“The government of Jujuy Province is turning its back on those who are exercising their right to protest against the constitutional reform, sending in the forces of law and order to use repression to fix a problem that should be resolved through dialogue. The security of the population cannot be guaranteed by violating human rights,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Since the start of the protests against constitutional reform and for teachers’ salary demands in Jujuy, a province in northern Argentina, the provincial police have responded with excessive use of force, indiscriminately using rubber bullets, tear gas and physical violence against the population, especially against Indigenous people and campesinos (rural farmworkers).

“The government of Jujuy Province is turning its back on those who are exercising their right to protest against the constitutional reform.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

On 15 June, the Constitutional Convention approved a fast-track constitutional reform that left no room for public participation or consultation. A process that was intended to include at least 90 days of debate was completed in just three weeks, and without releasing the final text until the day of its adoption.

After its approval, demonstrations against the reform took place in various locations around the province. The repression of these demonstrations has already left hundreds of people injured, including a 17-year-old boy who lost an eye after being shot with rubber bullets by the police. Furthermore, according to official information, more than 60 people have been detained, many of them charged with the crime of “resisting authority”, which is generally used to restrict social mobilizations and the constitutional right to petition and demonstrate against the authorities.

The authorities of Jujuy Province must guarantee the rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression and refrain from excessive use of force in response to demonstrations across the provincial territory. In addition, it is imperative that allegations of human rights violations committed by the police in all the protests around the province be investigated promptly, thoroughly, independently and impartially.

Amnesty International also calls for the publication of full, detailed and disaggregated information on the number of people injured and detained, as well as the charges against them. It further urges the authorities to address the structural causes that have led various sectors of the population to demonstrate in defence of their human rights. The organization calls on the provincial government to promote a space for genuine dialogue with all actors involved, ensuring the effective participation of Indigenous Peoples, trade unions and teachers’ organizations, in particular, so that the key issues for the people of Jujuy can be discussed in sufficient depth.

The security of the population cannot be guaranteed by violating human rights.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Some of the issues that have raised concern among the population and human rights organizations relate to proposals for reform linked to:

• the regulation of social protest and a prohibition of different forms of public demonstration by the people, such as “street and road blockades” and “any other disturbance of the right to free movement of persons”, invoking the “right to social peace”

• environmental matters, including the water regime, ownership, authorizations and licences for environmental exploration or exploitation

• Indigenous Peoples’ exercise of consultation, participation and territorial ownership.

Although the clauses associated with the direct participation of Indigenous Peoples were finally removed, this does not exclude the fact that the entire text should be submitted for consultation with the communities and other social actors, as required by international law.

The post Argentina: Amnesty International demands immediate end to state repression in Jujuy appeared first on Amnesty International.

With the bidding process expected to begin soon, the Sport & Rights Alliance asks FIFA to ensure that the bid evaluation process reflects the results of an opinion poll commissioned by Amnesty International and conducted in 15 countries, which showed that a majority of the public, 53%, believe human rights should be a critical consideration in deciding who hosts major international sporting events.

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of economic and social justice, said: “It is clear that the public wants human rights to be a high priority so that the World Cup is a celebration of the game they love and never provides a platform for exploitation, repression or discrimination.

It is clear that the public wants human rights to be a high priority so that the World Cup is a celebration of the game they love and never provides a platform for exploitation, repression or discrimination.

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of economic and social justice

“FIFA must rigorously apply the highest human rights standards in evaluating all bids to host its flagship tournament, demand clear human rights action plans, and reject any bid that fails to credibly show how serious human rights risks would be prevented, independently monitored, and remedied if abuses occur.”

FIFA introduced human rights criteria for the first time in the bidding for the 2026 World Cup, following controversies around the process to award the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively. It is expected such criteria will be included again, but there are concerns that they may be sidelined or ignored in FIFA’s choice of the 2030 hosts.

Despite the introduction of its human rights policy and bidding criteria in 2017, FIFA has since failed to perform appropriate human rights risk assessments when awarding other tournaments. For example, since 2017, the Club World Cup has been granted to China, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Saudi Arabia without any transparent process or consultation with civil society. There were also widespread violations of human rights in relation to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, despite FIFA having developed a “sustainability strategy”, which included human rights commitments, in 2020. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers remain without compensation for abuses they suffered in preparing and delivering the tournament.

The call comes as Amnesty International published the results of an opinion poll conducted by YouGov, showing that a majority of people (53%) in 15 countries believe that human rights, including workers’ rights, press freedom and non-discrimination, should be a key consideration when selecting the host of a major sporting event.

Joint bids to host the 2030 men’s World Cup are expected, including one from Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Ukraine, and another from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Saudi Arabia is reportedly preparing a joint bid either for 2030 or 2034, with Greece, and Egypt has been raised a possible partner.

The poll showed that, after safety and security (57%), human rights was the most commonly chosen consideration for determining tournament hosts (53%). This was the top consideration in seven of the countries surveyed, and highest in Switzerland (68%), where FIFA is based. More than four times as many people, or 53%, chose human rights as a key factor that should determine the hosts, versus 13% who selected ‘commercial revenues for sports bodies’ as a priority.

The results of the poll clearly show the importance fans place on human rights in determining the hosts of major sports events – far more than politics or profit.

Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe

Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, said: “The results of the poll clearly show the importance fans place on human rights in determining the hosts of major sports events – far more than politics or profit. We, football supporters, want binding guarantees not only that their own rights will be respected, but also that workers will be assured of decent conditions, journalists will be able to report freely, and human rights activists can speak out without fear.” 

Andrea Florence, director of the Sport & Rights Alliance, said: “Since 2017, FIFA has made important progress in recognizing its human rights responsibilities. But human rights assessments and considerations have not been applied systematically when awarding FIFA tournaments. To demonstrate they are serious about their own policies and statutes, it is critical that FIFA puts human rights front and centre when choosing the host for the 2030 men’s World Cup.”

To demonstrate they are serious about their own policies and statutes, it is critical that FIFA puts human rights front and centre when choosing the host for the 2030 men’s World Cup.

Andrea Florence, director of the Sport & Rights Alliance

Background and Polling

The poll involved almost 17,500 adults in 15 countries. They were asked by YouGov last year to select from a list of ten factors they believed should be ‘key considerations’ when selecting the host of an international sporting event, such as the FIFA men’s World Cup or the Olympic Games. Those polled could select multiple options. The survey was carried out in Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA.

