Author: Human Rights Watch

Earlier this month, Meta’s Oversight Board found that three Facebook posts containing the phrase “From the River to the Sea” did not violate Meta’s content rules and should remain online.

The majority of the Oversight Board members concluded that the phrase, widely used at protests to show solidarity with Palestinians, is not inherently a violation of Meta’s policies on Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement, or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI). In line with Human Rights Watch’s submission, it affirmed that while the phrase can have different meanings, it amounts to protected speech under international human rights law and should not, on its own, be a basis for removal, enforcement, or review of content under Meta’s policies. Meta created the board as an external body to appeal moderation decisions and provide non-binding policy guidance.

A minority of board members recommended imposing a blanket ban on use of the phrase unless there are clear signals it does not constitute glorification of Hamas. Such a ban would be inconsistent with international human rights standards, amounting to an excessive restriction on protected speech.

The board’s decision upholds free expression, but Meta has a broader problem of censoring protected speech about Palestine on its platforms. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report found that Meta was systemically censoring Palestine content and that broad restrictions on content relating to groups that Meta puts on its DOI list often resulted in the censorship of protected speech. Meta has said that core human rights principles have guided its crisis response measures since October 7. But its heavy reliance on automated detection systems fails to accurately assess context, even when posts explicitly oppose violence.

For instance, on July 19, Human Rights Watch posted a video on Instagram and Facebook with a caption in Arabic that read: “Hamas-led armed groups committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the October 7 assault on southern Israel.” Meta’s automated tools “incorrectly” removed the post for violating its DOI policy. Formal appeals were unsuccessful, and the content was only restored after informal intervention.

Meta should address the systemic issues at the heart of its wrongful removal of protected speech about Palestine. Amending its flawed policies, strengthening context-based review, and providing more access to data to facilitate independent research are essential to protecting free expression on its platforms.

• The Indonesian government’s suppression of widespread protests after a 2019 attack on Papuan university students highlighted longstanding racial discrimination against Indigenous Papuans.  
• Indonesian security forces have committed arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, and mass forced displacement, but are seldom held to account for these abuses.
• Indonesia’s new government should urgently review existing policies on West Papua, recognize and end the government’s history of systemic racism against Indigenous Papuans, and hold to account those responsible for violating their rights. 

(Jakarta) – The Indonesian government’s suppression of widespread protests after a 2019 attack on Papuan university students highlighted longstanding racial discrimination against Indigenous Papuans in Indonesia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The authorities should address Papuans’ historical, economic, and political grievances instead of prosecuting them for treason and other crimes for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly and release those wrongfully held.

The 80-page report, “‘If It’s Not Racism, What Is It?’: Discrimination and Other Abuses Against Papuans in Indonesia,” finds that the protests, built around the Papuan Lives Matter social media campaign, were centered on human rights violations against Papuans, including denial of the rights to health and education, and peaceful calls for sovereignty for West Papua, where most Indigenous Papuans live. The report profiles cases of Papuan activists convicted for their role in the protests and the baseless charges brought against them. 

“The racism and discrimination that Papuans have endured for decades only began to get attention from Indonesian authorities after the widespread protests in 2019,” said Andreas Harsono, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government should act on the many United Nations recommendations to end human rights violations in West Papua and permit international monitors and foreign journalists to visit the territory.”

Between June 2023 to May 2024, Human Rights Watch met several Papuans to discuss the day-to-day discrimination they encounter and conducted 49 in-depth interviews with Papuan activists who were arrested and prosecuted after the Papuan Lives Matter movement began in 2019. In addition, Human Rights Watch interviewed lawyers, academics, officials, and church leaders. 

On August 17, 2019, Indonesian security forces and a mob of ultranationalists attacked a Papuan university student dormitory in Surabaya. Video footage of the attack, which included racial insults, was shared widely on social media, sparking a movement called Papuan Lives Matter, inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States. Protests broke out in at least 33 cities in Indonesia. While the protests were largely peaceful, in some places there were clashes between communities, arson attacks, and even deaths.

Indonesian police and military used excessive force and arrested many protesters, particularly targeting anyone who raised the Morning Star flag, a symbol of Papuan independence that is considered illegal in Indonesia. Papuans Behind Bars, the website that monitors politically motivated arrests in West Papua, recorded over 1,000 arrests in 2019, and 418 between October 2020 and September 2021. At least 245 people were convicted of crimes, including 109 for treason. Indonesia’s laws against treason are used mostly to target Indigenous Papuans campaigning for their rights, including for independence.

Human Rights Watch takes no position on claims for independence in Indonesia or in any other country, but supports the right of everyone to peacefully express their political views, including for independence, without fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal.

In June 2022, the Indonesian parliament enacted a controversial law, splitting the territory of two provinces—Papua and West Papua—into six new provinces. Based on the preference of Papuan activists, Human Rights Watch uses West Papua to discuss the entire territory. Many Papuans believe that creating these new administrative units will bring more non-Papuan settlers, decreasing the proportion of Indigenous Papuans living in their own land. Indonesian authorities have already encouraged and subsidized tens of thousands of non-Papuan settler families—pendatang in Indonesian—to relocate to West Papua through decades of transmigration programs, often driving out Indigenous Papuans and grabbing their land for mining and oil palm plantations. 

Local and national authorities discriminate against Indigenous Papuans in favor of settlers in delivering health services and education in West Papua, Human Rights Watch said. Areas with Indigenous Papuans have far fewer medical clinics and schools. The authorities also favor the pendatang in government jobs, whether as teachers, nurses, or in the police and military. Meanwhile, Papuans living in other parts of Indonesia encounter discrimination and racist tropes in gaining access to jobs, education, or housing.

Agus Sumule, a lecturer at the University of Papua in Manokwari, who led research on education in West Papua, noted much lower school attendance among Indigenous Papuans in rural areas, and found that there is not a single teacher training college in the Central Highlands, where almost all the residents are Indigenous Papuans. He said: “If it’s not racism, what should I call it?”

Human Rights Watch also found that police torture and abuse Papuan activists, using racist slurs. A video posted earlier in 2024 to social media showed three soldiers brutally beating Definus Kogoya, a young Papuan man, whose hands were tied behind him and who had been placed inside a drum filled with water, taunting him with racist slurs.

The fighting between Papuan pro-independence insurgents and the Indonesian security forces is contributing to the deteriorating human rights situation in West Papua. Indonesian security forces engage in arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, and mass forced displacement, but are seldom held to account for these abuses. The insurgents have been implicated in the killings of migrants and foreign workers and have been holding a New Zealand pilot hostage since February 2023.

