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https://theweek.com/police-brutality/1008447/the-still-urgent-problem-of-police-violence-in-america

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This can't be fixed with minor tweaks, as tens of millions of Americans increasingly realize

New evidence recently emerged about a Los Angeles police officer fatally shooting two people on December 23: one a seemingly deranged man who was assaulting random people in a Burlington store with a bike lock, and the other a 14-year-old bystander. Body cam footage shows the officer rushed into the scene despite being told over a dozen times by other police to "slow down," then shot the man with a rifle without giving any verbal warnings or attempting to disarm him. In the process, the officer killed a young girl with a ricochet.

This is a tragedy. It's also a reminder that despite the national backlash against meaningful police reform both among conservatives and centrist Democrats, there is still an epidemic of police violence in this country, and it will keep happening unless someone does something about it.

The Los Angeles story is just the most prominent recent story of police violence. Overall, The Washington Post counts some 900 Americans fatally shot by police so far this year. Reading through the database provides a grim cross-section of human dysfunction - people killed after a police chase following a stop for allegedly driving on a suspended license, or because they allegedly advanced on officers with a knife after a domestic dispute, or because they allegedly went on a bizarre rampage with a backhoe, and on and on.

Occasionally - as in this well-documented and plausible account of police shooting a man who refused to stop holding a knife to the throat of his ex-wife - police actions seem proportionate and reasonable. In other cases, they are totally unjustifiable, as with the Minnesota officer recently convicted of manslaughter for killing an unarmed 20-year-old Black man back in April - or straight-up murder, as in the killing of George Floyd.

The rest appear to be somewhere in the middle. Even if we make allowances for the chronic police habit of lying to reporters after they commit some atrocity, I think it's fair to conclude the bulk of police killings happen when officers are faced with some moderately dangerous situation - someone armed with a weapon other than a gun, or a gun simply being nearby, or a fight going on, or someone suffering a mental breakdown - and use extreme violence as a response, often a first response.

In the Los Angeles case, for instance, there was every reason to attempt non-violent de-escalation rather than immediately opening fire - especially with a rifle, given its far greater bullet velocity than a pistol - because of the risk of hitting a bystander in a crowded store. But that is plainly not what American cops are trained to do, not with any kind of rigor, and it's not what the paranoid, violent culture of many police departments encourages.

Yes, American violent crime rates are higher than those of comparable countries. But as I've previously argued, they're higher in part because of our extreme economic inequality and skinflint welfare state (along with ludicrous quantities of guns and incompetent policing). Where the Nordic countries, for instance, provide a baseline of material comfort to virtually every citizen and a panoply of wraparound services to deal with social problems, and hence have vastly lower rates of incarceration and murder, in America those problems are largely left to fester. The police and the courts end up dealing with all that disorder - desperation, conflict, rage, and madness caused by homelessness, poverty, untreated mental illness, and so on - in the only way they know how: brute force.

All this shows the folly of moderate liberals' ongoing attempts to stuff the Black Lives Matter genie back into the bottle. This can't be fixed with minor tweaks, as tens of millions of Americans increasingly realize. The George Floyd demonstrations were the largest mass protest in American history and signaled a potentially powerful vein of political energy that might have been mined. Instead, unruly protesters with their insufficiently focused-grouped slogans like "defund the police" were held responsible for the party of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer - none of whom have ever espoused such slogans - not doing quite as well in the 2020 election as was hoped.

Consider the story of this Los Angeles girl. If that was your 14-year-old daughter, her life snuffed out by some doofus cop with an itchy trigger finger, do you think you'd modulate your anguish to help the political prospects of a party that barely even pretends to care about preventing such tragedies in the future? Or would you demand justice, ( contestable) polling results be hanged?

Conversely, consider the very real successes the reform movement has had on the local level. In my hometown of Philadelphia, for instance, reformist District Attorney Larry Krasner has ended death penalty prosecutions, cut the local jail population by about 30 percent, reduced future sentences by about 20,000 years relative to his predecessor, and even prosecuted a cop for beating an unarmed protester senseless. That infuriated the local police union, which backed a challenger in the recent primary - but Krasner still won easily.

So long as the United States continues to suffer from all its manifold defects, every so often the police will kill a sympathetic unarmed victim, and there will be fury and organizing in response. Maybe self-proclaimed liberals could stop whining about slogans and elections and do something to stop this violence instead.

RNC threatens to pull candidates from official debates

RNC threatens to pull candidates from official debates

Washington health department met with COVID protests

Washington health department met with COVID protests

California deputy DA opposed to vaccine mandates dies of COVID-19

California deputy DA opposed to vaccine mandates dies of COVID-19

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The still-urgent problem of police violence in America

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This can't be fixed with minor tweaks, as tens of millions of Americans increasingly realize New evidence recently emerged about a Los Angeles police officer fatally shooting two people on December 23: one a seemingly deranged man who was assaulting random people in a Burlington store with a bike lock, and the other a 14-year-old bystander.

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https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/skorea-unidentified-person-crosses-border-north-korea-82037154

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South Korea's military says an unidentified person has crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's military said Sunday that an unidentified person crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea.

The person was earlier spotted by surveillance equipment at the eastern portion of the border, known as the Demilitarized Zone, but avoided capture by South Korean troops on Saturday night. The surveillance later detected the person crossing the border, Joint Chiefs of Staff officers said.

South Korea sent a message to North Korea on Sunday morning to ensure the safety of the person, but the North hasn't responded, the officers said requesting anonymity citing department rules.

It was unclear if this was a rare case of a South Korean hoping to defect to the North, or it could be a North Korean who briefly entered the South Korean territory for some reason before returning to the North.

Earlier in 2020, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un placed a border city under total lockdown after a North Korean defector with COVID-19-like symptoms sneaked back home. The fate of that defector, who had lived in South Korea, is not known.

On Saturday, North Korea announced it had decided to place top priority on strict virus restrictions at a high-profile ruling party meeting last week.

The two Koreas are split along the world's most heavily armed border, called the Demilitarized Zone. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the 248-kilometer (155-mile) -long, 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide DMZ, which is also guarded by barbed wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides.

Defecting via the DMZ is rare. At the height of their Cold War rivalry, both Koreas sent agents and spies to each other's territory through the DMZ, but no such incidents have been reported in recent years.

About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the late 1990s to avoid poverty or political oppression, but a vast majority of them have come via China and Southeast Asian countries.

North Korea has yet to report any cases of the coronavirus while experts have questioned its claim of a perfect record.

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S Korea: Unidentified person crosses border into North Korea

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South Korea's military says an unidentified person has crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's military said Sunday that an unidentified person crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea.

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https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-biggest-data-breaches-of-2021/

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In 2021, thousands of new cybersecurity incidents have been recorded -- and while cryptocurrency theft and data loss are now commonplace, this year stands out due to several high-profile incidents involving ransomware, supply chain attacks, and the exploitation of critical vulnerabilities.

The Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC) has reported an increase of 17% in the number of recorded data breaches during 2021 in comparison to 2020. However, an entrenched lack of transparency around the disclosure of security incidents continues to persist -- and so this may be a low ball estimation.

According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach has now reached over $4 million, while Mimecast estimates that the average ransomware demand levied against US companies is well over $6 million. The world record for the largest payout, made by an insurance company this year, now stands at $40 million.

Read on: This is the perfect ransomware victim, according to cybercriminals | Enterprise data breach cost reached record high during COVID-19 pandemic |

Experts have warned that the security issue could persist for years with the recent emergence and rapid exploitation of the Log4j vulnerability. That goes for data leaks, breaches, and theft, too, which are unlikely to decline in number in the near future.

Here are some of the most notable security incidents, cyberattacks, and data breaches over 2021.

January:

Livecoin: Following an alleged hack in December, cryptocurrency exchange Livecoin slammed its doors shut and exited the market in January. The Russian trading post claimed that threat actors were able to break in and tamper with cryptocurrency exchange rate values, leading to irreparable financial damage.

Microsoft Exchange Server: One of the most damaging cybersecurity incidents this year was the widespread compromise of Microsoft Exchange servers caused by a set of zero-day vulnerabilities known collectively as ProxyLogon. The Redmond giant became aware of the flaws in January and released emergency patches in March; however, the Hafnium state-sponsored threat group was joined by others for months after in attacks against unpatched systems. Tens of thousands of organizations are believed to have been compromised.

February:

SITA: An IT supplier for aviation services around the world, SITA, said a security incident involving SITA Passenger Service System servers led to the exposure of personal, identifiable information belonging to airline passengers. Airlines involved in the data breach were then required to reach out to their customers.

March:

Mimecast: Due to the Solarwinds supply chain attack disclosed in December 2020, Mimecast found itself as a recipient of a malicious software update that compromised the firm's systems. Mimecast said that its production grid environment had been compromised, leading to the exposure and theft of source code repositories. In addition, Mimecast-issued certificates and some customer server connection datasets were also caught in the breach.

Tether: Tether faced an extortion demand from cyberattackers who threatened to leak documents online that would "harm the Bitcoin ecosystem." The demand, of approximately $24 million or 500 Bitcoin (BTC), was met with deaf ears as the blockchain organization refused to pay.

April:

Facebook: A data dump of information belonging to over 550 million Facebook users was published online. Facebook IDs, names, dates of birth, genders, locations, and relationship statuses were included in the logs, of which Facebook -- now known as Meta -- said was collected via scraping in 2019.

May:

Colonial Pipeline: If there was ever an example of how a cyberattack can impact the physical world, the cyberattack experienced by Colonial Pipeline is it. The fuel pipeline operator was struck by ransomware, courtesy of DarkSide, leading to fuel delivery disruption and panic buying across the United States. The company paid a ransom, but the damage was already done.

June:

Volkswagen, Audi: The automakers disclosed a data breach impacting over 3.3 million customers and some prospective buyers, the majority of which were based in the United States. A finger was pointed at an associated vendor as the cause of the breach, believed to be responsible for exposing this data in an unsecured manner at "some point" between August 2019 and May 2021.

July:

UC San Diego Health: UC San Diego Health said employee email accounts were compromised by threat actors, leading to a wider incident in which patient, student, and employee data potentially including medical records, claims information, prescriptions, treatments, Social Security numbers, and more were exposed.

Kaseya: A vulnerability in a platform developed by IT services provider Kaseya was exploited in order to hit an estimated 800 - 1500 customers, including MSPs.

August:

T-Mobile: T-Mobile experienced a yet-another data breach in August. According to reports, the names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, IMEI and IMSI numbers, and ID information of customers were compromised. It is possible that approximately 50 million existing and prospective customers were impacted. A 21-year-old took responsibility for the hack and claimed to have stolen roughly 106GB of data from the telecoms giant.

Poly Network: Blockchain organization Poly Network disclosed an Ethereum smart contract hack used to steal in excess of $600 million in various cryptocurrencies.

Liquid: Over $97 million in cryptocurrency was stolen from the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange.

September:

Cream Finance: Decentralized finance (DeFi) organization Cream Finance reported a loss of $34 million after a vulnerability was exploited in the project's market system.

October:

Coinbase: Coinbase sent out a letter to roughly 6,000 users after detecting a "third-party campaign to gain unauthorized access to the accounts of Coinbase customers and move customer funds off the Coinbase platform." Cryptocurrency was taken without permission from some user accounts.

Argentina: A hacker claimed to have compromised the Argentinian government's National Registry of Persons, thereby stealing the data of 45 million residents. The government has denied the report.

November:

Panasonic: The Japanese tech giant revealed a cyberattack had taken place -- a data breach occurring from June 22 to November 3, with discovery on November 11 -- and admitted that information had been accessed on a file server.

Squid Game: The operators of a cryptocurrency jumping on the popularity of the Netflix show Squid Game (although not officially associated) crashed the value of the SQUID token in what appears to be an exit scam. The value plummeted from a peak of $2,850 to $0.003028 overnight, losing investors millions of dollars. An anti-dumping mechanism ensured that investors could not sell their tokens -- and could only watch in horror as the value of the coin was destroyed.

Robinhood: Robinhood disclosed a data breach impacting roughly five million users of the trading app. Email addresses, names, phone numbers, and more were accessed via a customer support system.

December:

Bitmart: In December, Bitmart said a security breach permitted cyberattackers to steal roughly $150 million in cryptocurrency and has caused total losses, including damages, to reach $200 million.

Log4j: A zero-day vulnerability in the Log4j Java library, a remote code execution (RCE) flaw, is now being actively exploited in the wild. The bug is known as Log4Shell and is now being weaponized by botnets, including Mirai.

Kronos: Kronos, an HR platform, became a victim of a ransomware attack. Some users of Kronos Private Cloud are now facing an outage that may last weeks -- and just ahead of Christmas, too.

Previous and related coverage

Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0

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The biggest data breaches, hacks of 2021 | ZDNet

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In 2021, thousands of new cybersecurity incidents have been recorded -- and while cryptocurrency theft and data loss are now commonplace, this year stands out due to several high-profile incidents involving ransomware, supply chain attacks, and the exploitation of critical vulnerabilities.

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https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2022/01/07/san-diego-county-police-track-cars/

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Vehicles move along Interstate 5 north of downtown San Diego, Jan. 4, 2022. License plate readers are used to track vehicles throughout San Diego County. (Zoë Meyers/inewsource)

Police agencies throughout San Diego County continue to spend thousands of dollars every year on technology that tracks the location of people's cars, even though the information collected most often has nothing to do with solving crime or protecting the public.

And a monthslong inewsource investigation found that until recently, five police departments across the county have been violating state law by sharing this information with agencies all over the United States. Two of those departments - police in Carlsbad and Coronado - decided to change their policies after questions from inewsource.

They're called automated license plate readers. For more than a decade, police have been using cameras mounted on top of patrol cars, or fixed objects such as light poles, to capture any license plate that comes into view. They can extract the time, date, location and sometimes a partial image of the vehicle, and automatically compare the plate number to a list of vehicles that police are looking for.
inewsource is an independent and nonprofit journalism organization in San Diego, and relies on grants and philanthropists to support its investigative content. Click here to learn more.
The information is also stored in a searchable database for up to one year, and can be shared with select agencies.

Right now, there are at least 300 cameras peppered throughout the county - from Oceanside to Chula Vista to La Mesa - actively collecting location data on people's cars. Eight of the county's 10 local police agencies, including the sheriff, are using the equipment and capturing millions of license plates every year.

Anyone with access to that information could have an unrestricted view into a person's daily routine and social network, said Vasudha Talla, director of the Immigrants' Rights Program at the ACLU of Northern California.

"Mass surveillance technology collects the most intimate information about our personal lives," Talla said. From where a person shops to who they associate with. "Our presence at protests; our presence at mosques. A variety of activity that's protected by the Constitution."

That's why in 2015 state lawmakers strengthened privacy protections for drivers and established strict rules for how police can use the technology, including who has access to the information collected.

The idea was that this technology is supposed to assist local law enforcement with crimes committed locally, said former state Sen. Jerry Hill, a Democrat from San Mateo who sponsored the law. It was supposed to prevent unfettered access to private information and prohibit police from embarking on fishing expeditions.

"Law enforcement certainly has a tough job and we want them to succeed at their job and their mission, but how they get there needs some serious civilian oversight," Hill said in an interview with inewsource, "or we could have a police state at the end of the day."

But despite those changes, the state auditor found in 2020 that police are keeping data longer than necessary and sharing it with other agencies that don't have a need or even a right to access it, all without taking required steps to protect privacy. The audit looked at records from four law enforcement agencies and found that the vast majority of data collected was unrelated to criminal investigations.

Talla is representing activists who filed a lawsuit against the Marin County Sheriff - one of the agencies included in the report - for illegally sharing license plate data with out-of-state and federal agencies, including Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A Marin County Sheriff spokesperson said the office has made changes since the audit and plans to defend its policy in court.

The problem, Talla said, is that those out-of-state and federal agencies don't have to follow the same set of rules for how and when private information collected from this technology can be accessed. And there have been multiple reports of police abusing this technology.

An officer in Georgia accepted a bribe to run a woman's license plate, and a police sergeant in Ohio pleaded guilty to stalking his ex-girlfriend using this equipment, according to an Associated Press analysis in 2016.

Hundreds of others across the country have been disciplined for misusing the data collected from license plate readers. As the auditor's report says, that's not to suggest this behavior represents all members of law enforcement - only that safeguards are needed to prevent it.

But there have also been horrible mistakes, such as when local police in Colorado held a woman and four Black kids at gunpoint in a parking lot. Officers had wrongly identified the woman's SUV license plate as one that matched a stolen out-of-state motorcycle. Charges were never filed against those officers.

Police are likely holding people at gunpoint as a result of false positives more often than the public is aware of, said Laila Aziz, director of operations for Pillars of the Community, a Southeast San Diego nonprofit focused on helping people in the legal system.

"The police need to carefully look at their reliance on technology and how this technology could affect people in the long run," she said.

Through the California Public Records Act, inewsource attempted to obtain license plate data from every local police agency in the county. inewsource had hoped to analyze the data to determine how long agencies were holding onto individual records, whose information was being shared beyond the state and how easy it would be to track an individual using the data.

Those requests were denied by every department citing previous State Supreme Court rulings that excluded such data from the public.

Valuable Information Shared Far and Wide

Members of law enforcement say license plate readers offer an important investigative tool, and the more information at their fingertips, the more successful they can be in preventing and solving all kinds of crime.

They point to numerous violent crimes that have been solved with the help of this equipment, but are often hard pressed to provide specific details about those arrests. More importantly, officials have said the technology doesn't collect any personal information, only a photo of a license plate and details about the location.

However, license plates are inherently attached to people. The California Supreme Court wouldn't allow law enforcement in Los Angeles County to make the data collected there public, saying it would violate privacy if individual license plates were released.

In addition, activists say it's an indiscriminate data collection effort. They roll out nationwide examples of law-abiding citizens getting victimized thanks to police misconduct or misunderstanding of technology. And according to the 2020 audit, the risk of misusing the technology increases as information is widely distributed.

inewsource found police in Carlsbad, Coronado, Escondido, La Mesa and Oceanside had been sharing location data collected in those jurisdictions with hundreds of other agencies across the country. Small police departments in states like Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois have been given access to information about drivers in San Diego County. State law says license plate data can only be shared with agencies in California.

When asked about this, police in Escondido and La Mesa doubled down, saying they weren't doing anything wrong and refusing to answer questions about why it was necessary. A representative with Oceanside police said the department has stopped sharing its data with "many agencies" without providing proof, and then stopped responding to emails.

Carlsbad police initially expressed a misunderstanding of how the information is shared, and then later changed its policy to share only with California agencies after further questioning.

Coronado's police chief, Chuck Kaye, quickly responded and said his department decided to change its policy.

"We reevaluated what we were doing and looked at best practices," Kaye said in an interview. The department ultimately decided to restrict its sharing to only agencies within San Diego County.

Kaye said his biggest concern was making sure other officers had access to information about high-risk people, but sharing data with agencies outside San Diego County "didn't seem to be needed," he said.

inewsource had hoped to determine how often an individual driver's information is being collected and how it's being used or shared, but the public currently has no way to know. And some people may not even know it's happening at all.

Only two cities - Carlsbad and Chula Vista - have held meaningful public discussion about this topic. Carlsbad police asked its City Council for permission to expand the program further and Chula Vista has held several public meetings, but only after a reporter found in December 2020 that police were sharing information with ICE and CBP.

In San Diego and El Cajon, there's no record of the initial purchase of this equipment even going before City Council members for approval. Only after police wanted to expand the program did council members in those cities have an opportunity to sign off, but there wasn't a public discussion.

"Most people do not have a choice except to drive in many car-dependent communities," Talla said, "and so they have to subject themselves to this surveillance whether they like it or not."

'Whatever the Number Is, I Think We Need to Invest it'

Police in San Diego County have collectively spent at least $4.6 million - much of it coming from federal grants - to pay for license plate readers as well as services offered from various private companies.

Invoices provided to inewsource show the Escondido Police Department was among the first agencies in the county to secure the technology, paying roughly $30,000 for three cameras in March 2007. Officials there said they would be used to combat auto theft.

Since then, surveillance programs have expanded and spread to every agency in the county. National City stopped using the technology in September 2020 and instead decided to spend money on other priorities, a spokesperson said. Departments have typically spent roughly $50,000 to secure the equipment, records show, not including ongoing costs.

Every other local law enforcement agency in the county, including the sheriff, has an agreement with a company named Vigilant Solutions - the same one used by most police agencies across the state.

In addition to the cost of cameras, they each have to pay up to $20,000 for an annual subscription to the company's database, which assists in the sharing of information. San Diego police also pay for this service, but all 108 of the department's cameras are inactive, said Lt. Adam Sharki. He would not answer why the department continues to pay without receiving the full benefit.

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But most of these public expenses came without input from residents. It appears the first meaningful discussion about using this equipment happened in March 2017, when Carlsbad police went to the City Council for permission to expand its existing program and buy new equipment for more than $800,000.

During that meeting, Carlsbad police Chief Mickey Williams, who was a captain at the time, told council members that property crime and car thefts had been on the rise and the department was looking for additional tools to deter it, as well as catch those who commit it. Williams said license plate readers might be the solution.

"Hard to put a value on how many crimes are prevented," he told council members.

Several members of the public weren't sold, and each expressed concern to council members about mass surveillance.

"Every time I go to Vons over the next year, three times a week, you're going to capture my license plate and store it for a year," said Vicky Syage, one of five others who told council members to reject the proposal. "That's absolutely ludicrous. It goes against everything in our judicial principals. We are innocent in this country until proven guilty."

But the majority of the council liked what it heard. Council member Keith Blackburn said it was a "no-brainer" and that every patrol car should be outfitted with the equipment. Mayor Matt Hall said the safeguards in place are "more than adequate" to protect privacy. It was approved 4-1, with then-council member Cori Schumacher voting no.

The police department returned the following year in 2018, asking for another $537,000 to expand the surveillance even further. That was approved also, and Schumacher was again the lone dissenter, saying the city's crime data never supported this expense.

"When we approved the license plate readers, we were at the second lowest point for crime in 30 years," she said.

Hall was on the opposite end of the spectrum. He said the technology has more than proven itself and "whatever the number is, I think we need to invest it."

In a recent interview with inewsource, Hall said it's a powerful tool that has multiplied the department's workforce many times over. He declined to comment on specific issues raised, saying he would need to review the facts first.

But he wanted to make it clear that "safety is job No. 1 in the city of Carlsbad."

Blackburn declined to comment. The police department is scheduled to give the City Council an update on its surveillance program this spring.

A Multifunctional Tool

To justify these expenses, members of law enforcement often marvel over the technology's capabilities. It tracks license plates, not people, and police have to take an additional step to find out who the plate belongs to - information that isn't made available to the public. And instead of hiring more officers to run plates, the technology does it automatically and sends alerts when a vehicle of interest is nearby. That saves money, time and resources.

Across San Diego County, records show the hit rate - the number of vehicles of interest detected versus the total number of scans - is less than 1%. For example, cameras in Escondido have scanned more than 8 million license plates, returning 82,000 results - a hit rate of .9%.

But officials say that only tells half the story. This technology can not only help people recover stolen cars or other property just from passive data collection, but during investigations, it can be used to bring justice to victims of violent crime, such as homicide, robberies and even child abduction. Detectives can use it to identify suspects and link them to crime scenes, potentially solving a host of other crimes that might not be captured in the hit rate.

When asked to cite specific cases, though,only four departments responded: the Sheriff, Coronado, Carlsbad and Chula Vista.

Sheriff's deputies used license plate data to identify the getaway car involved in a homicide, a spokesperson said. They obtained a description and used that to find a nearby vehicle of interest soon after the crime was committed. Without giving specific details, a spokesperson said detectives confirmed it was the getaway car through further investigation and surveillance.

In May 2020, a young man in Coronado posted an ad on OfferUp trying to sell a gold necklace, said Kaye, Coronado's police chief. Without providing identifying information, Kaye said the man arranged a meeting with a potential buyer on Orange Avenue, but three people showed up and robbed him at gunpoint. A struggle ensued, he was shot and later recovered from his injuries, Kaye said.

During the investigation, officers obtained security footage from a nearby business that showed the car involved - a white Toyota Prius with damage on the driver-side door. Officers were able to analyze that footage to pull partial plate numbers and run them through the database of saved images, which allowed them to identify the vehicle, and later, all three suspects.

Chula Vista police published a report last March - after the department's practice of sharing data with ICE and CBP came to light - to justify the use of its equipment. The report offered seven examples of cases, without any names or dates, saying there are too many success stories to list them all.

One described a homicide that detectives were investigating. They had a description of the make and color of the suspect vehicle and used license plate readers to find similar cars in the area. Detectives identified the car's registered owner, who matched the suspect's description. They found the car and obtained a search warrant to process evidence.

Officers wound up making several arrests for crimes committed in multiple jurisdictions, said Chula Vista Police Capt. Eric Thunberg.

"It's a sad case, and very tragic for the victim's families," Thunberg said in an email. "But it does illustrate how (license plate readers) can assist the department in apprehending dangerous offenders."

In Carlsbad, police officials have sent the City Council multiple reports to justify the continued expansion of its program.

A 2018 staff report said the license plate reader program had scanned more than 48 million plates halfway through the year. Of those scans, Carlsbad police received 267 reports of stolen or wanted vehicles and license plates. These reports led to the recovery of 65 vehicles, or nearly $460,000 in recovered property. The program had directly contributed to 63 arrests based on stolen vehicle reports.

In addition, officials listed nine examples of cases that had been assisted, including two attempted murders. Both suspects had been caught outside San Diego County - one in a neighboring county and the other in Arizona - after license plate readers registered a hit.

That collaboration with law enforcement partners can sometimes make all the difference, a spokesperson for Carlsbad said.

Police Don't Always Understand How the Technology Works

As part of their agreement with Vigilant, agencies select who else can have access to the information collected by its cameras. They can choose to share data with every public safety agency that participates in the network, or on an agency-by-agency basis.

Whatever the decision, the company then generates a "data sharing report," which is an alphabetical list of every cooperating agency.

inewsource obtained the sharing report of all nine departments in the county and found that police as far away as Cape Coral, Florida, and Saratoga Springs, New York, have access to location data of drivers in San Diego County.

The data sharing is part of the reason why the state auditor's report expressed concern that the agencies working with Vigilant may not be protecting privacy the way they should. Senate Bill 34 says police are only allowed to share data with public agencies, which are defined as agencies within the state of California.

When asked why police from a small agency in Southwest Florida would need access to location data from drivers in Escondido and La Mesa, representatives from both agencies didn't answer the question, saying only they weren't doing anything wrong.

In May, police in Carlsbad revised its department policies, which, among other things, removed nearly every out-of-state agency from its share report. But on the list obtained by inewsource in November, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department was nestled between the departments in La Mesa and Long Beach. It was an error that has since been fixed.

When asked about sharing with out-of-state agencies, Carlsbad officials initially seemed to misunderstand how the data sharing works.

"We manually approve every agency for which we share data," a spokesperson said in an email. "It is not automatic."

But that's not entirely accurate. Departments do have to manually approve who receives data, but that's what the sharing report is for. Once an agency is listed on that report, it has access to all of the data made available to it, said Talla, the ACLU attorney.

"Law enforcement agencies that use the automated license plate reader systems, as well as other types of mass surveillance technology, have difficulty understanding how the technology works and what they are agreeing to and how the data is stored and shared," she added.

The state auditor's report concluded the same thing. Members of three agencies involved with the audit had "difficulty understanding when and how sharing occurred," the report said.

'Now Is Not the Time to Take Away Tools'

Officials in Chula Vista had to face a moment of reckoning. In December 2020, a reporter found ICE and CBP listed on the police department's share report - a potential violation of two state laws, Senate Bills 34 and 54. The first prohibits sharing with out-of-state or federal agencies, and the other prohibits coordinating with federal immigration officials - also known as the sanctuary law.

Reaction to the coverage was immediate. Residents started contacting city officials in droves, forcing them to hold multiple public meetings and a community forum, where officials sat and listened to questions and complaints from residents.

"The Chula Vista Police Department is sensitive to the concerns of our undocumented community," Chief Roxana Kennedy said during a City Council meeting in March.

She asserted that the program complies with state law, and said, "hearing concerns from our community that sharing data with ICE and Border Patrol did not echo the spirit of (the sanctuary law) caused us to stop and to reevaluate, and we immediately suspended sharing data with both agencies until further evaluation and examination of our program."

Since then, the department has dedicated a special page on the city's website that provides a number of documents - presentations to the City Council about the program, staff reports, quarterly audit reports and a new data sharing report, which includes only in-state agencies.

Amid the fallout, Kennedy pleaded with council members not to take the equipment away. She rattled off double-digit increases in crime to drive the point home, even though crime across San Diego County remains at all-time lows.

"Chula Vista continues to be one of the safest cities in the county, we have an obligation to keep it that way," Kennedy said during the council meeting in April. "Now is not the time to take away tools that have been proven effective, and are part of the reason for our public safety success."

Council members ultimately voted to keep the equipment for at least another year.

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Police in San Diego County Track Cars, Share Locations with Agencies Across the U.S.

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Police agencies throughout San Diego County continue to spend thousands of dollars every year on technology that tracks the location of people's cars, even though the information collected most often has nothing to do with solving crime or protecting the public.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/10/a-data-black-hole-europol-ordered-to-delete-vast-store-of-personal-data

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The EU's police agency, Europol, will be forced to delete much of a vast store of personal data that it has been found to have amassed unlawfully by the bloc's data protection watchdog. The unprecedented finding from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) targets what privacy experts are calling a "big data ark" containing billions ofpoints of information. Sensitive data in the ark has been drawn from crime reports, hacked from encrypted phone services and sampled from asylum seekers never involved in any crime.

According to internal documents seen by the Guardian, Europol's cache contains at least 4 petabytes - equivalent to 3m CD-Roms or a fifth of the entire contents of the US Library of Congress. Data protection advocates say the volume of information held on Europol's systems amounts to mass surveillance and is a step on its road to becoming a European counterpart to the US National Security Agency (NSA), the organisation whose clandestine online spying was revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Among the quadrillions of bytes held are sensitive data on at least a quarter of a million current or former terror and serious crime suspects and a multitude of other people with whom they came into contact. It has been accumulated from national police authorities over the last six years, in a series of data dumps from an unknown number of criminal investigations.

The watchdog ordered Europol to erase data held for more than six months and gave it a year to sort out what could be lawfully kept.

The confrontation pits the EU data protection watchdog against a powerful security agency being primed to become the centre of machine learning and AI in policing.

The ruling also exposes deep political divisions among Europe's decision-makerson the trade-offs between security and privacy. The eventual outcome of their face-off has implications for the future of privacy in Europe and beyond.

The EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson appeared to defend Europol. "Law enforcement authorities need the tools, resources and the time to analyse data that is lawfully transmitted to them," she said. "In Europe, Europol is the platform that supports national police authorities with this herculean task."

The commission says the legal concerns raised by the EDPS raise "a serious challenge" for Europol's ability to fulfil its duties. Last year, it proposed sweeping changes to the regulation underpinning Europol's powers. If made law, the proposals could in effect retrospectively legalise the data cache and preserve its contents as a testing ground for new AI and machine learning tools.

Europol denies any wrongdoing, and said the watchdog may be interpreting the current rules in an impractical way: "[The] Europol regulation was not intended by the legislator as a requirement which is impossible to be met by the data controller [ie Europol] in practice."

Europol had worked with the EDPS "to find a balance between keeping the EU secure and its citizens safe while adhering to the highest standards of data protection", the agency said.

Founded as a coordinating body for national police forces in the EU and headquartered in The Hague, Europol has been pushed by some member states as a solution to terrorism concerns in the wake of the 2015 Bataclan attacks and encouraged to harvest data on multiple fronts.

In theory, Europol is subject to tight regulation over what kinds of personal data it can store and for how long. Incoming records are meant to be strictly categorised and only processed or retained when they have potential relevance to high-value work such as counter-terrorism. But the full contents of what it holds are unknown, in part because of the haphazard way that EDPS found Europol to be treating data.

Only a handful of Europeans have become aware that their own data is being stored and none is known to have been able to force disclosure. Frank van der Linde, who was placed on a terror watchlist in his native Netherlands and later removed, is one of the rare visible threads in an otherwise unseen mesh.

The political activist, whose only serious run-ins with police amount to breaking a window to gain entrance to a building and create a squat for homeless people, was removed from the Dutch watchlist by authorities in 2019. But a year prior to this removal he had moved to Berlin, which unknown to Van der Linde at the time prompted Dutch police to share his data with German counterparts and Europol. The activist discovered his entanglement with Europol only when he saw a partially declassified file at Amsterdam city hall.

To get his personal data removed from any international databases he turned to Europol. He was surprised when in June 2020 it responded saying it had nothing he was "entitled to have access to". The activist took his complaint to the EDPS. "I don't know if they deleted the data after Dutch authorities updated them [that] they don't consider me an extremist ... Europol is a black box."

"The ease of getting on such a list is horrific," Van der Linde said. "It's shocking how easily police share information over borders, and it's terrifying how difficult it is to manage to delete yourself from these lists."

Concerns over Europol's treatment of sensitive data prompted the watchdog to raise its own questions in 2019. Its initial findings in September of that year showed that data sets shared with Europol were stored without the proper checks to verify whether people scooped up in them ought to be monitored or their data retained. Access to the ark is restricted to authorised personnel and a lot of its content has been examined, cleansed and used legally.

When Europol failed to convincingly answer the watchdog's concerns, the EDPS publicly admonished the police agency in September 2020 making clear what was at stake: "Data subjects run the risk of wrongfully being linked to a criminal activity across the EU, with all of the potential damage for their personal and family life, freedom of movement and occupation that this entails."

The tussle that followed is captured in a series of internal documents obtained under freedom of information laws. They show Europol stalling for time and the watchdog telling them that they have failed to resolve "the legal breach". The police agency appears to be holding out for new EU legislation to provide retrospective cover for what it has been doing without a legal basis for six years.

The European Commission's nervousness over a public clash was enough to pull Monique Pariat, the EU's director general for home affairs, into a meeting between the two agencies in December 2021. Sources said the watchdog had been encouraged to "tone down" its public criticism of Europol.

But the head of EDPS, Wojciech Wiewiórowski, told the Guardian that the meeting was "the last moment for Europol to add some information that wasn't added in their last replies to our letter".

As the meeting did nothing to answer Wiewiórowski's concerns on lawful retention of data "there was no other way to solve the problem, for us" he said, "than to issue a decision to erase the data which is over six months".

Niovi Vavoula, a legal expert at Queen Mary University of London, said: "The new legislation is actually an effort to game the system. Europol and the commission have been attempting an ex-post rectification of illegally retaining data for years. But putting new rules in place does not legally resolve previously illegal conduct. This is not how the rule of law works."

Experts' concerns are not confined to Europol's flouting of rules on data retention. They also see a law enforcement agency that aspires to conduct mass surveillance operations.

Members of the civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee of the European parliament during a hearing in June 2021 compared the agency to the NSA. Wiewiórowski surprised attenders by endorsing the comparison in relation to Europol's practice of retaining data. He pointed out that Europol was using similar arguments to those used by the NSA to defend bulk data collection operations and mass surveillance as revealed by Snowden.

"What the NSA said to Europeans after the Prism scandal started was that they are not processing the data, they are just collecting it and they will process it only in case it is necessary for the investigation they are doing," Wiewiórowski told MEPs. "This is something that doesn't comply with the European approach to processing personal data."

Eric Topfer, a surveillance expert at the German Institute for Human Rights, has studied the proposed new Europol regulation and said it foresees the agency pulling in data directly from banks, airlines, private companies and emails. "If Europol will only have to ask for certain kinds of information to have them served on a silver platter, then we are moving closer to having an NSA-like agency."

The struggle with EDPS over data storage is the latest evidence of Europol favouring technosolutions to security concerns over privacy rights. Europol's boss, previously Belgium's top cop, co-wrote an op-ed in July 2021 which argued that the needs of law enforcement agencies to extract evidence from smartphones should trump privacy considerations. The article argues for a legal right to the keys to all encryption services.

No mention was made of Pegasus spyware revelations that showed that many governments, including some in Europe, were actively attempting to intercept the communications of human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers for whom encryption offers their only protection.

In 2020, Europol trumpeted its involvement together with French and Dutch police in hacking the encrypted phone service EncroChat, unleashing a torrent of personal data into the ark. When the secret operation was revealed by Europol and its judicial counterpart, Eurojust, it was hailed as one of the biggest successes in battling organised crime in Europe's history. In the UK alone, about 2,600 people were taken into custody by August 2021 and Nikki Holland, the director of investigations at the UK National Crime Agency, compared the hack to "having an inside person in every top organised crime group in the country ".

Europol copied the data extracted from 120m EncroChat messages and tens of millions of call recordings, pictures and notes, then parcelled it out to national police forces. The flood of evidence of drug trafficking and other offences drowned out qualms about the implications of the operation. The hacking operation that turned EncroChat phones into mobile spies acting against their users has important similarities with surveillance malware such as Pegasus.

Lawyers from Germany, France, Sweden, Ireland, the UK, Norway and the Netherlands, all representing clients caught up in the aftermath, met in Utrecht in November 2021. They found that cases were being built across Europe based on evidence of which authorities were unwilling to reveal the provenance. "Investigators and prosecutors were hiding or deforming the facts," said the German attorney Christian Lödden. "We all agree that these are not the best people in the world, but what are we ready to sacrifice in order to convict one more person?"

EncroChat clientele included non-criminals, people such as lawyers, journalists and business people. The Dutch attorney Haroon Raza was one of them and said he bought an EncroChat handset at a phone shop in Rotterdam. He demanded that his data be erased. "As far as I could understand, a copy still lies in Europol's databases where it could remain forever."

French lawyer Robin Binsard is convinced that the whole operation amounts to mass surveillance. He said: "Dismantling a whole communication system is like the police searching all the apartments in a block to find the proof of a crime: it violates privacy and it's simply illegal."

Since 2016, Europol has also been running a mass screening programme in refugee camps in Italy and Greece, sweeping up data from tens of thousands of asylum seekers in search of alleged foreign fighters and terrorists. According to a partially declassified EDPS inspection report obtained under freedom of information laws, "routine checks" by Europol of migrants crossing EU borders "are not allowed" as there is "no legal basis" for such a programme. The screening may have resulted in migrants' personal data being stored on a criminal database regardless of any links being found to crime or terrorism. Europol has declined to reveal any operational details.

Internal documents make clear that by spring 2020 Europol was developing its own machine learning and AI programme, even as the EU data watchdog was snapping at its heels. Finding itself with a growing cache of data, the agency turned to algorithms to make sense of it all. A month after the data supervisor publicly admonished Europol, the agency came back with a question: if it wanted to train algorithms on the data it had already been admonished for retaining, could it start the data protection impact assessment process for this without EDPS oversight?

The request makes it clear that the algorithms, which included facial recognition tools, would not be designed nor used to retrieve sensitive data such as health status, ethnic background, sexual or political orientation, even though, as Europol admitted, such data would inevitably be processed by the tools: "We recognise that the produced results will contain sensitive data and its processing will be in line with Europol Regulation."

When the watchdog did not provide the green light, Europol decided in effect to sideline the EDPS and go ahead regardless, confirming as much in a January 2021 letter.

The watchdog responded by saying it would open a formal monitoring procedure. By the end of February 2021, Europol pulled the brake on its machine learning programme. Europol told the Guardian that, to date, it "has not made use of own machine learning models for operational analysis and has also not carried out 'training' of machine learning."

But there are clear signs that the brake will be released soon. Europol has already started a recruitment round for experts to help with the development of AI and data mining.

The emerging shape of Europol is alarming some MEPs such as Belgium's Saskia Bricmont. "In the name of the fight against criminality and terrorism we have an evolution of an agency, which performs very important missions, but they are not executed in the right manner. This will lead to problems," she said.

Chloé Berthélémy, an expert with the European Digital Rights network of NGOs, said that while Europol lags behind the US in terms of technological capacity, it is on the same path as the NSA.

"Europol's capacity to hoover up huge amounts of data and accumulate it, in what could be called a big data ark, after which it is almost impossible to know what they are used for, makes it a black hole."

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A data 'black hole': Europol ordered to delete vast store of personal data

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The EU's police agency, Europol, will be forced to delete much of a vast store of personal data that it has been found to have amassed unlawfully by the bloc's data protection watchdog. The unprecedented finding from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) targets what privacy experts are calling a "big data ark" containing billions ofpoints of information.

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https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2022/01/08/dantrell-johnson-charged-in-minneapolis-drive-by-shooting/

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A 28-year-old Minneapolis man has been charged in connection to a drive-by shooting in August outside of Wally's Foods.

Dantrell Deon Johnson, 28, was charged in Hennepin County with one count of drive-by shooting.
READ MORE: Osseo Area Schools Record Nearly 600 Staff Absences On Friday
According to the complaint, the day after prominent gang member Prince Martin, formerly Prince Hinton, was shot and killed in Minneapolis, there were four separate gang-related retaliatory shooting incidents.

One of the shootings took place at roughly 5:45 p.m. on Aug. 8, outside of Wally's Foods, a spot associated by the Minneapolis police with the "Lowz" gang association. The victim was struck once in the back and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. The car that drove away was a dark blue van, with a front license plate hanging off of it.
READ MORE: Man Who Bought AR-15-Style Rifle For Kyle Rittenhouse Pleads No Contest
That same day, members of the "Highs" association of gangs were gathered in the parking lot at Winner's Gas Station, mourning Martin's death.

The dark-colored van was parked nearby Winner's Gas station, according to the complaint. Surveillance video shows Johnson getting into the driver's seat, and another man getting into the passenger side of the car. They started driving south on Lyndale Avenue at roughly 5:35 p.m., the complaint says.

Eight minutes later, the car was seen on video pulling up to the victim. The other man allegedly pointed a gun and shot the victim, the complaint states. Surveillance video then shows Johnson and the other man drive back and make their way to Martin's memorial at Winner's Gas Station.
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According to the complaint, Johnson was stopped at a traffic stop on Aug. 13, driving the same van. Johnson confirmed that it was his vehicle.

He is currently in custody, as he was indicted for murder in the first degree.

The drive-by shooting charge carries a maximum 10 year sentence.

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Dantrell Johnson Charged In Minneapolis Drive-By Shooting

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A 28-year-old Minneapolis man has been charged in connection to a drive-by shooting in August outside of Wally's Foods. Dantrell Deon Johnson, 28, was charged in Hennepin County with one count of drive-by shooting.

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https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070418884/a-year-after-the-capitol-riot-work-remains-to-safeguard-it-from-another-attack

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A year after the Capitol riot, work remains to prevent another attack

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The Jan. 6 siege led to a transformation of security for the citadel of democracy and members of Congress. But many say plenty of work remains to ensure another attack never happens again.

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https://www.borderreport.com/crisis-in-guatemala/trial-involving-wartime-mass-🤬-of-indigenous-women-puts-guatemala-justice-system-to-the-test/

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WOLA: Murdered men and sexually enslaved women may not even have been guerrillas; landowners called army when Indigenous leaders sued to get back their plots

by: Julian Resendiz

Posted: / Updated:

Guatemalan Achi women, alleged victims of sexual violence during the internal armed conflict (1960-1996), take a rest alongside supporters during a demonstration at the beginning of the trial against five former Guatemalan civil patrol (PAC) members, outside the Justice Palace in Guatemala City on January 4, 2022. (Photo by JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) - After 40 years of waiting for justice, a group of Maya Achi women on Tuesday were forced to endure one more delay. A judge in Guatemala City suspended the start of a trial against their accused rapists when the men's lawyer failed to show up in court. The trial starts on Wednesday with a public defender, if necessary.

These proceedings in the capital of Guatemala mark the second time in six years that members of paramilitary groups controlled by the army will stand trial for the alleged mass rape and forced domestic servitude of relatives of suspected guerrillas between 1981 and 1985.

The women from the Alta Verapaz region allegedly suffered sexual assaults by soldiers and civilian patrols who were looking for their husbands or had already taken and executed them; they were taken to an army installation, forced to cook, wash clothes and endure sexual assaults for up to six months.

International groups such as the Washington Office for Latin America are monitoring the trial, which some see as a test of a newly autonomous judicial system in a country with a history of corruption and authoritarian rule. Such corruption and oppression are often cited by advocates to explain why so many people are migrating from Guatemala to the United States.

"These are poor Maya Achi women who have suffered in silence for decades and lived in their communities with the stigma of being victims of sexual violence," Jo-Marie Burt, an associate professor of political science at George Mason University and senior fellow at WOLA, told Border Report on Tuesday. "I find them to be inspirational in their righteous determination to seek justice for wrongs inflicted on them by paramilitary groups created and controlled by the Guatemalan army for the purpose of subduing the Indigenous population."

Guatemala's civil war came to an end in 1996, but only now the victims of atrocities committed by the army and pro-government forces are in a position to see justice done, she said.

The case is based on the testimony of 36 Maya Achi women now in their 60s and 70s. The circumstances are not unlike the landmark 2016 proceedings that resulted in the conviction of two former military officers for crimes against humanity including the rape of 15 Q'eqchi women in an army outpost in Sepur Zarco.

The murdered men and sexually enslaved women were not even guerrillas, Burt said.

Jo-Marie Burt, right, an associate professor of political science at George Mason University and senior fellow at WOLA, is seen speaking with Guatemalan human rights activist Iduvina Hernandez before a news conference in Guatemala City on August 8, 2013. (Photo credit should read JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

"The conflict started not because there was a guerrilla presence in the region, but because members of the Q'eqchi community started organizing to reclaim land that was stolen from them by rich landowners," she said. "The landowners felt threatened. They called the military and said, 'there are guerrillas here, you need to come and get rid of them.' The army comes and the landowners give them a list of names."

Research from local activists and international organizations shows soldiers and civil patrols kidnap the activists, take them to military bases, torture and kill them in ways that include pushing them into a 10-foot pit and hurling fragmentary grenades at the hole. The women are allegedly interrogated and raped at their homes, sometimes in front of their children, or brought to the base and attacked in the showers by multiple aggressors.

In many cases, the female accusers are kept at the base grinding corn, making tortillas, cooking beans, cleaning, washing and staffing what an internal army memo describes as a "Recreation Zone" for soldiers deployed to combat zones in the region, Burt said.

The women have been seeking the arrest of their aggressors and reparations for themselves and their communities since the end of the civil war.

"It has taken so long because many of the structures of power that were in place during the conflict remained in place after the peace accord," she said. "The justice system was generally under the thumb of the power elite. It took a lot of effort to build judicial independence with the support of the international community plus the determination of the victims."

Some of the accusers and at least one of the alleged rapists have passed away of natural causes during the wait, she said.

A previous judge dismissed the case against seven defendants in 2019; the women won a new trial on appeal based on alleged biased comments expressed by the judge. Now, five defendants face charges, including Francisco Cuxum Alvarado, Damian Cuxum Alvarado, Gabriel Cuxum Alvarado, Bernardo Ruiz Aquino and Benvenuto Ruiz Aquino.

The trial will be broadcast on Facebook by the group Verdad and Justicia en Guatemala.

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Mass rape of Indigenous women trial puts Guatemala justice system to the test

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After 40 years of waiting for justice, a group of Maya Achi women on Tuesday were forced to endure one more delay. A judge in Guatemala City suspended the start of a trial against their accused rapists when the men's lawyer failed to show up in court.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-07/greece-to-help-to-people-pay-higher-energy-bills-through-january

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Greece to Help People Pay Higher Energy Bills Through January

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Greece is extending measures designed to help households and businesses pay their power and gas bills in January as the surge in energy prices shows no sign of let up.

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https://www.arabnews.com/node/1998121/saudi-arabia

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ATHENS: Greece and Saudi Arabia remain committed to safeguarding the law of the sea and freedom of navigation, and they support freedom and stability in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday after meeting his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Athens.

Dendias highlighted the deepening of bilateral relations in areas such as defense, trade, investments, energy and culture.

He also thanked Prince Faisal because a Saudi delegation will soon visit the city of Alexandroupolis in northern Greece to explore opportunities for investments.

The prince said he assured Dendias "that we are interested in enhancing our defense, cultural and trade relations with Greece," adding that they emphasized the need to counter terrorism and strengthen stability in the region.

Arab News has been told that the two sides are working on a visit to Athens by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which will take place as soon as the pandemic situation allows.

According to diplomatic sources, this could be the occasion for the signing of a series of agreements on defense, investment and fighting crime.

Alexandros Papaioannou, spokesman for the Greek Foreign Ministry, told Arab News that Dendias "praised Vision 2030 and underlined the importance Greece attaches to this major project that will transform the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and expressed hope that Greece will be able to contribute."

I held a fruitful meeting today with H.E @NikosDendias, we discussed relations between the Kingdom and Greece as well as enhancing joint coordination and bilateral action to support achieving prosperity and development. Enhancing our economic ties remains a key focus. pic.twitter.com/ytU4Z1tHo1

- فيصل بن فرحان (@FaisalbinFarhan) January 4, 2022

Papaioannou added: "The two ministers also discussed the Saudi candidacy of Expo 2030. In this regard, Greece underlined that it would consider in a positive spirit the Saudi candidacy, given the strategic nature of the relations between the two countries."

He said the ministers "had an extensive discussion on the eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Libya and Yemen, underlining the joint commitment to upholding the principles of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of third states."

Prince Faisal's visit to Athens is the latest development in the close relationship that Athens and Riyadh have initiated since 2019. They share a common vision on stability in the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf.

I met with #SaudiArabia FM @FaisalbinFarhan in #Athens to discuss:

bilateral relations in the fields of economy, investments & defence
cooperation within international organizations
developments in the#EasternMediterranean, the #Gulf region & #MiddleEast. pic.twitter.com/vkIPIkCffz

- Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) January 4, 2022

Prince Faisal described the talks as "fruitful" in a tweet following the meeting, and said: "Enhancing our economic ties remains a key focus."

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took part a few months ago in the Middle East Green Initiative Summit and met with the crown prince in Riyadh, where he also attended the Future Investment Initiative.

The first visit of Mitsotakis to Saudi Arabia was in February 2020, a few months after he became prime minister. He met with Prince Faisal at the Philia Forum in Athens in February last year.

Bilateral ties have deepened particularly in the field of defense, with the deployment of a Greek Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, or PAC-2, to Saudi Arabia in September to boost the Kingdom's role in combating the Houthi militia in Yemen.

In addition, 120 Greek soldiers are stationed in Saudi Arabia to operate the PAC-2, which is set to be upgraded to the PAC-3 system.

Arab News has been told that Athens and Riyadh are exploring the possibility of signing a strategic partnership agreement as a basis for deepening their defense ties.

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hajj،عرب نيوز

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Saudi Arabia, Greece discuss Iran, Middle East security

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ATHENS: Greece and Saudi Arabia remain committed to safeguarding the law of the sea and freedom of navigation, and they support freedom and stability in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday after meeting his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Athens.

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https://stuff.co.za/2022/01/07/apples-ad-tracking-costs-social-media-10bn/

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Apple’s ad-tracking costs social media $10bn

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How much does privacy costs? It’s a theoretical question most of the time this debate about surveillance capitalism is had. But now...

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https://stuff.co.za/2022/01/07/apples-ad-tracking-costs-social-media-10bn/

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Apple’s ad-tracking costs social media $10bn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How much does privacy costs? It’s a theoretical question most of the time this debate about surveillance capitalism is had. But now...

# data[].attributes.body
https://stuff.co.za/2022/01/07/apples-ad-tracking-costs-social-media-10bn/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Apple’s ad-tracking costs social media $10bn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How much does privacy costs? It’s a theoretical question most of the time this debate about surveillance capitalism is had. But now...

# data[].attributes.body
China, a country controlled by communism has limited the amount of children families can have due to overpopulation
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/10/china-editorial-says-communist-party-members-must-have-three-children

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An editorial in a Chinese state-run news website has suggested Communist party members are obliged to have three children for the good of the country, as Beijing seeks to address plummeting birthrates.

The editorial, which was first published last month, went viral this week and drew sharp reaction from Chinese internet users, with millions of shares, views and comments. As the wave of reaction grew, the original article disappeared from the website.

The piece, published by a state media outlet called China Reports Network, said every member of the ruling party - of which there are about 95 million - "should shoulder the responsibility and obligation of the country's population growth and act on the three-child policy".

"No party member should use any excuse, objective or personal, to not marry or have children, nor can they use any excuse to have only one or two children," it said.

The post appears to have been deleted but screenshots have been widely shared, and associated hashtags reportedly viewed millions of times.

China is facing a demographic crisis with an ageing population and declining birthrates. More than 18% of the population is aged over 60, according to the 2020 census. Figures released by the country's national bureau of statistics in November showed there were 8.5 births per 1,000 people in 2020, the first time in decades that the figure has fallen below 10. In 1978, the figure was more than 18 per 1,000.