The results in order were: Safety and security of fans, athletes and volunteers (57%), Human rights including workers’ rights, press freedom and non-discrimination (53%), Quality of infrastructure such as stadiums, transport, and hotels (48%), Transparency and measures to tackle corruption (43%), Environmental sustainability and climate change (37%), Cultural and tourism opportunities for visiting fans (28%), The potential economic benefits for the host country (28%), Experience of successfully hosting major sporting events (25%), Sporting legacy for the host country such as the development of domestic sport (24%), Potential commercial revenue for the sports body such as FIFA or the International Olympic Committee (13%), Don’t know (12%), and None of these (4%).

FIFA’s Statutes (article 3) and Human Rights Policy (article 7 and 10) require the global football governing body to “respect” and “strive to promote” human rights, identify and address any adverse human rights impacts of its operations, and to constructively engage with relevant authorities and other stakeholders in its efforts to uphold these responsibilities.

In its Human Rights Policy, FIFA also commits to respecting human rights in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. According to the UN Guiding Principles, all companies should conduct human rights due diligence in relation to all aspects of its operations. If serious human rights risks cannot or will not be prevented, the company should take the necessary steps to cease or prevent its impact. 

The final choice of host for the 2030 men’s World Cup is expected to be decided by a vote of all football associations at the annual FIFA Congress in 2024. In 2018, FIFA selected Canada, Mexico and the United States to jointly host the 2026 men’s World Cup.

Members of the Sport & Rights Alliance include Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists, Football Supporters Europe, Human Rights Watch, International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), The Army of Survivors, Transparency International and World Players Association.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 17,477 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 16 August – 6 September 2022. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all surveyed countries’ adults (aged 18+). 

The post Global: Human rights should be essential to FIFA’s choice of World Cup 2030 host, poll shows appeared first on Amnesty International.

“In light of the criminal lawsuit filed in Argentina by relatives of victims of crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela, the Argentine justice system has an obligation to investigate these crimes and, if sufficient and admissible evidence is found, to charge and bring to justice the alleged perpetrators. The titanic efforts of the victims to obtain truth, justice and reparation, in the face of the impunity prevailing in Venezuela, with the invaluable support of organizations such as the Clooney Foundation for Justice, must not fall on deaf ears. Argentina’s federal courts cannot turn their back on victims; on the contrary, they must open the door to universal jurisdiction and set an important precedent for other countries in the region to follow the same course of action,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

This lawsuit is a response to the policy of repression designed and implemented by the government of Nicolás Maduro since 2014. This policy – which continues to be enforced – includes the commission of serious human rights violations and crimes under international law, including extrajudicial executions, torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, excessive use of force and politically motivated persecution.

The titanic efforts of the victims to obtain truth, justice and reparation, in the face of the impunity prevailing in Venezuela, with the invaluable support of organizations such as the Clooney Foundation for Justice, must not fall on deaf ears.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Many international mechanisms and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have documented how these have become systematic and widespread attacks against those perceived to be opponents of the government, constituting crimes against humanity. The UN’s International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela also supported this conclusion in 2019.

“The victims who have denounced crimes against humanity today have entrusted Argentina with their hopes for justice. Argentine courts have constitutional jurisdiction over these crimes not because of where they were committed or by whom, but because they harm humanity as a whole. We hope the Argentine justice system will rise to the challenge and uphold its historic tradition of prosecuting and punishing those responsible for these crimes at all levels,” said Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina.

Further information

Under international law, all states are empowered to investigate and punish those responsible for crimes under international law. In some cases, this power becomes an obligation when the alleged perpetrator of a crime under international law is present in a territory under the jurisdiction of another state. According to the organization, the principle of universal jurisdiction has been recognized by at least 163 states – more than 85% of the countries in the world.

Amnesty International research on universal jurisdiction found that, between the end of World War II and 2011, at least 20 states conducted investigations, initiated trials or completed trials based on universal jurisdiction for the most serious crimes. These states include: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Spain, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In the case of Argentina, this research highlighted the so-called “Argentine complaint“ initiated in 2010 into crimes under international law perpetrated in Spain during the government of Francisco Franco, and the investigation opened in 2021 on the possible genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

The post Venezuela: Argentine courts must investigate crimes against humanity committed by Venezuelan authorities appeared first on Amnesty International.

“The development of autonomy in weapons is accelerating, and the growing application of new Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technologies is a deeply worrying development. These machines risk automating killing, treating it as a technical undertaking which raises human rights risks as well as humanitarian, legal and ethical concerns. Autonomous machines will make life and death decisions without empathy or compassion.

The development of autonomy in weapons is accelerating, and the growing application of new Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technologies is a deeply worrying development.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International

“Autonomous weapon systems lack the ability to analyse the intentions behind people’s actions. They cannot make complex decisions about distinction and proportionality, determine the necessity of an attack, refuse an illegal order, or potentially recognize an attempt to surrender, which are vital for compliance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

“These new weapons technologies are at risk of further endangering civilians and civilian infrastructure in conflict. Amnesty International remains concerned about the potential human rights risks that increasing autonomy in policing and security equipment poses too, such as systems which use data and algorithms to predict crime.

“It has never been more urgent to draw legal red lines around the production and use of autonomous weapons systems to ensure we maintain meaningful human control over the use of force.

“Amnesty International supports the call made by governments from Latin American and Caribbean countries today for binding international legal controls on these weapons and welcomes the decision to work in alternative forums, beyond the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) where talks have stalled, to advance this new law.”

Background

The Regional Conference on the Social and Humanitarian Impact of Autonomous Weapons in San José, Costa Rica is the first of its kind and involved regional and observer governments, representatives of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and civil society. Amnesty International is a founding member of Stop Killer Robots, a global coalition of more than 160 organizations working to address autonomy in weapons systems.

The post More than 30 countries call for international legal controls on killer robots appeared first on Amnesty International.

Marco is a 28-year-old trans man who has been living in Lima for four years. He came to Peru from Caracas in search of better living conditions as the social, economic and political deterioration of his country made it unsustainable to stay there. As of May 2022, the mass displacement crisis from Venezuela has led to more than six million refugees around the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The reasons for fleeing are manifold: lack of safety, violence, the constant threat to human rights and the lack of food and medicine. As an only child, Marco took responsibility for helping his parents, but he no longer had any options in his country. He didn’t think twice when his boss closed the café where he worked, saying that he was going to Peru with his family and that maybe they could make the journey together. Marco imagined that it was not going to be easy to start from scratch, but he quickly realised that opportunities for Venezuelan LGBTIQ+ refugees are even more restricted and doors close more easily. “There is always someone who says something horrible, or if I talk and my accent comes out they say, “go back to your own country” or they won’t let you through or they ignore you,” he says. “And it really hurts me because sometimes I want to go and buy something and there are several people there but they don’t serve me, even if I’m saying, “excuse me, please.” They don’t look at me, they ignore me and sometimes I try not to let it affect me but being invisible right in front of people is not nice, especially when you need to communicate something.”

