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Scoop
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Human Rights Council Hears Alarming Updates On Executions In Iran And Global Civic Space Crackdown
June 2025 At least 975 people were executed in Iran in 2024, the highest number reported since 2015, according to a report Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, presented to the Geneva-based Council on Wednesday. Of the total executions, just over half were for drug-related offenses, 43 per cent for murder, two per cent for sexual offenses, and three per cent for security-related charges. At least four executions were carried out publicly. 'These cases are marked by serious allegations of torture and due process violations, including lack of access to a lawyer,' said Ms. Al-Nashif. Violence and discrimination against women At least 31 women were reportedly executed in Iran last year, up from 22 in 2023. Of the 19 women executed for murder, nine had been convicted of killing their husbands in cases involving domestic violence or forced or child marriage, areas in which Iranian women have no legal protections. Some executions were reportedly linked to protests that began in September 2022 under the banner 'Women, Life, and Freedom.' Beyond executions, femicide cases surged, with 179 reported in 2024 compared to 55 the year before. Many stemmed from so-called 'honour' crimes or family disputes, often involving women and girls seeking divorce or rejecting marriage proposals. Ms. Al-Nashif also warned that the suspended Chastity and Hijab Law, if enacted, would pose a serious threat to women's rights. Penalties for violations such as improper dress could include heavy fines, travel bans, long-term imprisonment, or even the death penalty. In addition, of the 125 journalists prosecuted in 2024, 40 were women, many reporting on human rights and women's rights issues. Religious and ethnic minorities 'In 2024, the death penalty continued to have a disproportionate impact on minority groups,' Ms. Al-Nashif told the Council. At least 108 Baluchi and 84 Kurdish prisoners were executed in 2024, representing 11 and 9 per cent of the total, respectively. The report also raised concerns over the lack of official data on the socioeconomic conditions of ethnic and ethno-religious minorities and non-citizens, which hampers efforts to assess their situation and measure the impact of targeted policies and programmes. Looking ahead While Iran continued engagement with the Office of the UN High Commissioner and other human rights mechanisms, it denied access to the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran. 'Our Office remains ready to continue and build on its engagement with the Iranian authorities on the range of issues highlighted in the report of the Secretary-General for the promotion and protection of all human rights,' Ms. Al-Nashif concluded. Global 'Super Election' cycle undermined democratic participation In the Council's afternoon session, Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, presented her report on how the 2023–2025 'super election' cycle has affected civic space around the world. In 2024, half of the world's population elected their local, national and international representatives. While Ms. Romero's report on this cycle does not assess the integrity of the elections, it identifies troubling global patterns of systematic repression of the exercise of peaceful assembly and association. 'The misuse of restrictive laws, smear campaigns, disinformation targeting civil society intensified globally in the super electoral cycle, undermining electoral participation and freedom of association,' she said. Political repression and violence As criminal justice systems are used to repress the opposition, leaders and members of political parties faced undue restrictions and political persecution. Civil society activists and election observers have also faced harassment, arbitrary detention, torture and murder. 'When political parties, civil society, and peaceful assemblies are suppressed, genuine political pluralism and competition cannot exist,' argued Ms. Romero. 'I stress that these conditions are incompatible with free and genuine elections and risk legitimising undemocratic rule.' Minority representation Ms. Romero also underscored that women's political leadership remains severely underrepresented, while LGBTIQ individuals and their organizations faced attacks during the super electoral cycle. Both groups experienced physical and online political violence, restricting their electoral participation and accelerating the decline of their rights after the elections. Calls to protect freedoms Amid global crises and a rapid democratic decline, Ms. Romero emphasized the urgent need to protect the rights to peaceful assembly and association throughout the entire electoral cycle. She outlined key recommendations, including strengthening legal protections before elections, ensuring accountability afterward, regulating digital technologies and promoting non-discriminatory participation throughout. 'Dissent is a fundamental element of democratic societies,' she concluded in Spanish. 'Rather than being suppressed, it should be welcomed and permanently protected.'