When President Joko Widodo, known as “Jokowi,” was elected president in 2014, many had hoped for human rights reforms in West Papua. Ten years later, at the end of the president’s second and final term, little has changed in Papua. A new government, led by Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo, will take office in October 2024. It should urgently review existing policies on West Papua, recognize and end the government’s history of systemic racism against Indigenous Papuans, and hold to account those responsible for violating their rights, Human Rights Watch said.

Indonesia is a party to core international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. These treaties all prohibit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and religion, among other grounds. The discriminatory policies and practices Human Rights Watch documented also constitute violations of Indigenous Papuans’ rights to health and education. Among key standards is the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognizes the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, including to autonomy or self-government in their internal or local affairs. 

“The Indonesian authorities should address the demands of Papuan activists and tackle the systemic racism against Indigenous Papuans,” Harsono said. “The Indonesian government needs to finally recognize that international human rights law applies in West Papua and meet its obligations to the people there.”

Last Friday, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law making, among other provisions, one year of pre-primary education compulsory, further strengthening the right to education for South Africa’s children.

From a human rights perspective, compulsory education is primarily an obligation on governments to ensure quality education is free, accessible, and inclusive.

The law also marks an important step toward addressing longstanding challenges in South Africa’s education system, including language and policy admission requirements that are a barrier to ensuring access to education for all. Implementation of certain clauses on these topics has been suspended for three months, pending further consultations.

Expanding the right to education has been a cornerstone in building a democratic South Africa. In 1955, anti-apartheid groups outlined a vision of freedom for the country, including “free, compulsory, universal and equal” education for all.

South Africa’s constitution enshrines the right to a basic education. They have almost succeeded in realizing this goal: around 90 percent of its children now complete lower secondary schooling.

Quality pre-primary education benefits children’s cognitive and social development, educational attainment, and health. Children’s early years represent a critical opportunity to make a positive difference in their lives when the pace of brain development is at its highest. Pre-primary education can mitigate inequalities among children from families of different incomes and can particularly benefit children with disabilities—a sphere where South Africa has unfulfilled obligations—by reinforcing inclusion and reducing discriminatory attitudes.

It’s not just domestically that South Africa has been advancing children’s educational rights. In July, South Africa’s ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, Mxolisi Nkosi, expressed support for initiating a process to consider and draft a new treaty to strengthen the right to education under international law. It would explicitly recognize rights to early childhood education; free pre-primary education, beginning with at least one year; and free secondary education.

“While the right to education has long been recognized as a human right, and an indispensable means of realizing other rights, it certainly remains a privilege for millions of children across the globe,” said Nkosi, adding that the initiative “will no doubt go a long way in giving this right concrete expression for all children.”

Negotiations for the new treaty begin in 2025. Success depends on South Africa and others’ vigorous participation advocating for a strong treaty.

(Berlin) – Uzbek authorities should immediately quash the convictions and release two wrongfully imprisoned activists, Human Rights Watch and Uzbek Forum for Human Rights said today. An appeals court in Qarshi is scheduled to resume hearings in the case of Nargiz Keldiyorova and Dildora Khakimova on September 18, 2024.

A court in Kashkadarya on July 18 sentenced Khakimova and Keldiyorova to six years and one month and six-and-a-half years in prison, respectively, on dubious extortion charges. Keldiyorova was also found guilty of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” and “insulting the president online.” Khakimova, who has breast cancer, gave birth in mid-September. So long as she remains imprisoned, the authorities need to ensure that she and her newborn child receive prompt and appropriate medical care. 

“Uzbek authorities brought a baseless case against two activists to silence independent voices,” said Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Then they raised a basic injustice to outright cruelty by compromising the health of a mother and her newborn child.”

At the time, the court also sentenced five other codefendants to between five years of restricted freedom and six years in prison, also on dubious extortion charges. 

There are grave concerns for Khakimova’s health, the two rights groups said. After she gave birth, her doctor said that her condition had worsened and that she needs urgent treatment at an oncology hospital, her husband told the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights. He also said that the detention center where Khakimova was being held with her baby provided a letter, dated September 14, saying that they cannot provide adequate conditions to care for a newborn, as stipulated in a 2022 presidential decree “on protecting motherhood and childhood.” 

The authorities brought criminal charges against the defendants in February and a court ordered that five of the seven, including Keldiyorova and Khakimova, be held in pretrial detention. The indictment alleges that Keldiyorova had organized a criminal gang to extort money from several individuals by threatening to reveal confidential and defamatory information about them online and via local media. 

However, the counts of alleged extortion detailed in the indictment are largely unconnected to one another, and several of the defendants testified that they did not know one another. The verdict also lacks material evidence connecting the defendants to the alleged crimes, the rights groups said.

Keldiyorova, 44, a member of the human rights organization Ezgulik, has in recent years collaborated with the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights and independent news agencies, including Radio Ozodlik and Eltuz Media. She helped gather information on forced and child labor, farmers’ rights, land confiscation, and corruption in the education system in Kashkadarya region, and often gave media interviews on these issues.

Khakimova, 40, who works as a teacher at a local school, has regularly commented on social media about corruption in the education system in Kashkadarya region and has served as a public interest representative in local cases. Khakimova has also collaborated with one of the other defendants, Shukrullo Parpiev, 44, who is the head of a small firm called “Blogger-Defenders” and a member of the Independent Human Rights Organization, a local rights group. Another three defendants – Shakhnoza Safarova, Farogat Mamatova, and Oydin Rustamova – also worked at local schools. The verdict indicates that the seventh defendant, Musallam Umirova, was employed at an entity called Republican Social Security Society.

The case seems to spring from a complaint filed by the former director of a local school, who was fired from her post in 2023 for misconduct. The school director’s alleged misconduct was the topic of frequent complaints by the school’s staff, including Khakimova, and Keldiyorova. 

The authorities contended that several of the defendants had extorted money from the former director, citing a transfer of 10 million soms (US$790) to Parpiev’s business account and another 3 million soms ($240) paid in cash. However, the verdict does not indicate any evidence tying that money to an act of extortion. Keldiyorova’s lawyer noted at the trial that the criminal case contains Khakimova’s statement to the Karshi District Department of Internal Affairs requesting the police to investigate the former director’s actions. 

The verdict also does not cite any evidence that Keldiyorova received or accessed any of the money the prosecution accused her of extorting. Her conviction rests solely on unsubstantiated allegations by the local school’s former director.

