The Russian General Prosecutor’s Office Thursday designated two more US–based organizations as “undesirable” under a draconian law adopted last year, as it continued to turn the screw on Russian civil society and cut off potential avenues of foreign funding.

The International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based non-profit group funded by the US Congress, and the New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) are just the latest in a list of organizations to be blacklisted in this way.

“This move is designed to send yet another unmistakable message: Russian NGOs and independent media should steer clear of foreign funders – and foreign funders should steer clear of Russia,” said Sergei Nikitin, Director of Amnesty International Russia.

“This decision will not just hit Russian civil society, but also the communities and individuals they provide valuable services to.”

“The true aim of the law is to isolate Russian civil society, intimidate human rights defenders and suffocate the free press that are facing increasing difficulties in accessing sustainable funding.”

Sergei Nikitin, Amnesty International Russia

In a statement posted on its website, the Prosecutor General’s office said that its investigation showed that the activities of IRI and MDIF had been posing “a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and national security,” without giving any further details. The work of both organizations is now illegal, any Russian assets they own have been frozen, and their foreign staff members have been denied entry to the country.

Background

Since the adoption of the law in July 2015, five other American non-profit organizations were added into the list of “undesirable” organizations: The National Endowment for Democracy, OSI Assistance Foundation, Open Society Foundation, U.S.-Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law and National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

A notorious “patriotic list” of potential “undesirable” organizations widely distributed in the upper house of Russia’s parliament last year contains a dozen non-profit groups in all.

Australia urgently needs an independent investigator for all places of detention, after over 1,000 pages of documents detailing abuse and mistreatment against children in detention in Queensland have been uncovered by Amnesty International today.

Abuse and secrecy

“We’ve shone a light into the dark corners of these detention centres, and found a culture of abuse and secrecy going back many years,” said Roxanne Moore, Indigenous Rights Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia.

“It shouldn’t take the probing of an international human rights organisation for the public to hear about terrible abuses suffered by children in detention.”

“It shouldn’t take the probing of an international human rights organisation for the public to hear about terrible abuses suffered by children in detention.”

Roxanne Moore, Amnesty International

“This culture of secrecy has existed for many years, through successive governments. The problem is systemic and goes beyond politics. Queensland kids need bipartisan support to create a more humane and preventative justice system, focused on rehabilitating vulnerable children, rather than further traumatising them,” said Roxanne Moore.

Brutal response

The documents include incidents at Townsville’s Cleveland Youth Detention Centre (CYDC) and Brisbane Youth Detention Centre (BYDC) from 2010 to 2015. On an average day in 2015, 89 per cent of children in CYDC were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

“This culture of secrecy has existed for many years, through successive governments. The problem is systemic and goes beyond politics.”

Roxanne Moore, Amnesty International

One incident at CYDC in January 2013 involved a 17-year-old boy identified as being at a high suicide risk. When he refused to return to his room and sat on a bench with his arms folded, 14 staff responded to the situation. Several staff members held him down on the floor, putting him in handcuffs and legcuffs. They then took the child to a tiny isolation cell where they cut his clothing and underpants off with a knife. The boy was left naked in the cell for over an hour, before being given a gown to wear.

Despite the brutal nature of this event, it was not reported as an ‘incident of concern’. An internal review was not held immediately afterwards because the child himself did not make a complaint. The inspectorate later recommended an internal review, but the documents do not say if it was carried out.

“This case demonstrates both the failure of care for vulnerable children, and the lack of accountability in the detention system,”

Roxanne Moore, Amnesty International

“It should not be left to a traumatised, suicidal boy to report the abuse carried out against him, in order for people to be held responsible for serious violations against a child in their care.”

