Climate change tops list of global worries for young people, says Amnesty

MADRID - Four out of 10 young people view climate change as one of the most important issues facing the world, an Amnesty International survey on the state of human rights showed on Tuesday.

The Amnesty poll, released on Human Rights Day, asked more than 10,000 people aged 18-25, in 22 countries across 6 continents, to pick up to 5 major issues from a list of 23.

Of those, 41 percent selected climate change, making it the most commonly cited issue globally.

“For young people, the climate crisis is one of the defining challenges of their age," said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty's outgoing secretary general, noting the huge surge in young people protesting about it on the streets.

"This is a wake-up call to world leaders that they must take far more decisive action to tackle the climate emergency or risk betraying younger generations further,” he added.

Among global worries, pollution was ranked second at 36 percent and terrorism third at 31 percent.

At the national level, however, corruption, pollution, economic instability and income inequality came out as the top 4 concerns, with climate change pushed into fifth place.

"We are living inside a failed system," said Naidoo. "The climate crisis, pollution, corruption and poor living standards are all windows on an alarming truth about how the powerful have exploited their power for selfish and often short-term gain."

When asked who should take the most responsibility for protecting the environment globally, 54 percent of respondents said governments, 28 percent individuals and 14 percent businesses.

And 63 percent agreed governments should take the wellbeing of their citizens more seriously than economic growth.

FUTURE COSTS

On Tuesday, meanwhile, a law firm representing 16 children from around the world, including Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, sent letters to the governments of Norway and Canada.

Those countries' support for their oil and gas industries breached the children's rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the letters said.

"Expanding your oil and gas production will lock in decades of greenhouse gas emissions, jeopardizing the universal rights of all children to life, health, and culture," said the letters.

"As children, the petitioners are the ones who will inherit the worst impacts of the climate crisis and bear the future costs of the decisions you make today," they added.

The 16 children, who also include 14-year-old US activist Alexandria Villasenor, in September filed a complaint with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child against five countries over their carbon emissions.

The new letters came after the Philippines unveiled on Monday the findings of a four-year inquiry into the human rights impacts of climate change in the Southeast Asian country and the contribution of 47 "carbon major" companies to those impacts.

Its Commission on Human Rights, which heard harrowing testimony from typhoon survivors, concluded that the companies played a clear role in causing global warming and its effects.

Based on the evidence, it said fossil fuel companies could be found legally and morally liable for human rights violations arising from climate change.

Scientists say burning fossil fuels for industry, energy and transport is responsible for the vast majority of the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the Earth.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia Executive Director Yeb Saño said a growing number of climate-related legal cases are now being heard or filed across the world.

"With the conclusion of this investigation, we believe many more communities will take a stand against fossil fuel companies that are putting profit before people," he said in a statement.

At the UN talks on Monday, Rose Whipple, an 18-year-old activist from the Santee Dakota tribe in Minnesota, in the United States, spoke about how she and other young people had tried - and failed - to stop approval for a tar sands oil pipeline, arguing it would contaminate their sacred river water.

"We (indigenous people) are on the frontline doing this work today, right now," she told journalists. "We deserve to be listened to, and we also deserve to have our lands back."

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Google, Facebook business models threat to human rights: Amnesty

SAN FRANCISCO -- The data-collection business model fueling Facebook and Google represents a threat to human rights around the world, Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday.

The organization argued that offering people free online services and then using information about them to target money-making ads imperils a gamut of rights including freedom of opinion and expression.

"Despite the real value of the services they provide, Google and Facebook's platforms come at a systemic cost," Amnesty said in its report, "Surveillance Giants."

"The companies' surveillance-based business model forces people to make a Faustian bargain, whereby they are only able to enjoy their human rights online by submitting to a system predicated on human rights abuse."

With ubiquitous surveillance, the two online giants are able to collect massive amounts of data which may be used against their customers, according to the London-based human rights group.

The business model is "inherently incompatible with the right to privacy," Amnesty contended.

