ECHR Hit By Cyberattack Following Judgment Against The Republic of Turkey For Enduring Pre-Trial Imprisonment of Kurdish Opposition Leader

By: Benjamin Kaufman

Journal of Global Rights and Organizations, Senior Articles Editor

STRASBOURG, France – Following the publication of a ruling in which the ECHR reprimanded Turkey’s refusal to adhere to a 2018 judgment by the court, an as-of-yet unattributed cyberattack was carried out against the court’s website on December 22, 2020.

Supporter of Turkey’s Main pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Holds Portrait of Jailed Former Leader Selahattin Demirtas During a Campaign Event in Istanbul, Turkey. Photo Courtesy of Reuters and Huseyin Aldemir.

The Grand Chamber’s decision, understood to have prompted the hack, came 4 years after the imprisonment of Selahattin Demirtaş, the leader of a pro-Kurdish political party called the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and former member of the Turkish Parliament.  HDP is one of the left-leaning opposition parties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).  

HDP was alleged to have ties to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) based on contemporaneous tweets calling for public demonstrations from both organizations in October of 2014.  Those public demonstrations led to several dozen deaths and for which PKK was blamed.  In May 2016, the Turkish parliament voted to amend the Turkish Constitution to selectively suspend parliamentary immunity and permitted police to arrest Demirtaş along with 7 other HDP members of parliament for incitement among other terrorism-related offenses on November 4, 2016. Since that time, Demirtaş has remained imprisoned by Turkish authorities.

The first review by the ECHR of Demirtaş’s case came in 2018.  When the Grand Chamber heard his claim in 2020, it considered six alleged violations stemming from the pre-trial detention:  that the pre-trial detention violated his freedom of expression both by denying his ability to sit once elected and by invalidating parliamentary immunity owed to a member of parliament; that his imprisonment was intended to suppress and deter opposition, that his detention was supported by insufficient proof, that the Turkish Codes of Criminal Procedure lacked sufficient remedy for such complaints, and that the time taken to review his initial application was a violation of his right to a speedy trial.

In its judgment, the Grand Chamber largely dismissed the Government’s arguments in favor of Demirtaş’s claims calling his incarceration “a dangerous message to the entire population” to stifle civil society and deter opposition.  The Grand Chamber ordered Turkey to take all necessary measures to immediately release Demirtaş based on violations of his rights under Articles 10, 5 §§ 1 and 3 of the Convention, Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention, and Article 18 in conjunction with Article 5. 

For these violations, the Grand Chamber awarded Demirtaş EUR 3,500. Additionally, the Grand Chamber ordered the State to compensate Demirtaş for non-pecuniary damages assumed by virtue of his imprisonment in the amount of EUR 25,000.  Furthermore, the Grand Chamber awarded the full amount claimed for court expenses, totaling EUR 31,900 for his representatives’ hourly rate and translation costs.

Shortly after publishing its judgment, the ECHR’s website was subjected to a cyberattack that took it offline for roughly 16 hours.  The ECHR issued a statement noting that the cyberattack began shortly after the Demirtaş decision was published and “strongly deplor[ing] this serious incident.”

ECHR’s website is back online, though responsibility for the attack has not yet been claimed.

For further information, please see:

European Court of Human Rights, Judgment (Merits and Just Satisfaction): SELAHATTİN DEMİRTAŞ v. TURKEY (No. 2), Grand Chamber – 22 Dec. 2020

European Court of Human Rights, Press Releases: Cyberattack on the website of the European Court of Human Rights – 23 Dec. 2020

Human Rights Watch – Turkey: Opposition Politicians Detained for Four Years – 19 Nov. 2020

InfoSecurity Magazine – Sarah Coble: Cyber-attack on European Court of Human Rights – 23 Dec. 2020

Reuters – Ali Kucukgocmen: European Court of Human Rights says Turkey must free Demirtas – 22 Dec. 2020

Australia Has Violated Human Rights During The Pandemic

By: Dianne Jahangani

Journal of Global Rights and Organizations, Administrative Editor

AUSTRALIA – As the world continues to face the COVID-19 Pandemic, each country has been tasked with the duty of protecting the lives of its citizens. In the next few months, as the world enters the one-year anniversary of battling against this virus, individuals are growing more impatient by the day. Everyone is focused on surviving the Pandemic to the best of their ability, but what happens when the governments that you look to in times of protection are the same entities that are causing you more harm? Shocking as it may seem, Australia, a nation that has score of 97/100 on Freedom House, is one of these such governments that is causing harm.

