to prevent attacks and reprisals in the run to the Presidential elections
• - In Gaza: pressure Israel to relax the blockade so that the basic needs of people can be met.

The UDHR does not need to be renegotiated, rewritten or scrapped – it needs to be respected. At 60, it is not up for retirement but for renewed commitment.

But for all the good, the fact remains that injustice, inequality and impunity are still the hallmarks of our world today.

In 1948, in an act of extraordinary leadership, world leaders came together to adopt the UDHR. Member states of the fledgling UN showed great foresight and courage by putting their faith in global values. They were acutely aware of the horrors of World War II, and conscious of the grim realities of an emerging Cold War. Their vision was not circumscribed by what was happening only in Europe. 1948 was also the year in which Burma gained independence, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, and apartheid laws were first introduced in South Africa. Large parts of the world were still under the yoke of colonization.

The drafters of the UDHR acted out of the conviction that only a multilateral system of global values, based on equality, justice and the rule of law, could stand up to the challenges ahead. In a genuine exercise of leadership, they resisted the pressure from competing political camps. They rejected any hierarchy between the right to free speech and the right to education, the right to be free from torture and the right to social security. They recognized that the universality of human rights - every person is born free and equal - and their indivisibility - all rights, whether economic, social, civil, political or cultural, must be fulfilled with equal commitment - is the basis for our collective security as well as our common humanity.

In the years that followed, visionary leadership gave way to narrow political interests. Human rights became a divisive game as the two 'superpowers' engaged in an ideological and geopolitical struggle to establish their supremacy. One side denied civil and political rights, while the other demoted economic and social rights. Human rights were used as a tool to further strategic ends, rather than to promote people's dignity and welfare. Newly independent countries, caught in the superpower competition, struggled in the pursuit of democracy and the rule of law or abandoned them altogether for various forms of authoritarianism.

Hopes for human rights rose with the end of the Cold War but were dashed by the explosion of ethnic conflicts and implosion of states that unleashed a spate of humanitarian emergencies, marked by massive and vicious human rights abuses. Meanwhile, corruption, poor governance, and widespread impunity for human rights violations reigned supreme in many parts of the world.

As we entered the 21st century, the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 transformed the human rights debate yet again into a divisive and destructive one between "western" and "non-western", restricting liberties, fuelling suspicion, fear, discrimination and prejudice among governments and peoples alike.

The forces of economic globalization brought new promises, but also challenges. Though world leaders claimed to commit themselves to eradicating poverty, for the most part they ignored the human rights abuses that drive and deepen poverty. The UDHR remained a paper promise.

Looking back today, what seems most surprising is the unity of purpose shown by the UN member states at the time in adopting the UDHR without a dissenting vote. Now, in the face of numerous, pressing human rights crises, there is no shared vision among world leaders to address contemporary challenges of human rights in a world that is increasingly endangered, unsafe and unequal.

The political landscape today is very different from that of 60 years ago. There are many more states today than in 1948. Some former colonies are now emerging as global players alongside their former colonial masters. Can we expect the old and new powers to come together, as their predecessors did in 1948, and recommit themselves to human rights? The record for 2007 was not encouraging. Will new leadership and pressure from civil society make a difference in this anniversary year?

Can we expect the old and new powers to come together, as their predecessors did in 1948, and recommit themselves to human rights?

A dismal record

As the world's most powerful state, the USA sets the standard for government behaviour globally. With breathtaking legal obfuscation, the US administration has continued its efforts to weaken the absolute prohibition against torture and other ill-treatment. Senior officials refused to denounce the notorious practice of "water-boarding". The US President authorized the CIA to continue secret detention and interrogation, although they amount to the international crime of enforced disappearance. Hundreds of prisoners in Guantánamo and Bagram, and thousands in Iraq, continued to be detained without charge or trial, many for more than six years. The US government has failed to ensure full accountability for abuses by its forces in Iraq. An Order issued by the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) in June 2004 granting immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts to foreign private military and security firms operating in Iraq, presents further obstacles to accountability. There was wide concern about the killings of at least 17 Iraqi civilians by guards employed by the private security company, Blackwater, in September 2007. These actions have done nothing to further the fight against terrorism and a great deal to damage the USA's prestige and influence abroad.

The hollowness of the US administration's call for democracy and freedom abroad was displayed in its continued support of President Musharraf as he arrested thousands of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and political activists for demanding democracy, the rule of law and an independent judiciary in Pakistan. As President Musharraf unlawfully imposed a state of emergency, dismissed the Chief Justice and packed the higher courts with more compliant judges, the US administration justified its support for him as an "indispensable" ally in the "war on terror". The growing insecurity in the cities and border regions of Pakistan, however, indicates that, far from arresting extremist violence, President Musharraf's repressive policies, including enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention, have fed grievances, helped to spur anti-western sentiment and laid the seeds for greater instability in the sub-region. The Pakistani people have shown their strong repudiation of President Musharraf's policies, even as the USA continues to embrace him.

The world needs a USA genuinely engaged and committed to the cause of human rights, at home and abroad. In November 2008, the US people will elect a new President. For the USA to have moral authority as a human rights champion, the next administration must close Guantánamo and either try the detainees in ordinary federal courts or release them. It must repeal the Military Commissions Act and ensure respect for international humanitarian law and human rights in all military and security operations. It must ban evidence obtained through coercion and denounce all forms of torture and other ill-treatment no matter to what end. The new administration must establish a viable strategy for international peace and security. It must ditch support for authoritarian leaders and invest instead in the institutions of democracy, rule of law and human rights that will provide long-term stability. And it must be ready to end US isolation in the international human rights system and engage constructively with the UN Human Rights Council.

