- Info
05
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President must veto anti-LBGTI* legislation
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On 2 May, Uganda’s Parliament passed the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill and sent it back to President Yoweri Museveni. The President has until 31 May to either sign, veto or return the Bill back to Parliament. The Bill criminalizes consensual same-sex conduct and has retained the death penalty in cases of «aggravated homosexuality». It also allows a 20-year sentence for «promoting homosexuality», which could outlaw any advocacy for the rights of LGBTI* persons in the country. Criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct blatantly violates numerous human rights, including the rights to dignity, equality before the law, equal protection by the law, and non-discrimination. The President must veto the law and ensure the human rights of all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, are protected.
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Six Ahwazi Arabs at grave risk of execution
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Six men – Ali Mojadam, Moein Khanfari, Mohammad Reza Moghadam, Salem Mousavi, Adnan Ghobeishavi and Habib Deris – from Iran’s persecuted Ahwazi Arab minority face imminent execution. A Revolutionary Court used their torture-tainted «confessions» to sentence them to death in February after a grossly unfair trial. Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld their convictions and sentences, meaning they could be executed at any time.
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Journalists detained past sentence expiry
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Journalists Mohammed al-Salahi and Mohammed al-Junaid continue to be detained by the Huthi de facto authorities in Hodeidah, Yemen, despite the expiry of their sentences on 20 June 2022 and 13 July 2022 respectively. Since their arrest in 2018, the journalists were subjected to a series of gross human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment such as severe beatings, and denial of access to their lawyer. Amnesty International urges the Huthi de facto authorities to release Mohammed al-Salahi and Mohammed al-Junaid immediately. Pending their release, they must be protected from torture and other ill-treatment.
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Indigenous rights activists reported missing
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Indigenous Peoples’ rights defenders Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil «Bazoo» de Jesus, from the Cordillera region in northern Philippines, have been missing since 28 April 2023, in a suspected enforced disappearance by state security forces. Their families received credible information that two individuals matching the missing activists’ description were forcibly taken in the area where they were last seen by unknown individuals identifying themselves as working for a police agency, but have not received neither a confirmation nor a denial from government security forces that such an operation indeed happened.
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Political activists unjustly detained
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Since February 2023, Tunisian authorities have opened criminal investigations against at least 21 people including political opposition activists, lawyers, and businessmen on unfounded accusations of conspiracy. Authorities have detained at least 9 people under this investigation including opposition figures Chaima Issa and Jaouhar Ben Mbarek as well as politician Khayam Turki. Tunisia's anti-terrorism court is investigating them under 10 articles of the Penal Code – including Article 72, which mandates the death penalty for trying to «change the nature of the state». We call on the Tunisian authorities to drop the charges against Chaima Issa, Jaouhar Ben Mbarek and Khayam Turki and immediately release them as they are detained for exercising their human rights through activism.
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Youth jailed at 17 to be executed
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Hossein Shahbazi, 22, is at risk of imminent execution in relation to a crime that took place when he was just 17 years old. His trial was grossly unfair and his torture-tainted «confessions» were used to convict him. Iranian authorities have scheduled his execution in violation of the absolute prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people who were children at the time of the offence for which they have been convicted.
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Arbitrary detainee dying from neglect
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Guillermo Zárraga, a 59-year-old Venezuelan engineer and a former oil industry unionist, was arbitrarily detained in November 2020 at his home by officers from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence. Since then, he has been charged and tried for criminal association and for allegedly revealing national security information, although there is no evidence to support these allegations. Guillermo’s health situation has suffered severely as result of inhumane detention conditions and lack of adequate nutrition. In March he suffered a cardiac syncope, and the blood test results show a severe disbalance that need urgent and trusted medical care.
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