Recommendations by the European Commission to detain almost all irregular migrants before returning them to their home countries, with no limitations on where they can be apprehended, have laid bare the cruelty and hypocrisy of European Union (EU) Commissioners’ migration policies.

“Detention of irregular migrants, some of the most vulnerable people in Europe, should be a last resort.”

Iverna McGowan, Director of Amnesty International’s EU Institutions Office.

“Detention of irregular migrants, some of the most vulnerable people in Europe, should be a last resort. Instead the European Commission is pushing EU governments to round them up through almost any means necessary – whether that means through terrifying night raids, or asking social workers and doctors to cooperate in finding them. That children are included in this wide detention regime is truly shocking,” said Iverna McGowan, Director of Amnesty International’s EU Institutions Office.

“Commissioners’ recent attempts to distance themselves from the despicable migration policies of the Trump administration now ring extremely hollow. If there were any doubts remaining about the hypocrisy of the European Commission’s stance on migrants, today’s announcements ought to quash them.”

Background

The Recommendation released yesterday provides guidance on how provisions of the Return Directive should be used to reinforce national administrative processes for returns. It recommends that EU member states should by 1 June 2017 undertake a number of measures, including:

• Increasing and mobilising law enforcement and immigration authorities, if necessary on a “24/7” basis, which encourages night raids
• Coordinating with medical, judicial, detention authorities, guardianship systems and social services to swiftly implement returns
• Providing in national legislation for a maximum initial period of detention of six months and for the possibility of prolonging this to 18 months
• Ensuring national legislation does not preclude placing minors in detention or prohibits return decisions being issued to unaccompanied minors

The Australian Government has failed to commit to reforms that would prevent a future Bali-Nine situation.

Today Australia handed down its response to the report of the Parliamentary inquiry into the role Australia can play to abolish the death penalty worldwide.

“It is extremely disappointing that the Government did not take this opportunity to ensure a Bali Nine-type situation never happens again.”

Guy Ragen, Government Relations Adviser at Amnesty International Australia.

“It is extremely disappointing that the Government did not take this opportunity to ensure a Bali Nine-type situation never happens again”, said Guy Ragen, Government Relations Adviser at Amnesty International Australia.

The Parliamentary Committee recommended that the Australian Federal Police should be required to withhold giving information to other countries in relation to drug crimes unless they can obtain a guarantee the death penalty will not be applied.

“The Government had an opportunity to accept this recommendation and ensure that never again would information from Australian law enforcement facilitate the use of the death penalty”, said Guy Ragen.

“Unfortunately, the Government didn’t pick up this recommendation.”

“This is unfortunate, particularly as Australia has made a number positive commitments in response to the inquiry. The Government’s announcement that Australia is going to have a strategy to guide its advocacy against capital punishment in our region and around the world is strongly welcomed.”

“The death penalty is always wrong. It is a cruel and inhuman punishment. As a nation, we recently marked 50 years since the last execution in Australia. But this response leaves open the door for information from Australian law enforcement being used to see people – Australians included – executed overseas.

“As a country, we have to ask ourselves if this is consistent with our principled opposition to the death penalty.”

“As a country, we have to ask ourselves if this is consistent with our principled opposition to the death penalty.”

Russia and China have again abused their veto power at the United Nations Security Council today, following a vote on a draft resolution that would have helped ensure accountability for the use and production of chemical weapons by all parties to the conflict in Syria, said Amnesty International.

“By vetoing this resolution Russia and China have displayed a callous disregard for the lives of millions of Syrians. Both states are parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention– there is simply no excuse for their vetoes today,” said Sherine Tadros, head of UN office in New York for Amnesty International.

“For six years Russia, with the support of China, has blocked Security Council decisions that would have punitive consequences for the Syrian government. This behavior prevents justice and emboldens all parties to the conflict in Syria to act with indifference to international law. The message coming from the international community is that when it comes to Syria, there are no red lines.”

“By vetoing this resolution Russia and China have displayed a callous disregard for the lives of millions of Syrians.”

Sherine Tadros, head of UN office in New York for Amnesty International

Russia has now used its veto power seven times on draft resolutions on Syria since the start of the crisis. Today’s draft proposed sanctions on designated individuals linked to the production of chemical weapons in Syria, as well as an embargo on any materials that could be used to produce chemical weapons. The draft was a follow-up to the September 2013 resolution 2118 on chemical weapons in Syria, that was co-authored by Russia and the USA, and that imposes measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter on the “unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in the Syrian Arab Republic”.