The discrimination adds up, is interlinked, and leads to LGBTIQ+ people who arrive from Venezuela to countries such as Colombia and Peru suffering a constant denial of their rights. And although the initialism LGBTIQ+ is used to refer to people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and sexual characteristics, this does not mean that they are a homogeneous group. On the contrary, each of these letters contains within it a variety of experiences which are combined with social class, skin colour or migration status. In addition, gender expression, which forms part of these diverse identities, plays a very important role in how each person is treated by society as attitudes, clothing, gestures etc. are considered conventionally masculine or feminine and anyone who does not conform with those is viewed with suspicion.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

According to research by organizations such as Caribe Afirmativo in Colombia or Presente in Peru, the segregation experienced by these people is the result of the intersection between their refugee status and their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or diverse sexual characteristics. Marco, who has not had hormone treatment or surgery, believes that his appearance – outside the norm – is used to discriminate against him. “People basically see me as a butch woman. They don’t like it because it looks bad to them. They are looking for people to be either women or men and it is as though I don’t fit into either of those categories. And then if I also say that I am Venezuelan, well… you don’t know how difficult it is.”

People basically see me as a butch woman. They don’t like it because it looks bad to them. They are looking for people to be either women or men and it is as though I don’t fit into either of those categories. And then if I also say that I am Venezuelan, well… you don’t know how difficult it is.

Marco

Marco believes that the worst discrimination that he has experienced is due to being trans, although that is alongside the ever-present xenophobia. “If I were biologically male, I’m sure I would have a lot more opportunities despite being a migrant. I can’t even say that I’ll go to the supermarket to carry some sacks of potatoes. People look at me and laugh at me, regardless of whether I can carry them. The issue is that I’m not the person they want me to be.”

No rights, no dignified life

Colombia and Peru are the main destination countries for people fleeing Venezuela in need of international protection, with approximately 1.8 and 1.3 million people respectively, according to the inter-agency platform R4V. For LGBTIQ+ people, who in addition come from historically marginalized groups, these two countries represent an attainable destination.

Both Colombia and Peru have ratified different international treaties that oblige them to guarantee the human rights of all people without discrimination of any kind, including due to nationality, sexual orientation or gender identity. Nevertheless, the entrenched machismo in these societies, the xenophobia, and the violence based on prejudice against sexual and gender diversity create a hostile and unsafe environment.

According to Colombia Diversa, there is significant legal protection in this country for the LGBTIQ+ population, but the greatest barrier lies in its actual implementation, particularly for refugees. For example, although the new migration regularization programme, known as the Temporary Statute of Protection for Venezuelan Migrants, allows trans people to obtain documents that reflect their gender identity, in order to obtain this documentation in practice trans people must go through extra procedures that generate additional costs and therefore limit effective access to this documentation. Fundación Karisma has raised concerns about the elements within the process that threaten “the principles of non-discrimination and inclusion that identification systems must comply with in order to support respect for human rights,” particularly barriers to access to the right to legal recognition of this population.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

In addition, both the experience of LGBTIQ+ people and refugees in Colombia cannot be separated from the armed conflict, especially in border areas where the risk of trafficking and increased violence affect those whose gender expression is diverse and different from conventional binary norms in a differentiated way. Crossing the border via “trochas” (irregular border crossings) is a seemingly better option for many trans people facing the possibility of being mocked or violated at official border crossing points, Caribe Afirmativo warns. They therefore travel without documentation, putting them in situations of greater risk and generating further obstacles in access to regularization.

In Peru, as highlighted in the report by the NGO Presente, the rights of LGBTIQ+ people that are most affected are access to international protection and migration regularization, healthcare, housing and dignified working conditions. Furthermore, in this country equal marriage and the right to legal recognition of trans identity are still pending approval. “If I don’t adapt to this situation in which I find myself, including calling into question my own identity, I will not be able to survive,” says Pía Bravo, director at Presente, in reference to strategies involving hiding one’s diverse identity and gender expression as much as possible in situations of risk or increased discrimination.

A major barrier for Venezuelans in Colombia and Peru is access to healthcare. The social security systems have intrinsic deficiencies in terms of effective and timely access for the national population, which is exacerbated for those who do not have a regular migration status or cannot afford private services. In the case of the Venezuelan LGBTIQ+ population, the most documented barriers coincide with the inability to register in the healthcare system which particularly affects those living with chronic illnesses, including HIV. The denial of this right puts their lives at risk when faced with a lack of timely care.

Alixe, a trans woman refugee in Peru, is proof of this. For her, the barriers are interlinked and range from the costs of procedures for obtaining documentation and registering with the system to direct discrimination from healthcare staff. “For someone like me,” she says, “obtaining these regularization permits is very difficult. It is an odyssey to find work, then obtain the documents and then that document turns out to be useless.” When she finally has access to a medical examination, the shortcomings and stigmatization worsen the experience. Alixe has had HIV tests performed on her without her consent and has received misdiagnoses because doctors have decided not to have physical contact with her.

We have friends with poisoned bodies, people who die of heart attacks because they get blood clots from self-medicating, trans friends who have problems in their uterus due to testosterone use

Alixe

When it comes to hormone treatment, for example, trans migrants do not have adequate medical support. For four years Alixe has not been able to see an endocrinologist and has not been able to check her silicone implants. This is the reason why trans people resort to unsafe processes, she says:  “we have friends with poisoned bodies, people who die of heart attacks because they get blood clots from self-medicating, trans friends who have problems in their uterus due to testosterone use.” In Colombia, Caribe Afirmativo has also confirmed that the obstacles in accessing guided medical treatment for the trans population leads to unsafe and even lethal body transformation procedures.

‘When it is obvious that you are different, everything is more difficult’ 

“It all depends on the way you look,” says Augusto, a 27-year-old non-binary person from Venezuela living in Bogotá, when talking about the way in which an LGBTIQ+ person is treated according to the way they present in public. Gender expression was mentioned by all LGBTIQ+ people consulted as a differentiator in everyday interactions with the local population. This varies from person to person and the gender expression they have chosen to construct. For Alixe, a trans woman in Peru, cisgender lesbian or gay people, including trans men, are less visible socially because their transition is less noticeable and they can live with less stigma initially, although she clarifies that this ends when they have to present an identification document that does not correspond to their gender identity. “Trans people are always accused of usurping someone else’s identity and when they realise that we are trans, that’s when the abuse begins,” says Alixe.

Augusto says that they have not experienced any violence but have experienced discrimination. They know of attacks against trans women and are afraid. When they were younger, as a gay man in Maracaibo, they didn’t think much of it, but since living in Colombia and experimenting with other forms of dress, such as wearing skirts, they never go out unaccompanied.