New York Times
29-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Torture and Secret C.I.A. Prisons Haunt 9/11 Case in Judge's Ruling
When a military judge threw out a defendant's confession in the Sept. 11 case this month, he gave two main reasons. The prisoner's statements, the judge ruled, were obtained through the C.I.A.'s use of torture, including beatings and sleep deprivation. But equally troubling to the judge was what happened to the prisoner in the years after his physical torture ended, when the agency held him in isolation and kept questioning him from 2003 to 2006. The defendant, Ammar al-Baluchi, is accused of sending money and providing other support to some of the hijackers who carried out the terrorist attack, which killed 3,000 people. In court, Mr. Baluchi is charged as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. He is the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the plot. The judge, Col. Matthew N. McCall, wrote that it was easy to focus on the torture because it was 'so absurdly far outside the norms of what is expected of U.S. custody preceding law enforcement questioning.' 'However,' he added, 'the three and a half years of uncharged, incommunicado detention and essentially solitary confinement — all while being continually questioned and conditioned — is just as egregious' as the physical torture. Prosecutors are preparing to appeal. But the 111-page ruling was the latest blow to the government's two-decade-old effort to hold death penalty trials at Guantánamo Bay by sweeping aside a legacy of state-sponsored torture. Military judges in the two capital cases at Guantánamo have rejected the use of confessions taken from prisoners after they were in C.I.A. detention, illustrating the enduring stain of a Bush administration decision after Sept. 11, 2001, to interrogate and hide suspected members of Al Qaeda in black sites rather than use the court-monitored law enforcement system. From his capture in Pakistan in early 2003 to his transfer to Guantánamo in 2006, Mr. Baluchi was kept out of the reach of lawyers, a court and the International Red Cross, according to evidence presented at years of pretrial hearings. In his first days in custody, Mr. Baluchi was deprived of sleep for 82 straight hours. He was shackled at the ankles and the wrists in a way that forced him to stand, naked, with a hood on his head. He was made to fear he would be drowned in a mock waterboarding technique while he was in a dungeonlike setting in Afghanistan. In time, he was shuttled between five overseas prisons, including in Eastern Europe. Food and clothing were used as rewards for his cooperation with C.I.A. debriefers in a program described in court by two psychologists who carried out some of the interrogations for the agency. The judge referred to classified C.I.A. accounts showing that Mr. Baluchi was questioned about Al Qaeda and his role in the Sept. 11 attacks more than 1,000 times before he was transferred to Guantánamo. Then, in January 2007, the Bush administration adopted a concept called clean teams. The idea was to have agents who had not been involved in previous interrogations question a suspect anew to try to obtain admissible evidence for a court case. In the case of Mr. Baluchi, three F.B.I. agents questioned him over four days at Guantánamo in January 2007, four months after he was transferred there from a black site. The F.B.I. agents wrote a memo containing his confessions, which Judge McCall rejected on April 11 as illegally derived from torture. Prosecutors had argued that Mr. Baluchi's brutal interrogations lasted only a few days. For the next three years, they said, he gradually became less afraid of his captors and in time voluntarily answered questions from the C.I.A. debriefers and, later, from the F.B.I. questioners at Guantánamo. The judge disagreed. 'The goal of the program was to condition him through torture and other inhumane and coercive methods to become compliant during any government questioning,' he wrote. 'The program worked.' Uncertainty over whether the statements would be admissible was one reason the prosecutors sought to settle the case with guilty pleas in exchange for life sentences rather than through a death-penalty trial. Mr. Baluchi and his lawyers never reached a plea agreement. But Mr. Mohammed and two other defendants did in a settlement that the Justice Department is now trying to overturn. If the courts uphold the deal and the plea goes forward, Mr. Mohammed has agreed to let prosecutors use portions of his 2007 interrogations at Guantánamo at a sentencing hearing. Government lawyers have to meet a high bar in appealing to reinstate Mr. Baluchi's 2007 statements. In January, the military commissions appeals court upheld a judge's decision to throw out the same type of evidence in the U.S.S. Cole case, the longest-running capital case at Guantánamo Bay. In it, the appellate panel endorsed the analysis of the judge in that case that the C.I.A. had 'conditioned' its captives 'to answer questions from United States government officials — be they debriefers, interrogators or interviewers.' In his third month at Guantánamo, Mr. Baluchi reported to a medical staff member that guards had withheld water from him 'for 48 hours because he wrote his name in his shower with steam,' the judge noted. Court testimony showed that each former C.I.A. prisoner's cell was equipped with an intercom and individual shower that required little contact with guards. So Mr. Baluchi was punished for writing his name in a place where only he, the guards and the prison's surveillance system could see it. Moves between black sites started with a cavity search, the judge said in a section that explained the process in detail. Mr. Baluchi was blindfolded, and his ears and mouth were covered to prevent him from hearing or communicating with others. 'He was diapered and then strapped into a seat or strapped to the floor like cargo for however long the flight lasted,' the judge recounted. The prisoner 'did not know where he was going or how long he would have to remain in a soiled diaper.'