If the US administration has distinguished itself in recent years through its defiance of international law, European governments have shown a proclivity for double standards. The European Union (EU) professes to be "a union of values, united by respect for the rule of law, shaped by common standards and consensus, committed to tolerance, democracy, and human rights". Yet, in 2007 fresh evidence came to light that a number of EU member states had looked the other way or colluded with the CIA to abduct, secretly detain and illegally transfer prisoners to countries where they were tortured and otherwise ill-treated. Despite repeated calls by the Council of Europe, no government has fully investigated the wrongdoings, come clean and/or put in place adequate measures to prevent future use of European territory for rendition and secret detention.

On the contrary, some European governments sought to water down the 1996 ruling from the European Court of Human Rights prohibiting the return of suspects to countries where they could face torture. The Court pronounced itself in one of two cases pending before it in 2007, reaffirming the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.

While many grumble about the regulatory excesses of the EU, there is little outrage at the lack of EU regulation of human rights at home. The truth of the matter is that the EU is unable to hold its member states accountable on human rights matters which fall outside EU law. The Fundamental Rights Agency, created in 2007, has been given such a limited mandate that it cannot demand any real accountability. While the EU sets a high bar on human rights for candidate countries seeking accession (and rightly so), once they are allowed in, they are able to breach the standards with little or no accountability to the EU.

Can the EU or its member states call for respect for human rights by China or by Russia when they themselves are complicit in torture? Can the EU ask other - much poorer - countries to keep their borders open, when its own member states are restricting the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers? Can it preach tolerance abroad when it has failed to tackle discrimination against Roma, Muslim and other minorities living within its borders?

As for the USA, so too for the EU, the year ahead will bring important political transitions. The Lisbon treaty signed by EU governments in December 2007 demands new institutional commitments to be forged among the member states. In some key member states elections and other developments have brought about or will lead to new political leadership. They provide opportunities for action on human rights within the EU and globally.

As the USA and the EU stumble on their human rights record, their ability to influence others declines. The most glaring example of their neutering on human rights was the case of Myanmar in 2007. The military junta violently cracked down on peaceful demonstrations led by monks, raided and closed monasteries, confiscated and destroyed property, shot, beat and detained protesters, harassed or held friends and family members as hostages. The USA and the EU condemned the actions in the strongest terms and tightened their trade and arms embargoes, but to little or no effect on the human rights situation on the ground. Thousands of people continued to be detained in Myanmar, among them at least 700 prisoners of conscience, the most prominent being the Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest.

As in Myanmar, so too in Darfur, western governments failed to make much of a dent in the human rights situation. International outrage and widepsread public mobilization etched the name of Darfur on world conscience but brought little change to the suffering of its people. Murder, rape and violence continue unabated, and if anything, the conflict has become more complex, a political settlement more remote. Despite a string of UN Security Council resolutions, the full deployment of hybrid African Union/UN forces is yet to take place.

The EU is unable to hold its member states accountable on human rights matters which which fall outside EU law.

Emerging powers

Whether in relation to Myanmar or Darfur, the world looked not to the USA but to China as the country with the necessary economic and political clout to move things forward - and not without good cause. China is the largest trading partner of Sudan and the second largest of Myanmar. Amnesty International's research has shown that Chinese arms have been transferred to Darfur in defiance of the UN arms embargo. China has long justified its support for abusive governments, such as those of Sudan, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, by defining human rights as an internal matter for sovereign states, and not as an issue for its foreign policy - as it suited China's political and commercial interests.

Yet China's position is neither immutable nor intractable. In 2007, it voted in favour of the deployment of the hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur, pressured Myanmar to accept the visit of the UN Special Envoy and reduced its overt support for President Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The same factors that drove China in the past to open relations with repressive regimes may well be motivating the changes in its policy towards them today: the need for reliable sources of energy and other natural resources. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have long argued that countries with poor human rights records do not create good business environments - business needs political stability and human rights provide that. It is possible that China too is beginning to recognize that supporting unstable regimes with poor human rights records does not make good business sense, that if it is to protect its assets and citizens abroad, it must support global values that create long-term political stability.

Notwithstanding its diplomatic shifts, China has a long way to go. It remains the largest arms supplier to Sudan since 2004. It vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Myanmar's human rights practices in January 2007 and has yet to live up to the promises it made on human rights in the run up to the Beijing Olympics. Some reforms in the application of the death penalty and relaxation of rules for foreign media in 2007 were outweighed by the clampdown on human rights activists in China, on domestic media and expanding the scope of "re-education through labour", a form of detention without charge or trial, as part of the "clean-up" of Beijing prior to the Games.

The run up to the Beijing Olympics has provided less room for improvement and more for confrontation on human rights in China. As the dust settles on the Olympics, the international community will need to develop an effective strategy for shifting the human right debate with China to a more productive and progressive plane. The Chinese government for its part must recognize that global leadership brings responsibilities and expectations, and that a global player, if it is to be credible, cannot ignore the values and principles which form the collective identity of the international community.

And how does Russia score on human rights leadership? A self-confident Russia, flush with oil revenues, has repressed political dissent, pressurized independent journalists and introduced legislative controls to rein in NGOs. In 2007 peaceful public demonstrations were dispersed with force, and lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists were threatened and attacked. The judicial system remained vulnerable to executive pressure. Pervasive corruption undermined the rule of law and people's trust in the legal system. Impunity was rampant in Chechnya, driving some victims to seek justice in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Will the new Russian President Dmtry Medvedev take a different approach to human rights in 2008? He would do well to look around the world and draw the lesson that long-term political stability and economic prosperity can be built only in societies that are open and states that are accountable.

If the permanent members of the UN Security Council have done little to promote human rights and much to undermine them, what leadership can we expect from emerging powers such as India, South Africa or Brazil?