For Vanessa, a queer non-binary person based in Lima, the way they look and their accent mark the relationships with the people they interact with. They avoided talking in public during the first year in Peru because they didn’t want to be identified as a Venezuelan. Xenophobia can appear at any time, so they are grateful to have built up a circle of trusted feminist friends and colleagues who welcome them.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

People with diverse gender expressions are not the only ones who experience discrimination. Lesbian and gay people, who in many cases are less visible from this perspective, face rejection when looking for housing as same-sex couples or do not have their children recognized as a result of a relationship that is not legal in Venezuela and therefore not in Colombia or Peru either. Similarly, some shelters run by religious institutions are places of revictimization for LGBTIQ+ people, according to the organizations consulted.

After facing multiple barriers to having a dignified life, some trans people decide to stop the process and de-transition, especially while they try to achieve economic stability. “Some trans women have had to go back to masculine gender expression in order to not experience so much violence in terms of migration and social integration. We have cases of people who want to stop their hormone treatment, not because there is no normative protection framework, but because of the amount of violence against them,” explains Giovanni Molinares, researcher at Caribe Afirmativo. This “return to the closet” has also been identified in Peru, as noted in the aforementioned report by the NGO Presente.

Negotiating their public identity in order to overcome situations of risk or discrimination is something that many LGBTIQ+ refugees experience. Marco acknowledges this with pain, “Sometimes I prefer to disrespect myself and say yes, yes, when they see ‘female’ on my documents and look at me strangely, in case they lay a hand on me or take me… I wouldn’t be able to cope with a situation of violence such as those that some of my trans friends have experienced with harassment and police violence. I don’t think I would survive an attack. I am not psychologically prepared to face that.”

Obstacles to reporting

For trans women sex workers, like Priscilla, who has lived in Cúcuta for five years, the violence in this border city exposes her to territorial fights, threats and physical attacks by Colombians and Venezuelans. These disputes leave them in a situation of tremendous vulnerability, where impunity is the norm. “They kill you and no one knows about it and no one heard about it,” she says.

In these cases there is no option to file a report, due to fear of the authorities or simply the fact that dealing with bureaucracy means using time they don’t have. Mistrust in the authorities, especially the police, is based on the different forms of violence that they face, particularly trans women. Although Priscilla believes in the saying “turn a deaf ear to ignorant words”, she admits that the insults hurt her. “Sometimes I try to act tough, but no, when you then start hearing the words, it does affect you mentally a little bit.”

Venezuelans adopt strategies to avoid these encounters in destination countries, including obtaining a regularized migration status, but this is not an absolute guarantee against discrimination or violence. Fear of xenophobia leads them to adopt passive attitudes towards abuses of authority.

Sometimes I try to act tough, but no, when you then start hearing the words, it does affect you mentally a little bit

Priscilla

Augusto grew up believing that it is better to avoid contact with public security forces out of fear of arbitrariness; but even so, in Venezuela they always protested for their rights, but stopped doing so in Colombia. They say that a few weeks ago a police officer stopped them and, after hearing their accent, took their phone from them to check if it was stolen. “They can’t do that, I mean, in Venezuela it is illegal, but what can I do if I am Venezuelan, an immigrant? They took my phone and I didn’t say anything.

Between January 2020 and May 2021, the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office handled cases for 88 Venezuelans with diverse gender identities, including dozens of cases of discrimination against sex workers, police abuse and institutional violence. The report calls for the implementation of a gender perspective in the investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office into cases of violence due to prejudice – something that has been lacking so far.

Leaving in search of freedom and a chosen family

Several LGBTIQ+ Venezuelans reported that the discrimination and persecution that they faced in their countries, along with the search for freedom to develop their life plans as diverse people has also driven them to settle in other countries.

Molinares believes that young people leave Venezuela because their partners have already done so or are in the process of doing so and therefore they can free themselves from family pressures. “When they begin to speak out from this place of sexual diversity, they want to leave this closed, often repressive, family circle. The fastest and cheapest option is to go overland to Colombia where they already have a network of people,” he says.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

For his part, Marco is aware that Peru is a machista country and that violence due to prejudice against trans people like him is a reality. But despite this, on arriving to Lima he wanted to give himself the opportunity that he never did in Venezuela due to fear. “Here, as I am alone, I’ve had to gather the courage to embrace my gender expression, my orientation and the diversity in me,” he says. Some friends in his country have been brave enough to come out of the closet, but he took this step when fleeing from Venezuela.

Now that he is a father, Marco is thinking about his new family. His partner has a young child, therefore as a father and mother the couple do all that they can to make sure that the child is not exposed to the precarious situation. This has become more difficult since the pandemic that disrupted everything.

The idea of leaving again is on his mind. But returning to Venezuela is never mentioned as an option. When he was a teenager, Marco loved the Argentine singer Gustavo Cerati and is therefore curious about that country, but he thinks that in fact Uruguay would be a “more peaceful” destination. Some friends have told him that the society there is more progressive and tolerant of differences and he knows, now more than ever, that this is an indispensable factor for a dignified life.

The country of his dreams, however, is Iceland. “If I were to move to a very far away country then it would be Iceland. I think that it is small and isolated enough for someone like me.”

Laura Vásquez Roa, the author of this feature, is an anthropologist and independent Colombian journalist who collaborated with Amnesty International for this research.

The post Between invisibility and discrimination: Venezuelan LGBTIQ+ refugees in Colombia and Peru appeared first on Amnesty International.

Today, Amnesty International and Fondation Botnar are launching a six-year Programme enabling children and young people to co-create online platforms and other digital technologies that protect their rights – and their health and well-being.

While it’s widely accepted digital technology can play a powerful role in connecting and empowering young people, significant flaws in how technology is designed, regulated and used are leaving their rights unprotected.

Children and young people around the world are being subject to data collection, cyber bullying, online abuse and exposure to explicit content. Yet tech executives and governments currently do not protect the rights of children in online spaces, in the same way that they would in the physical world. Further, there is a significant gap in data and evidence on how gaps in regulation are affecting their lives, including how it can deepen inequalities.

This partnership will ensure that issues most relevant to children and young people are front and centre, as we imagine a world in which online spaces and digital technologies are safe, supportive spaces that enable them, in all their diversity, to realise their human rights.

Rajat Khosla, Senior Director, Research, Advocacy and Policy, Amnesty International

As the first ‘digital generation’, many children and young people use digital technology as part of their everyday lives – for education, economic transactions, jobs and leisure. However, other children and young people are being left behind due to a lack of access to technology, as a result of poverty or insufficient infrastructure. Lack of equal access to technology is therefore exacerbating existing inequalities and limiting progress towards the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Amnesty International and Fondation Botnar believe urgent action is needed, and their joint Programme – RIGHTS Click, Children and Young People’s Digital Rights, Health and Well-being – has been designed to address these challenges.