In August 2015, the Security Council also unanimously adopted resolution 2235 which led to the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) that aimed at identifying those responsible for chemical attacks in Syria. Since then, the mechanism has identified the Syrian government as well as the armed group calling itself the Islamic State, as having carried out chemical attacks.

“Russia’s shameful vote today is yet another example of how it uses its veto power to make sure its ally, the Syrian government, evades consequences for its war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is of monumental importance for the newly appointed UN Secretary General, as well as  Security Council members, to speak out forcefully when states fail to vote in favour of draft resolutions aimed at preventing or ending war crimes. The Security Council is being transformed into an instrument for political posturing between the permanent members and the people of Syria are paying the ultimate price,” said Sherine Tadros.

New evidence has emerged of how the Huthi armed group is actively recruiting boys as young as 15 to fight as child soldiers on the front lines of the conflict in Yemen.

Amnesty International has spoken to the families of three boys targeted this month by the appalling practice which violates international law. The families also confirmed the recruitment of a fourth local boy.

Family members and an eyewitness told Amnesty International that the four boys, aged between 15 and 17, were recruited by fighters of the Huthi armed group, also known as Ansarullah locally, in the capital, Sana’a. They only found out that their children had been taken away after being alerted by local residents, who described seeing them and as many as six other children boarding a bus at a local Huthi centre in mid-February.

“It is appalling that Huthi forces are taking children away from their parents and their homes, stripping them of their childhood to put them in the line of fire where they could die.”

Samah Hadid, Deputy Director at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office

“It is appalling that Huthi forces are taking children away from their parents and their homes, stripping them of their childhood to put them in the line of fire where they could die,” said Samah Hadid, Deputy Director at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office.

“This is a shameful and outrageous violation of international law. The Huthis must immediately end all forms of recruitment of children under 18 and release all children within their ranks. The international community should support the rehabilitation and reintegration of demobilized children into the community.”

The families of the four boys taken in mid-February later received news that their children were at an unnamed location on the Yemeni-Saudi border.

RECRUITMENT METHOD AND INCENTIVES

Interviewees have described how Huthi representatives run local centres that hold activities such as prayers, sermons and lectures where young boys and men are encouraged to join front-line battles to defend Yemen against Saudi Arabia.

According to an eyewitness, two of the four boys were recruited by a local Huthi representative after they were sent to a Quranic school near Sana’a for an initial religious induction in January, before they were returned to their families, who had not been aware of their whereabouts. One father said that his son told him the curriculum included the history of world wars and what was described as the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s war on the Yemeni people.

Some family members said that there had been an increase in child soldier recruitment in their neighbourhoods due to the fact that many children no longer attend regular schools. The war has taken its toll on the economy and many families can no longer afford the transportation costs needed for the children to get to classes. In many places, classes are no longer running. Some teachers are on strike because they no longer receive their salaries.

According to one family member, the Huthis have imposed recruitment quotas on local representatives, which are sometimes accompanied by threats if results are not delivered.

One family member whose 16-year-old brother was taken said about the boys who are recruited: “They’re just excited to shoot Kalashnikovs and guns and wear military uniforms. They [the Huthis] have been saying that there are so few fighters [at the front line], they are going around taking one [recruit] from each family. If the son dies at the front line, a monthly salary and a gun are given to the father to keep them quiet.”

Many families fear reprisals against their children who have been taken by the Huthis or against other children or family members if they dare speak out about the recruitment.

One father said, “Many children [are recruited] but people don’t dare to talk or follow up. They’re afraid of being detained.”

Two of the interviewees told Amnesty International that the Huthis promise monetary incentives to families to appease them, pledging 20,000 to 30,000 Yemeni riyals (approximately 80 to 120 US dollars) per child per month if he becomes a martyr at the front line. The Huthis also honour the families by printing out memorial posters for their boys to be put up locally as a tribute to their contributions to the war efforts. Two of the interviewees highlighted that children who are recruited are usually from poorer backgrounds.

The names of child soldiers, family members and other interviewees, as well as the exact dates of the boys’ recruitment, have been withheld to protect their security.

