AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

ahead of Cambodia’s elections planned for
2017/2018, and the authorities increasingly
abused the criminal justice system. The
security forces harassed and punished civil
society in attempts to silence critics; human
rights defenders were threatened, arrested
and detained for their peaceful work; and the
political opposition was targeted, with
activists and officials imprisoned after unfair
trials. The authorities continued to hinder
peaceful protest.
In Malaysia, attempts to choke peaceful
dissent and freedom of speech included the
widespread use of national security legislation
and other restrictive laws. Rafizi Ramli – a
whistle-blowing parliamentarian who exposed
information about major corruption – was
sentenced to 18 months in prison. Journalists
at news site Malaysiakini faced intimidation
and threats from vigilantes.
In Viet Nam, human rights defenders
faced threats and attacks. Prisoners of
conscience were held in prisons and
detention centres, and subjected to enforced
disappearance, torture and other illtreatment,
including torture with electricity,
severe beatings, prolonged solitary
confinement sometimes in total darkness and
silence, and denial of medical treatment.
The Vietnamese authorities also oversaw
suppression of peaceful protesters. As the
country hosted a visit by US President
Barack Obama in May, the authorities
arrested, intimidated and harassed peaceful
activists.
Myanmar’s new National League for
Democracy-led government took steps to
amend long-standing repressive laws
targeting activists and media workers. Yet
cases like the detention of two media workers
in November, on suspicion of “online
defamation” over an article on allegations of
government corruption, showed that much
more needed to be done.
Security forces in Timor-Leste were
accused of unlawful killings, torture and other
ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, and the
arbitrary restriction of freedom of expression
and peaceful assembly. Fiji’s media was
affected by arbitrary restrictions curtailing
freedom of expression, with journalists fined
and imprisoned. Bloggers and dissidents in
Singapore were harassed and prosecuted.
Human rights defenders and journalists in
the Philippines were targeted and killed by
unidentified gunmen and armed militia.
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Australia maintained its abusive offshore
immigration processing regime on Nauru and
Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Australia’s transfer agreement with Nauru
contravened international law and effectively
trapped refugees and asylum-seekers in an
open-air prison. Although not technically
detained, these people could not leave and
were isolated on the remote Pacific island of
Nauru, even when officially recognized as
refugees.
The Australian government’s policy of
“processing” refugees and asylum-seekers
on Nauru involved a deliberate and
systematic regime of neglect and cruelty,
designed to inflict suffering: the system
amounted to torture under international law.
It minimized protection and maximized harm
and was constructed to prevent some of the
world’s most vulnerable people from seeking
safety in Australia.
Mental illness and self-harm among
refugees and asylum-seekers in Nauru were
commonplace. Omid Masoumali, an Iranian
refugee, died after setting himself on fire.
Others, including children, suffered
inadequate health care, persistent verbal and
physical attacks, pervasive hostility, and
arbitrary arrests and detentions, with
systematic impunity for these types of
abuses.
Australia refused to close its centres on
Nauru and Manus Island and even planned
to introduce a law permanently banning
those trapped there from getting an
Australian visa, piling injustice onto injustice
in violation of international law.
New Zealand publicly reiterated an
agreement made with Australia in 2013 to
annually resettle 150 refugees from Nauru
and Manus Island, although Australia since
refused to carry out the deal.
38 Amnesty International Report 2016/17