A/HRC/40/52
holder allege the use of torture, 100 arbitrary detention, 101 sometimes followed by illegal
deportation, 102 incommunicado and secret detention, 103 and enforced disappearance, 104
including by secret services operating on foreign soil. 105 Some extremely serious measures,
such as mass detention, affect entire religious and minority groups, thereby affecting
members of civil society as well.106
K.
Judicial harassment
56.
There is increasing use of spurious criminal proceedings under security legislation
against civil society.107 In many cases, it appears that charges under security legislation are
brought to legitimize other measures taken against civil society actors, such as house raids,
arrests, detention (often lengthy) and travel bans.
L.
Group persecution
57.
Multiple allegations received by the mandate holder refer to the systematic
persecution and repression of certain religious and ethnic minorities, including Ahmadis,
Dalits, Uighurs, Kazakhs, members of the Church of Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses,
through undue restrictions on their rights to freedom of religion or belief, freedom of
expression and peaceful assembly. This includes dissolution or closure of their societies,
organizations and entities, criminalization of their activities, restrictions on certain
practices, systematic harassment of clerics, leaders, representatives and members, and
restrictions on the right to practice a religion and peaceful assembly, together with the
discriminatory imposition of various administrative measures. 108 The Special Rapporteur on
freedom of religion or belief has noted that some Governments use security reasons to
formally ban religious or belief groups and render membership in these groups a criminal
offence. The criteria for this do not always appear to be clear, or closely connected to proof
of the group’s engagement in or material support for violence or incitement. 109
58.
Indigenous groups such as the Mapuche have been targeted, 110 and, in one case, the
Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli Corpuz, was defined
as a terrorist in a government petition. 111 Such tactics are being used against women
activists and human rights defenders. Women have been subjected to death threats and
personal and directed attacks by government officials, which in some cases have led to
physical attacks on prominent women human rights defenders and their properties. 112
Human rights defenders experience reprisals for speaking to the Human Rights Council and
in other international settings about the human rights situation in their countries.113
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
16
RUS 16-2018. See also A/HRC/WGAD/2017/46.
RUS 15-2018, RUS 22-2018 and RUS 17-2018. See also A/HRC/WGAD/2018/29.
GAB 2-2018
ARE 1-2018 and CHN 15-2018. See also A/HRC/WGAD/2018/11 and
A/HRC/WGAD/2017/83.
ISR 5-2018.
TUR 6-2018, KSV 1-2018 and KSV 2-2018.
CHN 21-2018.
See, for example, ARE 1-2018, DNK 2-2018, EGY 14-2018, NIC 4-2018, NIC 5-2018, IND 21 2018,
TUR 7-2018, TUR 11-2017, RUS 14-2018, RUS 15-2018, RUS 16-2018, RUS 17-2018, RUS 192018, RUS 22-2018, SAU 11-2018, SAU 14-2018, TUR 13-2017, TUR 1-2018, TUR 3-2018, TUR
4-2018, TUR 7 2018 and TUR 14-2018.
BHR 5-2016, PAK 11-2016, RUS 19-2018, RUS 22-2018, SAU 14-2018 and CHN 21-2018.
A/73/362, para. 20.
CHL 2-2018 and CHL 3-2018.
PHL 5-2018.
NIC 4-2018.
NIC 5-2018 and PHL 5-2018.
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