The report maintained that the two Silicon Valley firms have established "near-total dominance over the primary channels through which people connect and engage with the online world," giving them unprecedented power over people's lives.

"Google and Facebook dominate our modern lives -- amassing unparalleled power over the digital world by harvesting and monetizing the personal data of billions of people," said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International's secretary general.

"Their insidious control of our digital lives undermines the very essence of privacy and is one of the defining human rights challenges of our era."

The report called for governments to implement policies that ensure access to online services while protecting user privacy.

"Governments have an obligation to protect people from human rights abuses by corporations," Amnesty maintained.

"But for the past two decades, technology companies have been largely left to self-regulate."

DISPUTE ON FINDINGS

Facebook pushed back against what it contended were inaccuracies in the report, saying it strongly disagreed with its business model being characterized as surveillance-based.

"Our business model is what allows us to offer an important service where people can exercise foundational human rights -- to have a voice (freedom of expression) and be able to connect (freedom of association and assembly)," said a letter from Facebook privacy and public policy director Steve Satterfield in an annex to the Amnesty report.

"Facebook's business model is not, as your summary suggests, driven by the collection of data about people."

Facebook spotlighted its measures implemented which limit data information used for ad targeting; controls provided to users regarding their data; and steps taken to restrict abuses by apps on the social network.

"As you correctly note, we do not sell data; we sell ads," Facebook said.

Facebook chief and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has called for governments to implement uniform rules regarding data-handling instead of leaving private companies to make crucial social decisions such as the limits of free speech.

Google did not offer a specific written response.

But the Amnesty report noted that Google announced this month it would limit data that it shares with advertisers through its ad auction platform, following the launch of an inquiry by the Irish data protection authority and had launched a new feature allowing users to delete location data.

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Climate striker Greta Thunberg wins Swedish rights prize

STOCKHOLM - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday won the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the "alternative Nobel Prize", the jury for the Swedish human rights prize said.

Thunberg was honored "for inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action reflecting scientific facts," the Right Livelihood Foundation said in a statement.

"Her resolve to not put up with the looming climate disaster has inspired millions of peers to also raise their voices and demand immediate climate action," it added.

Thunberg's global climate movement "Fridays for Future" began in August 2018 when she started sitting alone outside Sweden's parliament with her now iconic sign reading "school strike for the climate". 

The message has struck a chord with youths around the world. Last Friday, an estimated four million plus people took to the streets in over 150 countries to join the "Global Climate Strike" protest, demanding action from politicians against climate disaster.

This year's Right Livelihood Award also honors three others, including Sahrawi human rights activist Aminatou Haidar "for her steadfast non-violent action, despite imprisonment and torture, in pursuit of justice and self-determination for the people of Western Sahara".

Lawyer Guo Jianmei received the award for her "pioneering and persistent work" for women's rights in China.

The Brazilian Hutukara Yanomami Association and its leader Davi Kopenawa were also honored for their "courageous determination to protect the forests and biodiversity of the Amazon, and the lands and culture of its indigenous peoples." 

The Right Livelihood Award was created in 1980 by Swedish-German philatelist Jakob von Uexkull after the Nobel Foundation behind the Nobel Prizes refused to create awards honoring efforts in the fields of the environment and international development.

The award consists of a cash prize of one million Swedish kronor ($103,000 or 94,000 euro) for each laureate, meant to support the recipient's work. 

hdy/jll/po/bp

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Amnesty accuses Hong Kong police of arbitrary arrests, torture

HONG KONG - Amnesty International accused Hong Kong police on Friday of torture and other abuses in their handling of more than three months of pro-democracy protests, but the police say they have shown restraint on the street in the face of increased violence.

Anti-government protesters, many masked and wearing black, have thrown petrol bombs at police and central government offices, stormed the Legislative Council, blocked roads to the airport, trashed metro stations and lit fires on the streets of the Chinese-ruled city.

Police have responded with tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and several live rounds fired in the air, warning the crowds beforehand with a series of different colored banners.

They have also been seen beating protesters on the ground with batons, with footage of one such attack on cowering passengers on an MTR subway train going viral online and prompting widespread anger.