As a well-established liberal democracy with a strong legal tradition of human rights and an independent judiciary, India has the makings of a powerful role model. India has played a positive role in the UN Human Rights Council. It is credited with helping to bring together the mainstream parties and Maoist insurgents in Nepal and end a long-standing armed conflict that had generated massive human rights abuses. But it needs to be more forceful in its domestic implementation and more forthright in its international leadership of human rights. In Myanmar, even as the junta struck out violently at the peaceful protests by monks and others, the Indian government continued to engage in oil extraction negotiations. In Nandigram, West Bengal, rural communities were attacked, injured and killed with police complicity when they protested at the setting up of a Special Economic Zone for industry.

South Africa's role in NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) - which emphasizes good governance - gave hope that African leaders would take responsibility for solving African problems, including on human rights. But the South African government has been reluctant to speak out against the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Human rights are universally applicable to all - and no country knows that better than South Africa. Few countries can have a greater moral responsibility to promote those universal values, wherever they are being violated, than South Africa.

Countries such as Brazil and Mexico have been strong on promoting human rights internationally and in supporting the UN human rights machinery. But unless the gap between their policies internationally and their performance at home is closed their credibility as human rights champions will be challenged.

Human rights are not western values - indeed, western governments have shown as much disdain for them as any other. They are global values and, as such, the likelihood of their success is entwined with the leadership of the UN. Although the UN Security Council continued to be hamstrung on human rights by the divergent interests of its permanent members, in 2007 the UN General Assembly showed its potential for leadership by adopting a resolution calling for a universal moratorium on the death penalty. It showed exactly the sort of direction the world needs from the UN: states inspiring each other to better performance, rather than running each other down to the lowest common denominator. This was the UN at its best. Will the UN Human Rights Council show similar leadership in 2008 as it embarks on the Universal Peer Review system?

In a striking example of bold leadership, in the face of opposition from extremely powerful states, 143 of the UN General Assembly's member states voted to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, ending two decades of debate. Two months after Australia voted against the Declaration, the newly elected government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a formal apology for the laws and policies of successive governments that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss" on he Indigenous Aboriginal population.

A global player, if it is to be credible, cannot ignore the values and principles which form the collective identity of the international community.

In a striking example of old leadership, 143 of the UN General Assembly's member states votes to adopt the Declaration of Indigenous People's, in September 2007

Forging a new unity of purpose

As the geopolitical order undergoes tectonic shifts, old powers are reneging on human rights and new leaders are yet to emerge or are ambivalent about human rights. So, what future for human rights?

The road ahead is rocky. Entrenched conflicts - highly visible in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, forgotten in places such as Sri Lanka and Somalia, to name but two - take a heavy human toll. World leaders flounder in their efforts to find a way forward as in Iraq and Afghanistan, or lack the political will to find solutions, as in Israel/Palestinian Territories - a conflict even older than the UDHR itself, and one that has been particularly marked by the failure of collective international leadership (in the form of the Quartet of the USA, the EU, Russia and the UN) to address impunity and injustice.

As the global financial markets wobble and the rich use their position and undue influence to mitigate their losses, the interests of the poor and the vulnerable risk being forgotten. With the tacit support of governments that refuse to scrutinize or regulate them effectively, far too many companies continue to evade accountability for their involvement in human rights abuses and violations.

There is much rhetoric about eradicating poverty but not enough political will for action. At least two billion of our human community continue to live in poverty, struggling for clean water, food and housing. Climate change will affect all of us, but the poorest amongst us will be the worst off as they lose their lands, food and livelihoods. July 2007 marked the half-way point in the timetable set by the UN to achieve the Millennium Development goals. Though far from perfect the achievement of these goals would go some way to improving health, living conditions and education for many in the developing world by 2015. The world is not on track to meet most of these minimum goals and, unfortunately, human rights are not being properly taken into account in that process. A change of effort and emphasis is clearly needed.

And where is the leadership to eradicate gender violence? Women and girls suffer from high levels of sexual violence in almost every region of the world. In war-torn Darfur rape with impunity persists. In the USA, many rape survivors in poor and marginalized Indigenous communities fail to find justice or effective protection from the Federal and tribal authorities. Leaders must give more attention to making rights real for women and girls.

These are global challenges with a human dimension. They require a global response. Internationally recognized human rights provide the best framework for that response because human rights represent a global consensus regarding the acceptable limits and unacceptable shortcomings of government policy and practice.

The UDHR is as relevant a blueprint for enlightened leadership today as it was in 1948. Governments must recommit themselves to human rights.

Restless, angry and disillusioned, people will not remain silent if the gap continues to widen between their demand for equality and freedom and their governments' denial. Popular discontent in Bangladesh at the steep rise of rice prices, disturbances in Egypt over the price of bread, post-electoral violence in Kenya and public demonstrations in China on evictions and environmental issues are not just examples of popular concern about economic and social issues. They are signs of a seething cauldron of grassroots protest at the betrayal of their governments' promise to deliver justice and equality.

To a degree almost unimaginable in 1948, today there is a global citizens' movement that is demanding their leaders recommit themselves to upholding and promoting human rights. Black-suited lawyers in Pakistan, saffron-robed monks in Myanmar, 43.7 million individuals standing up on 17 October 2007 to demand action against poverty, all were vibrant reminders last year of a global citizenry determined to stand up for human rights and hold their leaders to account.

In a village in northern Bangladesh, a group of women sit on bamboo mats in the dusty village enclosure. They are part of a legal literacy program. Most of them can barely read or write. They listen attentively as their teacher, using posters with graphic designs, explain the law prohibiting child marriage and requiring the informed consent of a woman to marriage. The women have just received loans through a micro-credit scheme operated by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, a large NGO. One woman has bought a cow and hopes to make some extra income by selling milk. Another woman plans to buy a sewing machine and set up a small tailoring business for herself. What does she hope to get out of this class? "I want to know more about my rights," she says. "I don't want my daughters to suffer the way I have, and so I need to learn how to protect my rights and theirs." In her eyes shine the hope and determination of millions like her around the world.

