London - Amnesty International documented specific restrictions on free speech in at least 101 countries, and
torture and ill-treatment in at least 112 countries.
Half of humanity remained second-class citizens in the realization of their rights, as numerous nations
failed to address gender-based abuse. Soldiers and armed groups committed rapes in Mali, Chad, Sudan
and the DRC; women and girls suffered execution-style killings by the Taliban in Afghanistan and
Pakistan; and women and girls pregnant through rape or whose pregnancy threatened their health or life
were denied access to safe abortions in countries like Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican
Republic.
Across Africa, conflict, poverty and abuses by security forces and armed groups exposed the weakness of
regional and international human rights mechanisms – even as the continent prepared to commemorate
the African Union’s 50th Anniversary, marked by a major AU summit in Ethiopia this week (19-27 May
2013).
In the Americas, prosecutions in Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala and Uruguay marked important advances
towards justice for past violations. The Inter-American human rights system came under criticism by
several governments.
Freedom of expression came under fire across Asia Pacific, with state oppression in Cambodia, India, Sri
Lanka, and the Maldives, while armed conflicts blighted the lives of tens of thousands in Afghanistan,
Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand. Myanmar freed hundreds of political prisoners, but hundreds more
remained under lock and key.
In Europe and Central Asia, accountability for crimes committed in Europe in the US-led renditions
programme was elusive; in the Balkans, the likelihood of justice receded for some victims of 1990s war
crimes; and Georgia’s elections were a rare example of democratic transition of power in the former Soviet
Union as authoritarian regimes retained their grip on power.
In the Middle East and North Africa, countries where autocratic rulers had been ousted saw greater media
freedom and expanding opportunities for civil society, but setbacks too, with challenges to freedom of
expression on religious or moral grounds. Across the region, human rights and political activists continued
to face repression, including imprisonment and torture in custody. November saw a new escalation in the
Israel / Gaza conflict.
Globally, the death penalty continued to retreat – despite setbacks including Gambia’s first executions for
30 years, and Japan’s first execution of a woman in 15 years.