The CCP has implemented a range of measures in response, including relaxing long-held limits on having children, easing the costs associated with education and child rearing, subsidies for second and third children, and introducing mandatory "cooling off" periods for divorces, but they have had limited impact.

The one-child policy was formally ended in 2016, and replaced by a two-child limit on most Chinese couples, until this year when it was lifted again to three. However young Chinese people continue to say the high cost of living and pressures of long working hours are obstacles to having children.

"Although the three-child policy has come out, many people don't have the conditions, ability, money, or time to take care of children, especially for women, who have to go home early, and this will make more companies not want to hire women!" said one commenter on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform. "Shouldn't society be balanced in development? When does it become a mandatory rule to have three children?"

Another said: "I'm just an ordinary person. My time, energy and money only allow me to raise a child in the future. Most party members are also ordinary people."

Some warned that the editorial's message could harm people's faith in the party.

"'Party members take the lead' has always been our party's fine tradition, which has withstood many tests of history," said one commenter.

"The impact of this bad public opinion, like other public opinions, could easily change from accusations against the China Reports Network to resistance to the three-child policy and shaken trust in the government."

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China: editorial says Communist party members must have three children

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An editorial in a Chinese state-run news website has suggested Communist party members are obliged to have three children for the good of the country, as Beijing seeks to address plummeting birthrates. The editorial, which was first published last month, went viral this week and drew sharp reaction from Chinese internet users, with millions of shares, views and comments.

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Under water surveillance cameras
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/npol-a-world-leader-in-underwater-surveillance-systems-says-venkaiah/article38093779.ece

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Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone of the Towed Array Integration Facility that is being set up at Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), the sole DRDO laboratory in Kerala, at Thrikkakara near here on Sunday.

He was the chief guest at a function that was arranged in connection with the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav initiatives at NPOL. Once completed, it is slated to become a state-of-the-art integration facility for long length flexible sensor arrays and cables, says an official release.

The programme also witnessed the handing over of DHWANI acoustic trainer system developed by NPOL to the Indian Navy.

The system would enable Indian Navy personnel, in a graded manner, to quickly advance their skills in interpreting and handling sophisticated readings from passive sonar, active sonar and underwater communication systems. The DHWANI system was handed over by Sameer V. Kamat, Director General, Naval Systems and Materials at DRDO, to Chief Staff Officer (CSO) (Training) of the Southern Naval Command Rear Admiral T.V.N. Prasanna.

The licensing agreements for the technology transfer of USHUS series of submarine sonars were also handed over by Mr. Kamat to the Director (R&D) of Bharat Electronics.

Kalam memorial

Mr. Naidu also formally inaugurated the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Memorial erected on NPOL premises.

An Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav installation - which portrays some of the exemplary Sonar achievements of NPOL, too was inaugurated by Mr. Naidu.

NPOL lauded

In his address, Mr. Naidu said that he was very happy to see that NPOL has established itself as a world leader in the niche area of underwater surveillance systems and technologies.While appreciating the practice of NPOL personnel working very closely with the Indian Navy, often choosing to sail with them to understand the complexities of Naval personnel while in the field, the Vice President said the organisation has been able to master a very complex and critical technology that gives a strategic edge to the Indian Navy in anti-submarine warfare.

Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said that attaining self-reliance in the defence sector is of utmost strategic importance for the country, especially in the present geopolitical scenario. Director of NPOL S. Vijayan Pillai, Minister for Industries P. Rajeeve, Hibi Eden, MP, Director General of Advanced Technology Vessel Programme (ATVP) of the Indian Navy Vice Admiral (retd) K.O. Thakare, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) S. Somanath and Director of R&D at Bharath Electronics Limited (BEL) M.V. Raja Shekhar were among those present.

Mr. Naidu will leave from the Naval airport here on board an IAF aircraft on Monday evening, after a four-day visit to Kerala and Lakshadweep.

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naval physical and oceanographic laboratory

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NPOL a world leader in underwater surveillance systems, says Venkaiah

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Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone of the Towed Array Integration Facility that is being set up at Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), the sole DRDO laboratory in Kerala, at Thrikkakara near here on Sunday. He was the chief guest at a function that was arranged in connection with the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav initiatives at NPOL.

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https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-fbi-violated-privacy-rights-tens-thousands-americans

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Earlier this month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released three redacted opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (also known as the FISA Court) and the FISA Court of Review (FISCR). In the first opinion, the FISA Court held that the FBI's procedures for accessing Americans' communications that are "incidentally" collected under Section 702 of FISA violated both the statute and the Fourth Amendment. The government appealed, and in the second opinion, the FISCR upheld the FISA Court's decision. The FBI was forced to revise its procedures to conform with the court's ruling, and in the third opinion, the court approved the revised procedures.

The government will no doubt try to sell this as an oversight success story. After all, the Department of Justice's audits had detected instances of FBI non-compliance with legal requirements, and the Department reported those instances to the FISA Court. The court solicited the assistance of amici and adopted their position in significant part. It ordered remedies that the FBI is now required to implement. And all of this became public because Congress in 2015 required the disclosure of significant FISA Court opinions. The system worked, right?

I see a very different story. This is now the fourth major FISA Court opinion on Section 702 in 10 years documenting substantial non-compliance with the rules meant to protect Americans' privacy. The opinion, moreover, reveals that the FBI is conducting literally millions of backdoor searches - including so-called "batch queries" that rest on the same discredited legal theory used to justify the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records. Despite the enormous implications for Americans' privacy and the government's dismal record, the remedy suggested by amici and imposed by the court was just more record-keeping. And the government sat on the opinion for a year, hoping for an appellate victory that would help mitigate the PR damage from disclosure.

Background: Section 702's Troubled History

To put the court's recent opinions in context, some background is necessary. Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), passed in 2008, the National Security Agency (NSA), operating inside the United States, is authorized to collect communications of foreigners overseas for foreign intelligence purposes. No warrant is required for this collection because courts have held that foreigners have no Fourth Amendment rights. Instead, each year, the FISA Court must sign off on the procedures that govern the surveillance.

Although ostensibly targeted at foreigners, Section 702 surveillance inevitably sweeps in massive amounts of Americans' communications. Recognizing the impact on Americans' privacy, Congress required the NSA to "minimize" the sharing, retention, and use of this "incidentally" collected U.S. person data. But the government and the FISA Court have embraced an interpretation of "minimize" that is remarkably... maximal. The NSA shares raw data with multiple other agencies - including the FBI and the CIA - and all of them retain the data for a functional minimum of five years. Moreover, the FBI routinely combs through it looking for Americans' communications to use in purely domestic cases, even in situations where the FBI lacks a factual predicate to open a full investigation.

In 2011, the government disclosed to the FISA Court that it had misrepresented the nature of its "upstream" collection activities under Section 702. ("Upstream" collection takes place as the communications are transiting over the Internet backbone; "downstream" collection acquires stored communications, usually from the servers of Internet Service Providers.) When conducting upstream surveillance, the government was acquiring, not just communications to or from the targets of surveillance, but communications that simply mentioned certain information about them (known as "abouts" collection). As a result, the government was acquiring packets of data containing multiple communications, some of which had nothing to do with the target. This included tens of thousands of wholly domestic communications.

The court was not pleased to learn about this significant issue three years into the program's operation. It held that the government's handling of the data violated the Fourth Amendment, and it required the government to develop special rules - approved by the court in 2012 - for segregating, storing, retaining, and accessing communications obtained through "upstream" collection.

In 2015, the court was under the impression that these rules were being followed. However, in approving Section 702 surveillance that year, it noted several incidents of non-compliance with other rules designed to protect Americans' privacy - including FBI violations of protections for attorney-client communications, a "failure of access controls" by the FBI, and the NSA's failure to purge certain improperly collected data. Once again, the court expressed displeasure at being notified of infractions long after they occurred.

In 2016, the FISA Court learned that the NSA had been violating the rules established in 2012. Because those rules were designed to remedy a Fourth Amendment violation occurring since the start of the program, the NSA's non-compliance meant that its upstream collection activities had been operating unconstitutionally for eight years. Moreover, the government did not report this issue for several months after discovering it. Unable to bring itself into compliance, the NSA made the only decision it could: In the spring of 2017, it abandoned "abouts" collection, which was at the root of the problem.

When Section 702 came up for reauthorization in late 2017, civil liberties advocates pointed to this troubled history. They also pointed to a growing body of case law holding that searches of government databases can, in certain circumstances, constitute a separate Fourth Amendment event. They argued that government agencies should be required to obtain a warrant before searching Section 702-obtained data for the communications of Americans (a practice formally called "U.S. person queries" and informally dubbed "backdoor searches"). They also urged Congress to ban "abouts" collection, lest the government attempt to resume it.

Congress rejected these proposals. Although Congress did require the FBI to obtain the FISA Court's permission to conduct U.S. person queries in a tiny sliver of cases, it blessed the vast majority of these searches, which previously had no foundation in the text of Section 702. It simply required the FBI to develop "querying procedures" that the FISA Court would have to approve. It also required the FBI to keep records of each U.S. person query it conducted. With respect to "abouts" collection, Congress required the government to obtain FISA Court approval and to give Congress advance notice before resuming the practice.

The court's October 2018 Ruling

In March 2018, the government submitted its annual certifications and procedures to the FISA Court for its approval. In a decision dated October 18, 2018, and released last week, the FISA Court held that the FBI's minimization procedures violated both the statute and the Fourth Amendment. The court's opinion addresses three main practices by the FBI: downstream collection of certain communications; the FBI's failure to record USP queries; and the FBI's improper use of USP queries.

Downstream collection and "abouts" communications. Although this section of the opinion is highly redacted, it appears that the government is engaged in a new form of downstream collection that raised a flag for the FISA Court. The court solicited amici's advice about whether the statutory preconditions for resuming "abouts" collection apply to downstream collection, and whether certain activities in the government's 2018 certifications involve the acquisition of "abouts" communications. Amici argued that the answer to both questions was yes; the government's answer was no in both cases. The court split the baby, holding that the statutory requirements apply to any kind of "abouts" collection, but that no such collection would occur under the government's certifications.

The heavy redactions make it difficult to assess the significance of this part of the opinion. However, on its face, the definition of "abouts" collection - basically, anything other than a communication to or from the target - should not be difficult to apply. It is worrisome that the government and amici reached different conclusions about whether a certain form of collection merited the label "abouts." The uncertainty strongly supports a suspicion civil liberties advocates have held for some time: that the selectors the government uses to identify the communications to be collected are not necessarily unique identifiers (such as email addresses), but can sweep in people other than the intended targets (as would, for instance, IP addresses).

The statutory requirement to count U.S. person queries. In its January 2018 reauthorization of Section 702, Congress ordered the government to adopt querying procedures that included "a technical procedure whereby a record is kept of each United States person query term used for a query." Instead, in the querying procedures that the FBI submitted to the FISA Court, the Bureau announced that it "intends to satisfy the record-keeping requirement by keeping a record of all queries" - in other words, the FBI would lump together U.S. person queries and non-U.S. person queries, without distinguishing between them.

The government defended this approach with a weak argument that the statutory text was somehow ambiguous, and that both the legislative history and policy considerations weighed against requiring the FBI to document U.S. person queries. In a refrain often heard when an intelligence or law enforcement agency is asked to devote time or resources to safeguarding civil liberties, the government claimed that requiring the FBI to figure out whether a particular investigative subject was a U.S. person would "divert resources from investigative work . . . to the detriment of public safety."

The FISA Court has historically yielded to such pleas, and on this occasion, the court seemed sympathetic. Ultimately, however, the court concluded that it had no choice. It stated: "Regardless of how persuasive the FBI's considerations may be, the court is not free to substitute its understanding of sound policy - or, for that matter, the understanding of the Director of the FBI - for the clear command of the statute." The law, the court held, was unambiguous in its directive to count U.S. person queries.

On appeal, the FISCR upheld the court's ruling on this question. The FISCR, however, seemed somewhat less sympathetic to the government's position. Under the FBI's querying procedures, "U.S. person query term" is defined as "a term that is reasonably likely to identify one or more specific United States persons." This definition does not require a high level of certainty. Moreover, the procedures provide for the application of default assumptions in cases where specific information is lacking. Under these circumstances, it is hard to argue with the FISCR's assessment that counting U.S. person queries is not "a burdensome substantive requirement," and that it would simply mean "adding one (largely ministerial) item to the checklist that FBI personnel most likely already work through when conducting queries for investigative purposes."

Somewhat oddly, the FISCR did not resolve the other major issue on appeal: whether the FBI's repeated violations of its own querying and minimization procedures rendered those rules unlawful and unconstitutional as implemented. Those violations, and the FISA Court's failure to require an adequate remedy for them, will be the subject of Part II of this post.

Improper queries of Section 702 communications. The most eye-opening part of the October 2018 opinion is the section addressing the "large number" of queries undertaken by the FBI since April 2017 that did not comply with internal rules, the statute, or the Fourth Amendment.

To begin, the opinion provides the first glimpse of just how prevalent the FBI's U.S. person queries really are. In the past, the FBI has claimed it has no way even to estimate this number. It was nonetheless clear that the number was significant, as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) reported that the FBI runs queries of databases containing Section 702 data at the earliest stage of every assessment or investigation.

The court's October 2018 opinion reveals that the FBI in 2017 conducted 3.1 million queries on one system alone. This number encompasses U.S. person and non-U.S. person queries alike, but as the court observed: "[G]iven the FBI's domestic focus it seems likely that a significant percentage of its queries involve U.S.-person query terms." Almost certainly, then, the total number of U.S. person queries run by the FBI each year is well into the millions.

In theory, the FBI's procedures are supposed to limit these searches. The key limitation, as set forth in the querying procedures, is as follows:

"Each query of FBI systems [containing raw Section 702 data] . . . must be reasonably likely to retrieve foreign intelligence information, as defined by FISA, or evidence of a crime, unless otherwise specifically excepted in these procedures."

This requirement essentially mirrors the one previously contained in the FBI's minimization procedures. The FISA Court once again held, as it has in the past, that this limitation, "as written," satisfies both the statute and the Fourth Amendment.

But that didn't end the court's analysis. The court went on: "FISC review of minimization procedures under Section 702 is not confined to the procedures as written; rather, the court also examines how the procedures have been and will be implemented." The court then noted that, "[s]ince April 2017, the government has reported a large number of FBI queries that were not reasonably likely to return foreign-intelligence information or evidence of a crime." These included multiple one-off incidents of FBI personnel running U.S. person queries accidentally or for improper personal purposes. (In a frank statement that reveals why limits on access are a poor substitute for adequate limits on collection, the FISA Court commented that it was less concerned about personal misuses of the data, because "[i]t would be difficult to completely prevent personnel from querying data for personal reasons.") They also included several incidents indicative of more systemic problems, including:

In March 2017, the FBI, against the advice of the FBI's Office of General Counsel, conducted queries using 70,000 identifiers "associated with" people who had access to FBI facilities and systems.

On a single day in December 2017, the FBI conducted over 6,800 U.S. person queries using Social Security Numbers.

Between December 7-11, 2017, an FBI official improperly reviewed raw FISA information resulting from 1,600 U.S. person queries.

On more than one occasion, the FBI conducted dozens of U.S. person queries to gather information about potential informants.

The government told the FISA Court that these errors stemmed from "fundamental misunderstandings by some FBI personnel [about] what the standard 'reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence information' means." This is a remarkable admission, given that this standard has been in place for several years, and given the government's repeated assurances to the FISA Court during this time that access to Americans' data was restricted to personnel who were carefully trained in the applicable limits.

The court expressed "serious concern" about "the large number of queries evidencing a misunderstanding of the querying standard - or indifference to it." It identified three factors that heightened its concern. First, it cited limitations on existing oversight mechanisms. It noted that some FBI offices field offices go for periods of two years or more between oversight visits, and ultimately, Justice Department overseers "review only a small portion of the queries conducted." It also observed that "the documentation available to [overseers] lacks basic information that would assist in identifying problematic queries." Given these limitations, the court wrote, "it appears entirely possible that further querying violations involving large numbers of U.S.-person query terms have escaped the attention of overseers and have not been reported to the court."

Second, the court - for the first time - acknowledged the tension between the substantive limits on queries contained in the FBI's procedures, and the Bureau's vigorous encouragement to its personnel to run queries early and often. Indeed, an FBI official submitted a declaration to the court stating that "FBI encourages its personnel to make maximal use of queries - provided they are compliant with the FBI's minimization procedures . . . ." FBI officials are thus simultaneously told to maximize and minimize their access to U.S. person information. In the court's words:

"On the one hand, the FBI is obligated to query Section 702 and other FISA information only in circumstances satisfying a querying standard that does not apply to FBI information generally. On the other hand, it has set up its systems to facilitate running the same query simultaneously across FISA and non-FISA datasets . . . and encourages personnel to make maximal use of such queries, even at the earliest investigative stages. Those policy decisions may well help FBI personnel work efficiently and 'connect dots' to protect national security . . . but they also create an environment in which unduly lax applications of the Section 702 querying standards are more likely to occur."

Third, the court discussed the FBI's use of "batch queries" - perhaps the most explosive revelation in the opinion. The FBI's querying procedures require that "[e]ach query" must be reasonably likely to retrieve foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime. The government, however, has taken the position that "an aggregation of individual queries" - also referred to as a "batch query" - "can satisfy the querying standard, even if each individual query in isolation would not be reasonably likely to return foreign-intelligence information or evidence of a crime." So, for instance, if the FBI has information that an employee at a particular company is planning illegal actions, but the FBI has no knowledge of who the employee is, the Bureau would be justified (the government argues) in running queries for every employee at that company. This is presumably the theory on which the FBI ran the massive numbers of queries described above (e.g., 70,000 queries on individuals with access to FBI systems and facilities).

If this sounds familiar, it should. This is the same rationale the NSA used to justify "bulk collection" of Americans' telephone records. Even though the applicable statute, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, allowed the government to obtain records only if they were "relevant" to an authorized investigation, the FISA Court allowed the NSA to collect the phone records of nearly every American - most of which were, of course, entirely irrelevant to any investigation - on the ground that some relevant records were likely buried within them. When this practice was made public as a result of Edward Snowden's disclosures, it was unable to withstand either judicial review (the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that it violated the statute) or the judgment of Congress (which changed the law in 2015 with the goal of prohibiting bulk collection).

As the NSA's bulk collection program illustrates, there is no logical limit to how many queries the FBI could aggregate based on the theory that the result will likely yield foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime. Indeed, the larger the number of individuals swept in, the more likely it is that the queries, in aggregate, will turn up results. It is a small step from "batch queries" to "bulk queries." The court did not seem alarmed by the implications of the theory - it opined that "[p]erhaps in the abstract it would be reasonable for the FBI to run such an aggregated query" - but it nonetheless expressed skepticism that such an approach could be reconciled with the text of the FBI's querying procedures, which require "[e]ach query" to be reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime.

Ultimately, the court held that the extent of improper querying rendered the FBI's procedures, as implemented, inconsistent with Section 702's "minimization" requirement. It also held that the FBI's practices violated the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness requirement. Although it found the government's interest in acquiring foreign intelligence information to be "particularly intense," it quoted a decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) stating that if "the protections that are in place for individual privacy interests are . . . insufficient to alleviate the risks of government error and abuse, the scales will tip toward a finding of unconstitutionality." The court concluded: "Here, there are demonstrated risks of serious error and abuse, and the court has found the government's procedures do not sufficiently guard against that risk."

To cure these defects, the court recommended - and the FBI ultimately adopted, after the government's unsuccessful appeal to the FISCR - a remedy proposed by amici. Specifically, any time the FBI runs a U.S. person query that returns Section 702 data, FBI personnel are not permitted to view the content (although they may still view non-content "metadata") unless they first document the reasons why they believed the query was likely to return foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime. The court opined that this requirement would force FBI personnel to think more carefully about the applicable standard before running queries, and would assist oversight personnel in determining whether the standard was indeed being honored.

A Triumph of Oversight?

The FISA Court identified serious problems with the government's submissions, engaged amici to provide advice, considered and partly agreed with their arguments, held the government's actions to be not only unlawful but unconstitutional, and adopted a remedy proposed by amici - all of which was made public, albeit with redactions. Taken in isolation, these facts might seem to tell a resounding success story for oversight of foreign intelligence surveillance.

But such a conclusion would ignore many other salient facts. For one thing, the government sat on the FISA Court's October 2018 opinion for almost a year, instead of promptly declassifying and releasing it as envisioned by Congress in the 2015 USA FREEDOM Act. Clearly, the government was hoping for a win on appeal that would neutralize the negative impact on public opinion. Had the appeal taken several additional months to resolve, there is no doubt that we would still be in the dark about the FBI's activities today.

As for the substance of the opinion, the illusion of accountability fades when one considers the many aspects of the court's own ruling that were left entirely unaddressed by its chosen remedy. The court's opionion cited the following major problems and sources of concern:

FBI personnel are fundamentally confused about what "reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime" means.

Oversight is limited because overseers review only a tiny fraction of queries.

Oversight is limited because overseers lack documentation of the justification for queries.

There is a mismatch between the FBI's querying procedures, which purport to place substantive limits on queries, and the FBI's policy of encouraging routine use of those queries at the earliest stage of every investigation.

"Batch" queries are seemingly inconsistent with the text of the FBI's querying procedures.

The remedy imposed by the court - a requirement that FBI personnel document their reasons for performing a U.S. person query before viewing content information - addresses only one of these problems (lack of documentation for overseers to review). After all, if FBI agents truly do not understand what "reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime" means, requiring them to document their misconceptions will not produce any greater understanding; it will merely reaffirm the confusion that the court already observed.

In theory, the documentation could be used as a mechanism to identify personnel who require remedial training or even administrative discipline. But the court did not order any such measures, and the FBI's revised procedures don't contemplate them. In any case, it is clear from the court's opinion that the Justice Department would require expanded oversight capacity to detect non-compliance in anything more than a fraction of cases. The court did not direct the Justice Department to devote more resources to oversight, and so virtual piles of documentation recording FBI agents' various interpretations of the legal standard for queries will languish unexamined. Knowing this, FBI agents are unlikely to spend much time or thought on writing out their rationales.

Nor does the court's remedy do anything about the mixed message the FBI sends its personnel by simultaneously limiting (in its querying and minimization procedures) and urging (in its policies and rhetoric) the use of queries. It was an important step forward for the court to recognize this fundamental disconnect in the FBI's practice. But the disconnect will continue unless and until the court orders the FBI to harmonize its policies and its rhetoric with its Section 702 procedures.

The court also strongly suggested that "batch queries" are inconsistent with the text of the FBI's querying procedures. However, it did not order the FBI either to stop batch queries or to alter its procedures to allow them. The FBI's revised procedures, which the FISA Court approved in September 2019, still have the language that would seem to foreclose batch queries. But there is no indication, either in the procedures or in any other public document, that the FBI has stopped the practice; and the FISA Court apparently forgot to ask, as its September 2019 opinion does not even mention the issue.

More to the point, the court should have barred "batch queries" outright. The FISA Court's finding that Section 702 surveillance is constitutionally reasonable has always hinged on a delicate balance between the government's interest in collecting foreign intelligence and Americans' privacy interests in their communications. The ostensible existence of strict limitations on government officials' access to Americans' communications - including the requirement that queries must be designed to return foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime - has been a key factor in the court's conclusion that the balance tips in the government's favor. Allowing the FBI to conduct tens of thousands of queries in a "batch," when it is apparent that the vast majority of them will not yield any such information or evidence, would require a significant repositioning of the scales.

One final observation: The court's modest record-keeping remedy is particularly inadequate in light of the government's history of Section 702 violations. On four separate occasions, as recounted in Part I of this post, the FISA Court has found that the government was improperly handling or accessing Americans' communications. On three of those occasions, the court held or otherwise indicated that these actions violated the Fourth Amendment. Astonishingly, at no point in Section 702's existence has the government operated the program in full compliance with constitutional requirements. In light of this history, the court should have required changes far more substantial than (as the FISCR described it) "adding one (largely ministerial) item to the [FBI's] checklist."

After a decade of trial and error, the FISA Court should have required FBI agents to obtain warrants before searching for Americans' communications. In my opinion, the court erred when it held that recent case law does not support a warrant requirement for U.S. person queries of Section 702 data. Nonetheless, even if a warrant requirement were not compelled by the case law, the court still could have concluded that warrants are necessary here. In light of the repeated failure of the government, over the course of more than a decade, to adhere to the procedural requirements that the court has held the Fourth Amendment does require, the court could easily have determined that nothing short of a warrant requirement will guard against the "risks of serious error and abuse" that have thus far rendered the government's practices unconstitutional. Now that would have been a triumph of foreign intelligence surveillance oversight.

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How the FBI Violated the Privacy Rights of Tens of Thousands of Americans

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Earlier this month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released three redacted opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (also known as the FISA Court) and the FISA Court of Review (FISCR).

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https://freedomhouse.org/country/iceland/freedom-net/2020

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Iceland: Freedom on the Net 2020 Country Report | Freedom House

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See the Freedom on the Net 2020 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Iceland.

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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uighurs-china-turkey-families-justice-rights-violations

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https://balkaninsight.com/2021/12/31/kosovo-surveillance-build-up-raises-privacy-concerns/

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Kosovo Surveillance Build-up Raises Privacy Concerns | Balkan Insight

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As the government increases its capacities for surveillance in the interest of national security, experts are concerned that people's right to privacy risks being violated.

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https://www.wionews.com/world/after-graffiti-abusing-kim-jong-un-appears-north-korea-checks-handwritings-to-nab-writer-442877

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After graffiti abusing Kim Jong Un appears, North Korea checks handwritings to nab writer

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After a graffiti appeared calling Kim Jong Un, a ‘son of a b****’, the North Korean officials are not leaving any stone unturned to find the person, who has written it. To find the writer, the officials are demanding samples of handwriting from thousands of residents in Pyongyang. Also Read:…

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In the 100 th year of the founding of China's Communist Party (CCP), the intricate system of keeping an eye on everyone and everything runs far and wide. From major cities in urban areas, the system ー the biggest surveillance network in the world ー has spread across rural areas, into even the remotest villages.

While China frequently complains that the West maligns Beijing's image with claims that are " fabricated out of thin air for political goals," it admits to the account of its far-reaching surveillance network.

The commentary titled "China turns televisions and mobile phones in villages into surveillance terminals,"published in 2018 in the Global Times ー considered the lead organ of the CCP's Central Committee ー admits that China's mass surveillance network is expanding into rural regions. Quoting Tian Feng, said to be a system engineer for the project, the surveillance is portrayed as a key method of the party to achieve what it refers to as a "powerful civil deterrence that can prevent people from committing crimes."

Roadmap for Rural Areas

In this case, television sets and mobile phones in villages have been connected to surveillance cameras placed around rural neighborhoods through streaming boxes and apps, turning them into security monitoring terminals. Local police can be alerted to any surreptitious or suspicious activity simply by pressing a button on the television's remote control, as China's official Xinhua News Agency has reported during incidents. Since 2016 in particular, China's mass surveillance capabilities have risen many notches in its rural countryside.

In the name of boosting rural security, the CCP is converting every rural household into a monitoring terminal. The market for its video surveillance industry project could rise to over ¥100 billion CNY ($15.5 billion USD) to run and sustain this extensive network at the township and village levels in nearly 3,000 counties inside China.

In a 2018 public letter titled "Totalitarianism" addressed to fellow China analysts, Norwegian sociologist and political scientist Stein Ringen wrote that "the final straw has been the imposition of outright tyranny in Xinjiang, with extremes of mass surveillance."

Deploring the Chinese state for being "deep into the regulation of private lives," Ringen called out Xi Jinping and his model of totalitarianism that includes "rule upheld by terror...rule reaching into the regulation of natural human bonds in private spheres...rule exercised through an extensive and impersonal bureaucracy...and, the state operating under the authority of a commanding ideology."

In this reference, China's "Xueliang" (Sharp Eyes) project - which derives its name from a Chinese saying about "the masses having sharp eyes" - has become a key source of keeping a relentless CCP eye on the people of the People's Republic.

Sharp Eyes was among the key tasks in China's government work report of 2018. This was meant for many provinces, including Jilin, Gansu, Shandong, Hunan, Guizhou, Fujian, Jiangxi, and Hainan.

Headed by the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the CCP, the Sharp Eyes project is an extension of China's Skynet surveillance network in rural areas. Skynet uses artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and big data to collect and collate figures. Since September 2015, the Sharp Eyes project has become the "No. 1 central document" in China's national roadmap for rural areas.

China's International Reach

For that matter, China's surveillance and espionage activities are not just spreading domestically, but seemingly bursting across its borders into numerous other nations.

In his book Political Warfare: Strategies for Combating China's Plan to "Win without Fighting (Marine Corps University Press, 2020), Kerry K. Gershaneck alludes to many groups, such as the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSA). Though ostensibly a student support association, the CSSA is touted to be tasked with penetrating academia to subvert democratic institutions and engage in espionage, surveillance against foreign countries, academics, and Chinese students matriculating abroad.

In the case of Japan, it has already been subjected to numerous cyber attacks from China. In April 2021 at a news conference by the National Public Safety Commission, the chief of Japan's police, Mitsuhiro Matsumoto, officially identified China as responsible for a cyberattack on Japan. Prior to the news conference, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department filed a case against a Chinese systems engineer, who happens to be a member of the CCP, for allegedly taking part in cyberattacks that targeted Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and 200 other Japanese companies and research institutions in 2016 and 2017.

EDITORIAL | Put a Stop to the Chinese Military's Invasion by Cyberattacks

The Tokyo Police also pointed out the likelihood of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China being involved in the far-reaching cyberattack. Matsumoto stated that a Chinese hacker group named "Tick" carried out the attacks. He caused a further stir by adding, "It's highly likely that the PLA's Unit 61419, a strategic support unit operating from the Chinese city of Qingdao in Shandong Province, was involved in the cyber espionage."

Moreover, on July 19, 2021, the United States and its allies accused China of a global cyber espionage campaign. Assembling an unusually broad coalition of countries and groups - including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand - it was a collective voice that condemned China for its spying activities that posed a major threat to their respective economic and national security. While Washington, Britain, and Canada held the Chinese state directly responsible for hacking, others were more circumspect.
Dr. Monika Chansoria is a senior fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the JIIA or any other organization with which the author is affiliated. She tweets @MonikaChansoria. Find other articles by Dr. Chansoria on JAPAN Forward.
The Chinese Communist Party has had a dark history of having ridden roughshod over the law. Widespread surveillance, domestic and international, has been, and shall continue to be, the most essential element in the CCP's system of maintaining control, as it seeks nothing less than absolute totalitarianism.

Author: Dr. Monika Chansoria

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'Sharp Eyes': Communist China Spies on Its Citizens at Home and Abroad | JAPAN Forward

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In the 100 th year of the founding of China's Communist Party (CCP), the intricate system of keeping an eye on everyone and everything runs far and wide. From major cities in urban areas, the system ー the biggest surveillance network in the world ー has spread across rural areas, into even the remotest villages.

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SEOULSEOUL (Reuters) - Isolated North Korea is developing sophisticated tools to digitally spy on its citizens, who are increasingly using mobile devices to connect to each other, a U.S. government-funded report released on Wednesday says.

The report, "Compromising Connectivity", says North Korea has allowed the growing use of mobile phones and domestic internet access in return for the detailed information the network feeds Pyongyang's surveillance state.

"By giving citizens new networked technologies like mobile phones and tablets, the government is able to automatically censor unsanctioned content and observe everything citizens are doing on their devices remotely," Nat Kretchun, the report's lead author, told Reuters.

"The authorities have found ingenious ways to turn those new technologies against the North Korean people who are adopting them," said Kretchun, a researcher at InterMedia, the Washington-based organization that produced the report.

North Korea's strategies for keeping tabs on its citizens have been in the limelight since last month's dramatic killing of leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother at an airport in the Malaysian capital.

Access to outside information is tightly controlled in North Korea. South Korean television shows and Hollywood films are often shared in a genuinely social network of people trading or swapping files via Bluetooth, or small and easily-concealed USB sticks.

To fight such use, North Korea has rolled out mandatory software updates to mobile devices on its network that actively seek out and delete illegal foreign media files, the report says.

On North Korea's own "Red Star" computer operating system, software scans text documents for specific words or phrases deemed unfavorable by the regime and deletes them.

TEXTS FROM KIM

Many North Koreans near neighboring China secretly use cheap mobile phones on Chinese networks to bypass state control and speak to foreign contacts or access outside information.

But North Korea's official mobile phone network, Koryolink, has around 3 million subscribers in a country of 24 million, Reuters reported in 2015.

No new figures have been released, and Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which owns Koryolink as a joint venture with the North Korean state, said later that year it had effectively lost control of its Pyongyang business.

Network calls and data are "subject to controls and surveillance by at least eight ministries and organizations between the party, state and army," the report says, including the feared State Security Department, or "bowibu", North Korea's secret police.

The report, based largely on interviews with North Korean defectors, says Koryolink subscribers receive propaganda via text messages, such as reports of public appearances by leader Kim Jong Un.

Bowibu officers in provincial jurisdictions use covertly gathered data to decide whether to approve citizens' applications to buy a legal mobile phone, it added.

(Reporting by James Pearson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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North Korea uses sophisticated tools to spy on citizens digitally - report

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SEOULSEOUL (Reuters) - Isolated North Korea is developing sophisticated tools to digitally spy on its citizens, who are increasingly using mobile devices to connect to each other, a U.S. government-funded report released on Wednesday says.

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Russia-linked spyware found on laptops given to children

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https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/12/24/russia-year-doubling-down-internet-censorship

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Skip to Content

A new report sheds light on a shadowy industry where authoritarian states enthusiastically export surveillance technologies to repressive regimes around the world.

A Chinese company is selling its surveillance technology to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, police, and military, according to a new report by IPVM, a surveillance research group. The firm, called Tiandy, is one of the world's largest video surveillance companies, reporting almost $700 million in sales in 2020. The company sells cameras and accompanying AI-enabled software, including facial recognition technology, software that it claims can detect someone's race, and "smart" interrogation tables for use alongside "tiger chairs," which have been widely documented as a tool for torture.

The report is a rare look into some specifics of China's strategic relationship with Iran and the ways in which the country disperses surveillance technology to other autocracies abroad.

Tiandy's "ethnicity tracking" tool, which has been widely challenged by experts as both inaccurate and unethical, is believed to be one of several AI-based systems the Chinese government uses to repress the Uyghur minority group in the country's Xinjiang province, along with Huawei's face recognition software, emotion-detection AI technologies, and a host of others. (Huawei has denied involvement in the region.)

The report, based on analysis of Tiandy's publicly available social media posts and web marketing materials, shows that the company has signed a five-year contract in Iran, where it plans to have eight local staff members. The report also details that while Tiandy is privately owned, its CEO, Dai Lin, is a public supporter of the Communist Party, the ruling party in China, and the company is a major supplier to the Chinese government. While the exact package of surveillance capabilities Tiandy will sell to Iran is unclear, IPVM found Tiandy cameras in use by the Iranian firm Sairan-a "state-owned military electronics provider"-and at an undisclosed military base. Tiandy also touts several projects in Iran on its public website, including work with an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and with police in the northern city of Khomam.

Importantly, the report revealed that Tiandy's networked video recorders (NVRs) are in use by the Iranian military and powered by chips produced by US manufacturer Intel, raising questions of whether the company has violated US sanctions on Iran. Penny Bruce, an Intel spokesperson, told MIT Technology Review, "We have no knowledge of the allegations raised, and we are investigating the situation."

A budding partnership

The new report is among the few pieces of hard evidence for something experts have long suspected: that Iran is trying to build a system of digital control over its citizens, following China's model and using Chinese tools. Censorship and surveillance are core tenets of that model, says Saeid Golkar, an expert in Iranian security and a professor at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. "The Islamic Republic is trying to create an internet like China, creating massive connectivity and then controlling it," he says.

Iran has been riding China's coattails in the realm of surveillance for some time. Iran was an early adopter of the Chinese "social credit" system, a comprehensive scoring of citizens' financial, civic, and social activities. In 2010, the Shenzhen-based company ZTE signed a $130 million deal with the state-run Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) that overlaid a ZTE surveillance system on government-managed telephone and internet infrastructure.

In March, China and Iran agreed to a 25-year strategic partnership, and though many of its details are undisclosed, the agreement stipulates increased military and trade cooperation between the two countries. IPVM's report confirms some of those details, outlining how Iran is modernizing its ability to track its citizens.

Golkar says that until recently, much of the Iranian security apparatus was run by moderators and informants monitoring social media sites, but that is changing rapidly. "As Iran becomes more digitized, I'm sure that we will see more digital forms of oppression and surveillance," says Golkar. Iran has a track record of imprisoning and torturing dissidents, and Tiandy's product line appears well suited for furthering such tactics.

It's essential to watch what China is trying to sell to other countries, and autocracies in particular, Golkar says: "Authoritarian regimes are following China, because China is running this game. Everything that China does, they will buy it or they will try to duplicate it."

Exporting techno-authoritarianism

The Tiandy-Iran partnership marks an escalation of a worrying trend in which authoritarian states are increasingly using technologies to exert control over their citizens. At a high level, the partnership aligns with China's diplomatic strategy. China has aggressively pursued closer ties with countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Intent on cementing global influence through its sprawling Belt and Road initiative, Chinese officials and companies strike deals to build ambitious development projects ranging from ports and highways to digital infrastructure. Huawei, for example, is responsible for building about 70% of the 4G networks on the continent of Africa.

Part of these projects is China's vision for using technology to closely monitor the populace. Huawei, Alibaba, ZTE, and other Chinese companies run so-called "safe cities" and "smart cities" programs, claiming that their use of IoT and visual technologies aids police agencies. Huawei says its tools were used in over 700 cities as of 2019, with a focus on Asia and Africa. Simply put, exporting surveillance systems is a core part of China's geopolitical strategy.

Russia also boasts a sophisticated domestic surveillance program and has been ramping up its exports to other countries. Moscow implemented one of the most expansive video systems in the world for public transit, schools, and roads last year, complete with facial recognition.

The program is powered by NTechLab, the original makers of the app FindFace, a precursor to modern facial recognition systems that allowed users to take pictures of faces and compare them with images on the internet. Its neural networks can now handle gaits, silhouettes, and cars as well.

"We want to work all over the world. We have a lot of projects in Latin America and the Middle East," NTechLab founder Artem Kuharenko told MIT Technology Review last year. He said at the time that the two focus areas of NTechLab's international work are retail and "safe and smart cities."

Surveillance is by no means limited to authoritarian states, and "safe and smart cities" projects have found homes in many democracies. Still, techno-authoritarianism will likely prove difficult to control. As the Tiandy-Iran report underscores, even extensive sanctions on Iran did not keep Intel's chips from powering Tiandy cameras. "This shows how difficult it is to control technology flows, especially for chips," says Charles Rollet, the report's author. "Supply chains in this area are complex and chipmakers have a hard time controlling exactly where all their chips end up."

Whether Russia and China are competing or cooperating on the dispersal of surveillance systems to states around the world is, for the moment, a mystery. But one thing is clear: visual surveillance technologies are a priority in the authoritarian toolkit, and Russia and China are bringing other countries along with them.

Deep Dive

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This huge Chinese company is selling video surveillance systems to Iran

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Skip to Content A new report sheds light on a shadowy industry where authoritarian states enthusiastically export surveillance technologies to repressive regimes around the world. A Chinese company is selling its surveillance technology to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, police, and military, according to a new report by IPVM, a surveillance research group.

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These marketing presentations, posted to a public-facing Huawei website before the company removed them late last year, show Huawei pitching how its technologies can help government authorities identify individuals by voice, monitor political individuals of interest, manage ideological reeducation and labor schedules for prisoners, and help retailers track shoppers using facial recognition.

"Huawei has no knowledge of the projects mentioned in the Washington Post report," the company said in a statement, after The Post shared some of the slides with Huawei representatives to seek comment. "Like all other major service providers, Huawei provides cloud platform services that comply with common industry standards."

The divergence between Huawei's public disavowals that it doesn't know how its technology is used by customers, and the detailed accounts of surveillance operations on slides carrying the company's watermark, taps into long-standing concerns about lack of transparency at the world's largest vendor of telecommunications gear.

Huawei has long been dogged by criticism that it is opaque and closer to the Chinese government than it claims. A number of Western governments have blocked Huawei gear from their new 5G telecom networks out of concern that the company may assist Beijing with intelligence-gathering, which Huawei denies.

The new details on Huawei's surveillance products come amid growing concerns in China, and around the world, about the consequences of pervasive facial recognition and other biometric tracking. Even as the Chinese Communist Party continues to rely on such tools to root out dissent and maintain its one-party rule, it has warned against the technologies' misuse in the private sector.

Facebook said in November that it would shut down its facial recognition system and delete facial templates of more than a billion people, citing growing concerns about the technology. Last year, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon announced they would not sell facial recognition software to police until there was federal regulation, and Zoom removed an employee attention-tracking function.

Huawei said in its statement that it did not develop or sell systems that target any specific group of people and that it required all parts of the business, as well as partners, to comply with applicable laws and business ethics.

"Privacy protection is our top priority," the company said.

The Post reviewed more than 3,000 PowerPoint slides from the presentations outlining surveillance projects co-developed by Huawei with partner vendors. Five of the most relevant slides are translated into English below, with original formatting retained. Each outlines a surveillance solution created in a partnership between Huawei and another company, with both companies' technology.

The Post could not confirm whom the Chinese-language presentations were shown to, or when. Some of the slides showcase surveillance functions specific to police or government agencies, suggesting that Chinese government authorities may have been the intended audience. Many of the PowerPoints have a creation timestamp of Sept. 23, 2014, with the latest modifications to the files made in 2019 or 2020, according to the presentations' metadata.

Each of the five presentations has a final slide stating a "Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd." copyright, with dates ranging from 2016 to 2018.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said criticism of Huawei was groundless. "Huawei has long publicly expressed its readiness to sign a 'no back door' agreement and to set up a cyber security assessment center in any country to receive external scrutiny," it said. "So far, no other company has ever made the same commitment."

China's Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the State Council Information Office did not respond to requests for comment.

Some of these surveillance products were listed in a Huawei online catalogue as of this month. Others have been removed from it but still showed up in government procurement documents or patent filings this year under the brand names of Huawei's partner companies.

The Huawei slides shed light on the company's role in five surveillance activities in China: voice recording analysis, detention center monitoring, location tracking of political individuals of interest, police surveillance in the Xinjiang region, and corporate tracking of employees and customers.

This marketing presentation shows Huawei pitching its technology to assist authorities in analyzing voice recordings for national security purposes. (The term "national security" is broad in China, encompassing political dissent, religious gatherings, Hong Kong and Taiwan policy, ethnic relations and economic stability.)

This presentation, dated 2018, introduces the "iFlytek Voiceprint Management Platform," co-developed by Huawei and iFlytek, a Chinese artificial-intelligence company. The system can identify individuals by comparing the sound of their voice against a large database of recorded "voiceprints."

The slide above shows a first step to "extract or obtain the voice audio of the target," without details of how that is accomplished. Another slide lists audio from "phone recordings" and "smartphone apps" as inputs. It's unclear from the presentation if Huawei and iFlytek are involved in obtaining the voice audio or if the customer obtains it. IFlytek didn't respond to questions.

This marketing presentationappears to show that Huawei helped design some technical underpinnings for China's controversial reeducation and labor programs for detainees.

These programs raised international alarm starting in 2017, because of a sweeping drive against Uyghurs. Former detainees have alleged they were held without charges, tortured and required to work in factories as a condition of release. Similar practices have long been in place in China as part of punishment for political prisoners, but few details have emerged of how multinational companies are involved.

This product, named the "Huawei and Hewei Smart Prison Unified Platform," is a comprehensive prison surveillance system co-developed with another Chinese company, Shanghai Hewei Technology. In addition to physical security aspects such as video cameras and smart gates, the product includes software for managing the schedules of detainees, including their attendance of ideological reeducation classes and prison labor shifts, according to screenshots in the presentation.

The slide above shows a long list of functions that can be covered by the prison monitoring software, including "reeducation," "manufacturing labor" and "analysis and evaluation of reeducation efficacy."

Screenshots of the software showed detainees scheduled for cultural, technical and "ideological education." The software also could track production plans, revenue from prison labor and evaluations of the effects of labor reeducation, according to screenshots in the presentation. It was not clear if the schedules in the screenshots were sampled from real prisons in China or if they were mock-ups.

The presentation said this technology has been implemented in prisons in Inner Mongolia and Shanxi province, according to slides listing "success cases," as well as in "jiedusuo," or detention centers specifically for drug offenders, in the Xinjiang region.

Hewei declined to comment.

This surveillance system was touted as being able to help authorities track "political persons of interest" and other targets, including criminal suspects, by pinpointing the location of their electronic devices, tracking them with facial recognition surveillance cameras and other measures.

The marketing PowerPoint presentation titled "Huawei and PCI-Suntek Technology Video Cloud Big Data Joint Solution" also says that it can help identifynew suspects by analyzing a range of surveillance data.

While these kinds of tracking systems are used by police around the world, there has been growing apprehension in the United States that the flaws of these technologies - such as higher incidence of mistaken identity among ethnic minorities - could result in wrongful prosecutions, especially with limited regulation.

The slide mentions "WiFi" and "MAC," which surveillance experts say is probably a reference to tracking a smartphone's location via a unique identifier called a MAC address. The addresses can be intercepted over WiFi by specialized devices used by police.A woman who answered the investor relations line at PCI-Suntek said the company would not comment on media reports.

The presentation says the system is in use by the public security department of Guangdong, China's most populous province.

The slides also detail how Huawei equipment was used in China's far west Xinjiang region.

Huawei executives have mostly deflected questions about how its products are used in Xinjiang, saying it did not supply the region directly. "That is not actually one of our projects," Huawei's global cybersecurity chief, John Suffolk, said, when asked by a British parliamentary committee in 2019 about Xinjiang surveillance systems using Huawei equipment. "It is done via a third party."

He added: "Certainly what's happening in Xinjiang causes me a great deal of concern, as it should cause everyone who is concerned about human rights abroad, but Huawei selling to customers who may sell to customers who may do something? That, to me, is a different issue entirely."

But Xinjiang surveillance projects are highlighted in several of the presentations, with the Huawei logo on each slide, though the slides do not mention the Uyghur ethnic minority. In one titled "One Person One File Solution High-Level Report," the company's technology is touted as having helped public security in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, capture a number of criminal suspects.

The presentation said the system had been in use in Urumqi since 2017, a time frame coinciding with the mass detentions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Other presentations said Huawei equipment was in use in surveillance camera systems in other Xinjiang cities, highways and detention centers.

Not all of Huawei's surveillance products were made for government use. Some were also designed for corporate settings, including to catch employees slacking off or identify customers in retail stores.

This "Smart Service Center Joint Solution" co-developed by Huawei and Nanjing-based 4D Vector could map employees' movements and send an alert if they appear to be sleeping, absent from their desks or playing on their phones. The camera could also be trained onto customers, analyzing their demographic based on facial scans and counting how many times a person returns to the store. 4D Vector didn't respond to requests for comment.

"It identifies customers' portraits as they walk by, such as gender, clothing, occupation, etc., and accurately delivers specific product introductions to different customers," the presentation said.

Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a New York-based privacy advocacy group, said the features of Huawei's workplace biometric tracking go beyond what he is aware of in the United States, though "this is something that organizers and labor movements are quite concerned about, in the future."

Last year, Microsoft and Zoom removed functions from their software that tracked employee attentiveness and productivity, after public backlash. Amazon has come under fire for using AI-enabled cameras, wristbands and other devices to surveil its employees. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

In October, Huawei and other major Chinese tech companies made public pledges that they would not abuse facial recognition and other surveillance technologies.

Pei Lin Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

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Documents link Huawei to China's surveillance programs

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These marketing presentations, posted to a public-facing Huawei website before the company removed them late last year, show Huawei pitching how its technologies can help government authorities identify individuals by voice, monitor political individuals of interest, manage ideological reeducation and labor schedules for prisoners, and help retailers track shoppers using facial recognition.

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An advertisement promoting the People's Liberation Army overlooks a street in Beijing on Nov. 16. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

In 2020, a fast-rising artificial intelligence company in China won a little-noticed contract from a Chinese military academy to provide battlefield command software - technology that defense experts say could become part of the military's operational network.

A few months later, Goldman Sachs invested in the Beijing-based company, helping it raise $700 million, according to the company, 4Paradigm. So did Sequoia Capital China, a Chinese affiliate of the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, which markets funds that draw investment from U.S. university endowments and charitable trusts.

There was nothing illegal about those investments in 4Paradigm, a seven-year-old start-up whose foray into artificial intelligence has been so successful it has plans to soon go public.

That's because while U.S. policy bars exports of technology with military applications to China and also forbids investment in a limited list of largely publicly traded companies that the government says support China's military, Chinese companies not on the list are fair game for investors. And that means American capital may be flowing to a variety of companies developing artificial intelligence, semiconductors and other advanced technologies that experts fear could have military or surveillance applications as well as civilian uses - a type of technology known as "dual use.''

That policy gap has begun to worry Biden administration officials - as well as some lawmakers and security experts - who fear that U.S. investment is supporting Chinese entities whose activities may undermine U.S. national security. They are also concerned that such investment could facilitate Beijing's quest to dominate emerging technologies, giving it an advantage at a time when the United States and China are increasingly engaged in economic and military competition.

China builds advanced weapons systems using American chip technology

"U.S. investments in Chinese technology-based companies pose a national security risk because so many of the critical technologies the U.S. military relies on are dual-use, such as AI, cyber, satellite imagery and the like," said Michael Brown, director of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit, a Silicon Valley-based organization focused on accelerating the adoption of leading commercial technologies by the U.S. military. "U.S. investments in these technologies developed in China fuel the ability [of the People's Liberation Army] to gain a technology edge."

The White House has held senior- and Cabinet-level meetings on the issue but has not developed a specific proposal, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They added that any new authority would be narrowly tailored. Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, noted in a July speech that the White House was assessing "the impact of outbound U.S. investment flows that could circumvent the spirit of export controls or otherwise enhance the technological capacity of our competitors in ways that harm our national security."

Some policy experts argue that the fundamental goal should be to stem the transfer of American technology, not of capital. China is not short of money and can survive without U.S. investment, they say. And if Americans don't invest, then others will - and will reap the benefits.

But U.S. officials say the issue is not just the flow of American wealth into Chinese firms but of prestige and expertise that is often more valuable than a loan from a Chinese state-owned bank. When a prominent venture capital fund invests in a Chinese start-up, "it's not just bringing $10 million in cash," said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity. "It's also bringing a validation to potential customers and employees, board and management expertise and a Rolodex of connections globally as the start-up tries to scale. That has a lot of value."

China, the world's second-largest economy, has attracted vast sums of American investment, especially over the past decade as its tech start-ups took off. The research firm Rhodium Group estimates that U.S. venture capital investment in China soared between 2014 and 2018 to an annual peak of $22.3 billion, before dropping back to $3.9 billion in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and a straining of economic ties between the two countries.

In some cases, these investments have linked U.S. investors to China's military, or to companies that the United States would later accuse of human rights abuses through high-tech surveillance of Chinese minority groups in the Xinjiang region. Often the Chinese firms do not publicize such links.

Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uyghurs and alert police, report says

For instance, 4Paradigm did not publicly announce the contract with the People's Liberation Army Armored Forces Academy, a professional military educational institution for soldiers who drive tanks. It appeared on a PLA procurement database, which had been publicly accessible until it was taken offline in 2021 without explanation, according to the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, a Georgetown think tank that used the database as the foundation for a recent report on the Chinese military's adoption of artificial intelligence systems.

The contract for "battalion command decision-making and human-machine teaming software," as it reads translated from Chinese, was posted in the database in September 2020, said CSET research analyst Ryan Fedasiuk, the report's lead author.

Fedasiuk found that of the 273 AI equipment suppliers to the PLA identified in his study, just 8 percent were named in U.S. export-control and sanctions lists.

"It's clear there are large gaps in the U.S. export-control system that allow the Chinese military to access equipment, information and capital originating in the United States," Fedasiuk said. "But plugging these gaps is easier said than done."

The 4Paradigm software could become part of the Chinese military's battlefield network as the academy carries out research and develops new tools, said James Mulvenon, director of intelligence integration for SOS International, a defense and intelligence contractor.

The PLA is developing its operational battle network - what military officers often call a "command and control" network - in the belief that fully autonomous systems are not only possible but desirable, said Mulvenon, a PLA expert.