The court additionally found Keldiyorova guilty of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” and “insulting the president online” for comments she had made in private voice messages in Telegram, a social messaging application, referring to protests in Kazakhstan and Karakalpakstan in 2022 and about Uzbekistan’s president, respectively. 

A state-ordered linguistic analysis of her comments related to the protests concluded that she was trying to “destabilize the socio-political situation in Uzbekistan” and that her comments about the president amounted to “insulting the president on social networks,” a crime punishable by a maximum five-year prison sentence. 

The court dismissed the prosecution’s claims that the defendants were acting as a criminal group, with the judge noting in the verdict that the defendants were not “acting as members of the same criminal group.” Yet the judge found all seven defendants guilty under article 165 of Uzbekistan’s criminal code for carrying out “extortion by prior agreement of a group of persons.” The verdict does not explain this discrepancy. 

The prosecution of activists known for raising concerns about corruption and other economic and social issues demonstrates the deteriorating climate for activism and human rights protection in the country, the two rights groups said.

Freedom of expression is guaranteed by Uzbekistan’s Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Uzbekistan is a party. 

The authorities should immediately quash the verdicts in this case against Keldiyorova and Khakimova and allow them to peacefully express their views, the rights groups said. The authorities should also ensure that both Khakimova and her newborn get the medical attention they need. All the defendants should get a fair and impartial appeals hearing, with their due process rights upheld and respected. 

“Criminal proceedings should never have been brought against these activists in the first place,” said Umida Niyazova, director of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights. “Added to that is the prospect of the state cruelly and groundlessly depriving Khakimova of the medical care she and her newborn child need.” 

September 17 marks three years since the Taliban banned secondary education for girls in Afghanistan, shortly after their return to power in August 2021. While the issue of Afghan girls’ secondary education has generated much discussion globally, governments and international institutions have yet to take meaningful action to reverse the Taliban’s ban.

The Taliban are systematically attacking women’s rights by depriving girls of a full education, causing long-lasting harm to Afghanistan’s education system and its people. Banning girls beyond grade six from school is a misogynist attack that institutionalizes gender inequality in Afghanistan’s education system. The ban negatively impacts all areas of Afghan life and has dire societal, developmental, and economic consequences for the country’s future. The harm increases with each day the ban remains in place.

With the Taliban’s ban attacking girls’ education, Afghanistan’s future will suffer from a serious lack of doctors, nurses, female teachers, and educated women professionals from various walks of life. This will further undermine women’s role in Afghan society and lead to an unequal, segregated, and impoverished society without women’s meaningful contributions.

Secondary school is an important time of growth and learning for children. The Taliban’s discriminatory ban is depriving at least 1.4 million girls of their right to education. This has taken a psychological and emotional toll on Afghan girls, extinguishing their hopes.

The Taliban are wasting girls’ precious time during the most critical years of their personal and academic development, learning, and growth, just as they wasted five years of girls’ learning time when they were previously in power from 1996 to 2001, for which they were never held accountable. The girls that missed school during those years mostly never fully recovered, and the girls missing school today will also face lifelong and intergenerational consequences.

The Taliban should immediately end their crushing ban on girls’ secondary education and provide safe and quality education for all girls. The international community should press the Taliban to immediately reverse their ban and honor their past pledges to reopen schools for girls. Donor countries should support communities that seek to uphold girls’ right to education and fund online and underground education initiatives run by women.

Far from the front lines where bulldozers tear down tropical forests, European Union officials are preparing to implement a crucial law that will require EU-based companies to ensure their imports and exports are “deforestation-free” and not driving human rights abuses.

With 10 football field-sized tracts of climate-critical forest razed per minute globally in 2023, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Last week, I traveled to Brussels with partners from Malaysia and international groups to attend a meeting between the European Commission and government officials from Malaysia and Indonesia on the EU’s anti-deforestation law.

Upon arrival, we found out the Malaysian and Indonesian governments sought to deny civil society access to the meeting. The EU folded to these demands, so instead of participating in person we watched the meeting from a screen in a separate room.

“We found ourselves not only denied a place at the table but banned from the room where key negotiations on ending deforestation in Malaysia are happening,” said Celine Lim, manager of the Indigenous organization SAVE Rivers from Sarawak, who traveled from Malaysian Borneo to attend.

This prevented communities on the front lines of deforestation and the organizations that support them from providing their input and contesting Malaysian and Indonesian officials’ claims that the EU regulations are an unnecessary imposition.

Here are three critical points we would have made at the meeting, drawing on our work on deforestation in Malaysia:

First, timber and palm oil companies in Malaysia are routinely encroaching on Indigenous territories. Malaysia’s laws to protect Indigenous rights are woefully inadequate, but even those scant protections are often being ignored in practice.

Second, the Malaysian government’s forest data is unreliable. Anything the government has legally designated as natural forest counts as such in its estimates, even if it has been demolished, as noted by Adam Farhan, director of the Malaysian environmental group RimbaWatch.

Third, while Malaysia insists that the EU use its certification programs as a guarantee for EU Deforestation Regulation compliance, there are glaring issues. For example, the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme has been plagued by complaints about a lack of transparency from auditors and the inability of companies to be penalized for noncompliance.

For the EU deforestation law to work, the EU’s task force needs to hear from the frontline communities most directly affected by deforestation.

(Brussels) – The explosion on the oil tanker MT Suvarna Swarajya on September 7, 2024, in Bangladesh underscores the lack of adequate international and national regulations, oversight, and labor rights protections in the shipbreaking industry, Human Rights Watch and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform said today. Six workers have died and four remain in critical condition.

Shipowners frequently use a network of middlemen and loopholes to circumvent international regulations that prohibit the export of ships to dismantling facilities in Bangladesh that do not have adequate environmental or labor protections. The MT Suvarna Swarajya was previously owned by the Shipping Corporation of India, then sold in March 2023 to Last Voyage DMCC, a subsidiary of Best Oasis, one of the world’s largest cash buyers of ships. Last Voyage DMCC then sold it in May to S.N. Corporation in Bangladesh for dismantling, despite the company’s poor health and safety record, with at least 14 deaths and 22 injuries since 2010 and before the sale.

“The tragic explosion at one of SN Corporation’s shipbreaking yards underscores the dangers of an international regulatory system set up to profit the shipping industry rather than protect workers’ rights and safety,” said Julia Bleckner, senior health and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Hong Kong Convention and its so-called certificates of compliance, like the one granted to SN Corporation, create the dangerous illusion that these yards are safe and environmentally sustainable.”

