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Summer 2017
DEFENDERS
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• Public Security and Human Rights
Non-state actors – including corporations and criminal networks – wielded
growing influence and were responsible for increasing levels of violence and
human rights abuses.
Overall, however, states mostly failed to respond to the situation in a way that
complied with international standards, with significant human rights violations
resulting from a tendency to militarize public security.
• Access to justice and the Fight to and Impunity
Rampant impunity allowed human rights abusers to operate without fear of
the consequences, weakened the rule of law, and denied truth and redress to
millions.
Impunity was sustained by justice and security systems that remained under
resourced, weak and often corrupt, compounded by a lack of political will to
ensure their impartiality and independence. The resulting failure to bring the
perpetrators of human rights violations to justice allowed organized crime and
abusive law enforcement practices to take root and prosper.
• Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
In June, the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was
adopted by the OAS, after 17 years of negotiations.
In spite of this, Indigenous Peoples across the Americas continued to be
victims of violence as well as killings and excessive use of force by the police,
with their rights over their land, territory, natural resources and culture often
abused. The daily reality for thousands was a life overshadowed by exclusion,
poverty, inequality and systemic discrimination – including in Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Paraguay
Middle East And North Africa
During 2016, millions of people across the Middle East and North Africa
saw their lives thrown into turmoil, torment and tragedy, and their homes and
livelihoods destroyed, by unrelenting state repression and continuing armed
conflicts that were marked on all sides by appalling crimes and abuses. So
intense was the political and human rights crisis that tens of thousands risked
their lives in perilous attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea rather than
remain in the region. In Syria, more than five years of fighting had resulted
in the biggest human-made humanitarian crisis of our time, and the armed
conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Yemen also took a heavy toll on civilians. Armed
conflict and repression exploited and exacerbated long-standing fault lines and
increased political and religious polarization, further undermining respect for
human rights.
• Armed Conflict
The human consequences of more than five years of conflict in Syria were,