Arab News
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Dr. Mahrang Baloch: A child of resistance for Pakistan's ethnic minority
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Dr. Mahrang Baloch has risen to become the young face of a decades-old movement against rights abuses since she discovered her father's tortured body when she was a teenager. The 32-year-old, who was arrested last month, is now one of the country's most recognizable protest leaders representing the ethnic Baloch minority. 'Our father made the decision for us when he dedicated himself to Baloch rights. And after him, we all embraced his philosophy and committed ourselves to this struggle,' Mahrang wrote to her family from the cell where she is being held in the provincial capital Quetta. She was charged in March with terrorism, sedition and murder, according to the police charge sheet seen by AFP. Balochistan province, a sparsely populated, rugged region that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the poorest in the country despite being rich in untapped hydrocarbons and minerals. Security forces are fighting a decades-long insurgency by Baloch separatist militants, led by the Balochistan Liberation Army, which accuses authorities and outsiders, including Chinese investors, of exploiting the region. Rights groups say the violence has been countered with a severe crackdown by authorities that has swept up innocent people. State authorities deny involvement in rights abuses in the province. According to Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, an NGO, 18,000 people have disappeared in the province since 2000, figures disputed by the authorities. Mahrang founded the Baloch Unity Committee (BYC) after her brother disappeared for four months in 2018 to mobilize the relatives of victims of alleged extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and other arbitrary arrests. 'Mahrang is the child of resistance against brutal state oppression,' former senator Afrasiab Khattak told AFP. A spokesperson for the Balochistan government told AFP that 'activists are making claims without any grounds' about rights abuses and enforced disappearances. 'SHE CARRIES THEIR PAIN' Mahrang first began campaigning after the disappearance of her father, defying tribal tradition in a region where less than one in three women can read and write to leave home and demand answers from the authorities. 'We could see her blocking the roads crying and pleading for her father, even when there was a police vehicle coming, she was still standing bravely in front of every obstacle,' said Naseem Baloch, president of the Baloch National Movement, who has been in exile in Europe since 2011. The bullet-riddled body of Mahrang's father was finally identified one July night in 2011, scarred by torture and wearing the same clothes he was kidnapped in. 'My brother fainted when he saw him,' her 26-year-old sister Nadia told AFP. 'Mahrang then replaced our father. She helped our mother feed us with her medical scholarships and continued her fight for the Baluchi cause.' Not only did she carry on the struggle, she radically changed the Baloch movement, according to her classmates. 'Before, everyone was afraid to speak to the media, but Mahrang led the way and succeeded in having her brother released, so now families dare to denounce these kidnappings,' Naseem Baloch said. Above all, Mahrang and Nadia Baloch did not hesitate to voice their accusations that the security services were behind her brother's kidnapping. Mahrang broke taboos as a student, too. She led protests against her Quetta university after staff were caught secretly filming women on campus to blackmail them. With a father killed, a brother kidnapped and a childhood spent in poverty, Mahrang's story resonates with families in rural Balochistan. 'People identify with Mahrang because she carries their pain,' her sister said. Mohammad Gul, a 55-year-old relative, said: 'Baloch people see her as a ray of hope — a true leader challenging those who are responsible.' Baloch armed groups demand independence, sometimes with spectacular attacks such as a deadly train hostage-taking in March, but the BYC advocates non-violence and a negotiated solution within the framework of the federal state. Mahrang gained international attention after leading a 'Long Baloch March' of more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from Balochistan to the national capital Islamabad to denounce the alleged extrajudicial execution of a young Baloch man. Her activism earned her a place among Time Magazine's 100 Most Promising People of 2024 — an award she was unable to receive because authorities prevented her from leaving the country. Her marches are attended by thousands, almost exclusively women, who stage days-long sit-ins. 'They are less likely to be beaten, arrested, or kidnapped,' explained Ayesha Siddiqa, a political scientist now based in London. However, many women protesters have been imprisoned in recent weeks. Mahrang has already 'prepared the family' to continue the fight, said her sister Nadia. 'Perhaps one day, she will be kidnapped or killed,' she said.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mahrang Baloch, a child of the resistance for Pakistan's ethnic minority