The explosion occurred in the Unit-2 yard of S.N. Corporation, a few months after Nippon Kaiji Kyokai certified the Unit 2 yard under the requirements of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. While the Convention will enter into force June 26, 2025, many shipbreaking yards are seeking voluntary certification using Hong Kong Convention standards.

Human Rights Watch, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, and other rights and environmental organizations have repeatedly raised concerns that the Convention provides for weak environmental and safety standards.

Human Rights Watch wrote to S.N. Corporation, Best Oasis, the Shipping Corporation of India, and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai about the September 7 explosion. Nippon Kaiji Kyokai responded on September 15 confirming that the company had conducted their audit based on IMO guidelines. S.N. Corporation, Best Oasis, and the Shipping Corporation of India have not responded.

Countries at the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting on September 30, including Bangladesh, should establish clear consensus that the Hong Kong Convention does not replace the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, which applies to end-of-life ships, and offers a higher level of control, the organizations said.

Following the explosion, Bangladesh authorities have indefinitely shut down S.N. Corporation’s yard where the explosion occurred, halted all work on the MT Suvarna Swarajya, and opened an official investigation into the accident. The Department of Environment has suspended the yard’s environmental clearance and ordered SN Corporation to report within three days why the yard should not be permanently shut down.

According to data collected by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, among the casualties in yards owned by SN Corporation since 2010, six injuries occurred earlier in 2024 across its three yards. Two of them were on the MT Suvarna Swarajya in May, when a falling pipe broke one worker’s leg and a steel rope injured another worker’s hand. In 2021, one worker in an S.N. Corporation yard died when he fell from a ship during a cutting operation. In 2020, another worker died, also in an S.N. Corporation yard, when he was hit by a falling metal cable. 

Workers from S.N. Corporation’s yards told Human Rights Watch in July 2022 that the conditions at those yards were dangerous. A 27-year-old cutter said: “I face risk every day that I work in the shipbreaking yard. Nobody wants to work here because they know there is a risk and accidents may occur at every step. The owners do not provide us with any safety measures. They overlook these things.” He said that while the yard’s management provided him with a helmet and gloves, he paid for his own boots, goggles, and protective clothing, despite earning less than US$1.50 per hour, well below Bangladesh’s minimum wage for shipbreaking workers.

While the Bangladesh interim government has taken positive steps to address S.N. Corporation’s alleged failure to ensure worker safety, international corporations that enabled the MT Suvarna Swarajya to be dismantled under alleged unsafe conditions should also be held accountable, the groups said. At a minimum, if found responsible, the companies involved, including S.N. Corporation, Best Oasis, and the Shipping Corporation of India, should pay for the medical treatment, long-term rehabilitation, and compensation to those injured, and provide compensation for workers who were killed. In response to questions about measures they are taking to provide compensation, the companies did not respond. 

Cash buyers like Best Oasis serve as scrap dealers for end-of-life ships. The use of cash buyers has the effect of shielding ships’ original owners and operators from accountability for deaths and injuries taking apart their ships. Given that the three main cash buyers, including Best Oasis, sell ships almost exclusively to yards in South Asia where labor rights abuses and environmental harms have been well-documented, it is reasonable to expect that shipping companies that sell end-of-life ships through cash buyers know that their ship will likely be scrapped under abusive and environmentally damaging conditions.

Many cash buyers typically use shell companies or ship registries with lower regulatory burdens as part of their final voyage package, to further obfuscate the beneficial owner of the ship before it is sold to a shipbreaking yard with minimal environmental and safety requirements. 

Many shipping companies, including some of those based in Europe and North America, use cash buyers to circumvent international and regional regulations that ban dumping their ships in subpar yards to increase their profit.

In 2019 the Bangladesh High Court ordered that vessels sailing under flags that have been gray- and black-listed for persistent violations by port state controls, should not be allowed to be imported into Bangladesh. However, more than 100 end-of-life ships were imported under gray- and black-listed flags last year to Bangladesh, in violation of the High Court order.

To be imported to Bangladesh for breaking, a ship must be issued a “No Objection Certificate” from the Bangladesh Ship Recycling Board, indicating that there are no hazardous materials onboard. The Department of Environment must also issue an environmental clearance certificate, and the Department of Explosives must issue “gas free for man entry,” and “gas free for hot work” certificates.

In a 2023 report, Human Rights Watch viewed 21 leaked hazardous waste certificates for ships entering Bangladesh to be dismantled. The language was consistently pro forma and, in some cases, verbatim, suggesting that the parties drafting the certificates were not conducting adequate inspections of the actual materials onboard the ships. This apparent lack of genuine inspection and oversight exponentially increases the risk of accidents like the explosion on the MT Suvarna Swarajya, the groups said.

Bangladesh’s interim government should enforce the 2009 High Court orders that halted the import of ships for recycling until there were “satisfactory provisions for the safety of the workers,” and properly enforce the High Court’s 18-point directive and subsequent orders that require rigorous health and safety standards and labor rights and environmental protections, including the ban on importing ships under gray- and black-listed flags.

The Ministry of Industries should immediately shut down any shipbreaking yards employing children, and any yards found to have night operations or are otherwise seriously violating workers’ rights. The Ministry should set a timebound directive to yards to move all ship recycling operations off the beach because dismantling ships on the sand is inherently more dangerous for workers and environmentally damaging. The worksite itself is full of hazards and it is impossible for emergency vehicles to traverse the sandy beach to access the job sites in case of injuries or fire. Shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh should install proper industrial platforms in accordance with the Basel Convention Technical Guidelines on Ship Recycling. 

In line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, if not already in place, shipping companies should adopt formal and explicit due diligence policies that ensure the company maintains oversight of where ships are recycled and ensures that ships, including those previously owned or operated by the company, are not discarded in yards that use the beaching method. Given the loopholes and the urgent need for stronger regulation of ship recycling, Human Rights Watch and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform believe that adequate voluntary due diligence by shipping companies requires stopping all sales through cash buyers. 

“The fire on the MT Suvarna Swarajya is a grave and revolting reminder both of the shipbreaking sector’s failure to comply with national requirements and of the weak standards set by the Hong Kong Convention,” said Ingvild Jenssen, director at the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “It calls for action also at the international level to put a halt to practices that cause irreparable damage, including by taking apart ships laden with toxic substances on tidal mudflats. Beaching can can never be safe, nor environmentally sound, and, if allowed to continue, amounts to endorsing the exploitation of vulnerable communities and ecosystems in developing countries.”

