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ABBREVIATIONS
ASEAN
Association
of Southeast Asian Nations
AU
African Union
CEDAW
UN Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women
CEDAW Committee
UN Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women
CERD
International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination
CERD Committee
UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination
CIA
US Central Intelligence Agency
ECOWAS
Economic Community of West African States
EU
European Union
European Committee
for the Prevention of
Torture
European Committee for the Prevention of
Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
European Convention on Human Rights
(European) Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
ICC
International Criminal Court
ICCPR
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights
ICESCR
International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights
ICRC
International Committee of the Red Cross
ILO
International Labour Organization
International Convention against Enforced
Disappearance
International Convention for the Protection of
All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
LGBTI
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and
intersex
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NGO
non-governmental organization
OAS
Organization of American States
OSCE
Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe
UK
United Kingdom
UN
United Nations
UN Convention against Torture
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment
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UN Refugee Convention
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of
expression
UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and
protection of the right to freedom of opinion
and expression
UN Special Rapporteur on racism
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance
UN Special Rapporteur on torture
Special Rapporteur on torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment
UN Special Rapporteur on violence against
women
Special rapporteur on violence against
women, its causes and consequences
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency
Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund
UPR
UN Universal Periodic Review
USA
United States of America
WHO
World Health Organization
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PREFACE
The Amnesty International Report 2017/18 shines a light on the state of the
world’s human rights during 2017.
The foreword, five regional overviews and a survey of 159 countries and
territories from all regions document the struggle of many people to claim
their rights, and the failures of governments to respect, protect and fulfil
human rights.
Yet there are also glimpses of hard-won progress, demonstrating that the
defence of human rights does yield positive developments. This report pays
tribute to the human rights defenders who continue to fight for change,
sometimes risking their own lives in the process.
In a year when austerity measures and natural disasters pushed many into
deeper poverty and insecurity, this year’s report also shines a spotlight on
economic, social and cultural rights.
While every attempt is made to ensure accuracy, information may be subject
to change without notice.
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FOREWORD
“As we enter the year in which the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights turns 70, it is abundantly clear that none of us
can take our human rights for granted.”
SALIL SHETTY, SECRETARY GENERAL
Throughout 2017, millions across the world experienced the bitter fruits of a rising politics of
demonization. Its ultimate consequences were laid bare in the horrific military campaign of
ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in Myanmar. This caused an exodus of some
655,000 people into neighbouring Bangladesh in a matter of weeks, the fastest-growing
refugee crisis of 2017. At the end of the year, their prospects for the future remained very
unclear, and the enduring failure of world leaders to provide real solutions for refugees left little
reason for optimism.
This episode will stand in history as yet another testament to the world’s catastrophic failure
to address conditions that provide fertile ground for mass atrocity crimes. The warning signs in
Myanmar had long been visible: massive discrimination and segregation had become
normalized within a regime that amounted to apartheid, and for long years the Rohingya
people were routinely demonized and stripped of the basic conditions needed to live in dignity.
The transformation of discrimination and demonization into mass violence is tragically familiar,
and its ruinous consequences cannot be easily undone.
The appalling injustices meted out to the Rohingya may have been especially visible in 2017,
but the trend of leaders and politicians demonizing whole groups of people based on their
identity reverberated across the globe. The past year showed us once again what happens
when the politics of demonization become mainstream, with grim consequences for human
rights.
As we enter 2018, the year in which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70, it is
abundantly clear that none of us can take any of our human rights for granted. We certainly
cannot take for granted that we will be free to gather together in protest or to criticize our
governments. Neither can we take for granted that social security will be available when we are
old or incapacitated; that our babies can grow up in cities with clean, breathable air; or that as
young people we will leave school to find jobs that enable us to buy a home.
The battle for human rights is never decisively won in any place or at any point in time. The
frontiers shift continually, so there can never be room for complacency. In the history of human
rights, this has perhaps never been clearer. Yet, faced with unprecedented challenges across
the world, people have shown repeatedly that their thirst for justice, dignity and equality will
not be extinguished; they continue to find new and bold ways of expressing this, while often
paying a heavy price. In 2017, this global battle of values reached a new level of intensity.
Assaults on the basic values underpinning human rights – which recognize the dignity and
equality of all people – have assumed vast proportions. Conflicts, fuelled by the international
arms trade, continue to exact a cataclysmic toll on civilians, often by design. Whether in the
humanitarian catastrophe of Yemen, exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’s blockade, or government
and international forces’ indiscriminate killing of civilians used as human shields by the armed
group calling itself Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or crimes under international law driving a