Other incidents outlined in the documents include:

• Use of dogs. In 2014, a child on a roof threatened to self-harm or suicide by hanging. A security guard and his dog were deployed to the scene, which was found to increase the young person’s anxiety. In August 2015, a guard allowed an un-muzzled dog to approach an Indigenous girl in an “aggressive manner” while she was attempting to get out of a pool. Amnesty International has documented the use of dogs to instil fear into prisoners as a torture method used around the world.
• Solitary confinement. In March 2012 eight Indigenous children were held in isolation for 10 days in “near-continuous cell confinement” (approximately 22 hours a day). For the first two days of isolation, they were not allowed to leave their rooms at all.
• Frequent attempts at self harm or suicide, particularly at CYDC. According to the documents, last year saw 31 incidents of children in CYDC attempting suicide by “tying ligatures around their necks”. This number rose from 20 instances at CYDC in 2014.
• Excessive use of force. For example, in 2010 at CYDC there were four incidents when children suffered fractured wrists as a result of control and restraint techniques.
• Partially clothed searches, during which children were asked to squat, with young girls asked to lift their breasts and young boys to lift their genitals prior to squatting – despite practices of squatting and lifting being prohibited in adult prisons.

Amnesty International is calling for an independent body to be appointed, entirely separate from the Queensland Government, to investigate all allegations of abuse in detention and make public the findings.

Any staff suspected of being involved in abuse should be suspended until investigations are completed.

Any staff suspected of being involved in abuse should be suspended until investigations are completed.

The Federal Government must ensure independent oversight mechanisms are established in every State and Territory, by immediately ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

“No more secrecy, no more sweeping it under the carpet. We’ve seen abuses happening in Northern Territory detention, now we’ve seen them in Queensland – we know it’s happening everywhere. It’s time to turn the spotlight into places of detention across Australia, so these abuses never happen again,” said Roxanne Moore.

The Huthi armed group in control of parts of Yemen must immediately ensure the release of all 27 members of the Bahá’í religion who have been detained in the capital, Sana’a, for a week without charge, in a blatant case of persecution of a minority faith.

Armed officers in balaclavas from Yemen’s National Security Bureau (NSB) intelligence agency, which works hand in hand with the armed Huthi authorities, stormed a Bahá’í youth workshop in Sana’a on 10 August and arrested 65 people, including 14 women and six people under 18 without an arrest warrant. Further arrests were carried out yesterday.

“The arbitrary arrests of Bahá’í people for doing nothing more than attending a peaceful community event is completely unjustifiable. It is just the latest example of authorities’ persecution of minority faiths,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“The Huthis must end their harassment of minorities and respect the right to freedom of religion – a right that is enshrined in the country’s own constitution and international law.”

Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International

Some of the arrested participants were released, while the al-Sakkaf brothers — the husbands of two detained women — were later called into the NSB and were also arrested. Twenty-seven still remain in the agency’s custody without access to lawyers or family visits.

The detentions of Bahá’ís on account of their faith violate Yemen’s obligations under international law and appear to be part of a wider crackdown on minorities by the Huthi authorities. The Bahá’ís were also persecuted on account of their faith under ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh prior to the armed conflict.

The al-Sakkaf brothers were previously apprehended by Huthi authorities in March 2015 and held for two days, and were interrogated about their faith and other members of the community. They were released without charge.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Yemen ratified in 1987, guarantees the right of everyone to have or adopt a religion or belief of their choice and to practise their religion “individually or … with others and in public or private”.

Yemen’s penal code, however, imposes penalties for the “crime” of apostasy as well as for attempting to convert Muslims to other faiths.

Yemen’s penal code.. imposes penalties for the “crime” of apostasy as well as for attempting to convert Muslims to other faiths.

The detention of the Bahá’ís for a week without charge and without being brought before a court also breaches the provision in Yemen’s constitution, which requires that anybody arrested must be presented in court within 24 hours from the time of arrest.

In another case, Bahá’í member Hamed Haydara is due for his final court hearing on 25 September 2016. He was detained in December 2013 and accused of trying to convert Muslims to the Baha’i faith.

He is also charged, among other things, with apostasy, working on behalf of the Israeli government and undermining the independence of the Yemeni State, all of which carry a mandatory death sentence under Yemeni law. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception.

Responding to today’s reports that the Australian Government-run refugee detention centre on Manus Island will close Anna Neistat, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, said:

“While welcoming the news that the centre will close Amnesty International urges the Australian Government to bring those currently held there to Australia. The Australian Government has for many years been shamefully outsourcing to PNG and Nauru its responsibilities to protect and fairly process hundreds of people who are seeking safety. We must not forget that the Government set up a system of deliberate abuse of and cruelty towards almost two thousand men, women and children who are simply looking for a safe place to rebuild their lives.”