(Johannesburg) – Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso have escalated their attacks on civilians, massacring villagers, displaced people, and Christian worshipers, Human Rights Watch said today. Since February 2024, the armed groups have killed at least 128 civilians across the country in seven attacks that violated international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.

Government forces have been fighting insurgencies by the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), since the armed groups entered Burkina Faso from Mali in 2016. The two Islamist armed groups control large swathes of Burkinabè territory; they have attacked civilians as well as government security forces, and fought each other.

“We are witnessing an incredibly concerning surge in Islamist violence in Burkina Faso. The Islamist armed groups’ massacres of villagers, worshipers, and displaced people are not only war crimes, but a cruel affront to human decency,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The leaders of the Islamist armed groups should immediately end these deadly attacks on civilians.”

From May to July, Human Rights Watch interviewed 37 people, including 31 witnesses to attacks on civilians. Human Rights Watch wrote to the Burkina Faso justice minister on June 26 and the country’s ambassador to the United States on July 30, sharing research findings and requesting responses to specific questions. The justice minister responded to Human Rights Watch on August 28. 

The ISGS claimed responsibility for a February attack on a church in the village of Essakane, Sahel region, that killed at least 12 civilians. No warring party has claimed responsibility for the other documented attacks against civilians. Witnesses said they believed the attackers were members of Islamist armed groups because of their mode of operations, choice of targets, and clothing, including turbans similar to those worn during these groups’ previous attacks.

Witnesses to several attacks believed they were going to retaliate against local communities for their alleged collaboration with government security forces and allied civilian auxiliaries. In May, Islamist fighters attacked an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Goubré, North region, killing over 70 people, allegedly to punish those unwilling to submit to the group’s rule.

The February attack on church worshipers in Essakane resulted in the deaths of at least 12 civilians. “I saw a huge pool of blood and traces of blood all over the church, as well as bullet marks on the benches,” said a 28-year-old man who lost his 49-year-old brother, a teacher, in the attack. “At the cemetery, I saw 12 bodies, including my brother’s body, with bullet wounds in the chest and in the back, and his mouth covered with blood.”

President Ibrahim Traoré, since taking power in a September 2022 military coup, has increased the use of civilian auxiliaries called Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie , commonly known as VDPs). Former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré initially created the VDPs in January 2020 to strengthen local protection against Islamist armed groups. In October 2022, the military authorities opened a campaign to recruit 50,000 more members. The Islamist armed groups responded by attacking villages they accused of supporting the VDPs. The justice minister, in his response to Human Rights Watch, said that joint operations by Burkinabè forces and VDPs “reconquer[ed] several localities” held by Islamist armed groups, and permitted the resettlement of displaced people and the reopening of educational and health facilities.

“The jihadists opened fire in the village indiscriminately,” said a 35-year-old farmer who witnessed an attack by alleged JNIM fighters in the town of Sindo, Hauts-Bassins region, on June 11. “I hid in a shop, and I could hear heavy gunshots above my head. Some of them hit the shop, others fell into the courtyard.”

Human Rights Watch has previously documented other Islamist armed group abuses in Burkina Faso, including summary executions, sexual violence, abductions, and pillaging. The groups have also attacked students, teachers, and schools; and continue to besiege several localities across the country, planting explosive devices along the roads leading to the towns, and cutting residents off from food, basic services, and aid.

The Burkina Faso armed forces and VDPs have also committed serious abuses during operations against Islamist armed groups.

The Burkinabè government has primary responsibility under international law for ensuring justice for the most serious crimes, but has made scant progress in investigating, much less prosecuting, those responsible for the many grave offenses committed as part of the armed conflict since 2016. The justice minister, in his response to Human Rights Watch, said that “all allegations of human rights violations or abuses committed by terrorists are subject to investigations aimed at determining responsibility and sanctioning the perpetrators. … [S]everal judicial investigations have been initiated by military prosecutors or civilian courts.”

The fighting between Burkina Faso government forces and the Islamist armed groups is governed by the laws of war for a non-international armed conflict. Applicable law includes Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other treaty and customary laws of war, which apply to non-state armed groups as well as national armed forces. The laws of war prohibit attacks on civilians, summary executions, torture and other ill-treatment, sexual violence, and looting. Serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent, including as a matter of command responsibility, are war crimes.

The civilian toll in Burkina Faso’s ongoing conflict underlines the challenges of African regional responses to the violence in the country and in the entire Sahel region. The African Union (AU), including the AU Peace and Security Council, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), has not sufficiently addressed conflict-related abuses, improved protection of civilians, or sought justice for the abuses.

In July 2023, the AU council visited Burkina Faso and committed to increase AU humanitarian support for the country. The council, however, did not address impunity as a key driver of abuse, or act further to protect civilians or hold accountable those responsible for grave abuses.

The ACHPR has held four sessions between August 2023 and June 2024 without sufficiently discussing the human rights situation in Burkina Faso, despite considerable evidence of the serious abuses.

“The AU Peace and Security Council needs to address the upsurge in atrocities in Burkina Faso and the deteriorating situation in the country,” Allegrozzi said. “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should investigate ongoing abuses and provide meaningful options for accountability.”

For witness accounts and other details, please see below. The names of those interviewed have been withheld for their protection.

Unlawful Attacks by Islamist Armed Groups Since February 2024

Over 26,000 people have been killed during the conflict since 2016, including about 15,500 since the military coup in September 2022, and over 6,000 since January, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).

The ACLED reported that Islamist armed groups killed 1,004 civilians in 259 attacks between January and August, compared to the 1,185 civilians in 413 attacks in the same period last year. These figures do not include the 100 to 400 civilians killed during the August 24 attack on the city of Barsalogho, Sanmatenga province, for which the JNIM claimed responsibility. Human Rights Watch is investigating the attack.

The ACLED reported that the JNIM is active in 11 out of 13 of Burkina Faso’s regions. The ISGS thus far has only operated in the Sahel region, where the two armed groups have clashed.

Niamana, Hauts-Bassins Region, June 30

On June 30, four alleged JNIM fighters killed at least two civilian men, aged 34 and 40, in the village of Niamana. The JNIM had previously operated in Niamana and attacked security forces and civilians in the village. Three witnesses said the attack was in apparent retaliation against the local community for joining the VDPs.