Amnesty said a field investigation had documented "an alarming pattern of the Hong Kong Police Force deploying reckless and indiscriminate tactics, including while arresting people at protests, as well as exclusive evidence of torture and other ill-treatment in detention".

“The Hong Kong police’s heavy-handed crowd-control response on the streets has been livestreamed for the world to see. Much less visible is the plethora of police abuses against protesters that take place out of sight,” said Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director at Amnesty International, in a report.

"The evidence leaves little room for doubt – in an apparent thirst for retaliation, Hong Kong’s security forces have engaged in a disturbing pattern of reckless and unlawful tactics against people during the protests. This has included arbitrary arrests and retaliatory violence against arrested persons in custody, some of which has amounted to torture.”

One such act of retaliation was to shine green lasers into the eyes of detainees, Amnesty said, employing a tactic used by many protesters against police.

Released just after midnight in Hong Kong (1601 GMT on Thursday), the Amnesty report did not give the chance for police to respond immediately. But police have said they have been restrained in their use of force on the streets.

"Since June, the protests in Hong Kong have been increasingly tense with an escalation of violence," they said on their Facebook page earlier.

"In various districts, protesters committed extensive destructive acts such as hurling petrol bombs, setting fires and paralyzing traffic. In face of the lawless and illegal acts of the protesters, police always exercise a high level of restraint and endeavor to restore public order and to protect the safety of the general public."

They said nearly 240 police had been wounded in the protests.

In a direct challenge to Communist Party rulers in Beijing, some protesters on Sunday threw bricks at police outside the Chinese People's Liberation Army base and set fire to a red banner proclaiming the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The police subsequently issued a statement saying they would "continue to take resolute enforcement actions so as to safeguard the city’s public safety and bring all lawbreakers to justice."

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that ensures freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including right of assembly and an independent judiciary.

Demonstrators are angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing despite the promise of autonomy.

The spark for the latest protests in June was planned legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed people accused of breaking Chinese laws to be sent to the mainland for trial.

But they have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage, including an independent inquiry into perceived police brutality. China says it is committed to the "one country, two systems" arrangement and denies interfering. It has accused foreign powers, particularly the United States and Britain, of fomenting the unrest and told them to mind their own business.

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Amnesty International calls on S.Korea to end discrimination of gay soldiers

SEOUL - Amnesty International on Thursday called on South Korea to decriminalize same-sex relationships for men in the military, warning current laws fuel violence, discrimination and stigmatization against gay soldiers.

The human rights group said South Korea’s military code "does not comply with the international human rights obligations the state has signed on to".

"By institutionalizing discrimination, laws criminalizing sex between men reinforce systematic prejudices toward gay men, bisexual men, transgender people and non-binary people, whether in the military or in the street or in the home," Amnesty said in a report released on Thursday.

The South Korean ministry of defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in the past South Korea has defended the code as necessary to maintain discipline.

The Amnesty report comes as South Korea engages in a broader debate over the future of its conscript military force - with recent court rulings clearing the way for conscientious objectors and political leaders promising to shorten service commitments - as well as controversy over changing social norms.

Amnesty urged South Korea to repeal Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act, which it said effectively prohibited and punished sex between men in the military.

"The military code in South Korea allows the invasion of privacy of soldiers alleged to be engaging in sex between men both on and off base, and on or off duty," the report concluded.

"Decriminalisation does not solve the entire issue, but it is a crucial first step towards respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of LGBTI people."

Homosexual activity is not criminalized for South Korean civilians, but same-sex couples do not have the right to marry of adopt.

In March, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) submitted an amicus brief in a challenge to the military code now before South Korea's Constitutional Court, alleging that the code "violates many norms of international law".

"South Korea’s military sodomy law is a blight on the country’s human rights record and multiple human rights bodies have called for its abolition," Graeme Reid, the LGBT rights director at HRW, said at the time.

A survey of South Koreans released in March by the Academy of Korean Studies found about 45 percent of respondents were comfortable working around gay people, while less than 16 percent said they would be comfortable with a gay person in their family.