People's power to generate hope and bring about change is very much alive in the 60th anniversary year of the UDHR. A consciousness on human rights is sweeping the globe.

World leaders ignore it at their peril.

Restless, angry and disillusioned, people will not remain silent if the gap continues to widen between their demand for equality and their governments' denial

People under fire

All parties to the conflict in Somalia continue to abuse human rights and violate international humanitarian law. Torture and other ill-treatment, rape, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention, and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure persist unchecked. On 14 March 2008 the UN Secretary General presented his report to the UN Security Council, outlining the status of contingency planning for the possible deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation to take over from AMISOM. On 29 April the arms embargo on Somalia was extended by the UN Security Council.

On 1 February 2008, armed opposition groups in Chad launched a major offensive on N’Djamena and heavy fighting lasted for three days. Hundreds of civilian casualties have been reported and thousands of people fled the capital to neighbouring Cameroon. In the aftermath of this attack, members of political opposition parties, journalists, as well as human rights defenders have been harassed and persecuted by the Chadian authorities. In addition, extrajudicial executions, sexual violence and forced evictions have also been reported in N’Djamena.

Armed conflict, including inter-communal clashes, continued in eastern Chad and around 9,000 new Sudanese refugees fled to eastern Chad in February, following attacks of the Sudanese army on villages in Darfur.

The situation in Darfur remains highly unstable. In February, the Sudanese Army Forces (SAF) launched a military campaign on the villages of Sirba, Abu Suruj, Silia and Saraf Jidadand in the northern corridor of West Darfur following the occupation of the corridor by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). More than 115 people died and more than 30 000 were forcibly displaced. There were also several clashes between the government forces and the JEM, and two attacks by Janjaweed militias on villages in North Darfur. On 10 May JEM forces reportedly attacked a military airbase close to Khartoum and military operations took place in Omdurman – Khartoum. Scores of people associated with the (armed) opposition were arrested following the attack.

UNAMID’s intervention has, so far, been limited and its impact unnoticeable. Its forces lack essential military equipment as well as logistics. As of 31 March 2008, the UNAMID strength was at 9,213 total uniformed personnel, including 137 military observers, and supported by 129 UN Volunteers.

The tension between different parties in Abyei, Sudan, has lately reached a new height with the arrival of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) administrator, Edward Lino. The National Congress Party (NCP) accused the SPLM of having breached the North-South agreement by unilaterally appointing a governor. Both the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) and the northern Sudan Armed Forces have since been exchanging accusations of building-up their troops.

The situation in North-Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remained extremely tense despite the staging of the Kivu Peace Conference and the signing by Congolese armed groups in the Kivus of an “Act of Engagement” on 23 January 2008. The Act of Engagement, which was brokered by the international community (US, EU and AU), committed the armed groups to respecting an immediate ceasefire and immediately ending all acts of violence against civilians and the recruitment of children. An AI mission to North-Kivu in February found evidence, however, of continuing widespread recruitment and use of children by the armed groups and illegal detention and ill-treatment of captured child soldiers by government forces. The mission also confirmed that widespread sexual violence, killings of civilians, torture and ill-treatment and other grave violations by all armed forces in the province are continuing.

Scores of people were killed in the course of government security force operations to restore order in Bas-Congo province in February and March. The continuing unrest in Bas-Congo seems to derive directly from the failure of the state authorities to investigate and prosecute pervious acts of excessive use of force and extrajudicial executions by security forces in the province in January 2007.

Elections fuelling violence

More than 1,000 people are reported to have died in Kenya through politically motivated ethnic violence and associated police killings following the disputed presidential and parliamentary elections on 30 December 2007. The UN estimated that more than 500,000 people were displaced – thousands remain so. About 12,000 are reported to have crossed into neighbouring Uganda as refugees. The violence has since abated following the African Union-supported political mediation that was led by the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and a government of national unity has been formed.

One month after the March general election in Zimbabwe, the country’s electoral commission (ZEC) had still not released the results. The post-election period saw an increase in retributive violence – mainly against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It appeared to be targeted in rural areas and low-income suburbs where the MDC reportedly won more support than the ruling ZANU-PF party. By the end of April more than 500 people had been treated for injuries sustained after being tortured, beaten or having their homes burnt down.

On 25 April, police raided the office of the MDC in Harare. More than 300 people were arrested, including those who had taken refuge from the violence perpetrated by ZANU-PF supporters and soldiers. About 215 people – among them 35 children, the oldest of whom was 11 – were taken to Harare Central police station. About 180 of those arrested have since been released after the MDC obtained an order from the High Court for their immediate release on 28 April. Police allege that some of the detainees had committed acts of violence in rural areas and fled to Harare.

About 25 other MDC supporters were arrested on allegations of committing acts of violence after the MDC called for a general strike on 15 April to protest the delay in announcing the election results.

Human rights defenders

The violence has intensified the constant fear of arrest for human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. Several journalists were arrested during the post election period and detained for several days. On 25 April, police officers from the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), with a search warrant for “subversive material likely to cause the overthrow of a constitutionally-elected government”. ZESN believes the harassment is an attempt to incapacitate the organization so it cannot observe a run-off of the presidential election.

International justice / impunity

Mathieu Ngudjolo was surrendered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in February on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2002 and 2003. There are now three ICC suspects in custody in The Hague (all of them commanders of Ituri armed groups). In April a fourth indictment, against Bosco Ntaganda, was unsealed by the ICC. He is indicted on charges of recruitment and use of child soldiers in Ituri between July 2002 and December 2003. Bosco Ntaganda is still at large, and is serving as senior commander with Laurent Nkunda’s Congrès National pour la Défense du People armed group in North-Kivu, which is also accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Shifts in power

Raúl Castro formally replaced his brother Fidel as President of Cuba in February, and almost immediately signed two key UN human rights treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which includes the right to freedom of association, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Four prisoners of conscience were released in February.