"They believe they can design them to have cognition superior to humans' and to make decisions faster than the high-tech adversary, the United States," Mulvenon said.

The Chinese Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post regarding the contracts with the Armored Forces Academy. Phone calls to the academy went unanswered.

A 4Paradigm spokesperson, Paula Pan, said in a statement that the company's products are "designed and intended only for civilian uses." The statement said that military provisioning in China requires specific licenses and that the firm does not have such a license. Asked whether 4Paradigm was denying the existence of the contract with the PLA academy, Pan said, "We have nothing further to add beyond the statement."

Mulvenon said he knows of Chinese companies that have sold to the PLA without the requisite license. The government has stepped up its military modernization, tapping China's expanding commercial base of non-state-owned companies that are developing the cutting-edge technologies the military needs. That is part of China's "military-civil fusion" approach, which President Xi Jinping elevated to a national strategy at the National People's Congress of 2015.

Of the 273 AI suppliers to the PLA studied by CSET, a majority - 61 percent - were private, and most were established within the last decade, Fedasiuk said.

After the normalization of diplomatic ties with China, the United States pursued a strategy of economic engagement that most assumed would lead to political liberalization. In the 1980s, it granted China normal trade status and supported China's bid to join the World Trade Organization, which happened in 2001. The U.S. government encouraged investment in and trade with China. American corporate interests welcomed the cheaper labor and massive consumer markets China offered.

But over the last decade, and in particular with the rise of Xi, it became clear that Beijing was not abandoning its state-controlled economy, was intensifying its authoritarianism, and was growing more hostile toward the West. As a result, investments that in earlier times may have looked smart, or at least appeared to align with U.S. policy, were now starting to raise issues.

Sequoia Capital China also has invested in Eversec, a Chinese company that specializes in cyberthreat detection and data mining. It made its first investment in the company in 2016, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe nonpublic information.

On its website, Eversec notes that its customers include the Public Security Ministry, or national police, and the PLA Strategic Support Force, the military's space, cyber and electronic warfare force. One independent corporate intelligence site, the Paris-based Intelligence Online, reports that Eversec has worked with the Public Security Ministry since at least 2011, and that in 2018 Eversec teamed up with Beihang University, one of seven major Chinese universities that collaborate closely with the PLA, to launch a content-security research center.

In 2020, Eversec won a contract to provide threat intelligence software to the Strategic Support Force's Information Engineering University, according to CSET, the Georgetown think tank. The software helps to detect malware and other indications of efforts to breach a computer network, Fedasiuk said.

Phone calls to the university went unanswered. Eversec did not reply to emailed requests for comment from The Post.

Sequoia Capital China spokeswoman Sindy Shi declined to answer questions about the investments in 4Paradigm and Eversec. Natalie Miyake, a spokeswoman for Sequoia Capital in Menlo Park, Calif., said Sequoia Capital China is a separate legal entity that makes its own investment decisions. However, as recently as late November, Sequoia China's investments were listed on Sequoia Capital's website. They have since been consolidated on Sequoia China's website, which is linked from the main site.

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Sequoia Capital China funds list their "principal place of business" as the Menlo Park address of Sequoia Capital. Miyake did not respond to a request from The Post to explain the matching addresses. The China funds must register with the SEC when they are seeking to raise money from U.S. investors, industry experts say.

China's Watchful Eye: Beijing bets on facial recognition in a big drive for total surveillance

The risks for U.S. investors have also surfaced in relation to companies that aid Chinese state surveillance.

In 2017 and 2018, media reports highlighted concerns about China using facial recognition in ways that raised privacy and human rights concerns. In May 2018, according to market data provider PitchBook, U.S. investors including Tiger Global Management, Glade Brook Capital Partners and the venture capital arm of U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm invested in SenseTime, a Chinese provider of AI and facial recognition technology. That investment round, which included other firms, raised $620 million for SenseTime, according to a company announcement.

In October 2019, the U.S. Commerce Department added SenseTime to an export blacklist - called the "Entity List" - citing the alleged use of its technology in China's repression and surveillance of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. SenseTime said then that it was "deeply disappointed" by the move, and that it had developed an "AI code of ethics to ensure our technologies are used in a responsible way."

Such blacklistings raise moral questions for investors about whether to divest. There are no laws or regulations requiring U.S. investors to sell shares in companies added to the Entity List. However, some venture firms on occasion have sold stakes in Chinese companies whose products might be used by the government in problematic ways, industry executives say.

Qualcomm divested the majority of its SenseTime shares in August 2020 because "the company's investment model is to invest and then divest at a profit," according to a person familiar with the matter. Qualcomm plans to divest the rest after the Chinese firm has gone public, when certain divestment restrictions expire, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe nonpublic information.

In December, the Treasury Department added SenseTime to its list of Chinese companies barred from U.S. investment.

"We strongly oppose the designation and accusations that have been made in connection with it," SenseTime spokesperson June Jin said. "The accusations are unfounded and reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of our company. We regret to have been caught in the middle of geopolitical disputes."

After Treasury's move, SenseTime announced that it was postponing a planned public offering in Hong Kong but said it "remains committed to complete the global offering" soon.

Tiger Global Management declined to comment, and Glade Brook Capital Partners didn't respond to requests for comment from The Post.

The bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which advises Congress, recommended in November that lawmakers strengthen investment restrictions on military- or surveillance-linked companies in China. U.S. investors "have a due diligence responsibility," said Jeffrey Fiedler, who sits on the commission. "They have to know what they are invested in, and they certainly have no excuse for not knowing."

But the governance issues are not easy, said Gary Rieschel, founding managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, a venture capital firm launched in Shanghai in 2006.

Many venture firms invest in early-stage companies that don't even have products or customers, said Rieschel, a former senior executive at Intel and Cisco Systems. For investments in later-stage companies that have customers, a venture firm could seek to screen for links to, say, the Chinese government. "At this point, it's an investor-by-investor decision," he said. "Is the company engaging in activity that [a] particular investor finds problematic?"

The U.S. government could try to require such screening. "But how do you enforce it?" he said. "No [Chinese company] is going to give you their entire customer list - that would be viewed as confidential."

The issue, said Thilo Hanemann, a Rhodium Group partner with expertise on China, is that "global investors want to increase their exposure to China but currently they have no clear rules as to what is problematic or not," and many lack the tools to screen potential investments.

"It's easy to get tobacco companies out of your portfolio, but harder to identify companies or securities that may ultimately be linked to China's military modernization," he said.

U.S. exporters, by contrast, routinely screen potential clients in China, Russia, Venezuela and Myanmar for any indication that the client provides a product or service that supports the military, police or intelligence services, said Kevin Wolf, a former senior official at the Commerce Department who, as a partner at Akin Gump, provides such screenings.

At The Post's request, Wolf ran searches on 4Paradigm and Eversec using an Akin Gump tool that scours publicly available information online in English and Chinese. The results flagged the firms as "high risk," meaning that a client would be advised to inquire further before exporting to the company. If there is even a suspicion that the company in question has dealings with a military entity, Wolf said, he would advise the client not to ship.

Many clients take precautions simply to avoid risk to reputation. "They'll never talk about it, but they have a policy that even if the law would permit it, they won't ship to certain companies," he said. "This is coming up in relation to Uyghur issues," he said, referring to China's repression of its Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region. Companies know that publicity around exports to firms linked to China's actions in Xinjiang could harm their image, he said.

4Paradigm has applied to Hong Kong's stock exchange for permission to carry out an initial public offering, with Goldman Sachs acting as a joint sponsor, according to a 4Paradigm filing in August with the exchange. Acting as a sponsor typically yields a lead underwriting role for a bank - and large commissions - if the IPO happens. As a sponsor, Goldman Sachs is lending its prestige and credibility to the endeavor, enhancing trust and interest in 4Paradigm, said Fiedler, the USCC commissioner, who has served as a senior official with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

"Goldman is clearly doing the wrong thing involving itself with a company supplying the PLA," Fiedler said. "They seem to take comfort that it is not illegal to do business with them, but it is wrong on every other level."

Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Maeve DuVally declined to comment on the bank's investment in or work with 4Paradigm.

Some lawmakers are pressing for action. "When it comes to Chinese companies working to undermine U.S. national and economic security, there is no real difference between transferring American technology or investing American capital," said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of several senators who have introduced bills to address the issue.

Lily Kuo in Taipei, Taiwan, and Douglas MacMillan and Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.

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Biden administration concerned about U.S. investments in Chinese tech companies with military or surveillance ties

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In 2020, a fast-rising artificial intelligence company in China won a little-noticed contract from a Chinese military academy to provide battlefield command software - technology that defense experts say could become part of the military's operational network. A few months later, Goldman Sachs invested in the Beijing-based company, helping it raise $700 million, according to the company, 4Paradigm.

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https://nationalinterest.org/feature/supporting-afghan-resistance-american-interest-197904

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By all accounts, Afghanistan is quiet. For the first time in more than forty years, a single entity asserts its authority over the entirety of the country. Certainly, the Taliban death squads continue their reprisal killings against those the Biden administration left behind but, for many in Washington, it is out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

Despite the orgy of violence surrounding the U.S. withdrawal, President Joe Biden believes his decision to end the "forever war" was correct. He and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan may also believe the false choice they voiced between ending the war and escalating it, no matter that a minimal U.S. presence had been enough to keep the Taliban out of every provincial capital and Kabul.

Many in Washington-especially those with little or no experience on the ground in Afghanistan-argue that the United States should lick its wounds and leave Afghans to their fate. "Don't Arm the Afghan Resistance," opined Middle East Institute fellow Bilal Saab, an Arab world specialist. Kai Thaler, a Latin America expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara, agreed, "Afghan insurgents are a dead end," he wrote. Both, however, fundamentally misunderstand Afghanistan and the dynamics now at play.

The quiet Afghanistan now experiences is deceptive. Put aside the fact that the absence of media reporting does not mean placidity. The reality is that Afghanistan is always quieter in the winter. The current calm does not reflect Afghan acquiescence to the Taliban or the foreign powers they serve. The fact is more radical elements of the Taliban as well as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are now increasing their presence throughout the country. The over-the-horizon ability to combat any post-withdrawal terror threat cited by Biden and Sullivan was illusionary. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Afghan war hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, is the last remaining ally resolved to fight against terror groups in Afghanistan. It is today the only alternative.

The White House, Pentagon, and Central Intelligence Agency must recognize that the Taliban will never be able to counter Al Qaeda terrorism; they are too intertwined not only politically but also socially. To expect the Taliban to fight Al Qaeda is to expect brother to fight brother. Today, the Taliban leadership provide sanctuary for Al Qaeda fighters and many of the group's leaders. For Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent leaders to reside in the Taliban's Afghanistan gives Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency plausible deniability should India accuse Pakistan of sponsoring the group, The ISI would never allow the Taliban to crack down upon that group or any other terror proxies Pakistan might wish to leverage against India in Kashmir or elsewhere.

Nor would the Taliban agree to crack down on Al Qaeda when the Taliban's sole source of legacy since its co-option by Pakistan in 1994 has been its embrace of the same radical exegesis of Islam that Al Qaeda also embraces. Taliban leaders know that if they try to pivot away from Al Qaeda, rank-and-file members will simply join Al Qaeda or the Islamic State. After all, while the leadership of such groups might be distinct, their membership is fissiparous. If the U.S. desire is to combat and deny space to Al Qaeda or the Islamic State, then again there really is no alternative to the National Resistance Front. The reality is until the Biden administration or its successors realize that they cannot rely on the Taliban to stamp out terror, terrorist groups in Afghanistan will only metathesize. Should the United States need to return to Afghanistan because a terror group again used it as a base from which to attack the United States, then Washington will need the National Resistance Front to liberate parts of the country much as it used the Northern Alliance in October 2001. As then, the Taliban are an emperor wearing no clothes. They might promote an image of military acumen or invincibility, but the reality is the decision by Afghans to surrender was based more on political calculations than military ones. Should the winds of momentum change, Taliban leaders will again flee to Pakistan. The Pentagon has invested billions of dollars in training Afghan forces; they should now coordinate and consolidate those in whom they have invested.

Make no mistake: The issue was never an unwillingness by Afghan forces to fight. Secretary of State Antony Blinken implied as much when he testified before Congress that Americans need not worry about the Taliban using American weaponry because many of the systems required the technical expertise of contractors that the Americans had withdrawn. Simply put, to cover his posterior politically, he essentially confessed that he undermined the ability of the Afghan forces to fight.

Local credibility also matters. In March 2000, I traveled through the Taliban's Islamic Emirate. Some Afghans said they initially welcomed the group because they thought it might bring them security after the reality of the post-1992 civil war. To a man and woman, they said that within six months, it became clear that the Taliban would prey on them as much as the warlords who preceded them did. The same pattern is in play today. If the United States disengages with the last Afghan group that seeks democracy, then the United States will lose credibility not only among Afghans but also across the broader region.

Simply put, peace in Afghanistan, credible diplomacy and leverage, and America's own national security require not blind support for the Taliban, but rather partnership with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East. He also regularly teaches classes at sea about Middle East conflicts, culture, terrorism, and the Horn of Africa to deployed U.S. Navy and Marine units. You can follow him on Twitter: @mrubin1971.

Image: Reuters.

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Supporting the Afghan Resistance Is an American Interest

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By all accounts, Afghanistan is quiet. For the first time in more than forty years, a single entity asserts its authority over the entirety of the country. Certainly, the Taliban death squads continue their reprisal killings against those the Biden administration left behind but, for many in Washington, it is out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

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https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/04/bangladesh-police-brutality-crossfires-gunfights-killings-rab-corruption/

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At midnight on May 26, 2018, Ekramul Haque's daughters were trying to reach their father, who had left home three hours earlier and had still not returned.

Haque was an elected council member in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf municipality, a southeastern Bangladeshi town bordering Myanmar. To the outside world, Teknaf and surrounding subdistricts in Cox's Bazar are best known for hosting nearly a million Rohingya refugees, but domestically, it is also a major entry point for narcotics (mostly yaba-a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine) sourced from Myanmar.

When Haque's daughters reached him, he was audibly distressed, but he was also trying to comfort them. " [dad], you seem to be crying," one of his confused daughters said. Unsettled, they alerted their mother, Ayesha Begum, who joined in subsequent calls.

Haque was at that time in the custody of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite Bangladeshi police unit estimated to have killed more than 1,100 people between 2004 and 2020 . He would soon be executed, joining hundreds of others killed by authorities in a bloody election-year anti-drug campaign. After his death, the RAB produced a typical press release, claiming that Haque had been killed in a supposed gunfight during a drug raid.

The wording of the statement was characteristically contradictory: The description of the events leading to his violent death made his killing sound inadvertent, but allegations against him-that he was a top drug dealer and a "yaba godfather"-are used to imply he deserved to die anyway. (Haque's family, political colleagues, and locals strongly contest the claim that he was a drug dealer.)

But what was exceptional about Haque's case was that his killing and preceding moments were captured in calls recorded on Begum's phone, because RAB officials had forgotten to seize Haque's device when they detained him, and he managed to pick up at least four calls from his family that night.

On May 31, Begum called a press conference and released the recordings as proof that her husband was murdered. But the only news outlet that decided to share them was the -Bangladesh's largest English-language newspaper, where I was working at the time-which published the chilling recordings the next day, causing an uproar on social media.

The Bangladeshi authorities responded not by taking action in the wake of the shocking revelation but by trying to cover it up: They kept the 's website blocked until they realized it was pointless, as enough people had already listened to the call recordings on Facebook.

In the years since, Haque's case has become the centerpiece of conversations about extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh. But not a single RAB official was ever punished or reprimanded for their roles in his killing.

That is not an exception. Very few RAB officials have ever been held accountable despite the unit's history of rights abuses since its founding in 2004 as a crime-busting agency.

That impunity for the RAB ended on Dec. 10, 2021, when the U.S. Treasury imposed unprecedented economic sanctions against current and former RAB leaders, including the current chief of police, for gross human rights violations, including more than 1,000 extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances. Separately, but simultaneously, the U.S. State Department imposed a travel ban on two former RAB officials and cited Haque's case.

Authorities in Dhaka, unsurprisingly, responded with denial and attacks against the United States. Ministers and ruling party leaders pointed to America's domestic human rights record and alleged war crimes in the Middle East.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son and heir apparent, Sajeeb Wazed, a longtime U.S. resident, an infographic on Facebook that shows that every year since 2013 police departments across the United States caused more than 1,000 deaths.

Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen cited the same statistics in a phone call with his U.S. counterpart, Antony Blinken. "Police in the U.S. kill roughly a thousand people a year. You call these [casualties] in the line of duty. But when people die in our country [under similar circumstances], you decry extrajudicial executions," he reporters, referring to his conversation with Blinken.

While the United States undeniably has a police brutality problem, and its police departments have been guilty of countless murders- disproportionately targeting Black men-there is a crucial difference between police violence in the United States and Bangladesh.

Even when U.S. officers accused of murder do not face trial or conviction (as in the case of the 2014 asphyxiation of Eric Garner in New York), there is extensive, critical, uncensored media coverage of the killings, and there are civil legal claims for monetary damages. Additionally, other cases tried before juries in impartial courts, sometimes-though not always-resulting in convictions and long prison sentences for the officers who murdered innocent people (as was the case for Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests in 2020).

In Bangladesh, there is no such scrutiny or impartial justice; there is only impunity.

As the United States under President Joe Biden attempts to revamp its democracy promotion policy abroad, these are the sorts of criticisms it will face from authoritarian regimes like Bangladesh. As a country that waged bloody wars around the globe and has a history of police brutality against minorities, the United States can be an easy target for these regimes as they try to discredit the Biden administration's pro-democracy policies.

Such tactics are similar to how the governments in China and Iran attempt to cash in on U.S. domestic division to invalidate the West's calls for greater freedom for their citizens or how Soviet propagandists during the Cold War exploited racial strife in the United States to dull the appeal of capitalism. While U.S. readers may clearly see the flaws in these comparisons, Bangladeshi citizens-who are the primary target of the government's propaganda-may not.

Bangladeshi officials' attempt to compare extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh with U.S. police killings is intended to imply hypocrisy on the part of the U.S. government and challenge the Biden administration's moral authority to pass judgment on other countries. They seek to draw a parallel between the two crimes, rather than address the merits of the allegations. But by deploying this fallacy, the Bangladeshi authorities are inadvertently acknowledging the allegations themselves-and simply denying the U.S. government's moral standing to point them out.

What is also missing from their narrative is that the U.S. government's moral authority derives from the fact that it does not deny its own police killing problem and has sought to deal with it through an open and democratic process, a transparent legal system, and a robust press-none of which exist in today's Bangladesh.

Extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh have long been justified by claiming they occurred in the line of duty. The doctrine of self-defense has been the cornerstone of this narrative. The authorities in Bangladesh argue that all these executions take place in so-called gunfights.

These gunfights supposedly occur when the RAB (or regular police) engage purely in self-defense with armed criminals, who always end up dead. Before the "gunfight" framing became popular, most casualties caused by the RAB were described as taking place in "crossfires."

"Crossfire," a term now rarely used by officials but still popular among the population to describe such killings, referred to a supposed situation in which a detained suspect would have revealed an important location during interrogation, and police or RAB officers would have taken the suspect there to recover hidden firearms or to capture his accomplices. As soon as security forces arrived at the location, they would come under attack from criminals waiting for them, and when the detained suspect then tried to flee, he would be killed in a so-called crossfire.

Criticism surrounding these supposed crossfire incidents was centered on the argument that police had failed to protect someone in their custody. Subsequently, officials started denying that they had detained anyone, and they instead claimed that the targets had simply been killed in a gunfight during a raid.

These accounts are hardly ever true: Both "gunfights" and "crossfires" are merely euphemisms for shooting unarmed people to death at point-blank range-often with the blessing of the government.

Haque's killing was the only known instance when such an incident was captured or recorded, and it was clearly indicative of what human rights organizations, family members, journalists, opposition activists, and numerous others have long argued: that these killings are premeditated murders.

The recordings revealed how an unarmed man with his hands tied was shot, and how he cried out loud for a second before falling silent. The recordings also captured the conversations of RAB personnel as they instructed each other to fire random shots at his body from different directions and place some empty bullet shells around the crime scene to give the appearance of a fight.

Even if one were to ignore such an overwhelmingly incriminating piece of evidence and consider arguments made by Bangladeshi officials, there are other key differences between Bangladeshi "gunfights" and U.S. police killings.

Despite the high yearly death tolls resulting from U.S. police shootings, a typical gunfight committed by RAB or police in Bangladesh meets at least one major criterion of extrajudicial executions that many U.S. police killings do not: They are premeditated.

The most frequent reason for a police presence in the United States is a reaction to a 911 report of an ongoing crime, disturbance, or domestic abuse-or a traffic stop, often due to racial profiling. Police often treat Black people and other minorities in a discriminatory manner, and they often commit crimes-including murder-after stopping a driver or after arriving on the scene following a 911 call.

In Bangladesh, however, the primary reason for police presence in cases of deadly encounters is rarely clear. Most often than not, officials hide behind confidentiality, claiming that they acted on anonymous tips or information derived from interrogation. While using privileged communication as a shield to obscure transparency can be an effective tactic, it also indicates a tendency to be proactive, which suggests premeditation.

In the United States, even in cases when officers accused of murder are not convicted, the transcripts of 911 calls, dispatcher calls, descriptions of evidence collected, testimonies of witnesses and every police officer involved, body camera footage, toxicology and postmortem reports, and investigation reports are often made public. Transparency is ensured to the extent that few disputes remain about the key facts of what happened (although fierce disputes do exist about what should have happened). Family members or witnesses rarely claim that the killing was staged.

On the other hand, in Bangladesh, disputes about what transpired in a gunfight are never resolved. Family members often allege that the victims were already in RAB or police custody before they were killed in a so-called gunfight. No body camera footage, testimonies, or documentation are provided to support the police claim of self-defense.

If it were true, as Bangladeshi officials often claim, that their deadly incidents are no different than those in the United States, then surely they should be able to produce equivalent evidence, testimony, and documentation to substantiate their version of events. The fact is that Bangladeshi forces do not bother to collect such evidence, nor does the country's legal system demand it. They are allowed to kill without consequences.

In Bangladesh, family members have rarely been able to file lawsuits against involved officials or agencies. In Haque's case, the police refused to accept his wife's complaint, because there was already a case filed concerning the incident-by the same RAB team that killed him-which has been a common procedural tactic to deter family members from pursuing legal accountability.

And even when U.S. police killings do fulfill the criteria of extrajudicial executions, such as when individual police officials target and kill someone based on racial assumptions, city governments or police departments have often been forced to pay compensation to the family members of the victims. In 2016, for example, the city of Cleveland paid $6 million to family members of Tamir Rice, a boy who had been shot and killed by the city's police two years earlier, even though a grand jury had decided against charging the officers involved. But in Bangladesh, none of these deterrents or accountability measures exist.

Bangladeshi officials have appeared shocked by the new U.S. sanctions. For too long, the ruling Awami League government's U.S. policy has been driven by a set of stereotypes and assumptions, including that Washington's desire to see democratic reform in Bangladesh is supplanted by other more pressing concerns such as the need to contain Islamist militancy or tackle the Rohingya refugee crisis. The government may also have hoped to leverage the country's growing strategic and economic significance as China's influence in the region increases.

The sanctions-particularly the wording that the RAB's human rights abuses threatened U.S. national security interests-and the lack of an invitation for Bangladesh to the Summit for Democracy that preceded the sanctions defied contemporary wisdom about how Washington viewed affairs in Dhaka, thus unnerving Bangladeshi decision-makers.

The Bangladeshi authorities' efforts to dodge responsibility, damage U.S. credibility, and question Washington's moral standing are primarily designed to convince a domestic audience that such issues as extrajudicial executions aren't so bad, because they happen in countries like the United States, too.

But democratic countries do not generally form elite forces to execute their citizens just because they are suspected of committing a crime; they try them in impartial courts of law. Democratic nations don't allow their security forces to operate with a carte blanche or kill dissidents or political opponents; their democratic systems ensure the public can adequately voice their concerns and elected leaders listen to them. They have a fierce press that scrutinizes events and a criminal justice system that, while imperfect, seeks to ensure transparency and openness. Above all, they don't deliberately deny or cover up extrajudicial killings.

The Bangladeshi government's absurd arguments need to be called out, because extrajudicial executions or enforced disappearances aren't normal in any society-and governments must not be allowed to normalize them.

When such crimes occur, they must be investigated by independent authorities and a free press, they must be tried in impartial courts, and the perpetrators must be punished both judicially and financially. Until the Bangladeshi government is willing to move beyond whataboutism and take those steps, it is in no position to criticize the United States.

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The U.S. Has a Police Brutality Problem. So Does Bangladesh.

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At midnight on May 26, 2018, Ekramul Haque's daughters were trying to reach their father, who had left home three hours earlier and had still not returned. Haque was an elected council member in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf municipality, a southeastern Bangladeshi town bordering Myanmar.

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https://www.thenation.com/article/society/surveillance-wages-amazon-labor/

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In the past decade, employers have been binging on data and the tools to track everything workers do- in and out of work. Anyone who thinks this data grab isn't going to be used to transform the nature of wages and benefits and the work contract has another think coming. My prediction is that in the next 10 years we will come to accept that each worker's wages are constantly changing, behaviorally shaped, and different from their coworkers'-unless we stop it. I call this trend "surveillance wages."

All the elements are there. Farmers have been getting paid different rates for the same work for years, as Chris Leonard reported in his book The Meat Racket. Tyson Foods, the giant meat processor, has changing and individualized terms for chicken farmers-and contractually bars them from comparing what they are paid to other farmers, leading to a state of perpetual paranoia. But Tyson's tools are limited compared to what big tech companies have learned how to track. Uber tracks millions of metrics every day and assigns individualized tasks to drivers. It not only tracks how quickly drivers brake and how frequently they stop, and where, and for what, but also uses analytics to deliver gamified prompts matched to each driver's data profile. Instead of a year-end bonus for good work-the old model-drivers are paid through a complex blend of bonuses and demerits, constantly pinged with reminders of goals, pushed and prodded and profiled to tweak how little they make and how much Uber collects.

Corporations are on a worker-data binge akin to the consumer data binge of the prior decade. Companies like Amazon are tracking their employees and contractors as if they were in a gig economy rendition of 1984. Companies map workers' moods to their locations while recording conversations, keyboard strokes, health data and speed on task. Surveillance wages rely on monitoring and experimentation systems: thumb scans, identification badges, closed circuit cameras, geolocation tracking, sensors on tablets and vehicles, and software that can analyze employees' tones of voice and facial expressions.

Unsurprisingly Amazon, a reliable global leader in identifying new ways to demean workers, is leading here: The company constantly measures time spent on various activities, tracking productivity, and using algorithms to fire workers who don't live up to quotas. Perhaps you've heard about Amazon workers peeing in bottles? That's a response to the punishing quota demands that make taking the most basic breaks physically impossible for many workers. At the same time, Amazon is experimenting with work-games with names like MissionRacer, PicksInSpace, Dragon Duel and CastleCrafter. Gaining proficiency at these games can lead to raises in wages. Rewarding successful workers with "Swag Bucks"-an internal currency that can be used to make Amazon purchases-brings The Hunger Games to life on the warehouse floor. The goal is to keep wages as low as legally permissible-making the minimum wage the ceiling, not the floor-by identifying just how little it takes to get any given employee to perform a task. And if workers quit during this experimentation process-so what? Constant churn is part of the company's plan.

It doesn't stop at the warehouse door. Without new legal limits, companies are set up to maintain surveillance far outside the workplace and work hours, collecting information on your friendships and interactions online. They track what people do not just on their own websites but also on other websites and at brick and mortar locations outside the workplace.

In all the conferences and meetings devoted to the future of work, far too little attention has been paid to the increasing use of dynamic (i.e., constantly changing) pricing for labor, and personalized pricing (as when you and I pay different amounts for the same airline seat) as applied to labor. While companies that use so-called independent contractors are at the forefront of individualized wages, your being classified as an employee doesn't protect you from employers extracting and using data in individualized ways, or constantly changing contractual terms.

Why now? Three developments are converging: first, concentration in labor markets, so employers have much more power to dictate terms to workers; second, the decline in labor unions, who had the power to make any bonuses or differential pay subject to a labor contract; and third, the radical and swift rise in Big Data and algorithmic decision-making of the kind that is now routine, along with off-the-shelf tools for employers to use.

Current Issue

Facebook changed from a purely chronological feed in 2009. First, it simply promoted some content based on popularity; then, it gradually started individualizing the feed, and giving advertisers access to targeted audiences. But the changes did not announce themselves, and the social and political impact of these changes wasn't realized until a decade later. The change from a neutral platform to a platform that targets different posts based on big data and algorithmic decision-making happened quickly but imperceptibly-and the changes to pay and working conditions are likely to happen the same way: without a bang or a banner.

The signs are all around us. A new report by Dr. Wilneida Negrón of Coworker.org has revealed the scope of the private capital being funneled into these growing technologies to help employers track their workers. According to the report, McDonald's, Amazon, and Walmart have all spent billions in the past two years alone on workplace tech that includes labor optimization and workplace surveillance tools, giving these corporate behemoths an outsize influence in the technology's development. Related Articles

We already know how surveillance wages will be justified: Companies need information to study and increase productivity; they need to maximize management incentives, to identify and reduce waste, to keep employees from rule breaking. And once they have data, it would be strange not to use it for making hiring, firing, and promotion decisions. But we also know that it will primarily be used to pinpoint the breaking point of each worker-and to pay her or him just that much-and not a penny more.

Paying each worker differently also allows companies to actively isolate workers from their colleagues, destroying the sense of solidarity that union organizing depends on. Dynamic labor pricing-changing the wages and terms on a regular basis, through real-time bonuses and short-term contracts-has added to uncertainty and instability, leading to employees being treated more like in-house independent contractors, without the security and solidarity that employment traditionally provided.

This is no small change. If not stopped it will amount to a fundamental reworking of the relationship between workers and employers. And when you add surveillance wages to the political latitude granted to corporations under the Citizens United decision, companies will be able to single out politically problematic workers, and reward workers who are politically aligned with the company.

We must get ahead of this before it happens. If we don't, we will spend decades cleaning up the wreckage, in much the way that we're still struggling to understand-let alone remedy-the damage caused by targeted advertising for social media.

This time, if we act promptly, we have the chance to stop surveillance wages before they become ubiquitous. That will require some blend of enhanced statutory labor protections, increased labor power, and bans on the collection and use of some kinds of personal data at work. At the same time, for such measures to become politically feasible, we also need to dismantle the structures that make surveillance wages possible, and break up the corporate giants who are pioneering this new form of peonage. This monstrous invasion of workers' privacy-another symptom of corporate America's gross consolidated power-must be stopped while there's still time to act.

This story was supported by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

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When Big Brother Is Your Boss: The Rise of Surveillance Wages

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In the past decade, employers have been binging on data and the tools to track everything workers do- in and out of work. Anyone who thinks this data grab isn't going to be used to transform the nature of wages and benefits and the work contract has another think coming.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/come-the-metaverse-can-privacy-exist-11641292206

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In its current form, the internet relies on data collection that some critics liken to mass surveillance. Technology companies and researchers are beginning to wonder whether the metaverse will be any different.

Facebook Inc.'s name change to Meta Platforms Inc. signaled that businesses behind games, office tools and other services will increasingly invest in this next iteration of cyberspace. Their pitch is to create loosely connected communities where users can work, play and shop using digital avatars.

The infrastructure underpinning the metaverse-virtual-reality glasses and augmented-reality software, for openers-will rely on reams of data showing how users interact with their surroundings in fictional worlds, digital workplaces, virtual doctors' appointments and elsewhere, said Kavya Pearlman, founder of the XR Safety Initiative, a nonprofit that advocates for the ethical development of immersive technologies.

"At any given time, the way you move, the way your gait is, the way you're gazing, your pupil dilation, is giving away information to developers," she said.

All these tidbits could give companies greater ability to deduce users' traits, Ms. Pearlman said, defying current notions of privacy and security and straining corporate policies to protect them. For instance, she said, an insurance company might obtain information that suggests a user has a health problem before the person noticed any physical changes or saw a doctor.

"Now, the data is in inferences," Ms. Pearlman said.

For years, developers have experimented with immersive games such as Pokémon Go, in which users catch and battle creatures using mobile phones that project avatars onto physical surroundings. But in recent months, the prospect of the metaverse has gone mainstream as large firms including Meta, Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp. announced plans to dive in.

Microsoft said it would be introducing new features for users of its Teams office platform to hold meetings, chat with co-workers and collaborate on projects as customized avatars in digital spaces. Graphics-chip firm Nvidia is preparing a suite of collaboration and simulation tools of its own.

In August, Meta began public testing of a workplace-collaboration app called Horizon Workrooms. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company will spend billions a year on metaverse-related innovation as the digital advertising giant tries to make itself a bigger online marketplace.

Privacy advocates are leery of the intentions of a company that in recent years has paid billions of dollars to U.S. and European Union regulators over alleged data abuses. Far-reaching and arguably intrusive data-processing is key to such companies' ad-based business models, critics say.

Many corporate privacy lapses in recent years have revolved around the ways companies exchange data with third parties, said John Verdi, senior vice president of policy at the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington think tank. Governments may need to pass new laws, or update guidance on existing statutes, such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, once a metaverse-shaped data economy comes into focus, he said.

"A lot of those practices emerged in the mobile and desktop worlds in ways that might or might not directly translate into AR," Mr. Verdi said.

Meta officials say they will give priority to security and privacy as they develop such technologies, adding that much of what they envision will take up to a decade to develop.

"We're discussing it now to help ensure that any terms of use, privacy controls or safety features are appropriate to the new technologies and effective in keeping people safe," a spokeswoman said.

More From WSJ Pro Cybersecurity

The company has pledged $50 million to outside researchers focusing on privacy and security in the metaverse, including a partnership with the National University of Singapore to investigate data use. Meta's augmented- and virtual-reality arm, Reality Labs, separately is issuing grants to study topics such as how to authenticate users and detect novel forms of cyberattack across new devices and services. Two research teams this year were awarded sums to study eye-tracking tools used by virtual-reality headsets.

Such data is key for devices and software to know which imagery to project where. But precise information on where people are looking can reveal users' subconscious thinking or mental state, said Guohao Lan, a professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands who is leading one of the projects funded by Meta. Users may look differently at other players in a game, for example, than they would at the avatar of a boss they don't like.

"His photo or video will trigger your emotion," Mr. Lan said-and possibly be divulged to that boss.

A key question for the Delft team and its counterpart at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is how to obscure data on eye movements with privacy filters without sacrificing too much utility. Researchers from both schools said eye-trackers could give companies a wealth of information for targeted advertising at a very granular level.

That raises the stakes of companies' choices on how to make money in the metaverse, said Bradford Oberwager, executive chairman of Linden Lab. Linden developed "Second Life," a game released in 2003 and seen by many as an ancestor of more recent visions of immersive communities.

Second Life each month counts more than 700,000 active users who hang out together and buy and sell virtual goods using Linden dollars-each worth about a quarter of a penny-in transactions that add up to about $650 million annually. Linden monetizes the activity through paid subscriptions and services to users, as well as by selling its payment platform to other developers.

Second Life illustrates the commercial promise of the metaverse, Mr. Oberwager said, even as he warned of the fallout of trying to convert activity in virtual worlds into advertising dollars.

People may enter the metaverse to share experiences or assume identities they can't in the real world, he said, giving the companies behind the technology a unique window into users' psyches.

"I am who I want to be in the metaverse," Mr. Oberwager said.

Write to David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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In its current form, the internet relies on data collection that some critics liken to mass surveillance. Technology companies and researchers are beginning to wonder whether the metaverse will be any different. Facebook Inc.'s name change to Meta Platforms Inc. signaled that businesses behind games, office tools and other services will increasingly invest in this next iteration of cyberspace.

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https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/south-african-leader-part-corruption-report-82071400

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into allegations of graft during former President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018

JOHANNESBURG -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018.

Receiving the report, Ramaphosa described it as a "defining moment" in South Africa's fight against corruption. He said it would help to restore "the integrity, credibility and capability of our institutions, but more importantly, our government."

The result of three years of investigations, the report is expected to detail the extent of corruption in government and state-owned companies.

Chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, the commission is expected to make recommendations to Ramaphosa, including possible prosecution of those implicated in wrong-doing.

"We have a collective responsibility to ensure that the findings and recommendations of the commission not only mark a decisive break with the corrupt practices of the past, but that they provide the foundation for greater transparency, accountability and ethical conduct within all state institutions and across society," said Ramaphosa.

He thanked whistleblowers and journalists for providing evidence to the investigation "often at great risk and cost to themselves."

The report has been made public but Ramaphosa said his government will have to study all three parts and will only be able to comment on it at the end of June.

According to Zondo, the first part of the report handed over on Tuesday deals with allegations of corruption and mismanagement at South African Airways, the country's state-owned airline which has run up massive debts and has received government subsidies and bailouts.

The second part of the report will deal with state contracts and sponsorships from government departments and state-owned enterprises to the now-defunct New Age newspaper.

The last part will focus on allegations of corruption at the South African Revenue Services, the country's tax revenue service.

The judicial inquiry has uncovered evidence of what South Africans call "state capture," how Zuma and his associates including the Gupta family of businessmen allegedly influenced the awarding of lucrative state contracts.

Testimony including from Cabinet ministers and top officials have directly implicated Zuma in corrupt schemes, including allowing the Gupta family to influence his cabinet appointments.

Zuma refused to obey a court order to appear before the commission and answer questions under oath. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying the court order. He was imprisoned in July, triggering rioting and destruction of property in which more than 300 people were killed. In September Zuma, 79, was released on medical parole for an undisclosed ailment. A court has ruled that the medical parole was invalid and that Zuma should return to prison. Zuma is appealing that decision.

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South African leader gets first part of corruption report

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into allegations of graft during former President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018 JOHANNESBURG -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018.

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https://www.the-sun.com/tech/4237881/facebook-snapchat-iphone-data-tracking/

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APPLE iPhone users who have opted out of app tracking are still being tracked by Facebook and Snapchat, according to a Financial Times report.

Since Apple released its iOS 14.5 update earlier this year, iPhone users have had the ability to control and monitor who is tracking their data via the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.

The feature, which was first announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in 2020, allows you "to choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies' apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers," according to Apple's website.

At first glance that description might indicate that your data is safe, however, ticking "opt-out" on your iPhone's settings does not mean that companies can't still get their hands on your activity and information.

A number of apps, who profit heavily from users' data, have figured out a way around the privacy feature due to a "loophole" in Apple's design.

The so-called crack in the system is that while Apple's ATT prevents companies from sharing your unique and identifiable data with third parties, it does not entirely prohibit them from collecting your data.

Basically, companies like Facebook and Snapchat are sharing that data in anonymized and aggregated groups, according to the Financial Times report.

"These companies point out that Apple has told developers they 'may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it'," the report stated.

"This means they can observe 'signals' from an iPhone at a group level, enabling ads that can still be tailored to 'cohorts' aligning with certain behavior but not associated with unique IDs," the report added.

Still, even in the case of anonymized data, where names, addresses, and phone numbers have been stripped, it is still possible to track users and identify them, as one study in the journal Nature Communications found.

From a legal standpoint, Apple seems to be within its bounds to allow companies to collect your data.

And, according to the Financial Times, this type of tracking is considered to be an industry-standard, or as the report stated, "becoming the norm."

If you want to monitor the tracking activity on your iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking.

In other news, iPhone owners are being urged to change their settings in order to protect their texts from snoopers.

Google has officially released a new privacy feature that could erase important photos forever.

And, we rounded up 13 common toaster mistakes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Urgent warning as Facebook and Snapchat caught 'spying' on iPhone users

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
APPLE iPhone users who have opted out of app tracking are still being tracked by Facebook and Snapchat, according to a Financial Times report. Since Apple released its iOS 14.5 update earlier this year, iPhone users have had the ability to control and monitor who is tracking their data via the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.the-sun.com/tech/4237881/facebook-snapchat-iphone-data-tracking/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
APPLE iPhone users who have opted out of app tracking are still being tracked by Facebook and Snapchat, according to a Financial Times report.

Since Apple released its iOS 14.5 update earlier this year, iPhone users have had the ability to control and monitor who is tracking their data via the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.

The feature, which was first announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in 2020, allows you "to choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies' apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers," according to Apple's website.

At first glance that description might indicate that your data is safe, however, ticking "opt-out" on your iPhone's settings does not mean that companies can't still get their hands on your activity and information.

A number of apps, who profit heavily from users' data, have figured out a way around the privacy feature due to a "loophole" in Apple's design.

The so-called crack in the system is that while Apple's ATT prevents companies from sharing your unique and identifiable data with third parties, it does not entirely prohibit them from collecting your data.

Basically, companies like Facebook and Snapchat are sharing that data in anonymized and aggregated groups, according to the Financial Times report.

"These companies point out that Apple has told developers they 'may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it'," the report stated.

"This means they can observe 'signals' from an iPhone at a group level, enabling ads that can still be tailored to 'cohorts' aligning with certain behavior but not associated with unique IDs," the report added.

Still, even in the case of anonymized data, where names, addresses, and phone numbers have been stripped, it is still possible to track users and identify them, as one study in the journal Nature Communications found.

From a legal standpoint, Apple seems to be within its bounds to allow companies to collect your data.

And, according to the Financial Times, this type of tracking is considered to be an industry-standard, or as the report stated, "becoming the norm."

If you want to monitor the tracking activity on your iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking.

In other news, iPhone owners are being urged to change their settings in order to protect their texts from snoopers.

Google has officially released a new privacy feature that could erase important photos forever.

And, we rounded up 13 common toaster mistakes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Urgent warning as Facebook and Snapchat caught 'spying' on iPhone users

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
APPLE iPhone users who have opted out of app tracking are still being tracked by Facebook and Snapchat, according to a Financial Times report. Since Apple released its iOS 14.5 update earlier this year, iPhone users have had the ability to control and monitor who is tracking their data via the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.

# data[].attributes.body
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/south-african-leader-part-corruption-report-82071400

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into allegations of graft during former President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018

JOHANNESBURG -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018.

Receiving the report, Ramaphosa described it as a "defining moment" in South Africa's fight against corruption. He said it would help to restore "the integrity, credibility and capability of our institutions, but more importantly, our government."

The result of three years of investigations, the report is expected to detail the extent of corruption in government and state-owned companies.

Chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, the commission is expected to make recommendations to Ramaphosa, including possible prosecution of those implicated in wrong-doing.

"We have a collective responsibility to ensure that the findings and recommendations of the commission not only mark a decisive break with the corrupt practices of the past, but that they provide the foundation for greater transparency, accountability and ethical conduct within all state institutions and across society," said Ramaphosa.

He thanked whistleblowers and journalists for providing evidence to the investigation "often at great risk and cost to themselves."

The report has been made public but Ramaphosa said his government will have to study all three parts and will only be able to comment on it at the end of June.

According to Zondo, the first part of the report handed over on Tuesday deals with allegations of corruption and mismanagement at South African Airways, the country's state-owned airline which has run up massive debts and has received government subsidies and bailouts.

The second part of the report will deal with state contracts and sponsorships from government departments and state-owned enterprises to the now-defunct New Age newspaper.

The last part will focus on allegations of corruption at the South African Revenue Services, the country's tax revenue service.

The judicial inquiry has uncovered evidence of what South Africans call "state capture," how Zuma and his associates including the Gupta family of businessmen allegedly influenced the awarding of lucrative state contracts.

Testimony including from Cabinet ministers and top officials have directly implicated Zuma in corrupt schemes, including allowing the Gupta family to influence his cabinet appointments.

Zuma refused to obey a court order to appear before the commission and answer questions under oath. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying the court order. He was imprisoned in July, triggering rioting and destruction of property in which more than 300 people were killed. In September Zuma, 79, was released on medical parole for an undisclosed ailment. A court has ruled that the medical parole was invalid and that Zuma should return to prison. Zuma is appealing that decision.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
South African leader gets first part of corruption report

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into allegations of graft during former President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018 JOHANNESBURG -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has received the first part of a report on corruption from a judicial investigation into President Jacob Zuma's tenure from 2009 to 2018.

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Apple and Google get fined by Italy over data collection

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Apple and Google get fined by Italy over data collection

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https://siliconangle.com/2021/11/26/google-apple-fined-italy-data-collection-practices/

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Google and Apple fined in Italy over data collection practices - SiliconANGLE

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Google and Apple fined in Italy over data collection practices - SiliconANGLE

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15 cases of police brutality in Luxembourg

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15 cases of police brutality in Luxembourg

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https://www.luxtimes.lu/en/luxembourg/police-brutality-claimed-in-a-fifth-of-misconduct-cases-602d70e8de135b9236bd6fa4

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A police watchdog opened 75 criminal investigations into police misconduct last year, with allegations of police brutality making up around a fifth of those cases.

Following a wave of protests in the US against the excessive use of violence by law enforcement against black people, police forces across Europe are also being increasingly scrutinised over abuses, with protesters demanding investigations against offenders.

In Luxembourg, the country's police watchdog last year investigated around 15 cases of police brutality, the Inspection Générale de la Police (IGP) confirmed to the Luxemburger Wort, without however revealing any additional details on the individual circumstances.

"Police officers have a lot of power because of their position," IGP director Monique Stirn said in an interview. "But this can only be used in the framework of procedures and following the law."

Five officers are known to be facing trial after beating up a man who had been handcuffed for drunk and disorderly behaviour. The man suffered a head injury and several broken bones. The public prosecutor is preparing a court case against the policemen who were at the scene.

Another case confirmed by the prosecutor involves violent incidents in special forces training. Recruits there were kicked in the groin, made to shoot each other in their naked torsos with training ammunition and crawl naked through a muddy pond by drunken instructors.

Insults and threats by police officers make up another 10% of the 75 criminal investigations currently underway, the IGP said. Other complaints include failure to provide assistance, threats and even cases involving paedophilia, the IGP said. The office cited investigative secrecy for not being able to give more details.

Luxembourg's police force counts around 2,360 officers. "I don't think that the police force has a problem of criminality in its ranks," Stirn said.

Still, even high-ranking officials aren't free from suspicion. Since May, the director of the police force's northern unit is being investigated for cybercrime and abuse of his position to gain undue advantage. He's been removed from his post in the meantime.

Most of the 257 ongoing investigations by the IGP are for administrative and disciplinary failings, such as violating official regulations but also conduct in the private lives of officers that could harm the force's reputation.

Penalties range from warnings or demotion to firing and loss of the ability to hold another civil-servant job.

As soon as an officer fires their gun, the IGP is automatically tasked with investigating whether this was proportionate to the given situation. The law only allows police to use their weapon if all other methods to resolve the conflict have failed and the gun becomes essential to protecting lives.

Get the Luxembourg Times delivered to your inbox twice a day. Sign up for your free newsletters here.

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Police brutality claimed in a fifth of misconduct cases

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A police watchdog opened 75 criminal investigations into police misconduct last year, with allegations of police brutality making up around a fifth of those cases. Following a wave of protests in the US against the excessive use of violence by law enforcement against black people, police forces across Europe are also being increasingly scrutinised over abuses, with protesters demanding investigations against offenders.

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The Gambia does not have an official data protection plan

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The Gambia does not have an official data protection plan

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https://www.dataguidance.com/notes/gambia-data-protection-overview

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November 2021

INTRODUCTION

The Gambia does not currently have a data protection legislation. However, data protecion provisions are included in both sectoral national legislation and policies and continental conventions and acts.

1. GOVERNING TEXTS

1.1. Key acts, regulations, directives, bills

The Gambia is yet to enact a Data Protection Act. However, The Gambia enacted the Information and Communications Act ('the ICA') in 2009, a piece of legislation which aims to provide for the restructuring, development, and regulation of the information and communications sector in The Gambia and for related matters. Data protection/privacy rules stipulated in the ICA relate primarily to information and communications service providers.

In addition, the Public Utilities Regulation Authority ('PURA') issued, in May 2019, its Draft Data Protection and Privacy Policy Strategy 2019 ('the Draft Policy Strategy'), however, it should be noted that this policy document does not currently have the status of law.

Furthermore, The Gambia is a signatory to the 2010 Economic Community of West African States ('ECOWAS') Supplementary Act A/SA.1/01/10 on Personal Data Protection within ECOWAS ('the ECOWAS Act'). The ECOWAS Act requires each ECOWAS Member State to establish a data protection authority that will be responsible for ensuring that personal data is processed in compliance with the provisions of the ECOWAS Act. However, The Gambia has yet to transpose the ECOWAS Act domestically and establish a data protection authority. Once the ECOWAS Act has been transposed and comes into force domestically, any entity that intends to collect and process personal data of a private individual shall be required to make a formal request to the data protection authority.

1.2. Guidelines

The Gambia has yet to enforce the authority that issues data protection guidance. See above.

1.3. Case law

The Gambia is yet to deal with case law on data protection.

2. SCOPE OF APPLICATION

2.1. Personal scope

The ICA, applies to all information and communications services and systems as defined in the ICA, other than those specifically exempted under the ICA (Section 3(1) of the ICA).

Furthermore, the Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that it applies to:

the processing of personal data in the private and public sectors, whether by automated or non-automated means, and irrespective of the nationality or place of residence of the data subject;

personal data or special categories of data about living individuals; and

data processing undertaken within the jurisdiction of The Gambia.

2.2. Territorial scope

Not applicable.

2.3. Material scope

The ICA does not apply to information and communication equipment (particularly radio systems and information and communications terminal equipment) manufactured and used exclusively for national defence purposes (Section 3(2) of the ICA).

Furthermore, the Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that it does not apply to:

the processing of personal data made for personal or household purposes; and

data concerning deceased persons.

3. DATA PROTECTION AUTHORITY | REGULATORY AUTHORITY

3.1. Main regulator for data protection

There is currently no data protection authority. However, the Draft Policy Strategy would provide for the establishment of a national supervisory authority that would be empowered by a Data Protection Act ('the Act') to oversee, monitor, and enforce compliance and safeguard the data and privacy rights of individuals.

3.2. Main powers, duties and responsibilities

Under the Draft Policy Strategy, the supervisory authority would be empowered by the Act as an independent administrative body. Under the Act, the supervisory authority would be mandated to ensure the protection of the rights of the individuals and their personal data, determine the process by which data is processed, and ensure compliance with the provisions of the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection ('the Malabo Convention') and Council of Europe Convention 108+. Specifically, the supervisory authority would:

have powers of investigation and intervention;

perform the function of authorising and approving standardised safeguards relating to transborder data flows;

make determinations relating to violations of the Act and impose the necessary administrative sanctions;

instigate legal proceedings;

issue or otherwise issue opinions and approve statutory Codes of Conduct or guidelines relating to the processing of personal data; and

publishing reports of their activities.

4. KEY DEFINITIONS

Data controller: A person who electronically requests, collects, collates, processes, or stores personal information from or in respect of a data subject.

Data processor: A natural or legal person, public authority, service, agency, or any other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.

Personal data: Any information relating to an identified or identifiable person.

Sensitive data: The Draft Strategy Policy defines the following categories of data as 'special categories of data,' the processing of which is only to be allowed provided that appropriate additional safeguards are ensured:

genetic data;

personal data relating to offences, criminal proceedings and convictions, and related security measures;

biometric data uniquely identifying a person; and

information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, trade union membership, religious or other beliefs, health or sexual life.

Health data: No definition provided under national legislation.

Biometric data: Service which uniquely identifies a person.

Pseudonymisation: No definition provided under national legislation.

5. LEGAL BASES

5.1. Consent

Section 6.1 of the Draft Policy Strategy provides that the processing of personal data may be carried out based on the data subject's consent. Such consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous.

5.2. Contract with the data subject

Section 6.2 of the Draft Policy Strategy provides that the processing of personal data may be carried out when necessary for the fulfilment of a contract with the data subject.

5.3. Legal obligations

Section 6.4 of the Draft Policy Strategy provides that the processing of personal data may be carried out.

5.4. Interests of the data subject

Section 6.3 of the Draft Policy Strategy provides that the processing of personal data may be carried out when necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another person.

5.5. Public interest

Section 6.5 of the Draft Policy Strategy provides that the processing of personal data may be carried out on the basis of grounds of public interest.

5.6. Legitimate interests of the data controller

Section 6.6 of the Draft Policy Strategy provides that the processing of personal data may be carried out for overriding legitimate interests of the controller or of a third party.

5.7. Legal bases in other instances

Not applicable.