“We must not forget that the Government set up a system of deliberate abuse of and cruelty towards almost two thousand men, women and children who are simply looking for a safe place to rebuild their lives.”

ANNA NEISTAT, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

“Amnesty International calls on Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton to urgently confirm the timeframe by which it will close the detention centre and safely settle refugees in Australia.”

“Offshore processing can no longer be part of Australia’s response to those attempting to arrive here by boat seeking protection.”

Anna Neistat, Amnesty International

Amnesty recently investigated conditions in Nauru, and in November 2013 our team of investigators visited Manus Island. We found patterns of deliberate abuse at the hands of the Australian Government. These abuses are finally becoming known to other countries around the world.

“It is high time the people currently trapped on Manus Island in PNG and on Nauru to be immediately brought to Australia to assess their refugee claims and live in the community.”

“The Australian Government must be held accountable for the many years of harm it has inflicted upon people seeking its protection, as well as shoulder its share of responsibility and treat people seeking asylum fairly.”

Anna Neistat, Amnesty International

Increased humanitarian assistance is urgently required to alleviate the suffering of millions of Iraqis displaced across the country and to provide basic services to hundreds of thousands of people who are expected to be displaced by military operations to recapture territory controlled by the group calling itself Islamic State (IS).

Humanitarian organizations have already been struggling to meet the most basic needs of the more than 3.4 million people who have been forced to flee IS rule and ongoing fighting to recapture IS territory. The impending battle for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and an IS stronghold, is expected to displace hundreds of thousands more in the coming months.

“Unless humanitarian aid is adequately funded, planned for and implemented, the potential influx of hundreds of thousands more displaced people fleeing the fighting and horrific abuses under IS control will push Iraq past breaking point with devastating consequences,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Advisor who is leading the research mission to Iraq.

“Unless humanitarian aid is adequately funded …hundreds of thousands more displaced people fleeing the fighting and horrific abuses under IS control will push Iraq past breaking point with devastating consequences.”

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International

“We have witnessed how the vast majority of displaced people in camps or living in unfinished building sites across the country already have little or no access to basic necessities and medical care. The Iraqi authorities’ response to displaced people has been woefully insufficient and much of the world has largely ignored their plight.”

The international community has ploughed the vast majority of their resources and efforts into providing support to the military operations to combat IS.

“The Iraqi authorities’ response to displaced people has been woefully insufficient and much of the world has largely ignored their plight.”

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International

“While the international community, including the USA, European states and others, has been eager to provide financial backing to the military campaign against IS, it has been far slower to provide contributions to alleviate the consequences on the civilian population. World leaders must urgently step up their funding for humanitarian assistance to those displaced civilians, some of whom were forced to flee due to the military operations supported by the international community,” said Donatella Rovera.

“Additional international funding is desperately needed to meet the basic needs of the millions already displaced and prepare for further mass displacement from military operations to retake Mosul and the surrounding areas.”

UN agencies have reported a shortfall of 53% of the funding needed to meet their crisis response plan for 2016.

For people like Ahmad, a father of seven, displaced from Iraq’s north-west Ninewa province, the consequences are disastrous. He described to Amnesty International how he has struggled to feed his family after his home and livelihood were destroyed:

“At night I go to sleep dreading the morning, because I have nothing left to offer to my children and I can’t bear to look them in the eye,” he said.

“At night I go to sleep dreading the morning, because I have nothing left to offer to my children and I can’t bear to look them in the eye.”

Ahmad, a displaced father of seven

Five weeks after he and his family arrived at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of the northern town of Dibega, they have not yet received a tent. The women and children of the family are sheltering along with hundreds of others in the camp’s very overcrowded school – with 50 or more people squeezed into each room. The men are stranded in a nearby area of the camp where they are forced to sleep in the open air among piles of rubbish and open sewage. Whatever little food is available can’t be preserved in the stifling heat, with the temperature reaching over 50 degrees Celsius.