Senior Director, Research, Advocacy and Policy, Amnesty International, Rajat Khosla said: “While there has been an increasing focus on children and young people’s digital rights over the last few years, today’s campaigns still largely involve adults talking to adults about issues that impact children and young people. This has to change. This partnership will ensure that issues most relevant to children and young people are front and centre, as we imagine a world in which online spaces and digital technologies are safe, supportive spaces that enable them, in all their diversity, to realise their human rights.”

CEO of Fondation Botnar, Dr Stefan Germann commented: “At Fondation Botnar, we believe that the only way to create a healthy, safe, and supportive online environment for young people is to make sure there is space for them to define and create it. For the first time, our partnership will empower young people to take centre stage as the active shapers of the human rights-respecting digital future they want to see.”

The first phase of the Programme will undertake research to better understand the challenges and provide evidence-based policy recommendations. This will culminate in the release of a research report that will analyse the impact of Artificial Intelligence, big data systems and surveillance on the health and well-being of young people, and their human rights.  

For the first time, our partnership will empower young people to take centre stage as the active shapers of the human rights-respecting digital future they want to see.

Dr Stefan Germann, CEO of Fondation Botnar

Building on the evidence collected, the second phase will work to build awareness of digital risks among children and young people. It will create a global movement to drive change and ensure youth perspectives are heard by governments and technology companies. The Programme will be active in several different geographies and combine Global work with national-level insights and strategies. Initial focus countries in the first phase are Argentina, Kenya, The Philippines and Ukraine*, and other focus countries will be selected for the second phase.

The Programme is calling on governments and technology companies to support young people’s health and well-being online. It aims to hold governments to account for children and youth rights and hold Big Tech such as Meta and Twitter to account through Amnesty’s Silicon Valley Initiative.   

The Programme will be led by the perspectives of children and young people, who will, in all their diversity, shape every stage of the Programme.

*UPDATE 31/08/2022: Ukraine has withdrawn from the Programme due to ongoing uncertainty as a result of the Russian invasion

The post Amnesty International and Fondation Botnar launch first large-scale Programme to help children and young people campaign for their digital rights appeared first on Amnesty International.

• The region has accounted for 28% of all COVID-19 deaths in the world, despite having only 8.4% of the global population.
• Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people living in poverty remains 14 million higher compared to 2019.
• Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people living in extreme poverty in LAC has risen by 16 million.
• LAC was the region that experienced the most drastic drop in employment in 2020. Women, young people and people working in the informal sector have been the most impacted.
• Almost 60% of the children who missed an entire school year in the world were in LAC.
• 44 million people became food insecure, of which 21 million became severely food insecure.

COVID-19 Exacerbated by Inequality

• LAC continues to be the world’s most unequal region. In 2019, the richest 20% of the population held almost half of total income, while the poorest 20% held less than 5% of total income.
• The richest 1% in the region holds almost one quarter of total income.
• There is a link between higher levels of income inequality and the impact of the pandemic in terms of lives lost. The most unequal countries in the region (such as Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Paraguay) had very high numbers of COVID-19 deaths per million people.
• In 2019, 30% of homes in the region were considered overcrowded. 50% of homes of people living in poverty were overcrowded.
• Less than a third of vulnerable households have access to a computer at home.

Social Protection Responses and Health during COVID-19

• In 2019, only 47.2% of employed persons were affiliated or contributed to pension systems. One in four people aged 65 or over did not receive a pension.
• In most LAC countries, emergency social protection measures adopted covered less than two thirds of the population.
• A total of 64 cash transfer programs were implemented in 24 of 33 countries. However, more than half of the interventions directly benefited less than 10% of the population, and consisted of additional amounts of less than a minimum monthly wage.
• In LAC, 30% of people do not have access to free public health care, due to the lack of health insurance coverage.
• Not one country in the LAC region expanded health insurance or enabled emergency insurance during the pandemic.
• Except from Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay, no other country in the region spends 6% of their GDP in public health, the minimum amount to secure universal healthcare established by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
• Due to the lack of effective access to free and public health, millions of families cover their health expenditures from their savings. Out-of-pocket expenses represent 28% of the total health spending in the region

Taxation and Inequality in LAC

• LAC countries collect less taxes as a percentage of GDP compared to countries with a similar level of development. On average, the region only collects 22% of GDP in taxes, compared to 33% for OECD countries
• In LAC, collection depends heavily on indirect taxes, such as consumption taxes, which disproportionately affect women and other groups who are overrepresented among the poor.
• In 2019, countries in the region collected, on average, 46% of their total tax revenues from indirect taxes, compared to only one third from direct taxes.
• Tax evasion in LAC has led to hundreds of billions of dollars of lost public revenue each year. In 2018, LAC lost approximately US$350 billion, 6.1% of GDP the region’s GDP. This amount would be sufficient to cover the minimum resources to secure universal health in the region.
• LAC countries are estimated to lose annually US$40.1 billion to corporate tax abuse. It is estimated that with the income that has been lost over the last 10 years, the region could have guaranteed access to drinking water to 492,632 people or have prevented the death of 42,281 children.

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Governments across Latin America and the Caribbean must urgently ramp up spending on the right to social protection and health in order to tackle the region’s obscene socio-economic inequality that has proven fatal during the Covid pandemic, said Amnesty International and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) in a new joint report released today.

Unequal and Lethal: Five key actions to recover from the human rights crisis unleashed by the pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean explains the factors behind the region’s disproportionate death toll from Covid compared to other parts of the world. With only 8.4% of the world’s population, the region has endured 28% of total global deaths due to COVID-19. The report finds that those countries with the highest inequality and lowest public spending on health and social protection suffered most during the pandemic, with the most devasting impacts on historically marginalized groups.

A human rights-based rethink of economic policies is key to avoiding future calamities in what is, by many measures, the world’s most unequal region. Despite the staggering inequality and poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, over the last decades governments have failed to collect sufficient tax revenues and to do so in a way that combats inequality, even during times of economic boom. This has inevitably resulted in meagre spending on healthcare services and social protection – including unemployment, pensions and childcare support – which are vital for a life of dignity and to truly uphold human rights for all.  

“Governments have the obligation to proactively mobilize the resources needed to protect their populations from the worst impacts of discrimination, disease and economic disaster. If Latin American countries had done this in the decades before the pandemic, the region could have avoided so much pain and loss of life,” said Kate Donald, Acting Executive Director of CESR. “Now is their chance to prevent the next inequality-induced disaster and make the shift towards a rights-based economy.”

Countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Peru, where the richest 1% of the population hoards over 30% of national wealth, have recorded the highest numbers of Covid deaths in the region proportional to their populations. Chile, where the richest 20% of the population takes home 10 times more income than the poorest 20%, also has one of the region’s highest death rates per capita.

Governments have the obligation to proactively mobilize the resources needed to protect their populations from the worst impacts of discrimination, disease and economic disaster

Kate Donald, Acting Executive Director of CESR

While many Latin American countries provided cash transfers during the pandemic, none of them expanded health insurance nor took sufficient action to implement universal social security mechanisms and expand coverage to ensure the most disadvantaged people were covered.

The impact of these shortcomings across the region fell most severely on women, who lost jobs at a higher rate than men and whose disproportionate role in caring for children and family continues to affect their unequal enjoyment of rights – even more so if they are Indigenous or of African descent.

“Being born with a certain skin colour or growing up in a certain postcode should not determine your chances of dying of infectious diseases like Covid. Two years into the pandemic, governments in Latin America have still not caught on to the urgency of implementing a human rights-based approach to recovering from the pandemic and tackling inequality,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

“Promoting equality does not mean treating everyone in the same way. Latin America’s present situation is the result of hundreds of years of colonial injustices that mean certain groups have been historically and systematically denied their rights. As countries recover from the pandemic governments need to address this head on by adopting a substantive equality approach and affirmative action measures.”

Although the Pan American Health Organization calls for a minimum of 6% of GDP to be spent on health in order to ensure universal coverage, nearly all the countries in the region spend far less on public health services, which means that they do not have enough hospital beds, doctors or nurses to effectively deal with Covid-19 or other health crises. In Peru, for example, in the decade prior to the pandemic, authorities failed to increase public spending on health despite years of sustained economic growth, only investing 3.3% of its GDP. Meanwhile in Mexico, over 15 million people lost access to health coverage in the two years before the pandemic, due to bureaucratic inefficiencies in government health policies.

In Chile, taxes and social security contributions only account for half of spending on healthcare, with the other half coming from patients through mandatory prepayment fees and voluntary and out-of-pocket expenses. Chile’s per capita public spending on health represents just a third of the OECD average, and it has half as many hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants as the OECD average.

“Being born with a certain skin colour or growing up in a certain postcode should not determine your chances of dying of infectious diseases like Covid

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Even when they have adequate policies in theory, governments stumble on implementation, with a key barrier often being the failure to generate sufficient fiscal resources to make them effective. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean generally collect less revenue from taxes than others with similar levels of development in different parts of the world. In 2019, the region only collected on average 22% of its GDP in taxes, compared to 33% for OECD countries.

Moreover, many have regressive taxation systems with taxes that do not ask enough from those most able to pay, thus undermining their resources to overcome inequality and redistribute wealth. For example, Latin American countries depend heavily on indirect taxes – which are more regressive as they represent a larger burden for poorer sections of the population – and collect very little from wealth taxes which target economic elites.

“Without boldly facing the need to tax more and tax better – as is their human rights obligation – countries in Latin America will continue to be dragged down by a malaise of socio-economic inequality, favouring a rich elite while harming society as a whole,” said Kate Donald.

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Amnesty International Report 2021/22: The State of the World’s Human Rights details how, two years into the pandemic, the Americas is still the region with the most deaths from Covid-19, largely due to limited and unequal access to healthcare, poorly funded public health systems, and inadequate social protection policies and measures for marginalized communities. Impunity for grave human rights violations and crimes under international law remains a serious concern in more than half the countries in the region, while attacks on judicial independence have also increased.

“It’s shameful and unconscionable that instead of addressing the injustices and deep-seated inequalities that have plagued the Americas for generations and exacerbated the impact of the pandemic, many governments have instead sought to silence and repress those who protest peacefully and speak out in demand of a safer, fairer and more compassionate world,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

The Americas has achieved the world’s second-highest vaccination rates per capita, with Cuba and Chile leading the way in vaccinating over 90 percent of their populations, but unequal regional access has undermined protection in countries like Haiti, where less than two percent of the population had been vaccinated as of 10 March 2022. Meanwhile, wealthy nations such as the USA and Canada stockpiled more doses than needed and turned a blind eye as Big Pharma put profits ahead of people, refusing to share their technology to enable wider distribution of vaccines.

“Many states in the Americas have made encouraging progress in vaccinating their populations, but they must do much more to ensure equal and universal access to vaccines in every country and address the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected those who already face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalization, such as women and Indigenous and Afro-descendent people,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

Even before the pandemic, the Americas had the world’s highest rates of income inequality. The continent’s uneven economic recovery last year made little impact on the consequences of decades of structural inequality and proved insufficient to reverse the 2020 economic downturn, which brought record unemployment, falling incomes and increases in poverty. This has worsened preexisting humanitarian emergencies in countries like Haiti and Venezuela, where millions of people continue to lack access to sufficient food and health care.

It’s shameful and unconscionable that instead of addressing the injustices and deep-seated inequalities that have plagued the Americas for generations and exacerbated the impact of the pandemic, many governments have instead sought to silence and repress those who protest peacefully and speak out in demand of a safer, fairer and more compassionate world

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Meanwhile, efforts to stifle independent and critical voices gathered steam in 2021 as states deployed a widening gamut of tools and tactics, including threats, harassment, politically motivated arbitrary arrests, unfounded prosecutions, unlawful surveillance, excessive use of force, enforced disappearance and unlawful killings, to crack down on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

At least 36 states in the USA introduced more than 80 pieces of draft legislation limiting the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, while in Colombia authorities brutally repressed protesters during last year’s National Strike, resulting in 46 deaths, 3,275 arbitrary detentions, over 100 ocular injuries, and 49 reports of sexual violence.

Cuban authorities also arbitrarily detained hundreds of people during historic protests last July and banned another march to call for their release in October, as well as resorting to internet shutdowns to prevent people from sharing information about repression and organizing in response. Surreptitious digital technologies were further weaponized in El Salvador, where NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was deployed against journalists and activists on a massive scale.

Dozens of journalists and media workers were threatened, censored, attacked and detained across the region, with Mexico remaining the world’s most lethal country for journalists after recording nine killings in 2021 and at least eight more in early 2022.

Excessive and unnecessary use of force in law enforcement operations also proved deadly in many countries, including Brazil, where the deadliest ever operation by police in Rio de Janeiro left 27 residents of the Jacarezinho favela dead last May. In the USA, police shot dead at least 888 people in 2021, with Black people disproportionately impacted.

Racism and discrimination remained prevalent across the Americas, with inadequate access to water, sanitation, health services and social benefits exacerbating the impact of the pandemic on Indigenous peoples in particular. Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela all continued to allow major extractive, agricultural and infrastructure projects to proceed without obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of affected Indigenous peoples, and sometimes despite judicial orders to suspend operations.