One witness said:

“At 10 a.m., we went to our rice field, and we were surprised by the jihadists. They were armed with Kalashnikovs [military assault rifles] and had turbans on their heads.… We ran away, but my brother was shot at close range. Then, they killed another man in a nearby field.… I saw the body.… We called the VDPs and the military, but they couldn’t do anything.… I could not even bury my brother. I fled the area and never went back.”

A 40-year-old villager said:

“The jihadists [originally] came here in 2021.… They prohibited us from reporting their positions to the military.… We were scared. We accepted, and everything was fine … until the recruitment of VDPs.… In June 2023, the jihadists warned us not to join the VDPs, threatening us with eviction or attack.… They gave us 24 hours to leave, they said that if they found anyone in the village, they would kill them.”

Witnesses said that after the ultimatum, many villagers fled Niamana, but that some returned in May 2024 following pressure from Burkinabè authorities, who promised to ensure the security of returnees. “We are between a rock and a hard place,” a 56-year-old villager said. “On the one hand, the authorities press us to return to villages where security is not guaranteed; on the other hand, the jihadists attack us when we return to our fields and homes … because some of us joined the VDPs.”

Sindo, Hauts-Bassins Region, June 11 and 18

Killing of 20 Civilians

On June 11, alleged JNIM fighters attacked Sindo town, killing at least 20 civilian men, looting shops and homes, stealing livestock, and causing the mass displacement of the local population. Sindo is in an area where the JNIM had operated and carried out attacks. A number of witnesses said they believed the attack was in apparent retaliation against the local community whom the fighters accused of joining the VDPs.

“We have been living under jihadists’ rule for a while,” said a 50-year-old woman who fled Sindo after the June 11 attack. “But it is only when some of our young people enrolled in the VDPs that we got in trouble.”

A VDP, 39, in Sindo said:

“At the beginning there was no problem [with the jihadists].… When we decided to enroll our young people into the VDPs, around mid-2023, they began to attack us …, set our town hall and our school on fire, looted our animals and … warn[ed] us not to join the VDPs if we wanted to stay alive.”

Witnesses said the armed Islamists had attacked Sindo at least twice in late 2023, and that many residents who fled out of fear came back following pressure and reassurances from local authorities. “Authorities … asked us to return, they promised that the VDPs and the military would ensure our security,” a 52-year-old man said. “But that was not the case.… The government forced us to return and … now we lost everything.”

The Burkinabè justice minister, in his response to Human Rights Watch, said that the return of displaced populations has been voluntary and “preceded by actions” aimed at “securing localities and reopening basic social services and administration.”

Witnesses said that fighters entered the town at about 4 p.m. on June 11 through the bush.

A herder, 24, said:

“At around 3 p.m., we saw six terrorists coming toward us.… They started gathering our animals to take them away.… My two friends ran away, but I confronted the jihadists. So, one among them shot me in the left foot.… Then, they left with my animals, leaving me bleeding.”

A 35-year-old farmer who lost two of his relatives in the attack said he saw at least two dozen heavily armed fighters, wearing headscarves, shooting “everywhere … for at least 20 minutes.” He hid in the nearby bush until the next day, when some VDPs arrived in Sindo to help bury the dead. The farmer said he found the bodies of his older brother, 36, and his cousin, 24:

“My brother had a bullet wound in the head.… I saw a small hole in the forehead and a bigger one in the back of his head. His shop had been completely looted.… My cousin was killed in the street, most likely as he attempted to escape. I found his body lying on the ground.”

Human Rights Watch obtained two lists compiled by survivors and relatives of the victims with the names of the 20 men killed, ages 24 to 75. But survivors said they believe the death toll was much higher. “People were not all killed in the same place,” said a resident, who helped bury the bodies. “We found bodies in the village, on the outskirts and in the bush.… [S]ome were shot, others had their throats slit.” Survivors and relatives of the victims asserted that none of those killed had joined the VDPs.

Beating of Five Women

On June 18, alleged JNIM fighters threatened and beat at least five women when they returned to Sindo to collect their belongings, two of the women said.

“Twenty jihadists on motorbikes rounded us up,” a 40-year-old woman said. “One said: ‘Why did you come back when we forced everyone out?’ They took some tree branches and started beating us. We writhed in pain. One even said we should be killed. But then, they let us go.”

A woman, 50, who is a trader, said:

“I went home and took my fabrics.… I saw two terrorists, between ages 18 and 20. They could have been my kids! One asked me in Fulfulde [a widely spoken language in the region]: ‘What are you doing here?’ … I begged them to have mercy on me because of my age, I am an old woman.… They burned my fabrics in front of me with a lighter. One of them tripped me with the back of his gun.… Then they took me where the other women were being beaten and threatened to kill us.”

Mansila, Sahel Region, June 11

On June 16, the JNIM claimed responsibility for a June 11 attack on an army base in Mansila, and said it killed 107 soldiers, captured 7 others, and seized weapons and ammunitions.

Several witnesses said the JNIM fighters also killed at least 20 civilians in Mansila and burned some homes during the attack. This information has been corroborated by several international media outlets. Human Rights Watch reviewed and geolocated a video filmed by the JNIM and widely circulated on social media, showing the assault on the military barracks, and also reviewed another video of the military equipment that the fighters allegedly seized.

President Traoré said on June 20, in response, that the military had initiated a military operation and sent reinforcements. Yet, no information was provided on the outcome.

Witnesses said that on June 11 after 2 p.m., heavily armed Islamist fighters, dressed in military fatigues or civilian clothes, and wearing red and green turbans, arrived in Mansila on motorbikes. The fighters attacked the military barracks and engaged in combat with the soldiers. They then stormed the town of Mansila and went door-to-door ordering people out of their homes and summarily executing men they accused of collaborating with the army.

A 30-year-old resident said:

“There was heavy shooting for several hours around the military base.… Then, they [fighters] came to town and went to every house ordering people to leave.… They let the women and children and some men go but captured and executed other men.… They said in Fulfulde that the population of Mansila has done a deal with the army so it should be punished.”

A 30-year-old woman said that “they [fighters] got all civilians out of their homes, as if they wanted to protect them, but they captured some men and executed them on the claim that they were VDPs.”

A man, 75, said that at 6 p.m., when “shooting had died down,” he saw “at least 20 bodies of men who had been killed in front of their courtyards.” He said that at night shooting sporadically resumed around the military barracks, until the moment when he “understood that the base had fallen.”