Man Takes Photo in Front of Mural in Melbourne After the City Ended Lockdown. Photo Courtesy of The Washington Post and William West/Getty Images

COVID-19 is a scary reality that every single person in the world has been living with for almost a year now; as if that was not enough, when Sydney, Australia made the decision to lockdown more than 3,000 people in public housing towers to contain a COVID-19 outbreak in July 2020, its decision violated human rights. Eight of the nine public housing towers confined its residents in the apartments for a total of five days. Further exacerbating the situation, the ninth tower was under lockdown for a total of two weeks. During this time, residents were left without food and medicine.

Residents did not receive a warning before being required to lockdown. As such, the residents have since reported that they felt trapped and traumatized, and suspected discrimination since the towers consisted of residents who are minorities or immigrants.

Since this lockdown, the state government has conceded that mistakes were made; however, Australia has now placed restrictions on Australians wishing to return home from abroad, which is a violation of International Human Rights of Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Article states, “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.” Tens of thousands of Australians have been stranded abroad because the government has capped the number of people allowed onto flights into the country.

Australia has been praised in the media for tackling COVID, as the nation of 26 million just defeated the second wave of surge of cases in Europe. In November of 2020, Australia recorded a total of 907 deaths, while the United States reported a death toll exceeding 234,000 at that time. It is without a doubt that Australia has been successful, but we are left with the question of “at what cost?” We have to wonder if the end goal of ensuring that no Australian is infected by the virus was worth all of the human rights violations that occurred – the lack of access to food and medicine and the restriction of re-entering the country that one is the citizen of.

For further information, please see:

CNA – Australia’s Victoria state violated human rights in COVID-19 lockdown: Report – 06 Jan. 2021

Freedom House – Australia – 06 Jan. 2021

Reuters – Australian State Violated Human Rights In COVID Lockdown-Report – 06 Jan. 2021

The Globe and Mail – Australian State Violated Human Rights In COVID Lockdown, Ombudsman says – 06 Jan. 2021

The New York Times – ‘Nightmare’ Australia Housing Lockdown Called Breach of Human Rights – 06 Jan. 2021

The New York Times – Stranded Overseas, Thousands Beg Australia to Let Them Come Home – 06 Jan. 2021

The Washington Post – Australia Has Almost Eliminated The Coronavirus – By Putting Faith In Science – 06 Jan. 2021

United Nations Human Rights – International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – 06 Jan. 2021

China, Minorites, Persecution, and Summer 2020… Now, Why Does That Sound So Familiar?

By: Marshall Read

Journal of Global Rights and Organizations, Associate Articles Editor

GUANGZHOU, China – Okay, stop me if you have heard this one before: a national government using crisis response measures to suppress and discriminate against minority communities within that nation’s borders. No, it is not the United States this time; it is China. In a sequence of events that should, unfortunately, surprise no one, the Chinese government has persecuted Africans, trampling on the equal protection mandated by international law and Beijing’s stated policy of equal treatment.

An African Restaurant in Guangzhou Shut Due to Coronavirus Fears.

Before the pandemic, the Chinese Province of Guangdong was officially home to some 14,000 African people. However, thousands more are expected to reside there undocumented. The city of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, has become a hub for African immigrants. One district, dubbed “Little Africa,” was populated by roughly ten thousand Africans. When the COVID-19 was still an epidemic in China, the African population dropped by nearly seventy percent. Most left or were evacuated by African Governments. Those who remained in China are still on their own.

