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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

RIGHTS TO HOUSING, WATER AND HEALTH

ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

The year marked the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories and 

the 10th anniversary of its illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities intensified the 

expansion of settlements and related infrastructure across the West Bank, including East 

Jerusalem, and carried out a large number of demolitions of Palestinian property, forcibly 

evicting more than 660 people. Many of these demolitions were in Bedouin and herding 

communities that the Israeli authorities planned to forcibly transfer.

Israel’s air, land and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip continued the long-standing restrictions 

on the movement of people and goods, collectively punishing Gaza’s entire population of 

approximately 2 million inhabitants. Combined with Egypt’s almost total closure of the Rafah 

border crossing, and the West Bank authorities’ punitive measures, Israel’s blockade triggered 

a humanitarian crisis with power cuts, reducing access to electricity to a few hours per day, 

affecting the supply of clean water and sanitation and reducing access to health services.

Elsewhere in the region, Palestinian refugees, including many long-term residents, remained 

subject to discriminatory laws. In Lebanon, they continued to be excluded from many types of 

work, owning or inheriting property and from accessing public education and health services.

WATER, SANITATION AND HEALTH

Civil society raised a number of cases before the Lebanese judiciary related to violations of the 

rights to health and clean water, including cases related to the sale of expired drugs in public 

hospitals and to waste mismanagement.

In Tunisia, water shortages became acute. The government admitted it did not have a 

national strategy for water distribution, thereby making it impossible to ensure equitable 

access. Marginalized regions were disproportionately affected by water cuts, leading to local 

protests throughout the year.

COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY

Serious human rights violations accompanied counter-terrorism measures in several countries.

In Egypt, where more than 100 members of the security forces were killed in attacks by 

armed groups, mostly in North Sinai, the National Security Agency continued to forcibly 

disappear and extrajudicially execute individuals suspected of political violence. The Ministry 

of the Interior claimed that more than 100 individuals were shot dead in exchanges of fire with 

security forces throughout the year. However, in many of these cases the people killed were 

already in state custody after having been forcibly disappeared. Torture and other ill-treatment 

remained routine in official places of detention and was systematic in detention centres run by 

the National Security Agency. Hundreds were sentenced, including to death, after grossly 

unfair mass trials.

In Iraq, suspects prosecuted on terrorism-related charges were routinely denied the rights to 

adequate time and facilities to prepare a defence, to not incriminate themselves or confess 

guilt, and to question prosecution witnesses. Courts continued to admit into evidence 

“confessions” that were extracted under torture. Many of those convicted after these unfair 

and hasty trials were sentenced to death. Iraqi and Kurdish government forces and militias 

also carried out extrajudicial executions of men and boys suspected of being affiliated with IS.

Complaints of torture in custody against defendants accused of national security-related 

offences were reported in countries including Bahrain, Israel and Kuwait. In general, the 

allegations were not investigated. Saudi Arabia introduced a new counter-terrorism law that 

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allowed for the death penalty for some crimes. In Tunisia, the government continued to restrict 

freedom of movement through arbitrary and indefinite orders that confined hundreds to their 

governorate of residence, justifying this as a measure to prevent Tunisians from travelling to 

join armed groups.

DEATH PENALTY

Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia remained among the world’s most prolific users of the death 

penalty, carrying out hundreds of executions between them, many after unfair trials. In Iran, 

Amnesty International was able to confirm the execution of four individuals who were under 18 

at the time the crime was committed, but several executions of other juvenile offenders were 

postponed at the last minute because of public campaigning. The Iranian authorities 

continued to describe peaceful campaigning against the death penalty as “un-Islamic”, and 

harassed and imprisoned anti-death penalty activists. In Saudi Arabia, courts continued to 

impose death sentences for drugs offences and for conduct that under international standards 

should not be criminalized, such as “sorcery” and “adultery”. In Iraq, the death penalty 

continued to be used as a tool of retribution in response to public outrage after attacks claimed 

by IS.

Bahrain and Kuwait both resumed executions in January, the first since 2010 and 2013 

respectively; the death sentences had been imposed for murder. Egypt, Jordan, Libya and the 

Hamas de facto administration in the Gaza Strip also carried out executions. Except for Israel 

and Oman, all other countries in the region continued a long-standing practice of imposing 

death sentences but not implementing them.

ARMED CONFLICT

Fuelled by the international arms trade, conflict in the region continued to blight the lives of 

millions of individuals, particularly in Yemen, Libya, Syria and Iraq. In each conflict, multiple 

parties committed war crimes and other serious violations of international law, including 

indiscriminate attacks that killed and injured civilians, direct attacks against civilians or civilian 

infrastructure. In Syria and Yemen, government and allied forces used internationally banned 

weapons such as cluster munitions and, in the case of Syria, chemical weapons.

YEMEN CONFLICT

The situation in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East and North Africa even before 

the outbreak of conflict in March 2015, became the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, 

according to the UN, with three quarters of its population of 28 million in need of help. The 

country faced the biggest cholera epidemic in modern times, exacerbated by a lack of fuel for 

water-pumping stations, and was on the verge of the world’s most severe famine for decades. 

The conflict has shattered the water, education and health systems. The Saudi Arabia-led 

coalition supporting the internationally recognized Yemeni government held up shipments of 

food, fuel and medicine. In November it cut off Yemen’s northern ports completely for more 

than two weeks. The coalition’s air strikes hit funeral gatherings, schools, markets, residential 

areas and civilian boats. Huthi rebel forces, allied with forces loyal to former president Ali 

Abdullah Saleh until splits between them led to his killing in December, indiscriminately 

shelled civilian residential areas in Ta’iz city and fired artillery indiscriminately across the 

border into Saudi Arabia, killing and injuring civilians.

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