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Rights body urges UN investigation, independent autopsy in Khashoggi death

LONDON - Amnesty International said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia's explanation of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul appeared to be a whitewash of "an appalling assassination".

"The investigation findings by the Saudi authorities claiming that Khashoggi died as a result of a 'fist-fight' inside the consulate are not trustworthy and marks an abysmal new low to Saudi Arabia's human rights record," Samah Hadid, the human rights group's Middle East director, said in a statement.

It called on Saudi authorities to produce Khashoggi's body so that independent forensic experts could perform an autopsy. It also said the United Nations should investigate his death.

"An independent investigation will be the only guarantee against what increasingly appears as a Saudi whitewash surrounding the circumstances of Khashoggi's murder or any attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative arms deals and other business ties with Riyadh," Hadid said.

Saudi Arabia's claim that Khashoggi had died in a fight -- rather than was deliberately killed - was Riyadh's first acknowledgment of his death after two weeks of denials that it was involved in his disappearance.

"This appalling assassination within the grounds of the Consulate amounts to an extrajudicial execution," Amnesty said.

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Saudi court jails rights activist over tweets

DUBAI - A Saudi court sentenced human rights activist Issa al-Nukheifi to six years in prison on Wednesday over tweets critical of the government, a rights group said, confirming a Saudi newspaper report.

Saudi newspaper Okaz said the defendant, who it did not identify, was accused of criticising Saudi Arabia's intervention in neighbouring Yemen, insulting the government and objecting to its decisions, criminal proceedings and security procedures.


ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group, identified the defendant as Issa al-Nukheifi, an activist who was detained in December 2016. It condemned the conviction and sentencing.

Amnesty International called for his immediate release.

"Instead of engaging with activists on reforms, the authorities are going after them one by one, with almost all of the country’s human rights activists now silenced or imprisoned," Dana Ahmed, the group's campaigner on Saudi Arabia, said.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior declined to comment on Nukheifi's case.

Okaz reported that his sentence was also for re-tweeting anti-government accounts and simultaneously receiving money transfers from a prisoner still serving a sentence.

Nukheifi was sentenced to six years of prison and, following his release, a six year ban on social media as well as a six year travel ban outside of the country.

Nukheifi was previously arrested, tried and sentenced to prison for similar offences, an Amnesty report said. He was detained in 2012 and released in April 2016, only to be arrested eight months later.

On Tuesday, ALQST published a letter by Nukheifi from custody addressed to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"I was very happy listening to your speeches and interviews where you call for freedom of expression and respecting human rights, which is what we call for and work with you to achieve," he wrote. "I am writing to you from inside my imprisonment, having been detained for asking for these (steps)."

In September, the arrest by Saudi authorities of some 30 clerics, intellectuals and activists was condemned by another group, Human Rights Watch.

Its Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said at the time that the arrests were a sign that "Mohammed bin Salman has no real interest in improving his country’s record on free speech and the rule of law".

Crown Prince Mohammed has rocketed to the pinnacle of power in Saudi Arabia, pushing a reform agenda called Vision 2030 aimed at weaning the country off oil and introducing social reforms. Critics say he is not doing enough to liberalise politics in a country where the king enjoys absolute authority.

In a Washington Post article published on Wednesday, when the crown prince was asked whether he might release human rights activists before his visit to the United States next month, the paper reported him as saying that Saudi standards were different to American ones and "if it works, don’t fix it".

The paper said he added later through an aide that he would consider reforms in this area, as in others.

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Saudi condemns 15 to death for spying for Iran

A Saudi court Tuesday sentenced 15 people to death for spying for the kingdom's rival Iran, local media and a source close to the case said, in a move likely to heighten regional tensions.

The source told AFP that most of the 15 Saudis were members of the kingdom's Shiite minority.

Tehran swiftly denied the espionage charges and urged Saudi Arabia not to "seek to bring baseless accusations against Iran with the intention of political gains and increasing tensions in the region".

