Latest news with #humanrightsabuses
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Democrat urges hearing into ‘human rights abuses' at El Salvador megaprison
Congresswoman Delia Ramirez is 'urgently' requesting a congressional hearing regarding the use of federal funds to pay El Salvador to detain immigrants inside a secretive terrorism prison, according to a letter she sent to the US House's homeland security committee. Ramirez, an Illinois representative and Democrat who sits on the committee, is requesting a hearing to address 'human rights abuses' at the facility, where the US government sent nearly 300 immigrants after Donald Trump's second presidency began in January. The Guardian viewed Friday's request letter, sent by Ramirez to the homeland security committee chair, Andrew Garbarino, a New York Republican. Details continue to emerge regarding the treatment of Venezuelans by Salvadorian prison officials. On 18 July, the US, El Salvador and Venezuela engaged in a prisoner swap that released 252 Venezuelan men from the notorious Central American megaprison. According to press reports, Venezuelan immigrants who were sent by the US to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as Cecot for its Spanish acronym, have said they were subjected to horrific abuse, including beatings, torture, denial of food and, in one case, sexual assault. Lawyers for some of the men said they endured 'state-sanctioned torture', the Guardian reported. 'I am concerned that, in paying the Salvadoran government to detain immigrants at Cecot, the administration funded human rights violations with taxpayer dollars,' Ramirez's letter says. 'I urgently request that we hold a hearing on how US funds were used to enable these flagrant human rights abuses at Cecot.' Garbarino did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian for comment about Ramirez's letter. The second Trump administration has designated a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, a foreign terrorist organization. In March, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act and claimed that the Venezuelan government had sent members of Tren de Aragua to 'invade' the US. Intelligence agencies reportedly contradicted the administration's claims linking the gang to the Venezuelan government. But in mid-March, immigration officers quietly filled planes with Venezuelan and Salvadorian immigrants who were detained by the US and quickly sent them to El Salvador to be detained in the Cecot prison. A federal judge ordered the planes to return after they took off. Despite the court order, the flights arrived in El Salvador, setting the stage for a unresolved court battle between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary. See more of the Guardian's immigration crackdown charts and data here. The Trump administration sent more people to El Salvador's Cecot prison later in March. After the expulsions and deportations, news reports revealed that the US government relied on flimsy evidence to accuse the deported immigrants of gang membership. One case that gained significant media attention was that of Andry Hernández Romero, a 32-year-old gay make-up artist whose crown tattoos near the words 'Mom' and 'Dad' in Spanish were cited as evidence that he was a gang member. His attorney has said that one of the tattoos honored his favorite soccer team, Real Madrid, whose logo includes a crown. The Venezuelan men were detained in Cecot for months and released on 28 July in a prisoner swap. The Venezuelan men were sent back to Venezuela, while a number of US nationals detained in the country were returned to the US – among them a former US marine who had been convicted of a triple-murder. The Salvadoran men sent to Cecot by the US government were not released as part of the swap. After his release, Hernández Romero told journalists his time in Cecot was 'an encounter with torture and death', Reuters reported. 'Many of our fellows have wounds from the nightsticks; they have fractured ribs, fractured fingers and toes, marks from the handcuffs, others have marks on their chests, on their face ... from the projectiles.' In another interview with Venezuelan media, Hernández Romero said he was sexually abused by guards. The Venezuelan government has said it will investigate El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele, a close Trump ally, over the alleged abuses. Bukele's Cecot prison has been a defining centerpiece of his administration in recent years. In 2022, Bukele declared a state of exception, leading to a massive crackdown on gangs in the country and the construction of a network of secretive prisons, including Cecot. Bukele's government has invited US representatives, social media influencers and international media to tour the facility. Details of the deal between the US government and El Salvador to detain the nearly 300 immigrants are still mired in secrecy. The US frequently invoked the 'state secrets' privilege during court proceedings to avoid any disclosures regarding its deal with Bukele. In recent months, more questions have arisen regarding the deal between the Trump administration and Bukele. During the Alien Enemies Act expulsions, the Trump administration expelled a top MS-13 leader to El Salvador and is currently trying to return a second one, leading to accusations that the US is trying to do a favor for Bukele. Bukele reportedly requested the return of key MS-13 leaders from US custody, critics say, to allegedly prevent them from revealing further information about a controversial 2019 pact between his government and the gang.