6. PRINCIPLES

The Draft Policy Strategy outlines principles based on international best practice taking into consideration the Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection ('Malabo Convention') and the Protocol amending the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data ('Convention 108+'). In particular, the Draft Policy Strategy requires that personal data and special categories of data are processed fairly, lawfully, and transparently and in a manner that is proportionate in relation to the legitimate purpose(s) pursued and reflect at all stages of the processing a fair balance between all interests concerned, whether public or private, and the rights and freedoms of individuals at stake (Section 4 of the Draft Policy Strategy).

Furthermore, the Draft Strategy Policy outlines the following principles (Section 5 of the Draft Strategy Policy):

Fair, transparent and lawful processing: Personal data must be processed fairly, transparently, and lawfully in accordance with the legal bases set out in section 5 above.

Specific legitimate purpose and purpose limitation: Personal data must be processed for explicit, specified and legitimate purposes and the processing of that particular data must serve those purposes and shall not be incompatible with them. Further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific, or historical research purposes or statistical purposes may be considered compatible with those purposes, subject to appropriate safeguards.

Data minimisation: Personal data undergoing processing should be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes for which they are processed. This requirement not only refers to the quantity, but also to the quality of personal data.

Accuracy: Personal data undergoing processing should be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

Storage limitation: Personal data undergoing processing should be preserved in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which those data are processed. Personal data should be deleted once the purpose for which it was processed has been achieved, or that it should only be kept in a form that prevents any direct or indirect identification of the data subject.

Data security and security breach notification: The controller, and, where applicable, the processor, shall take appropriate security measures against risks such as accidental or unauthorised access to, destruction, loss, use, modification, or disclosure of personal data. The controller shall notify, without delay, at least the competent supervisory authority of those data breaches which may seriously interfere with the rights and fundamental freedoms of data subjects.

Accountability: Controllers (and, where applicable, processors), shall take all appropriate measures to comply with the provisions set out in this policy and applicable data protection and privacy law, and be able to demonstrate that the data processing under their control complies with them.

7. CONTROLLER AND PROCESSOR OBLIGATIONS

7.1. Data processing notification

Not applicable.

7.2. Data transfers

Section 9 of the Draft Strategy Policy outlines that it is essential to ensure that at least the same level of protection is afforded to personal data when transferring across borders that is foreseen and guaranteed within the jurisdiction of The Gambia. The cross-border transfer of personal data therefore may only take place where an appropriate level of protection is guaranteed.

According to Section 9.1 of the Draft Policy Strategy, an appropriate level of protection can, after a thorough assessment by the data controller, be secured by:

the law of the receiving country or international organisation, including the applicable international treaties or agreements; or

ad hoc or approved standardised safeguards provided by legally binding and enforceable instruments adopted and implemented by the persons involved in the transfer and further processing.

Notwithstanding the above, Section 9.2 of the Draft Policy Strategy foresees that the transfer of personal data may also take place if:

the data subject has given explicit, specific, and free consent, after being informed of risks arising in the absence of appropriate safeguards;

the specific interests of the data subject require it in the particular case;

in response to prevailing legitimate interest, in particular an important public interest, if it is provided for by law and such transfer constitutes a necessary and proportionate measure in a democratic society; or

it constitutes a necessary and proportionate measure in a democratic society for the freedom of expression.

7.3. Data processing records

Not applicable.

7.4. Data protection impact assessment

Not applicable.

7.5. Data protection officer appointment

Not applicable.

7.6. Data breach notification

Section 5.6.2 of the Draft Policy Strategy would require controllers to notify, without delay, at least the competent supervisory authority of those data breaches which may seriously interfere with the rights and fundamental freedoms of data subjects.

7.7. Data retention

Section 181(1) of the ICA requires that certain documents, records, or information be retained in the form of electronic records provided the following conditions are satisfied:

the information contained in them remains accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference;

the electronic record is retained in the format in which it was originally generated, sent, or received, or in a format which can be demonstrated to represent accurately the information originally generated, sent or received;

such information, if any, as enables the identification of the origin and destination of an electronic record and the date and time when it was sent or received, is retained; and

consent has been obtained from the department of the Government, organ of State or statutory body, which has supervision over the requirement for retention of the records.

However, pursuant to Section 181(2) of the ICA, an obligation to retain documents, records or information in accordance with subsection 181(1)(c) of the ICA, as above, does not extend to any information necessarily and automatically generated solely for the purpose of enabling a record to be sent or received.

Furthermore, Section 181(3) of the ICA stipulates that a person using the services of any other person may satisfy the requirement referred to in Section 181(1) of the ICA if the conditions in Sections 181(1)(a) to 181(1)(d) of the ICA are met.

7.8. Children's data

Section 3.5 of the Draft Policy Strategy declares that it is an objective of the Draft Policy Strategy to ensure additional protections with regards to the processing of personal data about children in accordance with Article 10 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. In addition, Section 12.5 of the Draft Policy Strategy provides that the supervisory authority to be established by the Act would be responsible for promoting awareness of controllers and processors and their legal obligations under the Act especially in processing special category data such as that of children and other vulnerable individuals.

7.9. Special categories of personal data

Section 7 of the Draft Policy Strategy states that the processing of special categories of data (as defined in section 4 above) may lead to encroachments on the interests, rights, and freedoms of individuals and therefore provides that the processing of special categories of data will only be allowed where appropriate safeguards that are complementing those that are enshrined in the Act are ensured.

The safeguards shall guard against risks that the processing of such data may present for the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject, notably the risk of discrimination.

7.10. Controller and processor contracts

Not applicable.

8. DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS

8.1. Right to be informed

The Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that every individual shall have the right to:

obtain, upon request, at reasonable intervals and without excessive delay or expense, confirmation of the processing of personal data relating to them, the communication in an intelligible form of the data processed, all available information on their origin, on the preservation period, as well as any other information that the controller is required to provide in order to ensure the transparency of processing; and

obtain, on request, knowledge of the reasoning underlying the processing of personal data about them.

8.2. Right to access

The Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that every individual shall have the right to obtain, upon request, at reasonable intervals and without excessive delay or expense, the communication in an intelligible form of the data processed, all available information on their origin, on the preservation period, as well as any other information that the controller is required to provide in order to ensure the transparency of processing.

8.3. Right to rectification

The Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that every individual shall have the right to obtain, upon request, free of charge and without excessive delay, the rectification of such data processed contrary to the provisions of this policy and the proposed law.

8.4. Right to erasure

The Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that every individual shall have the right to obtain, upon request, free of charge and without excessive delay, the erasure of such data processed contrary to the provisions of this policy and the proposed law.

8.5. Right to object/opt-out

The Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that every individual shall have the right to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning them unless the controller demonstrates legitimate grounds for the processing which override his/ her interests or rights and fundamental freedoms.

8.6. Right to data portability

Not applicable.

8.7. Right not to be subject to automated decision-making

The Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that every individual shall have the right to not be subject to a decision significantly affecting them based solely on an automated processing of data without having their views taken into consideration. It should be noted that the right not to be subject to a decision significantly affecting individuals based solely on an automated processing of data without having their views taken into consideration, does not apply if the decision is authorised by a law to which the controller is subject, and which also lays down suitable measures to safeguard the data subject's rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests.

8.8. Other rights

The Draft Policy Strategy stipulates that every individual shall have the right to:

obtain, upon request, free of charge and without excessive delay judicial and non-judicial remedy for violations of the law; and

benefit, whatever their nationality or residence, from the assistance of the supervisory authority in exercising their rights.

9. PENALTIES

The Draft Strategy Policy does not stipulate penalties for non-compliance. However, Section 12.1 of the Draft Policy Strategy sets out that a key objective of the policy is to identify an independent and impartial national supervisory authority appropriately empowered to oversee, monitor, and enforce compliance and safeguarding of the data protection and privacy rights of individuals.

9.1 Enforcement decisions

Not applicable.

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November 2021 INTRODUCTION The Gambia does not currently have a data protection legislation. However, data protecion provisions are included in both sectoral national legislation and policies and continental conventions and acts. 1. GOVERNING TEXTS 1.1. Key acts, regulations, directives, bills The Gambia is yet to enact a Data Protection Act.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/detained-missing-close-to-death-toll-reporting-covid-china

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Chen Kun was living in Indonesia with his wife and daughter when he learned from his brother Mei's boss that he had been "taken away for investigation" by Chinese police.

He immediately suspected it was to do with his brother's website, a citizen news project called Terminus 2049. Since 2018 Mei, his colleague Cai Wei, and Cai's partner - surnamed Tang - had been archiving articles about issues including #MeToo and migrant rights, and reposting them whenever they were deleted from China's strictly monitored and censored online platforms. It was April 2020, and for the last few months Terminus 2049 had been targeting stories about the Covid-19 outbreak and response.

In an interview with the Guardian from his home in France, Chen recalled warning his shy but passionate younger brother about setting up such a website, but thinking the worst case scenario was that Mei would be "invited to drink tea", a euphemism for interrogation by security agencies, not arrested.

Instead Mei and Cai spent almost 16 months in detention.Tang was released in May, when the other two were convicted at a trial which Chen said lasted just 100 minutes. Mei and Cai were sentenced to 15 months jail and released in August on time served. Mei is potentially still under surveillance.

The group is on a growing list of journalists and others who have been arrested and detained by Chinese authorities, often without trial, in a crackdown that appeared to escalate during the pandemic.

In December a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) detailed a worsening "nightmare" for journalists under the rule of Xi Jinping, with 128 known to be behind bars or disappeared. More than 70 are Uyghur journalists, and at least 10 people were arrested for reporting on the Covid outbreak and lockdown in Wuhan.

Chen said it was a sign of how sensitive Chinese authorities were and remain about the pandemic and its origins.

"I'm sure the reason why my brother was arrested was because of Covid," Chen said. "Before his arrest ... they didn't encounter any problems."

'A war on independent journalism'

Mei was formally arrested for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a vague and ubiquitous charge frequently levelled at dissidents, activists and journalists, and sent to residential surveillance in a designated location (RSDL) - China's increasingly utilised form of secretive and solitary detention where the accused can be held for up to six months and interrogated without charge, or access to lawyers or family.

The rights group Safeguard Defenders estimates between 45,000 and 55,000 people have been sent to RSDL, including about 15,000 in 2020. Among them have been Mei, the Australian CGTN anchor Cheng Lei, the journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin and the activist Wang Jianbing.

Mei and his Terminus 2049 colleagues were freed in August, and he is living at home in China. Chen is still advocating for those still detained, particularly Huang, and says that neither his brother nor their parents are aware of his campaigning.

A man reading a Communist party newspaper in Beijing. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

As well as reporting on the #MeToo movement and the Hong Kong protests - the latter for which she was detained for three months in 2019 - Huang had also interviewed Chen and written about Mei.

"She was always trying to record the stories and experiences of a lot of people like my brother, about defenders," Chen said.

The independent investigative journalist has not been seen since she and Wang were arrested in September on the eve of her planned departure to study in Europe. In October her parents were told she had been formally arrested for "subverting state power".

Also subject to human rights campaigns is Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer turned citizen reporter, who last Christmas was sentenced to four years in jail over 122 videos she posted online and interviews she gave to foreign press during 14 weeks in Wuhan. Deep into a lengthy hunger strike, which no friends or family can convince her to stop, Zhang is close to death, her family says.

While human rights observers, legal groups, and media organisations maintain she should never have been convicted in the first place, an international campaign is urgently calling for her release on any grounds possible, to save her life.

Feng Bin, who like Zhang broadcast reports on YouTube from Wuhan, has not been seen since his arrest in February 2020, and Li Zehu, who broadcast the police chase which led to his arrest around the same time, was detained for two months. Chen Qiushi, a former human rights lawyer turned citizen journalist, reported from Wuhan's hospitals interviewing families, disappeared at the same time and didn't reappear until September.

In February 2020 Cheng Lei, an anchor for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, posted on Facebook that she and her friend Haze Fan, a Bloomberg news assistant, had been unsuccessfully lobbying to report from Wuhan. In August Cheng was detained and later charged with "illegally supplying state secrets overseas". Fan was detained in December. Both remain in detention more than a year later.

Cedric Alviari, RSF's east Asia bureau director, said the 128 detained journalists and press freedom defenders is the biggest count in five years. It includes 71 Uyghur journalists, and at least 10 who face impending death if not immediately released, according to RSF.

Alviari said the crackdown is driven by Xi, who has "declared a war on independent journalism" after tightening controls on traditional media.

"Everything he and the CCP have been doing over the past eight years ... has been to suppress independent voices.," he said.

"The Chinese people, like every person on earth, crave information on what's happening around them."

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Detained, missing, close to death: the toll of reporting on Covid in China

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Chen Kun was living in Indonesia with his wife and daughter when he learned from his brother Mei's boss that he had been "taken away for investigation" by Chinese police. He immediately suspected it was to do with his brother's website, a citizen news project called Terminus 2049.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59699556

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The Myanmar military carried out a series of mass killings of civilians in July that resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, according to a BBC investigation.

Eyewitnesses and survivors said that soldiers, some as young as 17, rounded up villagers before separating the men and killing them. Video footage and images from the incidents appears to show most of those killed were tortured first and buried in shallow graves.

The killings took place in July, in four separate incidents in Kani Township - an opposition stronghold in Sagaing District in Central Myanmar.

The military has faced resistance from civilians since it seized control of the country in a February coup, deposing a democratically-elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The BBC spoke to 11 witnesses in Kani and compared their accounts with mobile phone footage and photographs collected by Myanmar Witness, a UK-based NGO that investigates human rights abuses in the country.

The largest killing took place in Yin village, where at least 14 men were tortured or beaten to death and their bodies thrown in a forested gully.

The witnesses in Yin - whose names we have withheld to protect their identities - told the BBC the men were tied up with ropes and beaten before they were killed.

"We couldn't stand to watch it so we kept our heads down, crying," said one woman, whose brother, nephew and brother-in-law were killed.

"We begged them not to do it. They didn't care. They asked the women, 'Are your husbands among them? If they are, do your last rites'."

A man who managed to escape the killings said that soldiers inflicted horrifying abuse on the men for hours before they died.

"They were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts and tortured all day," the survivor said.

"Some soldiers looked young, maybe 17 or 18, but some were really old. There was also a woman with them."

In nearby Zee Bin Dwin village, in late July, 12 mutilated bodies were found buried in shallow mass graves, including a small body, possibly a child, and the body of a disabled person. Some were mutilated.

The body of a man in his sixties was found tied to a plum tree nearby. Footage of his corpse, reviewed by the BBC, showed clear signs of torture. His family said that his son and grandchild had fled when the military entered the village, but he had stayed, believing his age would protect him from harm.

The killings appeared to be a collective punishment for attacks on the military by civilian militia groups in the area, who are demanding that democracy is restored. Fighting between the military and the local branches of the People's Defence Force - a collective name for civilian militia groups - had intensified in the area in the months before the mass killings, including clashes near Zee Bin Dwin.

It is clear from the visual evidence and testimony gathered by the BBC that men were specifically targeted, fitting with a pattern observed across Myanmar in recent months of male villagers facing collective punishment for clashes between the People's Defence Forces and the military.

The families of those killed insisted that the men were not involved in attacks on the military. A woman who lost her brother in the Yin village massacre said she pleaded with the soldiers, telling them her brother "could not even handle a catapult".

She said a soldier replied, "Don't say anything. We are tired. We will kill you."

Foreign journalists have been barred from reporting in Myanmar since the coup, and most non-state media outlets have been shut down, making on-the-ground reporting all but impossible.

The BBC put the allegations raised in this story to Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Information and military spokesperson, General Zaw Min Tun. He did not deny soldiers had carried out the mass killings.

"It can happen," he said. "When they treat us as enemies, we have the right to defend ourselves."

The United Nations is currently investigating alleged human rights abuses carried out by the Myanmar military.

More on this story

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Tortured to death: Myanmar mass killings revealed

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The Myanmar military carried out a series of mass killings of civilians in July that resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, according to a BBC investigation. Eyewitnesses and survivors said that soldiers, some as young as 17, rounded up villagers before separating the men and killing them.

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United States 1/6/2022 (post by Dillon D.)

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United States 1/6/2022 (post by Dillon D.)

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/nsa-surveillance-xkeyscore-privacy/2021/06/29/b2134e7a-d685-11eb-a53a-3b5450fdca7a_story.html

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The National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Correction

An extensive surveillance program first revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 continues to operate with no judicial and limited congressional oversight despite its potential to capture Americans' communications, a member of a privacy watchdog agency said in a statement released Tuesday.

The National Security Agency's XKeyscore program was the subject of a five-year investigation by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent government privacy watchdog, that wrapped up in December.

According to documents leaked by Snowden, the program has existed for more than a decade. It allows analysts to use a Google-like search function across vast databases of Internet traffic captured from sites worldwide to pluck out the emails, Web browsing histories and social media activity of specific people.

The program relies heavily on the "autonomous collection of massive data sets," and analysis driven by artificial intelligence, Travis LeBlanc, a Democratic board member appointed by President Donald Trump, said in a statement. His partly redacted statement was released after it went through a declassification process.

LeBlanc was alone among the board's five members to vote against approving the panel's classified report on XKeyscore in December, saying that the board "failed to adequately investigate or evaluate" the NSA's collection activities.

"What most concerned me was that we have a very powerful surveillance program that eight years or so after exposure, still has no judicial oversight, and what I consider to be inadequate legal analysis and serious compliance infractions," LeBlanc said in an interview.

Privacy watchdog's next target: The least-known but largest and most complex NSA surveillance regime

The board sent copies of the report to Congress, the White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in March.

NSA officials pushed back against LeBlanc's assertions, saying the agency conducted appropriate legal reviews of the use of XKeyscore. They also said the agency has protections to safeguard Americans' privacy. They pointed to a document issued in January that outlines the rules.

Former board chairman Adam Klein, an appointee of Trump who stepped down from the board this month, defended its work. "The board produced a detailed, comprehensive report and recommendations on a very complex program," he said. "The clarity of description will enable Congress and other appropriate actors in the executive branch to ask hard questions as needed about this program."

The program operates under a broad framework laid out by a presidential directive known as Executive Order 12333, which governs most surveillance taking place outside the United States and some surveillance taking place inside the United States. When collection activities take place under 12333, they are not subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

According to a 2009 slide released by Snowden and published in the Intercept in 2015, many of the sites that XKeyscore relies on for data were either in the United States or linked to sites in the United States. LeBlanc, in his statement, suggested as much. "It is beyond obvious that NSA must gather or collect that signals intelligence from somewhere - in the United States or abroad."

The NSA declined to discuss the location of the collection.

"I continue to be concerned that Americans still know far too little about the government's surveillance activities under EO 12333 and how it threatens their privacy," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, in a statement to The Washington Post. "I've been pressing for multiple PCLOB reports about EO 12333 to be declassified, which will shed light on these secret authorities that govern the collection and use of Americans' personal information."

Privacy and civil liberties board will review surveillance law that has vexed Trump

The program also resulted in hundreds of compliance incidents in 2019, a majority of which were considered "questionable intelligence activities" - a category that means the action may have involved improper surveillance of Americans' communications, according to U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details are classified.

"Obviously violations of U.S. law and the known collection or processing of U.S. person information are serious compliance issues," LeBlanc said in his statement.

Rebecca Richards, NSA's civil liberties and privacy officer, said: "When we looked at the [questionable intelligence activities] associated with this, we didn't find any of them to identify systemic issues or any particular concerns. We found them to be standard intelligence practices."

The incidents could include making a typo in a query or making too broad a query, she said.

Richards noted that the NSA has adopted the board's recommendation that it provide training for analysts specifically on XKeyscore. Analysts, she said, already receive general compliance training.

LeBlanc devoted some of his strongest criticism to the NSA's legal analysis, which he said "lacks any consideration of recent relevant" privacy case law, including Supreme Court decisions that have imposed stricter limits on cellphone and geolocation surveillance.

Agency spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said "NSA's Office of General Counsel regularly reviews NSA intelligence programs and capabilities to ensure compliance with the Constitution, laws, and other applicable regulations and policies."

But some privacy advocates say the technical capabilities have outpaced the law. For instance, according to slides disclosed by Snowden, the program enabled an analyst to review communications indiscriminately as long as they were not tagged as belonging to an American, meaning that the analyst could inadvertently be viewing an American's information without penalty, said Ashkan Soltani, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for Technology Law and Policy.

And much of the indexing work on the data is done by machines, before a human even sets eyes on it, Soltani said. "The realities of the Internet today means the likelihood that the NSA might accidentally be processing an American's communications is quite high," he said.

In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are

LeBlanc said the board did not analyze the extent to which XKeyscore's use of machine analysis - as opposed to human review - of Americans' information triggers Fourth Amendment scrutiny.

The board, he said, ultimately "failed the public" by not using its investigation to "delve into important technological and modern electronic surveillance issues" raised by XKeyscore.

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NSA surveillance program still raises privacy concerns years after exposure, member of privacy watchdog says

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Correction An extensive surveillance program first revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 continues to operate with no judicial and limited congressional oversight despite its potential to capture Americans' communications, a member of a privacy watchdog agency said in a statement released Tuesday.

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United Kingdom 1/5/2022 (post from Dillon D.)

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United Kingdom 1/5/2022 (post from Dillon D.)

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/05/geoff-hoon-told-to-burn-memo-that-said-iraq-invasion-could-be

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Tony Blair's former defence secretary Geoff Hoon has claimed he was told to burn a memo from the attorney general that cast doubt on the legality of the Iraq war.

In revelations that critics say cast further doubt on the decision to award the former prime minister a knighthood, Hoon recalled in extracts from his recently published memoir that Blair's chief of staff had instructed him to burn the document.

Hoon wrote in his memoir, See How They Run, that he had had been under pressure from Mike Boyce, the chief of defence staff, to provide him with clear legal direction that his forces could take action in Iraq, in lieu of a UN resolution authorising force, the Daily Mail reported.

He claims to have received a copy of complex advice from the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, which was "very long and very detailed legal opinion".

He wrote: "I was sent a copy from Downing St under conditions of considerable secrecy. I was told that it was for my eyes only and that I should not discuss its contents with anyone else. I had no idea who else had received a copy."

Hoon said the advice was "not an easy read" and concluded that the Iraq invasion would be lawful only if the prime minister believed that it was in the UK's national interest to do so.

"It was not exactly the ringing endorsement that the chief of the defence staff was looking for, and in any event, I was not strictly allowed to show it to him or even discuss it with him," he wrote.

"Moreover, when my principal private secretary, Peter Watkins, called Jonathan Powell in Downing St and asked what he should now do with the document, he was told in no uncertain terms that he should 'burn it'."

Hoon said the document was not burned. "I agreed that we should lock the document securely into an MoD safe to which only he had access. For all I know it is probably still there."

Powell told the Daily Mail he had not ordered the advice to be burned and described it as a separate "minute" that he had asked Hoon to destroy on Goldsmith's request.

In his memoir, Hoon also describes the humiliation of being sacked as defence secretary two years later, saying Blair phoned him to tell him the news rather than meet face-to-face.

More than 700,000 people have now signed a petition to rescind Blair's knighthood, awarded by the Queen in the new year honours list. But the decision to award him the honour was defended by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, who said on Tuesday it was "not a thorny issue" to give the award to someone who had served a long term as prime minister.

"I understand there are strong views on the Iraq war. There were back at the time and there still are, but that does not detract from the fact that Tony Blair was a very successful prime minister of this country and made a huge difference to the lives of millions of people in this country," Starmer said.

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Geoff Hoon 'told to burn memo that said Iraq invasion could be illegal'

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Tony Blair's former defence secretary Geoff Hoon has claimed he was told to burn a memo from the attorney general that cast doubt on the legality of the Iraq war. In revelations that critics say cast further doubt on the decision to award the former prime minister a knighthood, Hoon recalled in extracts from his recently published memoir that Blair's chief of staff had instructed him to burn the document.

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https://cpj.org/reports/2019/09/10-most-censored-eritrea-north-korea-turkmenistan-journalist/#1

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10 Most Censored Countries - Committee to Protect Journalists

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Repressive governments use sophisticated digital censorship and surveillance alongside more traditional methods to silence independent media. A special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Published September 10, 2019 Eritrea is the world's most censored country, according to a list compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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https://balkaninsight.com/2021/12/17/political-unrest-and-propaganda-spark-online-violations/

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Political Unrest and Propaganda Spark Online Violations

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Anti-government protests, political rhetoric and institutional instability appeared to be the main causes of digital rights violations in Southeast Europe over the past fortnight.

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https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/indonesia-papuan-protesters-shot-beaten-and-racially-abused-by-security-forces-new-research/

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Indonesia: Papuan protesters shot, beaten and racially abused by security forces – new research

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Indonesian security forces have used discriminatory excessive force and racially abused protesters peacefully opposing the renewal of the Papuan Special Autonomy Law, new research by Amnesty International has revealed. Papuan protesters told how they were targeted with water cannons, kicked and punc…

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https://www.newsweek.com/us-sanctions-china-myanmar-north-korea-over-surveillance-human-rights-abuses-1658303

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The U.S. has imposed new financial sanctions and other restrictions on several people and entities across China, Myanmar, North Korea and Bangladesh in response to government surveillance and human rights abuses.

The new sanctions, announced on International Human Rights Day by the Treasury Department, are meant to place barriers in the global financial system for the people and bodies targeted in the measures.

"On International Human Rights Day, Treasury is using its tools to expose and hold accountable perpetrators of serious human rights abuse," Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said while making the announcement.

Shohrat Zakir and Erken Tuniyaz, two Chinese government officials connected to the repression and forced assimilation of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in the Xinjiang region, were prohibited by the sanctions from traveling to the U.S. Zakir is the former chairman and Tuniya is the current presider over the campaign that has seen more than 1 million people imprisoned, forced to work and live under brutal conditions.

Several entities and officials across North Korea and Russia are also subject to the sanctions. Those targeted were involved in the use of North Korean workers overseas in often abusive conditions to produce hard currency.

The U.S. also announced this week that it would be carrying out a diplomatic protest of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to protest the country's alleged human rights abuses. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the boycott on Monday.

"U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these Games as business as usual in the face of the PRC's [People's Republic of China] egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang," she said. "We simply can't do that."

Treasury imposed investment restrictions on Chinese firm SenseTime Group Ltd., which is involved with the development of facial recognition programs that can determine a person's ethnicity and has been used as part of the surveillance campaign against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities.

This latest batch of sanctions also includes actions on officials in Bangladesh who are involved with the country's anti-drug Rapid Action Battalion, a task force founded in 2004 that has been implicated in more than 600 disappearances and nearly 600 extrajudicial killings, with evidence suggesting they have targeted opposition party members, journalists and human rights activists, Treasury said.

Actions against four officials in Myanmar and several entities are the latest in a series of U.S. sanctions since the military overthrew the democratically elected government on February 1, followed by a violent crackdown on opposition in the months since.

The situation in Myanmar is among the issues Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to address next week when he meets with officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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U.S. sanctions China, Myanmar, North Korea over surveillance, human rights abuses

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The U.S. has imposed new financial sanctions and other restrictions on several people and entities across China, Myanmar, North Korea and Bangladesh in response to government surveillance and human rights abuses. The new sanctions, announced on International Human Rights Day by the Treasury Department, are meant to place barriers in the global financial system for the people and bodies targeted in the measures.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/6/nigeria-labels-bandit-gangs-terrorists-in-bid-to-stem-violence

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Official gazette refers to criminal gangs who carry out mass kidnappings of students, abduction for ransom, cattle rustling and destruction of property, among other crimes.

Bandit gangs last year carried out a series of high-profile attacks of schools and colleges to kidnap scores of pupils for ransom [File: Kola Sulaimon/AFP]

Nigeria has branded criminal gangs known locally as bandits that are blamed for mass abductions of schoolchildren as "terrorist" groups, a designation aimed at containing growing insecurity in the north.

The country's northwest and north-central states have long been afflicted by violence fuelled by disputes over access to land and resources, among other factors. Heavily armed gangs have taken advantage of the lack of effective policing to launch attacks, pillage villages, steal cattle and kidnap for ransom.

But violence has recently become more widespread, piling pressure on the federal government - already battling the Boko Haram armed group and its offshoot in the northeast for more than a decade - to do more to halt the attacks.

In the official gazette on Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari's government labelled activities of Yan Bindiga and Yan Ta'adda - references in the Hausa language to bandit gunmen - "as acts of terrorism and illegality".

"I think the only language they understand - we have discussed it thoroughly with the law enforcement agencies; the security chiefs, the inspector general of police - is to go after them," Buhari told Channels Television, according to its website on Wednesday.

"We labelled them terrorists ... we are going to deal with them as such."

The official gazette referred to criminal gangs who carry out mass kidnappings of students, abduction for ransom, cattle rustling and destruction of property, among other crimes.

The definition will mean tougher sanctions under the terrorism prevention act for suspected bandit gunmen, their informants and supporters such as those caught supplying them with fuel and food.

Nigerian daily newspapers often carry stories about bandit raids on villages and communities, where they steal cattle, kidnap families and terrorise residents.

Security forces have announced a crackdown, including air raids and a telecoms shutdown in parts of the country's northwest in an attempt to flush criminal gangs from their forest hideouts.

On Tuesday, police announced they had rescued nearly 100 kidnap victims in two raids on bandit camps in northwestern Zamfara state.

Last year, bandit gangs made international headlines with a series of high-profile attacks of schools and colleges to kidnap scores of pupils for ransom. Some of those students are still being held.

The criminal gangs behind the abductions seem to not be driven by ideological motives but by financial gains. Between June 2011 and March 2020, at least $18m was paid to kidnappers as ransom, according to a report ( PDF) by SB Morgen.

Nigeria's bandit violence has its roots in clashes between nomadic cattle herders and sedentary farmers over land and resources. But tit-for-tat attacks have over the years spiralled into broader criminality.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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Nigeria labels bandit gangs 'terrorists' in bid to stem violence

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Official gazette refers to criminal gangs who carry out mass kidnappings of students, abduction for ransom, cattle rustling and destruction of property, among other crimes. Nigeria has branded criminal gangs known locally as bandits that are blamed for mass abductions of schoolchildren as "terrorist" groups, a designation aimed at containing growing insecurity in the north.

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https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/battle-communications-privacy-latin-america-2021-review

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The Battle for Communications Privacy in Latin America: 2021 in Review

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Uncovering government surveillance and fighting for robust and effective legal safeguards and oversight is a continuous battle in Latin American countries. Surveillance capabilities and technologies are becoming more intrusive and prevalent, surrounded by a culture of secrecy and entrenched views...

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Much like the Inner and Outer Party members (Along with the proles) North Korea has a almost Caste System.
https://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/blog/songbun

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https://www.voanews.com/a/un-south-sudan-suffering-human-rights-crisis-of-epic-proportions-/6243027.html

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The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warned that the country is suffering a human rights crisis of epic proportions, enmeshing its population in a cycle of violence, abuse and poverty. The report was submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday.

According to the report, nine of the 10 states in South Sudan are engulfed in what the U.N. Commission calls alarming levels of conflict 10 years after independence was declared and despite multiple peace treaties signed to end the civil war that erupted in 2013.

Commission Chair Yasmin Sooka said violence in Warran and Lakes states is of particular concern.

"In March and July, the governors of Warran state and Lakes state ordered the summary execution of more than 56 individuals including minors," Sooka said. "These extrajudicial killings orchestrated by governors from the ruling party are sufficiently similar, widespread and systematic and may constitute crimes against humanity."

The report documents the prevalence of enforced disappearances, torture, rape, and conflict-related sexual violence and the forced recruitment of child soldiers throughout the country.

It finds widespread lawlessness and violence have intensified, resulting in many deaths and the forcible displacement of millions of people.

A separate commission report dealing with economic crimes accuses South Sudanese political elites of illicitly diverting millions of dollars from public coffers into private bank accounts.

Commission member Andrew Clapham said these practices are undermining human rights, endangering security, and keeping 80% of the population living in extreme poverty.

"We have sought to clarify that the government of South Sudan has responsibility for violations of the right to health and the right to education, and the failure to provide adequate resources to fulfill these rights is related to the misappropriation of the revenue, which ought to be deposited in bank accounts of the state and then used to provide for education and health," Clapham said.

The South Sudanese minister of justice and constitutional affairs, R.M.A. Kachuoli, rebutted the report, saying he does not agree with the commission's view of his country.

Kachuoli said the security situation across South Sudan is relatively calm and peaceful. He said the government is dealing with ethnic conflict through dialogue and the use of traditional courts. He calls a peace agreement reached in 2018 a significant milestone toward achieving peace in his country.

He said his government deems the report on economic crimes and corruption exaggerated, and questions whether the three-member panel even has a mandate to look at this issue.

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UN: South Sudan Suffering Human Rights Crisis of Epic Proportions

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The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warned that the country is suffering a human rights crisis of epic proportions, enmeshing its population in a cycle of violence, abuse and poverty. The report was submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday.

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6/8/18
https://wp.wwu.edu/branchn2/2018/12/04/censorship-in-saudi-arabia/

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When considering human rights violations which occur around the world, Saudi Arabia is one location that seems to appear quite frequently, especially in regards to the censorship of its citizens. There are a number of well documented examples of censorship and restrictions of freedom of expression, and this topic has recently come into discussion once again as a result of the murder of and subsequent attempt to seemingly cover it up of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While this specific instance provided the world with an extreme example of how the country is working to restrict the freedom of its citizens, this is far from an isolated incident, nor is it an issue that citizens as well as the rest of the world have not been able to observe for a long time. The authorities use a number of tactics to silence people, including "gagging anyone with an independent opinion", "bans, false accusations and being fired from your job," as well as "far-reaching online surveillance and censorship" ( Amnesty International) to name a few.

While the horrific events which allegedly transpired in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul came to light only a few months ago, it is important to consider the fact that censorship and lack of freedoms which citizens of Saudi Arabia face at the hands of the countries leaders has been an issue which many citizens have faced over time, as well as an issue which impacts individuals in a number of different ways. In an article published by Freedom House in 2018, they describe the variety of ways in which freedom of expression is limited in Saudi Arabia, something which they attribute to the fact that the country is an absolute monarchy. This allows for members of the regime to utilize "extensive surveillance, the criminalization of dissent, and public spending supported by oil revenues to maintain power." ( Freedom House). In 2017, for example, newly appointed crown prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the house arrest of "wealthy officials, businessmen, and rival members of the royal family, as well as "a crackdown on popular preachers and reform advocates" ( Freedom House).

The number of different groups of people who are faced with human rights violations as a result of their leaders trying to suppress their right to freedom is an indication of the severity of the issues which are occurring there. While much of this suppression has to do with censorship and surveillance on places such the internet, the issues which many citizens face are also rooted in both religion and gender. In a transcript from a speech given by international human rights lawyer Nina Shea titled "Teaching Hate Inspiring Terrorism: Saudi Arabia's Educational Curriculum", she talks about the way in which religion is taught. Shea discusses the way in which lack of freedom of religion which exists as a result of the curriculum in place in Saudi Arabia is something which results in violations of human rights and that reform is necessary and is the responsibility of not only Saudi Arabia but the United States as well. Along with religion, the decisions of those in charge who continue to prevent freedom of expression also have a significant impact on women. A number of women have been arrested in 2018 alone for speaking out for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, including activists who had "long been campaigning for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, including the right to drive" ( The Guardian). This shows that the censorship which Saudi Arabian citizens are often faced with are about more than just censorship, they are about violations of basic human rights such as religious and gender based inequality.

Ultimately, there are many different ways in which the issue of censorship and restrictions on freedoms connect to the meeting of sustainable development goals. By limiting the amount of freedoms that its citizens have and subjecting them to things such as constant surveillance, frequent arrest, and unfair sentencing, those in charge are creating a significant degree of inequality between themselves and their citizens. This is something which ultimately results in creating many of the exact issues which the sustainable development goals listed by the UN aim to solve. Among these are education, gender equality and women's empowerment, and inequality to name just a few. I think it is incredibly important to address the fact that the lack of freedom that many Saudi Arabians face is something which hurts many and benefits very few, and that it is something which the world can't stand for.

Works Cited

Beaumont, Ben. "7 Ways Saudi Arabia Is Silencing People Online." Amnesty International , 9 Apr. 2015, www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/04/7-ways-saudi-arabia-is-silencing-people-online/.

Dixon, Rodney. "The World Can No Longer Ignore Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Abuses." The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Oct. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/15/saudi-arabia-human-rights-jamal-khashoggi-disappearance.

Shea, Nina. "Teaching Hate, Inspiring Terrorism: Saudi Arabia's Educational Curriculum." Hudson Institute ,19 July 2017, www.hudson.org/research/13778-teaching-hate-inspiring-terrorism-saudi-arabia-s-educational-curriculum.

"Saudi Arabia." Freedom House, 14 Feb. 2018, freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/saudi-arabia.

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When considering human rights violations which occur around the world, Saudi Arabia is one location that seems to appear quite frequently, especially in regards to the censorship of its citizens.

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https://www.voanews.com/a/china-social-media-xi-presidental-term-limit/4272371.html

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Authorities in China have launched an intense crackdown on online commentary in the wake of a proposal by the country's communist party leaders to amend the constitution and scrap a two-term limit on the president's time in office.

A wide range of phrases in Chinese have been banned such as "constitutional amendments," "constitution rules," "emigration" and "emperor." Even the phrase "I disagree" has been blocked from China's SinaWeibo social media site.

Many were caught off guard by the announcement and the response online has been persistent, despite efforts to silence the debate.

The announcement comes a little more than a week ahead of meetings for China's rubber-stamp legislature, the National People's Congress. During the gathering, which wraps up around mid-March, the proposal is widely expected to become China's new reality.

And while party backed media have said the amendments have the public's broad support, clearly there is much more to the debate than the communist party is letting on.

On social media, some phrases and comments were taken down shortly after they were posted. However, phrases in Chinese such as "lifelong tenure," "emigration" and "disagree" are blocked immediately when a user attempts to post the phrase.

Of those posts that managed to make it past authorities' dragnet, some called the decision to allow Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely a "step backward," others argued that China is becoming more like North Korea.

In one comment, a user said: "5,000 years of civilization and in one night, a step backwards 5,000 years."

For some critics, the proposal to allow Xi to stay in office indefinitely and scrap what has become a predictable system of two five-year terms, marks a worrisome return to the days of Mao Zedong. Some argue the move is a sign that Xi may want to become emperor for life.

On the streets in Beijing, those we spoke with, who were willing to talk - despite the sensitivity of the issue - voiced similar concerns.

"It was a very sudden and bold move that has raised many questions and concerns and there are some who cannot understand," why the change is needed, said one man surnamed Ding, who works in the finance sector.

Ding said China's communist party leaders need to answer the public's questions and concerns and clarify whether the move is meant to give Xi lifelong tenure or just to allow him to stay in office a little longer.

"The public will undoubtedly draw comparisons and have thoughts about what is happening now and China under the leadership of Mao Zedong," Ding said.

One said emigration was something he was now considering. Others said they were taking a wait and see approach, and that they were willing to see how Xi used his extra time in office to promote more difficult reforms.

One woman surnamed Gan, an unemployed petitioner, said more time in office could be a good thing.

"If a leader is constantly being changed every two to three years, can they really do a good job and be responsible? If a leader can really focus on his work more can get done," Gan said.

But now, given that the proposal is unlikely to be stopped, that is something that will only become clearer over time.

The New York-based rights advocacy group Freedom House warns that the end of term limits is a sign that stepped up control and repression under Xi is likely to worsen.

And the implications are both regional and global.

In a statement, Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz said, "the decision sends a chilling message to democratic voices in Hong Kong and to Taiwan, both of which have come under intense pressure from Beijing.

He said it also "signals that Beijing's drive to create a new world order in which democratic institutions and norms play little or no role will be accelerated."

Party controlled media in China have rejected suggestions that the proposed amendments mean Xi is aiming to become China's next emperor or its leader for life.

Willy Lam, a veteran China watcher based in Hong Kong said that it looks like Xi will at least stay on for a third term until 2028, and perhaps one more until 2033 if health permits. At that point, Xi would be 80 years old.

Yang Kai-huang, head of Ming Chuan University's Cross-Strait Research Center in Taiwan said that Xi does not strike him as someone who wants to repeat the mistakes of Mao, nor is he someone who wants to honor the two-term limit former leader Deng Xiaoping established.

"Judging from Xi's past traits, the abolishment [of term limits] may have paved an easy path for Xi to seek his third term, but I don't think Xi wants to be an emperor for life," Yang said.

Xi is impatient and eager to get things done and put his own thoughts of governance into practice, Yang adds. And that's why the announcement of the constitutional amendment package was so sudden.
Allen Ai contributed to this report.

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голос америки

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Authorities in China have launched an intense crackdown on online commentary in the wake of a proposal by the country's communist party leaders to amend the constitution and scrap a two-term limit on the president's time in office. A wide range of phrases in Chinese have been banned such as "constitutional amendments," "constitution rules," "emigration" and "emperor."

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6/10/21
https://www.accessnow.org/indian-government-digital-censorship-intimidation/

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Access Now and 13 other organizations are calling on the Government of India to end its wave of digital censorship and intimidation, including immediately withdrawing its new rules for governing content and communications online. The coalition is also pressuring corporations to step up against the unlawful intrusion by Indian authorities into the rights of the millions of people who use their services everyday.

"The Government of India is seeking to seize control of online spaces," said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Senior International Counsel and Asia Pacific Policy Director at Access Now. "There is a complete lack of transparency surrounding existing government censorship and surveillance demands; the new rules issued by the executive branch are being used to bully social media platforms and online news services into compliance. This assault on fundamental human rights must end."

People in India are grappling with both the COVID-19 pandemic, and an epidemic of censorship and digital authoritarianism. Amidst a severe shortage of life-saving resources, people have been turning to social media platforms to share and seek resources and critical information, only to be met with government-mandated censorship - including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram takedown orders that encourage platforms to proactively police content.

"The censorship strategies rolling out across India are part of a global trend to limit free expression online," said Melody Patry, Advocacy Director at Access Now. "By attempting to commandeer online content and control the national narrative, governments are often spotlighting the voices critical to them, while showing their true authoritarian-tainted colors to the world."

This tightening grip over social media comes amidst a tide of increased government control in India, spearheaded by arguably unconstitutional new intermediary rules notified in February 2021. The rules place onerous obligations on internet intermediaries - such as social media platforms - that risk users' privacy, security, and shrink the space for freedom of expression, and create a framework for over-censorship.

Through a joint statement, the civil society coalition makes specific calls for change that will help protect and extend people's rights in India, including:
Government:

Suspend the implementation of the intermediary rules and commit to reviewing them - including undertaking sustained, meaningful and broadly participatory public consultation;

Make all website blocking orders available in the public domain; and

Commit to not curtailing the rights to freedom of expression and association, access to information, and privacy.

Technology companies and internet platforms:

Uphold human rights responsibilities, resist and take measures to mitigate human rights harming mandates from the government;

Prioritize users' rights, and challenge unlawful and overbroad demands by authorities;

Implement effective measures to protect privacy, free expression, and security, and push back on overbroad, unlawful requests; and

Follow due procedure under laws and international human rights standards in assessing requests from government agencies.

The statement was launched at the RightsCon press briefing, What's happening in India's online space? Combatting an epidemic of censorship.

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The Indian government's torrent of digital censorship, intimidation must stop - Access Now

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Access Now and 13 other organizations are calling on the Government of India to end its wave of digital censorship and intimidation, including immediately withdrawing its new rules for governing content and communications online. The coalition is also pressuring corporations to step up against the unlawful intrusion by Indian authorities into the rights of the millions of people who use their services everyday.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/book-bans-schools-are-catching-fire-black-authors-say-uproar-isnt-stud-rcna10228

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Book bans in schools are catching fire. Black authors say uproar isn’t about students.

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Parents and patrons initiate more than half of all book challenges in the U.S., compared to 1 percent from students, the American Library Association reported.

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6/20/17
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/hell-on-earth-the-horrors-of-north-korean-torture-camps/WJJEIVREVUCXZZ3YCYPFOEOGAI/#:~:text=North%20Korean%20leader%20Kim%20Jong-Un%20is%20said%20to,North%20Koreans%2C%20according%20to%20years%20of%20witness%20testimony.

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Beatings, rape, starvation and sick public executions are a daily reality for thousands of North Koreans, according to years of witness testimony.

Now, the death of Otto Warmbier has brought fresh scrutiny to the regime's brutal torture camps under leader Kim Jong Un.

The 22-year-old student passed away from mysterious brain damage he suffered while a prisoner in the isolated state.

He succumbed to his horrifying injuries just six days after he was released from North Korea back to his parents in a vegetative state following 17 months in custody.

Its believed he spent some of that time in one of Kim's prison camps, where thousands of his citizens are believed to have died.

Warmbier's doctors in Cincinnati said that the student had suffered 'extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions of his brain' consistent with oxygen deprivation for a prolonged period.

The isolated North Korean regime is believed to have as many 120,000 political prisoners in its harsh labor camps.

Grotesque stories of torture offer among the few clues to Warmbier's fate.

In a 2014 report, the United Nations Human Rights Commission called North Korea 'a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world' due to the country's 'systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations'.

Beatings are widespread in the camps, in which guards are given near-absolute authority to abuse and kill prisoners, according to survivors who have survived to speak out.
Related articles
Escapees have said that the sounds of beatings were so extreme each night that it was impossible to sleep.

Yet Warmbier's doctors have said that extensive scans have revealed no evidence of broken or fractured bones, including to his skull. They also found no damage to his neck tissue that could indicate strangulation.

One woman interviewed for the UN report, who had been imprisoned for practicing Christianity, told of a torture room with a water tank in which suspects could be immersed to simulate drowning.

'She indicated that she was fully immersed in cold water for hours,' the report said. 'Only when she stood on her tip-toes would her nose be barely above the water level. She could hardly breathe. She was gripped by panic, fearing that she might drown.'

Could drowning explain the oxygen deprivation event that damaged Warmbier's brain so severely? Possibly, but doctors have not said they've found any evidence indicating that's the case.

Other baroque torture methods of the North Korean regime have come to light as well.
One Ministry of People's Security official who defected revealed that the agency made use of small metal cages in the Pyongyang offices of its pre-trial investigative bureau.

'Victims would be crammed into the cage for several hours so that the circulation of blood to extremities becomes interrupted and other parts of the body swell up,' according to the UN report.

'The victim turns into a rusty brown color. After removal from the cage, the victim is abruptly "unfolded" causing further excruciating pain,' the report said.

The same witness recalled receiving formal training on torture techniques, including 'how to cut off a suspect's blood circulation using straps, while simultaneously placing the suspect in physical stress positions in order to inflict the maximum level of pain.'

Notably, most foreign prisoners of the North Korean regime report significantly more gentle treatment, presumably because they are considered geopolitical bargaining chips.

Matthew Todd Miller, a California man who was sentenced to six years in a North Korean labor camp in 2014, was released six months later and said that he was treated relatively well.

'I was prepared for the torture. But instead of that, I was killed with kindness,' he said in an interview with NK News.

Miller's case is unique though, in that he entered North Korea with the intention to defect, and he was detained after he was asked to leave the country and refused.

In 2013, Merrill E. Newman, an 85-year-old former US Army officer who served in the Korean War, was accused of war crimes and held by North Korea for 42 days.

Most of that time he spent confined in a hotel in Pyongyang, were Swedish consular officials who had access to him said he was well cared for and had even received needed medical attention for a heart condition.

In Warmbier's case, the official story from Pyongyang is that the student contracted botulism shortly after he was sentenced last spring in a show trial for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel.

The North Koreans claim a sleeping pill put Warmbier into a coma from which he never awoke.

The astonishing claim is almost certainly false - doctors found no evidence of botulism, and a sleeping pill would not be indicated in the case of that rare illness, which is treatable with an antitoxin.

The true cause of Warmbier's tragic death may never be known, but the brutality of the regime responsible for his death remains grimly clear.

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Hell on earth: The horrors of North Korean torture camps - NZ Herald

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Beatings, rape, starvation and sick public executions are a daily reality for thousands of North Koreans, according to years of witness testimony. Now, the death of Otto Warmbier has brought fresh scrutiny to the regime's brutal torture camps under leader Kim Jong Un.

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https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/04/bangladesh-police-brutality-crossfires-gunfights-killings-rab-corruption/

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At midnight on May 26, 2018, Ekramul Haque's daughters were trying to reach their father, who had left home three hours earlier and had still not returned.

Haque was an elected council member in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf municipality, a southeastern Bangladeshi town bordering Myanmar. To the outside world, Teknaf and surrounding subdistricts in Cox's Bazar are best known for hosting nearly a million Rohingya refugees, but domestically, it is also a major entry point for narcotics (mostly yaba-a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine) sourced from Myanmar.

When Haque's daughters reached him, he was audibly distressed, but he was also trying to comfort them. " [dad], you seem to be crying," one of his confused daughters said. Unsettled, they alerted their mother, Ayesha Begum, who joined in subsequent calls.

Haque was at that time in the custody of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite Bangladeshi police unit estimated to have killed more than 1,100 people between 2004 and 2020 . He would soon be executed, joining hundreds of others killed by authorities in a bloody election-year anti-drug campaign. After his death, the RAB produced a typical press release, claiming that Haque had been killed in a supposed gunfight during a drug raid.

The wording of the statement was characteristically contradictory: The description of the events leading to his violent death made his killing sound inadvertent, but allegations against him-that he was a top drug dealer and a "yaba godfather"-are used to imply he deserved to die anyway. (Haque's family, political colleagues, and locals strongly contest the claim that he was a drug dealer.)

But what was exceptional about Haque's case was that his killing and preceding moments were captured in calls recorded on Begum's phone, because RAB officials had forgotten to seize Haque's device when they detained him, and he managed to pick up at least four calls from his family that night.

On May 31, Begum called a press conference and released the recordings as proof that her husband was murdered. But the only news outlet that decided to share them was the -Bangladesh's largest English-language newspaper, where I was working at the time-which published the chilling recordings the next day, causing an uproar on social media.

The Bangladeshi authorities responded not by taking action in the wake of the shocking revelation but by trying to cover it up: They kept the 's website blocked until they realized it was pointless, as enough people had already listened to the call recordings on Facebook.

In the years since, Haque's case has become the centerpiece of conversations about extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh. But not a single RAB official was ever punished or reprimanded for their roles in his killing.

That is not an exception. Very few RAB officials have ever been held accountable despite the unit's history of rights abuses since its founding in 2004 as a crime-busting agency.

That impunity for the RAB ended on Dec. 10, 2021, when the U.S. Treasury imposed unprecedented economic sanctions against current and former RAB leaders, including the current chief of police, for gross human rights violations, including more than 1,000 extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances. Separately, but simultaneously, the U.S. State Department imposed a travel ban on two former RAB officials and cited Haque's case.

Authorities in Dhaka, unsurprisingly, responded with denial and attacks against the United States. Ministers and ruling party leaders pointed to America's domestic human rights record and alleged war crimes in the Middle East.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son and heir apparent, Sajeeb Wazed, a longtime U.S. resident, an infographic on Facebook that shows that every year since 2013 police departments across the United States caused more than 1,000 deaths.

Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen cited the same statistics in a phone call with his U.S. counterpart, Antony Blinken. "Police in the U.S. kill roughly a thousand people a year. You call these [casualties] in the line of duty. But when people die in our country [under similar circumstances], you decry extrajudicial executions," he reporters, referring to his conversation with Blinken.

While the United States undeniably has a police brutality problem, and its police departments have been guilty of countless murders- disproportionately targeting Black men-there is a crucial difference between police violence in the United States and Bangladesh.

Even when U.S. officers accused of murder do not face trial or conviction (as in the case of the 2014 asphyxiation of Eric Garner in New York), there is extensive, critical, uncensored media coverage of the killings, and there are civil legal claims for monetary damages. Additionally, other cases tried before juries in impartial courts, sometimes-though not always-resulting in convictions and long prison sentences for the officers who murdered innocent people (as was the case for Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests in 2020).

In Bangladesh, there is no such scrutiny or impartial justice; there is only impunity.

As the United States under President Joe Biden attempts to revamp its democracy promotion policy abroad, these are the sorts of criticisms it will face from authoritarian regimes like Bangladesh. As a country that waged bloody wars around the globe and has a history of police brutality against minorities, the United States can be an easy target for these regimes as they try to discredit the Biden administration's pro-democracy policies.

Such tactics are similar to how the governments in China and Iran attempt to cash in on U.S. domestic division to invalidate the West's calls for greater freedom for their citizens or how Soviet propagandists during the Cold War exploited racial strife in the United States to dull the appeal of capitalism. While U.S. readers may clearly see the flaws in these comparisons, Bangladeshi citizens-who are the primary target of the government's propaganda-may not.

