Violation of rights

Today marks the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly. The declaration is the most widely acknowledged document on the issue around the world. Human rights are universal. But are they still being violated? Rosanne Zammit speaks to Amnesty International about the situation in Malta and beyond these shores for examples of serious human rights violations.

Irregular migrants - 'Main human rights issue in Malta'

The main issue of concern in Malta for Amnesty International is the treatment of the large number of asylum seekers and potential refugees seeking refuge on the island.

Malta's temporary AI campaigner Deborah Davis said the current crisis concerning the influx of irregular migrants and lack of appropriate facilities was very worrying.

These migrants, she said, were sometimes housed in already overcrowded detention centres lacking proper heating and ventilation systems and with insufficient provisions to meet basic human needs, such as blankets and winter clothing for warmth or proper food to meet special dietary requirements for those with chronic medical conditions.

"The detention centres for asylum seekers and unauthorised migrants are run and guarded by members of the police and armed forces who lack appropriate training.

"Conditions of detention in some of the centres continue to fall well below international standards.

"In the past two years, some centres have been severely overcrowded, with many people sleeping on mattresses on the floor and some housed in tents where women and children have been held together with men who are not relatives.

"There were reports of inadequate diets, sanitary arrangements and medical attention.

"Diseases such as tuberculosis and scabies are apparently prevalent. A number of detainees have developed mental health problems.

"Some detainees, including children, have little access to exercise in the open, to outside visitors and no recreational facilities. Children still experience delays in gaining access to education.

"In the absence of professional social welfare workers visiting the centres, many of the basic material needs of the individuals, such as clothing, continue to be met by local religious and non-governmental organisations, often working on a voluntary basis and dependent on charitable donations."

Ms Davis said that when the Council of Europe's committee for the Prevention of Torture visited detention centres in Malta early this year, it reported allegations of deliberate physical ill-treatment of foreign nationals.

The delegation also found that cases of self-mutilation, suicide attempts, hunger strikes, vandalism and violence were rather common in the detention facilities.

She referred to the ongoing inquiry into the incidents at the Safi Detention Centre in January pointing out that the board of inquiry consisted solely of a retired judge and the inquiry had not yet been concluded.

Another worrying factor, she said, was the amendment to the Refugees Act last month allowing Malta to deport failed asylum seekers to their country of origin while their appeal was still pending.

"AI is deeply concerned by the eagerness of the Maltese government to develop means to return irregular migrants to Libya through its diplomatic negotiations directly with the Libyan government," she added.

"Given the risks of serious human rights abuses upon return of irregular migrants from Malta to Libya, including in particular, torture and ill-treatment of both Libyan and non-Libyan migrants, AI is deeply concerned by the fact that the Maltese government has taken and is taking steps towards closer co-operation with Libya regarding the repatriation of irregular migrants."

AI, she said, is worried about the talks taking place between Malta and Libya to send migrants without documents back to the North African country.

Libya, she pointed out, has not ratified the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol, and it has not established national asylum procedures.

Ms Davis said that returning individuals to their country of origin, or to the country which they left immediately before arriving in Malta, could, if they were refugees, equally condemn them to torture, ill-treatment or serious violations of human rights, and in some cases even their right to life.

Under international refugee law, Malta had a number of obligations with regard to people needing international protection. A state, for example, was prohibited from sending someone back to a country where they would be at risk of grave human rights abuses.

"It is often argued that Malta is a small country which cannot cope with the influx of large quantities of people.

"Although the effects of large-scale landings of potential asylum-seekers are magnified in a small country, this cannot be used as an excuse for violating human rights.

"If Malta decides to ignore its international commitments, it risks alienating itself from the international community."

AI was also concerned that Malta's asylum procedures were often not in line with international standards. Many asylum seekers felt they were not able to exercise their right to access a fair and satisfactory asylum procedure and were denied a real and fair opportunity to present their case fully and effectively.

There was a lack of confidentiality during the interview process; there was a lack of availability of professional and independent interpreters; the asylum seekers were not fully informed of their rights, and asylum procedures often took up to a year or more to be completed.

"This clearly falls short of international human rights and refugee laws and standards."

Asked how Malta improved over the years with regard to human rights, Ms Davis welcomed the Domestic Violence Act, now approved at all stages in Parliament. "The law is an encouraging sign that the government is working to enact a 'zero tolerance' policy concerning violence in the family.

"It defines domestic violence as 'any act of violence, even if only verbal, perpetrated by a household member upon another household member'."

Ms Davis said the law contained some important protective measures, such as the inclusion of harassment (both physical and verbal) as a crime as well as terms providing for restraining orders physically restricting the perpetrator from the areas where the victim lives and works.

However, it excluded stalking as a crime and allowed an abuser to plead the "reasonableness" of his actions as a defence to harassment.

An important provision was that allowing the court to impose mandatory "treatment orders" requiring perpetrators of violence to undergo treatment for their behaviour.