In Paraguay, former Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo was elected President in April, ending more than 60 years of rule by the Colorado Party. He will assume office in August. The President-elect promised to end impunity for past human rights violations and discrimination against Paraguay’s Indigenous communities.

In Bolivia, however, tensions increased following the decision of the Santa Cruz regional government to hold an unauthorized autonomy plebiscite in May. Both the national congress and the electoral court refused to authorize the vote.

Economic social and cultural rights

The destabilizing effects of soaring food prices worldwide were particularly marked in Haiti where food riots led to the dismissal of the prime minister in April. Protest demonstrations, rioting and looting spread across the country, claiming six lives.

In Brazil, while the federal government announced that certain contested territories would be ratified as Indigenous lands, Indigenous Peoples continued to suffer both physical threats and social deprivation.

People under fire

Rio de Janeiro in Brazil continued to suffer high numbers of killings during police operations. On 24 April, members of the BOPE elite unit of Rio de Janeiro's military police killed 11 people, including a 70-year-old woman, during an operation in the Cidade de Deus community.

On 30 March two masked men killed land activist Eli Dallemole in his house in Ortigueira in Paraná state, Brazil. The killing followed a pattern of violent attacks, threats and killings by hired gunmen and armed militias against land activists in the state of Paraná.

In Colombia, civilians continued to bear the brunt of the decades-long conflict which showed no real sign of resolution and. Although FARC released a number of high-profile hostages, including former congresswoman Consuelo González, and Clara Rojas, the running-mate of presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, after more than six years’, Ingrid Betancourt herself still remains in captivity, along with several hundred others.

In April, concerns about the increase in alleged extrajudicial executions by military personnel, and human rights abuses committed against trade unionists, led US Congress to shelve discussions on ratifying a free trade agreement with Colombia.

Public security remained a major concern in several countries. In Mexico, 863 killings were recorded in the first three months of the year, a 71 per cent rise on the previous year. In Jamaica press report recorded 489 killings during the first four months of the year.

“War on terror”

There are currently around 270 detainees in Guantánamo Bay. Nine, including Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman with Al Jazeera television, were released from Guantánamo on 1 May. Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, was transferred from secret CIA custody to Guantánamo in March. Charges were sworn against seven so-called “high value” detainees, six of whom had been victims of enforced disappearance and possible torture in the CIA secret detention programme, and the seventh of whom was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in Guantánamo under the Donald Rumsfeld-authorized “special interrogation plan”. Pre-trial military commissions continued against a number of the other eight Guantánamo detainees charged for trial, including Canadian national Omar Khadr (aged 15 when taken into custody) and Mohammed Jawad (16 or 17). Amnesty International continued to attend military commission hearings at Guantánamo.

In February, the Director of the CIA admitted that ‘waterboarding’ had been used in 2002 and 2003 against three detainees held in secret CIA custody. The administration wrongly claims that its use was lawful, and has refused to rule out use in the future if “circumstances” require it. The Attorney General refused to open a criminal investigation on the grounds that the technique had been approved by Justice Department lawyers, among others.

Death penalty

In Georgia on 6 May, William Lynd became the first person to be put to death in the USA after a six-month de facto moratorium on executions ended with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of Kentucky’s lethal injection process. A number of other states have now also set execution dates. For example, Levar Walton, a seriously mentally ill inmate in Virginia, is due to be executed in June. In Texas, José Medellín has been given an August execution date. He was one of more than 50 Mexican nationals on US death rows named in a successful case brought by Mexico in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the USA’s failure to uphold the consular rights of foreign nationals arrested and sentenced to death. His execution date was set after the Supreme Court, in a ruling in March, effectively passed the buck to the other branches of government to ensure, as the ICJ opinion requires, that such foreign nationals are provided effective remedies.

In February, Guatemalan Congress proposed a decree which might have lead to the resumption of the death penalty. The decree was vetoed by President Álvaro Colom and failed to gain final approval from Congress.

In April, Cuban President Raúl Castro announced that nearly all death sentences are to be commuted to prison terms of between 30 years and life imprisonment. Three people charged with terrorism remain on death row.

Violence against women

From April Mexico’s Supreme Court will be holding a number of public hearings to receive oral presentations on the constitutional challenge to the 2007 Federal District’s law decriminalizing abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. At least 17 women and girls were murdered in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City in Mexico in the first four months of the year alone. Two other girls remained missing after apparently being abducted.

In February, hundreds of women and girls were reportedly raped during Haiti’s carnival by groups of armed men.

Justice and impunity

In March the Mexican Congress approved major constitutional changes to the criminal justice system, but dropped proposals to grant police constitutional powers to enter private homes without judicial authorization. Military and police operations resulted in more reports of unlawful killings, arbitrary detention, illegal house searches, torture and other ill-treatment. Several judicial police in Oaxaca and a relative of the governor were under investigation by federal police for their alleged involvement in the enforced disappearance of two members of an armed opposition group in 2007.

Also in March, arrest warrants were issued against 15 members of the Colombian army for their alleged role in the killing of eight members of the San José de Apartadó peace community in February 2005, and in April, six of these were charged. Most of the 170 killings of members of community remain shrouded in impunity.

In Peru, a former head of the National Intelligence Services during President Alberto Fujimori’s regime, and three members of an army “death squad”, were sentenced in April to up to 35 years’ imprisonment for the killing of nine students and a professor in La Cantuta University in 1992.

A new arrest warrant was issued against former general Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina for his alleged involvement in 570 enforced disappearances, 270 cases of torture and 29 extrajudicial executions.

And in February, in a very welcome but long-overdue measure, Guatemala’s President Colom announced that all military archives relevant to the internal armed conflict would be made public.