He said that the following morning, June 12, the Islamist fighters continued looting homes, livestock, and other civilian property, including his bicycle, as well as military equipment. The man said that around midday, a military helicopter landed in Mansila with what he said was a “high-ranking officer.” The officer assessed “the huge damage” and a high number of casualties both among the soldiers – “with only three or four still alive” – and civilians.

Goubré, North Region, May 22

On May 22 at about 4 p.m., several hundred alleged JNIM fighters attacked a VDP base and a displaced persons’ camp (IDP) in Goubré, killing at least 80 people, including 8 VDPs and 72 civilians, 6 of them children, and injuring at least 40 others, several witnesses said. On May 24, the JNIM claimed responsibility for the attack against a the VDP base in Goubré, saying it killed “many” of them. The camp, which housed over 3,500 displaced people at the time, has since been shut down. On May 24, Alain Akpadji, the interim UN humanitarian coordinator in Burkina Faso, issued a statement deploring the attack, which resulted in the killing of an aid worker.

Witnesses said that the fighters, armed with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles and wearing military uniforms or civilian clothes with turbans, first attacked the VDP base about two kilometers away, and then stormed the camp where a local nongovernmental organization was distributing food.

“Some rode motorbikes, others were on foot,” said a 39-year-old camp resident. “They spoke Mooré [a language widely spoken in Burkina Faso] and French with a Fulani accent. They shot everywhere, there was a lot of panic because we were about to receive the food. People screamed and ran away.”

A 42-year-old woman said that “the assailants shot randomly everywhere. I saw scores of bodies of men and women. The bodies were later buried in mass graves or individually.”

A humanitarian worker, 33, said: “I rushed to the scene after the attack to help rescue the injured and bury the dead. I saw a burned truck and … counted at least 70 bodies. We evacuated the injured to Séguénéga and Ouahigouya.”

Human Rights Watch obtained a list compiled by survivors and relatives of the victims with the names of the 72 people killed, including 45 men, 23 women, 2 girls, and 2 boys.

Witnesses said they believed JNIM carried out the attack in apparent retaliation against villagers who refused to join JNIM ranks.

“Those living in the camp were displaced from Baoguin, Wattigué and Gondékoubé,” said a 37-year-old farmer from Wattigué. “We abandoned our village because we refused to join the jihadists. The jihadists were not happy and came to attack us. When they arrived at the camp, they said: ‘Who gave you permission to settle in Goubré?’”

In addition to being near the VDP base, the IDP camp was about six kilometers from an army base in Séguénéga. Witnesses said there were no VDPs or soldiers protecting the camp at the time of the attack. Soldiers only intervened at the end of the attack, shot at the fighters, and chased them as they fled. “Soldiers came, but it was too late,” a 31-year-old woman said. “The fighters had already killed many of us.”

Barhiaga, East Region, May 19

On May 19, suspected JNIM fighters killed the 79-year-old chief of Barhiaga town, accusing him of collaborating with the Burkinabè security forces. Barhiaga is in an area where the JNIM has operated and carried out attacks.

“At about 1 p.m., I saw an Aloba-type motorbike with two armed men who looked like jihadists driving toward the chief’s home,” said a local resident. “Minutes after, I heard two gunshots. When the gunmen left, we found the chief dead with two bullet wounds in the head.”

“Relatives of the chief, who witnessed the killing, told me that the assailants spoke Mooré and Fulfulde, and accused the chief of hosting VDPs in Barhiaga and talking to the defense forces,” said another resident. “We and other villagers buried his body and then we all fled.”

Boukouma, Sahel region, May 1

On May 1, a motor tricycle traveling from Arbinda, a town under JNIM siege, struck a victim-activated improvised explosive device, killing a 26-year-old woman and injuring four other women nearby. Residents believed JNIM fighters had deployed the weapon, which are inherently indiscriminate and banned under the Mine Ban Treaty, which Burkina Faso ratified in 1998.

“I was home in Boukouma at about 10 a.m. when I heard an explosion, and I immediately rushed there, about one kilometer away,” said a resident. “We found the pieces of the body of a young woman on the ground, one leg here, one arm there.”

“Four women were severely injured, with their skin completely pulled off in some parts of their bodies,” said another man. “We helped evacuate them to Arbinda and buried the woman who was killed on the spot.”

He said that VDPs in Arbinda told them they had been escorting women who had left Arbinda in search of firewood.

Djibo, Sahel Region, March 29

On March 29, 15 women were reported missing after they ventured outside the city of Djibo to fetch firewood. Djibo has been under JNIM siege for over two years and combustible material has become scarce.

Three relatives of the missing women said that the women went together to an area called Bakooré, five kilometers from Djibo, in hopes of finding some branches to burn, and never returned. The relatives said they went to the military base in Djibo to report the incident on March 30, and that VDPs went to Bakooré to look for the women but said they could not find them.

Human Rights Watch had previously spoken to several women who reported that Islamist fighters had verbally and physically assaulted them around Djibo as they went to fetch wood or water. Human Rights Watch has documented the kidnapping and rape of women and girls by Islamist armed groups.

Essakane, Sahel Region, February 25

The ISGS on March 8 claimed responsibility for a February 25 attack on a Catholic church in the village of Essakane, saying it killed 15 people. On February 26, the Burkinabè security Minister Mahamoudou Sana told the Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB), the government-run national television network, that security forces responded to the “simultaneous and coordinated” attacks, and reassured the civilian population that “measures have been taken to strengthen” their security, and called on them to “collaborate” with the military.

Eight witnesses believed the attack was carried out in apparent retaliation against Christians who did not abandon their religion despite an ISGS warning.

A 34-year-old man said:

“The jihadists had long been sending messages threatening all those who do not practice Islam.… They said that they are fighting to restore Islam in all Sahel countries and that they do not tolerate any other religions except Islam. They had warned the Christians in the area to either convert or leave the area, failing which they would kill them.”

Witnesses said that about 20 Islamist fighters stormed the church, ordered the women out, and then opened fire, killing nine people, including two boys, and injuring at least five others, three fatally.

They also said that the fighters, armed with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, wearing turbans with red bands, and riding motorbikes, surrounded the church at about 9 a.m. “They broke into the church, got the women out and started shooting,” said a man, 36, who was shot in the left foot and in the chest during the attack. “They spoke Fulfulde and screamed ‘Allah Akbar [God is great], we are going to kill you all, you are kufar [a non-believer].’”

