Amnesty International Report 2017/18

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

53

MINORITY RIGHTS

Discrimination and stigmatization of minorities remained pervasive across Europe and Central 

Asia with several groups facing harassment, violence, and obstacles to meaningful 

participation in society.

Discrimination against Roma remained widespread in Slovakia. The European Commission 

continued an infringement procedure against Slovakia and Hungary for systematic 

discrimination and segregation of Roma children in schools. Segregated camps, discrimination 

in access to social housing and forced evictions remained a daily reality for thousands of the 

170,000 Roma estimated to be living across Italy, around 40,000 of them in camps in squalid 

conditions. The European Commission still failed to take effective action towards ending 

discrimination against Roma.

Muslims faced discrimination, particularly when looking for work, at work, and when 

accessing public or private services such as education and health care.

In Austria, a new law banned any kind of full-face covering in public spaces, 

disproportionately restricting the rights to freedom of expression and of religion or belief. 

Tajikistan’s authorities forced thousands of women to remove their Islamic headscarves 

(hijabs) in public places to comply with the law on traditions.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND 

INTERSEX PEOPLE

LGBTI people faced growing abuse and discrimination across the east, including violence, 

arbitrary arrests and detention. In Azerbaijan, over 100 LGBTI people were arbitrarily arrested 

on one day in the capital Baku. In Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, consensual sex among men 

remained a crime punishable by prison. Georgia’s new Constitution restricted the definition of 

marriage to exclude same-sex couples. Lithuania’s Parliament adopted legislation 

discriminating against LGBTI people. In Russia, the “gay propaganda law” continued to be 

used, despite being ruled discriminatory by the European Court of Human Rights.

Reports emerged in April that the Chechen authorities were secretly and arbitrarily detaining, 

torturing and killing gay men. In response to the international outcry, the authorities claimed 

that gay men did not exist in Chechnya, while the federal authorities failed to carry out an 

effective investigation.

There were also positive developments and examples of human courage and solidarity. The 

Russian LGBT Network organized a hotline and facilitated the evacuation to safety of LGBTI 

people from Chechnya and elsewhere in the North Caucasus. The biggest-ever Pride rally in 

Ukraine was held. Malta’s parliament approved same-sex marriage legislation and extended 

full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Germany granted marriage rights to all, regardless of 

their gender or sexual orientation, and equal rights to adoption for married people.

TRANSGENDER PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WITH VARIATIONS OF SEX CHARACTERISTICS

Transgender people in Europe and Central Asia faced hurdles seeking legal recognition of their 

gender identity. Children and adults with variations in sex characteristics continued to face 

human rights violations, perpetrated in the course of non-emergency, invasive and irreversible 

medical interventions which often had harmful consequences on physical and psychological 

health, especially for children. In 18 European countries, transgender people were required to 

undergo sterilization, and in 35 countries they had to receive a mental health diagnosis in 

order to change their gender.

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

There was progress in Belgium and Greece; they were the latest European countries to 

abolish sterilization and mental health diagnosis requirements, although legal gender 

recognition reforms in both countries still fell short of establishing a quick, transparent and 

accessible administrative procedure.

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

55

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 

REGIONAL OVERVIEW

Journalists and human rights defenders were targeted in government crackdowns, and 

online expression was heavily controlled in several countries. Civil society activists 

managed to halt further tightening of restrictions on free expression in some places. 

Freedom of religion and belief came under attack from armed groups and governments 

alike. The struggle of women’s rights movements successfully led to the amendment of 

laws that had entrenched discrimination and violence against women in some countries. 

However, systematic discrimination remained in law and practice across the region and 

women were still inadequately protected against gender-based violence. Authorities 

arrested and prosecuted people for their real or perceived sexual orientation in some 

countries, and consensual same-sex sexual relations were still criminalized in many, in a 

handful of cases punishable by death. There were severe restrictions on trade unions in 

some countries, and migrant workers continued to face exploitation and abuse. However, 

reforms in a couple of countries gave migrant workers greater employment protections. 

Armed conflicts took a heavy toll on beleaguered civilians and were characterized by 

serious violations, including the use of banned weapons, unlawful sieges, and direct 

attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Death sentences were imposed in a number 

of countries across the region, and hundreds of executions were carried out. Impunity 

persisted for historical and recent crimes; however, some progress was made towards 

securing truth and justice for victims.

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSOCIATION 

AND ASSEMBLY

Governments across the Middle East and North Africa repressed civil society both offline and 

online in an attempt to prevent or punish reporting on human rights violations or other 

criticism directed at them or their allies, often on the pretext that they were combating threats 

to national security or corruption. They also used excessive force in an attempt to quell protest 

movements that had taken to the streets.

CRACKDOWNS IN EGYPT AND SAUDI ARABIA

In some countries, increased clampdowns accompanied a global trend that saw political 

strongmen attempting to establish their credentials in the eyes of the international community. 

In President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s Egypt, the authorities continued to curb the work of human 

rights defenders in an unprecedented manner, shutting down or freezing the assets of NGOs; 

they enacted a draconian new law that gave them broad powers to dissolve NGOs and 

provided for five years’ imprisonment for publishing research without government permission. 

The Egyptian authorities also sentenced at least 15 journalists to prison terms on charges 

related solely to their writing, including publication of what the authorities deemed “false 

information”; they blocked more than 400 websites, including those of independent 

newspapers and human rights organizations. Meanwhile, security forces arrested hundreds of 

individuals based on their membership or perceived membership of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

To punish political dissidents, the authorities used prolonged pre-trial detention, often for 

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