Bangladeshi officials' attempt to compare extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh with U.S. police killings is intended to imply hypocrisy on the part of the U.S. government and challenge the Biden administration's moral authority to pass judgment on other countries. They seek to draw a parallel between the two crimes, rather than address the merits of the allegations. But by deploying this fallacy, the Bangladeshi authorities are inadvertently acknowledging the allegations themselves-and simply denying the U.S. government's moral standing to point them out.

What is also missing from their narrative is that the U.S. government's moral authority derives from the fact that it does not deny its own police killing problem and has sought to deal with it through an open and democratic process, a transparent legal system, and a robust press-none of which exist in today's Bangladesh.

Extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh have long been justified by claiming they occurred in the line of duty. The doctrine of self-defense has been the cornerstone of this narrative. The authorities in Bangladesh argue that all these executions take place in so-called gunfights.

These gunfights supposedly occur when the RAB (or regular police) engage purely in self-defense with armed criminals, who always end up dead. Before the "gunfight" framing became popular, most casualties caused by the RAB were described as taking place in "crossfires."

"Crossfire," a term now rarely used by officials but still popular among the population to describe such killings, referred to a supposed situation in which a detained suspect would have revealed an important location during interrogation, and police or RAB officers would have taken the suspect there to recover hidden firearms or to capture his accomplices. As soon as security forces arrived at the location, they would come under attack from criminals waiting for them, and when the detained suspect then tried to flee, he would be killed in a so-called crossfire.

Criticism surrounding these supposed crossfire incidents was centered on the argument that police had failed to protect someone in their custody. Subsequently, officials started denying that they had detained anyone, and they instead claimed that the targets had simply been killed in a gunfight during a raid.

These accounts are hardly ever true: Both "gunfights" and "crossfires" are merely euphemisms for shooting unarmed people to death at point-blank range-often with the blessing of the government.

Haque's killing was the only known instance when such an incident was captured or recorded, and it was clearly indicative of what human rights organizations, family members, journalists, opposition activists, and numerous others have long argued: that these killings are premeditated murders.

The recordings revealed how an unarmed man with his hands tied was shot, and how he cried out loud for a second before falling silent. The recordings also captured the conversations of RAB personnel as they instructed each other to fire random shots at his body from different directions and place some empty bullet shells around the crime scene to give the appearance of a fight.

Even if one were to ignore such an overwhelmingly incriminating piece of evidence and consider arguments made by Bangladeshi officials, there are other key differences between Bangladeshi "gunfights" and U.S. police killings.

Despite the high yearly death tolls resulting from U.S. police shootings, a typical gunfight committed by RAB or police in Bangladesh meets at least one major criterion of extrajudicial executions that many U.S. police killings do not: They are premeditated.

The most frequent reason for a police presence in the United States is a reaction to a 911 report of an ongoing crime, disturbance, or domestic abuse-or a traffic stop, often due to racial profiling. Police often treat Black people and other minorities in a discriminatory manner, and they often commit crimes-including murder-after stopping a driver or after arriving on the scene following a 911 call.

In Bangladesh, however, the primary reason for police presence in cases of deadly encounters is rarely clear. Most often than not, officials hide behind confidentiality, claiming that they acted on anonymous tips or information derived from interrogation. While using privileged communication as a shield to obscure transparency can be an effective tactic, it also indicates a tendency to be proactive, which suggests premeditation.

In the United States, even in cases when officers accused of murder are not convicted, the transcripts of 911 calls, dispatcher calls, descriptions of evidence collected, testimonies of witnesses and every police officer involved, body camera footage, toxicology and postmortem reports, and investigation reports are often made public. Transparency is ensured to the extent that few disputes remain about the key facts of what happened (although fierce disputes do exist about what should have happened). Family members or witnesses rarely claim that the killing was staged.

On the other hand, in Bangladesh, disputes about what transpired in a gunfight are never resolved. Family members often allege that the victims were already in RAB or police custody before they were killed in a so-called gunfight. No body camera footage, testimonies, or documentation are provided to support the police claim of self-defense.

If it were true, as Bangladeshi officials often claim, that their deadly incidents are no different than those in the United States, then surely they should be able to produce equivalent evidence, testimony, and documentation to substantiate their version of events. The fact is that Bangladeshi forces do not bother to collect such evidence, nor does the country's legal system demand it. They are allowed to kill without consequences.

In Bangladesh, family members have rarely been able to file lawsuits against involved officials or agencies. In Haque's case, the police refused to accept his wife's complaint, because there was already a case filed concerning the incident-by the same RAB team that killed him-which has been a common procedural tactic to deter family members from pursuing legal accountability.

And even when U.S. police killings do fulfill the criteria of extrajudicial executions, such as when individual police officials target and kill someone based on racial assumptions, city governments or police departments have often been forced to pay compensation to the family members of the victims. In 2016, for example, the city of Cleveland paid $6 million to family members of Tamir Rice, a boy who had been shot and killed by the city's police two years earlier, even though a grand jury had decided against charging the officers involved. But in Bangladesh, none of these deterrents or accountability measures exist.

Bangladeshi officials have appeared shocked by the new U.S. sanctions. For too long, the ruling Awami League government's U.S. policy has been driven by a set of stereotypes and assumptions, including that Washington's desire to see democratic reform in Bangladesh is supplanted by other more pressing concerns such as the need to contain Islamist militancy or tackle the Rohingya refugee crisis. The government may also have hoped to leverage the country's growing strategic and economic significance as China's influence in the region increases.

The sanctions-particularly the wording that the RAB's human rights abuses threatened U.S. national security interests-and the lack of an invitation for Bangladesh to the Summit for Democracy that preceded the sanctions defied contemporary wisdom about how Washington viewed affairs in Dhaka, thus unnerving Bangladeshi decision-makers.

The Bangladeshi authorities' efforts to dodge responsibility, damage U.S. credibility, and question Washington's moral standing are primarily designed to convince a domestic audience that such issues as extrajudicial executions aren't so bad, because they happen in countries like the United States, too.

But democratic countries do not generally form elite forces to execute their citizens just because they are suspected of committing a crime; they try them in impartial courts of law. Democratic nations don't allow their security forces to operate with a carte blanche or kill dissidents or political opponents; their democratic systems ensure the public can adequately voice their concerns and elected leaders listen to them. They have a fierce press that scrutinizes events and a criminal justice system that, while imperfect, seeks to ensure transparency and openness. Above all, they don't deliberately deny or cover up extrajudicial killings.

The Bangladeshi government's absurd arguments need to be called out, because extrajudicial executions or enforced disappearances aren't normal in any society-and governments must not be allowed to normalize them.

When such crimes occur, they must be investigated by independent authorities and a free press, they must be tried in impartial courts, and the perpetrators must be punished both judicially and financially. Until the Bangladeshi government is willing to move beyond whataboutism and take those steps, it is in no position to criticize the United States.

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The U.S. Has a Police Brutality Problem. So Does Bangladesh.

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At midnight on May 26, 2018, Ekramul Haque's daughters were trying to reach their father, who had left home three hours earlier and had still not returned. Haque was an elected council member in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf municipality, a southeastern Bangladeshi town bordering Myanmar.

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https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/man-baffled-after-finding-hidden-25747699

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The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that he bought a box of cat food and when he got it home his girlfriend noticed there was a hole cut in the box - and what was inside was even more surprising

A man has been left baffled after buying a box of cat food and finding a 'hidden spy camera' inside the box - and he has no idea who put it there, or why.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that he was buying food for his pet cats, Lilliput and Goliath, and he absent-mindedly picked up a box of Purina Gourmet cat food.

When he got home he put it in the cupboard and days later his girlfriend took it out and noticed there was a hole cut in the side of the box, and when they opened it they claim they found a camera, and transmitter, hidden inside.

The man said he had no idea who put the camera there or why, and so far he's been unable to recover any footage from the device.
What do you think of the cat lover's discovery? Let us know in the comments...
The man said that the camera's lens was crudely hidden in the packaging and that the box had been opened but then subtly shut to make it look like it was sealed.

He picked up the box at his local Welcome store, a franchise of the Co-op, who say they are 'concerned' about the camera.

The man said: "The weirdest thing is I didn't notice when I bought it. I went to the Co-op in Crystal Palace and just grabbed it off the shelf for the cats.

"Yesterday evening my girlfriend was getting it out of the cupboard and she was like, 'what is this?'

"At first we couldn't figure out what it was, then we realised there was clearly a camera coming out the cat's head.

"It's kinda thrown us really.

"I went back and looked at where that shelf was, where the cat food would have been, and most of that rack faces a bunch of bottled water but it kinda faces into a stock room area."

The man said that his investigation left him with more questions than answers, as the way he could see it there were three different scenarios that could be the truth.

First, the camera was placed in the Purina factory, secondly, it was used by the Co-op to keep an eye on their staff, or a member of the public could have planted it for their own nefarious reasons.

He continued: "In the box, there was a camera, and a kind of box which is the mechanism of the camera, then a transmitter. So I think you'd have to be close, they have to be attached to a wifi network.

"Also there wasn't a battery in it. I plugged it into a USB and I don't think it holds a charge, and there wasn't a battery in it.
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"I think it broadcasts to something, it doesn't store data, but it didn't seem to have any power. Maybe it can hold a charge, I could be wrong. I don't know, it's very strange.

"I guess anything could be the truth, whatever the answer is it's odd - if it's in the cat food factory, why would they have let it be sold? If it was done by the Co-op, why was it left on the shelf, if it was a member of the public, why would they do it?

"We were kinda scared of it, I'm keeping it because I think it's cool, it's in the cupboard facing the wall at the minute.

"If you were going to put a spy camera in something why would you put it in cat food, because that's something that you just put in the cupboard so it won't see anything.

"And why didn't they hide the camera in the cat's eye? It's quite an artless delivery, whoever's done this."

A spokesperson for Welcome Central Hill said: "We are extremely concerned by this and grateful that it has been brought to our attention.

"The cat food is located opposite the door to our office so it could be a serious security issue.

"We would invite the customer to talk to us directly so we can investigate this further and, if necessary, speak to the police."

A spokesperson for Purina said: "I can confirm that we know of no reason why a camera would be found inside a box of our cat food."
Do you have a story to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Get in touch via yourmirror@mirror.co.uk

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Man baffled after finding 'hidden spy camera' inside a box of cat food

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The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that he bought a box of cat food and when he got it home his girlfriend noticed there was a hole cut in the box - and what was inside was even more surprising

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https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/27/americans-complicated-feelings-about-social-media-in-an-era-of-privacy-concerns/

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Amid public concerns over Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook data and a subsequent movement to encourage users to abandon Facebook, there is a renewed focus on how social media companies collect personal information and make it available to marketers.

Pew Research Center has studied the spread and impact of social media since 2005, when just 5% of American adults used the platforms. The trends tracked by our data tell a complex story that is full of conflicting pressures. On one hand, the rapid growth of the platforms is testimony to their appeal to online Americans. On the other, this widespread use has been accompanied by rising user concerns about privacy and social media firms' capacity to protect their data.

All this adds up to a mixed picture about how Americans feel about social media. Here are some of the dynamics.
People like and use social media for several reasons
About seven-in-ten American adults (69%) now report they use some kind of social media platform (not including YouTube) - a nearly fourteenfold increase since Pew Research Center first started asking about the phenomenon. The growth has come across all demographic groups and includes 37% of those ages 65 and older.

The Center's polls have found over the years that people use social media for important social interactions like staying in touch with friends and family and reconnecting with old acquaintances. Teenagers are especially likely to report that social media are important to their friendships and, at times, their romantic relationships.

Beyond that, we have documented how social media play a role in the way people participate in civic and political activities, launch and sustain protests, get and share health information, gather scientific information, engage in family matters, perform job-related activities and get news. Indeed, social media is now just as common a pathway to news for people as going directly to a news organization website or app.

Our research has not established a causal relationship between people's use of social media and their well-being. But in a 2011 report, we noted modest associations between people's social media use and higher levels of trust, larger numbers of close friends, greater amounts of social support and higher levels of civic participation.
People worry about privacy and the use of their personal information
While there is evidence that social media works in some important ways for people, Pew Research Center studies have shown that people are anxious about all the personal information that is collected and shared and the security of their data.

Overall, a 2014 survey found that 91% of Americans "agree" or "strongly agree" that people have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by all kinds of entities. Some 80% of social media users said they were concerned about advertisers and businesses accessing the data they share on social media platforms, and 64% said the government should do more to regulate advertisers.

Another survey last year found that just 9% of social media users were "very confident" that social media companies would protect their data. About half of users were not at all or not too confident their data were in safe hands.

Moreover, people struggle to understand the nature and scope of the data collected about them. Just 9% believe they have "a lot of control" over the information that is collected about them, even as the vast majority (74%) say it is very important to them to be in control of who can get information about them.

Six-in-ten Americans (61%) have said they would like to do more to protect their privacy. Additionally, two-thirds have said current laws are not good enough in protecting people's privacy, and 64% support more regulation of advertisers.

Some privacy advocates hope that the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect on May 25, will give users - even Americans - greater protections about what data tech firms can collect, how the data can be used, and how consumers can be given more opportunities to see what is happening with their information.
People's issues with the social media experience go beyond privacy
In addition to the concerns about privacy and social media platforms uncovered in our surveys, related research shows that just 5% of social media users trust the information that comes to them via the platforms "a lot."

Moreover, social media users can be turned off by what happens on social media. For instance, social media sites are frequently cited as places where people are harassed. Near the end of the 2016 election campaign, 37% of social media users said they were worn out by the political content they encountered, and large shares said social media interactions with those opposed to their views were stressful and frustrating. Large shares also said that social media interactions related to politics were less respectful, less conclusive, less civil and less informative than offline interactions.

A considerable number of social media users said they simply ignored political arguments when they broke out in their feeds. Others went steps further by blocking or unfriending those who offended or bugged them.
Why do people leave or stay on social media platforms?
The paradox is that people use social media platforms even as they express great concern about the privacy implications of doing so - and the social woes they encounter. The Center's most recent survey about social media found that 59% of users said it would not be difficult to give up these sites, yet the share saying these sites would be hard to give up grew 12 percentage points from early 2014.

Some of the answers about why people stay on social media could tie to our findings about how people adjust their behavior on the sites and online, depending on personal and political circumstances. For instance, in a 2012 report we found that 61% of Facebook users said they had taken a break from using the platform. Among the reasons people cited were that they were too busy to use the platform, they lost interest, they thought it was a waste of time and that it was filled with too much drama, gossip or conflict.

In other words, participation on the sites for many people is not an all-or-nothing proposition.

People pursue strategies to try to avoid problems on social media and the internet overall. Fully 86% of internet users said in 2012 they had taken steps to try to be anonymous online. "Hiding from advertisers" was relatively high on the list of those they wanted to avoid.

Many social media users fine-tune their behavior to try to make things less challenging or unsettling on the sites, including changing their privacy settings and restricting access to their profiles. Still, 48% of social media users reported in a 2012 survey they have difficulty managing their privacy controls.

After National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed details about government surveillance programs starting in 2013, 30% of adults said they took steps to hide or shield their information and 22% reported they had changed their online behavior in order to minimize detection.

One other argument that some experts make in Pew Research Center canvassings about the future is that people often find it hard to disconnect because so much of modern life takes place on social media. These experts believe that unplugging is hard because social media and other technology affordances make life convenient and because the platforms offer a very efficient, compelling way for users to stay connected to the people and organizations that matter to them.

Note: See topline results for overall social media user data

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Americans' complicated feelings about social media in an era of privacy concerns

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The trends in Americans' views of social media tell a complex story. Read about the dynamics of Americans' feelings toward social media.

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https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/rolling-back-post-911-surveillance-state

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View the entire 9/11 at 20 series

Six weeks after the attacks of 9/11, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act. The 131-page law was enacted without amendment and with little dissent three days after its introduction. It was the opening volley in a series of measures that vastly expanded the U.S. government's ability to conduct domestic surveillance. Over the same period, dramatic advances in technology further bolstered the government's spying powers and rendered decades-old legal protections obsolete.

As a result of these changes, we have seen a transformation, in two short decades, from a legal framework that requires the government to obtain a warrant when acquiring Americans' most sensitive data to one that allows the government to amass such information without any suspicion of wrongdoing whatsoever. We also have seen the results. Easy governmental access to the private lives of law-abiding citizens has proven to have scant national security benefit, while enabling the monitoring of racial and religious minorities, protesters, and political opponents.

It is time for a course correction.

To ascertain the path forward, we must look to our nation's past. In the early decades of the Cold War, there were few legal checks on the government's surveillance powers. The FBI, CIA, and NSA exploited this license to spy on social justice activists - most famously, Martin Luther King Jr. - and anti-war protesters. At the height of these activities, many Americans were afraid to fully express their political views, even in private communications, for fear of government snooping and retaliation.

When the Senate's Church Committee revealed these abuses, Congress and government agencies responded by enacting laws and policies to limit surveillance. They shared a common feature: Law enforcement and intelligence agencies could not collect information about Americans unless there was individualized, fact-based suspicion of wrongdoing. The level of suspicion - for example, "probable cause" or "reasonable basis to believe" - could vary depending on the context and the information's sensitivity. But there could be no suspicionless surveillance.

This rule served to protect not only privacy, but also civil rights and First Amendment freedoms. It is much harder for government agents to target people based on their own racial or political bias (whether conscious or subconscious) if they must point to facts indicating likely criminal activity.

Of course, the system wasn't perfect. It succeeded, however, in significantly constraining the government's improper domestic spying. And it did so without negatively affecting national security. The 9/11 Commission found fault with many of the government's practices, but it never suggested that the government should collect more information about people in the United States with less basis for suspicion.

After 9/11, the legal protections against suspicionless surveillance were swiftly and systematically cast aside. In a variety of contexts, it became lawful for the government to collect an American's sensitive information based merely on a claim that the information was "relevant" to a legitimate purpose, regardless of whether the person was reasonably suspected of wrongdoing. Even for the most sensitive of information, communications content, Congress gave the NSA free rein to collect phone calls, texts, and emails between foreign targets and Americans - communications that previously could not be obtained domestically without a court order based on probable cause.

At the same time, technological advances created fertile new avenues for suspicionless collection. Smartphones, for instance, keep detailed track of Americans' whereabouts - data that can be fed into sophisticated computer algorithms to determine a person's associations, activities, and even beliefs. Courts were slow to recognize the sensitivity of this data, and until quite recently, the government could force cell phone companies to turn over any such information deemed "relevant."

In 2018, the Supreme Court finally held that the government needs a warrant to obtain cell phone location information. Incredibly, the government interprets this ruling to apply only when it compels companies to disclose the data - not when it purchases the data from a willing seller. While there are statutory restrictions on phone and internet companies selling customer data to government agencies, there are no such restrictions on many types of app developers, because these entities didn't exist when the relevant laws were passed. Moreover, any company is free to sell location information to a digital data broker, which can resell it (at a handsome profit) to the government - basically laundering the data through a middleman.

In addition, technology and globalization have eroded the distinction between domestic and overseas surveillance. There are few statutory constraints on the government's ability to conduct surveillance abroad, yet such surveillance increasingly sweeps in the data of Americans. Moreover, the notion that foreigners have no privacy rights has become untenable. European courts are requiring U.S. companies to protect EU citizens' data against broad U.S. government access - something companies cannot do under current U.S. law - as a condition of doing business with European companies.

In short, it is even easier today than it was in J. Edgar Hoover's time for the U.S. government to collect sensitive information about Americans and foreigners alike. It should come as no surprise, then, that we have seen a return to some of the abusive practices of that era. After 9/11, the FBI developed a system of " ethnic mapping" and broadly infiltrated mosques, tasking informants with relaying attendees' conversations. Since at least 2015, federal agencies have closely monitored Black Lives Matter protesters' social media posts, tracked their protest activity, and, in at least one instance, opened intelligence files on journalists covering racial justice protests. Just last month, we learned that the Trump Department of Justice obtained the communications metadata of Democratic lawmakers and their family members, including a child.

Also unsurprisingly, there is zero evidence that suspicionless surveillance has made us safer. Consider the NSA's program of "bulk collection" - the poster child for suspicionless surveillance - in which the agency obtained Americans' phone records en masse. Two independent reviews found that this program yielded little-to-no counterterrorism benefit. Indeed, there is evidence that overcollection is counterproductive. Multiple government reviews of domestic terrorist incidents have found that agents missed signs of trouble because those signs were lost in the noise of irrelevant data.

A comprehensive overhaul of surveillance laws is in order. The goal should be reviving the requirement of individualized, fact-based suspicion for collection on Americans and others in the United States, while narrowing the permissible scope of collection on foreigners overseas. Achieving this goal will require restoring limitations that were stripped out of the law after 9/11, as well as enacting new ones to ensure that Americans' sensitive information is protected from disclosure regardless of who holds the information or the technology used to capture it.

This is, without question, a tall order. It is also imperative. The past 20 years have given us a glimpse of what the future could hold. In the next 20 years, depending on what steps we take now, the United States can become a surveillance state in the mold of China - or we can realize our aspirations to be a country in which people of all races, ethnicities, religions, and political beliefs are free to live their lives and speak their minds without fear.

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Rolling Back the Post-9/11 Surveillance State

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View the entire 9/11 at 20 series Six weeks after the attacks of 9/11, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act. The 131-page law was enacted without amendment and with little dissent three days after its introduction. It was the opening volley in a series of measures that vastly expanded the U.S.

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In 2019, the United States continued to move backwards on rights. The Trump administration rolled out inhumane immigration policies and promoted false narratives that perpetuate racism and discrimination; did not do nearly enough to address mass incarceration; undermined the rights of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people; further weakened the ability of Americans to obtain adequate health care; and deregulated industries that put people's health and safety at risk.

In its foreign policy, the Trump administration made little use of its diminishing leverage to promote human rights abroad; continued to undermine multilateral institutions; and flouted international human rights and humanitarian law as it partnered with abusive governments-though it did sanction some individuals and governments for committing human rights abuses.

Criminal Legal System

This decrease can be partly attributed to greater recognition among policy makers and the public of unfairness in the US criminal legal system and the harm caused, which has spurned many state-level reforms. Still, in several states incarceration rose, as did the incarceration rate for women, which grew by 750 percent from 1980 to 2017.

Stark racial disparities still exist in the prison population. While the overall imprisonment rate was down, among black women it was nearly twice as high as among white women and the imprisonment rate for black men was almost six times the rate for white men. For younger black men, the disparity was even larger.

The death penalty is allowed in 29 states. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 20 people in seven states had been executed in 2019 by the middle of November- all in the south and mid-west of the country. There were eight executions in Texas; three in Alabama and Georgia; two in Florida and Tennessee; and one each in Missouri and South Dakota. The Trump administration announced a resumption of federal executions in July after 16 years without them, but a federal court blocked the resumption in November. In California, which has over 730 prisoners on death row, the governor imposed a moratorium on executions, and in New Hampshire, the legislature repealed its death penalty statute.

Laws banning individuals with criminal convictions from voting continue to exist throughout the US. In 2018 voters in Florida approved a measure restoring the right to vote to 1.4 million residents with felony convictions, but in July the state enacted a law requiring those affected to pay all financial obligations, including excessive fines and fees, before this right is restored.

Children in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems

On any given day, approximately 50,000 children are held in confinement. In the juvenile justice system, 2,200 youth are imprisoned for "status" offenses-noncriminal acts that are considered violations of the law only because the individuals in question are under 18 years old.

Racial disparities persist at every stage of a person's contact with the law, leaving children of color disproportionately represented in juvenile justice systems across the country; in 37 states, rates of incarceration were higher for black children than for white, according to The Sentencing Project.

Racial Justice and Policing

Stark inequalities in wealth exist throughout the United States, and poverty intersects with crime, which is used to justify more aggressive policing in poor, often minority, communities. Rather than address problems of poverty-including homelessness, mental health, and gang involvement-with services, support, and economic development, many US jurisdictions simply add more police and effectively "criminalize" poor communities, a vicious circle that fuels high rates of incarceration.

Government tracking of police violence continues to be incomplete. According to the Washington Post, police reportedly shot and killed 783 people in the US in 2019 as of mid-November, a reduction from the previous year. Of those killed whose race is known, 20 percent were black even though blacks make up 13 percent of the population. Racial disparities in police use of force, arrests, citations, and traffic stops continue to exist.

Human Rights Watch documented substantial racial disparities in policing in a case study of the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Black residents consistently reported experiences of abusive policing.

Recognition grew in 2019 that current racial disparities in policing, criminal justice, and other aspects of American life cannot be understood without reference to slavery and its continuing impact on society. Congress held an historic hearing on Juneteenth, a day honoring the abolition of slavery in the US, to discuss possible ways to account for these harms, including reparations and more investment in black communities to address continued inequality and discrimination.

Poverty and Inequality

In September, the Census Bureau released a study showing that income inequality in the US had hit the highest level in five decades. About 40 million people live in poverty, many of them members of households with at least one wage earner making at or near the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

The Trump administration continued to take actions to restrict access to health care, targeting changes to the Medicaid program, private insurance subsidies, and other key elements of the Affordable Care Act that will result in greater inequities in access to care and health outcomes. Many states with federal support have imposed work requirements, drug testing, and other barriers to Medicaid eligibility for low-income individuals.

Court-mandated fines and fees disproportionately impact the poor and communities of color. When a person cannot afford them, they can face arrest warrants, extended sentences, and incarceration, often putting them further in debt. Many local jurisdictions fund themselves by imposing such fees, even for minor violations such as jaywalking-a practice that incentivizes over-policing and aggressive prosecution.

The Trump administration continued to undermine consumer protections against predatory lenders and abusive debt collectors, whose unregulated services can trap families in poverty. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, delayed implementation of a rule regulating payday and other small lenders that often carry exorbitant interest rates. Another proposed rule threatens to weaken protections from false, deceptive, and misleading practices by debt collectors.

Rights of Non-Citizens

The US government in 2019 continued to disregard its obligations to asylum seekers under international law, leaving many refugees without effective protection. In January, the administration began returning asylum seekers to Mexico while their claims are pending under the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the "Remain in Mexico" program.

At time of writing, over 55,000 asylum seekers had been returned to often dangerous and unlivable conditions in Mexico, with significant barriers to obtaining legal representation and a fair hearing. This included asylum seekers with disabilities or other chronic health conditions despite initial guidance that no one with "known physical/mental health issues" would be placed in the program. In the city of Ciudad Juárez, Human Rights Watch documented the cases of six such individuals, four of them children.

In July, the administration announced an interim rule to bar asylum eligibility for individuals who travel through a third country and attempt to enter the US without having applied for protection in that country. This would essentially bar all but Mexicans from applying for asylum at the US southern border.

The US continued to limit the number of asylum seekers accepted at southern ports of entry, leading some to risk their lives attempting to cross illegally.

In July, the administration also announced a new rule making people anywhere in the country who cannot prove at least two-years' presence in the US subject to fast-track deportations, which have returned asylum seekers and refugees to harm.

Migrant children coming to the US-Mexico border were held in inhumane conditions in jail-like Border Patrol facilities without contact with family members, regular access to showers, clean clothes, toothbrushes, proper beds, or medical care, for weeks at a time. Children as young as two or three were held in these facilities without adult caregivers. Families and adults were also held in dangerously overcrowded facilities for longer than the 72-hour legal limit.

In August, the administration released a rule that could allow the federal government to deny permanent residency ("green cards") to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers, or other forms of public assistance, generating fear among non-citizens in need of these services from accessing them.

Despite these ongoing abuses, Congress continued to authorize the administration's requests for additional funding for immigration agencies with insufficient requirements for standards, oversight, and transparency.

Environmental Rights

The Trump administration has continued to weaken or repeal dozens of rules that protect the environment and public health. In July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided not to ban chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxic pesticide that, according to studies funded by the agency, has been linked to developmental delay in children.

Also in July, the EPA proposed significantly rolling back regulations governing coal ash, a highly toxic byproduct of coal combustion that constitutes the second largest waste stream in the US. The rule change increases the risk of air and water pollution and poses a serious health risk.

In September, the Trump administration repealed a major clean water regulation that had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands, and other bodies of water.

Also in September, the Trump administration announced it would revoke California's authority to set auto emissions rules that are stricter than federal standards, prompting California and nearly two dozen other states to sue.

These moves were part of a wide-ranging attack on efforts to fight climate change and reduce regulation of industries, increasing health and safety risks.

Older People's Rights

Women's and Girls' Rights

The current patchwork of healthcare coverage across states leaves many women and girls uninsured and creates an environment in which women die at higher rates than they do in comparably wealthy countries from preventable maternal and gynecological cancer-related deaths.

Human Rights Watch has documented how Alabama's failure to expand Medicaid eligibility, along with a mix of other policies and practices, has led to a high rate of preventable cervical cancer deaths that disproportionately impacts black women in the state. Alabama, along with Texas, has the lowest Medicaid eligibility levels in the nation and is seeking a waiver to make eligibility even more difficult.

A few states took steps to proactively protect or expand protections for women's health, but the trend in most states was towards increasingly extreme abortion bans. Alabama passed a draconian law criminalizing abortion and attempted abortion with no exception for victims of sexual violence. In October, a lower court issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the law from taking effect.

Delaware and New Jersey banned all marriage before age 18, and several states were considering bans, but child marriage remained legal in some form in 48 states.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which includes provisions for LGBT survivors of violence. The House also passed the Equality Act, which would expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity under various federal civil rights laws. The Senate did not vote on either bill.

Protections for LGBT individuals at the state level are uneven. At time of writing, only 20 states had laws expressly banning discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Surveillance and Data Protection

The US lacks comprehensive national data protection laws, including laws that prevent law enforcement from obtaining unnecessary and disproportionate access to personal data. Through the unacknowledged practice of "parallel construction," the subject of a 2018 Human Rights Watch report, the government has been able to use data from secret surveillance programs in criminal investigations, and then reconstruct that evidence through other means, without disclosing the secret monitoring to judges or defendants. This deprives litigants of the chance to challenge potentially unlawful surveillance, and makes surveillance especially difficult for courts to review in the US.

In August, the Trump administration asked Congress to renew section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which has enabled the National Security Agency (NSA) to gather, store, and search hundreds of millions of US telephone records in violation of human rights. The then-director of national intelligence (DNI) admitted in a letter to Congress that the NSA had suspended this program due to longstanding legal and technical difficulties and had deleted the data it had previously stored. Nevertheless, the DNI argued that Congress should keep this massive surveillance provision on the books for future use. The law was due to expire in December 2019 in the absence of congressional action.

Freedom of Expression

The public release of a criminal indictment of Julian Assange, creator of WikiLeaks, for alleged violations of the Espionage Act prompted widespread concern among journalists that the government could begin prosecuting media outlets that publish classified information-even if release of the information is in the public interest. Such prosecutions would hinder media freedom and impede the public's right to receive information.

A leaked government document showed that CBP had made a list of journalists, activists, and others addressing immigration issues near the country's southern border; some of these individuals said they were subjected to extra questioning by officials when crossing the border, potentially discouraging activities protected by the right to free expression.

National Security

The ability of the shooters to obtain military-style weapons to carry out these killings fueled growing public support for stronger federal laws restricting some access to guns.

The US continues to indefinitely detain 31 men without charge at Guantanamo Bay, all of whom have been imprisoned for well over a decade, some since 2002. The prosecutions continue of seven men on terrorism-related charges, including five on charges connected to the September 11, 2001 attacks, before Guantanamo's military commissions, which do not meet international fair trial standards and have been plagued by procedural problems and years of delays. Two men convicted before the commissions are also at Guantanamo, one serving a life sentence and the other awaiting sentencing.

Foreign Policy

The Trump administration repeatedly condemned certain Chinese government abuses, particularly violations of religious freedom and the rights of ethnic minorities, and in October added the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, other government agencies, and eight Chinese technology firms, including iFlytek and Hikvision, to a sanctions list. But these steps were undermined by Trump's many positive remarks about President Xi Jinpeng's leadership.

In April, the ICC prosecutor confirmed that the United States had revoked her visa in connection with her inquiry into possible war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan.

The State Department's annual human rights country reports, released in March, once again excluded analysis of women's reproductive rights, including information on preventable maternal mortality and access to contraception.

In March, President Trump signed a proclamation recognizing the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of the state of Israel, disregarding the protections due to the residents of the Golan Heights under international humanitarian law. In November, the State Department announced that it no longer considers Israeli settlements to violate international humanitarian law "per se", putting the United States outside the international consensus on the issue.

In April, the US threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution on sexual violence in armed conflict because it mentioned women's reproductive health services. Because the US refused to accept any language that recognized that victims of rape in war should have access to sexual and reproductive health services, the resolution was ultimately adopted without it.

In a rebuke to the Trump administration's inaction on Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses, the Senate in June voted to block the administration's use of emergency authority to complete several arms sales, worth more than $8 billion, to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries. However, Trump vetoed the resolution and the arms sales were allowed to move forward.

The United States has continued to impose visa restrictions and asset freezes on perpetrators of grave human rights violations and corruption. In July, the State Department imposed visa bans on several senior foreign military commanders for their involvement in gross human rights abuses, in particular Myanmar's ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims.

Also in July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the formation of a Commission on Unalienable Rights to provide "an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy." Many of the commissioners have public records opposing key internationally recognized human rights, including on reproductive freedom and LGBT rights.

Following the 2018 US cancellation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal with Iran was known, the US reimposed broad sanctions on Iran and penalties for companies transacting with Iran. In April the US designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and in September the US sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran for supporting IRGC, among others. In October, Human Rights Watch documented the severe harm these sanctions are causing to Iranians needing health care and medicine.

The State Department failed to release a long-promised second review of Trump administration's Mexico City Policy, or "global gag rule," which blocks federal funding for nongovernmental organizations operating outside the US that provide abortion counseling or referrals, or advocate to decriminalize abortion or expand services. In March, Pompeo announced that the rule would be interpreted more strictly against what are mostly small, grassroots foreign organizations.

The US continued targeted killings of terrorist suspects in countries including Yemen and Somalia, many with armed drones. It also carried out large-scale military operations against non-state armed groups including the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria. In May, the Department of Defense reported that in 2018, 120 civilians were killed and approximately 65 civilians injured during US military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia, and no civilian casualties from US operations in Yemen or Libya. Independent tracking organizations published civilian casualty estimates related to US operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya that far exceed those of the Defense Department. The US did not publicly report on any casualties from lethal operations by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Throughout the year, the US engaged in negotiations with Taliban leaders on the terms for a US troop withdrawal based on Taliban pledges not to allow any armed group to carry out attacks on the US from Afghanistan. However, Trump called off US negotiations on September 7, leaving further talks in limbo.

US airstrikes in Afghanistan reached record levels, with over 8,000 bombs and missiles dropped on Afghanistan between January and September, killing and injuring over 800 civilians, at least 250 of them children. An estimated 14,000 US troops remained in Afghanistan, including US special forces involved in combat operations. CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary units outside the regular chain of command have committed extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances.

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World Report 2020: Rights Trends in United States

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In 2019, the United States continued to move backwards on rights. The Trump administration rolled out inhumane immigration policies and promoted false narratives that perpetuate racism and discrimination; did not do nearly enough to address mass incarceration; undermined the rights of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people; further weakened the ability of Americans to obtain adequate health care; and deregulated industries that put people's health and safety at risk.

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The Chinese government's authoritarianism was on full display in 2020 as it grappled with the deadly coronavirus outbreak first reported in Wuhan province. Authorities initially covered up news about the virus, then adopted harsh quarantine measures in Wuhan and other parts of China. The government has rejected international calls for independent, unfettered investigations into Chinese authorities' handling of the outbreak, and surveilled and harassed families of those who died of the virus.

Beijing's repression-insisting on political loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party-deepened across the country. In Hong Kong, following six months of large-scale protests in 2019, the Chinese government imposed a draconian "National Security Law" on June 30-its most aggressive assault on Hong Kong people's freedoms since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. In Xinjiang, Turkic Muslims continue to be arbitrarily detained on the basis of their identity, while others are subjected to forced labor, mass surveillance, and political indoctrination. In Inner Mongolia, protests broke out in September when education authorities decided to replace Mongolian with Mandarin Chinese in a number of classes in the region's schools.

Chinese authorities' silencing of human rights defenders, journalists, and activists, and restrictions on the internet, also make it difficult to obtain accurate information about Chinese government policies and actions.

Despite these threats some prominent individuals publicly criticized President Xi Jinping. Entrepreneur Ren Zhiqiang wrote an essay calling Xi "a clown who desires power," while former Central Party school teacher Cai Xia called the Chinese Communist Party a "political zombie." Ren received an extraordinarily lengthy prison sentence-18 years-in September; Cai fled into exile.

Governments, civil society groups, and United Nations officials expressed growing concern over the Chinese government's human rights violations in 2020. In April, reports of Africans in China being targeted for Covid-19 testing led to complaints by African governments and civil society. In July, the US government sanctioned top Chinese officials responsible for Xinjiang abuses. In June, an unprecedented group of 50 UN Special Procedure mandate-holders issued a joint statement on China, calling for "renewed attention on the human rights situation in the country" as a matter of urgency, including through a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on China, and the creation of an international mechanism to address rights violations in the country.

Hong Kong

One million Hong Kong people marked the new year by marching peacefully for democracy, but in January 2020, the Chinese government replaced its top Hong Kong official with Luo Huining, who had no experience in Hong Kong but was known as a Communist Party enforcer.

In April, Beijing's representatives in Hong Kong threatened pro-democracy legislators with "serious consequences" over their delay in selecting a new chairperson for an internal committee in the semi-democratic Legislative Council (LegCo), again interfering with the territory's autonomy. The representatives then "reinterpreted" Hong Kong's constitution, the Basic Law, stating that they were not bound by the law's limitations on their powers. In May, with the help of dozens of security guards, pro-Beijing legislators removed at least 10 pro-democracy legislators from the LegCo internal committee through a dubious process. The leader of the pro-Beijing legislators, Starry Lee, asserted that she was now chair and had the power to oversee the proceedings. Lee's power grab gave mainland authorities greater control over LegCo, which in June passed a bill criminalizing "disrespect" of the Chinese national anthem.

Throughout the year, Hong Kong police arrested pro-democracy figures for peaceful activities. In February, Hong Kong police arrested pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, and former lawmakers Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, for their participation in the 2019 protests. In April, Hong Kong police arrested 15 prominent pro-democracy leaders, including 81-year-old barrister Martin Lee, for "organizing and participating in unlawful assemblies" during the 2019 protests.

On June 30, the Chinese government bypassed LegCo and imposed a new National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong. The law creates specialized secret security agencies, denies people fair trial rights, provides sweeping new powers to the police, increases restraints on civil society and the media, and weakens judicial oversight. Shortly before the law's enactment, a number of pro-democracy groups, including Demosisto, disbanded.

Hong Kong's education chief banned the protest anthem "Glory to Hong Kong" from schools. Public libraries pulled books by pro-democracy figures. Authorities deemed illegal the 2019 protest slogan, "Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times."

Police used the NSL to arrest those who shouted or held placards with the slogan at protests, and against organizers of the pro-democracy movement. In late July, four associated with the political group Studentlocalism were arrested for NSL violations. In August, police raided the office of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, arrested its owner Jimmy Lai, his two sons, and four executives for "collusion with foreign forces" and conspiracy to commit fraud. Two other democracy activists were also arrested.

In July, Hong Kong election authorities disqualified a dozen pro-democracy figures from the legislative election slated for September. That month, the Hong Kong government "postponed" the elections for a year, citing a rise in Covid-19 cases.

Also in July, the Hong Kong University governing council-dominated by members from outside the university and chaired by a pro-Beijing politician-sacked Professor Benny Tai, a leading figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.

Following the enactment of the NSL, some activists fled. A group of 12 protesters were intercepted by mainland authorities when attempting to reach Taiwan by sea. At time of writing they remained detained in China without access to lawyers.

No police officers alleged to have used excessive force during the 2019 protests have been held accountable. In some cases, the police obstructed efforts to press for accountability. In March, police arrested a pro-democracy official, Cheng Lai-king, for revealing on social media the identity of the officer who shot and blinded a journalist who covered the protests.

Press freedom continued to deteriorate. During a protest in May, police forced journalists to kneel down and pepper sprayed them. In June, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) suspended its popular political satirical show, the Headliner, following political pressure. In July and August, New York Times journalist Chris Buckley and incoming Hong Kong Free Press editor Aaron Mc Nicholas were denied visas to work in the city.

Xinjiang

The Chinese government's efforts to erase the unique identity of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the region persisted. In January, a CNN investigation examining satellite imagery concluded that over 100 traditional Uyghur cemeteries had been destroyed.

In August, another satellite imagery study by Buzzfeed revealed that Xinjiang authorities had built over 260 "massive" detention structures since 2017, providing more evidence to support earlier findings by rights groups and journalists that Chinese authorities are arbitrarily detaining Turkic Muslims en masse.

While the Chinese government appears to have shut down some political education camps and "released" detainees following global outrage, an untold number of Turkic Muslims remain in detention and imprisoned solely on the basis of their identities. A significant number of Uyghur diaspora continue to have no information concerning the whereabouts of their family members, more than five years after the launch of the government's "Strike Hard" campaign.

Some "released" Uyghur detainees are forced to work in factories and fields inside and outside Xinjiang under what the authorities describe as "poverty alleviation" efforts. In February, an Australian think tank revealed a list of 82 global brands that sourced from factories in China that used workers from Xinjiang under conditions that "strongly suggest" forced labor.

In July, a US-based mobile security firm, Lookout, reported that Chinese government-linked groups had used malicious hardware to hack into Uyghurs' phones inside and outside China on a large scale since 2013.

Tibet

Authorities in Tibetan areas continue to severely restrict religious freedom, speech, movement, and assembly, and fail to redress popular concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, which often involve intimidation and unlawful use of force by security forces.

Authorities' 13th Five-Year Plan for Tibet (2015-2020), which set ambitious state goals for rural transformation, includes the relocation of several hundred thousand more people. Official claims of "poverty alleviation" prompted fears of further marginalization and dispossession of Tibet's rural majority.

In May, regulations for the promotion of "Nationality Unity Model Areas" came into force, representing a new milestone for the coercive assimilationist policies of the current leadership. These policies encourage economic migration from other parts of China and phasing out Tibetan-medium instruction in primary schools. Intensified surveillance and intimidation in neighborhoods, workplaces, and homes has prevented public protest, a goal emphasized repeatedly by leading officials.

At the 7th Forum on Tibet Work in August 2020, President Xi personally called for increasing political education in schools to ensure the loyalty of the next generation, signaling central support for these policies.

In the Ngawa Tibetan region of Sichuan in November 2019, Yonten became the 156th Tibetan to set himself on fire in protest against the Chinese government since March 2009.

Covid-19

The Chinese government's response to the coronavirus outbreak was initially delayed by withholding information from the public, under-reporting cases of infection, downplaying the severity of the infection, and dismissing the likelihood of transmission between humans. Authorities also detained people for "rumor-mongering," censored online discussions of the outbreak, and curbed media reporting.

In areas under lockdown, particularly in Wuhan in early 2020 and in Xinjiang in August, authorities failed to ensure appropriate access to medical care, food, and other necessities. In Xinjiang, authorities forced some residents to take traditional Chinese medicine, sealed their apartment doors with iron bars, and chained those who violated lockdown measures to metal posts.

Authorities detained lawyer and citizen journalist Chen Qiushi, businessman Fang Bin, activist Zhang Zhan, and others for their independent reporting on the outbreak in Wuhan. In April, Beijing police detained Chen Mei and Cai Wei for archiving censored news articles, interviews, and personal accounts related to the outbreak.

In April, authorities in Guangzhou, home to China's largest African community, forcibly tested Africans for the coronavirus, and ordered them to self-isolate or to quarantine in designated hotels. Landlords evicted African residents, forcing many to sleep on the street, and hotels, shops, and restaurants refused to serve African customers.

Authorities across the country blocked family members of those who died of the virus from bringing allegations of negligence against the government, hospitals, and quarantine hotels.

Nationwide, more than 241 million pre-school to secondary school students were impacted by school closures, according to UN estimates. Pre-existing inequalities in education were reflected in students' lack of access to affordable internet and capable devices.

Beijing initially resisted a call for international investigation into the origin of the virus, punishing Australia, who initiated the call, by suspending a significant portion of beef imports from the country. After over 120 countries supported a resolution at the World Health Organization (WHO) supporting an independent investigation, Beijing allowed a WHO team to visit the country, but the experts' August visit did not include Wuhan.

Human Rights Defenders

Authorities continued to crack down on a once-growing community of human right defenders, and increasingly targeted family members of activists.

In December 2019, police across the country detained several participants at a gathering in Xiamen, Fujian province, where attendees had discussed human rights and China's political future. While others were later released, human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi remained in detention on charge of "inciting subversion." In the same month, a Sichuan court sentenced Wang Yi, a Christian pastor, to nine years in prison for "inciting subversion."

In February, authorities in Guangzhou apprehended prominent and previously imprisoned legal activist Xu Zhiyong, accusing him of "subversion." Police also placed Xu's girlfriend, Li Qiaochu, under secret detention for four months.

In March, Yunnan authorities forcibly disappeared artist and activist Wang Zang. Three months later, his wife, Wang Liqin, was also disappeared after calling for her husband's release on Twitter, leaving their four small children without their parents. The couple were later charged with "inciting subversion."

In April, after being wrongfully imprisoned for four-and-a-half years, human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang was released from prison. Despite having tested negative repeatedly for Covid-19, authorities made him quarantine in his hometown before allowing him to return to Beijing and reunite-under guard- with his family.

In June, a court in Jiangsu province sentenced Yu Wensheng, a human rights lawyer detained since January 2018, to four years in prison after convicting him of "inciting subversion."

In September, Beijing police detained publisher and producer Geng Xiaonan and her husband, Qin Zhen, on suspicion of "illegal business operations." Geng is a long-time supporter of independent scholars and activists, and earlier spoke up publicly for her friend Xu Zhangrun, a prominent law professor who was detained for six days in July for publishing articles critical of President Xi.

Freedom of Expression

Authorities detained and prosecuted numerous netizens for online posts and private chat messages critical of the government, charging them with crimes such as "spreading rumors," "picking quarrels," and "insulting the country's leaders." The government continued to crack down on Chinese users of Twitter, which is already blocked in China. It was revealed in January that a mainland student at the University of Minnesota was sentenced to six months in prison in November 2019 for tweets critical of President Xi he posted when he was in the US.

Authorities expanded their internet censorship regime to suppress content not in line with "core socialist values." In March, the Cyberspace Administration implemented a set of new regulations to improve "online news eco-system governance." Including banning a wide and ever-expanding range of "negative" or illegal content. In August, authorities shut down Bainu, the only Mongolian-language social media site in China after Mongolian speakers posted complaints on the site about a policy that replaced Mongolian with Mandarin Chinese as the language of instruction in some classes.

In March, a court in Ningbo sentenced Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai to 10 years for allegedly "providing intelligence" to foreigners. This came five years after Gui, a publisher of books about China's political intrigues, was forcibly disappeared in Thailand in October 2015.

Freedom of Religion

The Chinese government's efforts to "Sinicize" religion-which aim to ensure that the Chinese Communist Party is the arbiter of people's spiritual life- continued in 2020.

Existing Chinese law already requires that people can only practice five officially recognized religions in officially approved premises, and that the authorities have control over their personnel appointments, publications, finances, and seminary applications. The Chinese government further tightened these restrictions on February 1, when it started to implement the new "Administrative Measures for Religious Groups." The measures declare the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party in religious affairs, require religious organizations to publicize the Party's policies, put in the hands of officials the power to decide even the most minute of religious decisions, and prohibit religious groups from operating without authorization.

On April 2, Zhao Huaiguo, pastor of Bethel Church in Cili County, Hunan, was arrested for "inciting subversion."

Muslims reported increasing restrictions on Islam. Authorities scrubbed Arabic script from mosques and halal restaurants, and altered the architectural style of mosques and landmarks to make them look more "Chinese" across the country.

In July, hackers originating from China were found to be spying on the Vatican's computer networks. In October, the Vatican renewed a two-year unpublished agreement with the Chinese government that allows both parties a say in appointing bishops in China, despite heightened religious persecution in China.

Mass Surveillance

To combat Covid-19, Chinese tech giants developed an app known as the Health Code. Using unknown algorithms, the app generates one of three colors (green, yellow, or red) depending on a range of factors such as whether people have been to virus-hit areas. That color has a wide-ranging impact on people's lives, including their freedom of movement, as local authorities throughout the country require people to show their app when they move around.

In May, Canadian research group Citizen Lab found that Chinese social media service WeChat was monitoring the content of users outside China.

Apps, products, and tools developed by Chinese tech companies raise the threat of Chinese government interference and surveillance, leading some foreign governments to impose broad restrictions that themselves raise human rights concerns. The Indian government banned TikTok, WeChat, and other Chinese apps in June; the US government launched a vaguely worded "Clean Network" initiative to significantly curtail the use and sale of Chinese technology products and services in the United States, such as by removing major Chinese apps from US app stores.

Women's and Girls' Rights

According to women's rights activists, domestic violence cases surged in cities and towns under coronavirus lockdowns.

In June, the National People's Congress, China's rubberstamp parliament, introduced a civil code that, for the first time, defines sexual harassment and states that perpetrators can be held liable, though it is vague on what recourse is available to victims. The law also makes it harder to divorce by establishing a mandatory "cooling-off period" of 30 days for couples who apply for divorce-through-agreement. This provision will disproportionately harm women, as three-quarters of divorces are initiated by women, including potentially endangering women experiencing domestic violence.

Women's rights activists continued to face harassment from authorities. In March, authorities in Inner Mongolia forced Ye Haiyan-an activist who has advocated for the rights of sex workers and victims of sexual harassment-to demolish the yurts she and her partner had built as rentals for travelers, cutting off a main source of their income.

In September, feminists and netizens were disappointed when a high-profile #MeToo lawsuit ended with the top prosecutor clearing Bao Yuming, a lawyer and former executive at Chinese tech company ZTE, of charges of child rape by a woman who claimed to be his adopted daughter.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

While China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, it lacks laws protecting people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and same-sex partnerships are not legal.

In January, a court in Beijing ruled that it was illegal for an e-commerce company to fire a woman when she took a leave of absence for gender-affirming surgery.

In June, a Zhejiang court accepted a case brought by a lesbian suing for custody and visitation rights of the children she had with her former partner whom she had married in the United States.

In August, organizers of the Shanghai Pride, one of China's largest LGBT festivals, announced that they would cancel all activities and events indefinitely, citing the need to "protect the safety of all involved."

Disability Rights

China ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008. However, persons with disabilities continue to face discrimination in areas including education and employment.

Only five students were able to access the Braille version of China's university entrance exam, an exam taken by more than 10 million students in July.

Authorities across the country continued to harass and prosecute families with children who developed disabilities after receiving faulty vaccines. In January, authorities released He Fangmei, an activist for vaccine safety detained in March 2019.

In September, a Hunan court secretly tried Cheng Yuan, Liu Dazhi, and Wu Gejianxiong, staff members of the anti-discrimination and disability rights group Changsha Funeng, on "subversion" charges.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers

China continued to detain and forcibly return hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of North Korean refugees, thus violating its obligations as a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention. The government refused to consider fleeing North Koreans as refugees, even though those returned have long been persecuted. Human Rights Watch considers North Koreans in China as refugees sur place, meaning their arrival in China put them at risk if returned.

Key International Actors

An increasing number of governments expressed public concern about China's human rights violations in 2020, particularly in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, though relatively few took concrete action.

The US imposed some targeted sanctions on Chinese officials, agencies, and companies involved in abuses in those two regions, and the US Congress passed several new laws on a range of human rights concerns. The UK spearheaded a joint statement on China's rights violations at the Human Rights Council in June, and moved to offer safe haven to Hong Kongers with UK ties. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US moved swiftly to suspend extradition treaties with Hong Kong and some to ease access for Hong Kong people to those countries in response to the National Security Law.

The European Union continued to condemn China's deteriorating human rights record, both bilaterally-including at the highest levels-and in international fora. However, despite sustained pressure from the European Parliament and civil society, divisions among EU member states have prevented the bloc from adopting robust measures such as targeted sanctions against the Chinese officials responsible for the crackdown. Few governments in Muslim majority countries expressed concerns about abuses in Xinjiang.

The number of countries willing to publicly condemn the Chinese government for its abuses in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, and elsewhere continued to grow, while the number of countries willing to praise Beijing declined. In October, Germany delivered a joint statement condemning the Chinese government's violations to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee with the backing of 39 countries, and Turkey delivered a separate statement of concern. Similarly, over 400 civil society organizations called for an international mechanism to monitor human rights in China.