ABC News
24-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Aboriginal land councils accuse NT government of human rights abuses in overcrowded prisons
The Northern Territory's four Aboriginal land councils have joined forces to accuse the NT's Country Liberal Party government of overt racism and human rights abuses. In a rare joint press conference on Thursday, the land councils were unified in their anger against the government's policies, specifically the administration's new public safety and prison laws, which they said ignored and undermined the rights of Aboriginal people. Since the NT government came to power in August, elected after a campaign focused on driving down crime rates, it has implemented a range of new laws focused on hardening bail and clamping down on youth offenders. Since then, the jurisdiction's incarceration rate has risen by around 30 per cent. The deputy chair of the Central Land Council, Barbara Shaw, took aim at the NT's skyrocketing Aboriginal prison rates, describing it as "stacking and racking". "We are stacking and racking and it's so disgusting. "This government is not listening to our elders, to take our children back onto country and be with families … unfortunately this government does not want to listen to Aboriginal people." Earlier this week, the acting head of the NT's Aboriginal legal aid service revealed the agency was seeing cases of children as young as 11 years old being kept in police watch houses overnight, with the lights on 24 hours a day and adults screaming in nearby cells. The Northern Land Council, Central Land Council, Tiwi Land Council and Anindiliyakwa Land Council represent Aboriginal communities from the Top End to Central Australia in the NT. The land council leaders said despite their prominence in NT affairs, their advice and aspirations for their people had been consistently ignored. Northern Land Council chair Matt Ryan described the NT government's newly implemented policies as "appalling" and said "at the moment none of them are working". The NT government has issued statements claiming its policies have seen some improvement in property crime, including burglaries, since coming into effect. When asked if the NT government's policies contained overt racism against Aboriginal people, Mr Ryan said: "There is — let me be very honest, there is — no buts about it." In their statement, the land councils also called for an audit of all federal government money spent by the NT government to prove it was having a positive impact on Aboriginal communities. Federal government funds make up more than 70 per cent of the NT's annual budget. "All Aboriginal people want to see [an audit] happen," Mr Ryan said. "Where's our money being spent? "Is it being spent wisely, what infrastructure … they're developing [new] prisons, that money should've been spent on communities developing programs in communities." The land councils also said they wanted to see progress towards an independent investigation into racism within the NT Police Force, following on from the handing down of the wide-reaching Kumanjayi Walker inquest earlier this month. Mr Ryan said the land councils wanted to work with the acting police commissioner to achieve that, but "at the moment, we haven't seen any movement". Deputy chair of the Tiwi Land Council, former AFL player Austin Wonaeamirri, said a key failure by the current administration was a lack of consultation on the ground with remote Aboriginal communities. In a 600-word statement in response to the land councils, NT Aboriginal Affairs Minister Steve Edgington pointed to work and consultation going on between his government and the four land councils and with remote communities generally. "We are working together with Aboriginal Peak Organisations (APO NT) which include the four lands councils on Closing the Gap initiatives," he said. "We are also working in partnership with Aboriginal people to empower communities that want a greater say. "This is creating opportunities for local community members to lead and contribute and enable them to have a more active role in community development and decision-making processes. "We are committed to continuing engagement and consultation with community members and wider stakeholders in regional and remote areas across the territory."
France 24
23-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Stigma haunts Gambians accused in state witch purge: study
Hundreds of people, many of them elderly women, were targeted under the eccentric west African dictator's 2008-2009 purge on witchcraft. The victims were taken to his compound and other secret locations where they were subjected to beatings, rape and forced to drink hallucinogenic concoctions. The episode created lasting psychological and social scars that endure not just for the victims but also their families and communities, according to a new study in the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. The research, funded by the United Nations Development Programme, involved interviews and surveys in the five communities most affected by Jammeh's witchcraft purges, located in western Gambia. Under the study, led by researcher Mick Finlay of the UK's Anglia Ruskin University and conducted in collaboration with the University of The Gambia and Nottingham Trent University, a total of 153 people were interviewed and 128 surveyed. Although many of the participants believed the witch hunts were organised to frighten people not to speak out against Jammeh (89 percent) or to create divisions (87 percent), a full quarter also believed the threat from witches was real, according to the research. To keep citizens in a permanent state of fear during his 22-year rule , Jammeh wielded a potent mix of brute force, mysticism and pervasive superstition -- including beliefs that Jammeh had supernatural powers. Belief in witchcraft has strong roots in The Gambia, particularly rural areas, where witches are said to cause illness, infertility, financial misfortune and death, and are additionally believed to eat children. The fact that the witchcraft accusations were state-orchestrated makes the situation unique, Finley told AFP. Normally, witchcraft accusations are "more gossip and rumour", he said in an interview. Against the state-backed nature of these witch hunts, victims felt the issue should be dealt with at the community or even government level. "The victims often said, you know, we want the government to come out and tell everybody that we are not witches," Finlay told AFP. There are "really simple things in terms of mending people's reputations that need to happen after dictatorships and war", Finlay added. A Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to investigate human rights abuses carried out under Jammeh's rule between 1994 and 2017 recommended the establishment of a law making witchcraft accusations illegal. People 'avoid us' Approximately 41 deaths occurred during the witch hunts, with victims also suffering long-term health issues from being forced to drink toxic liquids, beatings and other abuse, according to the TRRC. Research for the new report, which was conducted in 2022, revealed that victims were the targets of shaming, mocking and gossip and often felt unable to attend traditional cultural events. "People tend to avoid us", one victim told the researchers. "We don't go their funerals or their naming ceremonies." Self-isolation was also reported, as was stigmatisation of victims' families, children and larger communities. To conduct the purges, Jammeh invited Guinean and Malian witch hunters into The Gambia, while his Green Boys and Girls vigilante group and the armed forces also helped carry out the roundups, according to the report. While the exact motivation behind the episode is unclear, Jammeh believed that witches had killed his aunt. Victims were taken to a compound in the southern village of Kanilai where Jammeh lived. There, they were generally held for several days while being forced to drink noxious liquid and sometimes bathe in an herbal concoction. Although a wide variety of community members were invited to participate in the survey, researchers said those comfortable with talking about stigmatisation could be over-represented, while those with a fear of witches could be under-represented. After losing an election to current President Adama Barrow in 2016, Jammeh fled The Gambia the following January for Equatorial Guinea.