BACKGROUND

As of February 2017, UN agencies have been able to document nearly 1,500 cases of children recruited by all parties to the conflict since March 2015. Human Rights Watch previously documented the recruitment, use and training of child soldiers by the Huthis in May 2015.

In 2012 Huthi leader Abdel Malik al-Huthi met with the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, and pledged to work towards ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers. However, during its last six field missions to Huthi-controlled Yemen, between January 2015 and November 2016, Amnesty International has observed the use of armed children at checkpoints. Some were carrying books in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other.

For the last few years, several parties to the conflict in Yemen have been listed in the annual report of the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict as actors that had violated children’s rights in conflict, including through recruitment and use of child soldiers. This includes the Huthis, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), several divisions of the Yemeni armed forces and certain pro-government militias.

The Saudi Arabia-led military coalition was also listed as an actor that had violated children’s rights in conflict until former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon removed it as a result of direct diplomatic pressure from Saudi Arabia. The removal flies in the face of clear evidence of the coalition violating the rights of children during the conflict in Yemen.

According to the annual report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict issued in April 2016, since the start of the conflict in Yemen in March 2015, 60% of the children killed and injured were killed or injured by actions attributed to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and 20% by actions attributed to the Huthis. Amnesty International has repeatedly documented violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by coalition members during the conflict, including against children. This includes air strikes on schools and the use of internationally banned cluster munitions which have killed three children and maimed nine.

The recruitment or use of children under 15 by parties to a conflict is a war crime according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and customary international humanitarian law. Commanders who knew or should have known of such violations and took no effective action can be held criminally liable as a matter of command responsibility.

Yemen is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which prohibit recruitment and use in hostilities of children. The Optional Protocol sets 18 as the minimum age for any participation in armed conflict by armed forces or non-state armed groups.

A bomb attack in Lahore that killed eight people is the latest in a wave of violence that shows a horrific disregard for human life.

Over the past fortnight, a series of bomb attacks claimed by a slew of armed groups has claimed the lives of more than 120 people and injured several more, raising concerns about the protection of human life.

“All those suspected of responsibility for this horrific wave of violence must be brought to justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts and without recourse to death penalty,” said Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s Pakistan campaigner.

“Pakistan’s authorities have a responsibility to protect the lives of everyone in the country, and they must do so while upholding international law and standards. Resorting to cruel and inhumane methods will not address the root causes of the problem and risks perpetuating a cycle of violence.”

The bomb attack in Lahore comes a week after more than 80 people were slain at the famed shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, Sindh. Cities attacked earlier include Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, and Dera Ismail Khan.

After the Sehwan attack, the Pakistan authorities claimed to have killed 100 “terrorists”. No details have been disclosed about any criminal investigation, who was targeted, what their involvement was in the attacks, and why they were not brought to justice in fair trials.

“The victims of these attacks deserve true justice, not a campaign of violent revenge in their name.”

Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s Pakistan campaigner.

“The victims of these attacks deserve true justice, not a campaign of violent revenge in their name,” said Nadia Rahman.

The Lahore bombing comes as Pakistan’s military announced a fresh offensive, “Operation Radd ul-Fasaad”, and the paramilitary Rangers force was given special powers to operate in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.

Amnesty International calls on the authorities to ensure that any security operations adhere to Pakistan’s obligations under international law.

The organization has documented crimes under international law and human rights violations under paramilitary troops in Karachi, including where people were subject to arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, denied access to lawyers, medical support, and guarantees of a fair trial.

“The injustices we saw in Karachi must not be revisited on people in Lahore or other parts of the country,” said Nadia Rahman.

Pakistan’s parliament is currently debating proposals to revive the mandate of military courts to try civilians, after a two year mandate lapsed on January 7.

Amnesty International considers that the criminal jurisdiction of military courts, in Pakistan and in any other country, should be limited to trials of members of the military for breaches of military discipline; it should not extend to crimes under international law or human rights violations.

In accordance with international law, Amnesty International opposes the use of military courts to try civilians and, along with other organizations, has documented a catalogue of human rights violations flowing from them, including coerced confessions, opaque processes, executions, and unfair trials.

“Every government has a responsibility to protect people’s lives and take necessary measures to provide for their security, but military courts are not the solution,” said Nadia Rahman.

“The only way to tackle with attacks on human rights is with justice, truth and reparation, not further human rights violations.”

“The only way to tackle with attacks on human rights is with justice, truth and reparation, not further human rights violations.”