Maldives - Exiled opposition leader's daughter imprisoned

Mohamed Latheef, who lives in exile and whose daughter is a political prisoner, heads the opposition party in The Maldives. He was in Malta last month for the Commonwealth Human Rights' Forum.

Interviewed by The Times, he said that before Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom took office 27 years ago, Mr Latheef was actually one of his biggest fans.

"He was my hero but he is now a lot worse than his predecessor. That is what comes from being in power for 27 years. My President's hero is Saddam Hussein. He studied in Egypt in the 1950 and he rules very much like Saddam. He feels that Saddam is the representative of God."

Mr Latheef started falling out with his President when he was a Member of Parliament for three months in 1980.

He criticised the government, as he believed was his duty, and ended up having to spend seven months in solitary confinement.

Now he leads the Maldivian Democratic Party, which he set up, and believes the party will definitely win the next election if this is free and fair.

He had tried to set up the party in 2001 but the application was only accepted in 2003 after the election was held, which was not contested by any parties and which saw the President retaining power. The next election is in 2008. Most of the committee members of his party, Mr Latheef said, are political prisoners or in exile.

President Gayoom, he said, has total control over every aspect of governance in the Maldives including the judiciary, the financial sector and the legislature. So he pretty much got away doing whatever he wanted, Mr Latheef said.

He retained control in the country through the use of Islam telling the people he was the person God wanted to rule the country so going against him was equal to going against the will of God.

The few jobs on the islands, which were mostly government jobs, could only be had depending on the good grace of the government.

But the people were now sick of a one-man control.

And in 2003, a spontaneous demonstration of between 2,000 and 3,000 young people took place on the streets of Malé, the capital, during which some people took the law into their hands.

Some cars were set on fire and one or two policemen were injured. People were taken to court and some were sentenced and put to prison.

They included Mr Latheef's daughter Jennifer, now 32. Her trial continued until October when ashe was imprisoned for 10 years.

She was accused of throwing a stone, which a policeman whose back was turned said hit his ankle. She denied the accusation.

And although the police said they had videos, these were never shown and they were not presented in court.

Mr Latheef believes his daughter was taken to prison because of him. He believes that the situation will improve if the international community was more positively engaged.

"President Gayoom is concerned about international pressure because our economy is based on external forces with tourism being, by far, the biggest contributor. "He also likes to project an image of a very benign, far reaching people's President. But although he really does respond to international pressure he might get immune to it if the tough talk is not matched by action," he warned.

Child soldiers' pleas

"I would like to give you a message. Please do your best to tell the world what is happening to us, the children. So that other children don't have to pass through this violence" - a 15-year-old girl who escaped from the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda.

P.K., now 13, was abducted in Liberia in 2002. "Government soldiers came and forced me and my father to join them. My father refused so they cut his throat. They beat me and tied me and forced me to join the fighters."

Albert was 15 when he was recruited by an armed opposition group in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "They would give us chanvre (cannabis) and force us to kill people to toughen us up. Sometimes they brought us women and girls to rape... They would beat us if we refused."

Fabienne was 13 when she was abducted in Burundi by combatants she believes were members of an armed opposition group. "I don't know how many people had sex with me. A man would come, then another and another. You couldn't refuse... they said they'd kill you if you ran away."

Stop violence against women

Filipino Lola Maxima was 15 when she and her mother were dragged inside a big house, used as a garrison by Japanese soldiers, in the town of San IIdefonso.

They were locked inside a room for three months and managed to escape back to Mapanique in October 1944 when the door to the room they were in was left unlocked.

But their freedom was only shortlived for they were faced with the invasion of their town. "I can't remember the number of soldiers that raped me; I just closed my eyes and sometimes lost consciousness."

Ms Maxima shared her experience for the first time about 10 years ago to prevent what happened to her from happening to other women.

She is one of a number of women speaking out against the violence they have suffered in the Stop Violence Against Women worldwide campaign being conducted by Amnesty International.

Stop torture

Jumah al-Dossari was seized in Pakistan in late 2001 and held for several weeks by the Pakistani authorities. He was then taken in an airplane by US agents to the Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan.

On the plane he was shackled - he had chains around his thighs, waist and shoulders and his hands were tied behind him. When he complained about the pain, he was hit and kicked in the stomach, making him vomit blood.

He was held at Kandahar airbase for about two weeks. He was kept with other detainees in a freezing tent with just one bucket as a toilet. He was interrogated several times and tortured - his body shows the scars from this abuse. In January 2002, he was transferred by US military aircraft to Guantánamo Bay. He and other detainees were chained to the interior of the aircraft and he was made to wear goggles with blackened lenses and ear muffs. He was also hit repeatedly.

When the aircraft landed he was initially shackled in cells at Camp X-Ray, which he says were frequented by rats, snakes and scorpions. He was later transferred to Camp Delta, where at one point he was held in total isolation for five months.

Jumah's story was recounted to Amnesty International and is being used as part of their Stop Torture campaign.

Human rights watchdog

Amnesty International, the source of these stories, is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognised human rights. It acts as a watchdog to make sure that when such a violation occurs, it does not remain hidden.