Despite some progress, action on climate change remained limited. The Escazú Agreement, a regional treaty for environmental justice and the protection of environmental defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean, finally came into force last April, although Cuba, Honduras and Venezuela have yet to sign it and 12 other countries have still not ratified it. The USA rejoined the Paris Agreement under President Biden and sought to reverse hundreds of laws and policies that the Trump administration passed to deregulate the environmental and energy sectors, but it continued to approve oil drilling projects on federal land.

Brazil’s President Bolsonaro continued to encourage deforestation and extraction of natural resources in the Amazon, exacerbating the impact of the climate crisis on Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories, and drawing accusations of genocide and ecocide before the International Criminal Court. Elsewhere, Canada continued to subsidize the fossil fuel industry, Bolivia passed regulations that incentivized logging and the burning of forests, and Mexico, the world’s 11^th largest greenhouse gas emitter, failed to present new emission reduction targets at COP26.

Tens of thousands of people – mostly from Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela – fled human rights violations related to violence, poverty, inequality and climate change throughout the year. Yet the governments of Canada, Chile, Curaçao, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA continued to prohibit the entry of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, and violated international law by deporting, without proper consideration of their claims, those who did make it across borders.

Tens of thousands of Haitian refugees sought international protection, but governments across the region failed to shield them from detention and unlawful pushbacks, extortion, racial discrimination and gender-based violence. US border control officials pushed back over a million refugees and migrants at the US-Mexico border, including tens of thousands of unaccompanied children, using Covid-19 public health provisions as a pretext.

Gender-based violence remains a major concern across the region, with measures to protect women and girls inadequate throughout the region, and investigations into domestic violence, rape and femicide often flawed. Mexico recorded 3,716 killings of women in 2021, of which 969 were investigated as femicides, while Mexican security forces used excessive force, arbitrary detentions and sexual violence against women protesters. Both Paraguay and Puerto Rico declared states of emergency because of increased violence against women and there were also significant increases in violence against women in Peru and Uruguay.

The Americas saw some limited progress in the recognition of the rights of LGBTI people last year with Argentina introducing identity cards recognizing people who identify as non-binary and passing a law to promote the employment of trans people. President Biden’s government took steps to repeal the previous administration’s discriminatory policies toward LGBTI people in the USA, but hundreds of state-level bills were also introduced that would curtail their rights.

From Argentina to Colombia, the green tide has built up unstoppable momentum and shown that change is possible even in seemingly hopeless situations. The feminist activists of the Americas are an inspiration for all the world to never stop standing up for human rights 

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Legislation that would better protect the rights of LGBTI people was blocked in many parts of the region, while individuals in several countries continued to be the targets of discrimination and violence because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. The Americas accounted for 316 of 375 trans and gender-diverse people reported murdered worldwide from October 2020 to September 2021, with Brazil recording 125 killings – more than any other country on earth.

Many governments did not do enough to prioritize sexual and reproductive health in 2021. Essential services were lacking, and safe abortion services remained criminalized in most countries, with the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua maintaining total bans on abortion. State governments in the USA introduced more abortion restrictions than in any other year, with Texas enacting a near-total ban that criminalizes abortion just six weeks into pregnancy.

Undeterred, Latin America’s vibrant feminist movement has continued to gain momentum since Argentina legalized abortion in late 2020, with Mexico’s Supreme Court declaring the criminalization of abortion unconstitutional in September 2021 and in Colombia’s Constituional Court decriminalizing abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in February 2022.

“From Argentina to Colombia, the green tide has built up unstoppable momentum and shown that change is possible even in seemingly hopeless situations. The feminist activists of the Americas are an inspiration for all the world to never stop standing up for human rights,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas. 

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Amnesty International press office: press@amnesty.org

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In the Americas, Amnesty International Report 2020/21: The State of the World’s Human Rights documents how women, refugees, migrants, under-protected health workers, Indigenous Peoples, Black people and other groups historically forgotten by governments have borne the brunt of the pandemic, while some leaders have exploited the crisis to ramp up their assault on human rights.

“Over the last year we’ve witnessed certain leaders in the Americas respond to the pandemic with a mixture of denial, opportunism and contempt for human rights. We cannot continue down the road to ruin, repeating the mistakes that left the region ravaged by inequality, discrimination and destruction, even before COVID-19 struck,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

The governments of the Americas must rebuild the region into one grounded in fairness, compassion and humanity

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

The Americas has been the region worst hit by COVID-19, with over 54 million cases and 1.3 million deaths. The USA, Brazil and Mexico have the world’s highest absolute death tolls, after their governments, along with those of Nicaragua and Venezuela, issued confused health messages, failed to implement policies to protect those most at risk, or failed to ensure full transparency.

“The governments of the Americas must rebuild the region into one grounded in fairness, compassion and humanity. The first step towards this is to prioritize the needs of those left behind by decades of abandonment and divisive policies and guarantee their access to COVID-19 vaccines. They must also take bold and comprehensive measures to address the disproportionate social and economic effects of the pandemic on people who have been historically discriminated against, to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to live in safety and enjoy their human rights,”  said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

The Americas began 2020 as the world’s most unequal region and this only worsened under the pandemic, with an additional 22 million people falling into poverty, while the number living in extreme poverty grew by 8 million. COVID-19 hit the region’s vast informal economy hard, while government measures frequently undermined the social, economic and cultural rights of those in the most precarious situations.

At least 10,558 health workers across the Americas had died from COVID-19 as of 5 March 2021, with health professionals in almost every country complaining about their governments’ failure to provide safe working conditions and sufficient personal protective equipment. Those who spoke out sometimes faced sanctions, as in Nicaragua, where at at least 31 health workers were dismissed after expressing their concerns.

Arbitrary arrests were common and often linked to the enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions, with some countries forcibly quarantining people in state-run centers that failed to meet sanitary and physical distancing standards. As people continued to flee violence, poverty and the effects of the climate crisis, several governments detained refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in conditions that left them at high risk of contracting COVID-19, while others forcibly returned people without proper consideration of their asylum claims.

Under the pretext of public health measures, US authorities summarily detained and deported almost all asylum-seekers on the US-Mexico border, expelling over half a million migrants and asylum-seekers from March 2020 through February 2021, including over 13,000 unaccompanied children as of November 2020.

Poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding were features of many of the region’s prisons, with inadequate state measures denying inmates their right to health and exposing them to COVID-19. There were at least 90 prison riots across the region protesting precarious conditions as concern about the pandemic grew between March and May.