In the space of a few weeks the camp for IDPs in Dibega has grown to the size of a small town, now hosting more than 30,000 people who fled IS-controlled areas.

In Anbar governorate, west of Baghdad, where more people have been displaced by the conflict than anywhere else in the country, the situation is similarly dire. Sprawling camps in the desert have buckled under the pressure of an influx of 87,000 more displaced people since the military offensive to retake the city of Falluja and surrounding areas began at the end of May.

“We survived hell under Daesh (IS) and hoped to find relief here,” Hala, a mother of six, told Amnesty International in an IDP camp in Anbar’s Khalidiya area. Her husband has been missing since being abducted by IS two years ago.

“I have received very little help in the two months I have been here. For weeks we had nothing to sleep on. Now we have a tent, but nothing else,” she said.

“For weeks we had nothing to sleep on. Now we have a tent, but nothing else.”

Hala, a displaced mother of six

“What’s even more tragic is that the suffering of these people could have been avoided if the authorities had been better prepared. Instead, families who arrive, exhausted from treacherous journeys and months of life under siege, with nothing but the clothes on their back, are forced to endure further hardship,” said Donatella Rovera.

Security measures compounding the crisis

Security measures and restrictions combined with unclear bureaucratic requirements have also exacerbated the growing humanitarian crisis.

Those displaced by recent and ongoing military operations are predominantly members of the Arab Sunni community and are subjected to security screening.

All men considered of fighting age (roughly between the ages of 15 and 65) who escape areas under IS control are separated from their families to undergo screening and interrogations, which can last from a few days to months for those released and not referred to trial or for further investigation.

They are held in transit sites near IDP camps or makeshift detention facilities, where conditions are squalid, characterized by severe overcrowding, shortages of latrines and other sanitation facilities, little food and a lack of basic necessities. Some are held outdoors with little protection from the scorching sun. Those in detention sites are frequently denied communication with their families. These flawed and opaque security procedures are applied by both Iraqi central government and the authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

One woman in Dibega told Amnesty International that she had not heard from her son Hassan, a 20-year-old agricultural worker, since he had been taken away by security forces while they were trying to reach the camp.

“I just want to know where he is; he is my only son. The officers who took him away told me they would bring him back before sunset but it has been over a month and I don’t know where he is,” she said.

“I just want to know where he is; he is my only son.”

a displaced mother in dibega

Security is also cited as a reason to prevent many displaced people from leaving the IDP camps. They must navigate onerous bureaucratic procedures and often require a local sponsor to seek permission to enter cities.

Others have been prevented from returning to their towns and villages even though these have long been recaptured from IS and secured by forces loyal to the Iraqi government or the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Nominally for security grounds, the authorities mostly impose such restrictions in the so-called “disputed areas” in the north of the country. These areas are now under de-facto control of Shi’a-backed paramilitaries or the KRG, and have long been the subject of territorial disputes.

These often arbitrarily imposed restrictions severely limit the ability of displaced people to access the job market leaving them dependent on humanitarian aid.

Ali, a farmer and father in an IDP camp in Guermawa, north-western Iraq told Amnesty International:

“Back home in the village we have a house and I could cultivate the land and feed my children. Here we are sleeping on the ground in dust and are forced to rely on whatever little humanitarian assistance we can get, when we can get it.”

While the Iraqi authorities have the right and duty to protect the lives and physical integrity of civilians within their border, security procedures must comply with international law. Existing arbitrary restrictions on the freedom of movement of IDPs, including those who have been released after security screening, should be lifted.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s aerial bombardment of a hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Yemen is an atrocious attack that could amount to a war crime.

The Abs Rural Hospital which was hit at around 3:30pm local time, has treated 4,611 patients since MSF began to support it in July 2015.

“The bombardment of this hospital is a deplorable act that has cost civilian lives, including medical staff who are dedicated to helping sick and injured people under some of the most challenging conditions. Deliberately targeting medical facilities is a serious violation of international humanitarian law which would amount to a war crime. The circumstances of this attack must be thoroughly and independently investigated,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“Today’s air strike appears to be the latest in a string of unlawful attacks targeting hospitals highlighting an alarming pattern of disregard for civilian life.”

Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International