Many people were executed by their governments as the year wore on, and thousands more continued to live on death row. The true total is unknown, as figures for China, Viet Nam and other countries are kept secret. Thousands faced extreme violence and losing their livelihoods as armed? conflicts intensified or reopened.

Repression of dissent

In Tibet peaceful demonstrations by monks in Lhasa led to violent protests in March, including racially targeted attacks on Han Chinese, which in turn prompted a heavy crackdown by Chinese authorities. Tibetan sources estimate that more than 150 people were killed in the unrest, with thousands detained and unaccounted for.

The crackdown on those suspected of being involved in, or supporting, 2007’s peaceful anti-government protests in Myanmar continued, with further arrests and lengthy jail terms. At least 700 prisoners of conscience arrested in relation to the demonstrations remain in detention. UN Special Advisor Ibrahim Gambari again visited Myanmar in March, but concluded his visit “yielded no tangible results”. On May 10, even as hundreds of thousands of people who survived Cyclone Nargis suffered without adequate food, shelter, and access to health care, the government proceeded to hold a national referendum on a long delayed draft Constitution, while introducing a law criminalizing protests against the referendum.

Vietnam stuck firmly to its long-held pattern of repressing legitimate and peaceful dissent – the government brought at least seven dissidents to trial and sentenced them to lengthy prison terms, and arrested at least 14 people protesting Chinese policies during the Olympic torch relay in April.

In Indonesia, 20 people in Maluku who reportedly attempted to raise a flag of independence in 2007 were sentenced to long jail sentences in April. One of them, Johan Teterisa, received a life sentence.

The Australian publishers of the Fiji Times and the Fiji Sun newspapers were deported in February and May respectively – raising concerns over a continuing trend by Fiji’s interim military administration to intimidate the media.

Human rights defenders

As the Beijing Olympics draw nearer, the authorities tightened security and the government arrested or sentenced increasing numbers of human rights defenders, often on charges of “abusing state power”.

Authorities in Cambodia arrested 16 villagers protesting to protect their land – the opening months of 2008 saw at least four incidents of forced evictions. The arrests illustrate concerns over authorities’ abuse of the criminal justice system to silence defenders of land and housing rights. The majority have since been released, six after the Prime Minister’s direct intervention.

In the Philippines further periodic political killings of leftist activists included that of trade unionist Gerardo Cristobal in March. In January the Supreme Court issued rules designed to improve habeas corpus protections as the government continued to try to improve the effectiveness of police investigations and the work of prosecutors.

However legal challenges in Malaysia against the detention without trial of five members of the Hindu Rights Action Force under the Internal Security Act were unsuccessful.

People under fire

In Afghanistan, there was no let up for those caught in the crossfire. In fact a marked rise in insurgency-related violence – including suicide attacks by the Taleban and other armed groups – directly led to civilian deaths. By April, at least 120 civilians had been reported killed in 20 separate suicide attacks.

The 2002 ceasefire agreement between the government and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in Sri Lanka broke down in January, making civilians increasingly vulnerable to abuses by all sides in the escalating armed conflict. A series of suspected LTTE bomb attacks on buses resulted in more than 100 civilian deaths.

Violence in southern Thailand continued unabated with abuses by both sides, including targeting of civilians by armed groups and reports of torture of detainees by security forces.

People power

Voters across the region defied expectations by punishing governments with poor human rights records and pushing for human rights assurances from their candidates, and the resulting governments – in words at least – made positive commitments.

Historic elections in Nepal in March, for example, led to the establishment of a Constituent Assembly. Voters clearly expressed a desire to see the full realization of the human rights commitments in the 2006 peace agreement, including measures to combat impunity and enfranchise historically marginalized groups, such as women, lower castes, and various ethnic minorities. Concerns over excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests by the police force re-emerged both in the context of the election campaign, and during police operations against peaceful Tibetan and other demonstrators in April.

Malaysia also went to the polls in March. Opposition parties broke the ruling party’s half-century long monopoly of power, fuelling expectations that laws restricting freedoms of expression, association and assembly may be eased and reform of the police accelerated.

Elections in Pakistan in February brought to power a coalition government composed of parties opposed to the rule of General Pervez Musharraf. The new government promised to restore human rights safeguards undermined during the late 2007 State of Emergency, particularly by reinstating independent judges improperly removed by President Musharraf and repealing restrictive legislative amendments. In April, the new government ratified or signed three key international human rights covenants.

Impunity

In Sri Lanka the spiralling conflict fuelled concerns over the administration of justice and the misuse of emergency laws, with the authorities failing to effectively investigate patterns of enforced disappearances and unlawful killings, including of media workers.

Better news from Bangladesh, where in April, three months after a high-level Amnesty International delegation visited the country, the caretaker government raised the possibility with the UN Secretary General of UN support to address war crimes allegedly committed in the 1971 war of independence.

Meanwhile in the same month in India, the Supreme Court asked the National Human Rights Commission to investigate human rights violations allegedly committed by government-backed militiamen within the context of continuing violent protest against industrial projects in adivasi (tribal) areas.

Torture

Reports of police brutality and abuse of detainees persisted throughout the Asia Pacific region. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment by state agents continued in Indonesia, with the UN Committee against Torture due to consider Indonesia’s compliance with the Convention in early May.

Death penalty

As global scrutiny focuses on China’s excessive use of the death penalty in the run up to the Beijing Olympics, other countries in the region continued to apply capital punishment. Seven inmates have been executed since January in Japan, for example, with at least 105 remaining on death row. In North Korea, 15 people were publicly executed for attempting to cross the border into China without permission. More welcome was the news from South Korea, where six of the 64 inmates facing execution had their sentences commuted. And in March, three members of the 'Bali Nine', all Australians convicted of drug-trafficking in Indonesia, had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court. At least 112 others are known to remain on death row in the country.

Asylum seekers

In Australia the government announced in February that it would release 21 Sri Lankan asylum seekers still held in Nauru and that discussions had begun with the Government of Nauru to close the detention centre, thus ending the much-criticized “Pacific Solution” to those seeking asylum in Australia.