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- The Guardian
Large rise in abuse claims at mines that may be vital to EU's energy transition, report says
Mines on the EU's periphery that could be critical to its energy transition have recorded a large rise in allegations of abuse ranging from workplace deaths to soil pollution, a report has found, with a threefold increase in 2024 from the average of the five previous years. The nonprofit Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) found 270 allegations of environmental and human rights abuses in transition mineral projects across 13 countries in Europe and central Asia last year, up from 92 the year before. Demand for the minerals, which include copper for cables and lithium for car batteries, is expected to surge as Europe tries to find alternatives to fossil fuels that heat the planet and make extreme weather worse. 'We must not choose between climate progress and protection of people and ecosystems,' said Ella Skybenko, a BHRRC researcher and co-author of the report. 'We can do both if we do it wisely, ensuring that neither people nor the environment are paying the price for the energy transition in the region.' The allegations, which are sourced from publicly reported incidents from media and NGOs and include those that have not been proven in court, cover abuses in the mining supply chain from extracting and processing minerals to smelting and refining them. The researchers found allegations of abuse in 13 of the 23 eastern European and central Asian countries they studied. Russia accounted for 39% of allegations, followed by Ukraine and Kazakhstan. No abuse allegations were found for the four EU member states included in the analysis – Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – or for Moldova and Turkmenistan. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each. The report found health and safety violations were the most common form of alleged human rights violation, accounting for 85% of all impacts on workers, followed by workplace deaths and personal health issues. Violations of environmental safety standards accounted for 38% of allegations affecting communities, the report found, followed by air pollution at 27%, and soil and water pollution at 20% each. Diego Francesco Marin, a resource campaigner at the European Environmental Bureau, who was not involved in the report, said the repressive environment for journalists and NGOs in many of the countries meant the data probably represented significant under-reporting. He described the findings as 'particularly alarming'. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion 'The emerging patterns and increasing voices of victims should serve as a critical early warning system for banks, governments, and investors eyeing opportunities in this region,' said Marin. 'The starting point is already deeply troubling – and without immediate intervention, the situation will only deteriorate as mining activities expand.' EU efforts to mine for critical minerals at home – despite broad public support for climate action – have been met with fierce resistance, including from environmental groups. The tension has been heightened by concerns about energy security since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which exposed Europe's over-reliance on Russian gas, and China's dominance of the critical mineral supply chain. Skybenko said: 'Workers, communities and human rights defenders are facing a concerning number of growing risks – seemingly being forgotten as the world races to secure the minerals necessary for the urgent transition to clean energy.'
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Migrants tortured in El Salvador, Venezuela says
Venezuela has announced an investigation into claims migrants sent to an El Salvador prison from the US suffered human rights abuses. More than 250 Venezuelans were repatriated to near Caracas on Friday. They had been detained in El Salvador since March following their deportation from the United States. Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said there had been "systemic torture" inside the prison, which included sexual abuse, daily beatings and rotten prison food. El Salvador is yet to respond to the claims. During a press conference, Saab presented testimonies and images appearing to show detainees with injuries including bruising and missing teeth. These claims have not been independently verified by the BBC. Venezuela will investigate El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro and Head of Prisons Osiris Luna Meza. The attorney general urged the International Criminal Court (ICC), the UN Human Rights Council and relevant bodies in the Americas to "do the same". Venezuela is currently facing an investigation by the ICC in The Hague for allegations similar to those the country is levelling at El Salvador, including torturing prisoners and denying them access to legal representation. The Venezuelans were deported in March under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which gives a US president power to detain and deport natives or citizens of "enemy" nations without usual processes. They were accused of belonging to a gang, something many of the men's relatives and lawyers deny. They were held in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT, which was originally built to hold accused gang members. The group did not have access to lawyers or their relatives, and were last seen in photos issued by Bukele's government which pictured them arriving in handcuffs with their heads shaved, which sparked international outcry. They were released mid-July by El Salvador in exchange for US nationals held in Venezuela, with a senior Trump administration official telling reporters that they extended their "deep,deep gratitude" to Bukele for facilitating the deal. The US has imposed heavy sanctions on Venezuela, and in May the Supreme Court ruled that the Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan nationals could be revoked, affecting about 350,000 people. Venezuelans deported to mega-prison 'trapped in black hole' Stuck in one of the world's toughest jails - against judges' orders