It all began mere weeks after China closed its borders. 5 Nigerian individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in Guangdong Province. This was followed by false rumors that over 1,000 Africans in china had caught the disease.  China ordered that all foreigners must submit to COVID-19 control measures. This kicked off a wave of COVID-19 suppression measures on African’s in Guangdong.

All of this happened during the Summer of 2020, while other parts of the world, including the United States, saw massive BLM demonstrations against police brutality. In response to international outcry, the Chinese government has insisted that China and Africa (yep, the whole continent) are friends, noting Beijing’s “zero tolerance” policy for discrimination. The response makes sense considering China’s participation in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. However, the reality of events in China is contradictory to those stated goals. The law may say “all foreigners,” but it only seems to be enforced against the black foreigners.

The government began forcibly testing all Africans in the region this past April. Police entered homes, either forcibly tested, or ordered residents to go to a hospital to get tested. Africans were also quarantined. Additionally, Africans are routinely being evicted and denied service throughout China.

Ade, a Nigerian student at Guangdong University, had just paid his University fees when his landlord evicted him. Police met him and his roommates as they frantically moved their stuff out.

Mohammed, a Tanzanian trader in Guangzhou, was forced out of his apartment and quarantined in his shop. He lived like this for months until the situation in Guangdong Province began to subside. Nonetheless, the circumstances are such that it will be challenging to continue as normal for either Ade or Mohammed, because now in China, the virus is inextricably linked to African immigrants.

Writing this in December of 2020, it appears as though the situation has mostly subsided. Despite being a space away from having a winning summer 2020 bingo card, China appears to have gotten away with its persecution of Africans. Despite the start of a return to normalcy in Guangdong Province, the damage has already been done. The Chinese government has continued the dark tradition of persecuting black people by tying their presence in China to the spread of COVID-19.

For further information, please see:

Reuters – “In China’s ‘Little Africa’ a struggle to get back to business after lockdown” – 26 June 2020

BBC – “Africans in China: We face coronavirus discrimination” – 17 Apr. 2020

Nikkei Asia – “China’s ‘Little Africa’ shrinks 70% as coronavirus leaves its mark” – 24 June 2020

Human Rights Watch – “China: COVID-19 Discrimination Against Africans” – 5 May 2020

OHCHR – International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – 21 Dec. 1965

Injustice for Woman Human Rights Defender, Loujain al-Hathloul

By: Katherine Davis

Journal of Global Rights and Organizations, Associate Articles Editor

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – After being detained over peaceful activism for more than two years, Loujain al-Hathloul now stands trial before Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal court.

Saudi Activist Loujain al-Hathloul Stands Trial Before a Specialized Court That Hears National Security and Terrorism Cases. Photo Courtesy of CNN and Walid al-Hathloul.

The jailed Saudi women’s rights activist, who ignited the movement to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia, has been accused of activities that “undermine the kingdom’s security, stability, and national unity”. Since her arrest, the United Nations, other human rights organizations, and activists have called for the immediate and unconditional release of al-Hathloul as well as many other women human rights defenders across the region. 

Al-Hathloul was arrested in March of 2019 while driving in the United Arab Emirates. After her arrest, she was sent to Saudi Arabia and was arrested again in a sweep that targeted ten women’s right-to-drive activists. She and the other women were accused of violating Royal Decree 44a. This violation leaves the women facing terrorism charges that can be punishable by three to twenty years imprisonment. Without warning, al-Hathloul’s trial commenced December 10.

Her brother, Walid al-Hathloul, claims that his sister has not had access to a lawyer and was not aware of the charges against her. Other family members say she has been subjected to electric shocks, whipping, and sexual harassment during her detention.

The Saudi government denies all allegations of torture. A Saudi official told CNN in November, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s judiciary system does not condone, promote, or allow the use of torture. Anyone, whether male or female, being investigated is going through the standard judiciary process led by public prosecution while being held for questions, which does not in any way rely on torture, either physical, sexual, or psychological.”