In January at least 75 Chin refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar were reportedly made homeless after immigration officials in Malaysia burnt down a campsite.

Counter terror with justice

There continued to be a failure of political will on the issue of renditions, in spite of the evidence emerging in 2007 that put the complicity of European states beyond doubt. The now public knowledge that legal loopholes enabled the unlawful conduct of foreign and European national intelligence agencies, and shielded them from accountability, continued to be met with silence and inaction by most states.

The need for full, independent investigations into allegations of involvement in rendition flights was highlighted by the February admission of the UK and US governments that two flights had landed in Diego Garcia in 2002 – in spite of previous assurances given by the UK authorities, including to Amnesty International, that this territory had at ‘no time’ been used for the transfer of prisoners.

More positively, a landmark ruling in February saw the European Court of Human Rights re-affirm the absolute prohibition of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the case of Saadi v Italy. The Italian authorities had sought to deport Nassim Saadi to Tunisia on the grounds he posed a security risk. The Court, however, found substantial grounds for believing there was a real risk he would be subjected to torture or other ill-treatment if retuned – on the basis of reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

While the Court acknowledged the immense difficulty states face in protecting their communities from terrorist violence, it affirmed that the danger of terrorism must not however call into question the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture.

In another example in April, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled that the UK could not lawfully proceed with its removal of three individuals – one to Jordan and two to Libya – under its policy of ‘deportation with assurances’. In the former case the Court of Appeal recognized that Abu Qatada would face a trial which would very probably allow evidence obtained under torture – a flagrant violation of the right to a fair trial. And in the latter, the Court of Appeal reaffirmed a previous opinion that a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with Libya was not sufficient to protect the individuals from a real risk of torture or other ill-treatment if returned.

Concerns over torture and other ill-treatment in Europe did not lie solely around the issue of international terrorism however. On 6 March, for example, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) called on the Turkish authorities to completely review the situation of Abdullah Öcalan “with a view to integrating him into a setting where contacts with other inmates and a wider range of activities are possible.” Abdullah Öcalan is serving life imprisonment following his conviction in 1999 on charges of “treason and separatism” as leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The CPT report documented “a distinct deterioration of his mental state ... connected with a situation of chronic stress and prolonged social and emotional isolation, coupled with a feeling of abandonment and disappointment.”

Migration

Restriction of the rights of migrants, extension of the limits of detention and limitation of the rights of asylum-seekers continue to be high on the political agenda of the EU and its member states.

In April, the Slovenian Presidency of the EU reached a preliminary agreement for a directive on common standards and procedures for returning irregular migrants or rejected asylum-seekers. Amnesty International is concerned that the agreement includes a maximum six-month detention period, which can be extended for a further 12 months in certain cases were ‘reasonable effort’ has yielded no results. The Italian government is considering an increase of up to 18 months’ detention for irregular migrants and swift expulsion procedures.

Trafficking

The rights of people who have been trapped in a modern form of slavery, or are at risk from being so, received a major boost, as the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings came into force on 1 February 2008. Seventeen states are currently parties to the Convention.

People under fire

In a terrorist act in Spain on 7 March, strongly condemned by Amnesty International, the Basque armed group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) killed former socialist councillor Isaías Carrasco. The group also planned a campaign to threaten representatives of political parties and the press, and in April claimed responsibility for four other attacks involving bombings.

Death penalty

The regional trend towards abolition continued apace as Uzbekistan abolished the death penalty from 1 January 2008. It has still failed to publish comprehensive statistics, including the number of men whose sentences were commuted upon abolition, however. Belarus remained steadfast in its role as the region’s last executioner – with news of three executions in February.

Freedom of expression

Across the region, freedom of expression remained under threat. There were concerns the Armenian authorities may have used excessive force on 1 March to disperse demonstrators protesting against the results of disputed presidential elections the previous month. Eight people including one police officer died, and more than 100 opposition activists were detained. Eyewitness accounts in Belarus spoke of police beating and kicking demonstrators who had gathered in Minsk on 25 March 2008 to mark the 90th anniversary of the country’s short-lived independence. Approximately 100 people were detained. The Turkish government still had not repealed legislation used to prosecute human rights activists and journalists. In Azerbaijan, the persecution of opposition newspapers has continued unabated, with a pattern of assault, harassment and questionable legal actions. On 7 March Qənimət Zahid, for example, editor-in-chief of Azadlýq, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on charges of “aggravated hooliganism” and “assault and battery”. Amnesty International believes this was a concerted attempt on the part of the Azerbaijani authorities to silence a critical opposition voice. And in Russia there was no let up in the restriction of space for human rights activists, independent organizations and the media to operate and to express critical views.

Human rights defenders

Other human rights defenders in the region remained under threat as well. In Serbia they were targeted along with minorities in the wake of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence on 17 February 2008. During protests on 19 February in all major cities in Serbia, attended by hundreds of people, demonstrators reportedly called for the murder of ethnic Albanians. A member of the Serbian parliament also supported the banning of all political parties and NGOs that recognized Kosovo as independent. He specifically singled out Nataša Kandic, a human rights activist and director of the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) in Belgrade. Nataša Kandic and the HLC have been challenging impunity for war crimes in the Balkans, and assisting victims of human rights violations on all sides to access justice.

Impunity

It was not just prior conflicts that led to concerns over impunity. In a deeply worrying ruling the Spanish Supreme Court turned down an appeal against a partial pardon granted to four police officers convicted of the illegal detention and ill-treatment of a resident of Senegalese origin in March 1997. The police officers had already been reinstated in their posts and have never served their prison sentences. More welcome was the announcement in February by the Spanish Civil Guard and National Police that they are to install video surveillance cameras in detention areas where incommunicado detainees are held, in line with the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

People under fire

Violence continued particularly in Iraq and in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the brunt continued to fall on civilians taking no part in conflict. In early May, a confrontation in Lebanon between Hizbullah-led groups and pro-government forces caused the deaths of at least 62 people, including at least four civilians.