COVID-19 restrictions also impacted freedom of expression, which remained under threat in Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay, Venezuela and Mexico, which was the world’s deadliest country for journalists in 2020. Rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly were also denied or unduly restricted by the police or military, with unlawful use of force recorded in more than a dozen countries.

Racial injustice and discrimination persisted, with the killing of George Floyd leading millions of people in the USA to join the Black Lives Matter protests. US police violently repressed those protests and failed to protect peaceful demonstrators from violent counter-protesters. Elsewhere, police violence in Brazil escalated during the pandemic, with at least 3,181 people – 79% of them Black – killed by police between January and June. Impunity and a lack of access to justice remained a serious concern in much of the region.

The pandemic intensified the crisis of violence against women and girls across the Americas, with lockdown measures leading to a marked increase in domestic violence, rape and femicide. Measures to protect women and girls were inadequate throughout the region and investigations into cases of gender-based violence were often inadequate and insufficient. 

Many governments have not done enough to prioritize sexual and reproductive health as essential services during the pandemic. Abortion remained criminalized in most countries, posing a serious obstacle to the right to health. The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua still have total bans on abortion, while 18 women remained in jail on charges related to obstetric emergencies in El Salvador.

LGBTI people were the targets of violence and killings in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and the USA. At least 287 trans and gender-diverse people were killed in the continent last year.

Indigenous Peoples were heavily affected by COVID-19 because of inadequate access to clean water, sanitation, health services, social benefits, and a lack of culturally appropriate mechanisms to protect their rights to health and livelihoods. Moreover, several countries declared mining an essential sector during the pandemic, exposing Indigenous Peoples to contagion. Indigenous Peoples’ rights remained under threat, with many governments failing to ensure their free, prior and informed consent before greenlighting major extractive, agricultural and infrastructure projects that affect them.

We draw strength from the passion and resilience that we have witnessed from activists across the region, especially from women, young people and anti-racist activists. Their courage in the face of adversity shows us that we can create a more just world for everyone

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Latin America and the Caribbean continued to be the most dangerous region for human rights defenders, especially those working to defend their land, territory and the environment, and Colombia remained the world’s most lethal country for defenders. Nonetheless, 2020 also brought cause for hope, with human rights defenders achieving great victories and refusing to be silenced.

Argentina made history in December by becoming the largest nation in Latin America to legalize abortion, thanks to a sustained campaign by a vibrant feminist movement. In November, Mexico became the 11^th country in Latin America and the Caribbean to ratify the Escazú Agreement, an unprecedented regional treaty for the protection of the environment and environmental defenders, meaning it will come into effect on 22 April 2021. And although action on climate change remained limited across the continent, Chile became the first country in the region, and one of the first in the world, to submit a 2030 emission reduction target.

“While the first year of the pandemic has been particularly difficult for the Americas, we draw strength from the passion and resilience that we have witnessed from activists across the region, especially from women, young people and anti-racist activists. Their courage in the face of adversity shows us that we can create a more just world for everyone,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Amnesty International press office:  press@amnesty.org

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“This is a victory for the women’s movement in Argentina, which has been fighting for its rights for decades. Now, people who decide to terminate their pregnancy will have a safe, high-quality service. Today we have grown as a society. Amnesty International is going to work to ensure that the state guarantees compliance with legal abortion throughout the country,” said Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina.

The bill was passed with 38 votes in favour, 29 against and 1 abstentions in the Senate, with support from multiple parties across the political spectrum. The law recognizes the right of women and people with reproductive capacity to take free and informed decisions about their bodies and enables the Argentine state to move towards meeting its commitments in the areas of public health and human rights.

Today we have grown as a society. Amnesty International is going to work to ensure that the state guarantees compliance with legal abortion throughout the country

Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina

“Today Argentina has made an emblematic step forward in defending the rights of women, girls and people with reproductive capacity. It has also sent a strong message of hope to our entire continent: that we can change course against the criminalization of abortion and against clandestine abortions, which pose serious risks to the health and lives of millions of people. Both the law passed by the Argentine Congress today and the enormous effort of the women’s movement to achieve this are an inspiration to the Americas, and to the world,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Key points of the new law

• Abortion is freely available until the 14^th week of pregnancy.
• After that time, abortion is legal in case of danger to the life or health of the pregnant woman or in cases of rape.
• Terminations can be accessed through either the public or private health system, no more than 10 days after a request.
• People aged 16 or over have full capacity to give their own consent; girls aged 13 to 16 are presumed to have sufficient ability and maturity to decide on the practice and give due consent unless a procedure involving serious risk to their health or life is to be used (as set out in Article 26 of the National Civil and Commercial Code).
• Healthcare workers must provide dignified treatment, guarantee the privacy and confidentiality of information, and respect autonomy of will.
• Any public official or health worker who delays, obstructs or refuses to perform an abortion in legally authorized cases may be criminally sanctioned and disqualified from practise.

  Today Argentina has made an emblematic step forward in defending the rights of women, girls and people with reproductive capacity. It has also sent a strong message of hope to our entire continent: that we can change course against the criminalization of abortion and against clandestine abortions, which pose serious risks to the health and lives of millions of people

  Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

All that remains is for the law to be published in the Official Gazette. This historic decision places Argentina among a group of more than 50 countries that have put an end to unsafe abortions.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Amnesty International press office (Amnesty International Americas): press@amnesty.org

Gustavo Streger (Amnesty International Argentina): gstreger@amnistia.org.ar

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“This is an achievement of the women’s movement and a demand from different social groups who have never given up on the cause. The Senate cannot afford to turn its back on women once again and must press forward to pass the law, without further delay. Legal abortion is an imperative for social justice, for reproductive justice and for human rights,” said Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina.

“The debate of the past few years has been very positive and has succeeded in making visible the failure of the criminalization of women as a state policy. The Senate must now put an end to clandestine abortions. The legalization of abortion saves lives and addresses a key public health issue”.

The bill, which received 131 votes in favour, 117 against and 6 abstentions, decriminalizes and legalizes abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Once this period has passed, abortion would continue to be legal in cases of risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman or in cases of rape. The bill is in keeping with the fulfillment of the commitments that the Argentine state has undertaken with respect to public health and human rights.

This is an achievement of the women’s movement and a demand from different social groups who have never given up on the cause

Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina

As the bill now passes to the Senate, Amnesty International reiterates the obligation of both Chambers of Congress to honor the international human rights commitments that the country has assumed.

In the last 25 years, more than 50 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, China, South Africa and Uruguay have amended their legislation on abortion, recognizing that access to safe abortion is fundamental for the protection of women and girls’ rights, life, health and autonomy.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:

Amnesty International press office (Amnesty International Americas): press@amnesty.org

Gustavo Streger (Amnesty International Argentina): gstreger@amnistia.org.ar

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