On December 10, the United Nations released a statement, calling for the immediate release of al-Hathloul. In the statement, Elizabeth Broderick, the chairperson of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls, commended al-Hathloul for being a dedicated woman human rights defender, “who has greatly contributed to advancing women’s rights in a country where gender discrimination and stereotyping are deeply entrenched in the fabric of society.”

Other organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Free Saudi Activists Coalition, have also called for the immediate release of al-Hathloul. Human Rights Watch urges all countries in the Middle East and North African region to guarantee and protect women’s rights and calls on governments around the world to call for the release of women human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia.

Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Lynn Maalouf, said, “the only just outcome for this trial would be the immediate and unconditional release of Loujain al-Hathloul. She is not a criminal – she is a human rights defender who is being punished simply for daring to advocate for change.”

For further information, please see:

21 WFMJ – Detained Women’s Rights Defender, Loujain al-Hathloul, put on Trial by Saudi Arabia on Human Rights Day – Dec. 11, 2020

Aljazeera – Saudi Activist al-Hathloul Appears in Court, UN Calls for Release – Dec. 10, 2020

Amnesty International – Saudi Arabia: Loujain al-Hathloul Must be Unconditionally Released – Nov. 24, 2020

BBC News – Lourjain al-Hathloul: Saudi Activist’s Trial ‘Moved to Terrorism Court’ – Nov. 25, 2020

CNN World – Saudi Women’s Rights Activist Loujain al-Hathloul goes on Trial in Riyadh – Mar. 13, 2019

Human Rights Watch – Is Saudi Arabia Serious About Clemency for Women Rights Activists? – Nov. 10, 2020

Human Rights Watch – Together We Must Protect and Support WHRDs in Middle East and North Africa – Dec. 11, 2020

The African Court on Human and People’s Rights Faces Resistance Against Authority

By: Hannah Gavin

Impunity Watch Staff Writer

ARUSHA, Tanzania – The African Court on Human and People’s Rights has been facing difficulty in recent months as nations have growingly been unwilling to co-operate with the court.

Logo of the Coalition for an Effective African Court of Human and People’s Rights. Photo courtesy of the Coalition.

The nations of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania all recently withdrew the right of individuals and NGOs to file cases with the court directly. These nations join several other African nations that have either revoked the right for individuals to file or are not complying with the court’s decisions. The reasons for the revocations are due to decisions by the court that these nations view as too harsh and unfavorable. The International Director for Research and Policy from Amnesty International discussed the matter by stating, “The decision by countries to hit back at the court for decisions they disagreed with is extremely worrying. African states must refrain from using political muscle against institutions whose very purpose is to ensure justice is available to everyone, regardless of their government’s politics.”

In addition to nations outright denying the court’s decisions, many have also opted to ignore its obligations. The court requires that nations submit periodic reports so that they may keep track of potential arising violations. Only six of the thirty nations had submitted reports. An additional six nations had never submitted a single report. These actions already presented many concerns to human rights before the COVID-19 pandemic, since the pandemic these have become grave threats. Many countries have used excessive force, arrests, and strict restrictions to curb the effects of the virus. Specifically, people who were already of limited resources are being hit especially hard.

Some of those that are historically underprivileged include the elderly and those with disabilities. These at-risk groups are often targets of human rights violations. To combat this, two protocols dictating rights for these marginalized groups were adopted by the African Union. However, several years after their adoption, the protocols have yet to be ratified.

These restrictions have raised alarms for the African and international communities, as going against the implicit purpose of the court. By restricting access to fair proceedings, individuals who are victims of these crimes may be unable to seek help. More egregiously, nations that perpetrate such abuses will be left with citizens struggling to find legal support. Many diverse nations make up the African continent, without the assistance of the court to regulate severe human rights abuses, many nations risk slipping from democratic societies into despotisms.

For further information, please see:

Amnesty International – Africa: Regional human rights bodies struggle to uphold rights amid political headwinds – 21 Oct. 2020

African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights – African Court Coalition Discussions: States Withdrawals from Article 34(6) of the African Court Protocol – 1 May 2020