Amnesty International Report 2021/22

Hundreds of thousands of men and women from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups were imprisoned. Hundreds of thousands more, by some estimates more than 1 million, were held in internment camps, which the government called “training” or “education” centres.

In October, human rights defender Mehmet Selim Ölçer was sentenced to two years and one month’s imprisonment for “supporting a terrorist organization” based on his membership of the Diyarbakır-based Sarmaşık Association, a civil society organization fighting against poverty which was closed down by executive decree in 2016.

The Taliban and other armed actors were responsible for numerous targeted killings throughout the year, including of human rights defenders, women activists, humanitarian and health workers, journalists, former government officials and security force members.

At least 1,055 people were reported killed by police using firearms in 2021, a slight increase from previous years. The limited public data available from 2015 to 2021 suggested that Black people were disproportionately impacted by police use of lethal force.

The High Representative’s decision in July to criminalize public denial of genocide triggered widespread boycotts of state institutions by Republika Srpska’s (RS) leaders, and months of heightened nationalist rhetoric.

According to the Kivu Security Tracker, at least 1,137 civilians were unlawfully killed in the two provinces between 6 May (when the state of siege was declared) and 15 November.

Rallies in support of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny resulted in unprecedented numbers of mass arbitrary arrests and administrative and criminal prosecutions on spurious charges.

On 2 September, police demolished the village of al-‘Araqib. The village had been demolished more than 150 times since July 2010. Al-‘Araqib is one of 35 excluded, officially unrecognized, Bedouin villages in the area.

The Home Office announced an increase in government-chartered mass deportation flights from July. People on these flights were often deported before accessing adequate legal advice and having their claims fully considered.

The military authorities also attacked trade unionists, workers and civil servants who joined protests demanding a return to democracy. Workers were intimidated and threatened into returning to work, and trade union leaders and workers were among those arrested and killed.

Despite government reforms, migrant workers continued to face labour abuses and struggled to change jobs freely. Curtailment of freedom of expression increased in the run-up to FIFA World Cup 2022.

Twenty-six Indigenous people were reported to have died in custody between July 2020 and June 2021, bringing the total number of deaths to at least 500 since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. No one had been held to account in relation to any of these deaths.

The acquittal represented an example of the historical impunity that has perpetuated the cycle of violence and human rights violations by state agents, especially in favelas and disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

In January, the burned bodies of 19 people, including 16 Guatemalans, were found in a vehicle in Camargo municipality, Tamaulipas, an area where criminal gangs operate and migrants often try to cross the border with the USA.

Extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations continued under the government’s ongoing “war on drugs”. President Duterte continued to incite violence against people suspected of using or selling drugs.