A 34-year-old man said:

“I saw about 10 motorbikes with armed men surrounding the church. Minutes after, I heard “taa-taa-taa,” I hid in my shop. There was shooting for several minutes.… When the gunmen left, … I rushed to the scene. Everybody was crying.… I saw nine bodies. They had been shot in the chest and were lying on the ground or on benches in a pool of blood.… I saw three injured in a critical state, they were evacuated to the local health center. I heard that they did not survive.”

Human Rights Watch obtained a partial list with the names of 12 victims – 10 men and 2 boys – compiled by survivors, victims’ family members, and others who helped bury the bodies. The ISGS, several international media outlets, and the diocese of Dori reported that the death toll was at least 15. Human Rights Watch reviewed three photographs shared by witnesses showing at least ten bodies in the church after the attack but was not able to verify them.

Residents said that government security forces arrived when the attack was over to cordon the scene and help evacuate the injured. The victims were buried on February 26 at the Essakane cemetery.

Police officials in Kyrgyzstan continue to evade accountability for inaction that may have contributed to the death of Aizada Kanatbekova at the hands of her “bride kidnapper” in April 2021.

On September 13, the Bishkek City Court upheld a May 2024 district court acquittal of the then-Bishkek police chief, Bakyt Matmusaev, of negligence charges in Kanatbekova’s death. The ruling is a blow to Kyrgyz activists combatting gender-based violence and to all Kyrgyz women.

Bride kidnapping is the illegal practice of abducting women for forced marriage, and it’s a serious problem in Kyrgyzstan. But despite statements from the head of Kyrgyzstan’s national security agency, Kamchibek Tashiev, on the readiness of his agency to address gender-based and domestic violence, Kyrgyz law enforcement officers have largely remained indifferent to endless cries for help from women facing horrific abuse. Officials have ignored cases of women being kicked in the head, burned, having their ears and nose cut off, or stabbed to death in police stations after being left alone with their kidnapper.

On April 5, 2021 in Bishkek, 27-year-old Aizada Kanatbekova was abducted in broad daylight by a group led by the man who intended to force her to marry him. A witness alerted the Bishkek police to Kanatbekova’s kidnapping, and police also had access to street camera footage of the crime. Despite Matmusaev’s claims of a nonstop search, her family found that regional police offices outside Bishkek were unaware of the search. Two days later, Kanatbekova was found strangled to death in a car outside the city, along with the body of one of her abductors.

Kanatbekova’s family brought criminal negligence charges against Matmusaev, arguing he failed to initiate an intercept plan despite available evidence. The family’s lawyer stated police had ample time to capture Kanatbekova’s kidnapper as he drove through the city. Matmusaev, the police chief, was purportedly relieved of his duties, but was later found to have continued serving in another high-level police position.

Kyrgyz authorities should make good on their promises to tackle gender-based violence and start treating it as a serious crime, including by fully investigating and prosecuting all cases. There should also be an independent investigation into law enforcement’s inadequate responses.

Without these measures, women in Kyrgyzstan will continue to face life-threatening dangers with little hope for protection or justice.

(New York) – Iranian authorities’ brutal repression against women has only continued in the two years since the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Jina Amini sparked nationwide protests, a dozen human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch said in a statement released today.

Iranian authorities have continued their brutal repression of peaceful dissidents, civil society, women, and religious and ethnic minorities, while failing to hold those responsible for torture, rape, and unlawful killings accountable. The Iranian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release all the women human rights defenders imprisoned in Iran and end all systematic violence and discrimination against women. 

“The authorities have failed to answer for the killing of hundreds and the arrest of thousands, and they have systematically continued their suppression of opponents, civil society, and human rights defenders,” said Nahid Naghshbandi, acting Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “A change in government and a new president have so far done nothing to alter the authorities’ repressive actions towards dissent.”

Iranian authorities have intensified their suppression of women in public spaces by reintroducing the morality police under the so-called “Noor Plan” and carrying out punitive measures, such as impounding vehicles of women not wearing the compulsory hijab. A “Bill for the Protection of Chastity and Hijab Culture” is on the verge of being approved by Iran’s parliament. If passed, this law will formalize the repression of women and girls who defy mandatory wearing of the hijab, significantly widening the gender gap.

The authorities have also sought to intimidate and silence women by issuing severe prison sentences to women human rights defenders. Despite this, women have continued their resistance against the abusive state-imposed dress codes, while imprisoned activists and human rights defenders carry on this defiance from within prisons across Iran. 

Since early September 2024, Iranian authorities reportedly have escalated security measures, particularly in Kurdish regions such as Saqqez, Amini’s hometown. Reports from local human rights organizations say that security forces are tightly controlling the roads surrounding the Aichi cemetery, where Amini is buried. Security agencies have summoned numerous political, civil, and human rights activists. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that the General and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Sanandaj has filed cases against 14 teachers’ union activists from Kurdistan. The summonses accuse the activists of “gathering and colluding with the intention of disrupting national security,” “propaganda against the state,” and “disturbing public order and peace.”

Imprisoned women in Iran are reviving the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement through hunger strikes, protest letters, and sit-ins, continuing their activism despite severe sentences. They have exposed poor prison conditions and fought for better living standards for all inmates. At least dozens of women human rights defenders are jailed, with many more facing trials, risking being forgotten as global attention on Iran wanes. 

Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned human rights defender and Nobel Laureate, said in a statement published on her Instagram account that on September 15, 34 women political prisoners went on hunger strike to commemorate the second anniversary of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement and the killing of Mahsa Amini.

According to the Human Rights Activists in Iran news agency, 15 Baha’i women will be retried in the first branch of the revolutionary court of Isfahan on September 25. They were initially sentenced in May on charges of “educational and promotional activities against Islamic law” and were each sentenced to five years in prison, fines, and travel and social service bans.

Despite increasing pressure, including arrests, threats, and intimidation, the families of those killed during the protests continue to seek justice for their lost loved ones. In recent days, several of these families have issued statements. Mustafa Gheisari, the brother of Mohsen Gheisari, killed by the security forces, has demanded transparency regarding the details of his brother’s death and the identification of those responsible for the killing.

According to Kurdistan Human Rights Network, on September 15, 2024, Ahmad Hassan-Zadeh, the father of Mohammad Hassan-Zadeh who was shot and killed by the security forces in Bukan in November 2022, was detained by security forces in the city of Bukan and transferred to an unknown location.

“International pressure on the Iranian government must persist to hold them accountable for their actions during and after the 2022 protests. All nations should demand answers from Iran for the killing, injuring, and arresting of countless protesters, ensuring justice for the victims,” Naghshbandi said.