Pakistan's Mahrang Baloch has risen to become the young face of a decades-old movement against rights abuses since she discovered her father's tortured body when she was a teenager. The 32-year-old, who was arrested last month, is now one of the country's most recognisable protest leaders representing the ethnic Baloch minority. "Our father made the decision for us when he dedicated himself to Baloch rights. And after him, we all embraced his philosophy and committed ourselves to this struggle," Mahrang wrote to her family from the cell where she is being held in the provincial capital Quetta. She was charged in March with terrorism, sedition and murder, according to the police charge sheet seen by AFP. Balochistan province, a sparsely populated, rugged region that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the poorest in the country despite being rich in untapped hydrocarbons and minerals. Security forces are fighting a decades-long insurgency by Baloch separatist militants, led by the Balochistan Liberation Army, which accuses authorities and outsiders, including Chinese investors, of exploiting the region. Rights groups say the violence has been countered with a severe crackdown by authorities that has swept up innocent people. According to Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, an NGO, 18,000 people have disappeared in the province since 2000, figures disputed by the authorities. Mahrang founded the Baloch Unity Committee (BYC) after her brother disappeared for four months in 2018 to mobilise the relatives of victims of alleged extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and other arbitrary arrests. "Mahrang is the child of resistance against brutal state oppression," former senator Afrasiab Khattak told AFP. A spokesperson for the Balochistan government told AFP that "activists are making claims without any grounds" about rights abuses and enforced disappearances. -'Mahrang replaced our father' - Mahrang first began campaigning after the disappearance of her father, defying tribal tradition in a region where less than one in three women can read and write to leave home and demand answers from the authorities. "We could see her blocking the roads crying and pleading for her father, even when there was a police vehicle coming, she was still standing bravely in front of every obstacle," said Naseem Baloch, president of the Baloch National Movement, who has been in exile in Europe since 2011. The bullet-riddled body of Mahrang's father was finally identified one July night in 2011, scarred by torture and wearing the same clothes he was kidnapped in. "My brother fainted when he saw him," her 26-year-old sister Nadia told AFP. "Mahrang then replaced our father: she helped our mother feed us with her medical scholarships and continued her fight for the Baluchi cause." Not only did she carry on the struggle, she radically changed the Baloch movement, according to her classmates. "Before, everyone was afraid to speak to the media, but Mahrang led the way and succeeded in having her brother released, so now families dare to denounce these kidnappings," Naseem Baloch said. Above all, Mahrang and Nadia Baloch did not hesitate to voice their accusations that the security services were behind her brother's kidnapping. Mahrang broke taboos as a student, too. She led protests against her Quetta university after staff were caught secretly filming women on campus to blackmail them. - International recognition - With a father killed, a brother kidnapped and a childhood spent in poverty, Mahrang's story resonates with families in rural Balochistan. "People identify with Mahrang because she carries their pain," her sister said. Mohammad Gul, a 55-year-old relative, said: "Baloch people see her as a ray of hope -- a true leader challenging those who are responsible." Baloch armed groups demand independence, sometimes with spectacular attacks such as a deadly train hostage-taking in March, but the BYC advocates non-violence and a negotiated solution within the framework of the federal state. Mahrang gained international attention after leading a "Long Baloch March" of more than 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) from Balochistan to the national capital Islamabad to denounce the alleged extrajudicial execution of a young Baloch man. Her activism earned her a place among Time Magazine's 100 Most Promising People of 2024 -- an award she was unable to receive because authorities prevented her from leaving the country. Her marches are attended by thousands, almost exclusively women, who stage days-long sit-ins. "They are less likely to be beaten, arrested, or kidnapped," explained Ayesha Siddiqa, a political scientist now based in London. However, many women protesters have been imprisoned in recent weeks. Mahrang has already "prepared the family" to continue the fight, said her sister Nadia. "Perhaps one day, she will be kidnapped or killed," she said. jma/ecl/pbt
New York Times
11-04-2025
- New York Times
Military Judge Throws Out Sept. 11 Case Confession as Obtained Through Torture
A military judge on Friday threw out the confession that a man accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks made to federal agents in 2007 at Guantánamo Bay, ruling the statements were the product of a campaign of torture and isolation carried out by the C.I.A. The ruling by Col. Matthew N. McCall was the latest setback to prosecutors in their long-running quest to bring the death-penalty case to trial, despite the years the five defendants had spent in secret C.I.A. prisons. Ammar al-Baluchi, 47, was so thoroughly psychologically conditioned through abuse and threats during his time at the agency's overseas prisons, or black sites, from 2003 to 2006 that he involuntarily incriminated himself in 2007, the judge wrote in a 111-page decision. Mr. Baluchi, who is charged in the case by the name Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, is accused of sending money and providing other support to some of the hijackers who carried out the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. He is the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the attack. Mr. Mohammed and two other defendants in the case reached plea agreements with prosecutors that are now being contested in federal court. A fifth defendant was found mentally unfit to stand trial, a condition his lawyer blames on his torture at the hands of the C.I.A. Testimony derived from C.I.A. documents showed that Mr. Baluchi was routinely kept naked and beaten during his first days of agency custody in a program of 'enhanced interrogation,' which was designed by two psychologists on contract to the C.I.A. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