Another global coalition of 200 civil society groups launched a campaign to persuade companies at risk of complicity in Uyghur forced labor to leave Xinjiang. In September, apparel company H&M said it would cut ties with an allegedly complicit supplier with which it had an indirect relationship, while five firms announced they would no longer conduct audits in that region due to restrictions.

Other global firms enabled Chinese authorities' repression. In June HSBC publicly expressed its support for the new Hong Kong National Security Law; in September Disney failed to respond to global outcry over its having cooperated with abusive authorities in Xinjiang during its filming of Mulan.

Universities outside China continued to struggle to protect academic freedom in the face of threats from pro-Chinese voices. The University of New South Wales in Australia took down an article pro-Beijing voices found objectionable and then reposted it, but failed to use the opportunity to robustly explain and defend academic freedom.

In October, China was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for a three-year term beginning in January 2021-with the fewest votes of any elected member.

Foreign Policy

The "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI), announced in 2013, is China's trillion-dollar infrastructure and investment program stretching across some 70 countries. Many BRI projects have been criticized for lack of transparency, disregard of community concerns, and potential environmental degradation. Civil society groups in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand have alleged BRI-backed hydroelectric dams have negatively impacted the Mekong River and caused water shortages. China is by far the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It has done little to reduce its emissions that contribute significantly to global warming and climate change. It has continued to promote the development of heavily polluting coal both domestically and through BRI.

2020 marked rapid escalations in the Chinese government's mistreatment of foreign journalists. Beijing in February expelled three Wall Street Journal journalists. In March, authorities expelled at least 13 US nationals and dismissed seven Chinese nationals who worked for US news organizations. In September, authorities delayed visa renewals for a number of journalists with US outlets. That same month, authorities barred two Australian reporters from two Australian news organizations from leaving the country, citing the need to question them about the case of Cheng Lei, an Australian news anchor for the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN who was detained in August for unspecified reasons. The two Australian journalists fled China after the ban was lifted following negotiations between the two countries.

The effect of Chinese government censorship continues to reach beyond China's borders. In June, Zoom shut down a US-based Chinese dissident's account after he held a Tiananmen Massacre memorial that was joined by China-based activists and families of victims of the 1989 massacre. Chinese tech company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, censored content it considered as critical of the Chinese government on its news aggregator app in Indonesia from 2018 to mid-2020, according to a Reuters report.

At the June session of the Human Rights Council, China secured the passage of its resolution on "mutually beneficial cooperation," which ignores states' responsibility to protect human rights and minimizes the role of civil society. Support diminished considerably from China's previous "win-win" resolution, indicating diminishing enthusiasm for these initiatives.

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World Report 2021: Rights Trends in China

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The Chinese government's authoritarianism was on full display in 2020 as it grappled with the deadly coronavirus outbreak first reported in Wuhan province. Authorities initially covered up news about the virus, then adopted harsh quarantine measures in Wuhan and other parts of China.

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https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/bolivia/

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Bolivia is a constitutional, multiparty republic with an elected president and a bicameral legislature. On October 18, Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, candidate for the Movement Toward Socialism Party, won a presidential election with 55 percent of the vote. His closest opponent, Citizen Community coalition candidate Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert, won 28.8 percent. International electoral observation missions and domestic electoral observation organizations characterized the elections as free, fair, and transparent.

The national police, under the Ministry of Government's authority, have primary responsibility for law enforcement and the maintenance of order within the country, but the Armed Forces, which report to the Ministry of Defense, may be called to help in critical situations. Immigration officials report to the Ministry of Government, and police and military share responsibilities for border enforcement. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. Members of the security forces committed abuses.

Significant human rights issues included: torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government officials; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems concerning judicial independence; restrictions on free expression, the press, and other media, including violence against journalists by state security forces and censorship; serious acts of corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for violence against women; crimes involving violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons; and use of child labor.

The government took steps in some cases to prosecute members of the security services and other government officials who committed abuses, but inconsistent application of the law and a dysfunctional judiciary led to impunity.

Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:

a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings

There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings during the year.

The Institute of Forensic Investigations recorded 30 persons killed from October 20 to November 15, 2019, in the context of the postelectoral crisis. The death toll was corroborated by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Of these 30 deaths, OHCHR and forensic reports indicated nine persons were killed and more than 100 injured during demonstrations in Sacaba, Cochabamba Department, on November 15, 2019, and another 10 were killed and 30 injured during protests near the Senkata gas facility in El Alto, La Paz Department, on November 19, 2019.

Regarding the violent disturbances that occurred in the postelectoral period in October-November 2019, an August OHCHR report cited Institute of Forensic Investigation reporting that the use of lethal ammunition led to deaths and injuries during protests in Sacaba and Senkata. The OHCHR report also highlighted there were no reports of security forces being killed or wounded by gunfire during these same protests, although Ministry of Justice officials stated a number of security forces were wounded during the Sacaba incident. A December 2019 preliminary report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) stated the injury patterns in both cases "point strongly to extrajudicial killing practices." Government authorities denied security forces were responsible for these deaths, claiming the protesters used their own firearms and that some calibers of the bullets found in victims' corpses did not correspond to standard ammunition issued to police or armed forces. In a February interview with Human Rights Watch, then minister of government Arturo Murillo claimed leaders of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Party killed their party's own supporters in Sacaba and Senkata, referencing the forensic reports that allegedly found bullets in victims that were inconsistent with the caliber used by security forces. The August OHCHR report cited forensic reports indicating authorities were unable to recover the vast majority of bullets that killed and injured protesters in the two incidents and that authorities had not conducted any formal assessment of the weapons carried by security forces during those operations. Government officials stated the use of force by security forces was proportional to the protesters' level of violence. The officials indicated protesters had homemade weapons and explosive material and that they intended to cause an explosion at the gas installation the armed forces were guarding in Senkata. The OHCHR also reported accounts of the events from authorities, victims, and witnesses revealed inconsistencies that needed to be investigated.

A September Human Rights Watch report indicated other persons died in subsequent clashes between pro-Morales supporters and their opponents, including two men allegedly killed by Morales supporters in Montero, Santa Cruz Department. According to local media, two police officers were also killed in the postelection violence. In November 2019 police sergeant Juan Alarcon Parra died of injuries after allegedly being beaten by a mob, and Lieutenant Coronel Heybar Alarcon died in a motorcycle accident allegedly after being attacked by protesters.

In December 2019 the IACHR announced it had signed an agreement with the transitional government to create a mechanism to support the investigation of acts of violence and human rights abuses that took place between September and December 2019. Subsequently, an Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) was created by the IACHR with the agreement of the transitional government to investigate the events for a period of six months, which could be extended by agreement of the parties for as long as necessary to fulfill its mission.

On November 23, the Arce government and the IACHR signed a protocol agreement during a public ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to install the five-member GIEI and officially begin the investigation into the acts of violence that occurred between September and December 2019. The group of international human rights experts is scheduled to conduct meetings with victims, witnesses, government authorities, and civil society. The government authorized the group to have access to police and military records to conduct an independent and impartial investigation of the acts of violence surrounding the October 2019 general election.

b. Disappearance

There were no reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The constitution prohibits all forms of torture, coercion, and physical and emotional violence, but there were reports that government officials employed them. The penal code carries only minimum penalties for persons convicted of torture, but no public official had ever been found guilty of the crime.

A representative of the Ombudsman Office, Nelson Cox, alleged that nine prisoners from the Chapare region detained on drug charges were physically and psychologically attacked by police after they were sent on April 26 to the El Abra Prison in Cochabamba. Cox referenced a report from the prison physician that found bruising and lesions on the prisoners resulting from blows to their lower extremities, back, and ribs.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) charged that the Ministry of Justice's Service to Prevent Torture failed to denounce consistently torture by police and military personnel, who employed it frequently. NGOs reported that police investigations relied heavily on torture to procure information and extract confessions. The majority of abuses reportedly occurred while officials were transferring detainees to police facilities or holding them in detention. According to reports from NGOs engaged with prison populations, the most common forms of torture for detainees included rape, gang rape by guards, sensory deprivation, use of improvised tear gas chambers and Tasers, asphyxiation, verbal abuse, and threats of violence.

Within the military, torture and mistreatment occurred both to punish and to intimidate trainees into submission. Military officials regularly verbally abused soldiers for minor infractions and perceived disobedience.

Impunity remained a significant problem in the National Police due to corruption and politicization of the judicial system, with mechanisms to investigate abuse rarely utilized or enforced. Complex legal procedures, large numbers of detainees, judicial inefficiency, executive interference, corruption, and inadequate case-tracking mechanisms contributed to police impunity. According to a 2019 report by the Department of Inspection and Control of Disciplinary Cases of the Institution of Order, 180 police officers cited in criminal proceedings between 2014 and 2019 were reinstated after their cases were closed. Of the 180 officers, 84 were involved in drug trafficking and corruption cases. Mechanisms to investigate abuse exist, but investigations frequently were not completed due to systemic corruption that encouraged investigated parties to pay off investigators. NGOs and the international community offered most training courses to increase respect for human rights, but few took place throughout the year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Prison and Detention Center Conditions

Prisons were overcrowded, underfunded, and in poor condition, resulting in harsh and life-threatening conditions. Violence was pervasive due to inadequate internal security.

Physical Conditions: According to the government's Penitentiary Regime Directorate, prison facilities had a combined capacity for 6,765 persons, but in March the prison population was 18,260 inmates, representing a 270 percent overpopulation. The problem was most acute in the 20 urban prisons, which had a combined capacity of 5,436 persons but held 15,581 inmates.

Women's prisons operated in Cochabamba, two in La Paz, Reyes, Rurrenabaque, Santa Rosa, and Trinidad. Men and women shared sleeping facilities in Morros Blancos Prison in Tarija, Montero Prison in Santa Cruz, Riberalta Prison in Beni, and Oruro Prison in Oruro. In other facilities men and women had separate sleeping quarters but commingled daily. Female inmates experienced sexual harassment and assault on a regular basis, and some were forced to pay antirape extortion fees. While observers noted violence against women, such as rape, was rampant, they reported a culture of silence that suppressed reporting of gender-based violence due to fear of reprisal.

Although the law permits children up to age six to live with an incarcerated parent under "safe and regulated conditions," children as old as 12 resided in detention centers with incarcerated parents, despite unsafe conditions, often because the parents lacked viable alternative living arrangements due to poverty or family constraints. Minors ages six and younger were allowed only in women's prisons. Minors were not allowed to live in men's detention centers.

The law sets the juvenile detention ages from 14 to 16 and requires that juvenile offenders be held in facilities separate from the general prison population to facilitate rehabilitation. Children younger than age 14 are exempt from criminal liability but may be subject to civil liability. Adult inmates and police reportedly abused juvenile prisoners. Rehabilitation programs for juveniles or other prisoners were scarce.

Violence was ubiquitous due to inadequate internal security. Abuses perpetrated by penitentiary officials included systematic intimidation, rape, psychological mistreatment, extortion, torture, and threats of death. There were reports of rape and sexual assault committed by authorities and other inmates.

Prisoners with independent means could purchase a transfer to the rehabilitation center, a newly built detention facility with better living conditions. One medical doctor attended to prisoners in each prison twice a month. Although medical services were free, prisons rarely had medications on hand. Skin diseases and tuberculosis were widespread due to the cramped sleeping quarters and lack of medicine to manage contagion. Incarcerated women lacked access to obstetric services.

Corruption was persistent. A prisoner's ability to pay bribes often determined physical security, cell size, visiting privileges, ability to attend court hearings, day-pass eligibility, and place and length of confinement. Inmates and NGOs both alleged there was an insufficient number of police officers to escort inmates to their hearings, and prison directors often refused to intervene, exacerbating delays. Police sometimes demanded bribes in exchange for granting inmates the right to attend their own hearings. Independent media reported corruption complaints against police were common. Prison inmates stated guards extorted money in order to receive goods.

On July 27, inmates at four separate detention centers in Cochabamba mutinied against poor sanitary conditions and lack of medical care. Inmates from San Sebastian Male Prison, San Sebastian Female Prison, San Pedro de Sacaba Prison, and San Pablo de Quillacollo Prison staged separate protests demanding rapid COVID-19 testing, medical attention, and considerations of amnesty and pardons after three inmates died of suspected COVID-19 symptoms in San Sabastian Male Prison and another three in San Pablo de Quillacollo Prison. A relative of one of the inmates said there were no physicians or medical supplies inside the facility. Inmates complained that many judicial activities had been suspended since the start of the pandemic due to infections among judges. The heightened tension followed the suspected COVID-19 death of 23 inmates in the San Pedro Jail of La Paz.

On August 19, Director General of the Penitentiary System Clemente Silva Ruiz reported in a UN webinar that 56 prisoners had died due to COVID-19 throughout the prison system. He stated that overcrowding, a lack of infrastructure, and a lack of medical personnel were the main factors for the loss of life. According to data provided during the webinar, since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak the Penitentiary System registered 118 confirmed cases, with 16 persons hospitalized, 56 deceased, and five awaiting test results. There were also 149 suspected cases. The director explained that despite the prison system's contracts with hospitals to care for prisoners, inmates with suspected COVID-19 were denied care due to a lack of space in the hospitals.

Administration: Authorities generally did not conduct investigations of credible allegations of mistreatment. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, prisoners could submit complaints to a commission of district judges for investigation, but due to fear of retaliation by prison authorities, inmates frequently did not do so.

Independent Monitoring: The government generally permitted monitoring by independent NGO observers such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, local NGOs, judges, religious organizations, legislators, and media. The COVID-19 pandemic greatly restricted independent monitoring of prison conditions, however. As of August observers reported a nearly four-month court closure during the national quarantine and a near complete ban on visiting prisons by outside monitors, with many lawyers who represented defendants unable to visit in person. Criminal justice activists also pointed to the lack of any law related to the access to public information in the prison system and stated the lack of transparency and opacity in the judicial branch increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, but the government did not always respect the law. The law also provides for the right of any person to challenge the lawfulness of his or her arrest or detention in court. The government generally observed this provision, although international human rights groups highlighted a number of potentially politically motivated cases initiated by the interim government that resulted in arbitrary arrest.

Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees

The law requires that police obtain an arrest warrant from a prosecutor and that a judge substantiate the warrant within eight hours of an arrest. Police did not strictly adhere to these time restrictions, except in cases in which the government specifically ordered adherence. The law also mandates that a detainee appear before a judge within 24 hours (except under a declared state of siege, during which a detainee may be held for 48 hours), at which time the judge must determine the appropriateness of continued pretrial detention or release on bail. The judge is to order the detainee's release if the prosecutor fails to show sufficient grounds for arrest. The government allows suspects to select their own lawyers and provides a lawyer from the Public Defender's Office if the suspect requests one. The public defenders were generally overburdened and limited in their ability to provide adequate, timely legal assistance. While bail is permitted, most detainees were placed in pretrial detention or could not afford to post bail. Several legal experts noted pretrial detention was the rule rather than the exception.

Arbitrary Arrest: The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, but the government did not always respect the law.

On May 22, Judge Hugo Huacani ordered the transfer of Edith Chavez Arauco, the babysitter of former president Evo Morales's minister of the presidency, Juan Ramon Quintana, from pretrial detention to house arrest after the time period of her ordered pretrial detention had expired. Hours later Judge Huacani was detained by police for a "lack of independence" in his ruling, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry. That same day the La Paz Departmental Attorney General's Office reported it had not been involved in Judge Huacani's arrest nor issued an arrest warrant against him, and on May 23, another judge ordered his release and declared his detention illegal. Amnesty International determined the detention was "arbitrary as it was based solely on the fact that the government disagreed with a judicial decision he [Judge Huacani] had taken."

Pretrial Detention: The law affords judges the authority to order pretrial detention if there is a high probability a suspect committed a crime, if evidence exists that the accused seeks to obstruct the investigation process, or if a suspect is considered a flight risk. If a suspect is not detained, a judge may order significant restrictions on the suspect's movements.

The law states no one shall be detained for more than 18 months without formal charges. If after 18 months the prosecutor does not present formal charges and conclude the investigatory phase, the detainee may request release by a judge. The judge must order the detainee's release, but the charges against the detainee are not dropped. By law the investigatory phase and trial phase of a case may not exceed 36 months combined. The law allows a trial extension if the delays in the process are due to the defense. In these circumstances pretrial detention may exceed the 36-month limit without violating the law.

Despite the legal limits on pretrial detention, prolonged pretrial detention remained a problem. Complex legal procedures, large numbers of detainees, judicial inefficiency, executive interference, corruption, a shortage of public defenders, and inadequate case-tracking mechanisms contributed to trial delays that lengthened pretrial detention and kept many suspects detained beyond the legal limits for the completion of a trial or the presentation of formal charges.

Many defense attorneys intentionally did not attend hearings in order to delay trial proceedings and ultimately avoid a final sentencing, either at the request of their clients or due to high caseloads. According to information received in March from the Penitentiary Regime Directorate, approximately 65 percent of prisoners were being held in pretrial detention, consistent with 2019 figures but less than in previous years, when 70-85 percent of the prison population was in pretrial detention.

e. Denial of a Fair Public Trial

The law provides for an independent judiciary, but the judiciary remained overburdened, vulnerable to undue influence by the executive and legislative branches, and plagued with allegations of corruption. Authorities generally respected court orders, but on several occasions, they pressured judges to change verdicts. Judges and prosecutors sometimes practiced self-censorship when issuing rulings to avoid becoming the target of verbal and legal harassment by the government.

The judiciary faced numerous administrative and budgetary problems. NGOs asserted the funds budgeted for the judiciary were insufficient to assure equal and efficient justice and that the reliance on underfunded, overburdened public prosecutors led to serious judicial backlogs. As a result justice officials were vulnerable to bribery and corruption, according to credible observers, including legal experts. An August report by the domestic NGO Fundacion Construir stated that only 0.52 percent of the 2020 national budget was allocated to the entire judicial sector. The 2018 Report on the State of Justice indicated that of the 118 members (magistrates), 1,039 ordinary judges, and 63 agriculture or environmental judges, only 223 were considered career judges. While the Ministry of Justice approved greater regulations regarding the judicial career, NGOs cited a lack of transparency in the application of these regulations and the classification of career versus noncareer judges.

Trial Procedures

The law provides for the right to a fair and public trial without undue delay, but the government did not always respect the law. Defendants are entitled to be informed of charges promptly and in detail and to a presumption of innocence and trial by a panel of judges. They have the right to avoid self-incrimination and to consult an attorney of their choice, receive adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense and confront adverse witnesses, present witnesses and evidence, and file an appeal. Defendants who cannot afford an attorney have the right to a public defender or private attorney at public expense. Free translation and interpretation services are required by law. Officials did not always comply with the law. Criminal justice observers pointed out the number of public defenders fell from 89 to 77 countrywide during the year, resulting in increased case backlogs. Observers also highlighted the perennial problems of poor retention due to the large workload and poor compensation, with public defenders often earning only half of what prosecutors earned.

Judicial system NGOs expressed concern regarding what they termed "the arbitrary use of the penal system" to criminally prosecute persons who violated COVID-19 quarantine measures. According to press statements from the prosecutor's office of various departments, as of mid-May, 193 criminal sentences for crimes against public health had been delivered: 126 in Santa Cruz, 56 in La Paz, and 11 in Chuquisaca. According to other data released by the Public Prosecutor's Office, from March 22 to April 20, the office had initiated 273 criminal cases of crimes against public health throughout all nine departments. NGOs expressed particular concern regarding the systematic use of abbreviated procedures that pressured defendants to plead guilty to obtain a lighter sentence and serve it under house arrest instead of in prison. NGOs argued this method of offering a lighter sentence if the defendant agrees to an abbreviated procedure violates due process legal provisions.

On April 30, the interim government released Decree Law No. 4226, Presidential Decree of Amnesty and Pardon for Humanitarian Reasons and National Health Emergency, against the contagion and spread of COVID-19 in the prison system. Many justice system observers and civil society representatives criticized the expansive exclusion criteria within the decree such as age limits or types of crimes that drastically reduce the number of prisoners eligible for parole or pardon. The limited number of public defenders, who would typically have to initiate the pardon requests, exacerbated the ineffectiveness of the decree.

Political Prisoners and Detainees

According to an August OHCHR report, the Office of the Attorney General initiated criminal proceedings against approximately 150 former Morales government officials at all levels from November 2019 to February. Common charges included sedition, terrorism, and breach of duties, and the proceedings were often initiated by legal complaints from interim government officials. The OHCHR expressed concern that the overly broad and vague definitions of crimes such as terrorism, sedition, and breach of duties "could be arbitrarily applied to restrict the rights of a person." The report also noted violations of legal due-process provisions, irregularities in the notification of legal warrants, and the detention and prosecution of defense attorneys. In September, Ministry of Justice officials denied these figures, claiming that only a handful of terrorism or sedition investigations remained open. The officials cited the case of former minister of culture Wilma Alanoca Mamani and nine other colleagues from the Ministry of Culture who allegedly fabricated Molotov cocktails and distributed them to MAS supporters in the days preceding Morales' resignation.

On August 19, the International Policy Commission in the MAS-controlled Chamber of Deputies approved the extension of a bill for the safe conduct of former officials in the Morales administration who had claimed asylum in the residence of the Mexican embassy since late 2019. Following the departure of Morales in November 2019, seven former officials sought asylum in the Mexican embassy, among them former presidency minister Juan Ramon Quintana, former defense minister Javier Zabaleta, and former justice minister Hector Arce. Gonzalo Aguilar, a MAS deputy, claimed these former officials had not been found guilty of any crime and had been accused of political crimes. Officials in the interim government's Foreign Ministry disagreed, stating that Congress could not encroach other legal jurisdictions and that many of the former officials had urgent arrest orders pending against them for charges of sedition, terrorism, terrorist financing, and public incitement to commit a crime. Following the October 18 elections, the majority of the detention orders and criminal investigations against the former officials were dropped, and all seven officials eventually left the Mexican embassy. On October 25, a judge annulled the detention order against Zabaleta, and on November 1, judges annulled the detention orders against Quintana and Hector Arce.

Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies

The law permits individuals and organizations to seek criminal remedies for human rights violations through domestic courts. At the conclusion of a criminal trial, the complainant may initiate a civil trial to seek damages. The human rights ombudsman may issue administrative resolutions on specific human rights cases. The ombudsman's resolutions are nonbinding, and the government is not obligated to accept his or her recommendations.

f. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence

The law prohibits such actions, and there were no reports that the government failed to respect these prohibitions.

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

a. Freedom of Expression, Including for the Press

While the constitution provides for freedom of expression, including for the press, the former Morales government, and to a lesser extent the transitional government, carried out reprisals against media outlets that expressed dissenting opinions. Some media outlets reported the government pressured and intimidated them to report favorably regarding its policies, particularly by withholding government advertising and imposing steep taxes.

Freedom of Speech: On March 25, the interim government issued Presidential Decree 4200 as one of the first major government decrees to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by mandating a national quarantine through April 15 (which was later extended due to an increase in COVID-19 cases). In a section titled "Sanctions for Lack of Compliance," the second clause reads: "Individuals who incite noncompliance with this decree or misinform or cause uncertainty in the population will be subject to criminal charges for crimes against public health." A subsequent clause states persons who commit crimes against public health "will be subject to imprisonment for one to 10 years, in accordance with the stipulations of the penal code." The decree itself establishes no legal sanctions beyond those that already exist. The decree's language led to criticisms from international observers. On April 7, Jose Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch called the decree's provision "overly broad" and argued the interim government "appears to be taking advantage of the pandemic to give itself the power to punish anyone who publishes information the government deems 'incorrect,' in violation of free speech protections." On April 11, the IACHR special rapporteur for freedom of expression echoed this sentiment in a tweet, claiming the provision reflected a "disproportionate use of penal law to criminalize commentary on issues of public interest."

On May 7, the interim government issued Presidential Decree 4231, which states that persons who disseminate information "be it in written, printed, artistic form and/or by any other procedure that puts them at risk or affects public health, or generates uncertainty in the population, will be liable to complaints for the commission of crimes established in the penal code." This decree built upon Presidential Decree 4200 to deter the spread of "misinformation" related to COVID-19 by broadening the potential methods of disinformation to include "printed and/or artistic form." Following this decree, the Ombudsman's Office announced it would file an action before the Constitutional Tribunal to declare Decree 4231 was unconstitutional and violated the fundamental democratic right to freedom of expression. Many entities previously critical of the Morales government's record on free speech issues noted the decree represented a similar threat against freedom of speech. The Association of Journalists of Bolivia and the Association of Journalists of La Paz called for the repeal of Decree 4231, since "it establishes a severe unconstitutional and unconventional restrictions by penalizing the human and fundamental right to freedom of expression."

Following a May 14 cabinet meeting, the interim government announced it was annulling the relevant provisions of each "disinformation" decree. The interim government had been widely criticized by domestic and international groups, including the IACHR, for the decrees' language, which many had argued countered citizens' free speech and free press rights and international commitments.

On April 21, Mauricio Jara Pacheco was arrested and placed into pretrial detention for allegedly inciting the population via WhatsApp Messenger groups to ignore the rigid national quarantine measures and for belonging to a group of "digital warriors" tied to the previous Morales administration. He was charged with sedition, public instigation to commit a crime, and attacks against public health. On April 29, a total of 46 journalists and media figures released a public statement demanding his release and urging the government to respect freedom of expression. As of September, Jara Pacheco remained in pretrial detention while the investigation continued.

Freedom of the Press and Media, Including Online Media: According to Supreme Decree 181, the government should provide goods and services to all media outlets in a nondiscriminatory manner, but it did not purchase advertisements in media outlets considered adversarial.

Media outlets alleged the government pressured news organizations to report favorably on government policies and retaliated against news organizations that did not comply. The National Press Association of Bolivia (ANP) and several journalists alleged the government's retaliatory tactics included withdrawing advertisements and conducting excessive tax audits, which forced companies to spend significant time and resources to defend themselves. Civil society organizations explained that while reported harassment under the interim government was not as serious as during the Morales government, other forms of economic pressure via advertising used under the Morales administration continued relatively unchanged. In late 2019 Minister of Communication and Minister of Government Murillo threatened journalists who published stories against the government, but no charges were filed.

Violence and Harassment: Journalists faced threats. On September 11, the ANP Monitoring Unit released a report that detailed 87 cases of assault or attacks against journalists in 2019, up 165 percent from 2018. The unit cited increased social tension during an electoral year as the principal cause. In addition to the 87 cases of direct attacks, the report also highlighted other "alerts" of aggression against freedom of expression that included restricting access to information, stigmatizing discourse, and internet restrictions. Of the 162 total alerts (including the 87 cases of attacks against journalists), the report identified the government as the perpetrator in 28 percent of them, with the other alerts attributed to nonstate actors (mainly protesters) or unknown perpetrators.

On July 29, the ANP reported that at least four journalists were physically and verbally attacked during a march organized by the trade union federation Central Obrera Boliviana and organizations aligned with MAS against the postponement of the general election date, but several of those affected opted for self-censorship to avoid retaliation. Protesters tried to take mobile phones from press envoys filming the marches, and other press workers were insulted and threatened by marchers. One federation leader, who organized the protests, claimed the leadership lacked the ability to control "radical people" among the bases.

On May 20, the ANP reported that a journalist and cameraman were ambushed by MAS-aligned protesters in the K'ara neighborhood of Cochabamba as they attempted to cover a conciliation meeting between community members and municipal authorities regarding a garbage dump that had been temporarily closed due to COVID-19 concerns. According to victim testimony and video from the incident, protesters threw large rocks through the windshield of a press vehicle and chased the journalists as they attempted to flee. The cameraman suffered chest injuries from the stone and shattered glass.

Censorship or Content Restrictions: Journalists sometimes practiced self-censorship due to fear of losing their jobs or losing access to government sources, in addition to fear of prosecution and harassment.

Internet Freedom

There was no evidence the government restricted or disrupted access to the internet or censored online content, and there were no credible reports that the government monitored private online communications without appropriate legal authority.

Academic Freedom and Cultural Events

There were no government restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events, although political considerations allegedly influenced academic appointments.

b. Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and Association

The constitution provides for the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, but some civil society organizations criticized the interim government for using the pretext of the COVID-19 national quarantine to restrict the right of freedom of assembly. The government generally respected the right of freedom of association.

Freedom of Peaceful Assembly

While the law requires a permit for most demonstrations, the government rarely enforced the provisions, and most protesters demonstrated without obtaining permits. Most demonstrations were peaceful, but occasionally demonstrators carried weapons, including clubs, machetes, firearms, firecrackers, and dynamite. Security forces at times dispersed protest groups carrying weapons or threatening government and private facilities. The number of protests sharply increased due to the postponement of the election to October 18. Protesters established roadblocks that impeded highway traffic for nearly two weeks, and counterprotesters clashed with blockaders in many cities. In September parents of public school students in major cities initiated peaceful, targeted protests to demand school breakfasts for their children, which had been halted when schools closed at the start of the national quarantine.

c. Freedom of Religion

See the Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/ .

d. Freedom of Movement

The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights.

In-country Movement: The law prohibits travel on election days and on census days and restricts foreign and domestic travel for up to three months as a penalty for persons who do not vote.

Foreign Travel: On March 25, the interim government enacted a total quarantine and border closing without prior advance public notice, leaving thousands of citizens working in bordering countries stranded outside their homeland. Many of these migrants had lost jobs or income in bordering countries due to lockdown measures and found themselves left at the border in makeshift quarantine camps for indefinite periods of time.

On April 5, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet cited the example of Bolivians stranded at the border with Chile and noted that in the beginning of the crisis, approximately 1,300 citizens, including pregnant women, elderly persons, and children, were stranded on the Chilean side of the border and forced to sleep in the open in freezing temperatures with little food or water before Bolivian and Chilean officials were able to partially remedy the situation weeks later.

e. Status and Treatment of Internally Displaced Persons

Not applicable.

f. Protection of Refugees

The interim government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern.

Access to Asylum: The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government has established a system for providing protection to refugees through the National Commission on Refugees. The country has a legal structure and framework to accommodate those seeking refuge and has a registry of refugees and stateless persons.

The interim government's National Commission on Refugees reported it had reactivated processing of refugee applications and approved 176 cases as of October.

Employment: Refugees have the right to work once authorities grant their residency status but not while waiting on pending applications. International Organization for Migration officials assisted with economic integration programs in coordination with the interim government to support entrepreneurs and small business owners from the Venezuelan community to create and maintain small businesses.

Durable Solutions: Refugee recognition does not entail in itself a path to naturalization. In 2016 the Interior Ministry approved a reduction of fees for the naturalization procedure for recognized refugees. Any refugee who wishes to begin this process must comply with all the general legal requirements. UNHCR reported it knew of no cases in the past three years of refugees who applied for naturalization. On January 28, Marcel Rivas, the director general of migration, approved a resolution allowing Venezuelan minors without identification documents or expired documents to regularize their immigration status with authorities. Immigration authorities set up this special measure in recognition of the difficulty of obtaining updated Venezuelan identity documents by changing the regulations to allow parents to attest to the identity of their children using photocopies of their Venezuelan birth certificates or identity documents, even if they were expired. Immigration contacts estimated that approximately 3,000 Venezuelans were "living on the streets," many of whom were minors. Previously the law required proper entry documents in order to regularize immigration status.

Section 3. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process

The law provides citizens the ability to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections held by secret ballot and based on universal and equal suffrage.

Elections and Political Participation

Recent Elections: On October 18, MAS candidate Luis Arce won the election for president with 55 percent of the vote. His closest opponent, Citizen Community candidate Carlos Mesa, won 28.8 percent of the vote. The elections were peaceful, and Mesa conceded soon after the release of the preliminary vote tabulations. International electoral observation missions and domestic electoral observation organizations characterized the elections as free, fair, and transparent. On November 8, Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca were sworn in as president and vice president, along with the 36 newly elected members of the Senate and 130 members of the Chamber of Deputies.

After negotiations in November 2019 produced the framework for a new electoral process, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) set the initial date for general elections on May 3. As the prospects for that date waned due to a national quarantine and COVID-19 fears, in March the TSE, in consultation with political parties and the National Assembly (ALP), postponed the elections from the May 3 date without announcing a date. After the MAS sought to force elections by early August, a timeframe to which the TSE never agreed, on June 2, the TSE again negotiated an agreement with most parties to move the date to September 6. Soon afterward, the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic became more apparent, with the collapse of health-care system's ability to handle patients and several high-profile deaths. On July 23, the TSE announced that it was postponing national elections for the second time to October 18, with a second-round presidential runoff election to be held on November 29, if necessary. Marking a first, the TSE made its decision without the assent of the National Assembly (ALP), asserting its authority to do so as a fourth and coequal branch of government. This decision marked the third time an election date had been set since the annulled, fraudulent election of October 2019.

Despite protests and subsequent blockades from the opposition, legal and electoral experts agreed the TSE acted within its constitutional limits regarding its decision to delay national elections by six weeks due to rising COVID-19 cases. TSE leaders justified their decision to postpone elections to October 18 without obtaining assent from the ALP by citing the 2009 constitution and later electoral laws that establish the electoral body as an independent and coequal branch of government with well defined electoral prerogatives. TSE President Salvador Ignacio Romero Ballivian stated the TSE consulted various epidemiological studies from the Ministry of Health and international health organizations to assess forecasts of the pandemic peaking in September. Romero explained the TSE ultimately decided to push back the election date to minimize public-health risks during the peak of the crisis. Prior to the TSE decision, many civil society groups and the majority of presidential candidates, with the exception of MAS candidate Luis Arce, had called on the TSE to delay the election due to the exponential rise in coronavirus cases and threats to public safety.

Article 12 of the 2009 constitution clearly identifies the TSE as a coequal branch of the state that maintains its independence and separation from the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Article 24 of the 2008 Electoral Body Law further delineates the TSE responsibilities to call fixed electoral processes, decide election dates, and approve the respective electoral calendar. Local media reports quoted a number of constitutional and electoral experts who argued the TSE acted within its legal scope of responsibilities to move the election date back based on legitimate public-health concerns. In a press release, the United Nations expressed support for the decision to delay the elections and expressed full confidence "in the professionalism and independence of the Plurinational Electoral Body (OEP)." The UN release also recalled how the TSE members were selected on the individual merits by all the political parties of the ALP and that TSE President Romero was appointed due to his "recognized and impeccable career in electoral matters."

On August 12, following nearly two weeks of extensive protests and road blockades that paralyzed the country and restricted passage of vital medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic, political parties within the ALP reached an agreement giving legal approval for the postponement of elections to October 18. On August 13, interim president Anez signed the bill into law, and the TSE unanimously approved a resolution setting the election date for October 18.

In the face of international condemnation and dwindling public support for the protesters' activities, MAS leadership began to distance themselves from initial solidarity, calling instead for "reflection" and eventually agreeing in principle on an August 8 election date. Other protest leaders from the Unity Pact initially rejected the MAS position and vowed to continue the protests and blockades. International organizations and humanitarian groups had criticized the protesters for preventing the passage of medical supplies through blockade lines. According to the interim government, these blockades resulted in the deaths of more than 30 COVID-19 patients who perished because trucks carrying life-saving oxygen tanks to hospitals were blocked. Local media also documented numerous acts of violent intimidation perpetrated by the protesters, including kidnapping, physical assault, arson, and vandalism. Despite vows from a small number of social organizations to continue the blockades in spite of the political agreement, overall support for the blockades quickly evaporated, and the majority of roadblocks had been cleared by August 17. Clashes between neighborhood civil groups and the blockaders were reported in the departments of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz during this period.

Political Parties and Political Participation: The law prohibits and sanctions the requirement of contributions to a political campaign and states political organizations "may not manage, accept, or receive, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, any type of contributions, donations, subsidies, or support that have been provided from persons who had been forced to make the contribution by their superiors or employers, whether in public or private entities."

On September 7, the Second Constitutional Chamber of La Paz ruled to deny the petition of former president Morales to run as a MAS candidate for the Senate. The ruling ratified the TSE's February 21 decision to disqualify Morales' Senate candidature due to his failure to meet the minimum permanent residency requirements from his asylum in Argentina. Following the TSE's decision, representatives of the former president filed a constitutional protection case to reverse his disqualification. On September 7, the chamber ruled two-to-one against Morales' constitutional protection petition.

Participation of Women and Members of Minority Groups: No laws limit participation of women or members of minority groups in the political process, and they did participate. The law mandates gender parity in the candidate selection process at national, regional, and municipal legislative level.

While women had a substantial amount of representation on the legislative level, occupying 52 percent of legislative seats, they remained significantly underrepresented in executive positions. Candidates for mayor, governor, vice president, and president were not chosen from party lists, and the majority of executive political positions were held by men.

Women participating in politics faced violence and harassment. According to a survey conducted by the Association of Female Mayors and Councilwomen of Bolivia, 59 percent of councilwomen polled had suffered some type of violence or political harassment in their municipality, and 39 percent did not complete their term due to the severity of the threats and hostility they received.

On April 21, Patricia Arce, a MAS-affiliated mayor of Vinto, who was assaulted by a crowd of men in November 2019, was detained for an alleged breach of the national quarantine after police accused Arce and seven other persons of participating in a party in their private homes. Arce described the detention as a political act. The Association of Female Mayors and Councilwomen of Bolivia denounced the "irregular apprehension" of Arce and demanded an impartial investigation to determine whether excessive force was used during the arrest. On August 7, the Public Prosecutor's Office presented criminal charges against Arce for making municipal dump trucks available to transfer rocks and debris to block the entrance and exit from an oxygen factory in Cochabamba during the two weeks of protests and blockades, following the TSE decision to postpone elections until October 18.

Section 4. Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government

The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials, but the former Morales government and to a lesser extent the transitional government did not implement the law effectively, and officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.

Corruption: On May 20, authorities arrested Minister of Health Marcelo Navajas Salinas as part of an investigation into claims that the government paid inflated prices for ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients. In addition the state prosecutor announced four other Health Ministry officials had also been detained in relation to the investigation and that officials abroad and intermediaries involved in the purchases would also be investigated. Local newspaper Pagina Siete reported the government paid $4.7 million for 170 ventilators from the Spanish company GPA Innova, despite the contract being worth only $1.2 million. Press reports noted the steep premium paid for the ventilators, bought at approximately $27,500 each, were purchased from emergency funds the government received from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The IDB stated it was concerned regarding "possible irregularities in the purchase of the respirators" by the Health Ministry.

In addition to former minister Navajas, lead prosecutor Mejillones stated that former legal director of the Ministry of Health, Fernando Valenzuela; former director of the Agency for Infrastructure in Health and Medical Equipment, Geovanni Pacheco Fiorilo; and the consul of Bolivia in Barcelona, Alberto Pareja, were also charged in the case. Mejillones further reported that a consultant for the IDB who gave "no objection" to the acquisition process was also charged.

On August 17, a judge ordered the former governor of Beni, Alex Ferrier Abidar of the MAS Party, to four months of pretrial detention after being accused of misappropriation of resources, embezzlement, and breach of duties associated with two large public works projects while he was governor. The largest project involved construction of the Trinidad-Loreto highway and alleged construction work that began without proper contract tenders being issued or awards being granted.

Financial Disclosure: The law requires public officials to report potential personal and financial conflicts of interest and to declare their income and assets. The law mandates that elected and appointed officials disclose their financial information to the auditor general, but their declarations are not available to the public. By law noncompliance results in internal sanctions, including dismissal.

Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights

A number of domestic and international human rights groups operated in the country, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Domestic NGOs and human rights groups reported they had more freedom to publicly report on sensitive problems under the interim government than under the Morales government. The Permanent Assembly of Human Rights (APDHB), an independent human rights organization, had been targeted by the Morales administration for reporting on sensitive topics such as Yungas region coca growers' criticism of MAS and the indigenous communities' Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory struggle against a highway through their protected area. During the interim government period, the APDHB freely reported on politically sensitive topics such as the need for anticorruption measures and the distribution of the International Monetary Fund's COVID-19 financial assistance.

Government Human Rights Bodies: The constitution establishes a human rights ombudsman subject to confirmation by both houses of the Legislative Assembly to serve a six-year term. The ombudsman is charged with overseeing the defense and promotion of human rights, specifically defending citizens against government abuses. The constitution also affords the ombudsman the right to propose legislation and recommend modifications to laws and government policies. The ombudsman operated with inadequate resources. Civil society groups and several political figures contended the ombudsman lacked independence from the central government, in part because the MAS supermajority in congress allowed for the position's confirmation without meaningful debate.

Both houses of congress have human rights committees that propose laws and policies to promote and protect human rights. Congressional deputies and senators sit on the committees for one-year terms.

Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons

Women

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law establishes penalties of imprisonment for 15 to 20 years for conviction of the rape of an adult (man or woman), but it was not enforced. Conviction of domestic abuse resulting in injury is punishable by three to six years' imprisonment, and the penalty for conviction of serious physical or psychological harm is a five- to 12-year prison sentence. Despite these legal provisions, the NGO Community of Human Rights reported two-thirds of domestic violence cases were closed without action, and the conviction rate of the remaining cases was less than 1 percent.

The law prohibits domestic violence, but it was not enforced. Lack of training on the law and slow judicial processes, among other factors, continued to hinder the law's full implementation, according to the UN Entity on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and human rights groups. Domestic violence was the most frequently committed crime in the country, according to the National Observatory of Public Safety. According to a survey conducted by the local NGO Coordinator of Women, 50 percent of women were victims of a violent crime some time in their lives; two-thirds of these women suffered violence in their own home.

The law criminalizes femicide, the killing of a woman based on her identity as a woman, and conviction stipulates a sentence of 30 years in prison. Activists stated corruption, lack of adequate crime scene investigation, and a dysfunctional judiciary hampered convictions for femicide. According to the Public Ministry, 93 femicides were registered from January to August 24, with La Paz registering the highest number of any department with 30 reported incidents of femicide. The Public Ministry also documented 18,464 cases of violence against women from January to August. Following the publication of the figures, UN Women called for comprehensive actions to eliminate violence against women and full access to justice for all victims. Mercedes Cortez of the justice reform NGO Free Voice Justice Observatory stated the impunity rate for femicides reached 97.8 percent as of August; she called for more financial resources for the judicial system and an increase to the use of specialized prosecutors with experience in prosecuting gender-based violence. Under the interim government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held meetings and training sessions with businesswomen and female entrepreneurs with a focus on opening international markets to female business leaders and reducing bureaucratic procedures and obstacles for businesswomen.

According to the special prosecutor in crimes against life and personal integrity, Nuria Gonzales, social isolation due to the national quarantine had led to the increase in femicides, stating the majority of cases occurred in the victims' own homes. On August 3, lawyers and families of victims demanded modification of Law 1173 Criminal Procedure Abbreviation that allows many alleged attackers to go free after completing their six months of preventive detention that the judge assigned to them.

On August 7, Dayneth Ch. of Cochabamba died in the Viedma hospital after being admitted with blows and burns to 80 percent of her body. Her partner claimed it had been an accident, but autopsy results revealed she had died from blunt force head trauma; her partner was charged with femicide.

Local media reported that in August, seven police officers were implicated in five cases of femicides and other violent acts. In some of these cases, the participation of uniformed police was reported and used as cover-up to provide impunity for their comrades. While senior public officials regretted how the image of police was being tarnished, Minister of Government Arturo Murillo stressed that police training could trigger violent and abusive action in some persons.

On August 11, Betsabe Mara Alcacia was killed by her partner, police lieutenant Adan Boris Mina. Investigations showed that Mina shot, burned, and then dismembered the body of the 24-year-old victim. Mina was captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 30 years in prison, but investigators indicated that two or three police officers helped cover up the crime and had yet to be apprehended.

Women's rights organizations reported police units assigned to the Special Force against Violence did not have sufficient resources and frontline officers lacked proper training regarding their investigatory responsibilities. Women's organizations also reported domestic violence victims received poor representation from public defenders and generally abandoned their cases after they languished in the justice system for years. On average it took three years for a domestic violence case to conclude. Once the case was closed, the victim was often responsible for the legal fees. The lack of public services, lengthy judicial process, and financial burden discouraged most women from reporting domestic abuse by their spouses.

The law calls for the construction of women's shelters in each of the country's nine departments. The municipalities of La Paz and Santa Cruz both had temporary shelters for victims of violence and their children. Human rights specialists explained the shelters for domestic violence survivors were not well staffed, did not promise anonymity, and could not provide protection from abusers. Human rights activists described shelters that, due to a lack of financial resources, mixed populations of many different vulnerabilities, such as juvenile delinquents, human trafficking victims, sexual abuse victims, and minors with mental-health issues.

According to the Public Ministry, during the COVID-19 national quarantine from March 22 to May 31, there were 2,378 cases of domestic violence, 153 cases of sexual abuse, and 124 cases of rape reported, marking a significant increase from 2019. Human rights activists stated the figures represented an undercount from the actual numbers because of the difficulty of reporting these crimes due to movement restrictions and the lack of other housing options for many female spouses during the quarantine.

Sexual Harassment: The law considers sexual harassment a criminal offense for which conviction is punishable by up to eight years' imprisonment. There were no comprehensive reports on the extent of sexual harassment, but observers generally acknowledged it was widespread (see also section 3, Participation of Women and Members of Minority Groups) and that the sexual harassment laws were rarely enforced.

Reproductive Rights: By law couples and individuals have the right to decide the number, spacing, and timing of their children, and to have the information and means to do so, free from discrimination, coercion, or violence. Civil society noted information on access to reproductive health can be difficult to obtain in rural areas due to lack of medical infrastructure.

The law guarantees access to contraceptives, but in practice, according to reproductive rights group Marie Stopes International-Bolivia, many health-care providers refused to provide the service and stigmatized patients who requested contraceptives. Some health-care providers required the consent of an adult woman's husband or other male family member before providing her with contraceptives and would not provide contraceptives to adolescents without parental consent. Misinformation or social taboos made women hesitant to seek contraceptives.

Lack of access to quality medical care in remote areas adversely affected access to skilled health-care attendance during pregnancy and birth. In addition many indigenous women feared their cultural traditions regarding who should be present at the birth, the treatment of the placenta, and treatment of the umbilical cord would not be respected if they gave birth in a hospital or clinic.

The government provided access to sexual and reproductive health services for survivors of sexual violence.

According to the World Health Organization, the maternal mortality rate was 155 per 100,000 live births in 2017. The Pan American Health Organization reported one-third of all maternal deaths were caused by obstetric hemorrhage, usually postpartum. Another leading cause of maternal death was unsafe abortion.

Coercion in Population Control: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities.

Discrimination: The law provides for the same legal status and rights for women as for men, but women generally did not enjoy a social status equal to that of men. While the minimum wage law treats men and women equally, women generally earned less than men for equal work. Additionally, antidiscrimination laws were not uniformly or effectively implemented to protect women from harassment and political violence (see also section 3, Participation of Women and Members of Minority Groups). The government has legal restrictions against women in employment regarding limits on working hours and tasks.

According to a 2015 study by the National Federation of Female Domestic Workers, persons engaged in domestic labor rose to nearly 137,000 workers, of whom 96 percent were women. The study also reported that 40 percent of these workers received a salary below the national minimum and worked without the benefit of a contract and health insurance and other labor rights that come with contract work. A July report by UN Women highlighted the increased vulnerability of domestic workers due to COVID-19, both in terms of economic vulnerability from quarantine measures and nearly immediate wage loss, in addition to health vulnerabilities if they commuted to work.

Children

Birth Registration: Citizenship is derived both through birth within the country's territory (unless the parents have diplomatic status) and from parents. The 2018 civil registry indicated 78 percent of citizens were registered within one year of their birth and 96 percent by age 12.

Child Abuse: Conviction of rape of a child younger than 14 carries a penalty of 20 to 25 years' imprisonment. The penalty for conviction of consensual sex with an adolescent ages 14 to 18 is two to six years' imprisonment. The Attorney General's Office reported 39 cases of infanticide between January and July. The penal code defines infanticide as the killing of a child younger than 13.

On August 18, a La Paz court sentenced Victor Hugo Ricaldi Zambrana (stepfather of the victim) and Claudia Branez (mother of the victim) to five years in prison for manslaughter for the death of Branez's daughter, who was age five at the time of her death in 2009. She was found dead on a street in the Villa San Antonio area of La Paz. Her mother and stepfather claimed the child threw herself out of a third-floor window, but investigators and forensic evidence appeared to refute the claim. Laboratory reports from the Forensic Research Institute found the presence of semen in the minor's underwear and anal injuries indicating rape. Representatives of the Citizen Network for the Prevention of Infanticide and Crimes against Children also denounced the lenient sentence. Lawyers representing the grandparents stated they would appeal the sentence.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage: The minimum age for marriage is 14 for girls and 16 for boys. Minors' parents or guardians must approve marriages between adolescents younger than 18.

Sexual Exploitation of Children: Conviction of commercial sexual exploitation of children is punishable with 15- to 20-year prison sentences but remained a serious problem. The law also prohibits child pornography, punishable if convicted with 10- to 15-year sentences.

According to the Public Ministry, during the period of the COVID-19 national quarantine from March 22 to May 31, there were 118 cases of infant or adolescent rape (victims younger than age 14) and 102 cases of statutory rape (victims ages 14-18), marking a dramatic increase from the same time period in 2019.

Displaced Children: UNICEF reported in 2015 (the most recent information available) that 20,000 to 32,000 minors lived in shelters after their parents abandoned them.

Institutionalized Children: Child advocacy organizations reported abuse and negligence in some government-run shelters. The La Paz Department Social Work Service confirmed that of the country's 380 shelters, including centers for abuse victims, orphans, and students, only 30 had government accreditation for meeting minimal standards.

International Child Abductions: The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. See the Department of State's Annual R eport on International Parental Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases.html .

Anti-Semitism

The Jewish population numbered fewer than 500. There were no reports of anti-Semitism.

Trafficking in Persons

See the Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/ .

Persons with Disabilities

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental disabilities. The law requires access for wheelchair users to all public and private buildings, duty-free import of orthopedic devices, and a 50 percent reduction in public transportation fares for persons with disabilities. The law also requires communication outlets and government agencies to offer services and publications in sign language and braille. The government did not effectively enforce these provisions.

A national law to protect the rights of persons with disabilities exists, but it lacked full implementation. Official action was rarely taken to investigate, prosecute, and punish those responsible for violence against persons with disabilities.

Architectural and infrastructure barriers prohibited ease of movement in urban areas for individuals with physical disabilities. There were advances, however, in the public transportation sector in the city of La Paz. The city bus and gondola system provided some accommodations for persons with disabilities.

The law stipulates that persons with "serious and severe" disabilities are entitled to government payments of 250 bolivianos ($37) per month. The law requires both public and private institutions to employ a certain percentage of workers with disabilities.

Members of National/Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups

The 2012 census established the existence of 23,300 Afro-Bolivians. Afro-Bolivians in rural areas experienced the same type of problems and discrimination as indigenous persons who lived in those areas. Afro-Bolivian community leaders reported that employment discrimination was common and that public officials, particularly police, discriminated in the provision of services. Afro-Bolivians also reported the widespread use of discriminatory language. The government made little effort to address such discrimination.

Indigenous People

On June 30, the IACHR reported it opened a process against the state for human rights violations committed during the Morales government against indigenous communities of Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory while constructing the San Ignacio de Moxos-Villa Tunari highway. The petition was originally submitted by 64 indigenous communities in 2012 and supported by the Bolivian Forum on Environment and Development and the NGO Earth Rights International two years later. The petition accused the Morales government of taking "decisions and legislative and administrative actions without consulting or obtaining the consent of the indigenous people" and later "taking measures of force and repression against the VIII Indigenous March in the town of Chaparina in 2011."

An August 20 report by Amnesty International expressed concern for the rights of indigenous communities that were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. A June report from the Ombudsman's Office warned of a lack of public-health policy to protect indigenous peoples from COVID-19 and a stigmatization and risk for indigenous communities in a situation of voluntary isolation as a means of protection against the COVID-19 virus.

In the 2012 census, approximately 41 percent of the population older than 15 self-identified as indigenous, primarily from the Quechua and Aymara communities.

Indigenous communities were well represented in government and politics, but they continued to bear a disproportionate share of poverty and unemployment. Government educational and health services remained unavailable to many indigenous groups living in remote areas.

Indigenous lands were not fully demarcated, and land reform remained a central political problem. Historically, some indigenous persons shared lands collectively under the ayllu (traditional form of a community) system, which did not receive legal recognition during the transition to private property laws. Despite laws mandating reallocation and titling of lands, recognition and demarcation of indigenous lands were not completed.

Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The law allows transgender individuals to update their name, gender marker, and photograph to reflect their gender identity on all legal identification cards and birth certificates.

