By Abdi Ali
Published February 23, 2024
Rwanda, Ethiopia and South Sudan are among the countries across the world whose governments are singled out for repressing their nationals or former nationals to deter dissent.
We Will Find You: A Global Look at How Governments Repress Nationals Abroad, a 46-page report by Human Rights Watch says that those targeted are mainly human rights defenders, journalists, civil society activists, political opponents and others deemed a threat.
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Examining killing, removal, abduction and enforced disappearance, collective punishment of relatives, abuse of consular services and digital attack as examples of repression, We Will Find You: A Global Look at How Governments Repress Nationals Abroad catalogues 75 cases previously documented by Human Rights Watch committed by governments in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Türkiye, Turkmenistan and United Arab Emirates as a snapshot of cases across four regions.
Among the violation of rights by governments are:
- Some victims have found themselves back in the hands of the governments they once fled after being unlawfully extradited or deported back to their country of nationality. Governments also carry out abductions and enforced disappearances. Individuals have been abducted outside their homes or even while on commercial flights. Forcible disappearances have led to other grave rights abuses, such as torture or extrajudicial execution.
- Some governments have sought the return of individuals through the International Criminal Police Organization, Interpol, by issuing a “Red Notice,” a non-binding request to law enforcement in all Interpol member countries to locate and provisionally arrest a person. They have issued politically motivated Red Notices, including in ways that are against Interpol’s rules and standards, under baseless charges, to enlist other governments to locate the individuals they are targeting abroad.
- Governments have targeted family members of dissidents who are still in their home country as retaliation for a person’s activities abroad. Relatives have been harassed, threatened, arbitrarily arrested and detained, barred from foreign travel, or even killed.
- Governments have used spyware to surveil a rights defender or harass an individual online who was openly critical of the government. These digital forms of transnational repression involve severe rights abuses including the violation of the right to privacy.
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“Transnational repression can have far-reaching effects, causing a serious chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly for those who are targeted, or who fear they could be targeted,” the report says.
Bruno Stagno, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch, calls on Governments, United Nations and other international organizations to recognise transnational repression as a threat to human rights.
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While Human Rights Watch urges Governments to put victims at the forefront of their response to repression, United Nations should establish a special rapporteur on transnational repression to report on trends and efforts by governments to address it and Interpol should set benchmarks on human rights for member states to meet in order to issue Red Notices and subject governments with poor human rights records to further scrutiny when they submit Red Notices.
