World Report 2017 is Human Rights Watch’s 27th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarizes key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events from late 2015 through November 2016.
The book is divided into two main parts: an essay section, and country-specific chapters.
In his keynote essay, “The Dangerous Rise of Populism: Global Attacks on Human Rights Values,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth examines the rise of leaders who, claiming to speak for “the people” amid rising public discontent over the status quo, reject rights as an impediment to their perception of the majority will. Roth sees such unrestrained majoritarianism and assaults on government checks and balances as “perhaps the greatest danger today to the future of democracy in the West.” The past should serve as our guide he warns: leaders who have claimed insight into the will of the majority have gone on to crush the individual who stands in their way. “We should never underestimate the tendency of demagogues who sacrifice the rights of others in our name today to jettison our rights tomorrow when their real priority—retaining power—is in jeopardy,” he writes. Rather than taking on this surge of populist attacks on human rights, he says, too many Western leaders are lying low, “hoping the winds of populism will blow over.” Some seem to think that echoing populists’ positions will mitigate their rise rather than reinforcing their message. Others, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, appear emboldened in their repressive path by the rise of Western populism, and by the West’s muted response.
This global assault on human rights, Roth says, requires “a vigorous reaffirmation and defense” of its basic values, with media, civil society, and government all having important parts to play. But the real responsibility, he says, lies with the public, who via nongovernmental organizations, political parties, and traditional and social media, offer the best antidote to demagogues’ lies by demanding “a politics based on truth and the values on which rights-respecting democracy has been built.” “Rights by their nature do not admit an à la carte approach,” Roth says. “You may not like your neighbors, but if you sacrifice their rights today, you weaken your own tomorrow, because ultimately rights are grounded on the reciprocal duty to treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.”
In the second essay, “When Exposing Abusers Is Not Enough: Strategies to Confront the Shameless,” Akshaya Kumar examines the traditional human rights strategy of “naming and shaming” those who violate human rights. Increasingly, she notes, that approach is being undermined by human rights abusers who revel in their atrocities, rather than hide them, and even use them to entice new followers. Human rights activists, Kumar argues, need to adapt their own tactics accordingly, by taking on those who enable abusers—financial backers, arms suppliers, and other networks that make their rights violations possible—and drawing on the expertise of those who map such systems. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach,” she concludes. But unmasking and holding to account those on whose shoulders the shameless stand is an investment the human rights movement needs to make if it is to take on those for whom exposure is a boost, not a blow.
Fears of extremist armed attacks continue to drive legal and policy change in much of the world. Suicide bombers and gunmen have killed hundreds of people and injured thousands more outside of traditional conflict areas in recent years. Governments are responsible for protecting their populations from such attacks, but, as Letta Tayler writes in “Overreach: How New Global Counterterrorism Measures Jeopardize Rights,” many attempt to do so by adopting laws and policies that are dangerously overbroad or intrusive, and thus counterproductive. Tayler focuses on two recent trends: a proliferation of counterterrorism laws, many aimed at so-called Foreign Terrorist Fighters (“FTFs”); and declarations of states of emergency. Rather than providing greater security these measures to often risk violating basic rights, incarcerating the wrong people, and alienating populations that could play a positive role in helping to curtail attacks. The solutions, she says, include reforming counterterrorism laws—for example, narrowing the definition of terrorism and mandating rigorous oversight of potential abuses—and limiting the scope and duration of emergency powers to the minimum that is genuinely necessary. As Tayler concludes, effective responses to terrorism do not sideline human rights; rather they uphold them.
In “The Internet is Not the Enemy: As Rights Move Online, Human Rights Standards Move with Them,” Dinah PoKempner identifies a troubling dichotomy between the principles of internet freedom that governments publicly support, and the practical steps they take back home that run counter to them, particularly intrusive surveillance. She presents three features of online speech that make it particularly powerful, and hard to regulate—its lack of inhibition, its longevity, and its cross-border reach—challenges that she says demand a “doubling down on privacy and freedom of speech, rather than giving up on them.” Noting that some rights-limiting steps are sometimes warranted, indeed necessary, she stresses the evaluation of “necessity and proportionality” in regulation, as well as the requirements of transparency, independent oversight, and avenues of appeal and redress. Failure to follow these time-tested standards, she warns, can lead to discrimination, persecution, and even undermine national security or public order by eroding trust in government and protection of minorities. “Societies that deprive their inhabitants of online privacy and means of digital security are deeply vulnerable” she concludes; rights need to be part of the digital age.
Education is often a casualty for children caught up in conflict and persecution. For older children, particularly, it has become an “impossible dream.” Today, less than a quarter of the world’s nearly 2 million secondary school-aged refugee adolescents attend school. Girls are often most affected. In the final essay, “The Lost Years: Secondary Education for Children in Emergencies,” Bassam Khawaja, Elin Martinez, and Bill Van Esveld identify the causes of these “lost years” as primary-school focused funding, and restrictive refugee policies that limit the ability of displaced children to attend and stay in school. To address them, they say, humanitarian actors and donors need to place more emphasis on secondary education, and address the physical, social, economic, policy, and linguistic barriers that make it hard for older children to get an education. The stakes, they argue, could not be higher: the personal growth, safety, and sense of hope of displaced older children, and the economic and social well-being of their host and home countries—if and when they return.
The rest of the volume consists of individual country entries, each of which identifies significant human rights abuses, examines the freedom of local human rights defenders to conduct their work, and surveys the response of key international actors, such as the United Nations, European Union, African Union, United States, China, and various regional and international organizations and institutions.
The book reflects extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watch staff undertook in 2016, usually in close partnership with human rights activists and groups in the country in question. It also reflects the work of our advocacy team, which monitors policy developments and strives to persuade governments and international institutions to curb abuses and promote human rights. Human Rights Watch publications, issued throughout the year, contain more detailed accounts of many of the issues addressed in the brief summaries in this volume. They can be found on the Human Rights Watch website, www.hrw.org.
As in past years, this report does not include a chapter on every country where Human Rights Watch works, nor does it discuss every issue of importance. The absence of a particular country or issue often simply reflects staffing or resource limitations and should not be taken as commentary on the significance of the problem. There are many serious human rights violations that Human Rights Watch simply lacks the capacity to address.
The factors we considered in determining the focus of our work in 2016 (and hence the content of this volume) include the number of people affected and the severity of abuse, access to the country and the availability of information about it, the susceptibility of abusive forces to influence, and the importance of addressing certain thematic concerns and of reinforcing the work of local rights organizations.
The World Report does not have separate chapters addressing our thematic work but instead incorporates such material directly into the country entries. Please consult the Human Rights Watch website for more detailed treatment of our work on children’s rights; women’s rights; arms and military issues; business and human rights; health and human rights; disability rights; international justice; terrorism and counterterrorism; refugees and displaced people; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people’s rights; and for information about our international film festivals.
More than 200 Human Rights Watch staff contributed to World Report 2017; Danielle Haas, Senior Editor, oversaw the editing; Aditi Shetty, Program Office Associate, managed the logistics.