Transgender activists said a majority of the transgender community was forced to turn to sex work because of discrimination in the job market and unwillingness on the part of employers to accept their identity documents and professional licensures. Activists reported police targeted transgender individuals who were sex workers.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons faced discrimination in the workplace, at school, and when seeking to access government services, especially in the area of health care. Transgender individuals remained particularly vulnerable to abuse and violence. Elderly LGBTI persons faced high rates of discrimination when attempting to access health-care services. There were no legal mechanisms in place to transfer power of attorney to a same-sex partner.

On July 3, the Second Constitutional Chamber of La Paz ruled the national civil registry must register a same-sex couple's relationship as a "free union." The ruling stemmed from an effort by David Aruquipa and Guido Montano, an LGBTI couple who had been together for more than a decade and tried to register their relationship as a free union in 2018, which would have the same legal effects as a civil marriage per the constitution. After the registry office rejected their application, the couple filed a number of administrative appeals, citing international human rights standards and constitutional nondiscrimination principles. In September 2019 the national civil registry rejected these appeals. On July 3, the Constitutional Chamber struck down the civil registry resolution, declaring the registry had violated the couple's due-process rights. The ruling also highlighted the constitution requires laws and administrative procedures to be interpreted consistent with the principles of nondiscrimination and equality, including on the basis of sexual orientation.

HIV and AIDS Social Stigma

Although the law prohibits discrimination against persons with HIV or AIDS, pervasive discrimination persisted. Ministry of Health authorities reported discrimination against persons with HIV or AIDS was most severe in indigenous communities, where the government was also least successful in diagnosing cases.

Activists reported discrimination forced HIV-positive persons to seek medical attention outside the country.

Other Societal Violence or Discrimination

Mob violence in lieu of justice was a consequence of an inefficient judicial system, among other factors, according to observers. Supporters of mob violence claimed limited policing and a lack of faith in the justice system to punish criminals justified their actions. Although official statistics did not exist, media reports suggested mob violence in lieu of justice led to 30-40 deaths each year. The government took no formal action to combat acts of mob violence couched as "vigilante justice."

Section 7. Worker Rights

a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining

The law, including related regulations and statutory instruments, provides for the freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the right to strike. The law prohibits antiunion discrimination and requires reinstatement of workers fired for union activity. The constitution provides for protection of general and solidarity strikes and for the right of any working individual to join a union. In May 2019 the Supreme Court ruled to protect the right to strike but stipulated that a strike could not be indefinite. According to legal experts, this was in reaction to health-care workers threatening to strike for an indefinite amount of time. As a result of the ruling, health-care workers may strike but must organize themselves in shifts to avoid putting the general population at risk.

Workers may form a union in any private company of 20 or more employees, but the law requires that at least 50 percent of the workforce be in favor. The law requires that trade unions register as legal entities and obtain prior government authorization to establish a union and confirm its elected leadership, permits only one union per enterprise, and allows the government to dissolve unions by administrative fiat. The law also requires that members of union executive boards be Bolivian citizens by birth. The labor code prohibits most public employees from forming unions, including the military, police, and other public security forces. Some public-sector workers (including teachers, transportation workers, and health-care workers) were legally unionized and actively participated without penalty as members of the Bolivian Workers' Confederation, the country's chief trade union federation.

The National Labor Court handles complaints of antiunion discrimination, but rulings took one year or more to be issued. The court ruled in favor of discharged workers in some cases and required their reinstatement. Union leaders stated problems had often been resolved or were no longer relevant by the time the court ruled. The government did not effectively enforce applicable laws, and penalties were not commensurate with those for other laws involving denials of civil rights, such as discrimination.

The ineffectiveness of labor courts and the lengthy time to resolve cases and complaints limited freedom of association. Moreover, the 20-worker threshold for forming a union proved an onerous restriction, since an estimated 72 percent of enterprises had fewer than 20 employees.

Labor inspectors may attend union meetings and monitor union activities. Collective bargaining and voluntary direct negotiations between employers and workers without government participation was common. Most collective bargaining agreements were restricted to addressing wages.

b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

The law prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor, yet they remained serious problems. Ministry of Labor officials were not effective in enforcement efforts or provision of services to victims of forced labor. Penalties were not commensurate with those for other analogous serious crimes, such as kidnapping. The ministry held various workshops to educate vulnerable workers of their rights, levied penalties against offending employers, and referred cases of suspected forced labor to the Ministry of Justice for prosecution.

Men, women, and children were victims of sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic service, mining, ranching, and agriculture. Indigenous populations were especially vulnerable to forced labor in the agriculture sector and to deceptive employment opportunities that may amount to forced labor in neighboring countries.

Also see the Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/ .

c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment

The law prohibits all of the worst forms of child labor. Ministry of Labor inspectors are responsible for identifying situations of child labor and human trafficking for the purposes of forced child labor. When inspectors suspect such situations, they refer the cases to the municipal offices of the child and adolescent advocate for further investigation in coordination with the Public Prosecutor's Office. The law states that work should not interfere with a child's right to education and should not be dangerous or unhealthy. Dangerous and unhealthy work includes work in sugarcane and Brazil nut harvesting, mining, brick making, hospital cleaning, selling alcoholic beverages, and working after 10 p.m., among other conditions. The municipal offices of the child and adolescent advocate must answer a request for an underage work permit within 72 hours. The Ministry of Labor is responsible for authorizing work activity for adolescents older than 14 who work for a third-party employer. Municipal governments, through their respective offices of the child and adolescent advocates, are responsible for enforcing child labor laws, including laws pertaining to the minimum age and maximum hours for child workers, school completion requirements, and health and safety conditions for children in the workplace. The ministry is responsible for identifying such cases through inspections and referring them to the offices of the child and adolescent advocates.

The government did not effectively enforce the law, and penalties were not commensurate with those for other analogous serious crimes, such as kidnapping. The number of inspectors was insufficient to deter violations, although Labor Ministry officials stated inspectors conducted investigations throughout the year. Ministry officials did not have statistics on the number of children they had removed from hazardous situations.

The ministry collaborated with the IDB to implement a program that identifies and employs unemployed parents who have children in the workforce. A ministry official stated that while there were varying reasons why children as young as 10 chose to work, one main reason was because their parents could not find steady employment. This program sought to secure jobs for underemployed parents on the condition their children stop working. The ministry also provided the parents' salaries for the first three months to avoid burdening the businesses that provided employment.

Authorities did not provide detailed information on the penalties for violation of child labor laws or the effectiveness of such penalties, nor did courts prosecute individuals for violations of child labor law during the year, although ministry inspectors referred cases for prosecution.

Among the worst forms of child labor were instances of children working in brick production, hospital cleaning, domestic labor, transportation, and vending at night. In the agricultural sector, forced child labor was present in the production of Brazil nuts/chestnuts and sugarcane. Children were also subjected to hazardous work activities in the mining industry, as well as sex trafficking and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation.

Also see the Department of Labor's Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/findings .

d. Discrimination with Respect to Employment and Occupation

Labor laws and regulations prohibit discrimination with respect to employment and occupation based on race, sex, gender, disability, religion, political opinion, national origin or citizenship, language, sexual orientation or gender identity, HIV-positive status or other communicable diseases, or social status. Penalties were not commensurate to laws related to civil rights, such as election interference. The government did not effectively enforce the law in all sectors, and discrimination with respect to employment and occupation occurred. Women in office and female politicians faced high levels of political violence and harassment. Civil society leaders reported credible instances of employment discrimination against indigenous peoples, women, Afro-Bolivians, persons with disabilities, and members of the LGBTI community. Employers charged with discriminatory practices must offer affected employees restitution, but no cases were reported.

Women in the informal sector were not protected by formal-sector labor laws, which afford maternity benefits, breast-feeding hours, permission to work fewer hours, and more holidays than their male counterparts. Critics contended these laws encouraged companies to give preference to men in hiring.

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

The monthly minimum wage was greater than the government's official poverty income. The World Bank estimated that for fiscal year 2018, 35 percent of the population lived below the poverty line.

The law establishes a maximum workweek of 48 hours and limits the workday to eight hours for men. The law sets a 40-hour workweek for women, prohibits women from working at night, mandates rest periods, and requires premium pay for work beyond a standard workweek. The law stipulates a minimum of 15 days of annual leave. Penalties were not commensurate with those for similar crimes, such as fraud. The Ministry of Labor sets occupational health and safety (OSH) standards and monitors compliance. The law mandates that the standards apply uniformly to all industries and sectors. The interim government did not effectively enforce the law.

The Ministry of Labor's Bureau of Occupational Safety has responsibility for the protection of workers' health and safety, but penalties for violations of OSH laws were not commensurate with those for crimes such as negligence. The number of inspectors was insufficient to provide effective workplace inspection. Ministry officials confirmed that labor inspection teams had been severely limited by COVID-19 and the ensuing restrictions that began in March. The Municipal Offices of Children and Adolescents also completely closed during the quarantine, so prosecutions against child labor offenders largely stopped until COVID-19 movement restrictions eased in September. Five mobile labor inspection teams resumed activities in late September, averaging 20 inspections per week. The ministry intended to have 24 total mobile inspection teams in operation in the coming months. While the number of labor inspectors dropped from 102 to 71, all were trained in identifying child labor and trafficking cases, although they also performed routine labor inspections.

A national tripartite committee of business, labor, and government representatives is responsible for monitoring and improving OSH standards and enforcement. The Ministry of Labor maintained offices for worker inquiries, complaints, and reports of unfair labor practices and unsafe working conditions, but it was unclear if the offices were effective in regulating working conditions.

The law prohibits dismissing employees for removing themselves from work conditions they deem hazardous and provides for the Ministry of Labor to mandate they be rehired following an inspection.

Workers in informal part-time and hourly jobs did not have labor protections. Many companies and businesses preferred workers hired on an hourly or part-time basis to avoid paying required maternity and pension benefits. According to labor law experts, the informal sector comprised approximately 65 to 75 percent of the economy. They claimed labor regulations meant to protect employees actually promoted the large informal sector because the regulations reportedly resulted in employers not hiring full-time employees due to the higher costs their employment entailed.

Civil society leaders and media reported Chinese companies employed workers in substandard conditions. NGOs documented the growing role of Chinese companies, which expanded their presence in the mining, hydrocarbon, and infrastructure sectors during the prior 10 years. There were also allegations that Chinese companies brought in Chinese prisoners to work in the country in exchange for their eventual freedom.

A July 2019 report by the Bolivian Center for Study of Labor and Agrarian Development (CEDLA) analyzed labor complaints against Chinese companies from 2015 to 2019 and denounced the "deplorable behavior of Chinese companies and their impact on the exercise of labor rights and the quality of work." The report stated the most recurrent complaints against Chinese companies included physical or mental mistreatment, lack of industrial safety (uniforms and job tools), and lack of social security (medical insurance). Chinese state-owned hydropower and construction company Sinohydro was the worst offender, with 153 formal worker complaints during this five-year period. The Sinohydro-led construction of the Ivirgarzama-Ichilo highway (Santa Cruz to Cochabama Departments) completed in 2018 accounted for almost half of the total complaints. During four years of work, the project led to 53 labor complaints, seven worker strikes, one hunger strike, and seven conflicts between workers and managers.

The 2019 CEDLA report, which analyzed official data and complaints from various state entities, including the Bolivian Highway Administration; Ministry of Public Works; the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Welfare; and the Ombudsman's Office, also highlighted the record of the China Railway Construction Corporation, with 87 complaints from the project building the highway from Rurrenabaque to Riberalta, which was the most "conflicted project" in the entire country. The report described a series of unfair labor practices, including forcing workers to sign unfair contracts with clauses stipulating that they would be fired if they complained to the press. Since 2015 there were 39 recorded strikes against Chinese companies, and of the 17 strikes against Sinohydro, the company declared six of them "illegal," despite the fact that only the Ministry of Labor has the right to determine the legality of strikes. In addition to the labor rights complaints, the report detailed several persistent environmental complaints, including the contamination of rivers, deforestation, illegal hunting and extermination of jaguars, and trafficking in jaguar fangs.

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Bolivia - United States Department of State

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Bolivia is a constitutional, multiparty republic with an elected president and a bicameral legislature. On October 18, Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, candidate for the Movement Toward Socialism Party, won a presidential election with 55 percent of the vote. His closest opponent, Citizen Community coalition candidate Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert, won 28.8 percent.

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https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/philippines

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The human rights situation in the Philippines deteriorated in 2020. President Rodrigo Duterte's murderous "war on drugs," ongoing since he took office in June 2016, continued to target mostly impoverished Filipinos in urban areas. The police and unidentified gunmen linked to the police have committed thousands of extrajudicial executions. The killings increased dramatically during the Covid-19 lockdown, rising by over 50 percent during April to July 2020 compared to the previous four months. There has been almost total impunity for these killings.

In June 2020, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a highly critical report on the human rights situation in the Philippines. In October, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution continuing scrutiny of the situation in the country for another two years, but without creating an international investigation.

Threats and attacks, including killings, against left-wing political activists, environmental activists, community leaders, Indigenous peoples' leaders, journalists, lawyers, and others rose in the past year. The government harassed journalists and media companies, including through politically motivated prosecutions and other legal action; a court convicted journalist Maria Ressa of cyber libel in June, while the government shut down the country' largest television network the following month.

In March, the government placed the country under lockdown, restricting people's movement to limit the spread of Covid-19, using the military, as well as the police and local officials, to enforce the lockdown. Tens of thousands of people were arrested and often detained in crowded jails and holding centers where they were at increased risk of contracting the virus. Police and local officials targeted vulnerable populations, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and children, and in some cases using public humiliation and cruel treatment.

Unending "Drug War"

According to official government figures, members of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency killed 5,903 individuals during anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2020. This number did not include the deaths of those killed by unidentified gunmen whom Human Rights Watch and other rights monitors believe operate in cooperation with local police and officials. Other sources, such as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, put the death toll at 8,663, although domestic human rights groups, including the government's Commission on Human Rights, believe the real figure could be triple the number reported in the OHCHR report.

Based on statistics released by the government through its #RealNumbersPH, "drug war" killings increased by over 50 percent during the lockdown months from April to July. Among those severely affected by the "drug war" violence are children left behind by the victims. These children are often driven deeper into poverty, suffer deep psychological distress, often drop out of school for financial and other reasons, and suffer bullying in their schools or communities.

The vast majority of "drug war" killings have not been seriously investigated by the authorities. Only a handful of cases are in varying stages of investigation by prosecutors. Only one case-the video recorded murder of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in August 2017-has resulted in the 2018 conviction of several police officers.

The creation of a committee to investigate cases of police involvement in killings, originally pledged by the secretary of justice to the UN Human Rights Council, is of doubtful utility given the prominent role of key agencies responsible for killings in the committee's leadership.

President Duterte continues to encourage the killings, ordering customs officials in September to kill alleged drug smugglers. He also regularly denounced and dismissed groups that criticize the "war on drugs," accusing them of "weaponizing human rights."

Political Killings, Threats, Harassment

On June 4, OHCHR published a report that found "numerous systematic human rights violations" in the Philippines, among them the killing of 208 human rights defenders and activists since 2015.

Leftist activists and human rights defenders were key targets of physical and online attacks. On August 17, unidentified gunmen shot dead Zara Alvarez, a legal worker for the human rights group Karapatan, in Bacolod City in the central Philippines. Alvarez's killing came a week after peasant leader Randall Echanis was found dead, apparently tortured, in his home in Quezon City. Alvarez was the 13th Karapatan member killed during the Duterte administration.

The attacks against activists occurred in the context of the government's campaign against the communist New People's Army insurgency. Government and military officials have accused Karapatan and the other groups in its network of being supporters of the insurgents in a "red-tagging" campaign that puts them at heightened risk of attack. The military, national security agencies, and the police have actively used social media to convey threats that have resulted in tens of red-tagged people being killed in the past year.

In September, Facebook took down for " coordinated inauthentic behavior " dozens of what it called "fake accounts" being used by state forces to spread government and military propaganda. The accounts included posts that demonized activists, accusing them of being communists or communist sympathizers, and, in several cases, "terrorists."

In July, Duterte signed a new Anti-Terrorism Law. The law contains overbroad and vague provisions that the government can use to unjustly target critics. Among its provisions is the creation of a government-appointed Anti-Terrorism Council that can designate a person or a group as a terrorist, making them immediately liable to be arrested without warrant or charges and be detained for up to 24 days.

Freedom of Media

In June, a court in Manila convicted CEO Maria Ressa of the news website Rappler of cyber libel, along with Reynaldo Santos Jr., a former Rappler researcher. The case involved the retroactive application of the new law to an article that had been published years earlier.

The case is one of several that Ressa and Rappler face as part of the government's campaign of retaliation campaign of retaliation against media organizations for their reporting on "drug war" killings and the Duterte presidency. Since 2016, the president and his supporters on social media have subject Ressa and Rappler to threats and harassment, including misogynistic attacks online.

In July, the Philippine Congress, in which Duterte controls a large majority, voted not to extend the franchise of ABS-CBN, the country's largest television network. The vote led to the shutdown of ABS-CBN. ABS-CBN earned the ire of Duterte and his officials who accused the network, which often criticized the government's "war on drugs," of bias.

The killing of journalists also continued with the murder of radio broadcaster and online commentator Jobert Bercasio on September 14. Bercasio was the 17th journalist killed during Duterte's term in office and the 189th since democracy was restored in the Philippines in 1986. In December 2019, a Manila court convicted two of the masterminds and several dozen accomplices for the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre in which a local ruling family murdered 58 people, including 32 media workers covering a political campaign. However, nearly 80 suspects remain at large, with little prospect of them being apprehended.

Death Penalty

The Philippine government began in 2020 to seriously consider legislation to reinstate the death penalty. The move in Congress came a week after President Duterte used his State of the Nation Address in July to call for capital punishment by lethal injection for drug offenders.

Reinstating the death penalty would violate the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the Philippines ratified in 2007.

Covid-19

At time of writing, the Philippines had one of the highest recorded numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia, with 400,000 cases as of mid-November. The Duterte administration's response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been led by former military officers, using police supported by the military, which has resulted in serious human rights abuses.

Since March 16, the government has imposed varying types of quarantines and lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus. Abuses reported include local officials putting curfew violators in dog cages or exposing them to hours sitting in the summer sun as a form of punishment. Two children who were arrested after curfew were put inside a coffin by local officials. In April, three LGBT people were accosted by authorities for violating curfew. Officials humiliated them by forcing them to dance and kiss each other in public. Many people arrested for violating Covid-19 regulations were thrown into overcrowded detention facilities where social distancing is impossible, increasing their risk of contracting the virus.

The C-19 law that President Duterte signed on March 24 criminalizes the spreading of "false information" with up to two months in prison and a 1 million peso (US$19,600) fine. This law has been used to censor free speech in cases filed against social media users, among them journalists, who criticized or even poked fun at the government's response.

Reports of domestic violence have risen during lockdown restrictions. Groups such as UNICEF and Save the Children have raised alarm about the impact the pandemic and lockdown have on the welfare of children, particularly concerning child sexual and physical abuse.

Key International Actors

In October, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution that called for the Philippines to "ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses, and in this regard to conduct independent, full, and transparent investigations and to prosecute all those who have perpetrated serious crimes, including violations and abuses of human rights."

However, instead of establishing an independent international investigation into the human rights situation in the Philippines, the resolution granted the government's request for technical assistance for a joint UN-Philippines technical assistance program on human rights to supposedly address the killings. Human Rights Watch and dozens of other domestic and international groups view the request, as well as the government's compromised committee to review the deaths in the "drug war," as an attempt to evade UN scrutiny.

In September, the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted to adopt a resolution denouncing the "rapidly deteriorating human rights situation" in the Philippines and called on the Philippines to abide by its human rights commitment under the European Union's General Systems of Preference Plus program that allows the country to export 6,200 products to EU states without tariff. The resolution also called for dropping the cases against journalist Maria Ressa and Senator Leila de Lima, a longtime critic of Duterte who has been in pretrial detention for more than three years on bogus drug charges.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) continued its preliminary examination into alleged crimes against humanity related to the "drug war" killings. The Philippines withdrew from the court effective March 17, 2019, but the Office of the Prosecutor has indicated the court could still pursue crimes committed before that date, and it will continue to pursue its examination. UN human rights experts, among them Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Agnès Callamard, have urged the ICC to prioritize completion of its examination.

In September, members of the US Congress introduced the Philippine Human Rights Act, which seeks to suspend US defense and security assistance to the Philippines for human rights abuses until the government undertakes significant reform. In order to lift the suspension, the US secretary of state would have to certify that the government had adequately investigated and successfully prosecuted members of the military and police forces who violated human rights; withdrawn the military from domestic policing activity; and established effective protection of trade unionists, journalists, human rights defenders, and government critics.

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World Report 2021: Rights Trends in Philippines

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The human rights situation in the Philippines deteriorated in 2020. President Rodrigo Duterte's murderous "war on drugs," ongoing since he took office in June 2016, continued to target mostly impoverished Filipinos in urban areas. The police and unidentified gunmen linked to the police have committed thousands of extrajudicial executions.

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https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-world/2021

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Russia: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House

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See the Freedom in the World 2021 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Russia.

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Washington D.C., DC, USA: NSA surveillance program

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Washington D.C., DC, USA: NSA surveillance program

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/nsa-surveillance-xkeyscore-privacy/2021/06/29/b2134e7a-d685-11eb-a53a-3b5450fdca7a_story.html

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The National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Correction

An extensive surveillance program first revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 continues to operate with no judicial and limited congressional oversight despite its potential to capture Americans' communications, a member of a privacy watchdog agency said in a statement released Tuesday.

The National Security Agency's XKeyscore program was the subject of a five-year investigation by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent government privacy watchdog, that wrapped up in December.

According to documents leaked by Snowden, the program has existed for more than a decade. It allows analysts to use a Google-like search function across vast databases of Internet traffic captured from sites worldwide to pluck out the emails, Web browsing histories and social media activity of specific people.

The program relies heavily on the "autonomous collection of massive data sets," and analysis driven by artificial intelligence, Travis LeBlanc, a Democratic board member appointed by President Donald Trump, said in a statement. His partly redacted statement was released after it went through a declassification process.

LeBlanc was alone among the board's five members to vote against approving the panel's classified report on XKeyscore in December, saying that the board "failed to adequately investigate or evaluate" the NSA's collection activities.

"What most concerned me was that we have a very powerful surveillance program that eight years or so after exposure, still has no judicial oversight, and what I consider to be inadequate legal analysis and serious compliance infractions," LeBlanc said in an interview.

Privacy watchdog's next target: The least-known but largest and most complex NSA surveillance regime

The board sent copies of the report to Congress, the White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in March.

NSA officials pushed back against LeBlanc's assertions, saying the agency conducted appropriate legal reviews of the use of XKeyscore. They also said the agency has protections to safeguard Americans' privacy. They pointed to a document issued in January that outlines the rules.

Former board chairman Adam Klein, an appointee of Trump who stepped down from the board this month, defended its work. "The board produced a detailed, comprehensive report and recommendations on a very complex program," he said. "The clarity of description will enable Congress and other appropriate actors in the executive branch to ask hard questions as needed about this program."

The program operates under a broad framework laid out by a presidential directive known as Executive Order 12333, which governs most surveillance taking place outside the United States and some surveillance taking place inside the United States. When collection activities take place under 12333, they are not subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

According to a 2009 slide released by Snowden and published in the Intercept in 2015, many of the sites that XKeyscore relies on for data were either in the United States or linked to sites in the United States. LeBlanc, in his statement, suggested as much. "It is beyond obvious that NSA must gather or collect that signals intelligence from somewhere - in the United States or abroad."

The NSA declined to discuss the location of the collection.

"I continue to be concerned that Americans still know far too little about the government's surveillance activities under EO 12333 and how it threatens their privacy," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, in a statement to The Washington Post. "I've been pressing for multiple PCLOB reports about EO 12333 to be declassified, which will shed light on these secret authorities that govern the collection and use of Americans' personal information."

Privacy and civil liberties board will review surveillance law that has vexed Trump

The program also resulted in hundreds of compliance incidents in 2019, a majority of which were considered "questionable intelligence activities" - a category that means the action may have involved improper surveillance of Americans' communications, according to U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details are classified.

"Obviously violations of U.S. law and the known collection or processing of U.S. person information are serious compliance issues," LeBlanc said in his statement.

Rebecca Richards, NSA's civil liberties and privacy officer, said: "When we looked at the [questionable intelligence activities] associated with this, we didn't find any of them to identify systemic issues or any particular concerns. We found them to be standard intelligence practices."

The incidents could include making a typo in a query or making too broad a query, she said.

Richards noted that the NSA has adopted the board's recommendation that it provide training for analysts specifically on XKeyscore. Analysts, she said, already receive general compliance training.

LeBlanc devoted some of his strongest criticism to the NSA's legal analysis, which he said "lacks any consideration of recent relevant" privacy case law, including Supreme Court decisions that have imposed stricter limits on cellphone and geolocation surveillance.

Agency spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said "NSA's Office of General Counsel regularly reviews NSA intelligence programs and capabilities to ensure compliance with the Constitution, laws, and other applicable regulations and policies."

But some privacy advocates say the technical capabilities have outpaced the law. For instance, according to slides disclosed by Snowden, the program enabled an analyst to review communications indiscriminately as long as they were not tagged as belonging to an American, meaning that the analyst could inadvertently be viewing an American's information without penalty, said Ashkan Soltani, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for Technology Law and Policy.

And much of the indexing work on the data is done by machines, before a human even sets eyes on it, Soltani said. "The realities of the Internet today means the likelihood that the NSA might accidentally be processing an American's communications is quite high," he said.

In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are

LeBlanc said the board did not analyze the extent to which XKeyscore's use of machine analysis - as opposed to human review - of Americans' information triggers Fourth Amendment scrutiny.

The board, he said, ultimately "failed the public" by not using its investigation to "delve into important technological and modern electronic surveillance issues" raised by XKeyscore.

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NSA surveillance program still raises privacy concerns years after exposure, member of privacy watchdog says

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Correction An extensive surveillance program first revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 continues to operate with no judicial and limited congressional oversight despite its potential to capture Americans' communications, a member of a privacy watchdog agency said in a statement released Tuesday.

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https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/2021/09/02/australias-new-mass-surveillance-mandate/

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Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate - Digital Rights Watch

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The Australian government has new laws on the books to hack your computer. And that’s just the start of it. Outraged? Good.

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Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/opinion/international-world/brazil-blacks-police-brutality.html

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A Brazilian military police officer stands in an alley in the Rocinha favela of Rio de Janeiro in 2017. Credit... Mauro Pimentel/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Mr. Muñoz Acebes is a human rights researcher with years of experience investigating police abuses in Latin America.

RIO DE JANEIRO - In 2015, Adriana Perez da Silva's 16-year-old son and four of his friends were driving home after a day in the park when the police fired at their car, killing them. Ms. Silva believes they were targeted because they were Black. As a researcher of police abuses in Latin America at Human Rights Watch, I have interviewed many survivors and relatives of victims. But her interview has stayed with me.

Black Brazilians are almost three times as likely to be killed by the police as white Brazilians are. Last year, according to the Brazilian Forum for Public Security, the police killed 6,416 people countrywide. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, one of Brazil's most violent, 1,245 died at the hands of the police alone.

Police violence in Brazil is so stark that it was highlighted in a recent United Nations report that urged countries to take steps toward eradicating systemic racism against people of African descent. The report called on countries to hold officers accountable for abuses.

In Brazil, that means prosecutors should investigate police killings instead of the police themselves, as is the common practice. Rio de Janeiro's state government, in particular, should create a comprehensive plan with measures that make police officers responsible for their misdeeds and benchmarks for reducing excessive force. Brazil's Supreme Court is considering whether to order the state's government to pass reforms. Without decisive action to end impunity for police abuses, police brutality will continue to disproportionately affect Black Brazilians.

A demonstrator holds a sign that reads, "Stop killing us," at a march in São Paulo, Brazil, protesting the death of Guilherme Silva Guedes, a teenager who was allegedly killed by police. Credit... Leo Barrilari/EPA, via Shutterstock

The shooting of these five youths in Rio is emblematic of a country plagued by police violence, systemic racism and impunity. What's unusual about the case is that the attention it received in partled to the prosecution and imprisonment of the accused officers for their crimes, which is far from the norm.

But things have only gotten worse since then. I have documented cases in Rio de Janeiro for about seven years. When it comes to the use of lethal force by the police, there are, in effect, two sets of rules: one in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods to shoot only in self-defense and one in poor communities to shoot first and ask questions later. Many officers do so without fear of repercussions.

We saw that when the police swarmed Jacarezinho, a favela in Rio de Janeiro, on May 6, in a raid that left 28 people dead. Armored vehicles and a helicopter accompanied the roughly 200 officers, searching the sprawling neighborhood for suspected drug dealers. Earlier that day, an officer was shot dead. The ensuing violence was an apparent act of retribution. Most victims were Black, according to police records.

Police carry the body of one of the 28 people killed during a police operation in the Jacarezinho favela of Rio de Janeiro on May 6. Credit... Andre Coelho/EPA, via Shutterstock

A victim of the May 6 raid was killed in the bedroom of an 8-year-old girl who witnessed the shooting. Credit... Mauro Pimentel/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

The officers were never supposed to be in Jacarezinho that day. A Supreme Court ruling last year prohibited raids in Rio de Janeiro's low-income neighborhoods during the Covid-19 pandemic, except in "absolutely exceptional" cases. The operation's stated objective of arresting 21 low-level gang members under suspicion of dealing drugs was hardly exceptional. Police forces have a long record of justifying brutal raids as efforts to combat drug trafficking and fight crime. The May 6 police raid was the bloodiest in Rio's history.

It doesn't have to be this way. Crime in Rio's favelas grew over decades of government neglect. Officials failed to provide basic social services and ensure a daily police presence. To enter the favelas, officers resorted to raids that often turned violent. Residents not only resented the police for the brutality but also the state for abandoning them.

In 2008 the state attempted to drive out the gangs by creating Pacifying Police Units, or U.P.P.s. The program placed officers in poor neighborhoods that had fallen under gang control, with the goal of restoring public security and ending a culture of violence and distrust between residents and the police. The state also invested in infrastructure like health clinics and garbage collection.

A couple of years into the program, police killings had dropped by 86 percent in communities with U.P.P.s. The police presence increased school attendance, and quality of life improved. But the initiative's shortcomings undermined its successes. Residents were frustrated when the government seemed to have abandoned its efforts to improve their lives. Police officers complained of difficult working conditions. As trust eroded, crime spiked, and the old system of policing by force started to return.

By 2013, tensions culminated in protests over the disappearance of Amarildo de Souza, a Black construction worker in Rio's Rocinha favela. The news coincided with nationwide protests calling for government reforms to address many grievances, including corruption and police brutality. Amid the protests and media attention, the civil police and prosecutors investigated Mr. Souza's disappearance. Similar to the case of the five youths, they might not have done so otherwise.

Investigators found Mr. Souza had been tortured by police officers after they took him in for questioning about gang activities in the neighborhood. His body was never found. Three years later, Edson dos Santos, a police major, and 11 other officers were convicted of torturing Mr. Souza to death. Mr. Santos was declared guilty of orchestrating the crime but was never fired and continued to receive his salary in prison. He was released on parole in 2019 and was reinstated as a police officer this year.

Children cover their faces with photos of Amarildo de Souza next to a banner reading "Where are Amarildo's mortal remains?" at a protest in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. Credit... Felipe Dana/Associated Press

No wonder residents hesitate to trust officers, knowing that most police killings in Rio typically go unpunished. According to an official inquiry in 2016, 98 percent of investigations in previous years were closed without bringing charges.

Impunity, corruption and unlawful killings made it impossible for the U.P.P.s to develop trust with residents. Still, the plan's vision - policing that serves its communities - is what the whole country should strive for, starting with independent investigations by prosecutors into police killings. Prosecutors should ensure that those investigations are conducted according to international standards and supported by independent forensic experts. Rio's state police command should also provide better training on the use of force and psychological services for its officers.

Sustained reform can't happen if police officers continue to treat Black Brazilians like suspects and the neighborhoods like hostile territory. The cycle of violence will not end if leaders continue to employ torturers as commanders and police killings go unpunished.

César Muñoz Acebes (@_Cesar_Munoz) is a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

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Opinion | From Rio, a Cautionary Tale on Police Violence

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Mr. Muñoz Acebes is a human rights researcher with years of experience investigating police abuses in Latin America. RIO DE JANEIRO - In 2015, Adriana Perez da Silva's 16-year-old son and four of his friends were driving home after a day in the park when the police fired at their car, killing them.

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https://www.reuters.com/technology/russia-ratchets-up-internet-crackdown-with-block-privacy-service-tor-2021-12-08/

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MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Russia stepped up state oversight of internet activity on Wednesday by blocking the website of global privacy service Tor and part of its wider network, with the communications regulator accusing it of enabling access to illegal content.

Russia has exerted increasing pressure on foreign tech companies this year over content shared on their platforms and has also targeted virtual private networks (VPN) and other online tools in a campaign critics say stifles internet freedom. read more

The regulator, Roskomnadzor, said the website www.torproject.org had been prohibited on the basis of a court decision.

"The grounds for this were the placement of information on this website that enable the operation of tools that provide access to unlawful content," Roskomnadzor said in a statement.

"Today, access to the resource has been restricted."

Tor, which was founded by U.S. computer scientists, said that without access to its service hundreds of thousands of people would no longer have a safe way to communicate both within Russia and globally.

The Tor anonymity network is used to hide computer IP addresses to conceal the identity of an internet user. Tor, which says its mission is to advance human rights and freedoms, says it has more than 300,000 users in Russia, or 14% of all daily users, second only to the United States.

Reuters verified that the Tor website was inaccessible. There was limited access to the Tor browser and other elements of the Tor infrastructure.

GlobalCheck, a group that monitors websites' accessibility in Russia, confirmed that blocking had begun.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Tor said some internet providers had started blocking access since Dec. 1 and urged its users to circumvent the block by visiting its mirror site, which was still working.

"Blocking Tor would be practically impossible. It is a large community which will find the means to finance the organisation of getting around blocking in Russia," said Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Defence Society, a non-profit group seeking to fight online censorship in Russia.

Anton Gorelkin, a member of Russia's State Duma committee on information and communications, this week described Tor as a cover for illegal activity and an "absolute evil".

Tor responded: "By making a comment that dismisses the need for such technology, or by trying to portray it in this way, governments obscure the reality: Tor and technology like it are lifelines."

Reporting by Alexander Marrow, Gleb Stolyarov and Anton Zverev; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, David Evans and John Stonestreet

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Russia blocks privacy service Tor, ratcheting up internet control

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MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Russia stepped up state oversight of internet activity on Wednesday by blocking the website of global privacy service Tor and part of its wider network, with the communications regulator accusing it of enabling access to illegal content.

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https://nation.com.pk/03-Jan-2022/the-unresolved-kashmir-dispute

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Kashmir issue is basically a territorial conflict between India and Pakistan. According to demographic division, 55% area of Kashmir is controlled by India,

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/15/tech/china-weibo-censorship-fine-mic-intl-hnk/index.html

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Analysis by Nectar Gan and Steve George, CNN Business

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Analysis: The Communist Party thinks China’s prolific censors are not censoring enough

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Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, has long been a prime target for stringent online censorship thanks to its broad audience base and ability to help influence public opinion.

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In what has become an ever-growing tapestry of Big Brother, surveillance state-esque behavior for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), it must defend itself from another user privacy lawsuit, this time for spying on Instagram users through their phone cameras. Facebook has blamed the issue on a software bug, stating that it has caused false notifications which indicated that Instagram was accessing iPhone cameras.

The suit indicates that this access to users' cameras when they are not being used within the app gives Facebook "lucrative and valuable data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to." It was filed by Instagram user Brittany Condti Thursday, 17th of September in San Francisco. It comes just a month after Facebook was accused in a separate lawsuit of using facial recognition data to illegally obtain biometric data on its pool of Instagram users.

Shouldn't a headline like that be a little more shocking? The platform that is in a third of the world's pockets is accused of not only spying on its users, but actually accessing their camera and watching them. Now it's just par for the course for Facebook, whose legal team must be some of the hardest working lawyers in the world right now.

Facebook's scandals are a dime a dozen

Between the political manipulation, hate speech, boycotts, antitrust hearings and user privacy scandals, Facebook seems to have a conveyor belt of bad press coming its way and yet its business remains impervious to all the noise. One wonders if its seedy misdeeds will ever catch up with the company or if the social media giant will continue on its path to the trillion-dollar club unimpeded. All I know is that I'm looking forward to when it launches its new snoring prevention device:
MyWallSt operates a full disclosure policy. MyWallSt staff currently hold long positions in companies mentioned above Read our full disclosure policy here.

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Is Facebook Watching You Through Your Camera?

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In what has become an ever-growing tapestry of Big Brother, surveillance state-esque behavior for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), it must defend itself from another user privacy lawsuit, this time for spying on Instagram users through their phone cameras.

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Googleplex, Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, USA

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Googleplex, Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, USA 9/16/21

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Googleplex, Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, USA 9/16/21

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/technology/personaltech/internet-privacy-chrome-safari.html

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Get ready for more random ads online, higher prices and subscriptions galore. But your privacy concerns may still not fade.

Google has plans for its Chrome web browser to block tracking cookies in 2023 in favor of a new system that lets advertisers target us with ads. Credit... John Locher/Associated Press

The internet is changing, including how much we pay for content and the ads and brands we see.

That's because Apple and Google, two hugely influential tech companies, are rolling out privacy protections that hinder marketers from gaining access to our data when they show us ads. The changes have major repercussions for online advertising, which are a business foundation for the free apps and websites that many of us use, like Facebook, TikTok and the Weather Channel. Those sites and apps now have to come up with new ways to show ads or make money.

Here's what that means for you.

For decades, advertisers relied on "cookies," pieces of code planted in web browsers that can follow our personal web browsing to track us online and show us relevant ads. When smartphones came along, marketers also used trackers inside mobile apps to follow people across apps and websites.

These advertising technologies became incredibly potent and effective - if you shopped for shoes, shoe ads would follow you around the internet - but with major downsides. It enabled marketers to build hyper-realistic profiles of us that were hardly anonymous. It also opened doors for bad actors to steal people's data and spread misinformation.

Widespread concern over online privacy in recent years started an industrywide discussion about what to do about this tracking. Apple and Google have stepped in with different solutions.

In 2017, Apple debuted a version of its Safari web browser that prevented the technology used by marketing companies to follow people from site to site. This year, Apple also released App Tracking Transparency, a pop-up window in iPhone apps that gives people the choice to not be tracked across apps and websites.

In 2019, Google announced the Privacy Sandbox, a set of ideas for developing a more private web. The company has plans for its Chrome web browser to block tracking cookies in 2023 in favor of a new system for advertisers to target us with ads.

That system might be one called Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLOC. It involves grouping people together based on their interests. If you visit websites related to tennis and dogs, you may be placed into a cohort of people who share those interests. As soon as a website loads, it scans the browser for an identification code to see what group you belong to. The website then can decide what types of ads to show your group.

In theory, this would be less invasive than today's tracking methods because advertisers wouldn't have access to a cookie that contains your personal browsing history.

Because of the sheer reach of Apple's and Google's products - Google's Chrome browser is No. 1 in the world, and Apple's iPhone is the best-selling phone - advertisers have no choice but to adapt. They now have to figure out new ways to show us ads, using less of our data. Some companies that relied on digital ads to appeal to people, such as small online publications, may not survive.

In the near term, digital ads are going to look different.

Longer term, the internet you see using Apple products may end up looking dissimilar from the one you see using Google products.

Let's start with Apple. In the past, if you opened a free iPhone weather app, it may have used tracking technology to look at what you did in other apps and websites. The app would then present an ad for something specific to you, like a restaurant that you previously ordered takeout from.

But since that tracking can now be blocked, the weather app must rely on other data to serve an ad. That might be contextual information, such as the time of day. The upshot is that the ads you see might be less relevant and more random.

Customers waiting outside the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan this year. Credit... Gabby Jones for The New York Times

With Google, if the company adopts the FLOC system, that will also change the nature of the ads you see.

Today, when you use the Chrome browser to click on a pair of Nike sneakers, you are likely to see an ad for that specific shoe follow you from site to site and app to app. In the future, a website would lack the knowledge that you looked at those sneakers, but it would know that you were in a group that expressed interest in shoes. That means you might see ads for other athletic shoes, even if not for that specific sneaker.

Apple's and Google's changing approaches may lead web publishers to choose sides, said Brendan Eich, a founder of Brave, a private web browser. If publishers are happier with Google's ad solution, they may design their websites to work well on Google's browser and not so well on Apple's.

That could result in a "fragmentation" of the web, where people see different versions of the internet depending on the browsers they use, Mr. Eich said.

The good news is that you will have more privacy online because of Apple's changes.

But there's a trade-off. Ultimately, many online products and services may cost more.

Today, small brands can spend a modest amount to target specific customers with ads across different websites and apps. But since this type of tracking can now be blocked on Apple devices, small companies may have to choose big brands like Facebook, Google and Etsy and advertise within each of those platforms.

In other words, businesses may be forced to spend more to advertise their products across multiple properties. Those higher costs would then be passed on to you, leading to price increases.

This is already happening. Chantal Ebanks, the owner of an online beauty supply shop, Bella Chauni, said that after Apple's new ad blocking went into effect, her digital promotions on Facebook's ad network no longer reached as many customers. As a result, her sales shriveled from thousands of dollars a month to hundreds. To compensate, Ms. Ebanks raised the price for a popular hair care product to $13.98 from $9.99 and is testing ads on other platforms like Pinterest.

Eric Seufert, a marketing strategist, predicted that more iPhone apps would move away from trying to make money off ads. He said they would start charging people for subscriptions or extras inside apps.

The shift to subscriptions has happened for a while, but it's expected to accelerate. Between 2017 and 2020, the portion of top video games offering subscriptions in Apple's U.S. App Store grew to 18 percent from 11 percent, according to a study by SensorTower, a mobile app research firm.

As Google tries to reinvent ad targeting rather than killing it completely, its users will continue to see targeted ads. The company's proposed advertising methods could also create new issues, security experts said.

Advertisers could combine people's FLOC IDs with other information to continue pinpointing them, said Eric Rescorla, the chief technology officer at Mozilla, which makes the Firefox web browser.

The system could also place vulnerable people into groups where they are disproportionately targeted by exploitative ads, said Bennett Cyphers, a technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit. Those who earn a lower income, for instance, could end up in a group that receives ads for payday loans and cryptocurrency scams, he said.

Google said FLOC was one of many proposals it was testing. Ben Galbraith, director of product management for Google's Chrome browser, said simply blocking cookies would lead to worse privacy outcomes because advertisers would find more invasive ways to track people.

The company also said that it had mechanisms to prevent people from being grouped into sensitive cohorts and that FLOC IDs would change every seven days to prevent them from being tracked.

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What the Privacy Battle Upending the Internet Means for You

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Get ready for more random ads online, higher prices and subscriptions galore. But your privacy concerns may still not fade. The internet is changing, including how much we pay for content and the ads and brands we see.

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https://thewire.in/rights/cctv-surveillance-is-rising-in-india-world-but-crime-rates-remain-unaffected

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CCTV Surveillance Is Rising in India, World, but Crime Rates Remain Unaffected

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In 1942, German scientist Walter Baruch devised closed circuit television (CCTV) camera to monitor rocket launches remotely. It eventually became part of monitoring every rocket launch programme. Baruch wouldn't have imagined that someday this technology would transform into a widely prevalent surveillance device all around the globe.

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https://www.thequint.com/voices/blogs/as-india-continues-to-humiliate-muslims-i-write-an-elegy-for-my-dead-patriotism-sulli-deals-bulli-bai-hate-speech-haridwar-dharam-sansad

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I believe, and often say this to anyone listening, that the State by nature is oppressive. It does not surprise or upset me a bit that a political party is carrying out the vision that its ideological founders laid out almost a century ago. The fact that there were riots, attacks on human rights and the civil rights of minorities, Dalits, and tribals even before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power implies that the Indian State has always been unkind to a section of its citizens. But what is distinct this time is the indifference of individuals, the ordinary citizens of this country. For a large population in this country, the oppression and humiliation of minorities, especially Muslims, is not even an issue. For some of them, it is an issue in the sense that this is what they wanted for a long time, and now is the time to achieve the dream of Hindu Rashtra where Muslims live as second-class citizens.

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As India Continues to Humiliate Muslims, I Write An Elegy for My Dead Patriotism

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I believe, and often say this to anyone listening, that the State by nature is oppressive. It does not surprise or upset me a bit that a political party is carrying out the vision that its ideological founders laid out almost a century ago.

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https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/468671/Assassination-of-General-Soleimani-was-oppressive-act-against

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TEHRAN - Siraj-ul-Haq, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, has denounced the U.S. move in assassinating General Qassem Soleimani as an oppression against Islam, adding that the blood of this great martyr brought dignity and honor to Muslims around the world.

The Pakistani cleric made the remarks in an interview with IRNA on the sidelines of a meeting with the Secretary General of the World Forum for Ecumenicity of Islamic Schools of Thought Hojjatoleslam Shahriari in Lahore.

According to Siraj-ul-Haq, the tragedy of the assassination of General Soleimani in the territory of an Islamic country is an aggression of foreign forces, which "we condemn and emphasize the support to oppressed Muslim nations."

He added, "The enemies have taken advantage of the chaos among the Islamic nations and we see the result of these conspiracies in events such as the assassination of the commander of the Qods Force."

"We need unity and solidarity to prevent terrorist operations and unilateral actions and we must stand by the oppressed," the Pakistani cleric noted.

The leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan on Friday in a meeting with Hojjatoleslam Shahriari mentioned the influential role of Tehran and Islamabad in helping solve the problems of the Islamic world and regional crises, especially the situation in Afghanistan.

In an interview with IRNA, Secretary General of the World Forum for Ecumenicity of Islamic Schools of Thought said that the meeting focused on the commonalities of the two neighboring countries and some of the problems facing the Islamic world, especially the issue of Palestine.

General Soleimani was assassinated along with his longtime comrade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The top Iranian general was visiting Iraq at the invitation of Iraq's leader to deliver an Iranian reply to a Saudi message through Iraq. He left Tehran for Baghdad on January 3, 2020, and arrived at midnight at Baghdad airport, where al-Muhandis was waiting to receive him. After a short exchange of greetings, the two men left the airport but as they moved out of the airport in their motorcade, they were targeted with a number of missiles launched by an American drone.

The strike was ordered by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, a dangerous move that brought Iran and the U.S. close to an all-out war. Iran did not let the U.S. go unpunished for its reckless move. Five days after the U.S. strike, Iran launched a military operation codenamed "Operation Martyr Soleimani", which saw Iran showering the U.S. Ein al-Asad airbase in Iraq's western governorate of al-Anbar with tens of ground-to-ground missiles. Initially, the U.S. sought to downplay the strike on its airbase. But the Pentagon admittedly announced later that more than 100 U.S. service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) stemming from Iran's missile attack on the airbase.

Following the retaliatory response, Iran announced a new strategy to continue what General Soleimani had assiduously started: expulsion of the U.S. forces from the region. A few days after the assassination of General Soleimani, several Iranian officials announced that real revenge for the late general would be the expulsion of all American troops from the region.

In a statement on the second anniversary of the assassination of General Soleimani, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that "the prompt and effective action of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran in slapping the American troops stationed at the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq in the face, along with the spiritual effects of the blood of Iranian and Iraqi martyrs, upset the equations and brought about the failure of U.S. regional strategy. The U.S. fleeing from Afghanistan, the beginning of the process of withdrawal from Iraq and the change in the strategy of the U.S. military presence in the geostrategic region of Persian Gulf showcase a small part of such impacts and consequences."

It added, "Undoubtedly, the criminal act of the United States in martyring general Soleimani is a clear manifestation of a "terrorist attack" that was orchestrated and carried out in an organized manner by the then US government for which the White House is now responsible."

The foreign ministry noted that the US government bears "definitive international responsibility" for this crime according to international and legal standards.

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Assassination of General Soleimani was oppressive act against Islam: Pakistani cleric

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TEHRAN - Siraj-ul-Haq, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, has denounced the U.S. move in assassinating General Qassem Soleimani as an oppression against Islam, adding that the blood of this great martyr brought dignity and honor to Muslims around the world.

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https://www.news24.com/news24/analysis/analysis-yanga-malotana-fewer-authoritarian-regimes-on-the-continent-but-the-fight-is-not-over-20211210

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Seventy-three years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, African countries have made some progress but more still needs to be done, writes Yanga Malotana.
Sovereign African countries barely existed when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, three years after the end of World War II.

It was the first time an internationally agreed-upon document unequivocally stated that all human beings are free and equal, irrespective of colour, creed or religion. At that point, most of Africa was still under colonial rule. Only four African countries-Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and South Africa-were UN members, and three of them signed the declaration.

South Africa did not sign, because of the declaration's potential to disrupt its practice of racial discrimination and segregation, also known as apartheid, which lasted from 1948 until 1994. Years later, the declaration would help transform African territories into independent states and inspire the continent's own African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted on 21 October 1986, a document created to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms.

Friday, 10 December 2021 will be the 73rd anniversary of the Declaration. For over seven decades, the declaration has inspired liberation movements in Africa.
Self-determination
On 6 March 1957, barely a decade after the adoption of the declaration, Ghana's then-prime minister, Kwame Nkrumah, told a vast celebratory crowd at the Old Polo Grounds in the capital, Accra: "At long last, the battle has ended! And thus, Ghana, your beloved country, is free, forever!" Ghana, a former British colony, had just gained independence. In his speech, Nkrumah aptly invoked the principles of equality, freedom and justice for all-the same principles that the declaration enshrines. Before the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, then the Republic of the Congo) became independent in 1960, Patrice Émery Lumumba, a historical figure in the continent-wide independence movement, emphasised that self-determination in Africa was a basic human right, underscoring the relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the fight for independence.

"Let [the West] today give proof of the principle of equality and friendship between races that its sons have always taught us as we sat at our desks in school, a principle written in capital letters in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Lumumba said in 1959 at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, a renowned centre of intellectual ferment in colonial Africa. "Africans must be just as free as other citizens of the human family to enjoy the fundamental liberties outlined in this declaration and the rights proclaimed in the United Nations Charter," he added.

Paradoxically, in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' most enthusiastic supporters, including Belgium, France, Great Britain, Portugal and Spain, still possessed colonies in Africa in which most natives were subjects rather than citizens.

Freedom and Justice

The declaration's proclamation of universal equality, freedom and justice strengthened the momentum toward self-determination in Africa and helped usher in an era of sovereign countries. It would also inspire several liberation movements, including those that fought against apartheid in South Africa.
READ | Opinion: Moral imagination key for human rights to flourish
The right to asylum, freedom from torture, free speech and education are some of the 30 rights and freedoms contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also addresses civil and political rights, including the right to life, liberty and privacy, in addition to economic, social and cultural rights. It sets the basic standards of individual rights and over the years has inspired several human rights legislations across the world, including the Freedom Charter in South Africa.

Unsurprisingly, anti-apartheid activists worldwide would draw on the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their fight.

In 1955 then-president of the African National Congress, Chief Albert Luthuli, said, "People from all walks of life [must meet] as equals, irrespective of race, colour and creed, to formulate a Freedom Charter for all people in the country." The Nobel Foundation awarded Mr Luthuli the Peace Prize in 1960 and described him as "the leader of ten million black Africans in their nonviolent campaign for civil rights in South Africa."

Africa's Charter

Although African leaders framed their quest for national independence as demands for justice, equality and dignity for all, the first two decades post-independence (the 1960s and 1970s) were marked by human rights violations.

Authoritarian and single-party regimes, including military administrations, had replaced elected ones across the continent.
READ | Judge Navi Pillay: SA's record on international human rights law is concerning
Kéba Mbaye, an architect of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, described the situation at the time: "African governments appear clearly to have sacrificed rights and freedoms for the sake of development and political stability." Dictators such as Uganda's Idi Amin (1971-1979), Equatorial Guinea's Macías Nguema (1968-1979) and Central African Republic's Jean-Bedel Bokassa (1966-1979) were accused of egregious human rights violations.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights was intended to promote human rights from an African perspective, including by emphasising collective political rights and the right to national self-determination.
Strong and alive
"The Committee that drafted the African Charter was guided by the principle that it should reflect the African conception of human rights [and] should take as a pattern the African philosophy of law and meet the needs of Africa," Amnesty International observed at the time.

The charter acknowledges the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its preamble and explicitly recognises civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

Over the years, the principles of freedom, equality and justice embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights continue to fuel citizens' demands for democracy and accountability from authoritarian and single-party regimes.