The espionage trial opened in February, a month after Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran over the burning of the Saudi embassy and a consulate by Iranian demonstrators protesting against the kingdom's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

The most serious charge levelled against the accused was high treason.

Prosecutors also alleged the accused had divulged defence secrets, tried to commit sabotage and recruit moles in government departments, to send coded information, and supported "riots" in the Shiite-dominated eastern district of Qatif, Saudi media reported.

The 15 were among a group of 32 people tried over the espionage allegations, Alriyadh newspaper said.

Some of the defendants were accused of meeting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The death sentences will be appealed, said the source close to the case, who cannot be identified due to its sensitivity.

Two of the group were acquitted while the rest received jail sentences of between six months and 25 years.

Apart from one Iranian and an Afghan, all the defendants were Saudis. The source said that one of those acquitted was a foreigner.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Riyadh had not passed on "any information to the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the alleged Iranian person" in the trial.

Amnesty International, in a statement, called Tuesday's sentence "a travesty of justice and a serious violation of human rights".

"Sentencing 15 people to death after a farcical trial which flouted basic fair trial standards is a slap in the face for justice," said Amnesty's Samah Hadid.

- Syria, Yemen tensions -

Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told AFP that the trial was "flawed from the beginning".

It was tainted by allegations that the accused did not have access to lawyers during interrogation, Coogle said.

They were also charged with offences that do not resemble recognisable crimes, including "supporting demonstrations", attempting to "spread the Shia confession" and "harming the reputation of the kingdom", he said.

"Criminal trials should not be merely legal 'window-dressing' where the verdict has been decided beforehand," he said.

HRW earlier cited a lawyer who represented some of the accused until March as saying the timing of the case "may relate to ongoing hostility between Iran and Saudi Arabia".

All but one of the accused had been detained since 2013.

The region's leading Shiite and Sunni powers are at odds over a range of issues including the wars in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has also expressed concern over an international agreement that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for guarantees it would not pursue a nuclear weapons capability.

Riyadh fears the pact will lead to more Iranian "interference" in the region.

With relations at a low, Iranian pilgrims in September -- for the first time in nearly three decades -- did not attend the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia after the two countries failed to agree on security and logistics.

Nimr, the executed cleric whose case sent tensions soaring, was a driving force behind protests that began in 2011 among the Shiite minority, most of whom live in the kingdom's east which faces Iran across the Gulf.

The protests developed into a call for equality in the Sunni-dominated kingdom, where Shiites have long complained of marginalisation.

Nimr was convicted of terrorism and executed in January alongside 46 other people -- mostly Sunnis -- found guilty of the same crime.

Rights activists say more than two dozen other Shiites are on death row in Saudi Arabia.

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Amnesty issues rights plea to Rihanna, Shakira

Human rights group Amnesty International urged pop stars Rihanna and Shakira on Friday to open their eyes to recent arrests of journalists, bloggers and activists in Azerbaijan, before their performances in the former Soviet republic this month.

Amnesty and Sing for Democracy said in a joint letter that it wanted to draw the singers' attention to human rights and freedom of speech issues in Azerbaijan.

"Both singers should be aware of the situation in the country post-Eurovision," the letter said, referring to the singing contest in the Azeri capital of Baku in May, which spurred protests and rallies by Azeris demanding democracy.

Authorities in Baku arrested dozens of protesters in May and have since arrested several journalists and political activists.

"We Found Love" singer Rihanna, 24, is scheduled to perform in Baku on Saturday. "Hips Don't Lie" singer Shakira, 35, is performing in Baku for football organization FIFA's under 17 women's world cup on October 13, and at another venue in the capital on October 14.

International rights groups often have criticized Azerbaijan for curbing public dissent, while the government in Baku says Azerbaijanis enjoy full freedom of speech.

"Amnesty International believes that the Azerbaijani government should afford all artists, journalists, activists and ordinary citizens the right to express themselves freely without fear of reprisal. We hope that you share our belief," said the letter to Rihanna and Shakira.

Representatives for both singers did not immediately return calls for comment.

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