Iraq

The level of sectarian and other killings fell below previous peaks but remained high, and there was no significant improvement in the lives of people on the ground. Armed groups opposed to the government and the presence of the US-led MultiNational Force continued to carry out bomb and other attacks, including in heavily populated areas. In March and April, hundreds of people – including unarmed civilians – were killed in clashes between Iraqi government forces, operating with US support, and the Mahdi Army, armed Shi’a militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr.

In April, the trial began of eight former officials, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, before the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal, which previously sentenced to death Saddam Hussein and other former officials in his government after unfair trials.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

More than 330 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians and including young children, were killed in Israeli attacks, mostly in the Gaza Strip, in the first four months of 2008. In the same period, 14 Israeli civilians and nine soldiers were killed in attacks by Palestinian armed groups, who fired “qassam” and other rockets into southern Israel.

Despite US-led efforts to achieve a resolution of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict following talks at Annapolis in November 2007, the Israeli authorities continued to build the 700km wall/fence, to expand illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and elsewhere, and more than 500 military roadblocks continued to restrict or impede the movement of Palestinians between towns and villages throughout the West Bank.

The continuing Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip had an increasingly disastrous impact on the one and a half million people who live there. The UN reported in April 2008 that more than 80 per cent of Gaza’s population had become dependent on emergency food aid, and the economy was in ruins. The Israeli authorities allowed in limited amount of international humanitarian assistance and fuel but some chronically sick Gaza residents were prevented from leaving to obtain specialist medical treatment. A brief respite in January, when Hamas militants blew a hole in the border wall between Gaza and Egypt, allowing thousands of residents to pour into Egypt to purchase badly needed supplies, lasted only a few days.

Death penalty

Algeria co-sponsored the UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions and several other Arab states abstained, but the death penalty continued to be used extensively in several countries.

The authorities in Iran and Saudi Arabia were among the world’s foremost executioners; by the end of April, Amnesty International had recorded 83 executions in Iran and 56 in Saudi Arabia, often after flagrantly abusive trials. In Iran, the authorities took the welcome step of banning public executions in January, but in Saudi Arabia public beheading continued. In Iraq, at least 30 people were reported to have been executed, including 28 in April alone.

Counter terror with justice

Throughout the region, governments continued to exploit heightened insecurity engendered by the “war on terror” to clamp down on opposition, using secret, long-term and incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment and trials before blatantly unfair courts. In Egypt, the government clamped down on the Muslim Brotherhood in the run up to delayed local and municipal elections in April; hundreds were arrested, including prospective candidates. Shortly after the election, prison sentences were imposed on leading members of the group after an unfair trial before a military court.

Although thousands of detainees held by the US-led MultiNational Force in Iraq were released, more than 20,000 continued to be held, most without charge or trial. By the end of April, the Iraqi government was reported to have released thousands of detainees it held - including under an amnesty law agreed by the parliament in February, but torture and ill-treatment of detainees remained common.

In Libya, the authorities were reported to have released 90 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an Islamist group, who had generally been convicted in unfair trials in previous years, though they continued to hold twice as many others.

All across the region, terrorism suspects were arrested and detained, at risk of torture and ill-treatment and faced trials before courts whose procedures often were blatantly unfair. In Tunisia, judgment was delivered in February on the appeals of 30 people who were convicted on terrorism charges in December 2007; the appeal court confirmed one of the two death sentences that had been imposed but commuted the other. In Saudi Arabia, hundreds, possibly thousands, of terrorism suspects were believed to be detained under conditions of near total secrecy.

European governments continued to return suspected terrorists to countries such as Algeria and Tunisia despite compelling grounds to fear that they would be at risk of torture. But in February, in a case arising from an Italian government attempt to return a terrorism suspect to Tunisia, the European Court of Human Rights strongly reaffirmed the prohibition on states returning individuals to countries where they would be at risk of torture. In the UK, government efforts to return terrorism suspects to Libya and Jordan despite the risk of torture were similarly thwarted by the courts.

Freedom of expression

In Iran, elections to the Majles, the national parliament, in March were marked by the disbarment of many reformists and other potential candidates by the powerful, clerically dominated Council of Guardians. They were held against a background of continuing widespread human rights violations, including arrests, detentions and torture or other ill-treatment of political activists, advocates of the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, campaigners for women’s rights and human rights defenders. In Syria, there were more arrests of leading signatories of the Damascus Declaration calling for peaceful, democratic reform, most of whom were reported to have been beaten during interrogation.

Government critics, advocates of reform and human rights defenders continued to be imprisoned, arrested or harassed across the region – including in Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other countries. In Algeria, a leading human rights lawyer was given a suspended prison sentence and fined for criticising the prolonged detention without trial of one of his clients. In Morocco, eight members of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights who had been sentenced in 2007 to between two and four years’ imprisonment for chanting slogans critical of the monarchy were pardoned by the King in April 2008 and released.

Displaced people

In Iraq sectarian and other violence continued to displace millions – both internally and as refugees in Syria, Jordan and other countries.
Within Iraq, those most at risk included Palestinian refugees who faced particular difficulties in gaining access to the main host countries for refugees from the conflict; in April several hundred remained marooned in dreadful conditions at Al-Tanf camp, located in a sliver of no-man’s land between the borders of Iraq and Syria, and at least 2000 were still in al-Waleed camp on the Iraq side of the border with Syria, where living conditions were extremely harsh.
In Egypt, security forces targeted refugees and migrants from Sudan and other African countries who sought to cross the border into Israel; at least 11 were killed, many others were injured and scores were arrested.