"The Universal Declaration is strong and alive," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet remarked, adding that the declaration "has empowered millions to march, to come together and to build progress." Women and men are now inspired "to demand an end to discrimination, tyranny and exploitation," Bachelet declared.

In African countries such as Cameroon, the DRC, Gabon, the Gambia, Kenya, Niger, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Togo, it is not uncommon to see citizens taking over the streets to demand equality, fairness, justice and dignity. In the last two decades, citizens have pressured many African countries, including Nigeria, the Gambia, Liberia and Zimbabwe, to move from authoritarian regimes to democracies, opening up political space.

Most of these countries now regularly hold democratic elections, although questions are raised whether some of these elections are free and fair. Also, in many countries, vibrant civil societies are advocating for transparent and accountable governments, accentuating progress in the entrenchment of freedom of speech and association.
- Yanga Malotana, Department of Political Science University of Pretoria.
"We still have a long way to go," Bachelet noted. "But in the past 70 years, humanity has moved a thousand steps forward."

From colonies to independent states to more open and pluralistic societies, Africa is certainly making progress.

Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.

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ANALYSIS | Yanga Malotana: Fewer authoritarian regimes on the continent but the fight is not over | News24

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Seventy-three years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, African countries have made some progress but more still needs to be done, writes Yanga Malotana. Sovereign African countries barely existed when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, three years after the end of World War II.

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https://jacobinmag.com/2021/12/communism-history-october-revolution-soviet-union-anti-colonialism-social-democracy

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We Can Only Go Beyond Communism by Coming to Terms With Its History

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Thirty years ago today, the Soviet Union collapsed. Twentieth-century communism should be understood in all its complexity, as revolution and regime, a spur to anti-colonialism and an alternative form of social democracy.

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https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/surveillance-city-nypd-can-use-more-than-15000-cameras-to-track-people-using-facial-recognition-in-manhattan-bronx-and-brooklyn/

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The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has the ability to track people in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx by running images from 15,280 surveillance cameras into invasive and discriminatory facial recognition software, a new Amnesty International investigation reveals today.

Thousands of volunteers from around the world participated in the investigation, tagging 15,280 surveillance cameras at intersections across Manhattan (3,590), Brooklyn (8,220) and the Bronx (3,470). Combined, the three boroughs account for almost half of the intersections (47%) in New York City, constituting a vast surface area of pervasive surveillance.

"This sprawling network of cameras can be used by police for invasive facial recognition and risk turning New York into an Orwellian surveillance city," says Matt Mahmoudi, Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International.

"You are never anonymous. Whether you're attending a protest, walking to a particular neighborhood, or even just grocery shopping - your face can be tracked by facial recognition technology using imagery from thousands of camera points across New York."

East New York in Brooklyn, an area that is 54.4% Black, 30% Hispanic and 8.4% White according to the latest census data, was found to be the most surveilled neighborhood in all three boroughs, with an alarming 577 cameras found at intersections.
Facial recognition technology threatens the right to protest and risks supercharging racist policing
The NYPD has used facial recognition technology (FRT) in 22,000 cases since 2017 - half of which were in 2019 alone. When camera imagery is run through FRT, the NYPD is able to track every New Yorker's face as they move through the city.

FRT works by comparing camera imagery with millions of faces stored in its databases, many scraped from sources including social media without users' knowledge or consent. The technology is widely recognized as amplifying racially discriminatory policing and can threaten the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and privacy.

In the summer of 2020, it was likely used to identify and track a participant at a Black Lives Matter protest, Derrick 'Dwreck' Ingram, who allegedly shouted into a police officer's ear. Police officers were unable to produce a search warrant when they arrived at his apartment.

Amnesty International, and coalition partners of the Ban the Scan campaign, submitted numerous Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the NYPD, requesting more information about the extent of facial recognition usage in light of Dwreck's case. They were dismissed, along with a subsequent appeal.

"There has been a glaring lack of information around the NYPD's use of facial recognition software - making it impossible for New Yorkers to know if and when their face is being tracked across the city," says Matt Mahmoudi.

"The NYPD's issues with systemic racism and discrimination are well-documented - so, too, is the technology's bias against women and people of color. Using FRT with images from thousands of cameras across the city risks amplifying racist policing, harassment of protesters, and could even lead to wrongful arrests."

"Facial recognition can and is being used by states to intentionally target certain individuals or groups of people based on characteristics, including ethnicity, race and gender, without individualized reasonable suspicion of criminal wrongdoing."

Amnesty International research has modeled the extensive field of vision of New York's CCTV network. For example, the intersection of Grand Street and Eldridge Street sits near the border of Chinatown and was near a key location in the Black Lives Matter protests. Our investigation found three NYPD-owned Argus cameras around the site, in addition to four other public cameras and more than 170 private surveillance cameras, which our modeling suggests have the capacity to track faces from as far as 200 meters away (or up to 2 blocks).

Digital army of volunteers exposes true scale of surveillance
More than 5,500 volunteers have participated in the investigation, launched on May 4, 2021 as part of the innovative Amnesty Decoders platform. The project is ongoing to collect data on the remaining two New York boroughs, but already volunteers have analyzed 38,831 locations across the city.

It was a global effort - volunteers from 144 countries participated, with the largest group of volunteers (26%) being in the United States. In just three weeks, volunteers contributed an eye-watering 18,841 hours - more than 10 working years for a researcher working full time in the USA. Participants were given Google Street View images of locations around New York City and asked to tag cameras, with each intersection analyzed by three volunteers. The total figures include a mix of both public and private cameras, both of which can be used with FRT.

"The case is clear - people across the world are deeply concerned about the risk that facial recognition poses to our societies," says Matt Mahmoudi.

"That is why Amnesty International, and coalition members from over a dozen NYC-based organizations, are calling on authorities to outlaw the use of facial recognition technology by all government agencies in New York City."

"State Senators, City Councillors and prospective mayoral candidates have one choice - ban the scan, or risk turning New York into a surveillance city right out of the authoritarian playbook."
Read more:
Ban dangerous facial recognition technology that amplifies racist policing (news, January 25, 2021)

Civil Rights Groups, Lawmakers Call On NYC And NY State To 'Ban The Scan', Outlaw Facial Recognition (January 26, 2021)

Media contact: [email protected]

A/V content is available at this link: https://amnestyinternationalusa.box.com/s/5nwm4dm0e3496qwv85gcup4oqla2zd59

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NYPD use allows 15,000+ cameras to track people using facial recognition

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The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has the ability to track people in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx by running images from 15,280 surveillance cameras into invasive and discriminatory facial recognition software, a new Amnesty International investigation reveals today.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/world/asia/women-afghanistan-withdrawal-us.html

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A yoga class in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday. Credit... Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times

Whatever happens once the United States withdraws will not bode well for Afghan women. But even the gains made for them over the last 20 years have often been fleeting.

A yoga class in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday. Credit... Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan - Farzana Ahmadi watched as a neighbor in her village in northern Afghanistan was flogged by Taliban fighters last month. The crime: Her face was uncovered.

"Every woman should cover their eyes," Ms. Ahmadi recalled one Taliban member saying. People silently watched as the beating dragged on.

Fear - even more potent than in years past - is gripping Afghans now that U.S. and NATO forces will depart the country in the coming months. They will leave behind a publicly triumphant Taliban, who many expect will seize more territory and reinstitute many of the same oppressive rules they enforced under their regime in the 1990s.

The New York Times spoke to many Afghan women - members of civil society, politicians, journalists and others - about what comes next in their country, and they all said the same thing: Whatever happens will not bode well for them.

Whether the Taliban take back power by force or through a political agreement with the Afghan government, their influence will almost inevitably grow. In a country in which an end to nearly 40 years of conflict is nowhere in sight, many Afghans talk of an approaching civil war.

"All the time, women are the victims of men's wars," said Raihana Azad, a member of Afghanistan's Parliament. "But they will be the victims of their peace, too."

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When the Taliban governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school, and practically made them prisoners in their own homes.

After the U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban and defeat Al Qaeda in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Western rallying cry for bringing women's rights to the already war-torn country seemed to many a noble undertaking. The cause helped sell the war to Americans who cringed at the sight of a B-52 carpet bombing insurgent positions.

Some schools reopened, giving young women and girls a chance at education and careers that many before them didn't have. But even before American troops touched Afghan soil, some women had already risked their lives by secretly pursuing an education and teaching themselves.

Over two decades, the United States spent more than $780 million to promote women's rights in Afghanistan. The result is a generation who came of age in a period of hope for women's equality.

Though progress has been uneven, girls and women now make up about 40 percent of students. They have joined the military and police, held political office, become internationally recognized singers, competed in the Olympics and on robotics teams, climbed mountains and more - all things that were nearly impossible at the turn of the century.

As the conflict dragged on over 20 years and setbacks on the battlefield mounted, American officials and lawmakers frequently pointed to the gains of Afghan women and girls as proof of success of the nation-building endeavor - some measure of progress to try to justify the loss of life, both American and Afghan, and billions of dollars spent in the war effort.

Even in the twilight weeks before President Biden made his final decision to pull out all U.S. troops by September, some lawmakers and military officials argued that preserving women's rights was one reason to keep American forces there.

"I remember when Americans came and they said that they will not leave us alone, and that Afghanistan will be free of oppression, and will be free of war and women's rights will be protected," said Shahida Husain, an activist in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province, where the Taliban first rose and now control large stretches of territory. "Now it looks like it was just slogans."

Across the country, schools are now being forced to contemplate whether they will be able to stay open.

Firoz Uzbek Karimi, the chancellor of Faryab University in the north, oversees 6,000 students - half of them women.

"Female students who live in Taliban areas have been threatened several times, but their families send them secretly," Mr. Karimi said. "If foreign forces leave early, the situation will get worse."

Human rights groups, nongovernmental organizations, schools and businesses are left trying to figure out contingency plans for female employees and students should the Taliban return to power by force or through an agreement with the Afghan government.

In his announcement on Wednesday, Mr. Biden said the United States would continue to prioritize women's rights through humanitarian and diplomatic assistance.

But even now, the gains for women in some places over the past 20 years have been fleeting and unevenly distributed despite the millions invested in women's rights programs.

In Taliban-controlled areas, women's education is extremely restricted, if not nonexistent. In some areas in the country's east and west, the Taliban have opened schools to girls who can attend until they reach puberty, and in the north, tribal elders have negotiated to reopen some schools for girls, though subjects like social science are replaced with Islamic studies. Education centers are routinely the targets of attacks, and more than 1,000 schools have closed in recent years.

"It was my dream to work in a government office," said Ms. Ahmadi, 27, who graduated from Kunduz University two years ago before moving to a Taliban-controlled village with her husband. "But I will take my dream to the grave."

If there is one thing that decades of war have taught Afghans, it is that conflict was never a good way to achieve human or women's rights. Since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, war has continuously fueled more war, eventually undermining any humanitarian achievements.

Under the U.S. occupation, education opportunities, cultural shifts, employment and health care have benefited some and barely affected others, especially in rural areas. In those places, some of the war's most brutal chapters played out with many civilians dead and livelihoods devastated.

Understand the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan

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Often, women's opinions are unclear in these parts, where roughly three-quarters of Afghanistan's 34 million people live, and are often unreachable because of geographical, technological and cultural constraints.

"Despite real improvements, Afghanistan remains one of the most challenging places in the world to be a woman," a U.S. government watchdog report released in February said. "U.S. efforts to support women, girls and gender equality in Afghanistan yielded mixed results."

Still,the Taliban's harshly restrictive religious governing structure virtually ensures that the oppression of women is baked into whatever iteration of governance they bring.

The Taliban's idea of justice for women was solidified for Ms. Ahmadi when she saw the insurgents beat the unveiled woman in front of her in Kunduz Province.

For many other Afghan women, the government's judicial system has been punishment of a different kind.

Farzana Alizada believes that her sister, Maryam, was murdered by her abusive husband. But a police investigation of any sort took months to start, thwarted by absent prosecutors and corruption, she said. Ms. Alizada's brother-in-law even pressured her to drop the charges by accusing her of stealing. The police asked her why she was pushing the case if her sister was dead.

Domestic violence remains an enduring problem in Afghanistan. About 87 percent of Afghan women and girls experience domestic abuse in their lifetimes, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

"I lost all the hope I have in this government. In some cases, maybe the Taliban is better than this system," Ms. Alizada said. "No one is on my side."

Ms. Alizada's sentiments were similarly portrayed in Doha, Qatar, at the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Despite months of negotiations, there has been little progress, especially when it comes to discussing women's rights, which neither side has made a priority.

At a separate peace conference held in Moscow in March between the Afghan government, political power brokers and the Taliban, only one woman, Habiba Sarabi, was on the 12-member delegation sent by the Afghan government. And only four are a part of the 21-person team in Doha.

"Moscow - and Doha, as well, with its small number of women representatives - laid bare the thin veneer of support for genuine equality and the so-called post-2001 gains when it comes to who will decide the country's future," said Patricia Gossman, the associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

But one of the gains that is almost indisputable has been Afghanistan's access to the internet and the news media. Cellphone coverage extends across much of the country, meaning that Afghan women and girls have more space to learn and connect outside their familial bubbles and villages. The Afghan news media, too, has blossomed after large investments from foreign governments and investors, and many women have become nationally known journalists and celebrities.

But even their futures are uncertain.

Lina Shirzad is the acting managing director of a small radio station in Badakhshan, in Afghanistan's restive north. She employs 15 women and fears, given the growing insecurity, that they will lose their jobs. Even some of the larger national outlets are looking to relocate employees or move some operations outside the country.

"With the withdrawal of foreign forces in the next few months, these women that are the breadwinners for their family will be unemployed," Ms. Shirzad said. "Will their values and achievements be maintained or not?"

Fahim Abed contributed reporting from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar.

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Afghan Women Fear the Worst, Whether War or Peace Lies Ahead

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Whatever happens once the United States withdraws will not bode well for Afghan women. But even the gains made for them over the last 20 years have often been fleeting. A yoga class in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday. Credit...

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https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/China-tightens-grip-on-Big-Tech-s-use-of-algorithms

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China tightens grip on Big Tech’s use of algorithms

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Consumers will have right to control or turn off how they are tracked, targeted

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/facebook-cambridge-analytica-explained.html

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https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-08-09/communism-in-cuba-ethnicity

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https://www.clingendael.org/publication/declining-media-freedom-and-biased-reporting-serbia

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In the context of the global crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, free, impartial and professional media reporting has become ever more important. This represents an issue in Serbia, considering its ongoing decline in media freedom as confirmed by independent international reports. The conditions for practising professional journalism have been degraded for years and the Serbian media sector has faced numerous challenges, including political control over the mainstream media, low financial sustainability of media outlets and related high dependence on state funding, as well as a lack of transparency of that funding. Obscure media ownership and privatisation issues are yet another reason for concern. Additionally, the safety of journalists is problematic as the number of pressures, threats and attacks has grown since 2013, but the impunity phenomenon remains present. All these factors lead to a general state of censorship and self-censorship in the media in Serbia.

This Clingendael report presents the most prominent problems that the media sector in Serbia faces today. It argues that the flawed media landscape is the major factor leading to poor and biased reporting on topics related to the EU, the US and Russia. It observes media bias as a phenomenon in which media coverage presents inaccurate, unbalanced and/or unfair views with an intention to affect reader opinions in a particular direction. The analysis places a special focus on what such reporting means for the EU, given its strategic and communication goals for Serbia and the Western Balkans region.
Read full report. Follow @Wouter_Zweers and @Clingendaelorg on Twitter

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Declining media freedom and biased reporting in Serbia

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In the context of the global crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, free, impartial and professional media reporting has become ever more important. This represents an issue in Serbia, considering its ongoing decline in media freedom as confirmed by independent international reports.

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https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/canada-s-laws-need-updating-to-protect-against-abuse-from-surveillance-tech-watchdog-says-1.6200084

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CBC Radio · Posted: Oct 08, 2021 3:54 PM ET | Last Updated: October 8, 2021

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Canada’s laws need updating to protect against abuse from surveillance tech, watchdog says | CBC Radio

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A look at the far future and nitty gritty present of artificial intelligence and what it might mean for how we relate to one another and the non-human entities that will —and increasingly do— surround us.

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https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/12/10758842/book-bans-schools-authors-color-children-suffer

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As Schools Ban Books by Authors of Color, Young People Pay the Price

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Across the country, school boards are removing—or fighting to pull—books by non-white authors that tackle racial inequality and sexuality, themes that are critical to identity formation, from their curriculums and school libraries.

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/13/technology/china-propaganda-youtube-influencers.html

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Millions have watched Lee and Oli Barrett's YouTube dispatches from China. The father and son duo visit hotels in exotic locales, tour out-of-the-way villages, sample delicacies in bustling markets and undergo traditional ear cleanings.

The Barretts are part of a crop of new social media personalities who paint cheery portraits of life as foreigners in China - and also hit back at criticisms of Beijing's authoritarian governance, its policies toward ethnic minorities and its handling of the coronavirus.

The videos have a casual, homespun feel. But on the other side of the camera often stands a large apparatus of government organizers, state-controlled news media and other official amplifiers - all part of the Chinese government's widening attempts to spread pro-Beijing messages around the planet.

State-run news outlets and local governments have organized and funded pro-Beijing influencers' travel, according to government documents and the creators themselves. They have paid or offered to pay the creators. They have generated lucrative traffic for the influencers by sharing videos with millions of followers on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

With official media outlets' backing, the creators can visit and film in parts of China where the authorities have obstructed foreign journalists' reporting.

Most of the YouTubers have lived in China for years and say their aim is to counter the West's increasingly negative perceptions of the country. They decide what goes into their videos, they say, not the Communist Party.

But even if the creators do not see themselves as propaganda tools, Beijing is using them that way. Chinese diplomats and representatives have shown their videos at news conferences and promoted their creations on social media. Together, six of the most popular of these influencers have garnered more than 130 million views on YouTube and more than 1.1 million subscribers.

Sympathetic foreign voices are part of Beijing's increasingly ambitious efforts to shape the world conversation about China. The Communist Party has marshaled diplomats and state news outlets to carry its narratives and drown out criticism, often with the help of armies of shadowy accounts that amplify their posts.

In effect, Beijing is using platforms like Twitter and YouTube, which the government blocks inside China to prevent the uncontrolled spread of information, as propaganda megaphones for the wider world.

"China is the new super-abuser that has arrived in global social media," said Eric Liu, a former content moderator for Chinese social media. "The goal is not to win, but to cause chaos and suspicion until there is no real truth."

The State Behind the Camera

Raz Gal-Or started making funny videos when he was a college student in Beijing. Now, the young Israeli brings his millions of subscribers along as he interviews both ordinary people and fellow expatriates about their lives in China.

In a video this spring, Mr. Gal-Or visits cotton fields in Xinjiang to counter allegations of forced labor in the region.

"It's totally normal here," he declares after enjoying kebabs with some workers. "People are nice, doing their job, living their life."

His videos do not mention the internal government documents, firsthand testimonials and visits by journalists that indicate that the Chinese authorities have held hundreds of thousands of Xinjiang's Muslims in re-education camps.

They also do not mention his and his family's business ties to the Chinese state.

The chairman of Mr. Gal-Or's video company, YChina, is his father, Amir, an investor whose fund is backed by the government-run China Development Bank, according to the fund's website.

YChina has had two state-owned news outlets as clients, according to the website of Innonation, a company founded by Amir Gal-Or. Innonation manages shared-office spaces and hosts YChina's office in Beijing.

In emails with The New York Times, Raz Gal-Or said that YChina had no "business contracts" with state news agencies and that Innonation's website was "inaccurate." He said no official entities paid or guided him in Xinjiang.

He said his Xinjiang video series was about "people's lives, well-beings and dreams."

"Those who perceive it as political I am sure have their own agenda," he added.

'Doing a Job'

Other creators acknowledge that they have accepted financial support from state entities, though they say this does not make them mouthpieces for Beijing.

Kirk Apesland, a Canadian living in China, calls his channel Gweilo 60. ("Gweilo" is Cantonese slang for foreigner.) He rejects news of repression in Xinjiang and cites his own happy experiences to contest the idea that China's people are oppressed.

After The Times contacted Mr. Apesland, he posted a video titled "New York Times vs Gweilo 60." In it, he acknowledges that he accepts free hotels and payment from city and provincial authorities. He compares it to being a pitchman for local tourism.

"Are there fees for what I do? Of course," he says. "I'm doing a job. I'm putting the videos out to hundreds of thousands of people."

Lee Barrett makes a similar acknowledgment in one of his videos. "They pay for travel, they pay for accommodation, they pay for food," he says. "However, they don't tell us what we have to say by any means."

Oli Barrett did not respond to a request for comment.

According to a document featured in a new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China's internet regulator paid about $30,000 to a media company as part of a campaign called "A Date With China," which used "foreign internet celebrities" to promote the government's success in alleviating poverty.

The research institute, which is called ASPI and is funded by the Australian and American governments and companies including military contractors, has published several reports on China's coercive policies in Xinjiang.

When the YouTubers travel on the state dime, official organizers shape what they see and do. Not long ago, Lee Barrett, an influencer named Matt Galat and two creators from Mexico held a livestreamed discussion about a trip they took to Xi'an with the state broadcaster China Radio International.

The organizers asked Mr. Galat to deliver a speech praising a place he had yet to see, he said during the discussion. He refused.

During another part of the trip, Mr. Galat was frustrated that a visit to a sacred mountain was cut from the schedule.

"They had to fit in more propaganda visits," he said.

Mr. Galat later removed the stream of the discussion from his channel. He declined to say why.

How to Win Likes and Influence People

It is unclear how much income the creators may be generating from this work. But apart from money, Chinese government entities have also provided something that can be just as valuable for a social media personality: digital traffic.

YouTube uses advertising revenue to pay influencers based on how many people are watching. Those eyeballs can also help influencers land sponsorship deals with big brands, as several of the pro-China YouTubers have done.

Mr. Gal-Or posted his video about Xinjiang's cotton farms on YouTube on April 8, shortly after Nike, H&M and other brands came under fire in China for expressing concern about reports of forced labor.

Within days, his video was reposted with Italian subtitles by the Facebook page of China's embassy in Italy, which has nearly 180,000 followers.

In the weeks that followed, the video, along with other clips of Mr. Gal-Or in Xinjiang, were shared on Facebook and Twitter by at least 35 accounts run by Chinese embassies and official news outlets, according to data collected by ASPI and verified by the Times. In total, the accounts have roughly 400 million followers.

YouTube's and Google's algorithms favor videos that are shared widely on social media.

"Dictatorial countries can centralize their understanding of the algorithm and use it to boost all their channels," said Guillaume Chaslot, a former Google engineer who helped develop YouTube's recommendation engine.

On Twitter, Mr. Gal-Or's video was shared by many accounts with suspiciously bare digital personas, according to Darren Linvill, who studies social media disinformation at Clemson University. This, he said, is a characteristic sign of a coordinated operation.

Of the 534 accounts that tweeted the video from April through the end of June, two-fifths had 10 or fewer followers, Professor Linvill found. One in nine had zero followers. For nine accounts, Mr. Gal-Or's video was their first tweet.

Such activity has added to Mr. Gal-Or's and other creators' digital footprints.

Joshua Lam and Libby Lange, graduate student researchers at Yale University, analyzed a sample of nearly 290,000 tweets that mentioned Xinjiang in the first half of 2021. They found that six of the 10 most commonly shared YouTube videos in the tweets were from the pro-China influencers.

Transparency for Influencers

YouTube told The Times that it hadn't found evidence that these creators were "linked to coordinated influence operations." The site, which is part of Google, regularly takes down channels that it finds to be promoting messages in a repetitive or coordinated way.

But YouTube also requires channels to disclose sponsorships or other commercial relationships so viewers can be made aware. After The Times asked about the payments and free travel from Chinese state media, YouTube said it would remind the creators of their obligations.

YouTube also tries to promote transparency by labeling channels run by government-funded news organizations. But the platform does not label the personal channels of their employees, it said.

This allows some YouTubers to obscure the fact that they work for Chinese state media.

Li Jingjing takes her subscribers into the coral reefs of the South China Sea and discusses the West's efforts to contain China. Her channel does not mention that she works for China Global Television Network.

Stuart Wiggin's channel, The China Traveler, does not indicate that he works for People's Daily. Yet that was how Mr. Wiggin, who is British, was identified by another state newspaper, China Daily, in its coverage of the "Date With China" campaign.

In his videos from Xinjiang, Mr. Wiggin raves about the cuisine and interviews locals about how their lives have improved. Topics like re-education camps do not come up.

Ms. Li and Mr. Wiggin did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Galat was among the most popular pro-Beijing YouTubers by the time he left China this year to bring his channel to new places. He is now documenting his travels across the United States.

In an interview, Mr. Galat said he had no regrets about his videos from China.

Before the pandemic, Mr. Galat, a Detroit native living in Ningbo, had built a YouTube following with his happy-go-lucky travel videos.

As China emerged from the worst of the outbreak, he began receiving travel invitations from local governments and state news outlets.

At the time, China was trying to deflect Western criticism of its pandemic response. Mr. Galat said he was bothered by those criticisms, too.

His YouTube videos started getting political. He mused about whether the virus might have come from the United States. He hosted a discussion about the Western campaign against Huawei, the Chinese tech giant.

"People like to have dramatic and aggressive feelings toward things, and a lot of that content was more popular than, say, my normal travel videos," he said.

By this year, Mr. Galat's channel had more than 100,000 subscribers. He acknowledged that the Chinese state media's support helped his channel grow. As his trips with state media grew longer, the outlets paid him for his time, he said. He declined to say how much.

This summer, he went to Xinjiang on a trip planned by CGTN, the state broadcaster.

"Just a thought for those that want to compare China to Nazi Germany," he says in one video at a museum on the culture of the Uyghurs, one of Xinjiang's minority groups. "Do you think that there was maybe museums in Germany before the war that were embracing Jewish culture?"

The views on Mr. Galat's YouTube videos have fallen since he left China. That doesn't bother him, he said. In the future, his channel probably won't be so political.

"I am not completely comfortable," he said, "being a political talking post for big issues."

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Millions have watched Lee and Oli Barrett's YouTube dispatches from China. The father and son duo visit hotels in exotic locales, tour out-of-the-way villages, sample delicacies in bustling markets and undergo traditional ear cleanings.

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A khutbah for the forgotten prisoners of Guantanamo Bay – 5Pillars (5pillarsuk.com)

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On the 20th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, advocacy group CAGE has produced a khutba for imams to deliver on Friday to remember the forgotten prisoners in GITMO.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

The very first prisoners arrived at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay on 11th January 2002. Despite five U.S. presidential elections over two decades not a single Guantanamo prisoner - out of 779 captives in total - has been successfully tried or convicted for involvement in the 9/11 attacks - the reason why the prison was open to begin with.

Since then, it has become the world's most infamous symbol of kidnap, torture and indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial.

Some of the prisoners were subjected to medieval torture techinques like "waterboarding" which was first used against Muslims and Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.

Prisoners from 41 countries were subjected to torture, cruelty, inhumaity and degradation in an environment rife with religious and racial discrimination.

In the early days, prisoners witnessed the Quran being desecrated - spat upon, urinated upon, kicked and thrown - by U.S. soldiers. The prisoners resisted this by going on hunger-strike for years on end and having to endure painful force-feeding methods.

Unlike most convicted criminals, Guantanamo captives have no visits, no phone calls and have had little access to legal recourse while spending sometimes years in solitary confinement cut off from the rest of the world. The main reason they were sent to Guantanamo was so that the U.S. government could argue that prisoners have no access to the U.S. justice system.

Despite describing them as the "worst of the worst" the vast majority of the prisoners were innocent men, never charged with a crime and were eventually released. However, there are still 38 prisoners there.

There have been at least a dozen children imprisoned in Guantanamo. Nine prisoners never left Guantanamo alive.

Despite the desecration of the Quran and their ordeal many prisoners have memorised the Quran. Several U.S. soldiers who guarded the prisoners - both male and female, black, white and hispanic - have accepted Islam after witnessing the conduct of the prisoners.
Our duty as Muslims
There are 38 prisoners still left in Guantanamo. On January 11th, it will be twenty years of imprisonment for them. They need our support.

We are part of the Muslim Ummah and we stand together against injustice taking place aginst the Ummah from around the world and also here in this country.

Guantanamo has been criticised around the world for being a black hole of injustice and discrimination. World leaders and bodies like the UN have repeatedly condemned Guantanamo for its treatment of prisoners - who are all Muslims.

Muslims have an even greater obligation to seek the closure of Guantanamo and justice and freedom for its inmates.

The importance of freeing prisoners and supporting them is clearly found in the Qur'an and Sunnah. : The Prophet said:

فُكُّوا الْعَانِ

"Free the prisoners.." (Bukhari, no. 7173)

Islamic scholars of the past have already mentioned the importance of striving to free the Muslim prisoners: Ibn Taymiyyah said: "Freeing the prisoners is one of the greatest compulsory deeds and spending ransom money and other means towards that, is one of the greatest ways to come close to Allah."

Imam Malik said: "It is obligatory on the people to redeem prisoners with their money. There is no contention on this point".

Some former Gunatanamo prisoners have themselves drawn up a plan on how it can and should be closed in an open letter to the U.S. president. The Muslim community should lend support to this call for the closure of Guantanamo prison.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: "Whoever is not concerned with the affairs of Muslims is not from among them." We should remember that Guantanamo is an issue for all Muslims because the only prisoners there are Muslims.

We should work towards the complete dismantlement of the infrastructure which made those crimes possible, including the unjust laws, policies and practices that were created in this so-called War on Terror.
Courage and inspiration
A great positive for the Ummah as a sign of courage and inspiration for others, we find many prisoners who have been released like our brother Moazzam Begg and others who have been very active in standing up against the oppression taken place by the U.S. in GITMO. He and others have come out with determination to stand for justice and fight for the rights of the remaining prisoners.

The history of Islam is replete with stories of men and women facing imprisonment and abuse at the hands of oppressors. The chapter of the Prophet Yusuf [as] in the Quran vividly illustrates how dealing with unjust imprisonment is not only inherent to the heritage of monotheistic tradition but without it, both the Old Testament [Torah] and the Quran would be incomplete. Yusuf's own test illustrates how prison is a very real expectation when faced with stark choices:

He [Yusuf] said: "O my Lord! Prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me. Unless You turn away their plot from me, I will feel inclined towards them and be one of the ignorant." So his Lord answered his invocation and turned away from him their plot. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower. Then it occurred to them, after they had seen the proofs (of his innocence) to imprison him for a time. (12:33-5)

The Muslim is always positive and optimistic, we know our Lord is Allah and He is always in support of His obedient slaves. We must remain steadfast on the path to justice.

Add your comments below

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A khutbah for the forgotten prisoners of Guantanamo Bay

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On the 20th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, advocacy group CAGE has produced a khutba for imams to deliver on Friday to remember the forgotten prisoners in GITMO. بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful The very first prisoners arrived at the U.S.

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Inmate's Gruesome Account Of Torture Adds To Evidence Of Rampant Abuse In Russian Prisons (rferl.org)

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Inmate's Gruesome Account Of Torture Adds To Evidence Of Rampant Abuse In Russian Prisons

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Inmate’s Gruesome Account Of Torture Adds To Evidence Of Rampant Abuse In Russian Prisons

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For years, rights groups have documented evidence of rampant torture and abuse in Russia’s sprawling prison network. The gruesome case of a man imprisoned in the Kirov region, described in a statement to his lawyer, adds further evidence.

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Peru IN Police Brutality Lawyers - Police Brutality Lawyers - USAttorneys.com

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Peru IN Police Brutality Lawyers - Police Brutality Lawyers - USAttorneys.com

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Citizens in Peru, Indiana should be aware of illegal activities surrounding police brutality among their police departments and take actions against them.

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https://www.persecution.org/2022/01/03/desperate-afghans-selling-children-amidst-hunger-crisis/

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01/03/2021 Afghanistan (International Christian Concern) - As Afghanistan tries desperately to climb out of an economic disaster, resulting in widespread hunger, some Afghans are choosing to sell their children in hopes of feeding the rest of their family.

The country's economy was on a downward trend before the chaotic withdrawal of the United States and NATO forces in early August 2021 and has continued to plummet following the Taliban's seizure of power. The economy was heavily dependent on foreign aid and never reached a point of self-sufficiency. The U.S. and NATO withdrawal pushed the fledgling economy to further nosedive that triggered a drastic price surge and an ongoing hunger crisis. In the absence of effective and internationally credible leadership in Afghanistan, the situation will require a strategic response from the international community to support Afghanistan's most vulnerable. Aid is only a small part of the solution, but other components such as evacuation of the most vulnerable must be a significant part of the overall response.

Christians and other religious minorities have faced increasing discrimination, threats, and other forms of oppression since the allied withdrawal. Reports of threatening calls and letters received by leaders within the underground church have become a common occurrence. Christians are considered a 'community of criminals' by the Taliban due to their conversion to Christianity. Christians in Afghanistan are all converts from Islam, making them apostate in the eyes of the Taliban and violators of Islam, subject to Shariah's deadliest consequences.

Matias Perttula, Director of Advocacy at International Christian Concern, said, " The United States and the international community cannot ignore the Afghanistan situation and must develop a multilayered and strategic approach to supporting the people of Afghanistan, especially those most at risk of retribution from the Taliban."

For interviews, please contact press@persecution.org.

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Desperate Afghans Are Selling Their Children Amidst Hunger Crisis | Persecution

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01/03/2021 Afghanistan (International Christian Concern) - As Afghanistan tries desperately to climb out of an economic disaster, resulting in widespread hunger, some Afghans are choosing to sell their children in hopes of feeding the rest of their family.

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https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/silence-and-invisibility-corruption-justice-latin-america-lgbtqia-transgender-community-argentin

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https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-migrant-security-system-iran-border-europe-afghanistan/

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VAN, Turkey - A squad of fully armed Turkish officers is gathered outside an old abandoned house on a recent night in November. They've called in reporters to document what's about to happen - a raid on a "shock house" where it's believed Afghans are squatting after crossing into the country illegally.

The neighbors are watching the scene unfold, peering out through windows, standing on balconies. The whole procedure appears familiar to them.

With a crash, the operation begins. The officers break down the main entrance with a battering ram and stream into the building. Inside, dozens of Afghans - many of them children - are kneeling with their hands behind their heads in preemptive surrender. The smell of human waste and garbage is strong.

The occupants are taken out to a bus. From there, they will be transferred to a nearby detention center 45 minutes outside Van, a city anchoring the province in eastern Turkey that butts up against the Iranian border. Turkish officials say this area is the front line of a migration crisis requiring a Herculean effort to manage.

It's an effort they're eager to put on display.

So on this day in November, the Turkish government has invited reporters to come and see the entire process. The day started hours before the raid, with Mehmet Emin Bilmez, governor of the Van province, hosting journalists near the border.

Lean and bespectacled, Bilmez arrived accompanied by a small army for safety. He pointed out all the equipment Turkey had deployed in the area: drone killers, drone jammers, 103 watchtowers equipped with thermal cameras and radar systems to identify movement. Along the actual border, a concrete wall was going up in chunks - part of a barrier intended to cover the whole 295-kilometer border with Iran.

Mehmet Emin Bilmez, governor of the Van province, hosts journalists near the border Turkish border | Nektaria Stamouli for POLITICO

The show and tell - letting journalists document migrant raids, detailing specifics about the exhaustive border security measures - is not just meant to raise awareness of Turkey's plight. Turkish officials want Europe to see what they're doing.

"European officials visit Van from time to time and I tell them: Europe's security problem doesn't start with Greece and Bulgaria, it starts from here," Bilmez said.

In their eyes, Turkey is protecting all of Europe from a repeat of the migrant surges that have fractured EU unity, fueled a rise in nationalism and sent leaders scrambling for ways to ensure fewer migrants land on their shores. In their eyes, Turkey is handling an issue Europe wants to be handled. Turkey will help, they say, but the country can't do it alone - nor should it.

"The EU lives in the comfort zone," said Faruk Kaymakçı, who oversees EU affairs as Turkey's deputy foreign minister. "It doesn't work like this. We have to intervene together and now."

Turkey does, indeed, host some 4 million asylum seekers, more than any other country in the world. And the vast majority of those people want to go to the EU. Recognizing this, the EU has in recent years funneled €6 billion to Turkey to support housing, health care and education for asylum seekers, and also for security projects. The 103 watchtowers, for example, were co-funded by the EU.

But many see ulterior motives at play. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is confronted with a number of acute challenges domestically - runaway inflation for even basic items like medicine and bread, a teetering economy - and foregrounding migration can be useful. It brings EU aid. It brings international attention. It gives Erdoğan an effective domestic political message.

Therefore, as winter sets in, Turkey is simultaneously conveying both migrant chaos and migrant competence, warning of a fresh migration wave about to crest, dammed up only by Turkey's expanding security apparatus.

"The EU's fear of migration is a very good tool that Erdoğan uses to obtain various financial and political incentives from the EU to strengthen its border architecture in the East, where Turkey has its own national security issues, such as terrorism," said Karolína Augustová, a postdoctoral fellow at Aston University and Istanbul Policy Centre.

Erecting the system

Turkey has one of the world's largest migration-related detention systems.

First, there's the formal network of 27 "pre-removal" centers that can collectively hold nearly 16,000 people awaiting deportation. Then there's an ad hoc network scattered along the border: detention sites, airport transit zones and police stations used as temporary lock-up facilities.

The system has grown, in part, at the EU's behest. The bloc signed a deal with Turkey in 2016 to help expand the country's migrant detention capacity. The pact came about following a refugee spike in 2015, when over 1.3 million people applied for asylum in the EU - double the previous record. About half of those came from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Today, Turkey hosts about 3.5 million Syrians and 300,000 Afghans, more than any other country. But after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August, it's the possibility of more Afghans that has Turkish officials making public appeals for more security assistance.

Asylum doesn't exist in Turkey as it does in Europe, where anyone - at least in theory - has the right to apply. Turkey only recognizes people fleeing Europe as refugees. The country did make an exception in 2013 for Syrians, but that exception has not been extended to Afghans - apart from some specific cases - who are largely meant to be either resettled to another country (a difficult prospect) or deported.

That has fueled the cat-and-mouse game between Afghans and the Turkish security apparatus that officials are putting on display - the border walls, the surveillance drones, the raids, the document checks and arrests.

Within the country, recently arrived Afghans often hide in abandoned houses or a smuggler's residence, places known as "shock houses." Some find off-the-books work within the country. Others end up in detention facilities.

Shamsurahman Noorullah, 42, has experienced several parts of this cycle. He was one of the Afghans pulled from the shock house during the raid in Van, before being taken to the pre-removal center outside the city.

Speaking the day after the raid, Noorullah recounted the perilous journey that had brought him to this point. In Afghanistan, he worked for the government as a national security director, a job he said put him on the Taliban's black list after the takeover.

Refugees from Afghanistan are seen waiting to be processed by Turkish officials | Chris McGrath/Getty Images

So he fled the country with his wife and five children, aged between about a year and a half to 13 years old. They traveled 83 days to get to Turkey, walking for hours during the day and spending nights in different smugglers' houses.

"I just want to know if they plan to send us back," he said. "I just want a place to live safely and my children to study."

According to Rtdvan Caliskan, director of the pre-removal center, the last deportations of Afghans took place about 10 days before Kabul fell to the Taliban. Officially, however, there has been no policy change, meaning deportations could begin again at any moment. Caliskan said Iran is considered a safe country for Afghans, so they may be sent back there.

"Apart from Afghans," he added. "The rest are deported within a short period."

A scene within the system

The pre-removal center near Van is designed to hold 750 people, although that number can informally stretch up to 1,500. Detainees are allowed out into the facility's backyard one hour per day, with families given extra time.

Journalists are allowed inside, but they are barred from where the migrants live. Instead, they get shown around the common area where people spend their free time.

The scene is carefully set up. Two rooms serve as playgrounds, another as a barbershop. There's a room where students are painting and another where migrants are being taught Turkish in a classroom, even though they are soon to be deported.

Nearby, there's a library full of books in Turkish and English. One young Afghan boy appears halfway through Charles Dickens' classic "Great Expectations," a challenge for any non-native English speaker. But when approached, the boy doesn't appear to understand much English.

It's a tour that conveys serene control, a contrast to the thunderous evening raid the night before and the army-protected security display at the border that morning. However, journalists are only allowed in this small corridor where everything is carefully set up.

One element that's missing, though, is reliable data on how many Afghans are actually coming to the country, and if that figure is climbing following the Taliban takeover.

Turkish authorities both in Van and Ankara refuse to give any official figures. They insist the situation is under control - for now.

"We can't give you numbers," says Caliskan.

The Turkish government does provide data on apprehensions of Afghans within the country. Those figures show a precipitous decline in recent years - from 201,000 in 2019 to 50,000 in 2020 and 28,000 in 2021.

Those who study and work on migration in Turkey are split on whether arrivals are significantly rising. Natalie Gruber, a spokesperson for the NGO Josoor, which supports migrants and monitors border violence at the EU's external borders with Turkey, said there has been a "sharp increase in arrivals since the Taliban were expanding through Afghanistan, even before they took over Kabul."

Conversely, Augustová, the fellow at the Istanbul Policy Centre, argued: "There is no significant rise in numbers of Afghans trying to enter Turkey."

Treatment within the system

What does appear to be changing, however, is how migrants are being treated, and the dangers they face - both at the border and within the country.

In Van, the second-poorest of Turkey's 81 provinces, humans have become the most profitable commodity to smuggle, replacing the longtime standards: drugs, gasoline, sugar, tea.

"In other types of smuggling you have to pay in advance," said Bilmez, the province governor. "If you are caught for heroin smuggling, you lose the money you've spent, but in the case of human smuggling there is no loss." In 2021, he added, 1,400 of the Turks arrested for human trafficking were from his province, which has a population of just over 1 million.

The country's response to this has been more security. More concrete walls, more barbed wire, more weapons, more checkpoints.

The checkpoints start after leaving the city of Van, after passing several small stone houses. From there, the mountains rise up, climbing toward Turkey's border with Iran. Dotted along the mountainside are large, prefabricated, three-meter high wall chunks, ready to fill the gaps in the existing border wall. Eventually, Turkish authorities said, barbed wire will rim the top of the entire structure.

Gravestones of unidentified migrants who have died crossing the Turkish-Iran border | Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

For the moment, the serpentine wall covers only a relatively small part of the land border that extends as far as the eye can see. Much of the mountainous area will be difficult to wall off. In those passages, nature already serves as a deterrent - wild animal attacks are common and some migrants freeze to death crossing the border. In a nearby cemetery, several of these casualties are buried, marked by nameless headstones.

"The wall itself does not really have any impact", said Josoor's Gruber. "Walls, in general, don't have a particular impact. They just make crossings even more dangerous, but do not reduce the arrivals."

Migrants have also testified that guards on both sides of the border are openly hostile.

Josoor and the Istanbul Policy Centre are just two of several NGOs that have reported on a surge in the illegal practice known as "pushbacks," in which asylum seekers are aggressively turned away without being given a chance to apply for protection.

"Many Afghan refugees whom I talked to also said that they had been physically attacked or witnessed killings of other refugees by the Iranian army," said the Istanbul Policy Centre's Augustová, who issued a report on pushbacks at Turkey's eastern border.

Once in the country, the cultural climate can be similarly stormy. There have been reports of Turks attacking migrants, calling them cowards and urging them to go back and fight for their countries. Anti-migrant riots broke out in August targeting Syrian houses, shops and cars in Ankara, Turkey's capital. Some in the Turkish opposition have jumped on this discontent, criticizing the government for its handling of migration and promising to evict more migrants.

Afghan and Syrian migrants, said a prominent member of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, are "Turkey's No. 1 national survival problem."

"The Afghan arrivals are the pretext to kick out all the migrants from the country," argued Josoor's Gruber.

Supporting the system

For Turkish officials like Faruk Kaymakçı, the deputy foreign minister, the arrivals are also a pretext to make renewed appeals to the EU, for sending messages through the media. That message: Turkey is bearing the brunt of migration for Europe. It's bearing the brunt for the NATO military alliance.

"The borders of Europe and NATO are the south and southeastern borders of Turkey," Kaymakçı said.

The situation has challenged Turkish society, he argued, just as it has elsewhere.

"There are reactions within the Turkish society," Kaymakçı said. "In some western countries, it goes up to the level of discrimination and Islamophobia. In Turkey, it is the fear by locals of losing their jobs."

If Europe wants to avoid the same fate, he argued, it must work with Turkey.

"We are not asking for money, but there are more than 4 million people and if you don't help them, there is not much we can do to prevent them from going to the rest of Europe," Kaymakçı said. "Their final destination is not Turkey, but Northern and Western European countries."

To NGO workers and others working on migration, Kaymakçı is simply employing "migration diplomacy," as Augustová termed it. She pointed out that Turkey is also angling to retain a presence in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

"It wishes to show it can play a role as the 'middle negotiator' between the Taliban and the West and upgrade its importance for NATO, the EU and the U.S." Augustová said.

Expectedly, Kaymakçı rejects the characterization.

"We are not instrumentalizing migrants, we do not politicize it, but when we remind you of your obligations don't call it instrumentalization," Kaymakçı said. "If we had instrumentalized it, we would not be the country hosting the largest migrant population."

Those truly stuck in the middle are the Afghans themselves - scared to stay in their home country, not welcome in Turkey, and without a clear path to Europe or elsewhere, despite western vows to help those fleeing the Taliban.

"It took us 83 days to come here, but I would still do it," said Noorullah. "There are lots of people that want to leave Afghanistan."

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Turkey puts its migrant security system on display for Europe

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Press play to listen to this article VAN, Turkey - A squad of fully armed Turkish officers is gathered outside an old abandoned house on a recent night in November. They've called in reporters to document what's about to happen - a raid on a "shock house" where it's believed Afghans are squatting after crossing into the country illegally.

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https://www.polygon.com/22869159/china-video-games-crackdown-restrictions-super-buckyball-tournament

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https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/silence-and-invisibility-corruption-justice-latin-america-lgbtqia-transgender-community-argentina

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Silence and invisibility: A cry for justice from Latin America’s…

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Poder Ciudadano and Asociación Familias Diversas de Argentina (AFDA) studied, for the first time, the impacts of corruption on the LGBTQIA community in Latin America. What intersections exist between the community’s movement and the anti-corruption agenda in Latin America?

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Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 8/15/21

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Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 8/15/21

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/opinion/international-world/brazil-blacks-police-brutality.html

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A Brazilian military police officer stands in an alley in the Rocinha favela of Rio de Janeiro in 2017. Credit... Mauro Pimentel/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Mr. Muñoz Acebes is a human rights researcher with years of experience investigating police abuses in Latin America.

RIO DE JANEIRO - In 2015, Adriana Perez da Silva's 16-year-old son and four of his friends were driving home after a day in the park when the police fired at their car, killing them. Ms. Silva believes they were targeted because they were Black. As a researcher of police abuses in Latin America at Human Rights Watch, I have interviewed many survivors and relatives of victims. But her interview has stayed with me.

Black Brazilians are almost three times as likely to be killed by the police as white Brazilians are. Last year, according to the Brazilian Forum for Public Security, the police killed 6,416 people countrywide. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, one of Brazil's most violent, 1,245 died at the hands of the police alone.

Police violence in Brazil is so stark that it was highlighted in a recent United Nations report that urged countries to take steps toward eradicating systemic racism against people of African descent. The report called on countries to hold officers accountable for abuses.

In Brazil, that means prosecutors should investigate police killings instead of the police themselves, as is the common practice. Rio de Janeiro's state government, in particular, should create a comprehensive plan with measures that make police officers responsible for their misdeeds and benchmarks for reducing excessive force. Brazil's Supreme Court is considering whether to order the state's government to pass reforms. Without decisive action to end impunity for police abuses, police brutality will continue to disproportionately affect Black Brazilians.

A demonstrator holds a sign that reads, "Stop killing us," at a march in São Paulo, Brazil, protesting the death of Guilherme Silva Guedes, a teenager who was allegedly killed by police. Credit... Leo Barrilari/EPA, via Shutterstock

The shooting of these five youths in Rio is emblematic of a country plagued by police violence, systemic racism and impunity. What's unusual about the case is that the attention it received in partled to the prosecution and imprisonment of the accused officers for their crimes, which is far from the norm.

But things have only gotten worse since then. I have documented cases in Rio de Janeiro for about seven years. When it comes to the use of lethal force by the police, there are, in effect, two sets of rules: one in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods to shoot only in self-defense and one in poor communities to shoot first and ask questions later. Many officers do so without fear of repercussions.

We saw that when the police swarmed Jacarezinho, a favela in Rio de Janeiro, on May 6, in a raid that left 28 people dead. Armored vehicles and a helicopter accompanied the roughly 200 officers, searching the sprawling neighborhood for suspected drug dealers. Earlier that day, an officer was shot dead. The ensuing violence was an apparent act of retribution. Most victims were Black, according to police records.

Police carry the body of one of the 28 people killed during a police operation in the Jacarezinho favela of Rio de Janeiro on May 6. Credit... Andre Coelho/EPA, via Shutterstock

A victim of the May 6 raid was killed in the bedroom of an 8-year-old girl who witnessed the shooting. Credit... Mauro Pimentel/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

The officers were never supposed to be in Jacarezinho that day. A Supreme Court ruling last year prohibited raids in Rio de Janeiro's low-income neighborhoods during the Covid-19 pandemic, except in "absolutely exceptional" cases. The operation's stated objective of arresting 21 low-level gang members under suspicion of dealing drugs was hardly exceptional. Police forces have a long record of justifying brutal raids as efforts to combat drug trafficking and fight crime. The May 6 police raid was the bloodiest in Rio's history.

It doesn't have to be this way. Crime in Rio's favelas grew over decades of government neglect. Officials failed to provide basic social services and ensure a daily police presence. To enter the favelas, officers resorted to raids that often turned violent. Residents not only resented the police for the brutality but also the state for abandoning them.

In 2008 the state attempted to drive out the gangs by creating Pacifying Police Units, or U.P.P.s. The program placed officers in poor neighborhoods that had fallen under gang control, with the goal of restoring public security and ending a culture of violence and distrust between residents and the police. The state also invested in infrastructure like health clinics and garbage collection.

A couple of years into the program, police killings had dropped by 86 percent in communities with U.P.P.s. The police presence increased school attendance, and quality of life improved. But the initiative's shortcomings undermined its successes. Residents were frustrated when the government seemed to have abandoned its efforts to improve their lives. Police officers complained of difficult working conditions. As trust eroded, crime spiked, and the old system of policing by force started to return.

By 2013, tensions culminated in protests over the disappearance of Amarildo de Souza, a Black construction worker in Rio's Rocinha favela. The news coincided with nationwide protests calling for government reforms to address many grievances, including corruption and police brutality. Amid the protests and media attention, the civil police and prosecutors investigated Mr. Souza's disappearance. Similar to the case of the five youths, they might not have done so otherwise.

Investigators found Mr. Souza had been tortured by police officers after they took him in for questioning about gang activities in the neighborhood. His body was never found. Three years later, Edson dos Santos, a police major, and 11 other officers were convicted of torturing Mr. Souza to death. Mr. Santos was declared guilty of orchestrating the crime but was never fired and continued to receive his salary in prison. He was released on parole in 2019 and was reinstated as a police officer this year.

Children cover their faces with photos of Amarildo de Souza next to a banner reading "Where are Amarildo's mortal remains?" at a protest in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. Credit... Felipe Dana/Associated Press

No wonder residents hesitate to trust officers, knowing that most police killings in Rio typically go unpunished. According to an official inquiry in 2016, 98 percent of investigations in previous years were closed without bringing charges.

Impunity, corruption and unlawful killings made it impossible for the U.P.P.s to develop trust with residents. Still, the plan's vision - policing that serves its communities - is what the whole country should strive for, starting with independent investigations by prosecutors into police killings. Prosecutors should ensure that those investigations are conducted according to international standards and supported by independent forensic experts. Rio's state police command should also provide better training on the use of force and psychological services for its officers.

Sustained reform can't happen if police officers continue to treat Black Brazilians like suspects and the neighborhoods like hostile territory. The cycle of violence will not end if leaders continue to employ torturers as commanders and police killings go unpunished.

César Muñoz Acebes (@_Cesar_Munoz) is a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

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Opinion | From Rio, a Cautionary Tale on Police Violence

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Mr. Muñoz Acebes is a human rights researcher with years of experience investigating police abuses in Latin America. RIO DE JANEIRO - In 2015, Adriana Perez da Silva's 16-year-old son and four of his friends were driving home after a day in the park when the police fired at their car, killing them.

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https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/chinese-surveillance-systems-appear-across-ugandan-capital-kampala-1.3993297

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